‘Lucky me! I only just obtained [Sylph’s Gift], and now another opportunity this good has come along already···!’
Roan smiled as he looked down at the mage. His expression was filled with anticipation.
Apparently misunderstanding that expression, the soldiers around him began whispering among themselves. Their words reached Roan’s ears.
“L-Lord Roan is smiling.”
“Could it be that a mere mage is nothing to him?”
“As expected of Lord Roan, Ruler of the Storm! As long as Lord Roan is with us, we’re bound to win!”
The soldiers seemed to find fresh courage thanks to Roan.
The flames of hope began to burn in their eyes.
But as the mage drew closer to the castle wall, the situation changed in an instant. The soldiers recoiled in horror and hurriedly began backing away.
Fear was written plainly across their faces. To ordinary people, mages were beings that inspired that much terror. Magic lay beyond anything they could comprehend, and that alone was more than enough to make it an object of fear.
Roan’s expression hardened as he watched their reaction.
‘···Damn, I didn’t realize the soldiers would be this afraid of a mage.’
Skillbooks or not, if his allies were this terrified, there was no way they could defeat the enemy. Morale was an important factor that could decide victory or defeat in battle.
Roan drew a deep breath and made up his mind.
‘As I thought, I’ve got no choice but to step in myself at a time like this.’
Of course, even he was somewhat afraid of the mage. This was the first mage he had encountered since possessing this body, and mages in this world were genuinely extremely powerful beings to begin with.
But at the moment, Roan’s anticipation outweighed that fear.
Countless questions and possibilities swirled through his mind. What kind of Skillbook would drop if he killed that mage? If a mage could use several kinds of magic, would several Skillbooks drop? His curiosity and anticipation were overwhelming his fear of the mage by a wide margin.
Even without that anticipation, however, Roan would never have backed down. If he retreated here, the soldiers and House Dragonbane would clearly suffer enormous losses.
Now that he had become a mercenary knight of House Dragonbane, he was determined to win this territorial war. It was more than a simple obligation. It was his firm resolve. Roan trusted his own abilities, and he was convinced that he could overcome this crisis with them.
Roan pushed through the soldiers and stepped to the edge of the castle wall. The soldiers’ gazes fixed on his back. Expectation and fear mingled in their eyes.
Roan drew a deep breath, then finally looked down at the mage and shouted.
“Mysterious mage! State whether you have come to threaten us or merely to beg us to accept your surrender!”
Roan’s booming voice rang across the battlefield.
The mage glanced up at him.
For an instant, contempt and a hint of interest flashed through his eyes. Then he slowly opened his mouth.
“I have come to accept your surrender. Surrender, and I shall spare your lives.”
The mage’s voice was low and sinister. Yet as though infused with magical power, his words seemed to ride through the air and burrow directly into the soldiers’ ears.
Most of the soldiers trembled in fear at those words. Their faces turned pale, and the weapons in their hands began to shake. The mage’s threat seemed to crush their courage in an instant.
Then—
“···Hahahahaha!”
Roan burst into laughter, even louder than before. His laughter boomed like thunder and drew everyone’s attention.
“We have already defeated you once! What do you think one mage is going to change?”
“Hmph··· Judging by how your soldiers are trembling, that bravado of yours will not last long.”
“What? You think we’re trembling? Ha! We’re only trying not to laugh at that ridiculous hat and baggy robe of yours! Surely you don’t actually think we believe some clown who just escaped from a circus is a real mage?”
A few soldiers could not hold back and burst out laughing at Roan’s words.
In truth, Roan had not planned to provoke the mage like this. As befitted a knight, he had intended to maintain a reasonably courteous tone while speaking with him.
But when the mage’s very first words were, ‘I have come to accept your surrender. Surrender, and I shall spare your lives,’ Roan had no choice but to change his plan.
If he kept treating an arrogant bastard like this politely, the soldiers’ morale would only fall further. In a situation like this, openly provoking and mocking the mage was actually the better choice. If he could drag this ‘unknown powerhouse’ down into a ‘target of ridicule,’ the soldiers’ morale would rise by just as much.
“Y-You insolent bastard···! Do you think you can mock me, Hais Klein, and walk away unharmed? Those words will soon come back to you as calamity!”
Sure enough, Roan’s intentions seemed to have worked to some extent. Despite the mage’s continued threats, the soldiers were no longer as frightened of him as they had been at first. Courage was slowly returning to their faces.
Roan seized the momentum and shouted once more. His voice was even more provocative and mocking.
“Ha! Do you really think you can frighten us with empty threats like that? Not a chance! But tell me, mage! Is that staff for casting magic, or is it just there to make up for your ‘little magic wand’? From where I’m standing, it certainly looks like the latter!”
“···P-Puhahahahaha!”
The soldiers could no longer suppress their laughter at Roan’s audacious joke.
Adeline was no different. She usually tried to maintain a serious demeanor, but this time was an exception. She was desperately trying to hold back her laughter, yet the corners of her mouth kept twitching as though she might burst out laughing at any moment.
“Y-You insolent···! I will cut out your tongue and throw it to the wolves!”
In the end, the mage turned his back after leaving only those words behind. His robe whipped in the wind, making him look like an enraged eagle.
For a moment, Roan considered loosing an arrow into the mage’s back. His hand unconsciously moved toward the bow beside him.
