Volume 3 Chapter 114: The Curtain Falls on the Secret War of Alcott Valley
Translator: The Light
Edits by Grandia
Outskirts of Olsylvia Academy, outside the Alcott Valley, in front of the tent of the garrison headquarters of Simon Quarry of Manasvir Empire.
Colin, the commander of the rebels, had fewer than 100 troops left. In less than an hour, over four thousand rebels had been eaten and there were less than a hundred of them left. It had to be acknowledged that these scavengers were too efficient. The gates to the military camp had been opened long ago, and the large skeleton army that had been watching from outside poured in.
“Your Excellency the Duchess, you... you are not a human at all!”
Colin looked at the demonic army approaching. Although he knew that it was over, his voice didn’t tremble at all. Three figures that appeared to be deputy generals stood at the front of the large army of black zombies and skeleton soldiers.
Kriss and Ariel were wearing Demonic Marshal Armor, and they were completely covered by the dark gold armor. There was a fierce devil mask on their faces that only had holes in it for their eyes and nose. To cover up and fool others, they had deliberately picked weapons that had nothing to do with their profession.
Kriss held a super-long spiked club and Ariel held a two-handed sword. Because the armor was crafted in a general style, it wasn’t possible to tell their genders by looking at them, so outsiders couldn’t tell that these two Demonic Marshals were actually human girls in disguise.
Unlike them, Bella wasn’t low-key. Although she also wore Demonic Marshal Armor, she didn’t wear a mask and helmet. In any case, the other party was about to die, so she might as well let him understand how he died. However, Kriss and Ariel had chosen to wear the Demonic Marshal Armor without any prompting from Bella at all. These two roommates were really too proficient.
“Brother, don’t make such a tragic, heroic expression! Although we aren’t good people, nobody here is good. Relax a bit.”
“For better or worse, you’re a Duchess. For the sake of a noble’s honor, would you be willing to fight a duel with this one, so that this one can experience your strength?”
Colin resisted his impulse in order to reason with Bella. Right now, he had another way out, which was to take advantage of the challenge against Bella to use a secret art and attach himself to Bella. This was the big skill that the Lord had given him to save his life, and he had used it many times before to escape from desperate circumstances.
This time, however, the goddess of fortune was clearly not on his side. Bella showed a scornful smile on her face and took a few steps back. Kriss and Ariel followed suit and moved to the sides. After that, a dozen cannons were pushed forward by the skeleton army.
“Duchess... what do you mean by this? Is Your Excellency disregarding the dignity of nobility?!”
The continent Colin was from also had artillery. When faced with over a dozen black holes that were artillery muzzles, he didn’t dare resist, no matter how hard it was for him to die. This thing was even more powerful than the artillery back home, and even just based on its caliber, it was much bigger.
Previously, because of Bella’s request, the skeleton army had been prevented from destroying the military camp’s fencing. Not only the Demon Lord, but even the Skeleton Emperor Fred didn’t dare to make any big moves and didn’t dare fire the dozens of cannons that it had been allocated from the Darkness Sacred Region’s Quartermaster. Now that they had killed their way into the military camp, they could finally pull them out and show them off.
“I don’t plan to reason with you! Besides, you aren’t from the human race on our continent. What kind of noble dignity is there to discuss with you? Goodbye! Fire!”
“You demoness... Our Veni...”
Colin hadn’t finished his words when over a dozen cannons fired instantaneously. The unfortunate rebel general, along with the remaining hundred rebels, was blown to pieces in the artillery explosion. After the cannons fired, the scavengers rushed up and ate the remains, ensuring that they wouldn’t be able to revive.
Colin was the most miserable because he was the main general. Many skeleton soldiers had been blown to pieces in the previous confrontation between the two armies, so the skeleton army’s cannons were especially vengeful as they focused on him right from the start. As soon as the cannons fired, Colin was attacked by three of the cannons and blown apart into so many bits that not even the dredges remained... No, this fellow’s head still remained!
They could see a head rolling around on the ground, and it was precisely Colin’s. Could it be that this fellow had a life like a cockroach? He hadn’t died even like this. That head hadn’t rolled very far before it was surrounded by skeleton soldiers. Now that the military camp was full of his Bella’s people, this fellow wouldn’t be able to get away.
