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Chapter 224 - The Beginning (6)

“I-isn’t he...?!”

The left minister recognized Alfred and was terrified; he was so shocked that his eyes were as wide as they could. It was only natural for him to react this way.

Grand Marquis Alfred was the man who had curry favored Arthus his entire life, so the fact that he appeared in front of the Allied Powers was absolutely shocking.

“Puff...”

Alfred had a large cigarette hanging from his mouth, pink smoke coming out of it.

“Isn\'t that...?”

The left minister wasn’t the only one that was surprised. Herarion also cast a surprised look at Henry after seeing what Alfred had in his mouth.

“Sir Henry!”

“Everyone, quiet.”

Henry hushed the chaotic atmosphere at once. Only when it became dead silent did Henry begin to explain.

“I’m sure everyone has many questions on their mind, but long story short, this is Alfred Etherwether, Arthus’ former right-hand man. As for the cigarette in his mouth, that is the Pink Swamp I have created together with His Majesty Herarion.”

Henry answered pretty much everything that the people present wanted to hear. After glancing at everyone, he continued, “Although Alfred used to be a bastard that sucked up to Arthus, I can say with confidence that there’s no spiritualist better than him in this empire. That’s why I’ve kept him alive.”

As Henry continued talking, Alfred smoked the cigarette with a distant look. It was evident from his eyes that he wasn’t paying attention to what Henry was saying.

“Although I don’t consider it necessary, I will still go ahead and apologize to all of you for not telling you in advance about this. Your Majesty Herarion, what Alfred is smoking right now is the third improved version of the Pink Swamp. It’s a more refined version of the Pink Swamp Two.”

“The third improved version...?”

“Yes, even though the current version of the Pink Swamp is strong, it doesn’t cause any addiction or hallucinations if the user has enough mana. However, this improved version is a little different. I can assure you that even a Peak Sword Master would feel the full effects of the Pink Swamp if they smoke this version long enough.”

“Then that’s almost... Almost like poison.”

“Of course, since we have to make use of Alfred, I’ve made it more concentrated. I’ve also stocked up on detox herbs just in case.”

“Hmm, but Sir Henry... Aren’t you saying all of this... too openly? I’m sure you’re aware, but he’s standing right next to you,” said Herarion while pointing at Alfred.

Alfred was still standing next to Henry with glassy eyes, but Henry continued with his explanations without hesitation, indifferent to whether Alfred was listening to him or not.

The rest of the people present didn’t know how to react to Henry’s brazen attitude. He was essentially swearing about someone who was right next to him.

Henry burst into laughter and said, “There’s nothing for you to worry about. If you can’t believe me, I might as well show you. Alfred?”

“Yes...”

After Henry called him, Alfred took a few steps forward and stood in front of Henry. He had the same blank expression and the same lost eyes.

Henry then gathered Aura on his palm and...

SLAP!

He slapped Alfred as hard as he could.

“...!”

Henry slapped him so hard that everyone could see the Aura on his palm. Alfred went flying far away and fell to the ground. His cheek was swollen and one of his teeth fell on the ground. His nose also started bleeding.

However, Henry said with an indifferent expression, “Get up.”

“Yes...”

As though he were possessed by a ghost, Alfred didn’t react at all. In fact, he didn’t seem to mind the blood trickling from his nose down his body. He just moved to pick up his cigarette to smoke it again.

Looking at how Alfred reacted, Doyle asked incredulously, “Did you... brainwash him?”

“Yes, exactly. That’s why it took me a while to bring him back into the outside world.”

“Wow, to think that a top spiritualist like Alfred could be brainwashed into being like this...”

Alfred was one of Henry’s mortal enemies, one of the people who had shattered his past. Thus, Henry had absolutely no sympathy for him. He had ruined Alfred’s mind without the slightest hint of guilt. He had transformed Alfred into a tool to use in this war; a tool he would throw away after he was done with it.

“I believe everyone here is well aware of what this bastard did to my master, so I won’t bother to explain that part,” Henry said firmly.

Everyone nodded. It made no sense to intervene when the avenger said he would resolve his issue with his enemy in his own way.

Henry continued, “Aubert and Eisen are dead. The reason why Alfred is still alive is simply because he\'s much more useful than those two. I shall make full use of him in order to protect the Sore Empire.”

