The Experimental Log Of The Crazy Lich

by Stayrr

This is the story of a crazy lich who possesses an internal game system and brings catastrophe to the entire world. “Let’s look at the daily quests today… it’s the damned choose one-of-two-options-type again. Destroy a town with a population of 30,000 people or above; reward: 10,000 evil points. Steal lollipops from 3 children; reward: 1 evil point. If neither of the quests is com

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Chapter 146: War Breaks Out

【Top Student's Glasses: These are ordinary silver-rimmed glasses and wearing them will make you seem slightly smarter. Yeah, just slightly. Let me tell you, these are obviously ordinary glasses that the top students use to blind their competitors!】

【Top Student's Decayed Teeth: "Yes, it's these teeth. Wuuuuu, it's this one! It almost killed me!"】

【Top Student's Dentures: "My dentures are actually poisonous teeth filled with venom! Don't force me to bite you. Lick… AHHHHHH, it's poisonous!"】

【When you gather the full set "Top Student's Glasses," "Top Student's Decayed Teeth," and "Top Student's Dentures," you will gain the special effect "Dunce Masquerading as the Top Student". Your retorting abilities will be increased by 30%, integrity score will be lowered by 30% while your Cuteness Might will be increased by 30%—System hasn't eaten my medicine yet, but I still feel cute!】

"Where should I start retorting from? Should I start from how the three top students' equipment would turn one into a dunce? Or should I start from how I can equip those two teeth? Furthermore, if I put those poisonous teeth into my mouth, I would probably die! Further, what's with those additional abilities? What the heck is Cuteness Might? Do I need better retorting ability or a decreased integrity score? My integrity already has no lower limits, alright! I have already long given up on treatment, alright! There are too many points to retort about this, there is no way I can retort on them all, alright!"

Everytime I see those Gachapon rewards which were filled with numerous retort points, my desire to retort would skyrocket. At this moment, after a whole series of ripostes, I panted heavily with the System interface before me, my gaze fixated on it.

"I will kill you with my glare, glower you to death!"

Alright, I knew that I looked foolish like that. However, what could I do to an existence I couldn't reach but kept doing me in? Nothing, except killing them with my glare.

Perhaps I had spent too many Fate Points reconstructing my body; the recent Gachapon reward was getting worse and worse. The items that I had obtained were mostly objects that left people speechless.

【The Wordless Book of Heaven: The unparalleled Way of Heaven is contained within it.】

Alright, I didn't know what the Book of Heavens was about, but if a book had no words, how could one comprehend it?

【Balala the Fairies Transformation Wand: I ate a lot of medicine today and feel cute! If you sing "In the name of the moon, I'll punish you"* and dance while transforming, there will be bonus enhancement to your stats! Furthermore, it is pink!】

Alright, I don't think that I need to go any further than that. After managing to get this non-mainstream magical wand, I immediately walked over to my window, open it and threw it out.

"Who would say such embarrassing words! Farewell!"

【Sacred Sword: Togashi* Must Die—The new member of the "One Shot One Kill (Must Die)" sword series, the product of the resentment of readers and editors. The One Shot One Kill (Wrecking Their Ass) effects apply to those who submit their manuscripts late and tour in the name of finding inspiration for their work. Also, it would be an incredible sight if you use it along with the one above.】

Alright, putting aside those obviously ill-humored, bizarre objects, the System did give some "good items" as well.

【DF-41 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile: Don't say that the System didn't give you anything good. As long as you are able to use it and dare to use it, this object is definitely formidable.】

When I saw the object, I was shocked. However, when I saw the user manual that came along with it, I knew that I have been duped.

"It requires specialized equipment for the launch of the missile? I can still find a way to solve that, but what do you mean by the missile will be locked if the password entered is incorrect? Where can I find the password required for the missile launch? Do I have to rip it apart to examine it? However, if it explodes on me, will you pay me? Furthermore, how can there be an intercontinental missile in a world revolving around magic? I dare you give me something normal, like the incantation of a powerful Forbidden Spell!"

And the System really did it. In the next draw, I got a powerful, otherworldly spell incantation.

【Dragon Slave: Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows, buried in the stream of time is where your power grows…】*

When that incantation from my childhood appeared before me, my entire body started trembling in anticipation.

"Ohhhhh! As long as I chant the incantation, I will be able to borrow strength from the otherworldly Demon Lord to cast this ultimate-level Forbidden Spell? Without using much mana, I will be able to use this highly destructive Forbidden Spell? Awesome!"

Thus, I looked for a remote location to experiment it myself.

Did I fail? Was there a problem with the incantation? No, the items from the System were all authentic. I succeeded and the incantation was the official one and it worked. I managed to connect with the otherworldly Demon Lord.

"Welcome to the Otherworldly Demon Lord Summoning System…. The Demon Lord whom you are calling is currently unavailable, please try again later. Dududu, I thank you for your support of the Incantation System."

Alright, the Demon Lord was busy and he was unavailable.… I could understand that the Incantation System was the exclusive privilege of a certain other world and it was normal for me to be unable to get into contact with him, but what was with the reply afterward!

"After which, please rate our services. Are you satisfied, or are you very satisfied? Of course, it is also alright for you to choose the completely satisfied option!"

Of this "Dear customer, I am father. If you don't want to use my services, feel free to leave" customer service, what can I do? I hung up and stared speechlessly at the blue sky.

Actually, this wasn't the worst. Once I managed to draw a bunch of legendary treasures. Looking at those orange-colored artifacts, I almost died from delight.

"Hah, One-Star Ball, Two-Star Ball… Seven-Star Ball. If I gather all seven, can I really realize my wish?"

Back then, I hadn't been duped by the System too badly yet. After drawing 6 Dragon Balls straight and receiving confirmation from the System about the effects of the Seven Dragon Balls, I waited expectantly for the final Dragon Ball to fall into my hands. In fact, I even started to plan on how I should make use of my wish and how I should achieve the greatest benefits through it. I even filled an entire journal with my plans.

However, in the dozen or so Gachapon draws in the next year, I never received the final Dragon Ball. Eventually, I could only howl helplessly in anger.

"From the very start, you were trying to scam me, right? Is this the darned game lottery system that our country came up with? There is no prize at all, right!"

"…Due to the karmic effects regarding the Four-Star Dragon Ball being too great, I can only arrange a mission for you. If you are able to triumph over its guardian, it will be yours."

I had watched the Dragon Ball manga back then. Who was the owner of the Four-Star Dragon Ball? Wasn't it the protagonist of the manga, Son Goku?

Challenge Son Goku? Recalling those ridiculous experts in the manga who destroyed planets as they pleased, I shuddered.

However, I soon remembered how the manga was when it first started, when the plot was still normal. Back then, the Seven Dragon Balls had already appeared and perhaps, the one to appear before me wouldn't be such a ridiculous existence. There was still a chance for success.

"It is the young Goku from the start, right? It can't be that it is the Super Saiyan who destroyed planets with a single strike in the later part of the manga.… Why aren't you answering? It can't be that it is the even more ridiculous Super Saiyan 3?"

"Don't worry, it's not 3, it's 33. Super Saiyan 33!"

"Don't try to fool me, I read the manga! There is no Super Saiyan 33 in that world!"

"Cough, it is a parallel universe that we live in. Due to the overwhelming popularity of Dragon Ball in the world, the editor didn't allow the manga to end. As such, the show dragged on from Super Saiyan 3 to Super Saiyan 33. Sigh, you don't know how ludicrous the power system became in the end. At the very start, they destroyed worlds and planets, but eventually they went on to destroy galaxies and universes."

"Furthermore, since you already know that it was taken from that real parallel universe, given the plot the Dragon Ball world was going at, how they were breaking their limits here and there, do you think that it was possible for even more powerful antagonists to not appear later on? If I were to say, not just Super Saiyan 33, as long as that world doesn't get destroyed, even Super Saiyan 333 is possible!"

Alright, there's no need for me to say anything. Even the normal Super Saiyan transformation was able to kill me in an instant; if Super Saiyan 33 came, wouldn't the heavens, earth, and even the air be destroyed with a single flick? I didn't wish to die that pathetically yet, thus I rejected the "goodwill" of the System.

As time went by (and the number of times I got scammed increased), I roughly comprehended a general rule.

It wasn't that the System had dedicated its soul fully to pranking others, but its abilities were limited. Distorting the future required one to bear its karmic effects. The laws governing equivalent exchange still needed to be obeyed.

Thus, my dream of obtaining powerful treasures by drawing with minimal Fate Points was shattered.

For a period of time, I dedicated my soul to drawing "mystical secret manuals." "Godly equipment" and "unique and rare treasures" were struck from my list of options.

"If I obtain strength from the 'otherworldly knowledge' and change the future, it would be my own doing rather than the doing of the System. Thus, the System only need to bear minimal karmic effects. This was like a conspicuous loophole left behind by the System. If I don't choose you, who else will I choose?"

Thus, even though I drew numerous objects that left one speechless through the "mystical secret manuals" choice, such as the "Wordless Book of Heaven" and "Dragon Slave Incantation Manual" and other books which was in the wrong universe, as well as the "Art of Nine Negations," "Sunflower Manual," "Manual to Cross Dressing as a Beautiful Lady," and "Photoshop: Manual to Creating a Beauty." They were all authentic, but it was completely inconceivable to me what they could be used for.… Alright, let's forget all of those. At the very least, those research notes of the otherworldly Mages were indeed good stuff. They were much more useful than those unreliable otherworldly treasures and I had benefitted greatly through them.

The reason why I used my Gachapon draws recently to get unique and rare treasures was to draw a Spring of Drowned Man for the unfortunate Krose as compensation. However, it was a pity that the entire roulette was filled with the Top Student series's objects and there was no sign of the Spring of Drowned Man appearing at all.

"Forget it, timing is important in Gachapon. If one's complexion, hand, and luck are bad, one shouldn't treat himself as the protagonist of the world. I should try giving it a change and drawing mystical secret manuals instead."

As Fate Points were pumped in, the rapidly spinning roulette stopped. Looking at the "secret manual" which popped out, I couldn't help gasping in shock.

It was a game walkthrough. On its cover, roaring Beastmen armies and countless Beastmen heroes could be seen.

【Ding! Congratulations on obtaining 《Highland Beastmen Invasion Game Walkthrough—The Hundred Powerful Tribes Information Guide》. System Notice: Not only does it list the unique troops of each and every tribe and their fighting prowess, it even tells you about the personal preferences of each Chieftain and heroic figures. If you still fail to achieve victory in the war, carry your head to meet me.】

"System! Can you not be so obvious when cheating? However, you did well this time, I like it! I give you thirty-two likes!"

———–

"Prince Roland in the East Mist Communal Country is a fake. He isn't some awakened returning Heroic Spirit, but propaganda East Mist uses to calm the hearts of their citizens!"

When I heard the report Sleuweir Kingdom sent to the other countries and churches, I wasn't surprised at all. This was within expectations. Even so, I was still enraged by their actions.

"Feimer Carson, is it? Since you were willing to send assassins to get rid of me for the sake of holding onto your authority, then what could coming up with lies to deny the existence of your ancestors count as?"

I could understand that they were denying my identity to maintain the integrity and legitimacy of their sovereignty, but they were clearly trying to stab themselves in their own foot by the latter part of the report.

"The Kamo's Tear Fortress is still completely calm. I have just signed a peace treaty with the numerous Beastmen Tribes. Yet that fake Roland spread rumors about an impending Beastmen invasion. This shows that he has bad intentions in mind! He hopes to tear apart our amiable relationship with our Beastmen allies!"

From a certain sense, Sleuweir could be considered as the successor of the Mist Country's legacy. However, they denied the traditions and values of the Mist Country. They chose to employ goodwill diplomacy, siding with the other larger kingdoms on most occasions, even willing to resort to bribing the Beastmen Tribe whom they bordered.

One must say, from a certain perspective, they truly did well. In human society, Sleuweir Kingdom's reputation was much better than East Mist Communal Country and Mist Country.

Considering how difficult it was to capture Kamo's Tear Fortress, the Chieftains who had received large amounts of bribes would also direct their attention to the other human territories. They had enjoyed more than two decades of peace and they had not been embroiled in most major historical wars.

For the Beastmen Tribes, as long as it was en route to their ancient homeland, it was the same no matter whom they invaded. The current situation was different from the past Mist Country and the Beastmen bordered with more than one human country. Since Sleuweir had decided to employ the carrot and the stick, it was much wiser for them to choose an easier target to work on.

Of this method of diverting the catastrophe to the other countries, the Karsomi Communal Country which faced greater pressure from the Beastmen's assault was full of complaints. Even so, it didn't affect Sleuweir's diplomatic strategies in any way, so they had no choice but to tolerate it.

It was true that the Karsomi Communal Country was a nail stuck there to deal with the pressure from the Beastmen. After East Country's fall, they had borne the brunt of the impact from most of the brutal Human-Beastman wars.

The motive for the Beastmen's invasion southward was simple. In the short-term, their goal was likely to annex some land so they could hunt for food and resources. As for the long-term, they probably only had one ultimate aim—to recapture the original land of the Beastmen, the Blanluya Plains.

Currently, the Blanluya Plains weren't part of the Beastmen's territory. It belonged to a powerful human empire, Saint Antonio, and it served as its granary. The Karsomi Communal Country was a vassal state of Saint Antonio Empire.

It was said that the emperor of the Karsomi Communal Country was a high noble of the Saint Antonio Empire, and most of the powerful troops of the country originated from Saint Antonio. Every year, young generals would suddenly appear in their ranks and display their talents; most of these talents were Saint Antonian.

There was even a tale about how they crushed their own foot with the boulder they lifted.

The Beastmen army had never given up on their dreams to return back to their homeland. Back then, when the Beastmen had occupied the previous territory of the Mist Country, due to their powerful reproductive abilities, they were able to engage in numerous large-scale and small-scale battles. This made those countries who were pestered by them start to miss that "smelly and tough country of barbarians," which they destroyed with their own hands.

"Thirty to forty Wolf Knights may not mean anything much in a frontal assault, but if they snuck into our territories, they can cause countless civilian deaths. Those cockroach-like Beastmen who reproduce at an insane rate can't be completely killed no matter what we do. We need a barrier against them!"

As such, under the combined efforts of countless empires, the Karsomi Communal Country was formed.

To date, this newly established country only had two hundred years of history behind it. After its founding, it nailed itself firmly at the entrance of the Beastmen territory. Large amounts of resources and talent were continuously supplied there from the core of human society, thus forcefully blocking the Beastmen off at the highlands.

Karsomi Communal Country's Haulus Fortress and Sleuweir Kingdom's Kamo's Tear Fortress became important fortresses of the human society in hindering the army of the Beastmen Tribes after the fall of the Mist Country.

With the Fortress Cities' natural terrain advantage and the support from countless human countries behind them, in the past two hundred years, they had managed to drive the Beastmen army back to their lands. The Kamo's Tear Fortress was named after the previous Great Chieftain Kamo who died there.

However, the situation was different this time.

"Urgent news! War has broken out! The Beastmen army has invaded Sleuweir. It has circumvented Kamo's Fortress and four midsize cities have been massacred! Sleuweir has currently been placed on full alert!"

TL Notes* From Sailor Moon Balala

Togashi is the mangaka for HunterXHunter

Slayers - Lina Inverse's spell. The latter is the incantation.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

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Chapter 147: Overture

In the view of most humans, the Highland Beastmen were deprived of spellcasters. However, to the armies guarding the Northern Lands, such a saying was obviously far from the truth. The Shamans and Witch Doctors of the Beastmen were spellcasters which left people with headaches.

The former were skilled with connecting with the Elemental Spirits to induce all kinds of natural phenomenon to attack their enemies or to support their comrades. Not only was the consumption rate for their spells low, the effects of their spells were also apparent. Their offensive abilities were in no way inferior to Mages, and their support ability was comparable to Priests and Holy Knights.

Even more so, the Shamans were skilled at working with one another, and as such, they had a natural advantage in creating strategic-level magic spells. Their Earthquake Spell was an incredible weapon for raiding cities.

On the other hand, as a highly threatening spellcaster job which had few means of protecting themselves, if a powerful close combatant were to get into proximity with the Shamans….

"We can give him ten seconds to plead for Mother Earth's blessing, five seconds to draw his weapon, three seconds to do meaningless retaliation or to chant an incantation, and the final second to end him."

"Every minute, there are fourteen Shamans who are being killed! Please do not slaughter Shamans and support the law allowing Shamans to instant-cast Earth Drifting Spell (Teleportation Spell)! Support the cancellation of the Shamans as a job! —Shaman Self-Help Fund."

Putting aside their individual prowess and their obvious flaws, the reason why Shamans were often prioritized as a target in battle said much about their powerful support and long-distance offensive ability. This happened to be what the Beastmen, who specialized in physical brawls, lacked.

If the Shamans were the ideal combination with Beastman Warriors, then Witch Doctors were the best backup. They specialized in concocting poisons and antidotes alike, casting all kinds of curses and witchcraft, as well as dispelling curses and healing the wounded.

Even though their treatment methods were a little ridiculous—they used bloodletting to treat all ailments, after all, regardless of whether it was a common cold or a migraine. Even though they didn't know what went into the medicine that they concoct (there were lizard droppings, pitch-black grass, and many unexplainable ingredients in it), it was a fact that they had saved many lives in the Highlands which lacked doctors and medicine. (Naturally, the ones whose treatment failed had died and the dead were unable to complain.)

Spellcasters were always lacking, and that fact rang even louder for Beastmen Tribes.

For the Beastmen who were skilled at physical brawling, it was difficult to find a clan member who had a good head. Furthermore, the person had to have talent in spellcasting as well. In each tribe, these two spellcasting jobs were severely lacking and highly valued. Shamans and Witch Doctors possessed high standing in all of the Beastmen Tribes and many of them even became Chieftains.

However, at this very moment, the precious Shamans and Witch Doctors became menial laborers. They were walking up and down the altar to check on it while the furious onlookers were frustrated to the point that they started using whips to lash them.

"Dammit! We were already so careful! How could a problem still occur?"

The Blood Axe Tribe's Eron Bloodaxe wore a grim expression. The tribute ritual had been conducted by his own tribe and most of his tribe's elite Shamans and Witch Doctors had been devoted to it. The amount of tributes used for it was massive, yet it ended up like this. How could they not feel disappointed?

Was it a failure? No, that's not it. At the very least, the warm flames in the surroundings lighted by the red-orange light bore testimony to that.

Was a success? That was clearly not the case. The tightknit eyebrows and frustrated expressions on the Chieftains explained it all. At the very least, the results were not as they initially hoped for.

"Lord, the results are out. The blessing was a success and it had the effect of warding off the cold, but…"

Even though the old Shaman reported as such, nobody's expression relaxed because of it. That was because during the crucial period, that brilliant flame was suddenly cut off and the Demon Lord's furious howl echoed in everyone's ears.

"You hope to earn my blessings despite giving tribute to me with such filthy objects? To dare to place fake souls upon my altar! This is blasphemy! You all are challenging my dignity! I curse you all, I curse that you all will face destruction! To think that you all would dare deceive a Demon Lord…"

Upon realizing that there was a problem with the tributes presented to her, the furious Demon Marquess sent the flames of her wrath over. The massive flames morphed into a giant golem with a spear in its hands and it started to wreak havoc in the base. Furthermore, the opened Demon Doors meant that the Demon army was about to arrive at their base.

Fortunately, the old Shaman, who was heading the ritual, closed the connection with the Chaos Abyss in time, making the inferno avatar of the Marquess return back to the Elements and closing the Dimensional Gate. Otherwise, it wouldn't just be a matter of the failure of the blessings. If things went badly, the entire camp might have even been destroyed by the furious Demon Marquess.

Given such circumstances, for the ritual to not be a failure, the various Chieftains were surprised.

"Huh? The blessing didn't fail?"

Eron was astonished. He knew how difficult it was to deal with Elisa and he had prepared himself for failure.

"The effects of the blessing aren't complete and they can only ward off the cold temporarily. Also, based on the rate the Element is dissipating at, the blessing will cease to be in thirty days."

Hearing those words, the Chieftains heaved a sigh of relief. When the ritual failed, everyone was prepared for the worst. Even though the original three months of blessing was cut to less than a month, this was much better than the worst case scenario they had prepared themselves for.

"Have you checked on the issue with the tributes? Which tribe was the one that used an imitation at such a crucial period? I want the Chieftain's head to be staked on a flagpole!"

Eron was furious. They almost passed by this hard to come by opportunity, even offending a Demon Lord at that. There would be trouble awaiting them in the future.

The Demon Lords were well-known for being difficult. It would already be a blessing for people if they did not cause any trouble of their own accord. If someone wanted their assistance, aside from waiting on them properly, the summoner had to pay the expensive "appearance fee" as well.

The most stable currency in use in the Lower Realm was the souls of the Upper Realm. In order to please the Inferno Marquess, the tributes used this time were top-quality slaves from each and every tribe.

It was impossible for the ritual to fail for no reason. The Demon Lords were known for being fickle-minded, but they were even more reputed to care to speak the truth (If they were displeased with someone, they would immediately make a move. If there was a treasure in sight that they wanted, they would immediately snatch it.). Since the Demon Lord roared at them because she was unsatisfied with the tributes, it was very likely for there to be a problem with the tributes.

"This…" The old Shaman of the Tortoise Tribe slightly hesitated. However, upon seeing the confused gazes the Chieftains were shooting him with, he knew that he had no choice but to say it. As such, he gritted his teeth and spoke.

"The tributes have been all expended, but the blessing was incomplete. Given that there was a loss in power in the ritual, the souls used in the ritual must not be enough. However, it was impossible to check on it since the tributes are no longer here. However, based on the timing when Lord Elisa became enraged… It matches with the timing when the Blood Axe Tribe's tribute was being presented!"

Instantaneously, the furious Eron who was still interrogating others became speechless. To think that his tribe would be the cause of the trouble?

Hostility appeared in the eyes of the surrounding Chieftains. They also seemed to recall that the inferno statue's howl was directed toward the Blood Axe Tribe's camp. Even so, Eron was so determinedly pointing the blame to other tribes, wasn't this a case of a thief calling another a thief?

Unknowingly, the seed of discord had been planted. One still required prestige to head the other tribes, and the consecutive failures had struck a blow to Eron's prestige. In the eyes of some others, Eron losing his ability to rally all of the others tribes could mean that they might be able to replace him as the Great Chieftain.

Putting aside those seemingly peaceful but discordant Chieftains, when the short ritual was terminated abruptly, the will of a certain someone had already descended onto this world. The person had taken some of the tributes for her personal use.

Currently, the altar was a mess. In the midst of the tributes, a fiery red apparition was slowly becoming corporeal.

Breathing the cold air that was finally without the smell of sulfur, a smile appeared on the familiar, beautiful face. Similar to the avatar of the Goddess of Storm in the City of Rain, the silver-haired Demoness had secretly sent an avatar to the mortal realm.

"Master, do you miss me? Have you made preparations to welcome me? I did say that I would conduct sudden inspections."

———–

When large-scale aerial battles had yet to become a possibility, terrain remained an important aspect of surface battles.

Kamo's Tear, rebuilt from the remains of the Mist Country's original Steel Fortress, was surrounded by sharp cliffs. The heavy city walls had been plated with the expensive enchanted alloy. What flowed in the moat of the fortress was a type of unfreezable oil made of alchemy. Once lit, the flames would burn furiously for two months straight before the fuel ran out.

A third of Sleuweir's military strength and forty percent of the country's spellcasters were gathered in the city. A total of nine large-scale Mage Tower and thirty midscale Mage Tower faced the ravine near the Beastmen's territory. Furthermore, the fire ballistae placed throughout the wall were so dense it made goosebumps rise by looking at it from afar. Two hundred years of painstaking effort and investment had turned it into one of the few impregnable fortresses on the continent.

As an infallible fortress, it had locked the Beastmen out from the human society for two hundred years. It was said that its establishment was heavily supported by the countries of the Northern Lands and the several powerful empires of the continent.

Ever since its establishment, those city walls which even Giants were unable to climb over became one of the greatest obstructions to the dreams of the Highland Beastmen. Lacking siege weapons, they found themselves helpless against it. Conquering a fortress of such size with the few aerial tribes and troops they had was a mere dream. Even the previous Great Chieftain of the Beastmen Tribes had died beneath the walls of the fortress.

But if I had to speak, it was all a mistake from the very start.

"Does an impregnable fortress really exist in the world? You may be able to defend yourself against a regular army, but are you able to guard yourself against assassinations and Forbidden Spells? Placing all of their eggs into a single basket was the wrong strategy. Even if the fortress was truly impregnable, the enemy could choose to circumvent the fortress. Even if there is no plausible route at the moment, it is possible for the enemies to simply pave one themselves."

The Maginot Line* of Earth had already proven that only establishing a fixed defensive line against an enemy was a foolish decision. However, the generals and military officials of this world viewed fortresses as an important and classic defense strategy. Sleuweir was also a country that believed in the importance of fortresses and had benefited for centuries due to the existence of the fortress. After this painful lesson, all of the military schools would probably research the causes of failure of this war and use it as a case study—a negative role model for why being overly obsessed with fortresses was a foolish decision.

The trade and communication agreement which Sleuweir had just signed with the Beastmen was instantaneously torn apart. Without any forewarning, the Beastmen had infiltrated into deep into their lands, ferociously tearing apart every single human they could see.

The Earth Elemental God Emordilorcan was definitely much more low profile than his colleague. With a single high-intensity earthquake, he changed the geographical structure of the Northern Lands, causing another narrow ravine leading from the highlands to the Northern Lands to appear, thus making that impregnable fortress-like the eyes of a cave-dweller—ornamental.

The Beastmen army had charged directly to the core of the Sleuweir Kingdom before spreading all around to assault and take down the various cities. Of which, half of the entire Blood Axe Tribe headed straight for Sleuweir's capital, Antuen.

In order to create even more chaos and keep the military of the various fief lords under control, more than a hundred hunting squads consisting mainly of Wolf Knights conducted guerilla attacks on the various armies. Given how they themselves were in a precarious situation, the fief lords chose to utilize the army for their own needs. As such, in less than a single month since the outbreak of war, Antuen was already in an emergency situation. Sleuweir's downfall came even faster than anyone had expected.

At this moment, I am helpless.

It was not that I didn't want to do anything, but the first round of snow had struck before I could return to the East Mist Communal Country. Even though its arrival was within expectations, it was still unwelcomed. There were too many things that I needed to attend to and the snow truly fell at an inopportune time.

The winter of the Northern Lands was exceptionally brutal. The white snow had already covered all of Diffindor. Snow half a meter deep piled up on the streets. There were barely any pedestrians in sight on the streets.

Such weather was a disaster. The horses would sink into the snow if they tried to traverse this weather. The weather would cause their body temperature to fall rapidly and precious war horses would simply die for naught.

Given the underlying rule that had gradually come into place in the Northern Lands in these few years, when a country had been invaded by the Beastmen or other foreign race, the other countries had to provide them a certain level of aid or send their troops to reinforce them. Back then, the one to enjoy such aid was often Karsomi Communal Country.

However, it was a pity that the snow that affected most of the countries in the Northern Land had changed it all.

The resources were unable to arrive on time and the reinforcement was stuck on the way. On the other hand, the Beastmen were still persisting in their attacks to capture the capital of Sleuweir. This was a hopeless situation.

The cruel natural world was equal for all. Traditionally, there would be a ceasefire when the snow was sufficiently heavy to lock down the mountains. After all, to the warriors, dying on the battlefield was a kind of dream. No matter what, it was somewhat a shame to freeze to death on the battlefield; the family members of the soldier would often be tempted to curse at the military officers if their family member had died so meaninglessly on the battlefield.

Fortunately, as the effect of the Fire God's Blessing faded, the Beastmen gradually started to limit their sphere of operations and used the cities they had taken down as their base.

Truthfully, even without Elisa's Fire God's Blessing, the war would have still broken out early.

On another aspect, while Elisa's name had been cursed at by the higher echelons of the Beastmen, Eron and his Blood Axe Tribe—due to the accumulation of rage and resentment against them—started to be isolated within the Alliance army while their reputation plummeted.

Although the Beastmen Alliance army being split into four had strategic considerations, it also showed that Eron, who had meager prestige, was unable to hold onto his leadership position.

At this moment, the other three Chieftains also had tribes that supported them. The next Beastman Sovereign would be determined by the results of this battle.

Everyone knew they could not delay this war to spring of next year; the human kingdoms would not watch idly as Antuen fell and Sleuweir was destroyed. The moment the snow halted and the army was able to move, it would spell the outbreak of war.

Furthermore, given that the war would be conducted in the midst of winter, it would determine the survival of the various races within the lands. The war was bound to be exceptionally cruel. Even the non-combat forces would find their numbers dwindle significantly.

At present, I was busy dealing with military affairs as well.

"Has news from Hoyle arrived? What is the progress with the mines?"

Every single Gray Dwarf was a natural miner. They possessed the Race Talents: Rock Treading and Ore Perception. Of which, the sensitivity that the Blacksmith Master Gray Dwarf Hoyle held toward ores was not something his peers could compete with.

Regardless of whether it was for trade or military purposes, the East Mist required endless amounts of ore. At present, given how many newly created divisions were still using wooden training weapons, the military was in dire need of weapons to grow stronger. And the manufacturing of weapons had to begin from the mines.

This was the lifeline of the East Mist. Even when war had already broken out, I still regarded it as our priority.

While I returned to Diffindor in advance due to the outbreak of war, I left Hoyle and the other Gray Dwarves at the Barbarians' territory to hunt for mines. If even they were unable to find any ore, it would be impossible for the human miners to find any.

"Good news. The mountainous range is indeed a mine deposit. We have already found two superior metal mines, one magic metal mine, and two jewel mines. However, it will take a period of time before we can develop it. Lord Hoyle's applied for the assistance of machines and spellcasters and he had specifically listed the Beyar Brothers to assist him in his work."

"Exploding the mines? Seems like it is the only viable solution to achieve results in the short run. Fine, send the Beyar Brothers to help him. However, remember to warn him to take note of their safety. Do not come into conflict with the Barbarians. They are inflexible people; offending them once means offending them for life."

"Yes, Your Highness. We will convey your words to him. Then, the next matter is regarding the names of the newly created divisions and their flags…"

The various assistants came to and fro my desk, the military documents that had accumulated in my period of absence crushed the desk. Innumerable problems came rushing at me all at once.

While I did not intend to interfere with the governance of the country, just the military affairs themselves were enough to give me a splitting headache.

At such a moment, I couldn't help but miss Elisa. After all, while others could only serve as assistant, Elisa, who I had brought up personally, had working abilities that were in no way inferior to mine, and I could dump all of my troubles on her so as to slack off.

Alright, Elisa was still in the Chaos Abyss and thinking about all these was meaningless. I should devote my attention to the problems before me first.

"The situation in Antuen isn't going well. It is possible for the city to fall at any moment now…"

No matter what, we were both offspring from the same origin. Even though we were filled with discontentment and resentment against that country, upon seeing it on the verge of destruction, these young assistants felt uneasy.

I nodded my head, indicating to the other party that I had received his words. After which, I fell into deep contemplation.

No doubt, we had to save them. Even though I was extremely unsatisfied with their royalty, I couldn't watch as the Mist citizens in those countries were slaughtered. Furthermore, the moment Sleuweir fell completely, East Mist would be embroiled in the war and the current East Mist was not well-equipped for war yet.

While we had to save them, the important aspect to consider was how we should go about doing it. We had to build a reputation for ourselves to gain the initiative in our foreign diplomacy in the Northern Lands while not going too far to rattle the foundations of the already weak East Mist.

After a long time, I finally made my decision.

"Send a letter to Antuen and say that the neutral East Mist requires a sufficient reason to interfere in the war, so they have to request for help publicly. Right, have them send a request to the various Churches as well. Yes, a request for us to send our troops to help them ward off the invaders. Only this way will Lord Wumianzhe recognize the necessity and justice of the war, and we will be able to send our troops to aid them.

"Didn't you say that I was an imitation not too long ago, claiming that the East Mist was deceiving the world, even sending a report to the various kingdoms and Churches. Now, I will see how you will settle with the aftermath yourselves. Yeah, spread the former part of the message publicly, let the other countries understand the new system East Mist operates by. As for the latter, dump it on the 'Emperor' Feimer Carson."

If you want me to save you, lower your heads and reflect on your actions! Swallow everything that you had spouted previously!

I was not worried that Feimer wouldn't lower his head. After all, the situation in Antuen wasn't going well and when there was a tangible threat to their lives, so many people would become much more obedient.

"Hmph, it is truly such an irony. Right after claiming that I am an imitation, they immediately turn around to request assistance from the imitation. Furthermore, the one who will come to their aid will most likely be the 'demonic army' they spoke of."

After pondering the matter for a while, under the current circumstances, the most suitable reinforcements to send them was still my Undead army, who didn't fear the cold. In the previous report, that fellow termed my army as the "demonic army," not hiding his contempt and frustration at all.

"How can I miss out on such an ideal opportunity to conduct a Winter Hunt? It is also an ideal opportunity to train our troops. Have every Knight bring along two squires with them! Have those little fellows prepare themselves. We will head out as soon as the snow stops!"

TL: Maginot Line was the French's defense line against Germany in WW2

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Chapter 148: Hunting and Being Hunted

Anwen Village was famous for its delicacy Smoked Silver Fish. There were countless numbers of said village in the entirety of Sleuweir. At this current moment, snow was gradually falling and the peaceful village was no longer as peaceful as it was.

The fences used to keep out the wild beasts could not hinder the true beasts. Under the concealment of night, the gray Wolf Knights entered their lands and a feast of bloodshed began in the little village.

The guards and watchmen of the village were slaughtered immediately. Under the sudden raid of the trained Wolf Knights, the guards of the village, who only had the experience of challenging Ogres at most, didn't even have the opportunity to sound the alarm.

At 2 AM, thirty Wolf Knights entered the village. At 2:15, the militia captain, village head, and other leaders were dragged out from their beds and their headless corpses were used to feed the wolves. At the same time, their heads were used to drain the survivor's will of retaliating against them.

By 2:40, all 500 people of the village were dragged to the little square near the entrance of the village. After the women and children had been dragged to one corner, the slaughter began. Perhaps not even a single young man of the village was spared.

There were people who tried to fight back, but against true warriors, the retaliation of the civilians was completely meaningless. Furthermore, the Wolf Knights were already elites of the combative Beastmen.

At 3, the efficient executions had ended and the Wolf Knights had left. Before leaving, they casually set the entire village afire, the paws of the wolves leaving bloodied pawprints in the snow. The Wolf Knights splashed with blood were silent, but the burning remains of the village and the heart-rending cries would be in their nightmares for years to come.

