387
Chapter 387
GRRRRRR!
The Twin Head Cyclops roared and charged toward the Grand Duke of the North.
Without its mace, the monster attempted to crush her with its entire body.
The Grand Duke of the North, who had been watching, raised her great sword.
She lifted the heavy great sword as big as her body with one hand, ran forward, took a running start, and threw it straight at the Cyclops.
KUAAANG!
The great sword flew toward the Cyclops with a sound of tearing air.
Caught off guard by the unexpected attack, the Cyclops tried to stop its charge but it was too late.
The great sword thrown by the Grand Duke pierced through the Twin Head Cyclops's arm and penetrated its chest.
THUD!
The Twin Head Cyclops, with a massive hole in its chest, fell to its knees.
The Grand Duke leisurely walked over and placed her foot on one of the Twin Head Cyclops's heads.
KUGUGUGU!
As she slowly crushed the head, it shattered into pieces as if struck by a giant's hammer from the sky.
CRACK-
The Grand Duke crushed and smashed the remaining head as well.
She reached toward the sky, and the great sword that had vanished into the air flew back and settled in her hand.
The Grand Duke turned her head toward the other Cyclops who were backing away hesitantly.
She jumped into the air with her sword.
One Slash Two Cuts
This was the most appropriate description of the Grand Duke's swordsmanship.
With each swing of the great sword, the Cyclops were cut in half at the waist.
The ground was littered with the bisected corpses of the Cyclops.
The dozens of Cyclops that had swarmed in had all turned into corpses scattered around the barrier.
STEP! STEP!
After defeating the monsters, the Grand Duke walked across the snow-covered field stained with monster blood toward where Sven and Nikolai were.
She took something from her chest and threw it to Sven.
It was a potion effective for external wounds.
Sven quickly fed the potion to Nikolai and applied wound medicine to his shoulder and leg.
Fortunately, his life didn't seem to be in danger.
At that moment, the barrier's gate opened and Rangers and Knights came running out pulling carts.
"Quick, load him up and take him inside! Let's get him a healer!"
The Rangers quickly splinted Nikolai's shoulder and leg to prevent movement, then pulled the cart inside.
Sven and the other Northern Knights bowed their heads to the Grand Duke.
Watching this, the Grand Duke removed her wolf-shaped helmet.
A delicate girl's face appeared, seemingly impossible to believe she was the knight who had just mercilessly annihilated the monsters.
Her braided golden hair flowed naturally.
Eyes shining like blue sapphires looked at the Knights of Himonas.
Sven spoke while looking at the Grand Duke.
"My lord, these damned monsters keep coming endlessly."
Though Sven tried to restrain his harsh words, he couldn't hide the anger contained within them.
Alicia turned her head to look toward the Ice Mountains.
She spoke while keeping her gaze fixed on the mountains.
"Form an expedition."
It was a husky voice completely different from her delicate appearance.
Holding 'Fenrir the Wolf Fang Sword,' the symbol of the Northern Grand Duke, she emanated a fierce aura and continued,
"We'll go and wipe out all those bastard monsters."
* * *
DUDUDUDU!
Zeke was racing toward the Northern Continent along with the main knights of the Black Sword Order and the Knights of the Black Specter.
The Black Specter Squad, as they decided to call themselves, consisting of the Black Sword Order's Royal Guard - Liam, Felix, Diego, Aster, and Jeffrik - followed behind Zeke.
Following Zeke through various battlefields and training under Duke in Sethon's Aura Technique, they had all remarkably reached the level of Blue Knight.
Zeke had organized them separately as his royal guard to lead them in gaining more practical experience.
Following the Black Specter Squad were the Barbarian units riding fierce unicorns, boasting their massive builds.
Additionally, on the opposite side, the Knights of House Tourn, whose builds rivaled even the Barbarians, rode their rough war horses following Zeke.
Then someone rode up beside Zeke.
"Zeke Draker, is the information accurate about monsters appearing and invading from the Ice Mountains?!"
It was Reina Draker.
With longer hair than before, Reina had shed all her youthful traits and grown into a proud Knight of Draker.
Zeke nodded while looking at Reina.
"You've become quite skeptical in the time we haven't seen each other, Reina Draker."
In response, Reina frowned and said.
"It's not skepticism, I just want to be sure!"
In her past life, Reina was one of the Five-Star Knights renowned during the Continental War, known by the alias Knight of the Flash.
Given her great potential, she showed significant growth during their time apart.
Currently, she had surpassed the level of Purple Knight and reached Blue Knight.
Reina was able to achieve this realm faster than in her past life because she constantly strived to catch up to Zeke.
However, Zeke grew much faster than her progress.
When Reina heard that Zeke had become a Black Knight and the Guardian Knight of the family, she developed admiration and reverence for him rather than competitiveness.
So when Zeke requested troops from House Tourn and specifically named her, she readily agreed.
Meeting him after several years since the Trial of Struggle, and being personally selected by Zeke, Reina led her knights with hidden excitement despite not showing it.
However, Zeke's reaction upon reunion was completely different from her expectations.
Reina felt somewhat disappointed by Zeke's casual attitude toward her, just like before.
Perhaps because of this, her words to Zeke weren't particularly gentle.
While Reina rode hiding her complex feelings, Zeke's mind was equally complicated.
The reason House Tourn joined this Northern Continent expedition was due to Arthur Draker's instructions.
And one of those instructions concerned marriage talks between Reina Draker and himself.
'Marriage between Reina and me?.'
