Chapter 168: Domestic Strife and Foreign Aggression of Joyce Fortress on the Eve of the War (Part 1)

Chapter 168: Domestic Strife and Foreign Aggression of Joyce Fortress on the Eve of the War (Part 1)

Translator: The Light

Editor: Entelechy

Viscount Aaron commanded over 15,000 of Marquis Charles’s personal troops in Joyce Fortress. They were all well-equipped with individual combat powers far outclassing the defeated Baron Haydn’s troops. Viscount Aaron stood on the fortress walls and pondered while looking towards the direction of Ferro.

He already knew that Ferro had fallen into the hands of Steinbeck Fief’s troops. Although he had known that Baron Haydn was unreliable, he had never expected him to lose so quickly with over 5,000 troops. Even if all of them were miscellaneous mobs, they had still had the advantage of a city wall. At worst, he should have been able to struggle for several days, but the entire army had been wiped out in the span of a single night.

Baron Haydn hadn’t escaped to Joyce Fortress; therefore, Viscount Aaron could only make wild guesses as to what had happened that night for now. Steinbeck Fief’s army had roughly 10,000 people, which was less than his numbers. If not for the interference of those Dark Shaman envoys Viscount Aaron would have already gone to assist Ferro, and perhaps, the final result of that battle would have been rewritten.

“Big Brother, those envoys are too wanton! They arbitrarily took all the weapons in our arsenal, and we still don’t know what they did with them. You must not ignore this!”

“Yani, they have the written decree of His Excellency Marquis Charles. Don’t speak out of turn. This is an order, and we soldiers can only execute it.”

“Humph, I don’t believe His Excellency Marquis Charles would use those Dark Shamans for such an important matter. This won’t do. I have to find a way to confirm this with Sivia.”

“Yani, don’t trouble Miss Sivia! Even if she is Marquis Charles’s golden daughter, she won’t know anything about military affairs. If you are truly her close girlfriend, don’t confuse her.”

Behind Viscount Aaron, a beautiful young girl wearing knight armor appeared. This young girl was Viscount Aaron’s younger sister, Yani. Accompanying her azure eyes, she had long, light-blonde hair, and her figure was slender. At this moment, her beautiful face was filled with complaints. This girl had an innate nature of being unable to keep secrets. Emotions like happiness, anger, grief ,and so on could easily be interpreted from her face. Viscount Aaron was already accustomed to this. After the death of his father, when he had taken over the Viscount position, his younger sister had been his only remaining blood relative, so the relationship between these siblings was not ordinary. Usually, he doted on Yani as much as possible. Merely, on some issues of principle, Viscount Aaron wouldn’t yield.

“Yani, if the envoys heard your words, it would be truly troublesome. I will deal with this myself.”

“Fine, Big brother. I know. Then, I will join the battle next time! You have promised it quite a few times before, but you’ve never let me join.”

“Next time, for sure... By the way, Yani, you haven’t seen Her Excellency Earl Winissa for a long time. Help me send her a letter tomorrow!”

“Okay, in any case, Earl Winissa can be counted as one of my senior schoolmates. Big Brother, honestly tell me: have you started to dislike me? You could clearly have used a magic communication crystal to contact her.”

“Little girl, just deliver the letter! Don’t ask so much!”

After the brother and sister teased each other, Viscount Aaron finally instructed Yani to leave. Looking at her distant back view, Viscount Aaron inwardly sighed in relief. On her knight armor was an eagle wing-style ornament, meaning she was a Sky Knight with a flying-type mount. For example, Dragon Knight had exclusive armors with a dragon wing ornament. Yani was an Eagle Knight; her mount was a huge eagle, so she could freely fly in the sky. Even if Joyce Fortress were trapped in a siege, as long as there were no air force opposing them, or the enemy forgot to pay attention to the skies for even a second, Yani alone had the chance to break through the encirclement.

However, Viscount Aaron made the worst decision possible. He planned to send Yani to Earl Winissa. He didn’t have much confidence in the defensive prowess of Joyce Fortress. After those Dark Shamans who didn’t understand military affairs had taken his command, there had been little suspense. Especially after the inexplicable loss of over 20,000 sets of equipment and weapons, Viscount Aaron had sunk into a passive state. Once Joyce Fortress fell, and Steinbeck Fief’s troops occupied this place, as the commanding officer, he could only perish together with the fortress. He was not as shameless as Baron Haydn. He wouldn’t run away and abandon everyone here like nothing had happened. At this time, his only wish was to keep his younger sister Yani safe.

Shortly after Yani left the fortress, several figures hidden in the darkness eyed her. Those Dark Shaman envoys had secretly monitored every action within Joyce Fortress via black sorcery, so they already knew that she had complained about them several times. Merely, they hadn’t responded to stop her due to considering the Viscount’s face.

“That smelly girl is not too powerful, but she looks quite beautiful! How about we...”

“Viscount Aaron still has some use, and it’s not good to publicly shred all pretenses of cordiality. Otherwise, it will not be easy to ignore the loss of over 20,000 equipment sets. Naturally, after that smelly girl leaves the vicinity of the fortress, we can... Heh heh! We’ll make her know what women ought to do and not do!”

“Captain is wise! I have prepared everything. What exactly happened to those underground ratmen? Over 20,000 underground ratmen raided over 10,000 troops of Steinbeck Fief, but there still hasn’t been any news from them. They didn’t intentionally steal the equipment from us, did they?”

