Ch.234Changed War Situation

The Benes territory, located in the southwestern part of the Empire, was one of the wealthiest domains within the Empire.

Its warehouses were filled with grain harvested from vast, fertile plains, and most trade goods flowing in from the southern Kingdom of Panam and the west were distributed through this territory.

One could easily imagine its wealth, considering there were even rumors that they had once bought the position of Empress with money.

Befitting such wealth, the lord’s castle of Benes was an incredibly splendid building.

While it wasn’t comparable to Magnus Caelum, the Imperial Palace built with the Empire’s full resources… it was on an entirely different level from Lord Landenburg’s castle or Lord Wien’s castle.

In reality, looking inside, it was an utterly disgusting place.

—-

The bedchambers of Benes Castle were always filled with decadent pleasure and immoral enjoyment.

On the massive bed, softly illuminated by purple lighting.

Exhausted men and unconscious women lay entangled like mollusks, their soaked naked bodies exposed.

The fishy smell of bodily fluids mixed with flower fragrances and sweet scents, creating an intensely rich and stimulating aroma that made one dizzy.

‘Elpinel… why do you punish me like this!’

In the middle of that mountain of limp flesh sat a young man, his entire body glistening with slick fluids, silently screaming.

Ernst Wittelsbach, Isabella’s son and the Empire’s Third Prince.

Once praised as the future Emperor of the Empire, this knight who had been a Master of the Empire had fallen as far as possible, now reduced to nothing more than a witch’s plaything.

Around him lay numerous unconscious women.

Women whom Isabella had forced him to violate by manipulating his body.

And they were all children too young to even be called girls, let alone women.

Girls with bright blonde hair and familiar appearances.

Some had their purple eyes rolled back.

These children all resembled Leonore’s childhood appearance.

It was Isabella’s twisted taste and blatant mockery.

Ernst felt a dizzying hatred toward his mother.

However, his body was no longer his own… Ernst could only lament his situation, unable to move even a fingertip.

—-

While Isabella enjoyed tormenting Ernst day after day, she herself wasn’t feeling particularly comfortable.

It wasn’t because of any moral or ethical concerns, but rather the stress of things not going according to plan.

“Everything’s completely tangled…”

Isabella exhaled hookah smoke like a sigh as she received news from messengers across the Empire.

The plan she had been confident would be perfect began to creak and cause all sorts of problems almost as soon as it entered the implementation phase. As is the way of the world.

The plan was to draw in non-humans from the east and north to disperse Leopold’s forces, create chaos throughout the Empire, then stall for time while maximizing casualties.

If the elves finally joined the war, Leopold, already stretched thin defending on all sides, wouldn’t be able to gather forces to suppress Ernst’s army for years.

They could maintain a stalemate while gradually regaining strength.

If Leopold couldn’t prevent it, the Empire would shatter into pieces, which would also be a satisfactory outcome.

It was a plan proposed by Feyrus, but Isabella accepted it because she too thought the chances of success were high.

The beginning was certainly smooth.

The Ka’har attack had tied up Landenburg’s forces, and the great invasion of Baryachrus had Faelrun considering withdrawal.

But within days, everything had been reversed.

Too suddenly, before she could even think of countermeasures.

‘Five thousand troops lost overnight?’

It was still absurd to think about.

Not just any troops, but Ka’har soldiers whose excellent mobility would have allowed them to run circles around the Imperial army in open field battles.

Half were thrown away by charging at the wall, and the remaining half were completely lost in a single night raid.

Even Feyrus, that Feyrus, was left speechless with a dumbfounded expression—an incomprehensibly poor military achievement.

It was a war they could have won just by maintaining vigilance and waiting.

‘The Ka’har commander… Aishan-Gioro Amin was his name.’

He could proudly boast about it for the rest of his life.

The legendary incompetence that left Feyrus speechless.

Moreover, though she didn’t know what methods Leopold had used, he had persuaded two legion commanders to send them north, allowing Faelrun’s forces to remain with Leopold’s army, sweeping through local lords’ forces like splitting firewood.

Yes. That much was fine. The two legions blocking the great invasion instead of Faelrun must be suffering massive losses. The problem was…

‘A crusade… Has Elpinel, that monster, really begun to move? No, surely not. Even so, it’s still…’

Elpinel.

The supreme deity of current humanity and the heavenly god who hates all sin.

A being that could never coexist with the great Ma, Lilith of lust and pride, whom Isabella herself served.

