The 9th Class Swordmaster: Blade of Truth

Chapter 295: The Three Kingdoms of Istria (2)

“Re-Reporting in!”

At the break of dawn, a soldier from the Twin Armor stormed in.

“Huh? What’s all this fuss?” grumbled Marze, the Shield of Istan. He had been racking his brains over the tactical maps, and so he was irritated by the interruption.

“The stronghold of the enemy alliance is on fire...!!”

“What?”

Marze quickly looked out the window.

“...!!!”

His eyes widened, and his mouth hung open. Indeed, he could see black smoke rising far in the distance.

“Wh-What in the world is happening...?”

Marze hadn’t the faintest clue what was going on, so he urgently questioned the soldier, “The magic corps?”

“About them... Uh, we currently can’t confirm their status.”

“...What?”

***

The news also reached Aben, who was stationed at the other fortress of the Twin Armor.

Clench—

He gripped the report sent by the scout and muttered, “The magic corps surrendering one after another... What kind of nonsense is this?! How could the alliance’s stronghold be destroyed without a single sound...?”

It was outrageous. Aben had essentially lived his whole life on the battlefield, and he had never experienced such an absurd conclusion to a war.

“...”

Or rather, he could remember something similar.

“Could it be...”

At that moment, one person came to Aben’s mind.

***

Murmur, murmur...

In the scorched camps, the soldiers who hadn’t managed to escape were staring at one person, a young boy. Or rather, they were more focused on their commander, who lay helplessly beneath the feet of that boy.

“Is this even possible?”

“The one who received the kingdom’s best magical tools couldn't withstand even a single blow...”

“Who is he?”

The soldiers of the Three Kingdoms Alliance, who had set up a base to attack the Twin Armor, were split in their response to the sudden assault.

Half of the soldiers had fled as soon as the attack had begun, while the other half had remained. However, it turned out that the ones who had fled were the most experienced ones within the magic corps.

In contrast, most of those who remained were inexperienced rookies. At first, they cursed their comrades for running away, but those men knew.

They knew exactly who it was that attacked them.

“Is the second-in-command the only one left?” Karyl asked as he looked up.

“Y-Yes, that’s right.”

The remaining soldiers only then realized that their commander had already fled, abandoning them.

“Are you pointing that thing at me?”

“...Wh-What? No, no!”

The one leading the others quickly adjusted his spear, pointing it skyward. Even with a thousand soldiers, none of them dared to confront Karyl.

“Hmm, it looks like things are pretty much wrapped up here...” Karyl observed in a low voice as he glanced around the camp.

“Now that even your commander has abandoned you, what do you plan to do?” he went on. “If you surrender to the forces of the Twin Armor, you won’t end up well. So how about helping me instead?”

“Wh-What do you mean...?”

“I have no intention of wasting time on a petty battle like this. I need you to help me deal with the old man behind the scenes and end this war.”

“...”

“...”

But the soldiers continued to stare at him in disbelief.

“The alliance won’t just sit back and do nothing!”

“Alliance?”

Woosh!

In that instant, Karyl swung his blade at the deputy commander on the ground. The soil was scattered as if blown away, and the head that had been shouting rolled across the ground with the same expression frozen on its face.

“That alliance was done for the moment I got here,” Karyl scoffed. He then pointed his sword at the soldier in front and called out, “Hey you.”

“Y-Yes?!”

“Bring me the next highest-ranking officer here. I want the Three Kingdoms of Istria to fall under my control without unnecessary bloodshed.”

“Y-Yes, sir!!”

“You seem like a worthless bunch to me, but the biggest strength of your so-called alliance is probably the magic corps. If I take you out, this war will be over.”

Karyl was visibly irritated.

Although Istria was considered one of the three great powers of the continent, in comparison to the empire and the principality, the military strength of the Three Kingdoms was negligible. Because of that, Karyl had invested in their magical tools, the mana mine, and in Viola’s forces to use them later in the Oracle War as military assets.

But despite boosting their strength, the Three Kingdoms were wasting it on petty squabbles in this tiny land. It was utterly ridiculous.

Some people are hopeless, no matter what you do... Those imbeciles from the Three Kingdoms are exactly the same as before. What’s the point of creating a good environment if they don’t know how to use it?

But what puzzled him was how long it was taking Viola, Grace, and the Free Army led by Beikan to deal with this situation, even with Baron Beryl’s betrayal.

Well, whatever that old man’s scheme is, it’ll be settled once I clean up this mess.

Karyl decided to use the remaining thousand soldiers of the magic corps as hostages and head straight to Baron Beryl’s location. There was no need to waste troops, as Karyl alone was more than enough for this.

At that moment, a voice called out from a distance, “K-Karyl...! Sir!!”

Karyl smiled as he saw two veteran commanders rushing toward him.

“K-Karyl?!”

“Could it be...!”

The soldiers, finally realizing who this boy was, knelt one by one, regretting not fleeing earlier. Unlike the ones who had fled, ignorance had given these remaining soldiers courage.

“The legend of the Twin Armor...!!”

***

“One day.”

“...What?!”

“Is the stronghold where Baron Beryl is located more than a day’s distance away? If that’s the case, I’ll just capture that old man first for his betrayal, and then I’ll take care of the other three kingdoms...”

As he spoke, Karyl counted on his fingers.

“Then let’s make it two days.”

