Chapter . 105
To speak of killing fellow nobles was one thing, but to speak of punishnts reserved for prostitutes or thieves was a grave insult.
Montova, being a prestigious noble, wouldn't have lacked courtesy towards collateral Imperial family mbers, but just because they were refused entry to the castle, the most arrogant knights in the world were running wild.
Amidst this, Duke Grimiati frowned and said.
“How could such a man be loyal to Prince Leontes? He must have colluded with the Lauderdale woman and would surely betray His Highness. We should rightly hang his head and chop up his limbs to feed the dogs.”
“Indeed, Leontes must have been kidnapped after trusting him and getting stabbed in the back severely, Uncle. However, if the Lauderdale woman had secured Leontes, would she have told us about it herself? She ntions the Royal Father and acts vulgarly as befitting her birth, but in reality, she clearly lost Leontes or he only gave minimal clues, so she is trying to find the dragon egg even if it ans mobilizing us.”
“It is regrettable, but it is Prince Leontes's own mistake for trusting soone like Count Montova more than Maxim or myself.”
“We should think generously. What would a young boy know? Since it's his first territory, he trusts the Lauderdale woman, and since it's his first vassal, he trusts Montova; isn't he a naive fellow? But we must teach him a proper lesson this ti.”
“Please consider that he must have suffered unspeakable hardships as a prisoner of that lowly woman.”
“Do you think I would worry just because he is my brother? He gets poisoned, then gets a territory, then gets tortured. Truly, I am considering sending him to Uncle's territory for a while to have so ti for self-reflection.”
“That is a sound decision. Now that you are nearing adulthood, you have beco much more mature, Maxim.”
“Leontes, stop being angry and let's go see Desmond for the last ti. Huh? I know you're angry, but don't attack now. Let's just see that guy for the last ti and go.”
Michelon pleaded earnestly, but I had already picked up a stone.
“What on earth are you going to do with that?”
“They have layered so many defensive shields.”
I pointed at the mages in the procession and said.
“I will pierce the defensive shield with magic, so you throw the stone. When attacking mages protected by knights, combining magic and physical attacks is best.”
“To kill them in one go, this won't do. With a dagger—”
“If you kill them now, we can't fight; do you want that?”
Michelon didn't try to stop
anymore and pointed at the strongest mage. He could also sense the amount of mana.
“Now!”
As Michelon threw the stone, I cast a javelin spell. Even for , it would be difficult to pierce a defensive shield deployed by mages of this scale mobilizing artifacts, but it was easy when concentrating power on the tip with the javelin spell. It wasn't like I was aiming for my brother and the Duke protected by another shield beneath it.
When the stone hit the mage's head like a spear tip concentrated with power, the mage collapsed without even a scream.
Even so, the defensive shield didn't budge just because one hole was pierced. Even if pierced, a strong magical field would form imdiately to fill the hole quickly, and it was a top-grade shield that indicated the direction of the attack.
However, for it to function normally, the other mages had to be fine.
‘This is why I cast chain magic.’
Chain magic was a na I gave, and it was easy as it was a simple technique of executing the sa magic consecutively. With the chain javelin spell, the stone that hit the first mage's head bounced to hit the next mage's nose, then bounced again to hit the next mage's eye, and so on, so there was no need to keep piercing the defensive shield.
Especially since the javelin spell controls aiming accuracy with wind, it was easy to use the sa wind magic simultaneously. Like invisible air bubbles, for instance.
“Aaaah!”
“Ugh!”
“Ack!”
As the mages fell in droves, Maximilian imdiately gave an order.
“Formation, form a defensive square!”
Those arrogant bastards who insulted my subordinate were surprisingly fast at driving the mages back and surrounding them to build a formation.
“What did you just do? Did you multiply one stone into dozens or what? Even I couldn't show such speed and accuracy piercing a shield like that even if I threw a spear from this distance!”
“No, I just left the aiming accuracy calculation to you, copied it with Tess, and chain-activated the formula with the values substituted; it's very easy.”
“What do you an easy! I can't even understand what you're saying; Yolande isn't here!”
However, the arrogant collateral Imperial family knights started throwing spears at us even before Maximilian's attack order fell. It was sothing higher-ranking knights committed more often; guys who wouldn't know what the problem was even if the commander scolded them.
“Spears, spears! They are throwing at ! They are all mine!”
The dragon, who looked at spears like flowers, excitedly spread his arms and ran towards them, but I imdiately grabbed his nape and teleported. After collecting the air bubbles summoned beforehand.
To the third force caught in the barrier, to Desmond.
They were mainly Desmond and direct Lauderdale lineage, and only physically weak mages were riding horses.
“I told you to tell
before doing it!”
“You don't give
a chance to speak! I don't have fast reaction speed like you!”
“When you did that chain whatever magic, you were like a swarm of wasps! You, definitely do that magic in hiding. If people see it, mages will be the first to burn you at the stake!”
The angry dragon growled, but Desmond, whom we ca to see, was also losing his temper.
“Do you think I ca here only to monitor Alexander and Maximilian? If they catch Leontes anyway, they will take him to Montova Castle first, so the surveillance magic placed there is sufficient.”
It was understandable for him to be mistaken. He wouldn't know that I cast a separate barrier on Montova Castle as well, and that the surveillance magic was nullified by that barrier. Still, I would let a signal go through when I deed it appropriate.
It is usually difficult to maintain two barriers on such a large scale, but it wasn't difficult if I only put in the performance of detecting and disrupting enemy magic instead of defense. Mount Petrafis could also rely on the mana filling the Dragon's Grave.
