bookpower Chapter 231: 1 vs 7000
Chapter 231: 1 vs 7000
Chapter 231: 1 vs 7000
Editor: Tseirp
Wingston, the largest city in the eastern part of the Kingdom.
On the plains to the west of the city, close to the Second Highway, the armies faced off.
On the Kingdom side, there were 500 Wingston garrisons, 1,000 troops stationed in the eastern part of the Kingdom, and 5,500 other conscripts...for a total of 7,000 men.
The Imperial Army, on the other hand, consisted of 90 members of the Emperor’s Magic Division...only.
“The day before yesterday, Stonelake surrendered without resistance...but I guess it won’t be that easy with the largest city in the east.”
The second-in-command, Jurgen, said to the personage at his side.
“I guess so. Since Wingston is more or less the capital of the Shrewsbury Dukedom. As the most prestigious of the noble families in the royal lineage, it will not easily fall into the hands of the Empire.”
“But speaking of the Duke of Shrewsbury, I heard that the succeeding dukes died one after another during this eastern upheaval...”
Jurgen, the adjutant, looked up for a bit and asked, recalling something.
“Yeah. Currently, it seems that the heir is a child who is not even ten years old.... I guess the guardian is the one making all the decisions. It must be hard being a duke.”
Oscar, the deputy chief, said with an aura that doesn’t give the impression that he felt any sympathy in the least.
“Your Excellency, are we really fighting it out?”
The one who asked this question was Nalizon, commander of the eastern garrison. And the person to whom he asked this question was....
“Are you still saying that nonsense even after it’s come to this! Wake up already, Nalizon!”
The man who shouted at him was Gaspar Hayes, Count of Adfa.
He is the grandfather and guardian of the present Duke of Shrewsbury.
The continuing upheaval had left much of the East in turmoil.
The Duke of Shrewsbury, one of the great nobles of the East and a member of the royal family.
He was one of the five most powerful nobles in the Kingdom, but he was caught up in the upheaval in the East, and the heirs to the dukedom died one after the other.
Irwin, who succeeded to the dukedom at the age of nine, was the last person left in the direct line.
There’s no one left, both the men or women.
If he were to fall into the hands of the Empire and his life taken, the Duke of Shrewsbury’s family would be cut off.
Of course, there are collateral descendants.
However, no noble family will support the Duke house should someone of a collateral lineage be installed as the Duke of Shrewsbury.
The aristocratic world is not so forgiving.
“For Irwin’s sake, we cannot back down!”
Gasper’s expression was filled with bitterness.
Even Gaspar knew who he was dealing with.
He also knew that Stonelake had surrendered without a fight the day before yesterday.
He doesn’t blame Stonelake for their decision...but even Gasper would have surrendered without a fight if Irwin’s life was not on the line and the Dukes of Shrewsbury were not in danger of being cut off.
The Explosive Blaze Magician.
The name carried that much weight.
Thirty minutes after the two armies faced each other, a ‘voice’ came from the imperial army, the Emperor’s Magic Division.
“Surrender now. Surrender, and I guarantee the life of the Duke of Shrewsbury and his subjects.”
“L-Like hell we can! No one will support a duke who surrenders without a fight.”
Gaspar blurted out, gnashing his teeth.
Commander Nalizon could understand Gasper’s anguish.
Although he gets it...
(Still, to order an assault against an opponent we can’t hope to defeat is nothing but...)
Nevertheless, deep down in his heart, he would also like to see how the rumored Emperor’s Magic Division and the Explosive Blaze Magician fights.
However, he would have loved to watch as a spectator and was not at all willing to risk his life and his men to see it.
While Nalizon was thinking about this, a part of his army started raising a clamor.
“What is it?”
Nalizon asked, not directing the question to anyone in particular.
“Commander, the enemy is on the move!”
Nalizon looked toward the direction of the Imperial army and saw only one man walking towards them.
“What the...”
He reached the midway point between the two armies, but did not stop and continued to approach.
“If you walk any closer, we will attack!”
A soldier from the Wingston garrison shouted loudly. But the man did not stop.
At this point, the man had walked close enough to be recognizable.
He has short white hair and brown skin, with his cloak fluttering about as he walks, probably a commander.
“Oh no...”
Nalizon had heard the rumors as well.
Including the most distinctive part of his appearance...
“The white-haired commander of the Emperor’s Magic Division...”
While Nalizon was still taken aback, Gasper’s voice rang out.
“Attack!”
With that command, dozens upon dozens of arrows flew toward the lone man.
However...
All of them bounced off a transparent wall in front of the man.
“Impossible...”
Whoever said that was anybody’s guess....
“A-Attack with magic.”
In response to that order, numerous magic attacks flew toward the man.
However...
Again, they were all repelled by the transparent wall in front of the man.
“Physical and magic barriers...”
The chief of the Eastern Garrison’s magic unit muttered.
“How can there be such a sturdy barrier...”
The deputy chief of the magic unit muttered.
Finally, the man came within sight of the Kingdom Army.
No one could move when he got there...actually, none except one.
Gaspar Hayes, Count of Adfa.
“Shah!”
With a spirited effort, he thrusts out the spear he held in his hand.
The spear-wielder, once said to be the best in the East, thrust it so brilliantly that only a few could catch its glimpse.
However...
Clangg.
It still bounced off the invisible barrier.
“What in the world is that...?”
Despair washed over Gasper’s face.
Literally, all attacks were useless.
Arrows, magic, and even melee attacks....
After looking at it for a while, he groaned.
“Umm~m...”
“Master?”
Radden called out to the master.
“Sure enough, this is the lord’s handwriting.”
