Granch Hill.

This was a hill that was situated on the border that was shared by the Delair Dukedom and the Boll Dukedom.

However, at this point, the Boll Dukedom was already history, having been replaced by the new entity known as the City of Freedom.

By the time Chinba and Georgina arrived at Granch with their 1,000 troops, it was already close to dusk.

Plumes of smoke began to rise up from the sparse hills, and where there was smoke, there had to be fire. Judging from the number of plumes of smoke rising up into the air, there had to have been many fires that had been lit, indicating that there was a large number of people hiding between the mountains.

Chinba and Georgina exchanged a glance with one another, following which the latter raised a hand, instructing their troops to draw to a halt.

Georgina picked out a few martial artists with outstanding speed and agility, and the group set off to examine where the smoke was coming from.

Chinba watched the group rush rapidly up the hilly path, displaying a remarkable combination of speed and stealth, and he was very impressed. The silver maple trees that were laden with yellowing leaves were casting sparse shadows onto the hills, and Georgina and his group were taking advantage of these shadows to rapidly approach the source of the smoke, which was situated on the other side of the hill that they were scaling.

A short while later, Georgina and the others came rushing back.

"So? How many people do they have?" Chinba asked in a quiet voice.

"From what we could see, it looked like around 10,000 people, but I looked ahead even further to find that their barracks were stretching on into the distance as far as the eyes could see, so there're most likely a lot more people among their ranks."

Chinba's brows furrowed tightly upon hearing this.

"I saw many green fool flags throughout the entire encampment. Who are these people?" Georgina asked.

"Kevin the Fool?" Chinba exclaimed as he cast an incredulous glance toward Georgina.

"Who's that?"

"He's one of the most accomplished generals of the Delair Dukedom and is extremely adept in positional warfare."

"Then why is he called a fool?"

"Because of his exceptional expertise in positional warfare, he's very dogmatic in engaging enemy armies in direct battle and doesn't adjust his strategy and tactics according to what would be ideal given the situation on the battlefield. As a result of this, he often lets opportunities to seize victory slip through his fingers, hence the nickname."

"Even then, he's still one of the Delair Dukedom's most accomplished generals?" Georgina asked with a surprised expression.

Georgina had always followed Erwin, who excelled in adapting and making adjustments on the battlefield on the fly, so he naturally felt rather disdainful toward this foolish general.

"Don't take him lightly," Chinba cautioned. "Battles frequently break out between the Delair Dukedom and the Fantiwenross Dukedom situated up north, and it's all thanks to Kevin's efforts guarding the north that the Delair Dukedom hasn't conceded any of its territory to the Fantiwenross Dukedom."

Georgina nodded in response. "Then what should we do next? We're severely outnumbered by them, and you just told me that this general excels in positional warfare, so we certainly can't just engage his forces directly."

"We're definitely going to have to retreat, but before we leave, we have to leave them with a surprise so that they know that the territory of our City of Freedom is not to be encroached upon," Chinba said as his eyes narrowed slightly.

The sight of the sinister look on his face sent chills running down Georgina's spine.

"What are you planning to do?" Georgina asked.

"We can't kill them, but we can certainly spook them a little."

"Go on."

"They're currently cooking up some rations at the moment, so they'll be in a very complacent state. I'll lead our troops to the top of the hill and yell war cries while striking our drums, feigning an attack. In the meantime, you take a small group of the best martial artists among our troops to skirt around the hill and venture deep into their encampment, then cut down a few of their flags before making your escape. We won't be able to inflict any substantial damage to their forces, but if everything goes according to plan, we'll have thoroughly embarrassed and intimidated them. What do you think?"

"That sounds like a great plan," Georgina replied with a smile.

Having decided on their plan, the two of them split up and sprang into action.

...

Kevin and his forces had only arrived at their present location after two days of intensive travel, and the entire army was already quite wary. In addition to that, the fact that it was time for a meal only further exacerbated their weariness. Thus, they were all quite panicked to suddenly hear the sound of thundering drums and raucous war cries ringing out from the hilltops.

"What's going on? What's all this commotion?" Kevin was in his tent, studying a map of the Boll Dukedom to plan out the path forward when he was startled by the loud commotion ringing out outside, upon which he immediately rushed out of his tent to examine the situation.

"General, we are under attack from soldiers of the Boll Dukedom!" a footsoldier hurriedly reported.

"How many of them are there?" Kevin asked with a slightly bewildered expression. If they were being approached by a large number of enemy troops, there was no way that he would've completely failed to detect them. Having said that, part of the blame also fell on him as he hadn't sent any scouts to the south. As a result, he had no idea what was happening there.

The main reason for his oversight was that he was simply not expecting an attack from the Boll Dukedom's troops at a time like this, thereby resulting in a sense of complacency. He had thought that it would've taken at least two or three days for the battle between the City of Freedom and Duke Eru to reach a conclusion, so his plan was to remain here and wait for an opportunity to take down Newfando.

While Kevin was scrambling to issue orders to his troops, large rocks and arrows began flying down from the surrounding hilltops. The soldiers in the camp didn't even have a chance to set down the food in their hands before many of them were felled by arrows. The ones who were quicker to react immediately drew their weapons to ward off the oncoming arrows, while those who didn't have their weapons by their side hurried back to their tents to grab them. As a result, there were people rushing in a blind panic in all directions throughout the camp, creating an extremely chaotic scene.

Right at this moment, a long neigh rang out, and one of the wooden walls of the encampment collapsed violently, revealing a unicorn that was basked under the light of the dying sun, giving off a faint amber sheen.

Sat atop the unicorn's back was a muscular young man who cut an extremely intimidating figure with the setting sun behind him. As soon as the wooden wall collapsed, he immediately charged forward, barreling deep into the encampment with unstoppable might.

