Chapter 41: Lightning

“Miss, this is the report for this month.”

“Good job.”

There was a storm brewing at the northern front line, but the impact had not reached Stefan yet.

As she looked at the report and took a sip of tea, Jegal Hwayoung sighed with relief.

‘Fortunately, there are no major obstacles to Je Gal Se Ga’s migration plan.’

Everything was going smoothly. 

The Azure Dragon Clan was involved in almost all businesses in the north, not to mention the supply situation at the front line.

‘War is also something to be happy about.’

Food and weapons for the soldiers don’t fall from the sky. As they were the most influential sangdan in the north, this war would also bring them a lot of benefits.

‘By the way, there was someone who told me about the north.’

The empire’s first prince, Eurius.

It was a short meeting, and they didn’t even exchange their names, but his trading conditions were still clear in her mind.

She had sent a letter to her family about the first prince’s conditions.

The first prince’s conditions were very shocking, but the family’s answer was vague.

‘We don’t mind showing you, but Azure Dragon’s breath cannot be taken out of Je Gal Se Ga.’

This meant that they would only move it when Je Gal Se Ga settled in this continent for a long time or when the first prince came to Hwan himself across the continent.

But both conditions were ambiguous.

First of all, Je Gal Se Ga’s migration plan was set for a long term. The Azure Dragon’s breath, which was the highest secret of the family, would be moved much later. Would the emperor wait that long?

The second one was even more unnecessary. 

The exchange between the two continents had increased recently, but asking the first prince to cross the sea to another continent was an unreasonable condition.

‘Well, everything will be clear after the war is over.’

The first prince left Stefan and said he would give an answer by the day he returned from the north.

But it had been over a year and there was no sign of Eurius coming out of the northern front line. 

Rather, a tense situation called war had occurred.

‘I wonder if His highness can overcome this crisis.’

She swallowed the cold tea in one gulp and made a skeptical expression.

…

“Your Highness! The departure preparations are complete.”

“Good work.”

Around that time, Eurius had finished preparing to head to Grime Castle.

The Count kept his promise and left most of his loyal knights who had been active with him in the north for a long time.

‘I don’t have to participate in the frontal war to get what I want!’

He smiled inwardly.

He had received command of over a thousand soldiers for the first time as a defensive force.

‘I have enough knights and depending on the situation I can also advance into the mountain range and look for Nuada.’

Eurius didn’t know much about geography but he could roughly tell where Nuada’s tribe was by looking at the mountain map.

“Grime Castle is old but it’s a stronghold that is regularly maintained. You probably won’t be uncomfortable living there.”

“I’m looking forward to seeing a new place. I don’t mind being uncomfortable but I wonder when the reinforcements from the capital will come…”

It didn’t take long to get to Grime Castle in the rear. Eurius nodded with satisfaction as he saw the sturdy castle.

‘It’s definitely more solid than the city walls.

“If the barbarians try to attack our rear, we can hold them off here.”

Linfield also looked at the castle with a confident expression.

‘I should stay here and watch the situation for a while.’

And to be honest, he was exhausted from running around without a break for the past few months.

Eurius entered the castle with a relaxed expression.

‘Maybe I can finally get some rest!’

But the world is unpredictable!

Only a week after Eurius left Valdes Fortress and set up camp at Grime Castle, an incident occurred.

It started with a group of stragglers who had separated from the Immigrant Tribe Alliance Army led by Gundar.

The group did not seem to have many numbers, but they had left the main force and headed to a different direction.

The name of the tribe at the front was Thunder Rock Tribe! 

Their original name was Divine Punishment Rock Tribe, but they had changed it recently due to some event.

“How dare they ignore us like this, I can’t trust that so-called Great chief!”

“You should have challenged him to a duel for the chief position!”

Two loyal followers loudly complained, but their chief Nuada was calm.

“Well, it’s not like we were sent to the battlefield as cannon fodder, right?”

“Why didn’t you just show your skills!”

“Even if he has many warriors by his side, if it’s revealed that you are a great warrior…”

Nuada raised his hand to stop them.

“That was my decision. I have my own plan. You don’t need to worry about it.”

His aura became stronger as he spoke, and the two followers closed their mouths.

Of course, Nuada also wanted to smash that stupid Gundar’s head right away.

‘But there seems to be someone behind him.’

They might have hidden it, but he could not fool his senses.

When he first met Gundar, who claimed to be the chief, he felt the presence of many skilled warriors around him.

‘As far as I know, even if they gather all the talented warriors from the tribes at the foot of the mountain range, they can’t reach that number.’

Nuada had no choice but to pretend to follow Gundar’s will.

‘There is definitely someone behind that idiot…’

He reached [great warrior] status, which was legendary in the north and equivalent to [superhuman] in the continent, but he could not ignore the ominous feeling he got from Gundar’s back.

‘We will act as if we follow Gundar while looking for a chance to escape.’

That was the opinion of several tribes who agreed with him. They had no reason to fight a large-scale war with the foreigners at the foot of the mountain.

Nuada was a young and ambitious chief. He had his own ambition, but it was different from Gundar’s.