Marze and Aben were dumbfounded by Karyl’s nonchalant demeanor. Since the moment he had appeared, every word that came out of his mouth was outlandish.

“As I suspected, it was indeed you, Lord Karyl, who took out those forces. Those magic tools were giving us a headache...”

“Well, we were the ones who provided them, but those magic tools they’re using aren’t really a threat,” Karyl explained, pointing at the kneeling prisoners outside the window.

“...Even so,” Marze continued, still in shock at how nonchalant Karyl was about the whole situation.

The power of the magic tools was indeed formidable. Without a massive tower shield, blocking the spells cast by the sorcerers was nearly impossible.

The magic shields strapped to the wrists of the magic troops were lightweight, allowing even those in full armor to use them with ease. In this way, they proved just as effective as heavy infantry.

Last but not least, the enchanted weapons could turn low-class infantry into something comparable to a knight order, at least in large-scale battles.

That was the very reason Viola and the Freedom Army had been struggling. But here was Karyl, casually suggesting he could end this war in just one or two days. Marze and Aben could hardly find the words to respond to that.

“Indeed, it was my mistake. But why didn’t you tell me beforehand? If you had, we could have avoided unnecessary losses,” said Marze, his voice tinged with regret.

Princess Viola had heard of Karyl’s accomplishments in the principality and insisted on handling the affairs of the Three Kingdoms on her own.

“And yet, despite claiming to handle things on her own, she still kept the Free Army instead of sending them back to Tatur,” Karyl remarked with a chuckle.

“We told her as much, but Lord Beikan said he couldn’t leave until he had properly organized the Three Kingdoms, like you have assigned him...” Aben trailed off, embarrassed that, despite their combined efforts as the gatekeepers of Twin Armor, they still hadn’t managed to end the war.

“They’re both being stubborn for no good reason...” Karyl clicked his tongue. “Alright, give me a rundown. Where is Beryl located, and which of the kingdoms is the strongest?”

Marze hurriedly unfolded a map and began explaining, “Baron Beryl is likely in the capital of the Istan Kingdom. However, since Istan is the innermost kingdom, we’ll need to take down the other two kingdoms in order to reach the capital.”

“What about the forces of the two kingdoms up front?”

“Well... the Fenria Kingdom has twenty thousand troops, and Tevanel has ten thousand. Istan has twenty thousand, but their magic corps essentially doubles their strength, which is why they lead the alliance.”

“And how many magic troops do they have?”

“Seven thousand.”

Karyl was astonished.

The combined forces of the alliance weren’t small—around fifty thousand troops in total. But even with all three kingdoms combined, they barely matched the strength of a single principality. Also, the number of magic troops, which could be considered the core of the war, was less than ten thousand.

Perhaps it was because he had only experienced massive wars so far, but to Karyl, this war of the Three Kingdoms sounded like child’s play.

“If that’s the size of their forces, that means there are probably only two to three thousand soldiers inside the fortress.”

Karyl nodded as if there was no need to listen any further.

“Good. We can head straight to Istan without having to search around for that man, Beryl. It might not even take two days.”

“...What?”

“The gates of the Twin Armor, the hardest place to breach in the Three Kingdoms of Istria, are already open, so what’s the problem?” Karyl asked as he stretched out.

Wuuuuu―

He then took out a small orb from his pocket and condensed his mana into it, causing it to glow red. This was the same kind of communication orb that he had shattered in front of Luon in the principality.

“Anthem, you know what I want, right?”

[Yes. As soon as I received the news from Israphil, I took care of it. They will be arriving soon. We will clear the path to Istan.]

“Good. We’ll sweep away Tevanel and Fenria today. How long will it take to open the way?”

[You gave the order today, so it shall be done by the end of today.]

“Great. That’s how the job should be done.” Karyl nodded in satisfaction. “Don’t touch Istan. I’m going there myself.”

[Would I dare?]

Marze and Aben exchanged bewildered glances as they listened to the conversation between the two.

“Krrrrrrr.......”

“Ghrrrr...”

At that moment, dozens of wyverns flew in over the Twin Armor, spewing flames as they crossed the border.

Fwooosh...!

Crackle... Boom!!

At the same time, the wyvern unit dropped the small golems they had been carrying with their claws. Upon landing, the golem unit proceeded to break down the fortress gates.

“Just lend me a horse.”

Karyl settled into the saddle, tugging the reins as he glanced at the black smoke rising in the distance.

“Neighhh!!”

The horse lifted its front legs before trotting forward.

Clop-clop... Clop-clop...

Puff...! Bang!! Kaboom...!!

With the lively sound of hoofbeats, explosions went off on either side of him.

“Hmm.”

Taking in the scene around him, Karyl gradually increased his speed, urging the horse forward.

The wyvern and golem units kept up with him, destroying everything in his path.

“Aaaargh!!”

“Aaagh!!”

Boom!! Kaboom......!!

Whether it was fortress walls or enemy soldiers, everything was crushed and scorched.

It took exactly one day for both Tevanel and Fenria to fall.

Whiiing......!!

Karyl stood in front of a shabby fortress, holding the rope that bound the seven fortress captains and nineteen nobles he had captured along the way.

He was at the fortress of the Istan Kingdom.

“Guh!!”

“Aaagh...!!”

“Ahhh!”

When he pulled the rope, the twenty-six knights fell to the ground all at once. Karyl dismounted his horse, stepped on them, and invited with his finger.

“Come out.”