Southeast of Korniko Pass stood the Dragon Kingdom's largest border castle, Blue Magpie Castle.
The castle stood on a delta where two waterways met.
The fortress complex consisted of one Main Castle and three Secondary Castles. From the castle's watchtower, one could see Rothe Territory in the west.
At noon on October 12, Northwest Count Kempins Bristle-Wolf rested his hands on the railing of the castle's watchtower, gazing at the groups of Barbarian Cavalry on the far side of the Boundary River, more than ten kilometers away.
"You said you saw at least a hundred cavalrymen back then. I'm afraid there are far more than that now.
The barbarians spotted outside various watchtowers and noble territories number more than three hundred. We've never had so many barbarians invade the Dragon Kingdom." Kempins spoke with a grave expression.
"My lord, I reported the number of barbarians we saw about a month ago. With Rothe's fall, there are surely even more heading south." The speaker was Hark Gallop, Landen's father.
Twelve days earlier, Hark, Ryan, and Obert had escaped from a barbarian tribe. After wandering for more than ten days, they disguised themselves as stray Barbarian Cavalry and made it through Korniko Valley.
As soon as they emerged from the valley, they headed east into the southeastern foothills of Korniko. When they neared Blue Magpie Castle, they happened to run into the Bristle-Wolf Knights, led by Count Bristle-Wolf, entering the castle.
When the knights saw two "savages" suddenly appear, they immediately went on alert. Fortunately, Cronie Red-Dragon, deputy commander of the Knight Order and a well-known social butterfly in Bristle-Wolf City, noticed something was amiss.
Under immense pressure, he stepped forward and recognized Hark and his two sons. At last, the count pieced together the truth about the barbarian occupation of the two territories in southern Korniko.
Through his network, Count Bristle-Wolf had learned long ago that although both Hark and Bob traded with the barbarians, Hark clearly had more scruples. After sensing the barbarians' unusual movements that winter, he had immediately prepared to warn the other nobles.
Bob, however, had learned of the same disturbance and had unhesitatingly chosen to sacrifice Hark to save himself. But the barbarians had outsmarted him, and his entire family had been killed.
Now Hark had returned from Gallop Plains, confirming Count Bristle-Wolf's suspicions. Naturally, the count did his best to reassure him. "Hark, don't worry too much. I've received reliable information.
"The people from your territory went to the Great Forest with Albert and the others. Everyone in Rothe Territory knows it.
"As long as your people are safe, your Gallop Family's title will never be taken away."
"Thank you, my lord. What worries me more is the fighting this winter. The fall of Rothe Territory will only draw more barbarians, and the nobles still haven't realized how serious this invasion is."
"You're right. Those lords have been living in comfort for too long." The count joked about his subordinates, but he, too, had underestimated the situation after such a long period of peace.
"My lord! My lord, there's a new report from the front!"
Baron Jeo Mormont of Wild Bear Ridge was the first baron to receive the count's summons and prepare ten knights to set out for Blue Magpie Castle. Yet for several days after making his preparations, Baron Jeo still couldn't leave Wild Bear Ridge.
The reason was simple: a camp of more than twenty-five Barbarian Cavalry had suddenly set up outside Wild Bear Ridge.
The barbarians' purpose was clear: to tie them down. Or, more precisely, to cut off the connection between Bristle-Wolf City and its southern vassals, preventing the viscounts' and barons' troops from reaching Blue Magpie Castle in time.
Wild Bear Ridge was small, and its forests produced some Magic Potions and magical beasts.
Much of this valuable produce had to be traded with other territories for ironware, salt, grain, and other necessities. Some also went to the family's knights to help them grow stronger, leaving very few resources to trade for weapons and warhorses.
Jeo couldn't equip every knight with a Black-Scaled Horse and Iron Armor. The most effective way to inflict casualties on the Barbarian Cavalry was for the baron, an Intermediate Knight, to fight them one-on-one.
The other knights were in trouble. They couldn't catch the barbarians on horseback, and the barbarians would harry them whenever they tried to retreat. Unless they were exceptionally experienced Junior Knights, ordinary Junior Knights and Reserve Knights couldn't hurt the armored Barbarian Cavalry.
A few days earlier, Baron Jeo had tried to organize a sortie, but they had nearly been surrounded, and his eldest son had been gravely wounded in the fighting. In the end, Jeo himself had to cover the knights' retreat, and only then had he managed to keep his family from being wiped out on the road to Blue Magpie City.
