Advent of the Three Calamities

Chapter 703: Death [2]

It all happened incredibly fast. In one moment, I was in my room quietly waiting to go to bed, and in the next moment, I felt powerful fluctuations coming from the second floor of the estate.

’Noel’s office!’

I dropped whatever I was doing and rushed there.

However, what greeted me was an unexpected sight.

"...What are the chances of you telling me what happened over here?"

Standing in the center of the office, his clothes spotless and his body untouched, Noel casually glanced around at the corpses strewn across the floor. The sight wasn’t a pretty one, with limbs and pieces of flesh lying throughout.

Inevitably, an intense smell of blood lingered in the air as I took a step back out of the office.

The smell...

"It’s nothing big."

Noel casually answered while looking around before bending over one of the corpses and taking out what looked to be a small pocket watch.

"There was an assassination attempt. I dealt with them. They weren’t particularly difficult to deal with."

"So you say..."

But looking at the corpses in front of me, I could tell that they all belonged to quite powerful individuals. While I couldn’t make a proper estimate, they all seemed to be at least around Tier 5 and above.

’My guess is Tier 5, but they look highly trained. How did Noel beat them...?’

I looked at Noel and his spotless appearance.

While I knew that Noel was by no means weak, he was currently injured.

No...

He didn’t even have a heart.

"Your strength should be at around Tier 3. How in the world did you ma—"

"Just because my power has regressed doesn’t mean my body has. The only things that diminished are my mana density and my ability to wield it. Physically, I’m still more than capable of handling people like them."

"....Oh."

That did sound like a reasonable argument.

I hadn’t seen him fight, but the sight before me did prove his point.

"We don’t have much time."

Noel suddenly spoke, staring at the pocket watch.

"Taking into consideration that approximately four minutes have passed since the fight started, it looks like we have about two to three minutes to take action."

"Hm?"

What was he saying?

"You—"

"Yes, I was expecting something like this to happen. I’ve been waiting for it to happen for quite some time now."

Noel quietly walked towards his desk, where he unfolded a map of the entire Evenus Territory, pointing towards the outskirts of Westernborn, our main territory, and where we were currently.

"In order for the operation to succeed, they infiltrated Westernborn from all sides. The perimeter of the territory should currently be taken over by the troops of the other noble houses. The moment the assassination is a success, they’ll start closing in swiftly, taking over the entire territory in one swoop."

Tik, Tik—

Noel took out the pocket watch again.

"The moment they receive the confirmation, the first thing they’ll do is strike Valemount. The moment they take over Valemount will be the moment that we lose the war."

"If that’s the case..."

"Time’s up."

Noel extended his finger and pressed it onto the top of the pocket watch.

Immediately, the ticking stopped, and the surroundings grew quiet. The wind blew through the open window, and Noel smiled as he looked at me.

"...They’ve now started their attack."

***

Not far off.

"We’ve received the signal! Let’s start moving!"

"Quick!"

Thousands of troops moved in at the same time, moving around the forest that surrounded the Westerborn territory.

At the helm of the troops in the Western area was the Knight Commander of the Wilshire March. His presence was nothing short of impressive, suppressing everything within his vicinity.

Carrying a large broadsword at his back, he was like a tall mountain.

"....."

All of a sudden, he stopped, and his hand raised.

The soldiers behind him stopped.

"What’s going on? Did something happen?"

"Captain...?"

Ignoring the murmurs and whispers coming from behind him, the Captain stared ahead, his thick brows furrowing tightly as his black hair, tied in a ponytail, fluttered faintly.

Eventually, he turned to his right, where a small and lanky man with a bald head appeared.

"Strategist, something is wrong."

"Wrong? What’s wrong is there...?"

Confused, the strategist looked at the captain.

"We’re almost at Valemount. The other noble houses are about to arrive there. The operation was successful. Once we take over Valemount, we’ll have taken the core of the Evenus Household. Everything will come easy after that."

"That’s not what I’m worried about."

The Captain raised his head and sniffed the air.

His face tightened as his eyes narrowed.

"My instincts are telling me that there is something wrong with the city. I’d rather hold our troops here for now and wait for what happens later. Even if we do end up joining later, it won’t matter much. We’re still the most powerful group present."

"....."

The strategist remained silent.