This man and unicorn duo was naturally none other than Georgina and Momo. Georgina was wielding a pair of short blades as he charged toward the main flag at the very center of Kevin's encampment, and he was followed by around 100 elite cavaliers. All of these cavaliers were exceptional warriors on horseback, and they were clad in suits of light armor that granted them maximal speed and maneuverability, allowing them to charge through the camp like the wind.

As a result of their arrival, the panic and chaos in Kevin's camp were even further exacerbated.

Georgina gave a loud whistle, then pointed one of the blades in his hands at the green fool flag before indicating to the cavaliers behind him. Through these gestures, he was telling them to focus on cutting down the flags before making an escape as quickly as possible, as opposed to lingering in the camp and engaging in drawn-out battles.

The cavaliers immediately heeded his instruction, dispersing throughout the surrounding camp.

Kevins was furious to see this group of brazen brats charging through his camp as he pleased, and he picked up a halberd resting by his foot before hurling it toward Georgina.

At this moment, Georgina was in the process of cutting through a flagpole, and he suddenly heard the sound of an approaching projectile flying toward him. He ducked down in a calm manner, allowing him to evade the halberd.

He was having a bit of trouble with the sturdy flagpole, but the flying halberd did the trick for him, snapping the flagpole with tremendous force, much to Georgina's amusement.

Right at this moment, a powerful punch came hurtling directly toward his midsection.

Sensing the force behind the punch, a hint of alarm surfaced on Georgina's face, and he hurriedly raised his blades as a shield to protect himself.

In the wake of the clash, Georgina was forced back five steps, while Kevin only retreated three steps.

It was clear that Kevin held a slight upper hand when it came to raw power. This made sense, considering Kevin was the general of an army, while Georgina was an assassin who placed more emphasis on speed.

"The Universal Church Freedom Army sends its regards," Georgina said with a smile, then snapped his fingers, and Momo immediately heeded his call, leaping toward him from nearby.

Georgina grabbed onto the saddle before hoisting himself onto Momo's back.

"You're not getting away!" Kevin was absolutely fuming at this point, and there was no way he would allow Georgina to make his retreat. He immediately picked up a sword that had fallen onto the ground, then charged directly toward Momo.

However, Georgina was completely unfazed and continued to forge ahead.

A loud clang rang out as Momo's horn clashed with the blade of the sword. Georgina was worried that Momo wouldn't be strong enough to oppose the sword, so he also raised his blades to clash with the sword as well.

Despite the momentum they had built up, they were still unable to gain the upper hand over Kevin.

As a result of the clash, Kevin was forced back a few steps, but Momo was also stopped cold in its tracks. The unicorn was panting heavily, while its neck was trembling uncontrollably, and Georgina was doing his best to soothe it by stroking its neck with a sympathetic expression.

Right at this moment, the other flags at the center of the camp also fell one after another. Georgina spotted this out of his peripheral vision, and he was ecstatic. Their objective for this sudden attack had been accomplished, and it was time to reunite and make their escape.

"You're not getting away!" Kevin repeated as he glowered at Georgina, looking as if he were watching a dead man.

All of a sudden, a volley of arrows came hurtling toward him from behind from a hill in the distance.

Chinba could see that Georgina had been forced to engage in battle with Kevin, so he had instructed his archers to cover Georgina in order to allow him to make his escape.

Kevin had no choice but to take evasive measures, and taking advantage of this opportunity, Georgina immediately sped toward the opening in the wooden wall on Momo's back.

Kevin was desperate to prevent Georgina's escape, and with a sweep of his sword, a red sword projection was sent hurtling through the air, slicing through most of the oncoming arrows. However, there were still a few that managed to strike him on the back, but there was no time for him to tend to those injuries as he set off in pursuit of Georgina.

Georgina could sense Kevin's scorching killing intent, and he was forced to turn around to retaliate.

Kevin's sword came crashing down from above, but his left shoulder had been struck by an arrow, rendering him unable to exert force through it. Hence, he was wielding his sword with his right hand alone, which meant that this wasn't the most powerful strike he could've unleashed.

Even so, Georgina was still almost unable to oppose it. Both of his blades shattered in the face of Kevin's almighty attack, and if it weren't for the fact that his vambraces were forged from an exceptional material, his wrists would've already been severed.

At this point, many of the cavaliers had already retreated out of the encampment, and they immediately came rushing to Georgina's aid.

As a result, Kevin ran the risk of being severely outnumbered if he were to pursue Georgina any further, so he could only reluctantly retreat.

Georgina glanced at the wound that had been inflicted onto his wrist, and he was very alarmed by just how close a call that was.

...

During that skirmish, Georgina had led 100 cavaliers of the Universal Church Freedom Army into the enemy camp, chopping down 12 fool flags and slaying over 500 enemy soldiers, showing the army of the Delair Dukedom that the Boll Dukedom was not to be messed with.

Despite Kevin's nickname, he was no fool, and he knew that the fact that the Universal Church Freedom Army had launched such a brazen attack indicated that the battle in Newfando had most likely already concluded. During the next few days, he learned through various sources that Theresa had been captured, following which Duke Eru had surrendered and handed over the city. After being informed of this, he sent a letter back to Ogtan to describe the situation, while also stating that he was going to retreat his forces.

Back in Ogtan, Duchess Silon was naturally not very pleased to see this letter.

She had failed to anticipate Theresa's capture, and she had to begrudgingly admit that she was quite impressed with Theresa for thinking of this plan.

"It seems like you've also come to understand that a woman's best weapon is men," she murmured to herself as a faint smile appeared on her face.

Given this turn of events, Erwin was becoming even more of a concern for her.