Translated by cadmar's legs

1/1 chapters + 1 make up chapter

I had to buy some stuff at the store so it's going to take a while for the next chapter (20~30 mins)

edit: fixed up some weird spacing

 

Chapter 262 - Confirmation work

 

"Hey, general. Can I tell you something?"

 

"What is it, Vargas?"

 

"I think you should be the only person fighting from now on, don't you?"

 

"Won't do it. What if I die of exhaustion?"

 

"Nah, I don't think you would. What I'm hoping for is that the battle would allow you to gain fame among our troops, along with giving us a gallant tale of how you single-handedly destroyed the Arbalest Army. You can certainly do that feat."

 

"No, you can't let your guard down, Vargas. Just sinking into the water might not be enough to kill them. We need to make sure we know who in the Arbalest family died."

 

"We don't know," he said. "The ice that you, General, cast out burned up everything and then melted. If anyone surfaced as a drowned corpse, we might not even know who they are, you know?"

 

"...... Well, there's always a possibility of one surviving. Remember Thanatos? I was lucky that one time because he became an ally, but that won't be the case for everyone. For now, let's just see if any of them spread out around us and float away. Maybe the Head of the family or knights with a lot of mana are still alive. Check them out while being careful not to be attacked and drowned."

 

"I understand. We shall do it."

 

"Is that all right with you, Gana-dono?"

 

"Oh, yes. You have shown us such a remarkable display, and both my soldiers and I are a bit skittish. However, this will give morale to them to work harder!"

 

"I look forward to working with you."

 

　Barka's army marched into the Arbalest Territory with Ix's army led by Gana.

　Both Barca and Ix confronted the Arbalest army at a place called Midway River.

　It seems that the Arbalest army has been trying to drag the battle into a decisive battle on the water in order to gain an advantage in the fight against us.In a very drastic move, they even destroyed the Midway Bridge that had been built centuries ago at a great expense. 

 

　Perhaps they had studied us and assumed that they had a chance to win.

　Actually, there is no doubt about it.

　Barca had never fought on water using a boat before, and could not even act in a proper group on a boat.

　As for the Ixian forces, they were a little better than Barca's, but that was about it.

　Clearly, the Arbalest fleet was better at moving ships.

　The Arbalests also took out many ships to traverse the Midway River.

　Seeing this, what would happen was quite simple. 

　If we clashed properly, defeat would be unavoidable on our side.

　Or rather, we would lose the battle badly, almost without even a proper fight.

　Due to this, some of the people who were advisors told me it would be best to not proceed any further. 

 

　The Midway River is the last line of defense for the Arbalest family, and we have already pushed ourselves that far.

　In other words, overall, both Barca and Ix have succeeded in attacking close to the territorial capital against the Arbalest family.

　The idea was, "Let's be satisfied with that."

　Alternatively, it was suggested that we could go past this bridge, which had been destroyed and could no longer be crossed, and head for the Arbalest capital.

 

　But both were ultimately rejected.

　The reason is that for Fontana, the Arbalest family is not the true enemy.

　The only problem for Fontana at present is that the Memento family, one of the three major noble families, is on its way.

　We want to defeat the Arbalest family as soon as possible to eliminate the risk of being attacked from behind.

　So, we hesitated on whether or not we should turn back at the show of our enemy's full-out strength. 

　Thus, everyone came to the conclusion that we would fight a battle on the water, where we would be at an overwhelming disadvantage.

 

　That said, I was the one who ultimately made that decision.

　Of course, I don't want to die here.

　So I used a backhanded move to win this battle on the water.

 

　[Ice Spirit Summoning] and the Frostfire Sword that Gran and I had just created.

　I used them to attack the Arbalest Army.

　As a result, the battle was a great success.

 

　In particular, the other side's destruction exceeded our expectations.

　The Head of Arbalest didn't even get to launch an attack against us, most likely because he was caught up in the flames. or get frozen

　Actually, I was hoping that he was the first person to get caught up in the ice. Our most dangerous opponent was him, after all.

 

　Before the fight, I had considered the possibility that they might use [Distant Thunder], the ultra-long-range spell that the House of Arbalest prided itself on.

　Anyhow, that was not the case, and the victory was complete.

 

　However, this strategy cannot be used for every battle.

　The spell used is too broad.

　Magic on a scale that could freeze all the ships, estimated at over 500, would have required an enormous amount of mana.

　What made this possible was a magic stone taken from the undead bone dragon.

 

　A shiny black magic stone that was housed in its skull.

　Thanatos had smashed the undead's head with the Grand Barca so it was cut in the middle.

　But after that, I restored it to its original shape.

　A spherical magic stone about the size of a basketball.

　The magic stone contained a terrific abundance of dragon-derived mana.

 

　Using this mana, I summoned a large number of ice spirits and froze the surrounding area at once.

　Yet, it was not practiced beforehand.

　I did not know if I would succeed for sure.

 

　It was successful, although.

　I burned the frozen enemies very quickly... using the Frostfire Sword.

　The sword, when filled with mana, produces a smaller sword of ice like the one Carlos uses.

　However, when something is cut with the ice, the ice turns into fire and burns the target.

　At first, seeing the effect, I thought it was a combination of the abilities of the Ice Spirit Sword and the Nine-tailed Sword.

　But it was not.

　The Frostfire Sword had a hidden ability.

　That ability is to "convert ice into fire".

　The ice that appears at first is just a trigger.

　When ice gets slashed with that sword, the sword will convert that ice into flames. d

　In other words, if a large amount of ice was prepared in advance, one could even turn all of it into flames at once by slashing at it.

 

　That is what I demonstrated in this battle.

　The fleet of boats and the soldiers riding on them, frozen by the summoned ice spirits.

　After everyone and everything in front of me was frozen, I turned the ice into flames. 

　Of course, that wasn't a half-hearted fire.

　I once used the Nine-tailed Sword to turn a knight of a neighboring territory into charcoal in an instant.

　The flames, with a heat level even hotter than before, destroyed the Arbalest army.

 

　Eventually, Vargas and Gana checked the Midway River where the battle had ended, but only burnt corpses were found.

　Perhaps the Head of the Arbalest family would be alive with the amount of Mana he has. 

　Meh, we may no longer need to worry about that.

　Even if the Head of the family were alive, it would be meaningless.

　Most of the knights other than him would be dead.

　That guy would have so few subordinates he wouldn't even be able to activate his higher-level spell. 

　Thus ended the battle on the last line of defense protecting the Arbalest family, leaving only the result of the complete defeat of the Arbalests.