Chapter 335: Act 103 – Duke Toniger and the Young Lord (3) (First Update)
The winter of the year the Black Rose War broke out was unusually cold, with the gray sky seeming to freeze the air into powder that fell like confetti.
Jelt sat hidden in the bushes atop the mountain for a whole night, nearly frozen stiff.
He reached out to catch the powder falling from the sky, feeling a slight chill in his palm as the ice crystals melted away—snowflakes. The young man, still wearing his seemingly timeless blue apprentice robes of a string mage, looked up at the sky.
It was snowing.
The first snow of the year.
He couldn’t help but recall the frequent conversations between Lord Charles and that young lord about the situation in the north, the united armies of the dukes, and the fate of Princess…
“The war in the north has dragged on until the first snowfall…”
Jelt, who came from a family of minor nobility, hailed from Karasu, a remote part of the kingdom—though he was from a noble family, his exposure was limited; he merely observed the lives of prominent figures from a distance.
He had a better life than most, but in recent years, times had worsened year by year.
Jelt ventured out on an adventure, fully aware that it was to change his fate. He had studied magic under a wizard mentor for a time and learned about the world outside through his interactions with the mentor—this chaotic era held a deadly allure for young people like him.
Amidst the chaos, there seemed to be opportunities.
After his mentor’s death, Jelt embarked on a journey toward his dreams.
But luck was not as he had imagined; among the companions he met with similar backgrounds, two fell ill and died along the journey, forcing them to take a brief rest in the Cold Fir Territory and contemplate whether to return or continue onward.
Unexpectedly, he encountered the incident where Grudin killed all his companions, and in despair, Jelt wished only to perish alongside that nobleman.
Yet fate is often so fickle.
That night, he met that young lord and participated in that battle, and was fortunate enough to follow him thereafter, eventually becoming the first member of Charles’s wizard team.
As Charles’s deputy, he had the opportunity to partake in discussions between Brendel and this wizard retainer—of course, being young, he was not able to interject—discussing the situation in the north, the invasion of the Black Rose of Bralamanto, and Cruz.
The young lord’s vision opened Jelt’s eyes to a brand new world, a perspective he had never considered before.
This was something his first mentor had never discussed with him.
In that moment, Jelt realized he might have grasped an opportunity, the path to achieving his dreams was almost within reach, or rather, it had already been realized.
Since then, he had become a wholehearted supporter of Brendel; his venture deep into Parsons to gather intelligence was a voluntary application.
Coincidentally, the reconnaissance squad needed someone skilled in magic, so he was naturally selected.
Charles had complained to Brendel about him stealing away one of his capable assistants.
However, Jelt did not regret it; he felt that rather than staying quietly by that lord’s side, it was better to act and draw attention.
He was an adventurous soul; otherwise, he wouldn’t have left home to come here.
The young man stared at the sky for a long while, finally snapping back to reality. He rubbed his hands together—cautious not to make too much movement to avoid drawing the attention of the sentries below.
He looked down from the mountaintop at the gray-yellow tents in the forest and the bustling campsite.
Then he heard a rustling sound from behind; his companions were on guard, and the voice was clearly from their side, though there was another possibility that need not be mentioned.
Jelt immediately tensed up.
“Bai…cai…”
A strange code phrase came from the forest, supposedly taught to them by Charles.
Jelt immediately relaxed—it was his people. He turned around and answered, “Shao woo—who is it?”
“Ma Youfu.”
Jelt recognized the name; it was another wizard apprentice from his team, a fellow who originally had only a nickname and no real name—this name was given to him by the lord.
What a lucky guy, Jelt couldn’t help but think.
“Jelt, how’s it? Is this the campsite of the Parsons knights?” The wizard apprentice, dressed in a gray robe, crept over and crouched beside him to whisper, “But the rats said there’s no camp here—”
“This isn’t the Parsons camp.”
Jelt shook his head.
“Not?” Ma Youfu was taken aback.
The young man slowly nodded, moving his somewhat stiff limbs, “They are mountain dwellers.”
“Mountain dwellers?”
“Aren’t they fighting with Parsons?” Ma Youfu asked in surprise, “How can they be here? Do they plan to invade at this time? That would truly be a blessing for us!”
But Jelt shook his head; it wasn’t that simple: “There are many factions among the mountain dwellers; they might be coming for us.”
“What?”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I am; I know them better than you. Alright, go relay the message to the reporting squad—we’re preparing to retreat,” Jelt replied, “It’s snowing; we can’t hide people here; we need to change clothes and come back.”
