Necromancer Of The Black Bible (155)

Margrave Valbern asked while hiding his anxious heart.

“Is what you said true?”

“Though it was a dream, it is true.”

At Rietta’s firm answer, Valbern rubbed his forehead.

Then he looked at her again and asked,

“Are your prophetic dreams usually accurate?”

Rietta nodded and answered.

“I do not dream often, but most of them were right.”

“Most of them?”

When the Margrave asked again, Rietta corrected herself.

“My dreams have never been wrong so far.”

Her words were likely true.

Among the Empire’s Swordmasters, those who possessed the power of prophetic dreams had all foretold the future through dreams.

Strangely enough, the future they saw could not be changed.

Valbern, well aware of this, grew anxious.

Once a Swordmaster had a prophetic dream, that event had to be taken as something that would definitely happen. No matter how they responded.

After thinking for a long while, Valbern asked Rietta.

“What do you think we should do?”

“…We cannot ignore a dream. If we cannot ignore it, then we must move on the assumption that it will happen.”

“What do you mean?”

Valbern asked back with shining eyes, and Rietta continued in a calm expression.

“About thirty years ago, there was a battle won by using a Swordmaster’s prophetic dream. At the time, that Swordmaster had a dream that the fortress on the western front line would fall. The commander who heard of this summoned Towermaster Leopold and devised a strategy based on the prophetic dream.”

“Ah, I remember. Isn’t that the battle of the Spearblade Fortress on the front lines of Dead Lands?”

“That’s right.”

The battle of the Spearblade Fortress was so famous that it had become a byword in itself.

It was a legendary battle that instantly raised the stature of Leopold, who had just been appointed Towermaster.

Leopold did not ignore the contents of the prophetic dream.

Instead, he yielded the fortress so that the dream would be realized exactly as foretold, and the enemy that easily captured it let its guard down and was annihilated by Leopold’s ambush force.

Recalling this, Rietta continued with gleaming eyes.

“If we use this strategy, we might have a chance of winning.”

Valbern stroked his chin.

It certainly made sense.

Not only had Towermaster Leopold already succeeded with it, but the castle’s current resource situation was no worse than that of the Spearblade Fortress.

‘The problem is the weather.’

The blizzard still had not stopped.

It was truly strange.

A relentless snowfall that had gone on for half a month.

Since winter began, there had never been a time when the blizzard had continued for so long.

Apparently Rietta was troubled by this as well, because she added in a hard voice.

“We cannot wait for the weather to clear. We must abandon the castle immediately and set up a follow-up operation.”

“I agree with that.”

Valbern eventually nodded.

He took out a ledger and flipped through it as he continued.

“I’ll make a plan to evacuate the castle as you say. I’d like you to take a role in that too….”

“My role has already been decided.”

“Is that so?”

To Valbern’s question, Rietta answered with a resolute expression.

“I must remain in this castle.”

Her words carried an important implication.

A prophetic dream of Graneum Castle falling.

There, she had seen her own death.

In the end, Valbern slowly nodded and said,

“Good. Then stay here. How many defenders should we leave behind?”

“If it’s a thousand, I can surely fool them.”

And so the operation was decided.

To evacuate the castle while leaving a thousand defenders and Commander Rietta Carmain behind.

The operational force would be stationed in the underground prison to prepare for what came after the fall.

On top of that, a letter requesting reinforcements was sent to the imperial capital, Edelmund.

After all these measures were completed, Rietta left Margrave Valbern’s office with an expressionless face.

By then it had grown dark, and thick darkness had settled in the corridor.

In the freezing cold, even the torches flickering here and there were dying down.

Walking through it, Rietta soon reached the end of the corridor, opened the door, and stepped outside.

Fwoooosh-

A flesh-cutting wind blew fiercely.

A ferocious cold that seemed as if it would freeze one to the bone.

Yet Rietta did not seem to feel that cold and did not tremble at all.

She merely gazed out into the distance with empty eyes.

Then she quietly murmured.

“I did… as instructed….”

The moment her words fell, movement began within the thick darkness.

At first it looked as if countless snowballs were moving on their own, but gradually their outlines became clear.

An enormous army.

What had looked like snowballs was the snow that had piled up on the soldiers until now.

They were advancing slowly, and with perfect precision, toward Graneum Castle.

In Rietta’s empty pupils, a clear green aura flickered once.

The connection with Rietta Carmain was easy.

Because I had the ability to find traces of mana that originated from me.

Natasha reported that she had killed all the enemies in the last battle,

but I thought there was no way that was true.

It had been a battle involving more than twenty thousand people.

It did not make sense that not a single person had survived such a large-scale battle.

So I sensed my scattered mana, and as a result I found survivors.

Their number was not large.

Since most of them had been raised by Necromancy, if you looked only at the count in tens, it would be right to judge that there were no survivors.

The ones I found were only five.

Rietta Carmain was one of them.

After that, brainwashing her by using the mana that had taken root in her was very easy.

Using Rietta’s usual desire for recognition and her fear, I could easily bring her under control.

She proposed a retreat operation to Valbern exactly as I instructed, and Valbern accepted it.

