Departure

Information about the territory ruled by Woody was easy to obtain.

After all, it was a newly born territory within the kingdom, and one could gather endless information from the talkative residents of the town.

But naturally the rumors of the townspeople were mixed in, and they were all ridiculous stories with wild exaggerations.

“Divine Beasts living there, fruits exploding, gigantic trees glowing… there’s no way that’s true. Use some common sense.”

Ashid was currently delivering a speech on the floor of a tavern he had reserved entirely.

Around him stood the soldiers who had fought alongside Ashid on the southern front.

The core members were mostly third or fourth sons of noble families, and over ninety percent of the soldiers possessed aptitudes.

The gazes they directed toward Ashid burned with passion.

Everyone gathered here was a soldier who had sworn loyalty not to House Conrad, but to Ashid himself.

Ashid had already produced results and had continued fighting on the front lines.

He was also generous and had properly rewarded soldiers who achieved results.

If they followed him, they could rise in status.

Ashid truly possessed the charisma to make people believe that.

“Lord Ashid, but why are only such strange rumors spreading?”

Ashid nodded at the words of his adjutant, Karion.

No one interrupted the conversation between the two.

Everyone here had been carefully selected by the pair, and among those who accompanied them to the battlefield, they were the ones most loyal to Ashid.

Since they had to act before Duke Conrad noticed, they avoided people closely connected to families that might report to his father.

The average age was also quite young, and some were not even from noble families.

“As for the territory of Wenti, every bit of information that reaches us is absurd nonsense. But this is probably a kind of information disruption.”

Even on the battlefield, it was common to spread false information to conceal the true size of one’s army.

Woody was probably spreading a mixture of lies and exaggerations so outsiders would not learn the truth of their situation.

Quite a sly trick.

“But that just means there’s something they don’t want others to know… in other words, Wenti might indeed produce a lot of food, but their real military strength isn’t anything special!”

At his words, his subordinates shouted their agreement.

Seeing his energized men, a smile spread across Ashid’s face.

That’s right. He was not wrong.

The one who’s right was him…

‘My timid father will never give permission. But once we’ve departed, it’ll already be too late. By then I’ll have finished everything.’

Ashid had confidence in victory.

Even if there was a village there, it was just a poor settlement in the desert.

They likely did not have many soldiers, and if they launched a surprise attack and reduced their numbers, there would be no problem.

Woody’s production-type aptitude of Tree Planting could not possibly contribute to combat, so he was irrelevant.

The only two enemies worth worrying about were Aira the Water Magus and Nadja the Sword Saint.

First he would quickly eliminate Aira, then confront Nadja.

In a one-on-one fight, he could not possibly lose to either of them.

As long as his subordinates bought time and prevented him from fighting both at once, there was no reason Ashid could lose.

“Let’s go, you bastards! We’ll reclaim our ducal territory!”

“OOOOOOOOOOOO!!”

Thus Ashid and his men slipped out of the capital of the domain before the duke noticed and set out for Wenti—.