The 9th Class Swordmaster: Blade of Truth C.136: Eye for an Eye

“Ahhh...!!”

“Aaagh!!”

Screams echoed from all directions. With monsters from the Fonein at their backs and the soldiers of the Twin Armor closing in from the front, the imperial army was in complete disarray, their morale having long since plummeted.

“Damn it!” Luon shouted in frustration amidst the disorganized soldiers. “Sir Azif!!”

Azif was the only one he could trust.

“It would be best to retreat and regroup, Prince. Facing both monsters simultaneously will result in too many casualties.”

“Retreat? To where? Those monsters behind us are waiting to devour us!”

The confidence he had shown earlier was gone. Now, Luon’s voice was filled with rage.

“Calm down. I don’t know why the Sea King and the Water King are together... But they’re deep-sea monsters. Unlike other water monsters, they can’t come on land.”

“So what?”

“Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, this spot we reached through the main road is the shallowest part of the Fonein.”

Azif quickly pointed nord.

“If we move further upstream, we’ll reach a section of the river that’s just waist-deep. Normally, the current of the Fonein would be too strong to cross, but now it’s different.”

Luon remembered the calm waters they had crossed earlier. Indeed, at this level, they could make it.

“And with the shallow depth, the Sea King and the Water King won’t be able to follow us there.”

Azif bit his lip slightly as he glanced at Karyl’s Free Army advancing toward them.

“Even if we can’t cross the river, with a stabilized rear, we can crush that number of troops.”

They needed to avoid engaging in a battle here, even if they didn’t retreat.

Despite the sudden monster attack, our casualties are minimal. We still outnumber them three to one. The odds are in our favor!

Reading Azif’s thoughts, Luon nodded at him before raising his sword.

Then, a flag signaling the command was lifted high into the sky.

“Retreat!”

***

"The imperial army has started retreating."

Kinu Mukari, with his keen eyesight, noticed the prince’s flag fluttering among the imperial forces from several hundred meters away.

"The flag is moving north."

"Just as expected." Karyl nodded at Kinu's report. "Any decent strategist would make that decision. But they seem to have forgotten that the enemy is likely to predict such an obvious move.”

"The preparations in the forest are complete." Two men knelt before Karyl with their heads bowed, interrupting his thoughts. They were the subordinates who had previously lured Luon.

"Well done," Karyl praised them, nodding with satisfaction before raising his hand. The advancing Free Army halted instantly.

"Kinu," Karyl called.

"Yes, Master.”

"Can you hit that flagpole with an arrow?"

All eyes turned to Kinu Mukari. The distance between the imperial army and the Free Army was still over a kilometer, and with the prince's flag positioned even further back, about 1.5 kilometers away.

"Yes," Kinu answered without hesitation.

Beikan chuckled at Kinu Mukari’s nonchalant response.

Just as expected...

The maximum range of Kinu’s bow was five hundred meters at most, with half of that for guaranteed accuracy. This was impressive even among the most skilled archers.

However, Karyl was asking Kinu to hit a target three times farther than his maximum range, possibly even six times.

“Ha...”

“Is that possible...?”

Others murmured in disbelief at Kinu's confident reply.

Surely that was something that required magic; no archer on the continent could take that shot with just strength and precision. It was as if Kinu were truly blessed by the wind spirits, like Allen Javius had once been.

Creaaak...

Kinu Mukari drew an arrow from his quiver, pulling the bowstring with all his might. The bow, originally shaped like a crescent moon, was now stretched taut, forming a full arc.

Thwack!

As he released the string, the arrow shot through the air with incredible speed, piercing through the sky toward the distant flag.

***

Crack—!!

“Ugh?!”

Luon’s eyes widened as the flagpole he was following suddenly broke and fell in front of him. As he stared at it, his vision blurred. He rubbed his eyes frantically, but it wasn’t his eyes that were the problem.

This is...

It was fog.

He frowned as their surroundings were suddenly engulfed by a dense fog. This felt different than natural fog. It was eerie and yet familiar. Luon recalled the unpleasant sensation.

This was the same fog that had obstructed their passage at the start of the expedition.

Boom! Boom! Crash!

Suddenly, explosions erupted from all directions.

