A full day had passed since the party left Reitona. When night fell, they stayed at the lodging Duke Pershtein had prepared in advance. It was a high-class inn in no way inferior to Paradise.
After spending the day with good food and soft beds, the party set out again as soon as they awoke. Crobitz, who was riding with them in the carriage, explained the plan from here on.
“We should arrive in Felzentin by evening. His Grace the Duke said he would personally come out to the city gate to welcome you, so I believe we will be staying at his mansion tonight.”
“Duke Pershtein’s mansion, is it… It must be quite magnificent.”
At Damon’s words, Crobitz smiled faintly and shook his head.
“You will likely be disappointed. His Grace is more frugal than you might think. He spends almost no money on himself. But when it comes to his subordinates, he spares nothing.”
Damon kept silent. To be honest, he did not have particularly good feelings toward Duke Pershtein. From Damon’s point of view, he was no different from Sa Junhwan—at least in that he was plotting treason. But after speaking with his subordinates, his thoughts had changed somewhat.
‘He’s a more remarkable man than I expected. Leaving everything else aside, the fact that he can receive such sincere loyalty from his men is enough to qualify him to become the master of the Crossen Empire.’
Suddenly, a thought of Emperor Crossen, the hero who had vanished behind the curtain of history five hundred years ago, crossed Damon’s mind. Curiosity appeared on his face.
‘Just what kind of fellow was he? Could he have been from the same era as me?’
If he had been from the same era, there was no way Damon would not have known of him. Even apart from the competitive spirit unique to a warrior that slumbered in his heart, he was certainly someone Damon would have wanted to meet at least once. But Emperor Crossen had died long ago and been buried in a tomb, while he was still alive, sharpening the blade of revenge against the dragon. After being lost in thought for a moment, Damon turned his head toward Crobitz.
“Is Emperor Crossen buried here?”
“Yes. The Emperor, who passed away at the age of eighty-one after living out his allotted span, rests in eternal sleep in the Imperial Tomb located north of Felzentin.”
When speaking of Emperor Crossen, Crobitz showed the utmost reverence. Though he belonged to a faction plotting treason, it seemed he still held a respect for Emperor Crossen that welled up from the depths of his heart. At least to the knights of the Crossen Empire, Emperor Crossen was the absolute pinnacle of martial might, without equal before or since. Damon fell into thought once more.
‘The Imperial Tomb, is it… I wonder if any of Emperor Crossen’s belongings remain there. If, by some chance, I succeed in taking revenge and then need to cross over to the Central Plains…’
Damon’s thoughts ended there. From outside the carriage came an urgent cry of warning.
“A-an ambush!”
At the same time, a cacophony of piercing sounds came flying in one after another. It was the sound of crossbow fire raining down.
Shweeek. Shweeeek.
The sounds of arrows cutting through the air were beyond counting. Hearing them, Crobitz’s expression stiffened. He had never imagined they would be ambushed within the territory of the Crossen Empire. Raising his shield to cover himself, Crobitz immediately kicked open the carriage door and rushed outside.
“Stay here. The carriage roof is reinforced with steel, so ordinary crossbow fire should not be able to penetrate it.”
Crobitz’s eyes gleamed with fury. To launch an ambush while they were receiving a guest of the highest importance… He did not know who it was, but Crobitz swore he would never forgive them.
Once outside the carriage, he found the situation more serious than expected. Soldiers covering themselves with shields were desperately blocking the arrow attacks, but nearly a hundred soldiers already lay sprawled as corpses. Even as Crobitz watched, one soldier was struck by an incoming quarrel and departed this world.
“Guaaak!”
The incoming quarrel pierced clean through the steel breastplate and protruded from the fallen soldier’s back. It was a crossbow of truly tremendous power.
Ping.
Deflecting an incoming quarrel with his shield, Crobitz bent down and picked it up. A moment later, a furious roar burst from his mouth.
“This is a crossbow from the Kingdom of Harzel. Judging by the situation, I have a rough idea who the culprit is.”
In anger, Crobitz flung the quarrel to the ground and shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Everyone, form a close formation! Gather together and defend against the arrow fire. And all knights except the Sword Masters are to charge immediately and deal with the archers!”
As soon as the order fell, the soldiers began moving in perfect order. From their movements, fitting together as precisely as if measured with a ruler, one could tell just how harshly they had trained until now.
“Close formation! Close formation!”
As the gathered soldiers overlapped their rectangular shields all at once, a massive defensive wall was formed there. No matter how powerful the crossbows made in Harzel were, they could not pierce through a wall of shields stacked two or three layers thick. Meanwhile, the knights of the Duke Knights began their charge through the rain of arrows pouring down like a storm.