Though Zeke and Reina were cousins, since Reina's mother had entered the main family as an adopted daughter from a branch family, their actual blood relation was quite distant.
In fact, Draker, which valued pure bloodlines, had periods in the past when they encouraged close-kin marriages.
Originally, the Central Continent permitted marriages between cousins, so close relations weren't particularly problematic.
Additionally, since both Zeke and Reina were Draker pure-blood awakeners, the family actively sought to arrange their marriage.
Arthur had conveyed the family's opinion while trying to arrange meetings with Reina. However, Zeke wasn't particularly interested in marriage.
There were mountains of other issues he needed to handle besides marriage.
But since he couldn't completely ignore Arthur Draker's words, Zeke devised a clever plan.
It was requesting troops from House Tourn for this northern expedition.
Reina, the Knight of Flash, was a talent even Zeke coveted.
It was an ingenious plan that would let him assess her abilities, respond to Arthur's message, and secure needed troops for the northern expedition.
When requesting troops from Tourn, he actively used his reputation.
He asked them to join the salvation expedition, citing the cause of stopping monsters trying to invade the Northern Continent.
After preventing invasions of both the Vadoka Holy Nation and Dorta Republic, Zeke's reputation was sky-high, so Tourn couldn't refuse a request from the Knight of Salvation setting out to fight monster legions.
Rex Tourn was moved by Zeke's passionate struggle and sent not only knights but also necessary supplies.
Zeke moved north with the Black Specter Squad, Barbarian units, and Tourn forces, while Bacchus and Carmilla secretly headed north to meet separately.
'Things worked out better than I expected. The Black Sword Order is in a situation where it's difficult to move easily right now.'
The Black Sword Order was currently stationed in 'Heli,' Abel's former territory in Midland, after resolving the Vadoka Holy Nation situation.
Heli was one of the major hub cities connecting Midland and the Rom Empire.
Zeke had ordered Boris and the intelligence unit to deal with Siemens' remnants scattered in Heli, while deliberately stationing the Black Sword Order there to prevent Rom's influence.
Duke, Andrei, and Aul, who newly joined the Black Sword Order, were strengthening their forces while creating new knight formations.
Additionally, after the Dorta Republic incident, Consul Julius completely turned to Zeke's side.
He was preparing to remove Abel from the emperor's position by claiming legitimacy of imperial authority through the 2nd and 4th princes.
Thanks to this, the Daria Calvi and Horse Palace knight orders, which had been hesitant to change sides, also changed their minds and agreed to join the Rom reclamation.
Additionally, Calito, who was skilled at political maneuvering, helped the 20,000 imperial troops who surrendered from the Vadoka Holy Nation join Julius's side.
Thanks to this, Julius was preparing to reclaim Rom after quickly gaining legitimacy and power.
Julius was also staying in Heli, exchanging letters with imperial army corps commanders beneath the surface, preparing to pressure Abel and Jiemens' side.
The problem was that the empire's Black Knights hadn't shown any reaction yet.
The moment the empire's Black Knights moved in any direction, it seemed the Rom Empire's civil war would begin.
Zeke, who had been briefly thinking about Heli and the Rom Empire, raised his gaze.
The northern expedition led by Zeke was heading to Barkal, not Himonas.
Since Himonas was located at the continent's northernmost point, the road itself wasn't properly maintained.
They were heading to Barkal first because the highway connecting Barkal to Himonas, built during the old Holy Empire era, was the safest and fastest route.
Moreover, they needed to stop in Barkal to buy necessary items and cold weather gear to withstand the northern cold.
While this was familiar to Zeke who had experienced the northern battlefield in his past life, knights from the Central Continent would find it incomprehensible to remove their armor and wear cold weather gear.
As they continued riding with renewed focus, Felix approached Zeke and said.
"My lord, it seems we've arrived at Barkal!"
Zeke was also looking at the distant view of Barkal city with his dragon eyes.
However, something strange caught Zeke's eye.
'What's that?'
He discovered troops and flag bearers lined up in front of the city.
Zeke checked the flags of the forces deployed in front of the city.
'Imperial army flags and... the Crab Palace knights.'
The Crab Palace knights, one of the 13 constellations that had turned to Abel's side, unexpectedly appeared in Barkal.
Seeing the city gates firmly closed behind them, it seemed the Crab Palace knights hadn't brought their forces with good intentions.
Zeke recalled that the Crab Palace knights had sided with the cunning strategist Azmund Varios.
'Did they choose Barkal as an advance base to invade the Northern Continent?'
While monster legions attack Himonas, northern knights would have to focus there.
Meanwhile, if the Crab Palace knights captured Barkal, the core communication point between the Central and Northern Continents, it would be quite advantageous for the empire.
They could check Himonas while simultaneously pressuring the Central Kingdom and Midland cities.
'This seems like the kind of strategy that bastard Azmund would devise.'
As they got closer to Barkal, Reina also discovered the imperial army camped in front of the city.
"Why are imperial troops in the Northern Continent...?"
Zeke temporarily halted the march and called Reina aside to explain the situation.
"It seems the imperial army is trying to invade Barkal."
Reina was shocked at those words.
"They're invading without even declaring war?"
"These are the bastards who turned Rom into a sea of blood and usurped the throne. What meaning would a declaration of war have now?"
Reina nodded as if understanding Zeke's words.
Zeke looked at Reina and said.
"Do you think they'll quietly let us pass through to Himonas?"
Reina shook her head.
She knew well that the imperial bastards would never do that.
Then Zeke lowered his voice and said to Reina.
"Let's strike them first."