Chapter 801

The Regressed Mercenary’s Machinations

Release schedule: 2 chapters per week

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The Target is the Imperial Capital (3)

KWAANG! KWAANG! KWAANG!

Ghislain’s and Count Braxian’s swords clashed repeatedly, emitting bursts of radiance.

The two had already exchanged hundreds of blows in that brief span of time.

As time passed, a tremor appeared in Count Braxian’s eyes.

‘Why? Why can’t I win?’

He had heard the rumors about the Julien Mercenary Corps. That it was an impressive group with a Transcendent among them.

He had also gathered new information from the abducted individuals. Apparently, they had trained under the support of a dragon for nearly three years.

But Count Braxian hadn’t thought much of it.

He had reached Transcendence long ago. He knew all too well how difficult it was to push further even after attaining that level.

He acknowledged that the Julien Mercenary Corps was talented for their age, but just a few more years of training shouldn’t have made such a dramatic difference in skill.

‘I was certain I’d win…….’

At least in a one-on-one duel, he believed he could beat even a Transcendent from the Holy Empire.

But right now, he wasn’t winning—he was barely hanging on.

Count Braxian couldn’t accept it. Flames of rage blazed in his eyes.

‘Do you know what it took for me to climb this far?!’

As the descendant of a fallen noble house, he had endured countless humiliations.

He never turned away from hardship, doing anything to climb higher.

He took on the jobs others shunned, and nearly lost his life several times along the way.

He handled all the dirty, disgraceful work himself.

The kingdom’s hunting dog.

That had been his nickname.

After living such a desperate life, he attained enlightenment and reached Transcendence. From that moment on, no one dared call him a dog again.

Count Braxian’s skills, honed through real battles, were arguably the best in the Kingdom of Snowbrur.

Yet now… he was being driven back, covered in countless wounds.

KAAANG! KAAANG! KAAAAAANG!

Ghislain parried Count Braxian’s sword several times, landing blows that left cuts across his body.

“It’s been a while since I’ve felt this good of a fight. You must have been in a lot of real battles.”

Ghislain had heard a brief explanation from Viscount Horento. But experiencing it firsthand, it exceeded the rumors.

Count Braxian’s sword was savage yet sharp. In a way, it resembled his own.

His sword was alive. It was nothing like the rigid styles of other Transcendents.

That’s why Ghislain was excited. He didn’t use any magic and fought the count using only swordsmanship.

Above them, Dark spun in the sky and shook his head side to side.

“There it is again, that bad habit of his.”

As always, his master was crazy about fighting. Now that he was enjoying himself, he was even suppressing his strength in the duel.

But this wasn’t the time for that.

“Kill him!”

“Surround him, now!”

“Waaaaaah!”

The kingdom’s forces, having lost track of the Julien Mercenary Corps, began swarming around Ghislain.

KAANG!

Ghislain deflected Count Braxian’s sword and smacked his lips.

“Tsk. That’s a bit disappointing.”

If he had just a little more time, he could have completely crushed his opponent.

Of course, if he went all out, he could kill him even now. But he had to hold back.

He had already expended a significant amount of mana in the battle against the Imperial Army. Who knew what kind of battles awaited them next—he couldn’t afford to waste mana carelessly.

That’s also why he hadn’t killed Count Braxian instantly.

He was trying to conserve energy and defeat him using technique alone. But his comrades had run off faster than expected(?).

As Ghislain stepped back slightly, his body gently floated into the air.

Covered in blood, Count Braxian bellowed.

“You bastard! Where do you think you’re going?!”

He exploded his mana and closed the distance in an instant.

Count Braxian couldn’t let Ghislain go. He had long forgotten about his duty or the desire to earn merit.

The humiliation of being pushed back by a brat whose face he barely even recognized was unbearable. He would rather die than not reclaim his pride.

KWHAAAAAA!

Count Braxian’s sword unleashed a massive Aura Blade.

“You think you can dishonor me and walk away unscathed?!”

He was trying to end it all in this one strike. But such a reckless attack would never work on Ghislain.

“Tsk tsk, letting your emotions get the better of you at this level? You’ve still got a long way to go.”

Easily dodging the attack, Ghislain swung his sword.

SPLAT!

Blood sprayed from Count Braxian’s face, leaving a long wound behind.

And with that, Ghislain soared into the sky.

But his movement suddenly felt sluggish. It was because of the mana barrier cast by the kingdom’s mages.

“Hmm. In that case, I’ll just walk.”

There was no need to waste mana wrestling with the mages’ power.

Ghislain landed and dug his foot into the ground.

