Chapter 310: Change

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav

A golden flag of Holy Light flapped in the wind, above an orderly army on the tall mountainside.

The venerated knights were at the forefront. Atop horses equipped with iron armor that reflected the brilliant sun, their needs were attended to by squires. After they mounted their horses, their squires helped equip them with spears, shields, and swords, which finished the preparations for their charge.

Judging by the fact that this armor and horses in this army appeared to be of various types, it was evident that the soldiers fighting under this banner weren’t from the same country. However, they still fought together for the same cause.

The horn indicating that their charge hadn’t yet sounded. The knights gripped their reins tightly in order to avoid any impulsive warhorses from disturbing their combat formation. Behind the knights were heavily armored dragonspear soldiers, guardian warriors with massive tower shields, as well as archers and stone catapult squads who were currently busy counting how much ammunition they had available.

Further to the rear, priests were singing hymns of Holy Light, and the fragrant smell of holy water was all around. Several major personages, including some red-robed cardinals, could be seen among them.

Although the cardinals were the higher-ups in this army, the banner of Holy Light didn’t merely possess the Holy Church’s warriors. There were also flags depicting a moon and a tooth, a gold snake, and a three-headed hound. Numerous famous emblems were mixed with unknown emblems and flags here. Since the Holy Church had sent out its summons, its endless numbers of devout believers gathered to fight under the Holy Light’s banner. From the high-up domain lords to the ordinary farmers who picked up their wooden farming tools, they all joined in the Holy War.

They were facing no easy opponent—against them was a mega-empire’s border guard.

The Bardi Empire’s border guard wasn’t as well-equipped or well-prepared as their opponents. They were also outnumbered by a scale of more than ten to one. However, they had a reason why they would never retreat—this was their home. They were the first military squadron belonging to East Akenford, and all these border guard soldiers came from the city of Akenford which was located less than one hundred kilometers from here.

“The Holy War? No, this is just an ordinary battle where both sides hate each other and simply want to kill each other.”

The border guard soldiers had been trapped and encircled by an ambush. They were in a flatlands district, where they had no hope of outrunning the enemy’s knights. Even though they were facing more than ten times their number, even if some of them were instinctively trembling, their hearts remained as solid as stones. Even if some of their arms shook as they held their shields, and some of the novices among them even dropped their weapons, not a single one of them retreated or thought about escaping from this dire situation.

“Everyone, prepare to deal with the enemy’s charge!”

This command had been given to them long ago. Every Bardi Empire border guard in the East Akenford Squadron was waiting for their death sentence from this tremendous army against which they had zero percent chance of victory.

Finally, the silver-haired general in charge of the invasion finished his preparations. This Holy Knight commander was clad in gold armor with a lion emblem and continued to patrol to and fro in front of his army, searching for any weaknesses in the Bardi border guards’ troop formation with his hawk-like vision. However, he was unable to detect any signs that the Bardi troops were shaken or suffering from unrest.

Finally, the general gave up on his hope of being able to win through surrender, which would spare the need for combat. He mentally prepared himself to make a number of sacrifices. His gaze remained sharp as always, but suddenly, the expression on his ancient face changed. He nodded in appreciation of the enemy’s resolve, then he started shaking his head in pity at the number of lives that would soon be lost on both sides.

He was determined to overwhelm the enemy as quickly as possible, and so he finally unsheathed his sword, indicating the entire Holy Light army to attack. This sword was enchanted with Holy Light properties so that it shone brilliantly under the sun; it could easily be seen from far away.

After he swung down his commander’s sword that was embedded with sapphires, an ancient beast horn blew—the signal to start combat. The Holy Light priests concluded casting their final buff spells, and the warriors’ golden sharp swords had all been sprinkled with holy water. Even though this Holy Light army had mismatched equipment and a wide variety of different divine Holy Light buff magic spells on them, which made them seem rather silly, the Bardi Empire border guard saw it for what it really was: powerful magic that multiplied the Holy Light army’s combat strength severalfold.

The temporarily combined army had been rather noisy to begin with, but when they truly took action, the sounds of horse hooves, running, and people roaring mixed together, forming an earthquake-like deafening noise that slowly slid forward towards the encircled Bardi Empire border guards like an avalanche. The gigantic army inexorably approached the border guards’ camp.

