Clang!

An intense sound of clashing metal resounded before anyone could react.

“…..!”

Surprise slowly flooded their eyes as everyone needed a brief moment to grasp the sudden situation. A knight from the Seyrod family had unscrupulously attacked Alan Pendragon’s unguarded back.

But Alan was safe, and Breeden’s long sword broke off and fell from the horse.

And the one who blocked and broke the sword…

“Hmm?”

“Gasp!”

The soldiers and the knights belonging to the two noble families showed an expression of astonishment. Their eyes were open wide with surprise and their jaws were hanging down. A small gust of wind brushed her hair, and the face that appeared was pure yet sexy.

Indifferent eyes gazed calmly under her long eyelashes and the jewels that were encrusted on her forehead, which added to the mysteriousness. But her most striking feature was the silver-white wings that sparkled under the sun. They spread out from behind her armor which resembled Alan Pendragon’s armor. And the object she carried was…

A sword. A sword made of light.

Wooong…

The sword of light emitting from the woman’s hand disappeared without any trace along with a sound similar to sweeping sand. But no one noticed the sword, as everyone’s eyes were fixated on the winged female knight. She slowly turned her head.

“Mmm…!”

As soon as her eyes glanced over the group, the humans all dropped their heads to the ground as if they had been enchanted. The same thing happened with the last person to receive her gaze.

No, it was a little different in his case.

“Gasp!”

Soldrake’s eyes were ablaze like a blue flame. The eyes seemed to penetrate through all things. It was indifferent and cold, but at the same time contained a wave of burning anger full of killing intent. Breeden met her gaze for a split second before falling to the ground. His legs and arms flailed as he backed up and pulled himself away from her.

[……]

Soldrake spoke, but it wasn’t audible to Breeden. At that moment, fear and the will to live took over his entire body.

Breeden shouted out instinctively.

“S, shoot! Shoot! All of you, shot! Archers, fire! Fire!”

Breeden’s hoarse scream was heard by the archers that were standing by. However, no one readily pulled the trigger of their crossbows. But at that moment, the orc warriors and griffons started to move as if they were about to attack.

“W, what should we…”

An archer turned to the unit’s commander for orders. The knight clenched his teeth and gave orders. The man with the highest authority here was Breeden after all.

“F, fire! All units, fire at will!”

Woosh! 

A hundred quarrels left their barrel simultaneously. Almost immediately, a long whistle was blown by Isla, to which the griffons rose into the air.

Whish!

A rain of arrows started to fall near the bridge, and Isla’s whistling resounded once more. Around thirty griffons spread open their wings, which spanned around 20 feet, and gave a large flap.

A powerful wind was generated from their action, and it pushed back the arrows that were aimed at the orcs and the griffons. A hundred arrows swerved in the air and crashed straight down into the ground as if they had been pushed down by an invisible hand. Isla flew his griffon to the front of his pack and whistled once more. His sounds closely resembled the cry of griffons.

“Beeeep!”

The griffons followed Isla’s lead and flew towards the top of the slope where the Seyrod archers were.

***

“W, wha…

“Gasp!”

The knights and the soldiers turned pale at the sight of griffons flying their way after blocking all the arrows with a single flap of their wings. Nevertheless, they stood in their place and jittered sloppily. Baron Noel stayed silent and watched the whole ordeal unfold as the soldiers and the knights were not under his command.

“Kill them! Attack! What are you doing!?”

Breeden screamed like a madman at the soldiers. Baron Noel, his knights, and soldiers were all at a loss, looking around the rapidly developing scene. However, the Knights of the Red Wolf were different.

Neigh!

“Wooooooo!”

Twenty soldiers charged with a warlike cry. Their spears were directed towards the orc warriors and Alan Pendragon.

“Do as you wish.”

Karuta let out a mighty roar at Raven’s command as if he had been waiting.

“Argghhhhhhhhhhh!”

“Orrrrcccccc!”

Orc warriors armed with metal armor and iron maces sprang out like wild beasts. Some of them held the weapon with their mouth and ran on all four limbs, which made them seem like giant predators.

“Kewuhhhhh!”

Their wild roars initiated Orc Fear, and the knights and their horses received the full brunt of the orc’s special skill.

Neighhh!

The horses stopped their charge in fear and reared onto their hind legs. This caused a few knights to fall off their horses. The orc warriors were as fast as horses when moving short distances, and they jumped into the fray with red eyes stained with bloodlust.

Boom! Boom!

Knights were flung away with their chest plates dented in by the orcs’ fearsome blows.

“Aghh!”

The orcs warriors’ power was so terrifying that the knights were unable to retaliate and rolled on the ground. The twenty proud Knights of the Red Wolf were decimated in a few short breaths.

“Krrr….”

The orc warriors’ eyes gleamed with excitement after seeing blood. Then their gazes all shifted to one place. There were still prey left to satiate their thirst for battle.

“Heuk!”

“Ugh….”

Baron Noel and his troops took several steps back at the fearsome gazes of the orcs.

What the hell had they witnessed just now?

Battle? No, this couldn’t be called a battle. How could it be called a battle when dozens of fully armed knights were made to roll on the ground in utter defeat within the time it took to drink a cup of tea?

They didn’t even want to think about the fates of the archers on the slope.

This was not a battle, it was a massacre.

“K...kill him... Kill that brat. Kill Pendragon…”

Breeden kept muttering on the floor with drool coming out of his mouth.

Slice.

A chilling sound resounded in Breeden’s ear.

“Uh…”

Breeden felt a little sting on his neck and raised his hand to his neck before bringing it in front of his face. A thin red line was stamped on his palm. He slowly raised his head, but contrary to his intentions, his gaze tilted sideways.

“Why don’t you die, you stupid coward.”

