Chapter 1005: Act 176 – The So-called Genius
Under the tall and straight silvershine tree, amidst the scattering leaves, Juliette neatly put away her communication crystal under the expectant gazes of everyone. Several young people immediately began to fire questions at her: “So, Captain, what did Lord Toniger say?”
The beautiful captain of the female mercenary band tossed her fiery red hair and smiled easily. “What else could he say? Naturally, the Lord agreed to my plan. Those Crusian people are lurking here, manipulating the undead, which can’t be anything good. They’ve been holed up in Owesen for quite some time now, and it’s likely related to this secret. Such a great opportunity, how could the Lord let it slip by?” Her bright green eyes teased her subordinates, “See? My judgment is never wrong. You all still have much to learn, little ones.”
“Yes, yes, yes, the Captain knows Lord Toniger best.”
“But Captain, the Lord is much younger than you.”
“What did you say?” Juliette narrowed her eyes and questioned with an unfriendly tone.
“Nothing… nothing at all. Did the Lord give any instructions?” The young ones hastily denied it.
Juliette snorted dismissively and grew serious, replying, “Lord Toniger tasked us to hold those Crusian people back. We mustn’t let them cross the Golden Needle Valley before evening.”
“Wow, that task isn’t simple. That’s an entire army! How can just a few of us hold them off?” A wizard among the young immediately exclaimed dramatically.
“But this isn’t an ordinary army. This army is actually controlled by just a few individuals. The lowest-level skeleton soldiers lack intelligence; they can only follow orders instinctively,” a young knight named Mel pondered carefully, saying, “So we only need to hold back the ones controlling these skeletons.”
“That’s still not easy,” the young wizard shook his head, pointing out the problem, “Those are also dozens of knights, each highly skilled. Apart from the Captain, who here dares to challenge any one of them alone? Moreover, they outnumber us. To say the least, their commander isn’t a fool; when have you seen an army halt to wait for scouts to finish battling? They can spare some personnel to chase us away while the army pushes forward as usual.”
His words made sense, and the other young knights nodded in agreement.
Juliette also frowned. The beautiful captain originally intended to reveal her identity to lure the enemy into expelling them as a means of buying time, but she now realized that this plan seemed to have a flaw. She had underestimated the situation; while the number of Crusian knights opposite them wasn’t large, they still outnumbered her side by several times, and they could definitely spare some troops to drive them away.
“How about this,” Mel suddenly brightened up, waving his hands to draw everyone’s attention to him, “We can scare them.”
The young wizard rolled his eyes, showing disdain, and said, “Scare them? Mel, while I can forgive your ignorance since you haven’t systematically studied wizardry, you should know that those low-level undead without minds are immune to fear.”
“Shut up!” Juliette could hardly contain herself, unhappily reaching out to smack the back of his head. “Mel is a mountain dweller from Vieiro, he knows more about the undead than you do; listen to what he has to say.”
Mel looked at the young wizard who held his head innocently and smiled kindly before continuing, “Actually, the Crusian was right. If this army were the undead of Madara, we would indeed find it hard to scare them, but they are controlled by the Crusian—”
“I understand,” the young wizard quickly interjected, “You want to scare the ones controlling the skeletons, that could work, but you should have explained it more clearly…”
He wanted to continue, but was met with a fierce glare from Juliette, so he reluctantly swallowed the rest of his words.
Juliette turned back, “Mel, what’s your plan?”
Mel nodded, stepping back to collect some stones, arranging them on the ground into a simple map. He was a top student at the Royal Knight Academy, so creating a combat map on the spot was well within his capabilities. In just a short time, a basic outline of the Golden Needle Valley appeared before everyone, leaving the young ones in awe. Even Juliette couldn’t help but stroke her chin, a bit envious, “Ah, I want to study at the Royal Knight Academy too, I just wonder if Princess Antinna would accept me.”
Mel chuckled, “When I used to take military history classes, there was a famous saying by General Raphael of Crus. He said there are two types of the sharpest hunters on the battlefield: one is the seasoned veteran with vast real combat experience, who can detect opportunities from subtle anomalies on the battlefield, while the so-called doctrines merely summarize the essence of these veterans’ life experiences, forming a shortcut that’s unnecessary for someone like the Captain, who possesses real experience.”
“Wow,” the young wizard exaggeratedly thumbed up Mel, “Wow, Mel, you sure know how to flatter, but you probably don’t know that our Captain’s greatest experience is running away… Oh, no, I mean retreating.” Facing the increasingly unkind look from Juliette, Cruz quickly changed his words and attempted to shift the topic, “So, what’s the second type of person that General Raphael mentioned?”
Juliette originally wanted to act but couldn’t help being a bit curious when she heard that question. She knew she wasn’t a military genius; she had taken the mercenary path merely for survival. That was why, after meeting Brendel, she decisively chose to settle down. In fact, sometimes she even wished that if it weren’t for all the troubles in Cold Fir Territory, if it weren’t for Brendel giving her a chance, and if it weren’t for Lord Toniger being a descendant of Darus, she might have chosen to leave long ago and become an ordinary person; it would have been nice if her sister were still here.
