Over half a month had already passed since General Gilgen had led the army of the Skycourt Kingdom into the province of Burmen. Even though they had conquered all of the citadels on the Marrod Plain on the northeastern side of the Effer Kingdom, they hadn't been able to make any progress ever since they arrived at Illingburn Fort. Illingburn Fort was guarded by Prince Lazaar in person, so it was always bound to be a tough nut to crack. What frustrated General Gilgen even more was the terrain around Illingburn Fort. The fort was framed by mountains both in the north and in the south. The mountains to the north of the fort stretched all the way northward to connect with the Terarody Mountain Ranges, while the mountain range in the south extended all the way to the Joffan Sea. Illingburn Fort stood right in the space between these two mountain ranges, standing firmly in the path of the advancing Skycourt Kingdom army like an insurmountable hurdle. Because of this, Illingburn Fort also had another name: the city between mountains.

It was impossible for the army to march over the steep mountains of the north or the south, so the only way for the Skycourt Kingdom's troops to advance was to break through Illingburn Fort. In the face of the seemingly insurmountable Illingburn Fort, the vastly experienced General Gilgen was very calm and patient. For all of the mercenary legions that wished to go off on their own, he allowed them to advance southward along the coastline of the Joffan Sea, while he stationed himself with the rest of his troops in Marrod Plain, preparing for a long and drawn-out war.

It seemed that General Gilgen had no concerns that the supply lines would eventually struggle to keep up with the needs of this massive army if the war were to drag on for too long. The army of the Skycourt Kingdom had marched thousands of kilometers to reach Illingburn Fort, so the supply line had already been stretched very thin. Even so, he had no qualms or concerns as he had a very clear understanding of the Effer Kingdom's royal court.

After receiving that letter from Prime Minister Fuller, he had immediately begun mobilizing his troops without any hesitation. If the letter had come from anyone else, perhaps Gilgen would've been inclined to regard it as a hoax, but he had already been exchanging letters with Fuller in secret for many years up to this point, so he didn't have any suspicions about the authenticity of the letter. Most of the military secrets and intel pertaining to the Effer Kingdom that Gilgen had received over the years had come from Fuller. In Fuller's letter, it was mentioned that someone would tamper with the Pillow Sword Tournament, causing an incident that would drive a wedge between King Cameron and Prince Lazaar, perhaps even turning them against each other.

This sounded like quite a stretch, but in Gilgen's eyes, this wasn't very far-fetched at all.

Gilgen was stationed on the southern border of the Skycourt Kingdom, which placed him directly across the border between the two kingdoms from Prince Lazaar. Thus, both of them had a general idea of each other's power, and Gilgen had always wondered how Lazaar had avoided suspicions and envy from King Cameron.

Gilgen himself often faced all types of slander and impeachment from his political rivals on the royal court of the Skycourt Kingdom. Thankfully, he was the king's brother-in-law, so that familial bond placed an extra layer of trust between them. In contrast, Lazaar wasn't related to King Cameron in any way, so how had he avoided suspicions from King Cameron for all these years? Through the letters sent to him by Fuller, Gilgen realized that the relationship between Lazaar and the king was far more strained than it appeared on the surface. King Cameron was always standing on Prince Lazaar's side and protecting him from the impeachment of his political rivals, but that was only because he was trying to appease Lazaar and keep him happy.

After being informed of Fuller's plan, Gilgen and Fuller decided on a date on which the former would deploy his troops. The timing of the invasion was extremely important. They couldn't set off too early as they had to wait until Fuller succeeded in his plan, thereby framing Prince Lazaar's son for the attempted murder of the princess. However, they couldn't set off too late, either, as no one knew whether King Cameron was going to take advantage of the situation to wipe out the entire Lazaar family. Furthermore, the time that was required for news of the invasion to be delivered to Sarus from Burmen also had to be considered.

Thankfully, Fuller was entirely responsible for organizing the Pillow Sword Tournament, so he was able to control all of the proceedings and manipulate all of the matchups, thereby allowing him to accurately convey to Gilgen when he should deploy his troops. Of course, there were some slight hiccups in the plan. For example, Erwin had demolished the competition platform on the first day, resulting in the postponement of all of the subsequent matches of the Pillow Sword Tournament by a day, but that didn't have much of an impact on the grand scheme of things.

Just as Gilgen predicted, King Cameron was forced to release Lazaar in the face of the Skycourt Kingdom's invasion of Burmen, and Lazaar returned to Burmen to resume his original duties. It seemed that nothing had changed. The misunderstanding was cleared up, and Lazaar was pardoned and determined to repay the king's faith. However, there was no way this wouldn't have a psychological impact on Lazaar. At the very least, that was Gilgen's thought process.

It had to be said that General Gilgen's grasp on human nature was very accurate, and everything was indeed progressing exactly as he planned.

…

At this moment, there was a massive cloud of dust swirling in front of Illingburn Fort. Countless flags bearing the design of a golden vulture on a red background stretched as far as the eyes could see, and at the head of the army of 5,000 elite Skycourt Kingdom cavaliers stood General Gilgen.

The soldiers standing atop the city walls of the Illingburn Fort were already very accustomed to such a sight, and all of them quickly got into position in an orderly fashion. The sound of thundering war drums rang out, while arrows were nocked onto bowstrings, and the dozen or so giant crossbows on the city walls were also ready to fire, as were the dozens of catapults stationed within the city. However, everyone knew that the Skycourt Kingdom's troops weren't actually going to attack. After all, there weren't any commanders who would dare to lay siege to a city with just cavaliers alone.

Furthermore, all of these cavaliers of the Skycourt Kingdom were standing outside the effective range of the catapults, so it was clear that they were only there for provocation, trying to lure the soldiers in the city out for a battle on the plain.

