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Volume 4 Chapter 2 Part 6

Milza was observing the entire battle in the fortress on the rocky mountain from a safe distance.

(This is different from what I was expecting.)

He said in a tone that suggested that he has just seen something interesting.

While most of the people will definitely denounce the tactics that Waldrind employed in order to gain an edge for themselves in this battle, it cannot be forgotten that in war the thing that matters first and foremost before anything else are the results. On the field of battle, concepts such as justice, good and evil are a luxury that not everyone can afford to have. The only constant things that will never change and will always be present on the battlefield are life and death, victory and defeat. Waldrind simply did everything it could to maximize their chances of victory, and now its infantry was attacking the fortress on the rocky mountain with virtually no one left to defend it.

Now that the fortress had been destroyed and taken over, the few soldiers that were not killed on the spot had lost any will to fight that they might have still had left in them. However, I would seem that even though they no longer wanted to fight, Waldrind’s forces were not interested in accepting their surrender at all, and they were hunting them all down and slaughtering them without showing the tiniest bit of mercy.

Since they were engulfed by both fear and confusion, many of the soldiers did not know what they should do and simply chose to hurl themselves down from the mountain in hope that they might survive the fall, but Milza was not like the rest of them. Without panicking, he started jumping down the cut cliff with the grace of a mountain goat. After descending the rocky mountain, he then left the battlefield under the cover of darkness.

However, as he was running ahead, he sensed a presence that was quickly approaching him, so Milza abruptly stopped and looked behind while asking:

「Who are you? 」

When he called out like that, two shadowy figures emerged from the darkness and knelt about 10 paces away from Milza.

「You are…? 」

「Maids in the service of Marine Kraische. My name is Layla. 」

「Any my name is Cammy. 」

The two of them stated their names while keeping their faces down.

「Shadows, huh? 」

Shadows are a type of Artists who serve their Lords with their Arts while also performing various kinds of behind-the-scenes work. The maids like these two in front of Milza are the closest to their Lords as they can possibly be, and are usually responsible for their Lord’s personal care and protection. Oftentimes they are also entrusted with various secret missions and serve as the hands and feet of their masters.

「So? What do you want from me? 」

「Our master would like to speak with you, Lord Milza. 」

「Your master… you mean, the leader of the Factory Alliance? 」

Milza wondered. For all he knew, this could very well be a trap aimed at him, but thinking about it logically, luring him into a trap would be of no benefit to the Factory Alliance at all. While it is true that he chose to support Pavel in this conflict, it was hard for him to imagine that something like that would be enough of a reason for Marine Kraische to want to retaliate against him.

「Lord Milza, is the rumor that you wish to unify the entire continent true? 」

The maid who called herself Layla asked while raising her face. That was something that Milza was mentioning quite often, so it was no surprise that Marine’s spies would know about his ambitions.

「Even if it is something that I am hoping for, then I do not think that it has any chances of actually coming true. Even if I do become the Viceroy of Dartania one day, it does not change the fact that I do not have any sort of foothold on the continent, and even if I did, I refuse to take part in the peerage system established by the Mages of Elam. 」

The peerage system was introduced and implemented by the Mages Association out of fear of losing the Crests when the war to restore order ended and Lords began to fight amongst themselves over each other’s territories and Crests. It is a system that guarantees the Lord’s rights according to the rank of their Crest and grants them various benefits from the Mages Association. However, the real reason for why this system was implemented in the first place was so that the Mages Association could manage the Lords more easily.

A Lord who violated the rules established by the peerage system not only could not receive the cooperation of the Mages Association anymore, but if the crime against the peerage system that the Lord committed was severe enough, he would be destroyed by a special executionary mercenary group dispatched by the Mages Association for that purpose only. Dartania is a small island continent, so the Mages Association allowed it to carry on even without adopting the peerage system for themselves. However, if Dartania wanted to firmly establish its presence on the continent, it would only have to options available to it: be forced to follow the peerage system that it despised, or be openly hostile towards Elam.

That second option was something that Milza’s father, Sayid, wanted to avoid at all costs. For him, it was enough that he could still earn more money through the continued trade with the continent.

「Our master has inherited the will of Jurgen Kraische, the founder of the Factory Alliance, and aims to unify the continent. And in order to achieve that, she would like you to lend her your power, Lord Milza. 」

「Is that so? 」

If such an offer ewer to be made to him before, then Milza would go and outright reject it without a second thought. But now, he felt that something was stirring in his heart.

(The continent cannot be unified under Vilar Constance, the Earl of Artuk.)

That much has already been made clear to him, and the other Lords from the Fantasia Union were not even worth sparing them a single thought.

If Jurgen Kraische was still alive, then without a doubt the continent would have been united under his name a long time ago. But Jurgen showed that he was also vulnerable and naïve, and he lost his life because those qualities took him over in the most crucial moment of his life. The very same thing can be said about the one who took the Factory Alliance over as his successor, Mathias Kraische. And if his reasoning was correct, then the current head of the Factory Alliance, Marine Kraische, is probably going to be the same as the other two.

However, this time it felt as if she has come prepared for today’s battle, and by sending her maids to convey her intention of meeting with Milza, she showed a strong will and willingness to achieve her goals even if it meant sacrificing everything in the process.

(At the very least, maybe I should check her out?)

Milza made a decision.

「If your leader wants to talk to me, then tell her that we can do so right away. The meeting place is going to be right here, and she should come alone. 」

If she intends to set a trap for him and is going to arrive with an escort despite Milza stating that she should come alone, then he is simply going to kill Marine then and there. If he does that, then the Factory alliance will surely collapse and the peace talks with the Fantasia Union are definitely going to be terminated. And with that hindrance out of the way, Vilar should have no qualms whatsoever about claiming the succession to the Kraische family and invading Waldrind.

「Understood. We will pass this information to our master. 」

The two maids nodded at each other and stood up, disappearing into the darkness a short while later.

Milza sat down on a reasonably-sized rock nearby and waited.

「Now then, I wonder what is going to happen. 」

Folding his arms in front of his chest, Milza said to himself as he stared into the darkness.

* * *

June 12, 2013 of the Continental Calendar.

Marine waited patiently in her tent for her maids to return. Outside of the tent, the soldiers were holding a banquet in order to celebrate their victory against Pavel Murat and his supporters, but she could not bring herself to attend it.

Because despite their victory, Marine’s heart remained as cold as ice.

(What is Alexis going to think about this battle once he hears about it?)

Alexis Ducet is a dreamer and a kind-hearted artist.