The distance between Edrish and me was too far, and with Fercope right behind me.

“Haha, fools.”

Fercope looked around below, chuckling with a voice mixed with laughter.

“Yeah, the guy who thinks he’ll become king abandons everyone to save a few lives. Foolish, and foolish again. He’s not worthy of becoming a king.”

What are you saying? The one least worthy to be king is you!
“Wait a moment, but isn’t something strange?”

As I continued to look down, something awkward caught my eye.

It was the soldiers of Serbyan.

Why are they positioned outside the city walls?

Tactically speaking, it would be much more advantageous to fight within the city walls, so why are the soldiers placed outside?

It didn’t take long for me to figure out the reason. The soldiers, of somewhat smaller stature, were not Serbyan soldiers.

These guys are Talfipnus’ soldiers, placed outside the walls.

Except for the mole people who were brought here, everyone else remained in the territory. Go and see for yourself. They were forced into forced labor under Agilahan.

For them, they made the soldiers hostages to work and made them raise their weapons by taking the remaining people as hostages.

Now that it’s like this, we can’t even approach the city walls until we kill the mole people.

Really, it was a cruel and snake-like scheme.

⭐⭐⭐

In the center of a makeshift tent, a map was spread out. The map showed Serbyan’s territory and its surroundings with messy markings.

Several people were standing around it. Among them, the one with the darkest complexion was Edrish, who stared blankly at the map without any movement.

“We’ve spent three days without any gain. You need to make a decision. Even though the winter cold has somewhat retreated, the soldiers are getting tired from the cold every morning.”

Someone spoke, but it wasn’t Edrish who responded; it was someone else.

“But we can’t just charge in recklessly right now, can we? Haven’t you seen it too? Who Serbyan shamelessly placed at the forefront of the soldiers. Who they’re holding hostage. Our lord is also captured.”

Everyone cautiously observed Edrish. Since seeing Cecilia on the wall, Edrish’s spirit hit rock bottom. He acted like he would kill anyone who suggested an attack, and even after returning, there were many sounds of something breaking in his personal tent.

But now, for some reason, it was strangely quiet.

“We can’t wait forever. Of course, I want to save him too! But we can’t sacrifice many people just to save a few. Especially when Lord Edrish finds it difficult to make a decision…”

The man stumbled, glancing at Edrish while speaking.

In fact, what he said was correct. Without any other way, if we just keep spending time, in the end, we’ll gain nothing and Serbyan will embrace this country entirely.

At that moment, Edrish broke the silence and stood up from his seat. Everyone nervously watched. Right now, Edrish had a face like a wild beast that could kill anyone.

Someone’s loud swallowing sound echoed.

“Tomorrow, we’ll charge into Serbyan territory frontally.”
A moment ago, even the man who insisted on charging in began to doubt his own words.

In fact, in an attempt to persuade Edrish, I had prepared myself to risk my life and had been babbling until now, but I never expected him to change his mind so abruptly and give the order to march.

Could it be an elaborate deception? Is he trying to punish me?

The man even entertained such thoughts. It was because the eerie image of Edrish he saw a few days ago was still vivid in his mind.

A few days ago, when Perkop showed the hostage on the wall.

As Cecilia Erijo’s body, hanging precariously over the high city wall as if about to fall, swayed in the wind, veins on Edrish’s neck and forehead all stood out. His face turned pale, then reddened, and soon regained a calm demeanor as if nothing happened.

Behind the calm expression, sweat dripped visibly. Even without using his abilities, just standing by Edrish felt heavy.

Edrish turned around without saying a word.

〈Lower your weapons. We won’t attack.〉

After facing Talfipnus soldiers and continuing the confrontation, any attack was yet to begin. The soldiers hesitated for a moment but eventually lowered their weapons. Someone surely harbored dissatisfaction, but they didn’t dare to defy Edrish’s command.

As Edrish moved forward, the frightened soldiers split into two on either side. Especially when Edrish passed by, at that moment, he was more feared than Perkop inside the city walls.