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Chapter 283.

It was the morning after the battle at the great wall in the Dresden territory. The soldiers who suffered yesterday were all resting, except for those guarding the wall. Meanwhile, because we had to mobilize immediately tomorrow, the chief of staff and I had to make plans and couldn’t take a break.

As I was checking various documents, I was surprised to see how many people were on the prisoner list. "There are so many prisoners?”

The number of prisoners reached nearly 20,000. Considering that the enemy vanguard contained close to 60,000 soldiers, this meant that nearly a third of the vanguard was captured.

"Of course, there’s wounded from the left and the central forces, but because they surrendered when we surrounded them at the end, there’s a lot of prisoners. However, since many managed to run away, I think we need to be careful,” said the chief of staff.

I nodded. "But we’re fortunate that most of the enemy commanders are either dead or captured and can’t bring the defeated together."

The chief of staff grinned and bobbed his head. "That’s true."

"By the way, the feudal lords’ backs will break trying to feed and keep the prisoners alive."

The chief of staff smiled at my joke. “Luckily, that’s not our concern."

The chief of staff also had an evil side. Since we were leaving tomorrow, we didn’t have to care about how many prisoners there were. In reality, we were just throwing the work onto others, but that’s none of my business.

I smiled the same way as the chief of staff, put the documents in one corner, and laid a map on the desk, saying, "Since we destroyed the enemy vanguard well ahead of the deadline we set, I think we have plenty of time to aim for Shellen Fortress."

The chief of staff nodded and agreed with me. "If we capture the fortress, not only will it be easier to confront the enemy in the future, but if we join up with the main force, we’ll be in a position where we might even be able to target the capital."

It was almost impossible to advance to the capital with just the vanguard alone. Therefore, the chief of staff’s remarks also suggested that we should consider waiting for General Orphina to join up with the main force.

I shook my head when I noticed the chief of staff’s intentions. "No. There’s a high likelihood that the outcome of this war will be determined at Shellen Fortress."

The chief of staff looked at the map intensely and asked, "What makes you think that? If we take the fortress and stall the enemy’s main army, we can work with our main force to cleave a way forward."

The chief of staff spoke, pointing to the gateway to the enemy capital beyond the fortress as he continued, "I think the current imperial army has enough power to reach here. I thought this would be the place to determine the outcome of this war, but it seems you don’t think the same.”

The chief of staff’s opinion was absolutely right. If this was a war between just the imperial army and the enemy, as the chief of staff said, it would have turned into a full-fledged battle with the enemy. However, the story was different if the great madosas entered the war.

"When we confront the enemy’s main force at Shellan Fortress, either the enemy’s forces, our own, or both of us will be annihilated. I think it will be one of those three."

"It’s not that one will be defeated, but annihilated? And it’s also possible that both sides are destroyed?" The chief of staff had a hard time understanding and looked at me.

With the chief of staff and I being the only people in the tent, I put soundproofing magic up to prevent any information from leaking out before saying, "Only Chief of Staff-nim should know this. If this becomes known, morale will be at its worst. Oh, and obviously, I’ll tell the Head Commander-nim."

"What is it that would make morale plummet to its lowest?"

I smiled bitterly. "It’s highly likely that a great madosa will be participating in this war."

"What!" The chief of staff jumped to his feet in shock, and he exclaimed, "That, that’s ridiculous. That kind of monster is participating?!”

"Please calm down."

The chief of staff’s face turned blue at my words. "Do I look like I can calm down right now?! There’s no way 50,000 troops can stop a monster like a great madosa!"

I sighed at the overly agitated chief of staff. This is why I didn’t want to mention it. It wasn’t for nothing that Arpen, a great madosa, was called Glacial Devil. Great madosas were treated as a source of despair by their enemies just from existing.

"What can we do if the Chief of Staff-nim loses his reason?” I said.

The chief of staff sat down again, rubbing his face with complicated thoughts. "Yes, the Chief of Staff must not lose their composure at any time. So, since you said the probability of participation is high, how much do you think it is? And if one is to participate, who do you think it would be?"

"There’s around a 90 percent chance it’ll be the Curse Specialist and about 30 percent for the Magic Kingdom’s Spatial Specialist."

Of course, the Elemental Specialist and Alchemy Specialist were allied with the empire, so they were excluded.

Hearing my guess, the chief of staff closed his eyes tightly. "You’re saying there’s a chance that both of them will participate.”

"Well, I think there’s about a 3 percent chance that both of them will join the war. The Curse Specialist and the Spatial Specialist have an abysmal relationship."

How bad was it exactly? If the two of them were on the same side, one of them would happily stab the other in the back. In fact, the only great madosa who did not antagonize their associates was my teacher, Elder Mirpa. To be specific, it was more like the other great madosas avoided her, saying she was a crazy dog.

"Then, even I think it would be better to get ready here in preparation for the great madosa. We would be able to collaborate with the main force of the imperial army in that case."

