‘A cockroach boss…’ As a cardinal of the newly established Bellid northern base, Vishipuna was very strong. The dreary Bellid power he shot out viciously was aimed at his opponent. An ordinary knight or mage wouldn’t have been able to deal with his attacks, but unfortunately for Vishipuna, his opponent was the man named to be the strongest holy knight among the Karuwimans, Belri Weig. Furthermore, Weig possessed the strongest loathing a person could possibly have for the Bellids.
Baaam!
“Kuh!” Vishipuna was pushed back, and he sputtered blood from his mouth. The sight of a wrinkly old man writhing in pain could invoke a bit of sympathy to most, but there wasn't any hint of such emotion in Weig’s eyes. To him, the Bellids were simply monsters in human form.
‘How fearsome.’ Zich twirled his tongue. Although he now had enough power not to get pushed by Weig, there was still something about the might of Weig’s attacks that made one’s heart clench.
Boom!
Zich evaded the attack flying his way by just moving one step and looked at his attacker. He was Vishipuna’s guard knight.
“Kuh!” Maybe he was disappointed that his attack failed to hit his target, but the knight appeared to be stunned.
‘His reaction is too much for someone who just missed an attack though,’ Zich thought again and looked behind him. ‘Ah, it must be because of that.’
Among the many Bellu statues stationed in the room, one was half-crushed by the attack just now. It seemed like it had been unintentionally destroyed because Zich evaded the attack.
“Huh? Did you just destroy the statue of the god you believe in? Wow, how could you commit such a blasphemous act!” Zich’s mouth didn’t stop moving even if his opponent’s move had been unintentional. “Or does your god actually like its followers destroying its statues? What a perverted god Bellu is! Well, it does make sense. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t make his followers do all sorts of cockroach-like things.”
“Shut uuuup!” On top of feeling distressed that he accidentally broke the statue of the god he worshiped, Zich’s flickering tongue seemed to make the Bellid holy knight’s vision blur in rage. Yet, Zich had already heard people telling him to shut up thousands of times now, and there wasn’t a single time he did what he was told. After all, Zich had also seen as many people as a colony of ants rush toward him in complete rage at once. Thus, his current opponent’s rage didn’t stir his heart in the slightest.
“If it isn’t, then what is it? Are you actually a Karuwiman follower posing to be a Bellid? Now that I think about it, I know a spy who is like you. The fact that you have two eyes, one nose, and lips is the same. You should’ve told me beforehand that you were a spy. I would’ve turned a blind eye to you.”
The Bellid knight’s attack continued in the meantime, but to his disappointment, Zich evaded all his attacks. It was so frustrating. Zich dodged the knight’s attacks by the breadth of a hair each time, and the way he avoided them looked utterly silly. Anyone could see that he was provoking his opponent on purpose. Zich’s provocations seemed to rock the Bellid knight’s core, and the knight’s eyes saw red.
“So, what are the Bellids like? Are they all sick perverts? What about their way of living? Since they are all fish heads, I’m sure they all live in the water, but do they live in the ocean, a river, or a lake? I bet they live like pale chubs escaping predators in the water. What do they do when they see a shark?”
“Shut uuuup!” The Bellid knight raised his sword high. Bellu’s energy gathered inside his sword, but he didn’t strike down with his sword.
Slice! Zich’s sword moved like a beam of light. The trajectory of his sword light drew and sliced his enemy’s neck. The strong slash of Bellu’s energy disappeared and the sword that had lost its power tumbled to the ground.
“Is ‘shut up’ the only phrase you know? You have such poor vocabulary. You should at least be able to stay calm if you don’t have skills.” Zich’s assessment of his opponent ended like that. Then, he turned his head to find his next target.
‘It’s almost over.’ Although the Bellids here were the elites of their group, the members in Zich’s forces were unimaginably skilled. Furthermore, Zich and Belri Weig’s military might was above and beyond. A majority of the Bellid followers died, and only three Bellids remained, including Vishipuna.
“Kurgh!”
‘Now, there’s only two,’ Zich noted as another Bellid knight fell under Danny’s sword. It was as expected of the vice-captain of the Steel Sword Knights. He couldn’t compare to Zich and Weig, but Danny was also impressive. Soon, another one fell, and only Vishipuna was left.
‘It looks like that fight is almost over too.’
“Haaaaa!” Weig swung his sword with a loud battle cry.
Baaam!
Weig’s sword stopped in front of a semi-transparent barrier. However, seeing the barrier shake violently, it didn’t appear like it would last for long.
“Uggh!” Vishipuna endured the pain while gritting his teeth. He clenched his teeth so hard that his gums sank and blood streamed out of his mouth. However, this didn’t happen because he simply exerted all his effort.
Crack!
An ominous sound rang from the barrier surrounding Vishipuna. Although shocked, he tried to respond as quickly as possible, but Weig acted faster. He pulled his sword back slightly and slammed the barrier again.
Bam!
“Urgh!”
In response to the current of holy mana, the barrier protecting Vishipuna cracked and light struck him. Vishipuna screamed at the splitting pain from the attack. Even in such a favorable situation, Weig remained calm. It was a scene that highlighted the extensive experience he had in fighting with opponents. As Vishipuna struggled in pain, Weig’s sword sliced his neck. Just like that, the one in charge of the Bellids’ northern base disappeared.