After that failed sortie, Jeo had no choice but to hide in the hills. Fortunately, the barbarians weren't skilled at mountain warfare and had no interest in entering the forests. They only wanted to hold key points and cut off human reinforcements.
Gazing at the barbarian camp on the plain north of the ridge, Baron Jeo sighed. "This barbarian invasion is far from normal. What exactly happened in Rothe Territory?"
"What happened in Rothe Territory doesn't matter anymore," said the scholar of Wild Bear Ridge. "Yake's injuries leave us no time to worry about that. We have to get him to Bristle-Wolf City immediately so the Temple's priests can treat him."
"Indeed. But how can we break through the cavalry surrounding us?"
"I have a suggestion..."
An hour later, the barbarians at their camp spotted the knights of Wild Bear Ridge appearing at the edge of the hills again. The Barbarian Cavalry immediately gathered.
The knights rode back and forth along the edge of the woods on the hillside. Now and then, they ventured onto the plain, only to return to the forest at once.
Their movements made the Barbarian Cavalry hesitate. The barbarians disliked woods, and they liked mountains even less. They never entered the forests in the Wild Bear Ridge mountains to pursue the knights, usually stopping at the forest's edge.
Now the knights of Wild Bear Ridge were riding along the forest's edge, as if they meant to circle around toward Bristle-Wolf City. Or perhaps they were deliberately trying to lure the barbarians into the forest and pick them off one by one.
The barbarians couldn't figure out the knights' true intentions, but their previous battles had shown that Barbarian Cavalry couldn't get the better of the Wild Bear Ridge knights in the forest.
At last, the barbarian leader saw that the knights had ridden more than two kilometers out from the forest.
He still didn't know what they were up to, but he decided to lead his men out to intercept them at once. He didn't need to kill the knights; he only wanted to drive them back into the woods.
Watching his knights charge toward the Barbarian Cavalry, Jeo knew they would soon return to the forest.
But making his men act as bait so he could escape his territory still left him feeling the shame of desertion.
All he could do now was reach Bristle-Wolf City as quickly as possible, tell the count what was happening in the south, and get his son treated.
Viscount Elk faced the same predicament. East of Bristle-Wolf City, he had come face-to-face with Barbarian Cavalry for the first time in his life.
The viscount and his twenty knights encountered a band of twenty-five Barbarian Cavalry.
The viscount, two Intermediate Knights, and five Junior Knights wore Iron Armor and rode Black-Scaled Horses, but the Reserve Knights had only ordinary horses and Leather Armor.
Once the fighting began, Viscount Elk immediately realized how great the difference in strength was. He and the two Intermediate Knights could hold their own against three barbarians apiece with the help of Battle Qi. The Junior Knights could still escape on their Black-Scaled Horses if they found themselves outmatched. But the twelve Reserve Knights were at a comprehensive disadvantage: they couldn't break through the barbarians' defenses, couldn't defend themselves, couldn't catch them, and couldn't get away.
The barbarians cared nothing for the chivalrous ideal of one-on-one combat, nor did they spare the weak. They attacked at once, and if they could gang up on someone, they never fought alone.
The knights soon began to suffer casualties. In the end, only the Intermediate Knights' rear guard allowed them to retreat to the castle. Even so, two Reserve Knights were killed and four wounded. For the first time, the barbarians had reached the gates of Elk Castle.
Standing atop the castle gate, the viscount watched the barbarians circling the castle in the distance.
"So this is how the barbarians fight. How did Bob survive all those years at Korniko Pass?" Viscount Elk looked at his battered troops and began to doubt himself.
"My lord! Those barbarians... They're heading for Doren's knightly fief!" a knight shouted.
"What!" The viscount understood. The barbarians were going after the various knightly fiefs. He had just been defeated and had no strength to stop them.
Similar scenes were playing out across the region. The Gray Goose Leader dispatched a hundred barbarians in four groups to harass, plunder, and obstruct the heart of Count Bristle-Wolf's territory, preventing the count from concentrating his forces.
The Gray Goose Leader set up his main camp outside Blue Magpie Castle, blocking the Bristle-Wolf Knights from moving out.
The count finally understood from the reports he received that the situation he faced was even worse than he had imagined.
His own troops couldn't leave, and his subordinates' forces couldn't reach him.
