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Chapter 22
Chapter 22: The Horn
Under the King’s forceful invitation, Luna agreed to stay in the palace for a while.
The kind-hearted King even personally escorted Luna back to the Ducal Estate to pack her luggage. On the way back, the two of them rode in the same carriage, leaving Luna so furious that she could only grit her teeth and maintain a fake smile the entire way. In truth, she wished she could land two solid punches on Frank’s obnoxious face.
And so, after imagining countless bouts of free combat in her mind, Luna suddenly snapped back to herself and realized that the carriage had stopped moving.
“Your Majesty! Your Majesty! Something terrible has happened!”
E n ŭm̃а̃ . і d̀
“Why are you shouting? Can you not see that I have a guest?” Frank smiled politely at Luna, then changed his expression at lightspeed and turned around to lecture the attendant who had hurried over.
“Your Majesty, this matter is extremely urgent!” At this moment, the attendant had no mind left to guess Frank’s attitude. He anxiously interrupted Frank and said in a trembling voice, “An undead calamity has broken out in the Southern Territory. An army of forty to fifty thousand undead is currently besieging the Southern Territory’s capital!”
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Frank was instantly startled. No longer caring about maintaining his image, he grabbed the attendant by the collar and said viciously, “Who sent this news? Has its authenticity been confirmed?!”
The attendant replied in fear and trembling, “It was sent by a trusted subordinate of the Duke of Southern Territory. He requests that you dispatch troops to aid them at once, Your Majesty.”
Luna pricked up her ears, but after hearing only a few sentences, she lost interest. An army of undead had appeared in the Southern Territory. What did that have to do with the eldest daughter of the Northern Ducal Estate?
Even if the Southern Territory were breached, the army of undead would still have to pass through the King’s vast and prosperous Central Region on its way to the Northern Territory. No matter how one looked at it, this was not something she needed to worry about.
Ѐn̄üḿ а̀..і̃ d
“So many undead appeared without a sound. What exactly are the nobles of the Southern Territory doing? They just had to cause trouble during my wedding.”
Frank was extremely irritated. He grabbed the Duke of Southern Territory’s memorial and quickly read through it several times, the displeasure between his brows reaching its peak.
The vast Southern Territory had a standing army of as many as one hundred thousand soldiers. Resolving the army of undead should have been effortless.
In all fairness, as long as no special individual had appeared within the army of undead, seven or eight thousand cavalry making a round trip and charging a few times would be enough to deal with those forty to fifty thousand undead.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
But some people simply had no conscience. They actually had the nerve to claim that their capital was under siege and demand that the entire kingdom provide assistance!
Frank truly did not want to deal with this matter. After all, dispatching a large army meant consuming the King’s own strength.
Ë ň ù ḿа̀
His eyes shifted, and he handed the memorial to Luna, who was in the middle of yawning, deciding to divert the disaster elsewhere.
“Miss Luna, the Northern Army’s combat power is the finest in the entire nation. I want the Northern Army to help handle this matter. What do you think?”
Luna accepted it and pretended to read it seriously for a while. After handling government affairs with her brother and Eileen, she was no longer a political novice.
“In reply to Your Majesty, the Northern Territory is poor and cannot provide the provisions required for an expedition. If the Duke of Southern Territory is willing to provide provisions free of charge, and also offer three thousand gold coins as a reward for the Northern Army’s deployment, I believe my brother would be very willing to help the Southern Territory overcome this difficulty.”
Luna believed she was operating on the third level. She had offered conditions no one could possibly accept. No matter how she thought about it, the Duke of Southern Territory would never agree.
Three thousand gold coins—forget mercenaries, that amount could even hire the Royal Capital Guard!
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But Frank was on the fifth level. After receiving the answer he wanted, he immediately instructed the attendant, “Tell the Duke that as long as he provides provisions and a reward of three thousand gold coins, the Northern Army will be willing to help the Southern Territory campaign against the army of undead.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
???
Luna, who only realized what had happened after the fact, was filled with question marks. No, as the King, could he be any more shameless? Who was willing to fight undead? This was practically drawing hatred from across the map.
“Form ranks! Form ranks! Sword-and-shield infantry, press forward! Cavalry, escort the civilians back and evacuate them immediately!”
In the mountains of the Northern Territory, the war between humans and undead was still ongoing. Undead spread across the mountains and plains, searching everywhere, and had finally found the temporary shelter of the survivors.
Еń ũ ḿ а̇ .і̇d
They began to gather, then launched a frenzied attack on the camp.
Count Londo, who was nearly fifty years old, with a scar at the corner of his eye and one eye turned white, was still personally on the front line, calmly commanding the soldiers to resist the undead’s pursuit.
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Ever since the city had been destroyed by the Undead Giant Python that day, he had gathered the surviving soldiers and civilians—more than ten thousand people in total—and fought while retreating until they escaped into the mountains.
The good news was that the Undead Giant Python had not come after them. The bad news was that around thirty thousand undead were still clinging tightly to their trail.
“Old General, this cannot go on. We should not keep heading south. Ice City is to the northwest. If we head toward the capital, we will definitely run into the Duke’s reinforcements.”
Red, who could barely stand, was wrapped in bandages like a dumpling. Even so, he still refused to evacuate with the civilians and instead remained on the front line of the battle.
W̌еb̆n̂о v̆ еl̀ Éṅu m̊ а̃
“Cover each other in turns and speed up the retreat. In the mountains, the undead are not as agile as we are.” After Count Londo finished speaking to his subordinates, he turned back and glanced coldly at Red. “I told you, I do not need the Charles family’s help. Besides, their family does not have anyone capable of defeating the Undead Giant Python.”
