The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road Chapter 202.
The war situation is going from bad to worse.
With the assassination of Prince Proud and the collapse of the vanguard, the key to victory has shifted to the rear.
If the rear collapses, it will be impossible to reform the battle lines, leading to a disorderly retreat.
On the other hand, if they can regroup in the rear, the enemy would have to withdraw instead.
The situation in the rear is evenly matched.
Both sides are engaged in fierce combat.
In one corner of the rear, 10 men and women in gray robes were concentrating on something.
“Cuthbert has been wounded again!”
“Quickly, regenerate him!”
“Haa! Haa! I, I’m out of magic now. Someone take over.”
They were Cuthbert’s lifeline.
While a man named Curly at the center was directly controlling Cuthbert, the others were injecting magic into Curly, providing Cuthbert with continuous regenerative power.
Normally, it’s nearly impossible to give magic to others.
There have been rare cases of identical twins sharing magic, but it was extremely uncommon for unrelated individuals to exchange magic.
Even those rare cases were only possible through the special method of blood magic.
These people were using that blood magic.
“For Cuthbert to be injured to this extent. Just who on earth is he fighting?”
“Could it be Prince Landis, known as the strongest prince?”
“It can’t be. They said no prince’s flag was seen in the rear. Besides, Cuthbert wouldn’t be pushed back by Landis or anyone else! He must be under attack from multiple enemies.”
“Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter! Hurry and give magic! Estelle! It’s your turn!”
Estelle shook her head.
“No. I haven’t learned blood magic.”
“Ah, right. You hadn’t.”
Estelle looked uncomfortable. She had been feeling a strange unease for a while.
‘What’s this pounding feeling? Could it be that Miss Ilya has been hurt?’
Biting her lip, Estelle told herself that such a thing must not happen.
Previously, Ilya had been someone with little connection to her, but things had changed in this world.
Now, Ilya was like family to her.
Thinking that she might be hurt made Estelle anxious, and at the same time, filled her with hostility towards the enemy Ellan Kingdom.
Ilya would probably say that’s just how war is and there’s no need to hate the enemy, but for Estelle, experiencing war for the first time, it was difficult to control her emotions.
At that moment, Curly, who was controlling Cuthbert, shuddered as if electrocuted.
“This is…?”
“What’s wrong, Curly?”
“A lightning mage has pinpointed my location! Everyone be careful!”
Soon after, the three trackers first sent by Ars revealed themselves.
“Here they are! We found them!”
“Be careful! There are more of them than we thought!”
Three combatants appeared before them.
Each of them cast their own magic.
A giant fireball, a heavy water cannon, a sharp wind blade.
Estelle, who became the target of the water cannon, bit her lip hard and shot an arrow of darkness.
Her dark arrow was helplessly absorbed by the mass of the water cannon, but that wasn’t the end of it.
The absorbed black energy of Estelle quickly contaminated the water, ultimately making it her own.
Estelle controlled the blackened water cannon and fired it back at the enemy.
“What!?”
The mage who had fired the water cannon widened his eyes.
After dodging the returned attack, he muttered fearfully.
“Magic contamination…!?”
It was an ability now only seen in history books. An ability extremely rare even among dark mages.
Enthusiasts called the dark mages who used this ability banshees.
“Be careful! There’s a banshee!”
“A banshee… So they really exist!”
Estelle spread a pitch-black protective barrier to block the enemy’s attacks. The moment those attacks touched the barrier, they rapidly contaminated the enemy’s magic, making it her own and reflecting it back.
“Damn it! We have no means of attack like this!”
As Estelle defended and the others focused on attacking, the three began to be overwhelmed.
It was then that it happened.
“Leave it to me!”
Erina, who appeared belatedly, raised her hand high to the sky.
And boom! Lightning struck Estelle’s protective barrier directly.
This lightning couldn’t be contaminated. It was too fast, and due to the nature of lightning disappearing instantly, contamination was practically impossible.
“Urgh!?”
Under the lightning’s overwhelming destructive power, the barrier easily shattered, and Estelle fell on her backside.
“This…!”
Estelle reflexively shot an arrow of darkness towards Erina. They didn’t recognize each other.
Even though the degree of confusion had lessened, it wasn’t enough to recognize faces.
Estelle, who was under mental protection magic, was in a slightly better state, but she didn’t have the luxury to closely observe the opponent’s face, making it difficult to recognize them.