Breeden’s sight turned red as he heard the cold voice.

Gasp!

Baron Noel became frightened at the sight of Breeden’s head being cut off, but it was even more terrifying to see the monsters who killed Breeden walking towards him.

“Ue… Uhh…”

Disregarding his dignity, Baron Noel dropped the knife in his hand and leaned back in his saddle. Someone walked out from among the orcs.

“Stand by.”

Raven shook the blood off of the edge of his curved blade and walked forward after speaking to the orcs. Baron Noel and his knights all gulped loudly at the sight of Alan Pendragon. The image was evocative of a silver-white light parting and piercing through a sea of blazing red flames.

Raven finally arrived in front of Baron Noel and his knights and took off his helmet. A thin white face was revealed, but the baron and the knights did not dare show any reaction. They had a hunch that their fates would be determined by the words of the beautiful young man.

Raven’s lips slowly parted.

“Since when was a mere baron able to stand on the same eye level as a Pendragon?”

“Y, yes!”

Baron Noel and his knights hurried off their horses.

“Tell Count Seyrod. Pendragon does not kill unless we are attacked. But if you do engage us…”

Baron Noel’s gaze followed Raven’s gaze, which was headed towards the body of Breeden that was lying without ahead. Baron Noel wildly shook his head and stepped aside. The knights bowed their heads and stepped to the side, and soldiers followed along.

Clop, clop…

A horse slowly advanced across the bridge in the stifling silence. Soldrake also floated off the ground and moved to Raven’s side. The pair crossed the bridge that was now devoid of all creatures, and the orcs followed behind them silently.

Dozens of griffons left the slope they were on and shrieked as they landed beside Raven and Soldrake.

Baron Noel finally let out a long sigh and flopped down onto the ground. His eyes looked across the bridge at the Pendragon family’s territory and his eyes were filled with unspeakable fear.

***

“They’ve all been taken care of.”

Isla put his fist on his left chest and bowed his head.

“Any damage?”

“A few of them were hit by arrows, but it’s comparable to a slight scratch for humans.”

“I see. Good work, Sir Isla.”

“All I did was fulfill my duty as your knight.”

Isla spoke in a calm voice then stepped aside. Raven turned his sight onto Karuta and the orcs. It was the first battle they experienced after a long time, but they still seemed to be unsatisfied. Sure enough, Karuta sneaked his way forward and spoke carefully while cautiously taking note of Soldrake.

“Hey, Pendragon. There’s still a lot of them left, so can’t we just destroy them all”

Raven grinned while driving his horse forward.

“I know how you feel, but this is enough for today. Hang in there.”

“Keung? Do you have something in mind?”

“All the men who attacked first are dead, but the ones who didn’t are still alive.”

“That’s right.”

“The men who attacked first were from Count Seyrod’s family, and those who remained were from Baron Noel’s.”

“Keuhmm…”

Karuta tilted his head, unable to comprehend the hidden meaning in Raven’s words. Then Isla, who was riding next to Raven, spoke in a blunt voice.

“When today’s news spreads, the Seyrod family as well as their subordinate families will all be in shock. The superior family attacked first and were decimated, but their subordinate family remained still and were left untouched. There will be a division in the Seyrod family’s territory.”

“Superior? Subordinate? Division? What, what the hell are you talking about?”

“I would rather take care of the griffons than to try to explain things to an ignorant orc. At least griffons listen well.”

Isla responded coldly and flew his griffon towards the rest of the pack.

“T, that doglike scarecrow…!”

“Stop it.”

Raven spoke to Karuta, who was on the verge of exploding, and said once more.

“To put it simply, they won’t be able to trust each other. The Seyrod family won’t be fine with the fact that their knights and soldiers were all killed while their subordinate family’s knights and soldiers were left untouched. Baron Noel will be anxious that the Seyrod family’s forces were annihilated while he was left alone.”

“Hmm… I don’t understand. Why are scarecrows so weird in their thinking? You don’t have to worry about anything if you’re strong, hmph.”

“Well, that’s just how humans are. Well, we shouldn’t be bothered by them for some time.”

Raven smiled contentedly. The death of their knights and soldiers should have a large impact, and they should be busy trying to sort out internal matters in the near future. Furthermore, the power of the orc warriors and griffons should spread out through Baron Noel’s soldiers to the nearby territories.

It was obvious that other nobility would not cooperate with the Seyrod family in the future when they tried to scheme against the Pendragon family.

In other words, Raven gained control over the mine and the mill without any effort and also succeeded in throwing a potential enemy territory into chaos. As an added bonus, he had the chance to take care of a dog who didn’t know its place.

‘Throw a stone and catch two birds, I really outdid myself.’

[Ray, I feel the insidious energy.]

“… Okay, I get it. Anyways, Sol, thank you for earlier.”

They had planned beforehand for Soldrake to block Breeden’s attack.

[Ray wanted it, so I did it.]

Soldrake shook her head in indifference. But Raven could tell that she was a little happy. Just as Soldrake was able to feel Raven’s emotions, Raven could also share in some of Soldrake’s emotions as well. And when Soldrake was in a good mood, it also affected the spirits of those around her, even though they couldn’t even look at her normally.

“So, Pendragon scarecrow. Are we headed to the forest now?”

“Yes. We can take care of the horse-heads, and also work on your town as well. I’m thinking of expanding your territory just a little, what do you think?”

“Ooooh! Good! Very good!”

“Kuhehe! I was waiting! Kratul is happy! Earth god will be pleased!”

Kratul and Karuta opened their mouths wide.

“Good! We’ll destroy all the enemies of Pendragon and the Ancona Orcs! Kuhehehe!”

“Trust me, there’s still a lot left to destroy. Very much so.”

Looking at the delighted orc warriors, Raven continued to murmur softly.

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