CH 155

“Three hundred thousand?” Horhell asked back in disbelief.

Getting such a reaction from him was quite rare when you considered the fact that he usually showed hardly any emotional agitation.

“That was the message sent by Miss Heretia. According to the intelligence she has gathered, Barth Baltic is sending messages throughout the empire to gather troops, and the estimated number of the troops is at least three hundred thousand,” Haild nodded and said with a complicated expression, while pressing at his throat to force out a harsh voice instead of his usual voice.

Horhell was an old man who had been by Hela’s side even before Haild’s birth. Although such a long time had passed that Horhell probably couldn’t remember him, Haild was still concerned that Horhell might recognize his voice.

Fortunately, Horhell didn’t seem to notice Haild’s identity.

“Isn’t the total number of troops in the Imperial Army only about a million? I can’t believe that almost one-third of the Imperial Army agrees with that bastard.”

At that moment, they heard a familiar voice.

“The military is always conservative and follows a strict system,” Hela Henna said as she approached them.

“Your Grace! You should be resting!” Horhell stood up from his seat and shouted.

“You have far worse injuries than I do, but you are walking around without any problem. So why should I be stuck in my sickbed when the only injury I have is a sprained ankle? Do you think I’m that weak just because I’m old?”

Hela limped into the room, prompting Horhell to rush over to help her.

Hela had injured her ankle while she was fleeing from the Yult Mountains. It was fortunate that she only received a minor injury, since a lot of people had expected her to die.

However, Hela didn’t seem to think so.

Hela stood by the table and stared at Haild, whose face was covered in bandages.

Meanwhile, Haild remained silent, for fear of Hela realizing who he was through his voice.

“You’re that young man who saved me. I appreciate what you’ve done for me. Is your face bandaged due to injuries?”

Haild flinched upon hearing Hela’s question, then lowered his voice just like he did when talking to Horhell.

“Yes, something like that.”

Hela tilted her head for a moment when she heard Haild’s answer.

Seeing this, Haild became nervous, since he thought that Hela might have recognized him. He was not yet ready to reveal his identity.

However, Hela didn’t pay much mind to it and continued speaking right away.

“Don’t tell me… do you have leprosy? Even if you don’t, people might feel uncomfortable. If you have to wear a robe, at least wear a nice one. Someone wearing a black robe with bandages all over his body standing next to His Majesty—you might end up being misunderstood, you know.”

“Yes… yes, Your Grace.”

Hela took her eyes off of Haild and turned her gaze toward Horhell.

“If the Regent sends the order to convene, of course the Imperial Army will follow his order. Even so, three hundred thousand is a little too much. That’s almost every reserve except for the soldiers who are guarding the border right now. And that number doesn’t include those from the North and the East, those who are observing the situation and those who agreed to stand by our side. There was even a unit on the Eastern side that received a message.”

“Even the Eastern Army?”

Hela nodded at Horhell’s question.

“Part of the Imperial Army guarding the Eastern Orsk said that they received a message from the Regent. That bastard who was in charge there refused to talk to me before he went to war, but he confessed everything when I started interrogating him.”

“Then the Regent must have sent a message to the north as well.”

“Well, we don’t know that. General Nienna is the object of worship within the Northern Army. Even if commanders who are out of their minds ordered them to follow the Regent, the commander would be found dead the next day. I highly doubt that any of the commanders there would follow the Regent’s order in the first place. Barth Baltic probably knows that too, so he might not have sent a message at all.”

“That’s a great show of loyalty.”

“Loyalty, my ass,” Hela snorted. “I respect General Nienna, but what her subordinate officers do is create a private army—a perfect environment for a rebellion. That will eventually come back to bite those arrogant bastards in the ass. Anyway, that’s not the point.”

Haild handed over the letter sent by Heretia in a stiff motion, which Hela received with a heavy expression. Then, she sighed as she read through the letter.

“There’s no problem with supplies since the harvest season has passed. It looks like only one hundred thousand of those three hundred thousand troops will actually be fighting, while the rest of them are supply units. I guess that even those who responded to the Regent’s call felt quite uneasy about taking an active part in this battle. They probably want to wait and see which way the situation will tilt before choosing which side to join,” Hela said.

“Even so, their troops outnumber ours. Besides, the members of the supply unit can always draw out their swords and join the battle, since they are trained in combat as well,” Horhell said.

