For some reason, Lana was struck by a sense of irrepressible rage as soon as she caught sight of the burly skeleton, and the urge to destroy it was more powerful than any other destructive urge she had ever felt.

The burly skeleton was completely unfazed by Lana's menacing expression, and on this occasion, it didn't even bother to restrict Lana's magic power, seemingly intending to give Lana the opportunity to attack it.

"Is this the spell that you want to use?" the burly skeleton jibed with a mocking sneer, seemingly able to read Lana like an open book.

Immediately thereafter, bright blue light erupted from behind it, and a series of glowing longswords that resembled dazzling stars emerged to completely illuminate the entire cave.

"That's the Shadowgleam Sword Array! How do you know how to use it?" Lana exclaimed as she turned to the burly skeleton with an incredulous expression. What was even more unsettling to her was that the burly skeleton had been able to conjure up the array far faster than she could.

"Right now, you're nothing more than a blank slate," the burly skeleton said with a derisive grin. "All of your spells are in mind head now."

A hint of alarm and fear flashed through Lana's eyes upon hearing this.

It wasn't because her resolve was wavering in the face of a powerful enemy. Instead, she was horrified at the prospect of becoming a "blank slate" as she suddenly discovered that no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't think of even a single person who had any relation to her.

At some point in a person's life, they would inevitably think about their own identity and purpose.

However, for someone who had been stripped of their memories, those two questions were impossible to answer. Without any identity or purpose, what was the point of living?

Lana didn't want to resign herself to her fate, so she was doing everything in her power to recollect her own past. However, there was nothing in her mind but blank space, and no matter how vigorously she dug through that blank space, there was only more blank space waiting for her.

The burly skeleton knew what Lana was experiencing, and it heaved a forlorn internal sigh. Once you forget that you've forgotten, you'll willingly become obedient to me.

"I can't remember anything, but I hate you every fiber of my being, so you must've done something extremely heinous to me," Lana said as she cast a vicious glare toward the burly skeleton. "You tampered with my memories, didn't you?"

"If you can't even remember anything, then stop falsely blaming others," the burly skeleton replied in a cold voice. "Also, you have to refer to me as 'master' from now on."

"Keep dreaming!" Lana spat in the burly skeleton's direction, then tapped the skeletal necklace around her own neck with her index finger. "Why don't you strangle me to death with this thing?"

The blue flames in the burly skeleton's eye sockets darkened slightly, and it made a grabbing motion, upon which the skeletal necklace immediately flew toward its grasp.

As a result, Lana's body was dragged mercilessly through the air, and she was only able to just barely breathe as she grabbed onto the skeletal necklace tightly with both hands. Due to the burly skeleton's tall stature, she was only able to just barely stand on the rough floor of the cave by getting up onto the very tips of her toes. Furthermore, only one or two of her toes were able to reach the ground, so this was clearly an extremely strenuous posture for her to maintain.

Once again, the burly skeleton had restricted her magic power, so she was unable to use any spells. It had done this because it wanted to see her in this sorry state, where she was completely at its mercy.

"Looks like you don't want to die," the burly skeleton said with a cold smile as it looked directly at Lana's pretty face.

"Looks like you don't want to kill me, either," Lana replied as she looked up at the burly skeleton with a disdainful expression.

The burly skeleton harrumphed coldly in response.

"What? Even a skeleton like you has emotions and desires? Or could it be that you're interested in this body of mine?" Lana asked as she gave the burly skeleton a seductive look.

The burly skeleton was momentarily entranced by her seduction, and it averted its gaze as it scoffed in a disdainful voice, "You think far too highly of yourself."

"Even if I were willing to accept you, I don't think you'd be capable of doing anything," Lana said as she cast a deliberate glance toward the burly skeleton's lower body.

The burly skeleton abruptly released Lana, sending her tumbling down onto the ground on her backside.

It then turned and began to return to the depths of the cave, but it paused momentarily, then suddenly scoffed, "You're clearly still a virgin, why are you trying to act all tough?"

Lana turned her face to the side with a furious expression upon hearing this.

Perry was standing off to the side, watching the exchange taking place between the two of them, unable to understand what was happening.

It wasn't that it couldn't understand what they were saying, it was simply unable to understand why both of them were so angry.

It could understand the enmity and resentment that Lana harbored toward its master. After all, its master hadn't completely devoured her memories. However, what was perplexing to it was its master's clear disdain toward Lana.

In the past, its master had always been cold and aloof to the entire world, just as cold as the wind and snow in the Terarody Mountain Ranges. However, ever since they had stumbled upon Lana, Perry felt like its master had changed. The changes were quite minute, but it was still able to sense those changes.

Perry felt like its master had to be experiencing some type of special emotion toward the human woman.

At some point, it had suspected that its master had fallen in love with this human woman, but that didn't appear to be the case.

Perry was unable to describe the look in its master's eyes whenever it looked at Lana. There was a complex combination of resentment, envy, anger, and hatred.

"Are you sure you don't want to eat that?" Perry asked as it turned to Lana, who was sitting on the ground in a dejected manner.

