Chapter 181: Eliza’s Madness (1)
‘How could this have happened?’
Although the leader of Group 7 probably didn’t realize it, the truth of the matter was like this. When his trap had triggered and fell, Marquis Maroon had noticed that the spear’s blade was lined up under her feet. She had also realized that she couldn’t escape the trap because of the enemies clinging to her feet. The moment she realized that… She moved intuitively and found a way out. She avoided the trap by using the two enemies’ bodies hanging on her feet as a foothold.
Smack Smack Smack!
The sharp spear stabbed through the bodies of her enemies, and she managed to barely survive the trap by standing on top of the dead bodies. Rather than using her head, her judgement in the moment of crisis had been the one to save her. It was a trap that had been prepared for her with great care, but Marquis Maroon’s responsiveness was much better than the trap. Now, there were no more traps prepared for her by the leader of Ghost Group 7. What remained was a situation in which it was a battle of pure strength.
After Marquis Maroon came out of the trap, she shouted towards the soldiers who were still fighting behind her.
“Don’t give up and keep fighting! I’ll get rid of all the enemy’s elite soldiers!”
Hearing their master shouting in such confidence and good health in even such a desperate situation, it had quite an effect in raising the morale of the soldiers.
“The Marquis is invincible!”
“Life up your sword! Attack the evil enemies of the Republic!”
“Long live the empire!”
Although they had been greatly harmed, the Knights of the Silver Wolf began to stand up and fight again. Marquis Maroon looked at the Ghosts around her.
“Now, all I have to do is get rid of you.”
Ghost Leader 7 gritted his teeth.
“Even if we’re gone, you think you’ll be able to flip this overwhelming situation into your favor?”
“That’s right.”
The words that Marquis Maroon calmly spoke were full of confidence as she replied to the Ghost Leader 7.
“So you’re the Ghosts? The thugs of Siegfried?”
“So what?”
“If your elite troops had surrounded my allies while your group’s attention was on me, we wouldn’t be able to last for too long. But you’ve only hidden in the forest and shot arrows at us. What could that mean?”
“……”
Leader 7 stopped speaking when he saw that Marquis Maroon was getting closer to their configuration. Marquis Maroon became confident when he was silent.
“Except for you, everyone else is a conscript. Or, even if there are elite soldiers, there are very few of them, or am I wrong?”
“Hm…”
Ghost Leader 7 tried to be evasive. What Marquis Maroon was saying was true. Since Eliza had demanded a large amount of sacrifices, he had prioritized the conscripts and pushed them onto the battlefield. On top of that, in order to maintain confidentiality, they had split into units of 500 and operated separately. So, those who were shooting the arrows right now weren’t the elite soldiers nor were there many of them. According to the original plan, they had mobilized thinking that it would be enough to hold back the Knights of the Silver Wolf while they captured Marquis Maroon. And if they failed to capture her, then…
“My troops are elite. How long do you think such ambushes would last? The moment they run out of arrows is the moment those soldiers die.”
The correct answer would be to just continue. The Knights of the Silver Wolf were in formation and were responding to the arrows. Although the poisoned arrows were fatal, it was easy to respond to the pattern the arrows fell. If they steeled their hearts, then they could even use the bodies of their dead allies as a s.h.i.+eld to survive. Once the enemies ran out of arrows, the situation would be reversed.
“As long as I deal with you before then, that’s it. Even if winning this war is impossible, I will get rid of your elite soldiers and save face that way.
Marquis Maroon finished her statement and lifted her sword.
“Okay, I finished my explanation. If there’s no disagreement, then I’ll kill you.”
Marquis Maroon first approached the leader of the Ghost Group 7 to deal with him first. Of course, the other members couldn’t just sit there watching.
“Everyone, attack!”
“Save the captain!”
The other Ghost members rushed towards Marquis Maroon in order to get their injured captain to the back. Marquis Maroon stared at the Ghosts rus.h.i.+ng straight towards her without trying to use any traps.
“How foolish.”
