"Am I really that abhorrent and unforgivable?" Perry asked as he looked into Aglea's eyes with a serious expression.

A mocking sneer appeared on Aglea's face, and she closed her hand around Perry's neck. However, Perry was nothing more than a skeleton, so there was nothing for her to grab onto.

However, on this occasion, she didn't exert any force with her hand.

"I'm very curious. If I'm already dead, why do you insist on preserving this remnant of my soul and keeping it alive in this world?" Perry asked in a direct manner, determined not to allow Aglea to deflect the question.

"Why did you keep me by your side as this undead creature for all these years?" he asked as he looked directly into Aglea's eyes without displaying any intention of backing down. "Is it because deep down, you still haven't let me go?"

In the face of Perry's questioning, Aglea finally began to waver.

...

In contrast with Aglea's complex emotions running through Aglea's heart, the battle taking place in Fort Lungpierce down below couldn't have been any more clear cut.

Count Cooper was leading the way, becoming the first one of the Delair Dukedom's secondary unit to set foot onto the walls of Fort Lungpierce, and the Delair Dukedom's forces were given a massive boost in morale as a result.

In the face of such a formidable opposing army, Erwin's teeth were gritted tightly as he maximized his advantages as a magician, bombarding the Delair Dukedom's army with all types of destructive ancient spells. The fortress walls and the mountain path were all being ravaged by his powerful spells.

Thankfully, under the persistent efforts of the troops on the fortress walls, the enemy soldiers that had been led onto the walls by Kevin had almost been entirely wiped out. This allowed Lanyon and the magicians on the airships to focus their efforts on dealing with the enemy soldiers that were climbing up the fortress walls.

"The two of you have been ganging up on me for quite a while now, have you learned anything?" Kevin took a disdainful glance at Shiba and Bracken before spitting out a globule of blood in their direction.

"Have we learned anything?" Shiba's eyes were filled with cold killing intent. "Don't flatter yourself, fighting against the likes of you isn't going to teach us anything."

"Oh?" Kevin was clearly very much taken aback by this answer.

"Do you really think I'm scared of you?" A cold grin appeared on Shiba's face.

Throughout this battle, Shiba had almost focused his efforts entirely on passively defending himself using his sturdy shield. In doing so, he had finally managed to get a good grasp on all of Kevin's attacks and techniques. In addition to that, Kevin had already endured several consecutive rounds of battle, and he was beginning to tire. Thus, Shiba decided that it was finally time to directly face Kevin in a final showdown.

The essence of "Game of Swords and Shields" was to employ strategy to overcome a more powerful opponent. It had to be said that despite being a relatively obscure and unknown figure, Renjay truly was a genius when it came to martial techniques, and everything that he had left behind had given the martial artist of the younger generation a great deal of inspiration.

Even Bracken was rather surprised to see the abrupt change in Shiba's demeanor. He had thought that Shiba was being just as cautious and cowardly as he had always been, constantly hiding behind his shield to ensure survival above all else, but to Bracken's surprise, Shiba had been preparing something this entire time.

Despite Shiba's confident display, Kevin remained completely unconvinced, merely regarding it as nothing more than bravado from Shiba. Thus, he raised his blade before lashing out at Shiba.

"I don't need you here anymore. Go help out somewhere else," Shiba said without even looking at Bracken, then immediately charged forward to meet Kevin in battle.

Bracken faltered slightly upon hearing this, then did as he was told.

Shiba used his sword to force Kevin's blade aside, then slashed his sword through the air, sending a long trail of sparks flying from Kevin's armor.

Kevin lowered his head to look down at his own chest, and never did he think that his cowardly opponent would be capable of slicing through his suit of thick metal armor, while his own all-out attack was unable to leave so much as a single scratch on Shiba's shield.

The shield that Shiba was holding was one that was crafted from Xuanwu metal. Ever since the battle on the Canston Plain, Erwin had equipped all of the elite troops in the army with Xuanwu armor and Xuanwu shields. Of course, commanders like Sherry and Shiba all had access to equipment of this caliber, and it was by relying on this superior equipment that the elite troops on the fortress walls were able to overcome the troops led onto the walls by Kevin.

After confirming that Shiba was capable of holding his own against Kevin, Bracken was able to lead his men to help out elsewhere.

At this moment, Sherry had already clashed with Count Cooper, and he was ecstatic to see Bracken bringing reinforcements.

"Will Shiba be alright facing Kevin on his own?" Sherry asked in a cautious manner.

"He was the one who chased me away, so I'm sure he'll be fine," Bracken replied.

Sherry nodded in response, and the two began to clash with Count Cooper.

As it turned out, the Delair Dukedom's forces truly had some formidable commanders among their ranks. Even though Count Cooper was already over 50 years of age, his power as a martial artist hadn't waned in the slightest.

Even though he was facing Sherry and Bracken on his own, he was still able to keep up with ease.

