Chapter 147 : Deployment

Just what had that view of Earth I saw beyond the sky been?

Just what secret was the Ascension Stone Fragment hiding?

If I gathered and gathered Ascension Stone Fragments and finally managed to reach beyond that sky, what on earth would happen?

Leaving behind questions I still couldn’t solve, I returned to Winter Castle.

When I reached the castle gate, the Guard Team Leader recognized me.

“Ah, you’re the Mage of Thunder.

By the way, are you alright? A pretty huge storm was raging over there earlier.”

It seemed he had seen the Storm of Demonic energy that occurred when I absorbed the Ascension Stone Fragment.

“Ah, yes. Because of that, I gave up on this demonic beast hunt.”

“Good.If you got caught up in a storm like that by mistake, you wouldn’t even be able to gather your bones.”

“Then I’ll go in now.”

“Ah, alright.”

After brushing it off appropriately with the Guard Team Leader, I passed through the gate and headed straight for Edric’s office.

Knock knock─

“Come in.”

Edric looked at me and spoke as if he found it unexpected.

“Did the hunt end already? You came back faster than I thought.”

“A storm suddenly blew in, so I decided to postpone the hunt for next time.”

“Hm?

Ah, you mean that storm earlier.

It certainly was a strange storm.

These days, there have been far too many abnormal phenomena…….”

Edric’s expression hardened stiffly.

“Have you found out anything about the attackers?”

“Unfortunately, no.Their madness had set in so thoroughly that even the inquisitors said they had no way to make them open their mouths.”

As expected, it was impossible to make demonic persons speak.

To begin with, I even doubted whether those demonic persons had the reason to answer questions at all.

“I figured as much.”

“Do you have any guesses about who might be behind them?”

“Well. I don’t know.”

“Hng. I thought so.”

It wasn’t really a lie—truthfully, I had no idea what was behind those demonic persons.

If I tried to make a few guesses, the Hall of Subjugation or the Eastern Union, which had been said to be preparing for war with the Empire lately, came to mind…….

‘Hall of Subjugation is one thing, but if the Eastern Union could move demonic persons, that’s no ordinary problem.’

At the center of the Eastern Union right now was someone called the Supreme King.

It still hadn’t been revealed whether that person was a player or not, but if they were a player, it wouldn’t be that strange for them to move demonic persons.

‘The problem is why they targeted Winter Castle in the first place…….’

Twenty demonic persons could easily be called a tactical unit capable of turning an entire territory into scorched earth.

But investing such a valuable tactical unit into Winter Castle, which was very far from the front line with the Eastern Union?

It was strange.

If the one behind it was the Eastern Union, rather than targeting Winter Castle—which wouldn’t even be drawing out a large force for the war—it would be far more efficient to attack another city near Bernhard.

‘For now, the possibility that it’s the Eastern Union is low, but even if it’s the Hall of Subjugation, it’s the same that there’s no reason to target Winter Castle.’

If there was any other force that could have pulled something like this, there was only one.

‘Twilight Troupe.’

I didn’t know what Twilight Troupe’s short-term objective was, but their long-term objective was pretty obvious anyway.

To destroy the world.

Following the Destruction Dragon Tiamat was also within the same context.

Because the Destruction Dragon itself was an existence that would most certainly bring this world to ruin.

‘Did they think Winter Castle was getting in the way of the plan?’

In fact, Winter Castle had blocked Twilight Troupe’s schemes several times.

Like when the King of the Demonic Realm awakened before.

‘In many ways, Twilight Troupe is the most likely, but the problem is that demonic persons were involved.’

The Twilight Troupe members I had faced before were all made up of the original inhabitants of this world.

It had to be that way.

No matter how far gone a player was, it was hard to sympathize with the ideology of people as far gone as the Twilight Troupe.

But the ones who attacked Winter Castle this time were made up of demonic persons.

In other words, writing it off as Twilight Troupe didn’t quite fit somewhere.

‘Of course, it’s not impossible that a player who sympathized with Twilight Troupe appeared by now, but…….’

Naturally, it was information I couldn’t know right now.

“Did something come to mind?”

“No. I still don’t know.”

“Hm, that’s a shame. If you think you know something, tell me.”

“Yes.”

“Ah, and there’ll be a deployment ceremony soon. It probably won’t be anything grand, but you still need to attend, so keep that in mind.”

“Understood.”

A deployment ceremony…….

It seemed Winter Castle’s side also planned to draw out a certain amount of troops for this war with the Eastern Union.

Thinking that way, it almost felt like this demonic person raid had been a scheme by the Eastern Union to block Winter Castle’s intervention, but I decided not to think about it any further.

There was no point thinking alone about a problem whose answer I couldn’t know, since it would lead to no conclusion.

When I returned to the barracks, as expected, Conlan reacted first.

“What, you came back faster than I thought?”

“A storm was blowing outside.”

“Ah, right. Even for you, hunting in a storm like that would be hard.”

Conlan nodded.

“Where are Albino and Alicia?”

“Well, they said they were going to train.”

“Yeah? And you?”

“I’m going to rest today. There isn’t a single part of my body that doesn’t hurt.”

“Stop whining.”

