Chapter 64: First meeting.

She remembered the day she first met Thermis.

Thermis, who had already become the leader of the Knights at the young age of twenty-one.

It was a knighthood that her mother had personally authorized to establish, but until then, Ilesha had been skeptical whether the eldest daughter of a ducal family, who wasn’t even a mage, could take on such an important role.

Until then, there had been no precedent for a knighthood consisting only of mages.

The basic way to operate was to form a small number in an appropriate knighthood or infantry battalion to reinforce the firepower of the unit and deal with enemy mages.

Because there was a limit to the amount of mana that an average magic caster could draw per unit area,

It was inefficient to operate several mages at once in large-scale battles where large-scale magic was often cast.

And that was the same when they started the Great War with the Demon King’s army.

However, what Thermis argued was very radical and different.

She would collectively operate a magic knighthood consisting entirely of mages to form a decapitation unit that specialized in assassinating enemy commanders and high-risk monsters.

She would adopt speed attack magic specialized in one-on-one duels rather than large-scale firepower support magic as the main doctrine,

And she would insist that all mages should know how to ride a wyvern in order to ignore the escort forces and raid the rear.

And they would be nimble and fast-rising small combat wyverns.

That was because minimizing the runway distance of the wyvern was essential for a quick hit-and-run.

That wasn’t all. Thermis thought that all mages should also be proficient in close combat.

That was because she thought that survival rate couldn’t be guaranteed if they only relied on magic that took time to cast in a close melee. That’s why what she wanted were young ladies who could quickly teach new tactics from a blank slate.

‘An incompetent person commanding a crazy plan…’

‘I humbly wish for you to provide assistance to my knighthood.’ That’s what was written in the letter Thermis sent to Ilesha.

Everything was a new claim.

Ilesha suddenly realized that all the resources that Thermis was requesting were second-tier forces with low priority.

Since most of the average mages were already assigned to field units, the only mages who could be assigned to the knighthood were minors or newly adults who were reserve forces.

That was the kind of ladies Thermis wanted.

In addition, until that point, there was an awareness that ‘combat wyverns’ should be as big as possible.

Because they were basically used as flying shock cavalry. The mass of the wyvern was an important issue.

But here, all Thermis wanted were small wyverns.

Since the basic doctrine was centered on small-scale magic for duels, the supply needs of expensive magic catalysts were all minimized.

Was it intentional? No. There was no way.

It was hard to imagine that an incompetent princess who never left the mansion and lived as a hothouse flower would submit a proposal while calculating the supply needs that someone like Ilesha, who was versed in administrative work, would consider.

So it must all be a coincidence.

In addition, there wasn’t a single talent who had volunteered for this experimental and reckless plan yet.

So she probably needed her halo to gather members.

It was something that Ilesha thought was too obviously transparent.

That knighthood itself was proving how easily the human empire was being ravaged by the Demon King’s army.

She must be desperate to somehow put an imperial family’s connection into a knighthood that could only scrape together rookie mages like that.

So many impure people clung to Ilesha’s side.

But what Ilesha couldn’t understand was her mother, who had approved this ridiculous plan.

Knowing that she didn’t have the leeway to play along with such a fantasy when the war situation was urgent.

Perhaps she was just letting her play soldier with an appropriate title in order to raise the prestige of the ducal family.

Because she was a non-mage anyway.

But there were more people around than she thought who suggested that she just see Thermis’s face even once.

‘I hope Your Imperial Highness meets that person.’

They said she was really trustworthy. They said she thought she was a crazy person, but she wasn’t.

They said all those evaluations were just rumors.

But was that really the case?

Since it was a knighthood that her mother had personally authorized to establish, it was strange to just avoid her like that.

…However, on the day that Ilesha was scheduled to see Thermis, she didn’t go out to meet her.

The crumbling imperial army was sending dozens of disastrous news every day.

There were a million things she had to sit here and deal with.

She was already tired of hiding this sense of despair and pretending to be okay with a smiling face.

