episode_0126

Operation name: Gehenna.

The name of the operation for this siege and annihilation war, Gehenna, was chosen by Serafina, who believed that they deserved to be thrown into hellfire.

Although it was a name full of personal sentiments, it was a fitting name given that Operation Gehenna was a war of annihilation with no capture in mind.

Operation Gehenna, which was modeled after the name of hell in the law book of the Holy Empire, which was on par with the Infractus Empire, was an operation designed with the assumption of a war of annihilation from the very beginning.

There was a possibility that they might not have been able to completely defeat the Slaves, which were operated as a branch organization, or that they might increase their power.

Therefore, the motto of Operation Gehenna was a siege and annihilation war for the complete annihilation of the Slaves.

However, as this Gehenna operation aims to completely annihilate the Slaves, mobility to not give them time to react and secrecy to prevent them from being aware of the encirclement situation were most important.

As such, it was a handshake that mobilized a large number of troops. As the size of the military grew, mobility and stealth inevitably decreased.

However, the basic prerequisite for a siege and annihilation war was that the ratio of friendly forces must be more than ten times that of the enemy. This was the same logic as saying that during a siege, the siege troops had to be three times greater than the mercury troops.

So Serafina chose to replace the insufficient troops with the exterior wall of the building and block the escape hole.

If it was not possible to surround the slaves with superior force, it was enough to take advantage of the characteristics of urban warfare and create a pseudo-siege war by blocking the places they could escape to in advance.

Fortunately, the Slaves’ home base was not the center of Byzantium, but a slum with buildings close together. As the downtown area was large, there were quite a few holes to escape through, but it was not difficult to occupy all the expected points.

[This is Polar Star. Operation begins.]

The voice of Seraphina, who was in charge of the vanguard, rang in my ears through a small communication magic device.

The situation of the war was transmitted in real time through equipment that visualized location tracking magic.

This was to ensure that the reserve forces on standby could be deployed whenever Seraphina’s order was given.

Gilbert took a deep breath.

I hope you can get through this battlefield safely.

He prayed so.

***

“Giggles. Hey, follow me some more!”

“Crazy bastard, you eat like that and then you run away.”

“If you have too much money and you feel like you will run out of money, just throw some away. What is major?”

The Slaves central headquarters was noisy again today with people throwing away money and drinking heavily.

The large amount of money earned through human trafficking was like a spring of water that did not dry up no matter how many gold coins were used.

Alcohol, drugs and women.

The Slaves members gathered here were enjoying all the luxury and pleasure they could.

For them, money was no longer a concern. If it wasn’t enough, it was possible to earn money that you couldn’t earn even if you worked like a dog all your life just by finding good game, hunting it, and delivering it to noble families.

Not everyone was like that at first.

Mercenaries who had been struggling through life squandered the money they had been given, knights who had been excommunicated and those who had no choice but to join the Slaves due to debt could only watch from afar.

It was a sign that he would keep his conscience to the last.

But that was also a story limited to the very beginning. Anyway, among those who came here, there was no one whose life was not at a dead end.

What would happen if people who had committed serious crimes that warranted excommunication from the first place or were living in debt were given a large amount of money that they could never earn even if they earned it in their entire lives?

The masks worn by those who had pretended to be noble until now were immediately removed when they saw the mountain of gold coins.

After that, it was a time of pleasure soaked in pleasure.

They treated the people they captured as if they were slaves and stuffed them with expensive food and alcohol.

He showed such perverted tendencies that it was difficult to open his eyes and even showed his violent tendencies to his heart’s content.

Hell has come to royalties.

If someone saw the Slaves’ central headquarters, they had no choice but to say that.

“They say that the empire smelled better than that?”

“What? I can smell how many bribes I have given you so far.”

“It seems that Princess Serafina noticed.”

“Sipal. How on earth did that bitch know?”

