Ch.244Audience

=====[Ernst’s Army]=====

“What the hell is that…?”

One of Ernst’s knights muttered in a deflated voice.

A strength so incredible it was hard to believe even with his own eyes.

Like something from a dream, the scene before him lacked even a shred of reality.

She had slaughtered ten Masters in the time it takes to drink a cup of wine, and far from being exhausted, she stood there calmly, almost flaunting her prowess.

The only injury she had sustained was a slight sword wound on her side. Even that wasn’t the result of a deliberate attack, merely where a blade had grazed her by chance.

His sword trembled in his grip as emotion welled up like a chill.

If he were to face that woman now, he was certain his head would be severed within ten seconds. Despite being a knight who had reached the level of Master himself.

No, precisely because he was a Master, he couldn’t perceive her as a fellow human. It was impossible to regard her as a person.

Physical abilities that seemed to surpass even a Werebeast Champion, sword techniques beyond comprehension.

And that crimson flame that melted even steel at a mere touch.

Even that meteor-like strike wrapped in flames, though smaller in range, had the destructive power closer to high-level magic than a knight’s technique.

Is this what they meant by a warrior blessed by the gods?

He couldn’t tell whether he felt fear or admiration.

Descendant of the Great’s Twelve Knights. The man-eater Aishan-Gioro.

Just looking at her made his heart pound violently. Every nerve in his body seemed to scream at him to flee.

Beyond her human-like form swirled an unfathomable ominousness and an entrancing divinity.

She was truly a volcano with limbs, a living storm.

Was he supposed to fight against something like that?

Cold sweat trickled down his cheek.

—-

While Masters at least had the courage to consider fighting, ordinary soldiers wore expressions no different from disaster victims facing an avalanche.

Common soldiers lacked the visual tracking ability to follow the high-speed exchanges between Master-level knights, so all they could see were the results and aftermath of the battle, not the process itself.

That alone was enough to crush their morale into the ground and beyond.

“Is this even possible…?”

“How could she… alone against ten… and so easily…!”

“I thought Ka’har couldn’t use magic! What the hell is that!”

From the soldiers’ perspective, the justification for war didn’t matter at all; what mattered was winning or losing, living or dying.

And from the scene unfolding before them, this war seemed impossible to win, let alone survive.

Panic spread like a plague.

To their eyes, incapable of recognizing the self-destruction of the monsters, the woman standing in the distance was a monster who made people explode with a swing of her sword.

A fire monster wielding burning tentacles.

It felt like a creature from ancient legends was growling right before their eyes.

“They expect us to fight against that…?”

The spears and swords in their hands seemed as useless as twigs.

Would that monster even be wounded if they stabbed her? Could they even get close enough to try?

From their perspective, a single swing of her sword could cut down a hundred men.

The soldiers’ faces turned pale. Many trembled and dropped their weapons.

Though the real war hadn’t even begun, they were already no different from defeated troops.

They wanted nothing more than to abandon everything and run away. This was the only thought in their minds.

If escape had been possible, they would have scattered like rats.

“…Maintain formation! Deserters will be executed on the spot! If you want to become a pincushion for arrows, go ahead and try to run!”

A nobleman commanding the archers shouted threateningly.

It wasn’t an empty threat. Indeed, the archers’ bows were now aimed not at the enemy but at their own infantry.

Though he too was not entirely rational due to fear and dismay, he at least retained more sanity than the common soldiers.

Perhaps it was because his role as a commanding nobleman gave him a fragment of reassurance.

After all, his position was at the very rear of the army.

Even if the entire army collapsed in defeat, he was confident that the barrier of thirty-five thousand men lined up before him would buy him enough time to escape.

“That son of a bitch…!”

The soldiers grumbled through gritted teeth.

Before them stood possibly the Empire’s strongest warrior. Behind them, three thousand arrowheads.

They were trapped with nowhere to go.

=====[Leopold’s Army]=====

The camp of Leopold’s forces was equally astonished.

“…Was the Baron of Median always this strong?”

Leopold muttered in disbelief.

Until the ten Masters had appeared as enemies, he had been considering whether to send out allied Masters to support her in the duel.

But making his concerns look foolish, she had effortlessly annihilated a force equivalent to one-fifth of the Empire’s Masters and was standing there calmly.

