Chapter 15.2 - The Real Objective of Kruft Kingdom’s Expeditionary Force Part 2 (1/2)
Ximengi Continent’s southern part, the border area of Steinbeck Fief, Lawrence River
Clyde who had snuck into the supply center of Kruft Kingdom’s military camp observed the highest commanding officers, Prince Gruz and Princess Natalie. Although they were brother and sister, their characters were completely different.
Prince Gruz was a standard profligate son with poor martial skill who only knew how to enjoy his life. Compared to him, Princess Natalie was a lot simpler. Besides her confidant demeanor, there was no princess air around her. She seemed very easy to get along with. From their conversation, Clyde finally learned Kruft Kingdom’s objective.
This time, Kruft Kingdom had come to capture Witch Ista who was at Clyde’s side. In the past, Ista had not told anything about herself to him. Everything concerning her, Clyde had learned from other people. Although Witch Ista’s magical power was very high, she was not good at magic; instead, she was very talented in making magic items. She could make various kinds of powerful magic items. In fact, she had made the ten rings adorning her dainty hands all by herself.
Many empires wanted to force Ista to stay in their keeps and help them make magic items, but Ista didn’t want to have her freedom restricted, so she had fled all over until she had encountered Clyde’s party and finally settled down. It was unknown where the Kruft Kingdom had obtained news of Ista’s current whereabouts, but they clearly planned to capture Ista before all the other empires.
In addition to capturing Witch Ista, Kruft Kingdom’s army also wanted to explore Needham Plain. Over a hundred years ago, it had once been an important economic trade hub of Adrian Empire. During the outbreak of the undead calamity, there had been no time to transfer the vast wealth, so a lot of treasure remained. Basically, all the nations in the vicinity knew of this matter but were unwilling to go through the requisite dangers and set foot on the undead infested region. They all wished to wait for the others to solve most of the problems first.
The Kruft Kingdom wanted to take advantage of this time when Adrian Empire was weakened to attack, but a large military expenditure was needed to launch a war, so they chose Needham Plain as their target to first gather some funds. Using his status as the eldest prince, Prince Gruz cleverly chose the less dangerous mission of capturing Witch Ista. As for the very dangerous mission of exploring Needham Plain where the entire army was likely to be wiped out, it was pushed to Princess Natalie.
Unexpectedly, Princess Natalie had no complaints. After urging Prince Gruz to become a bit more cautious, she prepared to lead her group and set out. As for Clyde, he hesitated for a while and surreptitiously used the magic communication ring to send a secret message to Lucifer in Stanley City. He wanted her to summon her familiars and prepare to welcome Prince Gruz. As for himself, he decided to follow the troops of Princess Natalie and explore Needham Plain.
An evil smile appeared on Lucifer’s face upon receiving the secret message. At that time, Princess Saras just happened to turn away from Lucifer, so she didn’t notice that evil smile. Lucifer then bit her right index finger and flicked her hand at the window. Several ruby blood drops flew outside the window.
The entire Stanley City was instantly shrouded in a bloody mist. The sky also became blood-red and countless pairs of red demonic eyes appeared within the dark before rushing towards the place where Kruft Kingdom’s army was stationed. As common fodder-level familiars, they were mainly bats and demonic wolves, but they were more than enough to deal with the average human army.
“Lucifer, what happened to your hand! Is it serious?”
“Nothing, Big Sister Saras. It’s just a small cut. Busy yourself with other matters! This injury will be fine after a short while.”