Her sword swung through the air with a beam of light. Although that beam of light was so mesmerizing, that light shed blood and took lives. While they specialized in a.s.sa.s.sinations and intelligence gathering, Ghost Group 7 was a group in which individual powers were weak. Even if they took the elixir, except for their leader, most of them were only a low or an intermediate leveled Expert. No matter how determined they were, rus.h.i.+ng towards a Master with such skill level was like a moth flying towards a fire.
“Guh…”
“Kah… ugh…”
“Long….live… Siegfried…”
Watching his men quickly falling, Ghost Leader 7’s eyes turned bloodshot.
“This… this…”
Most of the Ghosts were outcasts. They believe they had been saved by Siegfried and were loyal to him, but they weren’t without comrades.h.i.+p. Being an elite unit isolated from the outside inevitably created strong bonds of comrades.h.i.+p. Ghost Leader 7 particularly had a strong tendency for that and thought of the members in his team as a part of his own family. He believed that it was alright to even die if it was necessary to achieve his goal, but this wasn’t right. There was no way he could stand to watch his men being slaughtered so meaninglessly.
“Hailey Marooooooon!”
With half his face missing, the captain of the Ghost Group 7 ran out bellowing in anger. He wasn’t usually like that, so it was evidence of how angry he was.
“So you’re finally coming at me now?”
Even as she was single-handedly fighting Ghost Group 7, she had been keeping an eye on their leader. As the leader of the group, he was also the strongest one in that group. It was only natural that she would be concerned about him. She also knew that while he was the strongest, he also wasn’t her opponent, especially since he only had half his eyesight after losing half his face.
‘This is the end.’
Marquis Maroon was ready to cut him down the moment her opponent was within her reach. At that moment, her opponent pulled something out and threw it towards her. She automatically cut it down on reflex. She had already been in the middle of swinging her sword down, so cutting it down had been more automatic than avoiding it.
That was her mistake.
Bang!
Once it touched her sword, it exploded into smoke.
‘Poison?’
Instinctively feeling that something wasn’t right, Marquis Maroon quickly closed her mouth as she moved backwards. Thanks to her quick judgement, she didn’t breathe in one bit of the smoke. However…
“Guh…”
There were instances where it would work just by touching a person’s skin. Of course, such drugs had to be applied in large amounts to be effective, but right now was an exception. It wasn’t something that had been made purely out of medicine but it was a drug that had been made by Eliza using her magical knowledge. The effect of it was quick and powerful.
“Kuh…guh…”
Marquis Maroon stumbled and fell to her knees onto the ground.
‘What is this? This…’
She instinctively knew that this wasn’t an ordinary poison. Her body temperature rose sharply and her mind became hazy. All the urges that she had been controlling all her life came to the front.
“C… cowardly…”
Looking at Marquis Maroon biting her lip hard enough for it to bleed, the leader of the Ghost Group 7 was rather flabbergasted.
‘Just what drug did she use? How’s it possible to defeat a Master this easily?’
In fact, the drug Eliza had given him was suspicious that he had tried not to use it unless absolutely necessary. However, when his subordinates kept dying, he had been forced to use it, but he hadn’t thought it would be this effective.
While Ghost Leader 7 was confused, Eliza suddenly appeared by his side and remarked, “Ahh… it’s finally over. What took so long?”
When she appeared grumbling, Leader 7 turned towards her to ask, “What was that, Ma’am?”
“Huh? That?” Eliza laughed. “It’s something good. Something really good.”
“Please don’t joke around and tell me, Ma’am.”
“Whooo…. It’s nothing big. It’s something that doesn’t work on guys, it only works on women. Simply put, it’s an aphrodisiac.”
“……”
The look on his face said that he thought it was absolutely ridiculous. Once he recovered from the shock, he frowned as he spoke to her.
“You gave me something as foul as that?”
“Yep. You complaining?”
“That’s…”
The leader of Ghost Group 7 couldn’t say anything. In fact, in his missions in a.s.sa.s.sinating and spying, he freely used poisons and traps in the process. However, it was only used as necessary to achieve his lord Siegfried’s ideals. Just like it was impossible to make pottery without someone’s hands getting dirty, it was Ghost Group 7’s job to deal with the dirty work in the shadows of the great hero, Siegfried. While he worked for Siegfried, he wasn’t reluctant to launch a surprise attack or ambush someone, but to give a woman an aphrodisiac? He had never thought of doing something as dirty as that.