Perry was naturally referring to the two roasted plumed finches that Lana had tossed onto the ground.

It didn't know what it felt like to be hungry, but it had learned from its master that humans would die if they were to starve for too long, so it was very concerned for Lana.

Lana swept a palm toward the pair of plumed finches on the ground in frustration, releasing a burst of fire that instantly reduced the birds to two blocks of charcoal.

Perry was rather taken aback to see this, not expecting Lana to be so vehemently opposed to eating the food that it had prepared. At the same time, it was feeling a little sad as it had traveled quite far to get its hands onto the pair of plumed finches.

...

While all of this was happening in the Terarody Mountain Ranges, the Tellier Wine Trade Guild United Army led by Mackey Farody had already made it to no more than 25 kilometers east of Zans.

The united army consisted of 20,000 troops from the Farody Family, 8,000 from the Luther Family, and 4,000 from the Fayma Family. Of course, there were also some other insignificant families in the mix, but they weren't worthy of being named. In total, the army had roughly 35,000 troops.

The Farody Family's Striking Salamander mercenary legion was the backbone of this united army. As long as the power of this 20,000-strong mercenary legion could be maximized on the battlefield, crushing the old nobles of Zans would be an easy task. At the very least, that was what Mackney thought going into this battle. As for whether things would actually play out that way, that was still yet to be seen.

As for Count Onen, he made the inexplicable decision to emerge from the protection of Zans's tall and sturdy city walls, leading his Wild Ax Legion, which consisted of around 30,000 troops, to directly meet the trade guild's forces.

It was up to personal interpretation to decide whether to praise him for this courage or to denounce him for his complete lack of tactical acumen.

At the very least, a normal general definitely wouldn't have chosen to lead their troops out of the city in such a brash fashion.

Perhaps Count Onen had already been planning to take down these wealthy merchants of Tellier for a long time, and he was so ecstatic at the opportunity to strike at them now that they were marching straight to his doorstep that he couldn't contain himself and had to emerge from the city to meet them.

Thus, the two most powerful forces of the Boll Dukedom met on the Canston Plain, which was roughly 25 kilometers east of Zans.

The Wild Ax Legion was situated in the west, wearing suits of crimson armor and wielding formidable battle axes. They stood in an orderly formation, and looking at them from afar under the light of the rising sun, the legion resembled a red-hot metal shield that had just been pulled out of the furnace.

Count Onen was situated at the forefront of the legion, and he was also clad in a suit of crimson armor while holding a labrys that was gleaming under the light of the sun. In his other hand, he was holding the reins of his steed.

As for the army in the east, it resembled a giant mirror that was reflecting dazzling golden light. As it turned out, all of the mercenaries of the Farody Family's Striking Salamander mercenary legion were clad in suits of golden armor, and even the horses that they were riding were also wearing golden armor, so it was no wonder that the mercenary legion was such a dazzling sight to behold.

Furthermore, this was a visual indication of the Farody Family's enormous wealth.

The ones at the forefront of the army in the east were Mackney and his eldest son, Lucidy. Both of them were wielding golden spears that matched their suits of golden armor, and they certainly looked no less impressing and imposing than Count Onen in his suit of crimson armor. As for Mackney's youngest son, John, he was nowhere to be seen.

"Mackney, have you finally come to accept your death by my hands?" Onen yelled toward the opposing army in the east.

"Onen, you've sent people to rob our trade guild's carriages on multiple occasions. Did you think I'd just let you get away with that?" Mackney countered with a cold smile.

"Ha! I thought you were a respectable figure, Mackney, but here are you, making up these childish excuses to fight me. If you want a battle, then come! Why go out of your way to fabricate these lame excuses?" Onen scoffed with a disdainful expression.

"So you dare to commit the deed, yet you don't dare to own up to it? Are you so poor that you're unable to afford the wages for your mercenary legion? Is that why you've resorted to robbing our trade guild?" Mackney yelled in a furious voice. "If you're going to rob our trade guild, then do it like a man! Why are you hiring others to do the dirty deed for you? Are you afraid of tarnishing your own reputation? What reputation do you high and mighty nobles even have left? Take a good, hard look at your impoverished selves in the mirror!"

Then nobles on Onen's side were furious to hear this, and they all rose up in a fit of rage to curse the opposing army in the east with all their might.

It seemed that Mackney had struck a nerve with his comments.

The merchants of Tellier naturally weren't going to hold back, and thus, a war of verbal insults ensued, preceding the actual battle that was still yet to commence.

The two sides had already been itching to battle one another for a long time, so they didn't care whether the reasons behind the instigation of this battle were legitimate.

Erwin had identified this, which was why he was confident that his ploy would work.

At the moment, Erwin was in the Ero Valley with the new-look Four Winds mercenary legion, awaiting the return of Georgina and Shiba.

The Ero Valley was a place that one had to pass through when traveling from Lomu to the Canston Plain.

This was where he had planned to meet up with Georgina and Shiba. Regardless of whether they had picked up Lia and the others or not, the two groups had to meet up in this valley.