“Ahhh!”

“Agh!”

Hearing screams from all sides, Luon frantically scanned his surroundings, but he could barely see anyone through this dense fog.

Step– Step– Step–

But amidst the chaos, he could clearly hear the sound of someone approaching him.

“No way...”

Luon turned his head urgently. He couldn’t see anything, but he instinctively felt that someone was coming specifically toward him. The unease he had felt from the broken flagpole was becoming a reality.

Something fell in front of him, drawing his gaze. It looked like a simple stone, but he could feel magic emanating from it.

Humm... Humm...

On closer inspection, it was a bundle of elemental stones tied together—redstones and cradle stones. Their conflicting magical properties caused the air around them to heat up and then rapidly cool down, releasing a thick white smoke.

“If the cradle stone has more facets than the redstone and they’re tied together like this, the cradle stone will suppress the fire, causing a rapid temperature change that creates this special fog,” a voice echoed from the mist.

“It’s nothing special. Even modern sorcerers know this. Though turning it into a smoke bomb for war took a bit more time.”

Whoosh!

A sudden wind blew, kicking up the dirt at Luon’s feet.

There were bundles of elemental stones all around them, releasing smoke that engulfed their surroundings.

...This is a trap.

The enemy had predicted their move and blinded them with this special fog.

“Since when?” Luon trembled as he spoke. “Was this your plan all along?”

He glared at the blurry silhouette in the fog, his expression betraying a slight sense of defeat.

“...To lure us here?”

Thinking back, everything had gone awry after encountering Dushala in that foggy area. Had she not led them to the Twin Armor, they would have reached the south by now. Luon felt that it wouldn't be right to blame this solely on his ambition and desire to arrive before Olivurn and Kromen.

If not for the fog, we wouldn’t have followed her...!

Luon slashed at the fog in frustration. This entire predicament made him feel sick and furious.

“Who will you blame? Despite being responsible for the lives of seventy thousand soldiers, you blindly chased after a woman who was a complete stranger to you. If you’re looking to blame someone for this mess, look in the mirror.”

“You...”

Luon recognized the voice. It was the same person who had blocked his path when retreating from the Twin Armor.

“So, you’re with her,” he growled at Karyl.

Shing–!

In that instant, Karyl unleashed a sharp killing intent as he drew his blade, but he remained otherwise unfazed, only smirking slightly.

“Unfair? That’s war for you.”

Boom!

Boom!

“Prince!”

At that moment, Luon was knocked back by a powerful force. Azif emerged from the fog, hurriedly grabbing him and raising his sword.

“Azif, it’s him! He created this fog, and...”

“It’s an ambush.”

“What?”

“The enemy has ambushed us using the fog. The soldiers are scattered and can’t maintain formation. I’ve ordered the lieutenants. We must retreat with the knights...”

“Retreat? Are you out of your mind? An army of seventy thousand fleeing from just twenty thousand soldiers?!” Luon shouted fiercely, but Azif remained calm.

“Prince, in this situation, it’s hard to distinguish ally from foe. Fighting here like this is too dangerous.”

“Fuck...!”

“The river is right ahead. We have to cross it at all costs!”

“Damn... Those two...”

Gone was the noble and dignified First Prince. Finding himself on the edge of a cliff, Luon’s fiery temper, inherited from the emperor, flared up.

“Are you seriously more concerned about that sibling rivalry than the safety of your men in this situation?” Karyl scoffed.

“Do you even understand how important this is?!” Luon roared in frustration.

Now I see why you lost to Olivurn.

“Your family squabbles are of no interest to me.”

Luon’s lip twitched at Karyl’s nonchalant response.

“Prince,” Azif said tensely.

At that moment, the Golden Knights emerged from the fog, blocking Karyl from approaching Luon.

“Hurry, we’ll hold them off!”

Azif wrapped an arm around Luon’s waist and gathered his mana.

“You... I’ll cut your head off!” Luon snarled, clinging to Azif.

Karyl didn’t even bother to respond.

Fwhoosh!

“Hmph.”

Karyl merely watched him flee, making no effort to pursue. Instead, he spoke softly, his voice carrying through the thick fog.

“Lift the veil.”

***

Whoosh... Whoosh...

