With Lucidy back in Tellier, the situation was quickly defused.

A few days ago, the officials of the City of Freedom who were stationed in Tellier had almost been killed by Mackney in a fit of rage, but thankfully, Shane foresaw what was going to happen, and he hid all of these in advance, thereby saving their lives.

With these officials from the City of Freedom present, everything quickly returned to normal in Tellier.

As a result, the City of Freedom no longer had to worry about an attack from Tellier, and Sanfesa's sinister plot was completely foiled.

All of this was thanks to Emma, Erwin's latest ally.

The battle between the City of Freedom and the Delair Dukedom hadn't even begun yet, but both sides had already clashed with one another in the shadows, and in the wake of that clash, neither side had emerged with the upper hand.

At this moment, Emma was sitting casually in front of the window, reading through the agreement between Erwin and Mackney. Looking at Erwin's signature at the bottom of the contract and thinking back to the poem that he had delivered back in Finklan, a faint smile appeared on her face.

She had always found the concept of the ubiquitous firm to be very intriguing. The firm was releasing paper money and encouraging the people to take out loans. It was clear that Erwin was trying to establish firm control over the economy of the City of Freedom through this Ubiquitous Firm.

Mackney and his sons didn't think much of the shares that they held in the Ubiquitous Firm, but Emma had been immediately intrigued after hearing mention of it from Lucidy.

At the same time, Shane was pouncing on the business opportunity that had arisen in the wake of Mackney's demise, beginning to infiltrate the Farody Family's wine business.

With such a massive change taking place in the Farody Family, changes naturally had to be implemented in the Tellier Wine Trade Guild as well.

Through Lucidy, the ambitious Shane was able to enter the trade guild with ease.

At this point, Lucidy no longer cared about anything, so it didn't matter to him whether he was being used by Shane or anyone else.

Emma told him that the magic power that she had instilled into his body wasn't going to last much longer, which meant that he was about to reach the end of his undead life. Emma suggested that in his remaining days, he should take the Striking Salamander mercenary legion to Fort Lungpierce to assist Erwin in his war efforts, and that would also be an opportunity for him to see Onean one final time, but Lucidy refused.

He was too ashamed to face Onean, and he was also rather fearful of Erwin, so he refused to go to Fort Lungpierce no matter what.

Emma was rather disdainful of his cowardice, but she didn't say anything.

However, her opinion was that if he truly loved someone, then he should've gone to see her one final time regardless of the circumstances.

...

Meanwhile, Christine was at the main branch of the Ubiquitous Firm, and her mind was entirely fixated on the imminent battle. The concern on her face seemed unbefitting of someone of her age. She was feeling quite dejected as Erwin had only made a very brief return to Zans before setting off for the front lines, unable to make time to see her before then. Hence, when Lanyon came to borrow her airship, she had tried to convince him to take her to the battlefield with him. Unfortunately for her, Erwin had already considered this possibility and spoken to Lanyon about it in advance. Hence, Lanyon refused to take her with him no matter what.

Erwin was naturally aware of how perilous this battle could turn out to be, and there was no way that he would Christine to risk her own life for no good reason. Furthermore, the incident during the rendezvous back in Finklan had served as a cautionary tale to him. If he were to take Onean to the battlefield with him, she would only serve as excess baggage for him. The battlefield was an extremely dangerous and unpredictable place, and he couldn't guarantee her safety at all times.

Christine was well aware of Erwin's thought process, and she was rather disgruntled by how pragmatic Erwin was, but even so, she was still extremely concerned for her.

Christine held a deep sense of fear toward Sanfesa, and she couldn't help but be concerned for Erwin, seeing as he was about to face that terrifying woman in battle.

Gods of the heavens above, if you can hear my prayers, please bless Brother Erwin with safety and fortune,  Christine prayed to herself over and over again. I'm willing to bear all of his misfortune for him so that he may be spared of any suffering.

...

Once Spring arrived, the Delair Dukedom officially declared war on the City of Freedom, and the reason was that the City of Freedom, which followed the Universal Church, was a religious heretic.

One had to realize that the Universal Church had already been in existence for at least the past few decades, so why hadn't it been denounced as a religious heretic earlier in its history? This was undoubtedly a very far-fetched excuse.

Concealed behind this religious war was a war of social classes.

Sanfesa and the nobles may not have arrived at this realization yet, but Erwin had already identified the direction for this war.

However, this war couldn't be won just by shouting a bunch of catchy slogans. They could yell all they want about taking the land from the nobles and returning it to the people, but that wasn't going to secure them the victory.

This was why Erwin was so anxious and uneasy. This was such a massive headache for him because he knew precisely why his enemies were his enemies. He needed the courage to contend with the entire world and flawless execution in the leadership of his troops. Even if he had those prerequisites, there would most likely still be a great deal of luck required for him to accomplish his goal. At the very least, in his eyes, this was a war that he couldn't afford to lose, and the pressure was absolutely crushing him.

However, the army of the Delair Dukedom certainly wasn't going to extend sympathy toward him.

Under the leadership of Kevin the Fool, the initial unit of 30,000 troops had already arrived at the foot of Fort Lungpierce.

