Chapter 154

And that night.

The Count of Harpun experienced the most absurd event of his entire life.

BOOOOOOM!!

Startled by the explosive roar echoing from the outside, the Count of Harpun bolted upright in his bed.

“W-what on earth is going on?!”

Due to his timid disposition, his bedchambers were located in the deepest depths of the main castle. Naturally, unless a sound was exceptionally thunderous, outside noises rarely penetrated the room—and yet…

CRRAAAAAASH!!!

“For it to sound like this… means total chaos has erupted right next to the castle…?! Chamberlain! Chamberlain!! Is anyone out there?!”

Right on cue, someone burst through the doors of the bedchambers, panting heavily.

“My Lord!”

“Sir Galli?!”

It was the Knight Commander of the Mighty Wall Knights, the order primarily responsible for defending the main castle.

“You should be commanding the knights! Why are you here in my chambers…?!”

“The knights have all been routed! Please flee until the other knight orders from the inner and outer castles can reinforce us! The witches! The witches are here!!”

“Witches?!”

“T-that is… I mean…!”

The Commander of the Mighty Wall Knights was not a man of fluent words, and losing his patience with the bumbling explanation, the Count shoved him aside. He stepped onto one of the magic circles engraved in a corner of the room. It was a Blink magic circle that connected his bedchambers directly to the observatory on the highest floor of the castle.

Ordinarily, it was a spot only used occasionally to entertain guests, but when it came to scanning the entire area outside the castle, there was no better place.

Flash!

In an instant, his vision shifted.

“Count!”

“Count, my Lord!!”

Upon his arrival, he found that he was not the only one in the observatory. Attendants and several bureaucrats working in the main castle had already gathered, staring down at the ground below with thoroughly frantic expressions.

“What in the world is happening out there?!”

The familiar face of the Chamberlain bowed deeply, his voice laced with urgency as he answered.

“W-witches, sire! Witches have surrounded the castle and…”

As a point of reference, within the Harpun Count’s Domain, the word ‘witch’ designated only one specific individual.

“A witch? The Knight Commander was babbling about a witch as well… Is it indeed that wicked woman, Carmen, after all? To think she would launch a surprise attack in this manner in the dead of night…! More importantly, what on earth happened to the forces defending the outer and inner castles?! How could hundreds of knights allow her to reach the main castle without putting up any resistance?!”

“Th-there is no knight order with her. It is just the wi-witches themselves…”

“What? That bitch invaded all the way here single-handedly without even a knight order to back her up?!”

“No, that is not what I meant…”

“Move! Get out of my way! I shall see for myself!!”

Roughly shoving aside the attendants blocking his path, the Count pressed his face tightly against the glass window.

An instant later, the spectacle unfolding beneath his eyes left him completely at a loss for words, as it was entirely contrary to his expectations.

Just as the attendant had said, there was no knight order down there. The only thing present was a group of barely over a dozen armed individuals. And the vast majority of them were beautiful young women.

‘Is that why he said “witches” instead of “a witch”…?! But with a mere handful of numbers like that, what could they possibly achieve—’

BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Immediately following that thought, a thunderous roar and a violent tremor cleanly blew his skepticism away. A massive blaze instantly illuminated the surrounding darkness.

Startled, he snapped his gaze toward the source of the sound, only to find a woman who appeared to be an Elf holding a fireball the size of a house, frozen in a throwing stance.

Then came another explosion.

CRRAAAAAASH!!!

Furthermore, she was by no means the only one performing such a feat. A whopping three mages were taking turns hurling spells toward the castle, almost as if they were competing to see who could demolish the structure the most efficiently.

Watching the castle violently rock with every single spellcast, it was evident that all three were mature, high-level practitioners of at least the 7th rank.

‘No, wait. One of them looks familiar… That massive frame and that beastkin features… Isn’t that Lord Talos? Why on earth is that man out there?! Could it be that the witch hired him?’

‘No, more importantly, what kind of waste of magic is this? For mages of that caliber, Blink and flight should be easily possible. Why aren’t they infiltrating the castle instead of just pounding away at the walls from the outside?’

