Raul Viscount’s Territory—The border region between Bates Territory and Baron Zayer’s barony.
“This must be a nightmare.”
Baron Zayer stood trembling, clutching his horse’s reins, unable to believe what lay before him on the battlefield.
‘Weren’t Raul’s knights supposed to be concentrated around Calix Castle?’
Cautious of the possibility, he had brought along fifty knights, including ten armored users. A force like this should have been more than enough to sweep through any typical baronial house without much resistance.
Boom! Crunch!
“Argh!”
But those white-armored knights rampaging on the battlefield—what in the world were they?
There were 100 Expert-level knights armed with mana blades, completely decimating his forces. And the large knight leading them was literally unstoppable. With massive arms wielding two greatswords effortlessly, his weapons didn’t even emanate mana blades.
Yet.
Swish. Whoosh!
As if his arms were moving in afterimages, the armor of anyone near him was cleaved through in an instant, sending them tumbling from their horses. The fact that the baron’s most trusted knight, an Expert-level armored user sent by his backer, had his head lopped off in just four swings was terrifying.
‘Damn it. Is he a hidden Master or what? How can he cut down armored users so fast!’
Baron Zayer couldn’t fathom the high-level technique of activating ‘temporary aura’ just as the blade struck.
The knight who brought despair to Baron Zayer. Philip, the commander of the First Knights, crossed the battlefield with a calm demeanor, thinking, ‘The feel isn’t quite right. None of this swordsmanship is interesting.’
*
“Here we go!”
Whoosh!
Shink!
A massive yellow aura blade scythed through everything within a 7-meter radius. Horses, armor, men, weapons, even power armor. Ten knights were cut down in one fell swoop, a fountain of blood spraying up while shock spread across the enemy’s faces.
“A Master?”
“A monster! We need to flee!”
As they hesitated, the wielder of the aura blade, Jake, the deputy commander of the First Knights, let out a hearty laugh and shouted,
“Hahaha! These rats are scared stiff! Alright, boys, wipe them out!”
“Yes, Vice Commander!”
The knights of the First Knights, drawing their mana blades, surged forward like a yellow wave. With their morale broken and their numbers dwindling, the enemy knights were powerless to stop them. Jake stood proudly, greatsword resting on his shoulder, watching his subordinates in action.
‘Good grief. If I use this one more time, I might be done for.’
Having reached the peak of Expert rank, this was Jake’s first real battle, and he had just wanted to put on a bit of a show. But now his entire mana road was throbbing with pain.
‘Well, as long as the result is good, it’s all fine.’
Philip’s advice to not use temporary aura in combat until getting used to it was long forgotten. Nonetheless, the battle at the border of Raul’s territory and Francois seemed to be coming to a swift conclusion, thanks in part to Jake’s ‘bravado.’
*
Whooosh, bang!
“Argh!”
A knight holding a shield was knocked flat on his back.
“Damn it!”
Boom!
Another knight, who had blocked something with his shield right in front of the fallen knight, groaned in pain.
“Get another shield up, quick!”
Behind the frantic knight, a pile of nearly scrap-level smashed shields and several dismembered bodies piled up.
“Damn it, where are our knights?”
“We’re nearly at the enemy lines!”
“If we don’t take out that insane archer soon, we’ll all be dead!”
The long-range attacks had started just a few minutes ago. Despite being over 500 meters from the enemy, arrows imbued with powerful mana tore through their ranks, turning three knights and two officers into bloody messes.
Now, a few knights were trying their best to block the arrows with shields, but it was no easy feat. The mana-infused arrows exploded upon impact, shattering the shields into pieces.
‘These are not the arrows of a typical Expert archer!’
Destroying mana-infused shields with a single arrow, the knights had never heard of such a terrifying archer, even in rumors. They shivered at the cold mana seeping through the broken shields, praying for their allies to stop that demonic archer somehow.
However, “What the hell is that?”
“No way! How could this happen?”
The charging knights and cavalry found themselves completely surrounded upon reaching the enemy lines. They were encircled by over a hundred Expert-level knights brandishing mana blades and hundreds of trainee knights wielding mana swords.
“Damn it! Can we only trust in Sir Hayward and the power armor users?”
He hoped the reinforcements could break through, dealing with the local knights.
Whoosh! Thud!
“Good heavens!”
An arrow, much thicker and longer than the previous ones, flew like a streak of light and struck Sir Hayward’s power armor. Everyone sighed in relief as he got up after being knocked from his horse.
Clang! Clatters!
But, falling back under relentless attacks, he was eventually pierced by a sword and collapsed. With his barrier already shattered, even an armored user couldn’t withstand any longer.
Whoosh! Swish!
And that demonic archer’s arrows relentlessly flew, shattering the barriers of the baron’s power armor users. Along with it, baron Brennan’s shallow dream of reaping benefits was crushed.
“Retreat, retreat.”
With no knights left to hold the line, the battle was already lost. Just as Baron Zayer made up his mind to flee—
“Watch out!”
