CCTnovel Chapter 215
Chapter 215
Rapid Star and Tempest were killed in action.Almighty and Giant were seriously wounded.
That was the outcome of this battle.
‘The ending got pretty intense. If Raysha hadn't collapsed their formation at the right time, it might've been quite exhausting.’
-Two Masters have died. The males of the south will be disappointed.
To be honest, I'd planned to spare the Level Kingdom's Masters if possible.
It might sound absurd to say that while fighting four Masters at once, but Masters rarely died in battle to begin with.
A Master's body was naturally extremely tough, and in a world with Priests and Potions, killing one wasn't easy.
The Imperial bastard I'd killed had been as fragile as paper to begin with.
And besides, he was an Imperial.
As for the Loyal Retainer Durek, there had been unavoidable reasons why I had stubbornly insisted on killing him.
But this situation wasn't on that level.
If all of the Level Kingdom's Masters disappeared at once, the balance of power in the south would collapse completely.
From my perspective, it was better for the south to maintain a certain balance.
Deron Level had subtly mentioned something similar before as well, so I'd been holding back as much as possible.
But if they insisted on clinging to us like that, there wasn't much we could do.
‘At least the ones who died were Rapid Star and Tempest.’
Rapid Star had been a traitor.
Tempest was the type who was absolutely loyal only to Alex Level.
Fortunately, the two relatively moderate ones had survived.
At this point, all we could do was hope Deron Level handled things well.
We couldn't spoon-feed him everything.
-Weren't you calling it a decapitation operation or something?
‘That's right.’
-If it's a decapitation operation, shouldn't you kill the enemy commander...?
‘We've already neutralized the enemy Masters, so what comes next is obvious. Around now...’
-Not quite. That cowardly male already ran away.
‘...What? Since when?’
-While you were grappling with that wind male.
‘Damn it. Hurry!’
Apparently, the moment defeat became inevitable, Alex Level had immediately fled north.
To think he'd choose to flee in a situation like this.
His decisiveness was truly remarkable.
Did he believe that as long as he survived, everything would somehow work out?
Whatever happened, if we let Alex Level escape here, it would become troublesome for us as well.
‘Even if he runs north, there aren't many options available to him...’
Not only would the Level Kingdom's civil war drag on, but our return home would also be delayed.
For people like us who wanted to finish everything quickly and head back home, nothing was more irritating.
-Hmph! Trying to escape from me? He's a hundred years too early!
Fortunately, we possessed the ultimate pursuit method.
No matter how exceptional Alex Level's Warhorse was, it couldn't compare to Giant Black Earth.
The upgraded Giant Black Earth raced forward at incredible speed and caught up to Alex Level in just a few hours.
As a result, countless residents ended up witnessing Giant Black Earth, but we didn't have time to worry about something like that.
“You dared to run away!”
The moment we caught up with the fleeing Alex Level, Raysha leaped into the air and crushed his entire escort.
The instant she'd heard Alex Level had disappeared, her expression had changed completely.
She seemed genuinely furious.
If things had gone wrong, we might have remained trapped here indefinitely.
I'd been caught off guard myself, so I thought Raysha's anger was perfectly justified.
“Urgh, kill me!”
“Hmph. Do you think I can't?”
Captured by Raysha, Alex Level dramatically declared, “Urgh, kill me!”
Raysha, who could split him open at a moment's notice if she felt like it, immediately responded by trying to kill him.
‘For someone supposedly prepared to die, he sure fled awfully fast. Besides... hearing that line from a man instead of a female Knight is just...’
It was rather unpleasant hearing someone who wasn't even a female Knight say something like that.
Still, we couldn't kill Alex Level.
“Wait. We still can't kill him.”
“Tch. Wouldn't it be better to erase him?”
“That would be a problem.”
Even before the battle began, Deron Level had emphasized it several times.
Under no circumstances were we to kill Alex Level.
He claimed that if Alex Level died, the civil war would actually last longer.
Personally, I couldn't understand that logic.
Still, Deron Level had entrusted every aspect of the battle to me, and if he'd emphasized this point so many times, it was only right that I respected his wishes.
This was clearly a matter of politics.
Once I returned to my Lordship, it wouldn't be any of my business.
“Ghk!”
Of course, just because I couldn't kill him didn't mean I couldn't hit him.
He'd caused us enough trouble already.
A little stress relief seemed appropriate.