Right at that moment, however, the heavy sound of thundering hooves reached all the way up to the observatory.

Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud…!

Lifting his gaze further out, he spotted the Mighty Martial, Iron Blood, Iron Castle, and Black Gold Knights riding furiously toward the commotion after hearing the disturbance at the main castle.

“O-oh…”

At that sight, the Count involuntarily let out a sigh of relief.

‘Yes. There is no way my loyal knights would just let a situation like this slide. Whatever their objective may be, as long as those men are here, this petty disturbance will—’

However, there was one critical fact he had completely overlooked… Just a short while ago, the Mighty Wall Knights, numbering nearly seventy men who guarded the main castle, had been dismantled without a sound. It had happened so rapidly that only their Commander had barely managed to escape to report the emergency to his Lord.

And… sure enough, another unbelievable spectacle unfolded right beneath the Lord’s eyes.

The original witch clad in golden armor, who had been laughing and watching the mages pound the castle, stepped forward with her red spear. Following right behind her, an Elf with blue hair and another with brown hair drew their spear and halberd.

And then, despite the ratio being nearly one against a hundred, the three of them recklessly charged straight toward the oncoming knight orders without a single shred of fear.

Boom! CRRAAAACK!!

‘A-are those bitches insane?’

As an Aura User himself who possessed a decent amount of military acumen, the Count couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.

Naturally, he was well aware of Carmen Sonya Evas’s power. But she was terrifying when she commanded a knight order and trampled over enemies alongside them, not when she charged ahead utilizing nothing but her own personal martial prowess.
Even if he conceded a hundred times over and assumed she could handle a single knight order, doing such a thing against a whopping four orders simultaneously? It was an utterly impossible notion.

The skills of the Elves following in her wake were likewise tremendous, but even so, the outcome wouldn’t change—

“ROOOOOOOOARRRRRR!!”

“GRRRRRRRRLLLLL!!”

It was at that exact moment that a pair of spine-chilling roars echoed through the battlefield.

“……!!”

And out of nowhere, two terrifying monsters violently T-boned the flanks of the advancing knight orders.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

“Guh-hhk!”

“Kuaaaaah!”

The knights scattered into the air like bowling pins struck by a bowling ball.

The true identities of the monsters that had sent the knights flying like paper dolls were none other than a colossal tiger monster and a bipedal lion monster.

In the case of the lion monster, its height reached nearly five meters, and its entire body was clad in a type of silver armor never seen before.

“Leo! Wipe them out!”

Roused by a sharp, resonant voice echoing from somewhere, the lion monster let out another wild roar. Brandishing a massive greatsword that made one’s knees shake just by looking at it, Leo began to thoroughly tear through the knight orders in earnest.

Boom! Craaaack!

The sounds of shattering, breaking, and exploding filled the air. Moreover, every single time the lion roared, the warhorses went into a frantic, uncontrollable frenzy.

When the knights could no longer manage their rearing mounts and finally dismounted, the lion rammed its sword into the ground as if it had been waiting for this exact moment, and then wrenched open the chestplate of its armor.

Then… a flash of light flickered from within the armor, and a massive pillar of light immediately swept across the knights.

Flash! Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble!!

“Aaaah!”

“Guaaaaaah!”

“M-my goodness… What on earth is that…?”

The knight orders, whose spirits were half-broken by the exploits of the armored lion monster and the giant tiger monster, were simply no match for Carmen and the two Elf knights following behind her. While their raw impact didn’t match the lion’s, the women systematically dismantled and crushed the remaining knights with overwhelming fire power and a superb display of martial arts that the lion monster lacked.

Craack! Clang! Shreek!

As elite knight orders that didn’t lag behind any other fief, under normal circumstances they would have somehow formed a vanguard formation to respond… but under the current situation, with a mechanical lion and a giant tiger rampaging and whipping up a storm of steel from behind, such a thing was utterly impossible.

In the end, the knights were retired one after another.

