Chapter 236

After seizing Hisfil Castle, Yuri spent as much time as possible preparing for anything with Anima by her side, but contrary to expectations, nothing out of the ordinary happened, and peaceful days continued to flow.

Even after strengthening their guard just in case and waiting a bit longer, more days passed without any incidents.

Slowly, reconnaissance soldiers began to report back one by one.

“The reports we’re hearing are different from what we expected.”

“Jelin Castle shows no signs of troops either?”

“That’s correct. What’s more, according to the scouts, there was a massive evacuation from Jelin Castle not too long ago.”

“Really… this is hard to understand. Are you sure about this?”

“How dare I lie to my lord?”

Seeing the soldier kneeling before her, Yuri lightly gestured.

“Alright, I understand. Please tell the scout that it’s fine for them to rest.”

“Yes sir!”

After the soldier left,

Yuri slowly approached the Lady’s chair while asking Anima, who had been silently standing beside it.

“What do you make of this, Anima?”

“One thing’s certain.”

“What’s that?”

“Serpina has abandoned Hisfil Castle and the territories near the borderline altogether.”

“Could there be a reason behind this now that I think about it?”

At Yuri’s words, Anima shook her head with a wry smile.

“If there were, I would’ve explained it first, I think.”

“Guess so…”

Anima seemed concerned about Yuri’s slightly deflated tone and quickly added a few more words.

“But hey, it was weird worrying about Jelin Castle when we already reclaimed Hisfil Castle.”

Since reclaiming Hisfil Castle put us in a position where capturing Jelin Castle wouldn’t have been difficult.

It would’ve been strange if Serpina abandoned Hisfil Castle only to defend the harder-to-defend Jelin Castle against us.

“I’ve been thinking… maybe something’s come up in the Northern Continent.”

“Something?”

“Yeah. Maybe they don’t have the resources to focus on this border area… stuff like that.”

After pondering for several days, the only reasonable conclusion Anima could draw to explain the current situation was that “something must have happened in the Northern Continent.”

Because some issue arose, they couldn’t focus on this border area, pulling all their troops and abandoning the territory.

The Northern Continent still suffered intermittent rebellions due to Tyrant Serpina’s karma. The commotion caused by the mage appearing recently was also during the suppression of rebel forces.

So, perhaps, while abandoning the territory, she used the opportunity to lower its productivity by forcibly mobilizing the citizens and sending them to the Northern Continent…

This was the best hypothesis she could come up with.

Though somewhat unsettling,

There wasn’t enough information to guess further, and she didn’t want to waste the day speculating and miss another once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Sometimes, the simplest answer is the right one. In fact, most of the time, the world tends to be relatively straightforward.

Anyhow, Yuri briefly briefed Anima after roughly organizing her thoughts.

After hearing Anima’s explanation, Yuri nodded and asked.

“In that case, we can occupy the territory without worry now, right?”

“Yeah, we should hurry.”

Anyway, if Serpina has an issue, it’s a golden opportunity for us.

If they’ve abandoned the territory, we should move fast.

“Tell Epinal and Erhandorf to immediately advance towards Jelin Castle. And…”

“And?”

“I’m thinking of calling Emma. What do you think?”

Emma was currently managing the original territory at Falaharte Castle, the capital.

“While having Emma around would definitely help… shouldn’t someone stay behind to manage the Capital City?”

“Nope. If Serpina truly abandoned these border territories, we need to mobilize our forces as quickly as possible. It’d be wasteful to tie down someone of Emma’s caliber for the defense of the capital. Managing the territory can be handled by Mileena or Beliel.”

“Hmm… Alright, Anima, I’ll do as you suggest.”

Yuri quickly called over a nearby soldier.

“Head to Falaharte Castle and deliver the message. Tell them I’m looking for Emma. She can take any horse from the stables; just get here as fast as possible.”

“Yes, understood!”

As the soldier left, Anima opened her mouth with determined eyes.

“Yuri. Let’s move now. We’ve wasted too much time preparing for traps. We can’t afford to waste any more time. Next is Jelin Castle! Let’s fly the flag of the Aishias Army across this Central Continent!”

“…Yeah!”

That way, their occupation of the Central Continent—

The initial plan they chose—”Invade the Serpina Army”—started to look quite promising.