“Wha~?”
Master Dolan muttered, and hearing that, Radden let out a surprised sound.
And Ryo puffed out his chest and was like “Ahem”.
While the three of them were doing this, a man came walking toward them from the lord’s mansion.
“Ryo? And isn’t that Master Dolan and Radden? What are you guys doing hanging around the entrance?”
It was the next king, or rather, King Abel, who had just ascended to the throne.
“Y-Your Majesty!”
First, Radden rushed to his knees.
“Oh, King Abel!”
Master Dolan was not as flustered as Radden because he had known the adventurer for a long time, but he still got down on one knee for the man who had just become king.
“What are you doing here, Abel?”
Ryo, on the other hand, didn’t observe any such courtesy whatsoever.
“The thing they’re making here will contribute to the development of the Kingdom, not only in this battle, but in the years to come. I care about it too. That’s why I come to see it from time to time...”
“Why waste time on something like that instead of doing your job properly.”
“I don’t need to hear that from you of all people!”
Abel gave his reason, Ryo nitpicked at him, and Abel angrily retorted.
“You are supposed to be my bodyguard, and yet you’re always dawdling up and about...”
“It’s exactly because I’m your bodyguard that I need to know every corner of the lord’s mansion!”
“Yeah right, you’re obviously just trying to satisfy your curiosity...”
“Ugh...”
Ryo choked on words at Abel’s precise point.
“A-Anyway...oh right, Abel, take a look at this.”
Ryo said and he showed Abel the access permit.
“Hm? A document written by the frontier Count? Okay, what about it?”
“With this, I can get access to this building, right?”
“Sure, why not? The frontier Count took the trouble to write it down for you, didn’t he? I’m sure you must have pestered him to no end...”
“Th-that’s beside the point. The point is, with this I can go in.”
Abel hit the nail right on the head, and Ryo glossed it over, albeit sloppily.
At any rate, he got permission to enter the building!
“Well, if that access permit is genuine, then there should be no problem.”
“Exactly.”
Both Master Dolan and Radden nodded their heads.
Thus, Ryo was allowed to enter the development workshop.
Inside the building with the large emblem of the ‘doe’ representing the Rune Frontier Count at the entrance, there was a vast space.
He was surprised when he visited the Library in the South of Rune for the first time before, but this was even more spacious....
In other words, the space was larger than any dome stadium on Earth.
He had the feeling from the time he was sneaking around outside that it was quite spacious, but going in, his impression was even more than he had imagined....
“Wide, isn’t it? Get this, there’s a space of this size underground, too.”
“Goodness me...”
Ryo was unable to continue speaking as Abel explained.
Creating a vast space without pillars is quite difficult in architecture.
Then again, it wouldn’t be so difficult if there weren’t any risk factors such as earthquakes and such, but perhaps that is not the case here.
Every conceivable risk would have been taken into account....
In the center of such a vast space, a huge object was sitting.
Two figures could be seen working on the object, attached to it.
One could be recognized, even from a distance, as Baron Kenneth Hayward.
The other, even from a distance, could be seen to be quite beautiful.
“Oh, the beautiful woman is the daughter of the Grand Master. She fled the royal capital and arrived here.”
“Uh...Mr. Hugh’s, ex-fiancee...?”
Elsie Forsythe.
A brilliant young woman who, while a member of the Court Magician Order, was also a member of Magic University because of her excellence.
She was forced to flee when the royal capital fell by using the influence of her father, Grand Master Finlay Forsythe, and came to Rune city, relying on Hugh.
After thinking about all of this, Ryo’s gaze finally fell on the entire giant object they were attached to.
“A ship? No, no way...a plane...”
Ryo involuntarily muttered.
The shape resembled a ship floating in the water...and looked like a rather long and narrow trimaran...but upon closer inspection, not quite.
There are many ships in the world that one could truly describe as ‘looks like it could fly in the air’... even in this ‘Phi’, the trimaran that he once saw in Whitnash was a thing of beauty...what the hell? That was a trimaran too?
An elegant trimaran that captivate people’s hearts.
“That one...flies in the sky, doesn’t it?”
Ryo uttered this with a certain conviction.
Master Dolan and Radden were surprised to hear those words.
Abel was not surprised at all.
Somehow, he had thought that Ryo would understand it the moment he saw it.
“I see. It would be ideal to load ‘Vaedra’ on it. Vaedra doesn’t generate a recoil...and if there is no recoil, controlling the attitude in the air is a piece of cake.”
These words surprised Master Dolan and Radden even more.
This time, even Abel was surprised at this.
“To even deduct loading that thing with Vaedra...gotta give it to you, Ryo.”
Abel praised him honestly.
“Flying with wind magic stone and operating the Vaedra with wind magic stone...they seem compatible.”
Ryo crossed his arms and nodded repeatedly as he said this.
Then he continued.
“By all means, I want it when the war is over...”
“Nope, you can’t.”
“Why not? With the mentality of ‘I know I can’t have it until we win’, and I’m stylishly saying that I’ll wait until then, can’t you tell...?”
Abel flatly refused, and Ryo was trying to explain the logic with a look of despair on his face.
“I don’t care about any logic or mentality, but to start with, that ship belongs to the Rune Frontier Count. Sure, Vaedra is the property of the Kingdom, so it belongs to the Kingdom...as for that ship, it’s merely a form of loan by the Kingdom from the Rune Frontier Count in this war.”
“Ugh...the evils of bureaucratic sectionalism...”
Ryo muttered to himself and feeling frustrated.
On that note, Master Dolan and Radden, who were watching the situation unfold, had blank expressions on their faces, like they didn’t want to be involved.
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