at 16th of December 2020 09:26:01 AM\nChapter 109
Though Marika was the de facto highest leader of Bashtarâs administration ever since the start of its great reconstruction, she technically was still only a simple bureaucrat .
That being the case, when it came to the simple act of signing documents, she needed someone who had the authority to make decisions .
And aside from Kurats, the one person who held that power was Lunaria, as both his fiancee and a princess of the kingdom .
When she was told to stay in Bashtar while Kurats would go to the battlefield, Lunaria had made things difficult . Very difficult .
ăâNo no no no no no! I will come with you, too, Kurats!âăăâIt canât be helped, I guess . If you can win against Frigga, Iâll take you along with me . âă
Thinking about it after the fact, Lunaria felt like those words were a trap .
Though Frigga was the strongest of the two, the difference between them was not that big .
In an actual contest, Lunaria would win one out of four times .
Her chances of winning were not low .
ăâI will definitely gain victory!âă
Lunaria had excitedly picked up her sword⊠only to suffer a crushing defeat .
ăâKuhâŠTo think that Frigga dropped out of the bedroom so easily the day before in order to gain the advantage the next day⊠I failed to see through her ulterior motives! Even my royal eyes couldnât see through!âăăâGetting overworked over it will not help you get the work done faster . There are more documents remaining . âăăâYes, there is still a lot more to go . âă
In response to Corneliaâs and Marikaâs cold retorts, Lunaria threw some of the documents at Marikaâs servants, who were standing in front of her, to vent her frustration .
ăâYou! Who has the highest position here in your eyes?!âăăâOf course, that would be you, princess Lunaria . However all of us retainers here believe in spiritual bonds rather than social constructs!âăăâSo youâre saying itâs Marika!!!âăăâI see Marika has her fair share of trouble dealing with this lotâŠâă
Indifferent to Corneliaâs sigh, Marikaâs amusing servants were acting the same as usual .
Without a single clue in regards to the conversation taking place in Bashtar, Kurats was tilting his head, confused by the 4,000-men strong army marching forward .
ăâ⊠. Arenât there too few of them?âăăâWell, I can see how youâd think that, my lord . âă
Realizing that Kurats seriously believed 4,000 was too little, McClair shook his head with a dejected expression on his face .
The pressure exerted by an army of 4,000 on a force of only 100 people was nothing to scoff at .
Any regular mercenary would have escaped by now .
(Still, I ainât gonna run awayâŠ)
McClain had a high esteem of Bernard as a mercenary .
So, while he couldnât believe Bernardâs words until heâd see them come true for himself, he still felt that this lord wouldnât fall easily against such an opponent .
ăâListen well, bastards! Weâll show them that the fearless Owlâs eye force is no different from the rumors!âăăâOoooooooooh!âă
ăâââ I see theyâre coming for us head-on . âă
Desaix was staring with cold eyes at Bashtarâs army . They were coming in a formation akin to the point of a sword, with 20 men in the lead .
ăâIf they deserve praise for one thing, itâs that they didnât run away . âă
Contrary to what his words indicated, Desailly answered Desaix with a sneer .
Despite being so frightened by Kuratsâ power earlier, his morale seemed to have inflated endlessly upon giving the powerful Alphonse riders a test drive .
Though Kuratsâ body was massive, he was not as big as the Alphonse magic riders, let alone Asgardâs Chaos riders .
The nobles here had a very common understanding of the limits of a mere humanâs body .
ăâNow then, shall we grant them the privilege of piercing through their ranks?âă
The baronet of Mirabeau excitedly stepped forward .
In the eyes of all these nobles, the Bashtar army was already naught but a sacrificial sheep .
Humans are creatures who believe what they wish to believe .
Hence, it was impossible for those who had never seen Kurats in action to take his monstrous power as a real premise .
ăâThe enemyâs force is small! Do not let a single one of them escape!âă
The assault was started by a private force of 500 men, led by Mirabeau aboard his Alphonse rider .
ăâWe will cut off their path of retreat, for cautionâs sake! We canât give them a chance to escape!âă
Meanwhile, baron Desailly and baron Monnier tried to circumvent the army, taking a thousand soldiers each to both flanks . On top of having the overwhelming advantage in numbers, the nobles went for a coordinated pincer attack .
They were all expecting Bashtarâs army to fall apart .
ââ But at that momentâŠ
ăâItâs been a while, so Iâm gonna fight them with my own power!âăăHow inefficient . You could end them with a single blow using magic . ăăâItâs not about efficiency, itâs about the great feel of it!âă
Dashing forward like an arrow was a single man ââ not just any man, but the baron of Bashtar himself .
As he charged forward, he was holding up a sword, which was larger than himself, over his head .
ăâHumph, out of respect for your achievements, I will take you on . âă
The Baronet of Mirabeau, whose role was to intercept Kurats from the front, chuckled to himself when he saw Kurats jump over all his allies and come forward on his own .
Although he was holding a ridiculously large sword, that would at most allow him to bring down a few soldiers .