"Is this all that the commanders of the City of Freedom have to offer?" Count Cooper asked with a condescending smile. "I'd be too ashamed to show my face on the battlefield if I were as weak as you two."

Sherry remained rational and unfazed, refusing to fall prey to such a crude attempt at goading. Having led troops in battle for all these past years, he knew extremely well how important it was to keep a cool and level head at all times on the battlefield. He knew that in comparison with the direction of the battle, his own emotions and ego were completely inconsequential.

In contrast, Bracken was far more susceptible to this type of psychological warfare, quickly becoming agitated by Count Cooper's insults. In his haste to prove himself, he began to take greater and greater risks, attacking Cooper's vital regions with every single attack.

Bracken was already carrying injuries from his battle against Kevin, and this aggressive style naturally exposed a number of holes in his defense, one of which Cooper exploited to plunge his sword right into Bracken's stomach.

Sherry immediately intervened, pushing Bracken away before resisting Cooper on his own.

Erwin could see this battle taking place out of the corner of his peripheral vision, but he didn't choose to intervene. He was confident that Sherry would be capable of taking care of the situation on his own.

At this moment, Erwin was looking into the dark valley with a solemn expression. In comparison with the battle that was raging on the fortress walls, he was much more concerned about the Delair Dukedom's backup unit, which still hadn't moved so much as a single inch.

"What's wrong?" Theresa asked at the sight of Erwin's concerned expression.

"I'm wondering why the enemy backup unit still hasn't made a move," Erwin replied with a grim expression.

...

At the foot of the mountain, Sim was closely scrutinizing the state of the battle taking place on the fortress walls.

Duba could see that the Delair Dukedom's forces were struggling to break through the defenses posed by the troops of the City of Freedom, so he asked, "Senior Sim, isn't it time that we got involved?"

"There's no hurry," Sim replied with a calm smile. "Take a look at the mountain path. It's such a narrow path that if we storm it all at once, that would make all of us sitting ducks for the enemy troops. Their bombardment of spells will leave our formation in complete disarray. Cooper and the secondary unit were only able to make their way up the mountain as the assassin was keeping all of the powerful enemy magicians occupied. Now that Erwin and Theresa have managed to disengage themselves, we can't afford to be so aggressive with our tactics. Haven't you noticed that it's been quite some time since Erwin has done anything? What do you think he's waiting for? Count Cooper has already made it onto the fortress walls, yet Erwin doesn't seem to be eager to step in at all."

"Even so, are we just going to stand here and watch? We can't just do nothing," Duba said with a perplexed expression.

"Rest assured, Your Excellency, this is a battle of attrition. As long as we hold out and remain patient, he will be forced to deal with Cooper and his troops eventually."

Duba thought about this for a moment before nodding in agreement. "Come to think of it, Duchess Silon really is a woman who holds her cards very close to her chest. I wonder where she managed to recruit such a powerful assassin from."

"Everyone has their own tricks, and that should be particularly true for a ruler of a dukedom like her," Sim said with a faint smile. "If she didn't have these tricks up her sleeve, how could she have maintained her grip on the Delair Dukedom for all these years? What I'm most surprised by is the fact that Aglea has returned after being rumored to be dead for 20 years. It almost seems like a story straight out of a novel."

"Truth be told, I've also been wondering about this," Duba said. "If she's still alive, perhaps the same applies to my brother as well."

"If His Excellency is alive, then why did he return to Finklan in the past 20 years?" Sim asked. "Do you think he's that type of person?"

Duba shook his head in response. "My brother has always had a strong sense of responsibility. There's no way he would abandon our family."

At the same time, he was thinking to himself that his brother wouldn't have met his ultimate tragic fate if he hadn't been so torn between his love and his responsibilities.

"But that begs the question: who is that up there with Aglea right now?" Sim mused as he massaged his own eyes, clearly feeling some eye strain from looking up at the night sky for too long. "That thin and frail-looking figure doesn't look like it belongs to His Excellency."

"I'm not sure," Duba said with a shake of his head.

"It looks whoever it is, that person is very intimate with Aglea, but I've always felt like Aglea is the type of woman who is very devoted and faithful. She was madly in love with His Excellency 20 years ago, how could she have fallen in love with someone else?" Sim murmured to himself.

"Back then, I told my brother over and over again to distance himself from that insane woman, but he refused to listen to me..." Duba sighed with a forlorn expression.

"His Excellency always had very lofty standards, so no normal woman would've caught his eye," Sim consoled. "It's just a pity that their fate was destined to be a destructive one."

"Even Sword God Buu and my father couldn't convince him, I certainly wasn't going to get through to him," Duba said with a wry smile.

"I can't help but feel like that small fellow up there has some type of connection with His Excellency," Sim mused.

"Why do you say that, Senior Sim?" Duba asked.

Sim shook his head in response and offered no reply.

However, what he was thinking was that if that person was someone completely irrelevant, then Buu wouldn't have just been standing there idly.

There weren't many people in this world who could keep Buu waiting, so this was clearly someone quite special.