They may have been hesitant at the very start, but it was already the fourth village they had destroyed in this week. They took less than an hour from their entry to their departure to purge the entire village. Their conscience was already numb to the slaughter.

This is war. It is neither sacred nor justified. The only thing that needed to be considered was how to win.

The mission entrusted to these packs of Wolf Knights was to roam about the Human Kingdoms and cause panic and chaos in order to divert the strength and attention of the other factions. Even though their means were vile, it was effective.

The Beastmen were not immoral beasts. Every single expert in their midst felt contempt for their actions of slaughtering civilians. People respected the fearless Knights who dared to charge towards the massive Dragons, but they would not respect a butcher who derived pleasure from slaughtering civilians.

"Father, how did you fare in the war with the humans? How many human generals did you kill?"

"None, I only slaughtered a few thousand civilians."

Upon thinking about the question his children would ask him upon his return, even though the captain of the Wolf Knight section, Akerli, was famous for his bravery in his tribe, he didn't know how he should reply to this question.

At this moment, he still smelled the stench of blood all over the place with his sensitive nose. His child's questioning of his doings had become his greatest nightmare and his soul felt worn out.

For the Beastmen, challenging a powerful adversary and dying in battle in the midst of it was an unparalleled honor. On the other hand, slaughtering the weak meant that the person did not possess mental fortitude. Such a Warrior would be viewed with contempt by his tribe and be rejected at the doors of the War God upon death.

"This is an order from our superior. This is for our race's dream of returning to our homeland, this is for our justice!"

Justice, a name used to conceal uncountable vile actions! Under the grand flags often lay the bloodied hands of an executioner.

He knew that he was just deceiving himself. However, it was only with this excuse could he deceive his conscience and continue to slaughter.

"The team is getting more and more silent. Looks like I'll have to look for a way to boost their morale."

Only the most depraved villain would brag about their "results" in slaughtering civilians. From the stiff expression on these Knights, it was clear that they had not reached such a point yet.

Even so, they did it without complaint. After all, this was war, the evil war, the wonderful war, a war that could conceal all evil with a cloak of divinity.

"AWOO AWOO AWOO!"

The howling of the wolves echoed in the distance. That was a report from the Eagle Tribe Beastmen, who were serving as scouts. Three consecutive howls meant that there were enemies in their path, but they weren't strong and the team could simply charge on through.

Soon, they crossed a mountainous jungle and the "enemy" appeared before them. It was a golden-haired young man whose hair was covered with snow. He looked young, but the two-handed swords in both of his hands were extremely striking.

"Sigh, yet another young man who had pursued us by himself. Courageous, but naive. He is around the age of my Equar…"

Looking at the young Swordsman who was around the age of his own child, Akerli paused for a moment. Then, he drew his thumb across his throat. It was a command to slaughter all enemies on sight.

"There were more young men of Equar's age in the previous village. For Equar's beautiful future, you should go and accompany them…. That's weird, the sword looks familiar. I seem to have seen it somewhere before."

There was no need for superfluous thoughts. Since there was only a single adversary, the Wolf Knights used the Wave Charge Formation which they were the most adept in.

The several Wolf Knights whose mounts were the strongest were in charge of engaging the enemy head-on whereas the strongest, Akerli, would be leading a team behind to assault the enemy whenever an opportunity arose. Behind them, spears and nets were prepared to be thrown.

Even the powerful Griffin Knights could be killed in an instant facing the Wolf Knights. In the eyes of the Knights, the fearless young man was already a dead person.

Facing the deadly assault of the Wolf Knights, the young man simply chuckled and a hint of brutality could be sensed from his smile. That familiar smile reminded Akerli of where he saw the sword.

"Oh! Isn't he the human sculpture from the village? Sword Ki? He is a Sword Saint! …That sword? Could that be Roland Sacred Sword? Holy Knight Roland?"

These were the final thoughts that flashed through Akerli's mind. The snow-white sword flashed across the snow and the flying Sword Ki started to reap the lives of others. A cold sensation on the necks and the Wolf Knight Captain felt his vision starting to slant as his head fell onto the snowy ground.

The final sight burned into his eyes was the silver chainmail Sword Saint moving the swords in both of his hands, a single Wolf Knight dying with every single movement of his sword.

At this moment, the Wolf Knights were devoid of the strength to resist the enemy. They were like frail chicks who had met a butcher, and what they did half an hour ago in front of that sculpture was occurring to them at this instant.

"The murderer is often murdered. Such an irony…"

At the first face-off, the Knights of the Kara Tribe lost their head. As a mindless murderer, he no longer had to worry about how he should explain his actions to his own child.

"Repay blood with blood. Die!"

Someone shouted these words and very soon, the snowy lands returned to its previous tranquility. It was just that there were additional headless corpses on the lands.

Yes, the blood debt must be paid with blood. However, who was the first debtor? Do we start counting from this war, the war twenty years ago, or the war three hundred years? This might be something no one could ever rationalize out.

———-

After killing the final Wolf Knights, I felt fatigued. So I stabbed the swords into the snow and rested on the battlefield.

While waiting, Irene finished cleaning up the escapees. I recalled some things that I could do.

From the embrace of the Wolf Knight, I retrieved a goatskin pouch. As I expected, besides supplies, there was a map of the nearby villages. Those marked with a red cross meant that the Wolf Knights had already been there, and there was no need for me to head there anymore.

All that was in my field of vision were corpses and blood, but somehow, I felt thirsty. So I opened the water pouch the other force left behind and drank from it. It was an absurdly sweet, inferior horse milk wine. Somehow, I spat all of it out.

"Pui, bitter and rough, just like back then."

While I complained, Harloys had already completed interpreted the Wolf Knights' patrol routes. Thus, my next location had been confirmed.

"Blue Lake Village? Hope that we can make it in time. I do not wish to see ruins again."

Thinking of the horrendous state Anwen Village was in, I quickened my pace. After cleaning up the battlefield and double checking that there was no intelligence I had left behind, I hopped onto Erebella's saddle and headed to my next target.

This was already the twelfth Wolf Knight section I had cleared. Compared to my other companions, I, who was operating as an individual, could be considered to have accomplished the least. Even so, the effects of our results on the entire battlefield was meager.

Everyone knew about the theory of huddling together to ward off the cold. Once Sleuweir was destroyed, the other Northern countries would be next. So the moment the snow started to lighten, the reinforcements of the other countries quickly headed over to aid it.

We were the fastest to arrive, but also the least in quantity. A hundred Undead Knights with three hundred rookie Knights. On the main battlefield where divisions counted by ten thousands, we were probably unable to contribute much.

Considering the East Mist's current situation and the beast packs that would assault the country in winter, it was already very surprising that the East Mist was able to send reinforcements. Given how the one leading the army was me, all sorts of excessive gossip and criticisms on the East Mist was silenced. Yeah, at the very least, they were silenced when facing me.

Of course, while we had limited quantity, the same could not be said about quality. My Undead Knights were reliable fighters and those rookie Knights were the elites picked out from the newly established divisions; all they lacked was experience.

As for me, I wasn't really interested in the main battlefield at Antuen. The reinforcements of the other countries headed straight for the main fighting force of the Beastmen while on the other hand, I focused on those roaming troops.

The guerilla tactics of the Beastmen were effective. In order to clear the roaming troops on their lands, the fief lords of Sleuweir Kingdom ignored the orders to provide reinforcements to the capital. As for the other, stronger fief lords, they had been engaged by the other three Beastmen army.

Light cavalry (consisting of more than Wolf Knights) hunting in enemy territory wasn't a rare battle tactic, but it was extremely useful when complemented with the elite troops of the Beastmen. It was an extremely effective strategy, as well as a brutal one.

For an ordinary village, it didn't matter whether the one attacking them was a Sword Saint or a group of Bronze-ranked Wolf Knights. In any case, the village would be purged.

Killing these roaming cavalries was a difficult and ineffective task. Given their mobility, it was difficult to catch up with them. Furthermore, even if one successfully caught up to them, given their top-class individual abilities, it was hard to tell who would win.

Before the main army of the Beastmen was destroyed, the other countries did not have the power to care about the small villages of another country. Yet I decided to interfere in the affair.

"Who cares about those nobility. Since we're already here and we have the capability to help them, let's just do it."

I did not have many people under me, but the Undead Knights were capable fighters. They could easily face a section of Wolf Knights by themselves. At the same time, the rookie Knights could also accumulate some fighting experience.

Thus, I scattered the group and had an Undead Knight lead three rookie Knights in a team to hunt down the roaming light cavalries.

Logically but unexpectedly, this kind of operation won the hearts of the people. After all, the fief lords and the royalty who should have been protecting them neglected their jobs, and my Undead Knights were the best insignia of our identity.

"Our ancestor Roland had led his army to save the Mist citizens. That fake emperor Feimer had ignored Emperor Roland's warnings, as well as the plight of the citizens, caring only for his own authority and safety and holed himself up in the capital."

From a certain perspective, the official declaration the Sleuweir royalty made beforehand displayed clearly the meaning of foolishness and suicide. I, who "magnanimously" forgave them, continued with my hunt. My prestige was growing to greater heights every single day. The Undead Knights began to be welcomed passionately by the villagers and they felt even more motivated in their jobs.

Then, something shocking happened.

Feimer, upon seeing such a situation, despite Antuen still being in a desperate situation, warned the civilians through the church that I was making use of this calamity to win the hearts of the people and reaffirmed that I wasn't their ancestor Roland, just an imitation who was trying to deceive them.

Clearly, in the eyes of this "emperor," the Beastmen army was an external threat which was going to be expelled sooner or later. On the other hand, my Knights and I were the true "threat."

Hearing that, I almost turned around and left. However, thinking about the matter again, I decided to go all out.

"Fine, since you said that I'm here to win their hearts, I will win their hearts then. Knights, don our insignia and hoist our flags. We are here reinforce them. Why should we conceal our identities?"

The citizens are the citizens while the royalty are the royalty. Should I just watch these villagers die just because of that fool in Antuen?

When word spread, the prestige of the Sleuweir royalty fell even further. Every day, countless refugees chose to escape to East Mist, a location they would never have chosen to move to in the past.

According of my sources, after Feimer heard that news, he smashed a century-old family heirloom, a Rainbow Jade Wine Cup. After which, he felt intense regret over his moment of folly. After hearing this news, in order to console him, I sent him a message through the church.

"Rainbow Jade Wine Cup? Isn't that the unintentional product I made from creating glass back then? Don't worry, even though it looks beautiful, it is just normal stained glass so it isn't worth much. Actually, it isn't a wine cup either. It is actually a failed spittoon which I accidentally burnt too much. I even placed crickets in it before…. There should be a signature to indicate that it was made by Roland on the back of it. If it isn't too fragmented, you can try looking for it."

Alright, based on the rumors, he actually put the cup back together. However, this time, what was shattered wasn't just a wine cup.

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Chapter 149: Reunion

"I wish to become a Knight. Even if I am just a wild Knight without a family coat of arms, even if I serve as a squire for others for life, even if I am unable to become an official Knight for my entire life, it will be fine as long as I can become a Knight."

For Cohen Asta, becoming a true Knight had always been his wish.

However, it was unfortunate that he wasn't a child of nobility, so it was impossible for him to be sent to an elite Knight to learn under him as a squire. He also wasn't a talented warrior who would send teachers into a frenzy fighting over him. He was just an ordinary farmer's child. Needless to say studying at a Knight Academy, he wasn't even able to read. Thus, he was never able to take the first step in accomplishing his dream.

Thus, he decided to lower his goal and set out to become an ordinary warrior as his goal. However, the result was even more disappointing.

"Regardless of what close-combat class it is, you won't be able to meet the standards if you don't even have basic strength. It would be best for you to return."

Unable to even carry the sandbags used for training; unable to carry the wooden spear; exhausted after swinging the wooden sword a few times; it was no wonder that no one was willing to accept him.

His physique still remained his fatal flaw among his fellow peers. Even though his conspicuous golden hair and exquisite features made him a popular figure among the young, his weak limbs still made him unsure of himself.

Little Cohen felt despair at the fact that even ordinary militias were unwilling to accept him. Even so, he didn't plan to give up.

"Since I lack talent, I will make up for it with hard work."

Thus, Cohen's neighbors would always see him awake early in the morning, running by the river and carrying sandbags.

Every day, after he finished his daily duties, he headed to the various stores to help others move their goods. Part of the reason was to earn money, but more than that, he hoped to train himself through such a method to build up his strength.

Even though training was extremely tiring, it was effective. At the very least, his pale limbs became slightly more muscular and tanned. Going by the words of the neighbor Big Sister Lisa, he finally looked masculine.

However, his changes were more like evolving from a hamster into a squirrel, fighting prowess increasing from five to six and not panting the moment he started running. However, what he was unable to carry before, he was still unable to carry. For the time being, it was still impossible for him to swing metal swords.

Thus, even though he felt self-satisfaction at his improvement, he was still eliminated from the first round of the selection process for the divisions. After all, the East Mist wasn't wealthy and it couldn't afford to sustain a large army while the civilians were extremely passionate about joining the army. As such, the registration numbers far surpassed the required personnel in the divisions and this caused the standards to be heightened. Cohen had been too far from the starting line from the very start, and it was impossible for him to become a warrior at all.

Even so, he was unwilling to give up. As long as he worked hard to train himself up, the accumulation of his hard work would soon result in a qualitative change for him.

However, it was a pity that what awaited him was a series of failure.

"It is impossible for you to become a Knight, give up. No, I'm not talking about your birthright. The Mist Country has always operated by meritocracy and there are quite a few farmers who became Knights and fief lords. I am speaking about your abilities. if you're unable to even wield a two-handed sword, how can you get on the battlefield? Since you aren't even able to get on the battlefield, how can you be titled a Knight?"

A Lord Knight who was touched by his efforts intended to accept him as his page, but after conducting some tests, he gave up on the idea.

"Aiyo, isn't this our future Lord Knight? Hehe, nice to meet you, Lord. Lord, have you just returned from your patrol? Did you achieve anything? Did you defeat a Demon or a Beastman? Or did you just triumph over an evil dragon? Ah, how incredible, Cohen. He is our future Dragon Slaying Hero. Hahaha!"

While his usual physical training had received the approval of a few, there were also a few youngsters who found him an eyesore and took this opportunity to mock him.

Even so, he persisted. At this point, he probably could no longer remember why he chose to embark on this thorny path from the very start.

Was it because he was saved by a group of Knights when he was attacked by wild beasts when he was younger? Or was he moved by the stories of his ancestors which he had heard since his childhood? Was it when he saw the victorious homecoming march of the Knights? Or was it when he swore to use his both hands to protect his family and friends?

There was no path of return, and he did not intend to back out either. Thus, he could only continue persisting….

"Trust yourself, you can do it. I was also extremely thin and weak when I was younger, but look at how far I came. Right, Prince Roland seems to be intending to create a division. Do you want to give it a try?"

There were a few who bore expectations from him. Every time Big Brother Cloone returned and saw how hard Cohen worked, he would try to encourage him.

Right, to Cohen and the others, Cloone, who came from the same village as them, was an impressive figure. He was the pride and hope of Darr Village. Even though he was young, he was already serving as a part of the Royal Knights. Even though he wasn't an official Knight yet, in the eyes of the villagers, it was just a matter of time.

It was only that he had recently adopted a cute little girl called Ailee. Despite his tough life, he had somehow just become an unwedded father. This made many young girls cry.

Under Big Brother Cloone's encouragement, Cohen was even more motivated and worked even harder. However, what came his way was just failure after failure.

Until one day when he met a black cat. A black cat that, bizarrely, was capable of speaking the human language. There, he met the turning point of his life.

"Meow, I've found a treasure. To think that he would be an Elemental Son! Sign a contract with me and become a magical girl… magical boy!"

Cohen was first taken aback. Initially, he thought that it was just a joke from one of the spellcasters. In the end, under the verification of Big Brother Cloone, he realized that this black cat was actually an incredible figure. She was the beloved pet of Prince Roland, a cat who was capable of casting magic.

She actually said that he had outstanding talents in magic and she wanted to groom him to become a Mage. Without a doubt, that was an occupation that held even greater potential than a Knight and logically speaking, he should have leapt at the opportunity.

But…

"Lord, I thank you for your appreciation. However, my goal is to become a Knight. Perhaps, the route of a spellcaster just isn't one for me."

Alright, a bizarre expression immediately appeared on the black cat's face. That look of incomprehension and shock made Cohen worry if he had accidentally offended her.

After a brief moment of silence, that black cat continued speaking.

"Alright, if you want to be a Knight, so be it. Let me introduce you to someone. He will hoodwink… guide you. From the perspective of a Knight, he should be an incredible figure. Yeah, even though he is a complete idiot when it comes to magic. However, I think that he should be a suitable teacher for you."

——————–

"Roland, I found your brother."

When I heard those words, I was taken aback. Isn't my brother, Karwenz, still in the Chaos Abyss? How could this darned cat meet him?

"You possess incredible swordsmanship talent, and you are obviously a godsent Warrior. Yet, you chose to become a Mage. On the other hand, he, as the Elemental Son, a person born with incredible talents in magic, chose to become an iron can (Knight). Given how awkward you two are, what else can you two be other than brothers?"

Alright, that darned cat sure didn't mince her words. Naturally, I took good care of her for that.

However, I had confidence in her choice of people. Thus, my interest toward this little friend known as Cohen was piqued and I arranged for a meeting with him.

"Pri… Prince Roland! Lord Harloys said that you can make me a Knight…"

That fellow was so agitated that he kept trembling before me. Stuttering, he accidentally bit his tongue. Through the System Interface, my interest in him deepened.

【Cohen Asta Class: NoneStrength: 5Agility: 7Stamina: 7Intelligence: 14Will: 11Charm: 10Race Talent: Elemental SonSystem Evaluation: For a person with such terrible strength and talent for magic to refuse to become a Mage and insisting on becoming a Knight instead, he is truly your brother.】

【Race Talent Elemental Son: Do you find the lengthy incantations hard to remember? The complicated magic formulas hard to comprehend? This isn't a problem for the Elemental Son. They are born with the ability to manipulate elements and their commands can be used to replace the ineffective magic incantations. They are the favored ones of the world, the illegitimate son of Magic and Elements, destined to be a great Mage.】

Soon, after some interaction, I roughly understood what was going on.

It was no wonder that Harloys said that he was my brother. He wanted to become a melee fighter when he only possessed 5 Strength. His talent as a Mage had hindered his path as a Knight; it was truly rare to see a person with such an awkward personality.

After a short moment of interacting with him, I started to grow fond of this slightly shy boy. After all, these days, more and more youngsters were more obsessed with "making a fortune," and the number of "idiots" who persisted for their dreams was lessening. Those who persisted despite seeing no rewards on sight was even rarer.

In a certain sense, I am the same awkward "obstinate buffalo" as he is. Thus, I accepted him in as my third page.

"Cough, since that's the case, I'll teach some of the necessary lessons for a Knight. First, you have to learn how to connect with the world and control your magic power…. This isn't a necessary lesson for a Knight, but a lesson for a Mage? Young man, there's no need to be so anxious. You have to remain humble and learn patiently. Have you never heard of Mage Knight? This is a necessary lesson for an outstanding Knight. Ordinary Knights wouldn't even get an opportunity to learn such advanced lessons. Right, I have a few close combat classes that are suitable for you. Do you want to give them a try?"

Putting aside how I managed to guide (hoodwink) this young man afterwards, I am quite contented with the decision I made. After all, given how unqualified the other two pages of mine were, this young man was truly of great help.

Even though the help he had provided me was on another aspect…

"Big Brother Roland, I have accidentally overcooked the meat. It is a little charred, but my intuition tells me that it will be delicious. Why don't you give it a try? Perhaps this might turn out to be a new taste that is to your liking."

No, it was impossible for it to be delicious. After all, one side was charred while the other side was raw. It was a problem of whether it was safe for me to eat it. Besides, your intuition had never been accurate.

"That's weird. I had strictly followed the proportions using the Alchemic recipe. Ten grams of salt, one gram of sugar, so how could it taste that bad…. Ah, I missed that decimal point and added ten times more salt (Ah, I mixed up sugar and salt as well)… Why don't you just make do with it?"

Should I say, as expected of an Alchemist? To think that you would actually bring the entire Alchemy set for outdoor camping. The lunch you made bore the scent of chemistry with it. But how was it that the product you made would be so fearsome? What is with that oily green substance? Are you sure that I can make do with it? How about you try it for yourself before passing it to me? I finally understand how you managed to remain a third-rate Alchemist even after so many years. Can't you just happen to get it right for once?

Typically speaking, a Knight's page was the personal assistant of the Knight. Going by the traditions, a page was responsible for the logistics their master required. If the master was unhappy with their work, regardless of how powerful that page was, he was unlikely to ever become an official Knight.

Before becoming a Knight, they were in a teacher-apprentice relationship, as well as a master-servant relationship. Some of them even regarded it as a father-son relationship. However, it was clear that the two pages I had chosen beforehand weren't really reliable. Most of the time, it was me, the master, who was taking care of them. Their passion toward their training was also unseemly.

As a princess, Reyne had totally no concept of outdoor survival. On the other hand, Kathleen was born from a prestigious family of Knights. Even though her family had fallen from grace, it was understandable why she was lacking practical skills.

If not for Cohen producing some edible meat stew, I, who was already tired from the long journey, would have to make some food myself. It was truly a wonder who the servant was now.

Based on the predetermined grouping, I should have been a single group with my three pages. However, Reyne said that she had already reached Gold-rank, and with the Roland Sacred Sword in her hands, she could stand on her own and deal with the enemies by herself, no longer requiring my guidance.

Fine, I'll accept that. After all, it was impossible for one to grow without experiencing practical fights. I'll let you try it for yourself then. In fact, afraid that you might have insufficient manpower, I sent my other two pages to follow you, so show me some results.

However, one's power rank did not represent one's actual fighting power. In terms of actual power, a tenacious Bronze-rank was able to frighten this Gold-rank, who had yet to see blood. On the battlefield, a moment's hesitation could easily mean death.

In the end, it went exactly as I expected. If not for the Blood Tribe Assassin I sent interjecting at a timely moment, this East Mist princess might have to consider converting into an Undead.

"Lass, it's still too early for you to leave my apprenticeship."

Thus, we converged together and operated as a team afterwards. With the assistance of my pages, I felt even more fatigued. Not only did I have to hunt those roaming cavalries, I had to spend time to take care of these rookies. I felt like I was playing the role of a teacher and a parent simultaneously.

Fortunately, the farmer-born lad, Cohen, wielded a certain level of survival skills. He could build temporary shelters and settle some of the daily necessities. In a way, he was truly a great help.

Helpless, I even called out Reyne's secret bodyguard, Susanna, and had her find a way to teach these rookies some basic outdoor survival skills. At the very least, they should know how to make the basic barbecued meat, meat stew, and such.

After all, it was impossible for one to bring sufficient dry rations for a prolonged wilderness campaign. Meat stew and barbecued meat were two of the most basic dishes, but just depending on these two would cause one to suffer from imbalanced nutrition and this would eventually lower fighting prowess.

As such, mature adventuring teams were often skilled in outdoor survival techniques. The renowned Master of Survival Bear Grylls had once said, "The wilderness is my life. The wilderness is the most natural outdoor food trove. Anything can be eaten once beheaded!"

After completing my hunt, I returned to my camp and caught the whiff of a familiar meat stew. Instantly, my appetite was whetted.

"Hm? How fragrant. There seems to be wild herbs and vegetables as well? Susanna sure did well. You all learned fast, to think that your cooking skills would reach such a level so quickly…"

I was unable to speak further. What entered my vision upon reaching the campsite was a young lady dressed in a maid costume busying about. That was a familiar figure that should have never appeared here.

【Ding! A wandering wild maid has appeared. Thank the maid from saving you from the mysterious mixture hell. Otherwise, what would have been waiting for you would be a mixture created from Reyne and Kathleen's hard work—Green Slime Cooking! Er, as someone who was aware of the matter beforehand, I…】

Ignoring the nonsense the System came up with, that familiar figure made me feel like I was in a dream.

That familiar bow, that familiar gleam of her spectacles… and that unfamiliar passion and temperature. While I was still in a daze, that wild maid had already given me a hug.

"Welcome back, master. Do you want to bathe first, eat your breakfast first… or eat me?"

Alright, I don't know whether I can really eat you, but that dagger-like cold glare of yours felt like it was ready to eat me.

"Elisa!?"

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Chapter 150: Secret

"Big Brother Roland really treats me well. He often tells me bedtime stories and we would spend the night with just each other."

"As expected of an undeveloped little girl. To think that you're still interested in listening to bedtime stories. Let Big Sister teach you a life lesson. All of those bedtime stories are lies. Princesses are all flower vases who are unable to withstand pressure and princes were all perverts with fetishes. In fact, there are many such examples around us."

"Y-you, you are slandering me!"

"However, it is no wonder you are so naïve. After all, children have the right to remain ignorant. When I was younger, I often listened to master's stories as well. I have heard them for around a century now. Oh, should I call him honey now? It does feel a little embarrassing to call him that."

There wasn't the slightest bit of embarrassment on Elisa, who was chuckling behind her hands. With just a few words, she managed to infuriate Reyne. However, it seemed like I was somehow attacked by her venomous mouth as well.

"Looks like Elisa must have met Karwenz. It is true that he is a pervert. It isn't bizarre for her to come to such a conclusion. Yeah, she definitely isn't referring to me."

Shaking my head, I ignored the discussion over there and turned my attention to the feast before me. For numerous reasons, this seemed to be the first time I was eating food made by Elisa personally.

After several experiments the last few days, I had no choice but to take my ladle myself. However, I had long since gotten sick of the food I cooked myself. Cohen's cooking skills were also very average. I had been craving for good food recently, and as long as Elisa's food was not bad, I would be extremely satisfied.

She had made common meat stew. The meat was cut thinly and there were bits of wild grasses floating on top. An indescribable herb had added to the allure of the stew, and the green onion-like aroma whetted my appetite.

"Delicious!"

Even though I had guessed that the cooking skills of the veteran maid Elisa wouldn't be bad, I was still pleasantly surprised by the taste of the meat stew.

The stew was thick but smooth, and its aroma tackled my nose as I gulped down the soup. In fact, even after swallowing it, the aftertaste lingered in my mouth, enticing me to take another mouthful. There was also barbecued meat by the side glazed with wild honey and herbs. My stomach immediately grumbled in protest.

"What kind of herb is this? It must be extremely expensive! Yeah, delicious!"

I immediately started to dig in. On the other end, Kathleen and Cohen exchanged gazes before digging in as well.

From how ravenously they were devouring the food, it seemed like I wasn't the only one tortured by the lack of good food.

The most delicious feast I remembered was the one I had before my Ascension. However, due to time restraints, Elisa didn't get to make it herself. It was truly to pleasant surprise to taste her handicraft now.

"Hey, if you don't dig in, we'll be finishing all of it."

"I have no appetite," Reyne said obstinately. However, the moment she said such words, her stomach immediately rumbled. Her face immediately flushed.

"Hehe, the most important thing in life is to be happy, and to do so, a satisfied stomach is a priority. Roland, take your time and don't choke. Are you still hungry? If there isn't enough food, I can make a bowl of noodles for you."

Thus, I nodded my head in sheer delight. After regaining a physical body, my greatest hobby was eating. As a result, I never turned down anyone with superior cooking skills. How could I possibly turn my head away from such an event?

But that very afternoon, I realized there were some things which one should never put into their mouths, especially when it came from a Demon who had accumulated a bucketful of resentment behind her cheerful smile.

"AHHH! My stomach hurts. My head is also spinning. This is the fourth time my stomach has been acting up today! Elisa, what exactly did you put into the food!"

"The Cursed Herb, Black Mandala Grass. Just as you said, it is an extremely expensive herb, almost equivalent to consuming gold. Right, there's also the Little Fanged Dragon meat that I had just procured. This is an extremely nutritious tonic. Aiyo, Lord, could it be that your body isn't well-nourished? It isn't good to leave your body in such a state. I shall cook another bowl of noodles to stock up on your nutrients."

To think that she would use the Black Mandala Grass which was used to create poison as green onion… The Little Fanged Dragon, otherwise known as Little Green Dragon, was also poisonous. Should I be thankful that I only suffered a stomach ache from the mixture of the two poisonous substance?

"Something's not right! Why are they alright!"

"Actually, I cleared away the poison in the meat and herbs before using them as ingredients. It must be that there is some kind of stimulant in the noodles which happened to trigger the poison in them. I'm truly sorry, master."

That impassive explanation and emotionless apology sounded like monotonous reciting. Only now did I realize that perhaps, all along, Elisa had been infuriated….

"I'm sorry, it's my fault.

Alright, a true hero knows when to back down. I understood the vindictive nature of this little lass. This likely wouldn't be the end of her vengeance. For the sake of delicious lunch in the future, I apologized immediately even though I didn't know my mistake. Was it because I had been too busy to communicate with her recently?

"It's all your fault. But since you have apologized, I will accept it then."

Elisa finally flashed a sincere smile. Afterward, she threw me a bottle, which after consuming, I felt the chaos in my stomach calming down slightly.

There was also another reason why I liked Elisa's personality. Even though she often threw tantrums, as long as I apologized, she would immediately forgive me. If she seemed to be angry in any way, it would definitely be no mistake to take the initiative to apologize in advance.

"…I am finally feeling slightly better. I am a living man; I will really die from that! Please don't come up with those kinds of jokes in the future. Right, why are you here? What's with this physical body of yours?"

It was truly an unexpected surprise for Elisa to be here. Soon, I managed to grasp what was going on.

It turned out that Elisa's physical body was an avatar created using the tributes of the Beastmen. She was barely able to come over through eating a portion of the tributes, so this avatar did not wield much strength.

While she had no problems whatsoever with operating day-to-day chores, it was impossible for her to join the battles.

"Enough. It's already great that you can come."

It's not that my M nature is working up. Rather, I had felt the agony of not having a handy assistant by my side these few days. Now that Elisa was here, I could finally dump all of my work on her.

The moment I said those words, the cold-faced Elisa smiled in satisfaction. Then, she came closer and stared at me face-to-face.

"…I know what you're thinking of. Nevertheless, your words still make me happy. This is your reward."

In a certain sense, the Demonified Elisa had become braver in expressing her emotions and pursuing her desires.

That beautiful face slowly approached mine and the frosty expression that she usually wore disappeared. Below that ice mountain was passion as fiery as the flames of hell. A bright red blush appeared on Elisa's cheeks and her seductive red cheeks were exuding incredible allure and warmth. I had nowhere to back away to.

"You… What are you all doing!!"

It was a pity that I wasn't the only one here. Putting aside the other two who were trying their best to pretend to be statues, Reyne did not intend to sit on the sidelines and watch this scene unfold before her. She immediately charged between us to tear us apart.

"Pity? I actually found it a pity?"

While I was conflicted over my own emotions, a verbal argument had broken out between Elisa and Reyne once more.

"I finally understand why master hates rascals now. Shouldn't you pretend to be oblivious when you see your parents getting intimate with one another?"

"Parents… Who are you saying are my parents? Furthermore, I am not a rascal! I am fourteen years old! I am already of marriageable age!"

"Fourteen years old? How incredible! I thought you were only ten. Annie seemed to have surpassed you when she was only ten."

Alright, even though her words were without context, based on her downward glance, it was clear what she was referring to.

"That… Elisa, won't you take damage from your words as well?"

Alright, seeing her twisted lips and twitching eyebrows, that venomous flat-chested young lady was currently sacrificing herself to deal damage to the other party. Her heart was probably bleeding at the moment.

Just like before, in just a few words, Elisa had managed to destroy Reyne. That ineloquent Reyne could only march off to a corner and sulk.

Even though Elisa was in the midst of angering Reyne, her words suddenly echoed through the ring.

"Master, I have already investigated the source of the bloodline of the new Mist Royal Family. I'm afraid that this matter is more complicated than we expected. Using your words, it is an incredibly huge scheme, to the extent that I would only be reassured if I came over to say it myself. I have already set up the barrier. Just listen to my words and do not overreact."

———–

A formless barrier blocked all curious gazes. I was still squatting by the side and enjoying the glow of the sun whereas Elisa was busy packing the bowls and chopsticks. Unbeknownst to the others, we were currently conversing.

"First, she is indeed of the Mist Bloodline. However, she is not your descendant. Just like you have expected, you are still an old virgin, a powerful elder of the FFF cult, a Forbidden Spell-level Archmage, and the spiritual leader of the Torch Festival. The moment I think about the fact that I am the first love of a thousand-year-old virgin, I can't help but feel agitated. After which, I can't help but instinctively feel slightly disgusted and threatened. It is said that those who restrain themselves for too long become slightly perverted. After thirty years of holding themselves back, they can do anything. As for three hundred years…"

While having salt rubbed in my wound by that venomous tongue, a shocking secret was gradually revealed right before me. I couldn't help but put aside the resentment of the demon.

This time, I was truly shocked. It was no wonder that Elisa sent her avatar down despite the costs. It wasn't sufficiently safe for her to use any other means to inform me about the matter unless it was face to face.

After a long time, Elisa was done revealing everything. Even though the wind outside was piercingly cold, cold sweat was still flowing down my back.

"If I remained ignorant of the matter all along, I would have been done for. Looks like I really mustn't underestimate my opponents."

While I couldn't help but shudder upon thinking of the possible consequences that could have occurred if Elisa had failed to find out the matter and inform me of it, I still chuckled. Schemes and traps were only fearsome when they were unnoticed. Since I had learnt of them, I could come up with plans of my own to counteract them.

"Thank you, Elisa. Your presence is truly assuring. Looks like I owe you another one. I really can't imagine what I would do without you."

"Hmph, seems like you are getting mushier and mushier. If you are truly sincere about your words, you should stop getting involved with other girls."

Even though she said so, judging from that sweet smile on the corners of her lips, it seemed like my words weren't completely useless.

While we smiling to one another, the pages behind me who were oblivious to our telepathic communication started to quietly discuss me.

"To suddenly smile lecherously when nothing has happened…. Cohen, could it be that there is still some poison lingering in the body of our teacher? He looks a little foolish and bewitched."

"… I heard from the neighboring Big Brother Cloone that men who hold it in for too long will tend to act slightly strange. Seems like Lord Elisa's appearance has delighted His Highness so greatly that he was unable to uphold his etiquette."

"Seems like you would really become a pervert after holding it in for too long. But from the looks of it, it seems like there is completely no hope for Princess Reyne."

"That… Senior Kathleen, Princess Reyne is behind you and it seems like she is infuriated."

"AHH, Your Highness, I'm sorry. Umm… Surely you won't reduce the amount we have agreed upon. I still need that money to buy a new set of Alchemy tools. Um… Even though the opponent is powerful, there is still hope for you. At the very least, there are some aspects where you two are on the same level…. Pu, I really wasn't thinking of that. Anyway, I will try my best to speak well of you before the prince!"

