Chapter 896: Act 72 – A Millennium’s Confluence II
A confidential document sent from Hiralat Manor was sealed in a thick envelope and delivered overnight to Her Majesty’s desk. The flame-shaped emblem on the envelope’s surface indicated that it was a military-related document, but the seven layers of flames suggested it was not of high importance. Constance instructed her maid to open the envelope and then glanced at the letter before handing it to the nearby Young Nidwen, the Chancellor.
Hiralat Manor served as one of the Royal Family’s secret watchpoints in the Floating Cloud Hills region, and the magic document from there was naturally related to that Earl from Erluin.
Young Nidwen, the Chancellor, shook his head gently. “It really is endless.”
However, Her Majesty seemed unconcerned. She replied, “Darus’s grandson is pressuring them, but it is also self-inflicted.”
Written in Cruzian script on the letter was: ‘Your Majesty, the nobles have gathered their forces here, prepared to confront the Earl from the Kingdom of Erluin. The commander of this army is Earl Ji’en, and they are currently resting in Iron Yew Town, Valgris Town, or nearby areas. It is reported that three other lords, along with dozens of knights, have responded to the call. By the time this letter is sent, they should already be on their way.’
This message was sent a day earlier—
Floating Cloud Hills—
The eastern sky was becoming gray, the stars fading, signaling the arrival of a new day. Bathed in the morning light, in the red pine forest, the Earl was anxiously staring towards the western horizon, as if, just as Her Majesty said, he truly felt a bit trapped. Earl Ji’en, in a state of agitation, asked his scout rider for the third time, “You’ve searched east, west, and north. Are you sure you haven’t seen anyone from the Maol or Cooper families, or Walker’s house?”
The scout riders were seasoned knights, mostly from various legions who left the army due to fighting, injury, age, or other issues. They were experienced and had either joined mercenary corps or become vassals of nobles after leaving the army. At this moment, these veterans exchanged glances, shaking their heads. “My lord, we haven’t seen anyone.”
“Damn it, have you been to Iron Yew Town?” Earl Ji’en gritted his teeth, nearly crumpling the gloves in his hands.
“My lord, we have gone there too, but it’s peaceful. The locals don’t even know what’s happening,” the riders quickly replied.
“Did you see signals from the Maol or Cooper families, or Walker’s house?”
“No, my lord,” they all shook their heads.
Earl Ji’en inhaled sharply.
“Only one banner?”
Brendel and Nemeses returned to their position after a brief reconnaissance of the battlefield. In this era, the task of surveying the battlefield was usually given to cavalry units, as commanders would overlook the entire battlefield from high ground—in smaller battles, the battlefield width generally wouldn’t exceed ten miles, making it easy to survey the whole area.
However, Brendel and Nemeses chose to employ a player’s method by using aerial units to map out the battlefield and create a sand table, allowing them as commanders to have a direct understanding of the battlefield’s layout. This method had the advantage of better concealing their own intentions, particularly the direction their forces would approach from. This strategy was pioneered by Madara in the Second Black Rose War but had been popularized by players, making it an advanced tactical thought in this age.
Yet, the news brought back by the gargoyles shocked him.
In the direction where he and Nemeses had previously discovered the movement of the Cruzian noble’s private army, they quickly spotted an army hidden amongst the red pines from the air. Its main body consisted of noble pikemen and some crossbowmen, with a small number of cavalry. The equipment of these noble private troops was exceptionally good; judging by the reflective quality of the pikes, they were almost entirely standard imperial pikes equipped with iron or steel tips. The armor utilization rate within the army was also very high, reaching over eighty percent. Even the pikemen were equipped with chain mail, while the knights were uniformly clad in full armor, a level of equipment no less than Erluin’s front-line legions like the White Lion and Black Blade. As noble private troops, they were rare even in the Empire, very likely the personal guards of great lords.
In this area, the only great lords could be Earl Orkans or Earl Ji’en. This was, after all, the South, not the central Bunker region of the Empire or the militarily-held northern Ludwig area.
However, what puzzled Brendel was that the forest contained only this one army. He had repeatedly asked the gargoyle to confirm the banner emblem and could identify only one.
“That emblem belongs to Earl Ji’en. If he is here himself, then where are the others? Are they lying in ambush?”
Brendel couldn’t help but look incredulously at the Lady Knight beside him.
Nemeses shook her head gently. It was practically impossible for there to be an ambush; the gargoyles had an extremely wide field of vision, and when they flew over at high altitudes, they could almost cover the entire area of these nearby hills. After the battle of the Black Sword Bastion, the Cruzian learned that their army contained gargoyles. Those imperial nobles, though arrogant, were not foolish; on the contrary, most of them were well-informed and could not possibly be unaware of the gargoyles’ abilities, therefore they would not lay their armies in vain ambush.
