Chapter 235 – Gaiden – Part 0, Chapter 10
The Territory War between the Armageddon and Gelion families ended with the Armageddon family winning with an overwhelming power difference just a few hours after the start of the war. No one expected the defeat of Emeris City, which had gone through countless battles for large and small territories. It was the same even for the head of the Duke of Grakas, the home of Viscount Gelion.
Clink!
“Damn it, damn it!!”
“Kyaahhhhh!”
“Whoop, whoop…”
The Duke of Grakas threw the glass he was holding onto the floor and let out a rough breath with his face reddening.
“You lost the Battle of the Territory and lost the ownership of Emerys City? Not to anyone else, but to the Armageddon family, who were like corpses after I killed them all together with the Duke of Period a few years ago?”
Even if it is a new branch of the Duke of Grakas, there is no one in Hermon Kingdom who does not know that the Duke of Grakas is behind the Viscount Gelion. The reason why the city of Emeris has not been captured so far is that it has a high barrier that cannot be penetrated by the remaining forces around it, and the defense force is composed of people with a lot of combat experience, so it has a considerable strength, but above all, behind it is the most powerful force in the kingdom. It was possible because of one of the two strongest nobles, the Duke of Grakas.
However, the city of Emerys was taken away. That alone would be a huge blow to the face of the Duke of Graccass, but, of course, it was also done by the Armageddon family.
One of the three dukes who founded the kingdom of Hermon, and because of its unrivaled military power and full support from the kingdom, the damned family eventually joined hands with the Duke of Period and drove it to the brink of extinction.
“Turn it off…!!”
In the family tree, which he thought had been destroyed with his own hands, and left only remnants, he smeared his own face. The Duke of Grakas couldn’t stand that fact. It can only be thought of as a petty pride fight, but pride is a very important thing for nobles. If the duke’s family, called the two wings of Hermon’s kingdom, doesn’t do anything after taking a shot at a fallen family, it can be looked down upon by the nobles who follow him and the nobles who are hostile to him.
Face is like that.
“The excitement has cooled. Everyone go out. And, tell everyone who can fight right away to prepare for battle.”
“Yep!”
He let go of all the female attendants who served him and the merchants who were courting him, and Duke Grakas glared fiercely at his eyes. Still, together they helped to found this kingdom, but after hearing Duke Period’s words to not let go of their breath thinking of that affection, I tried to live without ending it, but you dared to repay that favor in this way. Promising that he would fully pay for the disgrace to his face, the Duke of Gracas hurriedly prepared for the campaign.
The longer he was deprived of the city of Emerys, the less powerful his authority would be.
The Duke of Period sent a letter saying that this incident was very regrettable and that they would support to prevent the resurgence of the Armageddon family, but Duke Grakas ignored it. No matter how powerful the Armageddon family was once, they are now mere lions without all their teeth. Borrowing the power of the Duke of Period to catch such a diseased animal was hardly a matter of face.
In this way, before the Duke of Period’s support arrived, the Duke of Gracas, with all available forces, began marching towards the city of Emerys at once.
*
“This… Unexpected result.”
The kingdom of Hermon belongs to the weak side of the king’s power. However, to begin with, the weakness of Hermon’s royal authority was ultimately the fault of the royal family.
Hermon’s royal family unilaterally sided with the Armageddon family, which was the strongest of the three nations. It was because the power of the Duke of Armageddon was the strongest.
Even though the Duke of Armageddon was in danger due to a pincer attack by the two dukes who were envious of it, they did not have the confidence to deal with the aftermath from the two dukes, so they neglected the attack on the duke of Armageddon, who was most favorable to them.
After the fall of the Armageddon dukedom due to the pincer attack of the other two dukehouses, in order to suppress the power of the aristocrats from growing stronger day by day, the aristocrats fought each other to reduce their power. There was no way to fight.
Rather, due to the royal family’s rule not to intervene in the outcome of the territorial war, the nobles of the royal family lost their power as they were defeated in the irrational territorial war by the nobles of the aristocratic faction.
When the strongest ally was in danger, they gave up their losses and became a policy that only eroded the power of their allies in order to prevent the enemy’s power from growing too large. The nobles of the Royalist faction that remain today are either true loyalists who are loyal to the royal family despite such circumstances, or just idiots who can’t even read that level of flow.
