---

“Ha ha ha!”

As Jenis, riding atop her steed, suddenly burst into laughter with a piece of paper in hand, Alex turned to look at her. Though his face was hidden behind his helmet, he certainly appeared quite perplexed.

“Great Sage, the enemy Legion is right before us, what could possibly be so amusing?”

The prince could not hide his discomfort and asked. Jenis, completely unfazed by Alex’s words, continued to laugh until she nearly cried, wiping her eyes with her sleeve.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I just received a funny letter.”

“What letter are you talking about? The enemy is nearly upon us.”

“Don’t worry about it. You wouldn’t understand it anyway. Prince, leading two thousand five hundred Ironclad Knights, what on earth are you so worried about? You hardly need my help.”

“Even so…”

“It’s a simple mission. Smash them to pieces and we’ll head back. There’s nothing concerning about this at all, is there?”

“Well, if you put it that way, I have nothing to say…”

Jenis crumpled up the letter from Jeongjae and stuffed it into her robe. Jeongjae’s message was extraordinary. Walter had raised numerous objections about the feasibility and usefulness of Jenis’s plan. While the content was valid, it was not something Jenis had overlooked.

Walter didn’t fully grasp Jenis’s thoughts, but blocking the Great Sage’s plan was a burden even for a Hero, so he promptly stamped it down.

However, Jeongjae seemed to have understood right away what Jenis was thinking, immediately sending her a short letter.

“I still don’t have that ability… That’s true, Professor. You’re right. I may be a bit… no, quite overconfident. It seems only a Wizard can understand a Wizard’s thoughts!”

“If you have time to talk to yourself, can you give me a little advice on what to do?”

Alex urged Jenis with a somewhat exasperated tone. Jenis tilted her head with a puzzled expression as she replied.

“I must ask, your Highness. Is the leader of the Knights me or you?”

“Of course it’s you! But that doesn’t mean…”

“Let me ask another question. Have I ever sought your opinion on the affairs of the Magic Tower? Not even once have I requested specific instructions on how to deal with the Wizards of the Magic Tower, let alone from the Hero.”

“Why are you being like this? You commanded well in the last battle, didn’t you?”

Alex could no longer hold back and lifted the visor of his helmet, revealing a worried expression. Though his youthful appearance was as handsome as anyone on the continent, Jenis paid little attention to his looks and focused only on the prince’s troubled face.

“Winning and losing is part of life. At least you’ve compensated for the last defeat, haven’t you?”

“Since my sister took up the sword, she has never lost. How can you say this happens to everyone?”

“Rose Caprice has the audacity to pretend to win even after losing, so she always comes out on top. You’re her brother, yet you seem remarkably different in temperament. Believe in yourself; if that’s hard, then trust the Knights!”

“Is it really alright if I do as you say?”

“To begin with, I’m here so that you can express your intentions freely.”

“Then I will take your word for it. Knights!”

Alex raised his spear high and shouted loudly. At the prince’s call, the Ironclad Knights following him raised their voices in unison.

“Yes!”

“From now on, we will split the Legion into ten and smash the enemy stronghold. Don’t worry about the terrain; focus on annihilating every formation quickly! Sound the trumpet! Let all the enemies know we are here!”

Alex’s unit arrived in front of the cluster of small Orc fortresses. Though hastily constructed with about a meter-high wall made of uneven bricks, there were hundreds of such fortresses in formation, which made it difficult for the Ironclad Knights to attack easily.

In one pit, around one hundred Orcs were on defensive alert, with the front row of wooden walls being attacked while the hidden Orcs in the back supported their front lines with arrows and javelins.

Since the enemy’s position was bothersome yet foolish, Walter wanted the Knights dispatched to wipe out the region’s Orcs as soon as possible. Rose also deemed this mission suitable for restoring Alex’s flagging sense of honor, so she agreed to the Knights’ deployment. Of course, this was under the condition that Jenis would accompany them to play a supportive role.

“A pit, a pit, huh…”

The request for Jenis to assist Alex in the operation was not a bad prospect for either, as Alex’s confidence in solo command had already dwindled considerably, and for Jenis, who had been peering into the crystal ball all day observing enemy movements, it was also a conducive proposition.

In fact, even if Rose hadn’t asked Jenis to look after her brother, Jenis would have volunteered for this mission on her own. A bit of intriguing information had popped out during the Lich’s interrogation process.

“I don’t even know what that weird machine is! Please stop torturing me with mental magic! I-I mean the pit! There’s something down there! It seems really important, so it might be what you want! So please just stop!”

That rather shabby-looking Lich revealed only that information while thrashing about.

Even at this moment, the Wizards were diligently casting spells and torturing the skeletal necromancer, but upon hearing such information, Jenis could not help but follow Alex as he set out to assault the “fortress full of pits.”

The trumpet sounded, and the red banners fluttered. According to Alex’s earlier instructions, the split Knights charged into the first line of the fortress forest. While Alex led the charge, Jenis slowed her horse’s speed, observing the battle from the back.

After all, it was her judgment that those knights wouldn’t get injured or killed too quickly.

The hastily built walls of the fortress were so low that the knights didn’t even need to make an effort to overcome them. The elite knights, made up of noble offspring, efficiently surrounded one of the fortresses and began to stab the Orcs hiding in the pits with reckless abandon.

In some cases, there were knights who plunged their lances into the walls without slowing down, breaking the walls entirely. In these cases, rather than slaughtering the Orcs from outside the pit, the knights leaped into the pit, trampling and stabbing the Orcs simultaneously.