Hela folded the letter and began to chew on it with her teeth upon hearing Horhell’s words.

“How many troops do we have on our side?” Hela asked.

“The Eastern Army has been cut off, so approximately…” Horhell hesitated for a while, then carefully opened his mouth again. “About thirty thousand, including those of the Capital Army who just recently agreed to join us.”

“Thirty thousand… even if the Eastern Army weren’t cut off by Pavan, we would have only had about seventy thousand. Either way, we would have been outnumbered, so it makes me feel less pressured.”

“But we have General Nienna, the dragon, and the Order of Huginn. Most of all…”

Horhell tried to mention Juan carefully, but Hela stopped him. Her eyes expressed how unpleasant she felt.

“Of course, their numbers will not matter if His Majesty decides to step forward. But then, the problem we would need to be concerned about would change into a whole new one. How would we deal with the aftermath if we do end up killing all three hundred thousand troops?”

Hela looked at the Imperial map with a heavy expression and continued speaking.

“We need to wrap everything up on our own before His Majesty needs to step forward. If that madman, Barth Baltic, really tries to kill all of us using the lives of three hundred thousand men, His Majesty will have no choice but to step forward. But don’t forget. Currently, His Majesty is no longer the person he used to be—he won’t show any mercy.”

Hela looked around at the others with cold eyes.

“Right now, His Majesty has returned for revenge and to give out punishment. To be honest, I am very much in favor of doing just that. But it’s better to spill as little blood as possible when considering the future of the empire.”

“Then what should we do?” Horhell asked.

“I’m not too sure yet. We’ll have to safely join the Northern Army and the Order of Huginn first. If the Magic Tower is attacked, then our plan will break down. I don’t know if he’s doing it on purpose or not, but I’m glad that Barth Baltic is only focusing on gathering more troops. He’s probably doing that because of His Majesty.”

Then Horhell and Haild looked at each other, causing Hela to feel that something was strange.

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“Now that I think about it, where is His Majesty?” Hela asked.

Horhell hesitated for a moment, and then opened his mouth.

“Well…”

***

Pavan raised his hand.

His face and hands were coated with charcoal and were barely visible in the dark, but the reddish light at his fingertips moved in a specific shape. A red light flashed and moved in a similar shape from the other side of the mountain.

It was a sign that everything was ready.

Pavan looked down at the bottom of the mountain.

The army of the undead did not need a break, but the Order of Huginn who controlled them had to eat and rest in between their march. Pavan decided to take advantage of that.

The Templars from the Order of the Blue Moon had decided to cooperate with him and participate in the ambush operation. Unfortunately, some of them were excluded from the mission as they had been dispatched for a different mission already. But Pavan didn’t worry too much, since he was able to get the help of Bishop Ilmero from the Yult Monastery.

If ordinary soldiers were blessed with a Bishop’s grace, a unilateral slaughter like the one done by the enemy before this could be avoided.

“As I said,” Bishop Ilmero whispered quietly to Pavan. “I don’t intend to cooperate with you for a long time. I’m only cooperating with the intention of eradicating the group of undead that are acting against His Majesty’s will.”

Ilmero looked at Pavana with a contemptuous look.

Most of the high-ranking officials were already aware of Barth Baltic’s bombshell remarks at the assembly of the House of Peers—and it was only a matter of time before the ordinary people of the empire became aware of them too.

Pavan thought that this war needed to end before that could happen. Instead of answering Bishop Ilmero, he put his finger on his lips to remind Ilmero that they were in an ambush operation, causing Bishop Ilmero to exhale loudly in anger and shut his mouth.

Bishop Ilmero wasn’t happy with the situation he was in. After all, the Imperial Army had always followed orders of the Church until now, but now the Church was following the Imperial Army’s orders.

Pavan raised his hand high and quickly lowered it.

The soldiers who received the signal began to walk down the hillside immediately. Their plan was a simple feint—the Templars would attack the army of the undead when the enemy forces gathered after the Imperial Army’s initiation.

However, that was the plan Pavan told the Templars. The Order of Huginn would also assume that this was their plan, since they knew the only ones who could fight against the army of the undead were the Templars.

However, Pavan’s plan was different from what he had told the Templars.

