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Chapter 294 – Time to Reap the Rewards. (2)

Harold couldn’t accept it. This power was forbidden—the ultimate means that would surely cost him his sanity and life.

He had lost everything. Thus, he resorted to using this vile power, even at the risk of his life, to try to kill Ghislaine.

But that power was ineffective.

Despite using the strength he thought he would never need until death, he was still losing!

“Uaaaaargh!”

Harold shouted as he wildly swung his fists. However, his attacks were no different from those flailed by any commoner.

Swish!

Ghislaine sliced Harold’s wrist clean off.

“Gah!”

This time, it was so absurdly easy that blood gushed forth. Harold staggered back, his face contorted in pain.

Seeing this, Ghislaine narrowed her eyes.

‘As expected, there’s a slight difference.’

The level of the Mana Circulation Method did seem lower than what she had seen in her previous life.

If it were a proper rampage, he wouldn’t even feel pain before losing his head. He appeared completely lucid.

Vanessa hadn’t come back to her senses until she was near death, her core crushed.

Yet Harold looked as foolish as a half-turned monster.

Harold shouted with a blood-soaked face, as if he couldn’t believe it.

“How! How can you withstand this power! This transcendent strength given by the Duke Faction!”

“The Duke Faction…?”

Only then did Ghislaine grasp the situation. That Mana Circulation Method wasn’t something an individual possessed. It had been created and distributed to the followers by the Duke Faction.

And yet, to have even someone as high-ranking as Harold learn such a method, and one so significantly weaker than what she had seen in her past life at that.

‘Is that shoddy Mana Circulation Method ranked in tiers? Or is the Duke Faction continuously improving it?’

Certainly, in her past life, she encountered such individuals only after a considerable time had passed. Each might have been trained differently, or perhaps they developed over time.

She had shrugged it off before, but now it irked her that she pursued a similar effect to what she had learned.

While she wanted to ask about everything, Harold wouldn’t tell her anything worth listening to.

‘By the way, transcendent power? Is he really just relying on that meager ability?’

The power she had seen in her previous life was not so clumsy. Even an ordinary knight could unleash master-level strength.

Ghislaine nodded to herself.

“Certainly, it’s a Mana Circulation Method still being improved upon by the Duke Faction.”

If they had a high-grade Mana Circulation Method in her previous life, they wouldn’t have distributed something so lowly to an important figure like Harold.

“…How do you know?”

Harold questioned with a look of profound shock. This was a secret only a handful of individuals within the Duke Faction knew.

Yet, it seemed Ghislaine was aware that the Duke Faction was continuing its research and improvement on the Mana Circulation Method.

“What… what are you?”

Watching Harold convulsing, Ghislaine lowered her core’s opening stage to one again. There was no need to maintain a level three any longer.

Harold’s body was starting to shrink and age rapidly as well.

With the Mana Circulation breaking down, he couldn’t harness power, and his life force was wildly draining faster than ever.

Seeing this, Ghislaine chuckled softly.

“I’ll just say you’re someone who returned from death.”

“What?”

“To eliminate you and the Duke Faction.”

“Y-you!”

Harold could no longer wield his sword. He merely bellowed, tears of blood streaming down his face.

Step. Step.

Ghislaine walked slowly up to Harold.

If she just waited, Harold would wither away and die. But…

“That kind of death is extravagant for you.”

Though the Duke Faction instigated Perdium’s downfall, it was Harold who executed it.

He had killed Elena and incited territorial wars, ultimately trampling Perdium. Even in this life, he employed countless schemes to obliterate Perdium.

Harold, who had skulked in the North for so long, couldn’t be allowed to die so easily.

Ghislaine lifted Harold’s sword and infused it with mana.

Crackle.

The blade shattered into multiple fragments that fell to the floor.

Ghislaine floated the shards with a thread of mana, grinning.

“Now, it’s time to pay for what you’ve done. Count Harold Desmond.”

Bam bam bam bam bam!

“Gaaah!”

Harold screamed in agony as the shards of the sword embedded themselves all over his body.

The shards constantly stimulated his nerves. The pain was so intense that rather than losing consciousness, his mind became even sharper.

“Uaaaaargh!”

Harold fell, drenched in blood, only able to scream.

After a long time of such convulsions, Harold finally stopped when he had become a complete old man, his hair and teeth all gone.

He squeezed out his last strength, his mouth moving slightly.

“You… you will…”

And then Harold died with his eyes unable to close properly and only his mouth agape.

Ghislaine looked at him for a moment before murmuring in a dry voice.

“A pathetic death truly befitting you.”

News of Harold’s demise quickly spread through Desmond’s army.

The central command was already in disarray, surrounded by the Perdium army and Kingdom army. Upon hearing the news, they hurriedly dropped their weapons and were either surrendering or fleeing.

Gordon, the chief knight of Penris, was the first to rush over to Ghislaine. Despite bleeding profusely, he joyfully exclaimed.

“We won! My Lord! We’ve won! A great victory! We’ve defeated the mighty Desmond’s army of the North!”

“Waaaah!”

Cheers erupted from all around. They had achieved a monumental victory against an army of thirty thousand.

Amidst the celebration, Ghislaine spoke to Gordon with a stern expression.

“Right now, everyone who can move must mount their horses and follow me.”

“W-why now? Shouldn’t we tidy up the battlefield, gather the spoils, and rest?”

“Leave the battlefield cleanup to my father and the Kingdom army. Tell them we can express our gratitude later. Move quickly. We have to seize Desmond’s castle and key fortresses right now.”

“Desmond’s?”

Gordon looked puzzled. The main forces of Desmond had already been annihilated. The place was empty, with no one left to defend it.