The apprentices seemed to have gotten into a dispute. On the other hand, I needed to reconsider my future moves.

"The Revival of the Mist? This is truly a massive and troublesome trap. Looks like I have to quickly end this war. Then, I think I should head to Antuen next."

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Chapter 151: Entering the City

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"My Lord, I have some ideas. The Elemental sword seal was a spectacular discovery, but we have been too crude in utilizing it. Its current development is highly inefficient. We can start from the construction of its spell, making it more unrestrained, more seamless. After the construction of the basic sword seal, we can use the basic sword seal to reconstruct the elemental sword seal."

Every time Cohen suggested something to me, a bunch of jargon that I can't comprehend will start to crawl into my ears. Then I will start sighing, wondering who was the mentor and who was the apprentice.

"Prodigious wizard who works hard to become a knight, while learning alchemy and magic at the same time. She is Kathleen Solia from the Gentlemen's Alliance. My knight squires are a bunch of weirdos." In a sense, those three people were not considered brilliant. It also seemed like they were steering further from the path of becoming knights, especially the little Cohen who is standing in front of him. However, he has fully showcased his talents without me taking notice.

Incantations? The formula to construct a spell? I can do all these instinctively, without putting much thought in it. To a son of elements, magic was just a manifestation of will. Usage of general spells was only a process to that prove the formulation that has already been generalized, just like a mathematician who casually comes up with new formulae, the son of elements can casually create unlimited numbers of new magic.

Now, I could finally understand why Harloys wanted me to deceive this little Cohen. The humans' son of elements, the dwarves' son of lightning, and the elves' son of moon were considered God given children. The son of lightning is good at fighting and smithing. The son of moon is a prodigy in theurgy. Both them are astonishing prodigies in their own fields. In a way, they are actually very similar. It would be a shame if all these talents went to waste. My ideas on four elemental swordcasting were general and simple. An ordinary soldier could handle a certain level of the strain of using the power of elements by skipping the knowledge of basic theory. Naturally, they will be able understand all those magical theories when they become skilled elemental casters.

"The first step is always the hardest. There are a lot of people with the potential to become powerful, but most of the time, they lack talent. They cannot even make the very first step." To Cohen, this was a brand-new world.

It was true that my arms were weak, but I had the sword that did the heavy lifting in place of my arms.

It was true that I cannot run fast and jump far, but I have my mark of wind that becomes my wings.

It was true that my sword cannot penetrate the scale of dragons, thus I will have my mark of lightning summoning to serve as my sword edge. The dream of becoming a knight motivated and kept Cohen moving forward. On the other hand, Harloys became the contributor of an uncountable number of theories. There were new results and advancements every single day. Based on what I observed, this kid, Cohen's level was increasing at a lightning speed. Yesterday, he was a level fifteen, four elemental Mage Knight. Today, he is a level seventeen Mage Knight. It is safe to say that in two more days, he will become a level twenty Mage Knight. His dedication had brought out the best in this brand-new class, the four elemental Mage Knight.

"Sword seal of black tortoise—The coiling of the glacial serpent" The magical power of ice will spread through the ground without being seen and it would surprise its opponent by appearing under their feet, freezing them to the ground. "The most important thing about the properties was that ice can freeze, lightning can paralyze, and flames can burn. If we only treat it as temporary enchantments to increase the effectiveness of our attacks, it will be a total waste. We can fully utilize their natural properties to come up with completely different magical sword skills."

"As you know, the magical power of ice spreads rather slowly. Even if we tried to enhance our swords to freeze our opponents, it would still take a longer time to achieve its goal. Due to its ability to stay hidden, we can totally take our time, battling against our opponents."

Still, there was a limit to Cohen's ability. Also, he had not come up with any new sword skills. But, by changing his method of battling, by utilizing the right elements, the total combat effectiveness of this brand-new class has been increased by three times. It was imperative that Cohen gains the ability to hear the whispers of the elements. It would actually allow him to discover a new way for this class to improve and develop other elemental sword skills.

[Congratulations Master, for acquiring new magical sword skill, The Sword Seal of Black Tortoise – The Coil of Glacial Serpent. This skill will be automatically included in the class system of the four elemental Mage Knight. System notification: Looking for the reward of inventing new skill? How dare you ask for a reward? What did you feel when your own apprentice taught you this new skill? Don't you feel ashamed? How long do you think you can deceive him from the rate of his improvement?]

Unsurprisingly, the system mocked me. In order to protect my master's dignity, I will put more effort into the research. There is a saying, humans perform better under pressure. Harloys was very impressed by me when I combined the power of frost and death to form a Deathly Frost sword seal. The sword seal possessed the magical powers of corrosion and freezing, and it was highly lethal against mortal. The only drawback of this sword seal was that it took a lot out of its user. In some inexplicable way, using this sword seal became my privilege.

Of course, the straightforward way of naming this sword seal without any sense of technicality was definitely not my work. I sulked for quite some time when the name, Sleeping Tortoise sword seal was rejected by them. "The magic power of death is from Sluggish Sword Seal and the magic power of ice is from Black Tortoise Sword Seal, when the two are combined together it became Sluggish Black Tortoise. Did it actually mean sleeping Black Tortoise? The way you name your sword seal is way too cool. In consideration of other apprentices' future, please leave this place and entertain yourself at your own home.

What was with all the bullshit? But, when I saw everyone around me nodding their heads and agreeing with comment on my sword seal's name, I had to accept this bitter fact. "Actually, I thought of a name for your sword seal…"Elisa said. Soon enough, Elisa, who held the dominant power in this small group had also invented her own personal sword seal. Her sword seal was the combination of demonic force and the force of flaming sea. It was extremely powerful and evil. It was pretty obvious that no one else could use it.

"Let me guess. According to your unique naming sense and poor choice of words, you will think that demon represents anger; and the flame represents phoenix. So, the result will be Angry Phoenix?"

"No, it should be Angry Bird. And the sword seal of yours with the combination of fire and ice should be named as, The Song of Fire and Ice! Too bad, I still have a few other names that I have not used. The combination of wind and earth, Azure Dragon and White Tiger can be named as The Fighting of Dragon and Tiger! The combination of ice and wind, Black Tortoise and Azure Dragon should be called The Romance of Dragon and Serpent!" I said it with pride and joy. The apprentices around me did not say anything. They just nodded and left the place one by one. Nobody else asked my opinion in naming sword seals anymore.

Maple City, it was a small and less-known city in Sleuweir Kingdom. Yet, it had a special place in my heart. Back in those days, I had a war against the armies of beastmen. If I recall correctly, this city used to be a temporary command center. The war left behind quite a number of historical marks. There was a war museum somewhere in this town. Now, this city had become the focus of every northern countries. This was due to the fact that this city was near the capital city of Sleuweir Kingdom, Antoin. The area in front of Maple City had become the territory of the beastmen. Naturally, this city became the gathering ground of reinforcements coming in from different countries.

I got in the city before dawn, and the gate of the cities were still shut. The guards were trying to stop me from going in. In some way, on this ground, my face was the best gate pass. The soldiers were stunned for a moment when they saw me. They saluted excitedly and then the door was opened wide for me to go in.

"Open the door! Here comes the Lord." I nodded my head politely and stepped on the ground that had not yet been completely frozen. There were squeaky sounds as I walked on the ground. I became silent when I saw a beastman's head hanging on the wall. I am not a good person, and neither do I have a compassionate or sentimental heart as well. On the contrary, when I saw this phenomenon, I was actually happy and relieved. Well, there were similar sceneries at the villages that were being attacked by the beastman. Some human heads were left hanging as well. According to their culture, they intended to build a tower of human heads. There were mutilated young ladies' corpses and mangled toddlers who had been thrown to their deaths. That made me even more silent.

This is war, and I hated war, because war was the ugliest thing on this earth. War legalized every single criminal activity and also turned humans into cold-blooded animals.

This was war, my favorite war, I used to think that the only way of protecting my race was through war. The only way to destroy war was through war. Along the way, I was called hero, devil, butcher. There were mountains of bodies behind my back and I'm afraid that the so called "butcher" among the beastmen will never catch up to number of living souls that I had reaped.

When I was known as a hero, I had slaughtered an uncountable number of living souls. I was the hero among human being, but among beastmen, I was known as the butcher and the devil. I was used to scare the beastmen's kids if they didn't stop crying. The reason? Well, I guess I was the first one to actually carry out their culture of building a tower of heads with the help of ground and aerial units.

This was war between countries. The racial war between humankind and beastman. I had no idea how much grudge both sides have retained. When the war began, even the worst crimes will be seen as sacred and heroic. Was I a hero? A butcher? A devil? I'm afraid, I'm all of the above. I had never considered myself as a saint, but before all those who constantly stir up war are put to rest for good, it was necessary for people like me to continue existing in this world.

Small time war criminals like me will not be willing to sleep alone when the real villains sit atop the temple, being worshipped by the people. Sinners have to be judged. The least I can do was drag them to hell with me. "Walk faster! Bastard beastman!" The soldiers yelled. A group of beastman were being chased out by the soldiers. Judging by their human-made attire, they should be the permanent residents and businessmen of this place.

In some way, Sleuweir Kingdom's open and peaceful strategy was working. There was a few decades of trading history between humankind and the beastman. With the constant trading between two races, there were a number of permanent residents staying in the city, along with traders who dropped by regularly. Well, obviously the war happened without any prior notice, so the humans who were staying in the beastman's kingdom and vice-versa had no chance of returning to their own kingdoms. They became the first victims of the war and also the punching bags of their opposing races. I'm afraid that the heads of those beastmen that were being hung on walls, belonged to spies who tried to scout this place and spy on the permanent resident here.

"Are they spies or scouts?" After a moment of doubt, I decided to stick my nose into this matter. I could care less if they were soldiers, but even then, I will never slaughter civilian, even during my craziest moments. "You….You are Lord Roland." The young soldier spoke out my name excitedly. However, the beastman were paralyzed when they heard my name and the children were already starting to cry. It seemed like my name still held some power after so long. If that was the case, the rest should be quite easy to handle. After some clarification, I got to know that they were actually permanent residents who had resided in this country for a few decades. Now, they were being sold to the slave market. Perhaps, I will just spend some money to buy their freedom.

Of course, the children were crying louder than before. I was probably the worst possible idea that can exist in their minds. They were probably thinking that I had bought them to make some soup and barbecue their meat. "Elisa." Roland said.

"You are still a hypocrite at some random places but this is what I like about you. Your wish is my command. I will check out the chamber of commerce here. I can't guarantee the chances of surviving, but it's still better than becoming a slave. If they are sold as slaves, even the kids will become the retainers of those rich kids."Elisa said.

I did not speak much after nodding my head, Elisa was better than me when it came to this kind of matter. If she was ever incapable of doing something, I would have even lesser success. Hypocrite? I cannot refute this fact. I know that I'm a hypocrite for saving a few beastmen, and yet here I am now, thinking about killing more beastmen. "Where is the joint command center? Where are the nobles? Why has the war not started? Are they planning to witness Antoin's destruction?"

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Chapter 152: Notebook

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"Word has already spread far and wide that every beastman has set off for war. There are over two hundred and seventy known tribes. Although they declared that they have an army the size of eight hundred thousand, in reality, we know very well that they can barely muster up two hundred thousand. If we take their thirty thousand non-military personnel out of consideration, they would still be left with around an army of a hundred and seventy thousand. And they have all split up into four different directions. Clearly, they have already committed military suicide."

The long-neglected opera that had stood for over six hundred years in Maple city had now found itself occupied once again. It was now a temporary meeting hall. The middle-aged, but still handsome man dress in a military uniform was running his mouth off, on the stage. Clearly, the audiences were not giving a shit about him talking on the stage, some were sleeping, reading, or talking.

"Although beastmen are typically stronger than us when it comes to brute strength, our allied forces total up to more than three hundred thousand. In terms of military strength, we still hold the upper hand. We can take advantage of their scattered state and annihilate them one at a time."

"Bearman Longde, the potential candidate for the next king of beastman. He has twenty tribes under his command, and around fifty-five thousand military personnel. There are several types of units within his camp, with members ranging from the weakling wererats to the strongest bearmen and elephantmen. Take note that, the bearmen who currently form the backbone the military force tend to slip into hibernation; and thus, their marching speed is the slowest. Recently, they have started to gather provisions and other necessities to go through the winter. It seems like they intend to stay within their territory until the winter is over."

"Kas the Centaur has thirty thousand of military personnel under his control. The bulk of the troops are the agile riders and similarly quick beastmen. They are the smallest echelon among them all. They do not have a base camp, but tend to partake in guerrilla warfare. Small as they are, they are giving us the most trouble at the moment. Currently, they are trying to break through the eastern defense line. It seems like they are trying cross the borders to the other countries. It will be a mess if they manage to break through the southern defense line."

"Saustero the Wolf King has forty thousand under his control – a mix of lionmen, tigermen, wolfmen, and other variations of their race mostly known for their brute strength. I have no idea what the hell is going on through his head, but he has actually turned around to attack the western defense line. Maybe they are trying to attack and invade the Kingdom of the Elves. Rumor has it that a fox man is serving as their strategist, so it's likely that there's more to that seemingly reckless maneuver."

"Eymond the Eagleman has sixty thousand military personnel under his command, with a wide variety of beastman soldiers. There are a lot of airborne forces and, flying type of beastmen fighting alongside him. According to the intel, Eymond is also the advocator of the United Army of Beastmen. Rumor has it that he owns most of the elite troops. Currently, they are invading Antoin. I don't think Antoin can last much longer.

Crosses and circles were all over the diagram, they highlighted the enemies' position and places that they were likely to attack. The military guy tried his best to continue his speech over the growing buzz of the uninterested, skeptical audience. "I don't think our military forces is really having the upper hand. More than three hundred thousand? That must be a joke. Take out all the non-military personnel, and we'll be left with two hundred thousand men at most. Moreover, those beastmen are like what, thrice as strong as we are? Technically speaking, our military force would probably match up to one third of beastman's military force. How are we going to win this war?"

"There are almost one hundred thousand troops stationed in Antoin, but with the constant attacks coming from Eymond's troops, our armies have been calling for reinforcements for quite a while, now. It seems like we'll lose Antoin. That ratio of one to three needs to be reviewed again."

"Have you heard there is a gigantic beast named The Biz? He was the one who led the bearmen in tearing down the defensive walls of Wender City. It was destroyed with little effort. That's the tenth city seized by them. Now, my only wish for them is that they get into their hibernation as soon as possible! I don't want to face those giants in battle."

"All is well if that's the case, but I heard the situation is getting even more bizarre. Somehow the beastmen are not bothered by the cold and are able to fight in the winter unhindered. This is why they've been ambushing us out of expectations. So much for hibernation. Our own troops are shivering all the time, it is obvious that there's a big gap between us and the beastman in terms of physical strength. And now we are going to fight the final war? It seems like we can't wait to meet our maker.

"The beastmen are really going to overrun us, they have already taken control so many cities, they wouldn't even have to worry about supplies. Moreover, we didn't even bring our siege engines and catapults with us. Our supply line is constantly fractured. How are we going to fight this war? Are you asking us to fight with the beastmen with empty stomachs in the freezing winter?"

"Isn't this the matter of those super empires? Why are small countries like us at the northern side, fighting this war? How about the Kingdom of Kasmi? Has the Empire of San Antonio mentioned anything yet?" If the leaders of beastmen are fighting against their own King, then we humans are like platters of sand, hiding behind each other's backs, hoping that we don't become cannon fodder.

Due to the sudden attack from the beastmen, our first fallen city provided them with enough supplies and shelter. The reinforcements that came after, looked more like guests and soldiers. A huge amount of beastmen came down from the Orison mountains. Their numbers aren't much in the face of any of the super empires, but most of them are elites, and it the six northern countries couldn't possibly send out all their troops to assist us. The total number of troops from all five countries is two hundred thousand. On average, each country sent out fifty thousand troops. The final war has yet to begin. People were looking for more reinforcements but the beastmen merely fortified their positions, obviously with different purposes and goals in mind. Thus, they couldn't have been acting as one. The main focus of Eymond's troops was to take down Antoin city, so that their leader could take credit for it.

There was no conflict of war strategies between humans and beastmen. Naturally, the war had been dragged longer. Also, most of the generals from the northern countries were hoping that the war would be dragged on until next spring. It was to buy them time to carry out large scale stratagems and take the upper hand of this war; and then, they could proceed to the final war. What about the Antoin city that was currently waiting for reinforcements? Sleuweir Kingdom was going to be destroyed soon, who cares about his opinion. Of course, it is impossible to simply stand aside and witness Antoin city's destruction.

The general continued spouting empty fallacies and propaganda that fell on deaf ears. It was a total waste of time. Someone can't hold it any longer. "Enough! We are soldiers! We are not drunkards or cunning politicians." The angry middle-aged man was plain-looking, of medium height and had a long cape that was made of white fox skin draped on his shoulder. When he shouted angrily, the whole hall fell silent. "Leave the liberation of Antoin city to the Kingdom of Kasmi alone."

His voice was calm but it shook the entire hall. Every country had rejected that role because it was too risky fighting with Eymond's troops. When the middle-aged angry general spoke up, he actually decided to pick up this mission impossible. "Time is of essence and you people are wasting it. We have reinforcements and the beastmen have reinforcements as well. There are at least thousands of beastman tribe inside the Orison mountain, but not all tribes will respond to Eymond's command. Some tribes who may or may not have had good relations with us in the past will definitely see our weakened state and the lands there are just waiting to be claimed. Do you think they will just sit there and not attack us?"

"The Kingdom of Sleuweir has to be saved. If nobody initiates this rescue mission, please don't expect someone to come and save you when your country is in trouble. Let's think from a different perspective, if Sleuweir Kingdom is destroyed, the beastman will border up your countries. Do you have the fortress of Camo's tear? When that time comes, the beastman's wolfriders will start to hunt on your ground, killing your people, burning villages, and grabbing your women and children. Is that what you want? The general of Kasmi had gradually raised his voice into a shout.

"Fine! You can continue to hide if you want! When all of you get yourselves up on the board of sin, please don't drag me down together with you guys. I, Ainro am not a retard, I will take the mission to rescue Antoin city. If you are a soldier…no….if you are a man, buy me some time by holding back the other beastmen. Don't let them stop me from marching to the final war."

Finally, some solid talk after listening to three days worth of bullshit. I started to stir from my slumber when I heard the speech from general Ainro. "Who is he? All the missions have been debated angrily. These bunch of imbeciles has finally done something good. I wonder why all these arrogant bastards are listening to this deafening general. Is he famous?"

Of course, he was different from those imbeciles who were being manipulated for three full days. He was the big shot from the meritorious board. Also, he was not considered as the general of Kasmi for nothing. Ainro The Black Bear was quite famous in my country, San Antonio. Amelia was here earlier than me. She lived in Maple city because she did not want to travel everywhere to hunt down rangers. Naturally, she became the temporary leader of East Mist Communal Country. She did not look like she was in her best mood, with all the sarcasm dripping from her speech.

"Meritorious board? What's that? And also, what was that sinner's board he mentioned? Looks like I became a piece of antique, left out of this era."

"We have all these stuff in my era as well, maybe you didn't notice, the name is; The Notebook of Pixies.

"The work of those pixies, seems like they are free as usual." Pixies were inherently magical creatures. They were quite similar to those pure looking fairies. Their maximum height was around ten centimeters. Their height allowed them to dance on human's palm. There were different types of pixies; pixies with feathered wings, shadow pixies that lived in the shadows. They had different personalities, living habits, and living environments as well. There was one common trait that all these pixies shared; they loved to talk and gossip. Their race is all over the earth, and they are natural born neutral group, thus, they have good relationship with most of the races. Also, they had their own trading and cooking centers all over the world. In the human world, something that was made by pixies was considered to be a treasure of impeccable quality.

Usually, their trading centers also served as the best place to obtain different kinds of intel. If you can afford their intel, there were no secrets you couldn't get from them. The pixie's notebook that Harloys mentioned earlier was written by pixies. The notebook recorded all the significant points history, caused by famous people and incidents.

"The Meritorious board was created by the pixies, it recorded all the famous warriors who ever walked on earth. The ranking system was based on war records and even included your rank among your own troops. Obviously, this was an disadvantage for small countries. Actually, a Master Meritorious Board supersedes this board, also known as the Board of the War God. All the famous warriors throughout history will be included in this board. This board is pretty convincing. Basically, if your name is listed in this board, you can be considered as a valuable asset of your own country.

Historical people? Ancient warriors? Seems like I'm overthinking things now.

"But me…"

"You died too young when you were still a human. You didn't even get the chance to be listed in the meritorious board. However, you are actually listed in another leaderboard that is actually more famous. In addition to that, your ranking in it is actually quite high."

I was getting really hyped up. I couldn't believe that I was listed in a board that was even more popular than the meritorious board. Did I become such an important figure? Wasn't the point of living in this world, to leave some marks behind? Could it be that I actually left some historical marks behind without me realizing it? This was a huge surprise for me.

"What kind of leaderboard?"

"The Ultimate Apocalyptic Leaderboard. You are the Undying Roland, ranked 33."

My face turned black after hearing what he said. I knew this leaderboard. The people that were listed in this leaderboard were known as trouble makers, walking catastrophes, and plagues. If they were dangerous enough to the point that no one would even dare to lay a finger on them, they will eventually be listed in this leaderboard.

"This is bad news. No mortal being can fight against it. If you see them, just run for your life. If you run into them, well, you're just out of luck" I thought this was the essence of The Ultimate Apocalyptic Leaderboard.

"My other identity?"

If Roland could get on the board, then, the King of Eternal Night should be listed on the board as well.

"No. He was not listed in the board from the beginning. It looks like the pixies deliberately left out the person. They never explained any further. I will need to pay more if I need more intel."

"Shit! My true identity has been uncovered out."

"Isn't it normal to be found out? Did you even try to hide yourself? All you used was a piece of the Wind of War flag as the flag of the Royal Guard. Do you think you're surrounded by idiots?"

I nodded my head. The truth was, I did not even try to hide myself. When I decided to avenge others in the past, I had let the opponent know the reason why I killed them. It was totally normal for all these well-informed pixies to know my true identity. Also, they had probably sold some intel on me for a lot of money.

"Actually, I know quite a few people from the leaderboards. The one who is ranked 99 is Molly The Red Dragon. She leaves a trail of destruction behind everywhere she goes. I think you should know her. Also, the Evil Professor, Harloys The Black Magician is ranked 46. Looking at the name, it does not look like she has a lot power to bring destruction. She did produce a lot of "good" students. For example…."

"For example, you! What is your ranking?"

I sighed, remember how tough The Dragon Mother, Molly was. When she failed to bring more destruction underground, she went above ground again to create more trouble. I was so full of confidence and I asked, "If Harloys and myself are on the leaderboard, I'm pretty sure the Emira standing in front of me is in the list as well."

"Last I checked, I was ranked 57, under the moniker; The Naughty Storm Lady. Initially, I was ranked 69. Three of my friends who ranked in front of me had kicked the baskets. I happened to have killed one of them. As a result, my ranking jumped again. All in all, my ranking has gone up by twelve."

She stated it with some pride, but I don't think she has anything to be proud of in the first place.

"Nice! That title is way cooler than mine. What the hell is Undying? It's so not cool. Can I request to change my title?"

"I'm glad that you think my title is cool. Hehe..You have good taste. Others say that my name is totally uncool. That actually makes me very angry. But, no matter how you try to compliment me, I will not give this title away to anyone."

"Shit! I can't believe you saw through me. Then, can you please contact the pixie? This title is really bad. I have to change something cooler. For example, titles like; The Invincible, The Genius, or even, The Forever Loveable Rolan."

"So, the title that you decided is, The Stupid, Selfish, Hideous Rolan. Leave it to me. I will contact the pixie for you. I can't believe the elves were actually so bound to reality. Titles like this should be easy to acquire.

They couldn't do anything about our daily arguments. Reyne and the others were compelled to listen to the arguments. The general on the stage was talking non-stop again about the so-called strategy. These two persons had totally no idea about what was going on here.

For these three days, I knew that if I continued to be a bystander, I would become one of those soldiers who will drop dead in a second thanks to stupid orders that I was stupid enough to obey. So, I stood up.

"Ainro , your setup is suicidal. I have a few suggestions and some intel. Maybe it is time for you to listen to me."

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Chapter 153: A Third Party

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The Black General was known as Anynror. He had a head like a black tiger, a chiseled, stern face, body like an iron tower, with large eyes that reflected light like bronze bells, a flat nose, wide ears, and bull-like strength.

His gaze was a permanent glare that reeked of murder, and his body constantly radiated a threatening aura. This man had devoted his life to the military and was last place on the general board's rankings. He was known to all as a brave general who was always on the front lines. In battles, he broke through the enemy lines, and once, he took eighteen arrows and remained standing, as he fought on to take down the city gates. This man was never stopped, ever.

Standing opposite him was, in stark contrast, a green-eared, white-nosed youth of a General. He looked to be in his seventeens to eighteens. In an older gentleman's world of the military, he was but a baby.

He had a sacred Mithril sword in his hand, a Winged-tiger helmet on his head, an armor of steel on his body, and dragonskin army boots on his feet. His face was beautiful, and he was dressed impeccably, but if one were to look closely, he did lack an air of authority. He looked a little too effeminate, with fair skin, rosy cheeks, ruby lips and a smile was constantly plastered on his face, one would say he seemed more like a model than a general.

But if you were to underestimate him because of his appearance, then you could not be any more wrong!

The sword in his hand was none other than the famous Pale Justice, it had slaughtered many a vicious dragon, and evil monsters. Just think, if it is true that sacred swords always choose their owners, can a mere mortal wield such a sword? Can this be a normal man?

The silver-armored Great General Roland, though only the age of twenty-eight, had already spent half his life on the battlefield, was a renowned Junior General. People knew him as a chatterbox, silver-faced white dragon.

Despite his youth and delicate appearance, he was as comfortable in court as he was in the household, and that silver sword was stained with the blood of evil, tales of his battles shook the entirety of Eich. Those dragon-skin boots, that looked just like any other pair of boots, was made out of the skin of a nine-headed dragon that he had tracked through ravines to slay. A man such as this, could he be thought as a commoner?

The problem was that, both of them had massive tempers. The more famous they were, the more stubborn they got, and the less they would pay heed to any advice. It seemed that, at that moment, the two of them were having disagreements regarding the war, and naturally, being warriors, once they were met with a disagreement, they would draw out their swords in hopes for a closure on the matter. And what a match it was!

With a black and a white General, friction was bound to happen, on top of an already hostile history of unresolved bitterness. The Black Tiger against the White Dragon, this conflict will prove to be a match of the ages.

Right in the middle of the court, standing on the platform, the two of them glared at each other. The dark-faced one thought the white-faced was unreliable due to his delicateness, the white-faced one thought that the black-faced was too ugly and terrifying to the innocent. Anger and fury ignited the air, spewing a murderous aura that visibly warped the air around them.

Finally, the two of them drew closer, and met at last, nose to nose, eye to eye. Then…their lips touched! Yes! They actually touched!

"This is the spirit of victory! This is the ultimate victory of the hag's will. At this moment, Roland followed the glorious tradition of the philosophers. It was as if the spirit of Abegel (some famous homosexual man) or King Billy (an even more famous homosexual man) lived in his body! Roland alone represented the longstanding history and tradition of homosexuality in all of all Eich! At this moment, he is not alone in this fight. He is not alone!"

"Elisa. It's enough that you have been telling a story beside me, and now you are making up all these nonsense. I will send you back to the abyss where you came from! Don't think for a second that I won't do it!"

As I was fuming inside, Elisa, who was making up ridiculous passages as if she was possessed by some narrator, finally stopped talking.

Yes, the passages above were all made up by Elisa, it was all fiction! I never was a homosexual, never!

There was a silence, as I gathered up my wits to size up my opponent.

""Black Bear" Ainro Soan, a citizen of San Antonio, forty-four years old, honorable Earl in the military. He joined the army 27 years ago, slowly climbing the ranks from a common knight to a General. He always led the army, galloping towards the enemy lines. His most victorious battle was when he led his men and rode thousands of miles through the night, breaking through the encirclement of the neighboring country, and then took over the four cities that were under the rule of his opponent."

"The reviews on the honours board of famous generals: an old general rich in experience, his methods of utilizing soldiers were practiced and traditional, hated raiders, does not have any special strategies, but neither does he have any obvious flaws, has never faced any great defeat. During critical times in battles, he would fight bravely, and under extreme conditions, he would still fight his way through a path of survival, he was a brave general but not a particularly intelligent one."

I suppose Elisa's one virtue was that, although she normally had a malignant tongue and was always giving me these sort of "surprises"; when it came to important matters, there would never be any mistakes.

When I asked her to provide me information about someone, although she will add a bunch of nonsensical stuff with it, she would still be able to give me what I want.

"A practical General who was not an academic? Isn't that what people call old-fashioned? But this seems like trouble. Huh, no flaws, no virtues either? In other words that mean he is full of flaws, isn't it?"

"Well, may I ask, in your opinion, what counts as an academical military man?"

"A bookworm who only follows every military book written to the word. Just draw a hole and he will burrow into it himself, this is just too easy."

"….do you want to know your own assessment? There is a passage about your own strategizing tendencies."

"Oh, you have that? Of course, I do. I had been planning to buy it from some pixies when I get back. Good that you have it already."

"'The Undying Roland', Roland Mist, the last prince of the Mist Kingdom, also in recent times famously known as the most powerful Necromancer and Emperor Yongye . He was also the founder of the Xiluo Empire and their supreme leader, and he has had the honour of being 33rd in The Ultimate Apocalyptic Leaderboard. He is known as the Undying because he possessed the extraordinary ability to resurrect himself, and he is also the precious few who can skip over incarnation cycles to maintain his current existence. This is the one and only case of multiple resurrections."

"According to those close to him, he is extremely cunning and vindictive. If one were to have the misfortune of stepping on his tail… It has been known that he won't hesitate to use a hundred years to prepare for his revenge. And if you had really made him angry, this avenger is absolutely indestructible, bless you. Of course, one can consider the insurance package provided by us pixies (not to help you solve this problem of course, but at least we will give the insurance payments to your descendants.)"

"According to an unknown source (this year's latest report). He once transformed into "the Black Hand Baron" Roland Charname, and later "Aurora Sword Saint" Rolo Danbouer to travel the world. Due to his undying nature, even if the world is destroyed, he will remain standing. So I'll capitulate on this; do not offend him. Otherwise, in your old age, you will never know if this shameless cheater will come back and romance your granddaughter ( This were the exact words of those who were once cheated by him, a source has disclosed that it is his senior from the same school, and this report is highly credible). As you can see, this person is rather psychopathic.."

Very well, should I be glad that I have found someone who understands me? Although the description of one that can't seem to die is a little disgusting, and though it had been written with great prejudice, at least some parts were true. I glared at Amelia who was acting coy.

"A senior girl who was cheated? Amelia! It must be you! How dare you slander me. At least, at least…"

My angry glare earned the sneering of a senior girl.

"… at least give me half of the fee for tipping them off, this is free money! What makes you think you can have them all for yourself!"

"Is that really the main issue? Hey, Roland! You're getting worse than before!"

Very well. I ignored the mischievous Amelia, and turned my attention back to the main topic. Elisa was still dictating the reports about me.

"…whether as the prince of Mist Country or Emperor Yongye, or the "Black hand Baron", he always had records of leading an army to war, and his strategies were all basically the same. One of the reasons the Yongye Plunder could capture so many kingdoms was his outstanding method of utilizing his forces. He preferred to use raiders, and was unafraid of head-on battles. If he did not have absolute confidence he would never face a battle head on. That is his most significant characteristic. His most memorable battle was the battle against Soubel Elves Kingdom, where his opponent's army was three times the size of his and all of them had been equipped with the blade of light, known to be able to defeat spectres, yet they were no match against the elite cavalries he sent. The leading army was reduced to nothing, and the war dragged on for a year and a half, the undead armies obtained victory as they outlasted the enemy.

It seems like the reviews were quite spot-on, at least the war that I was most pleased had not been missed. The strategies were not new, no doubt one of the variants of guerilla tactics, but perhaps only the spectres who do not fear death can execute such suicidal attack to the end.

"When he was a human prince, he left a few pieces of writings such as 'Treaties on Guerilla tactics', 'Collecting intelligence is the most important task in a war', 'Our goal is The Sea of Stars – be a full-fledged coward before being able to win a war'. His diverse and interchangeable war strategies deeply influenced future generations.The long term decree that rewards anyone who brought the head of a Beastman, the "Beastmen Slaughtering" decree, that was mentioned in his book had received many constant criticism, but caused a great impact on the future generations. Besides that, his utilization of the elite cavalry methods to counter attack against the Beastmen tribes while cutting off their escape routes, along the evil yet ingenious idea of poisoning their water source, all these gave him a frightful reputation, especially among the Beastmen. However, in a way, the Beastmen tribes who suffered the greatest damage in history, have in recent times had the longest lasting safe haven in history. The Northlands had peace for more than fifty years, but this caused the rejuvenation of the spirits of the Beastmen tribes, leading to the largest scale of Beastmen attack on the south in a thousand years."

"As his method of strategizing his soldiers were superior, the effects on his military philosophy and thoughts on war were groundbreaking. His military successes were brilliant, and he was once listed as the number 68th on the board of the famous generals in history. However, due to the pressures from kingdoms with past connections with him and churches of the gods, he was taken down from the board. Nevertheless, his military success and strategizing ability were indeed recorded in the Board of War Gods, and due to his indestructibility, I'm afraid he will be in the top 40 on the board of recent famous generals for quite a long time.

After hearing those words, I was at a loss for words. To that end, I can only say that I was too young, and was perhaps a little too overboard in my actions.

In a way I felt a little encouraged, I definitely did not believe that the Black Faced blockhead will buy my information, but since he knew my information, no doubt would he feel a little guilty.

After all, he had just entered the recent board, and on the last place no less. While I was named a famous general in history. Since I am of a higher rank, and among peers, those who are stronger and more famous have a more powerful say in the subject, especially since I am of a higher rank than him.

At this time, as if rendered uneasy by the silence after my speech, Ainro spoke up, the content was very respectful, but his tone sounded a bit strong.

"Your majesty, Roland, I do not know if you felt that there were any mistakes in my strategy, but I would be grateful if you could point them out."

I smiled at the seriousness of Ainro's face, then it seemed that it was judgement time. The same procedure: First throw out some heavyweight bombs to scare them off.