However, the moment she donned her knight’s armor, Juliette found that she still had a hint of ambition. Among the people next to Brendel, aside from the oldest veterans who were battle-hardened, her age was relatively large compared to them; compared to the younger members of the White Lion Guard, it was even more pronounced. Perhaps because she felt the same vitality she once had in these young people, her heart was calmed again, and she willingly accepted the position Brendel had promised her.
But she also understood that reaching this point was more about her choices than her abilities. Lord Toniger was a kind-hearted man, but she couldn’t rely on her seniority shamelessly. Whenever learning opportunities arose, she could humbly ask questions. This is also why she valued Mel’s thoughts so much; Juliette understood how much Brendel emphasized this year’s graduates from the Royal Knight Academy. Freya, needless to say, would give any willing candidates who entered the Valhalla fleet or the White Lion Guard the opportunity to showcase their talents. Although it was never mentioned openly, Mel becoming her personal knight was actually arranged discreetly by Antinna following Brendel’s encouragement.
You must know that she was now considered a senior commander beside Brendel, and her personal knight had to be someone reliable and trustworthy. Moreover, Brendel often privately lamented to these veterans that Toniger’s fame still wasn’t quite high enough; most of the current graduates from the Royal Knight Academy chose to head to the northern Old White Lion Guard instead of going south to the White Lion Guard. Implicitly, that meant it was quite a pity.
In fact, after spending some time together, Juliette couldn’t help but marvel at how discerning her Lord was; the young candidates from the Royal Knight Academy around her were all exceptional. While there weren’t many as outstanding as Mel, the rest were far superior to those so-called noble scions she had encountered before. Sometimes she felt puzzled as to how her Lord seemed to know everything in advance. While her time following Brendel hadn’t been long, she was aware that he had little time to understand this year’s graduates from the Royal Knight Academy. How did he know there would be so many talented individuals among them?
Or was it that past graduates from the knight academy were all heroes or extraordinary figures? Juliette thought this idea was a bit implausible; after all, if that were true, Erluin wouldn’t be in such a state today.
Of course, this notion was also a misunderstanding from Juliette, as Brendel indeed understood that the average standard of this generation’s officer graduates exceeded those of the past, yet they still weren’t all heroes or extraordinary figures. Most of the individuals who chose to head south to join the White Lion Guard or even the Toniger fleet were spirited young people with a sense of adventure, who were confident in themselves and trusted their judgment over following the crowd. Thus, a higher average standard was only reasonable.
Mel, hearing Cruz’s words, exhibited a longing look and responded, “The second type of person is so-called geniuses. These individuals seem born for the battlefield; conventional experience and rules do not apply to them. Their every move appears mad compared to the standard military doctrines. Just like King Gilt, who charged the Minren’s heavy cavalry with an infantry formation at the Knukochu hills, where any normal person would meet their demise, yet he managed to create a miracle. This isn’t because he was favored by Lady Luck, but because of a courage combined with a genius-like instinct and intuition that cannot be birthed through hard work or imitation—”
“In simple terms, it means something ordinary people can’t learn.” The young wizard rolled his eyes.
“Pretty much,” Mel was serious, “Such renowned generals are rare in a century, and geniuses like King Gilt have not appeared since the War of the Saints—” He paused for a moment and then bravely added, “But I might have seen this potential in someone, as they always seem to turn the impossible into the possible. That is one of my reasons for coming here.”
“You mean Lord Toniger?” The young wizard almost jumped up, shaking his head, “That’s impossible, impossible. Lord Toniger is impressive, but that’s in other areas. In battles, I think Lady Medisa is much stronger than him.”
Juliette also felt a bit absurd. Compared to these young ones, she was more familiar with Brendel and naturally knew her Lord was skilled in commanding small-scale battles, of course, that was just from her perspective. But in large scale wars, while Lord Toniger’s insights were always prescient, to say he could match King Gilt was simply far too off.
He was the most talented and extraordinary figure born among humans a thousand years ago. Among the Four Sages, Gilt came from the most humble background but achieved the highest accomplishments. The other three sages among the Four had strength that was comparable, with Erluin slightly surpassing the others, but still far behind King Gilt. Queen Saint Ausoor was most confident in her sword skills, but she had to admit Gilt was the person in swordsmanship over the past thousand years that no one could surpass. In military command, he far outpaced the other three sages, while Erluin wouldn’t even know how to command battles, and Fanzan was little better. Though Saint Ausoor had command abilities, they were limited. In that grand war a thousand years ago, only two main players actively participated in forming strategies for the Black Iron people: King Gilt and a Silver Elf.
These two main characters perfectly embody Raphael’s statement.
Seeing the obvious skepticism on others’ faces, Mel merely smiled faintly without retorting. Over these days, he had gotten along quite well with these companions and Juliette, his superior, so he didn’t want to bicker over such trivialities, especially when they still had important matters at hand.
Noticing Mel’s demeanor, Juliette seemed to realize something. She shook her head and said, “I didn’t expect you to think so highly of Lord Toniger. Well then, Mel, work hard, and I will introduce you to him when the time comes.”
“Really?”
“Of course.” Juliette was quite displeased that her words were doubted. “But for now, let’s talk about your plan.”
The young knight, seemingly oblivious to the captain’s wounded pride, excitedly began to seriously point at the stones on the ground and continued explaining.
