Clang!
Glen struck away the arrow. Due to Zich and Til’s fierce collaboration, it had been quite difficult for him to sense the stealthy shot. It would’ve been truly dangerous for him if he hadn’t moved in time. The archer’s skills were so good that they had perfectly predicted his movements and aimed for his heart. However, rather than feeling a sense of danger, Glen felt a great wave of annoyance. Another obstacle that hindered him from killing Zich appeared.
‘Who is this bastard!’ Glen quickly searched for the person who shot at him. He wouldn’t let the archer die a peaceful death if he caught sight of them. It didn’t take him long to find out the archer’s identity either. Although she was a bit of a distance away, she stood out among the crowd. A lightly armored, womanly figure stood tall while holding a bow and arrow; the most noticeable thing about her appearance was her long ears which were much bigger than a human’s.
Glen didn’t even have to check her ears to see who he was dealing with. There was no way he didn’t recognize her when she was one of the necessary figures to create his perfect life.
‘Leona!’ The elf princess was looking at him, but he didn’t recognize the look she gave him. The Leona he knew only looked at him with reverence and affection—not the cold, chilling look she was giving him right now as if she had sighted an enemy.
“Are you all right, Zich?” Leona asked.
Furthermore, the one she worried about was Zich and not him. All Leona did was point her bloodlust-filled arrow at him, and while she worried for Zich, she didn’t pull her cold eyes away from Glen because she thought he was a dangerous enemy. Glen was aware that Leona had traveled with Zich, but now that Lara had also turned against him, this information provided no consolation to him.
Glen's eyes naturally went to Zich since he was the cause of this whole situation, but when he saw Zich’s face, he immediately regretted doing so. It was a very slight change, but Glen noticed that the edge of Zich’s mouth was slightly turned up. Zich was clearly mocking him and boasting of the greatness of his companions. Glen also couldn’t help but add another meaning behind Zich’s smirk. It almost seemed as if Zich was showing off the companions he had stolen from Glen.
Til had always been Glen’s enemy, so Glen was simply surprised and not swept by anger when Til appeared at Zich’s side. However, it was different for Leona. She was meant to stand by his side and fulfill her role as one of the main supporting leads. Yet, she was now siding with Zich and facing him as an enemy.
‘Along with Lara!’ Glen was so furious he wanted to take his heart out of his chest and cool it in ice water. Yet, Glen’s anger didn’t end there.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“You seem to have too many injuries to say that.”
“These are all light wounds. Besides, it doesn’t matter if I get a serious wound.” Zich raised his voice slightly to make his point clear, “Since I can just ask Lubella to heal them when I return.”
“Lubella…Are you talking about the Karuwiman Saintess, Aine Primel Lubella?” This was also another topic Glen couldn’t just gloss over. Lubella was standing on Zich’s side. Glen didn’t know why the Karuwiman Saintess would be on his opposing side after the group declared neutrality, but that wasn’t the point. Glen was already aware that Zich and Lubella had become close since the beginning of this timeline. Yet, the most pivotal problem was that the three people who should be his rightful companions had turned to Zich’s side.
“…I’ll kill you,” Glen murmured. He said it in a small voice on a noisy battlefield, but Zich and all his companions heard him.
“…Didn’t I see that guy before? The one who is supposed to be Karuwiman’s Honorary Knight? By the way he talks, it doesn’t seem like he is one at all…” Leona said curiously. However, she looked like she understood after seeing Zich’s face. “Well, you are also one too, so maybe that explains things.”
“Yeah. I am also one too.” Zich agreed with a slight smile. “It appears that our noble Honorary Knight is very angry, so let’s be on high alert.”
“That’s what I was planning to do anyways,” Leona said while squinting her eyes at Glen. “He clearly looks like a bad-tempered guy and has the face of a villain.”
“Kuh, I completely agree.” Zich almost burst into laughter after hearing Leona’s comments. On the contrary, Glen’s anger shot up, and he poured more mana into Tornium.
‘I’m going to kill them all!’ Glen had made up his mind now. He was determined to give up all hope for this timeline now. Whether these people were his perfect supporting characters or not, he would kill all of them and turn back this timeline.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Zich, Til, and Glen’s swords clashed, and between the gaps, Leona’s arrows swerved in. Glen would have been satisfied by just maintaining an upper hand while fighting both Zich and Til at the same time, but now that Leona’s arrows were coming into the mix, it became more difficult for Glen to handle the fight by himself.
Boom!
“Kurgh!” Glen managed to strike away the arrow flying at him again. However, that left him open to Zich and Til’s attacks.
Bam! Glen barely blocked Til’s attack, but Zich’s sword approached right in front of him in the meantime. Thus, with no other choice, Glen rolled on the dirt floor and evaded Zich’s sword. Glen quickly got up to prepare for the next attack, but the moment he saw Zich’s face, he felt his blood rising. Zich was barely managing to repress his laughter while looking at him.