“In this mountain, focus on finding the dragon egg and Leontes with search magic. Surely Leontes has the dragon egg, so if we find one, we will find the other.”
As the mages were flustered by his order assuming I was here as well as the dragon egg, Duke Lauderdale stepped forward.
“But Your Highness, Her Majesty the Empress—”
“Uncle, I understand Mother's order better than anyone, and I am trying to implent it properly by adding the judgnt of a field commander. Don't you know how formidable Leontes is? Even at this mont, Leontes might have already escaped. However, according to the surveillance magic, Montova Castle is in the sa state as when we left, so he hasn't returned yet. It is highly likely that he is wandering this mountain avoiding the searchers' eyes, just looking for a way back.”
Saying so, Desmond stared intently at Duke Lauderdale. Without interrogating the Duke whether Rhiannon was lying instead of hiding . However, making it difficult for the Duke to refute him unless he revealed that point.
Sir Edward, their cousin and son, was silently watching the two.
“Your Highness is correct.”
The Duke bowed his head. He also seed to think it was better to follow his nephew's words than Rhiannon's too bold stratagem. Sir Edward also looked relieved.
“Strengthen the search magic imdiately. Base the search on my blood. There are three people on this mountain who are my blood relatives, but I trust you have finished the analysis to distinguish from Maximilian or Alexander.”
“Yes, Your Highness, a search magic that finds those related by blood to Your Highness while excluding the other two relatives is possible. Even if they block with prevention magic, searching for their relatively less protected subordinates is possible. Since we have already obtained and analyzed their blood to include in the search magic.”
“Those guys seem to have already prepared that magic Alexander was talking about?”
“No matter how good they are, can an illegitimate son's funds match the Empress and a Prince?”
“So what are you going to do?”
Michelon said while looking at Desmond and his mages.
When Desmond held out his wrist, a mage drew blood with a staff. The blood fell and pooled in a silver cup. The mage healed his wound and executed magic on the cup. Soon, mana erupted from the cup, transford into a red arrowhead, and was shot out.
“There is such new magic? Is it shooting at you like that? No, it's going up?”
“It goes up vertically and slowly draws a circle, and when it finds a target, it dives down like a hawk. If it's fresh blood, the arrowhead color is dark, but if it's blood collected in advance, it won't be that dark.”
“…When Alexander was talking earlier, it seed like magic you were hearing for the first ti too?”
“It is magic I am hearing for the first ti.”
Although I studied theory diligently with my Master, my Master doesn't know all the techniques of mages from other factions not belonging to the Emperor Faction. It was good that magic to research increased.
“This is neither a hypothesis nor anything; I just guessed. Because that would be efficient. Even I would do that.”
As I said, the red arrowhead began to slowly draw a circle from above. While Desmond and his subordinates watched. Michelon looked alternately at the arrowhead and my face.
“Why, do you like that? Should I catch it for you?”
“What are you—”
“Well, it is sleek; I covet it too.”
I raised my hand up and clenched my fist. Then the arrowhead fell down before it could finish drawing the circle.
“Wait, then your location will be revealed. Aren't you going to ambush?”
But I was already swinging my other hand. As soon as red air bubbles appeared, they shattered, and imdiately dozens of arrowheads identical to the red arrowhead flew towards Desmond and his subordinates.
“Aaaah!”
“Aaaack!”
“Ambush!”
“Your Highness! Protect Your Highness!”
Desmond's mages were also casting defensive shields, but this ti there was no need to pierce them. Because the defensive shields made with their magic didn't see the arrowheads also made with their magic as an external threat.
People fell. There were arrowheads that flew directly at Desmond, but Sir Edward struck them away imdiately. While also striking away those flying at him. An annoyingly strong knight.
Michelon gaped from the side and shouted.
“What on earth did you just do? Did you copy those arrowheads with Tess too?”
“Not necessarily. I got the material from Maximilian's mages earlier.”
“What is that supposed to an? They didn't even have ti to attack us. Only the knights threw spears and you didn't even give
ti to catch one.”
“The blood they shed.”
“What?”
“The javelin spell is based on wind magic, so I just derived air bubbles. I contained all the mages' blood drops with that.”
“No, so why did you use that—”
“It's an attack from the First Prince Faction!”
Just then, amidst the confusion of the ambush, a mage shouted and reported.
“Oh, that person is good. He was a big help!”
When I praised him even from afar, he shouted even louder.
“In the search magic, the ambushers appeared as people from the First Prince Faction!”
Desmond ground his teeth.
“Is the First Prince there too?”
“It is not certain yet. Only people from the First Prince Faction appeared.”
“Counterattack!”
“Yes, Your Highness!”
When Desmond ordered the knights and mages who entered defensive posture, Sir Edward answered vigorously, but Duke Lauderdale stopped him.
“Your Highness, please calm down. We must retreat for now. They are hiding themselves.”
“Do you not understand, Uncle? Why wouldn't they attack imdiately even though the ambush succeeded? They are trying to chase us away. Because they already secured the dragon egg! That is why they ambushed us, to make us stop the search and retreat. It is probably an attack by a scouting party, not the main force.”
Before my regression, when I beca Emperor, the aged Lauderdale feared his younger sister, the Empress Dowager, and tended to rely on his nephew who had co of age.
If that period ca faster because of Rhiannon's reckless move conscious of , it was a result befitting them. Desmond asked the mage.
“What is the scale of the enemy force?”
“The number is certainly small. Although they are blocking the search magic, the size of that defensive shield itself is small.”
“In that case, crush that defensive shield first. Under the cover of mages, have the knights surround that defensive shield so they cannot escape!”
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