“Yawn~ why is the Demon King's Castle so quiet today?”
“Is Miss Saintess in free-range mode today?~”
Lin Ling floated along the corridors of the Demon King's Castle, holding her lunch bread in her hand.
Strangely, however, the castle was exceptionally quiet today.
Even the soldiers who usually patrolled were nowhere to be seen, and the dining hall only had the busy figures of the chefs.
“Is anyone there~ Cecil?”
Lin Ling floated around while looking for the others.
But only her own echoes returned to answer her in the empty corridors.
“Do I really have to go back to the Demon King's side?”
Damn it, Miss Saintess would never compromise so easily!
Sensing the surrounding magic, Lin Ling noticed a lot of chaotic magical energy far in the distance, resembling a massive pile of active devices—and there were quite a lot of them.
“Hmm... what are these?”
Lin Ling was somewhat puzzled. These devices were highly unstable, as if they were constantly operating under extreme high-pressure conditions.
“There's also Uncle Baroque's presence. Is there a battle going on?”
She could feel Baroque's magic actively surging in the distance.
“Don't be afraid, Uncle Baroque! Miss Saintess is coming to help you!”
Having made up her mind, Lin Ling cast her teleportation magic and vanished, heading straight toward Baroque's location.
Rewinding time a bit, back in the human camp—
“Commander! This guy isn't dead!”
A soldier clad in Silver Legion armor shouted toward Bode, who was sitting nearby and reading a book.
Upon hearing this, Bode closed his book and walked toward the border.
“Hey, how long did this guy hold out? Don't yell at me over every little thing. You're a noble, after all.”
Bode walked up to the soldier, patted his shoulder, and then turned his gaze toward the captive soldier being held up.
“Sir, he lasted the longest. It's already been six hours.”
“Six hours? Hey, do you feel any discomfort?”
Bode looked at the supported soldier, grabbing his hair to force him to look up.
“Heh, hehe... You want to know? Why don't you try it yourself, you coward!”
The soldier looked in terrible shape, but as his head was pulled back, he still spat curses at Bode.
Listening to the soldier's insults, Bode merely smirked.
“It seems the runes this time are quite good. Look at this guy, he can still crack jokes with me.”
Bode dragged the soldier along the ground by his hair.
“Hey! Drop what you're doing and look over here!”
He dragged the soldier to the center of the camp. Hearing Bode's shouting, Keith stepped out of his tent.
As soon as he emerged, he saw Bode dragging a raggedly dressed soldier into the open space in the middle of the camp.
“Bode, what are you doing?”
Seeing the smile on Bode's face, Keith found his grin deeply repulsive.
“You've come at the perfect time. These ragged ones are just disposables, right, Your Highness?”
A smile was plastered on Bode's face, but the murderous glint in his eyes was impossible to hide.
“Yes, that is correct.”
“That's good. I thought they might be your trusted soldiers.”
Bode spoke as he drew his sword.
“This little brother here called me a coward. Come on, let me see how a brave man acts.”
Bode tossed his sword onto the ground and walked over to stand opposite the soldier.
“Come on! Didn't you call me a coward?!”
The smile vanished from Bode's face in an instant, replaced by a mask of pure fury.
Facing this, the soldier could only pick up the sword from the ground and charge at Bode.
However, from Keith's perspective, he only saw a flash of intense, searing light.
When he looked back at where the soldier had been standing, nothing remained but the steel sword on the ground, its blue runes flickering.
“Ah, my bad. I forgot to mention, I never said I would use a sword.”
Blue runes flickered on Bode's hand as well.
“Alright, alright, everyone get ready.”
“Get ready to go greet our neighbors.”
It was as if this entire event was completely trivial to them.
The soldiers of the Silver Legion erupted in excited cheers at the prospect of going to battle.
Meanwhile, in a corner of the camp, a group of ragged soldiers clenched their fists.
“Boss, those bastards!”
One soldier slammed his fist against a pile of lumber.
“Enough, Hazako. You know there's nothing we can do.”
The man they called "Boss" had eyes filled with exhaustion. He patted his waist, which was completely empty.
As soldiers, they didn't even possess a single weapon.
“But the kid they just killed—he was only sixteen, Boss!”
Hazako's eyes were bloodshot. He gritted his teeth and punched the wood before him again.
“To think the demons didn't kill us, yet our own people treat us even worse.”
Another young man sitting on the ground trembled all over.
“We aren't their soldiers. We're just cannon fodder. Don't forget how we ended up here.”
The soldier shivered, but they had nowhere to run. Rather than soldiers, they were more like a herd of cannon fodder driven to the front lines—the "disposables" the nobles spoke of.
“Keep your voices down. Who knows how many of us those damn scumbags will drag out to clear the path this time.”
“We'll stick to the old rule. The young ones hide in the back, and us old timers will go first. Stay quiet, and don't let those pieces of trash notice you.”
The man called Boss spoke to the soldiers. This was clearly not the first time such a thing had happened.
Surprisingly, the Silver Legion did not come to grab any "disposables" to scout the path this time.
Instead, they carved runes radiating Holy Light onto each other's bodies, joking and laughing among themselves.
Soon after, the entire Silver Legion marched directly into the high-mana environment of the Demon Realm.
Upon entering the Demon Realm, Bode felt his steel armor absorb massive amounts of magic from the air.
“No wonder Duke Cary wants this place so badly. I feel absolutely overflowing with power right now.”
Bode clenched his fists tightly. The numerous runes on his armor glowed with an intense light, as if fully charged.
If the glow back at the camp had been like the faint glimmer of a firefly,
now, it was as bright as a clear, radiant moon.
“Alright, Silver Legion! Let these demons see what a lightning offensive looks like! Move out!”
The runes on the Silver Legion's legs began to glow.
Spell after spell flashed across their legs. Once the magic on their armor fully activated, the entire army vanished from the border.
“Y-Your Highness, isn't this army... a bit too brutal?”
Looking at the actions of the legion, the deputy felt that they behaved more like demons themselves.
“They're just useless disposables. What, are you feeling sorry for them?”
Seeing the cowardly display from his deputy, Keith made no attempt to hide his disgust.
“If you have nothing better to do, go study their runes! I want our own army to be able to use them too, understood?!”
Keith slapped the rune patterns left by Bode into his deputy's hands, then turned his gaze back to the border.
“Silver Legion... I truly hope you return in one piece.”
After muttering his sarcastic remarks at the border, Keith returned to his tent.
Rate on N.U.
