Eugene’s army moved quite fast, traveling more than thirty kilometers each day. The mercenaries from the continent were in high spirits, and they were veterans with abundant experience in the field. The knights were in a similar situation as them. But in addition to their high spirits and experience, they also knew Eugene from the Carls Baggins Peninsula or Maren. As such, they were faithful in carrying out Eugene’s commands.

In other words, they were a group of elite soldiers loyal to their commander and eager to prove their worth. As such, they would naturally be fleet-footed. Even the beowulf warriors, famous for their stamina and quick speed, could not hide their astonishment.

However, no one was more surprised than Eugene’s hostages.

“Sir Bonmer? Is something the matter?” Lorraine asked with a curious face, and Bonmer flinched before turning his gaze. He had been deep in thought with a stiff expression.

“No, it’s just… I’m a little surprised by His Excellency Eugene’s army.” Bonmer responded with a stammer.

“Well, that’s understandable. I heard that they are all mercenaries, but they are as disciplined and well-equipped as trained soldiers,” Lorraine remarked. Although she wasn’t a knight, she had enough knowledge to embark on a knight’s quest. She turned her head and nodded while looking back at the orderly ranks of the mercenaries.

Bonmer continued. “But that’s not the only thing that I’m surprised about.”

“What? What is it, then?” Lorraine asked. The descendants of the Batla Duchy’s vassals slowly crept toward the two people after listening to their conversation. In reality, they were no different from hostages. As such, they felt a strange sense of kinship with Lorraine and Bonmer.

Bonmer responded while looking around at the sons and daughters of the vassals with pity, “They weren’t originally His Excellency Batla’s soldiers. All of them are mercenaries, and they come from all different backgrounds as well. In fact, quite a few of them are from areas or territories that are in conflict with each other.”

“Oh… And?” Lorraine asked.

Bonmer continued. “And yet, they are moving and acting in perfect order under the duke’s flag. They are absolutely obedient to the duke’s knights, not to mention to the duke himself.”

“…”

Despite Bonmer’s explanations, Lorraine and the other nobles appeared quite clueless. Most of them had little experience in commanding troops, and they weren’t competent knights either. Moreover, they assumed that it was only natural for subordinates to be obedient to high-ranking nobles like themselves.

Bonmer suppressed a sigh and explained, “Mercenaries tend to abide by the terms of their contracts, but they rarely follow it through to this degree. One of the critical reasons for the continental church’s retreat during the crusade was due to the poorly-constructed command structure, although there was the issue with supplies as well.”

“Command… structure?”

“That’s correct. The continent church had more than ten commanders in their army during the crusade. They achieved consecutive victories immediately after crossing over, but after a month, their army dispersed. As such, we were able to take care of them individually. Near the end of the war, they crumbled to the degree that they even had no idea where their allies were,” Bonmer said.

“R-really?” Lorraine asked, doubtful.

“Yes.” It was a hard story to believe, but it was the truth. And such instances were very common with armies formed from multiple different groups of soldiers. A commander capable of leading thousands of troops with authority was a rare find.

“But His Excellency Batla is leading all of these troops as if they are a part of his body. Even though the skills of the knights and the mercenaries are excellent, they aren’t much different from the troops who had invaded Brantia during the crusade. In other words, the presence of Duke Batla has strengthened them significantly,” Bonmer stated.

“…!” Lorraine and the other nobles couldn’t hide their astonishment.

“But His Excellency isn’t dominating the army with fear. To be honest, I have never seen a nobleman who is as fair with rewards and punishments as the duke,” Bonmer commented.

The listeners started to nod simultaneously. They had personally experienced the duke’s generosity when they received the money and wealth they lost to the ‘evil gold spirit.’ Even Lorraine had felt great respect for Eugene at that time.

“And all of these knights and soldiers know this fact. That is why they are truly loyal to the duke. As such, I…” Bonmer hesitated before closing his mouth. As a knight of the Fransil family, he couldn’t bring himself to say that Duke Batla was likely to become the ruler of Brantia.

“We’re setting off!”

