Episode 131
* * *
A magical storm raged like a storm sweeping across the area, and Dale slowly turned his head in the midst of it.
Mental manipulation, illusions, magic nullification, the Blue Tower’s pride and joy of intrigue and lies.
Finally, the puppet strings that had bound Sepia were cut. Through Dale’s will.
“… … !”
For a moment, Sepia lost her balance and began to stagger. Dale quickly supported her, and at the same time, he could feel Sepia’s body trembling faintly.
“Ah, ahh… … .”
Sepia clutched her head in a splitting headache. Titania and the ladies of York looked at her with expressions devoid of even the slightest emotion.
I wanted to hug her right away and ease her pain. But there was nothing I could turn back.
Six years ago, I first became Dale’s tutor and have been with him for quite some time. As a trustworthy teacher, and as a kind elf who protects Dale from the cold and loneliness of the day.
“Why.”
Mistress Titania opened her mouth to Sepia, who was clutching her head.
“Miss Sepia, you have performed your duties as a member of the Sorceress Council admirably.”
“duty……?”
“Remember well what we commanded you and how you carried it out.”
“From the beginning… … .”
Sepia couldn’t continue speaking and closed her mouth. After silence, she looked at Dale.
“Dale.”
Sepia said Dale’s name, as if trying to recall her memories. Her voice was faintly trembling.
“Please speak, Sepia.”
“No, it’s nothing.”
Sepia smiled, trying to keep her composure. It was a smile that was clearly agitated, but still had the kindness and affection she always showed. At the same time, a clear distance that had never been felt before was blocking the two of them.
Even if the hints disappear, the years that Dale and Sepia have built up together do not disappear.
At the same time, what she thought was her own mind was not her own, and the mind itself was never a lie. That indescribable irony was tormenting Sepia.
“Can you leave me alone for a moment?”
Sepia said in a trembling voice. Dale nodded silently.
“just…….”
Just then, Sepia closed her mouth as she was about to say something. Dale was also unable to say anything.
When he realized that, an unknown emotion began to squeeze Dale’s heart. He didn’t want to let her go like this. He could have yearned for her without breaking the hint.
But I didn’t do that. Why? It was a mystery. And it wasn’t something I cared about right now.
“Mistress Titania, I understand the elegance of the Blue Tower’s schemes.”
“Oh my god.”
“That’s why I won’t do something so vulgar as to try to trick her again.”
It was also an implicit warning.
“You don’t have to worry about that.”
“Furthermore, please give Sepia the utmost consideration so that she can rest.”
“It seems that the wise elf has carried out his ‘mission’ more brilliantly than we could have imagined.”
“… … .”
Mistress Titania smiled as if she was pleased.
“As promised, I will lead this war to victory. And from this moment on, command of the entire Yorkist army will be my sole responsibility.”
Dale opened his mouth without a moment’s hesitation. And at those words, Titania and the York clan silently bowed their heads.
“Please do as you please, my dear husband… … Prince Philip.”
The second daughter, Catherine, smiled as if she was pleased. Dale did not answer.
Lancaster’s earlier attempt to isolate York’s forward fortifications by means of a rear infiltration had failed. It is not difficult to guess what they would do next.
The battle between the black and white roses was drawing near. But not yet. And before the battle could take place, Dale’s activities were only just beginning.
* * *
Some time after that.
It was a time when long, simultaneous fronts were entrenched and fighting was dragging on.
On the York side, some heroic tale began to be told that broke the deadlock in the front and brought a new wind.
The greatest loser in the empire, the scoundrel of the count’s family who carries the stigma of being a ‘genius of defeat’… … It was Philip’s performance.
A mobile defense that deploys a minimum number of defensive troops in the forward fortresses, but uses the main force as a reserve to intercept Lancaster’s mobile forces.
He led a mobile strike force of Knights of St. Magdalene and Knights of the Blue Rose, and was the standard-bearer of victory who appeared from various fortifications at the front lines and rang the bells of victory. Whenever Philip appeared, waving the banner symbolizing the Earldom, no one in York or Lancaster dared call him the ‘genius of defeat’.
A victory achieved purely through reading the battle situation and making appropriate moves at the right time and place, without any of the activities or magic that symbolize the ‘Black Prince’ of Saxony.
It was around this time that Philip’s fame, which had begun to spread in the war, reached Michael Lancaster’s ears.
* * *
“We have lost contact with the rear infiltration units and the Purifiers. Judging by the lack of word yet, they are all on York’s side… … .”
“The casualties to our forces from the mobile strike force led by Philip of Brandenburg are severe. They are intercepting and destroying each enemy unit as if they were reading our movements, so maintaining multiple fronts is… … .”
“It is reported that whenever Philip appears on the battlefield, Catherine of York is always by his side. It seems that Philip’s military achievements are actually York’s strategies and tactics.”
