“I’ve got a bad feeling about this...”

Muen looked up at the sky. The sun poured down gentle light. It was clearly a bright, cloudless day, and yet for some reason it brought with it a chill that would not go away.

At the edge of the sky, the clouds reflected a faint trace of red. It was hard to tell whether it came from the refraction of the light, or from the deepening touch of autumn slowly staining the air.

Or perhaps...

“Young Master, there’s a smell of blood.”

An leaned halfway out of the carriage, her small delicate nose twitching lightly.

Her face was a little pale from the strain she had been under lately, but her powerful sense of smell, which could pick up the Young Master’s scent from several kilometers away, was still working just fine. Muen had only felt that something was off on instinct, but An had already noticed something far more concrete.

“Blood?”

“Yes. It’s coming on the wind from the north.”

“The north...”

Muen’s eyes flickered as he thought for a moment.

“I understand. Get some rest first...”

Muen patted An on the head and told her to rest, since she had already exhausted herself quite a bit. Then he stood and made his way to the front of the column.

The “hundred-thousand-man army” was still advancing. Even across the vast plain, that torrent of steel remained an awe-inspiring sight.

But at this point, no one was in the mood to admire the grandeur of an army on the march. As the “army” pressed steadily onward—and even picked up speed after a burst of forced marching—they were now less than a day away from Notasia Fortress.

The Kingdom’s spies had already vanished without a trace. It seemed there was no longer any need to verify whether this grand army was real or fake.

The Imperial civilians who had lined the roads to watch the excitement had long since scattered in haste. Not because they had realized this army was all bark and no bite, but because of a terrifying piece of news that had already ridden the northern breeze across the entire northern plain three days ago.

—Notasia Fortress had been besieged by the Kingdom’s army and had already fallen.

That news might have come from some traveler from the north, or it might have been deliberately spread by Kingdom spies. Rumor or fact, ordinary people had no way of knowing anymore. But like a single spark, it was enough to ignite panic in everyone.

So it was not just the civilians. Even the three great cities on the northern plain had begun scorched-earth preparations, reinforcing their walls and bracing for the Kingdom’s coming attack.

Though on a flat plain like this, with no natural defenses to rely on, once Notasia fell, they likely would not be able to hold out either.

“Still no news from the front?”

Muen asked one of the Royal Knights ahead of him.

“Reporting to Young Master Muen, none.”

After saluting respectfully, the Royal Knight shook his head.

“We haven’t received a single message from the front in three days.”

“Three days...”

Muen frowned slightly.

By now the storm clouds were gathering overhead one by one, but if he had to say when the very first dark cloud had drifted in, it would definitely have been the moment they completely lost contact with the direction of Notasia Fortress.

In this world, although there were many forms of long-range communication, at their core they all relied on some kind of magic, or some kind of magical tool.

So if the path of magic was completely severed, then all communication methods reverted to the primitive. That meant intelligence always came with a significant delay, and Muen had no way to grasp the true situation at the front in real time.

“What did that scout we captured earlier say?”

“He said...” The Royal Knight hesitated.

“Go on.”

“He said that Notasia Fortress was already surrounded by their wise and mighty Prince Aurier, that it would fall at any ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) moment, and that after that the Kingdom’s heavenly army would arrive and make us...”

The Royal Knight paused. “Make us wash our necks and wait.”

“...”

Muen was silent for a moment. “That’s a pretty bold thing to say.”

“Well, scouts are supposed to have some backbone. But saying Notasia Fortress will fall is a little too arrogant.”

The Royal Knight curled his lip in obvious disdain, clearly having heard the rumor too.

“Notasia is personally held by Her Majesty the Empress. How could it possibly—”

“I think it’s entirely possible.”

“Huh?”

The Royal Knight froze, clearly not expecting Muen—of all people, the Empress’s fiancé—to say something like that.

Could it be Young Master Muen wasn’t afraid Her Majesty would hear about it and get angry? Or was that rumor actually true—that what he liked most was being kicked in the ass by the Empress?

“There’s nothing strange about it. Victory and defeat are part of life. In this world, no one is absolutely undefeated, and no fortress is unbreakable forever.”

Muen had no idea the Royal Knight had already sunk into gossip mode. He simply gazed calmly into the distance.

Because this was a plain, his vision—far sharper than an ordinary person’s—could already just barely make out the outline of the Notasia mountain range.