“This is my first time seeing her like this as well. Certainly, when she fought at the Wall of Berengaria, she had grown stronger than before, but not to this extent…”

Ludwig was also surprised, but relatively composed compared to the others.

Well, after seeing her jump off a wall with her bare hands, what more could surprise him?

For him, it was rather welcome news.

The stronger Haschal became, the higher the chances of his revenge succeeding.

The other three showed different reactions.

The Duke of Faelrun said nothing, but the corners of his eyes curved slightly, suggesting satisfaction with Haschal’s performance.

Only those close associates who had been with him in the north for decades would recognize this expression as the Duke’s version of a smile.

‘I made the right decision sending Frider to the academy.’

They had met at the academy and become close friends after fighting together, hadn’t they?

Recently, his daughter’s letters always contained mentions of that woman. Content that showed deep affection despite her grumbling.

Perhaps due to her unusual hobbies, his daughter who had worried her father by not having a single friend had finally found one.

And not just any friend, but a knight whose skills and character matched the spirit of the north.

He even liked the armor she wore.

Had she been a man, he might have immediately arranged an engagement to make her his son-in-law.

—-

In contrast, Lord Wien’s lips were slightly twisted.

He had heard rumors of her strength, but never imagined it would be to this extent.

‘Damn it, how can anyone touch her when she’s like that…!’

The symbolism vouched for by Elmaine, skills worthy of being called the reincarnation of the Twelve Knights.

And now these brilliant military achievements. After this civil war ended, it wouldn’t be strange if she rose to the core of power in one leap.

The problem was that such a woman had close relationships with all of his competitors.

He was well aware that Faelrun’s daughter was close to her.

He had even seen them escorting each other at banquets.

Judging by how she had declared support for Leopold when his position was still ambiguous, she seemed to have deep ties with the prince as well. No wonder rumors of her being his mistress had circulated.

To make matters worse, the Margrave of Landenburg, perhaps senile already, had talked about passing on his successor position to her.

If he was willing to give it to a Ka’har half-blood, he should just remarry and have a son instead.

Additionally, there was the issue of the candidate for Elpinel’s sainthood.

A woman who had built her own power base in the capital by creating the unheard-of position of Archbishop General.

While the two Electors would likely stay confined to their territories unless something special happened, that woman was highly likely to deeply involve herself in imperial politics.

That’s why he had planned to check her as much as possible after this war ended…

But now the risk was too great. She too must be closely connected to the Baron of Median.

Close enough to commit the insane act of attacking and burning the Archbishop of Trier together.

For Lord Wien, who had dreamed of becoming the Empire’s foremost power broker through this war, the fact that the Baron of Median, who could become an obstacle to his ambitions, was this strong was extremely unsettling.

Meanwhile, Lacy was simply offering joyful prayers, convinced that Elpinel’s will was surely with them.

=====[Valenstein]=====

‘This is troublesome…’

Valenstein sighed as he surveyed the battlefield.

He could see at a glance that the army’s morale was on the verge of collapse.

The soldiers looked like they would collapse in a heap if that woman so much as shouted, and even the knights clearly had their fighting spirit broken.

Even the Masters trembled at their sword tips. If ordered to fight, they would obey, but in that state, they would lose their lives without even displaying their full abilities.

He couldn’t blame them for being cowards. Of the sixteen Masters deployed to this battlefield, including Valenstein himself, six-tenths had been slaughtered.

They were all Parasvalier, but it was still a massive loss. Enough to make defeat certain.

If they engaged in a full-scale battle now, they would be overwhelmed by the knights’ forces and swept away like a sandbar.

‘I expected to lose a few, but to think we’d lose all ten…’

The remaining Masters were two supported by nobles, two former Royal Guards, Ernst, and Valenstein himself.

Even Ernst couldn’t be recklessly deployed.

He might be as strong as Isabella had guaranteed, but any cut would reveal his body possessed by monsters.

While the identity of the Parasvalier could be covered up, revealing that Ernst was already no different from a corpse was an entirely different matter.

It would completely erase the justification and cause of this civil war.

‘Should I step forward…’

Deploying the remaining four would only lead them to follow the Parasvalier’s fate.

Either Valenstein himself would have to fight and defeat that woman, or abandon the duel and advance the troops who were on the verge of becoming a disorganized rabble.

Neither option was particularly appealing.