Chapter 310: You Don't Notice My Kindness? (4)

“General Colton, I don’t know if we can be doing this.”

Colton, who had been resting in his command tent, looked at the aide who had come to see him.

“What do you mean?”

“Poisoning Sefira’s water source.”

“Hm?”

When Colton feigned ignorance, the aide pulled a glass vial from his coat.

“Prince Rukan ordered the use of venom from the Demonic Capital, but what you added were nothing more than toxic herbs that cause vomiting and diarrhea. This makes it your second act of insubordination.”

“...What was your name again?”

“Rogue, sir.”

“Did you come here to advise me or to threaten me?”

“...”

“If we sow the Seeds of Hell and poison the water with Demon Capital venom, it would turn the entire south into a land of death—a place where no one could survive,” Colton said.

“But it is the prince’s order. You know very well that letters arrive every day, urging us to eliminate Sefira as soon as possible.”

“And I replied that no matter what, we would need until March next year.”

“His Highness’ response has just arrived.”

The aide handed over a parchment. Colton did not even look at it, yet he felt as though he already knew its contents.

“

Tsk

.”

Colton had an idea of what it was going to say, but it was worse than he imagined.

—General Colton, you have one week. I will no longer tolerate your turtle-paced advance. If you do not attack Sefira, I will regard this as an intent to commit treason.

Colton nearly tore the parchment apart, but restrained himself.

“What an obstinate prince. If he would simply wait, victory would come naturally. Why insist on sacrifice, on sowing the seeds of vengeance?” he muttered.

Even if they followed Rukan’s order and launched a full-scale assault, Sefira could be defeated. But two problems would arise. First, allied casualties would be catastrophic, and second, Sefira could not be completely annihilated.

The only way to prevent an endless chain of revenge was to leave not even a single seed behind and wipe them out entirely. Colton did not desire slaughter, nor was he mad for blood, but reality was that if even the slightest remnant survived, resentment would inevitably return like a boomerang.

Once one resolved to attack Sefira, one had to kill everyone, down to the last ant—not a single possibility could be left behind. And a siege was merely the first step toward total annihilation.

“If only he had at least provided the support of a Prime...”

Rukan had assigned no Primes to the Sefira expedition because he thought Grandmasters were sufficient, even if Keter was present.

“To knowingly commit stupidity... Am I some kind of clown?”

Colton’s irritation flared. Years of hardship had dulled his emotions, so rarely did he feel anger or joy, yet Rukan’s tyranny was enough to make even his cold heart boil.

The word treason suddenly crossed his mind, and it came with the image of not Rakan, the second prince, but Lerkin, the king consort.

Now that I think about it, there are many tempting aspects.

Lerkin had not earned noble support merely by being the queen’s husband. He had proposed radical, unprecedented pledges. He promised to abolish hereditary royal succession and allow any qualified noble to become king. To prove this resolve, he vowed to rename the nation not after a ruler, but Markion, meaning “the nation of all.”

He also promised to greatly expand noble freedoms and rights, declaring that overseas travel would no longer require royal palace approval or surveillance.

These pledges struck directly at the frustrations long felt by the nobles of the Lillian Kingdom, earning Lerkin widespread support.

Still, his power base is unstable compared to Rukan and Rakan.

Rukan commanded an army of two hundred thousand and possessed three Primes. The thirty thousand troops sent to subjugate Sefira were but a drop in the bucket.

There is neither cause nor justification for rebellion.

In the end, there was only one answer: obey the foolish orders of that damned Prince Rukan.

“Aide Rogue.”

“Yes, General.”

“When the next blizzard hits, we launch a full assault on Sefira.”

“...As expected!” Rogue’s face lit up.

During a blizzard, visibility would drop to nearly nothing. It would be common sense to halt all advances, so Sefira’s archers would surely relax, believing themselves safe. No one would ever expect an attack through a blizzard.

“Relay this to all soldiers: when the blizzard begins, they are to remove everything except weapons and basic combat attire to maximize mobility. We don’t know when it will end, so we move fast. Do not give Sefira time to react.”

Rogue hesitated. Basic combat attire meant abandoning gear for cold weather entirely.

