“What are you doing? I told you to take it.” The old man shook the leather scroll. Then, a middle-aged man behind the old man sighed and approached the old man’s side.
“If you say it like that, the guard won’t know what to do, master.” The middle-aged man carefully took the leather scroll from the old man’s hands and approached the guard.
“This is the letter Mr. Zich gave us while requesting our help. In the letter, he told us that we just needed to show this to the Count,” the man said and glanced at Til and Leona. “It seems like there are other people with the same request as us, so I think it will be better to take them altogether.”
“W-We will.” The guard took the letter wrapped in leather and handed it to his companion. His companion had a total of three letters now and hurriedly ran inside the castle walls.
“Are you guys also Zich’s friends?” Leona showed interest in the new group. The old man, Walwiss Dwayne, stared at Leona.
“A friend…I suppose you could say that.”
“As I thought!” Leona exclaimed.
In terms of outer appearance, Leona looked much younger than Walwiss and could seem disrespectful to an elder, but Walwiss didn’t fault her. It was a well-known fact that elves lived long lives, and they looked young even if they were a couple hundred years old. Thus, people knew that unlike what her appearance indicated, Leona was older than she looked.
“I also heard you are Zich’s friend,” Walwiss said.
“Yeah!”
“Hm, having an elf friend. Skilled people sure are different.” Walwiss nodded and then he turned his attention to the Wolf’s Canine. “Are you all also Zich’s friends?”
“Yes, sir.” Til nodded and bowed.
“You all look like mercenaries but have quite the manners.”
“It’s one of our group’s mottos.”
Walwiss looked at the Wolf’s Canine with admiration and said, “How impressive.”
“You appear to be a mage, sir. Is my guess accurate?”
“Yes, that’s why I came to offer my help. Without magic, what would a weak old man like me be able to offer in a war?” Walwiss chuckled.
“Is everyone behind you also mages?”
“Yes, they are my disciples. There was no need for them to come, but they insisted on following me.” Unlike what he said, Walwiss looked pleased and appeared touched by his disciples’ care for him. Til glanced at the mages. They were few in number, but if everyone in the group were mages, it wasn’t a small number by any means. Til imagined getting struck by one of their spells and shook his head. He might be able to survive, but the rest of his men would suffer significant casualties.
‘They don’t look like inexperienced, young mages either.’ The chuckling old man and the middle-aged man standing next to him both looked impressive; it was the same for the other mages.
‘I can only think of one place where they would hold such mages.’ Til thought and asked, “Are you perhaps from the magical tower?”
Magical tower—the authority and gravity these words held weren’t light. The middle-aged man answered instead of the old man.
“Our master was the head of the magical tower not so long ago.”
Til was stunned. He thought the old man looked formidable, but to think he was the head of the magical tower? That meant the old man was at the least one of the top five mages in the kingdom. The other mercenaries and the guards were shocked beyond disbelief. They had also heard plenty about the might of the magical tower.
“…Magical tower?” However, most of the elves weren’t knowledgeable about human society, so it was their first time hearing the name.
“It’s a place where mages gather in the human world. I heard that it’s a place where mages are raised, and things generally relating to magic such as research are done,” the leader of the elves explained to Leona. Since he had experience traveling for a long time in the human world, he had much more knowledge about human society compared to other elves.
“I see,” Leona nodded, happy to learn a new piece of information but nothing more. However, she was only able to react like that because she was an elf. Humans, especially, normal people like the guard were star-struck.
‘M-Master of the magical tower?”
In some ways, the master of the magical tower held as much authority as a king of a kingdom. The guard felt faint from the series of nonstop shocks he was experiencing. He was only able to hold his ground and remember his mission with the training he had undergone as a Steelwall guard. Truthfully, he felt a bit dizzy, and he waited eagerly for his companion to come back with an order.
* * *
Count Steelwall’s residence buzzed with excitement. New support forces had appeared right when they were struggling to amass troops for the upcoming war. It was very good news, but the people at the Count’s residence felt shocked more than anything else; it was because the forces that came to their aid were beyond the norm and exceeded people’s expectations.
“What happened?!” the Count urgently asked Trell, who had come to report to him. Although Trell usually maintained a calm demeanor, his face looked considerably unsettled as he spoke.
“We lent a luxurious lodging place to the Wolf’s Canine, provided the elves with rooms nearby in the estate’s garden, and since the mages wanted a quiet place, we gave them an outhouse for them to unpack their belongings.”
“Did they have any complaints?”
“They all seemed satisfied. Since we’ve assigned a person to each group, if they have any complaints, we’ll immediately get a report.”
“All right.” The Count was greatly relieved to hear that the situation was settled. He stared at the air and let out a sigh, and his gaze moved toward the three letters sitting on top of his table. The Count’s gaze looked conflicted. He had already read through all the contents of all three letters. The content of the letters was nothing special; Zich had merely written that he called people he knew to help them out with the war, so the Count should hire them.
