I Inherited a Beautiful Wife and a Territory - Chapter 99

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Inheriting a Beautiful Wife and Estate Episode 099

99. Where Are All Those Ships Coming From?

Serdoin Baron.

He was horrified.

He had received reports that ships from the Kingdom of Alesia were approaching. But since their numbers were few, he had actually scoffed at them.

‘This isn’t some small village, and enemy ships dare to pass in front of our Serdoin… I’ll teach them a proper lesson.’

He had felt something was strange.

No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t understand why ships from the Kingdom of Alesia would appear here so boldly, openly revealing their allegiance.

But there was no way he could lose.

“Lord Findrel.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Go personally and sweep away those enemies.”

Findrel, a master of close combat.

Originally possessing excellent divine power, he had never been defeated on a ship. So surely Findrel would soon bring news of victory.

Crash.

But the result that appeared was different from his expectations.

It wasn’t at that level.

‘Wh-what kind of nonsense is this…?’

It was a massive tsunami.

That tsunami was engulfing his city. Like a flood, it swept away everything, then receded, leaving nothing that had been within it.

His body trembled violently.

The enemy surely had an archmage of an unbelievable level.

“H-honey…!”

“Father!”

Serdoin Baron’s family had also witnessed this terror directly.

Most of the troops were at the coastline and had gone out on ships. And judging by what they had just seen, there would be no survivors.

‘Gulp.’

He swallowed his saliva.

“Q-quickly gather everything we can! There’s no time! Pack only what’s absolutely necessary and abandon everything else!”

There was an inner wall surrounding the Lord’s Castle.

But if that overwhelming grand magic was unleashed again, this small castle wouldn’t be able to withstand it.

He shouted decisively.

“Don’t try to take everything! We must leave something for them to plunder! That way they won’t chase us!”

His response was swift.

A carriage was immediately prepared.

The occupying force’s fleet was approaching the coastline.

Before they could land, Serdoin Baron had to escape from this place.

‘We could never win with just our family’s forces. No, even if we gathered all the armies of nearby territories, we couldn’t win.’

He had never even heard of magic that could create tsunamis.

He couldn’t win.

Consumed by that fear, he fled his territory. With the lord gone, those who remained and had faced the same terror would never resist Cliff.

When Cliff and his forces entered, the survivors came under his control.

Damage assessment and body recovery were carried out. During this time, Cliff entered the Lord’s Castle where Serdoin Baron had been.

‘If the lord had resisted here, it might have been difficult for our forces to occupy it…’

It was fortunate.

Because the enemy had been frightened, things became easier. And this immediately boosted the morale of his allies.

Still, Cliff prohibited his soldiers from looting commoner homes.

‘There’s nothing to take there anyway.’

This was Cliff’s thinking.

Instead, he opened all the storehouses of the Lord’s Castle.

The remaining private soldiers of House Serdoin had surrendered even before Cliff’s arrival. Since their master had already fled, they had no loyalty to resist.

Above all, they were too afraid.

Cliff occupied the seat that Serdoin Baron had sat in just an hour or two ago.

“It’s a great victory, my lord.”

This was Keren’s report when things had been somewhat settled.

Keren’s face was flushed with excitement.

‘Yet the one who accomplished this tremendous feat was Elbarun, not me.’

Everyone was looking at him, not Elbarun, as if he were someone amazing.

This was the influence of ‘Dignity: 10’. A skill that had emerged precisely at that moment.

[Leadership]

-Follow me

-Uses mana to emit an aura that makes others follow you.

-Insight (Dignity 10 or higher): Confirms others’ potential and aptitude

The new skill that had emerged this time.

Thanks to this, the way people around him looked at him had changed.

He felt sorry for seemingly stealing Elbarun’s credit, but what’s good is good.

“How much damage was there?”

“Our forces suffered no casualties. If you’re asking about the damage to this city that isn’t our ally… it hasn’t been tallied yet, but about 30% of the city seems to have been swept away.”

It had been a tremendous attack.

So the people of this city must have lost their will to resist.

“Tsk.”

A truly enormous number of people must have died.

His heart felt heavy, and above all, it was regrettable.

‘If it were possible, I’d want to take them back to the kingdom…’

The Yusta Peninsula still had fewer people than land.

The Platice Count’s territory had already lost many able-bodied men. It felt like missing an opportunity to fill that gap.

However, he set aside such greed.

‘Taking them now would be impossible anyway.’

At least until the homeland army arrived here.

Until then, Cliff had to be ready to leave at any time. He had to stay close to the ships he had and, in the worst case, escape to the sea.

Because he was confident he could defeat enemies at sea.

However, he considered that possibility low.

‘If the enemy has obtained our information, they’ll probably…’

Come by sea.

Right now, all of the Kingdom of Alpeo’s army was deployed at the homeland and borders.

Or they were gathering in the capital city.

In this situation, it would be difficult to send an army here.

‘Then conversely, the idle navy would have no choice but to move.’

This was also a matter of the navy’s pride. Since he had come by sea, their maritime defense had collapsed against a small fleet from the Kingdom of Alesia.

They would definitely come.

Keren, who had been listening to Cliff’s prediction, tilted his head.

“Would that really be the case? At sea, no matter how many enemies there are, wouldn’t it be difficult for them to match us?”

They had demonstrated such combat.

So it was natural that Keren didn’t understand.