“Please protect me!”
Erina prepared for a second lightning strike.
Although this attack would deplete her magic, she didn’t care. Freeing Ars from danger was more important than her own safety.
So, Erina aimed her second lightning attack at Curly, Cuthbert’s lifeline.
“Disappear!”
Boom! At Erina’s attack, Curly activated his teleportation scroll and vanished.
‘It worked! With this…’
Ars would be able to deal with Cuthbert.
“Haa! Haa…”
Having used up all her magic, Erina was exhausted and breathing heavily.
Estelle’s group shouted in anger.
“Curly…!”
“This means the operation has failed!”
“Damn it! Let’s at least kill those guys!”
They had initially been focusing on protecting Curly and responding passively, but now that Curly was gone, there was no need for that anymore.
They went on the offensive, trying to kill Erina and her companions.
Erina, out of magic, continued fighting while supporting the other three combatants, but it was difficult to overcome their numerical disadvantage.
“Ugh…!”
“Damn! Let’s retreat for now!”
When one of them went down, the other two abandoned Erina and started to flee separately.
Erina tried to run away too, but her legs gave out and she fell.
One of the female dark mages approached Erina and kicked her roughly.
“You’ve really done it… Miss Lightning Mage!”
“Urgh!”
Erina groaned, clutching her stomach.
“How about you try to show off again? Huh?”
After continued beating, Erina finally lost consciousness.
“That’s enough! Let’s kill her quickly and go back.”
“Hmph. I was going to do that without you telling me.”
As Erina lost consciousness and went limp, the woman, as if losing interest, drew a dagger from her waist.
“Die!”
Just as the dagger was about to plunge into Erina’s back, aiming for her heart-
“Wait!”
Estelle stopped her with a desperate voice. Not content with just verbal intervention, she even used magic to block the movement.
“What are you doing!”
“W-Wait.”
Estelle approached Erina with trembling lips. Her gaze was fixed on Erina’s back.
Specifically, on the Elaine family crest embroidered on Erina’s robe.
“How can this be…?”
Estelle thought it could be a coincidence. The Elaine family crest was rather simple. There could be noble families with similar crests in this world.
Even so, it was too much of a coincidence, and she wanted to confirm.
“Move aside, Estelle! We need to kill her!”
“I said wait! I, I’m taking this woman as a prisoner.”
“What nonsense! The operation is about to fail because of this bitch!”
“I don’t care what happens. If necessary, I’ll call Miss Ilya.”
Ilya had the authority to prevent prisoners from being killed. This meant that Estelle, as Ilya’s partner, indirectly had that authority too.
“Tch!”
The woman frowned, clearly displeased. She seemed to be waiting for Estelle to look away, still holding onto some lingering desire.
Then, in the moment when Estelle clutched her uneasily throbbing chest and looked around-
‘Now’s my chance!’
Once she killed Erina, it wouldn’t matter how angry Estelle got. She could just brush it off as a mistake.
The dagger silently aimed for Erina’s throat.
However, the woman’s vision cut off at that point.
Whoosh! A spear suddenly flew in, and just before it pierced her head, her teleportation scroll activated.
The spear passed by where the woman who was trying to kill Erina had been, then stuck into the ground, causing a small explosion.
“Urgh!?”
“What’s going on suddenly!”
While they were confused by the explosion, Ars appeared, standing guard over Erina and glaring around with eyes full of killing intent.
“Aah…!?”
Estelle, who was nearby, was so frightened by the overwhelming killing intent that she fell on her backside.
Experiencing Ars’ intense killing intent for the first time, Estelle couldn’t even dream that the person before her was Ars.
Having secured Erina’s safety, Ars began to coldly clear the surroundings.
“Focus on that guy!”
“Kill him!”
But it was useless. It was a difference in class, you could say. Even though he was fighting with just one sword, having used his spear as a throwing weapon, no one could match his movements.
Ars nullified their magic using aura and cleared them out in an instant.
The only one left was Estelle.
Although she didn’t need to fear death due to her teleportation scroll, Estelle trembled with fundamental fear.
“S-Stay away!”
She reflexively shot arrows of darkness at Ars as he approached her.
She intended to use those arrows to contaminate Ars’ magic and control his movements.
However, when Ars used light protection magic, Estelle’s attacks were futilely deflected.
