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Volume 6 Chapter 2 Part 2

Juzel offered words of comfort to his father.

「I think the Rossini family’s rule was probably reaching its limits anyway. He must’ve sensed it, and come to destroy us while the currents of the times are still on his side. 」

「Our reign lasted for over two hundred years… 」

Pederico’s rank was only that of a Viscount, but few of the Lords on the continent could boast about having such a long history of ruling over their territory,

「We have no choice but to take this opportunity to fundamentally change the way we govern. It will take time and I don’t know if we will succeed, but still, I think there is no other way to keep the Rossini family alive. 」

「Yes, you’re right… 」

Pederico nodded vaguely at Juzel’s words.

「But before we do that, we have to believe that Doni will be able to beat Theo Cornero. We will have to wait and see what happens next before we decide on what we should be doing next. 」

「Understood, father. 」

Juzel nodded and acknowledged Pederico’s words, an then he hugged him and left the room.

(I will see the battle between Theo Cornero and my older brother with my own eyes.)

Juzel said to himself as he made up his mind.

* * *

Three days later, Doni and his Rossini soldiers left Laxia with an army of five thousand men.

Never before had the Rossini mobilized such a large force in order to pacify someone. Many of the subordinate Lords also led the members of their families to battle, along with the soldiers drafted from the slums.

Also, reporting directly to Doni were the soldiers recruited from plantations under the direct control of the Rossini family.

The guests of the Rossini family also formed a separate party of their own. There are about ten people in total in it, but they had one thing in common: they were all Arts users, and since they were all wanderers and not direct underlings of the Rossinis, they were allowed to fight however they saw fit.

The army marched in long formations along the road leading northwest from Laxia. Soldiers knew about the rumors that Theo Cornero has quelled the Chaos Vortex, and that the locals are flocking to him because of it, but they weren’t too upset because of it.

The slum-dwellers, who made up the majority of the soldiers, were plundering the local villages in the name of tax collection, and they know the lethargic villagers who are at their mercy. They don’t have the slightest bit of courage to them, so if a battle breaks out, they’ll most likely just run away.

Dressed in reddish-black armor, the figure of Doni, who was calmly advancing on horseback at the head of the formation, was burning with anger, filled with the spirit of crushing any enemy whom he’s going to come across.

「There’s no way for Lord Doni to lose this. 」

The Rossini soldiers whispered amongst themselves.

「The reign of the Rossini family is eternal. 」

Even if it’s a reign no one wanted.

Around that time, Theo was also leading an uprising rebel army and marching towards Laxia.
Tens of thousands of people gathered around Theo, but he chose about 10,000 of them and sent the rest back to their villages. Ten to several dozen people from each village, that was the current statistic for his army. They’re currently lacking in weapons and armor, and if there was too many of them, they’d also have trouble procuring enough food to keep them going.

During the march, they received what little food they had from nearby villages, and also procured necessary supplies.

「If the rebellion succeeds, we will definitely return it. 」

Siluca promised to do so, and accurately recorded the food and supplies delivered, and also issue a proper deed to the head of each village.

During the march, Siluca had each village form a platoon and choose a captain. Theo and Siluca then went around each unit and nominated one or several people who caught their eye as vice-captains. The vice-captains were placed under Theo to act as messengers for each unit. In the future, they aimed to make them into soldiers under Theo’s direct command.

They don’t know if they can win this battle or not, but if they lose, then that’s going to be it for them. After defeating the Rossini family, it’ll be necessary to quickly start governing Sistina properly. Even though the war situation has calmed down, in Artuk, Eugen and others continue their guerrilla battles with the determination to drive Dartania out of their homeland, so they must return to the continent as soon as possible.

They have a real hodgepodge of troops, sparse equipment, and no time to train their soldiers for battle. Even getting them to march in formation was difficult. It’s barely enough to get them to remember only the commands to go and stop.

(But they don’t need an order to retreat though.)

If they lose even once, Siluca didn’t think they’d be able to recover from it. Luckily, the morale of the crowd was high. They all said they are in the army of the great hero, Theo Cornero, and spoke of him with exhilaration. Theo is naturally good at boosting the morale of his soldiers, and the banner he hoists is the 「Patriot」. It gives ordinary people the courage to fight for their homeland.

(「Omerta」 of the Rossini family, or Lord Theo’s 「Patriot」… once the battle is over, which of these two Banners is going to be victorious? )

* * *

5000 soldiers lead by Doni Rossini and 10000 rebels gathered under Theo met three days later on the hills in the northern part of Sistina. It is near the village that the third son of Pederico Rossini, Salvador, burned as an example.

Rossini’s army was in front, forming a single horizontal line with its troops, so Theo ordered his own army to deploy their troops in a sideways formation.

And just like that, the two armies glared at each other and did not move for an inch for a while.

Irvin has changed from his usual Chamberlain garb to the black outfit meant for on-field activities and stood of activity and stands by Siluca’s side like a veritable Shadow that he was. For him, the first thing he should protect is always going to be his master Siluca. However, Theo is also included as someone whom he must always protect no matter the cost. A Chamberlain is someone who always thinks of what is best for his master, after all

The battle was about to begin, but even so, Irvin felt an inexplicable sense of impatience in his heart. For the past few days, he could not help it but feel that the Assassin in the service of the enemy weighting on his mind heavily.

He assumed that the Assassin might be targeting him to settle their score from Halusia, but over the past few days something was telling him that the opponent might’ve changed his aim. Changing targets before getting rid of the previous one isn’t an Assassin’s style, but he may have received new orders from his master, which didn’t seem all that unlikely, seeing how Theo was once a target for him to assassinate as well.

(It would be more than bothersome if he were to approach me in the middle of a battle.)

However, the Assassin may be trying to lure him out, as he did with Halusia.

At that time, Irvin moved to eliminate the Assassin, who was emitting a terrifying murderous intent, putting Siluca and Theo in danger as a result. It was an error in judgment on his part, but it was unavoidable at that time, since he did that to ensure that his master would not be assassinated. A Chamberlain is someone who’s always supposed to be there for their master whenever they might need them there when needed, but there is a limit to how many Arts he can engrave on his body to make himself more powerful.

(What should I do?)

Irvin was confused.

It is then that Emma and Luna’s noses started twitching and their faces contorted with grim expressions.

「It’s her!」

Emma screamed and groaned.

Right now, Irvin thought that the best course of action might be for him to leave Emma and Luna behind and go get rid of the Assassin. However, he was worried that he might make the same mistake that he did last time.

If they were ordinary Maids, they would have to be reprimanded for being vulgar, but the two of them were werewolves, them behaving like that probably meant they had a good reason for it. And besides…

「Yeah, definitely. 」

Luna nodded, baring her sharp canine teeth.

「What’s wrong? 」

.