Chapter 258

## Chapter 258 – I, I, I Fly

I dashed with all my might away from the main camp of Lortel.

‘Let’s review the plan.’

The combined effort of Lortel and the Magic Tower consisted of two distinct stages.

Phase one: the rescue.

Phase two: the push.

The rescue portion was quite plain.

Lortel intended to send out units to retrieve those left behind.

My responsibility was to make contact with them and guide the group to the designated meeting point.

‘Once the stragglers are safely with Lortel…’

The second phase, the push, would commence immediately.

While a fraction of the soldiers managed the rescued individuals, the primary bulk of the army would charge straight for Decullan.

Momentum and swiftness were paramount.

The objective was to strike hard before Decullan could organize an effective defense line.

Because of this, the Young Patriarch had assembled a vanguard composed entirely of knights and mounted units—limited in quantity, but every single warrior was worth a hundred standard foot soldiers.

‘Two whole orders of knights alongside five hundred horsemen? Truly a powerful force.’

Once this vanguard pierced the line and held the ground, the rest of the army would reinforce them.

At that stage, victory would practically be secured.

Regardless of how capable Decullan’s spellcasters were, they stood no chance against a heavy cavalry charge across flat terrain.

It appeared straightforward on paper, yet reality was different.

Slipping the vanguard past Decullan to reach those flatlands was a major hurdle, and keeping the position stable until reinforcements arrived was another.

‘And solving that exact problem is my duty.’

Once that task was fulfilled, my obligations in this conflict were essentially complete.

Then why…

Did a sense of dread begin to weigh so heavily on me?

“Ugh, something feels completely wrong.”

The path had been too smooth.

Far too smooth.

I had anticipated that the tracking phase would be the most grueling aspect, but the Life Gems had turned it into a trivial matter.

Furthermore, there was Lortel’s surprisingly enthusiastic cooperation.

…Granted, the efficiency of the Life Gems and the assistance from Lortel could just be a string of good fortune.

‘…Or is that precisely what should worry me?’

The situation felt uncomfortably similar to Baharmut.

There hadn’t been a single warning sign before we journeyed to Amera.

Despite a lingering intuition that disaster was looming, the preceding days had progressed without incident.

Yet look what happened.

Out of nowhere, Mysern sunbae appeared, followed by Baharmut’s Infernal—and reviewing those events, it was pure luck that I walked away alive.

My train of thought snapped, and my attention shifted to the wyvern hovering lazily ahead of me.

“Are you seriously going to just sit there?”

[World, harsh. Nothing, complimentary.]

Are you kidding me…

As a spirit creature, it required no physical exertion; it merely needed to use its wings. Was even that too much to ask?

The creature had no trouble soaring by itself earlier.

“…Fine, forget it.”

It was time to rid it of that laziness.

In all honesty, I didn’t absolutely require the beast to fly me around anyway.

The reason?

‘There are no unknown factors.’

I had crossed into the rugged terrain of the Torres mountains.

My perception, cast wide across the landscape, detected every single one of Decullan’s mages and foot soldiers who were actively tracking down the scattered survivors.

‘This is actually perfect.’

The enemy forces matched my predictions perfectly.

A larger number would have spelled trouble; a smaller number would have been highly suspicious.

What remained to be done?

‘Step one, locate the Kallia Mercenary Captain. Step two, find Extra.’

The two had been spotted together during the last report, meaning that locating the captain would lead me straight to Extra.

With that objective set, I sprinted up the steep incline of the mountain.

Tracking the resonance of the Life Gem, I pushed past the thick vegetation—and discovered the survivors seeking shelter inside a cavern.

Yet, something was unexpected.

The cave contained more than just the Kallia Mercenary Captain.

“…T-Tower Lord?”

Captain Extra was present as well.

I tilted my head slightly at the sheer bewilderment plastered across Extra’s face.

“Hm.”

The silent message: ‘Observe my arrival.’

An undeniable aura of authority.

It made perfect sense why others were drawn to it.

…Hold on a moment.

“Why is the Tower Lord here…? Have you actually entered the battlefield? No, am I experiencing a hallucination…?”

Paying no mind to Extra’s stunned ramblings, I quietly evaluated the headcount within the cavern.

An anomaly immediately stood out.

‘Two, four, six…’

Members of the White Shield Knights: twenty-one.

Fighters from the Kallia mercenaries: thirty-two.

‘…Is this tally accurate?’

How could there be this many people alive?

—

Extra found himself completely paralyzed with astonishment at the abrupt arrival of the Tower Lord.

Yet that initial shock passed quickly. A surge of relief took its place—only to vanish just as rapidly.

“Tower Lord, is there an issue?”

“Be silent.”

Though his features were concealed by the visor, the aura radiating from the Tower Lord was intensely grim.

Extra, alongside Kallia Mercenary Captain Britra—who still failed to comprehend the underlying tension—held their breath instantly.

Aster silently evaluated the variables.

‘…Let’s calculate.’

A total of fifty-three individuals had survived.

On the surface, this was positive.

Navigating an escape with a group this large would be incredibly demanding, but it beat finding a pile of corpses.

Even so, suspicion gripped him.

‘Did Decullan’s forces truly fail to notice a group of this size?’

“Who among you handles scouting?”

Extra responded immediately.

“We have two scouts.”

Right on cue, a pair of mercenaries quietly stepped forward to acknowledge their roles.

Aster shifted his gaze toward them, his mind continuing to race.

‘…Only two.’

For a mercenary outfit, scouts were the lifeblood.

They identified threats ahead and, during a retreat, covered up the tracks left behind.

Therefore.

‘Could a pair of scouts successfully hide the trail of over fifty individuals?’

