The Princess Wanted Me Dead, Now She Kneels

Synopsis

I was the chief healer of the Imperial Royal Knights. During the final battle against the Legion of the Dark Lord, I was tainted by the demon dragon's breath while trying to save the princess. My sacred powers twisted into the necromantic energy everyone despised. When I returned to the Empire, my title was torn from me, and I was cast into the dungeon. My former comrades, the same knights I had healed countless times, stared at me with open loathing. "Monster! You have no place among the Imperial Royal Knights." Princess Helena, the woman I once loved, came herself to lock my cell. "For the purity of the Empire, please die." Three days later, the Legion of the Dark Lord was at the gates. Their forces pressed in relentlessly, and the Empire's mightiest paladin stood utterly powerless against them. Helena, covered in blood and on her knees before my cell, sobbed as she begged for my aid. "Please, save the Empire!" I leaned against the wall, lazily polishing a dagger carved from a leg bone. "Tell me, why should I save a country that wished for my death?"