Among the eleven gods, none hated Ma as much as that deity.

Isabella had thought that Elpinel would intervene eventually.

Destroying the Holy Grail’s seal meant breaking down Heaven’s Wall to return the world to its original state.

As Ma’s domain grew stronger, the gods’ influence would naturally strengthen again.

However… breaking just one Holy Grail shouldn’t be enough for even a voice to reach the mortal world yet.

Without consuming a considerable amount of lifespan, revelations would be impossible.

But there was no point in denying what had already happened.

Whether by coincidence or inevitability, the priests of the church had already organized a crusade army marching toward her.

The rumors she herself had spread crumbled helplessly before Elpinel’s authority.

Now even those belonging to her faction no longer denied that she was a witch.

They simply followed because they were too deeply involved to back out.

Moreover, the elves of Alvheim still remained observers, showing no signs of attacking the Empire. She couldn’t understand why.

Whether they were waiting for a better opportunity or if there was some internal issue in Alvheim.

…It was a difficult situation.

At this rate, the civil war might end before enough casualties could be inflicted.

She could only hope that the werebeasts in the north would fight as hard as possible.

======[Haschal]======

Lacy’s declaration exposing Isabella’s evil deeds spread throughout the Empire in the blink of an eye.

A witch who killed imperial family members, corrupted nobles, and plunged countless citizens into misery by starting wars.

It was shocking news. Especially to those who belonged to the Third Prince’s faction but had limited connections with Isabella.

There was little point in trying to refute the claims by citing lack of evidence.

This was because of Robert, whom Lacy had accused of being the witch’s accomplice.

While Robert himself was in a state of being roasted alive while screaming, his written confession and subsequent investigations based on it revealed evidence of his evil deeds one after another.

Of course, these evidences only proved Robert’s own sins, without clearly demonstrating his intimate relationship with Isabella.

But that was enough.

From the moment Robert’s status as a heretic was confirmed as fact, people began to fully trust Lacy’s words. Including her claim that Isabella was a witch.

Belief carries a certain inertia.

Once people started believing Lacy, few questioned her claims, even those without evidence.

The neutral faction joined Leopold’s side, and more than half of Ernst’s local nobles surrendered as well.

Claiming they were merely deceived by a witch and never intended to betray the Empire.

Whether that was true, or they were simply being shrewd by withdrawing after realizing the unfavorable situation, only they themselves knew, but the result was a major reversal in the civil war.

—-

“Archbishop General… you’ve really made quite a mess… without even giving me a hint. Was this why you said you’d leave first?”

“Lacy asked me not to tell anyone. The original plan was just to capture and punish Robert, and I didn’t expect things like the Imperial Archdiocese or Archbishop General either…”

Ludwig let out a long sigh, apparently not too pleased with my answer.

Three days after the Archbishop General’s inauguration ceremony.

After gathering clergy from the church to organize a crusade assault force, Lacy had marched south and joined Landenburg’s forces that were heading toward Leopold’s main army.

The crusade assault force wasn’t large in number.

Excluding reserve forces left behind for emergencies, the available troops from the church were limited to one hundred and fifty paladins and two hundred battle priests.

Even this was the maximum they could gather.

Most clergy were already scattered throughout the Empire, dealing with the chaos in their respective regions.

Of course, despite the small numbers, the force itself wasn’t weak.

Three hundred and fifty knight-level combatants exceeded the total number of knights in the Landenburg domain.

It also included four Master-level paladins.

“How will the Holy State take this? Now it’s fine because there’s justification in eliminating a witch, but after the civil war ends, they’ll try to intervene. They might declare everyone involved in establishing the Imperial Archdiocese as heretics. Did you commit this act knowing that?”

Lacy would have known. I had a rough idea too.

Creating what was essentially an “Imperial Saint” by establishing the position of Archbishop General—the Holy State wouldn’t look favorably on this.

“By then, Prince Leopold will have ascended to the throne, so couldn’t we just ask him for protection? The Holy State won’t be able to say much if they don’t want to see the entire church split in two.”

If there emerged a cardinal hostile enough to Lacy to risk that, we should first suspect that person of being a heretic against the Holy State.

For now, the priority was to quickly destroy Ernst’s forces and eliminate the isolated Isabella.

The werebeasts in the north were still active, repeating advances and retreats while increasing casualties, and Orhan was still coming from the distant plains.