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“Haah!”

With a short shout, I ran up and jumped easily over the collapsed castle wall and joined up with the guild members that were establishing a temporary retaliation area.

Their location was near the castle walls with the castle tower behind them, so defense was a bit easier since one side was nothing but a castle wall.

“I didn’t think you would personally come to save us, my lord.”

With grateful eyes that somehow felt like a burden to me, the healer who was the least occupied with defending himself spoke as a representative of the group.

“I’m just doing the right thing.”

Indirectly, I had made them cornered in this area by the enemies since I had directed the battle to be focused as much as possible on defense before retreating, so I felt a little guilty saying that.

Then I placed myself in the role of defending the group on one side, and helped out the damage dealers who looked as if they were about to fall apart at any second.

“If anyone is tired, please step back.”
“Huff, huff… Please, and thank you…”

One of the damage dealers wielding an axe in each hand, who was trying to catch his breath with every word he spoke, stepped back from the frontline.

Though all the members weren’t in good condition, it seemed like he was the one in the worst condition.

Not shown in numerical fashion within the game, Stamina was one of the hidden factors in Blue Sky, which worked in a way that even if you had plenty of HP and MP, hunting enemies for a long period of time, overusing skills or repeated excessive maneuvers would lead to huge consumption of stamina which would result in numerous debuffs on the character and even death if they did not take a certain amount of breaks regularly.

The symptoms of heavy stamina usage started from tiredness, to exhaustion, to blackout fainting, and the user that had just taken a step back from the frontline showed symptoms of being in the exhaustion stage. The other users also looked to be in the tired stage, but it didn’t look like they would reach the exhaustion stage any time soon.

“Please take this.”

I used a powerful skill to cut down a wave of enemies that were rushing towards us and used the moment of brief relief to give each member a potion from my inventory.

To trade with them for something in return was a bit unfitting for the current situation.

“Phew… Thank you.”
“Thank you very much.”

Though the potion wasn’t going to completely heal their bodies, it could still restore their HP and recover some stamina as well. This was something that was well known among the users of Blue Sky through information exchange via forums, so they took the potion and drank it down.

“Whoa, seems like a high grade potion.”
“We’re thankful that you saved our lives, for you to go this far for us… Thank you.”

Because of my high maximum amount of HP, a standard potion wouldn’t be enough to refill my health so I always carried high grade potions instead.

Meaning that the potions I hurriedly gave to them were high grade ones even though that wasn’t my intention.

“For now, let’s leave the words of appreciation for later, after we survive this.”

Seeing the wave of enemies coming again, I reminded them of their goal.

“Yes, my lord!”
“My lord!”

They straightened up to give me proper acknowledgment but instead of looking cool, their disheveled and tattered equipment made them look pitiful instead.

“But why is it that you all keep saying ‘My lord’ or ‘Yes my lord’ as an answer?”

Fixing my hold on the Excalibur, I asked the question that had been bugging me for a while.

“We’ll tell you after we survive this.”

As the members just gave an awkward look in reply, the healer with the ID of ‘Rabbit’ answered for them.

“Ngh…”

She totally got me.

But I decided to forgive her since she was a healer. I was definitely not forgiving her just because she was a woman and had a pretty face. Nope, never.

“Damn it… How are we supposed to go against a monster like her?”
“We’re just being used like consumables.”
“They’re sending us in droves for us to tire her out.”
“Damn those leaders…”

It seemed like the enemy forces in Shining guild were coming at me more due to the command they received rather than by their own will, since instead of showing signs of confidence or strong belief in their forces, they came at us with expressions akin to crying or expecting death.

“Everyone, charge! The war will be over if we just subjugate Artoria! You’d be able to become a lord just from getting her!”

I heard the sound of Lucas consistently ordering his troops to attack. I felt that his way of managing the troops was just unbelievable.

“Hmph, you all really believe him? That promise he’s making?”

Instead of intentionally trying to sway their feelings, I was simply saying how I truly felt about him.

“?”

Hearing my words, the Shining guild forces that were charging towards me stopped their movements. I had unintentionally made my speech as loud as a lion’s roar, spreading far and wide throughout the enemy forces just like how Lucas had been encouraging them.

“They probably have lost the support of the majority of the neutral guilds that could have helped them out. I presume that the monster-hunting they do along with healers aren’t going as well as they hoped either. The leaders had previously ordered every one of you to become sacrifices for them to be able to easily expand their territory. Now they’re ordering you all to become sacrifices for them once more.”
“Stop saying such b̲u̲l̲l̲s̲h̲i̲t̲!!”

Someone that looked to be one of the commanders within the Shining guild loudly yelled, cutting off my words.

“Oho? So I guess I’m wrong. Then why is it that you’re not stepping forward yourself?”
“T… that’s because… W-Why would the commander have to be in the frontlines! Isn’t it enough for them to carry out their duty commanding their troops from behind?”
“I’m sure it is.”

I agreed with him without any complaint. It wasn’t a problem that I needed to argue over anyways.

“Everyone, you all heard it right? Even she has admitted that she was just trying to deceive you all. Don’t fall for it and attack!”