"If it is just fighting on paper then you are not wrong, it is quite the contrary, this setup is very spot-on. If the execution is powerful, then the chances of winning are more than 80 percent…"

At this, as if he thought he had obtained my praise, Ainro touched his chin as he smiled, but I was not yet finished. These three days I spent riding on my horse and wandering around without stopping, gathering and organizing intelligence, and when there were enough intelligence and information collected, only then did I make a judgment.

"But I must say, your setup will just send all the generals and soldiers to their death. All you see are the threats on the chessboard, but you completely forgot to take into account the other chess pieces that were not in the scene!"

"The Earth Elemental God, Emordilorcan have always supported the Blood tribes, and you think that they will not interfere with such an important event as you attack Atoin. I have seen in Auland, the formation of the city of rain, the Water Elemental God and her people directly participating in the invasion of Auland Kingdom, they do not have as many restrictions. To underestimate any of these Ancient Elemental Gods is foolish. I guess when your great generals are at the brink of a decisive battle, earthquakes and the sudden appearance of the Earth Elemental God would be the best ambush."

At this point, those in attendance have already turned a deathly green. Obviously, they had long neglected the existence of those ancient Elemental Evil Gods, and even believed they would not interfere in the conflicts of the human realm.

The look on Ainro's face made me smile, since the right to speak is now in my hands, then, the next piece of explosive information would be even more shocking.

"To march without enough intelligence, I think you are just looking for death. And that wasn't all that you missed."

Ainro started as if he wanted to object, but after hesitating for a moment, he shook his head and kept quiet.

"Forgetting to include Emordilorcan is one of the reasons for your downfall, but it is not the most fatal one. I know that you have other preparations, don't argue with me, but you forgot another dangerous opponent. No, from the beginning you have not thought of seeing them as an enemy. On the contrary, in your eyes they were considered trusted comrades, after all, it has been so many years since we last went to war."

"You are saying?"

"Impossible, perhaps in the West? Perhaps the Wolf King was headed there?"

"No, no, it is completely possible. Their recent behavior has been very strange. If so, then this would explain the Wolf King's journey."

Just after the sentence was completed, the leaders and generals in attendance stood up, and the black-faced Ainlo was pale-faced with shock by this revelation. If this report is true, the whole world will be shocked.

"Yes, Eymond's power far is stronger than all of you have estimated. The Wolf King Saustero, and philosophers of the Fox race, are all his staunch supporters. They dispersed their army and went West because they are planning to open up Akysyos to let the Elf armies in. Yes, your predictions are not wrong, my most trusted long-eared comrades. This time, right from the beginning, they have decided to stand against us. They have too much accumulated grievances to settle with us."

"Elves will soon be declaring war against the humans. And the gods of the elves will soon declare godly war on the gods of humans! And our Northland, will soon become the battlefield of the gods!"

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Chapter 154: The Elves

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The Elves, well-known for their beauty and longevity, lived inside the peaceful forest. They were pure, kind, and lived a simple and self-sufficient life. They typically lived in harmony with nature, but whenever this world is threatened by Evil, they would unhesitatingly rouse themselves for battle, and would fight to their last breath.

Only the children would believe such a fairy tale! If there was a race of such innocence and purity, they would have been exterminated long time ago, by any big war evolved from the stray projectiles from the crossfire.

In Eich, these long-eared folks were doing quite well. They might be beautiful, but they were definitely not kind and naively gullible as the legends suggested. As a powerful and prosperous race, some trickeries in the best interests of their race were inevitable.

"Pure and kind? Where do we find such Elves? In my perspective, the Elves are just a bunch of pretty long ears. Their beauty and longevity are undeniable, but obviously, they have nothing to do with purity and kindness. In fact, ego, brutality and belligerence are their three signature traits!"

Their ego could be justified by their historical background. As the race which had once occupied over seventy percent of the continent, and with their fellow Gods serving as the strongest divine system in the world, the Elves used to have it all. They had been treating the short-lived Humans as uncivilized vulgarians. Granted with an eternal life, well-established traditions, magic and martial arts, they treated all the other races with contempt.

Just like the Pixies, the Elves were divided into factions. The difference was, that all the Pixie members were on equal footing. In the contrary, the Elves practiced an extremely prejudicial hierarchic-cum-caste system, which was determined by their bloodline and could never be transcended.

Akin to the first generation of Humans, the High Elves once graced the earth with their golden footsteps, but they no longer exist. Nevertheless, their lineal descendants (creations), namely the Wood Elves, the Moon Elves, the Night Elves and Silver Elves became the Four Elven Aristocracies, which were superior to the common Elves. In this century, they had built their own kingdom, retaining their aristocratic status.

It was worth mentioning that Harloys, the Princess of the Ancient Elven Kingdom was actually the one who exterminated High Elves, the legendary golden Elves. Their remaining cultural heritage naturally became the treasure that all the Elven Kingdoms strived for. Besides, a lot of Elven royals were claiming themselves to be the true descendants of the Ancient Elven Kingdom.

Of course, even the Elves themselves were not convinced by their own tale. Like everyone, they would glorify their ancestors at times, but to believe such a tale would be a real stretch. It is indeed gratifying that the Simita race did not exist in this world.

Discrepancies always lie between legends and history. History tells us that the golden Elves were a paragon of virtue and perfection, but to think that Harloys was such a deplorable character, what a sickening truth! The prince was usually deviant, while the princess was either a fool or a flower vase*…just like the damned cat. (Speaking to the cat) You dare to bite me? I will load you up into the Goblin's cannon and send you a thousand miles away. I mean it!

(TL Note: In Chinese, the term "flower vase – 花瓶" is used informally describe a woman who is gorgeous but a good for nothing)

Sigh, where did I stop? Alright, since we have been darkening the name of Elves, next I will talk about the Dark Elves.

Now it's really about Dark Elves* ! The Dark Elves actually emerged from the bizarre hierarchical system and regulations of the Elven race.

(TL Note: In Chinese, the word "Dark – 黑" in the term "Dark Elves – 黑 精灵" means "dark" literally, and means "darkening" non-literally. The author is playing with words here, as the narrator actually spoke about the 黑 精灵 (Dark Elves) after he 黑 精灵 (darkened the name of Elves)

The Dark Elves were never in this world until the Night Elves were banished to the Underworld.

Lorci was banished by the fellow Elven Gods, while the Night Elves were banished by the other three Elven aristocracies. Why? It was said that they violated a taboo and hooked up with Chaos. I don't know what the taboo it is, but considering the unusual antecedents of the Night Elves, they had probably altered their bloodline. Aside from God himself, the truth could be told by no one.

The Four Elven Aristocracies were the Superior Elves who carried the Silver bloodline (slightly inferior bloodline). Intermarriage between them had always been forbidden. In the era of Ancient Elven Kingdom, they had even banned inter-communication and accepting jobs, aside those stipulated by the race.

The Gold Elves were born to be royalty, while the Silver Elves were born to the warriors. On the other hand, the Wood Elves served as priests who had the ability to communicate with nature, while the Moon Elves served as the pivotal force of the government. Lastly were the Night Elves, they were in charge of all sort of underground activities.

As for the rest, like the Medium Elves, the Lower Elves, and the hybrid Wild Elves who were disdained, rejected by their own race, they were no more than vassals of the Four Elven Aristocracies. A majority of the Medium Elves and the Lower Elves belonged to the Bronze faction. The hybrid Wild Elves were usually the Blackmetal faction, but a precious few of them could be mutants whose power surpassed even the Superior Elves.

Even today, there are still some old fogeys practicing the law and order enforced by the Ancient Elven Kingdom, that the Four Elven Aristocracies must serve the Golden Elves, and all the other classes of Elves must serve the Four Elven Aristocracies. Such a hierarchy system was perceived as the root of the Elven society.

If a man's fate is predetermined at the moment of his birth, the social progression is in deeper trouble. The gap between different classes would only get bigger, and the contradictions would only lurk beneath the surface, forever unresolved.

In short, the Superior Elves were always of Silver faction, whilst the common Elves belonged to either Bronze or Blackmetal. In the past, the Elves were much more powerful in contrast to Humans who had no distinction of classes. These advantages led to their contempt for the other races. The only shackle restraining them was their low fertility rate and slow growth period.

This is why a Wild Elf like Krose would feel out of place while facing a Wood Elf like Kelly. The Wood Elves were not as mighty as they were, but the formality that flows with her blood, would naturally bring out her discomfort before the Superior Elves.

A social hierarchy like this would definitely come along with a latent fatal risk. Ever since the Ancient Elven Kingdom vanished, and the Golden Elves were extinct, the Four Elven Aristocracies naturally became the top of the pyramid. For one kingdom with four rulers, the dissolution was only a matter of time!

With four Elven Gods in command, conflicts and division were inevitable. As spoken by Harloys herself who was full of resentment, the fall of Ancient Elven Kingdom and division of the Elves were closely related to the fellow Gods of Order, especially the fellow Elven gods.

I have to emphasize that they were asking for it. As one ancient species, Golden Elves could not care less for their descendant Gods, "You were once my vassal, how dare you disregard me right after turning into Gods?" With such ideology going widespread, the true Gods would disregard anyone.

Ironically, this was the how the Elves declined from their golden age, but the rise of Humans would never come without their internal strife.

Let us skip the long chapters and look into the outcome of a series of misfortunes. As the Golden Elves no longer existed, the Elven race was divided into hundreds of kingdoms, scattered all over the world.

The four Superior Elves were having a rough time as well. The Night Elves were banished from the rest altogether, turning into the Dark Elves of the Underworld. The Moon Elves and The Silver Elves might be the primary royal forces in every Elven Kingdom, but there was always bad blood between the two families.

As far as I knew, there were several Elven Kingdoms in the northwest border region, which were ruled by the Moon Elves. They belonged to one of the four Elven families, who had been declaring themselves as the true lineal descendants of the Ancient Elven Kingdom.

In the Northern land, I'm afraid there is no one who knows the Elves better than me, and that knowledge stemmed from rather nefarious intent. Your nemesis always knows you the best, and there were years of deep enmity between the Elves and myself.

One thousand seven hundred years ago, the Human's victory in the last sacred war awarded them with the richest land on the continent. However, the defeated races were in suffering. The Aqua tribe descended to the deep sea and were reduced to the Sea tribe, whilst the Beastmen were driven away to the northern iceland. As for the Protectors of Order like the Humans however, the Elves had no choice but to move their kingdoms to the remote region under the compulsion of the Humans.

"Allies? Would allies send you to the remote region and into the woods? Would they form a hunting party to catch your people and make them best-sellers in the market of slaves? Would allies disregard you after absorbing your magic and knowledge? Would they seize your resource supplies and trade petty salt for your magical craft?

Without mention any more subtexts, I will conclude that the entire race of Humans was indeed nasty. A single reason like trading their people into slavery was more than enough to tread heavily on the Elves' toes.

The crowds of royal peers loved to enslave the Elves for the sake of pride and pleasure, their filthy hands even clambering up to the Superior Elves' bodies. The charming Wood Elves, the innocent Moon Elves, and the lively Silver Elves also had the experience of being sold at auctions for an extortionate price, a price which was never seen before. Such an event had led to several wars.

The Elves were unlike the Humans who lived up to only a hundred. Unfortunately, they were also renowned for having eidetic memories,which caused them to bear a myriad of hatred and grudges over centuries. For the Elves, the grudges built up three generation ago were just like yesterday. If their enemies were dead, they would take revenge on their descendents or countrymen. If none of these existed too, their vengeance would fall on the Human race in general.

The resentment which had been simmering for too long would eventually burst out, but in a time of peace, it would not be heavily surveyed by the fellow Gods of Order. Besides, the Human Gods who were the majority of Gods of Orders would treat the matter with injustice like how they usually did.

Hence, this explosion of resentment would die out quickly. Only when the last obstacle, the fellow Elven Gods, agree to switch their side, only then would there be nothing to stop the hostility between the two races.

Betraying their own people would not be a big deal for the Elven Gods as they had even turned against their former masters. Loyalty was meaningless for someone who had a history riddled with treacheries. It merely depends on what their opponents could offer.

The discerning spectators could have speculated the facts I were telling. But, I have one more here, which emerged from my own investigation.

"Key of the Moon Plan."

Such a beautiful name with such a simple meaning, which was literally "a plan to open the door". The main target of the plan was to prepare for the sacred war, and open the gate to the Central Plains.

Three hundred years ago, the Northern gate was surrounded by a mighty kingdom. As for the Elves, it was just like yesterday…

The fall of the Mist Kingdom went according to the Elves' conspiracy, as the Cardinals who had desired to kill me got a visit from two slaves of Silver Elves. It was never the strong enemies who destroyed the Mist Kingdom, but the backstabbing of a few Humans Kingdoms, together with none other than the "pure and kind" Elven allies.

It was never a cinch to knock down that Kingdom, a lot of colluding between the insidious parties was just enough to deal minor damage, which caused a chain reaction that eventually led to the fall of Mist KIngdom.

My second incarnation was Roland Charname, the Black Handed Baron. As the surname Charname had spoken, my mission was to investigate the insider news. Unfortunately, I was murdered during the mission by the Elven Kingdom armies.

It was not until my third incarnation, Rolo, that I finally traveled across numerous Elven Kingdoms, and gathered sufficient information from their database and libraries. Several times, I had even stepped into their palaces.

Only with all these efforts, it came the time for the mad revenge of Yongye's Army. My first target was absolutely the Elven Kingdom! At the height of madness, even the forbidden curse of destruction, which had been used on the Humans in hesitance, was cast directly on the Elves without mercy. The entire Elven Kingdom was then crushed within the curse.

Looking at their vindictive nature, I was afraid I would top their Wanted list for a perpetual period of time. Revenge against me was inevitable.

Never judge a book by its cover, I had always been wary of the Elves. On hearing the news that the Wolf King was marching to the west, I had dispatched my troopers and spies towards there. Meanwhile, my informants in the Elves had brought me sufficient information.

"I have been here for three days, waiting for my informants. The Moon Glaive Army of the Tassel Elven Kingdom have moved away from their camp, eastwards, similar to the other Elven kingdoms. Do you think the long ears are coming to our assistance?"

There must some clues to the secret activities within the Elven Kingdom. The Gods of Law had been watching over the conspiracies between the fellow Elven gods and the Gods of Chaos. Owing to the frequent notice and warning by the cathedrals, everyone was astonished by my judgment, and without even suspecting it, they started to think about the next step.

"How is this possible? The Elves and the Beastmen are bitter enemies!"

"You fool! Two enemies are allies in front of a common enemy. And what are allies? Ask those Elven slaves in your house."

"Not all the Elves wanted to fall out with the Humans. Was it a clan, or just a tribe?"

"Please validate the truth before jumping to the verdict. Your majesty, it was not a query, but could you provide more relevant information?"

I turned abruptly and walked away from the clamour.

The information I had thrown meant a lot, which will definitely keep the leaders of all countries occupied for validation, organization, and reporting. By then, their reckless march would be stopped, and my target was achieved.

In such chaos, I was not interested to carry out any discussions, as I had a lot of things in hand, I did not have the mood and time for them.

I would not count on these guys, and the Borealis was arriving soon. With these reinforcements, this time, we shall hold nothing back! The new weapons, the new tactics, and the new soldiers, will bring about a new world. Let this inevitable war be my experimental plot! (To be continued)

TL Notes

1. In Chinese, the word "Charname – 查内姆" is homophonic to the word "查内幕", which means "investigate the insider news")

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Chapter 155: A War Without Mercy

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Akysyos Fortress, was dubbed by the Elves as "Shinkerin Shinker", which means "The Sinland" in their language.

Being the Humans' Fortress closest to the Northern Elven Kingdom, it served as the major pathway to all the Elven countries. It was also the main source of supplies for the Slave Hunters. Naturally, it turned out to be the best trading market for Elven slaves in the northern region.

Amongst the Elves of all regions, the northern Elves were considered the weakest. Unfortunately, their neighbouring kingdom, the Sleuweir could do nothing to hinder the slave trade for big merchants from all countries. Hence, this "trade route" became a "disastrous" location to perform Elven slave trading.

The wired second-hand dealers were helping the peerages and the agencies of special goods to get the latest stocks. Meanwhile, the ruthless mercenaries who were awaiting orders, as well as the city guard officers and troops stood aside like nothing had happened. It was not surprising that the Elves would call that place "The Sinland".

The merchants would risk for a hundred percent profit. For a profit over three thousand percent, they would trample all the world's law without a hesitation. Regardless of whether they were ordinary, superior or even the half-Elves, the Elven children, men, and young women had all brought them an extraordinary income. Hence, the Akysyos had become their first choice for a tourism spot.

Of course, he would never answer you, as he, together with his kingdom had been sealed within the ice receptacle. Their bodies would remain fresh in the Ice Age for hundreds of years, probably until even the day they melts.

And that day, was the doomsday for the bloody Akysyos, along with all its slave dealers.

Just as the Beastmen armies invaded the castle from the rear, the Moonglaive army of the Tassel Elven Kingdom ambushed an interim camp of the merchants. They were coming to the rescue of their princess.

The imprisoned Princess of the Moon Elves, was found in the merchants' basement, with her body pathetically mangled. This had infuriated the surrounding Elves, the little ambush thus grew into a mad rampage.

Influenced by some malicious people, the Elven slaves eventually engaged in the rampage too. After wiping out the prison guards and mercenaries, they had snatched their weapons and opened the gate.

The time had finally come for an ethnic cleansing. At this moment, the arrogant Elves would gladly accept any help from the Beastmen. Resorting to violence like the Beastmen, they had developed an inclination for a sadistic pleasures besides assuaging their resentment. They even praised the Beastmen for their inhumane massacres.

A strongly worded declaration of war was very soon delivered to Antoin which was under the Beastmen's attack. Tassel Elven Kingdom and the other Elven Allies were declaring war against the Sleuweir.

The third party's interference in the war had brought astonishment to the whole world. Myriads of letters were drifting to the north like the snowflakes, and the cathedral envoys were running back and forth. Unfortunately, the communication canal had been sealed.

Meanwhile, at the protection area of Moon Glaive Army, the face of Commander Alven Newleaf was filled with grief and sympathy, as he stared at the severely injured Moon Elven girl who was deeply asleep.

"Your Majesty, are you cold-blooded? Princess Suana was still a young girl, and she was your one and only daughter."

Being an aristocrat of the Moon Elves, Alven shared a blood kinship with Atrion, the emperor of Tassel Kingdom, therefore the injured Elven princess was considered his niece.

As the executor of "Key of the Moon Plan", Alven was the one who actually knew the whole story, when the other Elves were seized by anger, lynching the slave merchants.

"Those damned old creatures were trying to kill her!"

Suana Newleaf, the Princess of Tassel Kingdom, was the only descendant of the Emperor of Elves. Nevertheless, to get the approval of war declaration and to gain support from the elders, she was sacrificed for the political exchange. The next Emperor of Elves would have to be the nephew of the chief of the council.

Aside from political interest, Suana was chosen as the sacrifice due to her role as the leader of the Peace-pursuing faction of the Elves, despite her young age. The solidarity amongst her followers were as firm as rock. Beloved and respected by all her people, in any way if she was hurt, the Elves would certainly be filled with hatred and animosity. Wrath of the people would be incessant, and the war would be unstoppable.

To fully utilize Suana, the ruthless schemer had made use of the most malevolent slave merchants, the most deplorable buyers, a well-planned engagement, and a brutal slave hunter, which finally led the honourable princess down this path.

"…Water…water."

A feeble voice pulled the surrounding female officers closer. Alven could not withstand watching the misery of princess anymore.

"Your highness, please just say the words, Alven would do anything for you"

It was obvious to all that Suana, who had suffered such tremendous physical and mental damage, would not survive. This terrible scene was more than what Alven could bear. Finally, he made a promise to himself, that this was the end of his tolerance, and he would then accomplish any wishes of the princess at any costs.

"…Re…venge…"

Hearing this, Alven was puzzled. To fall into such inexplicable misfortune, it was only natural that the little anti-war princess would harbour such resentment. It was pathetic that she had not realised the real culprit behind all of these.

With her withered lips moving slightly, it looked like Suana was trying to speak something but she was powerless to do so.

Only by moving closer, Alven was able to hear her small groan.

"Do…n't…Don't….avenge me, I….want peace, I don't want..don't want war."

Her alabaster face was filled with scars. After much struggling to deliver her last wish and making sure it was heard clearly, the most beautiful rose in Tassel lost her final colour, she had given up her life, withered and perished.

Upon learning the death of their dearest Suana, the fellow Elves had gone insane.

"Her highness is dead! Her highness is dead!"

"It was all because of the damned Humans!"

"Revenge! A blood for a blood, a tooth for a tooth, that is not even enough or these scoundrels! We need the fresh blood of their wives and daughters to pay respect to her spirit of Princess Suana in heaven!"

"Not yet, the Elves do their vengeance in ten fold! We need ten times the amount of blood as offerings!"

An uproar reverberated through the skies, as even the female officers in the palace had vowed to avenge their princess at any cost. Being the only one amongst the crowd who actually heard her last wish, Alven was sinking into silence.

He opened his mouth as his head was spinning. Trying to speak something but his thoughts were all in a muddle, he ended up saying nothing at all.

"…Forgive me, your highness. I am afraid I have to go back on my words, everyone has gone out of control. As I'm about to fight with the destroyer of our kingdom, I will probably apologize to you face to face very soon.

—————-

Upon hearing the news of Suana's death and declaration of war by the Elves, I was not even surprised. I had to say if my speculation was right, for the Elves to deviate from the Order, Suana must not only die, but die horribly.

Reason? There was no actual reason. Every war needed one reason to start. Not to mention the Elves who had always flattered themselves as a race of upright justice and peace, they would certainly call for a strong reason.

Suana herself was a perfect sacrifice. Aside from her high reputation, she had always opposed the war, proposing harmonious coexistence with the Humans, and seeked to resolve all conflicts by communications. This had rendered her a thorn in the flesh of the War-pursuing faction and the fellows Elven gods.

How did I know about her? Were we close? I was imprisoned in the Sulphur Mountain City when she was born. We never spoke and recognised each other, but I did know about her.

"Sure enough, the real world is not dramatic, in the end, the lucky Suana failed to ascend to the Queen of Elves…"

In the dramatic "history", as the leader of the Peace-pursuing faction she had issued a mythical mission of incredible rank. With the help of both Elf players and Human players, she had finally annihilated the War-pursuing faction which included her dad and the council. She ascended the throne and even fought to be the Queen of Elves later. In the end, she successfully persuaded all the Elves to remain in the Order faction.

Ever since the Four Elemental Gods turned out not to be sealed by the "players" according to the "history plot", I had discerned a number of idiotic flaws in the strategy guide. In that "history" at least, the few significant events would be completely different from what the gamers abroad had in mind.

Reality is not a game, this mistake had given me a real lesson.

In consequence, I had cleaned up the "history"and reevaluated it by taking the real world as the benchmark. Quite a number of flaws were actually discovered.

The mysterious fall of the Four Elemental Gods, was to furnish the "players" with a greater sense of participation and achievement, and also to free the early stage in the game from unbeatable opponents. Judging from the baffling plot, however, one could easily tell that it was deduced by the game story writer using the Hand of God, as it was not based on facts.

(TL Note: Hand of God refers to a goal scored by Diego Maradona in 1986 World Cup using his hand but wasn't seen by the referee. Later in Chinese, "Hand of God – 上帝之手" is used to describe a mean to achieve something without conforming to human's law of nature)

Besides, Queen Suana who was graced as "Light of the New Moon" and "The Moon of Luck" had lived a legendary yet incredible life. For how she came to know the players' heroes in a blind alley, for how she exposed the crime of her father and the council, for how she achieved a peace agreement so the Humans and the Elves would work together to weather the storm, all these contingencies were comparable to winning a lottery. To break through such tragic circumstances, was even tougher than to slay a dragon barehanded. Therefore, this series of tide-turning legendary stories would no doubt become the best-selling novels!

"Damn, here comes another hole. It seems that the story writer was keeping all the Elf players in the Order Faction with the Hand of the God again. Of course, that was just a game, who could accept such a strange plot where all the people suddenly switched to the same camp. Being a real world, Eich had no such thing as the main protagonist of a story.

Unfortunately, Eich was not a game, and Suana was not destined to be the emperor, so she was dead, miserably so. In the end, her death had become the spark of the war she hated the most. This was indeed a perfect irony, but also a warning sign for me.

"I have only one opportunity, everything's over if I fail this. Hence, there must be no risk involved, all the bad consequences must be taken into account, as any additional preparation is always a plus."

At this moment, however, I suddenly regretted, because some of the things should have been done far more modestly.

"Aren't you guys going too far? I was only asking for several supporting equipment, what are all of these you have brought me?"

In front of me was Pier Papin (Runa's Daddy), the vice captain of Borealis. He was demonstrating the equipment requested by me.

"Sailor outfits? Fake animals' ears? You call these weapon equipment? What I want are single-soldier communication devices and enchanted armours, did you hear wrongly?"

A muscular man dressed in a skinny-fit women's sailor outfit, flaunting his muscular figure beneath the tight outfit was indeed disgusting. Besides exposing his two thick legs, this muscular man in sunglasses had even put on the cute fox ears and tail, one could hardly stand the sight of this!

"Yes, your highness. These are what you requested. Look, this pair of fake ears are installed with a call function, the magic bullet within it allows more than two hundred times of short-distant calls. Also, the wide-eared design is very intelligent, it's able to improve the data transmission rate. This skinny-fit enchanted armour may look thin, but it will harden to be as solid as metal once you activate its magic bullet as well. As it's so thin, you can even wear one of it as the underwear, then put on another one as the armour. Double protection, safe and assuring!"

"And this Fox tail is more than a decoration, it actually contains a small battery which can recharge all the body equipment for more than three times. It is estimated that a single soldier will use those equipment for more than three hours."

Unbelievably, I had tested and found these equipment to be super effective. Many theoretical limitations had been overcome and their completion was much beyond expectation.

"Who is the designer? I would like to have a serious chat with him. Has our technology advanced so rapidly? Why implement such decent technology on these strange designs? Can't he make something normal? Something just like plate armours and headsets!"

"The chief designer, Little Timmy Lade was here a moment ago. There were some who questioned him too, he answered 'The well-concealed equipment were the best to play a crucial role, not to mention, cuteness is the true justice!' That seemed to be his principle as a designer, and nobody was able to change his mind."

At this point, Pier shook his head in disappointment. He wasn't regretting how he failed to change Timmy's mind, but how Timmy had turned down his suggestions all the way, which was just to add one naval outfit in the samples.

"It appears that people with different principles could never plan something together. A little kid could never discern the romance in the large metal warship and heavy artillery. Lady warships are obviously the most gorgeous… but following your instructions, he should be marketing the lite version of the enchanted armour and communication animal's ears to the coalition army right now."

"Yes, he was impressed by the creativity you have, especially how you used your ally units as guinea pigs."

"Little Timmy?"

This had prompted me to recall the name of the little kid under my sister's guardian. Was it again the Hand of God that had assisted him? How could he instantly rise to such a great fame?

"Certainly, a lot of things had happened in the middle. He was just a little kid. Anyway, why do these designs keep reminding of one wicked man…Wait, you said that he is now promoting the lite version of the enchanted armours to the coalition army? And that includes these messy and inexplicable things?"

"Yes, here is the purchase order by Lord Olivia, she asked for your thorough review. These products are designed by Little Timmy Lade. There are twenty-seven kinds of animals ears, such as cat ears, dog ears, fox ears, etc. There are nineteen kinds of enchanted armours, in the form of swimming suits, bikinis, black and sexy lingerie, etc. There are four kinds of chargeless magic swords, and three hundreds of them for each kind. At last, there are four kinds of demonic explosive grenades, and two thousands of them for each kind. The grenades are a weakened version which is specially modified. Please send this data back to the headquarters immediately. Is there any question?"

"Big question! Can these toys be sold? How am I going face the people tomorrow?"

To think that I was peddling underwear to the generals of all countries, I really wanted to kill myself.

Perhaps the news would spread across all countries on tomorrow, and everyone would be jeering me for taking the path of a pervert, I must stop this from happening before it's too late.

"He has just left for a while, hasn't he? Alright, I just need to stop him as soon as possible. It would be great if I catch him alone, as that will only be treated as a prank of a kid."

After all, the Bear kids were notorious for their pranks, so the adults should be able to comprehend it. Yes, they should be, reluctantly. It had taken a load off my mind by thinking this way.

"Oh no! Lord Xueti had joined the party and even volunteered to be the model. The last time I saw him, he was wearing a pink swimming suit that revealed his belly, and a pair of rabbit ears… I must say, that was a total tragedy, and the researchers had vomited on sight."

"…Your expression not convincing at all. You are nothing better. Ughhh, stop him now!"

Compared to the big guy in sailor suit at the front, with a little imagination, one could figure out how disgusting is the outlook of the stupid cow in pink midriff-exposing swimming suit, it could make everyone go blind. Who would have thought that he even acted cute by putting on the rat ears! At that moment, I would rather destroy this world than to bear the imminent humiliation.

At least, I would not need to prevent that from the happening.

"Chase him! The pervert beastman is heading towards there!"

"Barf, our brothers have thrown up in disgust. Can we chase later?"

"…must catch him before more victims appear. Hunters? Keep chasing."

"Chasing is not even needed, just follow these vomiting residents as the sign! Even my baby is fainting. An army dog which has been in training for almost ten years is still unable to stomach this horrible sight."

Looking out of the window, I immediately covered my eyes and knelt down.

"You fellows know no limit, I will transfer you all to the mines for mining!"

Not to mention about the foremost Minotaur in a pink belly-exposing swimsuit, for a muscular man who was two meters tall but wearing a women's swimsuit, it was indeed a living blasphemy. Elaboration would be unnecessary, as the scene of thick belly shaking periodically below the swimsuit while running was more than enough to render the spectators blind.

Behind him, there were even more "surprises".

The goblin, Kabala was wearing the trendy white nurse costume, but with his neurotic appearance, he looked more like a psychiatric patient who needed treatment. Meanwhile, Casio was wearing a black erotic lingerie which covered the two nipples. It was almost impossible for one to stare at a Centaur with his two nipples covered!

The twin-headed Wendigo was wearing cat ears on his left head, dog ears on his right head, and a maid costume on his body. To one's surprise,he even put on lipstick on his bloody mouth… As one who was especially fond of maid costume, my eyes had gone blind right away.

For Beifeng… he was very normal, but his eyes were glaring at his comrades who were wearing the animal ears. He seemed to be thinking about hunting these people down. At this moment, I genuinely oppose the design of animal-ears communication devices! It was too dangerous in the presence of Beifeng.

"You bunch of bastards! I'd rather you all went streaking!"

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Chapter 156: Fortification

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

TThere was an ongoing debate about truth and culture in my office. I, on the other hand, was receiving a challenge from a junior.

"As a race that openly looked down on the other races has no future, those foolish long ear-ers are the most obvious examples! If you look upon the younger and different races as savages, you have as well closed the gate of advancement."

"Yes, well said! Keeping the old ways of thinking and closing up one's mind will only lead to mental rigidity, and one will, at last, be left behind times."

"That is why, we should be adept at learning the cultures of other races, perhaps today, they will be looked upon as wannabes, uneducated, uncultured, wild and unruly, but who knows, they will be looked upon by future generations as pioneers! Any artist who is more advanced than his era, has always, in the beginning, not been accepted in his own era."

"Yes indeed, there are a lot of such examples, many of the classics today are unconventional revolutionaries of the past. The non-mainstream bands of the past have, to everyone's surprise, become superstars, and those strange convoluted looking puzzles actually became some sort of impressionist's holy work. For an old-timer such as me, it is really confusing. Perhaps I will never ever begin to understand, but I will not hinder the development of new conceptions, on the contrary, I will even try to support them."

"Glad that you understand. Your majesty, we are progressing into a new era, to build a thriving new era, we must accept the cultures of other races and personal preferences. To respect and attempt to understand is the beginning of all communication, and this world is in such chaos because it is lacking sensible and wise people like you."

"Hehe, Little Timmy, you and your silver tongue, you flatter this old man's heart with your words."

"Well the, what about my designed plan?"

"Hehe, it still won't do."

Seeing Timmy Lade sputter and frustrated, I grinned cruelly, you scum humiliated me and told the world I was vengeful and petty, then I shall show you how vengeful I could be.

"You say all these just so that your cat-eared communication devices, animal-tailed battery, armoured swimsuit series can be approved? Are you serious? Or do you think I am so easily tricked by sweet words? True, I have always respected the culture of other races, but are you certain that these perverted inventions are according to normal aesthetic standards, and not just to satisfy your selfish desires? You dare to swear it on your conscience? Do you dare swear it on your sister's reputation?

Good, Timmy Lade was at a lost for words now, but I continued.

"What's more, even if it is for your selfish desires, your considerations are way too simple. Everyone says that the maid look is good, and you know that I do indeed like the maid outfit, but how would look if a 6 feet tall strong man with a three feet waistline wore this maid costume? It burned my eyes, and I had completely lost all my senses! I had to stare at Elisa the whole night to recover from that!"

"…you are way too naive, all you thought about was the youth and cuteness of young ladies in bikinis, but you had never thought about the horror of old ladies in these swimsuits. You only thought about sailor girls and young girls, but never about the old women who think they are sexy sailor girls or hot witches. And don't even get me started with those old men and their hairy legs and chest. They burned my eyes, I had nightmares that entire night!"

I was not exaggerating this time, I could vividly describe the scenes in the dream right now.

"In that nightmare, a bunch of buff strong men wearing the maid costume were marching in an orderly manner, and giving me the army's salute. They perked up their butts as they swayed as if on the catwalk, and purposely raised the little witch's wand as they shouted the war cries, some nonsense like "representing the moon to punish you", "love and bravery", and that's not all, there are other mentally polluting ones like "Niko Niko Niko", "I didn't take my medicine today, and I feel that I am so cute", what is going on!"

"There's more, I am not saying that I am that educated, but what do they think they're doing, raising one arm and shouting "Hail, the King of Gents!". Isn't that sort of plagiarism a little too obvious? I'm not some King of Gents!"

My roar could be heard from outside the walls, but that was only the beginning of my venting. Due to that strange parade, I was so shaken that I couldn't sleep after that, and was staring at Elisa with my blood-rimmed eyes for half the night, she must have thought that I had gone completely insane.

"Scoundrels are not scary, what's scary are cultured scoundrels. Perverts are not scary, what's scary are perverts with knowledge. Naughty children creating mischief are not scary, what's scary is when their mischief goes unpunished!

It has been years ever since I had it so bad. Even my reputation got dragged into this and developed towards this strangeness. How could it be possible if I didn't take my revenge.

Naughty children must be disciplined, the more twisted they were the earlier they should be corrected and reprimanded. Otherwise, it was only a matter of time before they evolved into mega naughty children.

