Chapter 79

Odilon de Meizenauf's chair, in which he had been deeply seated, was thrown to the ground and dirtied by the dust. Normally, his attendants and retainers would quietly set the chair upright and carefully wipe away the dirt. Until just half an hour ago, such a scene should have been commonplace.

"Why can't we strike the Haiselk soldiers from the side!?"

In response to Odilon's question, tinged with frustration, one of his vassals spoke solemnly.

"The ragtag soldiers given to the detestable Viscount Barnes have fled in a panic, hindering the movement of Sir Diland's troops who went to their rescue. The country bumpkins of Haiselk seem to have tried to guide the fleeing soldiers instead of killing them outright."

"Barnes, the fool!! What has happened to him!?"

The vassal, momentarily choking on his words, replied.

"He is missing from the outpost. Most likely—"

This was now a situation that was hard to believe. Unrelenting bad news continued to pour in. Odilon had to push the chair out of his mind and rise to issue hurried orders.

In peacetime, the key to victory was how many soldiers and supplies one could gather compared to the enemy. This was the basic strategy that Odilon, skilled in commerce and politics, had cultivated, and it was supposed to be an unshakable truth. But now it was about to crumble.

"Viscount Louisean is being pressed. The formation is breaking, and if this continues, Edgar will break through the front line."

"By all means, prevent the breakthrough! Send Baron Fanfare to support."

"Lord Diland of the family retinue has been killed, and the Haiselk soldiers are unstoppable!!"

"Only five hundred, and Diland has been killed?! What were the accompanying soldiers doing?! What is the purpose of the standing army?"

Sending Diland, a member of the family retinue, to rescue the remaining soldiers left with Barnes was a mistake. Odilon deeply regretted it. Amid the blue flames engulfing the outpost, only the Haiselk soldiers had reacted correctly to the situation. No, perhaps it was all a setup. He was increasingly convinced of this.

As the attack on the outpost reached its climax, the wide-ranging attack came. The subsequent movements of the Haiselk soldiers were decisive, cutting down the headless soldiers without a moment to regroup and launching a direct assault on the main camp.

At first glance, it seemed like a suicidal act. The Haiselk soldiers, however, did not kill the defeated soldiers but guided them. At the point of stalemate, Baron Josh, who had a long-standing feud with the Haiselk, attacked in coordination with them from the outpost.

This was an action that Josh, the leader of a faction with a long-standing feud with the Haiselk, should not have taken. Reports from his informants had conveyed dissatisfaction and complaints about the Haiselk. But even that was a deception. As a result, the Meizenauf family was now being fiercely attacked from two sides and was being cornered.

Still, the numbers were roughly equal, and considering the level of fatigue, Odilon still had a chance to win. As he continued to think and issue orders, good news arrived.

"Lord Orlean, who was attached to the mercenary group, has returned."

Orlean, a member of the family retinue, was an excellent nephew tasked with correctly conveying orders to the unruly mercenary group and monitoring them.

"You're alive, well done to return. What happened at the outpost... Oh, Orlean."

Orlean, who had been trained in martial arts and magic since childhood to support the Meizenauf family, was a leading martial figure in the family, with a thick, well-trained body, a sharp mind, and abundant magic. His body, however, was painfully burned and suffered severe burns.

"Healing mage, what are you doing!? Heal him quickly!"

Urging the accompanying healing mage, he responded with a voice tinged with frustration.

"My lord Odilon, I am healing him continuously. When Lord Orlean arrived here, his condition was indescribable."

Odilon, at a loss for words, weakly spoke.

"I broke into the outpost with the mercenary group. The walls and gates were all secured, and with the addition of Viscount Barnes, victory was certain. Until it revealed its true nature."

Orlean, breathing heavily with excitement and fear, continued.

"Don't overexert yourself."

Odilon reached out to stop the conversation, but his supposedly sensible nephew brushed him off.

"Uncle, it's no good. I have to talk now."

"It, wearing a demon's mask, unleashed blue flames and heat waves in the area. Just that alone made all the soldiers who couldn't create a magic barrier dance in the blue flames, and the weaker ones burned to death one after another. The horsemen and mercenary group who tried to kill it were all wiped out. I, I heard it while escaping. I heard it. The one who engulfed and killed over two hundred soldiers in the fire was just laughing. I was scorched and burned on my back and legs while escaping with Viscount Barnes, but the Haiselk soldiers attacked us."

Orlean, who had taken a sip of water from the canteen given by the healing mage, continued speaking rapidly.

