Renove stayed mum. He didn't say anything for a few moments and the silence ensued. He didn't know what to say to these people about what he did. After all, he still needed them for him to arrive safely in his destination. If he stayed silent, they would start to suspect him.
"When did you arrive?" Renove finally asked.
"Why is that important?" Kaill asked back suspiciously.
"Stop it, Kaill. Will you?" Cyrris begged, then continued, "I'm sorry again, sir. Yes, we arrived when there was a storm in the city. We were confused since the storm was only inside the city, so we concluded that it was a spell. The gates were destroyed, so we entered through that."
"That person you described as a woman with silvery-white hair and marbled eyes was the one who attacked us. Her name is Emersyn Lachlan. She's the one who killed my citizens."
"You mean… the president of the Lachlan Company?" Yulem asked with one of his brows raised. He seemed doubtful, but his eyes contained mirth that Renove couldn't see.
"Yes, that's right."
"I see," after that, no one talked anymore.
Renove was relieved when no one pressed anything anymore. However, when it came to guarding him at night, he was the one who was doubtful. He couldn't trust anybody right now. That night, he didn't sleep; not until when they arrived in Renove's hideout. The hideout was hidden by a barrier and wasn't revealed before Renove held out a similar stone when he defused the barrier around the palace. When he finally entered the place where he could be alone, he locked the door and collapsed on the floor out of exhaustion. It had been days since he slept, so he took this opportunity to finally have a rest. Meanwhile, the other four with him immediately scrambled through the other rooms for more evidence that the other countries colluded with Renove.
"Wasn't it Marquis Sheyric he said?"
"From which country is that Marquis?"
"Who knows? Draven heard it anyway and they will deal with it. They have the most extensive information network in this world."
"Never mind that. Let's trace this circle and send it to Sir Draven."
The circle was the one that was filled with more information than they thought. It held the coordinates of the people that were with him. Moreover, this was an abandoned communication circle. It hadn't been used for a long time. In any case, they sent every detail of the circle and sent it to Draven. The ring that they used for communication rang and the voice of Emersyn came from it.
"Great job. You can come back now. We'll be handling the rest."
Yulem and the others smiled at each other. Then, Kaill said, "Can we kill Renove?"
"Sure? He doesn't have any use for us anyway. I can understand your grudges, however."
"Understood."
When the call ended, Yulem asked Kaill, "How are you going to kill someone who is inside a locked room? Are you thinking of exploding this cave?"
"He has a lot of chances to survive because of that. I will just be removing the air that he is breathing in that room."
"Question: how? You can't access the– wait. I think I know now. You recently got that skill, right?"
"Indeed. I have to thank my Lord for that."
***
"What do you mean?" Marquis Cyneheard eun Sheyric asked, exasperated.
"My Lord, the wizards told me that it's likely to be the truth," his old butler, Woodrow, said calmly.
Cyneheard sighed heavily and nodded, "We only have the faction of Alaric and Gaius to fight anyway. This war won't be long. Besides, they won't be able to amass soldiers when they only have the Heath Duchy and the remaining territories in Lasirion to rely on. Meanwhile, we have almost 500,000 soldiers and 14,000 knights to deploy. They won't be able to rush to us wildly without a plan. Woodrow, you are hereby reinstated as the Knight General and lead us to victory."
Woodrow Baine immediately kneeled on one knee and swore his allegiance to Cyneheard.
"Glory to Nastrua!"
"Glory!"
From then on, the territory of Sheyric began preparing for war against the fallen Lasirion. They prepared 100,000 soldiers and 5,000 knights to completely annihilate Lasirio. After all, Cyneheard already knew of the breach of security from the private quarters of the king in the Southern Mountains of Lasirion. They still didn't know how, but they were sure who would do such a thing. Maybe Renove was already killed. Who knew? In any case, this would be an easy war for them. Once they advanced to the border of Nastrua and Lasirion, there were… countless hordes of monsters waiting for them. Woodrow glared at his scouts.
"Didn't you all say that there aren't any anomalies when you scouted a few hours ago?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Then, why are there monsters here?"
"We clearly saw nothing, sir! We don't know what happened, but I see that these are all Primordial monsters."
"..."
"Primordial monsters have a leader that they obey with their whole being. It seems like we have an unexpected opponent. We need to be extra careful today, General."
"I understand. We'll fall back for now."
When they were about to fall back, the earth shook and a finely crafted orichalcum golem appeared from the sky. It landed on the ground behind the troops of Woodrow. The golem didn't do anything and just stared at them through the lenses of its eyes. Its sheer size gave fear to the soldiers and knights, frozen on their spot. Woodrow was the one who realized its magnificence and saw a woman sitting on top of its head. He strained his eyes, yet he could only recognize the woman by her hair. It was glittering silver under the moonlight. He couldn't see her face since the golem was too high up as it sat on the ground, encircling its arms around the troops. It created a moat by its fingers. The moat was about fifteen meters deep. That was how long the golem's fingers were. Because of that, they couldn't advance or retreat. It elicited pure terror on the soldiers and knights who were deemed powerless before the Primordial monsters approaching them and the gigantic golem on the other side.
"What… what do we do now, General?"
"... we have no choice but to surrender."
"But… how about the lord's orders?"
"Do you think we still have the choice? The enemy is waiting for us to surrender, and that is what we are going to do. It's our mistake that we assumed that this would be a fight between Lasirion and Nastrua."
"I think I know that woman, General."
"Who is she, Raguel?"
"She's Emersyn Lachlan, the president of the Lachlan Company. She's the only one I know of that has silver hair. If she has marbled eyes of red and silver, then that just strengthened our conclusion of her being Emersyn. General, sir, we made a mistake picking a fight against Lasirion."
"Ah… so that is Emersyn? I have met her once when I was traveling in another country to procure something of my fancy. However, I didn't know who she was. However, she was walking around buildings after buildings and finally stopped where I was. Now, I remember, the one that I fancy also came from the Lachlan Company. They make great quality products, tools and equipment. It was also cheap for our taking and it made our lifestyle all the while great. I don't want to go back to my previous lifestyle at all. Let's express our intent of surrender, then."
Woodrow waved at Emersyn and lifted a white flag that he kept stashed in the ring that he bought from the Black Market.
That night, one of the five troops surrendered. However, the rest of them resulted in war.
Marquis Cyneheard eun Sheyric cut all the ties that he forged with all the countries he allied with and chose to ally himself with the Lachlan. He lost his territory, but gained more than he lost when Emersyn Lachlan offered him a job in her own world. He was so ecstatic to live there that he immediately began training and his people that wanted to come with him; those that didn't have any families left and those that decided to bring their families into another world.
Those that failed to realize that their enemy was the Lachlan Company itself, suffered severe consequences of their nation being annihilated from the face of the world.
They died without knowing. With new territories to handle, the neighboring kingdoms split it apart, so they wouldn't be able to earn the ire of the Lachlan Company with their infighting. After that, peace came when the coalition of Renove and the other nobles from different kingdoms were annihilated. The might of the Lachlan Company was forever engraved on the books of Strevalia.
However, the journey of Emersyn didn't end there.