Chapter 47
The Caravan and the Clash
In the following days, the caravan continued along the desolate road, with traces of civilization gradually left behind.
As towns and villages beca increasingly sparse, Lucy could clearly sense the growing tension among the accompanying knights. Their hands, gripping the reins, would often unconsciously rub against their sword hilts.
Until the morning of the seventh day.
When the muddy, worn-out road once again beca smooth and the presence of rchants reappeared on both sides, Lucy was inford that they had entered the territory of Beckett City, the capital of the Principality of Kolo, and that they would see the city gates after half a day’s journey.
It was as if this sentence cast a spell over the entire team, causing everyone to relax at once.
The coachn began humming bawdy tunes, and the knights chatted on horseback about the prosperity and pleasures of Beckett City, even broaching so topics unsuitable for children.
Lucy sat quietly inside the carriage, listening.
This city, nad after Duke Beckett, housed over two hundred thousand people. It was not only the most prosperous city in the Principality of Kolo but also the largest city in the southern part of the Kingdom of Cordova.
All of this had been created by Duke Felix Beckett, whose ancestors were rely non-hereditary barons.
However, during the War of National Defense twenty-five years ago, Felix displayed exceptional bravery, carving a bloody path with his longsword and rising from the battlefield to a position of imnse power within the principality.
As the sun tilted westward, a towering and imposing city slowly rose above the horizon.
The blue and white interwoven banners on the city walls fluttered sharply. The soldiers held their weapons firmly, unaffected by the chill of late autumn.
Two Tower Knights spurred their horses ahead to deliver news of the arriving wizard to Duke Felix.
But shortly after the two Tower Knights departed, as the caravan passed through a crossroads, two other caravans of comparable size to the Tower of the Four Sages simultaneously appeared on both sides of the road.
The emblems of Eternal Silence Blackthorn and Witch’s Cottage glead coldly under the setting sun.
"On guard!"
The leading Tower Knight pulled his reins tightly and issued an order to his subordinates in a deep voice.
Soon, the two caravans on either side moved half a carriage length forward into the crossroads.
The Knight Commander pressed his hand on the sword at his waist and consulted the lead carriage, saying, "My lord, should we..."
"Keep going."
Lilith's cold voice ca from inside the carriage.
"Yes." The middle-aged Knight Commander’s eyes sharpened, and he loudly ordered the leading knights, "Do not stop, keep moving forward!"
The caravan hesitated briefly, then plunged straight between the other two caravans.
In an instant, all three massive caravans were crowded together.
The clashing of tal, the pounding of hooves, and the grinding of wagon fras wove a chaotic symphony.
Inside Carriage No. 7, Lucy was abruptly startled out of her study of the Bramble ditation, the to in her hand nearly slipping.
She closed the sheepskin book containing the ditation thod.
"Judy, what’s happening?"
"Milady, it’s the caravans of Eternal Silence Blackthorn and Witch’s Cottage," ca Judy’s anxious reply from outside the window. The female knight was struggling to control her agitated warhorse.
Lucy was taken aback.
She had just been fully imrsed in her study of the ditation thod and had not noticed what was happening outside.
At that mont, beside Carriage No. 6 ahead, a warhorse suddenly neighed sharply as if frightened, rearing up before toppling backward.
The Tower Knight on its back was caught off guard and was heavily slamd to the ground.
The combination of the clumsy armor and the weight of the horse forced a muffled groan of pain from the knight.
"It’s Cain. He is an experienced senior knight. How could he suddenly fall?!" Judy Wells exclaid in surprise.
Inside the carriage, Lucy frowned.
In that instant, she sensed a very faint ntal strength fluctuation.
If not for the Anatomy School's ntal Strength Resonance, which made her extrely sensitive to even the slightest ntal strength disturbance, she might not have noticed anything unusual.
Following the direction of the fluctuation, her eyes t those of an apprentice peeking out from behind the curtain of an Eternal Silence Blackthorn carriage.
"Be careful!"
