RETURN OF THE FEMALE KNIGHT

153. Only One Chance

A tense cloud of war hung over the Ruford Empire and Duchy of Lunen. Lunen was a small state beneath the greater empire, but now it regarded itself as a completely independent country. Namgil had secretly been preparing for this event, and with the powerful forces of the Kelt Kingdom now inside Lunen, there was no reason to ally themselves with Ruford anymore.

Inside Lunen castle, dozens of knights marched on patrol. Near a dungeon, a man emerged from the dark entrance. The guards near there were suddenly alerted.

"You there! Identify yourself!"

The knights were tense in preparation for the war. They pulled out their swords and pointed it at the man, who raised his arms immediately.

"I'm the servant that brings the meals to the dungeon."

He walked slowly towards the knights as he spoke. The bright torchlight revealed his freckled face, and the first knight who shouted at him spoke again.

"This isn't the time when meals are distributed. Why are you wandering around here?"

"The person in charge of the meals complained of stomach ache. He didn't get the bowls kback in time, so I went to do the job instead."

There was a pile of bowls next to the dungeon entrance. The knight stared at the servant disapprovingly, then finally lowered his sword.

"...I'll let you go just this once. Don't let me catch you here around this time again."

"Yes, I'm sorry."

The knights returned to their patrol. The servant watched the men disappear around the corner, and returned to the entrance where the dishes had been gathered. The gloomy-eyed and freckle-cheeked man was Jimin, disguised as a completely different person.

'...The number of bowls and prisoners I checked are the same. Then the Empress must not be here.'

Jimin had infiltrated the Lunen castle under Jungkook's orders. In order to save Lalisa quickly, it was urgent that he locate her.

'The only place left now is Blood Assassin's headquarters.'

The headquarters was his first pick, but he deemed it too difficult to infiltrate, and so he decided to check the other locations first. However, it seemed that the Blood Assassins remained the only option left.

Jimin recovered the dishes and returned them to the kitchens with an expressionless face. In fact, it was he who caused the servant for food redistribution to have diarrhea.

After he completed his work, Jimin slipped back out of the castle. He returned to his secret residence inside Lunen and wrote down a brief report of what he learned. Next to him were several trained carrier pigeons. He tied the note to one of the bird's legs with a practice gesture, then opened the window wide and sent it out.

***

The carrier pigeon arrived at Jungkook's location near the border. After reading the note, Jungkook realized that Lalisa was likely being held at the Blood Assassin headquarters.

'...No matter how skilled Jimin is, it will be difficult for him to infiltrate it by himself.'

They needed to locate Lalisa and get her out, but under the present circumstances it seemed impossible. Jungkook stared at the note with a grim expression, then quickly lit his lighter and held it to the corner of the paper. The note burned into ash at his fingertips and the smoke danced in the air. Jungkook dropped his hand and turned back around.

Before his eyes were hundreds of handpicked men lined up behind Hyunbin and Namjoon. As the leader of the Fourth Order of Knights and with no shortage of experience or age, Hyunbin was in charge of the rescue operation.