For now.

* * *

Successfully reclaiming Jelin Castle, appointing a suitable Lady, managing things…

Up until this point, everything was going extremely smoothly.

But.

“…Huh?”

Something started to feel off when they sent troops to invade Alcanwood Castle, one of the border territories located northwest of Jelin Castle.

According to the scouts, they said only a white flag was flying there.

“…What is that?”

Epinal, leading the vanguard, confirmed the flag waving atop Alcanwood Castle’s tower.

It wasn’t white. That was… a sky-blue flag with a brown X on it.

A sky-blue flag was familiar. It was the Brance Army’s flag. But this… wasn’t the Brance Army’s flag.

Not long ago, the Brance Army, which was practically the second strongest force on the continent, split into three separate nations.

The Brance Army led by Lin, the former ruler, still used the sky-blue flag.

The Brance Army led by Kalintz, which swept up the golden treasures including Anel Castle, used a sky-blue flag with a yellow cross.

And the Brance Army led by Chel, which housed the most brilliant commanders within the Brance Army…

“…Chel Brance?”

The flag flying atop Alcanwood Castle’s tower was the flag of the Chel Army.

* * *

Let’s rewind a few days.

The temporary capital Haizel Castle’s Royal Palace of the Chel Army.

“Damn it!”

KABOOM!

Chel violently threw the helmet he was holding.

CRASH!

Despite being made of solid metal, the helmet shattered into two pieces.

“Does it make sense that we haven’t managed to capture even Anel Castle until now!”

“B-but… they’ve concentrated a lot of defensive power beyond expectation, and my Lord is well aware of Anel Castle’s defenses, aren’t you?”

“…Haa.”

The plan was perfect.

Taking over Anel Castle, which was held by his foolish younger brother, then capturing Lin to establish himself as the true heir.

Lin Brance had become so broken over time that she hardly resembled the wise younger sister he once knew. He followed her because she was worth following, but now she clearly wasn’t.

Kalintz was basically a poor student from the Brance family who couldn’t keep up with him from the start.

So.

Now was the moment to prove that his father’s judgment was wrong.

“…Leave.”

“H-however… My Lord.”

“It would be better for you not to be in my sight right now. I might end up killing you… though I don’t want to do that.”

“…!!”

“Leave. Now.”

The commander who delivered the third defeat news to Chel hastily bowed his head apologetically and hurried out of the palace without saying a word.

Putting aside capturing Lin Brance to legitimize the Brance Army,

This situation of failing to subdue the foolish Kalintz and wasting time while depleting troops was incredibly frustrating for the prideful Chel.

“I can’t go myself either.”

Though he wanted to go personally, his body wasn’t what it used to be when he was known as the First Sword of Brance.

With the busy responsibilities of being a ruler, stress from situations not going his way, and little time to train properly,

Like an unused sword becoming dull, Chel’s body gradually lost its edge.

He understood why he couldn’t go to the battlefield. After all, it wasn’t ideal for a ruler to always lead the vanguard anyway.

“Damn it, really.”

One day, while idly spending time unable to defeat his always-looked-down-upon younger brother,

“Is that really true?”

“That’s correct. How could I lie to my lord?”

From a scout patrolling the eastern front came an unexpected piece of information.

The Serpina Army was withdrawing troops near the border.

“…What do you think, Daltoric?”

“Well…”

Daltoric, who once served as the Lord of Jog Castle but now somehow became the Nation’s Strategist for the Chel Army, lowered his head deeply and spoke uncertainly.

“There must be some trouble in the Northern Continent, right?”

“Trouble?”

“That’s the only reason they’d withdraw their troops.”

Although fairly talented within the Brance Army, Daltoric, objectively speaking, was close to average, and quickly responded without much thought.

Chel didn’t ask for further explanations either.

Why else would anyone abandon their territory?

“…Then…”

Isn’t this an opportunity?

Rather than the sluggish siege of Anel Castle, expanding territory first.

In a situation where vast territory equaled national power, it occurred to him that perhaps he could overwhelm his siblings from a completely different angle.

“Go call everyone, Daltoric.”

“What do you intend to do?”

“I’m planning to set out immediately. Ah, and…”

Chel regained a confident expression after a long time and said:

“This time, I will participate personally.”