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Volume 6 Chapter 3 Part 7

「That was crudely spoken, but I’m afraid that this is indeed the case. 」

Tellius said to Milza while his face stiffened.

「Laughable. This is nothing but laughable! You know what? That latest plan of yours made me realize something: that apparently I wasn’t prepared enough, but no more. Form this point onward, I’m going to wipe out everyone who stand in my way from the face of the earth! And no matter what path I’m going to embark on, I’ll never stop or look back!」

With that, Milza kicked his horse in the stomach with all his might. Him doing so was the signal for his men that it was time to begin an all-out assault.

In the battle that ensued, thousands of Dartania’s troops proceeded to slash into the hundreds of soldiers led by Eugen.

「All right lads, here they come! 」

Eugen shouted to his fellow soldiers with enthusiasm.

「Since it’s going to be our last stand, I wonder if we should go wild? 」

The oldest of the Lords among them thought to himself out loud.

「I think we can. After all, I want my children to remember me for how I was today and be proud of me. 」

The Lord who was a father of five children laughed heartily while wiping the blood that has been pouring out of his forehead.

Even though the forces led by Eugen managed to take control of the two camps of Dartanian army, they didn’t do it without suffering some casualties among their own troops. Right now, out of the three hundred soldiers that left the hideout in the forest, only two hundred of them were left alive, and among that two hundred soldiers remaining, almost none of them didn’t suffer some kind of injury in their previous encounters with the enemy.

Of course, all the soldiers who came to this battle with Eugen knew that they were most likely going to die, but they’ve all made peace with that thought. But no matter how large the enemy army would be or whether Milza himself, Dartania’s strongest warrior was leading his forces or not, they wouldn’t cower in fear before any of them.

「Gentlemen, maybe we should attack them first before they’d take their sweet time coming to us? 」

Eugen called out to his comrades, and they all responded with laughter.

「Then let us be on our way, shall we? GLORY TO ARTUK!!!! 」

Milza’s army then clashed with Eugen’s army head-on.

Of course, the battle was over after only a short while.

The Lords of Artuk and their soldiers were being cut down one by one, but they all died with laughter and praises for their country on their lips. They were all satisfied that they could die on such a perfect day.

Eugen Niklae also fought bravely all the way until the end, taking down a large number of Dartanian soldiers. However, as soon as Milza reached the battlefield on his horse, he immediately challenged him to a one-on-one duel.

The result of the duel? Right from the start, Milza cornered Eugen with his unparalleled sword skills, and literally cut him to pieces.

However, no matter how many wound he was inflicted with, Eugen refused to fall to the ground. Even though he was bleeding from all over his body, as long as he had any strength left in his limbs, he continued to lift his weapon in an attempt to defeat Milza, fighting him bravely one blow at a time.

「It was a splendid duel. 」

After praising his opponent for a magnificent duel, Milza delivered a final blow to Eugen.

「Deadri, take good care of our child… 」

In his last moments, before all the light had faded from his eyes, those were the last words that Eugen muttered to himself under his breath, before he was beheaded with a smile on his face, just like the rest of his fellow Lords and their soldiers.

That day marked the end of the fight that the remnants of Artuk’s former Lords waged against Dartania, tormenting its soldiers with their guerilla warfare tactics.

The last words that Eugen spoke to the residents of the fortified village, which could be called his last will and testament, have spread from the vicinity of the battlefield to all the other villages and settlements of the realm, and before long, every village did exactly what he asked them to do, and they accepted Dartania’s rule over them in order to honor Eugen’s memory.

However, while they didn’t allow it to show on their faces, deep in their hearts people of Artuk mourned the passing of Eugen Niklae, nurtured hatred towards Milza for taking yet another beloved Lord away from them, and longed for a return of a true hero that would set them free from Dartania’s oppression.

* * *

Three months have passed since the end of the rebellion that overthrew the tyranny of the Rossini family over Sistina, with Theo Cornero replacing Pederico Rossini as the island’s new Lord. Even after so much time has passed, Theo and Siluca were still as busy as usual with their attempts to sort everything that needed to be done to bring the governance of Sistina back to normal.

Some of their tasks included taking care of the requests and issues of the petitioners who were lining up in long queues to seek audience with Theo, as well as patrolling the island repeatedly as they looked for the remnants of the supporters of the Rossini family or monsters that needed to be taken care of.

During this time, Theo also made a point to reward a number of people whose bravery in the battles against the Rossini’s stood out from among the rest with knighthood, and he continued to provide the soldiers of his army with rigorous combat training under Aishela’s watchful eye.

Despite having schedules that made them so busy that they barely had any time left to rest and sleep between all the things that required their attention, both Theo and Siluca looked like they were full of energy and physical strength every single day.

On that particular day, it was almost midnight before the hall in the former castle of the Rossini family where the Lord’s throne room was located became empty after the request of the last of the petitioners had been taken care of, which means that it was now time for Irvin to make some tea, just in the nick of time, as always.

To be perfectly honest, he’s still yet to fully recover from the damage the poison he was poisoned with during his battle against the Assassin of the Rossini family almost killed him, but Siluca had no other choice but to allow him to go back to his regular duties as her Chamberlain, because it was clear not only to her, but to anyone else as well that if he were to just rest in bed and recover like Siluca told him to do, it would have serious consequences for his mental health.

Siluca didn’t understand it all that much, but she chalked it up to it just being how all the Chamberlains are.

「Oh, that reminds me. I just received a letter from the Mages Association. It is an official letter of information in which it is stated that the Mages Association has officially recognized Baronet Theo Cornero as the new Lord of both the island of Sistina and the kingdom of Veltava. 」

Siluca casually mentioned this to Theo while the two of them were sipping on the tea made by Irvin from their cups while they enjoyed a well-deserved brake.

「To say that their took their sweet time acknowledging me would be an understatement, but I’m still grateful to them for it. You know what they say, better late than never, right? 」

Theo said while nodding his head lazily.

「Since you’ve been officially approved by the Mages Association and tour peerage and rank have been increased accordingly, that means that we can finally hold a proper coronation ceremony befitting of your new status as the Lord of the island. I was originally planning to hold a grand ceremony with a lot of guests invited to attend it, but… 」

「But since there’s still a lot going on, you don’t have to worry yourself with it. And besides, it’s only a matter of time before this title disappears, so there’s no need to get too attached to it anyway. 」

After he combined his own Crest with the ones that he took from Pederico Rossini and every last one of his subordinate Lords, Theo’s own rank and peerage have increased to the point where he could now call himself an Earl.

When the two of them met each other for the first time, Theo was but a young man who was little more than a simple Knight.