A mercenary with slitted eyes left and right was swearing and muttering. They were paying considerable bribes to high-ranking nobles in the empire to secure a position in Byzantium, the capital of the empire.

It was because of Yeonwoo that he was able to maintain and grow his power to this day, avoiding the imperial surveillance network.

However, when Seraphina suddenly intervened, the people who were enjoying a comfortable life became very dissatisfied.

Unfortunately, bribery did not work on Seraphina, who prioritized the safety of the empire. On the contrary, since there were many cases where bribes were summarily executed the moment she was bribed, the Slaves were doing their best to blindside her.

Of course, they did not comfortably think that this situation would continue forever. There was no place in the empire that Serafina could not reach, so she knew that the current peace would only last for a short time.

But where is the human heart?

The current situation was not very appealing to them, who were already living a comfortable and hedonistic life. One of the reasons was that it was a headache to think about rebuilding the central headquarters, which already had everything necessary.

“So when does that bitch come in? As soon as she smells it, isn’t it her nature to bite it right away?”

“I don’t know. It is said above that there is still time, but there may not be much time left.”

“Damn. I hope that doesn’t happen today.”

The slit-eyed man stared at the slave crawling near his crotch. He had been a fugitive before joining the Slaves, but was now able to rise to a position where he could wield omnipotent power.

Alcohol, food, medicine, and women.

I desperately wanted to enjoy my life a little more now that everything was at my fingertips.

“That’s the same for me too…”

-Peeing piing

The man who continued talking suddenly cried loudly and his expression hardened at the alarm magic ball.

That was the same for everyone in the room giggling.

Slaves’ notification magic sphere was designed to sound in only one situation.

Also known as Code Zero.

It was a kind of final command known only to the central headquarters and seven branches.

There was only one case where code zero, the final command, occurred. It was when it was judged that the existence of Slaves was in jeopardy, and even though it had overcome quite a dangerous juncture so far, a Code Zero situation had not occurred.

All they had to do was abandon the headquarters or branch office that served as their base of support and move to another location repeatedly.

But now Code Zero, which has never sounded before, has been issued. It was as if the higher-ups had given up on the Slaves as being hopeless.

My mind, which had been dazed by alcohol and drugs until now, was refreshed as if I had been doused with cold water.

The slit-eyed man who had been swearing until now pushed the female slave in front of him and jumped up from his seat.

“Thank you! How unlucky! Hey you bastards, wake up quickly! It’s an emergency!”

With those words as the starting point, all the men in the room got dressed and stood up. They found the weapons they had thrown away somewhere and hung them on their belts, stuffed the scattered bags of gold coins into their arms, and quickly ran outside.

“Ack! Fuck!”

The bald man who was first ahead screamed and fell down.

It seemed that one of the entrances that had been drilled to facilitate escape had been discovered.

They were trying to escape, but they started to go back and find another way out. Some places had already been taken over by attackers, and people began to fall to the ground after being cut by swords.

Still, some people escaped safely through exits that had not yet been detected. They let out a sigh of relief and ran down the winding alley.

What kind of show is this in the middle of the night?

Perhaps because of the relief of being alive, the complaints that had been building up burst out.

Anyway, I was able to complain like that because I felt relieved that I was alive because I had broken through the siege.

“You’re here. You bastards.”

However, they soon encountered a blonde-haired knight guarding the entrance to the alley.

A red-haired knight with long, golden hair tied up tightly.

It was the princess knight Seraphina.

“This is crazy! How do you know about this place?”

“You’re talking stupid like a scum. You guys are all in the palm of your hand. I’m sure you thought you wouldn’t have been able to figure it out because you ran away.”

“I knew it would happen because you’re a fucking bitch!”

“He’s a frivolous guy. Well, that’s good. W Also, I have no taste for explaining every detail. Just punish the rats hiding in the darkness of the empire. The only sentence I can give you guys is the death penalty.”

The emotion contained in the blood-red eyes is anger.

