The smell of straw and blood were mingled together.

It was cold inside the barracks. Every time the winter wind seeping through the gaps in the tent swept across the damp floor, the prisoners huddled closer together. Someone groaned, and someone else sat motionless with their head hung low like a dead person. The sound of dragging chains and the distant thud of military boots constantly passed by outside the tent.

Luerin Bailen sat in a corner, hugging her knees.

The military cloak her brother had left behind was already a mess of dirt, snow, and dried blood. Her fingertips were turned bright red from the cold, and rough rope marks remained on her wrists.

She was scared.
So much that it felt suffocating.

If she closed her eyes, she could still hear it. The sound of arrows piercing flesh. The sound of horses collapsing. The voice of someone screaming for their life. And the tip of the sword that had been pointed at her.

Luerin Bailen bit her lip.
She had promised herself several times not to cry, but her eyes kept growing hot.

"...Brother..."

The voice that leaked out very faintly soon trembled and broke off.

A middle-aged soldier sitting nearby glanced at her. He was a man who had been locked in the same barracks for several days. His face was covered in a thick beard, and his leg was wrapped in bandages. He muttered like a sigh.

"A girl like you shouldn't be in a place like this."

Luerin Bailen couldn't answer.
In truth, she knew it too.

She had felt it ever since she first saw the battlefield. That she was someone who didn't belong here. The hand holding the sword trembled, and just the smell of blood made her stomach churn. She couldn't bear to watch someone die, either.

And yet, she couldn't run away.
She thought it would be cowardly to return to safety alone while everyone else was fighting.

This was the result of that choice.

Luerin Bailen rubbed her wet eyes with her sleeve. Just then, the tent at the entrance of the barracks was roughly pulled aside. Along with a cold wind, several enemy soldiers stepped inside.