KWAANG!

His body shot forward like lightning.

The faint remnants of Deneb’s Wall of Light still lingered, making it easy for him to escape.

Behind him, Count Braxian’s voice rang out.

“Julien! Next time, I will kill you for sure!”

Hearing that, Ghislain let out a short laugh.

“I’m not Julien, though.”

It seemed Count Braxian had mistaken him for the commander of the mercenary corps, Julien.

It was understandable. After all, Astion was better known as the mage.

“Well, I suppose this isn’t a bad misunderstanding.”

If it could enhance Julien’s reputation, then that kind of misunderstanding was something he could easily let slide.

“Well then, until next time, Count Braxian.”

There was nothing complicated about Ghislain’s reason for sparing him.

He liked the way the man fought, sure but more importantly, it was for the war against the Demonic Abyss.

Transcendents were rare and valuable assets. Especially one like Count Braxian, whose combat instincts were exceptional.

He couldn’t go around killing every talented individual who might one day fight against the Demonic Abyss. So unless it was someone from the Imperial Army or someone he absolutely had to kill, he intended to spare them.

The Snowbrur Kingdom’s troops began rushing to chase after Ghislain. But Count Braxian shouted loudly.

“Enough! There’s no need to pursue him!”

He growled, clutching his wounded face.

“If we chase him now, we’ll only disgrace ourselves. We’re leaving.”

In any case, the reason they were stationed here was to block the Julien Mercenary Corps’ escape. And even though they had failed, they now had a grasp on their movements. In that sense, the initial mission was complete.

At this point, it would be better for the Julien Mercenary Corps to break through a few more locations. That way, his own reputation wouldn’t suffer as much damage.

For that reason, he didn’t plan to report today’s incident to others right away.

Of course, that wasn’t the only reason.

‘His swordsmanship was incredible. I couldn’t even begin to grasp that level.’

Even just fighting him had given Braxian great insight. He wanted to return quickly and fully absorb what he had learned.

If he could become even stronger than he was now, he would surely achieve great merit in the battle against the Demonic Abyss—enough to make up for the blunder of letting them escape.

And beyond that, a new goal had emerged.

‘With that level of skill, he’s not someone who’ll die so easily.’

If that guy somehow survived the clutches of the Pope…

‘Let’s settle this again. Julien.’

That became Count Braxian’s new objective.

* * *

The Kingdom of Plovitz’s army had no choice but to relocate to another kingdom by order of the Holy Empire.

Compared to other kingdoms that had received help from the Julien Mercenary Corps, they were deployed much farther away.

There was no helping it. King Alex of Plovitz had regained his power thanks to the Julien Mercenary Corps.

After Marquis Falkenheim was defeated by the Julien Mercenary Corps, the Kingdom of Plovitz officially declared itself a supporter of the mercenary group.

Knowing this, the Holy Empire scattered the Plovitz army across distant locations, alongside heavy pressure to stop the Julien Mercenary Corps no matter what.

No matter how much Plovitz wanted to aid the Julien Mercenary Corps, they couldn’t refuse.

Disobeying the Holy Empire could mean the end of their kingdom.

And one of the commanders who had come on this distant expedition was none other than Marquis Valesant the Graceful, who had risen to the rank of marquis with Ghislain’s help.

With a solemn expression, Marquis Valesant looked up at the sky and spoke.

“Oh my, the weather is just lovely. Why is it so nice today? Look at that, not a single cloud.”

“……”

Beside him stood his self-proclaimed soul-bound aide, still faithfully accompanying him.

Though he now held real power in the kingdom and could have replaced the aide with a knight or nobleman, Marquis Valesant continued to keep the longtime aide by his side.

The aide glanced around cautiously and spoke in a low voice.

“Marquis, rumors are spreading that the Julien Mercenary Corps has escaped. If we happen to encounter them… what will you do?”

“Oh, I don’t know.”

“Will you… fight them?”

Marquis Valesant recoiled in shock at those words.

“Oh my, oh my! Are you crazy? Are you confident you can? Have you forgotten how monstrous they are?”

“Well… that’s true.”

Neither of them could forget the Julien Mercenary Corps’ terrifying display.

The operation where they used an army of a hundred thousand as bait and then launched a reckless surprise attack on Marquis Falkenheim.

Marquis Valesant had the misfortune of being captured and dragged along against his will, but in the end, it worked out for the better.

He had witnessed that outrageous spectacle up close. That’s why he had no intention of even thinking about fighting the Julien Mercenary Corps.

The aide glanced behind them once more and spoke again.

“But… the imperial inspector is still with us. We can’t just let them go, either.”