In the meantime, an amazing thing happened.
The young family owner, the last bloodline of the Armageddon family, who had lost everything and only his name remained, suddenly led the troops he had saved from somewhere and won the land battle that the Duke of Grakas set against Viscount Gelion, who was behind him, to gain ownership of Emeris City.
A family that was once stronger and more loyal than anyone else, but lost everything due to the two dukes’ pincer attack and the royal family’s ignorance, proudly threw a challenge at the enemy’s family.
And the royal family of Hermon…
“The Duke of Grakas has been forced to use force in order to clearly trample on Baron Armageddon, even for the sake of face. It seems that the last head of the Armageddon family hired mercenaries by force, using the last hidden legacy of the family as a telegram. No matter how much it is, you won’t be able to defeat the forces of the Duke of Graccass, but if you still defend yourself in Emerys, you’ll be able to get the Duke’s attention for a while, so in the meantime, if you put pressure on the families under the Duke of Period… “
He knows that the author of Armageddon Nam won the Battle of the Territory and obtained Emerys City, but he only knew the result and did not hear the process, so he thought it was just a fluke.
And it was natural.
Who could have predicted that the last head of a fallen aristocratic family abandoned by the royal family had received power from a legendary demon dragon in a foreign land?
*
“Hey, there are so many of them.”
The view from the city walls of Emerys was superb. About 3,000 soldiers advancing from afar.
“Did you bring the siege tower, the ladder, and even the siege tower? I’ve prepared a lot to get this place back.”
You might think it’s only three thousand, but it’s not. Those are not soldiers of the kingdom, but private soldiers of the Duke of Grakas. It was not an army belonging to the state, but a whopping 3,000 soldiers raised privately by one nobleman.
“…If Duke Grakas made the move himself, you won’t stand a chance anymore. Baron Armageddon.”
Viscount Gelion told me to surrender, but I snorted and approached him and slapped him on the shin.
“Keugh…!”
“When did I ever allow a prisoner to speak? I never said it was okay to talk, but whoever wants to surrender or whatever is talking nonsense…”
Although I have occupied the city of Emerys, I have not yet killed the former lord, Viscount Gelion. Viscount Gelion was a faction of the Duke of Grakas to the bone, so he had no intention of turning to me, but if I killed him right away, it would be difficult to properly control the city of Emeris. So, by killing the Duke of Gracas right in front of his eyes, I allowed him to observe the siege in order to completely subjugate him.
“Do you really think I’m going to lose? No, no. You already know who’s going to win. It’s just that you don’t want to accept the outcome, so you’re just using a bunch of shit.”
The total number of people I killed and turned into soldiers on the way to this city of Emerys was just over a thousand. In terms of the number of troops, the power difference is almost three times, and considering that it is a defensive battle, it will be a very tight battle where you cannot predict which side will win.
It would have been the case if the forces operated by this side were not for the undead soldiers who neither die nor get tired.
Even if this is not the case, the side that captures the castle needs nearly three times the fighting power of the defending side, and the undead soldiers who can stand guard all night without falling down even if they are hit by arrows are very specialized in defensive battles. So I’m not sure
“Now then, shall we begin our full-fledged debut as a villain? Viscount Gelion, so that you can watch carefully from there. Watching the Duke of Gracas and his soldiers, whom you followed so much, die at my hands.”
I don’t have the confidence to fight against them.
He waved his hands like a conductor of an orchestra and commanded thousands of undead soldiers. All the rotten flesh has fallen off, and now the soldiers, who are really only bones, are busy moving here and there to finish preparing for battle. Boiling oil, huge boulders, and all the spare arrows left in the defensive fortress of Emeris. At this level, not only the Duke of Grakas, but also the Duke of Period would not be able to win.
“Waaaaa!!”
With a deafening roar, Duke Grakas’ troops charged. First of all, they shot arrows, but even in the rushing rain of arrows, the number of fallen soldiers was not that many. Apparently, not only knights but also soldiers were provided with fairly good quality armor. In the end, it’s just a waste of an arrow… Well, just knowing that arrows don’t work is enough harvest.
“Prepare boiling oil.”
Soldiers clad in thick armor impervious to arrows drag huge battering rams. Behind them, a movable ladder long enough to cross the walls of Emerys was being carried, and catapults, siege guns, and siege towers were slowly approaching behind them.