“Do you think such an attack is possible twice?”

“Well…”

Cliff asked back instead.

Hearing those words, Keren trailed off.

Serdoin Baron, who had witnessed it directly, might fear naval battles with Cliff. But would those who hadn’t seen it feel the same?

‘They might believe it. But as you said, my lord, they’ll think using such grand magic was the limit for once.’

Cliff added.

“Most importantly, it’s difficult for ground forces to come. Even if they do come, they’ll probably use diversionary tactics.”

The picture of them hating him intensely and attacking together from sea and land.

The navy would block the sea routes and attack, while gathering ground forces from surrounding territories to apply pressure.

He would have no choice but to be captured while surrounded. Of course, this was only if things went according to their plans.

‘What will they think?’

Cliff closed his eyes and fell into thought.

The situation Cliff had anticipated continued as expected.

Count Rokaruten’s house, which received this news from Baron Serdoin.

He was a great lord of the southern Kingdom of Alpeo and a border count who protected the kingdom’s seas.

He frowned.

“…Serdoin has fallen? To enemies numbering at most around 10 ships?”

The responsibility for protecting the seas lay with Count Rokaruten.

So if the army of the Kingdom of Alesia had infiltrated by sea, this was his responsibility.

‘He should have been able to handle that level of opponents himself, how did he lose so pathetically?’

At most, the enemy numbers would be a few hundred.

Baron Serdoin even had a reliable knight like Findrel.

“…They say they caused a tsunami that swept away not only Serdoin’s ships but half the city as well.”

“What?”

But hearing such details, Count Rokaruten couldn’t just blame Baron Serdoin either.

His expression hardened.

“It seems the enemy has an archmage…”

The adjutant came and conveyed Baron Serdoin’s words.

But Count Rokaruten shook his head at those words.

“…Marco Pirate Crew.”

Instead, he quietly muttered the name of one organization.

Marco Pirate Crew.

A great pirate crew that once thrived in the Rajahara Sea.

“Huh?”

The adjutant also knew that name.

He questioned while looking at Count Rokaruten.

‘Marco Pirate Crew?’

The legendary pirates who had disappeared about 10 years ago.

Why would he mention them, who were known to have been defeated by the Tyrant of Rajahaar?

“There’s no way the enemy has an archmage capable of using that level of magic on a swaying ship. Even if there was one, they’d fight at that border, not at sea.”

If there had been one, this war would already be over.

So this isn’t a mage.

“Then…?”

“Either Baron Serdoin exaggerated to hide his own fault, or if not that… it can only be ‘that person.'”

“You don’t mean the pirate Marco?”

“No! Marco, he’s impressive too, but he’s a swordsman. His movement at sea is said to be like a monkey swinging through trees in a forest, but…”

Marco’s skill of moving between ships and fighting with circus-like acrobatics.

Such a figure in close combat would never appear again. But he couldn’t cause such disasters.

“There’s the Marco Pirates Vice-Captain.”

The Marco Pirates Vice-Captain.

The actual spiritual pillar of the pirate crew and the figure who led all their battles to victory.

“To think that person would side with the Kingdom of Alesia.”

Then it made sense.

If he was with the Kingdom of Alesia, they couldn’t win fighting at sea.

“Just how powerful is he…”

“He’s a contractor of a high-level spirit who can control the sea.”

“Then what do we do?”

Count Rokaruten raised the corners of his mouth in a grin.

What to do? What was there to do?

“Prepare the ships.”

“Huh? But just now you clearly said…”

Didn’t he just say they couldn’t beat him at sea?

But Count Rokaruten had his own thoughts.

“No matter how much that old man is, he’s not an elf who lives for hundreds of years gathering infinite mana, and if he used that much power, he needs time to recover.”

At least a month or two.

So now was the opportunity.

“This is their bluff. They’re trying to make themselves appear exaggerated so we won’t dare attack them recklessly.”

Count Rokaruten knew the limits of spirit mages.

Above all, the limits that human spirit mages have.

‘Relationships and mana built up in a short period have their limits.’

High-level spirit mages were rare even among elves, who were known to be close to spirits.

But even among the same high-level spirit mages, elves and humans were different.

Not only mana but also affinity was different. Affinity was the time spent communing with that spirit.

‘Humans can’t match the affinity of elves who have communed for overwhelming ages.’

The deeper this communion, the different the mana consumption even when using the same power.

Elves contracted with high-level spirits after sufficient preparation. When they had acquired enough mana to fully handle the ridiculous power that high-level spirits possessed.

They endured until that time.

But humans couldn’t do that.

“Then…?”

“Only now. The opportunity to eliminate that pirate.”

Eliminate.

His eyes gleamed menacingly.

“Before he recovers his mana, I’ll cut him down with my own hands.”

He made a mistake.

Count Rokaruten judged it so.

‘If it was moderate mana consumption, he’d recover quickly. But if he forced himself to draw out this level of power, recovering from it can only be slow.’

They had to attack them without delay.

Now was the time to catch the legendary pirate.

“Everyone prepare. We’ll set sail and catch them!”

Only that single thought.

And the determination to show his own might.

Nearly 90 ships headed toward Serdoin.

“…If only we had enough ships, we could take people to the Yusta Peninsula.”

Cliff felt regretful.

‘I wonder if a bunch of ships will come from somewhere?’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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