It truly was a dangerous stronghold. A mountain pass. Towering walls. More than a hundred years of Imperial fortification. With all those layers of advantages stacked on top of one another, it was basically a budget version of the Empire’s Abyss front line. And with Celicia personally holding the line, calling it impregnable would hardly have been an exaggeration.

At least Muen himself could not think of any way to break that fortress in a short amount of time.

But in this world, what “absolute” was there?

Anyone who believed in “absolute” too firmly would one day end up getting humiliated by those very words.

“Don’t forget—this time, the reason we made such a huge show of force wasn’t to scare the Kingdom off. It was to force them to reveal their trump card ahead of time.”

Muen patted the knight on the shoulder and said:

“A trump card is called a trump card not because it’s necessarily terrifying, but because if something like that gets turned over at the critical moment, it can unleash destructive force no one saw coming.

“So we can’t let them turn it over at the critical moment. We have to force it out early. We have to make them use it at the wrong time, before they’re ready.

“Yes, we’ll still pay a price for that. But compared to the unpredictable consequences of the former, the latter can at least be contained within a range the situation can still handle.

“Do you understand? That’s our real goal. We have to keep the initiative in our own hands instead of waiting to see what someone else decides to do.”

“I see...”

The Royal Knight blinked, seeming to spend a great deal of effort digesting Muen’s words before asking again:

“But Young Master Muen, aren’t you worried about Her Majesty?”

“Of course I’m worried—about Celicia... and Anna too.”

Muen tilted his head up at a forty-five-degree angle toward the sky. Beneath the soft daylight, his sapphire-blue eyes flowed with three parts longing, three parts tenderness, and ninety-four parts determination.

“But right now, I have something even more important to do. In the face of justice for the nation... and even for the entire world, the feelings between a man and a woman are only minor things that have to be set aside for later. Do you understand now?”

“I understand!”

The Royal Knight straightened up so hard his chest nearly puffed out of his armor, tears of emotion shining in his eyes.

“I’ve learned my lesson, sir! As expected of Young Master Muen—such profound learning, such a noble heart! If anyone ever says again that you’re nothing but Her Majesty’s useless pretty boy, I’ll be the first one to rush up and beat him to death!”

“No, that won’t be necessary...”

Damn it, who the hell was still calling him a pretty boy?

Muen’s cheek twitched.

“This is just a simple truth even children understand.”

“Really?”

The knight scratched his head.

“Then if someone says you’re a pretty boy, I’ll only beat him half to death.”

“...”

Muen forcefully suppressed the urge to beat that blockheaded knight half to death first, then urged his horse onward.

He rode all the way past the very front of the great army and arrived ahead of the column, on one of the few elevated pieces of ground on this plain—a hill. From there, he looked out into the distance.

The hill was not especially high, so it did not broaden his field of vision by much, but it was still enough to let him see farther than before.

“Still can’t see Notasia Fortress...”

Muen sighed, a trace of worry surfacing in his eyes.

No matter how coolly he had talked just now, no matter how much he trusted Celicia’s and Anna’s intelligence and strength, how could he possibly not worry about the two of them when they were standing right in the eye of the storm?

If he did not know that his personal strength was too insignificant to matter in a war, and that going there himself would not help much, Muen would have ditched the army behind him and taken An ahead long ago.

To hell with justice for the world. If anything happened to his girls, he’d crush the world’s balls first and let it have a taste of losing what mattered most.

“Young Master Muen!”

Just as he was wondering exactly what would count as crushing the world’s balls, a voice suddenly jolted him back to reality.

He looked up and saw a soldier galloping toward him.

It was one of the scouts they had sent out not long ago.

“You reached Notasia Fortress?”

“Reporting to Young Master Muen, not yet.”

The scout reined in his horse and bent low.

“Though we can already see the Notasia mountain range through a telescope, this is still the open plain. Even changing riders without changing horses and going at a dead sprint, it would still take at least half a day to get there.”

“Then you...”

“I found something else!”

As he spoke, the scout respectfully offered him a telescope.

Muen frowned slightly, said nothing, took it, and looked in the direction the scout indicated.

Through the lens, the mighty outline of the Notasia mountain range became much clearer. Muen could even just barely make out the contours of the rocks along it. But that was obviously not what had made this scout race all the way back in such a panic.

Muen shifted the telescope again. Under the scout’s continued guidance, he finally saw it...

