And while Kaiden was being helped by Yenton to put on his armor and plate protection, Declan Dieter, the vice-commander of the Khalid Knights, and the Count of Mirban from Mirbad territory entered to report.

“A messenger came from Leonas. They say new monsters have appeared again in Dorbas. They’ve dealt with them using the remaining essence.”

“Hah…”

With a sigh, Kaiden looked at the map spread out on the desk. The appearance of those monsters meant that Heinz had released them again, despite being in a standoff over the issue of new monsters. In other words, the Heinz bastards were continuing to provoke Rowen even in this situation. They were waiting for this side to start the attack first.

Kaiden raised his finger to rub his furrowed brow in irritation.

“Real sons of bitches.”

If they want to pick a fight, just do it. Or shut up and stay put.

“The warriors of the north are all dead.”

The Heinz army, located in the harsh northern lands, originally had the nickname “Warriors of the North.” During former king Heinrich’s time, the Heinz army was more suited to being called warriors rather than knights.

If Etrang, the powerhouse of the western continent, was a nation of lance cavalry, then northern Heinz was a nation of crossbowmen. A fearsome army that charged while piercing armor with arrows fired from crossbows. The term “warrior” was also used sarcastically to refer to their dishonorable method of advance, charging en masse while brandishing cruel projectile weapons.

However, the current Heinz army wasn’t living up to that reputation and notoriety.

“What are you going to do?”

Count Mirban asked with a worried face. Kaiden kept his mouth shut and remained silent.

The situation wasn’t good for this side to respond to their provocations with a preemptive strike. Even if he led his knights to victory in a battle with the Heinz army here, it wouldn’t end there because Heinz Kingdom would likely send additional soldiers.

When the conflict became a real crisis of war, would King Taras understand Kaiden’s position and declare war on Heinz?

‘Not likely.’

It was obvious he would only be blamed for escalating the conflict with Heinz.

Defeat would be even worse. Since King Taras was currently ignoring this situation, it was clear that only the northern territories would suffer damage as support would be unlikely even if the fighting escalated.

But even if they apologized and withdrew with the knights as Taras suggested, they would still be held responsible for something. Because Heinz must have a reason for sending monsters and picking fights. And whatever that unknown reason was, it irritated Kaiden immensely.

“…”

Was he this disgusted simply because the opponent was Heinz?

‘This is such a pain.’

He barely had enough time to just stay by Dana’s side. There were too many tiresome things.

With a frown, Kaiden turned his head to look at Taras’s letter placed on one side of the desk. He walked to the desk and picked up the already-read letter again. His gaze, following the lines of text without much interest, stopped at one spot.

[I have no doubt that Lord Khalid will handle this appropriately…]

Handle it appropriately. And there would be no reward after that handling. Just as it had always been in the past life that Kaiden remembered…

‘In the past…’

Originally at this time in the past, in late summer… When monsters were rampaging and the north was in chaos… He had used monsters to catch monsters.

As his thoughts reached that point, Kaiden narrowed his eyes. And made a decision. He threw the letter onto the desk. Then he spoke to the waiting Declan.

“We need to send messengers to Leonas and Mirban Castle. I’m going to use the Divine Beasts.”

* * *

On the night when Duke Khalid’s Divine Beasts traveled from Mirbad Plains to Mirban Castle and Leonas, the Khalid soldiers and Mirban soldiers in the Rowen army camp began moving busily. The Duke of Khalid used the power of Divine Beasts to instantly move the catapults from Mirban Castle to Mirbad Plains.

The magnificent Divine Beast corps that could cut down enemies in an instant became an instant efficient porter corps. Of course, permission to use the Divine Beasts hadn’t been granted from the king, who was the real commander of the Divine Beast corps. However, Kaiden rationalized that this wasn’t a problem since he was using them as porters, not soldiers.

The Rowen soldiers, wearing green clothes with the Rowen army’s emblem over their chain mail, set up the catapults’ positions while marveling at the magnificence of the Divine Beasts and the Duke’s ability. This was only possible because this was the great Rowen army that had a contractor who could command the great Divine Beasts. Surprisingly, they were feeling pride as the king’s soldiers through the commoner-born Duke of Khalid, something they hadn’t felt for a long time.

