"You've crawled all the way here, haven't you, my lord?"

On the wall of the Broken Mountain Fortress, Salika Jonah, who was stuck in her waist, looked fussed and undisguised proud: "I thought that this time you would definitely be able to get ahead of us with everything you said, but it turned out that you didn't come until I was five days old - seriously, can you be slower?"

"Heavy snow closed the road, delaying it for a few days. The black-haired wizard smiled faintly, pretending not to hear the other party's taunt, and looked down the battlements of the city wall to the endless East Sackland plain inside and outside the wall.

There is also a spacious camp with no end in sight, the neighing of people and horses, and the erection of horse flags.

The knights of Boi were not accustomed to living in stone castles, and the fortress of Broken Mountain could not hold 10,000 hussars, so they simply built a nomadic camp behind the fortress, which looked like a densely populated town that suddenly appeared from afar.

"Of course, after all, Byrne is in the south. Gently exhaling the mist, Loren chuckled: "In terms of adapting to winter, it is still not as good as our brothers and sisters in the north." ”

"Hmm... You delicate southerners are not as cold as us horseback people. ”

Salika couldn't agree more: "But... Isn't that the only reason?"

Well?

Loren raised his eyebrows, and didn't react for a while.

"Come on, you still want to play stupid with me?"

The Archduke of the Scimitar with a sudden change in expression smiled with a "quite meaningful" smile, "Slap!", and hit Loren's chest with her elbow: "You can fool others, you can't fool me - Charlotte, I can't understand it, and there is nothing she can't get if she wants it!"

"You never had time to interrogate Byrne before you left for Ebolden, so Charlotte must have arranged everything for that celebration - it was a game she had planned to bring you out, and it turned out to be the wedding of the wizard and the royal family. ”

"What does this mean? It means that this is a disguise! Blood weddings are too difficult, and it's easy to be thought that you're coveting Charlotte's title and wealth, so you made a special show like this, right? I'm right, right?!"

After speaking, Salika, who was stuck in her waist, stared at Loren with wide eyes, with a "I said it right, praise me for being amazing" expression.

Loren, who didn't know how to answer, frowned.

Although it is completely crooked, the result is correct.

Of course, that's only half right.

The black-haired wizard sighed softly: "This matter is still a secret for the time being, and Charlotte and I plan to announce it after a while." ”

"Shhhh Is that really the case......" The inner suspicion was confirmed, but Salika was still shocked, and then immediately showed an expression of anger—or jealousy:

"No wonder you're late, haven't you all been working day and night since that day... Right?!That's right?!"

"......" Loren Turin.

"Why are you looking at me with such an expression?" Salika asked viciously, "Do you think I'm jealous, my lord of Poi, the great leader of the horseback people, will be jealous of you?!"

“...... Jealous?"

"Of course I'm jealous, I'm so jealous—I can't stand the thought of you two going back and forth in a room with a fireplace, on a soft feather bed!"

The archduchess of the scimitar with teeth and claws didn't care about her image at all, and shouted very confidently.

But to the point... It is indeed her strength.

Anger, hatred, joy, excitement, madness... This woman never knew what to hide, she expressed all her emotions straightforwardly, and she could say what she wanted and what she hated and hated out loud and directly.

Well, especially in terms of aspirations and ambitions, there are indeed quite a few similarities with Charlotte.

"Sooner or later, Charlotte will always get what she wants;" Salika, who had a calm face, pouted very unhappily: "Everything is like this, and it is like this now, ......"

That expression was almost like telling Loren that "there's a story in this".

Anyway, Charlotte seems to care about Salika too, these two people... Did something really happen?

"Salica, there's one thing I've been curious about before, what is the ...... between you and Charlotte"

"Bell!"

The words came to an abrupt end, and a stunned Loren stared at the long knife "Iron Rider" that suddenly nailed in front of him—the smooth blade almost completely cut into the cracks in the stones, penetrating the wall at his feet.

It was so tightly knit that you couldn't see even a trace of gravel.