“Break time is over! We’re moving!”

Galfredik’s orders were relayed to each unit through the mercenary captains. The troops immediately responded and prepared to march in perfect order.

It was an unbelievable sight where an army of nearly 1,000 troops, including the depot, began to move less than a minute after the command was delivered. Lorraine and the sons and daughters of the vassals felt amazed as well. Even though they had witnessed such a sight several times already, the scene looked even more amazing after hearing Bonmer’s explanation.

‘If it were me…’

‘Could I do something like this?’

They hid their sighs while remembering the troops belonging to their own families. Unlike the duke’s army, which moved in unison like it had one body, the dozen-or-so troops of their own families had always squirmed in a disorderly fashion.

***

“Hmm. Something’s not right.”

“I agree. It’s as if they are practically begging us to follow their trail.”

“Sir, I think so too. I can smell a lot of water.”

Eugene and Galfredik shared a gaze while Mirian buzzed around. They were standing in front of a bonfire’s residue which looked to be about two days old. The beowulf scouts had discovered the remnant.

“If you look at the horses’ trail, there seem to be about ten people. At most, there shouldn’t be more than 15 people,” Galfredik stated after observing the ground with keen eyes.

Lanslo responded, “That’s right. And given that all of them are knights, they should be at least twice as fast as us. Seeing as though they’re deliberately leaving behind trails and traces, there may be a group of troops in hiding, waiting to ambush us.”

“Hehe! The royal family of Brodia? They don’t know honor. They call themselves the knights of the royal family, but they resort to ambushes. Oi, Lanslo, has Brodia always been like this?” Galfredik asked with ridicule.

Lanslo shrugged in response, “The Brodia family and the Fransil family used to be very close. In fact, the Fransil family was a vassal of Brodia a long time ago. However, the Fransil family refused the royal family’s summons during the crusade and took advantage of the confusion to occupy the largest farmland. Since then, their relationship soured until it reached the road of no return.”

“So you’re saying that they’re all the same after all,” Eugene commented.

“Exactly.”

Eugene fell into contemplation after hearing Lanslo’s answer.

It became even more obvious that the enemy was leading them on.

‘Moreover, they’re acting like this knowing the extent of our forces…’

“What are you planning to do? Most of our troops are foot soldiers, so at our current pace, we will have no choice but to react to their moves.” Lanslo broke the silence. 

Eugene raised his head. “How could I let them do that?” Eugene said before turning toward the soldiers. The knights and the beowulfs were watching him with eager eyes.

‘Ah! Sir Eugene looked at me!’

‘Please send me!’

Their eyes clearly reflected their desire for accomplishments.

“The chase…”

Eugene slowly turned his gaze away from the hot, flaming, eager eyes of the beowulfs and the knights. He looked at Galfredik. “Only Galfredik and I will go.”

“Yeaaaah! Kuhahahahahaha!” Galfredik roared victoriously, and the others flocked toward Eugene regardless of their nationality and race.

“This is unfair! Please give us a chance as well!”

“Your Excellency. We elves are quite skilled when it comes to tracking. Moreover, we are fast as well.”

“What are you talking about? We are the best in Brantia when it comes to tracking. Dark Lord, didn’t you promise us a great fight?”

“Your Excellency. The sword of this holy knight has not rusted just yet.”

Eugene felt as if he had stepped into a busy marketplace. He sighed, “Listen up, everyone. The ones who took Reyma Fransil. I’m certain they know quite a bit about our forces. Even so, they purposefully left a trail for us to follow. It means that they are preparing something.”

“Oh, well, still…”

“Hmm…”

No one seemed convinced by Eugene’s words. Eugene became determined to crush them with power and authority once more, but a sudden thought crossed his mind.

Eugene straightened his shoulder and looked around before raising his voice.

“It’s important to rescue the Fransil family’s successor! However! Don’t you all have a more important mission!?”

“…?!”

“The mission to unite Brantia is more important than rescuing one person! All of you are my precious troops! I cannot allow you to waste your energy and strength on useless things! I cannot accept that as your commander!” Eugene shouted.