“This great Master, our Venifreza Empire has no grudges between us. Why did you have to destroy my vanguard troops?”
Colin should be dead. The voice that came out of his head was not his original voice. It sounded peculiar, and for the moment Bella had no way to tell if it was a man or a woman.
However, she had always been fearless. She had beat this fellow up while his four limbs were still intact, and if he had plans to overturn the sky now that he was only left with a head, he was thinking too much. Bella came forward and stepped on the head with a foot, grinding the head into the mud.
“Are you a man or a woman? This Duchess disdains to deal with those of unknown genders.”
“You devil... Why should I... Why should I answer your question? You haven’t answered mine yet, you arrogant...!”
Bella raised a black sword and directly pierced straight down through the chattering head. Colin, who had been thoroughly dealt with by the sword, turned completely silent. The owner of this voice was a little interesting. If it was a girl, perhaps Bella would end up interacting with her in the future; if it was a man, then forget it.
“Sorry, I’m precisely such a capricious person.”
Bella gently twisted the sword handle, crushing Colin’s chopped-off head into the mud with the sword’s movements. A lot of dark red blood splashed on Bella’s armor but was blocked by the armor’s own Air Wall. Faced with such a cruel scene, Kriss and Ariel showed no objections at all, and it seemed as though what Bella was doing was a matter of course.
“Bella, what’s our next step? Should we go back and report this to your Knight Teacher, the Dragon Knight Ingrid?”
“Kriss, let’s go to Simon Quarry and take a look. My subordinate Fred has already gone there to help out. It’s still early now. Let’s try to finish up as soon as possible. I still need to take bring Pamela and President Ivy back to play... Cough, back for treatment!”
Outskirts of the Olsylvia Academy, outside the Alcott Valley. The Simon Quarry of Manasvir Empire.
The once-popular Simon Quarry was now filled with dead silence. The entire quarry was filled with the mutilated bodies of soldiers from the Manasvir Empire and the many corpses of quarry workers. The entire ground of the Simon Quarry was dyed red with blood. The invading army had already captured this place.
At the center of the quarry, a huge rock giant over fifteen meters tall stood there. It looked like a giant version of the Rock Puppets, and the entire rock giant was covered in white granite. It was a far cry from the black rock demon puppets that Bella had killed before.
Other than this big fellow, the quarry was also filled with over a hundred six-meter tall black rock puppets that were pulling themselves upright. All the rock puppets of the entire Alcott Valley seemed to be concentrated here.
This vast army of rock demons all stood still on the quarry grounds. They seemed to be a little cautious and didn’t dare move casually because the quarry had already been surrounded. And what surrounded the quarry was not the human army, which was an important factor in why they were afraid to act rashly.
Outside Simon Quarry was an encirclement consisting of all kinds of magical objects. There were at least 60,000 of them, and it was a densely packed and horrifying scene. In addition to these various magical objects, at the very front lines, hundreds of cannons had been erected. The skeletons and zombies were currently carrying artillery shells and calibrating distances.
In the heart of the Demon Army, the larger ogres and butchers were currently assembling catapults. These catapults were different from those from the human empires. They were made with white bones that were harder than wood, and underneath the catapults, many black-clad demons were directing the installation.
Of course, these things weren’t enough to deter the huge magic puppet. What really made it so that it didn’t dare move was the giant cannon located at the center of the Demon Army. At the center of the army, there was a magic-guided cannon with a muzzle one meter wide. The projectiles fired by this cannon weren’t ordinary, but magical energy projectiles guided by magic.
The giant magic cannon was the genuine rich man’s cannon. Every time it was fired, it would consume a lot of demon beast cores, and it required at least medium level demon cores and above. If it was powered with advanced demon cores, this cannon’s attack would be equivalent to a forbidden attack cast by a mage.
The cannon was pulled into position by six-meter-tall ogres. These fellows rarely made a move, and would only be used in city sieges. The ogres moved and adjusted the giant cannon until the barrel was facing the fifteen-meter tall white rock demon.
Rock Puppets did not have long-range magical attacks. If they were to launch physical attacks, they would throw stones. However, due to the threat from the various long-range weapons that had been set up, they didn’t dare to attack indiscriminately and could only gather together and wait for the right time to break out.
