Ch.278How to Make Someone Furious

The morale of the Werebeasts was soaring.

It was a remarkable achievement to reclaim territory that humans had taken from them centuries ago. After such a decisive victory, they could have pursued the enemies who had retreated to Faelrun Castle and easily annihilated them.

However, their king Rurik halted the advance immediately after capturing the North Wall.

Though incomprehensible to his warriors, they obeyed their king’s command.

The great king who had climbed the North Wall alone and led them to victory.

To the warriors, Rurik was already like the incarnation of a god.

—-

In the command room of the North Wall.

Sitting on a blood-soaked table, Rurik looked down at a robed mage while chewing on a human arm.

“So the Empire’s civil war has been suppressed… Your information travels fast, mage. Even the imperial troops we faced don’t seem to know about it yet.”

“What kind of mage would I be if I couldn’t manage that much? The information is reliable. Though the civil war isn’t completely over, the ringleaders—the Empress and the Third Prince—have been executed. Soon enough, the imperial forces that retreated to Faelrun Castle will receive the news as well.”

This was unwelcome news for Rurik.

The suppression of the civil war meant that the Empire’s military power would once again focus on the north.

Thanks to his and his warriors’ bravery, they had finally succeeded in capturing the North Wall, but the Werebeasts’ losses were not insignificant.

They could defeat the imperial forces that had retreated to the castle. However, they couldn’t predict their chances against the reinforcements that would follow.

‘Indeed, they don’t crumble so easily…’

He had hoped the Empire would split in half amid the chaos.

“What about the east and west? Do you have news from there as well?”

“The Ka’har lost five thousand troops in one go and have been silent for some reason. I don’t know if they’re waiting for their main force to join or if they have internal problems. As you know, they’re quite persistent in trying to kill mages, so it’s not easy to get information. Still better than the fairies who monitor the entire forest, though.”

“They crashed into the Great Wall and were shattered, right? Fools, I thought they would fight better than that.”

Rurik clicked his tongue. He had already heard about how five thousand troops had been wiped out in a single night.

Even though it wasn’t the main force but a separate unit, it was still absurd.

“The Ka’har king, Aishan-Gioro Orhan, is certainly a great warrior, but… his people proved more incompetent than expected. There is one exception, though…”

“An exception? You mean that woman?”

Rurik leaned closer to the mage, showing interest.

He was quite curious about Orhan’s daughter. She was the woman who had caused the destruction of the Militchiya, an organization he had infiltrated into the Empire.

Her ridiculous nickname, Were Eater, was amusing too.

“Yes. Aishan-Gioro Haschal. Currently known as the Empire’s strongest swordswoman. Ten Masters, the Empire’s First Sword—even the Empress and the Third Prince fell by her hand, they say. She’s the primary contributor to suppressing the civil war. Orhan’s life is quite ironic, isn’t it? The only child with promising qualities happens to be a daughter who betrayed her own race.”

“Children never turn out the way you want them to.”

Rurik chuckled.

“Anyway, if she’s that strong… I’d like to meet her someday.”

If all her accomplishments were true, she might be as strong as Rurik himself.

‘She could bear useful children. If I captured her and impregnated her, even if they were mixed-blood, they might be as strong as purebloods… or perhaps even stronger.’

But that was impossible for now.

—-

“…That’s the situation, Nazar. What do you think?”

After the mage left, Rurik called his adjutant to discuss their next move.

The brown-furred fox Werebeast, Nazar, tapped his nose bridge and shook his head.

“Advance, hold, or retreat. If we must choose one of the three, retreating would be right. If we advance, we could capture Faelrun Castle… but that would be a momentary pleasure. All our spilled blood would be in vain as everything would return to how it was before.”

After destroying Faelrun, the Empire would mobilize all its forces and drive them back by any means necessary.

In the end, the Werebeasts would either return to the northern snowfields or fight to the last and be annihilated.

“Holding position is the worst option. If we conduct a defensive battle on the North Wall, we’ll be defeated by hunger rather than combat. So… retreating seems best.”

The maxim that supply is the most important factor in war applied to Werebeasts as well.

