The soldiers of the Kingdom Army hesitated. After all, no one knew what dangers might still be hidden behind the doors.
“There are no living people inside.”
The mage apprentice following behind the soldiers spoke again, a trace of impatience in his voice.
Only then did the soldiers cautiously step forward, preparing to push open the doors.
As for the mage apprentice, in the end, he still quietly cast 【Mage Armor】 on himself. A layer of almost invisible magical radiance enveloped his entire body.
Three soldiers walked toward the three doors respectively. They exchanged a glance, then exerted their strength at the same time and shoved the doors open.
This time, the expected explosion did not occur.
The sight inside the rooms made everyone suck in a cold breath.
In the rooms on the left and right, an officer’s corpse lay in a pool of blood, each dead in a miserable state.
And in the largest room in the middle, two corpses were tangled together in an extremely indecent posture. One of them was precisely the Lieutenant Colonel Juan they had been searching for.
“Something’s happened! Hurry and report to His Excellency the General!” an officer immediately roared at the soldier beside him.
After receiving the order, that soldier scrambled and stumbled his way downstairs.
The mage apprentice and the other soldiers, after carefully surveying the other areas of the room, walked into the middle room.
The air was filled with a nauseating stench—a mixture of blood, alcohol, and some kind of cologne.
“Separate them.”
The mage apprentice, who seemed to be a clean freak, pinched his nose and ordered the soldiers with disgust.
The officer nodded to the other soldiers. Two of them stepped forward and laboriously tried to separate the bodies of Juan and the other officer.
Just as they pulled with all their strength and were about to completely separate the two stiff corpses, they felt as if some thin thread had snapped.
Immediately afterward, a dense series of “hissing” sounds rang out, though no one present could identify what the noise was.
And when the two corpses were finally separated, seven round iron lumps slipped out from between them, clattering as they rolled onto the floor.
Everyone in the room widened their eyes.
The blood drained instantly from the young mage apprentice’s face. Only one thought remained in his mind.
Run!
But it was already too late.
“BOOM—!!!”
When the second, even more violent round of explosions occurred, High Instructor Eldritch and Astra, commander of the 24th Division, had just arrived outside the small building, in time to witness flames and thick smoke surging out from the second-floor windows.
The violent explosion shattered all the windows in the room on the spot. Apart from the mage apprentice, the remaining Kingdom Army soldiers and his attendants all lost their lives.
Thanks to that layer of 【Mage Armor】, the unlucky mage apprentice did not die on the spot.
If Morin knew this result at this moment, he would certainly beat his chest in regret, then lament that the mere fifty grams of rifle powder in a single grenade was still far too conservative in power.
At the same time, he would regret beyond measure why he had not left all the remaining grenades behind.
However, although he had not died on the spot, the mage apprentice’s condition was not much better.
The countless fragments produced by the simultaneous detonation of seven grenades easily broke through the defensive threshold of his first-circle spell.
At close range, the shockwave blasted him away like a torn sack. His entire body was riddled with shrapnel, and he slammed heavily into the wall, fainting on the spot. From the look of him, he was already breathing out more than in.
Looking at the high instructor beside him, whose expression had darkened to the point that water seemed about to drip from it, General Sanjurjo felt a chill run down his back.
It did not matter if a few of the ruffian officers under him died. He did not feel heartache over that. The vacant positions would even attract others to come “buy” them.
But if a mage from the Highland Mage Corps of the Holy Britannian Empire died—even if he was only an apprentice—this was not a problem that could be easily resolved!
“Lock down the entire city! Search door to door! Arrest anyone suspicious!”
General Sanjurjo issued the order almost in a roar.
Right now, he only wanted to catch the murderer as quickly as possible and give the enraged Britannians an explanation.
This order set the entire Kingdom Army in Seville into motion. They focused all their attention on hunting down “suspicious persons” within the city.
And this made the evacuation route for Morin’s group, as well as the three girls and their families, unprecedentedly smooth and safe.
By the time Morin led his reconnaissance squad, travel-worn and dusty, back to the temporary camp of the 1st Battalion, 33rd Infantry Regiment, the sky had already begun to darken.
They did not even have time to drink a mouthful of water before hurriedly finding the battalion command post.
Battalion Commander Major Thomas was studying something on a map with the other officers of battalion headquarters. When he saw Morin and the others return safely, he immediately let out a breath of relief.
Before long, Captain Hauser, who had received the news, also arrived at battalion headquarters. Seeing Morin, Corporal Bowman, and the others intact, he stepped forward and gave each of them a bear hug.
“So, how was the reconnaissance? Second Lieutenant Morin, did you discover any enemy ambushes?”
Major Thomas quickly entered his working state and asked the question he was most concerned about.
“Reporting, sir. Based on our reconnaissance along the way, the enemy has not set up an ambush. Instead, they have all contracted their forces into the urban area of Seville!”
Morin paused for a moment, then said something shocking enough to make everyone choke: “So, we entered Seville.”
The command post instantly fell silent.
Major Thomas and Captain Hauser were both stunned. The two looked at each other, their faces clearly saying, “Are you fucking kidding me?”
I only told you to scout the surrounding area and see whether there were any ambush troops. How the hell did you end up sneaking straight into their city?
Do you think this was a trip to a village market?
Major Thomas felt as if he were listening to some Arabian Nights tale.
As for Captain Hauser, after the battle that morning, he already trusted Morin greatly. But even now, he could not help sounding a little doubtful as he asked:
“Second Lieutenant, do you know what you’re saying?”
“Sir, of course I know what I’m saying!”
Morin did not explain too much. He simply gave a concise report of everything they had seen and heard along the way, including the Kingdom Army’s defensive deployment on the high ground outside the city, the existence of the magic crystal cannons, the stationing of the 24th Division and the Britannians, as well as their encounters inside the city.
After hearing Morin’s description, the expressions on Thomas and Hauser’s faces became even more interesting.
This story was fabricated… with quite a bit of detail.
Just as Major Thomas was about to raise his doubts, Morin took out an officer’s certificate and a silver officer’s badge from his pocket and placed them on the table.
“These are the papers of Lieutenant Colonel Juan de Rivera, commander of the 1st Battalion, 126th Regiment of the Aragon Kingdom Army.”
Then he took a finely crafted revolver from Corporal Bowman’s hands and placed it on the table as well.
“This is his officer’s sidearm.”
In the command post, all doubts and disbelief were blocked back by these two items.
Major Thomas picked up the officer’s certificate, still carrying the smell of blood, and flipped it open to look.
Then he picked up the heavy revolver—this was the sidearm of Britannian officers, and it had also been handed over to the Aragon Kingdom Army as part of their weapons aid.
All suspicion vanished like smoke in that instant.
He raised his head and reexamined the young second lieutenant before him, discovering that it seemed he had never truly known him at all.