I have fought wars.

  I have stood against ogres, raiding beasts, and men who smiled while trying to gut me open. I have buried soldiers younger than me and watched veterans die like candles blown out by careless gods.

  But I have never — not once — fought beside a noblewoman who curses like a drunken mercenary and charges a basilisk with a kitchen-sized knife.

  And yet…

  Here I am.

  The creature towered before us, bleeding from its jaw but still moving like a living disaster. Its scales scraped across the stone as it slithered forward, leaving black venom trails that smoked against the battlements.

  Lady Amethyst stood beside me, chest rising and falling heavily. Her stance was wrong. Too forward. Too aggressive. No formal training. No proper guard.

  But her eyes…

  They were not the eyes of someone facing death for the first time.

  They were calculating.

  It unsettled me more than the monster.

  “You’re thinking,” she muttered between breaths.

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Means you’re still alive.”

  This woman speaks like she expects death to interrupt conversations mid-sentence.

  “…You are limping,” I said.

  “Observation skills impressive, soldier.”

  “You cannot maintain speed like that.”

  “Then I’ll just have to kill it faster.”

  Madness.

  Absolute madness.

  And yet… she stepped forward again.

  The basilisk struck first.

  Its jaws snapped downward with terrifying speed.

  KRAAAACK!

  I shoved her aside and blocked with my shield, the impact slamming me into the stone wall behind us.

  Pain exploded through my arm.

  My shield cracked down the center.

  I staggered back, barely keeping my footing.

  The basilisk lunged again.

  Lady Amethyst darted forward instead of retreating.

  “HEY YOU POISONOUS NOODLE!”

  She hurled a broken spear shaft directly into its wounded jaw seam.

  THUD!

  The creature shrieked violently, thrashing its head.

  It was reckless. Suicidal. And effective.

  I charged.

  My blade struck repeatedly along the softened seam she had discovered earlier.

  CLANG! SHRK! CLANG!

  The scales resisted, but blood flowed heavier now.

  The basilisk roared, its massive body coiling upward.

  Its eyes…

  They glowed brighter.

  Focused and angry.

  And I realized something horrifying.

  It was learning.

  “Lady Amethyst!” I shouted. “Its movements are adapting!”

  “Yeah,” she replied casually while wiping blood from her cheek. “Most predators do that when you stab them.”

  Since when is she knowledgeable of monsters like this? The Lady Amethyst I knew was graceful, reserved and a role model for noble ladies her age.

  But the Lady Amethyst in front of me now is not mentally sane. Who would in their right mind as a woman of a noble house charged a basilisk??

  The basilisk lunged sideways this time, faster than before.

  Its tail whipped around blindly.

  WHOOOOOOM!

  I leapt backward just as the tail obliterated the siege ladder behind me into splinters.

  Lady Amethyst dove beneath the arc, sliding across blood-slick stone before springing back to her feet with surprising agility.

  No noble upbringing teaches that.

  That is battlefield instinct.

  The basilisk suddenly inhaled deeply.

  Its throat expanded grotesquely.

  “Down!” she shouted.

  We both dove as venom erupted from its jaws.

  SPRAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!

  The corrosive spray coated the battlefield again, dissolving fallen weapons and melting through abandoned armor like candle wax.

  I glanced sideways at her.

  “You recognized that attack again.”

  “Reptiles telegraph big moves,” she said. “Same with humans.”

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  “…You speak like someone who has fought both extensively.”

  She grinned faintly.

  “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

  The basilisk advanced again, slower now, injured but furious. Its movements had grown erratic, unpredictable.

  Dangerous.

  My arms trembled from exhaustion. My breathing burned like I had swallowed coals.

  And I knew. If this battle dragged on much longer…I would fall.

  She stepped beside me again, twirling her knife absently despite the blood coating her sleeve.

  “You’re slowing down,” she said bluntly.

  “So are you.”

  “Yeah,” she admitted. “But I’ve survived worse odds with worse teammates.”

  I frowned.

  “…Am I included in the ‘worse teammate’ category?”

  She glanced at me.

  “Undecided.”

  The basilisk lunged again.

  We split apart instinctively.

  She darted left.

  I moved right.

  The creature followed her.

  Of course it did.

  She had stabbed it more times than I had.

