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Volume 6 Chapter 2 Part 10

However, for Siluca, Theo was already an irreplaceable existence. Not only does she love him, but she is humbled and delighted to be serving a Lord like him, who’s the embodiment of everything that a true Lord should be.

If you searched the continent for another Lord who’d be just like Theo, then you wouldn’t find even a single one.

His ideal was so difficult to realize that Marine Kraische went as far as to call him a hopeless dreamer, bit even so, Theo was still convinced that he could turn that dream of his into reality. Siluca also shared his enthusiasm regarding this matter, but at the same time she was aware that the road to make it happen was going to be a long and thorny one, and the battle they were waging against the Rossini family right now was but one of the many milestones along that way.

Since Siluca obtained a much needed breathing space, she took command of the soldiers around her.

He instructed the two of them in front of her to stand their ground, yelled at the ones that looked as if they had no idea what they were doing, and made the rest come to the aid of their companions who were visibly struggling.

Siluca’s instructions were all accurate and on point, and soon enough, thanks to her efforts the center of Theo’s army, which has been pushed back slightly by the charge of Doni and his men, began to regain their initial momentum.

However, the other army, or rather the part of it that was fighting Theo alongside Doni, didn’t look like they were going to throw in the towel anytime soon.

「Protect Lord Doni! 」

Enemy soldiers were calling out to each other and tried to push the rebel army back again, so while Theo had his hands busy fighting Doni Rossini, a fierce back-and-forth battle was unfolding all around them.

(This is starting to get difficult…)

Theo sighed in his heart as he was deflecting the strikes of Doni’s blade with his shield as he rained them down on him from atop his horse. He was, without question, a powerful opponent.

Theo tried to provoke him in various ways to make him drop his guard and create an opportunity for himself to attack, but so far he didn’t fall for any of it.

If this goes on, then his shield-holding arm, which was already going numb from the constant need to repel the attacks that were coming from above him

With nothing else to turn to, Theo turned over and thrust his sword into the neck of the horse on which Dhoni was riding.

The horse’s eyes widened, and a puddle of blood came out of its mouth. But even though it shed a lot of blood, it still continued to stand on its legs for a while longer. When it finally fell the ground, the horse is no longer breathing.

(I’m sorry.)

In his heart, Theo swore to remember the horse that he had killed just now.

When the horse fell, the Doni jumped off of it and successfully stuck the landing instead of falling to the ground awkwardly. Thanks to that, he was able to return to the battle immediately and slashed at Theo once more as soon as he regained his balance.
Now the two of them were back on the same level, but on the contrary, Doni’s attack only grew more ferocious because of it. However, Theo was able to block all of his incoming attacks thanks to his sword, his shield and his body control.

「What’s wrong? Cannot fight properly when you don’t have someone to protect you?! 」

Doni mocked Theo as he was flooding him with a barrage of blows.

「No. I’m not fighting properly because in this battle, the one who’s going to be the last man standing is going to be victorious. 」

Theo refuted Doni’s mockery while catching his sword with his shield time after time.

In the meantime, a separate unit of the Rossini family’s army made entirely of Artists that were Pederico Rossini’s guests made its way towards Theo’s army, charging at it from its left flank. Their orders were pretty simple: they were supposed to go on a rampage and slaughter as many soldiers of the rebel army as possible. Their eyes seemed to burn with cruel lust.

Aishela was also burning with desire, but in her case, it was a desire to kill each and every last one of these Artists and take their Arts for herself. As a mercenary and a warrior who spend most of her life on the battlefield, that was the best thing she could do.

Aishela ran behind the ranks of the rebel army and closed in on the enemy Artists. Coming right behind her was the Artist they all met in the Forest of Webs. In his own words, he has absorbed the Arts from the giants spiders when was killing in that forest, but he himself had no idea what exactly his powers were. That was not a reassuring thing by any means, but without anyone to support her Aishela would most definitely died, so she had no choice but to let that man go with her.

(Now that I have someone like him watching over me, I should be able to do it.)

With that, Aishela decided to fully devote herself to her own battle.

Then she leapt high into the air as she tried to get herself into the center of the group of Artists.

But then…

For some reason, she felt a sense of discomfort on her back, as if something was not as it should have been. When she turned back to see what was that all about, she saw that threads were connected to her back, and at the other end of these threads was the Artist from the Forest of Webs, dancing in the air. The threads seemed to be emerging from the palms of his hands.

「Wha-what is this? 」

Aishela was astonished. Even though that man looked like he had the weight of five people combined, it was almost as if he weighted nothing at all.

「So you can counteract your own body mass like that instead of increasing your own jumping power?! 」

「I’m just doing the same thing that all the other spiderlings do. They spit out their threads and ride the wind currents in order to fly through the sky. 」

Bruno laughed and calls out to her.

「I don’t like being taken advantage of like that! 」

Aishela complained to Bruno, but even so, she had a smile on her face.

(There are some things that only certain Arts can do, after all.)

That’s just how it is with Artists and Arts.

It didn’t take long for the enemy Artists to notice them, and they started pointing fingers at Bruno and Aishela while wondering what the hell was going on right now.

And then, Aishela rushed right into the area where the Artists unit were located.

「Now wait just a goddamn moment! Is she really thinking that she can kill us all? I thought she’d be more interested in taking down easy targets to fulfill her employer’s wishes, just like any other mercenary would’ve done! 」

The face of a vaguely looking man, who was probably the captain of the enemy Artist’s unit, twitched.

(It’s actually more crowded than I thought.)

Aishela sighed.
With such a nature, there is no way that the simple mercenaries would be enough of an opponents for Artists, so it was only natural that people like them could not stay on the continent.

(This is quite strange though. Who would’ve thought that the Rossini family would be willing to keep people like that as their personal pets?)

Aishela is stunned by such a strange decision, but she prepared her glaive nonetheless.

「You are not qualified to be taken to the afterlife by the Warrior Maidens, so go to hell for all I care! 」

With her armor of choice, Aishela was mimicking the appearance of Valkyries, Warrior Maidens that are supposedly presiding over the souls of the dead warriors in the world of Valhalla.

Valkyries are worshiped among mercenaries as genuine goddesses, and for those who have become their enemies, they are entities that inspire awe and fear.

Aishela flashed her Glaive to deliver the first strike, but her blow was dodged. She expected as much.

A quick glance at her enemies told her that apparently, the Arts they had engraved upon their bodies were the ones designed strictly for the purpose of melee combat. However, she also noticed that they were no different than the ones that low-spirited mercenaries were engraving upon their bodies purely for fashion purposes.

Moving as lightly on her feet as if she was dancing, Aishela began to swing her glaive around. Bruno was also attacking alongside her.