I really didn't like that unnecessarily pale face of his, so I flicked him hard on the forehead.
Watching him grind his teeth in frustration brought me a strange sense of peace.
“We won!!!”
While I was returning with the captured Alex Level, the battle between the Knights also came to an end with our victory.
“It was way tougher than I expected.”
Contrary to my assumption that we'd obviously win, it had apparently been an incredibly difficult fight.
The Knights of the Johnson Lordship never lost morale no matter the circumstances.
But the local Knights supporting them weren't the same.
The Lords who resented Alex Level had every reason to fight, but that determination hadn't fully spread to their Knights.
Those Knights didn't particularly hate Alex Level.
On top of that, they were heavily outnumbered, so their morale hadn't been high from the very beginning.
It kept dropping throughout the battle.
No matter how valiant the Johnson Knight Order was, if the supporting Knights were like that, the battle was bound to be difficult.
“If it weren't for Sister-in-law, we might've really been pushed back.”
Despite the Johnson Knight Order's fierce resistance, the battle had gradually begun turning against them.
That was when Yuria stepped forward.
From behind the battling Knights, a marching song urging them onward echoed across the battlefield.
The Johnson Knight Order, whose compatibility with Shamanism was suspiciously high, fought with even greater vigor and drove the enemy back.
Even the local Knights, who had entered the battle somewhat half-heartedly, apparently fought with genuine determination at that moment.
The beautiful singing voice of a Lady echoing across the savage battlefield had been romantic enough to set the Knights' hearts ablaze.
“And right then, the Masters fell, and Alex Level fled.”
“The timing couldn't have been better.”
The fall of the Masters.
The commander's escape.
Two devastating events capable of shattering enemy morale happened almost simultaneously.
From the moment Alex Level fled, the enemy army rapidly collapsed.
Naturally, as the enemy crumbled, our allies' morale soared.
In the end, the enemy formation completely disintegrated, and many Knights surrendered.
“By the way... you've changed a little.”
“Ah, really? I suppose... it does feel that way...”
After surviving such a grueling battle, Rudik's aura had clearly changed.
Perhaps this battle had become valuable nourishment for him as well.
He wasn't a Master yet.
But it felt as though only a single sheet of paper separated him from that realm now.
Irene had gone through exactly the same stage before finally becoming a Master.
That was an extremely satisfying result.
It might even have been the greatest achievement we gained from this entire operation.
“I'm planning to imprison Alex Level.”
“I see.”
“Hurus Island. It's the perfect place to imprison him.”
Deron Level intended to imprison Alex Level.
The place of exile would be Hurus Island.
Since many people had already been exiled there before, no special preparations were necessary.
They could deal with it immediately.
The reason Deron Level chose imprisonment instead of execution was entirely political.
“If we execute him, someone will genuinely lose control.”
The elder of the Level Kingdom.
Its very pillar.
Executioner Sir Jonathan.
Jonathan, who had also been the loyal retainer of the previous Lord, would never accept brothers killing one another.
And since Sir Jonathan was currently commanding a large army in Haken, Deron couldn't easily decide on an execution.
On the other hand, if Deron Level displayed mercy and concluded the matter by imprisoning Alex Level, he could earn Jonathan's loyalty.
From Deron's perspective, there wasn't really another choice.
No wonder he'd repeatedly told us to bring him back alive somehow.
He'd been calculating everything from the start.
From my perspective as well, the best outcome was for Jonathan to submit willingly, so I nodded in agreement.
-Unexpected. You're leaving behind future trouble.
‘Whether it becomes future trouble or not is Deron's problem. Once he's fallen from power, even if he plots another conspiracy, it'll take years before he has another opportunity.’
-Still... isn't it a bit disappointing? You seemed to hate him quite a lot yourself.
‘Killing someone isn't always the answer. For someone like Alex, imprisonment is a far crueler punishment.’
Imagine someone overflowing with ambition, determined to conquer the entire Levela Peninsula and even the north, being imprisoned on the quiet island of Hurus.
That would be far more agonizing than simply killing him.
And above all...
Even if he endured everything and somehow reclaimed power someday, by then he wouldn't even dare think about provoking the Beastman Alliance.
By then, we'd have climbed far higher than he ever could.
“By the way, what happened here? Was there a war or something?”
Now that Alex Level and all of his Masters had been dealt with, there was nothing left for us to do.
