Chapter 143. A New Mission
In the Antir region stood a city wreathed in the smoke of war. It was the royal capital of the Kingdom of Antir, though it no longer possessed its forr glory.
Below the city walls, countless soldiers had set up scaling ladders and were trying to climb up by ans of them, but heavy objects kept crashing down from above from ti to ti, making it difficult for them to advance.
So of the defenders even hurled a splash of red liquid downward. It struck the base of a ladder, and flas imdiately burst upward.
Several soldiers were caught in the fire by accident. They could only scream and roll across the ground, trying to extinguish the flas that way, but it was all in vain.
This kind of fire burned with terrifying speed. Once it touched soone, death was usually not far behind.
Sure enough, after rolling on the ground for a while, those few soldiers went still, leaving behind only blackened corpses that were still burning.
One soldier on a scaling ladder looked back at the flas below and swallowed hard. Then he looked upward again. A defending soldier was waiting above with a short sword in hand...
He was already trapped between advance and retreat. In such a situation, it was almost impossible to find any path to survival...
Should I climb up and face the enemy head-on, or should I jump down no matter what? The flas below have weakened a little. Maybe I won’t die...
In the end, while he was still hesitating, a stone from above struck him in the head. He fell from a height of seven ters and hit the ground headfirst, his life or death unknown.
The fire that had been on the verge of going out found fresh fuel and blazed hotly once more.
In the distance, a banner fluttered in the wind. A man in black armor, with a wolf’s head emblazoned on his armband, watched the brutal scene unfold and bared a mouthful of sharp teeth like a wolf’s fangs.
More than once, he had wanted to throw everything aside and charge into battle to attack that city himself.
But he restrained the impulse and told himself that now was not yet the ti.
“Commander, an order from Duke Theodore.”
Connor turned his head and looked at one of the knights in the order. The man wore silver-white armor and was holding a letter in both hands.
“What is that old man playing at? He called us here just so we could stand around and watch this trash wear itself down over there?”
He spoke with contempt, then took the letter.
“Commander, that is a good thing. Our hiring fee is calculated by the day. For every day we remain here, he has to add another thirty silver coins.”
That was what the knight handing him the letter said.
“Hmph.” Connor let out a derisive laugh, then brought up another matter.
“If he had managed to settle the royal capital’s territorial claim, and we had not been kept rejected by that territory all this ti, this would have been over long ago.”
“Commander, the royal capital’s territorial token and its heir would both be kept in the safest place. There is no way Duke Theodore could get his hands on them,” the knight said.
“And if he really could have reached them, then he would not have co looking for us.”
What he ant was obvious: if Duke Theodore truly could have reached them, then the war would have ended long ago, and there would have been no need to bring them here at all.
“Who knows? Maybe even his own subordinates are thinking about rebellion.”
Connor made a malicious guess about Duke Theodore, laughed a few tis, and only then opened the letter.
This was part of the contract he had signed with Duke Theodore. All orders had to be conveyed through specially prepared letters. Even verbal delivery was not permitted.
That was why, even though he and Duke Theodore were separated by only a few hundred ters, orders were still being issued by letter.
He unfolded the letter, and his pupils narrowed slightly, as though he had seen sothing that shocked him.
“What is it, Commander?”
The knight looked at his expression and asked curiously.
“Nothing much. It just ans we should be able to go ho next month.”
Connor spread the letter open and explained it to the knight.
“One of Duke Theodore’s allies, a spy from the Karai Kingdom, discovered sothing.”
“They found the territorial token for the land north of the royal capital. That thing is extrely important.”
“They have already found the corresponding tokens for all the surrounding lands. Once they get that last territory, they will be able to encircle the royal capital with territories.”
“That would make it much harder for the heir who just ascended the throne to use the territories to launch a counterattack so easily. If that happens, Duke Theodore alone could flatten the royal capital in a single day.”
“That is why I said we should be able to go ho next month. What a sha. We are going to lose so much money.”
Looking at the upward curve of Connor’s mouth, the knight knew that he was not actually upset. He was simply relieved that these boring days were finally coming to an end.
Connor continued:
“Of course, those useless spies did not get the token, which is why this letter ended up in our hands. Otherwise, we would only have co here to camp for a month and then gone ho.”
He paused, then went on.
“The task Duke Theodore has given us is not an easy one. The task itself is not difficult, but it may bring a bit of trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?” the knight asked curiously.
“That token is currently in the hands of a mage sowhere in the Antir region, and we do not know that mage’s whereabouts.”
“So he wants us to find a needle in a haystack?” The knight frowned.
This was no good news either. The first problem was that simply finding that mage would already be difficult.
Since those mages knew that war had broken out here, they would naturally avoid the war-torn areas, while their own informants were all concentrated here.
As for the surrendered regions, the information coming from them was not necessarily reliable, so finding that mage would be extrely difficult.
Furthermore, this place was far too close to the Alliance. Killing a mage here ant taking an enormous risk, though to their knightly order, that was only a minor matter...
“This ti, we are going to kill two mages. As for the mage carrying the token, once we kill the other mage, we will learn her information.”
“Two mages...” The knight in silver-white armor wore a complicated expression. He had just been about to try to dissuade him, when he saw the excitent on his commander’s face.
He had wanted to say that the risk of killing two mages was simply too great, and ask whether they could not...
But after seeing that expression on his commander’s face, he knew that words would be useless.
He sighed and said helplessly:
“Fine. Then where exactly is the mage we are supposed to kill? Let us get this done quickly, and then leave the vicinity of the Alliance as fast as possible.”
Connor licked his lips and said loudly:
“He apparently happens to have so business dealings with our Duke Theodore. Right now, he is on another battlefield, collecting corpses.”
Then he laughed out loud.
“So he probably still has no idea that his death is almost upon him!”
With that, he turned and walked toward the camp, preparing to announce the news.
Watching his back, the knight could not help but sigh again.
He knew that his commander’s hands were about to be stained with the blood of two more mages, but there was nothing to be done about it.
Even if his commander had been elsewhere, the job could only have fallen to him in the end.
After all, only Commander Connor, who had been born into a mage family, could bear the consequences of killing those mages.
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