‘It’s good to unify the north. But that doesn’t mean we have to fight with the foreigners.’

The tribes of the north had their own traditions. They would not become his forces just because he forced them together.

Besides, he heard that the number of foreigners at the foot of the mountain had increased tremendously recently.

‘It would be nice if we could make peace with them.’

The problem was the barren land of the mountain range.

They could not farm, and hunting was their main source of food. But because of the threat of beasts and monsters, hunting was not easy for tribes that lacked warriors.

He thought it was inevitable for the weak(?) tribes at the foot of the mountain range to go down to plunder.

As he was thinking this, he heard a report from one of his tribe members who went ahead.

“Chief. I can see a group of foreigners over there.”

“That’s a pretty big building, isn’t it?”

It was quite a distance, but with his eyesight, it was no different from observing it up close. Nuada glanced at Grime Castle and gave an order.

‘But we have to pretend to fight, so why don’t we take over that much?’

“Start the attack! It looks like there are quite a few warriors over there, so Sven, Bogr. You two will have to take the lead.”

The two warriors who were named shouted with joy.

‘I haven’t had a chance to loosen up for a while. It’s going well.’

‘It’s almost guaranteed that we’ll win with the chief by our side!’

It was a piece of cake to take over a small castle like that with the chief behind them.

And the news of their arrival was quickly delivered to the castle.

“Waaaaaaa!!!”

Eurius heard the scream from afar with his keen senses.

“Your highness! It looks like a bunch of barbarians are coming in.”

“I heard it too.”

He quickly got up and put on his armor, feeling puzzled.

‘The northern warriors don’t prefer tactics like splitting their forces and hitting the back, do they?’

It’s early in the war, and the immigrants have a lot of power, but if the central government sends support, they’ll be outnumbered, so splitting up here isn’t a very smart way.

‘The chief has changed, so maybe their way has changed too.’

Eurius convinced himself and ordered Linfield.

“Defend the wall with the knights as the center. It’s likely that they brought some elites as well as Yang Dong.”

“Yes, sir.”

Linfield hurried out to command.

‘It’s a bit fishy, but there won’t be any trouble while I’m here, right?’

Eurius was relaxed inside. His job was to preserve the lives of the knights and soldiers as much as possible.

As long as he helped them properly, it wouldn’t be hard to hold on.

But contrary to Eurius’ expectations, the situation was not easy.

“Defend the wall!”

“Warriors, make way for us!”

The immigrants who had climbed over the wall easily were fighting on par with the knights.

‘Huh? The level of the warriors is not bad?’

To Eurius’ eyes, they were different from most of the ragtag warriors he had seen so far.

“Hahaha! I didn’t expect to find someone who could cross swords with me in this corner!”

A slender warrior with twin swords clashed with Heinz.

Surprisingly, he was having a close match with one of the best among the royal guards.

‘Linfield is also in trouble.’

He was also busy blocking Bogr’s huge axe while commanding.

‘And there’s something familiar about this atmosphere?’

Eurius tried to remember.

‘A warrior with twin swords? Sven? No way!’

As he recalled his previous life’s memory, Eurius drew his sword and rushed into the battlefield.

If his guess was right, he would suffer a lot of damage in this battle if he didn’t step in.

Nuada was also watching the situation from below the wall for a while.

‘It seems like it’s time to intervene.’

He didn’t expect to have trouble taking over a castle like this, even though he had only picked the best warriors, but the opponents were not easy either.

“Bring me a spear!”

He was good at hand-to-hand combat using his fists and feet, but he had another way of attacking.

‘If I blow up the enemy’s leader and then jump in, I can easily subdue them.’

Nuada lightly held the long spear in one hand and took a stance.

“Hap!”

His waist bent like a bow. It was the posture of throwing a spear. The spear, which was infused with force and glowed blue, was soon dyed white.

“One, go!”

Nuada shouted as he threw the spear.

Kwaaaa!

The thrown spear became a bolt of lightning. In the blink of an eye, it crossed the wall and the battlefield.

And its target was!

‘No!!’

Eurius, who felt a different level of presence, ran across the wall at full speed.

The target of the spear was obvious. Linfield, who was commanding from the wall!

He realized that he was being targeted by an overwhelming presence.

“…!?”

He must have been dumbfounded too.

It wasn’t a bolt from the blue, but a white streak of lightning that flew straight at him.

But before he could dodge, the lightning reached his nose.

‘Damn!’

Kwang!

The spear turned into lightning hit the floor of the wall where Linfield was and exploded.

The dust flew and the ground sank with overwhelming destructive power!

‘Shall I throw one more?’

Nuada looked at the wall again with a satisfied expression, but at that moment he was also surprised.

“Huh?”

“I’m glad I’m not late.”

“Your highness!”

Eurius had run to his side and drawn his sword.

He had deflected the spear just now.

“What was that explosion?”

“I’ll explain later. For now, please continue to command.”

At this moment, Eurius decided to intervene in the battlefield.

‘It’s good that I found Nuada, but I can’t afford to lose my people here!’

The north respects strong warriors anyway! He had to show them his power if he wanted to make an alliance.

He jumped into the wall with the speed of light.