Chapter 366: My Script Was Perfect

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

366. My Script Was Perfect

Nydore’s tale was not too long, so she did not take too much to tell it.

Her group of eight had initially left the village to dissuade the Wise Mad King from sending more underlings to convey his “love”. This was a traditional method of gently saying ‘no’ to a suitor.

For this group of 8, who were all fairies — a race that loved nature — this venture was a happy getaway. As they were traveling, they had to take shelter and sleep in the woods for long periods of time. One day, Nydore discovered a suspicious looking group moving through the woods.

It was a caravan containing fairies, humans, dwarves, and even goblins — a race always hidden in catacombs. This combination was enough to make anyone suspicious. Fairies had a lot of ego and pride, so they would never be caught in the same vicinity as dwarves and goblins, who they considered low and unruly.

Nydore’s group began to stalk this suspicious caravan. Fueling their suspicion, even more, was the fact that this caravan moved to random areas of the woods, as though it had no set destination. Whenever the caravan stopped at a certain area, its passengers would clear away the trees and grass there, and after that, they would draw strange patterns that Nydore and her group did not recognize. Once done, the passengers would cover their drawings up with fallen leaves before the caravan moved on to another area.

No matter how one saw it, the inhabitants of the caravan did not seem to be up to any good. Nydore wanted to stop them right then and there, but the middle-aged, handsome fairy had stopped her in time. Instead, they sent details of their discovery back to Eom Village via carrier pigeon, but the village never replied.

They had no further contact with the village after that. This was not surprising, however, because of the method with which they used to communicate; carrier pigeons were not difficult to intercept.

A few days later, Nydore’s team spotted even more caravans similar to the first. This increased the scale of their bizarre activities, and soon, large swathes of the forest had been destroyed and burned. Atop their ashes were the same strange drawings and some bizarre-looking alters.

Nydore could no longer turn a blind eye to their destruction. Although she still had no idea what they were up to, she was sure that whatever it was would not be good news for the woods. Hence, yesterday, she shot an arrow at one of the caravans.

Although there were only eight Gale Snipers in Nydore’s group, the archery prowess of a single Gale Sniper was no joke; it took them very little effort to finish off the inhabitants of the caravan that they attacked. After the massacre, the Gale Snipers went over to see what they could salvage from the corpses, but before they could begin their search, the enemies’ corpses burst into flames. There was no clue to be found from the ashes that were left behind.

The events that ensued after that was what Baiyi had witnessed. A guerilla troop of enemies found the group from Eom Village and began to attack them. They fought for hours until Nydore’s group had backed themselves into a corner, and that was when Baiyi had swooped in to save the day.

Suddenly, the Cleric Walker sent Baiyi a message in the Void, informing him that the battle in Eom Village was over.

A great amount of relief washed over Baiyi.

After listening to Nydore, Baiyi had a general idea of what had happened. Everything had been the doing of the Godsfall cult. It was obvious that his old friends were planning something big and sinister.

“I’m curious; are you gonna celebrating any festivals anytime soon?” Baiyi asked.

“Huh? That’s a random question. Well, the next festival is to be held next month,” Nydore answered, bemused.

At this point, Baiyi glanced at the Fairy Walker, and she returned an innocent look. No one else caught this, though, because she was, after all, currently a Soul Armature.

After pondering about everything that had happened so far, Baiyi felt he had deduced the Wise Mad King plans. He believed that the Wise Mad King had originally intended to attract the ire of the traditionalist fairies, but before he could enact his plans, he learned that the Divine Guardian Weapon of the traditionalist fairies was the Caudillo Butterfly Bow; furthermore, it was in the hands of the current Zephyr. Hence, the Wise Mad King decided to focus on the current Zephyr. What others thought was him professing his love to her, was actually him attempting to get her to leave the village, removing herself from the protection of Mr. Bear and the great druid, Grandfather Tree.

In the meantime, the Wise Mad King leaked news of the Caudillo Butterfly Bow to the public, causing a spike in the number of visitors that Eom Village received. He used this chance to sneak some of his underlings, who were disguised as visitors, into the woods, where they set up a number of spells, including the massive shield which blocked energy undulations.

As for the dragon scale that Baiyi had found, the amount of mana within the scale allowed Baiyi to estimate when the rune was inscribed on it, which was about a month before. This tied in with the details the fairies at Eom Village had provided him. Baiyi also deduced that the enemies had used dragon scales so that the draconic aura within the scales could scare off other beasts, preventing their plans from being disturbed.

After all that, the Wise Mad King waited for the elusive beauty, Nydore, to fall into his trap. He had also ordered an attack on Eom Village so that he could deal with its inhabitants on the same night he believed he would acquire the Caudillo Butterfly Bow.