A considerable number of horses had been lost to the arrow attack, but most of the horses ridden by the knights were still intact. It was thanks to the sturdy horse armor they wore.
Dudududu.
The knights’ charge was terrifying. No matter how powerful the crossbow fire was, it could not stop a knightly order composed of paladins. Thanks to their excellent movements, and the mana they had infused into their armor and shields, the paladins were able to advance while blocking or dodging the incoming rain of arrows without much difficulty.
“Unforgivable. I won’t let a single one of them escape alive.”
Crobitz glared beyond the ridge with furious eyes. Though the distance was fairly great, his exceptional eyesight allowed him to see the attackers without difficulty. The attackers wore mottled camouflage and masks. They were firing their crossbows diligently, but thanks to the close formation defense, the soldiers were suffering no further casualties. Now, it seemed they only had to wait until the charging paladins dealt with the archers.
Just then, a series of dull sounds suddenly rang out. The sounds came from somewhere rather far away.
Thung. Th-th-thung.
When Crobitz realized what the sounds were, his eyes widened. He hurriedly looked up at the sky, and his face twisted horribly.
“Catapults… Damn it all…”
Large stones were hurtling up fiercely from a nearby mountain peak. They were aimed precisely at the place where the soldiers had gathered in close formation, and mixed among the stones here and there were wooden pillars that seemed to have been fired from ballistae. Since it was a volley from at least fifty catapults, even by the most conservative estimate, Crobitz’s face turned dark in an instant.
“T-this is bad. A catapult attack while they’re in close formation…”
It was an attack he had not anticipated at all, so a chill could not help but run down his spine. Luring the enemy into gathering with arrow fire and then firing catapults to inflict damage was a classic battlefield ambush tactic. But because he had never dreamed they would suffer such an attack within the territory of the Crossen Empire, Crobitz was momentarily at a loss.
“This won’t do. Even if there are casualties, I have to scatter the soldiers.”
But that, too, was no easy matter. He could make the soldiers evade, but the problem was the carriage. The horses pulling the carriage had already been wiped out to the last by the arrow attack. Since the carriage was reinforced with steel, its weight was no joke, and even if the soldiers pushed it, it could only move slowly. Moreover, if it took a direct hit from the catapult attack, even the sturdiest carriage would find it hard to withstand. However, they could not simply sit still and take a stone head-on, so he quickly issued the order to scatter.
“Break close formation! All soldiers, move the carriage even if it costs you your lives!”
After giving the order, he hurriedly turned his head. The paladins who had charged ahead had nearly reached the place where the crossbow fire was coming from. As the paladins approached within a stone’s throw, the attackers abandoned their crossbows without hesitation and began to retreat. They were escaping with thorough preparation, choosing only paths where horses could not gain speed.
“Those damned bastards…”
The paladins immediately tried to begin pursuit. As if intent on exacting payment for the lives of the dead soldiers, every one of them had a murderous gleam in their eyes. Seeing this, Crobitz raised his voice and shouted.
“Do not pursue them! Attack the catapult battery on the mountainside instead. That is an order!”
“Understood!”
The paladins immediately turned their horses. They, too, were well aware of the catapult attack being launched toward this side. However, the place where the catapults were located was a fairly high mountainside. Climbing the mountainside on horseback was, in a word, impossible. The knight captain, who had ridden hard to arrive nearby, shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Dismount! We run up on foot!”
Leaping down from their horses, the paladins drew their swords and nimbly hurled themselves toward the place where the catapults had been installed. After confirming this, Crobitz also drew his longsword and hurriedly ran toward the carriage.
“Please, let the catapult attack not hit the carriage… For now, I can only hope for luck.”
No matter how much of a Sword Master he was, he could not block even a catapult attack. If struck head-on by a catapult shot, even a Sword Master could not preserve his life. Even so, Crobitz intended to stop the incoming stones with his own body if he had to. In the current situation, the black mage’s safety was more important than anything else. But his steps soon came to a halt.
“H-how can this be?”
His eyes widened as he stared toward the carriage. He had imagined casualties would be appearing one after another from the flying stones, but the situation was unfolding in a completely unexpected way.
Kwa-kwa-kwang!
A stone fired from a catapult collided with something and shattered to pieces in midair. The same was true of the wooden pillars fired from the ballistae.
Kwachik, kwajijik!
The wooden pillars were reduced in an instant to fragments beyond recognition the moment they collided with the long streaks of light flying through the air. Splintered wood fragments fell thickly along with stone dust. At that sight, the soldiers wore dumbfounded expressions. The stones that had seemed about to smash down at any moment and crush their comrades flat were crumbling helplessly in midair.