‘Damn it!’ Glen gripped Tornium’s handle. He wanted to kill Zich no matter what. He wondered if there was anyone he could ask for help near him, but nobody in his surroundings came to his aid. Even knights couldn’t intervene in this fight unless they had formidable abilities, and knights skilled enough to provide aid were all occupied in their own battles. Even if the allied forces were superior in terms of numbers, the Steelwall knights were superior in terms of quality, and all the skilled fighters from the alliance had to deal with them.
Moreover, the allied forces knights had other opponents besides the Steelwall knights.
“Ugh!” One allied forces knight, who was pushing back a Steelwall knight, fell to the ground. An arrow pierced into the knight’s neck. Just judging by this sight, it seemed unlikely that the allied forces’ knights would be able to come and help Glen.
‘What useless punks!’ However, no matter how much he complained inside his mind, the situation didn’t change. Soon after, an event that put the side of the allied forces even more at a disadvantage occurred.
Baaaaam! A fire pillar erupted in the area where a hoard of allied forces soldiers was gathered together. At the same time, small firebombs shot towards the allied forces’ knights. After the Conrad mages retreated, the Pulru mages could now support the Steelwall soldiers and attack the allied forces’ knights.
“Do you need my help?” Despite the fierce battle, they heard a leisurely voice from the sky. A person was floating in the air, and he was someone that Glen also knew.
‘Even Walwiss Dwayne is here!’ He was someone who should be called the Demon Lord of Magic in the future, and he was considered unbeatable in terms of magic even now. Someone like that appeared as Zich’s ally.
Leona looked at Walwiss and said bluntly, “We don’t need your help. We’re already pushing him back. Why don’t you go away and take care of your granddaughter?”
“There’s no need. She’s casting spells, and she’s safely surrounded by my disciples. I also left a fairly skilled bodyguard to protect her.” However, contrary to his words, Walwiss sounded a bit disgruntled. It seemed as if there was something that bothered him.
However, Glen didn’t care about the subtle affairs of Walwiss’ emotions; there was only one piece of information that lingered in his ears. By Walwiss’ granddaughter, they probably meant Elena. ‘Elena is also on their side?’
Lara, Leona, Lubella, and even Elena were on Zich’s side. He had gone out of his way to specially select them for his perfect life, but they were all on his enemy’s side. How did this make sense? Glen had been gritting his teeth so much that he even wondered if he would have any teeth left. The only thing on his mind was to immediately go and kill Zich. However, considering that he was already getting pushed back, if Walwiss also joined in, victory would be far out of his grasp. Yet, there was no need for him to ponder further.
Pppuuuuuuu! A loud signal rang in the air. The allied forces let out a retreat signal. The first emotion that Glen felt after hearing that sound was annoyance. How could he turn around and run away while leaving that blasted Zich in front of him? However, his small sense of reason not yet eaten by his burning rage warned Glen that he needed to retreat from this situation. If even his allies disappeared while he was at a disadvantage, he would be isolated in the enemy camp alone.
Glen’s body trembled in fury. The reason why he had risked terrible side effects and exponentially increased his strength was to beat Zich. However, even while risking so much, he failed to kill Zich even though he was standing right in front of him. A sense of helplessness swirled inside his body. He never induced this war for it to turn out like this. Glen glared at Zich; he had quite a lot of wounds, but his expression was still annoying.
‘I need to kill him at all costs!’ Glen was never going to turn back time until he successfully accomplished this goal because he wanted to specifically kill Zich in this timeline. However, it was currently impossible. ‘I’ll kill him for sure next time!’
Glen forced his feet to move and he moved toward the allied forces’ camp. The other allied forces' knights and soldiers also slowly retreated, and the Steelwalls didn’t overextend themselves to chase after them.
Like this, the first battle was over.
* * *
Countless corpses were sprawled in front of the Steelwalls’ campsite. However, most of the corpses were from the allied forces’ side. The allied forces left many corpses and weren’t able to take a single step inside the Steelwalls’ campsite and had to retreat in the end. The Steelwalls also received some damage, but compared to the allied forces, they were able to successfully defend their camp with extremely little damage. Thus, the first battle was a perfect victory on the Steelwall side without any contest.
Moreover, the allied forces’ morale was low as they retreated. Of course, their morale hadn’t plummeted to the ground after one battle. They still felt comforted that they were surpassing the enemy in numbers. However, this was what the ordinary soldiers felt. The commanding officials had to draw up a new strategy based on today’s results, and they were clutching their aching heads.
‘It’s tough.’ Count Flaud described the Steelwall’s formation with one word, and there was no better word to describe it. Since the situation had turned out completely different from his expectations, he had known that this war wouldn’t be easy. However, he didn’t think that their side wouldn’t even be able to infiltrate even a part of the enemy’s walls. The first battle ended up with the absolute worst possible outcome. Negative thoughts began creeping up in his mind. It felt as if the same result whenever the Flauds confronted the Steelwalls would happen this time as well.
‘I can’t lose again.’ He had put so much effort into creating this opportunity. He could not produce the same results as always at all costs. ‘I should learn from today’s battle and come up with a new strategy…’
However, his thoughts were soon interrupted.
“Sir Count Flaud!”
Count Flaud clutched his head as he watched Glen rush into the tent despite the guard’s restraint.