“Even so, the Duke still has a large army under his command. We can only survive by following the Duke.” Red argued firmly. He understood that Count Londo had long harbored thoughts of breaking away from the Northern Territory. He simply had never had the opportunity.
“If you want to leave, then leave on your own!” Count Londo held his large blade and hacked down another undead that suddenly charged in, then began arranging the retreat route.
His feud with the Ducal Estate had begun in the previous generation. It could be said that if Red had not been here today, he would have made the members of the Charles family learn what it meant for the world to be dangerous.
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Red sighed again and again. “Old General, I also clawed my way up from under your command back then. You know exactly what kind of person I am. If Lord Duke truly were that heartless and disloyal, how could I follow him with such unwavering devotion?”
“Come with us, Old General. Your subjects are also the Duke’s subjects. The Duke will not abandon us.”
W̄é ḃ n̂ o v̊ еl̂ E ň_u ḿа̃
“You damned brat, just what do you want me to—”
Count Londo waved his blade in a blustering rage, but in the next moment, he froze in place. Whether or not a miracle had occurred, the undead that had just been pursuing them relentlessly suddenly seemed to receive a unified command. They swiftly turned around and charged straight down the mountain.
Red scratched his head. This was damned strange. Ever since he had arrived here, not a single normal thing had happened that he could understand.
“Cavalry! Cavalry! Where are my cavalry? Hurry and follow them to see what is going on!” Count Londo plopped down on the ground, finally letting out a breath of relief. Yet an unusual gleam appeared in his eyes.
Elsewhere, the five hundred cavalry riding along the edge of the basin were still following the marching route set by the Duke and searching for traces of the survivors.
Sister Janice was somewhat dazed. Not long ago, all of them had seen the enormous lightning spell in the sky, and they also knew clearly from which direction the spell had been cast.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
That was a mighty power only an Archmage possessed...
If the Duke was an Archmage, then he had hidden it far too deeply. However, that would also explain why Eileen insisted on waiting for the Duke to return and resolve the problem.
But when he set out, forget a magic staff, the Duke had not even brought a single magic stone. Could that horse lance of his be his staff?
Sister Janice could not understand, nor could she see through Oswald.
“Enemy attack!”
A loud shout came from ahead. Sister Janice snapped back to her senses and saw tens of thousands of undead rushing out from the mountains, surging toward them in a mighty tide.
Ё nū mа̃ .і̂d
That formation made it seem as if the entire earth were trembling.
“Face the enemy!”
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The cavalry drew their lances in unison and urged the warhorses beneath them to slow down, waiting for the battle formation to take shape.
The adjutant swallowed, his expression solemn. There were too many enemies, and Lord Duke’s order had been that he was allowed to preserve their strength and retreat.
Yet just as they finished forming their battle formation, those undead did not even glance at them. As if merely passing by, they rushed madly toward the city.
Everyone let out a breath of relief, then immediately became alert and paid attention to their surroundings. The intelligence had made it very clear that there was an S-Rank Calamity, an Undead Giant Python, within the army of undead.
W̌eb̌ñ о v́е̃l Ĕn̄ům а̊
Sister Janice frowned. The enormous magic array from more than an hour ago was clearly not something prepared to deal with miscellaneous soldiers. The only possibility was that the Duke had encountered a powerful enemy inside the city!
“Adjutant, stop them at once!” Sister Janice shouted from atop the carriage.
“What?” The adjutant turned back in confusion. Why was the Sister even more ferocious than they were? There were tens of thousands of undead on the other side.
“The Duke is fighting the Undead Giant Python inside the city. They are heading for the Duke!”
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Across the flat land, the scout’s horse galloped wildly. The remaining five hundred cavalry were still anxiously watching the battle inside the city.
The scout reined in his horse and said while panting heavily, “Captain, a large undead army is approaching us!”
Еnù_m а̇ . їḋ
“What? How many?” The cavalry captain’s expression changed sharply, and the warhorse beneath him also became restless.
“No fewer than twenty thousand!”
Hearing this, everyone’s heart trembled. Then they looked again toward the increasingly frenzied battle inside the city, each of them tense as they tightened their grip on the lances in their hands.
Of course, they could abandon the Duke and leave... but they could not, and they were unwilling to do so.
“Brother, do you still have any strength left?” the cavalry captain asked quietly as he looked at the scout. The scout had also caught his breath by then. He nodded and quickly drew the blade at his waist.
“I do not need you to fight!” The cavalry captain patted his shoulder with profound meaning and pointed toward the horn on the broken city wall.
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How could the scout fail to understand the captain’s meaning? He nodded heavily, whipped his horse, and headed toward the city wall.
He climbed onto the city wall. Before him was the Undead Giant Python, constantly coiling and rolling. Its body was larger than any monster in any storybook. Its head had once swallowed the sky, devoured the earth, and torn into dragons. Its ribs were two rows of sharp lances, enough to pierce through the Grand General’s heavy armor.
Although he could not clearly see where the Duke was, the scout knew that the Duke was still fighting. The increasingly frantic swaying of the giant python was the best proof.
And behind him were his brothers-in-arms. They were neatly lining up their horses side by side, and their bright lances flashed with a cold gleam.
Not a single one of them retreated.
The city wall was more shattered than he had imagined, and the ground was still trembling violently at this moment. The scout crawled and stumbled the whole way, then tightly grasped the ancient horn on the city wall.
Е̇ n u̇m̂ ã. ǐd́
His breath stirred up floating dust, along with the echoes of countless years buried in history. As a deep, muffled note sounded, he knew their battle had begun.
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