The Death Mage that doesn't want a fourth time

153 The empire's strategy and a birthday celebration

Sleygar and most of the Hilt had been disposed of by Legion and the Dark Night Knights' Order led by Isla.

But there was a single surviving Hilt member. His existence hadn't even been known to Ervine or the other members of the Hilt to begin with. It seemed that Ervine had vaguely guessed that someone would be there in the shadows, but he hadn't known where they would be or how many of them there were.

He had been devoting himself to gathering information from a place distant from Ervine and the others. And he had simply watched Rickert and the other Hilt members being killed, continuing to gather information without coming to Rickert's aid.

And once the battle was over, he had focused solely on escaping. He had passed through the region, ignoring the occupying army's headquarters where Duke Marme was, to pass on the information to other members of the Hilt who had been on standby.

"... If only it ended as a needless concern," muttered Marshukzarl Amid, the Amid Empire's emperor, as he passed his eyes over the report that contained this information.

He had not intended to use the four members of the Fifteen Evil-breaking Swords, his own nephew Rickert among them, as sacrificial pawns. If it were a situation of emergency... even in situations of emergency that exceeded all expectations, he would send enough members to overcome them.

The insects used by the 'Insect Swarm' Bebeckett should have been able to exterminate Vandalieu's Undead, even if there were a thousand of them... Even if there were several thousand of Undead the insects should have been able to suppress them.

The 'King Slayer' Sleygar should have been able to assassinate Vandalieu while Bebeckett's insects suppressed his Undead.

And the 'Five-headed Snake' Ervine was skilled enough to have aimed for promotion to S-class if he were an adventurer. He had been given not only Artifacts but Demon King equipment as well, so he should have been able to exterminate Vandalieu even if he did wield fragments of the Demon King.

The 'Light-speed Sword' Rickert was inferior to the other three in combat ability, but he was certainly strong enough when compared to other knights. With the holy sword Nemesis Bell and Light-speed Sword Technique, a superior version of the Swordsmanship Skill, he shouldn't have been a burden to the others.

But according to the written report, none of the things that 'should have' happened had become reality.

Bebeckett's insects had been stolen, and Sleygar's assassination had failed despite successfully decapitating his target. Ervine had fought bravely, successfully drawing out the powers of Vandalieu who had been shrouded in mystery up until now, but he had ultimately been defeated.

Rickert had fallen to the mysterious power of a grotesque monster.

"To think that my expectations were thoroughly out of order... Perhaps I have grown old," Marshukzarl said to himself as he stroked his face.

He was over a hundred years old, but as one would expect of a half-Elf, there wasn't a single wrinkle on his skin.

Marshukzarl was sitting in a conference room that had been built alongside his office for the purpose of discussing high-confidentiality matters. The people gathered in this room had serious expressions on their faces.

"Your Majesty, it is not the time to be making such jokes," one of them said.

Other than Marshukzarl, there was the surviving Hilt member himself, who had returned through the Teleportation spell of a space-attribute mage of the army, the 'Zero Sword' Carmine representing the Fifteen Evil-breaking Swords, General Hewberry who led the First Army that protected the emperor, and Chief Imperial Mage Bangain. The others in the room were Marshukzarl's retainers that were also closely trusted.