296 – It’s not the right time yet. (2)
When Belinda launched her surprise attack, not everyone was sleeping like Bernap.
Amelia’s adviser, the merchant leader Conrad from Aktium, was also spending the night checking various things.
Adjusting his monocle, he muttered as he rummaged through the documents.
“Thank goodness the Young Lady bought plenty of supplies. I thought we would suffer significant losses, but it’s turning out to be a good situation.”
Conrad smiled contentedly.
Amelia, whom he served, was truly an impressive person. Not only did she possess vast knowledge, but her strategies and interpersonal skills left even men in awe.
That wasn’t all. She had a special intuition. Amelia’s actions, based on her occasional hunches, often led to unexpected results.
Like the time she purchased food in bulk during the last drought.
While smiling, Conrad’s expression suddenly hardened as he fiddled with the rapier hanging at his waist.
“Hmmm…”
It felt like a bug was crawling on his nape. It wasn’t a real bug, though.
It was a killing intent.
Swish!
The rapier, drawn like lightning, pierced a corner of the tent. At the same time, a figure leaped out from the darkness within the tent.
“Tsk.”
Conrad clicked his tongue. He aimed for the face, but the opponent had deftly dodged. However, it seemed they hadn’t completely evaded, as blood was trickling down the assassin’s cheek from the mask being cut.
Seeing the emotionless face of the assassin, Conrad tilted his head slightly. It was a face he recognized from somewhere.
After racking his memory for a moment, he soon smirked and said,
“You’re… not the guard for the ‘Lord of Bribes’?”
The assassin who was targeting Conrad was Wendy, who had been in charge of Claude’s security.
Given the circumstances, she had no choice but to participate in this operation.
Conrad had seen her before when he was in charge during the first deal with Penris.
He continued, still with a mocking smile,
“Your presence here means Count Penris intends to treat us as enemies as well?”
Wendy replied, maintaining her emotionless expression.
“I have never been here. Please don’t act like you know me later.”
With those words, she swiftly threw a series of daggers.
Swoosh.
Conrad dodged the flying daggers easily and thrust his rapier forward. However, Wendy apparently had no intention of engaging him now, continuously retreating while pulling something from her sleeve.
Clang.
With a sound of metal clashing, sparks flew. Realizing the opponent’s intent, Conrad frowned.
Wendy pulled out an oiled cloth from her sleeve, set it on fire, and tossed it onto the pile of documents.
Fwoosh!
Conrad unleashed his mana, wrapping the cloth with his rapier to extinguish the flames, but Wendy hadn’t thrown just one.
After igniting flames in various places, she quickly slipped out of the tent, and soon flames soared throughout the Raybold Army’s camp.
“Damn! What the hell! Who are those bastards!”
Ulkan burst out of the tent, swinging his club angrily and shouting loudly. Caleb ground his teeth as he stepped over the corpse wearing a black mask.
As the head of the lynx smuggling group, he was also an assassin. It seemed he felt quite insulted to be attacked by assassins himself.
Ulkan and Caleb easily dealt with the assassins who attacked them. However, not everyone was as physically capable as they were.
Several officers of the Raybold Army died in shock, leading to significant chaos.
“The commander of the 4th Infantry Company is dead!”
“Capture them quickly! What are you all doing?”
“They disappeared! The enemy has vanished!”
Caught off guard by the unexpected assault, everyone was in a frenzy. While they all tried to catch the assassins, Belinda and her accomplices had already made their escape.
As she fled, Belinda cast a regretful glance back at the Raybold Army’s camp.
“It’s not as easy as I thought.”
Ghislaine was so focused on increasing speed that he wasn’t particularly on high alert. Still, they hadn’t killed as many as they had hoped.
In fact, the assassins he brought along suffered quite a bit. Belinda bitterly licked her lips.
“It’s a powerful force we’ve worked hard to build…”
Ghislaine and Belinda had been steadily training the assassins. They selected talented individuals, disguising them as servants within their territory.
Only Ghislaine’s closest associates truly knew their identities, making it a highly confidential matter.
Of course, the most elite among them were those who Belinda had nurtured from before, like Wendy.
“When we get back, we need to train more members.”
Thanks to comprehensive support from the territory, individual skills weren’t low, but the numbers were still far too few.
Especially when attacking high-level opponents like this operation. Low-level assassins couldn’t succeed at assassination, let alone escape properly.
Still, they caused chaos and set fires everywhere. They had achieved their goal, so they could buy some time.