Without food, they weakened, and when weakened, they couldn’t fight—no different for Werebeasts.

And the Werebeasts’ method of supply was always local procurement.

Transporting enough supplies to maintain a large army across the Sky Mountains was extremely difficult for them.

On the other hand, once battle began, they could easily obtain massive supplies.

Simply stripping the armor from fallen imperial soldiers provided them with meals.

The arm Rurik was chewing was also a supply obtained from battle.

‘Duber, was it? Quite meaty and fatty, quite edible.’

Remembering the juicy meat made Rurik’s mouth water.

Anyway, as Nazar said, this supply method wouldn’t work in a defensive battle.

Fighting by pushing enemies off the walls would mean that no matter how many corpses piled up, they wouldn’t be easily accessible.

Moreover, if the imperial army didn’t conduct a siege at all but surrounded the North Wall and attacked from a distance… the Werebeasts could be annihilated by starvation without a proper fight.

“So retreating is the best option? After coming this far? If we’re going to retreat anyway, wouldn’t it be better to attack Faelrun Castle first and then…”

“No. If we’re going to retreat, we should leave behind a definite achievement, shouldn’t we? There’s a better way than attacking Faelrun.”

Nazar flashed a cunning smile.

—-

When Frider woke up in Faelrun Castle, she was furious, but after desperate persuasion from Demian and Millia, she finally calmed down.

This was no time to be angry.

The remaining forces consisted of only about eight thousand soldiers, two hundred knights, and one Master.

Once she came to her senses, Frider had to move so busily that she couldn’t even sleep.

Writing support requests to send to the Empire, reorganizing the remaining troops, and dispatching reconnaissance units to check on the Werebeasts’ movements.

Her reddish-brown eyes were now bloodshot, making them look like they were filled with blood.

In the midst of this, the information brought back by the returning scouts was enough to turn her world upside down.

“…What happened to the North Wall…?”

Facing the daughter of the Northern Duke who asked in a trembling voice, the knight who had commanded the reconnaissance unit bowed deeply and repeated what he had seen.

“…All that remained was bone fragments and piles of stones scattered on empty ground. The Werebeasts have retreated, and the North Wall… has been destroyed without a single foundation stone left.”

“These, these… d-damn beasts…!”

Feeling as if her blood was rushing backward, Frider grabbed the back of her neck and collapsed into a chair.

Her face was so red it looked like it might burst.

Indeed.

As if mocking Frider, who had been consumed by pressure and fatigue while contemplating countermeasures against the Werebeasts, they had inexplicably halted their advance and returned to the inner Sky Mountains.

Erasing the North Wall, humanity’s defensive line that had been holding back the Werebeasts, from the map.

For Frider, it was a devastating outcome.

How long would it take to rebuild the fallen North Wall? No, would rebuilding even be possible?

If there were any signs of construction beginning, those beasts would surely attack and interfere.

But leaving the collapsed North Wall as it was would mean unimaginable damage when the next major invasion occurred!

From beyond the window, she seemed to hear the white wolf laughing from the snow-covered mountains.

“RURIIIIIIIIK-!”

Unable to contain herself any longer, Frider screamed at the top of her lungs.

=============

A dark underground laboratory.

In the center, a naked woman without wrists or ankles floated with closed eyes above a water tank, while the surrounding desks were covered with pieces of flesh and organs like a slaughterhouse.

The shelves on the walls were filled with flasks containing colorful substances and glass jars holding bizarre creatures.

Proving they were magically created life forms, they all had identical appearances.

Small creatures that looked like unborn fetuses. It was a grotesque and blasphemous sight.

If priests had witnessed it, they would have immediately called for it to be burned and purified. In this space, a woman was humming a tune.

A woman with an unusual aura, her abundant red hair flowing long, bandages wrapped around her exposed arms.

Ophelia van Sigmillus.

With Leonore’s help, she had treated her arm injuries and was now back in her secret laboratory.

As she had promised Haschal, to create a small Isabella.

The fetuses in the glass jars were the results of that effort.

Though not yet complete, it wouldn’t be long before the first result finished growing.