The battle within the Owen Marquisate grew even more fierce.
It was a war that was dragging on for quite some time. A significant number of those who had claimed to be successors met their deaths.
Those who were weak, those lacking tact, and those who were self-righteous died first. Various types of people were among the fallen.
Some acted as slyly as the late Marquis Owen. However, there were cases where they were assassinated by their own subordinates because they did not know how to manage people.
Only two remained.
One was the second son, who was the foxiest of them all, and the other was the youngest son, whom the late Marquis Owen had secretly chosen as his successor.
The second son utilized his subordinate families well. In particular, he effectively used the power of his maternal family, the house of Viscount Kupas.
He succeeded in rallying those located in the southern part of the Owen Marquisate.
The youngest son, who had effectively become the second eldest because everyone else was dead, performed unexpectedly well.
People had thought the youngest would be the first to die.
However, he was quite resourceful.
“Do you know what will remain after the peerage succession, and yet you still push for my older brother?”
“I would rather tell you that joining my side is more beneficial.”
“Beneficial… If we were to go bankrupt right now, what benefit would there be?”
“The future is the price. I will create a future different from my brother’s.”
“My brother received much help from his maternal family, so he has many debts to repay. But not me.”
Though everyone thought he was in danger because he lacked power, he turned that crisis into an opportunity.
The youngest son’s maternal family was the first to fall. In a situation where he had no political backing, he promised a rosy future.
To put it nicely, it was hope. To put it bluntly, it was an empty promise.
However, it was quite convincing.
Especially in the case of the youngest son, who somehow inherited Marquis Owen’s power; he also had talent as a mage.
Excellent resourcefulness, the power to handle subordinates, and talent as a mage.
He was a figure that reminded everyone exactly of Marquis Owen.
Those who had followed Marquis Owen, the elders, and the nobles who wanted a new power structure stepped forward and joined the youngest.
From then on, things became even more intense.
A two-way battle to become the new Marquis Owen was taking place on a large scale.
However, the situation changed in an instant.
Two things acted as definitive variables.
***
The first was Duke Jisert.
“The soldiers?”
“They have all been replenished. They number 30,000. It is by no means a small number.”
“We also used many of the armaments from the Hausen Viscountcy.”
“Good.”
Duke Jisert had been held back by the struggle with the Hausen Viscountcy.
Many people had died, and it was particularly painful that he had used the Servants, whom he had kept as a secret weapon, in the beginning.
‘There was much to replenish. It is certainly not an easy power to manage.’
Even as a Duke, Servants were not something he could create easily.
It was not a power he could handle easily, so it was a force he had to save. It took considerable time to replenish and improve that force again.
But reaching the present.
SKREEEEE
SKREEE
They had certainly been transformed into superior Servants.
In the meantime, the soldiers were replenished, and their equipment became substantial.
He used the resources obtained from completely wiping out the Hausen Viscountcy and its fief to arm his troops.
Thanks to that, the Hausen Viscountcy had no traces left and was in a state of complete ruin.
But Jisert did not care. The place he was looking at was further south.
“We advance again. Let us see how far we can go.”
“Yes! We will begin immediately.”
Duke Jisert, the first variable, began to move south once more.
The second variable was the same.
The second variable was Earl Ofern, who had newly reached the level of Aura Master.
“This is the House of Owen, which we could not cross until now.”
“Let us cross it first, my Lord.”
“Fine. To invade those who nearly brought our family to the brink of ruin. Not bad.”
He stood at the front and moved toward the Owen Marquisate.
The knights and soldiers followed behind him.
The knights were elites drafted from each of the five knight orders. They were knights to whom Earl Ofern had personally passed down the Aura Cultivation Method.
‘The limit has been transcended.’
The Aura Cultivation Method obtained from Rayrn was on a different level.
Basically, the Aura Cultivation Methods in this world helped awaken Aura in the body. They were created based on methods to accumulate and contain Aura throughout the body.
Then, depending on one’s innate bloodline, they used the Aura contained in the body to specialize it.
In the case of the deceased Viscount Hausen, he used Aura to awaken the power of a Giant.
In the case of House Jisert, they used the Aura in their bodies to utilize the territory and land they possessed.
In the case of House Ofern, it was swordsmanship.
However, there was no part that could be called a defining characteristic.
Yet, while they had no specialty, there were many who were born with talent.
By utilizing that talent, they were able to withstand various families with special characteristics and become one of the Great Lords.
However, there was a limit. Rayrn broke that limit.
‘The level is distinctly different.’
If one learned the Aura Cultivation Method given by Rayrn, they easily rose to the Prediction level. The starting point was different from the beginning.
It did not end there.
Rayrn called it a knack, but if one used that knack well.
‘Even without enlightenment, one can manifest Aura.’
Though incomplete, they could use Aura.
In the end, it was the same method Rayrn used when he first manifested Aura without enlightenment after obtaining sixty years’ worth of internal energy.
If one concentrated Aura in the Dantian and accumulated that concentrated Aura in the sword.
VROOOOOOM
One could manifest Aura in the sword.
Even if it was incomplete or weaker than completed Aura, it did not matter. The important thing was that they could manifest Aura.
From Rayrn’s perspective, it was far from completion and was only at the level of a basic swordsman.
But being able to imitate it was what mattered.