Smiling with confidence, the commander whose name I didn’t know once again ordered his troops. However, the situation wasn’t turning out how he wanted.

“But the lord of Camelot alliance guild is right here in the frontlines, fighting against us herself!”
“If it’s a lord, they have a higher status than a guild leader… Are you saying that a commander has a higher status than a lord?”
“Why are we constantly being put in unfair situations like this?”

The members of the Shining guild started to revolt against the commander, shouting out their complaints and arguments. Did my trick work? My lips started to curve upwards as opposed to the commander who was starting to become uneasy.

Just as I had assumed, all the lower-status guild members were ready to revolt with their dissatisfaction reaching an all-time high. On top of that, the fact that I was in their way striking fear into their hearts as well as they being unable to escape from or confront me was like a catalyst that made them explode into a fit of anger.

Suddenly, a deafening warcry rang out from a certain direction.

With great timing, the warcry of guild soldiers storming in came from the inner walls of the castle. Though others would say that it was a detestable move to make, I had to applause the commanders of our side for their genius move.

They had figured out exactly when the best moment to join this battle was. If they were just a moment too late, the battlefield would have been messier. As the enemy forces would never be persuaded by whatever I say when they saw soldiers they needed to engage in front of them after all. It would be great if they just didn’t ruin the efforts of deceit I had put in.

Now, the situation was different.

From their point of view, it didn’t matter what the actual situation was, as they would see me as a leader who stepped in to overturn the tide of battle and brought in more forces once the situation became advantageous for us.

The members of the Shining guild forces didn’t even flinch one bit even when they saw the forces of Camelot rushing in towards them.

Even though it was obvious that their chances of winning this battle would have been much higher if they had surrounded our forces, that wasn’t the case now.

The commander also stared in silence as if he had no idea of what to do in this situation. All the members of the Shining guild forces had their gaze locked onto the starting location, the headquarters of the Shining guild, where Lucas and the Crusaders were standing.

‘Why aren’t you all stepping into the battle with us?’

‘If you all don’t move, then we won’t move either.’

I saw such intent in their eyes as they glared in their direction, to which I had to suppress my laughter. Their plan to use lower rank and file guild members to tire me and my group out so that they could attack afterwards had failed.

From Lucas’s point of view, he wouldn’t have known whether my decision to move forward on my own from my base was actually something I planned ahead or not, and couldn’t easily decide whether sending the crusaders early into the battle was a good idea or not.

It meant that both of our unfavorable situations overlapped. If I had not used my strength to bait the enemy forces over to my location, this kind of situation wouldn’t have happened in the first place.

“I, as the lord of Camelot, would like to declare this to the head of the Shining guild. How about we settle all this in a clean duel?”

It was a direct character assassination. Yeah. Totally. Whether Lucas agreed to duel, he would pick the worst card of the deck. He was probably struggling to calculate in his head right now. Whether to take the challenge and die or to turn tail, giving up all his pride in the process.

“…All right. I will admit that if we were to have a duel, I would not be able to win. However, I’m also not in the position to easily admit defeat. I may have fallen for your tactic, but if you can truly prove that your tactic was honestly done, show me the proof!”

Proof? What was he talking about? I knew things were going too well for me…

“If you wish to stand and prove me wrong, take on all of the Crusaders as well.”

What bullcrap! Even if the Crusaders had suffered heavy damage and had their firepower reduced by a certain amount, they were still Crusaders. They were a party of high ranked users, elites of elites! Though they were pretty weak compared to me, but for Lucas to combine forces with the high ranked users?

“But if you win, I shall admit that our guild, the Shining, has lost this siege battle and no matter what, will completely surrender to Camelot.”

Damn it… this changed things. It was a suggestion that completely upended my plan to implant the idea of my overwhelming power in the enemy forces so that the leaders of the Shining guild would be too afraid to enter the battlefield themselves.

If I were to decline their challenge here, then they’d claim that I had given up on taking the challenge that they offered and therefore they did all they could as the leaders of the guild, which meant that I would no longer be able to point out any flaws. Afterwards Lucas would order his troops to continue the war of attrition, and if that happened…

Even though it wouldn’t put my side at a disadvantage right away, they would claim that they have seen through my obvious plan when coming here and at the same time I would lose the trust of my comrades. If that happened, not only would the honor of the Camelot guild be damaged, but it could also affect both my real household name and my own fame.

Had I dug my own grave here?

Lucas produced a smirk as if he had won, which was what I was doing just a few moments ago as well. Now that I was on the side that’d been had, I felt dirty and defeated. But then again, it wasn’t like I’d planned everything I’d done up to this point. I had jumped into the fray of the enemy forces knowing fully well that I could die in the first place, didn’t I? The current situation still remained the same.

So if I were to actually win this challenge he was giving, didn’t that mean I was going to gain a whole guild for free? It seemed to me that there was nothing but gains for me in this exchange.

After changing my mindset to that, I felt more comfortable. Showing him a tired smile, I replied.

“I will accept your challenge.”