Chapter 128
Chapter 128
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 128
Chapter Title: The Beginning of the Turbulent Times (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A little over a month had passed since Second Prince Theodore Alteria declared his support for the independence of the Klaus family.
In the meantime, First Prince Richard Alteria had gathered his forces.
Then, he began his advance on the Spat Fortress, built at the border between the west and the south.
However, there were no knights or soldiers from the Ferdinand family in his ranks.
Only Jürgen Ferdinand, whom Karl von Ferdinand had previously assigned as an aide, accompanied him.
“There’s no need to show ourselves receiving support from the Ferdinand family right from the first battle, is there, Uncle?”
“I agree. Moreover, have you not reached the 8th circle, Your Highness? I’ll watch from the rear, so today, display your prowess to your heart’s content.”
“I’d like to, but... I’m not sure if they’ll let me.”
Richard replied with a wry smile to Jürgen’s words.
As he did, he fixed his gaze on the Spat Fortress ahead.
The fortress, built on a rather high and rugged mountain, was no exaggeration to call an iron bastion.
The soldiers atop the walls aimed mana rifles and mana cannons down at Richard’s army, while the knights prepared to repel anyone attempting to scale the walls.
The mages in the rear gathered their mana, standing ready.
To unleash wide-area spells the moment the order was given.
It was wise to avoid clashing with an enemy so thoroughly fortified, but right now, that wasn’t an option.
The first battle—the opening engagement—could fairly decide the image of the war to come.
Thus, to leave a good impression on his allies and supporters, he needed to fight honorably and capture the fortress.
“The whole army, charge!”
Richard, steeling his resolve, raised his voice.
In response, the lords commanding each unit bellowed.
“Charge forward!”
“Glory to the Alteria Empire!”
“Long live His Imperial Majesty!”
The moment the order fell, the trumpeters blew their horns vigorously.
Taking that as the signal, Richard kicked off the ground powerfully and surged ahead.
The lords and knights followed right behind, and even the infantry clutching their mana rifles ran with all their might.
Boom! Boooom!
The artillery in the rear operated their mana cannons in unison, firing streaks of blue light from the barrels one after another.
The accompanying mages unleashed their prepared spells as well.
Of course, the enemy didn’t sit idle.
Boooom! Boom!
The fortress’s mana cannons roared in salvo, pouring down fierce blue beams.
If they struck as is, casualties would be inevitable.
“Not on my watch.”
Richard thrust out his left hand.
A black sphere the size of a fist shot forward at high speed.
Groooar!
The sphere then swelled like an explosion, absorbing every attack pouring from the fortress.
Some of his own side’s attacks were absorbed too, but he didn’t mind.
Minimizing friendly casualties was enough.
“His Highness the Prince will block the attacks raining down on you! So advance without fear!”
“This is the time to crush the traitors and prove that justice is on our side!”
“Waaaaah!”
Inspired by Richard’s feat, the soldiers roared even louder as they climbed the mountain.
Richard remained at the vanguard.
But then—
Boom!
A massive boom echoed, and incredibly, the fortress gates swung open.
Dozens of soldiers then charged out.
Seeing this, Richard felt puzzled.
‘What’s this?’
In a siege, the defenders always held the advantage.
They fought utilizing high, sturdy defenses—it was only natural.
Yet they were abandoning that advantage to come out and fight?
Even if outnumbered, it defied common sense.
“Die, Richard Alteria!”
“Death to you, in the name of the south’s aspirations!”
Every soldier targeted only Richard.
They charged with the ferocity of men who didn’t care if they died, as long as they took him with them.
But Richard’s mind was a whirlwind as he faced them.
‘Wasting seasoned troops like this, so meaninglessly?’
Every soldier before him had reached the 2nd circle—overstatement to call them reserve knights.
In any army, they could command a squad of ten or a company of a hundred, and raising them to this level consumed vast resources and time.
No matter what they tried, though, they couldn’t fell Richard, who had ascended to the 8th circle.
Charging like this was suicide, and they surely knew it.
So why persist in such recklessness?
Fortunately—or perhaps not—the answer came quickly.
In the worst possible form.
Flash!
Two soldiers lunging at Richard erupted in red light from head to toe.
Their bodies swelled entirely before exploding.
Flesh, bone shards—every fragment of their bodies became deadly blades hurtling toward Richard.
Startled, he hastily activated gravitational control, deflecting the explosion and all incoming attacks.
“Urk!”
Richard groaned.
Even focusing solely on defense as fast as he could, he was a fraction too slow.
He took hits from the blast and shrapnel; his right arm was now drenched in blood.
This wound wouldn’t keep him from fighting, but the problem was losing the initiative.
“Die, Richard Alteria!”
“We’ll take you with us!”
The soldiers kept hurling themselves at Richard.