A knight order where every knight could use Aura!
Setting aside the Empire beyond the mountains, it was a level that did not exist within Malexia. They reached a level that transcended limits and operated on a different dimension.
And the Earl, leading them, reached the Parun Viscountcy first.
“That is the place.”
“I heard they are people who squeeze every drop of blood out of others.”
“I have certainly heard the news. Selling their own people for food… They are interesting people.”
The Parun Viscountcy was the place visited by Yuden, the Merchant Guild Master in charge of the Polling Merchant Guild.
Parun was one of those who had sold iron ore and his own people to purchase food.
Having put considerable effort into the succession war, he was currently in a very difficult state.
It was because the war had been prolonged.
The people had been sold off, and the number of people to mine iron ore had decreased. Many soldiers had died, and resources had long since been consumed.
In such a situation.
-It’s the enemy!
-It’s the flag of House Ofern!
Earl Ofern personally led his soldiers and invaded.
The Earl’s soldiers were numerous. Their number was 25,000. It was the number brought by combining the new recruits and the soldiers who were in the South.
Compared to the soldiers of Viscount Parun who met them, their armaments were also substantial.
Even if they were not magic swords, they were armed with equipment forged using mana-infused iron.
It was even more so for the squad leaders responsible for ten men each. Rayrn had added secret weapons to their substantial armaments.
Iron plate scrolls!
Each of them held several scrolls engraved with magic in their bosoms.
“I can give you hundreds of these. Heh heh.”
Rayrn had handed them over playfully, but they were actually scrolls. He had given them scrolls, which were no different from strategic weapons in this world. And they were reusable!
He generously distributed things that only knights, not soldiers, should possess.
Although they used basic magic like Magic Missile or Strength, if the soldiers used magic all at once, it became a force that could not be ignored.
He had filled the ranks with such people.
“Shall we set up camp?”
“No need.”
It was natural for the Parun Viscountcy to fall into an uproar immediately.
Even while the Parun Viscountcy was panicking and preparing, Earl Ofern silently led his soldiers. They formed a battle array, looking as if they would charge right away.
“Surely… are we going immediately?”
“Correct.”
At the words of the leader of the Hisran Knights, Earl Ofern nodded without hesitation.
“Before overwhelming power, neither strategy nor tactics matter.”
“…It is certainly overwhelming.”
“I will eat dinner in that castle tonight. I will lead the vanguard. Follow me well! Advance!”
That was the signal.
A knight order that transcended limits. Soldiers with substantial armaments. And himself, who had reached the level of Aura Master.
The Earl was confident.
GOOOOOOOOOO
As if to clearly show his determination to break the silence he had maintained until now.
“I will open the castle gate!”
Earl Ofern, who gathered a great deal of Aura.
“O-Oura!”
“It’s an Aura Master!”
He breathed Aura into his sword without hesitation.
The completed Aura filled everyone’s vision.
Clear evidence that he was an Aura Master!
‘It is only a part anyway!!’
Earl Ofern revealed his strength without reservation, power he would have hidden by any means before.
It was because he knew that the power House Ofern possessed was not because he was an Aura Master, nor because the knight order was strong.
In any case, the most important thing in House Ofern was.
‘Rayrn… it is that child.’
It was not something like an Aura Master, but the new power created because Rayrn existed.
Earl Ofern knew that power more desperately than anyone else. Therefore, there was no hesitation or doubt.
Simply.
“…Destroy.”
KA-BOOOOM!
He merely concentrated on destroying the castle of Viscount Parun that blocked his path.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Before the completed Aura, the thick castle gates were useless.
Only a magic defense circle, designed to block magic, was engraved. They had never envisioned a situation where an Aura Master would destroy the castle gate.
“The, the gate!”
“It’s breaking!”
CRRRRRRRACK!
A hole was punched through just like that.
Brutal strategy and tactics! But even that ignorance becomes the most efficient tactic when one possesses overwhelming power!
“ADVANCE! GET IN!”
Ofern, who still had strength left even after breaking the castle gate, stepped inside while manifesting his Aura.
“S-Stop him!”
SQUELCH
He cut the throat of a brave knight, one of the few in the Parun Viscountcy, who tried to protect the front.
CRRRRRRRACK
He bisected several bodies at once.
The Earl knew better than anyone that for every bit of blood he shed, the soldiers following him would not be sacrificed.
That was why he was at the very front.
“ADVANCE! IT’S AN ADVANCE!”
While shouting for the advance, he shed more blood and caused more blood to flow than anyone else.
There was no one who dared to throw themselves before Earl Ofern. The battle lines began to collapse in an instant.
Earl Ofern, the second variable, moved fiercely.
Far from just consuming the Owen Marquisate, he began to completely crush it.
His journey, which began by toppling the Viscountcy, continued to move south.
Even the Owen Marquisate, where two factions remained and were struggling for power.
“…Is there a way to stop it?”
“None are visible right now.”
It was a situation where they had no choice but to feel a sense of crisis. The vacancy left by the deceased Marquis Owen was larger than imagined.
One of the seeds Rayrn had sown was certainly sprouting.
However, Rayrn, who had created this situation, had no time to care about the Owen Marquisate.
“What?”
It was because a change he had not expected was occurring in the Northern Mountain Range.