The Rangala Forest lay behind them. Amanda rode in silence, feeling exhaustion weigh heavily on her shoulders like a leaden burden. Two days without sleep. Two days of fear. Two days of an unbroken performance on which thousands of lives depended.
Beside her, barely visible in the pale morning light, moved Leo and Torglin. Their invisible armor did its job, but through the slits of her mask Amanda could see them—tired, filthy, yet alive.
“They’ve retreated,” Leo said quietly as they began to approach the gorge. “We did it.”
“We did it,” Torglin echoed, though there was no joy in his voice—only heavy relief. “But for how long?”
Amanda didn’t answer. She stared ahead, toward the distant plus of smoke rising from the camp. Randal’s camp.
Two hundred riders. We made them believe the forest had gone mad. That the trees were speaking. That the earth itself was swallowing the living. But Gul-Nadar is no fool. He’ll figure it out. Maybe in a day. Maybe in two. And then…
“My lady,” Leo’s voice pulled her from her thoughts. “We’re almost there.”
Amanda lifted her head.
The camp at the Gorge of the Fallen Giant was alive with its own rhythm. Soldiers cleaned weapons, checked armor, kindled fires. So argued, so laughed, so prayed. The usual bustle before battle.
Then soone spotted her.
One soldier. Then another. Then an entire group. They froze, staring at the approaching figure in the golden helt. Those closest heard the steady thud of hooves. Those farther away simply saw their comrades suddenly fall silent and turn.
It seed the rumors had spread quickly.
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One man dropped to one knee. Then another. Then, like a wave, it swept across the entire camp.
Amanda rode slowly, feeling thousands of eyes upon her. Inside, everything tightened with fear and awkwardness. Please, no. Don’t do this. I’m not a goddess. I’m just…
But she said nothing. She couldn’t. She kept her gaze fixed straight ahead, toward the command tent where Randal stood at the entrance.
He did not kneel. He did not bow. He simply stood there, watching her approach. And in his eyes there was no surprise.
Amanda reined in her horse and dismounted. Her legs trembled, but she forced herself to move with steady composure.
“The vanguard is broken,” she said. Her voice ca out flat, almost chanical. “They will not return. At least not in the coming days.”
Randal gave a single short nod, as if he had been expecting exactly these words. As if he had never doubted them.
“Enter,” he said. “They’re waiting for us.”
Inside the tent it was stifling. Maps, candles, empty mugs. Generals, vassals, young dukes — they all rose when she entered.
Amanda stopped just inside the entrance. Eyes. Whispers. Tension thick enough to cut.
“Sit,” Randal’s voice sounded calm, as if they had only parted an hour ago instead of two days. “You must be tired.”
Soone slid a chair toward her. Soone else placed a mug of water in front of her. Amanda sat down, feeling her hands tremble. She didn’t look at Randal. She was afraid to see in his eyes what she had seen in the soldiers’—reverence, fear, desperate hope.
But he stayed silent. He simply stood beside her, his body so close it almost brushed her shoulder.
“Report,” Amanda said, staring down at the map. “What do we have? What are our forces? Because Gul-Nadar will not forgive this loss. Next ti he won’t send scouts. He will co with the entire horde—and he will co straight here.”
The tent fell deathly quiet. The generals exchanged glances. Kaito Tsuba opened his mouth to speak, but Randal cut him off.
“We have the gorge,” he said, his voice calm and deep, like still water in a mountain lake. “We have ti. And we have you.”
He didn’t add “that’s enough.” He didn’t say he believed in her. He simply stated the facts. And for so reason, that was far more terrifying than any grand declaration.
Amanda looked at the map—the lines of fortifications, the markers of their troops, the empty space to the north from where the horde would co.
I’m not a goddess, she thought. I’m just a guy from Tokyo who woke up in a girl’s body. But right now, I’m the only thing they have. And if I break… they all die.
She straightened her back, and a new, cold confidence entered her voice.
“Very well. Then let’s begin.”
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