She didn’t want to waste time on the adventurism of these flatterers who only said reckless and honeyed words.

Perhaps a petty resistance to her merciless mother was also included in that.

She’s busy, send her back. She came again tomorrow. She’s busy, send her back.

The next day too. The day after tomorrow too.

She was quite an insensitive person. Did she think she was anything just because she had a hollow title of knighthood leader?

But after three days too, after four days too…

It was when she had decided that she wouldn’t tolerate this anymore if even a princess bothered her more than this.

However, what appeared there was another princess.

Yukomis had come. To the detached palace where Ilesha was staying.

Yukomis, who was being treated almost like a secret weapon of the empire at the age of fifteen, had an authority that was on a different level than what her sister possessed.

Yukomis, who had appeared in the office after brushing aside all the guards who were stopping her without any promise or anything, started talking with that look full of contempt.

‘Your Imperial Highness.’

It was a title of honor that she had attached formally, but it didn’t contain any respect.

‘You should meet my sister.’

And she simply added.

‘You have to.’

Ilesha had met Yukomis, even if she didn’t know Thermis.

A non-mage sister and a genius younger sister. She had heard that the sisters had a very bad relationship.

Yukomis, who had come to her so stubbornly… was genuinely angry.

More than the usual annoying attitude she showed.

‘Is there a reason why I have to meet her?’

‘Is there a reason why you shouldn’t meet her?’

‘Yukomis Pranun Solenas. I am a busy person. To play along with your sister’s adventurism…’

‘Are you having fun humiliating my sister like that, Your Imperial Highness?’

For some reason, it felt like she was saying that to herself.

She said that and declared on the spot that she would become her sister’s first knight.

And if the empire wanted her power in the future, they would have to help her sister.

‘Are you… threatening me?’

‘If necessary.’

Yukomis was only fifteen years old at that time.

She was three years younger than Ilesha.

But she probably knew better than anyone else what she was saying.

“…Just once, because of your face.”

That was how a forced meeting took place.

Ilesha remembered that day when she first met Thermis.

She had been deliberately stood up for almost a week, but she didn’t seem to care about that at all.

She was so sensitive to other people’s attitudes that Ilesha didn’t feel even a little bit of resentment.

Ilesha wasn’t particularly impressed even after seeing the perfect court etiquette, polite greetings, and respectful attitude.

Because such things were natural anyway. It was what she deserved to receive.

Thermis’s eyes were full of deep fatigue. Her hair had already partially turned gray.

It was certain that she was overdoing it more than Ilesha, who was always overworked.

What was so busy about the position of knighthood leader who didn’t have even one person, no, who now had one person, that she looked so tired?

Maybe… she seemed to have started talking about wyverns from the beginning.

The wyverns that Ilesha really liked.

Honestly, she was a bit lukewarm.

This person probably didn’t know. How serious I am about wyverns.

How much I know.

‘If she says silly nonsense, I’ll immediately retort and end this useless time.’

Thermis started to passionately express her views in front of Ilesha.

What she had in mind wasn’t the wyvern as an air-to-ground force replacing the heavy cavalry.

The Wyvern Knights she had in mind were an all-around force that took into account not only ground combat but also air supremacy.

Despite the sharp resolution that Ilesha had made in the first place,

Each and every opinion that Thermis spat out attracted Ilesha’s attention very well.

It was a reckless fantasy, but somehow it had a magic that she couldn’t just dismiss.

They were all stories that made her think ‘no way’ and ‘no, maybe…?’ countless times.

So… it was certain that it was an interesting claim.

‘You’re thinking of fighting even dragons with those small wyverns? Instead of sniping with anti-air magic according to the textbook?’

‘That’s right, Your Imperial Highness. For this, small wyverns with fast climbing speed and short runway distances must be operated intensively in one unit.’

‘But small wyverns can’t fly high, can they?’

Giving up altitude was always the same as giving up your back.

‘So we must always have the initiative in attacks. We must always fight at low altitudes.’

‘How do you get that initiative?’

