Chapter 163 - Walking on Eggshells (3)

Chapter 163 - Walking on Eggshells (3)

Enkelmann was the same as Monsieur.

Compared to the other mayors, Henry was more comfortable telling Harz the truth because there was no need for them to talk that formally anymore.

By the time Henry was done telling him what was going on, Harz’s face turned pale.

“What’s with your reaction?”

“...I’m starting to think that my life is very unfortunate.”

Harz finally felt like he was getting some well-deserved rest. Enjoying an extended vacation under the care of the professional management team Henry had employed, this was the longest break he had ever experienced. Additionally, he was even receiving paid time off.

He planned to live comfortably like this until he died, but Henry suddenly appeared and told him that there was going to be a war.

For Harz, this bad news had completely ruined the vacation he had been enjoying.

“Don’t worry too much. All you have to do is stay at Enkelmann and continue to fulfill your duties.”

“But this is war.”

“All the more reason to protect this place. Since Enkelmann is a port city, aren't there more supplies here compared to other places? So don’t let anyone take away those supplies and protect Enkelmann. If you do that, I’ll protect you.”

“But still...!”

“Enough!”

“...Alright.”

If Henry really was a disciple of the Archmage, he had to be reliable. However, given how terrifying the prospect of war was, Harz couldn't help being worried about his safety, no matter how much Henry reassured him.

“And from now on, spend the rest of the budget on food and weapons. If anything, we’ll have to get the dock workers to defend the walls of Enkelmann as well,” added Henry.

“But aren’t the walls Enkelmann too weak to even defend?”

“Don’t worry about that because I’ve already got great engineers to repair the wall, so all you need to do is buy supplies as soon as you get money and make a permit for the wall to be constructed.”

Harz didn’t have a choice because the moment the Fief War started, there wasn’t going to be a single safe place on the continent. If anything, the free cities that had signed a solidarity agreement were going to be the safest out of all places.

“That’s all I had to say. I’ll build the teleportation gate, so in the meantime, just do as I instructed.”

“...Alright.”

Henry built the teleportation gate in the basement of the city hall, and just as he had done with the previous gate, he named it after the city. This was ‘Enkelmann gate’.

‘Am I done with the basic preparations now?’

Henry had finished preparing for the war in all the free cities that had signed the solidarity agreement.

‘Now all that’s left is...’

Having finished the preparations, Henry was about to move to carry out his next plan, but just then, the caller scroll he was carrying began vibrating.

‘The caller scroll?’

Henry was carrying around with him multiple caller scrolls because he had given them out to a few people just in case they needed to contact him.

The one who was now contacting Henry through the caller scroll was none other than Torian.

Henry had given him the scroll just in case, but he had never thought that Torian would ever need to use it.

‘But why is he contacting me?’

Henry had a bad feeling about this.

He hurried to Salgaera.

* * *

“Sir Henry!”

As soon as Henry arrived, Torian called out his name with terror in his voice.

Henry settled him down and asked, “What’s going on?”

“M-Marquis Alfred is here!”

“What?”

“It’s said that Marquis Alfred is at the Slan Gorge right now, and he’s coming to meet Aubert!”

“Whattt!?”

Upon hearing the news, Henry felt like the carefully laid gears of his plan were starting to come loose, signifying that his strategy was going to fail.

Henry was bewildered.

Why was Alfred here all of a sudden and why was he looking for Aubert?

Just then, a sudden thought flashed in his head like lightning.

‘The Egg of Evolution!’

Henry had completely forgotten about it since Aubert had died.

Aubert had attempted to make a deal with Alfred, offering the Egg of Evolution in exchange for receiving help.

‘It seems like he’s really desperate.’

In addition, considering the timing, coming to meet Aubert right now only meant one thing. Alfred was trying to get his hands on the Egg of Evolution at all costs in order to amplify his power.

Nonetheless, how could he come to Salgaera in the current situation when it was managed by Eisen?

Henry couldn’t help but admire Alfred’s audacity.

He had to do something about this soon. Henry knew it would take Alfred less than half an hour to get here through the checkpoint.

‘What should I do?’

He was running out of time, and yet he couldn’t come up with anything. It got to the point where Henry wondered if he had to kill Alfred and start the war immediately.

- Khu?

At the peak of Henry’s internal conflict, Elagon sensed the anxious state of his nest and suddenly appeared.

‘Elagon?’

As soon as Henry made eye contact with Elagon, he came up with an unbelievably excellent plan.

* * *

“I’ll ask you again. Are you denying me access when I have the Duke’s letter in my hand?”

“...Regardless if you have the letter or not, you cannot enter Salgaera unless you have permission from Marquis Eisen.”

Chief Vhant was trying his best to fulfill his duties.