Arrows and javelins poured down from the fortress directly behind them, but most of the knights were completely unharmed by the thick armor they wore, to the extent that they didn’t even notice the attacks.

The knights not only wore their own armor but had also clad their horses in shining armor, making the hastily assembled Orc troops’ weapons practically ineffective for their intended defense.

The Orcs, executing their prearranged tactics, attempted to distract the defenders while hiding in the rear fortresses, dividing their hidden forces to encircle the intruders significantly.

Watching everything from a distance, Jenis contemplated whether it might be wise to inform Alex of the situation, but Alex was no fool, concentrating too intently on slaughtering the enemies to be oblivious of their movements.

“The enemy flanks are attempting to surround us! Unit 1 and Unit 7, cease the assault on the fortress and prevent the enemy’s encirclement attempts. Unit 1 will handle the left flank, while Unit 7 will control the right flank, blocking the Orc’s movements and simultaneously have Unit 6 infiltrate the rear fortresses to fill in the pits left empty by the enemy!”

At Alex’s clear command, hundreds of knights moved in perfect order. Although the command didn’t contain any special tactics, that short order allowed the knights’ training to flexibly adapt their previously set plans.

Jenis muttered in slight admiration, “Though lacking in talent compared to my sister, he can’t be dismissed in terms of reputation and command.”

Two hundred knights blocked thousands of Orcs trying to encircle them from the left, while another two hundred knights halted the Orcs attempting to encircle them from the right.

Alex also spread his wings wide to completely block the path, preventing the Orcs from leveraging their numerical advantage through a flanking maneuver.

Instead, the knights managed to push the Orcs back after easily absorbing an offensive attack, while the sixth unit prepared to advance into the rear fortresses as per Alex’s orders.

Since this battle was held in an unprepared situation for the enemy, everything seemed to be going exceedingly smoothly. With a satisfied expression, Jenis was suddenly taken aback, her face turning serious as she began counting the Orcs one by one with her fingers.

“One, ten, hundred, thousand… One, ten, hundred, thousand… Three thousand on the left and one thousand on the right… One, maybe two legions?”

Jenis’s fingers froze at that moment. Suddenly, the Great Sage’s face turned pale as a murmur escaped her lips.

“The pits are large, but the number of creatures is small. Something is wriggling down there. We must block it!”

Jenis did not hesitate to act. Drawing her sword from her waist, she charged into the battlefield at lightning speed, dispatching two Orcs in an instant. Alex turned to look at how Jenis had leapt into the fortress forest.

“What is the situation? The battle is going smoothly. It seems we can handle it without the Great Sage’s help.”

“Stop the advance of Unit 6. Right now! Sound the trumpet!”

Normal commanders might have questioned the situation, asking, ‘Why are you doing this?’ but Alex understood the order of events in a crisis.

The prince quickly pulled out his reserve trumpet and sent a stop signal to all the knights who had been advancing rapidly. Both the rapidly advancing sixth unit and the units on the left and right also recognized Alex’s signal and halted their advancement. Jenis nodded and spoke.

“The left and right can continue to move forward. However, recall the center. Something feels off. The enemy’s numbers are too low.”

“What do you mean the enemy’s numbers are low?”

“The size of the pits doesn’t match up with containing only four thousand. Something else is hidden there. I will verify it myself, so you slowly follow me and smash the front fortresses.”

Without waiting for Alex’s response, Jenis dashed forward alone into the rear of the enemy’s position. Passing the knights who had been hesitating due to the sudden stop order, Jenis reached the furthest pit at the back of the enemy fortress, raised her staff high, and began to chant.

“There are many spells that reach the heavens, but the magic reaching the earth is few.”

The Great Sage leapt down from her horse and thrust the tip of her staff into the ground.

“Earth, tremble. Allow my feeble strength to mimic the might of the great shift.”

With Jenis’s earthquake magic came a rumbling sound as the entire area began to shake. The Orcs were not the only ones startled by this spell. The quaking ground could instill primal fear in anyone.

Of course, the amount of mana needed to shake the ground was immense, so Jenis’s magic couldn’t cause all the pits to collapse at once or tear the earth to suck the Orcs into a pit.

The amount of mana required to execute a properly devastating spell is certainly not small compared to that required for a Manhattan-level spell.

Jenis’s purpose was not to attack the Orcs with an earthquake from the start. She used this spell to frighten the creatures hiding in the pits.

Her intentions were confirmed. The five pits trembled simultaneously, ejecting beings resembling dragons into the sky.

From head to tail, they measured around 10 meters. With a wingspan of 20 meters, they were a subspecies of dragon.

While they shared an origin with dragons, they were far too sluggish to be on par with them, flying battle weaponry who knew none other than the Dragon Lord.

The Demon King’s army’s wyvern squad, startled by the earthquake, rose into the sky and formed an aerial formation.

“Could it have been a trap set by that guy…”

As Jenis looked up at the soaring wyverns, she murmured once more. If properly armed ground troops had reached here without any anti-airpower…

That would have spelled disaster. Perhaps the Lich’s desperate resistance had been a trap that depended on those hidden wyverns.

But it was not just wyverns that could exist in this battlefield.

“Then I shall devour them all!”

Jenis spread her wings wide behind her and shouted. Unbeknownst to her, everyone around her was listening to her shout, and that Alex, frightened more by her than by the wyverns, trembled in response.

 

---