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Chapter 54: Recovery
“Move the wounded inside!”
“It’s a miracle that we only suffered this much damage from the war.”
“We don’t have enough supplies to rebuild. We need to request relief goods from the capital before the second reinforcement.”
“Yeah, right…haha…”
Count Anderson scratched his chin and pondered over his happy dilemma.
Just a week ago, he was devising a grim strategy for the war, but now he had a mountain of work to do for the post-war settlement.
But if he and his staff looked at the reports they wrote, they would know why they couldn’t stop smiling.
‘It’s all thanks to His Highness. I never thought I would see the day when I don’t have to worry about the barbarian invasion.’
One of his staff tilted his head.
“But I wonder if the capital will believe this report.”
“Yeah, even we who saw His Highness’ actions with our own eyes can hardly believe it…”
With a small number of troops, he infiltrated deep into the unknown territory of the mountains, united the immigrant tribes, and annihilated the enemy army with a simultaneous surprise attack. And the leader of the allied tribes was a superhuman?
If someone had brought him such a report as a plan a week ago, the Count would have seriously grabbed his shoulder and said this.
“You must be exhausted and out of your mind. When this mess is over, I’ll send you to the Holy Kingdom for a vacation.”
But that actually happened.
‘And they say that the invasion of the immigrant tribes will also decrease from now on. It’s hard to believe.’
While the Count and his staff were having this conversation, Eurius was preparing to leave for the mountains with Nuada.
“Do you really have to go that deep?”
“I have some data on the interior of these mountains that I researched when I was in the academy of the Holy Kingdom. It might be a great benefit for the empire, so I’ll go and see for myself.”
The Count didn’t want to send Eurius far away anymore, but he was so stubborn that he had no choice.
“Then I’ll send you more knights than soldiers.”
The situation was already under control as most of the immigrant tribes stopped looting under Nuada’s command. The Count assigned a large number of elite knights to escort him.
Thinking of the knights, Eurius felt uneasy despite his joy of victory.
‘I relied too much on my memories from my previous life. I should have taken better care of my people.’
The Grand Duke was not someone who would let him off easily.
In fact, it was a coincidence that the timing of the second assassin and the shadow’s attack overlapped, but from Eurius’s perspective, it looked like a planned crime.
‘I need to grow more.’
Otherwise, if he had been stronger, he wouldn’t have had to worry about saving all his knights.
As he was feeling slightly gloomy with these thoughts, he heard Nuada’s voice in his ear.
“Everything is ready on this side.”
Nuada had a lot to do when he returned to the mountains.
Not all the tribes had joined him just because he defeated Gundar.
And he also needed to soothe the tribes that he had captured by force. But Eurius was not worried about that at all.
‘He was never meant to be a loser in the north. He won’t fail.’
He would soon become the king who ruled over the entire north.
‘Of course, I’ll have to help him a little bit.’
For some reason, he had to find the Dite ore mine near his tribe.
“Looks like you’re ready too? Then let’s go…”
Nuada looked at him curiously.
“But who is that girl who has been sticking by your side?”
“…”
Eurius made an awkward expression at Nuada’s question. He was pointing at Beatrix, who was standing silently near him.
‘Well, I don’t really know either…’
***
“But Rize, how did you get here?”
That was Eurius’s first question to her after the situation was settled.
“I heard that there was an urgent recruitment for talent to support the northern region from the empire, so I applied and came.”
‘Well, I know that much…’
She could have become a knight in the Holy Kingdom with her talent or family background, so why did she follow him?
She must have known that her explanation was not enough, so she got to the point.
“I wanted to stand by your side, Your Highness.”
“…!”
Eurius was speechless for a moment. How should he interpret this?
‘Wow! His Highness is not an ordinary man.’
‘How far did she go to follow him all the way to the battlefield?’
The knights behind him didn’t say anything, but their eyes were full of various thoughts.
“What do you mean by that?”
Eurius had to ask again urgently.
“…?”
Beatrix looked puzzled and started to explain again.
She was not used to expressing herself in a roundabout way, so she said that.
As she told him how she ran away from her training, Eurius finally understood.
‘Well, that makes sense.’
She was always decisive and quick in her previous life.
If she had a problem with her training and couldn’t find a breakthrough, it was understandable that she came looking for him.
‘But it’s awkward. She won’t leave my side, saying she’s observing me.’
Her purpose was to find some clues by watching him, who had broken through the wall of Superhuman at a young age.
The problem was that Eurius was not a genius like her, but just relied on his memories from his previous life and the system’s effect.
He had nothing to advise her, and she didn’t seem to have any intention of going back to the Holy Kingdom either.
‘And she followed me to the northern mountains, this is troublesome.’
“Are you perhaps his lover?”
Nuada’s question was direct. He hit the most sensitive spot, and Eurius hastily waved his hand.
“No, it’s not like that!”
‘Not yet! No’
Beatrix felt that it was not her place to intervene in their conversation, so she just stood quietly.