The massive catapults were set up facing the Heinz camp far away on the opposite side of the plains. It wasn’t a distance that anything thrown from the catapults could reach, nor were there any walls that needed to be broken. Nevertheless, as per the Duke’s orders, large barrels were placed next to the lined-up catapults.

Soldiers waited by each catapult to pull the ropes and prepare for loading. The soldiers took round mud balls from the barrels and loaded them onto the catapults.

“Begin.”

The order came from Duke Khalid standing behind the catapults. The Count of Mirban standing beside him shouted loudly for the soldiers to fire the catapults. The soldiers scooped up mud from the barrels and loaded it onto the catapults. They pulled the ropes together with combined strength.

With a whoosh, the mud balls flew from the catapults. Actually, they weren’t just mud balls. They were Huran mixed with essence. Kaiden had sent Divine Beasts to Leonas all afternoon to bring them.

The Huran flew through the air. Countless numbers of Huran floated in the air. The Huran that should have just flown and fallen flew further due to the wind created by Kaiden’s Divine Beasts.

While there was no official permission to use Divine Beasts, this was merely a case of the direction the Huran was flying happening to match the direction in which the Divine Beasts were creating wind. That’s how Kaiden brazenly launched the Huran.

The Huran that flew instantly successfully fell on the Heinz army camp. Thud-thud-thud-thud. Mud balls rained down on the field covered with dry grass.

“What’s this! An attack?”

Heinz soldiers jumped out after being attacked by mud balls in the middle of the night. Lights were lit, and Heinz knights wearing blue clothes over their armor also jumped out.

“It’s an attack! A preemptive strike!”

Drums sounded inside the camp.

However, by the time they had organized their formations and prepared to advance, the mud ball attack was already over. No more catapult attacks came. The Rowen army wasn’t advancing either.

“What’s going on?”

“What should we do?”

The Heinz knights discussed while mounted on their horses. The mud shot by the Rowen army only fell on the ground of the Heinz camp. It wasn’t heavy stones to destroy tents, nor corpses to spread disease.

Count Gent, the lord of Gent Castle, ordered an investigation of the mud balls thrown by Rowen. This was because it couldn’t have been meant to cause damage since it was beyond catapult range, and they wouldn’t have just thrown dirt clods in the middle of the night for no reason. The Heinz soldiers remained in formation in front of the camp, armed and maintaining tension.

Not long after, a knight who had confirmed the identity of the mud balls came to report to Count Gent.

“This is Huran. It’s what Rowen uses to switch with monster eggs after the spawning season to deceive monsters.”

“Hmph. What a petty method.”

Since it was natural in Heinz to hunt monsters en masse every autumn by shooting crossbows, Count Gent thought so. He tried to guess the Rowen army’s intention.

‘Did they shoot Huran at the Heinz camp to lure monsters to attack us?’

However, the Huran shot by the Rowen army just fell meaninglessly on the ground of the Heinz camp. Without attracting monsters or having any special effect.

Count Gent asked the knight.

“Wasn’t it just recently that Duke Khalid of Rowen contracted with Divine Beasts?”

“Yes. This summer.”

Then, being inexperienced with handling Divine Beasts, they probably couldn’t even launch the mud as far as intended when firing from the catapults.

The queen’s orders were to respond if the Rowen side attacked first, but the only way to respond to this current mud shower was to advance on the Rowen army camp. However, that was more likely to be seen as a preemptive strike by Heinz. Though regrettable, Count Gent concluded it would be awkward to fall for this failed mud shower provocation.

The Heinz soldiers cleaned up the mud that had flown from the Rowen camp. Though it was inconvenient as the mud remained messily on the ground even after sweeping, they had to clear it away from around the tents so it wouldn’t interfere with their advance. With that, the standoff began again.

The Heinz side realized Rowen’s intention after sunrise. Following the queen’s orders, the Heinz soldiers had to open the boxes that had arrived and were piled in the camp to release monsters to provoke the Rowen side. The soldiers brought out boxes wrapped in iron chains and marked with red X’s.

Though the monsters in the boxes were creepy and unidentifiable, they were knights who had to follow orders. Since the Rowen side kept refusing to fall for their provocations, orders had just come down to open all the remaining boxes and release the monsters.

Following orders, they thought their mission would be complete when they released the monsters, knowing that the monsters would crawl away in different directions as if drawn to something.

However, this time was different.

When they undid the chains and opened the boxes, the monsters poured out and covered the Heinz army camp.