Ma Youfu looked at his companion and nodded.
…
“Mountain dwellers?”
The snowflakes in the sky grew denser.
Not long after leaving the southern gate, Brendel ran into a mercenary, who was an Elementalist—a young man he recognized—one of Charles’s subordinates.
Initially, at Brendel’s request, Charles selected those capable of casting spells from among mercenaries and adventurers—wizards who knew some tricks, third-rate Elementalists, frauds, charlatan shamans, and a large number of apprentices—to form a so-called Wizard Team.
With Charles, a sorcerer of the Golden Territory, as the brand, this initiative didn’t take much effort, and many of the wizards voluntarily left their mercenary groups to join this so-called Wizard Team; although the initiative faced criticism from various mercenary leaders, Brendel’s backing ensured they didn’t encounter any real trouble.
Brendel knew that the advantage of concentrating spellcasters had been proven in later wars by both players and NPCs, of course, Charles had complained to him more than once that these people were simply unworthy of being called a ‘Wizard Team,’ not that a heterogeneous mix of various people was better; however, Brendel didn’t care. At least as far as he was concerned—
This was the first formed Wizard Team under his command.
Moreover, among these individuals, there were many with outstanding talents, and with a bit of training, they could become the backbone of a future Wizard Association. Unfortunately, while Charles possessed mentor-level skills, he lacked experience in training apprentices, so this so-called Wizard Team currently appeared to be little more than a façade.
But it wasn’t entirely without use; these spellcasters, even those with just a bit of ability, had somewhat followed a mentor or had at least been apprentices for a time, and among them, there were even professional academy-trained individuals. They shared a common trait.
That was they could read and write.
Hence, Brendel, Antinna, Husher, and Charles typically employed these people to handle intelligence and document work. Clearly, the person he was currently encountering was one of those from Husher’s ‘intelligence department.’
In response to Brendel’s inquiry, the Elementalist nodded: “Yes, my lord, Lord Charles asked me to tell you that you might urgently need this information. This intel was sent back by those ‘people from the north’; it concerns the mountain dwellers—”
Those people from the north?
Brendel paused for a moment, recalling that he had indeed asked Husher and Retao to organize manpower to infiltrate the Parsons area to gather intelligence on Count Rendener’s army mobilization.
This matter was fully under Husher’s responsibility, but he was also aware of the specific plan. Charles had blended those third-rate wizards or apprentices he called upon from mercenaries into these reconnaissance squads, disguising them as adventurers—to relay messages back to the rear.
The method of communication was quite simple, though it was one he personally suggested—animal messengers. This wasn’t actually a new approach; it was a way of utilizing familiars—long before the years of the Cavern Beasts, the Crusian had already used this method for message transmission during the November War, but in this era, few had thought to send wizards to the front line, hence this method hadn’t yet become widespread.
However, since the onset of the Black Rose War and several years later, with the arrival of the first magic tide, more and more individuals possessed sorcerous talent, and this method began to spread.
In the later stages of the war, it had already become a very mature method. However, by that time, there were more stable alternatives—such as using magical apparatuses; but Brendel did not yet have those conditions, which is why he first thought of this ‘makeshift approach.’
With animal messengers to relay messages, an apprentice could convey information over the span of a day and night; theoretically, they could relay the information back through stations, so what used to take nearly a week to reach would now arrive in an instant at the Cold Fir Territory.
However, now Husher and Charles’s manpower was limited, especially those with spellcasting ability and familiarity with scouting techniques were as rare as hen’s teeth. Hence, there were only two or three such reconnaissance teams established so far.
As such, their monitoring of the Parsons knight territory was still quite limited; Brendel had not anticipated that such a degree of surveillance would yield useful information so quickly.
But it seemed that those nobles still looked down upon them, these ‘rabble.’
Perhaps they had been substantial enough in the context of the war, but outside of it, the Parsons party had still been lax in their defenses against them.
However, this was also understandable; though Brendel didn’t have many personnel at hand, the means he employed were even superior to Erluin’s regular military—he himself wasn’t aware of it, but a traditional soldier like Sir Parsons would find it challenging to deal with.
Sending wizards to the front line as scouts? In the eyes of nobles, was such a thing something a person would do?
Only someone like Brendel, who was accustomed to such practices, would find it commonplace. In fact, when he initially proposed this idea, not only the traditionally conservative Antinna but even Charles was taken aback.
…(To be continued. To know what happens next, please log in for more chapters, support the author, and support legitimate reading!)