ăâI suppose that bestial strength is worthy of praise, at least . âă
ââ This would be the last show of overly-confident gloating from the nobles .
ăâOUT OF MY WAY!âă
In a powerful flash of fighting spirit, Kurats brought down his sword, Warcry .
The sword cut through a soldierâs armor like it was tearing through paper . His blood sprayed like a waterfall, while his entrails splashed all over the ground .
However, that was not the end of it .
The shockwave generated by the tip of Warcry went past the speed of sound and blew away dozens of soldiers standing behind the first one .
ăâH-how can this be?âă
As he covered his face from the cloud of dust that followed, Mirabeau was hit by a feeling of terror .
This was a single swing . A single swing by a single person .
And yet, that had been enough to bring down a whole tenth of Marabeauâs army .
ăâImpossible! Thatâs impossible!âă
He felt shivers down his spine . His jaw was open wide, as if to welcome the truthful weight of the many heroic stories that he had deemed to be only rumors .
This time around, Kurats moved his sword horizontally, yet again cutting down dozens of soldiers from the waist down .
Their bodies collapsed like broken puppets .
ăâThe rest of them are just empty husks! He broke their spirits! Dice them up on sight!âă
To press the chaotic army of Mirabeau even further, McClain and the rest of Kuratsâ army came forward, ready to trample them down .
Mirabeauâs soldiers were sliced, stabbed and crushed, without being able to offer anything resembling resistance under the weight of both fear and disorder .
ăâIiiiiiiiiiiiiiiih! Run away! There is no way we can deal with such a monster!âăăâSorry, but there is no escaping from this devil!âăăâAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!âă
The last sight Mirabeau witnessed before being eternally released from this cruel world was that of a gigantic lump of Iron covering everything in his sight .
While Mirabeauâs army was cruelly reduced to a corpse, a tragedy was also coming for Desaillyâs and Monnierâs forces, which were coming from the left and right flank .
ăâLetâs go, Shellac . âă
With a loud cry, the large griffon, Shellac, soared into the air .
Using the absolute supremacy offered by the sky, Frigga released a blow that contained not a single atom of mercy .
ăâPiece them through, Murasame ââ âLightning Reflectionâ . ă
A single beam of light reflected by countless sparkling mirrors turned into hundreds of flashes going for the enemyâs soldiers .
In but an instant, nearly a hundred soldiers met the end of their lives, pierced by the lights .
Desailly was bewildered to see the soldiers fall before his eyes without a sound .
ăâShoot her! Shoot her down!âă
The only method to attack Frigga in the air was to fire at her with arrows and spells .
However, the attacks of a few mages were not going to be enough to break through a griffonâs magic defense .
Seeing the fiery flashes of the Fire Lance spells coming at her, Frigga did not even attempt to dodge .
ăâTear them to pieces, âShredder Shineâ!âăăâRidiculous! For our army to fall to the hands of a single woman⊠The Alphonse riders entrusted to us by sir Albert are- NOOOOOOOOO!âăăââŠWhat did you hope to accomplish by bringing these mass-produced, lower versions of the Chaos riders?âă
Did they believe they could face Kurats with that level of power?Had they gotten themselves drunk on a child-like feeling of omnipotence from getting these Alphonse toys?
ăâThis is your reward for making light of Laplandâs heroic savior . âă
While Desaillyâs army was being attacked by Frigga, Monnierâs army, on the right, was doing somewhat better .
But by no means did that mean they were going to be okay .
Rather, they were in a far darker predicament .
ăâLovely little boys⊠Come⊠. Offer your lives to meâŠâă
Under the charming enchantment of the 53 Nosferatus under Triestella, the men of baron Monnierâs army could not offer any resistance . They were only human after all .
The soldiers were weakly staring in the void with blissful expressions .
One by one, they were squeezed out of their energy and lost their lives like withered trees .
In a sense, it could be said they had met a pleasant end .
ăââŠAs I thought, this isnât enough . Masterâs energy is multiple times more delicious and powerful than a thousand of you combined . âă
Triestella licked her lips with her crimson tongue . She was showing a bewitching smile .
ăâT-this isnât what we were told! T-the marquis of Strasbourg played us!âă
Desaix shouted at the sight of his allies who had all fallen less than ten minutes after the start of the battle .
ăâNo, you brought this on yourself by not believing in the stories . âăăâThereâd have had to be something seriously wrong with my head to take those rumors at face-value! WAIT, WHEN DID YOU COME HERE?!âă
Desaix threw himself back, greatly shaken . He thought he was answering one of his close aides, but this was actually Kurats himself .
Before he realized it, all the guards protecting him had been wiped out, and Frigga and Triestella were approaching . The armies at both flanks had already been annihilated .
ăâSave me! I surrender! Iâll do anything you want!âăăâJust give up . Itâs over . âăăâNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!âă
Now that victory had been obtained, it made sense for Kurats to let it be known he would have no mercy for traitors . From the start, Kurats never had any intention to pardon Desaix anyway .
The rebellious nobles had been crushed by Bashtar with a force of just a bit over 100 . The news of that defeat was delivered to Albert the very next day .