“For the Holy Light!”

Everyone in the assorted army was shouting this same thing. The cause of Holy Light had once been taken up in yet another Holy War. However, this time, the warring participants on both sides were all humans.

“For Bardi! May the Empire win forever!”

The eternal conflict between religious and royal authority was depicted here as well. When the avalanche crashed into the pebble, time seemed to freeze over.

Tower shields with cross-shaped emblems viciously smashed against war hammers embroidered with dragon heads. Gold javelins pierced and pinned archers to the ground, while stone catapults used their own methods to whip the earth.

The Bardi Empire warriors weren’t suicidal, nor were they idiots. They had done plenty of homework on how to deal with the knights that would be the vanguard.

The Holy Light knights’ charge was slowed down by pitfalls and horse-tripping wires. Long dragonspears that were over ten meters long then stole away the lives of these venerated knights. However, the difference in numbers between the two sides was simply too overwhelming. It was just like how a tiny match would never be able to burn an entire river dry. Once these obstacles and the issue of closing the distance was paved over with corpses, the overwhelming difference in numbers caused the East Akenford Squadron to turn into the slaughtered rather than the slaughterers.

Pitiful screams and howls could be heard everywhere. Less than five minutes had passed since the start of combat, but the battle had long since lost any semblance of balance. It became a massacre where the many killed the few.

The grindstone of flesh and blood was busy harvesting lives. Those unwilling to die could only scream pitifully, while dark clouds filled the sky. It was as if the Gods themselves didn’t want to witness such a bloody scene and drew the curtains.

Glory? Honor? Courage? For the Holy Light? A battlefield like this didn’t have any of these. The only thing that the warriors needed to do was stick the sword in their hand into an enemy’s chest before they died.

Pity? Justice? Friendship? Atop this stage under the dark clouds, the weapon wielders on both sides only had two choices: kill or be killed.

The tremendous difference in numbers helped swiftly draw this battle to its end. Yet this sudden battle that took no prisoners transformed the entire location into a bloody sea of corpses. The legendary old general, who possessed the glorious title the “Eagle of Bejaso,” had remained on the tall mountain, observing the course of combat. However, he didn’t seem like he was reveling in his side’s victory at all.

“The entire Bardi army fought to the last person’s death without surrendering or retreating and forcibly inflicted more than twice their number to us in casualties despite our advantage in numbers? This is the mega-empire Bardi? Invading such a country seems like a difficult task.”

The dark clouds in the sky seemed to indicate how inglorious this battle had really been. Even the old General Gordon, who was ranked #7 on the Eich’s famous warriors rankings and was nominally the overall general commander for the entire Holy Light army, didn’t have the confidence that they would definitely win against the human mega-empire. However, there was no turning back, and he could only set a new target for the army of the Holy Light.

“Akenford City. That place is defenseless now that we’ve cleared out their military squadron. This city shall be the first to fall to the Holy Light.”

******

“The Bardi Empire has voluntarily offered to make peace negotiations with the Mage Country? How is this possible?”

If it wasn’t for how icy Margaret’s expression currently was, I probably wouldn’t have only shouted out in astonishment—I would have instead called the news she brought me ridiculous.

I was currently in the café attached to Thorn Garden. Apart from me, Harloys, and Margaret, the only other person present was Adam, who was currently playing a one-person card game by himself. He was obviously bored. As for why Margaret seemed to be so displeased… well, that really did seem to be my fault.

Of course, I understood why she was so displeased. After all, just like always, she never had any time to spend alone with Adam after completing their tasks for me. Every time, before they had much time to rest and relax together, they would be dragged back by me for some reason or the other. And this time, in order to better control the situation in the Cloud Tower, I had summoned them to me once again.

This really wasn’t me intentionally trying to make it hard for her to get together with Adam. After all, there really were some things that only she could do for me.

Let’s not mention Adam, who was simply an additional add-on. Although Margaret was originally a self-taught mage, she had the status of a hero mage who participated in the war against Yongye. The cold, calm, and cool Margaret had an excellent reputation in the Cloud Tower, not to mention that she was a member of Star Revelation, one of the largest and most powerful mage organizations.