As the number of knights—their final hope—instantly dwindled down to a third of their original force, the attendants and bureaucrats surrounding the Count cried out with pale faces.

“C-Count…! You must flee!! Those are monsters capable of dismantling an entire Count’s domain with less than ten numbers. The guard forces inside the castle won’t be able to stop them for even a single second!”

“Flee to where…? Where am I supposed to go, leaving my own domain behind?!”

“Do you not possess the teleportation artifact that you keep for emergencies such as this?! Go to the Vivischen Marquisate, where the Countess and the three young masters have taken refuge! As your father-in-law, the Marquis will surely lend you his strength!”

“Urgh…!”

“While the knights are still pinning them down, quickly…!”

Nodding his head with a grim expression, the Count finally fumbled inside his mouth and pulled something out. It was a sapphire crafted into the shape of a molar.

“…To think a day would truly come in my life where I must use this… I shall never forget this humiliation…!”

He gnashed his teeth violently as he looked down at the witches outside. Then, clutching the artifact tightly, he chanted the activation phrase for the teleportation.

“O wings of Abikam, guide me to the promised…”

Right at that exact moment, however… a young man who had been watching the spectacle from the sidelines without participating in the combat until the very end turned his gaze toward this exact spot, as if he knew precisely where the Count was located, and drew the sword at his hip.

Then, he casually swung his blade through the empty air.

Slash!

A single line of golden light traced across the sky. Immediately following that line, a pitch-black darkness that seemed capable of sucking in everything manifested itself.

Crackle-pop-snap!

“…place!”

Immediately after, the artifact activated as the phrase was completed—

“…Uh?”

…and absolutely nothing happened.

“W-what…?”

“C-Count?”

“No, this makes no sense… This is an artifact I purchased from the Blue Magic Tower of the Imperial Capital for a fortune… Why…?”

And then.

BOOOOOOOOOOM…!

Another round of neurosis-inducing roars and vibrations assaulted their five senses and brains.

BOOOOOOOOOOM…!!

BOOOOOOOOOOM…!!!

Staring blankly back and forth between the artifact in his hand and the castle walls, which were rapidly cracking open, the Count finally let out a hollow laugh.

“It is over.”

“Count, my Lord…”

“…I shall refine my attire and etiquette. Chamberlain. Bring me my garments, my scepter, and my seal.”

“C-Count, what do you intend to do…?”

“I was wondering why they were needlessly firing off magic like that… and now I finally understand. That magic is a doorbell. A doorbell calling for me. Since a guest is calling, how can I, as the host, not step outside to meet them?”

“Count, Your Excellency…”

“Enough. From what I can see, they appear to have shown clemency to the knights, so they likely will not lay a hand on the likes of you. Do not offer any pointless resistance and remain quiet.”

And… about thirty minutes later.

The Count stepped out of the castle gates entirely alone, without a single escort knight by his side.

“Carmen… Sonya Evas…”

“It has been a while, Count of Harpun.”

“…….”

“I shall not make this long. I trust you already have a fair inkling as to why I have marched all the way here today. What is your choice?”

“…Do you desire my surrender?”

“Naturally.”

“…I have a condition. Just one condition.”

“A condition, you say? Speak it.”

“Please spare my family. And if possible, I beg of you to cease any further meaningless slaughter.”

“Your family? Has your family not already evacuated to the Vivischen Marquisate?”

“…If you were to launch another assault like today’s, would even that place be safe? I swear to you upon my honor, my family will absolutely never seek vengeance against you. Therefore, please, let it end with me alone.”

“What are you talking about? I have no intention of killing you, nor do I have any desire to strip you of your position as Lord. Why on earth should I kill your family?”

“…What do you mean by that?”

“You shall become the very first Lord of my Countdom. Just consider it as simply changing the object of your allegiance from the Emperor of the Empire to me.”

“…….”

“…….”

After standing frozen in silence for a brief moment, the Count of Harpun ultimately could not suppress the words rising up his throat and blurted them right out.

“…Excuse me, but have you perhaps lost your mind?”