Became The Son Of The Final Boss [EN]: Chapter 85

85.

I left the Western Command in secret before dawn to avoid being seen by Ram and Thompson.

And today, I entered the command headquarters like a triumphant general.

Ram, Thompson, Marquis Mike, and the western lords were all gathered to greet me.

“Commander!”

Marquis Mike welcomed me as soon as I returned.

Ken was the same. He bowed beside Marquis Mike with a deep smile.

On the other hand, the faces of the western lords, Ram, and Thompson were not so good.

I knew that Ram and Thompson wouldn’t welcome me, but the lords’ reaction was definitely unexpected.

Was it because I left the position of commander to Marquis Mike as soon as I arrived in the west and disappeared?

‘It’s not like I went out to play, and Marquis Mike and Ken must have explained it well, but they’re still reacting like that. Something’s up.’

Of course, I didn’t show it and accepted the greetings.

“The Orc Legion is camped outside. How long has the siege been going on?”

Ken answered my question.

“The orcs rushed in as soon as Your Highness left for the operation.”

While I was running around trying to save Gail, this place was fighting every day to stop the orcs’ advance.

Fortunately, the castle did not fall.

The Orc Legion also did not suffer significant damage. There were so many of them that it might have seemed like their numbers hadn’t decreased much.

Ken continued.

“Thanks to the efforts of Lord Ram and Lord Thompson, our troops were able to defend the castle with minimal damage. The western lords and Marquis Mike also worked hard.”

Looking at Ram and Thompson’s expressions, they seemed to think Ken was mocking them.

Their purpose in coming to the west was not to fight hard, but to eliminate me, so they didn’t like receiving Ken’s orders, let alone mine.

I said with a faint smile.

“Thank you all for your hard work. Let’s go inside for now.”

I stepped forward and moved to the temporary command post.

There were no tall buildings inside Marquis Mike’s castle, which had been reinforced by demolishing the lord’s castle.

The temporary command post was no different from other barracks, except that the tent was the largest.

The inside of the tent was warmer than the outside.

It seemed that spring came later to the west than to the capital of the empire.

When I was in the imperial palace, there was quite a spring breeze, but was it because this place was a battlefield?

The wind outside was still cold.

I warmed myself in front of the magic stove for a while.

The others did the same.

When my body was relaxed, I opened my mouth.

“What’s the situation?”

Marquis Mike stepped forward.

“Battles occur every day. The orcs launch sieges periodically, once in the morning and once in the evening.”

“What about our casualties?”

“It’s minor.”

I wanted the exact numbers.

“How many died and how many were injured?”

“As of last night, there were a total of 240 deaths, 400 injuries, and 100 of them were seriously injured.”

Considering the overall scale of the battlefield, it was a minor level as Marquis Mike said.

The number of orcs camped outside the castle alone was easily over tens of thousands.

To have that many casualties after fighting them every day meant that a perfect victory had been achieved, beyond excellence.

I nodded and comforted Marquis Mike.

“Please pay special attention to the treatment of the seriously injured. I will write a letter and send it to the center. There are still many orcs. If this place is breached, the entire empire will be covered with orcs. We must defend it.”

One of the western lords spoke with a doubtful voice.

“We are already at war with the Pyreon Kingdom, will the central government send additional troops here?”

“It will be possible to dispatch priests.”

The western lord who spoke nodded at my assurance.

“I plan to devise and proceed with strategies centered on soldiers for future battles as well.”

Marquis Mike agreed.

“The military’s strategy was excellent, allowing us to stop the massive orc army with minimal damage.”

Unlike Marquis Mike, the expressions of the western lords were strange, and Thompson’s expression, in particular, was openly dissatisfied.

On the other hand, Ram, with a calm expression, opened his mouth in a low voice.

“Your Highness, no, Commander, where have you been while the headquarters were empty?”

Everyone’s attention was focused.

Ram’s words continued.

“The number of knights has decreased, so there must have been casualties. No one knows why you secretly left the castle. Everyone was fighting here, but the commander was away.”

Ram stared at me with deeply sunken eyes and added.

“Come to think of it, it’s Knight Gail. The one who led the western search party is returning with the commander, surely you didn’t abandon your position as commander and secretly leave the castle to save one knight.”

Thompson chimed in.

“A commander is not just a position, but the chief in charge of the battlefield. Gail is a knight who has been called the commander’s right-hand man since the imperial palace. Leaving your post for several days for the sake of one of your knights is a commander’s responsibility…”

I cut off Thompson’s words.

“He is my right-hand man. And the empire’s new Sword Master [a title given to a knight of exceptional skill]. The strategic value of a Master is,”

I watched the astonishment flowing across Ram’s face with a smile and continued with emphasis.

“Equivalent to a small country. Everyone here knows that common sense.”

* * *

Gail showed off his sword dance.

Kwaaaang-!

A clear aura blade [a concentrated form of magical energy] moved according to Gail’s dance, and the bodies of the orcs within range were cut in half.

“He fought many battles with His Majesty during the First Unification War.”

It was Marquis Mike’s voice.

I focused on Gail’s appearance while listening to the Marquis’s voice from the castle walls.

Gail was single-handedly destroying the center of the Orc Legion.

Thompson’s magic corps and soldiers were providing long-range support from the castle walls, and Ram’s Aetran Knights were in charge of defending the eastern walls.