I still counted as nothing more than a tiny little shrimp in the Mage Country. Apart from my few friends in the Mystical Blade, I barely had any contact with the highest-level individuals in this country. However, Margaret had lived here for more than thirty years while she was a candidate for becoming a Truth Overseer, so she definitely counted as a local.

Outsiders would forever be considered outsiders, and it would take an incredibly long period of time for an outsider to ever be considered otherwise. And, right now, what we lacked the most was time. If a local archmage helped us out, many things would become far more convenient.

I learned long ago from Adam that the last time Margaret returned here, she had the chance to become internally promoted within the Star Revelation and become a Truth Overseer as long as she wanted it. However, she had, instead, rejected Star Revelation’s offer and went out adventuring in the world together with me. And now, I dragged her back here so of course she would be displeased; it was only natural for her to feel awkward about seeing the familiar faces here.

Not only that, Margaret had to shamelessly return to Star Revelation for my sake, yet I didn’t believe the news she brought back to me. Of course she would be even more displeased.

“Is there anything else? If not, I’m going to start writing a certain report. It’s a report that’s half a year late, called ‘Report on whether or not Emperor Yongye has shown traces of activity in the Northlands’. Hmph, you’re incredibly skilled at making trouble for others.”

Her exquisite fingers tapped loudly on the table. It was evident that a certain Great Saint Margaret Layde was in a terrible mood.

From a certain standpoint, this really was my fault. After all, Margaret and Amelia had used the excuse of investigating whether “Emperor Yongye” and the “undead” had appeared in the Northlands to leave the Cloud Tower under the guise of an investigative expedition. And the end result was that after all this time having passed, not a single person had given the Cloud Tower an investigative report…

A publicly funded vacation? From a certain standpoint, that really was the case. Since Amelia was currently hibernating and counted as someone who accidentally became a comatose vegetable while out on a business trip, did this count as her spending public funds for her medical care?

Cough—cough—I should be a little more serious. Yep, since it was obvious that we couldn’t count on Amelia to be writing the report anymore, the only other Emblem of Endless Truth mage in the investigative group, Margaret, was now on the hook for finishing it now that she had returned to the Cloud Tower. Even if it was now a meaningless report, procedures still had to be followed, and she would even need to explain just why it was that Amelia had been unable to return.

And so, the unlucky Great Saint Margaret Layde was just like a naughty child who had too much fun during summer vacation but forgot about the summer homework. Only after the teacher scolded her combined with endless regret did she finally start working on the meaningless homework that nobody would seriously look at. And it was rumored that the Great Saint’s greatest pet peeve was doing meaningless things.

“I’m quite busy. And that report is due tomorrow.”

No wonder she felt such displeasure against me. It was also no wonder why Adam was pretending to know nothing about what was going on, doing his best to pretend he didn’t exist by sitting there in the corner playing cards. He simply didn’t want to misspeak and attract Margaret’s attention and anger.

“I apologize. It’s not that I don’t believe you, it’s that this itself is just so unbelievable. Why would the Bardi Empire offer to make peace with the Mage Country? Doesn’t that seem impossible?”

I really didn’t think it was my fault for not believing her. What she told me was simply too unbelievable.

Two mega-empires like the Mage Country and Bardi Empire entering war with each other would be like a clash between two high-speed trains that carried incredibly heavy loads. The weight and momentum carried would be astonishing so how could they suddenly stop just like that?

There was especially that forbidden spell attack which caused enormous losses to the Bardi Empire, and the ongoing fights between the dragon knights and archmages on the Bardi Empire’s eastern border was still a current event. Although it sounded like both sides were holding back, it definitely didn’t mean that both sides would simply pack up and go home after waving a friendly goodbye.

The dragon knights fought for their honor, while the archmages were prideful as well. Since they were now clashing with each other, neither was likely to back down without truly testing each other’s mettle. Yet truly going all out against each other would likely make both sides angry, so it was no easy matter to have both parties back down.

And even if the Mage Country wanted peace, the Bardi Empire wouldn’t possibly agree. After all, they lost an entire fortress and so many people to that forbidden spell. The dragon knights would have to save face, and the emperor would need to show that they achieved some revenge. Otherwise, there would be no way for them all to face the Bardi citizens.