"Bam!" At the snap of my fingers, the main door was thrown wide open, a group of burly looking men glided in, they were all strongly-built, but wearing the costumes designed by Timmy Lade… Well, I won't describe them in detail as I still wanted to have lunch later, anyway, even if I managed to shut my eyes before I saw them, the sound of the flesh bumping against each other made me nauseated.

"…I think I can guess your preference since this is your own design, then you should enjoy this properly!"

"Wait a moment, your majesty, I know what I did was wrong! Argh! Get your chest off me, that is so disgusting, don't rub your oily face against mine, my Lord, help, I see that I am wrong now!"

Even though I closed my eyes before seeing the scene, the tortured screams of a naughty child still made my heart glad.

"Wrong? Play with your new friends for a few hours and think about it. Take him away."

"Little Timmy, my apologies, these are the orders of his majesty. But relax, the leader has already approved your application to join the Gentlemen Alliance, from now on we are all brothers. After he allows the remaining few of his core members down the flagpole, we can hold an initiation ceremony for you. Everyone likes your design very much, so your designs can be directly passed through internally in our team, so you need not worry about the lack of research funding."

"…wait wait, when did I ever applied to join some alliance for perverts… don't touch me, I brought honor to Mist Kingdom! I bled for his majesty! You can't do this! You can't! Your majesty, I beg of you, hang me on the flagpole too."

As I heard that he volunteered to be hanged on the flagpole, I started to discern his repentance. Timmy Lade had probably learned his lesson this time, and would think over carefully before doing anything in the future, thereby, I made a decision.

"Hehe, no way!"

A naughty child's promise? Even if he was sincere when he made the promises, but judging by the forgetfulness of naughty children, they can completely forget about their toys after two days, and if he wasn't severely punished this time, then the next time he'll most probably make the same mistake. I shall let you remember this for the rest of your life.

"Aaaaargh! Sister, princess, your majesty, save me! Idiot! Don't touch my ass! Aaargh, my first kiss. I was saving it for sister!"

Good, that tortured scream was delightful, and hearing this naughty child's scream, my mood seemed to be better.

"Oh by the way, add some spice for the guys hanging on the flagpole, let the demonic marksman use them as targets, don't let them be idle. Don't worry, target practising has never killed anyone. Don't think I do not know, these guys are experienced now that they have been hanging for so long, "What is the most energy saving pose to sleep when you are hanged upside down?". Ha! I'd like to see how you sleep while you are being shot at."

After settling all these nuisances, it was now time to put my attention on serious matters.

My Undead patrols and Aurora Air Cavalry were reputed as the highest-rank spies amongst the battlefield. With their efforts, I had a certain amount of confidence about the battlefield.

I had no idea what the allied armies were doing on their side, but there had been several military meetings where I was not even invited, most likely they were up to some schemes. Of course, I had made my own calculations on this, the information that I shared was chosen very carefully.

Putting aside their years of prejudice, Beastmen and Elves were working together closely, whereas humans were playing political games among themselves, no matter how I looked at it, the situation on our side was unfavourable.

However, since the Elves made their entry, I was no longer worried about the problem in Antoin. This was not a military problem, but a political one.

If my predictions were not wrong, the elves were raising the flag of vengeance, the war was on the horizon, and will eventually involve the mega powerful countries of Humans as well as the cathedrals. And then, since they had declared war against Sleuweir, if Antoin falls, and Sleuweir razed to the ground, should they not consider returning back home?

I was afraid this was the reason of Beastmen being inconsistent with their invasion of the city. The Antoin of Sleuweir was but a large bait in the plan. If the bait was dead before the plan could be executed, then how the plan plays out had to be reconsidered.

Considering the current situation, if the final battle was lost, killing half of the seven kingdoms in the Northlands should be enough. However, if any of the mega kingdoms interfere, for example, San Antonio with personal connections, those little elven kingdoms in the Northland would not stand a chance.

"Elisa, do you know the inside story? Have you any news?"

"None, this is not part of our responsibility, but I can smell the stench of devils in this. Their hands had played a part in this chaos, it is their favourite game to come up with all these pointless evil schemes. If the demons were leading, they would have definitely begun with the blood sacrifice to summon the demon generals. When the army arrives, they will steamroll through the whole way, these useless little tactics are so laughable."

Indeed, this also matched my understanding of the two races of Chaos faction. Demons had been known to be lurking among other races, to create disputes or to hatch evil plans, with many devilish strategies.

"No, I must go and have a look."

Sitting at home, blindly giving instructions is not my style when the situation is unclear to me, hence, I did not hesitate when I jumped onto my steed, the Frigid Nightmare, and rode to the front lines to investigate.

——————————

The flying Frigid Nightmare suddenly transformed into its ethereal form, dodging the lightning casted by the Lightning Eagles. I transformed into War Angel forms while I was in the mist, and silently flew away from the clouds.

"Dismissed!"

At the next moment, just as the Lightning Eagle Knights had their attention shifted towards Irene, whose body just recondensed again, in that split second, the giant sword coming from up above struck them down straight away.

With the strength of Irene's legs, Antoin shouldn't be far, but these air cavalries, who kept intercepting along the way were indeed troublesome. I had already met four of these little groups on my way. Although Lightning Eagles who had Hammerburst as their only superpower, were not difficult to be dealt with, their extreme speed and outstanding eyesight certainly made them worthy opponents, one might run but might not escape, and would be at last forced to swallow all their attacks.

At this stage, even my transfiguration and Irene's invisibility which could be performed only thrice per day, had all been forcefully spent, it seemed that we had reached our limit.

Not far from here, Antoin was surrounded, but I would not take a step further as the alarm in the Beastmen's camp had rang out abruptly. Uncountable air cavalries started flying up into the air, two-legged flying dragons, Lightning Eagles, bird-bodied witches, and as if all these traditional soldiers were not enough, I even saw a young green dragon knight.

"This has completely sealed off the air route towards Antoin. Let's go home, Irene."

Just as I sent orders to back home, the black cat which was hiding from the wind in the snuck out by itself.

"Don't be hasty, circle around more, do you see what is below those stone pillars? Look closer, God forbid there will be new problems."

Very well, a word from the expert, and the officer broke his leg running. After I flew around the stone pillar twice and began playing hide-and-seek with the little green dragon for a full ten minutes, Harloys finally nodded and began speaking.

"It has been confirmed. Go back, since they have decided to act this way, I'm afraid that the final battle is before us."

"Why is that?"

I skillfully dodged the dragon's breath attack from behind, while I leisurely flicked my middle finger towards the dragon rider. This dragon did not even have a fully formed beard, I reckoned he was not yet a hundred, he might even be a livestock from a Beastman's farm. Perhaps his abilities were quite strong, but totally inferior in terms of experience on the battlefield.

After Irene transformed into a bird form and flew at full throttle, the green dragon was nowhere to be seen after mere minutes. After we managed to shake off the Beastmen air cavalries, I could finally ask Harloys on her discovery.

"All of you meat on a stick, how could you possibly understand the secrets of sorcerers… don't shake, don't shake, I'll fall! Fine, I'll tell you, the Earth elemental beings are building a city. You must have heard of the Fort of Elements, perhaps in a few days there will be another gigantic city around here. At that time, you will be invading a big city whereas they will be attacking a small city. Oh, that would be amusing."

I shook my head in disbelief.

"Don't play with me, Fort of Elements can only be summoned on the elemental plane. This is but the main plane.

"Yes, this is then the second problem, the main gate to the Earth elemental plane is opening as we speak, very soon you will be swarmed with uncountable stone men."

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Chapter 157: Plundering the Foundation

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

No matter how unsettled and agitated the world below was, there was always a calming peace beyond the sea of clouds.

In my eyes, clouds moved, formed, and changed shape in sync with their own slow rhythm. Just looking at them was sufficient to slow down the heartbeat and mind, the heart would be at peace, but the aggregation of the wind before the eyes was certainly out of control.

Above the throne high in the clouds, a raging cyclone aggregated into a dark vortex, from which the Lightning Fury was overflowing without a halt, and his roar was as resonant as the thunderstorm.

Yes, it was him, not it, the powerful Wind Elemental God, Camdian, the last member of the four great Elemental Gods, and also the youngest among them.

"Puny little thing, do you mean to say, that dull-witted block of stone actually planned to open the main gate towards the Earth elemental plane, on the main plane? That is absolutely impossible! Even if it is him, he would never be able to sustain such an enormous rate of consumption. Besides, this is different from the agreement we had in the beginning!"

It sounded like an interrogation, it sounded like a question, and after hearing this, I just smiled.

"Agreement? Ow, Lord Camdian, did you just come upon the stage? You actually believe in verbal agreements? Let me guess, the agreement you had must be that each of you would fight their own wars, and the lands you win would be yours to keep."

The storm continued whirling, an indistinct face remained solemn. However, this solemness was explanation enough, in a sense, this sketchy agreement is also the only agreement that could be accepted.

"Haha, speaking about honour with demons and dark gods, I applaud you for even thinking of that! Do you think, that if you were in such a position, someone would be willing to help you open the main gate towards the Wind elemental plane, the gate towards the territory of howling gales? But what about your relationship with Emordilorcan? Haha."

"Besides a few special planes, a main elemental plane must maintain its balance. Regarding the reality of the situation of Eich Continent, the great philosopher Aristotle once brought up the subject of the four elements. In his eyes, everything was made up of Earth, Water, Air and Fire, and can be separated into solid, liquid, air, and plasma states. At the same time, the four elements were also the combination of dryness, wetness, coldness, hotness, and other properties. For example, dryness and coldness produce Earth, and Water contains wetness and coldness. The ensemble of all must remain balanced, and thus between the elements, competition for the land would always persist, this is the fundamental law of the world.

"From any perspective, the properties of the elements are all different. Yet they are always in pairs. The flames that represent high temperature and the ice that represents low temperature; the land that represents solid and the storm that represents a free state, they fight each other yet achieved balance, this was decided by the basic properties of the element. When this world and the rocky caves of the Earth elemental plane are chained together, do you think there is still a place in this world for you to interfere, Wind Elemental God? Perhaps you and your race, will forever be sealed within this world."

The solemn silence continued, but from how Lightning Fury flowed over this entire gigantic body, my message was successfully delivered. As the two were old rivals, Camdian certainly knew that once the Earth Elemental plane and the main plane interlocked, it would not end well for him too.

"This time, I come to represent the Gods of Law, with the purpose of extending the hand of friendship, to a great existence such as yourself. Why should you bend your knee before the junior? There are many things we could discuss further."

"Order faction? Hehe, do you think there are any differences between them and those bastards from the Chaos faction?"

"No, I only represent the Gods of Law. Of course, there are some big-shots that I can not reveal."

He extended his arm, and within the white crystal ball was a message that could only be heard by the designated receiver, and just as the shining crystal ball finished transmitting the message, he crushed it with his large hand.

"Do you think, with a clever tongue, you can convince the mighty peak of Winds to serve you? Get out of my sight! I do not wish to look at you now."

The order of expelling guests rang out like a thunderstorm. I turned and left without a word, but with a smile on my lips.

From what I understood about this old antique being, not only did he not order his guards to attack me, but instead gave out the order that I was to leave. This meant that he was convinced, and appreciated the gesture.

There were no complete secrets in this world, the news of my rendezvous with Camdian would not be utterly airtight, a bad parting such as this was, in fact, the best ending. From my view, as long as no swords were drawn, it meant that the deal was done. If that fellow actually wanted to repudiate, he would have crushed the ball without looking at it.

"Earth Elemental God? Fort of Elements? Haha, Emordilorcan, I have found you a worthy opponent. Hmph, if you could lure the Elves from the Order faction, why I couldn't lure the Wind elements from the Chaos faction?"

Before a country, a war is the birth of politics. A war is for benefits, and behind every sudden war, there are the invisible arms and batons.

At this point, I could almost visualise the plan from the Chaos faction.

In this whole sacred war, the invasion of the elements was just the appetizer. Their core benefit was still to increase the degree of the elemental tide, to prepare for the upcoming Entree.

Perhaps it was unfair to the Beastmen and the Elves, but in a sense, their actions of war were just a form of voting, and more importantly, it was but a camouflage of the real strategy of the Chaos faction.

"The interlocking of Elemental planes? What a joke."

If the elemental tide being blown up by the four great Elemental Gods was one on the scale of 1 to 10, then the complete interlocking of an elemental plane was, fearfully, at least ten. Then, all the strategies of the Chaos faction could then be brought forward.

"If the invasion of demons and the arrival of dark Gods happens now, who can stop them! Most importantly, this is not some game where you only need to accomplish your mission, and the enemies will not come one at a time to increase your level, they will come all at once! The elemental gate must not be opened!"

To increase the elemental tide is a gradual process, countless elemental creatures on the main plane would be killed, or banished to their own elemental plane. Remaining elements would be dissipated across the whole world. The Elemental Tide would then rise because of this.

Not to mention the influence of elemental Fort of Elements and tremendous Earth elemental reinforcements towards the situation on the battlefield, just based on the strategic significance, I did not wish in any way to see the Elemental gates being opened.

But if I were to stop it, there was one problem.

I would not be able to defeat it.

Yes, I could not do it, there was no chance at all. The opening of the Earth Elemental plane will of course be done personally by the Earth Elemental God. Should one stop him from that, he would definitely fight you to the death.

Although Emordilorcan was not highly ranked among the Elemental Gods, and did not have any notable achievements, just the fact that he could survive to this day albeit his horrible relationship with the other Elemental Gods, was more than enough to prove his astounding might.

It had been said, as the oldest existence of the four Elemental Gods (if a God of Element dies, a new King of Element would be ascended to the God of Elements), he was thus reputed by all as the strongest Elemental God. I was afraid his abilities weren't below any of the Gods.

Demigods could be killed by being swarmed by a sea of soldiers. But with such an existence, unless there was an intervention from the gods, with such an opponent, sending any number of people was to no avail.

Therefore, I thought of looking for help.

The group of true Gods from the Order faction need not be considered, but the one going on a hunting trip with the Black Winged people, wasn't he Camdian, the nemesis of Emordilorcan?

Was he an enemy? Indeed, but what could be done? The Elves and the Elven Gods were still the allies of humans, every sacred war brought about a reformation of the forces across the whole continent, such events like the switching of sides and betrayals, were too common.

Therefore, after finding out that Camdian and the Black Winged people were not far from the Northland, I rushed here personally without a word, even though this "not far from here" was at least half a month's journey.

"Realising that the Earth Elemental gate is not something that could be done at once, the Chaos faction would definitely not like to see the final battle take place yet. Antoin, on the other hand, will be safe."

Regarding Camdian, it was still handled by me. These old antiques were very particular about reputation and ostentation, and if these were lacking, you were considered lucky if they just showed you the door, as normally they would just destroy you. Especially in such an important persuasion, sincerity was even more stressed upon. Obtaining the anticipated answer, I was now a little more relieved.

Stepping into the long-awaited vulture-shaped assault ship, I started my own journey home. Even with the short-noticed preparation, the signals from the front lines remained unbroken.

The drivers started preparing themselves.

"A strange peace remained on the battlefield, the Elves seemed to be reorganizing their troops, the main legions of four countries are moving, the total numbers have already exceeded one hundred and fifty thousand. Taking into consideration the adult Elves are at least Silver rank in terms of their battle strength, they could be a formidable strength."

"Of the three walls of Antoin, only the innermost one is left, but the attacks have stopped. The troops of San Antonio have set foot in the Northland, and have officially taken over the defence of Maple City. If we went back now, I'm afraid we might encounter some problems."

"The human allied forces have already started fighting with the Beastmen, both sides have wins and losses, it is just as you expected. The Beastmen from three different routes have started merging, this has been a cage from the beginning. Damn it, they dare to deceit the Demon King."

"Moreover, just as you predicted, the second snow storm came, and sealed off the mountain. Now, the troops are trapped within their own city, and the supplies consumed on a daily basis are sky high. Only the stronger soldiers will manage to survive in such a freakish weather, you need not worry about missing the year's great show."

Elisa's report carried some resentment, it seems that when she was making fun of the Beastmen Warchiefs, the Beastmen Warchiefs did not tell her their real strategy, and this made her very upset.

"And that little nonsensical stuff, like the group of bastards from the Gentlemen Alliance, they came looking for me when you were not here…"

My departure and the recent appointment had caused a lot of errands to fall onto her shoulders, but in a sense it meant that if she was not here I would not have left, feeling assured.

"Eck, didn't I have important matters to discuss? Oh yes, how is our situation here?"

"Our firearms are selling like hot cakes. The chargeless magic sword has, after experimentation, received unanimous good reviews, the order list for the demonic explosive grenade is full until the year after next, we are not able to make them all the next year. The profit of the first sale is at least four times the capital, we are earning so much!"

"How's the training situation?"

"The training of the smaller groups are going smoothly, but there had not been many chances for training our troops. The fighting matches between Elite Air Cavalries have become very frequent as of late, but obviously the youngsters will not be able to interfere in this. Your Skull Dragon Knight Timier recently assaulted that Azure Dragon Knight and Storm Dragon Knight, it was sensational, and there have been rumours that he has been named "The number one Air Cavalry of the Northland"."

"What about those little toys?"

"The first batch of war machines have arrived at their destination, the deal was just concluded two days ago with that Blackface. The first batch has three types of the seven-staged ones, specially built to fight against the Beastmen's Behemoth, and the profit for this sale is at least four hundred thousand gold coins. Nothing is more profitable than selling war machines in times of war."

Elisa stopped, but there was some hesitation in her words.

"Waiting idly for the war to escalate? Doesn't that contradict our original intention?"

Hearing this, I could only laugh bitterly. Of course, I did not wish for the war to escalate, but this was laid out by the Chaotic faction. What could I do before breaking this?

Reaching out to crush Emordilorcan? I supposed I would be the one killed.

"I too, want the war to stop, but this peace game cannot be talked out, only when enough blood has been lost, only will there be a true desire for peace, and understanding of the preciousness of peace. I only hope that after this war, the Northland will be quiet for a few years, to give us enough time. Oh yes, since there is nothing going on at home, I'm afraid I will be taking the longer route."

To stop the war? Have both sides obediently sitting on the negotiation table? Besides having a neutral position, the most important factor was that one must have the ability to make both sides set aside their differences. However, I did not fulfil both these conditions, and I absolutely knew not where I should start in order to stop the war.

"Longer route? Are there more important matters?"

"Yes. It's three more days till the winter veil festival, and that will also be the day of the appointment of the Knights in Mist City."

"Back to East Mist to celebrate a festival? You seem to be so free."

"Of course to celebrate, only not with the humans, the Appointment of the Knights, particularly the kind of knights only the Mist Kingdom have. You must have understood that by now."

"You mean…the Aurora Knights?"

"Winter Veil festival is also the day of our appointment with the Frigid Nightmares, and if we miss it, we would have to wait again until next year. Don't we have insufficient power right now? If I can bring them back here with me, maybe it would be enough."

Every year, during the Winter veil festival, the royal family and the Frigid Nightmare met to unseal the altar. And only on that day, the members of the royal family could retrieve the newborn Frigid Nightmares. If we went a year later, the formation of the Aurora Knight troops would have to be put off for a year. Since the war at the front lines was hindered by the snow as predicted, then, taking a detour to take care of a serious matter would be a rather wise choice.

"Alright, if there's nothing else, let's talk when I get back."

"Latest report, the commander of the Elven Kingdom is King Atrion of Tassel Kingdom, the target you wanted me to keep an eye on."

"…I got it."

I sighed, as expected, I knew that this ambitious man would never let pass such a good opportunity.

"Can you tell me what is your relationship with him?"

Elisa's question took me down a trip to memory lane, I thought of that brilliant, uninhibited elf.

"…just about, more or less like the relationship between me and you."

"Aaaaaa! You really do like men! Who led you astray, Adam or Krose? I will kill him right now!"

I was immediately at loss for words, she even said "really do", how long has it been, would Elisa have reckoned I was gay all this while?

"Get your mind out of the gutter, I have no interest in men! I was talking about the relationship between a teacher and his student, but the relationship was soon broken. Sigh, the teacher-student relationships in our batch seem to all be like this. Harloys, were you really cursed, why is it always such an outcome?"

"How do I know, all I know is that you cut me off, twice!"

Fine, teacher and student were joined by a life of misery, we looked at each other, our eyes filled with tears, we trembled with emotion. It seemed that we are all miserable people.

"Go to hell! Unfilial student! I do not have a follower such as you!"

"Fine, from this unappreciative gesture, I guess I was misunderstood. This damned cat only thought of the past and went crazy with rage.

I picked up the damned cat by its neck, shook it twice, wheeled it three times, and threw her into the waste paper basket prepared specially for her.

"Sigh, seems like this is indeed a tradition. Elisa, next time before you take a student, you better do some background checking."

"Don't worry, master. I don't even have the intention of getting students. Just by observing the two of you, I have to spend time nurturing them, and when they grow up, they would most likely be some naughty children who return to kill their own teachers. What is the point?"

I do not know why, but after hearing this, I felt an unexpected sadness, could it be that I brought this upon myself?

"Okay, this topic ends here. Elisa, beware of Atrion. He is, in a way, still your senior, and he is definitely not an easy opponent."

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Chapter 158: All Parties

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"The snowfall is getting heavier, it seems that the provisions team will be late."

Elisa glanced at the thick, fluffy snow outside the window, and shook her head dejectedly.

This was not the first time a delay is caused by bad weather, from the dreadful anxiousness in the beginning, and the endless, helpless probing for news that never came, and now, the numb dejection and dulled expectations. I suppose in a way, this is a dejected, resigned, acceptance.

After all, this terrible weather not only affected us, and since both sides had to ceasefire, there was nothing to be nervous about.

I must say that the Beastmen chose a very delicate time to advance their attack, the heavy snow that came and went had sunk the war situation into an awkward atmosphere.

Final battle? How does one fight a war while skating and trembling in the cold? Now, just the preparing and distributing of food supplies became a great responsibility, no matter how powerful an army is, they had to learn to respect the majesty of nature.

"Damn it, if only we started half a month earlier, or perhaps, it's also fine to wait until spring next year."

It would seem that when every Beastmen had been frozen past freezing point, they would have such thoughts. Normally at this time of the year, they would be at their hibernation spots, sleeping around the fireplace.

It was just like procrastination, where initially, everything went according to plan, but as the preparations went on, due to influences from many sides, it resulted in a delay to the most unsuitable time node.

"What? Is the car stuck? Don't worry, we still have two hours to go. Hmm? Took the wrong way? That's fine, we still have one hour to go. Airport Runway under construction? No big deal, probably, hmm, half an hour to go, we won't be late. Hehe, finally we arrive, I told you it would be fine. What! Airport bag checking? At least half an hour? Hey! Hey! Stop joking! Plane, wait for me!"

Yes, it is similar to the above feeling, it was just as an example, of course, definitely not from my own experience…

Eck, back to business, truth be told, this was undoubtedly the evil plot of someone and some demon king. If the expected strategies of the Beastmen went well, there should be no chance of this happening.

However, at this moment, Elisa was not pleased, although her trick went as planned. After all, as time went by, and the warfare continued getting more critical, the burden that fell on her shoulders were becoming too heavy for her.

Yes, she lied. How could it be possible that in war everything will be fine, the Beastmen and the elves were not easy opponents. Although the general circumstances were as she described, the actual pressure was greater than expected.

"I will take care of the house. Don't worry, didn't Roland teach me all that I need to know? At least, even if that dumb lass Annie can be the Underworld autarch, how is it possible that I cannot handle all of these alone."

For some reason, Elisa always like to compete with Annie. Even if her capabilities far surpassed that of Annie, she still wanted to prove that she was the most outstanding leader.

But obviously, not everything could be taught, the confusing situation on the battlefield in front of us was way more challenging than the hostile forces in the underworld, which had mostly been cleared up already.

"The Beastmen Air Knights have come to challenge us again, this time with two Lightning Eagle teams, and that Dragon Knight. On the side of San Antonio, they need Master Timier to lead the war, but it seems that Master Timier has not yet recovered from his wounds."

"San Antonio has its own Air Knights already? Didn't they have the Griffin Knights? With the mythical Griffin Knight providing support, why can't they go themselves?"

"…they said Elsen is sick, in other words, we must use our military gains to prove our worth."

Hearing this, Elisa adjusted her glasses without any expression, no one could tell what was on her mind.

"…the mythical Griffin Knight, sick? I should have crushed those jerks! "Flash Crimson Knight" Elsen, is it? Good, I will remember you, I will wait patiently for the day you pass into the river of Styx, or perhaps, I shall send you there myself!"

Even in the human world, a super powered kingdom was, in other words, tyrannical. In their eyes, their willingness to provide aid to all of you in the seven kingdoms of the North is already a god-sent favour. How could a superpower allow a tiny country to instruct them, the right to control the alliance naturally belongs to them.

Kasmi Kingdom, which was in command, was only under the prerequisite of the San Antonio states. Since the arrival of the reinforcements, the commanding power of the allied armies was transferred to the arrogant San Antonians.

At that moment, it was obvious that the people of San Antonio were very unsatisfied with the way the East Mist were claiming the spoils of the war, especially since the reinforcements they sent were the least among the six countries in the North.

But the quality of the lowest Gold Rank East Mist Air Knights had to be taken seriously, even by San Antonio. Therefore, they summoned the East Mist Air Knight to war in the name of the Allied Commanders.

In the very beginning, the East Mist Aurora Knights and the Skull Dragon Knights never lost a match in every one-on-one battle, so much so that East Mist, which had been known to be weak for many years, gained quite a reputation.

However, the Beastmen had no plans for one-on-one battles. If one is to compare the numbers, the new generation of Aurora Knights from East Mist were not yet mature, the numbers of Undead Air Cavalry were too few, and they have other responsibilities in the war, as even Timmier had been wounded by the opponents.

"What about the other Aurora Knights? Are there any left who are capable of battling?"

Even at the height of its glory, East Mist did not have more than a hundred of Aurora Knights that were above the lowest Gold Rank. At this time, due to certain reasons, among the fifty Aurora Knights from the Undead Air Cavalry, only fifteen are situated in the Northland, and majority of them were not in Maple City.

"Two Aurora Knights have not recovered from their injuries, three are in good shape. The rest are undertaking patrol duties. His majesty Reyne, on the other hand, applied to join the war, but was heavily berated by Lord Timmier."

It is obvious that even if the three Aurora Knights were of legendary rank, they were still not enough to handle the opposition's two allied forces of nearly a hundred Air Knights. Although Aurora Knights were good in air battle, the sky was definitely not their most optimal battleground.

Hearing this, Elisa sunk into a deep silence. She was hesitating on whether or not to just destroy the seal, and squash that Dragon Knight to death, then with the same swipe crush those arrogant San Antonians. This would, however, lead to the falling apart of everything, ending with the will to return to the abyss.

"If Roland was here…"

In a sense, this is Elisa's first time carrying the burden of a national scale, so she was hardly to blame for hesitating. Even if she knew this hypothesis was completely meaningless, she still had to consider such a possibility.

"…Mistress Elisa, actually His Majesty Roland had left a letter."

After a long hesitation, the servant finally spoke up, as if the current situation has reached a predicted dilemma.

Did he have to leave a letter when he could have just contacted me directly? Elisa was stunned at the news. However, she could just shake her head reluctantly.

"This guy saw through me again?"

Indeed, Roland had from the start knew Elisa's character, and naturally he made some preparations before he left. In order to preserve her dignity, obviously the letter could not be revealed until it was absolutely necessary.

…since you are reading this letter, then, probably the situation is not pretty. Let me guess, what troubled you, yet made you hesitant to tell me is probably the internal issues within the Allied armies. There are too many external factors in this war, the stand of both my enemies are unstable, it is no surprise for them to betray each other to prioritize their forces. Regarding the other countries? It doesn't matter if we offend all of them. If they cross a line, even if they are our allies, they must also be punished. Just assume that you are in the abyss, and learn how the old demons treat their allies, you know how they handle these things better than me.

Although Roland seemed unreliable, in reality, he was extremely experienced and astute. He might trust anyone, but he does not trust anyone fully. From the beginning, he had already made many plans and contingencies.

In Roland's eyes, even if San Antonio did not come, it would still be difficult for East Mist, with its sparse members to be given the power to command the Allied armies. And once they lose the power to command, or not even having the right to speak within the allied armies, it would be very difficult for them.

This had nothing to do with one's determination. In this temporary coalition, it would seem as if it is the law, that whoever had more strength would have the say. Once the central power of command falls into the hands of another country, it is possible, or even probable, that you would become cannon fodder.

This was not Roland thinking badly of others, as he would have done the same as well.

He was firmly convinced that if he held the power to command, he would, without a doubt, sacrifice the armies of the other countries, to conserve his main strength. And reality has proven his hypothesis.

However, it appeared that there were not many of them, as in the past few days, East Mist Kingdom actually suffered the least casualties. The kingdoms that suffered the biggest losses were the Kingdom of Lothnen and Anzolo Empire. Small-scale conflicts had occurred during pauses, their infantry and knights were ordered multiple times to cover the rear and the front lines. At the moment, their war losses were three tenths, and more complaints were rising.

This was also the deviation of political factors in the battlefield. These two countries were, among the seven Northland countries, the Four Southern Countries (four countries that are leaning towards the southern powers). With Sleuweir Kingdom, the Four Southern Countries is on the verge of ruin, and the Kingdom of Kasmi being independent of everything else, and with the three Northland countries not that keen on taking orders, it was very obvious who would be used as cannon fodder.

The most unfortunate one was probably the Kingdom of Lothnen. Although politically, they leaned towards the North, as members of their Royal family were made up of Southern royalties, after many disputes, they were instead crushed by the Southern superpower San Antonio.

For the three countries in the North, apart from East Mist there were two more countries: the Kingdom of Shuya, of the Barbarian bloodlines in the Highland countries; and another one almost as ancient as Mist Kingdom, Kingdom of Phoenix's Down. They completely disregarded the ridiculous commands from the people of San Antonio.

Of course, these things could not be told as it is, but if one were to put aside all the facade and pretence to look at the results directly, the interactions between any countries are usually that brutally direct.

In reality, with Elisa's capabilities, how could she not see all these twists? It was only because the responsibility of being the substitute of Roland was a heavy role, and had made her too scrupulous. This led to her inability to make hostile decisions. Now that there is the relief from reading Roland's assurance in the letter, naturally no longer hesitated so much.

"Let's say even our Air Knights are sick, hmm, a cold and fever of forty degrees Celcius, how can they fly in the air to fight? What? Do spectres not have fever? Then diarrhoea. Hmm, yes, I plainly only want to toy with them and shame them. If they don't like it, then first ask them, how can Elsen get sick. If the negotiations do not fall through, then let Timier meet that Griffin Knight, and see if he has recovered already."

When Elisa made up her mind not to fulfil everyone's wishes, and let them have a piece of her mind, she felt a little bit more relieved.

Just when she was planning to make herself a cup of Black tea and take a break before taking care of those annoying official affairs, an obtrusive silhouette barged in.

"Oh no, latest news. Anzolo Empire suddenly switched sides before the battle, they attacked our army camps, we lost!"

"Hummph."

The seven Northland countries changed to the six Northland countries in an instant. No matter how cultured Elisa is, she still spat out the Black tea in her mouth. At this moment, she finally understood what Roland meant.

"Every holy war is the time when each country and each superpower renew their stance, the stand of both my enemies are unstable, it is common for them to betray each other to prioritize their forces, we must maintain the superiority of our strength."

——————————

Within the hangar of the Borealis, a group of engineers were busy working. For some unknown reason, the team of youngsters including Cohen and Timmy Lade became the leaders of the research group.

"Why does his majesty still not allow us to do trial runs on the battlefield with these? If they could perform as well as they did in theory, our situation would be much improved, then we will show the Northies what's good."

"Wisdom of ordinary people."

Ever since he started rubbing shoulders with His Majesty Roland, Timmy Lade took a liking for such contrived speech.

Nowadays, if one were to ask him anything, he will always adjust his glasses (plain lens), and intermittently added phrases like "Foolish humans", "commoner's mentality", "even monkeys are smarter than all of you".

Whether or not it made him seem wiser was another matter to be discussed another time, but it does make one want to give him a good beating.

Hmm, many of those in the Gentlemen Alliance had given him a good beating, but obviously, little Timmy had forgotten.

"…what do you mean by saying this? We are not Gods, so obviously we are ordinary people. You have not told me why can't we enter the battlefield."

Fine, facing the serious-faced Cohen, facing multiple playoffs, even Timmy Lade, who is experienced in escaping had to tone down a little.

"My foolish brother…"

It seemed like, in a way, this toning down is limited.

"I am older than you, and additionally, we are not related."

It seemed that Cohen was a stubborn guy. It is just with this character that, after receiving the command from Roland, he made Timmy Lade work over time obediently, and finally, Timmy Lade had become a little impatient.

"You blockhead, you haven't got an ounce of humour or the likes of an artist, are you really a sorcerer? You are just like those meat-on-a-stick Knights!"

"I was never a sorcerer. Am I really like a Knight? That's great! Hehe, I am not as good as you say I am."

All right, next, it was time for the delighted little Timmy to go on a rampage, but even if he was given two extra limbs, there is no chance for him to defeat Cohen. Somehow, this young, yet stubbornly old-fashioned Cohen is the natural enemy of Timmy!

"Fine, I will say it as it is, his majesty's wish is that right now, these people below are completely unreliable. They are meant to be used as our back-up, they can't be used if we are not in a critical moment."

"When is a critical moment then?"

"A lot of times, but before those critical moments, we will not use them. Only when those at the higher ranks decides that it is time to use them, then the light at the hangar will turn from green to red."

"Green light? I don't see it, am I colourblind?"

"It's just at the top, The red light means… hang on, the light is red!! It's war!"

——————————

The Xiluo Swamp, Karda Desert, Bejya Highlands, were forbidden areas for the living, and the territory of Xiluo Empire.

Yet it had become a war zone, countless undeads were killing each other at this moment. The battlefield was filled with the screams of that shapeless Black God of Death,the ground was scattered with bones and the putrid scent of rotting flesh. The Undeads from both our side and theirs were using actual battles to exchange their own understanding of the art of death.

The civil war in Xiluo had continued for many months already. At this stage, both sides have already suffered terrible losses, and the time has arrived for the war to end.

Yet at this crucial moment, more than thirty Air Knights appeared. The black cloaks they wore hid their identity, but from the way the transparent white apparitions rode and the way they exuded the terrifying aura of death, they appeared to be Death Knights of very high ranks.

Just as they touched the ground, a silhouette was already there, waiting.

"Finally you have arrived. It must have been a tiring journey, too bad there is no time for rest."