‘What is this dense light…!’
Estelle looked up at Ars in a daze, as if mesmerized by the light that seemed like it would blind her.
Regardless, Ars swung his sword horizontally, slashing Estelle’s throat.
Swish! Before her throat was cut, Estelle’s teleportation scroll activated and she disappeared.
“To think they all managed to return alive…
What a cheat-like magic.”
Ars let out an annoyed sigh, then carefully picked up the unconscious Erina and moved to a safe location.
* * *
Estelle, who had returned to the main camp through teleportation scroll, was terrified.
Even though she was now in a safe situation, her trembling wouldn’t stop.
‘If it weren’t for the teleportation scroll, I would have died!’
The fear of war, and the coldness of the one who tried to kill her, wouldn’t leave her mind.
Although she had survived in the end, Estelle felt as if she had died and come back to life.
“What on earth was that guy!”
Estelle’s companions were also raising their voices about Ars’ identity.
“He was like a m-monster. Could he possibly be Prince Landis?”
“Could he be the one Sir Cuthbert was facing…”
Cuthbert, who had also been defeated by Ars and returned to the main camp, narrowed his eyes and stared at the trembling Estelle.
Then he spoke to them.
“Hey, you lot. Don’t tell Ilya Anfei about that guy.”
“Huh? Why is that…”
“It’s embarrassing, isn’t it? Are you planning to brag about all of us being defeated by one guy?”
“N-no, that’s not it.”
“We’ll kill that guy in the next battle, me and you lot. That’s enough.”
“What? But we don’t have any spare teleportation scrolls now.”
“If we don’t have them, we fight without them. How can you wage war if you’re afraid of death?”
“Y-you’re right, sir.”
“Hey, Estelle!”
Estelle jerked her head up at the call.
“If you tell Ilya about this incident, she’ll surely say she’ll handle it herself. You don’t want to see Ilya fighting such a monstrous guy, do you?”
Estelle nodded. If Ilya were to engage in combat with such a terrifying opponent, she might get hurt.
So it was better to let Cuthbert fight instead.
“Hmph, looks like you’ve lost your nerve. What good is talent if you’re just a greenhorn? You stay at the main camp and pray for Ilya Anfei’s safe return.”
“N-no, I’m fine! I can keep fighting.”
“…Huh. That’s good then. In the next battle, please do your best to fight.”
“I know!”
Cuthbert left with a sardonic smile.
Estelle tried to compose her trembling body and steeled her resolve.
***
The war situation had entered a lull.
The Article side had deployed a defensive line centered around the dragon, while Ellan Kingdom’s forces had retreated to the rear to regroup.
The damage was severe.
In just half a day, out of the 60,000 troops, 20,000 had died and 10,000 were missing.
The Article side had suffered similar losses, but what they had expended were only undead soldiers, with no casualties among the living.
Ars had handed over command authority to his superior and was now nursing Erina in a hastily erected tent.
‘Fortunately, it seems to be just bruises.’
As there could be internal injuries, he had called for a healer.
It was difficult to call a healer now due to the large number of injured, but Lucretia, who happened to be in contact, used her influence to assign a healer.
As Ars was watching over the healer’s treatment, Lucretia whispered to him.
“Wade, can we talk for a moment?”
“What’s the matter? Can’t it wait until after the treatment?”
“It will only take a moment.”
Ars shrugged and followed Lucretia outside.
Lucretia looked around and said, “I have two things to tell you. One will be told by Elena herself, so I’ll briefly convey the other one.”
“It doesn’t sound like good news.”
“Yes, it’s bad news.”
Lucretia continued in a gloomy voice.
“It seems the princes have met with a tragic fate.”
“Hmm… Was it an unavoidable accident during battle? Or…”
“They were assassinated. At least Prince Proud was. The status of Prince Landis and Prince Paris hasn’t been confirmed yet, but given that there’s still no news of their joining, those two might also…”
The first to third princes, who were highest in the line of succession to the throne, had all died.
This was a major incident that could shake the very foundations of the nation.
“The aftermath of the war will be tricky to handle.”
“That’s where the problem lies.”
“What do you mean?”
Lucretia hardened her gaze, indicating this was the main point.
Ars was left speechless at her following words.
“Wade, currently, Miss Rinoa is under suspicion for the assassination of the princes.”
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