After the assassins fled, Amelia could no longer contain her boiling rage and shouted.
“Ghislaine! Ghislaine! That bastard dared to!”
Flames rose up from all around, and horses were galloping about. The camp had turned into complete chaos due to the sudden attack.
Once again, she had been taken down by Ghislaine. Being caught off guard in such an unexpected manner was absolutely intolerable.
Amelia exhaled roughly and looked around the camp once more. Everyone was bustling about.
“Put out the fires quickly!”
“Recheck personnel!”
“Determine where the breach occurred!”
The soldiers were just as scattered. Nevertheless, some quickly donned their armor and stood guard.
After a while, one knight approached and bowed his head to Amelia.
She glanced at the knight and asked, “What are the damages?”
“There aren’t many casualties. However… a few squad commanders have died.”
The knight reported the assessed damage. There weren’t many dead soldiers, but the bigger loss had already occurred.
Knights were not the only elite forces. Sometimes competent commanders could be harder to replace than knights.
Several mid-level officers selected by Amelia had died. Recovering from this damage would take considerable time.
The knight’s report didn’t end there.
“They released the horses and dispersed poison, then set fires. As a result, many horses have either fled or died. The poison has already been purified by the mages. We’re also capturing the escaped horses.”
To increase their marching speed, they needed the horses. They specifically aimed to hamper the Raybold Army, so targeting this was likely their primary goal.
Taking a moment to close her eyes and breathe deeply, she asked again, “How on earth did they get in?”
No matter how focused they were on increasing speed, they couldn’t afford to neglect their watch. The Raybold Army maintained strict discipline, and Amelia particularly emphasized vigilance, so no one stood guard carelessly.
Alongside the soldiers, high-level knights and mages were taking turns on watch.
On top of that, there was a massive army of five thousand. No matter how skilled the assassins were, evading that many eyes was nonsense.
In fact, not all of the assassins were even that skilled. There were quite a few who couldn’t escape and ended up dead.
The knight hesitated for a moment before continuing his report.
“There were… tunnels.”
“Tunnels? Did they know where we were staying to dig those?”
“They weren’t that large. They were more like hiding pits. They seem to have created several and hid nearby, watching us move. We’ve discovered a few outside the camp too.”
“Go on.”
“Coincidentally, several of those pits were beneath the soldiers’ tents. It seems a few infiltrated through there, set the fires first, and then the others followed. The timing of the attacks varied.”
There was a tent for soldiers over the pit. It seemed that a few had infiltrated inside, setting fire first, and then the rest came out afterward. The timing of the ambushes was all over the place.
The knights of Raybold quickly assessed the situation and reported back.
Belinda, who already knew the Raybold Army would move, kept a close watch on their movements.
That’s why she was able to hide in the pit she had prepared near the camp.
For an assassin, the most important virtue is patience. Hiding in an uncomfortable and cramped place for several days isn’t a difficult task.
That’s the basic training that assassins receive first.
Amelia bit her lip. When there were no enemies around and she was focused on moving quickly, the internal alert levels dropped significantly.
Since they had to accommodate five thousand men, the camp naturally became large. As long as she identified the general location, entering inside was easy.
“Just how… how on earth did this guy…?”
She still couldn’t understand how Ghislaine had managed to grasp all her actions.
‘I need to figure this out somehow. This isn’t luck, nor is it intuition. He’s doing this with confidence.’
She could no longer think of Ghislaine as just a lucky guy or merely a talented genius. Looking at everything that had happened so far, he was closer to a prophet.
But she still couldn’t grasp what method he used. She pressed her forehead hard in frustration.
Beside her, Bernap cautiously asked.
“Then Ghislaine is also moving right now, so what should we do? We need to arrive before him.”
From the situation, it seemed like the Raybold Army and Penris Army were moving almost simultaneously. But it was well-known that Ghislaine’s forces were all cavalry. It was obvious they were heading toward the Desmond Territory at breakneck speed.
Having come to that conclusion, Bernap continued speaking.
“What if we use the remaining horses to send the cavalry and knights? We won’t fall behind in speed.”
“They must have set traps.”
These were the brave fools who had infiltrated deep into the camp to catch Amelia off guard. With a clear destination on their side, they wouldn’t have missed the chance to set traps for cavalry.
Amelia took out a map, looked over it, and spoke again.
“But we can’t just give up right now. We’ll split into three directions: the fastest route, the mid route, and the detour. Ignore everything else and first occupy the strongholds and fortresses I marked.”