A black dot.

That dot was too small. Compared to the massive mountains, it was like a speck of dust. That was why even with Muen’s exceptional eyesight, he had not seen it earlier. Only now, peering carefully through the telescope, did he finally catch it.

“That is...”

Muen stared for a while, then said in confusion, “A person?”

The black dot gradually grew larger and revealed its true form. Muen finally confirmed that it was indeed a person—a person running at full speed.

Ordinarily, there would be nothing noteworthy about a person running, and it certainly would not be enough to make a scout this nervous and send him rushing back with a report.

But as the figure drew closer, Muen quickly realized that neither the person’s appearance nor movements resembled those of a normal human being at all.

The man was emaciated. He wore a ragged, oversized military uniform. His running posture was stumbling and off-balance, as if he might fall at any moment, yet he was moving at astonishing speed. In only a short span of time, Muen watched him come hurtling in from the distance until he was near at hand.

Up close, he looked even more disgusting. His body was covered in blood and wounds, and yet he seemed completely unaware of his own miserable state. The moment he spotted Muen ahead of him, he let out a hoarse roar and lunged.

“What the hell is that?”

Muen dismounted and kicked him.

He had been carrying full caution in his heart, so he had not held back much with that kick. But to his surprise, the freak was sent flying just like that.

“That weak?”

Muen blinked.

“Raaaah!”

Before he had even finished speaking, the freak rolled back up and threw himself at Muen again.

“No sense of pain?”

Muen kicked him again, this time straight between the legs.

The freak’s pouncing motion stopped on the spot. His eyes crossed. His knees turned inward.

Well. Maybe the world’s balls were hard to crush, but this freak’s seemed just as fragile as anyone else’s.

“So you do feel pain. You just barely have any reason left.”

Muen stepped closer and examined him carefully.

“There are traces of battle aura on you, but it’s almost all exhausted. Don’t tell me you ran all the way here from Notasia Fortress in one go. Several hundred miles without stopping?”

“Raaaah!”

Muen kicked him over again.

“Hm?”

As the freak went flying once more, Muen’s eyes sharpened. Only now did he notice that the ragged military uniform on the man’s body was of Kingdom make.

This guy was a Kingdom soldier?

No...

He was a Kingdom noble too.

Muen crouched down and ripped a crest off the freak’s chest. He did not recognize the house insignia, but anyone proud enough to display it openly on his chest could not have held a low position in the Kingdom.

But why had he turned into this?

And the fact that he had run this far...

Did that mean Notasia Fortress really had been breached?

Muen’s heart sank, and his worry for Celicia and Anna deepened at once.

Then, without much thought at all, faced with this bizarre scene, one name rose naturally in his mind:

“The Salvation Society...”

“Is this the Kingdom’s trump card... or rather, the Salvation Society’s doing?”

“They made these things? Monsters that are basically zombies? And they’re planning to use them to attack the Empire?”

“Raaaah!”

Another kick.

Watching the freak get launched for who knew how many times now, Muen raised an eyebrow.

“But seriously, this thing’s way too weak. It’s not even in the same league as those Evil God creations from before...”

Those Evil God creations had at least been able to pose some kind of threat to him, right? Could this thing even touch the cuff of his pants?

This? Really?

This was the Salvation Society’s big move?

Not even close to the level of actual Evil God cultists when they were seriously making trouble.

Did they break Notasia Fortress by some other underhanded method?

“Young... Young Master Muen...”

As he was thinking that, the scout beside him swallowed hard and suddenly said, “It’s not over yet. Take another look.”

“Not over? How many of these things did the Kingdom make? A few hundred? A few thousand? At this thing’s level, I could take on a few hundred by myself.”

Muen picked up the telescope and looked into the distance.

And then...

The contempt at the corner of his mouth froze solid.

Rumble...

The earth trembled faintly.

Far away, where the mountains met the land, a vast black mass slowly spread outward, covering one corner of the broad plain.

It was as if even the daylight itself were being swallowed by that darkness, turning dim. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

But it was not darkness.

It was people.

One after another, freakish figures racing forward in twisted, unnatural motions.

They were drenched in blood, running hundreds of miles without fatigue, as if they had just finished one bloody feast and were excitedly hurrying toward the next.

They gradually filled Muen’s entire field of vision.

It was not a few hundred. Not a few thousand. Not even tens of thousands.

It was...

Hundreds of thousands.