The Plum Blossom Swordsman Reincarnated into a Count's Family
"But is it okay for me to go in?"
Yuria had stayed behind because she had no real connection to Priscilla. In other words, entering Priscilla's mental world required certain conditions.
"It depends on how Priscilla feels about you, Master. All I've ever had with her are a few fleeting conversations. I'm a complete stranger. Sharnell is Priscilla's disciple. They share a deep bond, so Priscilla's unconscious won't reject her."
I stared at the portal.
How does Priscilla see me?
Honestly, the total time Priscilla and I had spent talking wasn't long. Add it all up and it wouldn't even make a full week.
But I was the first man she'd ever slept with. The man who'd taught her what sexual pleasure actually felt like.
"You'll be fine, Master. Even a dragon doesn't forget the person she first shared that with."
"You're right."
Besides, Priscilla was a frigid dragon. There was no way she'd treat the man who'd first made her feel real pleasure like some ordinary stranger.
"What happens if I get rejected, though? Do I just die the second I step through?"
"The odds of dying are low. You'll either get ejected from the dream world, or — if you're lucky enough not to be thrown out — you'll be stuck wandering the surface without ever reaching the deeper layers."
"…Alright. Then I'm going in with a buff. Yuria, give me a blessing of good fortune."
Yuria blinked for a moment, then smiled softly.
"As you wish, Master."
She stepped close, wrapped both arms around my neck, and rose onto her toes. Her lips met mine. I held her waist and her ass as the kiss deepened. Her full lips parted and her tongue slipped inside. We traded saliva, tongues tangling. I squeezed her ass on pure reflex. Her body gave a little shudder.
"Mmh… nnh… ahh…"
After three full minutes, our lips finally parted.
I cupped her chin and took in her flushed face. It was the kind of look that made my cock go rock-hard in an instant. Lust hit me like a wave.
But there was no time to fuck Yuria right here. Sharnell alone wasn't enough — I needed to enter the dream world. And there was no telling when the enemy would notice our intrusion.
I gave her mouth one last short kiss, just to soothe the frustration.
"Yuria. I'll be back."
"Yes, Master. Come back safely."
I stepped through the portal.
Starlight smiled as she surveyed the battlefield. The war was unfolding exactly the way she wanted. Allied soldiers kept dying without end, but the siege against the walls was advancing step by careful step.
She watched the siege ram held by the slave soldiers smash through the gate. Under normal circumstances, the fortress demons would have repaired the gate by now.
Seven hours since the fighting started. They don't have the strength left to restore the walls and the gate. Even a demon's power isn't infinite.
Simply put, the enemy had hit their limit. More than a hundred thousand of her own side were dead — but every one of those deaths had been factored into the plan.
"Starlight."
Floy, commander of the Golden Rose Knights, came up beside her.
"Yes, Commander. What is it?"
"When do we deploy?"
"Eager to cut loose, are you?"
"We are knights. We live on the battlefield and we die on the battlefield. The field is calling us."
"I respect that fighting spirit. But in this war, the knights only go in near the very end."
"Why?"
"Three simple reasons. First — the moment the Golden Rose Knights enter the fight, the entire balance tips hard in our favor. That is not what my lord or I want."
My lord.
The moment those words left her mouth, Floy had no room left to argue.
"…And the second?"
"You need to protect me. There's always the chance a spy will try for the commanding officer. As you know, my personal combat strength is… somewhat lacking."
"Fair enough. That's the most practical approach. And the third?"
"A strike force. My lord told me that among the demons of Panteum, there's one with spatial powers. Use that ability to move a strike team and things get extremely annoying. They could torch the warehouses where we stockpiled supplies, for instance…"
Starlight's eyes flicked toward the rear. Fire had broken out in one of the temporary supply warehouses. Black smoke billowed into the sky.
Floy's brow furrowed.
"Speak of the devil and a strike force appears. I'll deal with it."
"Give the order to your knights. I'd prefer the commander stay at my side. The enemy has completed their first objective — they'll be coming for the second."
Floy issued commands to her female knights. They charged toward the burning warehouses. Screams rose from the smoke — whether they belonged to allies or enemies was impossible to tell.
Shiiing.
Floy fixed her one remaining right eye on the space ahead of her.
"I know you're there. Show yourselves."
Kiiing.
The air trembled, and enemies who had been cloaked in invisibility flickered into view. Fifteen of them. Light armor. Every one of them an Aura Expert. But not knights.