“What? If they remove their winter equipment in this weather... the soldiers will suffer frostbite.”

“Rotting fingers and toes won’t kill them. Sefira’s arrows will.”

“At least allow leather coats. If we follow this order, the soldiers—especially the knights—will strongly resist. Morale will plummet as well...”

“Of course morale will plummet—if officers and adjutants are wrapped in fur, drinking by the fire, that is. But what if they wear the same clothes and run at the front?”

“...?!”

Rogue was no warrior. Even bundled head to toe in fur, the cold pierced his bones. Just imagining charging half-naked made his body tense.

Colton laughed heartily.

“Don’t worry. I mean myself as well.”

“...Sir? Surely not...”

“Don’t pretend you don’t understand. If I, the commander, charge at the front, you wouldn’t plan to rest in the rear, would you?”

Rogue felt relieved that Colton was on their side. He was a genius of war who would sacrifice even himself to achieve the best possible outcome under the worst conditions. Just imagining facing such a man as an enemy sent a chill down his spine.

Sefira can never defeat General Colton.

Still, doubt crept in.

Charging at the front in this cold at over seventy years old? Impossible. He must be saying it just to motivate us.

The very next day, that belief was utterly shattered. At the first sign of an approaching blizzard, Colton stripped off his clothes before anyone else.

“...!”

Even knights who tolerated the cold hesitated, yet Colton led by example. After that, no one dared to remain clothed. Officers, aides, knights, and soldiers followed, bodies shrinking in the bitter cold. Colton’s body was hardly that of a warrior; he was thin overall, with a protruding belly, yet the spirit radiating from him was overwhelming.

“To those who survive, I will grant soup overflowing with meat and strong liquor!”

Even through the blizzard, his voice rang clearly. Officers echoed his words. Within ten seconds, all thirty thousand soldiers heard them.

“Chaaaarge!”

Sword in hand, Colton surged forward, and it wasn’t just a gesture.

Through freezing cold and raging snow, thirty thousand soldiers charged as one, utterly unlike their cautious advance before.

“Ah!”

“Don’t push!”

Because of the frozen ground, soldiers kept slipping and falling; others were unlucky enough to get snow in their eyes, flailing about and bumping into those beside them. Large and small accidents broke out everywhere, yet Colton did not halt the charge. Every one of these outcomes had been anticipated. There was no room to look after those who fell behind.

“We seize Sefira before the blizzard ends!”

Archers could not fire under such conditions. Swordsmen, however, could still fight. As such, if they broke through the cold, victory was assured—or so Colton relentlessly told them.

As expected—and obviously—Sefira had no scouts. Operating reconnaissance units in a blizzard like this was difficult enough, so who would ever predict an all-out charge straight through it?

By the time they reached Sefira’s inner fortress, two thousand had fallen behind. Still, they arrived. Sefira’s walls were low. It was barely higher than a fence, which knights could vault over.

“No guards on the walls. Heaven favors me!” Colton shouted in triumph as he saw that no archers were on watch.

The soldiers shared his certainty.

“G-General! Look at the gate! It’s open!”

“What?!”

It was natural for no archers to be guarding the fortress, but there was no reason for the gate to be open. Then...

Ding... Diiing~

A clear, ethereal harp echoed across the battlefield. No one commanded them to stop, yet everyone did.

“General! Look at the bell tower!”

A knight pointed above the gate. There, a boy was playing the harp.

* * *

On the bell tower above the gate sat a boy, holding a harp.

Ding, ding ding ding...

In the depths of midwinter, amid a raging blizzard and before tens of thousands of soldiers, the boy calmly played his harp. That boy was Daat.

The royal army did not recognize who he was, but the strange, unsettling atmosphere kept them from advancing, and they waited for their commander’s orders instead.

Colton glared at Daat.

What is his intention? Did he know we were coming? How?

Leaving the walls unmanned during a blizzard was understandable, but leaving the gate open defied all common sense. Moreover, he was playing a harp directly above it? There were no guards, nor did he have a powerful defensive magic shielding him. Snow was visibly piling up on the boy’s body.

