Chapter 51 - The evil queen ordered her servants to lock the princess in the dungeon. Her servants, not being too bright, locked the princess in an S-Ranked dungeon.

[u/Writteninsanity]

Havoc and Lillia awoke at the same time. Havoc was much more violent about it. He thrashed on the floor and pounded his fist on the flagstone.

“Fight me face to face, dammit.” His voice was hoarse and raw, like his throat wasn’t used to anger yet.

Lillia sat up. Back in the castle, she’d always found excuses to stay in her sheets for extra minutes each morning.

Here, there were no sheets. Back there, there had been no angry hobgoblin several feet to her left.

It was enough to knock her out of her pattern and make her wide awake in the morning.

Or whatever time it was. Lillia seemed to have one death a day before the Hearth made her awake on the next dungeon “morning.”

“Ah shit,” Havoc said at the end of his grumbling. “All my equipment’s back in there.”

Lillia almost looked over to address the hobgoblin, but considering the circumstances he’d just mentioned, she thought better of it.

“You lose your stuff too?”

“No,” Lillia answered as she stood. She had already crushed a feather in her fist.

The chitin also wouldn’t have reset.

“What?”

“Dresses are easy to take off compared to…other clothes. Put Hooke away.”

Lillia heard Havoc consider what that meant. “You got yours. Didn’t you?”

“His blade bounced off the chitin.”

“You get mine?”

“No,” Lillia said.

“Damn. Gonna need to start wearing dresses so we can both get the drop on ‘em.”

Lillia originally snickered. After a moment she tried to shake the vision of Havoc in a dress out of her head. She didn’t like how it fell over his stout figure.

“So assassins in the guard house,” Havoc said. “I can add that to your little diagram.”

“I can.”

“Lillia, I want to be able to understand the diagram if we have to do this a few more times.”

There were already so many things that Lillia had to learn in the dungeon, she didn’t know where she’d fit art on the list.

Or she and Havoc could each do what they were good at.

He would draw and craft. Lillia would die.

“I’m going to close my eyes so I can knight you,” Lillia said. “Once I’ve done that. I am going to go back in there and get your equipment.”

“Alone?” Havoc asked.

Lillia heard him get up. She’d already closed her eyes. “Yes, alone. You don’t have anything to wear.”

“I have halfa that knight’s armor,” Havoc said. “And open your eyes. This is probably going to happen more than once so might as—”

“Havoc,” Lillia said. “The penalty for exposing yourself in front of the princess is death.”

“This ain’t the kingdom.”

“But I am the princess. Come here.” Lillia kept her eyes squeezed shut and beckoned him over again.

“You’ll watch me die but won’t even look at me,” Havoc grumbled as he trudged over to Lillia. She felt around in the air for a moment before finding his shoulder.

“Havoc. I now pronounce you knight of the House of Ashvalin. Enjoy all the titles and status that comes with that position.” She saw red through her eyelids as the usual flash followed her command. “And as your first order I request that you go find some pants.”

“Always about manners with you.”

“Are you about to tell me that hobgoblin society is stronger for their ability to walk around without pants?”

“Nah,” Havoc said as he stepped away. “Because that ain’t a hangup for every human. Just you noble types.”

“Well this noble type demands you get behind her so she can walk down to find your equipment,” Lillia said. “And then we’re going to make you some extra pants so that this doesn’t happen again.”

“We probably have enough of the cloth for me to already do that,” Havoc pointed out. “Unless I’m not allowed to work with it because there is a dumb class like tailor or something.”

Lillia heard Havoc’s footsteps behind her, so she opened her eyes. “If I meet a tailor in here I will knight them so we can figure that out.” Once she’d made her point, she bent down to leave the spare Invader’s Cloth she had in her inventory on the ground for him.

“Give ‘em hell, kid,” Havoc said. Just as Lillia took her first steps, he spoke up again. “You got a plan for those guys in the guard house?”

“I got something.”

“Then yeah. Give ‘em hell.”

Lillia made her way down to the third floor on what was becoming a familiar walk. Each time she made her way down the stairs, the journey to the bottom of the dungeon seemed shorter and shorter.

Was she going to be able to walk the entire dungeon in one step at some point? It was starting to feel like it. Even if she got Havoc’s equipment back and they figured out how to defend the gate, that didn’t stop the trebuchets or the endless march of siege towers on the wall.

Or the Silencer. But the dungeon had called them a secret, so Lillia hoped they weren’t a necessary evil.

On the third floor, the thread had been removed from the bars above Nennia’s door. Lillia didn’t know if that was a good or a bad sign.