This time, he reacted swiftly, brushing them aside effortlessly.
But he couldn’t relax yet.
While he was tied down, the rest targeted others.
“Get lost, you western dogs!”
“You think you’re the best forever? Delusion!”
“Let’s go to hell together!”
The fortress soldiers charged at the lords, knights, and other officers.
Boom! Boooom!
“Arrrgh!”
“Gaaah!”
Many who saw Richard’s example responded properly, but plenty didn’t.
They collapsed screaming in agony, their bodies mangled horrifically.
The gruesome deaths of commanders tanked the morale of Richard’s army.
“Attack! Leave not a single western scum alive!”
“For the eternal glory of House Klaus and the south!”
Wide-area spells from mages, barrages from mana cannons, rifle volleys from soldiers—every attack rained down.
Even Richard couldn’t cover the entire battlefield, so casualties multiplied exponentially.
‘I could force my way through if I had to...’
If he went berserk and Jürgen Ferdinand joined in, victory wasn’t impossible.
But winning like this would cost them dearly.
With no telling how long the war would drag on, losing most of their key forces here?
Unthinkable.
His decision was swift, and Richard bellowed.
“The whole army, retreat! Retreat!”
Richard deflected incoming attacks on his soldiers as best he could, raising his voice.
Guarding the rear to the end, he successfully withdrew his forces intact.
But there was no joy in it.
After all, he had retreated in the opening battle, and word would spread across the empire.
In effect, it greatly boosted the morale of everyone in House Klaus and the south.
* * *
Richard wasn’t the only one to taste defeat.
Claudia and the First Princess’s faction clashed with Second Prince Theodore’s forces in the free city of Akella.
The result was disastrous.
The First Princess’s army suffered massive casualties in their rout, and Akella fell back under the control of Marquis Lois’s house.
—I’m sorry, acting patriarch. Because of my mistake, Akella...
Claudia bowed her head with a sullen expression.
But Martin cut her off.
“We can assign blame for the defeat later. Right now, analyzing the cause is far more important. I heard people were exploding—could you explain in detail? That was essentially what led to the princess’s and First Prince’s defeats.”
—Just as you say, acting patriarch. In the middle of fighting, some started exploding on their own, and the power was... terrifying. And it wasn’t just the blasts—their corpses turned into weapons that overwhelmed our soldiers.
“Even just the explosions would cause panic, but with a secondary attack on top... No one short of a true master could respond.”
—They explode so fast. You’d need at least a 5th-circle knight to barely react.
“Anything else unusual?”
—Hmm. All the soldiers were 2nd circle, but seasoned troops like that usually have different armor and weapons from regulars, right?
“Yes.”
Martin agreed with Claudia.
On the Krasian continent, personal prowess mattered most.
Thus, those with potential to reach 6th circle or higher—ones who’d manifested unique abilities—received preferential treatment.
This applied to soldiers too; even 2nd circle set them apart from 1st-circle grunts, earning vastly better gear.
—But these self-destructing soldiers were all armed like regular grunts. For them to be 2nd circle feels off somehow. Like...
“They forcibly raised their circles just for this operation?”
—Exactly, acting patriarch. But honestly, that doesn’t make sense, does it? There’s no way to artificially boost circles.
Claudia spoke with a bitter smile.
Seeing her, Martin sighed inwardly.
She and Richard might not know, but he was aware of ways to artificially elevate circles.
‘Doom.’
The new drug the Dark King—an ex-assassin—had been secretly developing.
It forcibly unlocked the mana core in the brains of the powerless, granting unique abilities or boosting them to 1st circle.
One thing still puzzled him, though.
‘Back then, it didn’t have a self-destruct feature.’
Considering the circumstances, they’d clearly added new properties through further research.
Either way, the suspects for the veiled drug developer had narrowed.
Nicholas von Lois or Werner von Klaus.
One of the two, for sure.
The latter seemed more likely, given the evidence.
—This isn’t an excuse, but there’s another reason we lost. Most of Akella’s underworld organizations sided with little brother. They seemed to harbor a lot of grudges against me and you, acting patriarch.
“To be precise, against me.”
He’d toppled the Human King and shut down the slave trade—the worst of the black markets.
He’d left other parts alone, but they now fell under imperial and Adalbert family oversight.
So it was only natural for the underworld groups to resent Martin and Claudia.
‘I told them not to let this happen by controlling the underworld, but they failed.’
Martin thought of the Dark King.
He’d planned to contact him about Doom anyway.
But seeing the underworld mess tied in, he changed his mind.
‘I need to go in person.’
He felt the need to meet the Dark King.
To uncover the hidden truth.
Akella reverting to Marquis Lois’s control was irrelevant.
If he resolved to infiltrate, no one could stop him.
And so, Martin decided what he had to do.