The morning mist had not yet cleared when the gates of Snowrest City opened slowly.
Clad in pitch-black armor, Aveline still wore bandages on her unhealed right shoulder, but her expression was as resolute as stone. Mounted on a silver-maned warhorse, her eyes blazed with flames the color of battle. Though flanked by only a hundred personal guards, she carried the aura of a leader commanding ten thousand troops.
Riding beside her, Kalia's face remained lined with worry: "Are you truly unwilling to wait a few more days? Give your body more time—"
"If Lucian dies, I have no path left," Aveline whispered. "I can't let him die alone on the battlefield."
They traversed snow-laden forests, crossed ice plains, and hurried 30 li along the path relayed by outposts. Toward evening, they finally reached the outskirts of the South Ridge battlefield.
Thick smoke rose, and firelight illuminated the sky. Lucian's forces had been locked in fierce combat with the enemy's main army for two days and nights. Soldiers were exhausted, gunpowder spent, and crossbows and arrows nearly depleted.
When frontline scouts saw Aveline's banner, they could hardly believe their eyes: "I-is... is the royal princess! She's still alive!"
"The royal princess has returned!"
As the news spread from mouth to mouth, war drums thundered again.
Aveline leaped onto a temporary platform. Facing the exhausted soldiers of Snowrest, she drew her sword and spoke in a voice as sonorous as a bell: "I have not perished, and Snowrest shall not fall. In today's battle, if you will follow me into the sea of blood—I hereby, in the name of the crown, bestow upon you everlasting glory!"
Soldiers looked at her; some wept, while others knelt and roared:
"For the royal princess!"
"For Snowrest!"
Drums thundered like a tide, and morale surged.
Aveline led the charge directly at the enemy's flank. The enemy had not expected her to be alive, much less that she would arrive to reinforce them.
She broke through the enemy formation single-handedly, fighting ten men at once to charge into the enemy camp. She swung her sword to cut down the command flagpole and led the army to tear through the enemy's rear ranks. Kerviss, the deputy general under the Regent, hastily engaged but could not withstand the counterattack.
When Lucian heard the unusual rhythm of the war drums, he knew reinforcements had arrived. Standing on a mountain peak, he saw that familiar figure charging ahead, as if in a dream.
"It's her," he murmured. Before the tears in his eyes could fall, he raised his sword and fought again.
As darkness fell, battlefield flames burned for ten li. Aveline and Lucian finally converged at the heart of the enemy camp, slaying Kerviss together and capturing the Regent's remaining generals.
That night, the enemy forces collapsed in disarray.
Lucian rode to Aveline's side. Their eyes met, and they wordlessly clasped hands.
"Why did you come?" he whispered.
"To take you home," she replied.
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her deeply amid the embers of war.
The next morning, the royal flag of Snowrest rose again on the mountain peak as the royal princess led the army in triumph back to the city.
Surrounded by the crowd, Aveline only looked toward the eastern dawn and slowly closed her eyes—
"Father, I did it."