“Dem... Mistress Bella has arrived. Everyone, salute Mistress Bella!”
Following the etiquette officer’s roar, dozens of demon generals and several Demon Lords all knelt to salute Bella. Because the space in the main tent was limited, these demons had transformed into human-like forms and looked less frightening.
“Fortunately, Pamela hasn’t woken up. If she were to see the scene of her tens of thousands strong army being completely annihilated, I’m afraid she would really collapse!”
Bella waved for the demon generals and Lords to get up, then walked over to the scrying mirror. It should be the so-called Venifreza Empire’s army that was occupying the Simon Quarry, and it was unknown what kind of secret art they had used in order to resurrect such a terrible rock puppet. Fortunately, her troops had arrived in time; otherwise, it would have been difficult for the entire Olsylvia Academy to escape from disaster.
“Kriss, what kind of happy thing did you think of? I’m a little panicked seeing the slight smile on your face!”
Kriss and Ariel had removed the masks they used to cover their faces. Everyone here was Bella’s man, and they had no intention of hiding as Bella’s demons were quite trustworthy. There was another intention behind revealing their faces, which was that they wanted to indirectly tell Bella’s subordinates that they were Bella’s ‘girlfriends’. They were doing this in preparation for staying by Bella’s side in the future.
Consequently, Bella had caught sight of the obvious smile on Kriss’s face, and Bella was now trying to find out why she was smiling out of curiosity. In her impression, Kriss seldom smiled.
“No reason. Bella, I was thinking. As the Devil King, you’re helping the Human Empire do this and that all day long. Are you happy living this kind of life without a proper job?”
“This... I’m not working for nothing. At least I get a special reward every time! Besides, Kriss, I’m too lazy to do proper business. There are so many people like us in the world. I don’t want to steal others from their business.”
Bella would never do anything for free. if it hadn’t been for the ‘Christmas gifts’ she had received in the form of President Ivy and Princess Pamela, she would’ve been too lazy to summon out her subordinates from the Darkness Sacred Region.
Bella hadn’t dealt directly with the other two Demon kings when she summoned her subordinates and didn’t know that that Demon King Dolores had been here before.
“Mistress Bella, the enemy sitting in the quarry seems to want to negotiate with us. They are sending messengers over. May I ask Mistress Bella what you intend to do with them...”
“What’s there to talk about? Just blast them. I have important things to do in the evening!”
“This... Should we also fire the giant cannon?”
“Fire them all. This quarry doesn’t belong to me. Don’t keep any of the shells, transporting them back is damned expensive. Only stop when they’re all used up.”
At Bella’s command, the demon army’s artillery and catapults opened fire at the quarry at the same time. Countless shells and thrown rocks hit the Rock Puppets and blew them into pieces. Although the Rock Puppets had abnormally high defense, when faced with gunpowder weapons, their defense was still a little short.
In particular, whenever the magic cannon fired, the white Rock Puppet King was directly pushed back by a good few meters, and its upper body was now covered with large artillery scars. After the attacks began, the Rock Puppets began to rush towards the Demon Army.
The Rock Puppets moved very slowly, and the Demon Army’s artillery took the opportunity to shoot at their legs. Many Rock Puppets fell over on the way forward, their legs broken by the cannons.
Because the Rock Puppets’ heads were made of stone, they had no IQ to speak of. They wouldn’t make detours as they walked, and if the Rock Puppets up ahead had toppled, the ones behind it wouldn’t take heed and would continue to push forth. Very soon, the passage leading out of the quarry was blocked by the Rock Puppets’ bodies.
The situation in this battlefield skewed to one side instantly. The Rock Puppets were blocked, and the Demon Army’s artillery units and catapult constantly treated them as live training targets. Faced with round after round of bombardment, Alcott Valley’s former overlords were about to face their demise.
The fifteen-meter tall White Rock Puppet finally stopped moving after six rounds of magic cannon fire. The Rock Puppets also fought back, frantically throwing stones, but when these boulders landed amongst the Demon Army, they were blocked by the other side’s magical barriers and were broken up and crushed against the magical shielding.