Henry was as composed as possible, just like when he had explained tactics to the Allied Powers.

“I disbanded his family, the spiritualist Etherwether family, with my own hands, and in the process, I picked out the spiritualists who seemed to have a promising future. By doing so, I got a total of one hundred members to form an elite spiritualist unit. I plan to use Alfred and the spiritualist unit to protect the Sore Empire.”

Henry basically declared that he had assembled a unit of the top one hundred spiritualists in the empire, Alfred being the best one.

“Now then, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask them.”

Henry glanced at everyone to see if there were any questions. However, his meticulous preparation and the shocking appearance of Alfred made it so that nobody dared to ask anything.

Seeing that everyone was silent, Henry clapped his hands once and said, “I’m guessing there aren’t any questions. Then, since the imperial army is almost here, let’s conclude the meeting here.”

With that, the meeting ended. Since Henry had said that he and Alfred would be in charge of the Sore Empire, the leaders of the other Allied Powers returned to their respective countries, just as Henry had instructed, and prepared to send their troops to Zipan.

The only people left in the room were the Taejae, the left minister, Henry, and Alfred.

Henry broke the silence, “Taejae.”

"Yes...?”

“There’s nothing to worry about. As long as I am here, the Sore Empire will never fall.”

"Thank you... I have complete faith in you, Sir Henry”

Henry gave Hongwol a reassuring smile. Then, he left the room with Alfred and headed for where the rest of the spiritualists were waiting.

“Puff...”

Before he had teleported to Sore Empire, he had brought the spiritualist unit with him. However, all of the spiritualist unit members had glassy eyes and were blowing pink smoke. Looking at them all hazy, Henry thought to himself, ‘You worthless druggies.’

Henry mocked the buzzed-out spiritualists. Most of them were smoking the Pink Swamp they had stolen from Syred. Henry was well aware of this because he was the one who had given the Pink Swamp to Syred.

‘Well, things did work out thanks to that.’

When Henry had personally gone to disband the Etherwether family, he had seen some high-level spiritualists dying on one side of the mansion. They were drugged-up bastards who had raided the mansion to find some more Pink Swamp.

At first, Henry considered burning them along with the entire mansion. However, he had to change up his plan after he saw the spirits looking at dying spiritualists with eyes full of sadness.

‘Good thing I didn’t get rid of them. I now have one hundred dying spiritualists under my command.’

At first, there had been one hundred and seven spiritualists, but despite Henry’s best efforts, seven of them hadn’t responded to the treatment and died. After they died, Henry was left with exactly one hundred spiritualists.

“Everyone, follow me.”

He created small subspace pouches for all the spiritualists and put large amounts of Pink Swamp cigarettes in them. It was rather easy to control drug addicts; Henry just had to wave his hand so that the subspace pouches would no longer open.

Henry took the drooping spiritualists and headed to the highest place on the walls of the Sore Empire.

"Oh! You’re here, Archmage!”

“Oh, I was not aware that you were already here, Great General.”

Henry came across the greatest military personnel that protected the Sore Empire and was currently observing the movements of the enemies. He was none other than Yuha, the Great General of the Heavens.

He was the most powerful person in the country and had almost the same military authority as the Taejae. He was the sword and shield of the Taejae, revered as the guardian angel of the Sore Empire.

“There are about thirty thousand of them; Batz and Kinless seem to be their top commanders,” said Yuha.

“I thought they were going to send some weaklings, but it seems like Arthus was quite concerned about the Sore Empire. Have there been any other movements?”

“It seems like all they\'re doing is setting up barracks to recover after traveling for so long... I think they’ll probably start advancing as early as tomorrow morning.”

“What’s the status of the repaired walls and siege weapons?”

“I have completed all preparations, just like you’ve asked, but... I wanted to ask... How did the meeting go?”

While the meeting was going on, Yuha observed what was happening outside. He had deliberately not gone to the meeting. The reason for his absence was simple: Yuha had intended to quietly fulfill his duties regardless of the outcome of the meeting.

“Nothing worth mentioning. We decided to stop the imperial army with the ten thousand elite soldiers of the Sore Empire.”

“I see.”

