Chapter 159
In front of the Heidelbear castle gate, the silence was ghostly in the place where the Fiast Kingdom army and Seere’s legion confronted each other.
This was clearly the site of a battleground, so why was it so eerily quiet?
The answer to that question was straightforward. Enrique, kneeling in a wretched state, was visible.
The outcome had already been decided. As soon as Enrique faced the legion, it was as expected: the soldiers of Heidelbear castle suffered a disastrous defeat.
“Cough…, cough…”
“Hmm.”
Despite spitting blood, Enrique refused to give up, not kneeling on both knees. He supported himself by stabbing his sword into the ground and tried with all his might to stand up.
Seere tilted her head at the sight. Then she looked at the scene unwinding behind Enrique. The elites under her command were so powerful that it was hard to believe they were from the 46th ranked legion.
Naturally, there was no way to deal with such a force coming from a single castle’s human power. Most of Enrique’s soldiers had already perished in a one-sided massacre.
“Are you not going to give up? It seems that doing so wouldn’t change your situation.”
So she asked. Wasn’t it easier to just accept death rather than cling to this?
“Cough…, do you not… understand that?”
Nevertheless, even while pouring blood, Enrique managed to deliver his thoughts.
“How naive…”
“Are you going to wrap it in willpower or something? Doing this won’t change anything; it’s just stubbornness.”
“Stubbornness, will… it isn’t incorrect. However…”
With one last surge of determination, Enrique reignited the flame within his heart. He pulled out the sword he had stabbed into the ground and straightened his bent knees to stand again.
“Sometimes, that kind of thing is necessary…!”
With those words, vitality vanished from Enrique’s eyes. The strength left his hand holding the sword, and it fell to the ground. Enrique also toppled forward.
“Your Majesty, are you okay?”
The one who appeared as Enrique fell was Eliza, the vice commander of the Second Legion. Seere briefly looked at her and said, somewhat regretfully,
“I wanted to hear more of what he had to say.”
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s fine. He was going to die anyway. He moved so violently with that injury that he must have burst from internal bleeding.”
He probably would have died after swinging his sword once. There was no way Seere would have been hit by such a slow strike. In the end, nothing had changed.
Whether Eliza killed him or Enrique ended up self-destructing didn’t matter.
Seere asked Eliza.
“Is it over?”
“Yes, the rest have stated they will surrender, so I’ve kept them alive for now.”
“Good. Keep them locked up.”
Because the slave operation might resume later, Seere decided it was best to confine them for now.
“What about casualties?”
“Not many. It was more of a one-sided beating.”
“How many?”
“According to what we’ve verified, it’s just under 300.”
“Understood.”
Then she had solved Nahun’s assignment. Hence, she could receive the reward he offered. But why did she feel…
“…strangely.”
“Pardon?”
“Never mind. Search inside the castle and set up the flags. Also, inform the main forces.”
Seere rearranged her disheveled mantle and turned her body.
“The conquest of the Fiast Kingdom is over.”
#
Due to Nahun having dealt with the spirit kings and Amon, chaos ensued at the 1st Legion headquarters. Although repelling the spirit kings was good, the problem was that the greatest force of the 1st Legion, Amon, had been lost.
“I told you to avoid direct confrontation…!”
Basago ground his teeth. He had been planning a tactic to lure and suppress the spirit kings, but Amon charged in and perished, rendering all his thoughts useless.
“Your Majesty. That’s a problem, but right now, Amon has fallen, and we lack the manpower to face the remaining two spirit kings.”
“What’s the situation in the Second Legion?”
“Their situation is worse than ours. The Archangel Mikael has appeared, rendering Lezargie unable to fight, and Barbatos is also unable to engage at the moment. Just look at Samygina’s legion coming out…”
“Damn it.”
Basago found himself unintentionally tearing at his hair. The operation that could have been executed with the powerful force that was Amon was substantial. If he had followed Amon’s advice, Amon would have survived and repelled all enemies.
If that had happened, not only would the 3rd Legion have triumphed, but the 1st Legion would have as well, predicting a dominance of the demon world in the celestial war. The 1st and 3rd Legions would have been able to assist the 2nd Legion.
But with Amon’s death, everything they had planned unraveled. There was no longer any extraordinary power in the 1st Legion to replace Amon.
“…How is the 3rd Legion’s situation?”
“It seems they have finished their conquest of the Fiast Kingdom.”
“Hah.”
For a moment, he considered contacting the 3rd Legion.
However, the highest-ranked individuals there were the demon kings, with their average ranking being low. Since the Fiast Kingdom was the weakest target among their priorities. Most of the strong demon kings were gathered in the 1st and 2nd Legions.
Given that Amon had suffered, there was no way calling the 3rd Legion’s demon kings would create an impact. It would be better to bring Phynox, the logistics officer.
As he considered this, a sudden thought struck Basago. He then asked his aide.
“…Ah, speaking of which.”
“Yes?”
“What did the previously confirmed explosion turn out to be?”
