Thursma

Back at the inn, the assassins upstairs had suffered heavy losses in the elf knight's ambush and could no longer pose a threat. They would likely be cleaned up before long.

The battle downstairs, however, had run into trouble. Without armor to protect him, Ronan had to carefully dodge his opponents' attacks. And after the remaining orcs were exposed, they stopped hiding their faces. Tearing off their black robes only made them fiercer.

Most importantly, Guldan could no longer hold himself back. The original plan had been for him to hide and deliver a sudden blow, just as he had when defeating Knight Warren, but the situation no longer allowed him to keep his strength concealed.

Though he downstairs did not know what had happened upstairs, the fact that Ronan's group still had the spare strength to come down and hold them off, coupled with the constant screams from above, showed that the situation was far from encouraging.

Ronan, who was pinning one enemy's arm and using his body as a shield, suddenly felt his heart lurch. Without time to think, he directly raised the enemy in front of him.

Amid a scream and a series of sizzling sounds, the enemy Ronan had used as a shield was struck by a stream of acid. His black robe was corroded over a wide area, and the leather armor beneath it was pierced before it could hold out for long. White smoke rose where the acid splashed onto his skin, and before long, he had been corroded down to the bone.

Ronan's eyelid twitched as he shouted to the Nords around him:

"Watch out! There's a mage!"

Just as Ronan finished shouting, a Nord guard who had knocked an enemy down with his shield and was about to finish him off was blasted backward by a shockwave, crashing into a comrade behind him and forcing that man back several steps as well.

Once Guldan joined the fight, Ronan and the others quickly fell into a disadvantage. They had to devote much of their attention to guarding against Guldan's spells. Ronan, too, was grazed on the upper part of his left arm by a longsword while dodging acid, though the wound was not deep.

The Nords were highly skilled at battle formations. They defended one another and constantly warned each other. Though their caution prevented them from inflicting casualties on the black-robed men, it also kept the black-robed men from breaking through after prolonged attacks.

Guldan was anxious as well. Time was limited. Whether the pirates escaped successfully or were captured, the Whiteport guards would quickly discover what was happening here.

But anxiety was useless. He had studied magic for only a short time, his talent was mediocre, and his mana was limited. Most of the spells he had learned were utility spells; the only offensive spells he knew were Air Cannon and Acid Splash.

Utility spells such as the Soul-searching technique had helped him and Lase solve many problems, but they were powerless in the current situation. Nor could he cast the Blood Burn Technique on the orcs around him. They were his last remaining subordinates; the others were merely hired mercenaries and assassins beyond his command.

Anyone enhanced by the Blood Burn Technique was doomed to die. Even if they defeated these enemies, Guldan—whose physical abilities were weak and who would have no subordinates left—would have no chance of taking the target away. As for the soldiers of other races who had fled after the battle of Ravenwood Town, they had returned to Moran after Lase's death long ago. Guldan could not command them at all.

The screams upstairs had ceased. Knowing that the situation was hopeless, Guldan began considering retreat. After urging the mercenaries around him to launch another charge, he quietly withdrew from the inn with the help of several Orc Warriors.

By the time the soldiers and elf knights who had finished the battle upstairs came down, the outcome had already been decided. Only some of the black-robed mercenaries fled the inn in panic; the rest had become corpses on the floor. Ronan's group did not pursue them.

Nearly all of Ronan's subordinates were wounded, but thanks to their coordination and protection of one another, no one had died. Some of the more seriously injured would likely need time to recover before they could fight again.

Once the battle ended, Belicha found the trembling owner and inn attendants hiding in their rooms. He gave them five gold coins as compensation for the damage, then had them bring out some wine and prepare some food.

The lightly wounded soldiers piled the bodies in a corner, while the more seriously wounded bandaged one another nearby. Fortunately, Ronan still had plenty of system-produced medicine.

Ronan, Belicha, and Sersma sat at a table, staring at one another, while Daisy helped Ronan apply medicine and bandage his wound nearby.

"It seems you've been hiding quite a lot from me, Belicha. Who is this handsome young man?" Ronan asked, looking at Sersma, who sat nearby in emerald-green armor.

"I am Sersma Illusionfeather, captain of the Sinterland Royal Guard's Third Squad. I was ordered to escort Her Highness the Princess home." Before Belicha could speak, Sersma answered first.

"Her Highness the Princess?" Ronan had known all along, but with Daisy beside him, he still had to put on an act. Yet the moment he finished speaking, he was viciously pinched. Ronan turned to Daisy with an innocent expression, as if asking, Why did you pinch me?

"Stop pretending. Uncle Belicha told me everything upstairs just now—about Mother, and about Ravenwood Town."

Seeing the sadness in Daisy's expression, Ronan reached out with his right hand and gently clasped the hands that were bandaging him, smiling warmly at her.

"I'll help you," Ronan said.

Daisy returned his smile with a strained one of her own.

Across the table, Sersma's brows twitched sharply twice at the sight, but under Belicha's gaze, she said nothing.

"Captain Sersma actually caught up with us long ago, but after considering various factors, I never let her reveal herself. Instead, I had her people hide near us. We have a special way of communicating, so it's normal that you didn't notice."

"If Moran still had any moves left, tonight and tomorrow, when we leave Whiteport, would be their last opportunity. Once we entered Sinterland, they would have no chance of succeeding. So I expected them to make a final desperate attempt over these two days, which was why I had Captain Sersma stay next to us. I didn't expect my guess to be right."

"If that was the case, why didn't you tell me beforehand?"

"We were probably being watched as soon as we entered the city. I had intended to capture their commander alive. If we had acted as though we were prepared, they might have become alert and refused to act. I just didn't expect them to be so cunning. They stayed hidden among the group the entire time, then slipped away the moment things turned against them."

"Then what do we do when we leave the city tomorrow?"

"Judging by tonight's attack, this should have been the last of their strength. They probably won't have the power left to attack us when we leave tomorrow, but we should still be careful."

Ronan said nothing more, but he remained somewhat angry inside. Belicha had concealed too many things from him, and one small mistake tonight could have led to casualties. Yet based on everything that had happened recently, there was surely more to Belicha than this. Ronan had also noticed that people in this world did not care much about death, especially the lives of soldiers.

To achieve their goals, they did not care about sacrifices. Ronan had yet to grow accustomed to that, though perhaps he would become numb to it with time. Were not all the great tyrants of his previous life's history like this?