"Ha, as if we need rest, little Lionheart. In accordance with the orders of his majesty, we have arrived. Our plans can now begin, of course, depending on how you look at it, it could also serve as the ending."

——————————

The once great city Antoin had suffered the worst catastrophe in history, not only did the city lose a large portion of the city wall, more dangerously, the master of the city had lost the loyalty of his people.

During the long invasion, the people and soldiers had willingly sacrificed themselves without complaint, and yet, when the supplies were depleting, not only did the royal court not open up the national coffers to distribute food, they gave out orders to retract the army's provisions, and this had incurred public anger.

From the start of the war, King Fismer Caso had never been seen. In addition to that, previously before the attack from the Beastmen, it was said that Prince Roland had sent a warning, but not only did Fismer paid it no heed, he even suspected that the Prince had other intentions.

Now evidence had proven the stupidity of his majesty, and his behaviour of hiding within the palace walls proved his cowardice, and on top of that, his hoarding of food supplies, proved his selfishness. This majesty's name had been ruined beyond repair.

In this perilous world, the people had the responsibility to provide for their leaders, but leaders have the responsibility to protect his people. This was the fundamental element of trust between the two parties. When the leader refuses to carry out the most basic of his responsibility, then how is he going to sit on his throne?

"Fismer is unworthy to be King!"

There were already such chantings amongst the people on the streets and alleys, but at this moment, the King who had just executed a concubine who advised him to show up at the city walls and fight with the people continued hiding and quaking in fear within the palace.

"All of you want me dead! All of you want me dead! All of you are assassins sent by that Roland, you want to take away my throne! I will never grant you that wish, I must live!"

In the meantime, in a household in Antoin, two illegal passengers were at a loss on what to do next.

"Margaret, I really want to kill jerks like this, must we keep him?"

"…if it annoys you, then by all means, help yourself, but don't kill him. Or else this city is finished. "Spare Antoin" Hmph, that Roland really knows how to assign tasks at leisure."

"Don't worry, he will get his retribution soon, my intuition is always accurate. It's like the commonly known…Shu…Shura?" [1]

"…Shuraba you mean? Huh, and Roland invented this weird noun, but it fell upon himself every time. But this time, it most probably won't happen in front of Elisa, I do feel that Reyne is not a threat at all, your intuition is probably wrong this time."

"Hehe, it's not entirely an intuition."

The red-haired soldier shook the scrunched up letter, that was a greeting from his hometown, and the expected visit of someone.

"And you did not tell Roland? You plan to deceive him?"

"Hehe, I really forgot this time, it was absolutely unintentional."

"If you forget every time, then it is on purpose."

——————————

Few people knew that the most hidden pathway in the Northland which led to the Underworld, was actually within the Elven territory.

At this moment, a group of adventurers, formed by two young ladies were wandering within.

Anya, are you sure this is the road? Why do I feel like we are on the wrong path."

"Sister Annie, believe me just this once, there is no mistake, I swear by my grandfather's name, my iron hooves are guiding me now, the way is before our eyes."

"You said that half a month ago, why not find someone to ask?"

"Can I find someone who can answer this… hey, sister witch over there, may I know where can I find the Elven territory from here?"

[1] TL note: "Shuraba 修罗刃" is a living demonic katana from the game Bayonetta. Its unique traits include quick sweeping strikes and jabs which excel against small and agile enemies.

——————————

"You are my little Applet, no matter how much I love you it is not enough, your little red cheeks warms my heart, lighting up my life's fire, fire fire fire fire!!" [2]

There are many matters waiting to be taken care by me, yet here I am in the snow mountains, drumming and singing away. Why? I guess it is the sing-alongers around me.

"Fire fire fire fire!" [3]

"What is fire? Is it edible?"

"Definitely edible! Didn't you see that human singing until his tears almost fell, he must be drooling!"

"That's great, I also want to taste. There are only snow dregs in the snowy mountain."

Among the ones talking are yeti, snow monsters and snow ladies, in this celebration of the Winter Veil festival, they organized large-scaled entertainment activities. When they heard that I am the descendant of the legendary singer, the Mist King, of a thousand years ago, I was informed that if I did not give a good performance, I would not be allowed to take away even one Frigid Nightmare.

Yes, the legendary singer, the one the Mist King used all those years ago to take care of the Frigid Nightmares.

At this moment, how can it be that I am holding back tears because I am drooling? Humans do not even have this ability, I am actually just driven mad with anxiety.

"Encore, encore!"

"What an excellent singing! Little little applet! Marvelous! Little Apple must be the lover that you long for."

"Yes, there are more than enough cubs on the altar, the more songs you can sing, the more you can take away with you."

I finally realized why the Mist King never told anyone what he saw all those years ago. Even if history was all a cover up, but to have such lies to such an extent that must be the only one! If it had been me all those years ago, I would also have died before telling!

I wiped the tears away, with such a show of support from the audience, I could only continue.

My musical talent was extremely inadequate, the lyrics that I could remember of the song were mostly the melody that entranced me by the Demon's song all those years ago.

"The love who betrayed me forced me to leave, my tears fell as I at last found out the truth…"

Hundreds of years later, there was a legend here, when the mountain people lost his way in the snowy mountains during the Winter Veil festival, if he came back, he would become foolish and silly, and he would crazily sing the Demon's song that drives people insane. The ones who heard this music will also become foolish and silly, their whole body will know only to sing along.

"My love is as vast as the sky, the soft ground on the green mountain below my feet, the flowers are blooming…"

TL Note:

[2] TL note: this is the chorus of a popular Chinese pop song.

[3] TL note: Part of the chorus of the song above.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

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Chapter 159: The Great Snow Mountain

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The mystery of nature knows no bound, and as the myth of God of Creation coupled with the wrath of nature, any incredible scene might be crafted, whether it's a fatal impasse, a magnificent view, or a wonderful sight.

The Great Snow Mountain of the Northland, officially graced as the Great Mountains of the Northmost Snow White, also dubbed as the "Everfrost Arctic Prison", was connected to three of the Seven Northland Countries. The area it occupied was nothing less than a small kingdom, but its inhabitants were rather unique, and the population was indeed small.

Along with the rise of sea level, one could barely see any region uncoated with snow.

The endless snow hills, the miraculous snow-sculpting rocks, the icy stalactites, the silver trees, the skyscraping snow towers, the small world beneath the elemental glacial lake, the frozen upside-down waterfall, and the various strange monsters as rare as the Ice Phoenix and Silver Unicorn, and all the unparalleled breathtaking views of the Snow Mountain had won it the reputable name of the most beautiful life-forbidden zone in the world.

Of course, it had to be a forbidden zone for mortals. It was one of the most frigid places in the world, with an average temperature of negative fifty-degree Celsius. Other than several special occasions, the mountain was always blanketed with heavy snow, and was a place of absolute despair, where no normal living creature would survive.

There were some who even treated it as a sole frost plane. From the perspective of sorcerers, this land held the characteristic of the other world, especially with the overspreading Ice elemental crystals (every elemental plane produces its own elemental crystals). If there comes a day when the Ice Elemental God is born, this would have to be his previous cradle.

This place might not have any signs of normal lives, but it was not until the point of dead silence. While the normal lives could never relish the coldness from the land, it turned out to be the playground of the elementals, spirits and extreme monsters.

The gigantic ice dragon that noticed the flattened person stuck to the sole of its foot after half a day of crawling along the mountains, the elemental wild boar that could make the mountains tremble by just walking, the super ice phoenix that stirs up blizzards by just its falling icy feathers upon its flight, these few creatures were living in this place of no man.

There were even some who were born in the same age with Ayer and possessed unfathomable strength and hidden power. Nevertheless, they had been living here across the centuries, and would never leave here even if the world had come to destruction.

"You heard of it? Two days ago, the ice boar in the north gave birth to a herd of shots, and one of them was a mutant with wings, it could be a boar king of mythical rank in the future."

"Ah I see, that is a big fortune. I'm going to prepare the gifts. How about visiting the Ice elemental lake to ask for a piece of ice crystal from the old Dragon King?"

The time was crawling pretty slowly here, as it was rather remote. Besides, this snowy land was much more peaceful compared to the outside world. Those lives which coexisted here had known among themselves for hundred years and were no different from the kind of neighbours who chat on a daily basis.

It was probably the nature of ice and snow monsters to embrace peace. This place was always silent and peaceful, but lately, something was different, they had started a new hot topic.

"You heard of it? A superstar singer visited the home of Frigid Nightmares on the birthday of the Pork King's son. She was the master of ceremony as well as the singer, and her singing was amazing."

"Was it the song "Happy birthday you pig, happy birthday you pig. Pig's head pig's brain pig's body pig's tail, but a child who is never fussy in eating. Sleeping till the noon day by day, never brushing his teeth and never fighting"? Oh, I heard it once from the neighbours, Ader (the yeti) and little Mi (ice unicorn), so this song was from there. Not bad at all, it sounded pleasant and fitted the occasion!"

"That's right, everyone calls her "Our Snow Diva". Those people swarm up to her every day?"

"It's a she? But I was told it's a boy?"

"…I met the singer once. I may not know much about the gender of the little meaty man, but how could such a cutie be a boy? Could it be that they are just like as us, genderless?"

"Who knows, anyway, the Frigid Nightmares had so much fun lately, it seems that one could only enter this place with their Soul Contract. Is this possibly the first occurrence since the past three hundred years?"

"Certainly, they could be seen singing and dancing on the square above the straits, every day, and it's that "Little Little Applet" song?"

"…I had been there once, those Frigid Nightmares were dancing and transforming themselves at the same time. In the end, it turned into a chaotic dance performance by a group of monsters."

At this moment, between the straits, before dawn, the sound of singing and dancing from the square was hurting my head again.

"The boundless mountains are my love. To sell of my love, to force me to go away. Your hearts are always too soft, your hearts are too soft. You are my little applet, little applet! little applet! Humph!"

"Damn your little applet, it's getting pretty old now, you know?"

Unfortunately, this ice cave had no doors or even windows, so I had no choice but to "enjoy" this insufferable evil sound that was penetrating my brain.

Albeit the unanimous praises from the Frigid Nightmares, I terribly regretted the performance that time, especially after some discovery later.

"A song for a Frigid Nightmare? Oh Oh Oh, that's just a joke. No matter how unreliable we could be, we will never trade our own people"

What I was feeling that time… If I couldn't beat it, I could put the lion-alike Frigid Nightmare into the Goblin cannon then fire it, or I could try to barbecue its lion head. I would abandon the fact they were any ancient creatures or even my ancestor's friends, as the lion head must be delicious…though there was still something wrong with it.

I arrived here out of a promise, regardless of the abundant tasks in hand. Was it easy for me? And yet I was fooled by these Frigid Nightmares, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry for myself.

"How could you wear a fake face here? You should meet everyone with your real face."

This lion head seemed to make a good point, in case a mighty existence was agitated by this, things were going to be problematic. With this immature young look and androgynous voice, it had brought me some little trouble too.

Snow Diva? What was that? I did not know…. Alright, I admitted. It was the fault of that talkative Irene, a black history that should be concealed in the history. Once I came out from this mountain, I would risk my life to fight anyone who dares to mention that name again!

Nevertheless, things ended in this way for a reason.

Frigid Nightmare was a kind of unique spirit creature, their bodies were phantoms of ice and snow… Akin to the Lava tribes who grew up by devouring the lava, they grew up by devouring the freezing ice energy and gem. Unlike animals with flesh, they had no appetite and desire for sex, thus they would never perceive the physical intimacies between the meaty men.

Being a phantom, yet having an authentic existence, they still had their own hobbies.

Without any sense of physical satisfaction, the spiritual satisfaction would naturally be the aspiration of these spirit creatures. As they were not able to compose music, paint, do poetry nor other cultural arts, they thus admired the brilliant aura of the other races in the outside world. For them, these were the nourishment and luxuries for cultural development.

Even so, the Frigid Nightmares did not intend to hide their interests. Rumors had it that the predecessors of Mist Kingdom had spent quite some time preparing their presents and performances just to trade for their cubs during their visits in history. This had inspired the Frigid Nightmares to start celebrating the Winter Festival, which was originally not their tradition.

On that day, the visiting contractor from far away would perform the exquisite show he had innovated or offered some seemingly valueless artworks by the craftsmen and painters. Meanwhile, the elder Frigid Nightmares which had returned from their adventure in the outside world, would tell stories about their past experiences. In the end, during the closing ceremony, the elder Frigid Nightmares would be gazing emotionally at the departure of newborn Frigid Nightmares, just like any young parent who is sending their children to school for the first time.

Over thousand years, the Winter Festival was always the day most anticipated by the tribe.

It appeared that the Mist Kingdom had not fulfilled its promise for nearly four hundred years. This was the reason which encouraged me to curb my temper and sing along with them.

Frankly speaking, my skill of singing was just like everyone, although my voice was not bad. I had always forgotten the lyrics amid singing and often went out of tune too. An innate weak sense of rhythm had multiplied the mistakes in chanting the lyrics, as the words might get tangled up, too long, or too short.

At the sight of the snowy ladies who were skilled in singing and dancing to sing, singing the off-tune song better than the composer, especially at the moment when the tune went off, I was extremely embarrassed.

Along with the melody of these "divine songs", the Frigid Nightmares were fond of the unique culture and ideologies which were not found in their world. The new and deep cultural details were indeed alluring for them.

However, I had been counting the days with my finger, as I had not much time left to be wasted here.

"…Aroyin, You are the friend of the Mist king, you are also an elder of mine. You should have been to the outside, the Mist Country is in danger now, and I have to hurry back."

I had repeated this sentence several times but had not been taken seriously by the ice-crystallite lion head, after all, he would get me to do some trivial tasks, such as singing to celebrate the newborn shoat of an ice boar staying at the mountain side, or celebrating the ten-thousand-year-old birthday of an elder phoenix.

"I could not wait any longer! If the answer is still a no, I have no choice but to go back now. I will come again next year."

This time, I was standing in the doorway of Aroyin. Seeing that I was so anxious that I would leave in any second, he finally stopped prevaricating on me.

"I know, I am aware of the news outside, and that you are in pursuit of power here. As an elder, I will not stop you, but look at yourself now, how are you going to attain power?"

"I? I am good."

An inexplicable anxiety had urged me to answer without thought, but the face of the old lion was then filled with a benevolent smile.

"Is it good? You are a caster of Freezing Force, and the Frigid Nightmares' bodies were composed of the Freezing Force as well, but have you ever seen anyone of us rushing at things?"

"It's too peaceful here! That's the cause." Just when I was about to retort, something flashed across my mind, staggering me.

Every element has its own nature and characteristics. Similar to the Fallen Magic and Holy light, which would influence the personality and mind of the casters, the elemental magics could, however, be controlled under patient and consistent training.

The elemental force might corrode its own caster. Fire magic would make one fierce and irritable, earth magic would make one moderate and steady, water magic would make one amiable and peaceful, wind magic would make one capricious and voluble. Whilst ice magic that was evolved from the water magic would make one "cold-blooded", most of the casters were unusually calm.

"The affinity for elements implicates the harmony between the elements and you. In brief, how much the elements like you. Magic is a miraculous power formed by the strong will, and a will comes from the soul, thus the soul is the origin of this miraculous power. The incantations, casting techniques, and materials are just the supplementary, the most vital part is always the soul itself."

"Many years ago, you might have been blinded by hatred and could not see the path clearly. You should have identified your path now, why are you still not opening up your heart to the elements? You closed your eyes and ears, barricaded your heart, how could you win the affection and intimacy of the ice element?"

"Since you are in pursuit of power, and the ice element is a power to be reckoned with. The elemental spirits love your singing, why did you deny their entries to your soul? My son, you are still too rash. This is a golden opportunity, look around yourself, you will probably see a new world."

Hearing this, I broke out in cold sweat.

"All the miraculous power does arise from the soul? My bad, I have forgotten this foundation and was wrong all this time."

To my surprise, I had unconsciously abandoned the imperative foundation along the path of seeking power. My Power of Law was due to my yearning for fairness, while the Holy light of God of Holy light was due to their dedication to the rules. Also, the wise practitioners had always corresponded to the nature of power by adapting their souls too, if it was power manipulating power, one would have fallen and not able to achieve the ultimate heights.

Outside the window, was an endless view of snow, along with the white sky, it happened to be the home of the ice and snow spirits, full of singing and pleasure. Albeit my presence in this snowy region, I realised that my heart remained with the secular world.

"You really thought a Soul Contract with the Frigid Nightmares was everything for Aurora Knights? Certainly not, that would be too crude for our sights, just like using a divine equipment to cut the fingers, what a waste of talents for yourself and Erebella's. Besides, the maturity of your magical sword system was rather low, and the perception and utilization of elements were even worse, that was like begging with a golden bowl [1]."

"To keep the Winter Festival longer in full swing, please wait until you have cooled off, and we fellow elders will show you how to master the ice and snow. The Elemental Gods? Haha, before some ancient existence, they are just the juniors!"

"I may not be the strongest one amongst our tribe, but I could let you know the perception of Mist King towards the ice and snow. If my partner is still around, these younglings wouldn't dare go on a rampage like that!"

TL Note:

[1] In Chinese, "beg with a golden bowl – 使用金盘子讨饭" means, waste one's talent or ability in trivial matters, while it could be used for greater things.

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Chapter 160: War of Betrayal

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

In this war of mythical proportions, which was known by the later generations as "The War of Betrayal without any dignity", the alliance formed by four Elven kingdoms in Northlands, unexpectedly, was the first to launch an assault, just as the snow fell.

Indeed, the first who broke the deadlock was not the most aggressive Beastmen who favoured war, nor the Humans who were protecting their homeland, but the Elves who were eager to express their stance towards a certain existence.

It was six at dawn, and without prior declaration of war, the Elves sent their greetings through their crossbow arrows and magic attacks. The Human alliance then dispatched their main forces into the battle. The Alliance of seven countries (excluding East Mist and San Antonio) had gathered more than 500,000 troops, with 400,000 of them engaged in the war.

The Elves had a total of 160,000 troops, which might sound like a tiny garrison before the mega kingdom, but their real power should not be underestimated.

Belonging to the Silver faction, the grown-ups of superior Elves would at least be of Silver-rank combat power, while the lower Elves could easily match the Silver-rank humans with the help of their splendid weapons and equipment. Also, with a greater ratio of exceptional magic craftworks and sorcerers, the real power of the Elves must not be trifled with, despite their smaller army.

"…We thought that this would just be another day of military manoeuvres, to think that the long ears could care less about the past and swipe the land immediately with their tactical magic. Our people are under heavy fire. They even used enchanted crossbows and the Elven Ancient Tree against us, they are playing for real!"

Perhaps this commander who had lost almost all his troops could explain the reason behind this debacle of a war. Not only did the proud Humans not anticipate this war, but they also had belittled the determination of the Elves.

Bearing many years of grudge, the Elves had finally come up with the resolution for a final showdown. The fellow Elven kings, as well as the keepers, had as well realised that there was no turning back once they had taken this step, but the proud people of San Antonio had probably treated it as nothing but a reckless assault on the city border.

During the ambush of the Elves, the humans were still waiting for the outcome of the cathedral and political diplomacies. There was not even the formulation of a strategy to counteract the attack of Elves on the list of priorities.

For the other countries in the Northlands, they did not worry much ever since the participation of the great San Antonio, believing that it could be the pillar which would hold up even if the sky fell. When a great calamity was at hand, however, misfortunes would usually strike the weaklings who moved the slowest.

As a consequence, when the two armies crossed swords, their differences in perception and attitudes towards the war had reduced the Human alliance to absolute rubble.

The tall War Ancient Tree was lashing at the united force of cavalries, its gigantic roots powerful enough to send a few unlucky ones flying. In contrast, the attacks of the Human cavalries proved futile to this living creature. The knights tried to execute the Surround and Net Tactic which was used against the Giants, only to be countered by the Ancient Tree, as it sprouted and grew into an incredibly huge monster.

On the other hand, the mighty Griffin Knights were facing a big challenge from the Hippogriff Archers, where the mighty sky lions had finally met their worst enemies. The Elven archers, who never miss their shots, were very skilled in mounted archery as well, they could easily shoot through the diminutive gap between the heavy helms of the Griffin Knights. Although they had an absolute advantage in close battle, being well-read by the enemies, the Griffin Knights could hardly keep the optimal distance for their fights, instead, they were regularly shot down, whether they were chasing the enemies, or being chased.

As the war had come to a stalemate, the precise and vicious magic of the Elves, like a heavy hammer, had shattered the balance of battlefield.

The strength of a sorcerer came from the accumulation of time and knowledge, thus longevity would provide an absolute advantage here. To confront the massive army of Elves, most sorceries of the Human sorcerers were subdued, because the sorceries of both sides were not at the same level.

The Human priests and holy knights might be the pinnacle of strength in chaotic battles, but they could hardly perform now due to a shortage of strong offensive sorcery.

The Humans had the least experience in fighting the Elven soldiers, whom they treated as allies. However, the Elves in Northlands had always imagined the Humans as their enemies.

At the stalemate of the first round of battle, the second attack of the Beastmen was executed, surprisingly not with their own hands.

The troops of Anzolo Empire, who were the leading force of the right wing, suddenly turned their blades against the allies, slashing them violently.

San Antonio as the central force, would never predict the sudden revolt of its ring wing. In the meantime, the assassins who were long prepared, had burst out. To be murdered by the allies within the chaotic battlefield, coupled with the assassination of the commander of San Antonio, Alan Rem who ranked 98th on the contemporary great generals ranking, the entire battlefield had sunk into an impasse.

Just after the news of betrayal and assassination of the commander spread out, which was also the crucial timing when the alliance forces of all countries were wavering, the massive army of Beastmen had made their next move. The arrival of the gigantic Bis Behemoth, along with the shaman priests who carried battle drums towards the battlefield, which implied the end for the Humans.

The Beastmen who were notorious for their brutal massacre, demonstrated to the Humans what was it to knock back an enemy with only their bodies, and what was it to charge like a beast.

Could two Human warriors possibly beat a Beastman? Wearing armour enchanted with earth elements, and going into frenzy mode upon hearing the shaman's battle hymn, even an old ordinary Beastman soldier would become a killing war-machine. Hence, even a standard small troop (12-men) was not able to take down such frenzied Beastman of multiplied attack power and defence.

In this battle, the trap set by the Chaos, under the collaboration of three parties, had finally achieved its target, as the Humans suffered a crushing defeat, in just the first battle.

Amongst the large army of 400,000 being sent to war, the defeated soldiers who retreated back to Maple city with their lives were less than half, and most of them were wounded, the Human alliance had been pushed to the defensive.

On hearing this news, Elisa was utterly astonished too.

"A Human country turning against the entire Human world? Do they still want to live?"

"In a sense, Anzolo Empire did share some similarities to the old Mist Kingdom, both of them had undergone tremendous sufferings. However, the spark of this outburst was none other than those bastards from San Antonio, for using them as the cannon fodders."

"Indeed, that was too much, I even feel sorry for Anzolo. Our small country has limited power, and this time, Anzolo had given everything it had. It could not be helped if it had to be sacrificed, but to be sacrificed as cannon fodders is seriously too much! It was no wonder they would turn against their allies."

Without any surprise, a strongly worded declaration for war, had very soon be announced.

In the announcement, the Anzolo Empire, as the country which declared war, had rallied against the evil act of the leading San Antonio to treat the soldiers of other countries as cannon fodders. Also, they swore that they had never betrayed the Order faction and the Humans society.

Of course, no matter what the explanation was, the reliable context would be taken, while the unreliable one would mean nothing. In the end, actions always speak louder than words.

"Well said, but why band together with the Beastmen, and Elves?"

In consequence with the betrayal of Anzolo Empire, Maple city was now left in chaos, there were people taking care of the residual forces and spies, there were assassins who did their killings amidst the chaos, there were even some middle-to-high rank forces in this city, who abruptly murdered some important people.

Even the city lord faced his demise on the battlefield. Just before a political turmoil would come, a chamber of commerce named Schindler Chamber had stood up as the new commander of this city. They were formed by the natives, carrying the slogan "Restoring the beautiful life of our past using our own hands!"

They were not soldiers, and were not interested towards the massive armies in the outside world. They fought for a simple reason, which was merely to quell the lawless mobs and restore the order and vitality of this city.

But only few would have known that the chamber with the history of Elven slave trade was just an association founded to keep the Beastmen civilians alive, and its chairman was a foreigner.

"The alliance army is in a turmoil, all the authorities in the city had stopped functioning, and the chamber is soon running out of capital. This, could not last any longer, please, come back Roland!"

"Waaa, that's pathetic, how could there be such cruel parent. No worries, you can now count on Anya. If he dares to appear before you again, Anya will send him flying with his four-hoofs kick. Oh, I still need one leg as the stand, so it will be a three-hoofs kick!"

In the forest located at the exit of the Underworld, three ladies from three different races were having a pleasant conversation beside the bonfire.

"You….you all are not afraid of me? I am a true Banshee."

Faced with this confused white shadow, Annie and Anya looked at each other, sniggering with their mouth covered.

"The man Annie used to love was a Lich. Yes, but he shall no longer be one. We have no prejudice against the undead. What's more, sister, you look like a natural undead, to which only an extraordinary person could transform, and it only stems from two extremes, whether she is especially kind, or extremely resentful. How would I be afraid?"

"That's right, Princess Suana, why don't you walk along with us? We are heading to a kingdom which holds no prejudice against the undead. Perhaps, you will find the answer to what you have been pursuing your entire life – Peace"

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Chapter 161: Natural Undead

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

It was a cinch to become a Undead, any necrolyte could help to reincarnate the dead souls (necromancy), and even preserve their consciousness during life.

The low-rank undeads may have no intellect, but if a sword saint decided to be transformed into a undead, as long as his body and soul were complete, he would not even fall below Silver rank.

Subsequent to the growth of necromancy, there came the easiest path to immortality. A strong one who had acquired considerable strength, would just need to approach the necromancer and sign a secret agreement before the end of life.

Tempted by this immortality, every year in Xiluo Kingdom, there were secret visits from countless swordsmen in black hoods and sorcerers in a grey robe, these included quite a number of names which were famous across all countries. There were even some unknown ones who emerged as new powerful undead warlords annually.

Even I, the demigod undead emperor, in conjunction with the most exquisite ingredients could not guarantee a successful transformation of dead souls every time. Nevertheless, it was not a secret when it came to the methods of maximizing the success rate of undead transformation.

The soul, all energies originated from the soul. It was the foundation of the world and was thus the key to increase the success rate of undead transformation.

The transformation between life and death might sound miraculous and magical, but in the eyes of mine, it could actually be explained with logic and knowledge.

Just like the living, the undead was also made of a body and soul, just that theirs may no longer be the original ones.

A complete living being was analogous to a personal computer. The living was manufactured by the factory, with a perfect combination of software (soul) and hardware (body), along with the capability of auto updating (growth in life).

The undead might carry the same software after reincarnation, but its original hardware was definitely not viable anymore. The new body was similar to a computer assembled by several compatible parts, its performance might be superb, but system collision and inexplicable crashes were very common with it.

It was now evident how the undead transformation would fail, whether it be a collision between hardware and software, or the data loss of software (soul).

The former could be overcome by changing another body, but the latter could not be saved. No matter how good a computer was, it was not able to read from a hard disk with a piece missing, no matter how important the contents of the hard disk was, how passionate and wild the performance of the actors was… Cough, it was just an example, get your mind out of the gutter.

Of course, the necromancer could have completed the soul by incorporating the souls of others, but that might completely change the contents of the soul. Besides, such mingled souls were susceptible to defects, as the present technology was not able to retain the vitality and memory of the souls for a long period, there was a 90% chance that a cobbled together soul might become retarded.

Hence, the fundamental and imperative factor for a successful spectre transformation was quite obvious — Keeping the soul in its complete form.

The undead always arose from the bitter grudge. Grudges (unresolved regret) were undoubtedly the culprit of non-dissipated souls, while the strong will, a pure character, would render the soul more solid, and thus increase the success rate of a undead transformation.

And then, the conclusion was obtained.

According to my experimental theory which contradicted the general idea, the success rate of a undead transformation had nothing to do with the strength of the soul during life, but the will of one who had undergone hundreds of battles could never be weak, leading to a higher success rate of transformation.

There were no deaths without casualties, preserving more than 80% of the dead's memory was good enough. Taking the hard disc as a metaphor, if it had more than 20% of data loss, the hard disc (soul) would have 20% of unusable space.

Speaking of which, the difference between natural undeads and reincarnated undeads by necromancy was discernible now.

Theoretically, they were the same. However, the will of natural undead was incredibly firm, and their character was pure to the point of no sundries, the grudge they held before death could stir up six months of blizzards.

Their souls refused to undergo transmigration after death, and were not dissipated at all. Without requiring the guidance of necromancer, they performed the transformation from life to death on their own.

This explained why the capabilities of natural undead were so astounding. Their souls had not dissipated at all, and were almost like their previous form. Moreover, having wandered across the boundary of life and death, they had discerned the arcanum of their own soul, developing a profound understanding of the basis of strength.

Losing part of their souls, the growth rate of common undeads would be severely affected. There was an exception however, which was none other than my Seven Deadly Sins, they were not strong at the beginning, but grew rapidly later.

The common undeads had concentrated on the creation of strong undeads bodies (hardware engineers), but I spent my effort on the soul, which was the foundation (software engineers). Of course, this was due to me being natural undead too, yet I had been to the styx for several times. It was already difficult for the other necromancers to start dissecting the souls, as their level of expertise remained at the soul transformation theories on the blackboard. Therefore, they might have regarded the creation and assembly of the soul as the sole authority of the God of Creation.

And I, had created and innovated numerous souls, these included bigoted and distorted souls, flawless, newborn yet talented souls, loyal and unyielding souls, and some which were completely reinvented with the souls of others as the ingredients. In a sense, it was right for Omar and Adam to call me their father.

The perfect but bigoted souls, had formed the basis of the incredible Seven Deadly Sins. Being the culmination of my research, their souls were flawless, coupled with the specially prepared bodies, they even outmatched the normal livings in their flawlessness and bigotry. In a way, they were the artificial natural undeads.

But actually, due to some flaws in my technique, in comparison with the genuine natural undeads, their capabilities were lower by a certain level. After all, the natural spectres I had met were all super monsters, these included I myself, Harloys, and Ayer.

In mythology, the Valkyries would greet the Einherjars and bring them to Valhalla. Frankly speaking, they were not all too different compared to the necromancers. In recent times, the Einherjars below the sacred thrones had no fundamental difference with the artificial undeads as well. The disparity was merely that the Gods performing the necromancy, which preserved even more the memories and battle techniques during life, under influence of the divine force.

Everything arose from the soul, the Einherjar souls were already strengthened to its maximum. These looked good apparently, but had actually ceased the advancement of the Einherjars. The undeads were suffering the same fate. Disregarding the dazzling halos, the Einherjars and undeads had too much in common, and they were both incomparable to the natural undeads.

The natural undeads mainly existed in ancient times. In recent times, however, the resurrection rate of natural undeads was negligible, as the soul of recent men were too fragile to attempt reincarnation, not to mention resurrections with complete souls. Aside from this, the hardest condition to satisfy was the furious rage, the unbreakable will, the desire of wanting to destroy the world.

Suffering the destruction of our countries, me and Harloys were also the final royal descendants who witnessed the annihilation of our own people and kingdoms. You might say that we were undeads who remained in this world for the sake of vengeance, Ayer did not share what he had encountered, but it must not be anything good.

Even when the conditions were satisfied, a certain amount of luck was required, so the figure of success rate started to count only after the decimal point.

In consequence, in the perspective of recent men, the undeads were merely the undead reincarnated by the necromancers, transformation to natural undead was never an option, some necromancers were not even aware of the existence of natural undeads.

Hence, the reincarnation of Suana as a banshee was never known or expected by anyone, perhaps even the Elven Gods who were the brains behind all schemes, would not have thought of such a miniscule probability event.

The pure souls were most likely to transform into undeads, and thus, female Elves would be one of the races which could most easily transform into banshees. Ever since the reincarnation of Suana as a banshee, the title of Queen of Banshees was no longer exclusive to Harloys.

In a sense, there were quite a few similarities between Harloys and Suana. Not only did they come to birth as Elven princesses, they both suffered the betrayal of their most trusted people and Gods, and their demises were also equally tragic — the sacrifice of war.

Ironically, the fellow Elven gods who were once supreme and ascendant, had created a godlike enemy like Harloys, as the undeads had more than enough time to investigate the truth, when everything was revealed under the sun it would be feared that even Suana would arise as the next godlike enemy.

Nevertheless, it had been a tradition for the Elves and Elven Gods to dig holes for themselves and jumped into them [1]. The typical examples was none other than the golden Elves and Lorci, who had both triggered the extreme transition of the Elves from riches to rags. And this time, if the fellow Elven gods had turned into Gods of Chaos, Lorci's actions, who was notorious for being incredibly vindictive, was indeed something to be anticipated.

Back to the story, even though the Humans had been gathering up for a final, defensive stand, with Maple city as the heavily fortified core zone, it would be futile to stop the group of a legendary warrior, a golden archer, and a natural undead Elf.

"Ah. Mr. Skeleton is not here. Sister Elisa, how did you come back?"

Annie gave a sigh of evident disappointment, not only because Roland was absent, but mainly due to the return of Elisa. This false intimacy had Elisa stunned, with her eyebrows flickering. What did Annie mean, to ask about her boyfriend as soon as meeting her? Besides, was it like the previous fight they had never happened?

"I thought you would first ask about Adam and the others, they were here a couple days ago."

"For sure I know about stepfather and Sister Margaret, I am always in touch with them. By the way, didn't stepfather tell you that I'm coming?"

"Adam, a bastard as always…"

Suddenly, the picture of that man giving his big middle finger, like he always did, flashed across my mind, his face filled with the watching-for-fun smile — "I did what I could, don't thank me"

"Alright, I certainly welcome all of you, but as you can see, I am too busy to entertain you. Pardon me for any offense."

Outwardly, Elisa said so, but her lips deliberately uttered a "soft" grumble.

"An Underworld Autarch, an Underworld Beastking, sneaking out just like this? They are both very much adults, but simply ran away from their posts without letting anyone know, don't they know the severity of that?"

Obviously, judging from her past experience, Elisa believed that these two people were not here for business, most likely, they were just annoyed of their work and ran out from their houses after shaking off their entourages.

Unexpectedly, an embarrassed expression was not seen, instead, a triumphant smile was hanging on Annie's face.

"We are coming for real business this time, by the way, still remember the manifesto "the Underworld people have the right to sunlight too"? We are coming for this!"

"So, going to war?"

This was the first response of Elisa upon hearing this sentence, the call for "the right to sunlight", wasn't this about the invasion of Underworld alliance army mentioned in the Roland's prophecy?