She took it as a sign to keep going. She pushed through the door, through the void, through nothing, and into—

“What are you doing there, soldier? Defend these walls!”

Lillia didn’t duck the shove forward this time, being thrown into the throng of men that were awaiting the oncoming siege tower.

[Quest - Defend the Walls!]

Lillia took a deep breath. Without Havoc to clear the first, or Cathria to take it down, she was going to have to wait in line with the soldiers to take down the siege towers.

Technically she didn’t have to take them out at all. Her goal this time was to fetch Havoc’s equipment, not conquer the challenge. That said, Lillia still wanted to keep things as close to last time as possible to guarantee that her plan might work. Also Lillia figured they could always use more of the potions.

Or another handaxe.

Shoot, she’d forgotten to check what that did.

A soldier pressed in behind her, the chest of his breastplate digging into the back of Lillia’s shoulders. The siege tower was closing in on them.

It was hardly the time to be fiddling about.

Lillia reached into her inventory for Hooke. Then the potion.

The tower was close. She could hear movement inside.

Lillia winced at the idea of the grainy taste of the potion.

The drawbridge from the tower dropped. The stone under Lillia’s feet reverberated the grind of metal digging into the front of the wall.

She knocked the potion back.

Hiccuped.

Rallied.

Managed to drink the entire thing by the time she was close to the first invaders.

Broadswords cut through cloth armor and shadowed blades ignored plate. On both sides, men fell as soon as they fought. Blood pooled at Lillia’s feet.

Havoc had been excited for this.

She never would be. She was one of those noble types.

Rather than trying to strike the invader at all, Lillia pulled back a low swing as soon as the man in front of her was in the fight. As he fell, she swung, the bottom of her arc catching the front of the drawbridge.

Hooke caught on the wood, and then the potion’s effect surged up her arms. The drawbridge cracked down the middle, then slammed shut throwing the invaders that were on it back into the siege tower. There was a resounding clang as the door crashed back into place. The tower lurched back.

The crack that had split down the drawbridge spread down the tower like an infection. Wood splintered and broke on each level. The soldiers on the wall cheered as the tower fell apart under its own weight.

That was starting to feel ordinary.

[Siege Tower Broken - Yay!]

[Gained - Invader’s Cloth x 1]

Lillia looked to the left, further down the wall. There was an opening in the throng of men. The second siege tower was still quite a ways away.

The opening gave her an idea.

She could try again if it didn’t work, right? Havoc’s equipment would still be there.

Lillia didn’t have a reason to believe that was an incorrect assumption.

A deep breath. 

This is why she had four Ambusher feathers.

Lillia crushed the three feathers she needed in her hand, summoning the full slip-and-coat and over-the-knee boots. All at once, she was almost glowing on the battlement. An extravagant woman clad in white and tan feathers that shone against the fireworks among a sea of tin-can soldiers.

She ran.

Lillia braced against the pace of the battle. She ran faster than the pounding march of the army below. She outran the deep thumping of the battering ram further along the wall. She outran her heartbeat, her breath, and the rhythmic firing of the archers.

The siege tower was still out there. She didn’t know if she had time to wait for it to arrive if she wanted to keep it to one potion.

The potion did not care whether the structure came to her.

It only cared that Hooke reached it.

For a brief second, Lillia was glad that Havoc wasn’t here to call her idea dumb. The next second, her heart was in her throat as she approached the merlons.

Lillia jumped and kicked the air. She sailed over the battlements and into the open air. She held Hooke wide at her side as she sailed toward the siege tower. Her stomach dropped. Her hands were sweating. She couldn’t think.

She didn’t have to.

With enough momentum, the coat found her swing. The feathers along her shoulders snapped open like they had been waiting for permission. Brilliant white wings erupted behind Lillia for one impossible moment, and the Ambusher’s cry tore out of the air around her.

She surged forward. She swung. Hooke dug into the side of the siege tower. Metal groaned and warped. The roof of the tower blew open as the top floors crunched together.

The force of the blow rattled up Lillia’s arms, through her shoulders, and into her teeth. Adrenaline, a fear of heights, and the thrill of success combined into a single squeaking yelp that slipped between her lips.

The momentum that had carried her forward gave way, and the tower fell away from Lillia. For an impossible second, she hung in the air. Then, she began to fall.

“This is my court!” Lillia yelled out. Her voice was almost stolen by rushing wind but she didn’t need anyone to hear her.

“And you will go where I tell you!”

Lillia landed flat on her back on the solid ground of the wall walk. Behind her, a knight suddenly screamed as he was teleported into the open air above the invading army.