As the fierce wind blew, the fog that had engulfed the forest vanished as if it had never been there in the first place.

“Wha... What’s going on?”

“What happened?”

The imperial soldiers, who had thought they were doomed, were bewildered when the fog lifted to reveal no enemies around them.

“...Wasn’t it an ambush?”

They had heard the sounds of battle, screams, and even smelled blood.

“Was it all...?”

“Fake?”

While there were casualties, most were due to the confusion and soldiers fighting among themselves.

“But...”

They noticed bloodstains on the ground, but most of it wasn’t actually from soldiers. Rather, it came from something that had burst open, spilling it on the grass.

“What is this?”

Some soldiers picked up torn bags from the ground, finding them filled with a thick red liquid.

“...”

Looking ahead, they saw soldiers from the Free Army standing with similar bags. The pervasive smell of blood carried by the fog had actually come from these bags, which were filled with the blood of the Gray Orcs hunted by Karyl’s party in the dungeon.

“Beikan,” Karyl called as he walked away from the corpses of the knights who had stood in his way.

“How many prisoners do we have?”

“Some managed to cross the river amidst the chaos, but we captured more than half. We have about forty thousand prisoners. More than a thousand must have drowned in the river.”

The Sea King and Water King had devoured some of the imperial soldiers in the fog, and the river had turned red.

“Recover all the bodies of the soldiers who had drowned in the Fonein, and also these ones. Although unavoidable, they’re all victims at the end of the day.”

Unlike Karyl, who merely nodded, Viola’s face hardened slightly.

“You’re too soft. Will you continue to be like this in future wars? Thousands, even tens of thousands of people will die tragically.”

“Yes, I will.”

Karyl knew better than anyone else about the harsh reality of war. Casualties were inevitable.

“It might seem hypocritical, but if I can, I will.”

Viola blushed slightly at his response.

“I... I shouldn’t have said that.”

She felt embarrassed and couldn’t meet Karyl’s gaze.

“The plan worked perfectly. The mere sound of battle made them panic and self-destruct.”

“The real imperial army would have been different.”

“Sorry?”

“Don’t underestimate the imperial army. Regardless of their advantage in numbers, they fell into disarray because of poor leadership.”

Azif, the vice captain of the Golden Knights, was a skilled warrior but had a critical flaw. He wasn’t from a knight order that usually operated on the battlefield, like the Blue, Green, Ryeo, or Wisteria Knights, but a member of the Royal Guard.

Although experienced in battle, making quick decisions in sudden situations was challenging for him. Moreover, his priority was the prince’s safety.

If Azif had been commanding the army without having to protect Luon, he would have fought in the fog with the knights.

But he had prioritized Luon’s safety. Additionally, Karyl’s previous display of power against the imperial army had planted a lasting sense of unease in him.

“We were just lucky.”

“Making your luck is a skill.”

Marze approached Karyl.

“Sir Marze, how many people lived in the border area?”

“About two thousand, but why do you ask?”

Marze, who was several times older than Karyl, found himself speaking to him with unusual politeness. As an old knight who had served the kingdom, he sometimes spoke harshly even to the king when trying to advise him. However, he had never voluntarily lowered himself when speaking to someone.

Haha...

Aben found this intriguing, and he understood how Marze felt. Age didn’t matter when it came to respect; what mattered was one’s worthiness.

Karyl had referred to the civilians as victims, but in a battle involving nearly a hundred thousand troops, the approximate number of casualties was just over two thousand.

Moreover, they had won.

There has never been such a perfect battle in the history of the continent. Marze believed this was an unprecedented victory.

“Two thousand, you say...”

Lost in thoughts for a moment, Marze refocused on Karyl’s words.

“Luon risked two thousand lives to open the gates of the Twin Armor.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

“I wonder what the empire will offer us in exchange for the forty thousand prisoners, ” Karyl said in a soft voice as he looked north, where Luon had fled. “An eye for an eye. I allowed Luon to escape to the capital only because I want the emperor to learn about this from his own son.”

“Haha...”

“Indeed.”

His words sent a chill down everyone’s spine.

Titan Shutean...

Karyl’s eyes gleamed.

You will pay dearly for breaking your promise to me.