─The siege war has now reached its halfway point! Looking at the current situation… as expected, the Medium and Small Guild Alliance is dominating, right?
─That’s right. The number of castles occupied by the Medium and Small Guild Alliance is a total of 76. Unless other guilds make a move, if they can just defend these castles well, victory is practically secured.
─Hmm. It’s clear how much the dissolution of the Large Guild Alliance has affected things.
─Absolutely! If they had formed a strong alliance, the Medium Alliance wouldn’t have been able to exert this much influence.
─Then let’s head to the area where the battles are most active. Ah, here…
“Hmm.”
It’s been 4 hours and 30 minutes since the siege war began.
The halfway point has come, and only the remaining time is left now.
If things keep going like this, the Medium Alliance will definitely secure a victory, but it’s not over yet.
“It’s intense. Almost to the point of excess.”
“They’re too greedy. Excessive greed only brings trouble.”
Lasty seems to have lost interest in the siege war, floating a few blood magics in the air.
It looks like studying magic is way more fun for her than watching the siege.
Chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp.
Sre is still eating well.
It’s impressive how diligently he eats even when he’s not starving.
Among them, Gapwoo was the one most actively watching, but after four and a half hours, he looked a bit different now.
“It’s boring…”
Gapwoo, too, had an atmosphere of not being pleased with the rather unexciting situation.
It makes sense since Gapwoo is originally a celestial who prefers watching someone rather than this one-sided scenario.
I munched on some snacks while glancing at the chat window.
[Absolutely]
[Lololololol]
[It is boring]
[They’re being a bit too flashy, lolol]
[Is there no one to stop the Medium Alliance?]
[The Jeokwol Guild looked somewhat useful though]
[Level ㅋㅋ]
[Lily, come on out]
[Just let’s have some ‘fun’ once, please]
[We have to watch this for another 4.5 hours????]
[So boring…]
[Is the Angel Guild doing anything?]
The viewers also seem to be quite displeased with the Medium Alliance’s runaway.
While it’s fine in the east, the new guilds in the south, like the ‘Jeokwol Guild’ or ‘Gyeoga’, have been making some moves, but… ultimately, they’ve all been crushed.
They couldn’t defeat the Black Sword and his group from the Medium Alliance and had to give up their castles.
At that time, it was somewhat interesting, but ever since they were defeated, it’s just been a brutal massacre.
─Black Sword player! You’ve successfully taken the ‘Unicorn’ Guild’s castle in the west!
─Wow~ Black Sword player. What an incredible performance! Isn’t this your first debut?
─That’s right. Black Sword has never been outside before…
─At this rate, it seems like quite a glamorous debut match!
─Indeed. In the early stages of the siege war, Ayane player was also impressive. The future looks bright for the Medium and Small Alliance.
“Speaking of which, I don’t see Ayane. It’s been about an hour or two since she vanished.”
“Ah? You’re right.”
[?]
[Right]
[Why did she disappear?]
[She’s been missing since earlier]
[Did she get kicked out?]
[???]
The fact that Ayane isn’t appearing on the camera broadcasting the siege war in real-time means one of two things.
Either the broadcasting company decided it was better to cover other users than Ayane…
Or she’s not actually participating in the castle siege at all.
Since they had been broadcasting well until now, it’s reasonable to assume that Ayane has pulled back from the castle siege.
“There’s no way it should take that long to move. She might be heading straight west.”
“Are you saying it’s taking two hours just to move? Isn’t that a huge risk?”
“If she succeeds, she’ll get many more castles.”
I nodded at Gapwoo’s question.
The Medium and Small Guild Alliance is a gathering of various forces united together.
While they pretend to be on the ‘same team’ for the siege war, to truly obtain the core rewards of the siege, they need to contribute significantly to the attack.
The Mythical Ring I received last year wasn’t given to everyone in the Angel Guild, but to me, the one who conquered the most castles.
At this rate, it looks like either Black Sword or Ayane will earn the core reward.
If that’s the case, Ayane might be heading west to not fall behind Black Sword…
“…maybe.”
[?]
[Hmm]
[Can’t Lily just go out and take it?]
[LOL]
[Huh?]
Not only that side has castles.
■
“Phew… I really thought I was going to get caught.”
After safely passing through the inner fortress, Ayane hugged her doll tighter and scanned the surroundings.
The security of the inner fortress was stricter, but thankfully, there were no obstacles for Ayane.
