Volume 7 Chapter 2 Part 12

「For Lord Eugen! 」

Near the front of Dartania’s army, the Lords of Artuk were charging while shouting out the password.

There were fights breaking out everywhere. However, Mirza was nearby, so he hurried up and joined the fight.

「I’ll deal with all of you myself! 」

Milza danced through Dartania’s warriors and slashed at the enemies from horseback.

「Dartania’s Viceroy! 」

An enemy soldier noticed Milza and raised his voice.

「Stay back from him! Spread out and run into the forest! 」

The enemy, who seemed to be a Lord, shouted.

「Don’t run away! 」

Milza ran his horse and slashed the Lord on the back as he retreated into the forest. However, the Lord looked back at Milza while letting out a cry of pain.

「Run without worrying about me! Return to the castle and help Lord Theo! 」

The Lord of Artuk orders his soldiers who were trying confront Milza.

「Glory to Artuk! 」

He shouted and attacked Milza by himself.

After exchanging several blows with him, Milza put his blades together and cut deep into his opponent’s neck. The Lord of Artuk didn’t even try to dodge that attack and took it, dying on the spot as blood spewed out from his body in every direction.

However, the enemy soldiers have already fled into the forest, with Dartania’s warriors following closely after them.

「There’s no need to pursue them too far! We’ll regroup our ranks and resume our march! 」

Milza has stopped the warriors who were trying to pursue the enemies, and then he rode his horse to the rear of the marching column. However, the path they were supposed to take was blocked by thorns.

「Ugh… OUT OF MY WAY!!! 」

Filled with anger, Milza started to slash at the thorns to cut open a way for himself and his men. But even though he managed to open a path, he didn’t join up with the rest of his forces even after walking forward for a good while.

「This place really feels like a maze. 」

Terius, who was following Milza closely, said nervously.

「There are many roads, and they all seem to be overgrown with thorns, and the paths are opening and closing seemingly at random, so whatever you do, don’t move ahead blindly or you’ll quickly regret it! 」

Milza exclaimed loudly. His voice echoed through the entire forest.

「Keep talking to those next to you and be careful not to get separated!」

However, at that time, an enemy attack seemed to have begun somewhere else, and the angry cries of Dartania’s warriors soon reached Milza and Terius’ ears.

「Is this Theo Cornero’s goal?! Does he intend to toy with your army I order to humiliate you and divide your forces? 」

Terius spoke with a somber expression.

「He’s a cunning one, that’s for sure. Fortunately for us, the damage to our troops isn’t that great. We just have to keep going until we reach the castle. 」

「As you wish. 」

Terius nodded, but his expression remained as somber and worried as it was for a while now.

「I’ll gather my troops. Make sure you don’t get separated from me either. 」

Milza said this to Terius and hurried back on the road. However, by that time, about half of the Dartanian army had already wandered down the wrong paths.

* * *

Theo was looking down at the Dartanian army that was surrounding them from the window of the castle.

The gates of the castle were tightly closed, and a crossbows were aiming downward from the gaps in the walls. On the roof, there were cauldrons filled with boiling oil, and stones and wood were also piled up. Their defense was perfect, and the morale of the castle soldiers was high.

On the other hand, Dartania’s army clearly looked exhausted.

「It seems that this demonic forest is really harsh for the people of the desert. 」

Siluca looked at Dartania’s army from the window and muttered. For now, it’s just as I thought.

「THEO CORNERO!!! 」

Milza came to the front of his army on horseback and calls out to him.

「I’m gonna go to the balcony. 」

Theo said with a hard expression on his face.

「Be careful. 」

Siluca warned him, but he had no choice but to comply.

「It’s been a long time, Milza Kuches, Viceroy of Dartania! 」

Theo, who appeared on balcony, yells out to Milza in response.

「Come out of here and face me in one-on-one combat! 」

Mirza yelled in anger. He didn’t expect Theo to respond, but he was too angry to not say anything.

「I won this battle. Get out of the forest as soon as possible. At night, this forest changes its appearance even more, and it begins to come alive in search of human blood. 」

Theo warned him. That was not a lie on his part.

Dartania’s warriors looked at each other with an eerie looks on their faces.

「Then stay in this castle forever. In the meantime, I will destroy all of the Artuk Treaty and the rest of the continent! 」

Milza so and turned his horse back and gave and order for his entire army to withdraw.

The castle soldiers who heard this cheered.

「I thought they were going to attack, but… 」

Siluca was shocked. If it were a siege, there would have been some casualties on their side, but it would have been a huge blow to Dartania’s army as well.

(A last minute deviation to the plan…)

She doesn’t think she misread Mirza’s character, so Theo’s words should have sounded more like a provocation to the Viceroy of Dartania than an advice.

Siluca follows Milza with her eyes as he was retreating. Beside him, she spotted what appeared to be a Mage. He was looking back at Siluca who was out on the balcony.
「That is… 」
It was a familiar face to her.

「Terius, Wilian. 」

They are the same age and even studied together at the Magic Academy. However, Siluca entered Magic University two years before him, and they have not had any contact since then. He wasn’t very good at magic, but she remembered that his intelligence was extremely high.

(Is he supposed to be Milza’s contracted Mage?)

Siluca didn’t want to believe it at first, because according to what she knew and the information she managed to gather, the Viceroy of Dartania hated the Mages almost as much as he hated Theo, because he is convinced that every contracted Mage is a spy sent by the Mages Association o extract information about the Lords so that the Association could control them better.

But if he wasn’t a Mage that Milza personally chosen for himself, then the only other possible option was that he was actually a Mage dispatched to Milza in order to serve as a liaison between the Viceroy of Dartania and Waldrind’s Magic Division.

If someone like him was at Milza’s side, this probably means that even though he doesn’t like it, Milza must be squeezing him for every piece of knowledge that he had to offer to him.

(So it’s not that the plan that I’ve come up with has failed because Milza saw through it, but because he was acting in accordance with the advice from this guy?)

Since Milza and his army were now here, then Siluca could only assume that it was all thanks to the advice that Terius was giving him, but also because Milza must’ve listened to what he had to say and accepted his council.

(If that is really the case, then it will be difficult to read the movements of Dartania’s army from this point onward.)

That, and since she now knows that Milza has a Mage from Mages Association at his sight, that means that the threat of her plans being seen through was a legitimate threat. However, if that’s really the case, then all that it means is that from now on Siluca simply had to form her next plans specifically with that assumption in mind.

「Well, even though we weren’t able to achieve all of the goals that we set up for ourselves, I’d still dare to say this can be counted as our victory for now. 」

「Right. So let’s spread the news of our victory against Dartania just like we originally planned and then move on to the next stage of our plan. 」

Siluca called out to Theo.

「The next battle will definitely be tough one. 」

Theo said quietly. Just as Siluca expected, the expression that he wore on his face right now was a stern one.

「Indeed. It’s going to be far from easy. 」

Siluca nodded her head in affirmation. They wanted to avoid such as scenario as much as possible, but they’re not going to have much of a choice now.

Next, they’ll have to face off against the almost unharmed forces of Dartanian army in a field battle.