‘What I want is a decapitation unit anyway. Commanders must stay on the ground for field command. If we snipe the commander, the dragon guarding them must come down to a lower altitude. And at that altitude, the nimble small wyverns are much faster at climbing.’

‘In other words… you’re saying that our attack itself will be used as bait?’

‘That’s right. Since the Demon King’s army is taking the offensive right now anyway, they have the initiative from a strategic point of view, but I will always have the tactical initiative instead.’

‘It’s easier said than done. Are you saying that you have to snipe the commander while avoiding anti-air magic, or engage in close combat when necessary, and at the same time protect our allies from the dragon’s attack?’

It was a reckless condition.

It wasn’t that people were stupid that they treated small wyverns as a second-tier force.

It hadn’t been long since wyverns had become livestock, and there was no doctrine that operated while meeting all these difficult requirements.

However, Thermis began to supplement each and every one of those crazy claims.

She thought that there were general rules when fighting in the air.

They had to face the sun and use fast climbing speed as a weapon. They had to always attack while descending from a higher altitude than the enemy.

Since using magic in the air was impossible without a catalyst, she would always use it only at the shortest distance when she was sure.

She would repeat this as long as her energy allowed, but she had to avoid long battles.

She had to always be proactive when she seized an opportunity to attack. Offensive maneuvers were always more important than evasion.

There was nothing more important than catching the enemy from behind.

Dragons had a habit of making horizontal turns because their bodies were large and their wings were large, which made their climbing speed slow.

They would start engagements with arrowheads and rhombus formations as the base and form a circular formation that protected each other’s tails…

Finally, the most important thing in the operation was the retreat plan.

If there was anything more important than killing, it was surviving. Since she couldn’t dream of rebuilding the unit in this war situation.

Even if everyone pointed fingers and said she was cowardly, she had to be prepared to abandon her allies and run away if necessary.

The topics, which were tragic and professional that Ilesha, who had thought she wouldn’t expect anything from the other person when she first came to this place, poured out wildly. When Thermis started talking about how she should improve the shape of the tools while considering the strange science of ‘fluid dynamics’, Ilesha had no choice but to admit that she was really more of an expert than she was.

Everything was a question.

From whom and in what way did she study them?

No, did a person who could teach these things even exist in the empire?

‘But who teaches all the skills you’ve talked about? How do you want to equip all the members with the qualities you want?’

‘That’s a given.’

Thermis didn’t hesitate to answer.

‘I’ll do it. I can do it.’

‘Who will stand at the head of the squadron? What role will you, who can’t use magic, play here?’

‘Your Imperial Highness.’

Beautiful purple eyes stared at her.

‘I can promise you this. I will also be at the very front.’

There was strength and sincerity in that voice that didn’t doubt herself even a little.

‘I will always be the bait.’

She didn’t lie.

That was the very place.

It was a place where she promised to live a life marked with scars and pain for three years.

And that was the moment when Ilesha fell in love for the first time.

Ilesha, who had returned to reality, looked down at the mysterious woman lying on the bed and groaning.

This mysterious woman, who was breathing roughly without wearing a single thread, was definitely…

Her love, Thermis, whom she had been dreaming of.

It was the same as her appearance in the memories.

It was the same as her appearance that day she first met Thermis.

If there was a slight difference… the gray hair that had sprouted due to overwork and overwork couldn’t be found on the her on the bed.

Still, around this time was when Thermis had black hair for the last time.

Because of the frequent serious injuries and the burden that the forced healing magic had left on her body, Thermis at the end of the war three years later had completely turned white-haired.

Ilesha rubbed her eyes.

Ilesha rubbed her eyes again.

Ilesha pinched the space between her eyebrows strongly.

However, the figure in front of her remained without disappearing.

“Am I… dreaming?”

How could this be happening?

She was lying on her side, barely covering her important parts with the posture of her limbs.

The neckline and shoulder line that always caught her eye.

Delicate eyelashes.

A voluptuous chest that was almost the same size as Ilesha’s.

