At first, the elf kingdom only needed to guard their border and let the Krugguar Emperor pass through. However, they never thought the monster overlord would change its path and pass through their territory to enter Tristall Woodland.
In this case, the elves will have no choice but to fight the Krugguar Emperor directly. The elf race is very territorial and will never accept an outsider easily. Except for Roundel city, the other areas are forbidden from outsiders.
Moreover, the elf race will never abandon any of their citizens like the other kingdom in case they are getting attacked or in war. The elf race has a very low fertility rate. Every elf is important to them.
They will never give up on their citizens or comrades without fighting. This trait may be their weakness but also their strength for them. This is also why they become one of the strongest races in Firuman.
The old ones are even ready to sacrifice their lives for the younger ones. Most old elves didn't afraid and were prepared to fight against the Krugguar Emperor's monster army. They know they couldn't just live peacefully forever and are ready to fight against any threat.
The other kingdom decided not to interrupt the battle between the Krugguar Emperor and the Elf race. They want to know if the elf is still as strong as the rumor or if they are getting weaker as time passes.
While this happens, time passes and the dark sky turns bright from the sun on the horizon. Since Twilbo Wood is covered with thick mist, the sun cannot enter deep into Craghost Town until it reaches high in the sky.
By the time the sunlight reaches the Craghost town, Angus and everyone has already woken up to do their daily morning routine. Only the two little girls are still sleeping peacefully.
Early in the morning, Darren returns and immediately makes a strong barrier near Mira and Anna to prevent his master energy explosion when she wakes up.
Seeing he could leave this matter to Darren, Angus and Aunt Extalia decide to interrogate the shadow spy. The shadow spy is in a horrible situation from the torture of the Royal Guards.
To prevent the spy from killing himself, the royal guards decide to take out all his teeth, leaving him with nothing but bleeding gum and mouth. They also roughly pour alcohol and medical potion to prevent him from dying of bleeding.
Looking at the silent spy in front of them, Angus knows this will be quite a long session to make the spy talk.
"Tch… I prefer to research my cute bunny than handle this. Can't we just leave it to the Royal Guards?" complained Angus.
The Duchess didn't reply and silently glared at Angus. Currently, they are in the basement of the hotel with various enchantments on each wall.
"Roy, thinking of betraying us." replied Aunt Extalia.
"Huh?!" asked Angus in confusion.
Then, the Duchess told Angus about Roy's background and his confession.
"So, what did you think?" asked Aunt Extalia.
"Logically, we should just kill Roy and be done with it. But… I prefer not to have too much bloodshed, especially when handling one of our own." said Angus.
"Then??" asked Aunt Extalia, trying to test Agnus.
"It's easy. Just cripple the other side's force. If they want to capture you or trap us, they also need a certain force to do it. Since they could only bring limited people inside the Nirvas, they must decide to trap us outside the Craghost town or Twilbo Woods."
"We just need Jade to send some army to keep clear our path. This will also force Nergal to spend more people and resources to trap us. I don't believe with the previous loss they still want to gamble and spend enormous resources just to trap us."
"The only problem we need to face is the Nirvas Kingdom. They may be famous for their neutrality, but it could change with all yesterday's incidents. In the worst case, they will work with Nergal and capture us when we are inside their kingdom."
"I don't know much about Nirvas' military strength, but we should avoid confrontation as long as we stay with Mira and Darren. No one is stupid enough to let two monstrous seventh-grade combatants fight inside their kingdom unless they want to destroy their entire nation."
"It is only an assumption, but we could now exclude Nirvas in our conflict. This only leaves us with Nergal alone. As long as we could prevent them from gathering their force on our way back, we could easily avoid their trap." analyzed Angus to his aunt.
"Hmm… I agree. Then, I will contact our people outside the forest later. Still, what should we do to Roy?" asked Aunt Extalia.
"What else?! Just leave him be. As Royal Guard leader, he knows the consequence of betraying us. It means he knows what he is doing. Now, we just wait for him to make a choice."
"Personally, I don't care as long as he doesn't hurt Jayna or Anna. But, if he does something stupid to bring trouble to me then I think he will have a lot of 'talk' session with me." said Angus coldly.
"I see… Are you sure you didn't want to become the next king?" asked Aunt Extalia as she was satisfied with Angus' answer and judgment.
"No, thanks. I prefer having a small piece of land in the remote countryside or a small private island far from all the trouble." replied Angus.
"Sure… Sure… Let's talk with the spy first." said Aunt Extalia before moving her attention to the wrecked spy in front of her.
They didn't need to worry about the spy hearing their conversation since Angus created a small barrier around them before talking. This vigilance has been a habit for Angus since he returned from the Endless Battlefield.
Since this is a magical world where everything is possible, he needs to minimize the probability that others will hear about their plan. After a few hours of 'talk' session, they end the pitiful spy's life and burn his corpse to ash.
They didn't get much from the spy despite Angus' torture since the spy didn't know much about his task detail or any inside information. This is a common thing for the spy. They are only tasked to do something without knowing its purpose.
This way, the spy will not be able to divulge any information in case they get caught and tortured. After finishing the spy interrogation, they return upstairs and find the others are still having their breakfast.
'It seems Darren managed to prevent any leakage explosion unlike before.' thought Angus as he sat beside Jayna.
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As he eats beside Jayna and tries to prevent his food from getting stolen by the little gluttony, Angus notices the nearby hotel employee is troubled.
'Hmm… Judging by their conversation, it seems their food reserve is empty. Well, we have this little gluttony which has a bottomless stomach.' thought Angus while looking at Anna, who kept stuffing food into her mouth.
Then, Angus remembers that Craghost Town will not get any supplies until the mist in the Twilbo Woods gets thinner. He didn't know when the mist was thinning, but he knew with their current consumption, their food reserve would be gone soon.
'It seems we need to hunt our food to prevent starvation. Well, there is still time before the entrance examiner arrives.' thought Angus.
"Anna, let's hunt some beast." said Angus, stopping the little gluttony from eating more.
"Ahh… Anna still not done eating." said Anna while getting lifted in one hand by Angus.
"You could eat on the way." replied Angus.
"Angus, where are you going?" asked Aunt Extalia while following them.
"The town and hotel also will not get any supplies from the outside before the mist thins out. So, We need to hunt for our food. With this little gluttony consumption rate, our food reserves will not last for a long time." explained Angus.
After a while, they find themself outside the town searching for food. Since they didn't have anyone capable of processing monster meat above the first grade, they could only hunt beasts and first-grade monsters.
Same as last time, a few groups also followed them inside the misty forest. They didn't dare to attack openly inside the town because of the Nirvas. But, it is another story when Angus' group is outside Craghost Town.
Some of them even immediately ambush them when they step outside the town. Unfortunately, they become Aunt Extalia's target practice in the blink of an eye. Angus also creates some rune traps along the way for their stalker.
During this time, he gets advice and help from Darren when he lays the trap rune. Unlike last time, Darren keeps staying with them. Since Mira is busy playing around with Anna, he decides to help and teach Angus about rune.
Angus didn't expect Darren to be not only knowledgeable about rune but also master at it. The old vampire could even lay a complete rune just by pointing at the ground.
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om