“I have already reported this to above. Don’t worry about it for now. In any case, with Marquis Charles’s written decree in our hands, Viscount Aaron and his blind devotion will never oppose us.”

Yani had never expected that she would be targeted so quickly by the envoys after criticizing them. Those Dark Shamans had secretly schemed an unspeakably wicked plan against her. After eavesdropping on the conversation between Yani and Aaron, they eagerly waited for her to leave Joyce Fortress to make their move. Viscount Aaron never realized that his arrangements had made his most beloved younger sister fall in a dangerous situation.

While these Dark Shamans were excitedly discussing their plans, they didn’t notice that they themselves had become the prey of a certain existence. A transparent shadow hid in the mirror of that dim room. However, the Dark Shamans had gathered around a table and were using a crystal ball to monitor Viscount Aaron and Miss Yani, entirely unaware of the terrifying existence.

After the Dark Shamans finished discussing their plans, the shadow sunk into the mirror. After a short time, the shadow reappeared in the mirror of a room located in Ferro’s castellan residence. When she walked out of the mirror, a few demon guards respectfully welcomed her.

“I finally discovered something interesting. The Human Race is still the same. Even when faced with a formidable foe, they don’t forget to fight each other. If I report this to Lord Clyde, there will surely be rewards. Not only Andrisno is useful! I can also help.”

“Lord Demon King, Lord Clyde has instructed us to not let anyone else disturb him tonight including Lord Andrisno! The only exception is Lord Lucifer.”

“Eh, I was late. Help me report this to Andrisno and ask her to help me report it to Lord Clyde. I’ll continue to observe over there.”

This shadow was the Ancient Demon King who had colluded with Third Young Master Hal to trigger the Undead calamity in Atad. She was a female Demon King like Andrisno. Merely, she had no physical body and only had a soul state. After Clyde had ended Hal’s life of crime, the demonic soul of this female Demon King had also fallen into his hands. So far, she had watched Andrisno’s performance in envy. She wanted to display her good side and ask Clyde to reward her with a body. Merely, there were too many high-level female commanders in the monster army around Clyde. It was too hard to find the chance to render meritorious services. Fortunately, hard work and due diligence wouldn’t let one down. This female demon king’s demonic soul had lurked in the mirrors of Joyce Fortress for several days and finally received a chance.

Thinking this, the demonic soul sunk into the mirror once more and disappeared, leaving behind the kneeling, dumbfounded demon guards. The demon guards looked at each other in blank dismay. They then reluctantly got up and went to Ancient Demon King Andrisno to report the new development. The demonic soul had been acting alone, hiding things from Andrisno. Both of them were Ancient Demon Kings with equal statuses. Even if these demon guards knew this, it was not good to arbitrarily report to Andrisno. They were barely able to remain a neutral stance as it was and wished to avoid offending either side as much as possible.

Clyde had returned to his bedroom to rest. He was unaware that open and hidden battles had already started outside. In fact, the allied monster army temporarily didn’t even contain his direct troops. The Great Old One kin he commanded, that infamous corps, had not yet been summoned. The Bloodkin army was under the control of his younger sister, the monster army was under Ancient Demon King Andrisno, the zombies and mummies belonged to Undead Queen Lafania and her younger sister Cursed Queen Mephis. Clyde himself was more like the nominal chief commander. He was a “hands-off” leader. He didn’t need to do anything specific; someone else would do it for him.

This time, to avoid being disturbed, Clyde directly locked the door. Hearing the lock’s “kacha” sound, Miss Kylie and Miss Betty thoroughly lost all hope. They knew that there was no escape. Miss Anna, however, had a sweet and charming expression. In any case, this was not the first time she had provided him special services. Now, with her close girlfriends and the others, she didn’t feel shame. Instead an inexplicable excitement appeared in her heart.

“Anna, you don’t need to be nervous. We won’t do that for the time being, but you all have to massage me and obey my every request! First... Anna, let Betty and Kylie test it out! Until the next one comes, no one is allowed to be lazy!”

“Lord Clyde, this... this is too! Don’t... don’t move randomly! I’ll do as you command.”

Betty and Kylie’s complexions were red and burning hot. They were so shy that they didn’t dare to look at him. But because of Clyde’s wicked orders, they also didn’t dare to lower their heads in fear of being punished. They could only reluctantly tilt their heads upwards, bite their lips, cover their chests with their hands and tightly clamp their white legs while doing their best to not cry out. However, the strange water stains on the sheets became more conspicuous the more they tried to cover themselves up. This sight stimulated the other party to commit even greater crimes. The other noble ladies in the room felt embarrassed seeing Kylie and Betty. Their complexions were as red as apples. They thought that they would have to take turns and do things like Miss Anna and became so embarrassed that they wanted to find a hole to borrow themselves in.

Anna barely calmed down her emotions and knelt in front of her master. Then, according to a certain person’s wicked command, she leaned forward and used her hands to grab her soft mounds to clamp around a certain crime tool. She then commenced a squeezing up and down massage. Average humans couldn’t bear this kind of stimulation, but Clyde was a Great Old One Evil God. Humans couldn’t compare to his physique. Tonight, none of these white lambs would escape. He reached out to hold down the head of the white lamb in front of him. Miss Anna’s eyes blurred, and after some hesitation, she lowered her head and stretched out her pink fragrant tongue...