The mercenaries and excommunicated knights, whose sharp eyes were watery, clinked their teeth together.

With their skills, it was impossible to defeat Seraphina, one of the next successors to the Winter Sword. Moreover, I had no idea how long it had been since I picked up the sword.

Moreover, Princess Serafina was not guarding the entrance to this alley alone. Behind her, her fully armed knights were looking at them with emotionless eyes.

They couldn’t control their shaking hands.

Meanwhile, this situation was happening everywhere, starting from the Slaves’ central headquarters.

The Slaves executives, who were distraught in the Code Zero situation, were running away, but were caught in the siege network formed by Serafina, and a battle was taking place. Among them, there were several places where they fought against Serafina’s knights without completely letting go of their swords.

Or, there were places where they tried to escape through the siege by taking advantage of their numerical superiority. At first, it seemed like Seraphina was trying to break through the one point she was worried about.

“A special unit is going to sortie.”

However, what was being prepared for that time was the reserve unit.

As soon as Gilbert received the radio call that support was needed, he led a separate team and headed to the location where support was requested. As soon as I arrived at the scene, I saw a group of knights engaged in a fierce battle of power.

Gilbert drew his sword and quickly issued orders.

“Brynhild will take charge of the left wing, Illen will take charge of the right wing, and the rest will follow me into the center!”

Among the members of the separate unit, except for Gilbert, the two with the best individual strength were deployed to both ends and the remaining members quickly joined the center. This was because some of the Slaves executives were trying to break through the central siege.

The balance of power, which was already a close balance, suddenly tilted in favor of the Empire with the introduction of Gilbert’s special unit. Gilbert, who had already received a level 5 knighthood, had reached a level where he could deal with these small things without being distracted.

In particular, Gilbert, who was walking strides into the realm of superhumans, was more confident than anyone else when it came to interpersonal combat. His body was already in a different state from that of an ordinary human being, and the lack of strength was being made up as the depth of his swordsmanship deepened.

The weapon he could wield was a famous sword, and the skill to wield the sword was second to none, so there was no one here who could stop Gilbert.

“These bastards are real!”

In the end, when they were unable to break through the siege, the angry one-eyed knight of the Excommunication charged at Gilbert like an angry bull. Wielding a huge greatsword, he was a man with great physical strength that could even split a person in half.

It wouldn’t have been unreasonable if there had been an ordinary knight in front of him, but unfortunately, the one in front of him was Gilbert.

– Boom!

Gilbert, who struck down the man’s great sword with one hand, stuck the sword into the wide-eyed man’s mouth and tore it horizontally.

“Ugh!”

Letting out a strange scream, the man died.

The excommunicated knight, who believed in his natural strength, passed away in vain after meeting Gilbert, whose strength surpassed him.

Also, Gilbert, who was looking for his next opponent, used a very short period of time to roughly understand the situation of the members of the separate unit.

As expected, Brynhild, who was said to have won the battle, had no problem dealing with three of them at the same time.

Illen, on the other side, was also using his strong northern body to slit the throats of the Slaves.

The remaining personnel deployed to the center also worked together to deal with the slave traders belonging to the Slaves without difficulty. Camilla, who I was most worried about, had suddenly become so skilled that she was stabbing her opponent with her elegant swordsmanship, targeting only his opponent’s vital points.

Okay, no problems yet.

After blowing off the arms of the two mercenaries who were charging at him again, Gilbert began to focus on the battle again.

Although the unit members were doing a good job, war was always an unknown variable and there were many cases where lives were lost in an instant.

All he could do was to reduce those variables as much as possible, and the best way to reduce the variables in this situation was to end the battle quickly.

Gilbert, who was in a trance and chopping up every foot in sight, cut off the legs of the last person and let out a long breath.

Around him, slave hunters belonging to the Slaves who were dead or had one of their arms or legs cut off were moaning and groaning.

The fierce first battle ended like that.