Unless they were ambushing around the entire battlefield’s perimeter, but in that case, never mind if they could provide support, such an obvious ambush would be treating them as fools.
Would Earl Ji’en really bring a thousand or so troops to fight them to the death? Even if he thought with his knee, it would be impossible. Although the summer solstice knights defeated by them were also about this number, as a local knight order of the Empire, they were far superior in combat capability compared to noble private troops.
Because the Lady Knight instinctively believed this possibility didn’t exist.
Brendel naturally understood this as well; the only remaining possibility was that the opposing forces’ army was concealed by magic. Historical examples of such tactics wouldn’t emerge until the Third Black Rose War, with the first use by the Faenzan people, gradually spreading. If that Earl truly thought of such a brilliant idea in this era, he would indeed be tactically gifted.
However, the prerequisite for achieving this was having an independent and concentrated wizarding corps, the size of which could not even be matched by the wizards under Brendel’s command. Not to mention whether the Cruzian could gather such a wizarding corps in such a short time; even if they did, their hidden army seemed far too large.
He slapped his forehead, momentarily feeling confused.
“What do the Cruzian intend to do?”
Nemeses shook her head in puzzlement as well; she had not encountered any similar strategies in her dreams, and the military knowledge and tactical skills she learned in this life seemed unable to explain what the Cruzian were up to right now.
Unable to perceive the enemy’s intentions, Brendel did not dare to act rashly. Although he understood he had overwhelming power, on one hand, he did not wish to incur unnecessary losses in the petty squabbles with these imperial nobles; on the other hand, there were some trump cards he did not want to use in such a low-level conflict. He contemplated for a moment, deciding to have the White Lion Guard stand by and discreetly arrange iron golems provided by Bud to provide backup on both flanks. In all his previous battles, he had never deployed these hidden weapons, yet the situation at hand was somewhat strange, prompting him to be more cautious.
Fortunately, the only advantage now was that he had already discovered the enemy, while the enemy had not yet detected them. He had time to wait for Earl Ji’en’s further actions and to see whether his opponent would reveal any flaws.
Time passed minute by minute, and the morning mist gradually receded from the hills. Initially, the open hills became clearer, and then even the light in the forest grew brighter. The sun slowly moved to directly above, enhancing visibility in the hilly area. Brendel stood behind the shrubs, gradually able to clearly see outside the forest. Across the rolling hills, there were sparse banners in the forest, but what puzzled him was:
It had almost been two to three hours, and the enemy still did not move.
“Could they have noticed us?” Brendel could not fathom what was happening. This was a vital route to the Evergreen Path; it was reasonable for the Earl to guard this location, but the problem was that this wasn’t how ambushes worked. He had yet to see any scouts sent out in this direction, and Earl Ji’en seemed to be hoarding the entire army within the forest, appearing not to be in ambush but rather attempting to hide entirely.
Yet the question remained.
If they wanted to hide, wouldn’t it be better not to leave their castle and instead endure what amounted to hardship out in this wilderness?
Brendel was puzzled, but at this moment, Earl Ji’en was actually more anxious than he was.
The imperial earl was indeed nearing madness—
This grudge between the southern nobility and the bumpkin from Erluin had, to this date, captured the attention of the entire Empire, from kingdom nobles to the common folk; even the true holders of supreme power within the Empire had shifted their gaze from those two temporarily dormant holy wars to watch their drama unfold. Because of this reason, neither he nor Earl Orkans could afford to retreat even a single step; otherwise, they would become the laughing stock of countless individuals. Behind them stood the Parut family, and Duke Parut would also suffer a significant loss of prestige and face due to their failure—this debt would inevitably fall upon them in the end.
Therefore, he and Earl Orkans had made a pact to intercept that Earl from Erluin in the Floating Cloud Hills, not hoping to completely defeat him—they still had the self-awareness to understand that their armies were certainly weaker than the imperial border legions and weren’t even a match for the summer solstice knights—but at least they had to make him feel challenged. If they could rescue those noble hostages in his hands, it would be a delightful outcome for all.
To this end, they had almost summoned all local nobles aligned with the Parut family in the South, including four ancient families and countless lords and knights, constituting a force that totaled over ten thousand. In their eyes, dealing with a delegation of merely a few hundred should be more than sufficient.
However, just when everything seemed to be in place, only lacking the right timing, that morning, he faced an unforeseen issue.
Earl Ji’en suddenly seemed to lose contact with all his allies. These allies were meant to be stationed in nearby settlements or towns, and he had indeed sent people to contact each of them the day prior.