Even if the Bardi Empire’s leaders could remain composed under the threat of the undead, they would definitely be the side to start conflicts, not stop them. In such a situation, the Bardi Empire had actually requested a peace treaty? Completely inconceivable.

However, Margaret chose to remain silent in front of my doubts, and it was Adam, instead, who couldn’t bear watching this anymore.

“Cough, that’s because—”

“Don’t you dare say it!”

“…” Adam and I exchanged glances and came to an unspoken accord to remain silent in front of the furious Margaret.

“At the very least, someone needs to write that completely meaningless report for me.” Margaret seemed to be talking to herself, but now I knew what it was that she wanted.

“I’ll go ahead and write that report. I’m awesome at writing reports.”

Alright then, I won’t comment about how ridiculous or strange it was for Emperor Yongye himself to write the report titled ‘Report on whether or not Emperor Yongye has shown traces of activity in the Northlands.’ Nor will I mention just how long it took me to think about and finish writing that damned report later that night. But, at the very least, Margaret nodded in satisfaction as she gave me top-secret information that very few people in the Cloud Tower would know about.

“The Holy War has begun.”

Margaret’s words were incredibly simple, while Adam added on more information for me.

“The Holy Church’s combined army for the Holy War that they summoned from all the countries has crossed through the Arloton Mountains and ambushed the Bardi city of Akenford on the southern border. The Holy War has truly begun.”

My mouth was now agape in surprise. I never imagined that the Holy Church would come join in at this time as well. Based on my expectations, the Holy Church wasn’t supposed to have joined in the conflict for a while.

Akenford City? When I looked at the map, it wasn’t even close to the Holy Church’s territory!

“The Arloton Mountains? Isn’t that the area under the control of the Penglin Alliance? Aren’t they believers of the Mother Earth Goddess? Why would they possibly allow the Holy Church’s allied armies to pass through their territory?”

“The day before the ambush on Akenford City, the highest priest of the Penglin Mother Earth Goddess Church converted to the Church of Holy Light. The entire country converted to the Holy Light as well, so the Holy Light allied army was able to enter the Penglin Alliance’s territory without any trouble. The Penglin Alliance’s strongest ten mercenary groups and their former Mother Earth Goddess Church’s knights all joined the Holy Light’s combined army as well.”

Alright then, it seemed that there was plenty of political trickery behind the scenes. It was highly likely that the Penglin Alliance had secretly joined the Holy Light faction long ago. But, no matter how surprising the process had been, there was no denying that the Holy Light army’s sudden ambush had been highly successful.

“What was the combat situation like?”

“Akenford City’s defending army died to the last man. The city was lost as well. Also… well, it’s the Holy War. You understand.”

As someone unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of a Holy War in the past, of course I understood!

The Holy War was a battle against heretics. And heretics’ women and children were all considered evil targets that needed to be “cleansed”. The heretics’ wealth and land were to be rewarded to the Holy Light’s faithful believers. There was only one possible result for cities conquered by the Holy Light during the Holy War.

“The entire city was slaughtered?” Although I asked it like a question, both Adam and I knew we were certain of what happened.

“Yeah.”

The small café fell silent for a moment. Judging by Margaret’s flickering mana, her bad mood was caused by far more than just that damned report about Yongye.

It was now quite obvious why it was that the Bardi Empire was willing to begin peace negotiations with the Mage Country. Once the Holy Light believers began a Holy War, there was no stopping it. Not to mention, the undead army was growing at an incredible rate, a cancer in the Bardi Empire’s stomach. This meant that the Bardi Empire was basically facing three enemies all by itself. When faced with such a brink, even the most insane of emperors would think about negotiating for peace with one of the factions he was at war with, which would reduce the pressure on the Bardi Empire.

“…Heh heh, well, don’t have such a sour face. There’s at least some good news in this, right? At the very least, it’ll make things much easier for our plans once the Mage Country comes to a peace agreement with the Bardi Empire.”

“I have a second piece of bad news to give you, then. Based on the newest information I received, there’s over a ninety percent chance that the peace negotiations will be rejected by the Mage Country. Not only will the war between the two countries not stop, but it’s highly likely it’ll be escalated! The mages want to take advantage of this excellent opportunity to forever erase their unruly neighbor!”

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