"Oops, I was so careless. Salika, with a gloomy face, raised her head, still staring at him with those vicious eyes:

"I'm sorry, my knife fell out of its scabbard, didn't hurt you?"

Loren's throat twitched.

"No, no. ”

"Ah, that's good, that's good. The archduke with a smile on her lips and a smiling smile nodded: "You have to be careful when you ask questions in the future, pay attention to your surroundings, or if you are not careful, I will ......."

Before he could finish speaking, a loud cry suddenly sounded on the city wall.

"Lord of Sackland, His Majesty Conrad is here——!"

The deep voice of Ernst Drexis, the deputy commander of the Broken Mountain Fortress, echoed in the ears of the two, breaking the dead silence and extremely strange atmosphere, causing them to look back at each other at the same time.

At the end of the road, where legionnaires were standing guard and kneeling on one knee, Conrad de Salion, dressed in black and red background, walked expressionlessly, accompanied by Drexis.

"Good morning, my dukes. ”

Leisurely speaking, Conod glanced at the two who were also looking at him very "inadvertently", and then looked at the long knife "Iron Rider" inserted in the ground, and his changing expression was very playful:

"Very well, it looks like you've already said hello. ”

——!

In front of Conod, Salika unceremoniously pulled out the long knife, and deliberately played a knife trick in the eyes of Drexis, who could almost kill, and put it in the sheath.

"Yes, we just talked for a while about the information about the Azorean elves - the war knife 'Iron Rider' that Boi has passed down from generation to generation uses the craftsmanship of the Azorean long knife, which everyone knows. ”

The Archduke of the Scimitar said coldly: "So I asked Lord Byrne for advice, what is the difference between the swordsmanship of the Azorean elven warriors and ours... Questions?"

"There's no problem, Duke Loren once sent an envoy to the Misty Moon Court, and his understanding of elves is unmatched in the Empire. Conod's expression was very calm:

"But I think it's better to understand this kind of thing than to listen to other people's descriptions, and I can understand it better after trying it myself, Grand Duke Salica... What do you think?"

Salika, who was pushed back, snorted coldly and didn't say anything more.

"That's the end of the chat, let's get back to business. Conod's eyes rolled and fell on the black-haired wizard: "Drexis told me that Byrne has sent a total of troops this time, only five thousand?"

"That's right, five thousand knights, and Grum, the crimson dragon who promised to assist us, plus half of the counts of the thirteen lords of Byrne. Loren deliberately emphasized:

"This is the result of careful discussion between Byrne and the whole of Byrne—we agree that if Your Majesty is only to hold the Broken Mountain Fortress, what is needed is not a large army, but an absolute elite. ”

"And with Boi's 10,000 hussars, the empire no longer needs more cavalry as mobile support, and the famous 'black walls' of Sackland should not need the southern infantry to show off their might in the ice and snow. ”

"Five thousand knights, more than enough. ”

Listening to the black-haired wizard's seemingly justified but faintly prickly answer, Drexis frowned.

Within the Empire, the title of "knight" was less like a title and more like an honorary title and a profession only if Byrne followed the traditional "knightly system", and that anyone who had noble ancestry, no matter how many, and had received standard knightly training, could be given the title of "knight".

Conversely, if a person has not participated in war, has not been "traveling", or has not even been trained as a knight, then he cannot be called a "knight" even if he has a knighthood.

Because of this, Byrne is the only one in the empire who can assemble a large-scale "knight legion" - although most of them are mercenary "ranger knights" and "free knights", they are already very terrifying.

Of course, 5,000 knights are an extremely powerful force even for Byrne, the "land of knights", not to mention that half of the counts in the principality are dispatched at one time, which is enough to prove Byrne's sincerity.

So no matter how much you have opinions, there is really nothing to refute and question.

"In other words, Byrne decided on the strength and quality of this battle out of his understanding of the form of the war, right?" said Emperor Conod lightly.

Loren bowed slightly: "So to speak." ”

"Then I'm going to change my current combat goals......

