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Volume 6 Chapter 2 Part 3

Irvin asked them.

… This is a battlefield, not a mansion.

「The Black Witch is nearby. That man is also with her. 」

Emma answered, and for a moment it almost seem like she was going to change into her Werewolf form on the spot. However, she managed to control herself and maintain her humanoid appearance.

「I’m sure they’re going to attack us. I don’t know who they’re going to be aiming for, but… 」

Only her ears had changed to those of a wolf as she faced west. In the background were hills with burnt vineyards. Irvin also felt signs of somebody’s presence from that direction.

「Shall we get going then? 」

If the Black Witch Yana is present here on the battlefield, then there was no longer any reason for Irvin to feel lost or confused. Right now, the elimination of both her and the enemy’s Assassin should be his top priority.

「Of course! 」

The twins nodded back at him in unison.

「What happened? 」

Siluca looked back at Irvin and asked suspiciously.

「I’m sorry, my Lady, but it seems that I have some private business to attend to, so we’ll be heading out for a while. 」

「You’re going out? At a time like this? 」

Siluca frowned at them for a moment, but she seemed to sense something immediately, and she nodded with a worried expression.

「Okay. Take care of yourselves then. And be sure to come back as soon as you can. 」

「Thank you. 」

Irving bowed to Siluca, and then he accompanied the twins and ran at breakneck speed.

「Let’s go hunt ourselves a Black Witch! 」

While running, Emma called out to him. Her voice, which was cutting through the sound of the wind around them sounded as if she could barely stop her excitement, and there was no hesitation or fear in her expression.

「Don’t overdo it. She probably allowed you to sense her presence, so she might be planning to lure us into a trap. 」

「It’s okay! We’ll never lose to her again! 」

Luna said with a determined expression of her own.

(Certainly, the two of them have grown strong. They’ve been training rigorously every single day, and they absorbed the Chaos from the flesh of Charybdis that they’ve eaten.)

The two of them are becoming more full-fledged as Werewolves with every passing day. Moreover, when they are together, they become more than two times stronger than they usually were.

(That said, you should take more care of yourselves.)

Irvine thought that this was seriously no laughing matter.

He knew how strong that Assassin was, and that’s why he was going to heed his own warning that he gave to the twins. If that Assassin is with the Black Witch, then he was definitely plotting something behind the scenes.

(But I can’t die in a place like this.)

Irvin has a master whom he still needs to serve, and as long as she was going to need him, he intended to remain by her side no matter what. But above everything else, he wanted to see with his own eyes what such a reckless and naïve girl as Siluca would be able to accomplish in the future.

(I want to see the day when Lady Siluca will become Lord Theo’s wife, and one day, I want to take care of their children as well.)

「Are Emma and Luna going somewhere with Irvin? 」

Noticing the three of them running away with the power of their Arts activated, Aishela came over to Siluca while frowning her brows.

「They are, but there’s nothing we can do about it. After all, Witches and Assassins interfering with the incoming battle is the last thing we want to be dealing with. 」

Siluca answered Aishela.

「Is that going to be a problem? 」

「A little bit, perhaps…. 」

As Aishela hesitated, she pointed to a band of about ten men far from the enemy lines.

「And these people are…? 」

Siluca asked as she strained her eyes to see those people better. Despite being supplied by the Rossini family, their equipment was scattered about, and it seemed that they were waiting for the battle to start in their own way.

「Are these people mercenaries? 」

「Close, but not quite. These guys are all Artists, and honestly, it might be a little hard for me to be fighting all of them by myself. 」

Aishela sighed.

「Shall I help you then? 」

Priscilla hesitantly offered her help to Aishela.

「Thanks, but no thanks. I don’t want to be exposed to that light of yours again. 」

Aishela answered immediately. Since sha answered so fast and so decisively, then it must mean that the light that Priscilla emitted with her Crest has really caused her to be in a lot of pain.

Charybdis was also blocked by the effects of her light, to the point where it couldn’t move to go back to the sea when it wanted to.

「Besides, Priscilla, I have another job for you. I want you to go and take care of those who’re going to get injured in battle. 」

Thanks to her presence in many battles, there were many injured people whose lives have been saved. Aishela was also among those whom Priscilla managed to save from certain death. That’s why Siluca wanted her to concentrate on the treatment of the injured, since that’s what she does best.

「In that case, I’d like you to lend me about 500 soldiers, but I’ll be honest with you. The probability of them dying in that battle is going to be pretty damn high. 」

Aishela said with a grim look on her face.

「Are they that strong? 」

「Probably, but an ordinary human can never hope to defeat an artist by themselves, much less a whole group of them, so I’ll just have to take them on one at a time. And while I’ll be doing that, those 500 soldiers should buy me as much time as possible in the meantime. 」

「That’s… 」

She could give Aishela those 500 soldiers, that was not a problem at all. However, she was essentially telling them to go to their deaths just so that she could deal with the enemy’s Artists.

「I can’t allow them to go to certain death… 」

Theo, who was listening nearby, said while letting out a sigh.

「We have no choice but to ask the people to go with Aishela voluntarily and leave the rest to her. We weren’t planning for there to be any major battles on this island, so I didn’t even think about taking the mercenaries with us. 」

「I think that these guys there might be the same as the Black Witch. They probably came here after they exhausted every other option of making a further living for themselves on the continent. 」

Aishela shrugged her shoulders slightly.

「… Anyway, let’s go ask the soldiers if any of them are going to be willing to go with you. 」

Theo also seemed to be reluctant to go along with that plan, but now he was well aware that you cannot win your battles without being ready and willing to make sacrifices.

「“Can we apply for that role? 」

As soon as they heard them talking about it, several men appeared from among the people, wearing particularly poor-looking clothes.

「You guys… 」

Siluca raises a voice of surprise.

It was Bruno, the Artist from the hidden settlement they found in the Forest of Webs, and his people.
「Hearing that the residents of Sistina decided to stand up against the Rossini family, I came to fulfill my promise. 」

Bruno said so and laughed.

「I was going to go back to your village to recruit you to our cause, but I see that you’ve already came by yourself. 」

Theo also smiled and shook Bruno’s hand.

「It looks like you have a pretty good number of Arts on you, but can you fight? What is your preferred style? 」

Aishela said while bluntly staring at the men’s Arts.

「While fighting giant spiders in the forest, I only wanted power to kill them, and so I continued to absorb Chaos from them. However, I don’t know what these Arts can do specifically. Like I said, all I needed was the power of a spider to kill spiders. 」

「So you’re basically like a Werewolf… only with spiders? 」

Siluca was at a loss for words.

「Thanks to that, I’ve gained various abilities. It’s going to be my first time fighting humans, but I’ve fought many giant spiders before, so they should be pretty useful. 」

「Well, that giant spider we fought was pretty tough, I’ll give it that. So, you’re fine with going with me? 」