Chapter 291.
Only the young knights retained their ability to move properly on the walls. They grew up intimidated by the name of Doomstone, but their fear toward him was less than those who lived through his more active years.
"Stop!" Despite the fierce martial aura that erupted from the muscular giant, the knights gripped their swords and surrounded Doomstone.
"Uahahaha! You"re brave! Yes! One who holds a sword should have that kind of spirit!"
For the young knights, this was only possible because Doomstone’s existence was akin to a tiger in a children’s tale, something used to scare them when they cried during their childhood. But the young knights’ reckless bravery did not extend into their next action.
"So you won’t mind if I become a little serious, will you?”
As Doomstone took a step forward, the young knights knelt down due to the overwhelming gap in martial aura and vomited. Only then did the young knights try to run away, their survival instincts being the only thing left in their minds. Yet, their trembling legs did not work, so they crawled on the ground.
"Hmm, that"s not fun."
If the way forward was blocked by a sword, shouldn"t you go forth and attack?
He felt displeasure when the young knights started crawling after he didn’t do anything. So, he ignored the knights and walked into the fortress.
No one could obstruct Doomstone as he walked proudly among his enemies like he was on a leisurely stroll. In addition, the entirety of the imperial forces who climbed to the top of the wall froze, not even thinking about fighting.
"Please wait a minute!" Then, Malecia stopped the Doomstone as he strolled around. While clutching his trembling hands, Malecia said, "How did the head of the Crow Tribe end up entering this war!? Based on the fact that you are partic.i.p.ating, does the Crow Tribe plan on being an enemy of our Kingdom?"
Malecia tried to urge Doomstone to step down, reminding him that his every action could be construed as a political move. Alas, his opponent was Doomstone.
Doomstone spoke sourly, picking his ear with his pinkie. "Such difficult topics are none of my business. Is there anyone with enough guts to have a fun fight with me?"
While he asked this casual question, his vicious martial aura spread everywhere. Faced with the frighteningly fierce martial aura, Malecia realized that he was nothing against Doomstone. It was a mistake to use diplomacy against a monster that threw away the Crow Tribe’s political relations and went on a rampage 28 years ago.
"Or are you going to come out to fight me?" As Doomstone"s gaze landed on Malecia, Malecia stepped back for a moment.
"Good senses. No, rather, your survival instinct is well developed."
There were small holes in the place where Malecia had stood. Seeing the holes, Malecia asked in a cold sweat, "I couldn’t even see you move. What kind of technique was that?"
"Enlightenment, or not. It"s just an application of a finger flick.”
Malecia untied the sword around his waist, threw it to the ground, and raised both his hands. "We surrender, disarmed...”
A magic flew at Doomstone as Malecia tried to disarm and admit defeat. The eyes of the audience turned to the magician who shot the magic.
"Hiccup! No, no! I- hiccup!” The person who shot the magic was Delta, who was in a state of panic from her deep-rooted fear. She made a mistake that she would never have made normally, and when she saw Doomstone smiling at her, she felt extremely nauseous and almost threw up.
"Senior!" Beta held Delta and cast barriers with all his might.
However, even if it was a madosa"s barrier, magic cast by someone who was completely worn out was nothing more than a decoration. Beta"s barrier was shattered by an invisible strong aura, and being hit, Beta collapsed, vomiting blood. "Uaahhhhh!!”
Delta grabbed her magic wand as she watched the bloodied Beta fall. At that moment, Malecia quickly knocked Delta out by hitting the back of her head. "All of you disarm! We’re surrendering!"
At Malecia’s cry, all of the knights and soldiers alike laid down their arms. The knights of the Empire who climbed up the wall arrested those who surrendered. Then, they immediately operated the pulley that controlled the gate and completely opened it. Once this was done, the middle and the inner gates were opened in short order.
"This friend"s teacher and senior fell to you in the past, and she almost lost her life as well! Please show mercy!"
Delta lost her teacher and her senior when they died at the society, with them being a great madosa and a madosa, respectively. After she was left by herself, she was taken in by Aries as a disciple. Doomstone pa.s.sed Malecia with a blank face as Malecia revealed the truth and stepped in front of the fallen Delta and Beta.
* * *
I created an illusion and tried as hard as I could to talk and act like my father. In order to keep this ruse undiscovered, I kept my enemies at a distance so no one noticed. Although I was anxious because the fort had as many as five madosas, when I saw that the gate had opened, I could say my plan was successful.
"Have mercy!"
I was slightly surprised by the Mercenary King"s words, but this all stemmed from my father"s incidents in the past.
This problem was just because he went way too far in his actions, but I didn"t think he did anything wrong. Her teacher and senior probably did something worthy of death.
- Aren’t you being too trusting, Master?
I answered Tristan"s thought transmission as a matter of course.
- I think I roughly know what kind of situation she was involved in.
Considering that she was a curse magician, she probably witnessed the ma.s.sacre of the Curse Magic Society. Even after the incident, one of the four great madosas, the Curse Specialist, did not particularly antagonize the Crow, which was enough to guess my father"s justification.