I shook my head at the chief of staff’s passive defense strategy. "No, this place is not that suitable for defending against a great madosa. The wall where the battle took place yesterday serves to prevent foreign invasions, so the defense range is too wide. If even a part of it gets knocked down, the advantages of a siege defense disappear. Then, the situation would be where a great madosa is able to run wild in the empire.”

"That’s a horrible thought. So then we have no choice but to move before they get here?"

I nodded to affirm his conjecture. As an imperial force defending the empire, such monsters could not be allowed in.

"You know that a great madosa is participating, but since you’re so calm, you’ve got a way to deal with them, right?”

"Well, I have a few, but I can’t be sure they’ll work."

The chief of staff responded as if my words were natural. "Two years ago, when the great demon showed up in the south, we prepared a lot of measures, but none of them worked. Great madosas are no different than great demons. Rather, they have high intelligence that great demons can’t keep up with, so it’s even worse."

"Haha, I agree with that."

The chief of staff sighed deeply and asked, "So, what’s the plan?"

Although I called it a plan, there was nothing special about it.

"The basic plan is for me to go out and face them myself."

The chief of staff looked at me as if he were looking at a suicidal person. "No matter your abilities as a Crow, great madosas are on a whole new level.”

"I know. Don’t tell me you don’t know that my teacher is Mirpa Ainsmall.”

The chief of staff opened his eyes wide at my indifferent answer. "Your teacher is that great madosa, the root of all alchemists?"

"Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to say she’s the root; she just did some compiling and advanced the field by about 3,400 years."

Before Elder Mirpa, alchemy was treated as something similar to magic but not actually treated as magic. Now, it’s one of the top three magic categories within every field of magic.

"And just because I’m facing the person directly doesn’t mean that we’re forced to fight. There’s a way to talk things through reasonably.”

Although, I don’t know if that guy with the communication disability will listen to me too much. To be honest, I had no choice but to improvise because I didn’t know how my opponent would act.

I opened an enlarged map of Shellen Fortress, smiled, and said, "First off, let’s think about how we’re going to occupy the fortress.”

You have to have at least one breakwater to face a great madosa, even if the breakwater would be something stolen. By the way, to utilize the fortress, we had to conquer it with as little damage as possible, having no section collapsing.

* * *

At the end of the Battle of Dresden...

Appearing at Shellen Fortress, Malecia was ‘forced’ to arrive, and he pulled himself together. He passed through the dark streets and headed for a small mansion, Aries’s base.

"Long time no see, Mercenary King."

As he entered Aries’s base, a young man with a neat impression greeted Malecia with a fresh smile. Malecia replied, "Long time no see, Beta."

The young man who greeted Malecia was Beta, Aries’s disciple.

"Master said Delta would be here, but I didn’t expect you,” Malecia remarked.

Beta said with a light smile, "If the teacher-nim doesn’t summon us, we all wander freely and explore magic. I’m snooping around trying to make money because I heard there’s going to be a war."

In short, he was here to play as a mercenary.

"You’re a weirdo to serve as a mercenary despite being a madosa."

"Ahahaha, you need a lot of money to research magic."

When Beta replied with a playful smile, Malecia thought it was unexpected that there was someone normal among the crazy magicians, and he said, "It would be easier to work with others if they were normal like you.”

"Oh, who said that? That Beta’s normal?”

The one who challenged Malecia’s statement was Delta as he walked down from the second floor. He went on to say, "He only looks normal on the outside. He’s the craziest one among teacher-nim’s disciples. Do you think you can cross the wall of Mado in your late 20s without being crazy?"

Beta laughed gently at Delta’s harsh criticism and said, "Haha, that’s too much, senior. What do you mean, crazy? I just crossed the wall a little earlier than others, and so if you say that, I’ll be hurt."

When Beta pretended to hold onto his chest in a playful way, Delta snorted. "Shut up. You go crazy over anything related to magic, so what are you even saying?”

"I certainly don’t tend to do that."

Delta looked at Beta and said with a fed-up look, "If you don’t tend to act like that, you’ll have to say that there’s also no craziness in this world."

Malecia sighed and asked as the two quarreled, "That’s just great. How many of Master’s disciples and followers are here?”

Delta answered with an expression of ‘why are you even asking.’ "There’s quite a few people here, most likely aiming for war pay. About 700 people?”

"Among the seniors, there’s Iota, Lambda, and Mu."

Malecia smiled at Beta’s reply. "Then we should be able to buy some time until Master arrives.”

Beta and Delta were astonished. "Teacher-nim is coming here?"

"Yes, Master is participating in this war."

Delta muttered at Malecia’s confirmation, "Oh, my god, maybe the sun will rise from the west tomorrow.”

Then, Beta looked at Malecia and asked, "Wait a minute. What do you mean we can buy time until Teacher-nim comes?"

Malecia placed the documents on the table and said, "It seems that there is a great madosa-class monster who’s on a similar level to Master in the imperial army."

At Malecia’s words, Beta and Delta stopped breathing and became tense.