“Argh…”
Seeing him trembling with anger, Eliza said to him.
“Eyyy… You really that angry?”
“You thought I wouldn’t be?”
“Okay, okay. Calm down. You can go first, alright?”
At that moment, Leader 7 doubted his ears.
“… what did you just say?”
“Huh? I said you can go first. Why? You don’t want to?”
“You… you crazy psychotic b.i.t.c.h…”
Once he realized that he hadn’t heard it wrong, he couldn’t contain his anger any longer. She was telling him to rape a woman who was under the effects of an aphrodisiac, and Marquis Maroon at that. Marquis Maroon was a woman who had become a Master and even if she was the enemy, she was worthy of respect. But to tell him to rape such a woman? It was something that would not only stain his honor, but the honor of his lord, Siegfried, as well.
“I can never do something insane like that.”
“What? Whyyyy…?”
Eliza looked like she couldn’t understand why he was saying something like that.
“Marquis Hailey Maroon is a hero admired by everyone who walks on the path of the sword. Even if we met as enemies and fought hard against each other, I have no intention of smearing her honor by any means other than through combat.”
“Booo… stop being so stiff and inflexible. Isn’t this a good thing? A woman as lofty and high up in the sky like her fell into your arms. Just use and dirty her up a bit. I guarantee that she’ll give you the most pleasure ever. I a.s.sure you!”
“I refuse! That’s no different than dirtying my lord’s honor!”
He continued to strongly refuse and Eliza began to look frustrated.
“What? Ugh… seriously? What about you guys? Are you going to refuse just as loudly as he is? Isn’t this something amazing for you, boys? But you’re just going to leave it?”
At Eliza’s words, the other Ghost members looked at her in contempt. In fact, if it wasn’t the Ghosts members and was instead any other Republican soldier, they would most likely have listened to her. Humans are weaker and more selfish than you might think, and if they’re given justification in certain circ.u.mstances, they can become extremely cruel and vulnerable to desire. But she was encouraging such a heinous crime against humanity to the Ghosts.
They were Siegfried’s hidden right hand and for many years they had been strengthened with discipline and their loyalty was as strong as steel. They were the elite of the elite. As long as he gave the order, they would be willing to do something much worse than this. In fact, another Ghost group had burnt down villages and killed all the civilians under David’s orders. However, if it wasn’t absolutely necessary for their purpose, then they would never do something that would cause them to lose their honor. To be a real elite member of the army, not only did they have to be very capable and skillful, but they also had to be mentally strong.
“You’re all eunuchs! Just cut your d*** off!” Eliza shouted angrily at them.
At that, laughter burst out from one side.
“Ha…haha…the…subordinates… are better than…their s.h.i.+tty… commander.”
It was Marquis Maroon who was off to the side fighting against urges coursing through her body. Even in the midst of losing her mind, she had still been listening to everything. When Eliza heard Marquis Maroon mocking her, she scowled and walked towards her. Then, she stomped on Marquis Maroon’s head.
“Kuh…”
Marquis Maroon clenched her teeth as she felt her head being crushed. Eliza was truly angry as she looked down at her.
“You’re laughing? You’re laughing in a situation like this? Huh?”
Eliza gnashed her teeth at Marquis Maroon.
“You know… I really hate kids like you. I really hate it when I see women like you who think they’re all that and walk around with their backs straight and shoulders thrown back.”
Stomp!
“You!”
Stomp!
“I want to!”
Stomp!
“Step on you!”
Stomp!
“And kill you like a bug!”
Stomp!
“You f**king b.i.t.c.h. You get me?!”
Eliza went mad and stomped on Marquis Maroon’s head over and over, again and again. Marquis Maroon couldn’t move against her, but her poisonous words didn’t lose to Eliza’s.
“Your inferiority complex sure is awesome… Guh… you ever get compared to someone?
“……”
Those words of Marquis Maroon cause Eliza to become wrathful.