“Haa!” Weig sighed deeply and pointed his sword down. He stared intently at Vishipuna and then turned his head around.
“Good work, sir. That was an amazing display of military fight that affirms your title as the greatest Karuwiman holy knight.”
Weig replied, “Haha, thank you for the compliment, but Sir Zich is much more amazing than me.” Weig’s laugh was so cheerful that it was hard to believe he was the same person who went around viciously killing the Bellids only recently. It was to the extent that Danny, who was behind Zich, slightly rubbed his eyes.
Zich said, “We can’t be satisfied with just this though. I’m sure our comrades are exterminating them all over the castle at this very moment, but there’s still plenty of roaches left.”
“Yes, Sir Zich is right. They’ll have to be completely exterminated at once. Otherwise, they’ll run away and lay their dirty eggs someplace else.” Weig shook the sword on his waist and burned with fighting spirit.
Thus, the Steelwall’s detachment swept through the Pinne Estate’s capital, slaughtered all the Bellids, and took complete control of the castle.
* * *
The leaders of the detachment gathered in a place used as a reception room of the castle. Thanks to the great success of the operation, everyone’s complexion looked bright, but they didn’t lower their guard. Even though the capital was now under their control, they were still in enemy territory.
“So what are you planning to do, young master?” Danny asked, “Will you continue to occupy this place as planned?”
Zich’s justification for attacking the Pinne Estate was to capture the Pinne Estate’s capital and overturn the nature of this war and weaken the allied forces’ claims for invading a neighboring country. However, this had merely been an excuse, and Zich had no intentions to stay here.
Zich replied, “No, we’re pulling out.”
“Will that be all right? That’s not what we planned.” Danny’s voice didn’t carry a hard, interrogative tone at all. Seeing the amazing achievements that Zich made so far, he had completely eliminated all doubts about Zich’s judgment and skills.
Zich answered, “The reason why we tried to capture this place was to destroy the allied force’s justification for invading a foreign country and bringing the other estates from the Cronon Kingdom into this war. But we’ve found something even more amazing.”
“You must be talking about the Bellids.” Danny gulped. He never imagined that an aristocrat would join forces with the Bellids and transform his entire estate into a Bellid base. Even though the Steelwall knights’ current image of the Pinnes was so poor that it reached the lowest depths of the sea, it was still hard to imagine that an aristocrat would join hands with the Bellids.
“Young master, did you already know of this?”
“Yes, I did.”
In a way, they were deceived by Zich, but Danny merely nodded once. Considering the benefits that the Steelwalls would make from this discovery, deception was a minuscule price to pay.
Zich said, “After a day’s rest, let’s immediately return to the Steelwall Estate and team up with the main unit. Let’s also contact the royal capital and surrounding estates—and of course, the Karuwimans.”
When Zich looked at Weig, and the man thumped his chest. “Don’t worry. Now that we have such clear evidence, the Karuwimans will completely be on Count Steelwall’s side. We have to thoroughly show the world what happens to people who dare to join hands with the Bellids. Of course, I’ll prove to Cronon’s Royal Highness and all the other lords of the Cronon Kingdom of what I saw with my own name.”
The fact that the Karuwimans’ best holy knight was vouching for this matter would be compelling enough for all the lords and the Cronon king to believe their words, especially when it was a matter related to the Bellids’ existence.
While looking at everyone, Zich said, “From now on, this war will no longer be a ridiculous war disguised as a territorial war. Their efforts to frame us as Bellid supporters will now be completely turned over in our favor, and we’ll make the alliances that our enemies desperately tried to make.” Zich grinned. “Now, let’s take it easy and see what our enemies frantically come up with.”
* * *
The allied forces’ pursuit team ambushed their enemies, but they were soon overwhelmed by a great sense of despondency. All the beings they thought were enemies were all just empty armor. They had no idea what ploys their enemies had used, but they had been completely deceived by the self-moving armor.
The pursuit team anxiously checked all the tents, but there was nothing. They couldn’t even see any supplies like weapons or food, let alone enemy soldiers. There were only empty tents.
“Damn it!” Glen checked another empty tent and furiously pulled the tent fabric. The tree supporting the tent broke and collapsed under the enormous force. However, Glen didn’t even spare a glance at the broken tree and pulled open another tent. There was nothing there either. It was already clear that they had been duped. Even Glen was now aware of that, and his current actions were nothing more than a meaningless act of looking for an item he had lost in his room in the same place again just in case. Glen slumped to the ground. All kinds of anger and irritation flared up in his heart like an active volcano. Yet, at the same time, he also had an eerie thought. Their enemy must not have completely disappeared from the world. It was clear that they had been tricked, and their enemies had probably headed towards a different destination. It wasn’t hard to guess where they would be headed. ‘The Pinne Estate’s capital!’
Glen knew what was in the Pinne Estate’s capital, so he could fully anticipate the repercussions that would come if the Pinne’s capital happened to fall under their enemies’ control. ‘We need to move immediately!’ Glen wasn’t only thinking about the repercussions either.
Since Zich would have headed there, Glen needed to also head toward the capital to catch him. Glen leaped to his feet and headed toward the commander he brainwashed. They had to move as fast as they could.