In other words, Gail was currently facing the Orc Legion alone in front of the central gate.

Although I said it myself, I was amazed by Gail’s appearance, drawing out aura blades and dealing with the orcs with terrifying movements.

Gail’s surroundings were filled with the corpses of orcs.

Marquis Mike chuckled.

“It’s a great blessing for the empire. It’s truly a cause for celebration that the commander has a Sword Master under his command.”

I shrugged my shoulders.

Marquis Mike’s voice lowered slightly.

“It seemed like Ram and Thompson were plotting something, but it seems like everything has gone up in smoke with Gail’s return as a Sword Master.”

Ken stepped up to answer instead of me.

“They were planning to shake up the western lords and remove the Marquis from the position of commander. But Your Highness returned and rescued the Sword Master.”

I widened my eyes.

“Did that happen?”

Ken smirked.

“It’s a clumsy trick. Even if Duke Beregon and Duke Austin came in person and tried to shake them, the western lords are not people who can be easily shaken. They underestimated Marquis Mike’s reputation and influence in the west.”

Marquis Mike was humble.

“It’s just that they didn’t sincerely approach the western lords, it’s not because of my influence.”

Marquis Mike also knew about the two’s petty tricks.

I said with a heavy heart.

“Those who went to the battlefield for the sake of the empire are thinking differently… I guess it’s because of my lack of virtue.”

Ken and Marquis Mike didn’t bother to comfort me with words and simply bowed their heads lightly.

In the meantime, Gail killed all the vanguard of the orcs and returned.

“Commander.”

“Good job.”

Gail bowed his head.

Marquis Mike spared no praise for Gail.

“The orcs seem surprised. Usually, once they start a siege, they keep rushing until late afternoon, but it seems like the morning battle is over today. The orcs seem to be intimidated by Sir Gail’s divine power.”

Marquis Mike’s words were by no means an exaggeration.

The orcs were retreating like a tide.

Perhaps because there were so many of them, the outside was full of orc corpses, but the retreating orcs still looked like black ants.

“The battle will become more intense when the Orc King comes.”

Marquis Mike asked at my words.

“Have you seen the Orc King in person?”

“I met him in the process of saving Gail. I will hold a meeting when we return.”

Preventing the resurrection of Goran was more important than gaining the loyalty of the western lords.

‘Is Karen looking for Goran by now?’

According to Gail, Karen felt a sense of duty to prevent Goran’s resurrection. It was exactly the personality I had set for Karen.

It was not something anyone could do to jump into danger alone for the sake of those who would suffer, without being told to do so.

Marquis Mike, Ken, and Gail followed me silently, looking at my somewhat stiff expression.

Some soldiers went outside the castle to collect the corpses of the orcs, and the western lords, including Ram and Thompson, who were in charge of the area and commanding the soldiers, began to gather at my tent.

I said when all the lords had returned.

“The battle with the orcs is a long-term war. There are still many orcs left in the Dark Forest, and there is also an Orc King. They will bring the king soon.”

So far, the defense had been successful, but it was clear that the direction of the battle would flow in an unknown direction once the Orc King and orc sorcerers joined in earnest.

We had elites from Aetran and Riverhill, including Ram and Thompson, but we were far outnumbered by the orcs in terms of absolute numbers.

In particular, the individual combat power of the orcs was stronger than that of the soldiers.

Western soldiers were also called elite soldiers, but the orc warriors led by the Orc King were different from ordinary orcs.

“If the castle walls are breached, we will be pushed back in an instant. Fortunately, Marquis Mike has repaired the castle walls and is holding out well, but if we do not eliminate the root cause and go into a war of attrition, we will be at a disadvantage.”

I used honorifics because it was a meeting place where everyone was present.

One of the western lords raised his hand. As soon as I gave him the right to speak, he stood up and opened his mouth.

“Is the root cause related to what the commander saw and experienced when rescuing Sir Gail?”

He was quite sharp.

I nodded.

“Sir Gail was trapped in the main camp of the Orc Legion, and in the process of rescuing him, I met not only the Orc King but also skeletons, durahans [undead warriors], and.”

After taking a moment to catch my breath, I continued.

“I met a lich [a powerful undead sorcerer].”

Thompson jumped to his feet.

“A lich! That doesn’t make sense. If you met a lich…”

The words that he would not have been able to return alive were omitted. Thompson was speaking with his expression.

I said the words he couldn’t say for him.

“I would have been buried there. But Gail was with me, and there were knights who went with me. Above all, the commander himself is not weak enough to die to a lich.”

Thompson’s expression twisted strangely. The expressions of the western lords also sank.

I felt that they recognized me as a crown prince with a Sword Master named Gail under his command, but not as a skilled person.

Gail stepped forward slyly.

“A superior spiritist [a mage specializing in summoning spirits], a knight on the verge of becoming a Sword Master, two top-tier expert knights, and about a hundred knights supporting them would be enough to hunt a lich.”

All eyes were on me.

The meaning of the title of superior spiritist was by no means small.

I needed to show them.

What I was about to say would only be persuasive if my skills were outstanding.

Sylphen and Ignis appeared.

Superior spirits of different attributes!

It was an appearance that could be easily mistaken for a master, not a beginner superior spirit.

“I occasionally summon superior spirits for training, so please don’t be surprised.”

Someone was swallowing hard.