“Sigh… this is so annoying. I really don’t like him. I hate him. He’s so suffocating.”

Marquis Valesant also frowned deeply.

At the moment, an imperial inspector was stationed with them.

The stated reason was to provide information about the Julien Mercenary Corps, but it was obvious to everyone that they were there to monitor the kingdom’s forces.

Imperial inspectors had been dispatched to every kingdom that had any connection to the Julien Mercenary Corps.

That’s how determined the Holy Empire was to capture them.

In such a situation, if they were to meet them, they couldn’t just let them go. But the idea of fighting them was equally out of the question.

As he mulled it over, Marquis Valesant muttered.

“But there’s no way we’ll actually run into them, right? It’s a vast continent. How would we even know where they’re fleeing? Besides, we’re in a region that’s relatively close to the Holy Empire, aren’t we? No way they’d come here.”

The aide nodded. Realistically, the odds of encountering the Julien Mercenary Corps were extremely low.

Even if they fled, they would likely head away from the Holy Empire—not closer to it.

And yet, the aide couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling in his gut.

“The Julien Mercenary Corps always pulled off ridiculous operations, didn’t they? They even went straight for Marquis Falkenheim last time.”

“Oh my, and now you’re saying they’re going after the Pope? Does that even make sense? The Pope and Marquis Falkenheim aren’t even on the same level!”

“I know it sounds unreasonable, but… isn’t it also possible that, for some other reason, they might flee in this direction? Like hiding close to their enemy to avoid detection…”

“Hmm… That actually makes some sense.”

Marquis Valesant the Graceful, who desperately wanted to avoid running into the Julien Mercenary Corps, fell into deep thought.

After a moment, he spoke.

“Let’s relocate.”

“Pardon?”

“This area is one of the main choke points the Holy Empire predicted they’d pass through, right?”

“Yes. Though there are many other potential points as well.”

“Exactly. So let’s move to somewhere completely outside the predicted zone. Wouldn’t that lower the odds of running into them?”

“Uh… would the imperial inspector even allow that?”

“Come on, just trust me. I’ll convince him.”

Having made up his mind, Marquis Valesant gracefully approached the imperial inspector.

He unfolded a map and began persuading him with all his might.

“…So! If they do come, they’re more likely to come this way, you see? How do I know that? Oh my, I actually went to war with them. You can’t think about these people with common sense.”

The imperial inspector continued to respond with skepticism. After all, this blockade had been crafted by some of the Holy Empire’s brightest minds.

But Marquis Valesant was surprisingly persistent.

“Oh my, are you serious right now? You think you know better than I do? I’m telling you—I’ll take full responsibility. If they come, they’ll come here!”

As Marquis Valesant kept pressing with an overwhelming intensity, the imperial inspector eventually gave in with a nod.

He chose to trust the marquis’s experience of fighting alongside the Julien Mercenary Corps and his passionate desire to stop them.

Besides, the chances of the Julien Mercenary Corps actually coming to this area were already low. If they were fleeing, they were likely to head much farther away.

Marquis Valesant, humming with satisfaction, began relocating the army.

Just then, his aide spoke up, as if suddenly remembering something.

“Um… Marquis. Remember last time? We changed positions just like this and ended up bumping into them by chance and got dragged along with them. This just reminded me of that…”

At those words, Marquis Valesant smirked with his whole face.

“As if they’d come all the way out here. And even if they do, what are the odds they come to the random spot I picked? I just pointed somewhere on the map without thinking.”

“Y-yes, I suppose you’re right…”

“What are the odds of a coincidence like that happening again? If it does, it’s not a coincidence—it’s fate. Fate, I tell you. If that happens, I might as well just marry the Julien Mercenary Corps.”

He truly believed that.

The Holy Empire’s best minds had set up the current blockade. No matter how unpredictably the Julien Mercenary Corps moved, they’d run into one of those traps.

That’s why he’d been so uneasy staying in this area.

But now that they were moving somewhere completely unexpected, all his worries seemed to vanish.

‘And if the Julien Mercenary Corps does pass through the originally predicted route? Oops, my mistake. Sorry. I just miscalculated. That’s all, right?’

That would be better than the alternative.

At least he wouldn’t have to choose between fighting them or letting them go.

As Marquis Valesant relocated the army, he finally felt at ease. It was hard to believe that just days ago he had been constantly on edge with worry.

He really did feel good about this.

And then, a few days later…

At Marquis Valesant’s camp—where he was absolutely certain no one would come—

A ragged-looking group of beggars was rapidly approaching on horseback.