“Oh, that? The exact cause is unknown, but it seems it was an explosion that occurred in the capital of the Fiast Kingdom.”
“…What? The capital?”
“Yes, that is why the kingdom’s invasion ended much faster than scheduled…”
Basago’s eyes widened. What he had seen back then was undoubtedly an artificial explosion. No, to be more precise, it was something that might not even be classified as an explosion.
But one thing was certain: the being responsible for that explosion was no mere human. Basago’s keen intellect could correlate the information he had, the situation at that time, and the swift conquest of the kingdom by the 3rd Legion.
“Immediately…”
“Yes?”
“Check if the celestial army has appeared in the 3rd Legion. And…”
Basago was also part of the Patrician faction. He was someone who understood why Agreas had placed Seere von Debata at the forefront of the 3rd Legion.
Belzebut had advised that Seere von Debata take commanding lead. And Agreas had also expressed a desire to test something.
“…Bring Seere von Debata.”
“Pardon? But they are the vanguard of the 3rd Legion.”
“The kingdom’s conquest is already over, isn’t it! I will contact Agreas, so tell him to come here!”
“Ah, understood.”
#
Having dealt with Amon and the spirit kings, Nahun quickly returned to Seere’s side. He entered the tent where Seere was without delay.
“Seere.”
“Teacher?”
Seere seemed a bit startled by Nahun’s sudden appearance. There was a reason for that. She had been alone in the tent, relaxing and letting her guard down.
Just then, Nahun walked in, and the slightly flustered Seere quickly corrected her posture. Nahun chuckled and said,
“You can feel at ease in front of me.”
“Ah… no. I’ve rested enough. By the way, were you able to finish what you needed to do?”
“Yes. It seems you’ve successfully conquered Heidelbear castle.”
“Yes. There were quite a few corpses that seemed to have starved to death inside the castle, so I couldn’t stay there for long. The stench of rotting bodies was quite strong.”
“Hmm.”
Apparently, there hadn’t been much stored food inside the castle.
In fact, it made sense, as there wouldn’t have been a reason for the food supplies of Heidelbear castle to deplete as long as the royal capital was intact. They likely didn’t have much stored food within the castle.
‘In the first place, being a natural fortress, the castle was small, so there wasn’t much space to store food.’
Still, one might expect them to stock a bit more, but they hadn’t anticipated the royal capital would be conquered first, making them somewhat complacent.
“You’ve been through a lot.”
Nahun gently patted Seere’s head. Seere looked at the hand patting her head and slightly closed her eyes.
She looked pleased by the affectionate gesture, which reminded Nahun of a cat. Perhaps because of that, he ended up petting her for a while longer, and Seere tilted her head and opened her eyes.
“Teacher?”
“Oh, um, I have something to discuss.”
“Yes.”
Nahun, feeling a bit embarrassed, hastily changed the subject. Of course, it wasn’t a lie that he had something to say. Clearing his throat, he spoke to her.
“Now, there’s just one more thing to do, and we can move the battlefield from the human realm to the demon realm.”
“What is it?”
“A support request will come from the 1st Legion to the 3rd Legion.”
“Yes?”
“Amon has died.”
As Nahun simply said this, Seere’s eyes widened. A demon king of rank 7, Amon, had died?
“He perished alongside the spirit king.”
“……”
If others had heard it, they would have thought, ‘Oh, that’s how it turned out.’ But knowing Nahun’s power to some extent, Seere could not help but think differently.
“Did you… do that, Teacher?”
“Hmm, yes.”
Nahun easily affirmed this. There was no need to hide it from Seere, nor did he intend to.
“So, they want support from the 1st Legion.”
“Yes, which means it’s highly likely we’ll be called back too.”
“Is that okay?”
“It isn’t.”
Seere tilted her head in confusion. Nahun had created this situation yet was saying it would be wrong if a highly probable event occurred.
Seere, unsure of which tune to follow, frowned and asked.
“Then what do we do?”
“We’re going to retreat.”
“……?”
Seere blinked multiple times, filled with confusion, and asked in a bewildered voice.
“What??”
The demon alliance forces couldn’t retreat unless the Supreme Commander ordered it. So to say they would escape was bewildering to Seere.
“What do you mean?”
“If we don’t help the 1st Legion, the demon alliance forces will falter, and we’ll be able to retreat from the human realm.”
“But there might be other demon kings in the 3rd Legion who can help as well, right?”
“That’s irrelevant. What matters is that we preserve our strength and return to the demon realm.”
That was exactly the question – why. Seere, feeling frustrated, articulated her thoughts.
“How would we do that? You know we can’t retreat without the Supreme Commander’s orders.”
“Yes, typically that’s the case.”
Nahun nodded.
“But what if there’s a ‘special reason’?”
“Yes?”
Nahun smiled slightly and revealed the answer to Seere, who was still tilting her head in bafflement.
“For example… what if the soldiers can’t fight because they can’t eat?”