Normally, Alfred should’ve been allowed to enter the city, since he had brought the Duke’s letter with him. However, Vhant also knew that Salgaera had already lost its main purpose of functioning as a prison for the exiles. Therefore, Vhant was stalling for time, sticking to the rules in an inappropriate manner.

Alfred was so enraged that he wanted just to kill Vhant and pass through, but he couldn’t do that, as this territory was being managed by Eisen. He had to be careful with his behavior because he didn’t know how his actions would affect the upcoming Fief War.

After stalling for some time, Torian finally showed up from inside Salgaera, gasping for air. Vhant quickly exchanged looks with Torian.

Torian nodded, signaling that it was okay to grant Alfred access now that they had come up with a way to handle the situation.

Vhant sighed deeply and allowed Alfred to enter, pretending like he had choice but to do so.

“...Enter!”

Alfred glared at Vhant for a while and said, “How dare you act powerful when you got thrown into this remote area...! I’ll make sure to remember your name.”n.(o./v.-e-/l.-b/(I/)n

Alfred warned Vhant and slowly resumed driving the carriage forward.

Whoosh!

After passing through the checkpoint and entering the Salgaera gorge, a fierce snowstorm, unique to Salgaera, swept in.

Torian guided Alfred.

“My name is Torian, and I will be escorting you, Marquis.”

However, still consumed by anger, Alfred didn’t even look at Torian.

Torian gritted his teeth and thought to himself.

‘Damn that bastard!’

This wasn’t the first time Torian and Alfred had met. They had exchanged greetings several times in the past at royal social gatherings. Of course, at that time, Torian was a noble because he was a family member of the State Contributors.

However, Alfred didn’t know that Torian was a family member of the State Contributors because he wasn’t interested in the families of the State Contributors to begin with.

The only thing that mattered to the Central Aristocrats at the time was the deaths of everyone involved with the State Contributors.

Evidently, their greetings had always been brief, so Torian could’ve forgotten about Alfred, but he had lost too many family members because of people like him. Thus, no matter how trivial it was, Torian had more than enough reasons to resent Alfred.

However, Torian wasn’t the type of person to ruin Henry’s plans due to personal feelings.

Torian smiled as he kindly guided Alfred.

“If you go across the long canyon here, you’ll find the Exile Village where the exiles live together.”

“Is Aubert there?”

“No, Aubert isn’t there.”

“What?”

Alfred was already irritable because of Vhant, and now he was even more angry at the news that Aubert wasn’t there.

He had come all this way to see Aubert. Why wasn’t he there?

This was absolutely ridiculous.

“What do you mean Aubert’s not here?!”

The carriage started to shake because of Alfred’s outburst.

He had thought he was finally getting one step closer to the spirit king, but that hope was crushed to pieces in a completely unexpected place.

Torian almost fell unconscious from the murderous aura Alfred was releasing, but he managed to spit out the next line he had prepared.

“Y-yes, there was an attack by Elyragon!”

Alfred’s murderous aura instantly subsided at Torian’s response.

Wasn’t Elyragon one of the highest forms of a water spirit?

“What do you mean Elyragon? Elyragon exists here?” asked Alfred.

“T-that’s right. Not long after Aubert was transported here, Elyragon suddenly emerged from the mountain and kidnapped him.”

“...!”

Alfred seemed to have mixed feelings. It was the kind of expression one made when they knew something.

Alfred was strongly convinced.

‘I’m sure of it! Elyragon sensed the Egg of Evolution in Aubert’s possession and kidnapped him!’

Otherwise, there would’ve been no reason to specifically kidnap Aubert among the many Crimson family members.

Trying to get the right timing, Torian continued to say the next things he had prepared.

“And since then, Elyragon started going crazy. After eating Aubert, Elyragon continued to come down to the Exile Village every now and then and attack the exiles. Presently, there are barely any survivors left in the Exile Village.”

With this, Alfred no longer had a reason to go down to the Exile Village, and he didn’t care about the lives of the exiles anyway.

“Where is Elyragon right now?” asked Alfred.

“E-Elyragon rarely shows up, so I’m not sure...”

Thud!!

Just when Torian stated that he didn’t know about Elyragon’s whereabouts, a loud sound came from above the carriage that Alfred was riding.

‘A rockslide?’

Alfred naturally assumed it was a rockslide.

However, Torian hugged himself, and with a shaky voice, he said, “H-he’s here, Marquis!”

“He? Who are you talking about... Can it be?”

“It’s Elyragon! He’s targeting your carriage, I'm sure of it!”

Thud!!

There was another heavy sound of something falling.

This one was much louder and heavier than the previous sound, almost like Elyragon was giving out a warning.

Above the carriage, or rather, on top of the Salgaera Gorge, Henry was creating blocks of ice with magic.