CH 280

Chapter 280 – Grand Coalition(8)

“What are you doing!? One of you wicked monsters should come out and receive my blade!”

The knight roared out from the back of his horse. He looked rather young. Was he about 17 years old?

Not only were the people who carried out one-on-one duels highly likely to die, but it required a lot of courage to come forward and shout before four-thousand enemy soldiers. He was undoubtedly a brave youth.

“What a fool.”

Vassago smirked.

“Seeing that he did not mention his family name, he must be at most a second-grade fighter. Is he trying to stand before our army with his pitiful skills? I will immediately summon a spirit king and show him the difference between our strengths.”

“One moment, Your Highness. Please wait.”

Vassago furrowed his brows. He was obviously impatient as blue-colored mana was already being emitted from his entire body.

“I told you before that I will be commanding the army.”

“No, do you not think it is strange? Their army is that large. They most likely have at least one swordmaster, and yet they chose not to bring them out. Would you not think that they have an ulterior motive?”

“…….”

His blue mana gradually subsided.

“Ulterior motive? Are you saying that the humans are deliberately trying to lose?”

“That is right! They are intentionally trying to lose.”

“What?”

Vassago narrowed his brows as he let out a hoarse sound. Every facial expression he made was noble.

“Losing a duel would only lower their morale. There is no reason for them to intentionally lose, is what Your Highness is most likely thinking.”

“…….”

“But think about it the other way around. There is something the enemy can gain that is worth bearing a loss.”

Vassago muttered quietly.

“……Damn it. You clown, elaborate.”

“It is simple. As you are aware, we claimed to be supporting a human army.”

The masses are sensitive to rumors. Batavia and a large portion of free cities have joined our cause. There was no way that this cause wouldn’t have affected the enemy forces in any way.

From their perspective, we might actually be a human army. There must be a net of uncertainty wrapped around them.

“This is the situation we are in. What do you think would happen if we were to send out a demon in this duel? How would the enemy perceive this? Ah, you are not a human army, but a Demon Lord army. Why did we ever doubt this……? This is definitely how they would perceive this.”

I smiled brightly.

“Your Highness, that knight is a sacrificial lamb.”

“…….”

“If we send a powerful demon to kill that knight, then the enemy commander would immediately shout. Look! They are the Demon Lord army. Despite this, we were divided and doubted each other. We sacrificed a comrade. Now then, rise. Let us avenge our comrade…….”

Sacrificing one person to raise morale was a rather common strategy. Hwarang Gwanchang was a prime example of this. The knight who had come out was also young. A young person was probably the best possible sacrifice.

“There is no reason for us to go along this obvious ploy of theirs.”

“……So? What are you saying we should do if we are not sending out a demon?”

Vassago swallowed down his frustration.

“Should we avoid the duel? That would mess up our morale.”

“Mm. Coincidentally, I had prepared something in the case something like this were to happen.”

I lightly clapped.

“Daisy.”

Daisy walked in front of us and got down on one knee. The girl with pitch-black hair was wearing a maid uniform like usual. She had been attending to me as a maid. If you excluded the sword and dagger on her waist, she looked like quite the splendid maid.

I smirked.

“You are a piece of trash whose brain consists of wastewater. An absolute unremediable fool. Nonetheless, you should at least understand our current situation.”

“Yes, Father.”

Daisy responded calmly with her head down.

“The pigs were chased out of their pens, but they forgot their place and are oinking in the middle of the plains. They are animals that would be satisfied being back in their pens. They will calm down if you throw them some justification.”

“Haha.”

I let out a laugh. Daisy was growing splendidly.

“That’s correct, you sow. You would be the most appropriate to deal with your oinking kin. Would you like to give it a go?”

“I will require a voice amplification artifact.”

I took out a necklace artifact from my pocket and threw it. Thud, the necklace landed in the grass. Daisy tried to politely pick it up, but I spoke up.

“Pick it up with your mouth.”

“…….”

Daisy paused for a moment, but she soon obeyed my order and leaned down. She grabbed the necklace between her teeth. Daisy was sticking her face in the ground like a dog in front of Vassago and the other officers. I gave a satisfied nod.

“That position fits you the most, you arrogant slave.”

Daisy had just now gone out of her way to compare them to pigs. It was only slightly, but she was acting conceited. How dare a slave act like that? I pointed this out to her and Daisy must’ve understood this as she obediently obeyed my command.

“Go.”

“Yes, Father.”

Daisy slowly walked away with the necklace.

Vassago spoke to me once she started heading for the plains.

“……This is surprising. This is my first time seeing you being emotional. Did you not say she was your adopted daughter?”

“There are some circumstances. She is talented, but she is a child who will bite her owner’s hand whenever possible. She has a tendency of digging into my feelings if I lower my guard, so she is a handful.”

I smiled wryly.

“People are wicked, so they tend to forget their grudges if they are treated nicely. If you wish to maintain a transparent relationship, then you must be cold-hearted.”

“Hmph. What a trashy opinion.”

The conversation ended there. We quietly watched the battlefront. Once a girl wearing a maid uniform stepped out onto the plains, the troops on both sides started to murmur loudly. Why was a child in a maid uniform stepping forward for a sacred duel?