Fort Lungpierce was situated at a high altitude on a mountain, and it stood directly in the way of the path leading to the south. It could be said that as long as this fortress remained standing, there was no way that the Delair Dukedom's forces would be able to advance southward any further from this point. If the Delair Dukedom's army couldn't conquer Fort Lungpierce, then it would be in a very awkward position where advance would be impossible, but retreat was also undesirable for obvious reasons.

Even a renowned general like Kevin the Fool felt that there was no chance of conquering Fort Lungpierce by force after assessing the fortress's defenses, so he could only retreat his army to around five kilometers away before setting up camp there, awaiting the arrival of the rest of their forces.

The general of the second unit of the Delair Dukedom's troops was Count Cooper, while Sim was the commander-in-chief of the entire Delair Dukedom army. Sanfesa had already instructed all of the army commanders serving her to follow Sim's orders without question.

After Sim, Duba, and Sword God Buu arrived at Fort Lungpierce with the second unit, Sim led all of the commanders to inspect the defenses of Fort Lungpierce. Following his inspection, he arrived at the same conclusion as Kevin, which was that conquering the fortress by force was not a viable option as they were going to suffer far too many casualties.

After witnessing the ingenious geographic location of Fort Lungpierce, Sim's opinion of Erwin was elevated even further.

Following the inspection, Sim organized a meeting between all of the high-ranking commanders to ask if anyone had good plans for attack.

Some people suggested going around Fort Lungpierce, then advancing southward to conquer Newfando.

Sim shook his head in response. "We have over 70,000 troops here, there's no way the enemy won't notice if we try to go around Fort Lungpierce, so we'll definitely be intercepted along the way."

"If we can't attack the fortress directly or go around it, then we can only lure the enemy out to fight us," Count Cooper said as his brows furrowed tightly. Count Cooper was always leading troops in battles against the Fantiwenross Dukedom, so he was a seasoned commander on the battlefield, and his opinions were very much worthy of consideration.

"I don't think it'll be easy to lure them into our trap, but we can give it a try," Sim mused.

"Do you have any ideas, Commander Sim?" Count Cooper asked.

"A fierce battle is going to be unavoidable, so what we need to do is think of a way to minimize our losses," Sim said. "I'll have to trouble one of you to return to Ogtan and borrow a few airships from Duchess Silon."

"Oh? Are you planning to attack the enemy by falling out of the heavens?" Cooper chuckled.

"I think this is a feasible plan," Kevin said. "At the very least, it's much better than ramming our heads in futility against the walls of the fortress."

The other commanders of the Delair Dukedom's army also expressed their approval of Sim's proposed strategy, which was superior to anything anyone else had to offer.

During the next few days, Cooper and Kevin sent troops to constantly issue challenges and harass Fort Lungpierce, but the City of Freedom refused to bite. No matter how infuriating the insults from the Delair Dukedom's troops were, those inside the fortress merely pretended not to be able to hear them. However, if any enemy soldiers were to get within range of their arrows, then the archers standing on the fortress wall would fire without any hesitation.

The insults from the Delair Dukedom's army weren't actually falling upon deaf ears. Instead, all of the troops inside Fort Lungpierce were merely accumulating pent-up frustration and rage that would fuel them during the upcoming battle.

Meanwhile, Sanfesa was very quick to oblige with Sim's request, preparing five airships of different sizes that she immediately sent to the front lines.

With these airships, the Delair Dukedom's forces had a way to attack the fortress, and thus, the siege battle began.

8,000 troops boarded the airships, and they were led by Kevin as they began attacking the fortress from the sky. At the same time, Cooper led 40,000 troops to attack Fort Lungpierce's three walls. Due to the fact that Fort Lungpierce had been constructed against a mountain, one of its walls was situated on a sheer mountain face that was impossible to climb.

The rest of the troops comprised the backup unit, and Sim was responsible for organizing when they were to enter the battlefield to substitute the main unit.

Thus, in the early hours of the morning, the battle of Fort Lungpierce finally commenced.

Sherry was on night duty on the fortress wall, and he was very perplexed to see several specks of fire in the distant sky.

Why is there fire floating in the sky? he thought to himself with a bemused expression.

However, he quickly realized that these were airships in the sky. After all, he had ridden on an airship all the way from the south to the north, so he was extremely familiar with the sight of the flames dancing in the blast furnaces.

Thus, he immediately raised the alarm, and the entire fortress instantly began to prepare for battle.

Erwin was laying on his bed, flipping through the pages of "Laws of Time and Space", unable to get to sleep. As soon as he heard the alarm being raised, he knew that the Delair Dukedom's army was staging a night attack, and he immediately got out of bed.

By the time he arrived at the fortress wall, Onean, Lana, and Theresa were already waiting there, and it seemed that the three women were even more alert than he was.

"What's going on?" Erwin asked as he turned to Sherry.

"Those things in the sky look like airships, but it's too dark to tell how many soldiers are on those airships," Sherry replied as he pointed at the approaching specks of fire.

Erwin took a careful glance at the specks of fire before nodding agreement with Sherry's assessment. He then drew his staff out of his sleeve before pointing it up at the heavens, releasing a flurry of magic fireworks that lit up the dark night sky.

Layon was lurking on a mountain to the south, and upon receiving this signal, he immediately activated the airship to provide aerial assistance.