Considering the situation where Roland was still in East Mist, to battle against two sides was absolutely impossible, Elisa's expression immediately turned grim and unpleasant.

But luckily, Anya intervened in time to prevent the atmosphere from getting worse.

"Most of the Beastman warchiefs had requested to form an alliance for an invasion, but we are still assessing the possibility of concession."

"Concession?"

"Yes, either purchase or rent. Lands without owners are good as well. This is the will of Emperor Roland, the most imperative part of it, is to form a delegation to contact the possible buyers, and we are the frontline of the delegation."

Perhaps there was such a possibility, Suana did not talk any further after nodding her head. Nevertheless, the banshee who had been constrained since her entry, broke out of her silence.

"Roland? Are you referring to the legendary holy knight, Emperor Roland?"

"You are?"

At first, Elisa supposed she was a random banshee coming from the Sulphur Mountain City, but now it didn't seem so, as the banshee was a high-rank undead, and a natural one was even rarer, could she be the envoy from Xiluo?

"I'm Suana, Suana Newleaf."

This name was the recent headlines, and was also the fuse of the war, Elisa definitely knew about it.

She was first astounded by that, but recalling something later, she nodded her head, smiling.

"…This is indeed interesting. Perhaps the cunning Lorci would be pleased by your arrival. Oops, I was impolite for not answering the question of your highness. Yes, we were talking about Roland, the Roland who was a holy knight three hundred years ago."

"Please don't call me princess… Now I'm no longer a royal member of the Tassel Kingdom, not to mention an Elven princess."

Gazing at the dejected Suana, Elisa was about to say something, suddenly the guard outside the gate, barged in with an excited look, like he had some important news to report.

"Lord Elisa, our reinforcements have finally arrived!" (To be continued)

[1] TL Note: In Chinese, "挖坑自己跳 – Dig hole for oneself and jump into it" means asking for trouble)

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Chapter 162: Death Egg

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Within the depths of the great snow mountain, the sun was hard to come by. The sunlight shone upon the snowfield, bringing out the vast expanse of white even further, dazzling the eyes.

Childhood is one's most treasured memories, and the duty of children is just to play well and grow well. From the games, they develop living abilities for the future. This is the instinct of life, and also an inevitable path to be taken by the young of all races.

At that moment, on the snowfield, the children of the Land of Snow were chasing around and playing together.

"Hey, Little Snow. Don't run."

"Only a fool won't run, come and chase me quickly!"

"Don't run, I can't move anymore…"

"Wahaha, Little Rollie has no stamina, his legs are short and runs like a tortoise, loser, loser."

Apparently, this group of naive and lively children were playing hide and seek, while the seeker could already move no more.

Yet those children who were still energetic, was running around him. Just when he put his last effort together to start chasing, they suddenly scattered and fled in a blink.

No wonder he could not catch up with them. Although they were still children, can his stamina compete with the child of snowmen, the foal of an ice unicorns? Moreover, the young of a snow dragon and snow phoenix could fly!

Watching the little friends running further and further away, the child who was the seeker started to laugh. He had chased them for the whole morning, and at that moment he was exhausted and hungry.

"Hahahaha, this is fun, my tears are coming out already….. Continue to run, naughty brats, the seeker is coming to catch you guys. Eternal glacier bringing eternal destruction, the eternal darkness has descended, finally, the Ice Aeon will arrive…"

The destructive spell brought a dreadful magic wave, a blizzard formed in time, Laughing hysterically, the seeker started the preparation of a forbidden spell to destroy everything, although the target was just a bunch of naughty brats who were impossible to catch up with.

"Hehehe, there are two types of naughty brats, one tends to move around and one doesn't, the latter one is the good kid. Soon, all the brats will no longer be able to move, this is great…"

"Personality Correction Kick!"

Following by a sudden struck of a huge fist of ice crystals, the forbidden spell Ice Aeon was interrupted by a sudden flying lion head. But the seeker who was sent flying away still manage to leave his last comment.

"What kick? This is your fist! You called your four paws legs? Do you eat with legs?"

Ok, I admit. This unlucky guy who was forced to be the seeker was me, and for these three days, I am doing the things I hated most in my life – Playing with naughty brats!

"As a grown up, but can't even compromise with children, and you dare to tell me you are going to inherit Raven Date's will, how many days only have passed? It seems like the descendants of Mist Kingdom are becoming more and more useless."

"I… I can't stand this anymore! I have played with those naughty brats for two days, I'm going nuts soon, finding inner peace you say? My heart is about to explode! Are you sure this is really useful to me, I am just getting more anxious."

It was a mistake from the beginning, to listen to the lion head's nonsense, playing with children with a smile can help in finding inner peace you say? Maybe it worked for others. But to me, this was simply suffering in a purgatory, it made me sick.

"… Already three days? Oh, then let's go to the next stage."

The lion shook his head, then he made a new decision.

"Hellcoming… are you sure that you are not fooling me around? Why do I feel like this is just something random."

Despite the giant size, this ice crystal lion had a rather eastern name, this peculiar naming sense seemed to be the hobby of the first generation King of Mist.

"Hmm, actually playing with children for meditation purposes was just a prank. The actual target was to expose you to the scent of the young ice beasts, which was already achieved yesterday."

Great. By hearing the word "prank", I started to lose my temper.

"Then why didn't you tell me! You know how hard was it, to pretend to love building snowman, have snowball fights, and hide and seek, especially with these naughty brats who were so unreasonable, purposely going for the dangerous games, simply not listening, and treating me as their little friend… I can't stop thinking of throwing all these naughty brats into the cannon and firing them!

"Ah. Everyone thought that you were playing happily with them. After all, you are a lot younger than they are, their parents were very happy to see a foreign playmate, and seeing that you guys were enjoying, therefore we decided to let them play for an extra day with you……What are you drawing your sword for? And why are you chanting the spell for?"

And at this moment, my mind was only echoing with "enjoying, therefore we decided to let them play for an extra day with you."

"As expected all naughty brats have parents without common courtesy, if so, let all of you turn into dust, oh eternity glacier, listen to my rage…"

"Haah! Passed on by the King of Mist, Personality Correction Punch Specially For Abnormal People!"

"Arghhh!"

————

Reinforcements? No doubt, this was totally out of Elisa's expectations.

The news of the defeat just spread, and San Antonio's reinforcements were still thousands of miles away. As the main force of the five northmost kingdoms were already gathered here, the second wave of mass mobilization will not appear in a short period of time, not to say any reinforcements.

"The lords are awaiting for your arrival, they hope that you can join the reinforcement welcoming ceremony."

Elisa was shocked upon hearing that, as the East Mist was not really in a good situation in the alliance, clearly they were in a marginalized situation, and also, the arrogant generals of big countries, would never be concerned for her and the Mist Kingdom.

"…The fellow generals are waiting for you. This is allegedly the request of the reinforcements, as they refused to enter the city before meeting the deputy of East Mist.."

Afterwards, tons of news reached her ears, and from there she started to understand what was really going on.

In that defeat, rumours had it that San Antonio's commanding general was severely wounded, and the command was taken over by "Black Bear" Ainro who was also a San Antonian.

Despite having lost half their forces, San Antonian was still the largest force in the alliance, and East Mist was further marginalized instead.

And now the new reinforcements clearly would not listen to them, and only took command from East Mist, and pained the alliance generals from the bottom of their hearts. But as others had sent them reinforcements, they did not have any reason to refuse.

At least they could not reveal the alliance's poor collaboration, therefore they would have to pretend, and assigned Elisa as the representative of East Mist.

"Where did the reinforcements came from? The East Mist Kingdom is already having a hard time dealing with the monster waves, seeing that these reinforcements behave obediently in front of me, could it be…"

The gaze of disbelief turned towards the two in the room, in a sense, these two were the super boss. Of course, from their smirks, one would never know how honourable they were.

"Not me, my accompanying army and the dragon guards are still waiting in the passageway, without my command they will never come out.

Great. Accompanying army? Dragon guards? In a sense, Annie was doing a lot better than her adopted father.

With the support of dragon queen Xiao Hong, in a sense, she was also a dragon princess, plus the retreat of devil forces in the underworld, Annie and the Liu Huang Mountain City became the symbol of human forces that reigned the underworld. Seemingly, Annie was getting increasingly better in being an Empress.

Elisa turned to the other, a centauress who was a kitchen destroyer and a lightning rod of misfortune, who a while ago showed a smirk on her face. Currently, she was the leader of underworld beastmen, one of the four underworld Autarchs. At least for now, she was on the same table with Annie.

"My ranger army and tribal warriors are also resting at the passageway. Together with Annie, I will be secured, and I don't want to cause any trouble, especially bringing an army that would limit my freedom."

Well, she seemed to be honest, and she also brought her own army. Speaking of how her freedom would be limited, however, it probably meant that she would be severely restricted, trying to move about while being accompanied by an army.

" You two…"

For a while, Elisa's tongue was tied. What could she say, the two of them had now become the reputed Underworld Autarchs, it would seem awkward if they came to earth without the escort of a few armies.

"You're not afraid of causing big trouble? An Underworld alliance appearing on the outside world, moreover in the war zone. If this goes by the conspiracy theory, you can write a few legendary novels. Like "The Dark Conspiracy of Underworld Autarch and Beastmen", "Two Spies in the Sacred War – The Double Agent Dark Elves". Well, if Roland was here, he would have commented something like that."

"… We never expect to see a war, that's why we left everyone in the passageway. With this chaotic situation, I wonder if they will be fine."

"Don't worry, as long as they don't come out from the underground passageway, nobody will go there. It's close to the royal tomb of the elves, even the superior elves are unable to get near to it. But actually, it was also a secret tunnel controlled by the royal family, and that is why I lingered there to hide from my people."

With Suana's explanation, everyone on spot felt relieved. But after that, a new problem came, if the reinforcements were not from the underworld alliance, then who would it be?

"There were two groups of reinforcements which happened to come across each other and ended up travelling together. One of the group is the alliance of Sharal Autonomous Region and the barbarian tribe, they are here to support Lord Roland."

Elisa nodded when she heard that, Roland did mention the secret contract between the three places, but never had high hopes on them on sending support. After all, the covenant was still in the testing stages, with a lot of uncertainties, and moreover, Sharal itself had its own problems too.

"The second wave of reinforcements is here to support Lady Reyne, they are Aulander. It is said to be sent out by King Darsos, to thank Lord Roland on fulfilling the "Key" agreement on time.

"Pfft." Listening to that, Elisa smiled, while Annie laughed straight away.

There were things that cannot be hidden from the resourceful Annie even if not being told by Ronald, but for Annie who was always in the underworld to know, it would seem to be odd.

"Father mentioned to me before, was it that weird eyed Emperor who take a fancy to Uncle Bone? Seems like he is quite faithful towards Uncle Bone. But it is understandable, as Uncle Bone looked very cute when he was alive, when he was young he looked really like a cute girl, I wanted to give him a hug."

When she heard the sign that Adam was indeed Roland's number one bad friend, and that both of them never did anything good, Elisa burst into laughter.

"Annie, don't mention this in front of Roland, or else he will cry in front of you."

————–

"If you force me any further, I will really cry in front of you!"

"Hatch an egg? Are you crazy or am I crazy, I may look like this, but you can only complain it to my mom, I'm actually a male… No, I'm a guy! Look, look at this! I am a guy, how can I hatch an egg."

My roar was echoing within the cave, travelling far away, the reason? The lion in front of me suggested a new training plan.

"Hatching it is your second step of training. And because of this purpose, I exposed you to the young scent of the ice beasts."

That was a black ice crystal, from that mild chilliness and the magical engravings, it should be a frigid nightmare's egg. But, wasn't the frigid nightmare's egg supposed to be white in colour?

"This is a death egg, all this time it never successfully hatched, theoretically, it should have been dead, but looking at the magic engravings and ice crystals, you will know that it's still alive."

"Isn't this one of you? Can't you just hatch it by yourselves?"

"Three hundred and seventy years ago, it did nearly hatched once, but after that, no matter what we did, it won't even budge."

I was stunned when I heard this, at this point in time, it made me think of something bad.

"Twins are the most miraculous existence on this world, they are classified into many types, and one of them is the rarest, but is the true twins amongst twins. The wavelength of their souls are the same, it is like they were originally the same person, just that it is a soul that has been torn into two…"

"Enough!" I started to roar, but then stopped, what was I angry at, what caused the bottom of my heart to be in such panic?

But the lion head seemed to hear nothing, he just continued explaining on.

"The gemini of misfortune? It should be the gemini of luck, there is always a special linkage between them, moreover, they are the best corresponding partners. Oh yeah, by the way, this egg is also Erebella's brother, or sister, who knows. And it was also sent here by a descendant of the Mist, and I don't need to mention his name."

At this moment, if there was a mirror, I was afraid of how pale my face would have been.

"I have finished what I have to say, the rest is up to you."

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Chapter 163: The Old Soldier

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"Hoooooot!"

The citizens of this middle sized city showed a vacant look just as the war horns were blasted through the freezing wind.

Although the news of the alliance's defeat had spread, none had expected the beastmen to come so quickly. Moreover, they retraced the routes that the human armies had taken, just to remove their opponent from play.

Gigantic battle beasts marched from the shadows, and hill sized dragon war turtles shook the earth as they neared the city. On the massive shells stood pale battle fortresses, from within, the sound of war drums and war horns could be heard.

The gigantic war turtles were quarter dragons by bloodline, and the spread of their massive bodies was not any lower than city walls. These were the beastmen's most terrifying siege weapon.

"Doomsday Turtle! The bear king is here. It's his white-tailed battle bear army.

Not many dragon turtles exist in this world, but only the one owned by Bear King was packed with a fortress. It was named "Doomsday Turtle", and was Bear King Dunn's mount and also his moving fortress.

Behind it, the quietly approaching behemoth could not be ignored. One by one, they walked out from the shadows, transforming into an actual nightmare.

The beastmen were planning to make it a quick battle from the fact that they were sending out their trump cards from the start.

"Behemoth!! A behemoth army! We, we're finished… Everyone, run!"

The actual immediate threat was the dragon turtle, but the one bringing the greatest fear was nevertheless, the docile looking behemoth.

They were far less robust looking compared to the dragon turtle, and they did not roar like beasts due to the quiet nature. Dragging their three meter long sharp claws, they left a ditch on the earth, quietly moving forward, like a group of marching lazy boys.

Their sturdy gigantic arms, the thick hair standing straight like a gorilla, and under the thick hair, were a pair of fearsome eyes. From the looks alone, they were far less scary than the dragon turtle with horns and fangs, instead, they looked a little dimwitted. But reputation preceded all else, so nobody would ignore these fearsome giants.

Their silence was only to accumulate strength for their outburst. A true war beast does not have the habit of roaring, but only when the flesh and blood fell onto their gigantic claws, they will bask in the rush, and reveal satisfied smiles.

"These are the wildest battle beasts on earth, the number one species in land battle."

Although that number one land battle beast still had a lot of rivals, but rest assured that they lived up to their reputation as the wildest battle beast.

By only showing their presence, it had already terrified the city folks, although the army only consisted of three behemoths, it was enough to sweep the north clean.

"Clang!"

"Hoot!"

Surprisingly, the gigantic beast stepped onto the back of the dragon turtle and with a powerful stomp. Using it as a jumping ramp, it took another step and landed on top of the city walls, like agile monkeys.

Giant beasts who were not any shorter than the city walls but were as agile as apes. Just like that, the ferocious battle beasts crossed the strong walls, but by the footprints left by them, it seemed like before the strength of the behemoths, the sturdy three layered concrete city wall were not much different from mud piles.

After the gigantic behemoths entered the city, the silent beasts finally started to grin. Under that crooked face, they showed their strange teeth, each molar as tall as a man, bringing great terror.

Blooming from the centre, causing internal damage, simple but effective.

And this was also the speciality of the white-tailed battle bear army, they did not use the commonly used "adding oil tactics"[1, instead he practised a direct breakthrough. Faced with these tough behemoth vanguard, when the gates were opened by the behemoths and the beast men entered, the individual strength difference would finish the rest. Dozens of cities had already fallen by such methods.

When one of the gold haired behemoth started to open the gates from within, the other two silver haired beast started their wave of destruction. The shivering humans could not even bring out anyone strong enough to stop the behemoths. Strong individuals no doubt dwelt in the city, but who would be foolish enough to try opposing an entire army?

The grinning beastmen could already see the future, it just like the other cities. Wherever the fearsome battle beasts went, people would scream and flee in all directions, and the mighty army would step into a city which offered no resistance.

But this time, there were some differences, some stood their ground.

An old soldier stood at the city gate, his rusty chain mail covered with dirt, and his brandy nose turned red under the freezing wind.

The old soldier did not charge towards the gigantic beast insanely, he did not even try to stop it, but only stayed where he was. And in that chaos, he still caught the eye of the behemoths.

Where he was standing happened to be the way the gold haired behemoth needed to go through.

The gigantic beast seemed to find himself challenged, and in a frenzy of rage, the beast's eyes turned blood red, charged towards the old soldier.

"Old soak, you're mad! Run now!"

He was not the general of this city, just an old soldier from the city defence army.

"Old soak" Ike, yes, this was his nickname, and was also his code name, the reason is that he loved to have a quick drink in the pub after his duty. Even while on sentry duty, he would definitely be carrying cheap wine in his arm.

"Old soak, aren't you afraid someone will have to pull your drunken corpse from a drain pipe some day?"

Every time, when someone made this joke, the old soak would pat his belly, and laugh with his mouth wide open, showing his yellowish teeth.

"Come on, as long as Old Buck gives me bottomless dry gin, I will choose to die in the drain of your house tomorrow."

At this moment, as if he did not hear the shout of his colleague, old soak Ike rubbed his nose, his blurry eyesight still staring at his own wine bottle.

"Bah, this ale is just as bad as usual, how much water did that bratty Little Buck add. Perhaps it is water mixed with a bit of ale after all. Hey, seems like he is losing his conscience, Old Buck is still more honest."

After tasting this three coppered coin pot of diluted ale, Ike narrowed his eyes, it was as if he had returned to the past, at that time, when his brother and wife were still there. Although the dry gin in Buck's bar was also bad, at least they served sufficient portions.

But during that time he was not called an old soak. "Arrow of Kashgar", Ike was a well-known elite ranger, before he was transferred to the city defence army after he took an arrow to the knee. He was a famous bad a*.

"Somehow it feels like, something has changed."

Although the weather was still as freezing, the pay was still as low, the ale from the "Old Buck's Pub" was still as bad, but at that time, his life was considered well, perhaps. It was because those old bast*rds and old sods who accompanied him were still there.

"D*mn, these good for nothing beastmen! And the useless nobles! Running away even before the war starts, Little Synden, I'll soon see your dad in hell. The things I'll say to him, he'll spank your butt when you join us, just like old times. Why, when you grow old you will start to recall these useless things."

While pondering on how to complain to his former, now deceased superior, the old soldier drew a rusty standard iron blade.

"Puff."

A spit of the ale, the wet long sword finally shone with dim light. The gigantic beast was already in front of him, but the old soak who was shaken by the earthquake set his helmet slowly.

"Old synden said, we soldiers are the face of his lord, we need to be aware of our appearance as we charge. Oh yeah, I remember it now. During this moment, we should shout that line, what was that again?"

A gigantic arm which could easily crush a bridge reached his front, and the old soldier stopped pondering, he shouted the line and started to swing his sword, with the full weight of his heart and soul. The sword that he gave all of him, bringing an arc of light, a faint blade aura appeared, this was the highest level of power Ike had achieved throughout his life.

"Slap!"

But with this absolute strength difference, it was not something that could be made up for with fighting will. The steel claw of the behemoth fell, and the only thing left was a lump of meat sauce and some blood stain.

Perhaps startled by the old soldier, or due to the fact that the old man and actually punctured the skin of the beast, the gold haired behemoth slowed down and stared. After having a good look at the corpse of the old soldier, only did it continue to hunt down other deserters.

The old soak was dead, and died in a terrible way. He did not have the power to defeat the enemy, nor did anyone witness his final, valiant act. His death did not rouse the morale, nor did it turn the tide of the battle.

This is war, there are no heroes. No miracles, only the bloody strong ones will prey on the weak ones.

But when he died, his last charging slogan still echoed in the air, carrying afar by the cold air…

"… The Spirit of Mist will never yield!"

———–

"You murderers! You are the beastmen's accomplices!!"

As before, it was the old theatre that acted as the conference room, but this time, it was the furious Reyne who was spluttering at the alliance generals.

After the news of the beastmen renewed attack spread, the joint conference of military officers from different countries had a meeting for the whole morning, but they merely started from blaming each other and progressed to brainstorming on how to fortify the defence of Maple City. However, they still did not have any intentions to send reinforcements to other cities which were attacked.

"Ahem, your highness, you should maintain your royal manners and keep calm. You see, now that the enemy is strong, the best strategy is to retreat, and you see, fortifying the defence and gathering troops for the final battle is the correct way for now."

"What happens to the cities and the citizens near the marching army of the beastmen? They are still waiting for our rescue. We can't leave them to die."

But her proposal did not get any response, instead, there were people mocking her on this.

"Why would you be so agitated over the matter of other countries, be careful, others might think that you have ulterior motives."

"Hmph, can't even see the situation clearly, no wonder she was marginalized. If it was not because of Lord Roland's absence, I'm afraid that she wouldn't even have the authority to attend this."

"A princess should just be an ornament, better not to command blindly in a war. Rescue? Do we even have enough troops for the final battle?"

From a tiny and weak country, plus her lack of reputation due to juvenility, she was faced with prejudice, from the start of the discussion, even the aggressive, war-pursuing factions were focusing on the defence on fortifying Maple City. Reyne's opinion had already been ignored more than once.

Her face turned red, but still she did not have any choice and finally, she left angrily.

"Being marginalized? What is happening nowadays?"

In a sense, that guy's wild guess was near to the truth, being marginalized, this indeed was Reyne's concern.

From some point, Roland purposely kept Reyne away from important matters, and this had caused the internals of East Mist to make wild assumptions.

If this had been done by others, Reyne would had suspected if they had an ulterior motive, as if they had the ambition to climb to the top. But for Roland who had no interest in power, nobody seemed to understand why he did that.

"He seems to have kept me from fulfilling any role."

Thinking of her juniors who were busy in various aspects, while she was set aside, she couldn't help to stop thinking on these.

"It started when Elisa came here, I wonder what did they discuss about. If she was only bad mouthing me, Roland wouldn't have been changed so easily. Furthermore, his attitude towards me did not change, so why did he isolate me."

After putting some in thoughts, Reyne faintly recalled something, but it was difficult to confirm it.

Then suddenly the sky turned black, leaving her no time to think, and she immediately looked for shelter to hide.

After just a few seconds, the clear sky turned into chaos, a huge flock of harpies tossed tar bombs down and retreated, driving the city fire brigade throughout the city.

And at the same time, the city air calvaries had embarked, bringing down as many of the enemy as they could.

Although unable to remove the enemy thoroughly, at least they would draw some blood in return.

"… Your highness, the generals request you to attend the discussion, now that the beastmen are gathering up, we fear that they will soon bypass the barrier and attack the city directly."

[1] TL Note: In Chinese, "添油战术 – Sending troops slowly and increase them until the enemy is defeated

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Chapter 164: The Puppet King

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"What is elemental magic? The combination of sophisticated incantations and baffling rules? If it's that difficult, how do we demon beasts perform it? We have not even inherited words."

A warm voice was filling the hall, and the surrounding crowds were listening, attentively. The body was so gigantic that even its borders could not be seen. Closing its eyes, in a slow pace, the ice dragon was passing down its perspective on magic.

"The way of magic, "magic" is miraculous yet incredible, and "way" represents the rules and influence towards the reality, together, they indicated the altering of reality by utilizing some incredible means. Nowadays, a majority of the accomplished magicians are undoubtedly Human sorcerers, whose magic are derived from the Elves. Of course, compared to the Elven age which revolved around the four elements, they have very much improved, but the methods and techniques of research are passed down from their ancestors. This becomes obvious as they put emphasis on all sort of sophisticated incantations and ceremonies. But I have to say, those complicated stuffs are not needed."

A melodious voice was heard, as if it was carrying the musical notes. The ice phoenix rested above the head of the ice dragon. Being the pinnacle of the ice spirits, her mere presence had given rise to a light snowfall in the air.

"Those long ears are a bunch of paranoids. They are sensitive and bigoted, insisting that magic is a craft work which could only be explained by words, they had created all sort of confusing runes, though they had actually made up something. Sadly, they had abandoned the origin of the magic from the very beginning."

A thick voice filled with sarcasm and disdain had come in. The ice demon lion lay on the back of the ice phoenix. Although it was a giant itself, it looked like a kitten compared to the phoenix.

"The Humans are learning from the Elves, while the Elves are learning from nature….Hehe. The so-called nature, aren't they some natural magical beings and elemental beings like us? Sadly, they have not realized the foundation, and ever since the moment they adhered to research instead understanding, they were getting away from the truth, further and further."

"The will of Gods is actually divine art, while the wrath of demon lords could reform the world, even my beloved ice phoenix, Aiseia Liven, could summon a blizzard across the entire mountain with a single glare. Aren't they altering reality by utilizing some incredible power?"

"Those long ear-ers always like to complicate stuff, just to lose sight of the foundation. Only by achieving legendary status suffices to condense one's seal of will? Only by acquiring the holy-rank allows one to change the world with his or her will? Hahahaha, that's ridiculous, going a big circle just to come back to the starting point, we could have done this since the beginning."

"The warlocks carry alien bloodlines, and the unique tribes of all sort of talents, aren't their miraculous powers considered magic? The definition from the Elves is rather bigoted."

"So, all you young-uns, abandon those unnecessary complications and arcanums, they are not for you. What you need to do, is just to build up your will to change the world, something like this… liz slen nus!"

As the miraculous spell was lifted, the will of ice dragon descended, the tremendous force in the air could make one breathless, the boundless strength instilled fear in all livings on the spot, that, was the wrath coming from the ancient times.

"The might of Doom Dragon? What is that? I'm just awakening my own presence. I don't care about the fear of those insects. When I glare, all weaklings must close their eyes. When I descend, all scoundrels must bow. When I am furious, all despicable ones must kneel down. My will, also my presence, I am the Doom Dragon, Akeseusith! Beneath my ice wings, is the land where the doomsday will befall."

The gigantic dragon gave a snarl, declaring his presence, and the entire mountain answered this by trembling in fear.

"Everything originates from the soul. Listen to the voice of your soul, and you will discover your own magic, the arcanum that works best for you. That might just be magic, but when you have truly understood it, it could be any kind of magic."

As the ice phoenix fluttered its wings, the snows in the air were turning into various forms, should it be snow meteors, snowflakes, or snow blades, luckily, they all would become just some adorable snow babies upon touching the ground. To one's surprise, the snow babies were jumping around and started to build their own snowmen, they were alive!

"To go by the terms of those witless Elves, we have called this the premier magic, you may also call it as innate magic. It's not something to be attempted by the ordinary sorcerers, but is absolutely worth-trying, for one has already condensed his seal of will, and thus is able to interfere the world with his will like a monster. Roland, you get it now?"

The snarl of the rowdy lion had made the world tremble, the reverberation of the sound had shattered the ice hills. The kings of the frigid nightmares were imparting to their youth the truth of the magic.

Finally, I had known why those little devils would always run away from the lessons, and why the three elders were so delighted now. As their only audience, my face had remained thoughtful, but I was actually pondering over it.

"That, can I ask a question?"

"Ask, I know you must have a lot of doubts, as our theory of magic is totally different compared to what you were exposed to in the past."

"My son, relax your mind, we are not frightening. In a sense, we are even relatives."

"As I have spoken, the etiquette in the world of Humans mean nothing for us. Speak out."

Nodding my head after getting an affirmative answer, I decided to point out something I had been watching since the lesson begun.

"That, I am somewhat obsessive and afraid I will have a sleepless night without knowing the answer to this…"

The gaze of three highest ranked beings had rendered the air frozen, in fact, the air was actually turning to ice, and thus, I finally posted my question.

"Why must the three of you stack on top each other like the Buddhist arhats? Do you think this is cool? And that, I find this interesting out of the blue, can I stand at the highest point? I am very light."

"Is this even a main point?!"

The gigantic dragon gave a slight quiver, which had triggered an earthquake.

"You two fools, what's with this three-sages pyramid posture? And even forming a group of four heavenly kings with that old tortoise in the lake? I have said that this posture is disgusting!"

"This mentality is exactly the same as the old Mist King. A Mist descendant definitely. But…no way! No one should stand on my head."

"Lion head! Why are you standing on our heads then? Have you proposed all of this just to stand on top of us?"

With the two members at bottom retorting with the same voice, there came the joyous time of watching their silly bickering.

"Sigh, please mind your reputation before the juniors. Besides that, did you not perceive anything?"

In a twinkling, the ice phoenix flickered as a stream of light and reappeared in front of me.

"…One has to be serious in choosing a nickname, and more serious in thinking of the opening line. Puff, what's with this Doom Dragon? That's too embarrassing, "I am the Doom Dragon, beneath my wings…" Alright, my lord, please curb your dragon rage, this name is fantastic, and doesn't sound like the idea of a sophomore[1] at all."

"Not knowing what 'sophomore' means? It is reputedly the moment when one being is so handsome that the rest could hardly bear the sight of it. Indeed, that is one's precious moment, the moment when one shines the brightest, which always brings out an excitement whenever one looks back. I suppose the nickname 'Sophomore Wings' is meant for you…You like it?! That's awesome, Lord Sophomore Wings!"

After creating the name "Lord Sophomore" out of fun, I turned to the lion head before me, smiling and waving my hand.

The invisible cold air appeared to be dispersing. There was no spectacular spark of magic, and no stirring bang, just the turquoise ice crystals whirling in my palm.

"Alright. Thanks for your enlightenment, seniors, I have found it, to think that it was always within me…"

In a sense, I had gained a lot, the three pinnacles of the ice had led me to a new path, a path which was absolutely different from the conventional elemental magic, I could not wait to try out the new abilities I had mastered.

Just when I was crowing over my new insights, the silver ring on my finger started vibrating. The arriving news very much displeased me.

"Damn brat! Unfilial son! Imbecile! I will kill him!"

—

As the vultures of war were hovering in the sky of the Northland, some changes had taken place within Antoin, amidst the army.

Under the cover of the dark night, some figures in black cloaks had snuck into the castle, they were then guided by the royal attendants into the castle, furtively. Should they be gone with smiles before the daylight, everything would be different.

"Will of Mist. Haha. Never surrender? Bah!"

The scorn of men in black cloaks could still be felt in the air, but on a nearby windowsill, a young couple was whispering, and their vision could penetrate through these buildings.

"How could this be? Haven't we pledged to protect the damn fatty?"

"Hmph, he had believed in no God, would he believe us?"

"Damn, how could this be? This has gone beyond Roland's prophecy. Should I wipe out all of them?"

"Would it help? Unless you slaughter the damn fatty on the crown, no envoy could be sent off. Not really, even you have slaughtered him, that wouldn't help. We'd better get in touch with Roland, ahh…it's meaningless now, if my prediction doesn't go wrong, very soon, this news would spread across the world and astonish all."

"How would Roland be if he heard this news? To think that the thing he had protected with his life was trodden under the feet of others, yet its head was spat on, he must feel terrible."

"What else could be done? You should ask what else the Northland could become! In a sense, Roland had been always fettered by morality and some evident rules, should he be on rampage…not only the Northland would be completely different, but the whole world will not be able to stop him either."

As predicted by Margaret, the news had shaken the world on the very next day.

[ Sleuweir Kingdom announced an unconditional surrender, indicating their willingness to be ruled by the Beastman Warchief, thus recognizing Eymond Bloodaxe. My stepfather, King Feimer Carson had even held harsh negotiations with the Humans within his territory, for their troops to be withdrawn immediately, or else it would be perceived as an act of aggression. ]

"Shameless! How could one be so shameless, those countries are coming to his rescue! Aggression?"

"Can this be possible? The people of Mist have no history of surrender over thousands of years. Despite numerous times of being on the verge of annihilation, they had survived. This news must be false, the Mist Kingdom never surrenders!"

Reinforcements from all countries were pretty much in the dark. A moment ago, they were coming to rescue of their allies, in a twinkling, they became the intruders. Should this war continue to be fought? What was the purpose of our blood and sacrifices?

The people of Sleuweir, were feeling even more devastated, when they had decided to fight until their last breath, their king had however given in. Imperceptibly, they had become the people of a subjugated nation, yet they had to banish their liberators.

That was the deepest despair. The people of Mist, who was always proud of their unyielding spirit, had never suffered such humiliation. For the first time, they fathomed betrayal, despair and disgrace, severely. "Even staining the face with mud doesn't feel so dirty!" Some people said so, while some people, had committed suicide on the second day, never would they accept such sickening truth that their country had surrendered.

Being so adamant that they would rather break their bones than bowing, they might be seemingly foolish, but that was the backbone of this race. And also, it was why they could stand up again every single time they were defeated. It was impossible for them to consider surrendering, even amidst the darkest impasse. Even though the Mist Kingdom had fallen three hundred years ago, they were able to rebuild another Mist Kingdom.

"You can kill me, but you will never make me kneel! The people of Mist knows no bowing, we won't give up and won't be slaves!"

For many years, whenever they dealt with invasion from Beastmen, Devils, Elves and other countries, whenever they reached the blind alley, this was the battle cry of the people of Mist Kingdom. They would risk their lives to fulfil their promises, and also due to this trait, they had been standing firm in the north of the continent.

This time, the pain and sufferings while battling the Beastmen were beyond endurance, but that didn't deprive the people of Mist of their resolve to fight until the very end, No matter how hopeless the circumstances had become, they always believed the final victory belongs to them, and their countries.

Being in such a blind alley, however, they could still talk about the past and the present, and chuckle "You call this a dead end? We had experienced it for countless times!" They still believed they would achieve victory, the knights would protect them, and the royals would lead them to the victory of glory and pride, once again.

"Those northern men know no despair, they are stinky and stubborn, just like the frozen stone in the Northland, there is no way they could be subdued."

The people of Mist considered this comment from the southern men as a compliment, no matter how many difficulties lay in front of them, they would never learn about despair, as they were confident that they would be victorious in the end.

The World had always presumed the people of Mist would never surrender, but a letter of surrender delivered from the king in the distance had written a new chapter of history, the very first time, the people of Mist was deprived of their desire for victory, seeing that bewilderment and disappointment in their eyes was simply heartbreaking.

Some people had chosen to commit suicide in disappointment, while some had looked upon the man above the throne with hatred.

"We won't surrender, the Mist Kingdom won't surrender, that man doesn't deserve to be our king! If the news is real, he is none other than a puppet king."