"They were also laughing. The guiding fire from the netherworld, the ghost fire, the embers of the war god, they said, had returned to us, the Haiselk. Viscount Barnes was killed there, and I, I discarded all my armor, mixed in with the common soldiers, and made it here."

The generals, including Odilon, who had heard the account of the outpost from his nephew, were speechless and frozen. Orlean, who was usually arrogant and martial, was surprisingly fragile. Yet, the content of his words carried a sense of urgency that could not be ignored.

"I understand. Leave it to me. I will deal with the enemy."

Despite not being a martial expert, Odilon was a noble and a powerful earl with significant influence in the region. He would avenge the fallen soldiers and clear his nephew's frustration. Just as he was about to continue, his nephew stopped him.

"It's not possible. Uncle, to repel the fierce attack and avoid being picked off one by one, the soldiers are densely packed. If that is their target, if they unleash the blue flames again, everyone will die."

"That's nonsense..."

"Ah, can't you hear it? The fanatical laughter is approaching. They are coming. Even if we are called cowards, we must retreat from this place and continue the fight."

Orlean, with madness in his eyes, was on the verge of death. He twisted his burned and fused fingers and grabbed Odilon's neck.

"Do you want to end up like this!?"

Odilon, meeting his nephew's eyes, understood that there was still intelligence in them. He had warned Odilon of the crisis, even at the cost of his own dignity.

"Lord Orlean is delirious!!"

"Put him to rest, he will really die if he moves."

"Let go, the Meizenauf will be burned by that blue flame."

Orlean, who had been restrained, struggled for a moment but then lost consciousness. Fortunately, he was still breathing, and the healing mage continued to cast recovery spells.

Suddenly, Odilon's ears caught a laugh. He wondered if it was an auditory hallucination, but it was indeed a laugh. It seemed to be blessing something and cursing something else. One thing was certain: it was clearly tinged with madness and was steadily approaching.

Gathering his vassals, Odilon summarized the latest situation. The battle lines, compressed by the hammer and anvil, were significantly distorted, but the enemy, exhausted by continuous battles, had not yet made a decisive move. However, the Haiselk soldiers were still slowly but surely advancing.

The numbers were already even, and the location of the terrifying magic soldiers who had burned the outpost and many soldiers was unknown. It was hard to imagine that they could use such powerful attacks multiple times, but if they did, the damage would be incomparable to that of the outpost. Moreover, the Haiselk soldiers, though they were the ghosts of the northern countries, continued to fight without showing signs of fatigue.

The soldiers of the country that was once considered second-rate were far more resilient than the Meizenauf's standing army. The Meizenauf soldiers, too, were cowed by the laughter and their morale was low. The northern countries would not stop until they destroyed their enemies, and as a result, three countries had been wiped out in a single war. Odilon, in the past, had mocked them as foolish.

Now, in the heat of battle, they were a terrifying presence that he could not understand. Whether they engaged in total war because they were mad, or whether they went mad because of total war, Odilon could not decide which was correct. Amid this, the story of the blue flames began to spread on the battlefield, despite the ongoing battle, and had a profound impact on the soldiers.

If Odilon had thrown everything into the battle and reached for victory, the Dalmarkus Alliance, which was inferior in strength, might have been repelled. Enraptured by the blue flames and willing to stake their lives, generals like Edgar and Hadro, compared to Odilon, who was captivated by the illusion of the blue flames and could not stake his life, the results were clearly visible.

"Viscount Louisean has been captured by the enemy!! Baron Fanfare has also retreated."

The trembling messenger's words were terribly heavy. Odilon felt his body go limp, but he managed to speak.

"We have lost this battle."

The news decided the course of action for the Meizenauf family.

"Protect Lord Odilon!! The horsemen, deliver him to the home territory at the cost of your lives."

"We are the rearguard. We will hold back as many soldiers as possible and take them with us!!"

They had lost. It was a devastating defeat. Odilon's face twisted in humiliation as he acknowledged the defeat. Still, he was not despairing. He must not.

The recovery of military strength, the losses from compensation and bail, would burden the Meizenauf family's finances for ten years, perhaps even longer. It would be difficult to initiate a war outside their territory. But the Meizenauf family had not been extinguished. Even if Odilon could not launch a revenge war within his lifetime, he could pass on the strength to the next generation and win.

He sincerely apologized to the vassals who offered to be the rearguard. He would bring back as many soldiers as possible and reduce the number of family retinue captured. This was the duty of Odilon, now a defeated lord.