After finishing the small talk with Conlan, I settled down and briefly checked the Verification Board.

I looked to see if there was any information related to this demonic person raid, but unfortunately there wasn’t anything plausible.

Instead, I saw some odd information.

-Julia : Lately I keep seeing guys who look like Twilight Troupe on the Eastern Union side, what is that?

Information that people who looked like Twilight Troupe were showing up on the Eastern Union side.

What kind of crappy stunt were they trying to pull again…….

‘Maybe this war itself is related to Twilight Troupe.’

If I thought about Twilight Troupe’s objective, humanity on the Lagna Continent waging war among themselves like this could be seen as beneficial to them.

“Tsk.”

War was approaching.

***

A simple deployment ceremony was held with Margrave, the lord of Winter Castle, personally stepping forward.

“Brave warriors of Winter Castle! We stood here now to advance to Bernhardt. The road ahead will never be smooth, but I have no doubt that with your courage and loyalty, you will be able to overcome any adversity.”

“Remember, the reason we fought was to protect our families and our homeland. Do not forget that even in the very heart of enemy lines, the people of Winter Castle were cheering for you.”

“Please keep in mind how important each of your roles was on the battlefield. All of you could become heroes. Do not be afraid, and move forward.”

“We will surely be victorious. Let us welcome together the day we broke the enemy’s ambition and returned in triumph. Proud soldiers of our Winter Castle!”

True to Winter Castle, which didn’t particularly favor empty ceremonies, the deployment ceremony ended with just a few words from Margrave, the lord of the castle.

The scale of the forces wasn’t very large.

Only the 4th Special Task Force, four knights, and about one company of troops under their command.

It was right to say that even for Winter Castle, they were only showing the minimum sincerity toward the Imperial Household.

“Sir Edric, is it alright to depart immediately?”

“Let’s do that.”

“Understood. Move out!”

Seeing Gunnar Winterheart, the knight responsible for this deployment, ask Edric for his opinion, it seemed that Edric—despite leaving his former position—was still being treated with considerable respect by the Winter Castle knights.

The full-scale deployment began.

Fortunately, horses were provided for the 4th Special Task Force, so we didn’t have to worry about walking all the way to Bernhard.

“It felt like things were getting quiet, and now it’s war…….”

“By the way, big guy, are you alright?”

“What?”

“If the rally point is Bernhard, there’s a high chance Bernhard becomes the center of the war.That’s why I’m saying it.”

Conlan, understanding what Albino meant, gave a light laugh.

“Hah, I wondered what you were on about. Leila is a strong woman. Don’t worry about useless things like that.”

“Hm…… you’re bold for you.”

“I was always bold, unlike you, a shallow one.”

“So you want to go at it?”

“Anytime.”

As always, Conlan and Albino bickered.

Either way, overall the road was quite peaceful.

The reference point was that the support forces were small for a war, but objectively speaking, the overall scale wasn’t small, so no disturbances happened along the way.

No ordinary bandits or demonic beasts would think of throwing themselves at an army.

It couldn’t help but contrast with when Luna and I headed toward Akiro’s Labyrinth, when a lot of troublesome things happened.

“We camp here for today!”

Maybe because more than a company’s worth of people were camping, the camp’s scale was considerable, and we were assigned a pretty decent tent as lodging.

“Thank you for the consideration.”

“Not at all. Considering Sir Edric and the Mage of Thunder’s achievements, even this isn’t enough.”

Gunnar Winterheart flicked his gaze toward me and then left.

What was he looking at?

At that moment, Albino sidled up, snickering as he spoke.

“Thanks to you, we’re eating well, Winter Castle’s hero, Mage of Thunder.”

“Shut up.”

This guy—his personality seemed to have changed a bit since the last time I saw him.

Anyway, this journey was definitely comfortable for us in many ways.

Unlike when only the 4th Special Task Force moved separately, with soldiers accompanying us, the soldiers handled all the annoying work for us.

Preparing bedding and meals, of course, and even all the other miscellaneous tasks.

Because we moved so comfortably, I could check the Anonymous Bulletin Board and the Verification Board whenever I had spare moments.

-The Empire is in chaos right now fck is this really a war?

-The Eastern Union side’s atmosphere is insanely tense. lol looks like they’re really about to clash.

-Ah, why the hell are they suddenly making a scene?

Most Anonymous Bulletin Board opinions about this war weren’t very good.

To begin with, players weren’t stakeholders who understood war, so unless they participated directly, a war only created hassles and losses for them.

Of course, not every user was like that, and there definitely were a few users who wanted to hit it big through this war.

-Isn’t war easy money? I’m joining right away to do some looting lol

-FR lol

-But if you run as a mercenary, you could probably make a lot, right? Should I try it?

I could also see opinions about the war on the Verification Board.

The Verification Board had fewer posts, but each post contained quite valuable information.

-Bro : Is it really okay to just leave the Supreme King alone…

-Chen : The Supreme King is dangerous. Everyone should be careful.

-Julia : But why are these Twilight Troupe bastards showing up again? Ha…

Time passed quickly as I checked the Anonymous Bulletin Board and the Verification Board.

And…….

“We’ve arrived.”

At last, we arrived at Bernhard.

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