Despite the lord's stern reprimand, the soldiers of Barmia had no choice but to stop at the edge of the reservoir.
"The trail ends here. Captain, look. There is no road ahead."
It was just as the soldier had said. Beyond the reservoir lay the vegetation of an iceberg where biting winds raged.
"Damn it, it feels like I'm freezing to the bone just standing still. There's no way the guys who swam out of the waterway could have made it through this obstacle and climbed the iceberg."
Another soldier kicked the ground. Even combat boots with spikes on the soles spun helplessly on the slippery ice.
The horses had already shown resistance by backing away from the entrance of the slope.
"One of them even got injured, so he must have looked for a doctor."
The captain nodded.
They concluded that the two people would have gone around toward the street instead of the dead end called the iceberg.
"I'm going back! I have to catch every single one of those bastards who snuck in like rats!"
The Barmia soldiers who had returned to the city inside the outer walls rummaged through the dilapidated hospitals permeated with the scent of medicinal herbs.
"Doctor! Where is the high-ranking doctor here!"
With a loud bang, the examination room door was shattered.
A soldier grabbed the terrified old doctor by the collar and thrust a gleaming blade at his neck.
"Did no one injured come here?"
"Uh. There weren't any! The only patients were the neighbors living nearby!"
Even after hearing the doctor's answer, the soldiers swung their swords and overturned the shelf full of medicinal herbs.
Medicine pots were shattered all around, and precious herbs were trampled. It was to serve as a warning.
"If you see even a single strand of their hair, report it immediately. If you hide them, your heads will be the first to fly off."
When no trace of Lou and Les was found, even after searching thoroughly, the soldiers' irritation immediately spread to the surrounding streets.
"What are you doing! This is our shop!"
The soldiers who burst out of the clinic kicked the street vendors' stalls as if taking out their anger.
Trampling the scattered items with their boots, they habitually plundered under the pretext of searching.
"We are tracking down an escaped prisoner. Cooperate."
"Who are you? Why are the Barmians causing such a ruckus in our land of Karkan, ugh!"
A merciless beating was inflicted upon the man who resisted. The sipping of terrified children leaked out from the broken stall.
The people realized it only then.
The flames rising from the Lord Castle a few days ago were not a simple accident.
The Lord's Castle was captured by the Barmian army.
"Lord... what on earth are you doing with our Lord?"
At the time when cries of despair erupted from every corner of the streets, Lord Osric, whom they were looking for, was stuck in the lowest part of the fortress.
Crunch!
An underground prison reeking of dampness and rat urine.
Lord Osric was kneeling on the ice-cold stone floor, a place he never even imagined he would stay.
"Governor... Joachim, you snake-like scoundrel! To think you deceived me! What have you done! Open this door right now!!"
"How dare this old pig speak ill of anyone? Shut up!"
Osric's shout echoed in the prison, but the only response was a fist from a Barmia soldier.
To make matters worse, his whole body screamed as it was kicked by Joachim.
The wound, which had not been treated in time, swelled up severely. Far from being treated, he hadn't even been able to drink a sip of water for several days.
Osric was practically a King, at least here in Karkan. How could he have known he would end up in such a miserable state?
However, it was already too late. Joachim Lanz had already completely seized control of Osric's island.
As the ambushers of Barmia, who had been hiding in the fortress like shadows, also revealed themselves, the inside of the fortress instantly turned into a slaughterhouse.
"How dare a small nation commit such an act! Do you think you can survive the spears and swords of Valdina?"
Osric was in danger, gripping the bars with trembling hands. But the soldier scoffed.
"It seems this old pig still thinks he's the lord, but just wait and see. Once your head is hung on the castle wall, the whole continent will know."
The soldier leaned his face through the bars and muttered in a low voice.
"That the deranged Lord of Karkan massacred his subjects under the pretext of a banquet, and that the Emperor of Valdina stood by and did nothing. And that is the beautiful legend about how our Lord, for the sake of peace, 'had no choice but to intervene and defend this land.'"
“What, what?”
"The name of Joachim Lanz, the savior of Karkan who restored order in place of the incompetent Emperor, will resound across the entire continent. That is what I mean."
"Who would, b-believe such a blatant lie! The truth is..."
At Osric's shout, the soldier burst into laughter as if finding it pathetic.
"The territory is indeed blockaded, and every single exit is sealed off, so who knows what might happen here? Huh?"
After the man left with a mocking laugh, Osric slumped down as if collapsing.
The misjudgments of the past flashed through his mind like a slideshow.
The arrogance of secretly destroying all evidence to avoid exposure of his heinous smuggling activities, and of unhesitatingly capturing and killing the guards dispatched by the Imperial Palace, has returned as a sharp dagger.
In the end, Osric had effectively severed the only link to his homeland with his own hands.
Now there was absolutely no way to convey the news to the Baldina Imperial City.
Those who sent the messengers had already become cold corpses or were imprisoned with Osric.
"Ah..."
He covered his face with trembling hands. Cold sweat dripped down like rain from regret and fear.
The prosperity, wealth, and splendor that Joachim Lanz had bestowed upon him were all a deadly poison that blinded his eyes and ears.
"I... What on earth have I done..."
He shouldn't have let them in in the first place.
What Barmia was truly after was the fertile land called Karkan itself.
Furthermore, Joachim Lanz was an ambitious man who intended to wage an all-out war against Valdina using this land and his life as a bridgehead.
Only now does he realize that he had too easily invited a jackal in sheep's clothing into his house.
Even if reinforcements came from the Imperial City, his life was as good as over.
No, the fear that he might end up lying on the ground as a headless corpse before they even arrived seized him.
"Aaaargh! Please, let me out! I'm begging you to spare my life!"
"It's too noisy. Clean everything up!"
Screams coming from outside the prison and the rough shouts of the Barmia army struck his ears.
"P-please, no... Oh God..."
Osric trembled, wrapping his arms around his head.
More than the suffering of the people, the cowardly fear that he could not even guarantee his own life tomorrow pierced his heart painfully.
***
"Does it make sense that you still haven't even caught the tail?"
Joachim gritted his teeth.
"However, Your Excellency, even so, is it truly alright for his affiliation to be in such a direct confrontation with the Facade?"
The knight cautiously opened his mouth.
The castle has already been captured. Rather, in the long run, it would be better to mobilize military supplies within the territory and prepare for the battle with Valdina....
The knight could not finish his sentence.
This was because the look in the Lord's eyes was ominous, as he lost his reason and became increasingly hysterical over time.
"Your Excellency. That mercenary Acares is truly formidable."
"..."
"He is so cruel that he has never spared a single enemy while facing hundreds, and he is infamous even in the continental war; is there really a need to shed blood?"
“Shut up.”
Joachim, who had closed the distance in an instant, grabbed the knight by the collar.
His snake-like eyes blazed, pressing the knight tightly.
"I won't start anything until I catch those bastards and make them kneel before my eyes.'
As Joachim listened to the mercenary's tales of heroism, the corners of his eyes contorted as if they were about to pop out.
When he closed his eyes, that fleeting scene of Rosien being snatched away right before his nose came back to life like a hallucination. The man's overwhelming spirit that could not be hidden even behind the mask, his sturdy physique, and his beastly deceit.
Bam.
Blue veins bulged on the back of Joachim's clenched fist.
That overwhelming dance, bursting vitality, and even radiant youth.
All of those things were of a nature that Joachim had never possessed in his life, and which he could never have now that time has passed.
On top of the humiliation of a miserable defeat, a blatant inferiority complex as a man clung to him like a seizure.
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