Chapter 47: A Miracle of Fire and Mana.

If I had taken just one more step forward, I thought I would have been swept away by that terrifying maelstrom of magical power.

Rassett felt a chill on the nape of his neck.

Bang! The booming sound was heard again. This time it was the sound of friendly artillery fire. The sense of relief was only momentary. Rassett had been hearing all along how useless the friendly artillery was.

“……!”

So it was even more surprising.

Rassett opened his eyes wide.

Even when the King’s Brother recited the activation word, Rassett thought he was wasting precious magical power.

It was because his magical power stretched out to the shells flying toward the enemy. There was no way he could catch the enemy artillery like that.

If he had just read the battle reports so far properly, he would have known it was useless.

But as the shells, which were expected to fall to the ground soon, moved faster and farther through the air, Rassett began to harbor a glimmer of hope.

“Uh, uh…?”

The liaison officer’s dumbfounded voice pierced through ears filled with all kinds of explosive sounds.

If, just if a miracle happens and I survive, I will definitely kick that bastard’s shins.

Just as Rassett made that resolution, the shells flying vigorously toward the enemy began to descend.

f*ck. Please, please.

Rassett prayed looking at the King’s Brother’s back.

Please, let me get out of here alive.

Rassett hoped for a miracle from the King’s Brother. For the absurd thing of adjusting numerous friendly shells fired simultaneously one by one and dropping them on the coordinates of enemy batteries, which Rassett couldn’t even remember all, to actually be realized.

Did his desperate heart reach the heavens?

A tremendous light burst.

Rassett reflexively lay flat on the floor and closed his eyes. He hurriedly covered his ears with both hands.

Kwa-ang!

Only when his body shook with the vibration transmitted to the ground did the explosion sound arrive.

Bang, kwa-ang! Kwa-ang!

The muffled sounds heard through covered ears seemed like they would never end. Even if he wanted to lift his head to check, the fierce wind pressure made it impossible to open his eyes.

Pitter-patter. Mud rain fell down.

“Oh my god…!”

When the liaison officer’s weak voice pierced through his muffled ears, Rassett couldn’t put his resolution into practice.

Looking up barely while flinching, a mushroom-shaped cloud he had never seen before floated in the sky, as if it had sucked up all the surrounding air. The Petan camp visible below it was already in hell.

Seeing the flames that seemed to burn even the sky, Rassett jumped up from his seat.

“Crazy!”

He raised his hands high. I survived. A miracle really happened. Filled with euphoria, Rassett reflexively looked for the King’s Brother.

“Liaison officer.”

The King’s Brother’s voice was no different from the beginning.

“Yes, yes!”

“Convey to the Rifle Battalion. All forces advance.”

“A-all forces advance!”

The King’s Brother, who moved that tremendous magical power and turned the enemy rear into a sea of fire, was smiling while giving the order to drive the enemy to death once again.

Though faint, it was definitely a smile.

Rassett felt the nape of his neck turn cold again.

Due to the unbelievable victory, the camp was noisy. No matter how much they were told to turn off lights and sleep, it was useless.

Those who witnessed the miracle went crazy in a different direction than when they received the shell barrage, and couldn’t calm down even a little.

“Long live Your Excellency the Commander-in-Chief!”

The Rifle Battalion advancing after the enemy artillery was annihilated committed a one-sided slaughter.

The enemy forces were already half out of their minds due to the tremendous explosion that occurred in their rear.

Petan’s new magic cannons were objects of fear for the Henian army and a source of courage for the Petan army.

When such magic cannons evaporated entirely with a single bombardment, their positions became diametrically opposite.

The Henian army, filled with courage, tried to avenge their defeats so far, and the Petan army fell into fear.

News that the King’s Brother adjusted friendly shells with magic and turned Petan’s magic cannons into giant kindling spread quickly.

The King’s Brother was already popular with mercenaries.

Not just one or two people felt that tremendous flow of magical power, and not just one or two people saw his splendid ceremonial dress standing in front of the Commander-in-Chief’s barracks where the King’s Brother’s flag fluttered.

“Even if you force them to sleep by yelling, they’ll just see the faces of Petan bastards in their dreams.”

Rassett frowned at the King’s Brother’s nonchalant remark while watching the officers’ desperate shouts to maintain order in the camp and the insolent mercenaries’ insubordination.

Dreams with Petan bastards couldn’t be good. It was a situation where their corpses were piled up not far away. The weak-hearted ones even vomited everything out after the one-sided battle ended.