“……!”

The Frankian knight was obviously perplexed.

He opened his hands and started to shout something as he watched Daisy approach. He was probably telling her that he didn’t intend to fight a human child like her. On the other hand, Daisy continued forward in silence as if she couldn’t hear a thing. She eventually reached the knight.

A single strike.

All she had done was unsheathe her blade upward and the head of the knight’s horse fell to the floor shortly after. The knight lost his balance and fell off of his horse. Daisy jumped swiftly and unsheathed her dagger. She then stabbed her blade accurately into the falling knight’s armpit.

“…….”

“…….”

A curtain of silence fell over both armies.

It took only 3 seconds for the knight to die. A fountain of blood sprayed out from the beheaded horse’s corpse. The girl casually received the blood as if it were rainwater. It was such a surreal sight that it was almost sensual.

She brought the voice amplification artifact to her mouth before speaking.

“I am a Frankian who was born in Laelia.”

Her voice blanketed the plains. She spoke in a north Frankian dialect. It was a dialect that was incredibly familiar to the enemy troops who were mostly from the northwestern side of the country.

“My mother and father were slash-and-burn villagers. The mountains were our village’s home. However, as it is fated for all other slash-and-burn villagers, everyone died after being attacked by a horde of goblins.”

“…….”

“When my mother was groaning in pain as her innards spilled out, no one came to save us. When my father was beheaded while holding me in his arms……no one helped us then either.”

Daisy looked straight at the human army. An unknown pressure was emanating from the girl.

“I did not know what justice was because I was foolish. However, I know that if a Demon Lord is allowed to coil up in the center of the continent, then the same thing that happened to me will happen again, no, it will continue to happen endlessly. Monsters will flourish while humans will die off. There is no way that this is justice.”

“…….”

“Fellow countrymen, I do not hold a grudge against you. Nonetheless, if you intend to stand idly by as a tragedy is cultivated in our land, if you refer to this as justice, then I will swing my blade without any hesitation.”

Daisy turned away and swung her sword down. Blood splattered as the knight was decapitated. Daisy picked up the head and returned to where we were.

Everyone on the plains became speechless because of the girl’s intensity.

Except for one person.

“Huhahaha! Look at that, Your Highness! Is the kid not rather formidable!? You have to at least be able to do that much to be considered my adopted daughter!”

It was obviously me.

I applauded her.

“A proud knight of the empire was beheaded by a mere maid. There is nothing more humiliating than this. I almost want to go and commission a bard to make a comedy out of this! No, what are you all doing? You should be applauding our human girl who gave such an amazing performance!”

“Ah, yes!”

The demon officers came back to their senses. They started to applaud together. The clapping quickly spread through the soldiers before eventually, our entire army of four thousand was cheering in unison.

This should decrease the enemy’s morale drastically.

They were utterly defeated in a duel by a young girl. Furthermore, the girl wasn’t a demon but a fellow human. This basically assured our position as a human army. The Frankian army lost their pride and cause.

How unfortunate, generals of Frankia. You were planning to send out a sacrifice in order to make your army unite firmly, but we have an absurd human weapon known as the hero candidate. Those sorts of tricks won’t work on this monster.

“Father.”

Daisy walked in front of me and kneeled. She presented the knight’s head up to me in her hands.

“Excellent. You performed rather fabulously.”

I dismounted from my horse and patted her head. Daisy kept her head down in silence. I smirked.

“But you truly are a piece of trash. You used your own parents’ names for the sake of your goal. I underestimated you.”

“…….”

“In the past, you did your utmost to protect your family, but now you use them however you want without any guilt. I can only say that you are amazing. You are an amazing piece of trash, Daisy. Your lover back home will undoubtedly be happy as well.”

Daisy raised her head.

Hatred and humiliation were lingering in her onyx eyes. The ‘lover back home’ was referring to her brother, Luke. Feeling satisfied with her reaction, I chuckled.

“You betrayed your family and humanity. You have nowhere left to return.”

“…….”

“Good work. You can go back and rest in your quarters.”

Daisy bit her lips. Blood trickled down her soft lips. The sound of her holding back her anger seeped out from between her teeth.

“……Yes, Father.”

The girl walked to the tent behind us. Our demon soldiers welcomed her with cheers, but she walked in silence, showing no emotions on her face. I watched her leave with a content smile before turning away.

“Now then, Your Highness. Now is the chance! The enemy’s morale has plummeted greatly and they are now holding doubts about this battle. We would only lose face if we do not take advantage of an army like that. Please give the order to attack.”

For some reason, Vassago was giving me a sharp look. He then muttered as if he were letting out a sigh. It seemed as if he had made up his mind.

“……Like father, like daughter. Sheesh. Would you avoid shit because you are afraid of it? You avoid it because it is dirty.”

“Pardon me?”

“Never mind.”

Vassago shook his head.

“All soldiers. Attack.”

On that day, our vanguard was victorious against Frankia’s army.

About 600 of the enemy’s 3,000 soldiers fell in battle. There were surprisingly not a lot of deaths, but it wasn’t because they fought well. It was because a majority of them fled as soon as the battle started. Thanks to that, we only lost about a hundred men.

There were no ifs or buts about it. It was our complete victory.