At that moment, the count truly wanted to lead the Bristle-Wolf Knights in a direct assault on Gray Goose Camp. But there were no clergy in Blue Magpie Castle, and he feared the cost in casualties would be too high.
Inside the Gray Goose Leader's tent, the mysterious young man met with him again.
"Congratulations on taking Rothe Territory and advancing right to the walls of Blue Magpie Castle," said the young man.
"Hahahaha! Nothing to it. In the end, I have to thank you for your plan." The Gray Goose Leader looked delighted.
"With the wealth of Rothe Castle, you'll surely unite all of Gallop Plains. In the future, we'll be counting on you for the Salt Mine and Black-Scaled Horse trade."
"Hahaha, certainly. The Palace Front Department and I go way back."
"I... Chief, I'm with the Empire's Salt and Iron Department." The young man was a little embarrassed. He had always claimed to work for the Salt and Iron Department, but the barbarian leader had immediately recognized him as a representative of the Palace Front Department.
"Come on, why hide it from me? The Blue Dragon Family of the Dragon Kingdom runs the Salt and Iron Department's operations on Gallop Plains.
"Those Salt and Iron Department people talk about nothing but salt prices and salt permits. They wouldn't tell me which territory has weak defenses or which count has a dispute with the Royal Capital. That's what the Palace Front Department cares about, isn't it?"
"This..."
"You're not the first imperial official I've met, or even the first representative of the Palace Front Department. You humans only care about your own little affairs. It's easy to tell which department you're from."
"...Then... Chief, you should know that the magic mentors and Legends in the Dragon Kingdom are keeping a close eye on your activities in the Northwest Territory. They won't stand by and watch you push deeper into it." The young man realized there was no point in hiding the truth, so he decided to persuade the Gray Goose Leader to withdraw.
"Of course. The warriors of the grasslands don't plan to live behind stone walls, and I won't stay beneath Blue Magpie Castle for long."
"Then you..."
"Our Salt Mine is short on slaves. I'll find some slaves here, then leave."
"But you're outside Blue Magpie Castle... You... You didn't send small groups of cavalry to raid the various territories and seize human Mana-Wielders, did you?"
"Of course. If I didn't send troops, was I supposed to ask the count for them directly?"
"But you never mentioned this to me. You said that once you got the wealth of Rothe Territory, you'd head north." The young man realized that the situation had spiraled out of control, and he was furious at the Gray Goose Leader for breaking his word.
"Plans changed." The Gray Goose Leader didn't care at all about promises the humans valued.
"You—you're not afraid that once things get out of hand, the powerful figures of the Dragon Kingdom and the Human Empire will step in?"
"Hey, why would they? Hasn't your Empire's Palace Front Department been covering for me all along?
"Haven't you been misleading the Dragon Kingdom's powerful figures on one hand and that old Bristle-Wolf on the other?
"With you covering for me, how could I pass up such a great opportunity?"
"You..."
"Didn't you receive a letter from your Palace Front Department before you came here? It told you to make sure the plan went ahead."
"..." The young man hadn't realized that the barbarian leader before him had been watching his every move. But how had they found out?
"Why are you looking at me like that?" The Gray Goose Leader could no longer contain himself. "Oh, you want to know how I know so much about what you've been doing, do you?
"It's simple. Do you remember the Palace Front Department representative at the Salt Mine who came before you?
"You probably don't know this, but he was killed in a tribal war. Still, as an Intermediate Mage, he had set up a surveillance array in the former Salt Mine chief's room.
"Guess who's living in that room now?"
As he spoke, the leader took out a small mirror. It was a specially made Magic Mirror powered by Magic Crystals. Through it, one could see what was happening in a particular room a thousand li away.
"You... You actually dare to use the Palace Front Department's methods to spy on its representative!" The young man was enraged. He spoke harshly, but crossed his hands and slipped them into his wide sleeves.
Hidden in the sleeves were several terrifying scrolls, powerful enough to kill the barbarian before him.
But before the young man could reach one of the scrolls, his own body suddenly appeared in his field of vision. Its neck was already headless.
A towering barbarian stood behind the Palace Front Department's representative. In a flash, he drew his blade and beheaded the young man.
"A blade can kill others, but it can wound you, too," the Gray Goose Leader said coldly. "If you use others as your blade, you'll end up stabbing yourself!"
An extra chapter to celebrate reaching 100,000 words. Comments and votes are welcome.