The holy sword was somehow stuck between those breasts right now.

The warrior’s muscles that had been built under her beautiful body.

The way she was breathing and groaning, even the faint scent she could smell right now.

Without saying a word, Ilesha carefully brought her fingertips to her.

‘The burn… that burn on her right eye…’

But just before her fingertips lifted the hair covering Thermis’s right eye, Ilesha hesitated.

She had said that she wasn’t dreaming, but she still felt like the sight in front of her was an illusion.

It was so sensitive and fragile that she felt like it would shatter if she touched it wrong.

She was too precious to risk breaking down like this.

What if her lewd and desire-filled fingertips made her disappear from this world again.

Even if what she was seeing was an illusion, she wanted this appearance to last even a second longer.

“Haa…”

Ilesha let out a sigh of anguish.

This appearance from their first meeting.

This picturesque appearance that made her fall in love for the first time.

The etiquette was perfect, but it was more friendly than distant.

Her attitude was honest and simple.

She emphasized a rational attitude, but there was always passion and conviction in her tone.

Ilesha knew.

She had said that she was prepared to be hated, but she was someone who feared disappointing those close to her more than anyone else.

Along with what could be called eros, there was also a sacred atmosphere that could be felt in religious paintings depicting goddesses from her, who was groaning in a completely naked state.

A charisma that made even herself, who was a princess, worship and follow,

But also a person where the charm that one would expect from a lover coexisted at the same time.

Thermis was a dual person.

She was always a mysterious person who possessed a difficult-to-balance atmosphere at the same time.

“Ah… What a lovely person you are.”

She tried to turn her eyes away, but

Her gaze was fixed on the silhouette of her beautiful body, and Ilesha couldn’t take it off.

It was her appearance that she had drawn thousands and tens of thousands of times.

It was right there in a position where she could reach out and touch it.

Every time she thought that she was looking at Thermis, who would trust her the most beyond just being the same s*x, with sexual eyes, Ilesha was always tormented by guilt.

That guilt dominated everything about her.

A betrayal of the imperial family’s expectations. A betrayal of her colleague’s trust. A betrayal of chastity, and conversely, a betrayal of her own desires.

And in front of her was the first cause, the embodiment of that guilt, lying neatly and groaning.

Her first love and last love.

She still didn’t understand anything.

How could this be happening?

Was this person really Thermis herself?

Ilesha couldn’t make any assumptions.

The destructive power that Thermis’s naked body possessed right now was much greater than any common sense thought.

Her ankles, thighs, waist, chest, collarbone, neck, drooping hair… and.

Her lips.

Her lips, which were flushed much darker than the skin of her cheeks, were glistening with dew and sweat.

‘Her lips…’

In Ilesha’s head, the owner of this body could only be Thermis, who had escaped beyond death.

No, perhaps. If she was this similar.

She had promised in front of the portrait that she wouldn’t cheat, but

Standing in front of this appearance that she had wanted thousands and tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of times, Ilesha couldn’t resist the urge.

She knew what she wanted very well.

‘You look like you’re in pain…’

Ilesha’s upper body bent over the lips from which hot breaths were coming.

If she had been even a little more rational,

She might have paid attention again to the right eye that was visible between the strands of hair in her front hair that she saw up close.

That only a much lighter scar than the one that ‘real’ Thermis had remained there.

And… that the scar mark was the same as the one that the mysterious girl she had met yesterday had.

But she was only looking at her wet lips, so she couldn’t see anything else.

Was this the first kiss she had had until this age?

It was a bitter story to think about now, but maybe right now, at this moment.

If she could offer it to the figure of that person of her ideals…

If she lowered her head just a little more…

It was really just one step before that happened.

It was a distance where their noses were almost touching. The moment Ilesha’s breath and Thermis’s breath touched,

Ilesha’s golden hair flowed down over her shoulders and draped over Thermis’s sensitive skin.

Flinch.

“Hng…”

Along with a moan, Thermis opened her eyes.