Chapter 26 - Thank You

Chapter 26 Thank You

“That’s the princess. The princess is back!” a hoarse voice called from the walls.

The voice seemed to infuse life into the dead walls. All the numb soldiers came to their senses at the words. They looked down the wall. Dust clouds gathered in the distance, but the leader was indeed their noble princess.

The defending soldiers scrambled to the top of the city walls, craning their heads to see if the real princess had returned in triumph. At this moment, the icy atmosphere seemed to have thawed instantly. The voices began to come alive, and the soldiers were no longer lifeless like stone blocks by the roadside.

Mo Fan followed the princess Celia and approached the ancient city walls. He could hear excited voices in the distance. The voices were full of hope and fear. He looked up and saw heads poking out from the grooves of the wall. They wore dark helmets and were looking hard. All their faces were filled with anxiety.

Suddenly, Mo Fan heard another excited voice. “That’s Princess Celia. The princess is really back!”

“Quick! Open the gates.”

“Remove the magical barrier as well.”

Amidst the clamor, the magical barrier above the walls disappeared, and the gates opened quickly. In the distance, they could see a group of people running out of the gates of the Magical Apothecarist. They stood at the foot of the gates, looking forward to the long awaited army that had returned in triumph.

There were still a number of soldiers standing motionless on the walls. They didn’t seem to have recovered from the shock. They were just rooted to the ground. Their eyes were blank and they were still muttering to themselves.

“We’ve won?”

“Did a miracle happen?”

The knight escorts stopped at the city gate. Princess Celia had long since changed out of her black robe. She was now dressed in a white robe with exquisite embroidery. The end of the robe was embroidered with large swaths of roses that symbolized the Skadi royal family.

The soldiers at the city gate immediately knelt on one knee. Everyone lowered their heads excitedly. “Your Highness—”.

None of the soldiers had ever been this close to the princess, but it wasn’t that they were excited for this reason. Since they had seen the Princess return, it meant that they had actually succeeded in defending the Selwyn Borders. The Skadi Kingdom wouldn’t be destroyed by the Temple of Light either. They’d won a great victory in a war where victory was impossible. How could that not excite those soldiers defending the city?

Everyone’s eyes were red with excitement. Some of them were even crying. Celia glanced into the city. The capital, which should have been lively, was as quiet as a dead city.

“Today is Prayer Day,” Celia said. “In the past, the night before Prayer Day should have been brightly lit. Last night… How was it?

The leader of the guards bowed his head. He shook his head at Celia’s words before replying in a hoarse whisper. “Your Highness, it has been days since the capital received word of Selwyn’s borders.

The city is in chaos. There was no prayer last night!”

Hearing this, Celia waved behind her. The Knight Commander immediately stepped forward, holding a sword in his hand. He knelt down on one knee before Celia and asked respectfully, “Your Highness, please instruct me.”

“Raise the royal banner in the air and tell the subjects of the capital that we have won! Today, the royal family has returned victorious!”

“Yes!”

The Knight Commander led the two knights up to the city walls. A moment later, there was a flicker of light at the top of the wall, and it was particularly bright in the faint light of dawn. The array spun out of the wall, and the light of a hexagram illuminated the entire wall.

Mo Fan could clearly see the magic patterns in the array. It was not a powerful spell, just a light spell. As a low-level spell, the light spell was usually used to expel dark creatures, but most of the time, mages used it to illuminate. However, this light spell did not seem to be a traditional light spell!

The hexagram rose into the air. The runes rippled and expanded, covering the entire city walls in moments. The golden banner with the eagle-lion symbol slowly appeared in the array of the hexagram. It wasn’t very powerful, but the light spell was quite useful. Isn’t this an upgraded version of a flare? Mo Fan felt that he could release a few at will.

As the eagle-lion banner slowly expanded, some people in the city saw something strange. They looked up and saw the eagle-lion banner which represented victory. Everyone who saw the banner seemed to be stunned. They looked at the banner in the sky in shock and did not move for a long time.

“We’ve won?” a young man at the side street muttered to himself, looking up at the eagle-lion banner. He wasn’t sure if he was asking himself or someone else.

More and more people appeared in the street. All of them had the same expression on their faces. There was nothing but shock. After all, everyone knew that it was as difficult for the princess to save Skadi from the five Archmages as it was to turn the world upside down. But now they saw that it was indeed the king’s banner that represented victory!

In the city, someone shouted, “Her Highness has returned to the city! Her Highness has led the royal army back in triumph!”

“We won!”

The voice was deafening, the reverberations shook everyone’s heart. The same question was on everyone’s mind at that moment-did we win?

The commotion in the city was getting louder and louder. Many people reacted in shock and ran towards the city gate. When the soldiers at the city gate saw the eagle-lion flag in the sky, their eyes were filled with tears. Only now did they truly feel victorious. They had indeed won!

“Bang—!”

All the soldiers guarding the city suddenly shouted at Celia, “Welcome back, Your Highness!”

The army behind Celia suddenly followed suit. “A triumphant return!”

“A triumphant return!”

Celia held out her hand as the crowd shouted. Everyone fell silent for a moment.

Celia said, “We won! We defeated the allied forces of Light. We defended the fortress of Selwyn.”

“The kingdom of Skadi will last forever!”

Celia’s words were like music to the ears of the soldiers. In an instant, there was only one thought in everyone’s mind-they had won! The scene was very grand. Even Mo Fan, who felt that he was a bystander, was infected by the deafening shout and became excited.

Celia suddenly turned to look at Mo Fan. Her eyes were bright. After a while, she said to him, “Thank you, Great Mage!” Mo Fan returned her smile. “You’re welcome, Your Highness.”