Swish!
Three arrows shot towards the command post, bursting into dozens of fragments mid-air. The shards rained down on them.
Boom!
“Aargh!”
“Medic!”
While the knights managed to block most of the fragments, the less skilled commanders weren’t so lucky.
And worse still—
“The horses!”
Although the knights managed to shield Baron Zayer, they couldn’t save the horses. Now, they’d have to escape on foot.
‘Ah, damn it…’
As hundreds of cavalry from the enemy’s side spread out, encircling them, a groan escaped the baron’s lips.
The fourth battlefield. The battle at the border of Raul’s territory and Louisin ended under the command of First Knights’ deputy-commander, sir Pierce.
*
Having secured overwhelming victories at all four fronts, Raul’s forces did not regroup. Instead, they marched directly towards the baronies. With six baronies in total, the forces dispatched to each territory ranged from 1,500 to 2,000 troops.
They had to leave behind soldiers to manage the captured prisoners, which limited their numbers. While these seemed insufficient for siege warfare, the reality was different.
With the main forces of the baronies decimated, the remaining reserves and conscripts were not much of a challenge. Given the inclusion of knights and armored users in each unit, the number of troops was largely inconsequential.
“Report. A royal observer and his entourage have requested an audience with the master.”
As they were advancing toward Baron Brock’s stronghold, a royal observer appeared out of nowhere. The proposed date for the all-out battle by the Baronial Alliance had been May 20th.
Yet, Raul had settled it by the 15th, much earlier. Thus, the royal observer had rushed to Raul’s camp without witnessing any of the battles.
“I have a rough idea of what they might want to say. Bring them in.”
Since it was mealtime and they had set up a temporary camp, there was no need to halt the march for the observer.
“Ahem. Could we get an explanation?”
Without preamble, the royal observer, who entered the tent with three knights, demanded.
“What do you mean by that, without any context?”
Dalton asked, perplexed, standing beside Raul. The observer frowned slightly.
“Who are you, to interrupt a royal official’s inquiry? You’re not even a viscount.”
Almost gesturing dismissively, the observer’s tone caused Dalton to chuckle.
“Well, well. A royal observer is nothing but a baron-level junior official, correct? If you’re curious about my identity, I’ll tell you. Dalton de Templeton, baron. Marquis de Templeton is my grandfather. Does that satisfy you?”
“What! The Sword Saint’s grandson?”
Now understanding Dalton’s lineage, the observer quickly paled and apologized.
“I-I apologize. I had no idea the young master of the Templeton Household was here. My sincerest apologies.”
From his attitude, it was clear that he was more concerned about the grandson of the Templeton Household than Young master Raul himself.
“Enough. Just explain your purpose quickly.”
The observer swallowed hard and turned to Raul.
“Why did you initiate the battle without a royal observer present? Wasn’t the territorial war scheduled for the 20th?”
Due to Raul’s unpredictability, the observer had been severely reprimanded by his superiors upon hearing the news of the concluded battle, and had to rush here through a portal. Moreover, he was given a special mandate to mediate the situation, leaving him no choice but to raise his voice.
“What’s the problem?”
Raul asked, tilting his head as if he was genuinely puzzled.
“Viscount, you should know better. A royal observer must oversee territorial wars authorized by the Royal Court. Isn’t that a given?”
“Well, I’ve never heard of such a law. Hey, Ched, has there been any new legislation I’ve missed?”
Raul turned to his scholar-like adviser, who shook his head.
“No such law exists. It has never been recorded in our legal texts. I’ve heard of such practices, but they hold no legal binding.”
This adviser, an administrator recruited from the capital, had been brought along specifically for instances like this.
“As you can see, my friend here has been working on legal matters in the capital for nearly 15 years. Is there any error?”
Stunned, the royal observer could not respond immediately.
‘Even if there’s no law, such practices and customs still exist!’
But openly stating that wouldn’t be favorable.
“Ahem. Still, cooperating with royal events is part of a lord’s duty. If territorial wars are conducted so recklessly, the Royal Court will not look upon it favorably…”
“Sorry, but I see no reason to entertain unnecessary conversations when no law has been broken. If that’s all, you may leave. We need to resume our march.”
At Raul’s curt dismissal, the observer hurriedly spoke up.
“But still, you should at least listen to what I have to say.”
‘Is he not afraid of the Royal Court?’
The royal observer grumbled inwardly as he hastily pulled a scroll from his robe.
“What is that?”
“It’s the Royal Court’s mediation proposal.”
Whoosh.
Raul unrolled the scroll roughly and scanned the contents swiftly.
Twitch.
Raul’s eyebrows furrowed slightly as he finished reading. He handed the scroll over to Dalton.
“You understand what this document contains, don’t you?”
“Of course. That’s the reason why I rushed all the way here.”
Suddenly, Dalton’s face contorted with displeasure, and a sharp sound accompanied the motion.
“What kind of mediation proposal is this? This is blatantly biased in favor of the barons!”
(To be continued)