"Adventurers, then."
"We took a good contract. If you want someone to blame, blame the Cobalt king. He's the client."
"The Cobalt king will die. And I don't particularly resent any of you. There are simply too many enemies on a battlefield to waste resentment on each one."
The instant Floy's Aura Blade flared gold, she closed the distance on the adventurers in a single burst. She took the lead man's head and immediately locked blades with the next.
"Don't freeze up! Even an Aura Master isn't invincible! Fight them the way you fight monsters — slow, steady, and clean!"
What the adventurers failed to account for was this:
Floy had spent her career across countless battlefields. She had far more experience fighting one against many than she did fighting one-on-one. The adventurers couldn't stop her blade. One by one, they died.
"War-crazed bitch! Die."
Starlight ducked. A dagger whistled past where her throat had been. She drew the sword at her hip and thrust at the assassin. He slipped back with quick, light footwork.
"…Not bad."
"It was obvious. How many assassination attempts do you think I've already survived?"
"About five?"
"You're the hundred and twenty-fourth."
"Ha. Don't bluff. A hundred and twenty-three assassins couldn't finish you? That counter just now was decent, but it wasn't dangerous."
"Of course not. I'm no knight — my physical conditioning is only average. But you don't need a knight's strength to kill an assassin."
"Then how did you survive a hundred and twenty-three of them? Magic?"
Starlight pulled something from her coat. The assassin narrowed his eyes. He had no idea what she was holding. No mana either — so not a magic tool.
"I can't use magic. Those hundred and twenty-three assassins were simply ignorant. Just like you."
Bang!
The muzzle spat fire. The bullet punched clean through the assassin's forehead.
A man who knew nothing about guns never even had a chance to react. By the time the sound reached him, the bullet was already buried in his skull.
His fate had been sealed the moment the barrel lined up on him.
Starlight turned her head. Floy's fight was already winding down.
"Floy. There's a demon nearby. The Invisible Demon, Gigre, can only cloak people who are close to him. He's almost certainly invisible himself."
"Understood. Once I know he exists, I can track him by presence and kill him."
"Leave him alive and he'll become a nuisance. Make sure he dies."
Thirty minutes later, Floy found the fifty-centimeter dwarf demon hiding in the underbrush and killed him.
"The front gate is breached! The enemy is in disarray! Charge! Magic corps — focus everything on shattering that gate!"
Melissa shouted with everything she had.
Her orders rippled through the entire rebel army. Soldiers who had been fighting halfheartedly suddenly changed. Their morale didn't just rise — it soared.
Eugene Frucus and Starlight had run their army with a stick and a carrot. The stick was terror. The carrot was plunder. Melissa was different. She ran her army on discipline and conviction. This was the result. The rebels did not fear the charge. Behind every soldier's advance was trust in Melissa.
She turned to Grauss Arhen, already in armor.
"Father. I leave the field to you. King Dulibard will be captured and executed by the Rapheli forces. You need to take the throne."
Grauss Arhen charged out with his knights. A boy raced hard on his heels — Berdo, Melissa's younger brother. He was young for a battlefield, but as the future crown prince of the Arhen Kingdom he had come to make his mark. Grauss and the knights would guard him with their lives.
They don't fear the charge. That alone is worth respect.
From her high vantage, Melissa looked down across the field.
A group approached her. She watched them come — the officer in charge of supply management, his soldiers, and men from other units mixed in among them. Nearly seventy in total. Not a small number.
"Come to talk? You must have time to spare, Viscount Drahm."
The limping man with the cane — Viscount Drahm — stared at Melissa in silence.
"You knew?"
"I suspected."
"…Why leave me alone until now? If it were me, I would have eliminated the spy first."
"Catch one spy and another may still be out there. And you're competent, aren't you? We're short on people as it is. You use every tool available."
"Impressive. You truly are capable — enough to inspire admiration. But your arrogance has led you to defeat. You should have removed me early."
"From where I'm standing, the arrogant one is you. Do I look weak?"
"Yes. You do."
That was when a demon appeared behind Viscount Drahm — a muscular body with a goat's head.
"…A demon contractor."
"Allow me to reintroduce myself."
Viscount Drahm discarded his cane and straightened his bent spine. He pulled a ring from his finger, and his face changed with it. The man in his late forties became a soft-featured man in his early thirties. No — he returned to that face.
"I am Lupus, vice chairman of Panteum."