“Medical alcohol is not allowed, but I can distribute a few bottles of cheap rum. Tell them to drink plenty and fall asleep today.”

The rum the King’s Brother brought out amounted to several bottles per person. And it was sweet and strong heavy rum.

After shouting “Long live Your Excellency the Commander-in-Chief!” once again, those who excitedly chugged from the bottles fell asleep as if collapsing on the spot.

Regardless of whether they were officers or mercenaries.

The King’s Brother was quite kind to mercenaries, but not at all to generals.

“I need you to sign once again.”

Whether they departed from the rear as soon as they heard the victory news, generals gathered at the Commander-in-Chief’s barracks before dawn the next day.

The King’s Brother put a thick stack of documents in front of them and forced them to sign.

Adjutants standing behind the generals reading the documents with blank faces signaled to Rassett with their eyes.

Although he read the meaning asking what kind of document it was, Rassett had no choice but to shake his head.

He had absolutely no idea where the document, thick enough to be about a finger joint, suddenly popped out from.

“Ha—.”

Among the groaning generals, the person who revealed the clearest reaction was Spes Umbra.

“What’s wrong? Is there something untrue written in that document?”

“Commander-in-Chief!”

“Yes, as the Commander-in-Chief and leader of an army, I have the duty to record facts clearly and leave them. I am seeking your consent out of concern that there might have been my arbitrariness.

I rather want to ask why you shouted at your superior instead of signing, Major General Umbra.”

So, the identity of that thick document seems to be yesterday’s battle report. It wouldn’t make sense unless he wrote it himself all night.

And probably, he could guess the content of that battle report would be factual.

“It was a battle that consumed my personal property enormously too. Since His Majesty the King promised that shares of the mine would be given according to contribution to the victory, shouldn’t we be even less negligent in recording?”

The King’s Brother lifted a large sack and poured it onto the table.

Clatter. A massive amount of crystals poured out. All were blackly discolored, contaminated crystals.

Rassett could only now understand how the previous day’s victory was possible. That tremendous magical power he felt was possible due to those crystals.

“Commander-in-Chief!”

Spes Umbra shouted in anger again. However, he couldn’t raise a proper counterargument.

If asked to gauge victory or defeat from a third party’s perspective, it was a perfect victory for the King’s Brother who wrote the battle report all night without even his adjutant knowing.

That was the problem.

Rassett flinched and stepped back. It was an instinctive movement.

“Major General Umbra!”

Even Lieutenant General Tre, who clearly sided with Spes Umbra, stood up calling him in shock.

Because the scent of roses began to waft. The extremely thick scent didn’t hide that it had sharp thorns. It was Spes Umbra’s pheromones.

Rassett desperately raised his pheromones. To protect himself. But he knew his weak pheromones wouldn’t be much help.

Various pheromones spewed out as if resisting the sharp rose scent. Adjutants with weaker pheromones than the generals already started collapsing one by one.

What about the King’s Brother? How is the King’s Brother responding? What scent is his pheromone…

Rassett, panting and desperately looking for the King’s Brother, could no longer endure his dizzy vision either.

Forest… A dense forest appeared in his jumbled mind. Rassett frowned even amidst the confusion.

Damn forest. Damn jungle.

A forest where light doesn’t penetrate properly even in broad daylight. The pressure pressing down on people. A clear signal was felt that only danger lurked in the darkness.

Rassett felt a vivid fear approaching. And lost consciousness just like that.

The King’s Brother, Philius, checked that everyone except exactly one person in the barracks had lost consciousness and looked forward again.

“Spes Umbra.”

Hearing his name, Spes Umbra growled like a beast with pale gray eyes.

“You are out of your mind.”

His face frowned because he noticed that the eye color of that willful Spes Umbra resembled Jay’s hair color even a little bit.

Philius himself knew best that only the color tone was slightly similar, but completely different. The gray hair that looked cold at a glance was actually surprisingly soft. The body scent of that child who could neither smell nor emit pheromones was very cozy. It was the scent of sunlight, as Jay himself said he liked.

Not this disgusting rose scent.

“You must be desperate. Running all the way here while spraying such disgusting pheromones.”

It was a terrible smell. Philius also responded to the energy trying to subdue him. Hit by the pheromones of an Alpha stronger than him, Spes Umbra growled like a beast again.

It looked as if his reason was completely submerged by his own pheromones.

“Enough to forget it’s your Rut.”

At Philius’s sarcasm, magical power burst from Spes Umbra.