Chapter 236 – Trojan Horse

  Nikous Wolves:

  For days, I’d been more on edge than ever before. I paced bad forth incessantly. Whenever I entered my office, I could barely g the papers. Sometimes, I’d pick up a dot to sign without even b to read it. The tension seemed to e everyohough most didn’t truly uand the gravity of the situation. Only the most trusted men—those involved in our illicit activities—khe full truth. They were the ones w behind the ses, our “criminals.”

  I khat if an army invaded, no one would stop to ask questions. They’d simply follow orders. These men uood the weight of the crimes we’d itted, and they were well aware that if we fell, they would fall with us. But if we could defend our nds successfully… there was a ce.

  I had made a publiouhat the Wolves Fortress was dug its annual military exercises. I ehat the allied nobles’ soldiers traveled on public roads, escorted by patrols, to make the movement noticeable. The goal was clear: provoke them. The Evenhart family wouldn’t let what happened slide. I hem to react quickly. The soohis frontation started, the better.

  The truth was, my position was fragile. If the kingdom lost its patie would take only a siroop of winged cavalry to storm my fortress. As strong as it was, against flying enemies and inquisites, it would be useless. Just the thought of fag an inquisite made my skin crawl. Nothing would remain of me.

  A thousand possibilities ran through my mind, tormenting me. Perhaps the kingdom was deliberately taking its time, waiting for us to kill each other so they could iate with the survivor. Or worse, maybe the Evenharts had already received the kingdom’s approval to act. Despite being a vassal of the kingdom, I knew my true pce: just a marquess.

  The kingdom would never choose to protect a marquess if it risked their alliah a duke. No matter how much they dowhe influence of the dukedoms, they khose territories were the pilrs of their strength. If even one of the eight dukedoms demanded independe would create a devastating domino effect. That was why they began w in the shadows, weakening the dukedoms and making them depe.

  That was the reason for the damn agreement I made years ago! If I had mao join the Evenhart family, marrying the duchess and being a duke… I would have won. With aire dukedom under my trol and the kingdom’s bag, I could have had everything in my grasp.

  The anguish in my chest grew like poison, and without thinking, I downed my entire gss of wirying in vain to drown out the bitter taste of failure.

  “Shall I pour you anss, my lord?” the servant asked.

  “No! Leave!” I snapped.

  Left alone, I returo my thoughts.

  “If the Evenharts e,” I muttered, “we o crush their main forces. Once we defeat or capture their most important members, we take their castle for ourselves.”

  Even as I thought through our pn, ay g me. Nothi certain.

  “Bandits, meraries, soldiers… we’ve summoned everyone,” I tinued, speaking to myself, as if to reassure myself that we were prepared.

  But deep down, I knew. I khe Evenharts were out there, waiting for the right moment.

  We have to defeat the Evenharts before the kingdom intervenes.

  “Maybe,” I murmured again, “the kingdom truly wants us to destroy each other, to make the mistake of starting this war. If I die, I’ll take with me all the secrets of what’s been pnned. And the kingdom could use that to subjugate the Evenharts, g they broke diplomatic ws. I might already be dang in the palm of their hand with this mistake of mine…”

  "Fuck it!" I shouted, kig the chair and sending the dots scattering across the desk. "I just o survive... survive, win this war, and then I'll take Chloe Evenhart as mine! An heir will ensure my ultimate victory."

  I grabbed my head in frustration.

  "Once I win, I'll fuck Chloe Evenhart until that girl gives me a goddamned heir!"

  Reag into my pocket, I pulled out the bck stone, hoping for some kind of response, some guidance... but there was only silehe Illuminated didn’t speak.

  "Damn rain!" I shouted, gring out the window. For two days, my fortress had been surrounded by dark clouds, with stant rain p down. It seemed as though a violent storm was brewing.

  Taking a deep breath, I resumed pag bad forth, mentally reviewing our options.

  "We’ve surrouhe fortress with our armies. Strengthened our defenses with the internal forces. We have mages and the ‘Ten Fingers’ to protect us."

  The Ten Fingers... the most powerful mages at our disposal. They were my personal guard and that of the other nobles—a handpicked elite force armed with a vast array of spells, prepared for any battle. They could decimate our enemies if the tide turned against us.

  "If the situation outside bees critical, I’ll send ien Fio secure our victory."

  Leaving the office, I marched quickly toward the war room. The fortress was alive with activity. Servants scurried about, carrying out the orders of the nobles who now crowded every er. Guards were stationed in every corridor, entire garrisoed and waiting for orders.

  The pn was clear in my mind. The external army would surround the fortress, f our front line. Mages within their ranks would support the soldiers, while the archers and Shes atop the walls served as our trump card. If the Evenharts approached, arrows and fireballs would rain down upon them. We had even prepared a strategy to flood the area in front of the gates with waves of water, plig any attempt to advance. Earth mages stood ready on the walls to unch spikes like arrows if necessary.