Ooohhh…!

Eugene’s voice was filled with emotions, and everyone felt their blood starting to boil in response.

“I will give you orders! The Brodia family, attack them! Prisoners?! I don’t need to take them as prisoners! The price of daring to threaten me! Let them pay! Conquer them! In the name of Jan Eugene Batla!”

Clang!

Wolfslaughter left its sheath and glowed viciously in the light.

Ooooooooh!!!!

Kieeeehhhh!

There was a strange cry mixed in with the roar, but regardless, the humans, elves, and beowulfs became frenzied. In particular, Lorraine and Bonmer appeared to be very moved. They even had tears in their eyes.

‘Ahh! I can’t believe the duke cares so much about my brother. He’s a little scary, but he’s extremely cool as well.’

‘How could I have thought such an honorable knight to be insidious? Ha! Bonmer! You silly, foolish knight!’

From that moment, the two became Eugene’s avid followers unbeknownst to others.

***

“Lord Helmond! We will be arriving at the Abbey of Edrail in a little bit.”

“Hmm, I see. By now, they must have been chasing us for half a day, right?”

“We maintained our pace, so that must be the case.”

“Hoho.” Federique chuckled with satisfaction at the response of Brodia’s knight. Just as Eugene suspected, Federique had purposely left a trail to be followed. In addition, he already had measures prepared to deal with the pursuers that Eugene would undoubtedly send.

‘Most of their soldiers are on foot, so they won’t be able to send the entire army after us. At best, there will be beowulfs and members of the clan who are his vassals.’

He would take his position inside the monastery and prevent the vampires from entering the building. Then, he could deal with the beowulfs without worrying about the others.

The way to kill beowulfs was simple. He simply had to apply the juice of Wolfsbane on the tip of silver arrows. Silver was already fatal to beowulfs, and the juice of Wolfsbane, which was brewed through a special process, acted as poison to beowulfs.

Unfortunately, the vampire knights serving under Federique could not handle silver weapons. As such, he gave 20 of the 30 silver arrows in his possession to the knights of the Brodia family. If they were skilled with the longbow, they would be able to cripple the beowulfs even if they weren’t accurate all the time. Then, he could personally condemn the vassals of his brethren from the continent for acting out of place.

‘They would be a banneret at best, right? Hmm. Perhaps I should have stopped in Brighton for more information.’

Federique became lost in thought for a moment but shook his head. He would’ve been starved for time if he had done so, and it was highly likely that he would have been pursued by both the Fransil family as well as the Duke of Batla.

‘The plan is to eliminate the important figures of the Batla family and the Fransil family one by one and to alienate them from each other. Being too greedy will… Hmm?’

Federique turned his head. He could hear a faint sound from far away.

Tudududu…

Soon, the sounds of galloping horses grew louder, and he saw the vampire knights returning from their reconnaissance mission.

“High Lord! Lord Helmond!”

“What’s the matter?” Federique asked.

The vampire knight stopped in front of him and shouted urgently, “Pursuers have reached the vicinity! I think they will be arriving soon!”

“Ah!” Reyma raised his head after hearing the vampire knight’s report.

However, Federique was calm and nonchalant. “Hooh? Those bastards are quite capable. Is the duke’s vassal here? What about his knights?”

“N-no! Well… it’s just two nights.” the vampire knight responded.

“Huh?” Federique scoffed. Soon, a cold smile appeared on his face. “They really don’t know their place. What are they planning to do with just two? Anyway, Sir Reyma. It seems your brother-in-law has decided to abandon you, so what should we do?” 

“Keugh!” Reyma’s expression became distorted, and Federique turned away from him before speaking to the vampire knights and the knights of the Brodia family. “Since it’s just the two of them, they won’t even serve as appetizers. Dispose of the plans to fight in the monastery. We’ll kill them here.”

Uwaawaah!

A total of 13 knights shouted vigorously.

“…Huh?”

Suddenly, Federique’s eyes filled with a strange light. He was sensing something that was… something that was very familiar yet quite alien to him.