After separating from Walwiss and Leona, Zich and Lubella arrived at Lubella’s lodging.

Whoosh! Whoosh! They heard swinging sounds. The way the sword sliced through the air sharply indicated the high level of swordsmanship they had, and the sound came from further inside.

“Oh, it’s Mr. Hans,” Lubella said, spotting the person swinging his sword.

Hans wasn’t swinging his sword for a complete round of training. He was the type of person to push himself to his limits when training as Zich instructed him to. Yet, right now, he was lightly swinging his sword to warm his body up. His behavior was a given, considering that a battle could erupt at any moment. However, Zich felt a sense of anger in Hans’ swings.

Lara sat a bit further away from Hans. By the sword lying next to her and the sweat dripping from her face, it was clear that she had also been swinging her sword not long ago. Hans stopped when he spotted Zich.

“Don’t mind us and continue what you were doing. We aren’t here for you.”

“No, I was about to finish up here.” Hans placed his sword back in its sheath. “I see that you are with the Saintess.”

“She was overexerting herself, so I was forcefully taking her to her room.”

“Sir Zich…” Lubella nudged Zich’s side. Of course, Zich didn’t even budge. Hans thought one would need at least an awl made out of mithril and orichalcum to pierce through Zich’s thick skin.

“You are indeed the Saintess, Lady Lubella,” Hans remarked.

“She’s too much of a saintess that it’s a problem,” Zich said.

“Can’t you stop?” Lubella eyes turned so sharp that they looked like it could pierce even a thick tree, and thus, Zich backed off from the topic.

“Okay, so were you warming up?” Zich asked Hans.

“Yes, Lara and I were exercising lightly,” Hans said. Lara also got up and stood next to Hans.

“Since we don’t know when the next battle will arise, we need to warm up.”

“I like your mindset, but you know that it will backfire if you expend more energy than necessary, right?”

“Yes, we are not that foolish.”

“Well, someone of Lara’s skill would know, and I beat down such teachings to Hans personally,” Zich said.

Hans shuddered. Although he felt grateful to Zich for all the training and had no complaints about them, ‌he had almost lost his mind during their training sessions. Just thinking about it brought him chills as a reflex.

“But Hans, I sense some anger in your swings.”

“…You noticed, sir?” Hans wasn’t too surprised. It was natural for Zich to notice such things.

“Yeah, I did. Why? Are you angry that you were pushed back by Glen Zenard?”

“…Honestly, yes.”

“That guy became stronger, so much that even I couldn’t handle him by myself. Thus, it’s only natural that you can’t beat him with your skills.”

Hans knew that much and had no intention to deny this fact.

“It still makes me so angry,” Hans said. He hated that the person he had thought was on a similar level to him was suddenly superior to not only him, but his master too.

Zich stared at Hans intently. Although Hans usually looked nervous whenever Zich looked at him, he looked clearly into Zich’s eyes now. Zich smiled.

“Yeah, you need that kind of competitive spirit, too.” A competitive spirit led to one’s desire to progress and improve oneself, and such feelings were necessary in order for one to reach a higher level. Zich knew Hans would be able to control his competitiveness so that it wouldn’t have a negative effect; the fact that Hans was just loosening himself up instead of training too hard proved this statement.

“Remember that frustration and anger. It’s going to increase your skills to a much higher level.”

“I understand.”

“However, there’s no need for you to be so conscious of that guy. He’s not even worth getting angry about. Glen Zenard forcefully increased his fighting level by borrowing outside powers, so he is going to have to deal with plenty of negative side effects. I’m sure he’s using life force as fuel for his current powers right now.”

“Yes, sir!” Hans replied, ending the matter about Glen. Yet, the person standing next to him, Lara, didn’t look so relieved. Even if she had settled her feelings and thoughts, this was her past companion and love they were talking about.

“Does this mean he doesn’t have much time left to live?”

“I don’t know about that. Although it’s clear he used some kind of weird method to boost his strength and that some side effects should follow that, I don’t know what kind of method it is or what the side effects are. He could die early or become immobile. However, there’s one thing that’s clear: his future is going to be beyond unfortunate.”

“How did he change so much?” Lara asked without wanting a reply. Rather than asking, she was mostly lamenting over this fact.

Yet, Zich knew the clear answer to her question.

“You are wrong about the most basic part, Lara. He didn’t change.” Zich continued after confirming the surprise in Lara’s eyes. “His true face is cracking through.”

Lara couldn’t reply to this statement.

* * *

Although they had lost the first battle without doing anything significant, the allied forces didn’t back down. Count Flaud especially had no intention to do so, and he once again launched an attack with the troops.

Waaaaaaaaah!

The allied forces ran forward with a ground-shaking roar. The momentum they carried felt like it would blanket the mountain and separate the sea, but that was all there was to it. There were many cases when high momentum didn’t lead to good results.

“Kuh!”

“Urgh!”

