Mission: Seeking Reinforcements

Without a second thought, Chiba extinguished the lava in his hand. He was an innocent young man who had never experienced anything before; how could he withstand such a memorable scene?

"Ahem... Senior sister, I didn't mean to just now." Chiba coughed twice to cover up her embarrassment.

In the darkness, Nuolin swiftly sheathed her sword, slipped back into her bed like a black cat, and then said softly, "That's enough."

Chiba touched his nose, and the lava gathered again in his palm before he scattered it around the house. The lava piled up, with wisps of flame flickering and rising.

The room gradually warmed up, Chiba closed the door, turning her gaze to the bed.

On the bed, Nuolin was wrapped tightly in the blanket, only her head peeking out. Her eyes were cautious, like a little fox that had spotted a human, full of wariness. Chiba wondered if he was mistaken, but there was a slight blush on Norin's expressionless face.

"It's warm." Unless it's an explanation of an event, Nuolin always expresses her meaning in the shortest possible words.

Chiba sat down on his bed, stretched, lay down, and said, "We encountered the Throne of Water today."

"He's dead?" Nuolin asked.

"Yes, Laxus and I teamed up to kill him." Chiba asked, "What about the position?"

Nuolin said, "The orders have come in; prepare for a general offensive."

She paused, then added, "They won't win."

"Why?" Chiba was taken aback.

Logically, their prolonged inaction should have been to allow ample time to prepare for this war. Why then did Nuolin say they wouldn't win?

"Without reinforcements, we're no match," Nuolin said, blinking.

Chiba's brow twitched, then he frowned deeply. No reinforcements? How could that be?

With such a small force, they'd struggle to even wield the Sword of Slaughter, let alone imagine this place turning into a battlefield of Shadow Skull and the Grimoire Heart. In that case, almost everyone would be cannon fodder.

"Their captain seems to have offended a high-ranking official at headquarters and wasn't approved to support the troops; instead, he was forced to launch a general offensive." Nuolin spoke very slowly, just as she had when they first met. Her pace slowed down whenever she spoke for a long time.

Chiba's expression darkened slightly. If that were the case, wouldn't their mission become almost impossible to complete?

"Then, together we'll kill the guild master of the Sword of Slaughter," Nuolin said, her eyes fixed on Chiba.

Hey! Your punctuation is terrible! The first two sentences sound like they're about to elope, but then the tone suddenly changes in the last sentence?

"Yes, it's a mission after all." Chiba nodded calmly.

Nuolin stopped talking. She looked at Chiba for a long time and found that he seemed to be deep in thought, so she crawled into bed.

The next day.

The heavy snow began to fall again, accompanied by howling winds and swirling oppressive dark clouds. The north wind sometimes blew fast and sometimes slowed down, and the snowflakes seemed to be burying the world.

The Magic Council has dispatched a massive punitive expedition, advancing wave after wave towards the enemy camp. They carry the Magic Council's banner high as they march across the snow-covered ground.

There was no reason why the Sword of Slaughter should not have received the news, but strangely enough, the opposing camp made not a single move, as if they had vanished into thin air.

Chiba was worried about the puppet army from yesterday. Three hundred of them weren't particularly strong individually, but their coordination was absolutely perfect. And judging from Alili's words, those things seemed to be just experiments. Chiba couldn't imagine how terrifying a truly complete puppet army would be.

He brought his senior sister to the main tent, and Jikade could no longer offer any advice. He was already burdened with a mountain of troubles and had no energy left to deal with the two of them.

"Is there anything we can do?" Chiba asked directly.

Jikade glanced at him, then said, "While I still hope you can leave, at this point, we truly need your strength."

"Our mission is to help the Magic Council destroy the Sword of Slaughter. Please feel free to ask if you need anything," Chiba said.

Jikade nodded and said, "Dragon Corpse Valley is their territory. From the other end of Dragon Corpse Valley, it only takes an hour to reach the only small town on horseback. However, because the kingdom has been slow to issue an evacuation order, the people there have not yet evacuated."

Chiba frowned. "Aren't they afraid of dying?"

"That's not the case," Jikade said slowly. "That's their homeland where they've lived for decades. Abandoning their wealth, leaving their homeland, and wandering from place to place is no simple matter. Without a kingdom to arrange a place for them, they'd rather believe it's just a minor incident."

He let out a sigh of relief and said, "They have no idea what kind of war is brewing here, so I arranged for Tianna to lead a team to protect them in advance."

"Are you asking us to go and help them?" Chiba asked.

"That's not the case. I told you so you wouldn't worry about Tianna's safety. They have no reason to extend their reach there," Jikade said calmly.

Chiba nodded slightly; that was indeed the case. There was no need for two dominant dark guilds to specifically target a deserted human town when they were vying for power. Jikade had placed Tianna there, which was actually the safest place for her.

Considering Jikade isn't as rigid as Tianna described, he assigned her to a place where fighting is almost nonexistent, even though Tianna is the strongest fighter on the Magic Council's side. Isn't that abusing his power for personal gain?

"I know that, she told me about it last night," Chiba said.

Yes, it was the middle of the night. He was practically fast asleep when that brat barged in. Nuolin nearly chopped him down with her sword, then snatched his trench coat and ran off.

Jikade gave Chiba a strange look and continued, "To the west, about an hour from here, there's a Magic Council army. They should have arrived at the battlefield long ago, but a man Wodi Woddy has been late. I hope you can persuade him to lead his troops to support us. If you can't persuade him..."

He paused, a chilling murderous intent flashing across his cold face. "Kill him, bring the troops here. If the higher-ups come after us, just say it was me."

Chiba's expression hardened. Although this seemed to involve internal strife within the Magic Council, he couldn't very well refuse at the moment.

It's not that it's hard to refuse, it's that there's no need to refuse at all. What does he care about the Magic Council's internal strife? The front lines are in the middle of a fierce battle, and you, as a member of the Magic Council, are just watching from the sidelines. Chiba is afraid that he won't even bother to waste time talking to him and will just give him a big dumpling.

Chiba and Nuolin rode off on horseback toward their destination, their hooves clattering and leaving a trail of striking hoofprints in the snow.