So we headed toward Hurus Island to prepare for our return.
Yet this place was also complete chaos.
Especially out at sea, where debris floated everywhere.
It genuinely looked as though a war had taken place.
“Heh heh. While my Lord was busy fighting Masters outside, Pirates showed up here.”
“Pirates? Then what happened?”
“We waited until they docked, then boom with Fire Bombs. They're more useful than I expected. Once we get home, I'd like you to distribute some to our side too.”
“Well... that's certainly...”
The Pirates who had been performing maintenance on Hurus Island were wiped out almost instantly.
Meanwhile, Alex Level had far bigger problems to worry about and had no time to concern himself with the Pirates.
As a result, the Pirate detachments busy plundering Vines never received any information about what had happened here.
Just like before, they naturally sailed toward the island.
Then they were utterly beaten by the Black Lions and the Earth Tribe Allied Forces waiting there.
Apparently, the ambush had been completely unexpected.
The moment the bombs started falling, the Pirates panicked.
The Black Lions simply rounded up the confused Pirates one after another.
As a result, the surviving Pirates lost their ships and all became prisoners.
“At this rate, maybe we should notify Vines and ask for a reward.”
So Vines ended up driving away every Pirate without even doing anything?
Life really was full of strange coincidences.
“Well, whatever. The important thing is that we're finally going home.”
Now that Alex Level had been deposed, there was no longer any reason to concern ourselves with the south.
All we had to do now was return home and enjoy the sweetness of Sweet Home...
“Dear.”
“Hm? What is it?”
“This is bad. It looks like the Black Orcs are beginning to march south from the north.”
“...What?”
...As if.
Instead, another troublesome event was already waiting for us.
‘The Black Orcs... the troublemakers of the north.’
-Even the Horse Tribe feared them greatly.
‘Exactly.’
-Come to think of it, didn't they mention moving south because of the Black Orcs when you first met them?
If the Monster Mountain Range was home to the Gnolls...
Then beyond the northern reaches of the Levela Peninsula lay the Black Orcs.
Black Orcs occasionally appeared around Haken as well, but those were merely tiny bands.
The true homeland of the Black Orcs lay beyond the northern plains.
They frequently clashed even with the Demon Race.
And whenever the Demon Race heard the words "Black Orc," they immediately frowned.
That alone proved how troublesome those Monsters were.
‘Seriously... they never give us a chance to rest.’
Then again...
That's simply the kind of land this was.
The northern Levela Peninsula.
A place where you could never let your guard down.
“Everyone, hurry! We're returning to the Lordship! The Black Orcs are marching south from the north!”
“Oh? Another fight?”
“Black Orcs? Aren't they the enemies those foals are afraid of?”
“Hah! As if those foals know how to fight properly. All they can do is fire arrows from the back.”
Strangely enough, everyone's morale rose instead as another great battle approached.
I couldn't help but laugh.
‘Honestly...’
This would probably continue forever.
The Monster Mountain Range to the north.
The Forest of Illusions to the southwest.
The Johnson Lordship stood in a place where incidents were inevitable.
On top of that, our sphere of responsibility had expanded from the Johnson Lordship to the entire Beastman Alliance.
The scale of those incidents had naturally grown as well.
No matter how united the Alliance became, it could only govern a portion of the northern Levela Peninsula.
Beyond that, Monsters still roamed freely.
Even if we drove away the Black Orcs this time, there was no telling what might appear next.
‘Still... this kind of life isn't so bad, is it?’
As our ship sailed back toward the Lordship, I made up my mind.
I'd continue protecting my Lordship and everyone around me, just as I always had.
“Black Orcs, huh? This should be interesting. Maybe an Orc Lord has appeared over there as well?”
“Hmph. Orcs look too much like pigs. They're unpleasant. I hope we deal with them quickly.”
-Lord Iron, I heard the news. The Black Orcs have appeared in the north, right? I met with Sir Jonathan separately and reached an agreement. We'll withdraw the army immediately.
No matter how everything unfolded...
I was surrounded by partners I genuinely liked.
-If you're talking about partners, shouldn't I be the first one you think of, Master?
Even that ridiculous rabbit was here.
So I had no doubt that we'd continue overcoming everything together.
‘Wouldn't you say this is a fairly satisfying outcome?’
I believed Bestia, the Beast God who had sent me into this world, would think the same.