The allied soldiers began to fall under the Steelwall soldiers’ counterattacks. At this rate, it seemed like their corpses would cover the mountain and divide the sea. However, the allied forces continued to rush forward with their numbers and aimed for the gaps in the walls. The Steelwall soldiers blocked their attacks skillfully just like the nickname the estate had earned in the kingdom as the Iron Fortress.

Ping! Tornium’s black mana aimed for Zich. Even though Zich could block Glen’s immediate attacks, he didn’t think that he would continuously be able to block Glen’s subsequent attacks. However, he continued to block Glen’s attacks without much worry.

Bammm! Zich’s hands felt numb, and his muscles felt sore. As expected, Zich’s stance crumbled. However, Glen couldn’t add in another hit.

Swing! A large sword swang toward him from the side and let out a chilling amount of mana. Without even having the leisure to send a glance towards Zich who was withdrawing, Glen had to swing Tornium to his side.

Bam!

“Ugh!” Til let out a painful groan as he received Glen’s retaliation. His huge sword trembled.

‘I need to first finish at least one person!’ Glen pushed back Tornium and pointed his sword at Til’s heart. However, Glen’s attempt was hindered once again.

Swoosh! A small shockwave rang in his ear. He had already heard this sound many times. Even though he was used to it, it didn’t make the arrows any less dangerous.

‘Should I ignore it?’ If he risked injury and pushed Tornium further toward Til from here, Glen thought he could definitely take out Til from the battlefield. However, Glen didn’t linger on this idea for too long. He wasn’t only facing Til, and he didn’t know how deadly the attack shooting at him would be. In the end, Glen turned Tornium’s trajectory, and the flying arrow bounced off his sword.

Bam! Glen gritted his teeth and glared at those surrounding him. Til was swinging his sword in the front, and Zich was finding openings in his movement with sharp eyes in the back. Leona had another arrow on her bow and was ready to shoot at any moment from a short distance. He was sick of this formation. In every battle, they surrounded him like this and fiercely attacked him. There were awkward moments in the beginning, but after some time, their teamwork became completely seamless. If they continued fighting like this, the result would be the same as before. He would be forced to retreat after getting pushed back, and that was basically the same as running away.

Glen shouted at Zich in frustration. “How can three of you fight against me like cowards!”

However, Glen’s provocation had no effect. Zich cleaned out his ears to show that he considered Glen’s words like a dog barking. A loud sound could be heard from the allied forces’ main campsite; it was the same sound that had rung out on the battlefield a couple of times already—the signal to retreat. Glen gritted his teeth to the point that all his teeth might break. However, he had no choice but to turn back his feet to retreat towards the allied forces’ campsite like the others.

The Steelwalls garnered another victory for themselves. Zich returned to the campsite with the others and went around as if he was looking for someone. ‘He’s over there.’

Zich moved through the chaotic group of soldiers right after the battle and headed toward the person he was looking at.

“Sir, you’ve arrived.” Hans bowed his head. After replying with a wave of his hand, Zich sat next to Hans and looked down at a soldier huffing for breath. The soldier tossed his helmet to the side, and his complexion looked terrible.

“How was your first war, my younger brother?”

Greig shifted his eyes and looked up at his older brother. His lips were completely chapped as he replied, “…It’s the worst.”

Zich chuckled at Greig’s words. “If you can talk at least that much, you’ll be fine.”

Zich’s gaze headed towards Hans. “Good job. It seems like you’ve done well protecting him.”

Greig was starting to recover from his mental shock, and Zich sent him out in this battle to wash away the final remnants of his trauma. ‘It’s good to get over a shock with another shock.’

Moreover, regardless of how this war ended and the state of the Steelwall Estate, Greig would never stay away from war as the next heir to Steelwall. Even though there was a lot of opposition, Greig was sent to war to face his enemy for the first time under Count Steelwall’s permission. Of course, if Grieg died in this war, all of Zich’s efforts would go to waste, so he proposed for Hans to act as Greig’s bodyguard. Hans’ skill was already famous in the Steelwall Estate, and thanks to the Countess’ influence, Count Steelwall also had a very favorable impression of Hans, so he easily agreed to Zich’s proposal.

Zich stared at Greig again and said, “Take care of your condition. Eat and rest well. You have to take good care of yourself if you want to continue fighting.”

“…Got it.” Greig scowled at the thought of going out to fight again, but he didn’t protest.

‘This guy’s treatment is also almost over.’ Even though Zich’s opportunity to torture Greig as much as he wanted under the guise of treating him was now over, he didn’t feel any regrests since he already tortured Greig as much as he wanted to.

Hans looked in the direction of the allied forces’ campsite and asked, “Sir, when will the next battle happen?”

“Well, they’ll come out whenever they want. But that won’t last long either.”

Hans and Greig looked at Zich with confusion.

“No matter how stupid they are, they’ll start to look for different strategies after getting beaten so much.”

Then, Zich smiled. A chill passed through Hans and Greig because of his frightening grin.

“Don’t you think it’s about time for us to start hitting them back?”