Bella did not go to the front lines to kill the enemy. She knew too little information about the Venifreza Empire and only knew that the human beings in that Empire were very different from humans in the Human Empires of the current Coristel Continent. They could avoid death and had a very strong ability to revive. They seemed to have some skill at disguise, but she didn’t know any other intelligence.
They would be miserable if there was an ambush from their opponents after they rushed in and engaged in battle. It was better to sit there with nobody else around and enjoy the landscape! Kriss and Ariel were very enthusiastic about finding places close to Bella to sit themselves down. They were still carrying weapons that didn’t match their professions, and it was an unwise move to go down and participate in the fight.
But, they weren’t just sitting there doing nothing. The defensive magical barrier had been put up by Ariel, and even Bella was unable to judge the strength of this beautiful female magician. For her to be able to maintain such vast defensive magic for such a long time while sitting here sipping wine, her expression unchanged, was something that even her class advisor, Holy Magic Mentor Gilbert might not be able to do.
The demon generals and Demon Lords who had been on standby around them all tacitly withdrew. Soon after, the ghost maids that were in charge of logistics brought over all sorts of snacks and wine and placed them on the command table in front of Bella one after another.
Inside the Simon Quarry, two thousand troops from the Venifreza Empire were in retreat. Unlike the portion of the army that had captured the garrison, these two thousand soldiers were all mages and were much more valuable than the four thousand members of infantry that had been destroyed earlier.
“Big sis, the teleportation array has been set up. Let’s retreat! Our army unit that took control of the array that leads to Alcott Valley has been discovered by those mercenaries and students from Olsylvia Academy. They’re about to recapture the teleportation array.”
“Damn it. How could the guys on the other side be so brainless? They made such a big move that they even brought over the Manasvir Empire’s troops. What’s that all about?”
Two armored figures stood out amongst the Venifreza Empire’s mage army. One of the two was the one who had confronted Bella previously through Colin’s chopped off head.
They were both very angry about the failure of their attack this time, yet they also felt helpless. The other party had never had any intention to reason with them, and they had been attacked even before their messengers could be sent out.
“Little sis, go back and properly investigate who this Duchess is. Is she a puppet under the Demon King’s control, or someone else? This person is too wayward...”
The eldest princess of the Venifreza Empire could see Bella, who was indulging in a decadent life of wine and women in the open-air base camp, through a telescope-like object.
The blond beauty had no military demeanor at all. She had a maiden wrapped in pure white silk in each arm, one of which was precisely the target of their attack, Princess Pamela, but the Princess had already fallen asleep.
The ears of the two beautiful girls had been plugged by delicate cotton earplugs, and they could not hear the roaring sound of the cannons, so they didn’t wake up. In addition to this, on either side of Bella were two beautiful silver-haired maidens, one of whom was responsible for feeding Bella snacks while the other held up a glass filled with red wine since both of Bella’s arms were full.
Bella’s face hadn’t been tense from beginning to end, and if she had a crown on her head, she would look no different from those royal scoundrels who came out to hang out with the military.
The eldest princess of the Venifreza Empire was so angry! She was a legitimate soldier who had won countless battles and was usually very strict on both herself and the soldiers beneath her. Today, she had actually been defeated by this kind of ‘undisciplined, rich brat’, which was a great blow to her.
Bella seemed to have noticed her peeping, and after Bella sent a meaningful look in her direction, the lens of the telescope the eldest princess of the Venifreza Empire was carrying instantly shattered. Bella had immediately guessed that the peeper was a girl; otherwise, one of the princess’ eyes would have been destroyed along with the telescope.
“Little sister, let’s go. Remember this woman for me...”
The plan for the invasion of the Venifreza Empire was declared a failure due to Bella’s intervention. During this secret war, Bella had wiped out four thousand of the Venifreza Empire’s vanguard troops, captured hundreds of Rock Puppets’ Hearts as trophies, and obtained a rare rock demon soul.
For Bella, the biggest gains she had obtained were the two ‘Christmas gifts’ of Princess Pamela and President Ivy that she had picked up. The rest were of no interest to her.
As for the casualties, Bella’s side lost over a thousand skeleton soldiers. Their ‘allies’ the Manasvir Empire lost ten thousand people, and amongst the ‘neutrals’, a dozen or so of Olsylvia Academy’s students had been injured, while the mercenaries’ casualties were unknown for the time being.