Henry was slightly surprised by Yuha’s laconic reply. He had expected him to react differently.

“Hmm, that’s not the reaction I was expecting from you. I didn’t expect such a simple response, to be honest. The enemies have a staggering thirty thousand soldiers. Are you not worried at all, Great General?” Henry asked curiously.

Yuha replied calmly, “Of course I’m worried. Who wouldn’t be? But the enemies have already arrived and the Sore Empire hasn\'t been able to fully prepare for the future. All there’s left is for everybody to currently fulfill their duties to the best of their abilities.”

Yuha’s answer was unbecoming for a military officer. However, Henry could tell from that answer what Yuha’s core values were.

Henry let out a satisfied chuckle before saying, “I like how you’re transparent and straightforward. You sure are a general. It would have been nice if the right minister were like you, at least to a degree.”

"Haha... I believe he made that choice because he couldn’t have faith that the Sore Empire would survive this war. That being said, I think I’m partly at fault for his thinking like that, so please don’t criticize him too much.”

"Hmm... It seems like the more I talk, the worse of a person I feel. I think we’ve had enough chatter; I’ll go ahead and tell you how to deal with those soldiers.”

Henry hadn’t come all the way here to gossip about the right minister. Great General Yuha was like a formidable chess piece, possessing both unwavering faith and strength, much like the left minister. He would be very useful to Henry.

From then on, Henry planned to use his new chess pieces and aces to fend off the enemy army that was three times the size of the army of the Sore Empire.

Henry then pointed out to the large crowd of people down below and the surrounding terrain and told Yuha the tactics they would be using in the upcoming battle.

And at the end of their talk, Yuha said with a grin, “With that strategy, I think it’s actually possible to stop those troops.”

“Let’s make it clear through this battle that war isn’t just about numbers.”

With that, Henry disappeared with a smile on his face. He was on his way to proceed with the next step of the operation.

* * *

It was deep in the night.

The right minister gathered up everything that was valuable and left the Sore Empire. He was running for his dear life, panting and huffing as he fled the territory of the Sore Empire.

He couldn’t help but think that he was lucky. He had eavesdropped that he was no longer useful and that he would be executed as an example in front of everyone as soon as the sun rose.

His knees were aching from all the running.

He still limped and used a cane because of a past injury, but that didn’t mean he would just accept death. So, after taking an expensive elixir that was known to reduce pain, he had somehow managed to run away from the Sore Empire, making his way through the darkness.

The right minister had only had one place in mind. He thought he could at least survive if he could make it to the imperial barracks that were glimmering in front of his eyes.

This was all because Arthus had given him a title, because he thought he was the chosen one. If he just managed to get to the barracks and inform the troops about what Henry was planning to do, the empire would be able to turn the war in their favor.

The right minister eventually arrived at the imperial army\'s barracks, and with help from the soldiers, he managed to meet with Batz and Kinless, the corps commanders.

"Right, minister?"

The two recognized him because Arthus had told them about him beforehand. Because of this, the right minister thought everything was going to work out in his favor.

Thus, in order to somehow prove his worth, he told them everything he had gone through because of Henry, important or unimportant.

“Is that so...?”

When the right minister finished talking, Batz chuckled.

“Henry Morris’ apprentice, huh...”

Kinless reacted the same way.

Seeing both of them smile, the right minister was confident that he had proven his worth. So, he continued to make his appeal with an even more desperate voice.

“They also have spiritualists! They have the hundred strongest spiritualists, along with Alfred, whom everyone thought was dead all along! We must proceed with a night attack right now!”

“Wow, even Alfred is alive...?”

The right minister kept on spitting out valuable information. The moment Batz’s smile reached his ears, Batz unsheathed his sword.

“Just as I expected, you’re nothing.”

“E-excuse me? W-what are you trying to...!”

Slash!

Batz swung his sword. With that, blood splattered in the air. The right minister felt a sharp and frightening sensation from his neck.

He screamed.

“Aaaah!”

When he opened his eyes, it was completely dark, but then, when light suddenly flashed before his eyes, the right minister could clearly hear a different voice talking to him.

“You bastard... You’ve actually come this far, huh?”

He then saw Henry standing in front of him with his brows furrowed.