‘That’s not enough…’

The Templars too, were nothing more than a feint. The real plan of attack was different—while the army of the undead was engaged by the Templars, Pavan and a few of his trustworthy subordinates who had been blessed by Bishop Ilmero intended to attack Anya, the Captain of the Order of Huginn.

At that moment, Pavan heard the sound of his army’s vanguard colliding with the army of the undead. The same signal that was sent by Pavan came from the other side of the mountain as the Templars began to move as well.

Pavan did not doubt the success of the operation for even a second. He bypassed the troops to strike the Order of Huginn.

However, his movement was blocked even before he managed to reach the bottom of the mountain.

“Pavan Peltere. I haven’t seen you in a long time.”

It was Blacksmith Dilmond, the Deputy of the Order of Huginn. Dilmond was looking at Pavan from among the undead while standing in the grassland.

At that moment, Pavan realized that the Order of Huginn was already aware of the ambush.

Pavan couldn’t even wonder how the enemy found out about his plan.

His only thought was that this civil war would become much more terrible than he imagined.

***

Juan was facing the wind on top of the hill.

The darkness was swept away as the sun rose, and countless bodies hidden in the shadow of the night were revealed.

The crows swarming the battlefield looked similar to living maggots. Neither was it a pleasant view nor did it have a refreshing smell. Juan felt some complex feelings upon seeing the bodies of those who died fighting valiantly or those who fled in a cowardly manner.

‘I don’t feel sorry for them. Why?’

The soldiers had no fault—they only obeyed their superior’s orders. Of course, it wasn’t the first time; Juan killed countless soldiers such as these. Even then, Juan was surprised at the fact that he barely had any emotional agitation.

‘Is it because they are my enemies? No, that’s not true.’

When Juan had been the emperor, there had been many times when he had no choice but to kill humans because of disagreements or misunderstandings. Juan recalled how he mourned their deaths and prayed that such a thing would never happen again.

But this time, he felt no emotional exhaustion. There was only a simple arithmetic calculation that told him that he had killed five thousand one hundred forty two out of the seven thousand seven hundred sixteen enemies.

‘Will I feel something else if the number increases? Would I be a little shaken up if I killed three hundred thousand of them?’

Juan shook his head; he didn’t think that the number would matter.

‘If that number is not enough to make me feel something… what about killing everyone except for the few people who understand me?’

It was just a silly question he asked himself. He knew that those who understood him would never agree with his plan to wipe out all of humanity other than the very small number of people that are trusted by him.

Juan liked such people: those who were affectionate and faithful. Because of that, Juan couldn’t help but think that he might be broken somewhere.

“Your Majesty!”

Juan saw someone approaching him while waving their arms. It was Anya. She seemed quite excited. Upon seeing Anya approaching him on the back of crow skeletons, he wondered whether it was a comfortable ride.

“I won us a great victory by doing exactly what Your Majesty ordered me to do! I had thought that we would suffer great damage when Pavan Peltere led the Templars and the Eighth Division, but what a come-from-behind victory! We would have never won if Your Majesty hadn’t stopped the Templars in time!”

Juan smiled bitterly.

Pavan Peltere, the Captain of the Order of the Capital did a great job. However, he didn’t know that Juan was with the Order of Huginn. The result was a crushing defeat that resulted in the loss of two-thirds of his troops.

‘Although I don’t think the results would have changed even if he knew.’

“What’s the result of the chase?”

“We were able to kill roughly about six hundred more. Oh, we succeeded in capturing Bishop Ilmero as well. Just like Your Majesty said, the undead named Urkel was strangely resistant to the effect of Grace!”

‘Because he was created by mixing the corpses of many Templars.’

Urkel was recreated with a force close to an entire knight order. It was only natural that he wouldn’t be affected by most types of Grace.

“Well done, Anya. But Pavan won’t stop the attack. Now that he knows that ambushing us won’t work, watch out for arson and other tactics—especially the pollution of drinking water. You're a great necromancer, but you are still human. Tell Dilmond to be careful as well,” Juan warned.

Anya smiled.

“Destruction and guerrilla operations are the Order of Huginn’s specialty, Your Majesty.”

“I guess I gave you unnecessary advice.”

Juan looked at Anya leaving as she was flown away on the crow skeletons with a smile on her face.

Then someone came close to Juan, causing him to turn his head.

It was Sina.

“She’s probably the only person who can laugh in this terrible landscape.”