The Cavalry Commander thankfully didn’t notice either, and if she keeps going like this, she can head north out of Elbrite.
You can head north out of Elbrite.
“Now, where’s the carriage… huh?”
It’s gone.
There’s no carriage.
Even up to the Inner Fortress, there were quite a few carriages looking to pick up guests, but this time not a single one was in sight.
To be precise, there are carriages, but they are the traditional “horse-drawn” type.
There are no self-levitating carriages that use expensive magical stones.
Even checking with Puppet Technique yields the same result.
Just in case, I asked the surrounding people, but all they said was that the self-levitating carriages in the Inner Fortress had a problem and were temporarily suspended.
“Just like the Short-distance Teleportation Tower…!”
The Inner Fortress may be smaller than the Outer Fortress, but it’s still a stretch to get there by traditional carriage.
If I take a carriage like this, it would at least take over two more hours.
To conquer the castles in the northern region as planned, I had to get out of Elbrite within 30 minutes.
In the end, Ayane had to make a choice.
‘…I’ll run. Let’s just break through.’
There’s no other way. If I don’t want to spend the entire siege war touring Elbrite, I had to do something.
“There.”
‘If I run, I’ll get there in 30 minutes… no, even faster. Should I just summon a wolf doll?’
“What are you doing here?”
‘No. I can’t stand out too much. It’s risky to tie Puppet Technique to my body, but it can’t be helped this time.’
“Hey?”
‘Let’s just use Haste and Instant Acceleration. It’ll be faster if we head to an alleyway with no people. Then—’
Thump!
“Hey.”
“Wha—?!”
Bam!!
Invisible yet sturdy threads covered Ayane from behind.
Caught off guard by the sudden ambush, Ayane reacted excessively, but the woman who had grabbed her shoulder waved her staff and dispelled all the threads.
The mage, holding her staff, stared intently at Ayane.
The eyes behind her pure white mask sparkled brightly.
“M-Master Cavalry Commander?”
“What are you doing here? Is this an attack?”
“No, the attack was yours first…”
“I only grabbed your shoulder. I would appreciate a response to my question.”
Grrr.
The Cavalry Commander glared fiercely at Ayane.
“What are you. doing here?”
“……”
Ayane gulped, quickly turning her mind through a maze of thoughts.
Could it be that she’s caught on? Am I really being found out like this?
‘……’
…No, I haven’t been caught yet.
If I had been discovered, a report would have been sent to Lily long ago.
If a report had been sent, I wouldn’t be asking like this and would have been subdued in the blink of an eye.
‘Right now it’s just at the suspicion stage… there’s a suspicious outsider wandering here, so I decided to check it out.’
There is still a chance.
“I need to move to the academy, but all the carriages have stopped running.”
“…Is that so?”
“Yeah. It’s a long distance, you know. So I was thinking of just running there. Haha. Well then…”
Ayane cautiously turned her back.
She thought about controlling them with Puppet Technique.
Even though she had just brushed off those ‘strings,’ it was more like a light attack thrown out of confusion.
If she put her all into it, controlling a level 110 mage wouldn’t be impossible.
But what comes after the control is the problem.
If it’s a level 110 mage, they would realize, even faintly, that they were being controlled.
‘That can’t happen…’
“Wait a moment.”
‘Damn it!’
I’m finished!
As Ayane turned her head, she repeated the most unpleasant curse she knew.
“…What is it?”
“If it’s about going to the academy, I can send you there.”
“…What?”
“If an outsider is recklessly running around at a time like this, it could cause problems. It’s safer if I send you with my magic directly.”
“Uh, um, isn’t spatial magic a no-go?”
“It’s not spatial magic. It’s just a quick way to get there, so you don’t have to worry.”
“……”
To the academy…?
Ayane fell silent for a moment.
It’s not a bad proposal.
Considering the structure of Elbrite she saw earlier, Eli Academy is relatively positioned ‘above,’ which would significantly shorten the travel time.
It’s a little off to the east of the entrance on the opposite side of the Inner Fortress, but that distance is manageable.
Besides, refusing a ride from an outstanding mage makes no sense.
However, there is one problem…
“Come closer. We’ll arrive in 5 minutes.”
‘That means Lily is nearby…’
Ayane thought as she slowly stepped into the Cavalry Commander’s magic circle.
Please, may Lily not notice!
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