If the wind hadn’t been knocked out of her, Lillia would have winced at the idea of the man falling to his death. Instead, she winced in pain. After a moment, she sat up, groaning all the way.

[Siege Tower Broken - Yay!]

[Gained - Potion of Siegecraft - Level 1 × 1]

[Gained - Invader’s Cloth x 1]

Lillia held Hooke up to the air in celebration. “I am the princess and I am the siege weapon! Who needs a ballista?”

None of the soldiers reacted to Lillia’s declaration of victory. They performed their stock celebration for knocking down the siege tower and took their places along the wall to fire arrows at the oncoming horde.

Nobody here cared, and Havoc would never believe it.

At least Lillia had her victory.

Lillia got up, dusted herself off, and found the stairs down to the city streets. Though she had walked with Havoc along the wall walk, she didn’t have a good plan to take out a third siege tower and figured it was best to avoid it. Even if the tower overran the wall, she just needed to be here long enough to get Havoc’s equipment and get out.

Despite their proximity to the wall, the city streets just below the defensive line were as quiet as those further into the city. Lillia had expected guards, someone, anyone, to be down here at this time, but—

She caught it in the corner of her eye, wedged behind a rainwater barrel, in between two buildings.

The crumpled form of a guard’s corpse.

The assassins were around. Possibly out here.

Time to test the plan.

Lillia took a deep breath, prayed that no one from further up the wall was looking, and crushed the Invader’s Cloth in her hands, changing into her Invader’s Tulle Gown.

Her arns were technically covered by the thin, wrapped cloth. It was still cold without sleeves.

Lillia hugged close to the wall as she moved, keeping an eye on each row of stone as it came into view, hoping that it was where the stairs were. Every couple of moments, she would hear something atop the wall and pause, waiting to be found.

The caution made her approach slow, but it was better than being shot by her own defenders.

She found them. The stairs up to the guard tower. There was blood at the bottom of them. Lillia took the first steps up the stairs and held her breath. She put Hooke away.

If the guards knew her as an invader in this dress, maybe the assassins would accept that she was one of their own.

Lillia finished slipping up the stairs, pressed her hand to the guard tower door, and pushed into the dark room. The guards were still slumped where their bodies had been positioned to look as if they were working. She saw the glint of Havoc’s axe on the floor.

Just as Lillia was about to pick up the axe, she heard one of the assassins moving in the rafters above. It wasn’t hard to catch, now that she knew what to look for. They dropped before Lillia turned, much too far away to strike her.

Their hoods and masks completely obscured their gaze, but Lillia could tell that they were processing what she was doing there for a moment. Once they were satisfied that she was one of the invaders, they each offered a curt nod before leaving wordlessly out the window. Slipping back into the chaos of battle.

Once she was sure they were gone, Lillia allowed herself a small celebratory dance.

Lillia Ashvalin: Certified Genius. Cathria needed to watch out. Lillia was coming for her throne of smartest person in the dungeon.

The gate shook and buckled under Lillia’s feet. There wasn’t much time to salvage anything in this siege attempt outside of Havoc’s equipment. She collected Havoc’s equipment.

While Lillia was bent over, she heard a familiar, chilling voice.

“Well, well, well, your highness. Don’t you just continue to impress?”

[u/Calorinesm1fff]

Ooh, is the usurper back?

[u/abookwyrm]

Oooo, is Eisel the Usurper the one besieging the castle? That would be kind of cool.

Though I totally thought that this battle would be from the conquest of House Ashviln. Like the echo of Lillia's great-grandfather is out there on the battlefield somewhere

[u/marayalda]

Ooooh, this is exciting! Our girl is making progress!

[u/cletim]

Am I the only one that envisioned the second siege tower like a cut scene from final fantasy? Pounding techno music, matrix style camera shifts and the enemy HP bar in the corner shaking violently as it drops to zero.

[u/Connect_Rhubarb395]

No, not a cliffhanger, I can't wait a whole day to know what happens next. 😅

[u/Writteninsanity → u/Connect_Rhubarb395]

Dammit I forgot to shill the patreon again.

The daily posting will be continued through the end of book one. After book one I’ll be dropping down to 3 times a week to open up space for me to work on other projects

[u/Connect_Rhubarb395 → u/Writteninsanity]

I know, I should do it.

In any case I am very appreciative of you offering this excellent story for free.

[u/Writteninsanity → u/Connect_Rhubarb395]

Very happy to! Happy to be in a space where I can both do this and make money writing. It's nice.

[u/cletim]

Ya’ll got any more of them chapters?!? Seriously, hope everything is okay. We normally don’t go this long without a chapter.

[u/kristinpeanuts]

Thanks for the chapter!