“Okay then step one.”
The moment the soldiers carried the battering ram right in front of the castle gate, I waved my hand and at the same time dug up the floor, the skeleton soldiers got up and attacked the soldiers attached to the battering rammer and poked their blades through the gaps in their armor.
“Keuugh, ugh!”
“It’s a surprise attack!
“Damn it…!”
Last night, I dug a hole in the ground in front of the gate and buried some soldiers in it. Since they were corpses anyway, they didn’t need to breathe, so the undead soldiers who could ambush for a long time came out as soon as I gave the signal and stabbed the defenseless soldiers fiercely. Since there are still traces of digging up and covering the ground, it was a simple trap that could confirm that there would be something with a little care, but the soldiers who were only concerned about the disturbance from above and did not pay attention to the ground below were caught in a nice trap.
“Well then, these intrusive battering rams… Should be put away beforehand?”
I moved my magical energy and raised the siege weight that the soldiers of the Duke of Grakas had been dragging. Viscount Gelion, who was watching from the side, as well as the soldiers advancing in this direction, were filled with the sound of breathing in as if surprised. Well, it deserves it. Twenty or more soldiers had to cling to it and push it, because the battering weight that barely moved the cartwheels floated in the air as if a huge, invisible hand had lifted it.
“Okay, take it back!”
I threw the siege weight that I had lifted with my magical powers towards Grakas’ troops who were coming from far away. The heavy siege weight flew in a parabolic line, and the ram head decoration, which was designed to break down the gate, struck the body of the siege tower instead of the gate, and the mobile wooden tower collapsed as it was.
“Wow, that’s a home run.”
“M-M-M… Mage…!”
“What, you couldn’t believe I was a wizard until now when you saw me commanding these corpse soldiers?”
Ignoring Viscount Gelion’s absurd reaction, I looked at the camp of the Duke of Grakas. The fact that the siege weight, which was supposed to destroy the gate in the forefront, flew through the sky and rammed and destroyed the siege tower advancing at a slow speed from the rear row, must have been quite a shock.
What is it, is it so expensive?
*
“Wizard… Is there a wizard over there who can cast such strong magic that he can throw such a heavy object lightly in such a short time?”
“Isn’t this dangerous? Even our wizards can’t do that!”
The return of the siege weight by Baron Ragnar Armageddon had a significant impact on the camp of the Duke of Grakas. It was not only the soldiers who were shocked by the sight of the ram-headed battering ram destroying the siege towers of the allies. The magicians brought by Duke Grakas for the siege also showed considerable agitation at the absurd sight a moment ago.
“That magic…”
“Without a chant or a magic circle, simply pouring magic power to produce this much power? Is that possible for humans?”
“The magic power from a moment ago… Even with all of our magical powers combined, it was an amount that couldn’t be surpassed. This seems dangerous. I heard that the Armageddon family had nothing left, but where the hell did they bring such a magical monster?”
The wizards, who never imagined that Baron Armageddon himself would be a wizard, were convinced that their lives could not be saved if they entered a full-scale magical battle. That ignorant mana was so powerful that even if they poured all their mana into defense magic, they couldn’t stand it for long. It was like the difference between a glass full of water and a huge ocean.
“Dragon… Dragon, obviously.”
“Nonsense. Dragons are legendary creatures. There’s no way they can exist.”
“But that magical power is inexplicable unless it is a dragon.”
“Damn it… But now you can’t desert here. How much have you received from Duke Grakas in the meantime…”
“Damn it, have you ever been beaten up? I was conscripted in less than a month after I was appointed to the estate of the Duke of Grakas. Damn it…! To die in a place like this for nothing, I locked myself in the Mage Tower for several years and only read books. Do you know?”
However, the wizard had no reason to listen to other wizards’ opinions about his dissatisfaction. It was because the black thunderbolts falling from the sky quickly turned the rear ranks of the Duke of Grakas into ashes without even having time to chant defensive magic spells.
*
A siege war that began in Emerys City. The territorial battle between Baron Armageddon and the Duke of Gracas was decided in just three days.
That there was not a single survivor left in the camp of the Duke of Grakas.
It was the first step for Ragnar Armageddon, who was only an unfortunate fallen nobleman, to become famous as the strongest, worst, and worst villain in the history of the Hermon Kingdom, along with the notoriety of the ‘Black Army’.