The boy briefly looked at Colton and the massive army, then paid them no further mind and continued playing. The sound of the harp was clear and refreshing. It was so pure that it was hard to believe such a sound could exist in this bitter cold.

“Sir, please give the order. At this rate, we’ll all freeze to death.”

There was no time to stand and observe. At the aide’s words, Colton half-opened his eyes.

𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

“This is a trap.”

Colton never fell for Sefira’s traps. If something felt dangerous, he always retreated.

“This is a deception meant to exploit my caution. They showed me something incomprehensible to lure me in.”

Colton pointed his sword at the gate.

“Knights, take the lead. Even if there is an ambush, no archer can aim properly in this blizzard. Charge!”

Anticipating the soldiers’ fear, Colton personally stepped to the front.

“What about the boy?”

“Capture him.”

“Yes, sir.”

At once, a knight dashed toward Daat. With that, everything seemed resolved. The royal army entered Sefira’s inner fortress without resistance and advanced into the courtyard. However, it was empty. Perhaps the blizzard obscured everything. Then...

“General Colton. I expected that you would think this was a deception.”

Daat’s voice, once confined to the bell tower, echoed from all directions. The knight who had rushed to seize him was nowhere to be seen.

A trap? But we’re already inside the inner fortress.

Twenty thousand of the thirty thousand troops had entered the inner fortress. The rest were stationed outside, maintaining the encirclement. Whatever happened, they could respond.

Colton looked up at the sky. At that moment, the blizzard was beginning to subside.

“Heaven is on our side!”

The blizzard had allowed them to reach this place unseen by Sefira. Now, it had become an obstacle, but it was now clearing.

“Hahaha! Just as I thought—there’s nothing here!”

The storm ended, and the sky cleared. Revealed beneath it, Sefira’s inner fortress stood utterly empty.

“...Wait. Nobody is here?”

Realizing how strange that truly was did not take long.

“General! The sky! Look at the sky!” One of the knights pointed upward.

There, one person was floating in midair: a young man gazing down with both hands tucked into his pockets.

The moment everyone saw him, they shouted in unison.

“K-Keter!”

“The Divine Bow of the South!”

Recently, Keter’s title had risen from the Bow of the South to the Divine Bow of the South, thanks to his defeat of five Grandmasters.

So that’s Keter.

Colton felt a surge of alertness at Keter’s sudden appearance, but this was a scenario he had already anticipated. He raised his hand to signal. At once, the deputy commanders and captains who were hiding among the knights stepped forward. All seven of them were six-star Grandmasters.

That wasn’t all. They wore orichalcum armor imbued with magic, and their weapons were all level-four magic tools. Compared to the five Grandmasters Keter had previously fought, these men were far more experienced and far better equipped.

Even if Keter’s feats were genuine, this force had been prepared to kill him without issue. The plan was simple: once Keter appeared, the seven Grandmasters would surround and annihilate him.

And yet, the seven most renowned Grandmasters of the royal army hesitated. They merely glanced at one another, unable to rush at Keter. This was because they knew that whoever charged first would die before everyone else. Even without a ferocious expression, even without threats or words, their instincts told them the truth: they would die.

From the mere aura Keter unconsciously emanated, tens of thousands of soldiers, as well as the seven Grandmasters, were frozen in place, unable to move an inch. Still, such a standoff could not last forever.

Colton gave the order. “Spread out. The Grandmasters will handle Keter!”

Just as he issued the command to keep the soldiers from getting dragged in, Keter slowly swept his gaze across the army.

“Do you have a god you believe in?”

Keter raised his index finger. Sparks flew from its tip.

Ziiiiiing.

The instant a tiny spark burst forth, it began to amplify and multiply at blinding speed. The sparks transformed into arrows. One became seven, seven became twenty, and twenty became a hundred. In the blink of an eye, countless arrows spread out to Keter’s left and right like wings.

Bzzzz

.

Kete created a thousand arrows, each one a Milky Way. They unfurled from his sides like wings—like the wings of an angel. But Keter was not the merciful angel people imagined.

“I’ll give you time to pray.”

The angel of death descended upon Sefira.