Right after that, another news had reached the ears of the entire Northland, staggering the whole world, but it had helped the people of Mist to regain their confidence and hope.

"I'm the descendant of Mist, Roland Mist. I now declare Feimer Carson as a puppet king, and all the decisions he made have no credibility. Henceforth, I will make a crusade order, a vow of crusade! We will all raise the war flags of Mist, I hope all the people of Mist will fight along with me, to crusade against the puppet king! The Spirit of Mist. Never surrender!"

Colloquially, it means:

"Damn it, what's spoken by that bastard doesn't count, Feimer, you scumbag, just wait, I will take down your head!"

The notice was short and was not properly legislated, but very soon, the people of Mist in the Sleuweir had torn down their previous national emblems and the king's portrait, and replaced with the new one.

Would they not know his facial features? His statue was in the centre of all the city square. For so many years, he was never apart from all his brothers.

Above the flag which had been risen again, it was still the same old fortress, standing firmly in the gale, but this time, the people were cheering a name.

"The Mist King Roland, our king has returned, our real king has returned, we have not surrendered! The people of Mist, never surrender!" (to be continued…)

[1] TL Note: In Chinese, the word "sophomore – 中二" roughly means, immature but pretend to be cool and competent. Or as the japanese would call it, chuunibyou.

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Chapter 165: Feast of the Traitors

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

On the boundless ice field, the scenery appeared stagnant, and when the sun rose, the black horizon turned out to be an assembly of cavalry and warriors.

"The beastmen are here!"

After the simple announcement, the first wave of catapults and tactical magic started to perform their duties, the huge rocks soared through the sky, following a dreadful noise. Every time they landed, dozens of lives were taken away.

Originally, the Maple City was just a normal double layered wall city, but after countless investments from the other countries, it had been upgraded to a four layered wall fortress.

Earth wizards may not have the strength and magnificence in attacking magic compared with other elemental wizards, but in civil engineering tasks, they would show advantage that other elemental wizards cannot compare with.

One by one, high walls were rose in a blink of an eye, followed by the chanting of "Turn soil to mud" the city moat was widened by seven to eight meters, and the alchemical venom that flowed within may not be lethal, but could slow the foe down.[1]

At least the city walls were more than three times taller, on the towering high walls, it was full with ballistics and heavy artillery. Griffin cavalries were patrolling in the skies, searching for spots that might be missed.

On each platform on the city wall, countless catapults were built up, such historical siege and defence weapons, as long as there are enough scholars and craftsmans, it will bring sufficient power. What difference is a huge stone falling from the sky and the meteor spell, when it would kill anything it hits anyway.

Simple, violent, effective, low cost, were the reasons that catapults were essential in wars.

But this time, the enemy had just entered the shooting range of the largest catapult, the distance was very far, it was impossible to hit precisely and pose a threat, but mostly it was just a type of deterrent.

"On the battlefield, there is no safe spot."

Not to be outdone, the beastmen fought back. Mobile catapults had limited range, even the largest ones can barely scratch the city walls. Their projectiles raised some dust and rubble, and made the guards laughed.

Not long ago, the rocks and boulders were already being cleared, and the usable stones were stored in the city storage as ammo. To find suitable ones for themselves, the beastmen had no choice but to bring in their own ammo from afar.

And meanwhile, at the west city gate, the East Mist army was assigned there for defensive purposes, and as a temporary leader, Reyne's palms were full of sweat, this was only the second time she encountered war, but is her first time being involved as a militant.

"Hold on, hold on, Reyne. You can do it, in those years when brother Roland went to the battlefield, he was younger than you are now.""

What she did not know was that as she encouraged herself silently, a few persons were keeping their eyes on her, while some kept on searching for the mysteries of the world through her eyes.

———-

The road to hell is paved with good intentions, this is something common, but there is also something called doing good with bad intentions, rare as it is.

"The Coward" Feimer Carson's surrender, brought Sleuweir Kingdom great disgrace. He was the first of the descendants of Mist to surrender (Nominally). At the same time, he was labelled as the clown of history, it was a very strange but important influence on the war.

Firstly, due to the fall of the kingdom and the surrender of the royals, Sleuweir was turned into the subordinate of beastman tribe, Suddenly, the castellan and lords of other cities and towns were lost. However, the beastmen army got to bypass the city-states, directly reaching Maple City, the core of it all.

"Why fight when we have already surrendered?"

The second influence had a deeper impact, that was the declaration of war against the beastmen from the elves.

Yes, they declared war. That silent alliance only lasted for less than half a month, and suddenly changed to a hostile relation immediately.

This time, the elven king of Tassel did not show mercy, the human bast*rd chosen as the tipping point was a San Antonian, moreover, he was a noble of the Karsomi Communal Country. He was also the one pulling the strings behind and a slave trader.

Therefore, they changed their targets to Sleuweir and the Karsomi Communal Country suddenly. After that, San Antonio which was next by default, was not able to get off of this situation.

His plans were good, and as long as the war went well, he could use the tipping point and escalate it to stimulate the grievance of people, letting the war continue spreading. Since it was all for the revenge of Princess Suana who was the anti war faction, the peace faction and anti war faction could not disagree on this.

But if the targeted chief culprit Sleuweir surrendered to the beastmen, and in the end was protected by the beastmen instead, from which side should they get their revenge from?

General "Black Bear" Ainro was quite sharp at times, and also quite courageous. When he knew about "Peace Dove's Death", immediately he discovered the conspiracy. Right away, he removed the family of that bast*rd noble's name from Karsomi, captured his brothers and gave it to the elves, and added a genuine and sincere apology letter.

"… Hearing of that tragedy, at the same time we grieved, we deeply regretted. We will never let the murderer run free, as he himself had already died, we hereby present his brothers and wife as an offering, to propitiate Princess Suana's soul in the heavens…"

Well, this was actually not very appropriate, and also shameless, but in a sense, it worked for the elves who were famously stubborn, the human kings also fathomed that these elves had proud nature and do not yield to strength but can be persuaded by reason.

"We offer a few unworthy descendants of a family, and we apologize sincerely, for the Karsomi Communal Country had already done a great job. By using a sinner's wife as an offering is no different from the barbaric beastman, if the news spread, it will affect the reputation of Tassel Kingdom and the elven tribes."

When this kind of news spread out, the war-pursuing faction of Tassel Kingdom noticed that there were something wrong.

In fact, the elven kingdom was the home to the administrative system and congress system. In the eyes of the world, it represented equality, a symbol of peace, and the elven states with different regimes were regarded as the Kingdom of Freedom, but the throne was comparatively weak.

In the eyes of the emissary of the war-pursuing faction, if most of the elves had fulfilled their revenge, and wanted a truce with the "alliance", then wouldn't Suana's "sacrifice" be wasted? How could this nonsensical ending be accepted, how could they face the elven gods who wanted to intensify the contradiction.

While the elves were very particular about reputation and fame, wouldn't a war without a righteous cause make them evil invaders? How would the kind and peace loving elves become sinful invaders, we needed to be on the side of justice, our targets must be the wicked villains.

Therefore, a report with completely solid intelligence was dug out. Within it was the proof of elf trafficking of recent years, and surprisingly those elf traffickers and slavers had official backgrounds, the arch-criminals or the one behind these directly pointed fingers at Sleuweir, and their nobility and royalty.

The truth was that when slavery exists in this nation, the officials actually turned a blind eye on it, when the bloody chain of benefits exists, how can the upper strata be clean?

Well, then it would all be the fault of King Feimer, but speaking of the truth, from the fact that he kept hundreds of elven dancers in his palace. It surely seemed that he was not wronged falsely.

In the eyes of the elves, they were not invading and instead, they were exacting revenge and bringing justice, the evil Kingdom of Sleuweir must pay the price. The evil humans shall be expelled from the land of elves.

But then, the elves met some trouble. Sleuweir had surrendered. The people of Mist who were stubborn mules actually surrendered? To these longevity tribe, it was beyond imagination – as if the elves had turned cheerful and magnanimous, the dwarfs turned clean and tidy, the beasts had turned educated and reasonable.

The surrender of Sleuweir aside, the elves had to ask themselves if they wanted to continue with this idea of revenge.

If they do not exact revenge, they just cannot let it go, and it would feel like they cannot face certain existence.If they chose on revenge, wouldn't it be an act of aggression towards Feimer, which was under the dominion of beastmen? Would the beastmen willingly give up their hard earned trophy of victory?

"Dumb savage beasts, hand us Feimer and his filthy minions, we still can talk… wait, why are you holding me back. Ah!"

The elven envoys were as arrogant as usual, causing a weak negotiation attempt to end up in failure. But this was also the outcome that some elven kings needed.

"To all high priests, please inform "him" that "his" will be carried through.

Anzolo Seustad Adelband, this tediously long name that was an abbreviation of itself. A lot could be said about his life, and he had a handful of names, but there was one adjective that could describe him well – Elven God.

The Gods of Order was composed of a mixture of various divine systems, and among the god level existences, there were only seven of them, proving how formidable he was. By the way, it was he who exiled Lorci, caused the falling of dark elves, and the target list of Harloys' vow of revenge was also headed by him.

As Elven God and the guardian god of the whole elven tribe, how could the will of Anzolo be violated, and therefore the elves declared war upon the beastmen, they declared war towards the beastmen who "attempted" to protect Feimer.

"As expected, the thought patterns of elves… I'm afraid that our elf study needs to be revised again. Hmph, the more intense the battle is the better it is, it will be best if they slay each other."

As the human militarists were raising their eyebrows, they were also looking forward to the comedy, but very soon they were to find that this declaration of war was just a pretence.

When the beastmen gave up on other cities and focused on the final battle, suddenly the elves began the slaughter, but of course, in the dictionary of these arrogant elves there is no such filthy word, they prefer the term, 'purge'.

The overflowing hatred was infectious, the blood-lusting madness spread with no end, and quickly, judgement was out of control, any proof of nobles whose ancestors took part in slavery was enough for the whole family to be hanged.

"What? Your grandfather served as a mercenary before? And you weren't clear of where he made his living? I'm sorry then if you can not prove that he was innocent, that means he was guilty, and if he was guilty, you are guilty."

The elven pastors served as judges also fell into an inexplicable fever, in their discernment of guilt and in the trial of implicated offenders, rarely anyone escaped unscathed. The only merit compared to the beastmen was that they had not yet acted upon the commoners for now, or in their terms, they had not started punishing them.

How is it possible for a war to have no casualties, facing their losses, with the so-called elven gracefulness, to let the city defence soldiers choose a not too embarrassing death.

Therefore, all around the fallen city hung human heads, the commoners who survived by luck stared at these long ears with their eyes full of hatred.

"They are truly some frenzied warlords, I'm afraid that the northern elves will never return to what they once were, maybe after this havoc, elves would be no more."

But I saw sadness from the elves' frenzy. The only one who can lead the pastor's will was the gods, and since the gods did not care about dignity anymore, they themselves had already fallen into despair and madness due to the loss of their dignity.

By choosing to betray the Gods of Order, by acting as the vanguard of the War God, in an era where vanguard is almost the synonym of cannon fodder, soon the collective fall of the elven gods will come.

"This truly is the feast of traitors."

Even while saying such words, I was repeatedly reading the letter written to another betrayer, considering on whether or not to reconsider their stance that would directly affect the outcome of this war.

"Dear lady Lorci, good day, I am your loyal fan Roland Mist, you may have heard of me, I have always been intrigued by your art of interrogation, and would like to find a chance to learn from you (omitting the flattery of 5000 words)… You should have heard of the recent happenings, and here, I have a little suggestion…"

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Chapter 166: No One is Immortal

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Among the snow coming down from all over the sky, there was an eerie laughter, and with lips that flapped out some peculiar and incomprehensible phrases, a visitor in silver robes was knocking on the door of the palace.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

The sound of his ring pounding the door was inconceivably loud, that it could reach the ears of the citizens, reminding them of a funeral bell.

"Bang, bang bang!"

The knocking sound was reverberating, an intangible magic power could be sensed within it, which was quite vexing.

"Little Fismer, are you there? Hehe, I'm coming to play with you."

The unwelcome guest seemed to be whispering below the city walls, his voices however, was able to transmit around to every room in the palace through an uncertain medium.

King Fismer woke up abruptly from his dream, a nightmare in which he was being pursued by a fierce demon. Right after that, the reverberating voice and eerie laughter rang in his ears.

"Hehe, Little Fismer, I'm coming to play with you."

That eerie voice was just behind him, in a split second, Fismer turned his head but it was just an empty wall, there was nobody there.

"Little Fismer, I know you are home, stop hiding!"

This time, the voice came from the side, Fismer stood up violently. He pulled out his sword from beneath the pillow and swung it towards the direction of the voice, just to find it directed at his Elven slave, who was petrified.

Just when the corpulent Fismer was frightened by this spooky scene and took a deep breath, "Bang Bang Bang", the sound of knocking door sent him over the edge.

"Who!! Who dares to disturb me now?"

"I, have, found, you! Come, play, together."

That creepy and chilling voice rang up again. At this moment, Fismer suddenly recalled, that his room door was in front of him, while behind him…

"Bang Bang Bang."

The window was still making the banging sound, under the pounding of a peculiar white hand, an ash-pale grinning face stared through the window, with a pair of glowing red crescent eyes.

"Wait, for, me, little, Fis, Mer, I, am, coming, for, you!"

The more it spoke, the laughing face laughed even more gleefully. The grin got wider until it could reach the cheek, and now, it had actually turned into a scary demon face.

That was absolutely not the face of a Human!

In a twinkling, an inexplicable coldness crept up everyone's spines. The surrounding slaves were shocked into fainting on the spot, meanwhile, Fismer Caso was frightened to such an extreme that he threw down his sword, which was supposed to be his all-time life saver.

"Boom!"

The very precious elixir had triggered an explosion, and flames sprang up over all the place, half of the room was blown up to the sky.

"Sough sough sough."

Right after the curling smoke dissipated, the cold wind was drawn in, but nothing was left before the eyes.

Seeing that the remaining room had become a terrace, however, only the snow-drops could be seen coming in, and there was not a single trace of the man who uttered the voices.

The hoarse chuckle, again, rang in Fismer's ear.

"Lives forever (no one lives forever). You can run, but you cannot hide!"

In the end, he still could not get rid of the eerie voices around his ears. The cowardly Fismer was falling apart and even screamed like a woman.

"Guards! Guards! There's an assassin! Somebody wants to kill me!"

He ran naked into the hallway, the guards who hurried to the scene, looked incredulously at the most unsightly king.

After running several steps in the corpulent body, he had collapsed on the floor, gulping for air. Subsequently, the screaming Fismer pulled a sword abruptly from a guard and furiously slashed at the curtain swinging with the wind.

"What are you looking at? There's an assassin! You bunch of junks, have you been bought over too? Want to kill me? I tell you, if I'm dead, I will take you down with me, I mean it!"

Seeing this, the guards and the knights were shocked, at the same time, their faces were filled with a disgusted, yet pitiful expression towards Fismer. In their eyes, this man who had just reduced them from respectable guards to junks, had probably gone crazy.

"Why are you looking at me? You bunch of useless scum, should you be not so useless. I wouldn't have had to surrender to those filthy and worthless Beastmen! It was all your fault, it was all because of you, bunch of useless idiots!"

The enraged king violently wielded the sword in his hand, his grounding in swordsmanship left behind since young was barely acceptable. However, before the knights, this moronic way of wielding the sword was meaningless. As they dodged the attacks without a hitch, they continued to look at each other, and then at the insane king, pitying him even more.

"…ha, ha."

Very soon, Fismer who had abandoned himself to wine and women, slumped resignedly on the floor. Gulping for air strenuously, he was feeling short of breath.

Unconsciously, he tried to pull something away from his neck, but unexpectedly, what he touched was not the flesh of man.

That was a pair of ice cold arms, grabbing him deadly by the throat, and the ice cold breath had already reached behind his ears, it was still the same hoarse voices.

"I, caught, you!"

"Aaaaaaaa!"

The king screamed madly in terror, only to elevate the strange feeling of the guards, they could see nothing unusual except Fismer, who was flailing madly for no apparent reason.

In their eyes, Fismer had suddenly squeezed his own neck, while screaming, yet rolling on the floor, his tongue had been squeezed out, but he squeezed himself even harder, as if he would not die.

There were people who derived pleasure from seeing such misfortune, but most of the guards still rushed to his assistance, after all, as the bodyguards of the king, their reputation would vanish if the king whom they served loyally, died in such a ridiculous manner,

But this time, they would very soon realise that Fismer was not just going crazy.

"Roar"

The entire wall was shattered by a brute force, the head of a huge lion formed by the frigid ice had come in, its unspeakable majesty was as deadly as the pervasive freezing air. The visitor in silver rope on top of the lion, wasn't he the unwelcome guest who knocked the door just now?

"Yo, no one opened the door after so long? Well, I came up here on my own. Well, buster, I told you, you can run, but you cannot hide!"

——————————

The guards acted as they were facing an incredible opponent, by simply swinging my hand the ghostly blue phantom had risen from Fismer, and then they revolved around me like kids who yearned for candy.

The flames at the back were rising, the gleam of magic had lighted up half of the sky. Along with the plan, it seemed that Adam and Margaret had successfully distracted the strong ones, of course, I had seized this opportunity too.

Hence, I drew my sword. As the blue phantom revolving joyously above the sacred sword of Roland, they transformed into a raging frosty sacred flame.

Obviously, the way I pulled my sword had agitated the audience, so, shaking my head, I returned the sacred sword to its scabbard.

Following the return of sacred sword to its scabbard, the blue flames finally went out, and the ghostly phantom was sent back into deep slumber, and even I had breathed a sigh of relief, as the power of this newborn creature was too unearthly, that even I felt uncomfortable with it.

"Ow, this power works so well in finding and scaring people. Unbelievable!"

Nevertheless, this moment was not the end. The Royal Guards were always the most refined warriors, and those surrounding us, was definitely the most refined ones. They stepped into a formation, protecting Fismer, who was at the centre.

The one who comes isn't kind, the one who is kind doesn't come. When I came, I had created a major turn of events. Now, they were no longer interested in merits, but only strove to avoid any mistakes, and prioritized the protection of their king before everything else.

"You… Who are you? Did that fellow send you to kill me?"

Perhaps the guards had given him courage, to my utter surprise, Fismer was yelling at me.

"You're half right, indeed I'm here to kill you, but, I work for nobody. It's just my very principle to clean up my own mess."

And thus, I took off my hood, shaking off the snow, and smiled to him.

"Aaaaaaa, Roland!"

He had, however, made a more piercing scream, which was quite impolite. Hence, I reached out my hand, and blue magic power radiated from my palm, the blue handprint had reappeared on the neck of Fismer, but this time, it directly dragged him towards me.

In a twinkling, Fismer was dragged by the ghostly hand to me, and the surrounding guards had turned pale with terror, but still tried to snatch at him.

The few royal guards, were, in fact, Gold-rank fighters, and they were charging in full throttle, murderously. However, what they were facing was not just me alone.

"Shut up you idiots!"

As one of the elder Frigid Nightmares, Hellcoming was the friend of the first-generation Mist King, he should be around 1700 years old now, his skills knew no bounds.

A single roar had sent some unlucky knights, one by one flying towards the wall.

Looking at the useless man who was overwhelmed with fear, the flames of fury were rising in my heart.

"You, a descendant of Mist? Scum like you, the Mist King?"

It was all due to his feebleness and selfishness, which led everything down the worst path. Should he have listened to the advice and prepared for the war, all of these would not have happened, never would the Beastmen armies invade the hinterland so easily, it was just like walking into an empty castle.

Owing to just a wrong thought, the blood was flowing like a river.

"Bang!"

To think of the countless lives being sacrificed, was beyond my tolerance, and thus, I threw the heaviest punch I could, right on his face.

"Believing the villain, ignoring the earnest words, sitting aside while watching the invasion of Beastmen… arrogant and ignorant, committing all manner or outrage, willful and outrageous, do you deserve to be king?"

"Bash!"

It was another punch, falling violently on the right side of his face.

This time, a few teeth had fallen, Fismer mouth was full of blood, he sobbed in tears, and started begging for mercy.

Watching him beg for mercy just enraged me even more.

In this war, I have seen countless heads hanging off trees, and I was afraid that they didn't even have a chance to beg for mercy. That aside, they wouldn't have even begged for mercy, they would go to any length to protect their families and homes, but this damned fatty before me…

"Sitting aside to watch the country falling, keeping all military forces to protect himself, not even sending a fraction of his military forces to assist the other cities… coward, selfish, foolish, non-visionary, do you think you're worthy to be king?"

"Bash"

This time, the violent punch had fallen on his stomach, it hurt so much that he had bent over like a prawn.

"…dissolute and dissipated, being promiscuous in the palace, you worthy to be king?"

Looking at the bewildered Elven slaves at the front, I couldn't help to think of how Fismer, as a king, would indulge in slavery, which had invoked so much resentment, creating such a chaotic situation.

"…, colluding eoyj the other races but bringing ruin to your own race, do you call yourself a king?"

To trade for Beastmen ladies with the Beastman Chief, he had removed the defending troops for the Beastmen to snatch away the famed Human beauties, I couldn't believe my ears, upon hearing the news, and never would one imagine that there was such a shameless king.

"…murdering his kin, usurping the throne, do you call yourself a king?"

Unlike the royal families in the past, all of Fismer's siblings had died a miserable death. Before all of these disgusting crimes, how I was stabbed was but a trifle.

More and more punches came down, I was getting more furious the more I attacked. If it wasn't because of this imbecile here, things wouldn't have come to this point. The Spirit of Mist that we had been guarding at all costs, wouldn't suffer such a humiliation.

"Just when all the people were striving to leave, how dare you surrender? How dare you surrender! How could you have the audacity to surrender! Over two thousand years of Mist Kingdom history, and you're the first King to surrender… clinging to life cravenly instead of braving death, abandoning honour and justice, and you call yourself a king? Why?!"

"Ah!"

A vicious arm, coupled with a leg, had shattered the backbone of Fismer, leaving him to lie prone on the floor, breathless.

Nevertheless, this was just the beginning.

"Losing honour as a leader, losing people as a king, losing virtue as a man." I, Roland Mist, as the last descendant of Mist, hereby impeaches Fismer Caso!

"I, the Hellcoming the Frigid Nightmare, in the name of the first-generation royal family, exempt the proposal of Fismer Caso, and propose that Roland Mist be the temporary Mist King.

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Chapter 167: History

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"Losing honour as a leader, losing people as a king, losing virtue as a man". I, Roland Mist, as the last descendant of Mist, hereby impeaches Fismer Caso!

The former King's lion gestured with his hand, and with the help of the sonic wave ability, of which the Frigid Nightmares were all gifted with, my angry roar was spread to every corner of the entire city.

The mangled king laid on the floor, but, enraged as I am, stood on the dais of the palace, and announced my decision to the world.

The prepared sheep-skin paper was spread out, the crimes that were little known were being read out, one by one for all to hear. The magical prestidigitation allowed these blood-like words to float in the air, catching even more attention!

"Crime number one, in a cruel manner that lacked all compassion, the slaying of blood relatives…of kin."

…

"Crime number fourteen, uncontrollably extravagant; wastage of resources; watching the people die of hunger and yet wearing clothes of silk and feasting to his heart's content!"

"Crime number fifteen, collaborating with foreigners, bringing danger and enemies into the country…"

As one after another shocking crime was read out, the windows of every house opened, to listen to the announcement that came from the palace.

The more I read, the more furious I became, looking at the long list of remaining crimes, I did not feel like continuing any more. I just tore it apart and started berating with the rage that bubbled from the bottom of my heart.

"We will take care of all these crimes, but most importantly, I can not stand the sight of you weaklings anymore! Therefore, I demand that you get your ass off the throne as King of Mist!"

"One thousand and seven hundred or so years ago, Northland was a wasteland, with perpetual coldness. Wild beasts were everywhere, and all the bad conditions we see now, have remained unchanged since then. But at that time, this land was famous for being the land of exiles. Every country exiled their criminals here, and they usually died within three to five years. If any survived, then there were more trouble, without any survival skills, a majority of them turned into bandits."

"Natural disasters, crimes, wild beasts all at once, even if at that time Northland was not hell on earth, it was very close!"

Following Roland's description, and comparing it to the current scenario, the Mist people were starting to guess where this is heading.

"At that time, former King Raven Date, who had suffered under the hand of the bitter North, unexpectedly received the Frigid Nightmare Contract and gained strength, he was determined to build a country of his own in this barren land. He never planned to be the great man who aspired to build a safe haven for humans, he just had had enough of those precarious days, and he hoped to build a land to call home for himself and his own kind, a home that protected them from the oppression and bullying from foreign races."

As the sun rose slowly, the roars rang through the whole city. After the citizens were temporarily stunned into silence, Prince Roland's name and deep voice stopped the people in their tracks to listen attentively.

"During the beginning, everyone sneered at him for trying to bite off more than he could chew, they thought he was an idiot sleep talking. And building a country here is equivalent to building a fortress at the frontlines of the war between men and beastmen, the beastmen were certain to oppose its construction. And he, this penniless lad, who couldn't even take care of his meals, where would he find the resources and food for self-sustainability?"

"However, there is no impossibility in this world, Raven Date, no matter how many hardships he had to experience, forced the impossible to become possible, and built his home on this frozen land."

"No valuable local products or riches? He believed that where there is a will, there is a way. He found himself a group of Dwarves friends, and formed an engineering team of natives. Measuring inch by inch, digging spade by spade, they stubbornly found their own special local products in this barren land — Magic Minerals."

"No sturdy defence against the threats of the outer world? At the border, his followers and himself dug the gully and sentry by their bare hands, and replaced guarding troops on horses with their legs, and used their flesh and blood to build the other walls to protect their own people!"

The young people preparing to go to work, the woman preparing food for the family, the old man walking, when they heard these stories about their former King that were not recorded in the history books, they stopped in their tracks.

"Praise the former King! It is you, who pioneered our homeland, and allowed us to live with dignity."

""We admit that our lives were very hard, we had nothing in our pockets. I could not guarantee that after fighting so hard with me, that there will be any change, but what I know for sure, is that if we do not do anything just because there is no guarantee, then we will never do anything. If we must die in this cold and hunger, I hope that at least, I gave all I could give until the very last moment." That was what our former King said. In the harshness of nature, there were no miracles from heaven, no mysterious hope. All there was to rely on was yourself and your companions, and this was what that was known as the Spirit of Mist. And the Northlanders that were chosen by our former King to follow him became the earliest Mist people."

"We are different from the other ancient races, a majority of us have mixed ancestry. But what identifies us as Mist race, is never our bloodline or skin colour, all Northlanders with the Spirit of Mist, are considered Mist people! These are the true words from the mouth of our former King, and the truth that we, the descendants of Mist, always believed in!"

"One thousand four hundred and twenty-three years ago, that was the first time Mist Kingdom almost faced annihilation. The Demon army, as if appearing from our very own nightmares, broke open the gates that led to the underground. Uncountable demons and devils swarmed towards the gates. Overnight, seventeen cities in Mist kingdom were taken over. In Diffindor, the capital city, a state of emergency was announced, but the Mist people did not give up their homes. To protect their homes, they sacrificed countless lives, determined to send the demons back to where they came from."

"The marks of what had happened remained to this day, and that is the Aweimar, the abyss of demons. No, the most important mark and heritage left from that time is the war flag that is still dancing in the ravaging wind. That day, the Spirit of Mist and the War flags of Mist were stained with the red colour of blood for the first time. We went on to the development path that was completely different from the Central Northland. Grit and perseverance became the most significant aspect of our culture. Unbending will and an unyielding temperament became the insignia we wore proudly."

The citizens silently watched the War flags of Mist that could be seen everywhere, a new feeling of appreciation slowly grew from within. Perhaps, what was passed down was not only blood, but a secret buried deep within, waiting to be revealed.

"One thousand one hundred and twenty-nine years ago, there was a battle that involved many races. The Beastmen who could no longer remain silent invaded the Northland. In that cruel winter, it was a war that no one expected, but it lasted for twelve long years. The Mist people lost one million three hundred and seventy thousand men in battle, and countless wounded. Most of the royal family members were lost, and as for lords who were responsible for protecting their homeland, the Mist Palace lost four kings and seven royal members. The youngest lost was only five years of age. From the day he took the throne to the day he died in battle, it had been only twelve days. From then on, princes would always be the front line generals of the army. Every young child must receive training of the sword and horse because we never know when he might need it someday. And once he goes on the battlefield, no matter his age, he had only two choices – to return to glory, or to die with dignity!"

"Another new tradition that was formed was that when the King falls, his prince will assume the throne. If the prince has fallen, the princess will take his place, and when the princess has fallen, the queen shall lead. As long as the royal family survives, the defence will not stop. Since our beginning, we of the Mist bloodline will never be taken as prisoners. Because our enemies know that taking us is pointless. After all, our ancestors have led us by examples. Surrender? Be taken as prisoners? How can we, their descendants, disappoint our founders? We would rather kill ourselves."

"Seven hundred years ago, the war that started out of a sudden, came like a dagger from behind. The sudden rise in foreign slave trade represented an endless blood stain, but it also represented endless wealth. And our Mist Kingdom stood on the path to treasure, therefore many superior weaponry fell into the hands of the Beastmen. After that war with the Beastmen, despite our torn homeland, we declared war with the many countries that were behind the war."

"Finally? Hmph, what are those weak Southerners against our Cavalry that had gone through countless battles and wars. When our riders dragged their foolish bodies, with their crowns still on their heads, to parade them through our cities, no country ever dared to look down on us Mist people again. Of course, from then on, our relationships with the human countries never recovered. And we have never regretted!"

"Time and time again, our calamitous country suffered countless ransackings and wars. Without us noticing, we became a historical "ancient kingdom", this is undoubtedly and unsurprisingly the perfect insult. The unattended wild flowers endured the bitterly cold of the Northlands and survived, yet those Southern saplings who were so well taken care of, withered one after the other."

"Three hundred years ago, in a war that I experienced myself, ferocious and bloodthirsty Beastmen, cunning and powerful demons, and those human comrades who always went back on their words, everything our ancestors faced, came all at once. That time, I failed, our defence failed, and our country was destroyed."

The low voice tinged with a sob, that soundless suffering and remorse pierced the hearts of the citizens, in the city, the Mist people would always repeat the same answer, despite their different opinions.

"No, our prince, you have done excellently, we are proud of you, please do not condemn yourself. And look, here we stand. As long as the Mist people still live, how can the Mist Kingdom not be revived?"

"Yes, we have not perished! The Spirit of Mist never perish! Even if the Mist Country has perished, our Mist race has not! Did you know, when there was news that there are Mist people forming Mist countries in the Northlands, I was so happy that I couldn't sleep. Even if it is no longer the kingdom I once knew, even if it were split to several lands, but as long as it stands tall in the Northland, I am satisfied."

"Countless of times, I couldn't sleep for days and nights when I thought of our homeland. But when the hatred for our destroyed homeland appeared in my thoughts, I made an oath. If I do not get revenge and make those murderers hiding behind the scenes pay tenfold for what we had lost, then I will not allow myself to live a peaceful life. All the people I know have died, and those who live in that homeland are no longer recognizable to me."

"Beloved prince, please do not hesitate and wonder, this will always be your homeland, we are your family, and we welcome your return!"

I smiled, surrounded by such faithful and lovely people, how can I not smile happily? But when I look at the lump of lard in front of me, my joy turned to anger, and my wrath resurfaced.

But…you, Fismer Caso, in your veins flows the Spirit of Mist, yet you did such despicable things."

I used to hope that this is an imposter, one who is unrelated to the Mist Royalty. But after seeing him in person, and cast the spell that was passed down through the generations, I was shocked to find out that he is indeed of the Mist Royal bloodline. The descendants of Mist have degenerated to such an extent?

"You, ostentatious, lustful and shameless! It is a good thing that Sleuweir knew how to be flexible, it was our inflexibility all those years ago that caused us so much pain. But being flexible does not equate to self-degradation, or getting involved with the extremely evil slave trade, or sending our people to be trampled on by Beastmen, you call yourself a protector of the people? You, are not worthy to be king!"

"You, ingrate, greedy, traitor! You allowed our homeland to suffer so much humiliation, yet you hide in your palace and surround yourself with luxury and pleasure. The warnings I sent you were treated as trash, so many who should have lived are dead because of you! And yet you happily enjoy the offerings and gifts from the people! You have the audacity to claim that you are the leader of the people, the king who has the great responsibility to protect the land and its people? You are not worthy to be king!"

"You are cowardly, despicable and dishonourable! The spirit of our ancestors have never faded, the ghosts of our ancestors are always watching us. If ghosts could materialize into our world, they would have murdered you already! How dare you surrender? The Mist Royalty has one thousand and seven hundred years of history, the ones who have perished in the battlefield are uncountable, and there was not one coward who dared to surrender! You…"

"…You, are not worthy to be King!"

"I, Ancient Frigid Nightmare Hellcoming, Aroyi, companion of Former King, the first of the royal members, hereby witness the abdication of the king, and elect Roland Mist as the temporary holder of the throne! I will personally be responsible for being the warden."

The citizens and royal guards were stunned for a moment, and then, a voice out of nowhere shouted: "Long live his Majesty Roland!". Suddenly the crowd exploded.

"Your highness Roland, no, your Majesty Roland, welcome back!"

"Your Majesty Roland, please do not hesitate, our gates are always opened for you."

Very soon, with the driving force of some faithful subjects, the cheers rang out to all corners of the land and sky. I obtained the support of the citizens so easily, in a sense, it was thanks to Fismer.

Amongst the crowd, there was a couple of people grumbling and bickering.

"…why must you force me to shout, Roland knows my voice well, he will definitely hear it, then he will laugh at it."

"You have teased him so many times, let him laugh. Oh yes, how is the wound on your right arm?"

"It's fine, that Beastman Shaman was injured worse than me. The others were just making up stories, this is no injury."

When everything of everything had been announced to the public, and the general situation has settled down, I mercilessly threw out the dying Fismer out.

"Aaaaaargh!"

Fismer's high pitched squeal shook the air, if he hit the ground, he would not survive. Some of the women and children had closed their eyes, unwilling to witness the horrific scene of smashed flesh. Yet I fixed my gaze at Fismer, still not able to relax.

"Splash!"

As expected, just as Fismer was going to crash to his death, two fleshy bat wings extended out of his back. With a strong flap of the wings, he glided from the ground and flew out of the city walls.

"Damn it! He's a cambion!"

The prediction has been proven, but it was not a good news at all. The descendant of Mist mixed with the blood of demons, no matter how I thought about it, there could only be one possibility.

"Karwenz…is this all your doing? Did you set this all up?"

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