Amidst the endless stream of reports, Michael Lancaster remained silent, biting his lips, which were hidden behind his helmet.
The wisdom of York’s witches never ends in political intrigue. They also know that they always follow their men on the battlefield and practically command them.
But no matter how smart and wise they were, it wasn’t to this level of absurdity.
So there was only one decision Michael Lancaster could make.
“This is the black prince.”
There was no such thing as a scoundrel Philip from the beginning. The being who is currently active in the front lines is the main character who won the First War of the Roses for the Lancaster family.
“As soon as Philip’s mobile defense force appears, we will form a reserve force to intercept it.”
“… … !”
“I will summon the best Rosicrucian Knights and personally command the reserves.”
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That’s why Michael Lancaster made a decision.
* * *
Once again, a large-scale advance by Lancaster began, and ‘Philip’s Mobile Strike Force’ was moved to intercept the isolated Lancaster force as if it had been waiting for it.
Lancaster’s intelligence, which had been observing their movements ahead, reported this fact, and the troops under Mikhail’s command pursued them without hesitation.
The enemy’s number is probably hundreds of cavalrymen. This number of troops moving at the same time is undoubtedly the core force conducting a ‘mobile defense warfare’. Intercepting them will be a decisive blow that can simultaneously destroy the enemy’s main force.
It should have been so.
“Charge! Sweep away the dogs of York!”
Only then did the Rosicrucian Knights commanded by Mikhail charge towards the enemy’s mobile defense force. And at the same time, as Mikhail unfolded his ‘avatar’, bracing himself for the shock that was to come.
Before the swinging sword, the enemy cavalry fell helplessly like fallen autumn leaves.
The armor that covered his body without any gaps was broken, revealing the identity inside.
“… … .”
There was a ‘dead person’ there who was difficult to distinguish from a person when viewed from a distance.
He wasn’t even a Death Knight with advanced powers. However, he was able to project advanced formulas that allowed him to carry out orders from a distance.
“Ha, I surrender! I surrender!”
Finally, among the dead, there was a living person.
“That guy, that guy! That vile ‘Black Prince’ made me his scapegoat! I, I was only threatened and had no choice… …!”
The genius of defeat was there.
The scoundrel of the Count’s family, Philip, is kneeling miserably in front of Mikhail and begging.
It was never a disguise of the ‘Black Prince’. The real Philip was there, literally, and the cavalry under his command was only a disguise for the purpose of deceiving the eyes. By reviving the corpses piled up in this war as ‘lower-class dead’.
At least considering Dale’s talents, it shouldn’t be too difficult to move this many low-level dead separately.
Realizing what that meant, Mikhail’s expression froze.
Michael Lancaster read the signs that the ‘Black Prince’ was moving disguised as Philip and planned accordingly.
However, the ‘Black Prince’ had already predicted Mikhail’s actions several steps ahead and had already taken off Philip’s mask.
Furthermore, at a point when Mikhail and Lancaster’s main force had moved here to intercept the mobile defense force… … it was not at all difficult to imagine the moves that the ‘Black Prince’ would make taking advantage of the absence of key forces.
Only then could I realize it.
Michael Lancaster had been playing on the palm of his hand from the beginning.
“My, Prince Mikhail! My alliance with the House of York was absolutely inevitable… …!”
“Shut your mouth right now.”
Michael Lancaster spat out coldly, and Philip’s mouth shut.
* * *
A moment before Mikhail realizes ‘the truth about Philip’.
“To intercept Philip’s camouflaged force, the main force of Michael Lancaster and the Knights of the Rosicrucian Cross have completed their movement.”
A high-ranking assassin working as an intelligence agent reported, and Dale did not hesitate when he heard the news.
“It’s our turn now.”
Before they knew it, a minimal number of troops had been left behind to defend the fortress, and a unit comprised of the best elite soldiers from within the Knights of the Blue Rose Order was there.
To break through the Lancaster front line, which was advancing in the opposite direction to where Mikhail’s force was moving, and further towards York Street.
“We will quickly break through the front line and then use rear-based maneuvers to break Lancaster’s front line.”
There were three main columns in this battle.
Assuming that the first line is York’s defenders who are holed up in the fort and continuing their defensive siege.
The second line is the Lancaster line charging towards them.
By taking advantage of the absence of the Lancaster’s best troops, who were lured by Dale’s bait, they can make a full-scale breakthrough and capture Lancaster’s rear, the third line.
York, who controlled the first and third columns, surrounded and isolated Lancaster in the second column.
As the Rosicrucian Knights and Purifiers who had infiltrated the rear of York’s territory had attempted to do earlier.
But in the meantime, the situation between the two forces had changed 180 degrees, and now they were playing into Dale’s hands.
