Chapter 473: There Is No Such Thing As Free Lunch In This World

The next day...

The Aurelion Army continued its march toward Eden.

Over two hundred soldiers died last night, lowering the morale of the entire army. Although two hundred was such a small number compared to seventy thousand, it didn’t change the fact that people still died.

Magnus and Evander were also very frustrated. As much as they wanted to, they no longer dared to send scouts ahead of the army. They had learned from yesterday that doing so was akin to sacrificing important personnel.

Until now, none of the scouts they had sent out had returned. This included the three squads of Black Hawks they believed could solve their problem.

"Increase the pace!" Magnus ordered.

"Increase the pace!"

"Increase the pace!"

"Increase the pace!"

His aides, who were stationed in strategic locations, disseminated his orders throughout the entire army.

He believed that having the men move faster would help them distract their thoughts from what happened last night.

Most of them barely had any sleep, but they had no choice but to follow orders.

Even the Wind Guardian was keeping watch just in case Gundar and his group suddenly launched a sneak attack.

However, they didn’t know that Otto, Gundar, Astravor, and Lord Azar had already retreated to the secondary base of the barbarians before sunrise to rest.

If they delayed the Aurelion Empire’s march too much, Leone’s schedule might need some adjustments.

The purpose of their night raid was to pressure the Aurelion Empire and let them know that their enemies weren’t pushovers.

After marching twice as fast as they intended, the soldiers of the Aurelion Army finally saw the walls of Eden.

The sun was about to set in the west, and they were all tired from the long march, so Magnus ordered everyone to set up camp.

Their camp was two kilometers away from the walls of Eden. From that distance, they were able to see the torches that the "barbarians" had lit along the ramparts.

"It seems to be heavily fortified," Evander commented as he looked into the distance. "But were the walls of Eden always that high?"

After Leone’s modifications, the walls of Eden towered around thirty meters tall. It looked really formidable in the distance, making the soldiers of the Aurelion Empire look at it with solemn expressions.

"It also looks heavily guarded," Magnus said after using a telescope to take a look at the ’warriors’ who were defending the walls.

But little did he know that what he saw was not actually warriors.

They were simply training dummies made of wood that Daedalus had strategically placed along the ramparts.

Even with the telescope, Magnus failed to realize that they weren’t living people. All he could tell was that there were human figures with clothes and a mask.

Everyone thought that this was going to be a long night. Some felt anxious that they might drop dead like their comrades who didn’t know what hit them before they died.

And yet, despite their anxiety and vigilance, not a single man died that night.

When morning finally came, the Aurelion Army prepared their siege weapons with the intention of destroying the walls of Eden.

Just as they were about to unleash their attacks, the Wind Guardian noticed something and raised his hand.

"Wait," Zepharion said. "Something doesn’t feel right."

He then flew upward and used a telescope to observe the fortress from the sky.

At first, he thought he was seeing things. However, after scanning the entire city, he really didn’t find a single person inside it.

Even the "warriors" who stood at the ramparts weren’t moving, simply standing still.

Thinking that it might be a trap, Zepharion unleashed Wind Blades from the sky, targeting the defenders on the city walls.

The Wind Blades sliced cleanly through the wooden dummies’ bodies, proving the Wind Guardian’s suspicion.

However, he didn’t dare enter the city alone. Instead, he ordered the Red Hawks to fly over the city and see if they saw anything suspicious.

The Red Hawks were the second aerial battalion of the Aurelion Empire.

If the Black Hawks were used for night reconnaissance and night raids, then the Red Hawks were their main force during the day.

Just as their names implied, these hawks had red feathers. They were quite eye-catching during the day as sunlight shone on their bodies.

Soon, three squads with ten hawks each flew over the city and circled it many times.

From the sky, they couldn’t see anyone in the city. But that didn’t prove that the city was empty.

It was also possible that people were hiding inside the buildings.

After contemplating for a while, the squad leaders decided to test the waters.

Similar to the Gryphon Battalion, these Hawk Riders also had magic users with them.

They then unleashed spells towards the buildings, hoping to force out the people who were hiding inside them.

But after destroying more than a dozen buildings, they still didn’t see any movement coming from the ground.

"Very suspicious," Zepharion muttered.

Even so, in order to truly verify whether or not the city was truly abandoned, he gave Magnus an order.

"Send five thousand men to enter the city," Zepharion ordered as soon as he told Magnus about his observation.

The Supreme Commander of the Aurelion Army also found it strange that the barbarians had abandoned Eden.

He knew how much they treated this place as their holy land, so it was simply unthinkable for them to abandon it without a fight.

And yet, an hour later, the five thousand men that they had asked to enter the city confirmed that there was not even a single soul inside ?it.

Magnus and Zepharion were still being cautious, so they ordered Evander and the Blue Wolves to enter the city.

"Look for the entrance to the dungeon as well," Magnus ordered. "That is our main goal in coming here."

Evander felt uneasy, but he still followed the order that was given to him.

Taking his personal troops with him, the Commander of the Blue Wolves finally stepped inside Eden.

With the Red Hawks observing from the sky and the five thousand troops who were already inside, the search for the entrance to the dungeon didn’t take that long.

However, even after finding it, Evander couldn’t enter the dungeon.

Why?

Because there was some kind of magical formation that protected it.

None of them dared to destroy it by force lest they accidentally collapse the dungeon entrance.

If that really happened, Evander would be executed on the spot for his recklessness.

Two hours later, thirty thousand soldiers entered the city while the rest remained outside.

Magnus believed that this might be some kind of trap, so he stayed behind with the remaining troops as backup, just in case something unexpected happened.

When news of the dungeon’s entrance reached his ears, he immediately asked the mages in his army to disarm the magical formation.

However, even their Sixth and Seventh Circle Mages were unable to break the complicated magical lock that Daedalus had personally left behind.

In order to prevent the Aurelion Army from entering the dungeon, Daedalus had created a special magical formation that wouldn’t be decoded right away.

Although he believed that given enough time, the mages would be able to crack it, it would still take them at least ten days to do so.

Of course, that was more than enough time for the time constraint that the mission had given Leone.

In the end, Magnus theorized that the barbarians had fled when they realized that it wasn’t only the Aurelion Empire they would be facing.

Since Evander had stated that the Kingdom of Britannia had allied itself with the Aurelion Empire, they might have thought that if the two armies were to combine their forces, the barbarians would become sitting ducks inside Eden.

Even so, he still didn’t lower his guard.

Magnus and Zepharion stayed outside of the city, while Evander and a few captains took control of it.

And while those occupying Eden celebrated their "easy victory", the young chieftain of the Aslan Tribe smiled faintly.

—————

[Territory Mission 2]

[Fourth Mission: I. AM. KING!]

[Difficulty Rating: Hell Mode]

[Objective]: Make the barbarian tribes understand that you don’t need their recognition, nor their validation to become King. You walk the path of the Hero King, not the King that they assume you to become. If they wish to follow you, then they must do so of their own accord!

[Timer Before Mission Starts: 163:21:01]

—————

Now that the countdown had finally started to tick, Leone and Daedalus waited patiently as they prepared their surprise attack.

They were already counting down the days until they would make Hyacinthe, Oisin, and those who thought that Leone had gone crazy for abandoning Eden realize that they had made the right choice in trusting the young man.

After seven days, the Aurelion Army would realize that there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world.

Everything had a price.

And they would pay for it with their lives.