When Baiyi showed up in Marle, the Wise Mad King did not worry; he just adjusted his plans to ensure Baiyi was faced with a dilemma — the same dilemma he had now overcome. If Baiyi had not left the Cleric Walker behind, the chances of the Wise Mad King successfully eliminating Little Mia would have been much higher. If she was killed, her Soul Armature would lose the only connection he had to the world, causing him to dissipate into nothing. When that happened, the three biggest obstacles the Wise Mad King faced — Baiyi, the traditionalist fairies, and the Caudillo Butterfly Bow — would have disappeared in one night; it was indeed an exceptional plan!

This was why Baiyi found this enemy difficult to handle. Instead of facing in one-on-one, they employed schemes that made Baiyi’s lack of manpower work for them.

The Wise Mad King almost succeeded, too. He had prepared resources and manpower. The members of the team he sent to attack the village’s survivors were all veteran fighters with near-automatic and accurate reflexes. This showed how intricate the Wise Mad King had been in his plans to eliminate the traditionalist fairies.

When Baiyi and the Fairy Walker arrived at the rift valley, they did not immediately join the fray; instead, Baiyi stealthily killed the enemies’ most skilled sorcerers. This was why Nydore and her team had so much time to themselves before being surrounded by the enemies. Baiyi had seen the enemies hold back a lot, so he deduced that they were given a directive to do just that.

At that point, one question still lingered in his head: why had the enemies not attacked a bit more forcefully? They could have captured Nydore alone, so there was no need to hold back against the others. Where they afraid of the powers of the Caudillo Butterfly Bow? Or, had they believed that Baiyi would come to her aid, thereby leaving the survivors of Eom Village at their mercy?

Baiyi asked Nydore to pass him the bow for a closer inspection. She was reluctant at first, but when she saw how much her grandaunt clung to him, she realized that refusal would be akin to stoking her grandaunt’s wrath. Moreover, Baiyi was older than her, and he had a frightening aura about him. Hence, in the end, she handed the bow over to him, albeit reluctantly.

As soon as Baiyi touched the bow, he understood why the enemy troop was not heavy-handed in their attacks.

The Caudillo Butterfly Bow was not a bow at all! It was set a Laws, or, at least, something that possessed attributes similar to Laws. These Laws had been combined into a ‘mechanism’ that made the Caudillo Butterfly Bow what it was. If there was no ‘mechanism’, the bow in Baiyi’s hand would only be a normal blackwood longbow.

This would explain why the Caudillo Butterfly Bow returned to Eom Village by itself after its previous wielder, the Fairy Walker, was banished to the Void. This led Baiyi to believe that Wise Mad King had tried to capture Nydore alive because he knew the truth about the Caudillo Butterfly Bow.

Baiyi suddenly felt really interested in conducting extensive research on this amazing Law.

Alas, he could not ignore the pleading look in his granddaughter-in-law’s eyes. Besides, with the Fairy Walker watching him, Baiyi knew he would not be able to do anything too suggestive, so he returned the bow to Nydore, albeit reluctantly, after a brief inspection.

Baiyi consoled himself by reminding himself that he had to find out what had happened in Eom Village while he was away. Now that he knew that the Wise Mad King had been plotting his scheme for a long time, he realized that the team sent to attack Eom Village would consist of very skilled fighters. This was because the Wise Mad King would have taken the presence of the village’s three guardians — the Unicorns, Mr. Bear, and Grandfather Tree — into account.

‘So, how did this enemy team, which consisted of the Wise Mad King’s best men, end up getting defeated?’

The same thought was plaguing the Wise Mad King, and he could not stop his face from contorting when he listened to the reports coming in!

The mission reports arrived in the early hours of the new day, and the Wise Mad King had forgone a lust-filled romp with his concubines to listen to the results. He had remained with the Royal Principle Advisor throughout the night, waiting for any news. When reports came in that Nydore’s group were almost cornered and that Baiyi had left Eom Village, he smiled as though victory was already in his grasp.

According to his plans, if Hope went to rescue Nydore, the survivors of the Eom Village would be slain, including his darling little Soul Armature Practitioner, causing Baiyi to disappear forever. After that, he would dispatch reinforcements to help secure Nydore and the Caudillo Butterfly Bow. Even if Hope selfishly chose to stay back and protect his students, the Wise Mad King would still obtain the Zephyr and her divine bow. He planned to use the bow to destroy Hope at a later date. It was all coming together!

If Hope left to save Nydore and got delayed for too long by the ambushes, the Wise Mad King would be able to obtain the divine bow and kill Eom Village’s survivors. Lost cost with high returns!

However, he had never expected Hope to arrive in time to save Nydore and eliminate his guerilla troop. Furthermore, the elite team he had sent to what remained of Eom Village was defeated, despite Hope being absent. The team had suffered so many losses, they had been forced to retreat! ¹

“Impossible!” The Mad King bellowed in fury, as he ripped the reports to pieces. “I’ve been reserving every stratagem for this operation, organizing intensive and extensive drills, laying every chesspiece as per our plan—only to fail two objectives in one go. Haha! Hahahahaha…”

How exactly had Eom Village been able to defend itself against his elite team?

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep