Main Character Hides His Strength

It had been several months since the Barbarians from the Demon Realm invaded the world.

As time passed, the weakness and the truth behind the Barbarians that were initially believed to be undefeatable came out to the surface.

Though his qualities as a human being was questionable, Schnellmerker had few peers when it came to his competence as a strategist. As the leader of the Order of Extinction, he had been meticulously gathering intel and scouting the enemies to understand the unknown that was the Barbarian threat and discover the weakness of this brand new foe.

According to him, the overwhelming power of the Barbarians were not something they achieved on their own.

In other words, their powers were granted to them by an outside power.

What Schnellmerker found was that the various chiefs of the Barbarians not only served as their leaders, they also served as some conduit from which the blessings from the gods would be distributed to the followers.

It was a well-established fact that the Barbarians turn and flee upon the loss of their leaders.

Sungchul himself had seen this time and time again on the battle field.

But he had not gone as far as to think that this might have not been simply a matter of bad morale, but that they literally became physically weaker as a direct result of the loss of their leader.

“The Barbarians are spiritually connected to each other on a tribal level. Each individual tribal member is connected to their lesser chieftains, and the lesser tribes are connected to the larger clans. And at the highest level, the main clans seemed to be directly linked to the God of Order we used to worship.” As a proof, Schnellmerker brought two Barbarian prisoners to compare their strength. One had lost his chieftain, and the other had not.

The Barbarian who had lost his Chieftain was weak and unremarkable. Weak enough for an ordinary knight to face him alone.

Sungchul who worked with Schnellmerker for the first time in 20 years, he couldn’t help but acknowledge his former Adjunct’s skill.

‘His talents are much too valuable to lose to the enemy.’

Schnellmerker suggested a plan based on the information he had gathered thus far.

Sungchul could already predict what the plan might be even before Schnellmerker suggested it.

And Sungchul’s premonition turned out to be true.

“And so, we should cut off the head of the snake.”

The plan Schnellmerker so proudly suggested was to launch a single devastating ambush to annihilate the enemy leadership.

The Barbarians were surrounding La Grange in a large circle, which made them particularly vulnerable to an attack from the outside.

Not to mention that the Barbarians were highly undisciplined after sieging for more than a month.

Their daily routine consisted of torturing their prisoners all throughout the day, catapulting the city wall whenever they get bored, and finishing the night by partying on plundered livestock and alcohol.

The plan seemed feasible.

The problem was the giant magic formation at the center of the Barbarian encampment.

Schnellmerker and the leadership of the World Parliament were well aware that it was a Magic Formation capable of calling forth the God of Order.

The magic formation is able to force the heart of the Ancient God in La Grange to activate, to force it to cooperate in enabling forbidden, impossible things to occur in the world.

Ambush was one thing, but that magic formation had to be destroyed somehow before it could be activated.

If not, the battle will become nothing but a reenactment of the previous defeat with another advent of the God of Order.

Thus, the coalition forces of humanity under the command of Sungchul had two primary objectives.

One was to destroy the giant magic formation of the enemy.

The other was to kill the enemy leadership.

These two objectives had to be accomplished quickly before the Barbarians could react.

It was no easy task.

Schnellmerker suggested one possible solution.

To use La Grange itself as the bait.

Any predator was bound to be the most off guard after a successful hunt.

The Barbarians were bound to be the most vulnerable after they successfully conquer La Grange and have gotten their hands on a vast number of prisoners and spoils of war, was Schnellmerker’s thought.

And so he recommended the ambush to take place after the fall of La Grange. Schnellmerker calculated that La Grange wouldn’t last more than three months. Even with the Heart of the Ancient God to protect it, the military or the food to sustain and protect the inhabitants were already reaching its limits.

Most of the kings and their representatives were very supportive of such a plan.

Especially the nobles of the Floating Archipelago and the former nobles of the Kingdom of Rutheginea.

For they desired the downfall of the Emperor above all else, even more than the downfall of Sungchul.

Sungchul also thought that Schnellmerker’s suggestion was the most logical. At least from the point of view of the coalition forces.

But Sungchul had made a promise with the Emperor.

That he would come bring relief forces within the week.

Sungchul was not a man who makes promises lightly.

But a man who was shouldering the weight of humanity could not act recklessly and thoughtlessly in the name of fulfilling promises.

The moment he’s defeated, the Emperor as well as the rest of humanity was fated to become hunted down and cleansed from the world.

He had to think.

“…”

In the observation post where the wind tainted with miasma was flowing, Sungchul was drinking alone while watching the moonlight in the east that turned blood red.

To keep a promise

Or abandon his promise in return for a more favorable timing.

This was a difficult problem to resolve.

He understood how difficult it was to try and catch two rabbits at the same time.

It meant that trying to get everything could cause him to lose everything instead.

The fate of humanity versus one man’s friendship.

It was obvious which was more important.

But Sungchul’s emotions made it difficult to give up on either one of these things.

Drip.

Sungchul poured himself another glass and downed it in one go.

It was the sweet and strong Elvish wine he so enjoyed, but it was not enough to relieve him of his heavy heart.

A heavy sigh escaped his lips.

He felt someone’s presence behind him.

A light footstep was headed his way, directly towards him.

Sungchul looked behind him.

“I came to say good bye.”

The uninvited guest was Ryze Himerr.

Sungchul decided to send her off to the Fae World and had prepared a letter of invitation to Adelwight as well as escorts.

Marakia and Bertelgia thought that due to how much trouble she had caused Sungchul until now, perhaps she needed to suffer a bit more before sending her off, but Sungchul who simply wanted to move on from the past did not agree.

In fact, he felt sorry for Craiya who he had all but abandoned in the Fae World.

Though he had his reasons for being disappointed, it was unadult-like for him to treat a child like that.

If he could reunite the child with her mother, it would greatly relieve the burden in his heart.

“…Did you not say you’ll leave right away?”

Sungchul returned his gaze back out beyond the wall as the answered calmly.

Rye walked forward slowly as she rested her arm on the parapet of the observation post as she looked out at the same direction Sungchul.

It was a dark night. There were no stars, and only the eastern moon shining bloody red by the Miasma lit up the sky.

Ryze let out a sigh while looking out at the crimson boundary approaching from the east.

“I wanted to say my farewells before I leave. Since a lot has happened between you and I. And there’s so much to apologize for.”

“…”

There was nothing to say to her.

Sungchul chose not to even reply.

The time passed by under the cold veil of silence.

A weak smile appeared on Ryze’s face.

She felt just how much their relationships had changed due to the passage of time for herself.

Sungchul’s calm voice suddenly pierced the silence.

“Go and take good care of Craiya.”

She was no longer someone special to Sungchul. So there was no longer a reason to get an apology from her.

She was no different from any other past that had already passed by.

That was the truth.

She lowered her arm that was resting on the parapet and turned around.

A foot step much heavier than when she first appeared could be heard.

Sungchul continued to drink from his cup as he looked up without much thought at the distant sky.

The footsteps stopped not too far.

“Hey, I heard the rumors.”

Ryze had said.

Sungchul did not turn around, but it did not discourage her from continuing.

“You’re having trouble figuring out what to do about helping out the leader of the rebellion?”

To this, Sungchul turned slightly to look back.

It was the first reaction he had to what Ryze had said.

Ryze who became emboldened by this sight breathed in deep before gathering her hands to make a cone in front of her mouth and shouting loudly.

“Who cares if it works or not, just do it anyway! It’s your way of doing things, isn’t it?”

For some reason, Sungchul felt wide awake after hearing this.

Ryze saw Sungchul’s side view before turning back around.

She disappeared back towards the wide open exit of the observation post.

“…”

Sungchul who was left alone thought to himself while swirling his drink.

‘My way of doing things…’

It was what Ryze had said.

There was no reason to give it any importance.

Although it was greatly diminished by time, he still held a bit of a grudge towards her.

It would be best to let her words enter through one ear and let out the other.

But on the other hand, he had this thought as well.

If the words were meaningful to him, does it matter who said it?

There was a need to listen to words of even the most ordinary of person.

Not to mention, she was someone who understood him very well.

And to her, Sungchul must have been acting quite besides himself.

“…”

Now that he had a moment to cool down and reflect upon himself, he had so much to think about.

Was it because the weight he shouldered was too heavy?

He had already wasted four days on deliberation.

There was only two more days until the deadline for his promise with the Emperor.

Perhaps there was a part of him that wanted to pass time and accidentally or intentionally miss his appointed time to fulfill his promise with the Emperor.

It was a cowardly way to escape from his responsibility.

It was quite unlike himself to do things this way.

And now that he thought of it, he had always simply brute forced his way through whatever problem he faced.

When he decided to help create the rebellion to stop the continental threat of the Kingdom of Rutheginea, when he tried to escape the arenas with Ryze Himerr, when he chose to leave the World Parliament, Sungchul had not worried about consequences of such actions.

Whether or not his actions were the right thing to do had room for debate, but at the very least Sungchul had no regrets about making those choices at the time.

“That woman, truth be told, I don’t like her, but I think the last thing she said is worth listening to.”

Bertelgia said quietly from the pocket.

“You are not acting like yourself right now.”

“Is that so?”

Sungchul let out a sigh and rested against the parapet.

The winds blowing from afar passed through his hair and coat pleasantly.

“My way of doing things.”

There was nothing that came to mind except to break things and brute force his way through.

His sense of urgency suddenly gave away to a moment of inspiration.

Sungchul’s eyes that long remained dead and despondent lit up.

There was a similar battle in the past.

A pillaging unit of Rutheginea had the village Sungchul was defending surrounded, and the small forces led by the Emperor had to come rescue Sungchul.

Of course the scale of the armies or the strength of its combatants was incomparable, but the overall strategic circumstance was similar enough.

At that time, Sungchul and William decided to sacrifice a bit of their forces as bait in order to defeat the enemy.

What if they were to use a similar tactic now?

Of course, it could lead to total defeat, or at least cause massive losses.

But this was far better alternative to doing nothing and coming to regret it.

This was the mindset that Ryze reminded Sungchul of.

“…Shall I just go ahead and do it?”

A faint grin appeared on Sungchul’s lips.

He sometimes became greedy.

Promise with the Emperor. The salvation of the human race.

It was a difficult to get both.

But he wanted both anyway. Not because someone asked him to, but out of his own will.

Sungchul downed the rest of the remaining alcohol and hurried to his office.

He immediately had the fastest messanger send out the following orders.

[In two days, stop the heart once the sun sets. I shall come with the light.]

Once he verified the wyvern carrying the message rise up into the night sky, Sungchul ordered all forces to muster.

The last army of mankind obeyed his command and stood at formation on the wide open plains.

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