They could simply march in and take possession. Who would dare to stop them?

Even if someone sought to occupy the vacant homes, the war had just ended. It would take time to coordinate and move.

And they had a legitimate claim here. Would anyone dare to fight against this army that included the Kingdom’s forces? There was no one in the North crazily enough for that.

“Why go already? That place is already ours. There’s no one who can touch it or who would even try.”

Gordon presented what seemed like common sense. But Ghislaine shook her head.

Others might not know, but there was indeed someone formidable in the North.

An army was already prepared, able to move faster than anyone and unafraid of the Kingdom’s forces.

Someone was surely watching the situation here and would act as soon as the outcome was clear.

Now it was a race to see who could capture Desmond first.

“I’ll explain later. Move quickly.”

Ghislaine mounted her black king. Everyone was exhausted from the battle, making it difficult to pick up the pace. They needed to move as fast as possible.

Even before enjoying the victory, Ghislaine and the Penris army busily headed toward Desmond.

*

“P-please spare me!”

“We made a mistake!”

“I’ll give you sufficient compensation!”

Blood-soaked lords knelt, bound, their voices filled with desperate pleas for their lives.

The one the lords begged was none other than Amelia, the very target of their previous attacks.

The northern lords had banded together and attacked Amelia with high spirits, only to meet a quick and utter defeat, becoming prisoners instead.

Listening to the lords’ entreaties, Amelia spoke in a languid voice.

“You all teamed up to strike me and now you’re begging for your lives?”

The captured lords turned pale and cried out.

“We’re not surrendering! Please spare our lives according to tradition!”

“I swear I will never oppose you again!”

“I’ll give you half of my territory’s wealth! As my ransom!”

Their pleas were pitiful. However, Amelia didn’t flinch, responding without raising an eyebrow.

“I won’t let those who dared to approach me go unpunished. Take care of them.”

Meow.

With the sound of Bastet’s cry as the backdrop, the knights nearby dragged the lords away.

“Y-you! Please spare me!”

“We are not surrendering!”

“You vile wretch! I will not rest until you are dead, even in the afterlife!”

The lords were hauled away, spouting pleas, curses, and threats. Watching them with little interest, Amelia frowned slightly at the distant castle.

“Baron Valua… still cowering inside the castle.”

Though she had lured him out during the encounter with the alliance, Baron Valua hadn’t emerged.

Even after creating a sufficiently advantageous situation for him, he hadn’t taken the bait.

Amelia did not know, but in truth, Baron Valua had wanted to come out when the alliance arrived. He believed he had a good chance if they joined forces.

But the advice—or rather, the warning—he received from Ghislaine kept lingering in his mind.

[No matter what happens, never go out to fight. Even if it seems like an opportunity, it’s not.]

Indeed, an opportunity had arisen. Yet he couldn’t shake off the feeling that the letter’s contents anticipated something like this.

What further plagued his thoughts was none other than Davin.

“We need to leave! Let’s go outside and completely crush that girl! The northern lords are here; we can win!”

Davin, the fourth prince of Raybold, was nothing but a worthless figure except for his penchant for indulgence.

Hearing such a clod want to go out only fueled his distrust.

As he fretted, he eventually missed the right moment to act.

Amid his regrets, Baron Valua witnessed a shocking spectacle.

Five thousand of the northern allied forces had been utterly obliterated by the Raybold army without even a decent attempt to fight back.

At that sight, Baron Valua’s heart chilled. Had he gone out, the outcome wouldn’t have differed much.

‘As expected…he was purposefully being defensive during the siege. Did he anticipate such a situation?’

Baron Valua’s doubts grew deeper. While he could endure longer, the outcome was already virtually determined.

‘Amelia… what a terrifying woman. Her success in the rebellion isn’t mere luck. What a pity. If she had been born a man, she would have made an excellent heir.’

Reaching that thought, he found himself seeing Davin, whom he was protecting, as increasingly pathetic.

After the northern allies had been decimated, Davin turned pale and locked himself in his room every day. Terrified of being killed by Amelia, he wouldn’t even come outside.

But what could he do? He had sworn loyalty to the former Count Raybold, after all. No matter how annoying, he had to protect Davin and fight against the usurper Amelia.

In the days that followed, while hiding like a mouse in a corner, something unbelievable occurred.

The Raybold army hurriedly began to dismantle their encampment and prepare to retreat.

‘What… why are they withdrawing?’

Baron Valua didn’t realize that what had saved them was the news of Ghislaine and Harold’s battle.

The messenger observing the situation in the Penris Territory rushed over as soon as victory was assured for Penris. This had been ordered by Amelia.

“I haven’t confirmed Count Desmond’s fate, but the Penris forces have completely seized the upper hand. The main forces of Desmond have been annihilated, and the remaining troops are surrounded by the Perdium army and the 3rd legion. There seems no chance for Desmond to win.”

Amelia’s eyes sparkled as she twisted her smile.

“Ghislaine… I never imagined he’d be this formidable. No matter how much support he received from the Kingdom army, to take down Harold’s thirty-thousand strong army…”

She had half-thought they might lose, but indeed Ghislaine was no ordinary opponent. No, she could no longer deny he was truly impressive.

Having shattered Harold, Ghislaine would claim the title of the strongest in the North.

If only he could fully seize the Desmond Territory.

However, Amelia had no intention of letting Ghislaine take it so easily.

She commanded Bernap with a chilling gaze.

“Prepare for immediate retreat. We will be the first to seize Desmond.”

While Ghislaine watched over the dying Harold, the Raybold army, led by Amelia, began to march towards Desmond.

 

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