Chapter 445: Chapter-445
"Wow, quite fast," Heena muttered, a sharp smile breaking through her serious facade. "Well, let’s get to work then."
Closing her eyes for a split second, she spoke directly to the System in her mind. ’’System, how much longer until that monster—the Regressor—reaches this location?’’
The System checked its internal countdown, its tone suddenly turning dead serious. ’[Host, because of our delays, we are cutting it incredibly close. He will be here in about two hours. 120 minutes.]’
Heena nodded subtly. She opened her eyes and faced the battalion. "We have exactly one hour and forty minutes. In that time, a terrifyingly powerful individual is coming here—maybe with a troop, maybe entirely alone, I don’t know. But one thing is absolutely certain: when he arrives, either you guys will be dead, or this outpost will be completely disbanded and wiped from the map."
She took a slow step forward, her boots clicking against the stone. "I am not going to stand here and claim there is a traitor among you. This is the life battalion. Every single one of you is fiercely loyal to my grandfather, and I know that for a fact. But someone related to you... someone who has access to this facility, is in collusion with that damn monster who wants to kill me and the Marquis."
The soldiers looked at each other, a tense murmur rippling through the ranks.
"In one hour and forty minutes," Heena continued, her voice dropping into a grim, dark register, "you will all collapse. By poison, by sudden death—I don’t care about the method, I just know the outcome. In the original timeline... ahem, in my calculations, you guys are destined to be completely wiped out before the battle even begins. These 300 men are masters of war; no one can defeat you in a straight blade-to-blade fight without suffering massive casualties. So, our enemy won’t fight fair. They will use poison."
Inside her mind, the System asked hesitantly, ’[Host, why do you trust them so implicitly? What if one of them really is the mole?]’
Heena answered the System with absolute certainty. ’’Because they are the trustees of my grandfather. I read the original novel. In the text, it was a tragic, heartbreaking section where all 300 of these loyal soldiers died a dog’s death without even getting to swing their swords. If grandfather were to die, these men would willingly follow him into the grave. Their loyalty doesn’t have a single blip. I’m taking a calculated gamble on that loyalty.’’
She looked back at the troops. "If it were modern times, I’d worry about toxic gases. But in this old, fortified structure, there is only one way to efficiently eliminate 300 elite combatants all at once: the kitchen. The water supply or the rations."
She pointed directly at the battalion commander. "I want you to do two things immediately. First, prepare every single man for a do-or-die battle. No slacking, full armor, weapons drawn. Second, lock down the kitchens and the wells right now. Filter out every single person who has entered this outpost recently. Find out who is new, who has been acting suspiciously, and—more importantly—who is the person everyone ’least’ suspects. Go!"
As the commander rushed out to execute her orders, the massive assembly hall emptied, leaving Heena alone in the quiet, torch-lit space. She walked over to a stone bench, groaning softly as she leaned back, carefully mindful of the pain patches lining her spine.
The System hovered down to her eye level, its blue lights flickering with genuine bewilderment. ’[Host, I really don’t understand you sometimes. You don’t even trust your own father in this world—honestly, you barely trust anyone. So why on earth are you putting your entire life in the hands of these 300 soldiers?]’
Heena looked at the floating interface like it had short-circuited. "Are you crazy? Do you think this reality is just some cheap story where everyone has magical powers and infinite resources to do whatever they want?"
She reached up, gathered her long, dark hair, and quickly tied it into a neat, high bun to keep it out of her face. "To buy out someone’s loyalty requires a heavy price—a ’too’ heavy price. And if I understand the psychology of this Regressor correctly, he isn’t the type to waste time negotiating or bribing people. Think about it. When a person lives through the same timeline again and again and again, they become incredibly arrogant and irresponsible. They start treating people like predictable NPCs rather than living variables."
She lightly ruffled the stray hairs at her temples. To an outside observer, it just looked like she was absentmindedly playing with her fingers in the air, but her mind was calculating at breakneck speed.
"The very first thing the Regressor did after I arrived in this world was plan an attack on the Marquisate’s iron convoy. That proves he holds a deep, personal grudge against the Conway name. But directly attacking ’this’ specific outpost also means he knows this battalion is a vital pillar of the Marquisate. What he fails to realize, however, is that this place isn’t just a vulnerability—it is the absolute strongest asset my grandfather owns."
The System’s digital ears practically twitched in confusion. ’[If they are the strongest asset, why are they stationed out here in the middle of nowhere instead of the capital, or at least near the main estate to protect your grandfather?]’
Heena smirked, stretching her aching arms out wide. "Because the Imperial Royalty is utterly terrified of them. They don’t want a fanatically loyal, unstoppable 300-man army anywhere near the capital where they could stage a coup in a single night. But this location? It was chosen by grandfather himself for a brilliant reason. From here, using our elite warhorses, this battalion can actually reach the capital faster than any regular army. On top of that, before this battalion was stationed here, this territory was a lawless wasteland overrun by the worst criminals. Grandfather essentially placed them here as a specialized, elite task force to ruthlessly crush any nonsense without a single problem."
She leaned forward, tapping her temple sharply with her index finger.
"And finally, let me give you the ultimate logic lesson, System. I trust these people because this entire battalion once dared to openly reject a direct gift from the Emperor himself. Years ago, the Emperor offered them a chance to dissolve their ties to the Marquisate, become Royal Knights, and receive a salary ’ten times’ higher than what they earn here, along with noble status and immense power. Yet, every single one of them rejected it without a second thought."
She leveled a piercing gaze at the blue screen.
"So tell me: if a soldier cannot be bought by a literal Imperial decree, infinite wealth, and the highest status the Empire can offer, do you honestly think a lone Regressor could outbid that? No matter how much wealth or future knowledge that monster has, he is not richer than the Empire itself. If the Emperor, the father of the nation, couldn’t buy their loyalty, who else could? And if they ’were’ so easily bought..." Heena’s smile turned razor-sharp. "...do you really think the Regressor would go through the immense trouble of trying to poison and slaughter them all? He’s trying to wipe them out precisely because he ’knows’ they are completely, unbreakably incorruptible."
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