However, the people he contacted were not ordinary in the least. The Count first grabbed the letter on the left—it was the letter that the Wolf’s Canine brought. “The Wolf’s Canine…I gave up on trying to hire them.”
Considering that the Steelwalls always had to prepare for war as the Iron Fortress, they had a rough assessment of the mercenaries working inside the kingdom and their surrounding countries. Of course, they didn’t keep an update on every mercenary group. There was no need or even resources to do that; instead, they constantly kept tabs on mercenaries with notable skills, and even among these skilled mercenaries, the Wolf’s Canine took the top spot. Their skills were unmatched, and they were also known to be trustworthy, a characteristic that mercenaries notoriously lacked. The Wolf’s Canine’s captain, Til, was even strong enough for the Count to personally monitor.
Thus, the Wolf’s Canine was one of the mercenary groups that the Count had wanted to hire. However, even if he wanted to hire them, he had no idea where they currently were. If he sent out a search unit, they could probably find the Wolf’s Canine, but they didn’t have much time. Naturally, the Count was shocked that the Wolf’s Canine would come directly to the Steelwall Estate and ask him to hire them.
Trell said, “Since they have quite a reputation, I’m sure they will be of great help in this war. After meeting them in person, they don’t seem like mercenaries in a good way.”
The Count nodded. “Ah, how are those kids doing?” He was referring to Til’s son and Nick’s daughter.
Trell answered, “They are doing well. We provided a nice room for them and told the maids to take especially good care of them.”
Zich had written to him that the children should be directly taken care of inside the Count’s mansion, and the Count accepted this request. Considering the situation at hand, it was a very small price to take care of two children to get the help of a mercenary group like the Wolf’s Canine. Like this, Count Steelwall and Trell finished their discussion about the Wolf’s Canine.
On the other hand, the Wolf’s Canine was the least troublesome group to deal with. Regardless of how dire the situation was and the fact that the Wolf’s Canine was a top-tier mercenary group, they were still mercenaries that money could hire. However, the other two groups were completely different. The Count picked up a letter in the middle this time.
“So you said this was from the Lake Tribe’s princess?”
“Yes, that’s what I heard.”
The Count clutched his head. He was already shocked that the elves wanted to participate and help out in this war, but he was even more shocked that an elf princess was part of this group as well.
“The princess is from the Lake Tribe, but there are also other elves from different tribes. The group they brought is a type of joint army with soldiers from different tribes mixed in.”
“And they’re all indebted to Zich?”
“Yes, according to them. Since they have no reason to lie, I think it’s probably true.”
“They’ll probably be helpful in this war, right?”
“The elves’ skills in archery and magic are renowned throughout the world. They also informed me that they only sent out their elite soldiers this time.”
They had to first assess the elves’ skills to make exact judgments, but there was a low possibility that their skills would be lower than their expectations. Either way, it was helpful that their numbers would increase.
The Count grabbed the last letter. “A group of mages, including the master of the Sunewick magical tower…”
“Sir, it’s the former master of the magical tower.”
Trell corrected him, but this was not the important part. The Count replied, “Regardless of whether he’s the current or former master, it doesn’t change the fact that he’s considered the strongest mage, even in Sunewick.”
Trell didn’t disagree, so he also nodded. The former master and his thirteen disciples were a powerful force. The Count had numerous experiences on the battlefield, so he had naturally seen mages fighting firsthand. With his own eyes, he witnessed how amazing and strong magic could be. Fourteen mages had come to Steelwall to offer their support. It was even more amazing that they were all mages at the top of their field. The Count was certain that if the mages joined forces with the Steelwall knights and soldiers, their military strength would significantly increase.
The Wolf’s Canine, elves, and mages from the magical tower. Count Steelwall had been in despair because he couldn’t receive help from anyone nearby just a few days ago, but now, he had allies that were nothing short of astounding. With these forces, he could sufficiently face the forces that the Flauds gathered together. No, the Steelwalls might even be able to push them back without much trouble. It was definitely something to be happy about.
However, the Count felt conflicted. Of course, he was glad, but the problem lay with the fact that Zich had gathered all of these groups together. Even though Zich was helping the Steelwalls for now, he was someone that the Count had kicked out. However, the one who was supporting Steelwall was not him, but Zich. As a Karuwiman Honorary Knight, Zich prevented him from being marked as a Bellid supporter, and he quickly filled up the gaps in the Steelwall’s military force.
On the other hand, Greig, who the Count had so earnestly wanted as his next successor, had done nothing for this disastrous event. Instead, even Greig had received help from Zich and was recovering from psychological trauma. The inside of the Count’s mouth felt bitter. He gathered his saliva and gulped it down, but this bitter taste didn’t disappear.