chapter 28

"What do you mean by that? Let me see!" the man climbed up to Leonard position to have a view for himself as well, he thought that the Rosen army was totally going to decimate the Evergreen army, however, when he witnessed what has unfolded right before his eyes, he couldn't help but feel horrified.

"How-how could this happen?!" he screamed out of fear.

"It called "War tactic" my friend...someone on our side seen merciless enough to just send in the infantry without any backup," Leonard told him.

"Why would the higher up do that?!" the man gritting his teeth and curses out.

"Cruel and merciless it may be seen, but it is undeniably effective...it will reduce the army rations issue, and also reduce the enemy number," Leonard commented.

"However...it seen like instead of a trade of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, the Rosen army had all of its teeth pulled off by the enemy instead," he added.

"How-how could you say that to our own people?!" the man looks at Leonard in shock.

"Forget what I just said, we need to get back to work." Leonard quickly changed the topic.

The man just gave him a weird look and went back down the watchtower.

"Alright Luminous, I know you're hiding somewhere around here, has it been done yet?" Leonard tone of voice immediately changed after the man left.

"Yes, it has been done, the courier has been captured." Luminous informed him.

"Good… keep on watching the road and the Rosen army potential escape route, and interrogate the courier for information, I shall start the plan soon." he ordered.

"It shall be done." Luminous bowed then jumped off the tower and vanished.

Flashback

to the day Leonard decides to personally infiltrate the Rosen army camp.

With a great fire blazing the Rosen camp behind their back, a small crowd was gathered in the nearby forest.

"My lord! You must rethink this proposal! It is too dangerous!" a man protested.

"Dangerous yes, but it is also the most efficient method," Leonard told the man.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine." Leonard pulled out a suit of armor he previously obtained a while back when he first makes his way toward the northern border from his inventory and put it on.

"See? Look just like them," he said after he donned on the helmet that covered his face.

"Just stay in the shadow and wait for further instruction," he ordered.

All of the people around Leonard were in silent.

"Don't be like that, I still had Luminous as a backup." Leonard then pointed at the woman who was standing behind him.

"Please be safe my lord." all of them bent down on one knee.

"...stop it with the formality, I hate those." after he said that Leonard walked back to the burning camp.

It was quite chaotic at the Rosen army camp, soldiers were rushing back and forth with buckets of water, trying to put out the fire as soon as possible, to prevent further damages.

"Hey, you over there! What are you standing around for! Go help put out the fire!" a man yelled Leonard.

"Aye, sir!-" just as he was about to head off to try and "help" the Rosen soldiers, the man pulled his arm.

"Wait...who are you? I don't recognize you! State your name and the unit you belong to!" the man began to question him.

"Ermm….sir...what's your name? And your position?" Leonard questioned the man back as he looked around, noticing that no one actually notice or pay any attention to them.

"I'm Lombard! A knight serving under Earl Jon!" the man proudly proclaimed.

"Huh...good identity...I'll be borrowing from you if you don't mind...Soul drain!" Leonard grinned from inside of the helmet.

"Huh?- GUrghhh!" the man became stiff and unable to move from within his armor, his body began to shrivel up like it was left to dry out in a fire, soon he dropped.

Leonard caught him and "accidentally" dropped him in the burning fire.

Flashback end

The story played out from there, from that night onward, Leonard began using the identity as the squire of the knight name Lombard who served under Earl Jon.

He showed off as an oddball within the camp, who do what he was asked on the surface, while he secretly schemed to screw them over in the dark.

"Good time…" Leonard took in a deep breath and headed back down again.

*****

Back to Mavis and Ryan, who have disguised themselves to sneak and blended into the reinforcement army that was currently stationed at their respective camp in the northern border.

"What- what do you mean by freaking out Mavis?" Ryan asked her nervously.

"Do you think that it's strange for Leonard to suddenly brought a small company of soldiers carrying the bare minimum protection and a whole lot of crossbows then disappear out of nowhere for who knows how long now?" Mavis questioned the girl.

"To make matter worse, I heard from some of the knights here that they saw a woman in there group as well…." Mavis then trailed off after she mentioned a woman was spotted following along Leonard.

"....." Ryan remained silent as her eyes went wide open.

"I could guess that he's cooking up something crazy, and that woman has a hand in it," Mavis added, this didn't help Ryan and her little dilemma.

"We need to find more about what the hell is going on, should we just go up and ask the Duke or Conner?" Mavis asked her.

"No-no we can't do that! If anyone of them finds out that we're here, they will definitely ship us back to the garrison city at a light case or just straight out send everyone back to Trier!" Ryan refused.

She has spent far too much effort to get this far, she prepared everything for their journey to find where Leonard is after he just picks up and left.

Leaving the three of them in the garrison city with Tyrant and a note saying.

"I'll be off doing some business in the northern border, I'll be back soon..hopefully."

"well it's too late for that now, I knew from the beginning that you girls sneaked along for the ride." Conner suddenly appeared from behind Mavis.