  She sprinted toward the collapsed ballista frame, using broken debris as stepping platforms. The basilisk chased her, crushing stone beneath its body weight.

  “Lady Amethyst!” I shouted.

  “I GOT A PLAN!” she yelled back.

  That is exactly what soldiers shout before dying.

  She leapt onto a shattered wooden beam, pushing herself higher as the basilisk raised its head to strike.

  At the last second, she kicked off the beam and launched herself toward its face.

  Time slowed.

  She twisted midair, knife held in reverse grip.

  Straight toward its eye.

  The basilisk reacted faster than expected.

  Its head jerked sideways, fangs snapping shut inches from her leg.

  She adjusted mid-flight — impossible, reckless, brilliant — dragging the knife downward instead, slashing across the sensitive membrane beneath its eye ridge.

  SHRRRRRRRK!

  Black blood sprayed across her face.

  She landed badly, rolling across the stone.

  The basilisk screamed, thrashing wildly.

  Half-blinded.

  Enraged and vulnerable.

  This is an opportunity.

  I charged with everything I had left.

  My sword plunged deep into the same wounded jaw seam.

  THRUNK!

  The blade buried itself halfway to the hilt.

  The basilisk howled, convulsing violently.

  Its tail struck blindly behind it.

  I was too slow.

  The tail slammed into my ribs.

  BOOOOOOM!

  The world spun.

  I crashed against the battlement wall, my vision flashing white.

  My sword remained lodged inside the monster.

  And I could not stand.

  Through blurred vision, I saw Lady Amethyst stagger upright.

  She was bleeding. Limping worse now. Breathing raggedly.

  And yet…

  She started running toward the basilisk.

  “No…” I rasped weakly.

  Okay.

  Let’s review.

  Body: broken.

  Lungs: on fire.

  Leg: questionable.

  Giant venom lizard: extremely pissed.

  Roland: down.

  Conclusion?

  Yep.

  This is definitely a Tuesday.

  The basilisk thrashed violently, Roland’s sword still buried in its jaw. Its attention flickered between pain and rage.

  Pain makes predators sloppy.

  I sprinted forward, forcing speed out of muscles that were filing formal complaints.

  My brain mapped movement patterns automatically. Years of special ops training snapping into place like muscle memory refusing to die with my old body.

  Thirty meters long.

  Center of gravity mid-coil.

  Head vulnerable during strike extension.

  Jaw seam compromised.

  Eyes partially damaged.

  Venom reload time roughly eight seconds..

  I can work with that.

  The basilisk lunged toward me again.

  I ran straight at it. Because apparently I hate living peacefully. At the last second, I slid beneath its jaw as it snapped downward.

  KRAAAAACK!

  Its teeth shattered stone behind me.

  I grabbed Roland’s embedded sword hilt for leverage, yanking myself upward along its wounded jawline.

  The basilisk shrieked, thrashing violently.

  I climbed anyway.

  Knife clenched between my teeth.

  “COME ON YOU LARGE EARTHWORM!” I shouted, driving my boot into the wound seam and hauling myself onto its neck.

  The basilisk reared upward violently.

  I nearly fell.

  Correction.

  I did fall.

  But I caught a jagged scale ridge with my left hand, knife snapping back into my grip.

  The monster twisted, trying to throw me off.

  Its body slammed against a stone tower wall.

  BOOOOOOM!

  Pain exploded across my ribs.

  I held on anyway. Soldiers don’t let go. Not when the mission is still breathing. The basilisk’s head rose higher, exposing the top of its skull ridge.

  And suddenly I saw it.

  A thin line where two armored scale plates overlapped slightly out of alignment.

  Natural armor joint. Nerve cluster likely beneath. Classic evolutionary oversight.

  Thank you, violent biology.

  I crawled upward, ignoring how my arms trembled violently.

  The basilisk sensed me.

  It slammed its head sideways into the battlement wall again.

  KRAAAAAASH!

  My vision blurred.

  Stars exploded across my sight.

  I almost blacked out.

  “Special operations rule,” I muttered through blood and sweat. “If it moves… stab the expensive parts.”

  I raised my knife.

  Drove it downward with everything left inside me.

  STAAAAAB!!!

  The blade punched through the scale joint and sank deep into softer flesh beneath.

  The basilisk froze.

  Completely.

  For one terrifying second.

  Then—

  It convulsed violently.