  My fortress was a marvel of magical engineering, designed turies ago by earth mages who specialized in military defehe walls themselves were a spectacle: they featured strategically pced openings, resembling on ports, allowing mages to cast spells from within while remaining protected. This was a fortress built not just to withstand attacks but to strike back—a bastion of resistance against any invader.

  The underground system was another crucial advaunnels and passageways ected various parts of the fortress, ensuring a steady supply of ons and resources even during a siege. Additionally, the surrounding garrisons and houses served as strategic outposts, creating ara yer of security.

  Ihe walls, earth mages stayed on high alert, ready to rapidly repair any damage caused by enemy spells. Wind mages specialized iing defensive barriers. While they couldn’t cover the entire span of the walls, they could react teted enemy spells, raising wind shields as an additional yer of prote.

  Another of the fortress's major trump cards was its water-based defense system, an emergency measure desigo devastate any army foolish enough to approach. trolled by water mages statio key points, this system could unleash a massive torrent. When activated, a colossal wave of water would surge from the walls like a tsunami, crashing down with overwhelming ford sweeping away everything in its path.

  This attack would not only shatter enemy formations but also throw them into plete disarray, creating chaos otlefield. Meanwhile, archers and mages, safely protected behind fortifications, would capitalize on the fusion to deliver precise strikes, eliminating survivors and any threat attempting troup.

  When it came to defense, my fortress was unmatched. There was no other stronghold iire duchy that came close to its level of preparation, strategy, and applied magic. It wasn’t just a fortress; it was a statement of power.

  We were ready to deliver an uing defense.

  “Damn rain!” I growled, gng out the windows at the bck clouds swirling in the sky and the fshes of lightning splitting the horizon.

  It was the dead of night; we should have been sleeping, but the tension in the air was suffog. No one could rex. As I opehe door to the war room, I was met with a cacophony of shouting aed arguments.

  “We o do this now!” one of them yelled, his face red with anger.

  “No! Are you insane? You want to deploy a mage from the Ten Fingers outside already? They’re our trump card! We ’t waste them at the start!” retorted t Laurence.

  I pihe bridge of my nose, feeling the weight of this endless debate. We had revisited this same argument tless times, but it seemed no one could grasp the logic.

  “The Ten Fingers will remain inside!” I decred, my voice eg through the room. “We’ll deploy them wheime is right—and not before.”

  I strode to the board where the massive map of the fortress and its attad defense routes inned. All eyes turoward me.

  “Listen carefully, you idiots!” I said, my patieretched to its limit. "A war isn't won through recklessness. A war is won with patiend strategy. The symbol of my family is the Wolf. The Wolves family embodies this philosophy. A wolf doesn’t attack without thought—it hunts with caution. When the enemy is tired, believing they have the upper hand, that's the moment we unleash our secret ons. That's the moment a wolf goes straight for the throat."

  My voice was cold and calcuted as I expined, “The Ten Fingers and my pack of Great Wolves will only be released wheime is right. When that moment es, we’ll still have a sed internal army ready for battle. It will be like a tsunami. We’ll unleash everything at once. But for that to happen, the soldiers outside o give their lives holding back the Evenhart forces. We o draw them close to the walls, within range of our Shes. The Evenhart soldiers must be tired, their numbers severely dimiheir mages drained of mana. Only then will we act.”

  A heavy siletled over the room. Finally, the weight of the situation seemed to dawn on them, and the importance of the strategy sank in.

  “My lord!” The door flew open, and a maid burst in, gasping for breath. I was ready to sh out for the interruption, but something in her face stopped me. It was serious.

  "A boy has appeared in front of the army," she said, gasping for air.

  “What do you mean a boy appeared?” I demanded. “The order was to kill anyone roached the army outside! No one should be he fortress!”

  “He said his name is Nathan Evenhart,” she replied.

  The moment that name left her lips, a suffog silenveloped the room. Those around me exged nervous gnces, panid uainty spreading like wildfire.

  “He’s here! The damned army has arrived…” a tered, his voice trembling with despair.

  “No, my lord. He’s alohe boy is sitting outside, right in front of our army,” the maid crified.

  “What!? You’ve got to be joking!” I shouted, st across the room toward her.

  The heir I’d spent years trying to eliminate... sitting alone in front of my army?

  “That’s impossible. Are you sure he’s alone?” Disbelief ced my voice as I gripped the maid’s shoulder, my fingers digging in with all the urgency of the moment.

  "I am sure, my lord… and he's asking for a duel," she replied, visibly shaken by the iy of the situation.