“Wh-what is that?”
“It looks like Magic Missile… But I can’t even count how many there are.”
What covered the air above the carriage in every direction was none other than Magic Missiles. Roughly hundreds, even thousands of Magic Missiles had completely seized control of the sky. Like a tightly woven net, they blocked the catapult attack without the slightest error. As if the Magic Missiles themselves possessed intelligence, they rushed toward the catapult projectiles and self-destructed. Thanks to that, not a single catapult shot struck anywhere near the carriage. As Crobitz watched the scene in silence, admiration appeared on his face.
“Magic Missiles enough to blacken the entire sky… The power of the Ninth Circle truly lives up to its name.”
Perhaps intimidated by the might of the Magic Missiles, the catapult attack did not continue. It seemed they had given up on the attack and intended to retreat. Furious, Crobitz shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Don’t let a single one escape! Capture them no matter what and uncover who is behind this!”
Since they had already let all the archers slip away because of the catapult attack, he did not think on it for long. But a short while later, the paladins returned listlessly on their horses. All they brought back were a few lifeless corpses.
“We apologize. Their escape was far too swift… Judging by their movements, they seemed to be assassins who had received professional training.”
Crobitz glared.
“You call yourselves paladins, and yet you couldn’t capture even one of them alive? Does that make any sense?”
“They fled far too quickly…”
The paladins kept silent as if their tongues had been cut out. Since they had achieved nothing at all, they had no excuse to offer even if they had ten mouths. Crobitz looked them over with displeased eyes.
“Have you investigated the crests on the catapults those bastards abandoned?”
“They were a mixture from several kingdoms. The form of the crossbows was unmistakably that of the Harzel Kingdom, but judging by the markings of various kingdoms engraved on them, they appear to be weapons that were confiscated back home.”
Krovitz was thoroughly irritated.
“Meticulous bastards. Once we arrive in Felzentin, I’ll have to look into the state of the armory. Then tally the number of casualties at once. We’ve lost a great deal of time, so we must hurry and depart.”
After giving the order, Krovitz turned his steps toward the carriage.
The carriage had literally become a hedgehog. The arrow attack had been concentrated on it. However, it had been built so sturdily and reinforced with steel that not a single arrow seemed to have pierced inside. If there was any fortune in it, it was that the soldiers had quickly shut the windows the moment the attack began.
But the horses that had been pulling the carriage were dead to the last one. Since it would now have to be pulled by manpower, Krovitz’s thoughts grew exceedingly complicated.
“With all the horses dead, we’ll lose considerable time until they can be replaced.”
Having finished thinking, he called over several unit commanders who led the soldiers.
“Select about two units’ worth of strong soldiers. Have them remove their armor and arms, then make them pull the carriage. There’s no helping it until we reach the nearest supply depot.”
After roughly sorting out the situation, Krovitz headed toward the carriage in which the black mage was riding, looking somewhat embarrassed. It was the only carriage whose window was wide open. More precisely, it ought to be said that it had been smashed apart. That was because the Magic Missiles that had raged so fiercely had shattered the window as they were fired. Entering the carriage, Krovitz bowed his head respectfully.
“My apologies. I never imagined we would be ambushed... If you had not helped us, Mage, we might have suffered considerable damage.”
Damon waved his hand as if it were nothing.
“It’s fine. As long as the party is safe, that is fortunate enough.”
A bitter smile appeared on Krovitz’s face. Many among the escort force had already been killed or wounded, so hearing that it was fortunate as long as the party was safe could hardly have put him in a good mood. But since he could not show that outwardly, he hurriedly corrected his expression.
“Still, you were truly remarkable. I have never seen so many Magic Missiles before.”
“It is not so difficult. More importantly, what sort of bastards were they? To dare attack us within the territory of the Crosen Empire...”
Krovitz flushed, as if ashamed.
“I apologize, but we were unable to capture even one of them alive. However, judging from the circumstances, I can roughly guess whose doing it was.”
“I don’t know who it is, but he must have quite the nerve. To scheme such a thing.”
Krovitz had one person in mind as the mastermind behind this attack. There was only one man who would be reluctant to see Duke Perschtein and the black mage join hands. Krovitz clenched his fist tightly.
‘Theodore, the Regent! If I ever catch you by the tail, I’ll make sure you taste bitterness in full. If things go as planned, I’ll personally preside over your execution...’
Having finished his thoughts, Krovitz went and sat in his seat. As if the preparations were complete, the carriage began to move slowly.