"I can only strongly advise you, Your Majesty, that it is better not to do so. Loren was unceremonious: "A change in the established plan will inevitably cause turmoil in the morale and morale of the army; not to mention that the temporary preparations must be in a hurry, and I am afraid that none of the goals will be accomplished at that time." ”

"What if this change doesn't require any further preparation?"

"If you don't prepare, you will definitely ......"

The black-haired wizard, who suddenly realized something, stopped his words abruptly and stared at Conod, who had an indifferent expression.

At that moment, he noticed that the other two were also looking at him.

Obviously, I don't know enough about the Azorean elves.

"Drexis told me that the army of the Azorean elves was making its way from west to east a third of the way to the fortress of Fracture Mountain. ”

Loren frowned slightly: "Is there something changed?"

"A third...... This is all information from a few days ago, not only did you come late, but you also knew the news so late?!" Salika, who didn't look back, glared at the black-haired wizard and deliberately asked loudly.

As for what Dresis's face turned black, she didn't bother to care.

"For the latest news, we've found traces of the Long Ears - near a deserted camp near the Valley of Bloodbones, but far from 40,000 men, only in the hundreds. ”

"Not only that, these small groups of enemies don't seem to be just one or two, all of them add up to about two thousand troops, but they are distributed in the ice fields outside the Boundary Mountain Fortress, from the east to the west of the Valley of Bloodbones, they are almost everywhere!"

Salika deliberately laughed in a very relaxed tone: "So we came to a conclusion, that is, what kind of tricks these guys are playing, deliberately making us mistakenly think that they are advancing at a fast speed, forcing us not to leave the Broken Mountain Fortress, and cowering here, I don't know what they are doing!"

"In that case, then we can't even be satisfied with them!"

"So......" Loren raised an eyebrow.

"So we sent an elite army of Rangers to raid the troops they sent out to confuse us. Salika continued: "And then follow the vine and grab their tails!"

"Will it work?"

"Two hundred legion rangers, one thousand Boi hussars, led by the head of the Church Knight of the Broken Mountain Fortress, His Excellency Naze, the Knight of Oath, plus Count Seth Braha of Boi, absolutely foolproof, don't underestimate the bravery of our Boi!"

"I don't mean to underestimate the Boe, I'm just ......"

"Just what, don't think that only you Bains can defeat the Azorean elves. The Archduke of the Scimitar glared at him, obviously not completely forgiving him for what he had just done: "Don't forget, if it wasn't for the timely support of our Boi's cavalry last time, the city of Eboden would have fallen a long time ago!"

The puffing Salika hugged her shoulders with a posture of "you don't believe me".

The black-haired wizard could only look helpless.

In the middle of the conversation between the three of them, a short horn suddenly sounded on the city wall, and the soldiers at the city gate could be seen busy in the distance.

"It's supposed to be the Ranger in charge of liaison has returned, I'll pick it up. With that, Drexis, who bowed to Conrad, prepared to turn and leave.

Before he could leave, a soldier dressed as a cavalryman hurried up the wall and handed him an unsealed parchment letterhead.

Drexis did not dare to slack off, and presented it directly to Conod without looking at it.

"It's ......"

"Stamped with the seal of the Knight of the Church, it is the Knight Captain Naze and Count Seth Braha. ”

Before the black-haired wizard could ask, Conod had already spoken.

The expressions of the three of them became solemn at the same time.

"The march arrived at the Valley of the Bloodbones on the third day... Raided... The enemy is in ambush in the werewolf tribe of the icefields... More than two thousand troops... In a hurry...... Siege ......"

"Our intentions are detected by the enemy... The cavalry ranks were torn ... The formation collapsed... Inability to organize an effective ... Effective resistance ......"

The staccato words caused Loren's pupils to shrink suddenly.

Salika was even more pale.

"Knight Naze led his army to break through... Whereabouts unknown, Count Seth Braha raises the flag... Trying to cover in a roundabout way... Besieged from both sides... Lost... Prepare to retreat ......"

"Killed!"