But he abandoned the idea soon afterward. It was hard to believe the mage would have come without any protection against something like that.
After the mage returned to the enemy camp, Adeline came to find Roan. Her face was filled with excitement and awe. Her eyes sparkling, she said,
“As expected of you, Lord Roan···! You’re remarkably skilled at provoking the enemy! Thanks to your actions, the soldiers’ morale has risen tremendously! That was truly amazing!”
“Play enough games, and you naturally get better at things like this.”
“Pardon?”
“It was nothing. In any case, that does not mean we can afford to let our guard down. I have heard that mages are extremely dangerous and powerful beings.”
“Ah, yes! I will keep that in mind! I will tell everyone to stay alert!”
Afterward, they began preparing in earnest for the enemy’s attack. Since they had no idea when the enemy would come rushing in, they had to be fully prepared.
Roan and Adeline commanded the soldiers and reinforced their defensive positions, while Paul, Roan’s Squire, moved along the castle wall checking medical supplies and provisions.
“···Waaaaaaaah!”
About an hour later, the roar of the enemy soldiers finally rang out. The sound was like thunder, shaking the earth.
Roan and Adeline looked at each other. A moment later, they drew their swords at the same time and shouted.
“Defend the walls! Victory is ours!”
Roan’s voice was booming and full of strength. Adeline’s was sharp and resolute. Their cries echoed across the top of the castle wall.
At once, the soldiers began moving in perfect order. There was no longer any fear in their eyes. Only resolve and courage remained.
The second defensive battle against Solsgard had begun.
***
The second defensive battle against Solsgard was fierce from the very beginning.
Under Roan’s sharp command, the soldiers of House Dragonbane fought well, holding back the enemy’s relentless assault with unwavering determination.
But the situation soon changed drastically. Hais Klein finally began launching a full-scale magical offensive.
Fireballs rained down from the sky, while ice arrows flew in from every direction. The soldiers of House Dragonbane could do nothing but endure the attacks helplessly. Sections of the castle wall collapsed one after another, and the screams of soldiers never stopped.
In the end, House Dragonbane barely managed to hold the castle, but the price was steep. A significant portion of the wall had been destroyed, and many soldiers had either lost their lives or suffered injuries. It was far too bitter an outcome to call a victory.
In truth, they had only managed to endure this much because Roan’s provocations before the battle had raised their morale to its peak. Had that not happened, House Dragonbane would undoubtedly have failed to hold the castle. Without Roan’s quick thinking, the situation would have been even more horrific.
After the battle ended, inside Gallard Castle—
‘A mage··· Even so, I didn’t think one would be this powerful.’
Roan rubbed his chin with a bitter expression.
Somehow, the mage seemed far stronger than what Roan had experienced in the game. Or perhaps this ‘Hais Klein’ was simply an unusually powerful mage even among mages. Just as House Dragonbane had hired a special knight named ‘Roan Brighton,’ Solsgard had hired a special mage named ‘Hais Klein.’
‘Either way, I need a new plan. At this rate, we’re going to lose.’
Roan knew perfectly well how precarious their situation was. A third attack was certain to come soon, and they had far too little time to reorganize. Half the wall had collapsed, and the soldiers were exhausted. The situation could hardly have been worse.
‘Isn’t there any good way out of this?’
Roan thought and thought.
Just what did he have to do to break through this situation? He racked his brain, desperately trying to find a solution.
Then, one thought suddenly flashed through his mind.
‘···Come to think of it, would a Skillbook drop from the corpse of an old Named Enemy too?’
If Skillbooks could drop even from the corpses of long-dead Named Enemies, he intended to visit every grave of every famous person he could find in this world.
‘···No, this isn’t the time to be thinking about that.’
A moment later, however, he chastised himself and returned to reality.
Right now, stopping the enemy’s offensive had to come before thinking about obtaining Skillbooks. In the first place, Skillbooks only mattered if he stayed alive long enough to obtain them. If he died, Skillbooks would be completely useless.
“No, wait···? If someone dies···?”
That was when it happened.
Roan’s eyes suddenly widened. A flash of realization passed across his face.
‘Come to think of it, there’s no reason I have to insist on fighting them head-on, is there? Why not just sneak into the enemy camp at night and kill the mage? If the mage dies, we’ll have a real chance.’
Roan’s eyes gleamed. His heart began to pound. Perhaps this really could be the key to victory.
Of course, assassinating the mage would be extremely difficult. Roan understood the danger perfectly well.
Finding the military tent where the mage was staying and reaching it would be a problem in itself, and even if he found the man, there would undoubtedly be all kinds of protective magic set up around him. A mage’s vigilance would surely be incomparable to that of an ordinary person.
But who was Roan? He was an extraordinary knight who possessed not only [Half-Ogre Strength (B)] but also [Sylph’s Gift (C)]. If he used those two abilities properly, he might actually be able to assassinate the mage.
‘More importantly, the chances of the assassination succeeding are definitely higher than our chances of winning a third defensive battle.’
He went over the situation once more. The castle wall had been badly damaged, and the soldiers were exhausted. If a third attack came, he doubted they would be able to endure it. An assassination, on the other hand, was dangerous, but if it succeeded, it could reverse the entire course of the battle in one stroke.
‘Yeah. This really is the only answer.’
Resolve settled into Roan’s eyes.
And so, Roan began preparing for the assassination.