But now, these people seemed to have vanished into thin air, disappearing for no reason.
The earl was drenched in cold sweat; his first thought was that he had been betrayed by those damned fellows. But that thought only lasted an instant, instinctively dismissed by himself. He understood that anyone could turn against him, but Earl Orkans was not one of them; they were in the same boat. If he capsized, facing the furious wrath of Duke Parut would not just be his alone to bear.
Then the next possibility was that his allies had been quietly eliminated by that terrifying Erluin man opposite him.
Originally, this thought was quite absurd—a delegation of a few hundred quietly eliminating tens of thousands of noble private troops stationed within dozens of miles, and doing so without the others being aware, sounded like a far-fetched tale. But the more he considered it, the more plausible it seemed. He had never truly dealt with Brendel before, although Brendel had captured many of his vassals, even a nephew, the previous conflicts had all been private disputes between those local nobles and Brendel. If it were not for Brendel’s insistence on using these captives to slap him and Earl Orkans in the face, even further hitting that significant figure behind them, he would have avoided dealing with such a madman.
Though he had never met that noble earl, he had heard many rumors about Brendel. The most clear and impressive was the part about his assault on the imperial fortress—that had been an entire legion, completely subdued by him, not merely defeated or routed, but thoroughly captured and forced to act upon his will.
As Earl Ji’en pondered this, he suddenly realized he might have done something foolish—he actually thought he could defeat such a terrifying character. Even with his over ten thousand troops, could they truly rival the Rozherian border legions?
At this moment, the earl was filled with irrational thoughts. He ordered his subordinates to continue heading towards his allies’ encampments to investigate what had happened. If they did not encounter them on the road, then at least they could go to their previous camps. If they truly weren’t there or found traces of battles afterward, Earl Ji’en thought deeply, as if hesitating on how to arrange a safe retreat for himself.
But shortly after, the scouts he dispatched finally returned on horseback.
Although these riders appeared to be quite worn out, gasping for breath, they bore no bloodstains, nor was anyone injured. This indicated they had not been intercepted, a discovery that relieved Earl Ji’en somewhat as he quickly asked, “Where are the Maol, Walker, and Cooper families? What about Earl Orkans? Did you find them?”
He bombarded his subordinates with questions, but before he could finish two sentences, he suddenly stopped.
Because he saw his subordinates looking at him with an extremely strange expression, sending chills down his spine.
“What on earth is wrong?” He instinctively sensed something serious, even beyond his expectations.
Among those scout riders, the oldest one licked his lips and, in a somewhat dry voice, couldn’t help but answer, “My lord, Earl Orkans and the others…”
“What happened to them? Can’t you speak plainly without looking like you’ve seen a ghost? Alright, even if there truly are undead, you’re not unfamiliar with dealing with such things, are you?” Earl Ji’en frowned, glaring at his subordinates. He had taken them in precisely because he valued their experience, but these veterans had never shown such hesitance in the past. Even if they had crawled out of a pile of corpses, they wouldn’t have looked this way.
But just then, a messenger soldier suddenly ran back trembling, his face pale, shouting as he ran, “My lord, it’s the Erluin people—they’ve come!”
Earl Ji’en jumped in surprise; this was exactly what he feared. He quickly turned to look at the soldier. “What do you mean, what Erluin people? Is it the delegation from Erluin?”
But the messenger kept shaking his head. “No, it’s those dragons! Blue ones, turquoise ones, so many, filling the sky! You have to come and see, my lord!”
The soldier’s voice was almost a wail.
—
After waiting anxiously for another long hour, Brendel finally discerned that the odd imperial noble army opposite him did not seem inclined to move. At this point, he had lost the last remnants of patience.
While he had envisaged various situations that might arise, this was clearly an exception.
And it was evident that he could not continue to waste time with this earl indefinitely. If that earl was trying to provoke him into attacking, then he had to admit the other party had succeeded.
Fortunately, this issue was not particularly complicated for Brendel.
Whether to attack didn’t depend on him, but the choice of how to attack was undoubtedly in his hands. He certainly was not going to expose his intentions to the opposing side outright. Since the other party wished to see what means he had, the best approach was to let Charles command the Ethereal Dragon to test the waters.
Thus, he went ahead and did just that.
However, the final result greatly exceeded his expectations.
In fact, it also surprised Nemeses, Charles, and even Princess Medisa.
Charles had just let the Ethereal Dragon enter the battlefield when a person quickly burst out from Ji’en Earl’s army.
Brendel was convinced that if he wasn’t mistaken, that person was waving a white flag—
At that moment, even he couldn’t help but feel deeply puzzled.
“Is it possible that this earl has come here to surrender?”
“Is this how the Cruzian fight?”