Desmond was a Great Territory. Unlike other northern territories, which had just a few villages, maybe a couple of cities and fortresses, its level was on another scale.
Occupying areas that weren’t key points wouldn’t help at all. It was obvious they’d be treated as invaders and chased out.
At least if they could occupy even one key point, they could afford to hold out under the banner of an alliance. If they did that, the Duke Faction would take care of the rest.
The knights and cavalry quickly set about managing the chaos under Amelia’s command.
Their only purpose was singular: to occupy and hold the area Amelia had pinpointed before the main force arrived.
Thud thud thud thud!
The cavalry, who hadn’t even rested properly, showed clear signs of fatigue on their faces. Yet, true to their high-intensity training, they showed no signs of wavering.
After sending off the cavalry, Amelia surveyed the remaining men with sharp eyes and said.
“Get organized and move as quickly as possible. There’s no time to rest.”
If Ghislaine had been able to anticipate her movements and prepare to this extent, he was surely heading toward Desmond Territory as well. Now it was a race against time. They needed to move faster.
Crack.
Even while on the move, Amelia gritted her teeth.
‘Ghislaine, Ghislaine… that bastard…’
The feeling of having been outsmarted this time lingered. If she had just remained still, she wouldn’t have to endure such humiliation.
As she expected, the fastest cavalry had collapsed at the first intersection.
Most had fallen into a pit filled with spikes and lost their lives, while those who managed to avoid it were caught by cleverly placed timber at horse’s leg height, tumbling down as well.
The injured soldiers writhed on the ground, and the few remaining cavalrymen couldn’t think of advancing any further; instead, they focused on tending to the injured.
The soldiers brought stakes that they had driven into the ground to Amelia.
On the stake was inscribed:
[Made with care by the great blacksmith and his friends.]
“How dare they…”
Flames sparked in Amelia’s eyes. Not only did they obstruct the path but also this pathetic provocation.
Just by looking at the writing, she figured out who set the trap – it seemed the dwarves staying in Penris had moved.
The thought of hunting those scoundrels down for sure began to bubble up inside her.
While she was recovering the injured, cavalrymen who had taken a different path returned.
“What happened?”
“There was an obstacle.”
“Obstacle?”
“They built a wall with wood and stones at the narrowest part of the canyon. We had no choice but to return to take another route. I brought back a trace from there.”
The commander leading the cavalry presented a stake he was holding.
[Made with care by the great blacksmith and his friends.]
“……”
She’d heard there were strange folks in her territory, but seeing the evidence left by them was utterly ridiculous.
It was already too late to turn back. The Raybold Army quickly cleared the traps and moved again.
When they finally arrived near the fortress they had set as their first target, the commander of the cavalry who had traveled the farthest joined the main force.
“I’m sorry. The enemies have already occupied the fortress.”
“……”
Just how fast did they move to capture the front fort right after winning the war?
It wasn’t a case of someone betraying them and leaking information. She hadn’t told anyone her plans.
Amelia maintained a cold expression without saying a word. She simply led her troops towards the fortress.
Indeed, at Desmond’s front fortress, the flag of Penris fluttered.
“……”
Amelia glared at the flag, remaining completely silent. Bernap, standing nearby, quietly stepped back.
Bernap knew well that she became the coldest when most furious.
‘Ugh, I told you not to mess with that guy. They’ve taken Raybold, so it would’ve been enough to just take half of the North.’
He couldn’t voice his thoughts and simply grunted internally. Her ambitions were on a level he couldn’t keep up with.
‘If she just dropped her greed, we could live happily enough.’
He dreamt of simply living happily with Amelia, pursuing a surprisingly modest happiness.
With Amelia saying nothing, even her close associates dared not speak. Anyone who touched her nerves now wouldn’t escape unscathed.
As the Raybold Army stared hopelessly at the fortress,
Creeeeak…
Suddenly, the fortress gate swung open. From there, Ghislaine on a black horse emerged, approaching slowly with his knights.
Seeing this, Amelia too rode forward slowly. Her close associates and knights tightly surrounded her.
Ghislaine, stained with fatigue, and the neatly composed Amelia stopped at an appropriate distance.
Ghislaine spoke first.
“It’s been a while, Amelia.”
Amelia slightly raised her chin, responding with a haughty look.
“It’s been a while, Ghislaine.”
The two exchanged glances and smiled.
With a gaze full of intent to kill.
Before the laughter could fade, Amelia’s hand subtly moved. At the same moment, mana began to gather on Ghislaine’s spear.
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