- Well, it was excessive, though, considering curse magic almost completely disappeared.
I pa.s.sed by the Mercenary King and stood in front of the two people who had fallen. The Mercenary King closed his eyes tightly, but I took out a healing potion from my pocket and poured it onto the bloodied young madosa.
The unconscious madosa squirmed in pain as their wounds healed quickly, and the Mercenary King looked at me as if surprised by my actions.
- Anyway, what"s the situation like over there?
Tristan replied leisurely to my question.
- It seems they’re slowly realizing that the fort has fallen.
If I were the one to notice that the fort was captured, I wouldn"t continue to fight for nothing. As soon as the Mercenary King realized that I had no intention of starting a ma.s.sacre, he tried to escape.
I glanced at Malecia trying to sneak away. Then, Gwalchmai, Lionel, and Bors surrounded Malecia. Wouldn"t it be a waste if we lost the enemy general after spending all that time taking over the fortress?
"I surrender." The Mercenary King obediently gave up fleeing and remained calm as he was caught.
He"s shrewd, so I"ll put surveillance on him later.
I saw Uncle b.l.o.o.d.y with a regretful expression on his face, having expected a large battle. I nodded in his direction, motioning for him to go inside the castle sitting in the center of the fortress. When Uncle b.l.o.o.d.y and I entered the castle and were alone, he asked, "Is it okay to pretend to be hyung-nim like this?"
I answered, erasing the illusion, "It"s okay. It"s a trick the great madosas will see through immediately when they get here anyway. It"s a perfect single-use tactic."
Considering I made the plan knowing it would get discovered soon, I wasn’t worried about it putting any burden on my hometown. Bluffs like this were usually an extremely common strategy during war.
Sagongmyeongju Saengjungmoon.
Isn"t there an idiom saying something about scaring the enemy so much that they’re still frightened even in death? It"s the fault of the fool.
Uncle b.l.o.o.d.y found my answer amusing, and he smiled. "If such a convenient method existed, couldn’t we have just used it on the first day?”
"No. No matter how much weaker the opponent was, there were still five madosas. In order for this kind of trick to work, you have to push the enemy to their limits so that they don’t notice it."
Furthermore, considering how the Mercenary King tried to escape at the end, his intuition was incredibly sharp. After resting in prison, the Mercenary King will likely be the first to realize something was off.
"But you said you’re going to have to deal with two great madosas. Are you acting confident?"
I shrugged. "Well, it"d be a lie to say I’m confident. But I have a lot of tricks. It"ll work out somehow."
Uncle b.l.o.o.d.y smiled at my optimistic answer, saying that was just like me.
First, I’ll have to allow the soldiers to rest before repairing the fortress"s defensive magic circle. It’s going to be a pretty busy two days.
* * *
"Ha-am~!"
I looked at the entire fortress from the top of the old castle in the center of Sh.e.l.len Fortress. I could see the sun rising from the far east ridge. Although the outer walls had collapsed a little in the last two days of fighting, it didn"t seem like it’d take long to repair.
Roughly estimating how I would renovate the fortress in my mind, I looked at the handcuffed Mercenary King. "Did you sleep well?"
Malecia shrugged with a comfortable expression. "Thanks to you, I slept soundly. If you get tired before going to bed, you usually end up sleeping well."
Although he acted like it was fine, in reality, he must have been exhausted to the point where he fell asleep on the spot. It was likely that he barely slept for the past two days, and that couldn’t be resolved by sleeping for four or five hours.
I took some nutritional supplements out of my pocket s.p.a.ce and threw them at Malecia. "Eat. You"ll get some energy if you eat.”
Immediately after I finished speaking, Malecia swallowed the nutritional supplements I gave him, and he asked with a sly smile, "Mmm, it"s tasty. Is it orange flavor?”
I replied with a smirk, "I don"t like bitter things."
"Haha, you"re young. Well, I don"t like bitter things too, so I guess I"m not an adult either." Malecia seemed at peace, convinced that I wouldn"t harm him.
As expected, he’s quick-witted. He was accurately judging his worth.
He continued, “I expected you to be young, but you"re much younger than I guessed. How old are you?"
"Nineteen."
Malecia was surprised. "That"s impressive. I"ve met all kinds of geniuses, but compared to you, it seems they weren’t actually geniuses."
"Well, I don"t really think I"m a genius." I thought this from the bottom of my heart.
"Having too much humility isn’t polite."
"No, it"s more like the truth than it is humility. I know a real genius. Compared to their brilliance, I"m merely smart."
That genius being someone like Hestia noona. It was difficult to call myself a genius compared to Third Sister.
"That"s scary.”
"Well, that"s enough chatter. Aries- no. Is the Curse Specialist going to partic.i.p.ate this time?"
When I asked this, Malecia looked at me as if I were asking the obvious and replied, "Don"t you already know that? Master is also of the Hunter Tribe, so he will be partic.i.p.ating in the war."
I knew this, but I didn"t want to hear it. This unequivocal answer made me sigh. Malecia’s odd interrogation, which wasn’t really an interrogation, continued.