However, after a short while, he nodded his head.

"Understood. We’ll follow the Captain’s orders."

Though the strategist personally opposed the idea, he placed his trust in the captain’s judgment. There was a reason Marquis Wilshire had chosen him for the role. Captain Albas was a man of exceptional capability.

There had been many instances where his instincts had been correct, and as a result, he managed to save a lot of soldiers.

There have been, of course, instances where he had been wrong, but the losses weren’t that bad.

"We’ll wait for the next ten minutes. If nothing happens by then, we’ll start moving as well."

Checking his pocketwatch, the captain closed his eyes and started meditating. The soldiers around him did the same, and the surroundings grew silent. At the same time, the captain turned off the communications with the other noble houses.

The breeze swept through, flattening the grass as the world turned quiet, broken only by the steady, synchronized breathing of the soldiers.

At exactly the tenth minute, the captain opened his eyes and stood up. The soldiers followed along with his example and moved towards Valemount.

What greeted them near the city was a raging ball of fire.

Screams and blood.

"...It was a trap."

The Captain muttered, the fire in the distance reflected within his brown eyes.

"The assassination attempt failed. This was most likely a scheme set up in advance in order to lure us in. There’s a chance that the Evenus Household might’ve been planning for this since the start, and that all the previous news that we’ve heard about them was false."

Slowly turning his head, the Captain looked at the strategist.

"Report all of this to the Marquiss."

He took a deep breath.

"...We’ll need more troops if we wish to take over the Evenus Household."

***

Embers drifted through the air, glowing faintly in my vision.

The scent of smoke hung in the air, and the ground crumbled softly beneath my feet as I stepped over the ash that had formed in the aftermath of the situation.

I looked around me in a daze.

’He didn’t hold back at all.’

While I didn’t have many memories of Valemount, I did remember it being rather bustling as a result of the gold mine situation. It was filled with people, and it was developing by the day.

However, it was completely different now.

The place was deserted, and a lot of the buildings were broken or burned to the ground.

"...I had the citizens evacuated before all of this happened. I replaced them all with soldiers."

Walking ahead of me with his hands behind his back, Noel looked at the spectacle before him with not much of an expression.

He just seemed indifferent to it all.

Eventually, he came to a stop.

A figure appeared in front of him, whispering something to him that I couldn’t quite make out. In the end, after relaying everything to Noel, the figure moved back as Noel turned his attention towards him.

"The plan was a partial success."

"Partial?"

"...We’ve managed to deal a heavy blow to the core of several Households. The troops stationed near their border will now launch their own attack."

"Oh."

Though I didn’t know the full extent of the forces Noel had gathered, I could sense that their strength was more than enough to handle the Households that had launched the attack.

But why was he saying that this was a partial success?

"One of the Households managed to notice that this was all a trap. I’ve sent several troops to close down on them. They will most likely suffer a lot of losses while trying to escape, but they’ll still be able to do so. They’ve also most likely figured out what we’ve been planning."

"Someone noticed?"

My brows furrowed. This... Thinking about everything that had happened and all of the plans that Noel had set in motion, I found myself rather surprised by this.

In fact, I was also somewhat apprehensive.

"Yes, it’s those from the Wilshire March. If I have to take a guess, it’s either the strategist or the Captain who noticed. They’re both quite renowned within the space."

"In that case..."

"It doesn’t matter."

Noel shook his head while staring directly at me.

"This will be something that you’ll have to deal with yourself."

"Me?"

What sort of—

"You’ll be taking over my position as the Head of the Household very soon."

"Huh?"

I looked at Noel in bafflement. What did he just say?

Noel merely turned his head away from me, looking elsewhere with a distant look.

"Once I’ve taken care of the Emperor, there will be no more place for me to stay. I’ve already laid out everything that you’ll need to do in my absence. In the meantime, I will have no choice but to leave and look for my heart."

"Wait, but—"

"I know that you want to help, but the best thing you can do is grow the Evenus Household stronger. That’s all I need you to do. I’ve already laid all of the foundations for you to grow. My job is to... Take care of everything else."

A faint smile touched Noel’s lips, his eyes catching the glow of a drifting ember as he spoke again.

"We’re close, Emmet."

He muttered,

"....We’re very close to achieving our dream. Don’t lose sight of the goal."