  Its body slammed into the walls, tail thrashing blindly, jaws snapping open in a silent scream.

  I twisted the knife deeper, angling downward toward where spinal nerves should logically run.

  “Go… to… sleep…” I growled.

  The basilisk collapsed.

  Hard.

  BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.

  The entire south gate wall trembled as its massive body slammed into the ground.

  Dust exploded outward.

  Stone cracked beneath its weight.

  And slowly…

  The monster stopped moving.

  Silence swallowed the battlefield.

  Except for my breathing and distant fires crackling.

  I rolled off the corpse and landed face-first into stone.

  “Worth it.”

  Footsteps approached quickly.

  Roland staggered toward me, one arm wrapped around his ribs, blood streaking down his temple.

  He stared at the fallen basilisk.

  Then at me.

  Then back at the basilisk.

  “…You… climbed it,” he said slowly.

  “Yep.”

  “…And stabbed it in the spine.”

  “Seems like it worked.”

  “…That is not a recognized combat technique.”

  “Give it time,” I coughed.

  He stared at me for a long moment.

  Then he did something unexpected.

  He knelt not fully but, enough.

  Enough for a soldier acknowledging another soldier.

  “Lady Amethyst Von Versailles,” he said quietly, “I withdraw every doubt I held regarding your presence on this battlefield.”

  I blinked.

  “…You mean you finally admit I’m useful?”

  He sighed.

  “…You are catastrophically reckless.”

  “I’ll take it.”

  “…And,” he added reluctantly, “exceptionally effective.”

  I grinned through blood and exhaustion.

  “High praise coming from a sexist medieval drill sergeant.”

  “…I am reconsidering several life philosophies.”

  “Character development. Proud of you.”

  He offered me his hand.

  I stared at it.

  Then grabbed it.

  He pulled me to my feet.

  For a moment, we stood there, surrounded by the corpse of something that could have erased the entire estate.

  Soldiers slowly emerged from hiding, staring in stunned silence.

  Roland glanced sideways at me.

  “…You fight like someone who has already died once.”

  I froze slightly.

  “…Maybe I did.”

  He studied me carefully.

  But didn’t push.

  Good soldier.

  Knows when not to ask.

  Behind us, the sun began rising over the estate walls.

  Golden light reflecting off basilisk scales like a war trophy.

  Roland exhaled slowly.

  “…From this day forward,” he said, “I will train you personally.”

  I smiled.

  Finally.

  “Good,” I said. “Because I’m not done getting stronger yet.”

  And deep inside…

  For the first time since waking in this fragile body…

  I felt something close to being alive again.

  Knock knock

  “Come in.”

  “What is it?”

  “Your Highness, a Goblin General and a Basilisk was sighted near the south gate of Versailles estate.”

  “You're speaking in past tense. Did Roland Greaves defeated it?”

  “Yes Your Highness the thing is ..”

  “What? Spit it out.”

  “The Goblin General was defeated by Roland and his soldiers but the basilisk was defeated by Roland.”

  “You look like you want to say something more.”

  “And Lady Amethyst killed the basilisk as the one dealing the final blow.”

  “Huh. Interesting. Get ready to move out. Let’s visit my fiancé. I have a mountain of questions.”

  “Understood Your Highness.”

  After the fight, they celebrated the victory of Lady Amethyst and Roland Greaves but without the two since they were gravely injured thus resting and being treated by priests since the incident but Crown Prince Gregory didn’t know hence..

  “I’m so sorry Your Highness, Lady Amethyst cannot talk with you right now.” Alice says.

  “Why is that?”

  “The lady haven’t waken up yet from the recent fight between her and the basilisk.”

  The Crown Prince stands and opens his mouth. “Tell her to come to the palace once she does. I’ll be on my way no need to see me out.”

  3 days have passed.

  “Philip, is she awake?”

  “Not yet Your Highness.”

  4 days have passed.

  “Philip?”

  “No, Your Highness, she's still bedridden.”

  “How in the world did she kill the basilisk with a weak body?”

  5 days have passed.

  Knock knock.

  “Is she awake now Philip?”

  “Yes Your Highness.”

  “Send a letter to the Versailles estate to summon Lady Amethyst.”

  “Your Highness, she’s already here.”

  “Where is she now?”

  “At the palace knights training ground.”

  “What?”