Chapter 120: The Battle Escalates

Chapter 120 -47: The Battle Escalates

Lilia wasn’t actually surprised by this outcome.

If Caius had truly orchestrated this attack, given his personality and calculating nature, he definitely wouldn’t have acted without investigating everything thoroughly first.

Given Sitrind’s military reserves, conquering it wouldn’t require a High-level Demon to step in at all.

But if that were the truth, it meant…

Aside from this unit, there were other troops advancing toward different county cities, and the commander who had fused with a High-level Demon was among them.

Was Caius already launching an all-out offensive against Light?

Or had she imagined the worst-case scenario, and this was actually just an advance force, with no other troops mobilized yet?

After all, Demons had been vanished for a long time. Even with a High-level Demon leading them, gathering them in the tens of thousands probably wouldn’t be easy.

Not to mention, her assumption that Caius was the Commander of the Demon Army was merely a guess. Currently, there was no concrete evidence to prove it…

“Princess Lilia!”

Just as she was lost in thought, a Knight whom Lilia had brought from the Royal Court dropped to one knee before her. He reported with a grave expression, “We found un-detonated Magic Devices on some of the Demons!”

Lilia was speechless.

Magic Devices.

A horde of mindless Low-level Demons certainly couldn’t craft Magic Items. High-level Demons had always treated their low-level kin as expendable fodder, so they wouldn’t possibly provide them with such safeguards either.

In other words, these Demons were indeed being driven by humans.

“It really is you, Caius,” Lilia thought.

In this playthrough… would their first meeting be on the battlefield?

In less than half a day, the news that Lilia’s forces had decisively defeated the Demon unit spread throughout Sitrind.

Upon hearing the news, Viscount Frost felt both thrilled and devastated.

He was thrilled because his territory was saved, meaning he could continue to recline on his literal mountains of ore and enjoy a life of wealth and luxury.

He was devastated because he had never expected Lilia to actually succeed!

Didn’t this mean he had to honor all those unequal treaties he had signed with her?

The mere thought of it made Frost wince in agony.

But then he reconsidered.

Lilia had led so many people to support Sitrind; she had earned her keep through hard work and merit.

Moreover, his son had told him that the attacking Demons numbered in the hundreds.

Even the forces he had sent to intercept them hadn’t had that many men!

Winning a battle with inferior numbers and standing toe-to-toe against Evil Spirits with frail human bodies—even if Lilia had won, her side had probably suffered catastrophic casualties.

He could just consider the money and resources he was giving up as their pensions.

Having finally soothed his own nerves, Frost changed into a crisp formal suit to welcome the triumphant heroes. He had expected to see a battered and broken remnant of an army, but instead, Lilia marched into the city leading a group of completely unscathed Knights and Mages.

While the surrounding crowds cheered and applauded, the group of Nobles led by Frost stood utterly dumbfounded.

At this moment, the figure riding a white horse at the forefront suddenly seemed to tower in their eyes.

Even the image of Navia itself became shrouded in an unpredictable mystique.

When had their poor, useless neighbor become so powerful behind their backs?

And so, Lilia had come to Sitrind with just a few dozen people. When she returned, not a single person was missing, and she brought with her dozens of carriages loaded with various supplies.

After returning to Navia, Belmont and the others looked at the supplies and the contracts Lilia had signed, feeling as though they were standing tall for the first time in their lives, leaping overnight from abject poverty to fabulous wealth.

Belmont even felt a bit of regret. If he had known the battle would be fought so beautifully, he would have insisted on going with Lilia no matter what.

If for nothing else, just seeing that neighbor grit his teeth and sign those contracts would have made him happy enough to eat two extra slices of bread.

Lilia didn’t attach much importance to such worldly possessions; professional matters should be handled by professionals.

She also paid no mind to Belmont and the other Nobles, whose attitudes had taken a full one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn from wary to fawning. She outright rejected their proposal to host a victory banquet.

The tasks she needed to accomplish were piling up like mountains; she simply couldn’t spare the time to attend a social event where Nobles just flattered and boasted to each other.

In the past, when Lilia had first arrived in Navia, if she had dared to reject their proposal so bluntly, Belmont and the others would have felt somewhat dissatisfied inwardly, even if they hadn’t said anything openly.

But now, Lilia had not only displayed the strength to eradicate Demons but had also secured substantial benefits for Navia.

Let alone refusing to attend a banquet, even if Lilia demanded they serve as her lackeys for a day, they might just grit their teeth and agree.

Bidding farewell to Belmont and the others, Lilia returned to the Lord’s office.

The Magic Devices captured from the Demons had already been handed over to Jennifer for research. Just moments ago, she had compiled the results into a report and delivered it into Lilia’s hands.

The Magic Techniques loaded within the Magic Devices were very basic, lacking any obvious signatures. However, Jennifer had extremely profound knowledge of the magic systems of various countries, and she could confirm that these devices were crafted by Mages from the Lien Royal Magic Academy.

In addition, the personnel Lilia had dispatched to the Lien Kingdom to gather intelligence before her departure had also returned. That region had indeed just experienced an internal rebellion that led to a regime change, but it had mostly stabilized by now.

This further validated Lilia’s hypothesis.

Since Caius had already made his move, he would undoubtedly initiate a full-scale assault on the Light Kingdom step by step.

The time left for Lilia to build her strength was running out.

Aside from securing food provisions, she had to find a way to enhance Navia’s military strength if she wanted to win this war.

Fortunately, as long as she mastered the correct training methods, training Knights was much easier than training Mages.

And with Sitrind as a backer, Lilia didn’t need to worry about money or resources, much less whether conscripting too many soldiers would directly collapse Navia’s economy.

She could just go all out and recruit to the absolute maximum limit.

One month later.

Nearly one-eighth of Navia’s population was drafted into the newly formed Knight detachments. Upon learning of the situation here, Frost also began emulating Lilia’s measures, declaring that the two territories were as close as family. If a war truly broke out, they would be each other’s strongest backers.

Two months later.

Nokes had successfully cultivated a new high-yield, highly disease-resistant crop variety. The growth cycle was shortened, and the yield per acre tripled compared to before.

Three months later.

News of Demon attacks gradually began trickling in from other county cities. Facts proved that Demons could not be dealt with by merely a few Knights.

Facing hundreds of Demons, other territories at best suffered a casualty ratio of nearly three to one—meaning it took an average of three Knights to kill a single Demon.

Aside from a few relatively wealthy county cities, the majority simply couldn’t sustain such a harsh rate of attrition in war. For a time, countless lands were occupied by Demons.

Navia was located in a remote area; neither its geographical nor strategic position was important. Yet even so, it suffered two attacks, though both were repelled by Lilia and her forces.

Gradually, as if realizing this was a tough nut to crack, the enemy stopped launching attacks on Navia.

Five months later.

Lilia received a letter from Veronica for the very first time.