Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem-Chapter 438: Ritel

Yan would have had to be blind not to notice the effect Zach had on the people. It seemed he couldn’t escape his identity as an Evandiel. It was in his blood to help and protect the people of the East.

Once he had listened to the reports from the stationed commanders in Storum, he decided what to do, taking Zach’s efforts so far into account. He first made sure to have the ones in charge of supplies and potions make contact with the Nyasm Desert Guild.

From what Yan had seen so far, the quality of the potions produced by Zach and Alzara was above anything else they could possibly get from the same quality of materials. Even if the Nyasm Desert Guild didn’t quite reach that level, it would still be better than most alternatives.

It was the best option available.

After Yan left his orders, he grabbed a person used to the East and war before looking for Zach and telling him to get ready.

They were going to where they were needed the most: Ritel. The frontline.

The barbarians had already overtaken Ciel, the duchy’s capital and the city closest to the border without being a fortress. They had invaded several other cities and established a new border as they continued trying to push back the Empire.

Ritel was their next target.

Naturally, Yan had to go there and strengthen the defenses. They could not let the barbarians continue advancing. The further they got, the harder it would be to push them back.

Yan had been hesitant about how much he could do on his own, even with Lahso’s complete assistance, especially since Zach wasn’t being more than absolutely necessarily compliant. But now that Zach was working himself to the bone to help even one more, Yan suddenly felt like he could have an impact. He could save lives.

Once they had gathered their things and themselves, Yan, Zach, Lahso, Zach’s maids, and Garad, the old knight Yan had borrowed from the Storum troops got up on their horses and started traveling east.

Lahso and Zach’s familiars didn’t need horses. If anything, traveling without horses would make it easier to make it to Ritel without being possibly ambushed by barbarian scouts and rangers who had already wrapped around the city and hidden within the land.

But Yan wasn’t physically well-trained, Garad was a little too old to waste energy trekking through the wild, and Zach’s condition wasn’t the greatest. Besides, they didn’t need to worry about ambushes with Lahso and Zach’s maids to keep them safe. They also had Garad who led them on winding trails away from the main road. They weren’t worried about ambushes, but they weren’t going to take unnecessary risks by advertising their presence.

Armored convoys with platoons to guard the supplies didn’t need to worry about traveling the main road since they could just barrel through any ambushes or kill the few barbarians who managed to slip past the perimeter and behind enemy lines. But there were losses.

Yan’s life was too precious for them to be willing to risk using a well-traveled road.

Five days later, they arrived at their destination, dusty and dirty but without having seen the face of anyone else.

However, they could not complain about being dirty.

If Storum had been hit by the quakes of war, Ritel was less than a stone’s throw away from the epicenter.

Zach and the others were lucky since it seemed quiet when they arrived. But the entire city was tense with soldiers manning the city walls with binoculars and bows. They were ready for the barbarians to attack at any moment.

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Yan looked for the command center as soon as they were let inside the city while Zach and his maids went off to do what they did in Storum. His orange hair did not fly under the radar in the city. But unlike Storum, the people still in Ritel were too tired to care about Zach.

They had heard about the Evandiels and their betrayal. They had heard about Zach still being in the Empire. They hadn’t heard any other details.

He was in Ritel. He was helping. That was all that mattered.

There were a few voices in the command center that were worried about him being a spy intentionally left behind to gather information and send it to the barbarians, revealing the Empire’s weaknesses and military organization.

It wasn’t impossible. If it was true, it would be pretty troublesome.

But Zach wasn’t allowed close to any important information. All he could do was talk to the ordinary injured soldiers in the medic halls and tents. They didn’t know anything other than the pain of war. Yan wasn’t telling him anything.

As long as the rest of the important military officers didn’t share the oh-so-important information with him, he couldn’t give the barbarians anything.

The one thing he could do that would be truly worthy of an infiltrating traitor would be to assassinate Yan, the second prince of the Empire. That would be something no spy would have succeeded with in the past.

But as long as Yan had Lahso by his side, that would be next to impossible.

For now, Yan and the military officers of Ritel agreed to keep a close eye on Zach without interfering with his activities too much. They needed the potions he and his familiar made. If it came to it, they would also need any extra hands when fighting. Supposedly, the beautiful maids crowding around Zach were pretty good at that stuff.

And it wouldn’t be long until an opportunity came for them to prove it. Already on the first night, the barbarians launched an attack.

The torches in the field outside the city went out one by one.

Instead of keeping the fire in the face of the guards, making it impossible for them to see anything in the darkness, the torches outside would let them see anyone moving close. And when they went out, it was a sign that the enemy was doing something.

Now, they just had to defend and do their best to guard their lives.