He must have been completely fooled by the phrase “prophetic dream strategy.”

I watched our army’s advance from afar while riding in a wagon pulled by two skeletal horses.

The vanguard was Kael.

With Verdin gone, he was a useful piece on the board.

‘His skill was proven too.’

Before going to search for the princess, Verdin had properly trained Kael.

He had carefully taught and trained him, pointing out the weaknesses and improvements in the techniques.

With his diligent personality, Kael learned the techniques through daily training and improved his skill by one level compared to the previous battle.

Moreover, Rietta Carmain, waiting in the castle, was a master of close combat.

Although she wielded twin swords and was weak against cavalry tactics, she possessed excellent skill in commanding infantry to seize key positions.

From her memories, she even had a record of taking second place in a martial arts tournament.

‘Kael in the field, Rietta in close combat. For the time being, those two will be enough.’

The generals only needed to be able to subdue the enemy generals. The rest would be handled by the undead soldiers.

My soldiers, who could fight without tiring and rise again even if killed, had no rivals on this continent, at least.

Then a communication came from Rietta.

-I have detected the advance. Please give your orders.

I began issuing, one by one, the orders I had already thought out long ago.

-Open the castle gates. Do not stop those who are retreating.

-Will that be enough?

-Lock the doors of the underground prison. I will deal with them personally.

-Understood.

A moment later, Rietta asked again.

-What should I do with the thousand defenders assigned to me?

-What else? They have to fight us.

-…Do I fight too?

I understood the fellow’s worry.

No matter how brainwashed one was, death would still be frightening.

-What do you want to do? For reference, Kael has gained eternal life.

Rietta’s hesitation was not long.

She answered almost immediately.

-I would like that blessing to be bestowed upon me as well.

-Then fight. With everything you have.

-I… will obey.

All that remained now was to wait.

I closed my eyes and began to watch what was about to unfold.

“Enemy attack!”

“Everyone, retreat!”

Inside Graneum Castle, it was utter chaos.

The weather was already brutal, and the news that the enemy had stormed in sent everyone into panic.

What surprised them most was the appearance of the enemy force.

Even amid the raging blizzard, their silent, steady approach without the slightest wavering sent a chill down the spines of those who saw them.

Margrave Valbern was no different.

‘How can they be like that….’

To be honest, he had been half skeptical about the rumor that the enemy was undead.

If Swordmaster Rietta had not testified to it, he would have dismissed it as mere rumor.

But the reality before hia eyes felt even worse than the rumor.

They were marching so orderly even in this flesh-cutting cold.

Only then did Valbern realize what kind of enemy they were facing.

‘Cold like this is no obstacle to them.’

That is the biggest difference from living humans.

They hardly fight in weather this bad.

Because both the invaders and the defenders suffer.

But undead are different.

There is no reason to wait for a time convenient to humans.

If he were the commander, he felt he would choose a time like this that favored them.

Valbern, looking down at the enemy from atop the castle wall, opened his mouth.

“How are the evacuation preparations going?”

“We are preparing as quickly as possible.”

“Then will evacuation be possible before they arrive here?”

The mage hesitated, then spoke.

“It is impossible.”

“Then someone will have to buy us time.”

At Valbern’s words, someone beside him spoke.

“I will buy us time.”

It was Rietta.

For her, who had decided to stay here and command the defense forces, stepping forward like this was, in a way, only natural.

However, since it meant putting her own life on the line, it was not something just anyone could do easily.

Valbern nodded with a stern expression.

“Then you take charge of the rear. I will wait underground with the ambush force.”

“Understood.”

Rietta answered lightly, then immediately descended from the wall.

After that, Valbern’s orders continued.

“While the defenders buy time, you will take the civilians and escort troops and leave the castle. Do not go anywhere else; head straight for the Imperial Capital, Edelmund. I have already sent a letter ahead, so they will receive you.”

The strategy was to evacuate the civilians while Rietta defended the castle, and to have the main force ambush from the underground prison.

There was no helping the ambush position being the underground prison.

It was also Rietta’s suggestion, but there was nowhere other than the underground prison to hide such a large army.

And only about twenty thousand troops could be kept waiting in the underground prison.

Since there were a total of fifty thousand soldiers stationed here, the remaining thirty thousand had to wait outside.

Valbern looked at his Swordmaster, Sir Horun, and entrusted him with the matter.

“I will leave the ambush outside the castle to you. Can you handle it?”

Swordmaster Horun was an old veteran with white hair and a white beard.

He looked at Valbern for a moment, then spoke.

“My Lord Margrave. Wouldn’t it be better for me to be inside rather than outside?”

“What do you mean by that?”

Horun looked down at the castle below with sharp eyes and continued.

“This ambush operation carries great risk. If they were merely soldiers of Dead Lands, we might succeed, but the opponent is undead. For you to personally command the ambush force against them is too dangerous. So….”

He knelt before Valbern and said,

“I will lie in ambush underground. Margrave, if you watch the situation and decide the ambush has failed, head straight for Edelmund.”

“I can’t possibly….”

“Please, do that!”

At Horun’s heartfelt rebuke, Valbern had no choice but to agree.