It wasn’t entirely impossible. Aster possessed the capability to achieve that by himself.

However, he highly doubted these ordinary mercenaries possessed skills on par with his own—yet, the possibility existed.

Let’s reframe the dilemma.

‘Could a pair of scouts successfully hide the trail of over fifty individuals and still manage to stay alive?’

The solution was clear.

…Absolutely not.

There was no logical way.

Covering tracks required staying behind the main group, and Decullan’s operational units were far too meticulous to overlook that.

In that moment.

“Tower Lord, what is troubling you?”

“Are you seriously asking that?”

Could a commanding officer genuinely be that oblivious?

‘…Then again, he might truly be in the dark.’

Rank did not automatically bestow strategic brilliance.

Leaders relied on veteran advisors to compensate for their own lack of practical expertise.

That excuse worked for Extra, but…

I directed my gaze toward the Kallia Mercenary Captain standing quietly in the shadows of the cavern.

His name was Britra, correct?

Extra could be excused—he was a knight bound by a specific code of duty.

But could a rugged mercenary captain who fought his way up from nothing truly be completely blind to this?

‘Does that make any logical sense?’

The reality of the situation became instantly clear.

I took a slow look around the interior.

The knights were smiling, clearly relieved by my sudden presence, while the mercenaries remained rigid, their expressions guarded and alert.

‘Initially, I assumed they were on edge because I arrived without an army…’

That was a misjudgment.

The mercenaries had realized the truth long before it dawned on me.

“Damn it, no wonder everything seemed to go too perfectly.”

“…Tower Lord?”

Stepping past Extra, I focused entirely on Britra.

“Mercenary Captain.”

“…State your piece.”

“No matter how many times I run the numbers, I cannot accept that a group this size survived cleanly. You share this suspicion, don’t you?”

“…”

Britra kept his mouth tightly shut.

That absolute quiet gave a far more definitive confirmation than any spoken words could.

What did this imply?

It was quite simple.

‘The entire situation is an elaborate trap set by Decullan.’

The survivors were nothing more than a lure.

More specifically, the target was White Shield Captain Extra.

…What a massive headache.

—

Given the gravity of the crisis, introductions were kept to an absolute minimum.

Britra laid out his concerns directly to Captain Extra and the rest of the knights. The core argument was simple:

‘Did you honestly just figure this out?’

The knights had been entirely preoccupied with gathering their forces after the chaotic retreat. And even when the realization hit…

“…We lacked definitive proof. Or perhaps, I simply preferred to avoid facing reality…”

The reason was obvious.

‘If it wasn’t a miracle, it meant Decullan deliberately permitted these survivors to slip away.’

This represented the absolute worst scenario for their survival.

Britra explained the harsh reality with cold detachment. As his explanation concluded, Extra questioned him:

“What reason did you have to keep this to yourself?”

“We lacked verification, and speaking out wouldn’t change our options. It would only crush what little morale remained without offering any benefit.”

“…Hm.”

Extra let out a low sound, unable to challenge the logic.

The sentiment extended beyond him—the knights, who were only now processing the truth, looked entirely defeated.

A heavy quiet enveloped the cavern. It wasn’t long before Extra spoke once more.

“Is it possible that both the Tower Lord and the Mercenary Captain are misinterpreting the situation? The theory seems sound, but several details don’t align.”

“Name them.”

Extra presented his reasoning.

“If they are deploying me as bait, a major noble house wouldn’t shift military assets just to capture a single knight captain. My position is far too insignificant to alter the course of this campaign.”

He wasn’t wrong.

If I hadn’t intervened, Lortel would have simply written Extra off as a casualty.

A rescue attempt demanded either a massive contingent of troops or the deployment of one of the Ten Blades—neither of which made strategic sense for a single captain.

Extra’s logic was sound.

…Provided they weren’t dealing with Decullan.

“In the worst-case scenario, they simply break even.”

“Break even?”

I gave a firm nod.

“Consider the angles. They had no guarantee Lortel would send a force to retrieve the captain. However, if Lortel did take the bait? That is the exact outcome they wanted.”

“…”

“Decullan risks absolutely nothing either way. If Lortel falls into the trap? A massive victory. If they don’t, Decullan can simply eliminate a crippled knight order with minimal effort.”

A force of twenty knights, led by their captain.

Subduing them through direct combat would normally drain a significant amount of Decullan’s magical resources—but this strategy completely bypassed that cost.

The realization finally registered for Extra; his eyes widened with shock, and his fists clamped shut tightly.

I watched his reaction for a brief second before refocusing my thoughts.

The truth was, I was merely forming hypotheses myself—there was no concrete data.

‘How far in advance has Decullan calculated?’

Scenario one.

The trap is set for Lortel’s main vanguard.

‘That is something we can manage.’

The enemy hadn’t converged on our position yet—we could execute a swift breakthrough.

The genuine danger.

‘…What if they planned for the involvement of the Ten Blades from the very beginning?’

The probability was low.

Lortel wouldn’t be foolish enough to risk a member of the Ten Blades in a minor zone like this.

However, if Decullan had anticipated that exact move…

‘…Then we are in catastrophic trouble.’

I would be completely trapped, and the enemy would secure an unbelievable advantage.

‘Please, let his calculation not be that terrifyingly precise.’

Right at that moment, a sensation triggered my awareness.

My extended perception caught a disturbance at the outer limits of its reach.

Kugug… Kugugugugu—

A massive, overwhelming energy was slicing through the air at incredible velocity, heading directly toward the cavern we occupied.

‘Wyvern, are you seriously going to stay grounded?’

[I, I, I soar.]

The wyvern, finally reading the lethal danger of the moment, began beating its wings frantically.

You lazy creature—move faster.

We were completely out of time.