“We just became close after training under the same master for a few months. That’s how you should think of it.”
Eurius tried to smooth things over.
That was actually the only contact he had with Beatrix in this life.
“Is that so? You seem too close for that. I’ve seen you too often by his side lately. I must have misunderstood.”
Nuada accepted it easily. He was not the type to care about trivial things. If he said no, then it was no.
But the knights behind him thought differently.
‘Even if it’s for training, why did she chase him from the southern part of the continent, the Holy Kingdom, to this far north?’
‘And no matter how you look at it, this is…’
Of course, Beatrix was not always with him. But she came looking for him whenever she had time, saying it was for training, so it was inevitable that they would misunderstand(?).
And the knights who came with Beatrix as reinforcements nodded in agreement.
“There was someone who could treat our cold leader like that?”
“If she’s that close with His highness, her actions make sense.”
Actually, Beatrix’s journey was quite smooth.
Of course, there was the tearful support of her father, Duke Dios, behind her.
The duke noticed her runaway after ten days. She had already gone too far to catch her and bring her back.
He had pride as one of the three great martial families of the continent. He couldn’t retrieve his child who had joined the knight order for personal reasons, right?
“Origin, Holy Kingdom… Family, Dios ducal house?”
The knight who was in charge of the entrance test almost dropped the paper in surprise.
“Hmm… hmm… But why do you want to go to this harsh north?”
“For practical experience.”
The knight couldn’t find anything to say at her brief answer. Her skill level was flawless anyway.
“Pass!”
Actually, even if they were reinforcements sent by the empire, Master-level knights were not common.
She quickly stood out.
And the support from the Duke also helped.
He didn’t care about political power, but he was one of the three great martial families of the continent. He had an enormous amount of personal connections in both the Holy Kingdom and the empire.
“Haha. Payrun Archbishop, I heard you have a friend in the imperial military.”
“Gale soldier? No, I should call him Baron now. I heard he rose in rank in the empire. I have a favor to ask…”
Duke Dios spared no effort or means to support Beatrix with his contacts related to the imperial military.
As a result, she was recommended as a temporary leader of the reinforcement knight order.
In other words, she was a talented commander. And the Duke’s personal greed also played a part.
‘Actually, Rize’s skill level is not bad enough to get into trouble anywhere. And it’s an excuse to stay by his side.’
It was natural for the Duke to misunderstand that Eurius and Beatrix, who had reached the level of Superhuman and were close to breaking through the wall, would get along well anywhere.
‘Being together on the battlefield might be a good opportunity to get closer.’
Of course, unlike the Duke’s thoughts, Eurius’s situation was not safe at all.
‘It’s troublesome. I wish I could send her back, but she’s already a knight of the empire…’
But thanks to Beatrix, he was able to overcome the crisis this time. And according to his estimation, she wouldn’t take long to break through the wall of Superhuman.
‘But the problem is that I wanted to bring her after that, but it’s still a bit…’
But he couldn’t find a reason to send her back now. He decided to think about it when he returned to the capital and opened his mouth.
“But you’re the temporary leader of the reinforcement knight order, don’t you have a position to uphold? Can you follow me?”
“I heard that this northern mountain exploration is a very important mission. I came here to see you anyway, so I want to go with you.”
She volunteered to be his escort when she heard that he was assigned elite knights. And the subordinate knights didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping her.
Of course, there were some who were unhappy when she was appointed as the temporary leader of the knight order.
“She’s the only daughter of the Dios ducal house.”
“So what? She’s still a spoiled noble lady.”
Some of them openly badmouthed her or even threw insults at her, but they all regretted it.
Beatrix silently took off her glove and threw it at them.
Clang!
“If you have a problem, let’s settle it with a duel.”
Of course, the result was obvious.
Those who insulted her were beaten up badly and had to stay in bed for a while.
The empire valued skill above all!
She was not of low status either. And crucially, she adapted quickly to the battlefield.
“Leader, are you okay?”
“I’m not feeling good.”
She didn’t enjoy cutting down barbarians or being soaked in monster blood for the first time when she entered the north, but unlike the other knights’ worries, she adjusted to the war faster than expected.
It was also thanks to her quick decision that she saved Eurius this time. She had been estimating the arrival time of the reinforcements through messengers, and she insisted on sending the knights ahead.
“Count Anderson at the front line is having a hard time with the lack of knight power.”
“Then let’s move quickly with the knights, including me, and join the front line.”
Thanks to the knight order that ran day and night, Eurius was able to get out of the crisis without exposing his weakness.
When he heard that, Eurius clicked his tongue inwardly.
‘She’s a scary woman. She’s so calm on the battlefield at this age.’
“…?”
When Eurius looked at Beatrix with a slightly annoyed expression, she also looked puzzled.
“Do you feel burdened by me accompanying you, Your Highness?”
“Haha, why would I?”
‘I have to train harder if I don’t want that to happen like in my previous life.’
Eurius sweated coldly in his mind and renewed his vow.