Prince Lazaar was standing atop the city wall with a cold expression, and he immediately ordered without any hesitation, "Prepare my steed and select 5,000 soldiers to march out of the city with me."

His subordinate didn't dare to delay and immediately rushed away to select the soldiers that would follow Prince Lazaar out of the city.

The tempo of the beating war drums on the city wall was becoming faster and faster as Prince Lazaar charged out of the city gate on horseback with 5,000 elite cavaliers behind him, galloping directly toward the Skycourt Kingdom soldiers outside the city. All of the troops on top of the city wall were looking on with eager expressions and excitement in their eyes. To them, there was no way that Prince Lazaar would lose to some general from the Skycourt Kingdom.

This wasn't actually the first time that Gilgen and Lazaar had faced each other in battle. After returning to Burmen, the first thing that Lazaar did was organize troops to set up defenses in Illingburn Fort. At the time, Gilgen led his army to the foot of the Illingburn Fort, but upon seeing Lazaar's flags placed along the entire length of the city walls, he decided not to recklessly attack the city and retreated instead. The flag of Lazaar's elite legion consisted of a purple background behind a golden lion's head. Whenever Prince Lazaar arrived at a city in Burmen in person, the soldiers of the city would raise an additional black flag next to the original flags, and the black flags would generally stand slightly taller than the golden lion's head flags.

Even though Gilgen hadn't aggressively attacked the city, he led 20,000 troops to the foot of Illingburn Fort the very next day to challenge Lazaar. Lazaar wasn't one to back down from such a challenge, and he personally led 10,000 soldiers out of the army to face the enemy troops. The two sides battled from morning to noon, and in the end, the Skycourt Kingdom's army lost over 3,000 troops, while the Effer Kingdom's forces lost over 2,000 men, so it was a minor victory for Prince Lazaar.

Under these current circumstances, there was actually no need for Prince Lazaar to respond to these challenges. The best course of action was to wait in Illingburn Fort until the Skycourt Kingdom's supply lines failed to meet the needs of the massive army, and the battle would be won without any risk being taken. However, the royal court of the Effer Kingdom wasn't allowing him to do this. After the assassination attempt on Onean, the relationship between Lazaar and King Cameron had already become extremely strained. King Cameron was about to arrive with his forces soon, so Prince Lazaar had to show that he was willing to oppose the Skycourt Kingdom's forces in order to appease King Cameron.

Several days later, General Gilgen led 2,000 cavaliers to the foot of Illingburn Fort. Lazaar emerged from the city with 5,000 troops in hot pursuit, but the outcome of that battle was quite unexpected. Despite Prince Lazaar's ferocious pursuit, Gilgen and the 2,000 cavaliers were able to get away. Furthermore, after tallying the losses suffered by both sides, it was discovered that the Skycourt Kingdom's army had only lost around 400 troops, while Lazaar's forces had lost over 800 cavaliers.

After that came several more minor clashes, with both sides roughly evenly matched in the end.

Judging from the several clashes that had taken place between Gilgen and Lazaar, it could be said that they were equally adept in leading their troops, and one couldn't help but wonder whether this clash of 5,000 cavaliers on each side would lead to a more decisive outcome.

Clang! Lazaar's longsword clashed with Gilgen's blade.

"Lazaar, have you made up your mind yet?" Gilgen asked in a voice that was audible only to the two of them. "Cameron's army is about to arrive soon, I don't have much more time to waste here."

Lazaar remained silent and offered no response.

The two of them exchanged a few more blows, but neither one was able to land a strike on the other.

"Tch, I'm beginning to lose a lot of respect for you. I didn't think you'd be such an indecisive coward," Gilgen scoffed with a disdainful expression.

"Killing him isn't a difficult task, but what I want to know is what do you want?" Lazaar asked as he stared intently at Gilgen.

"I could ask you the same. What do you want?" Gilgen asked with a cold smile.

"I don't want much, I just want my flag to be raised all over the entire Effer Kingdom," Lazaar replied.

"You sure have a large appetite. In that case, I want to slay King Cameron with my own hands and take over Illingburn Fort," Gilgen demanded.

"I can grant you victory over me, but allowing you to conquer Illingburn Fort would be going too far," Lazaar said in a cold voice.

"You have to understand who it is that's asking the other for a favor here," Gilgen said as his expression darkened slightly.

"You're not under the illusion that I'll only be able to take down Cameron with your help, are you?" Lazaar chuckled.

"Cameron is coming here with an army of 100,000 troops, I don't believe you'll be able to take him down without me," Gilgen replied in an unyielding voice, but he was feeling rather bewildered internally, wondering where Lazaar's confidence was coming from. Lazaar only had 70,000 troops under his command. Even if he could defeat Cameron's army of 100,000, would he still have the power to face the Skycourt Kingdom's army after that?

"You can give it a try if you like." Lazaar thrust his sword forward once again, sending a streak of white radiance piercing through the air. "However, let me tell you this: there are many people around Cameron who want to seize accolades from this war, so I could easily wait until after you battle them before I strike. If that happens, perhaps you'll be hailed as a hero for killing Cameron, but I can assure you that you definitely won't be able to return to the Skycourt Kingdom alive."

Gilgen's sword was giving off a faint crimson gleam as he parried Lazaar's attack, then smiled as he said in an unhurried manner, "In that case, I can just retreat to the border and wait until after your battle with Cameron concludes. What are you going to do then?"

"You're telling me that you're going to mobilize an army of over 100,000 troops, then return empty-handed? If you can answer to your king and your nation, then go ahead and retreat to the border right now," Lazaar chuckled with a hint of mockery in his eyes.