Lucy’s ntal strength instantly shot out like a sharp sword, colliding with another stream of ntal strength half a step in front of Judy Wells’ warhorse.
Pop!
Judy felt as though a bubble had burst inside her cochlea, and the warhorse beneath her neighed sharply.
"Trying to escape?"
The wizard apprentice, having missed the first strike, attempted to withdraw his ntal strength.
But having suffered this minor setback, Lucy had no intention of letting him go. Gripping her Gear Staff with her right hand, her formidable ntal strength value of 12.1 condensed into a tangible force, following the retreating ntal trail and counterattacking.
Two Tower Knights of Eternal Silence Blackthorn and the two draft horses pulling their carriage were instantly startled.
Whinny! Neigh! Neigh!
The panic spread rapidly among several horses, throwing the caravan into chaos.
The wizard apprentice sitting in the carriage, struggling in the ntal confrontation with Lucy, was jostled violently and flung out of the carriage, landing heavily on the ground.
Before he could even scream, Lucy’s ntal strike hit him squarely, causing his eyes to roll back as he imdiately lost consciousness.
This sudden turn of events nearly ignited both sides at once.
Clang!
The Tower Knights drew their longswords one after another, while witchcraft models rapidly took shape inside the carriages.
"Stop!"
"Cease!"
...
"Hmph!"
Just then, a cold snort ca from the leading carriage of the Tower of the Four Sages.
A surge of ntal strength belonging to a peak-level apprentice swept out like a hurricane.
The newly constructed witchcraft models instantly crumbled under this terrifying ntal pressure.
"Is Witch’s Cottage trying to declare war on us, the Tower of the Four Sages?"
Lilith’s voice sounded from inside the carriage.
The witch from Witch’s Cottage who had just shouted "Stop" turned pale.
"Lady Lilith, we did not intend that."
The peak-level apprentice leading Witch’s Cottage glanced at Eternal Silence Blackthorn on the opposite side, then instructed the Knight Commander beside him, "Order the caravan to pull aside and let Lady Lilith and her caravan pass first."
Within re monts, over ten carriages halted along the roadside upon receiving the order.
On the other side, with one foot on the ground and the other still on the carriage fra, the little bat Raphael, who had shouted "Stop", looked utterly sullen.
First, he hadn’t expected that the one leading the Tower of the Four Sages would be that madwoman Lilith; second, he was furious at Witch’s Cottage for being so spineless.
They were intimidated into pulling aside by just a single sentence from Lilith.
Now he was left in an awkward position, unable to advance or retreat.
Only then did Lilith finally open the carriage door and step out.
The tall, blonde girl with glasses looked down from above at the embarrassed Raphael.
"Lilith, your people attacked our caravan. I demand a reasonable explanation," Raphael forced himself to speak with an air of authority.
"Is that so?"
Lilith glanced at the unconscious apprentice and the warhorse running in the distance. "Understood."
Is that so? Understood?
What kind of explanation was that?
Raphael’s face flushed bright red. He almost instinctively wanted to cast a spell and teach this contemptuous woman a lesson.
But the mont his eyes t Lilith’s, his fiery heart seed to be doused with ice water, instantly cooling.
He recalled the Tri-Tower Tournant twelve years ago, where Lilith had almost single-handedly defeated the teams from Eternal Silence Blackthorn and Witch’s Cottage.
Back then, he too had been one of Eternal Silence Blackthorn’s competing apprentices and had personally witnessed this witch, nicknad "The at Grinder", summoning several enormous gears to crush more than a dozen exceptionally gifted apprentice wizards into pulp.
"You... you just wait, this is not over!"
Casting an angry glare toward the carriage where Lucy was, Raphael nearly fled as he clambered back into his carriage. The coachman, understanding his intent, drove the carriage to the side.
Amid the cracking of whips, the Tower of the Four Sages’ caravan resud its journey, passing through this "welcoming corridor" and stepping into Beckett City under the last remaining glow of the evening sky.
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