novelraw Chapter 204 : The New Value of the Demonic Sword
Chapter 204 : The New Value of the Demonic Sword
Chapter 204: The New Value of the Demonic Sword
“Milord, how should we deal with these prisoners?”
“Lock them all up for now.” Yam pondered for a moment before replying.
The soldier quickly received his order and left.
“There are too many prisoners. Our food won’t be enough.” After everyone had left, Akar spoke upon hearing Yam’s command. “Right now, our food supplies are already running low, and something unexpected has happened in Red River Territory.”
“An accident?”
Yam was startled. “What kind of accident?”
“Some people from the Kasein Family have taken control of the commercial trade routes in Red River Territory and embezzled a large amount of goods, including a great quantity of flour and wheat,” Akar said gravely. “The reason I arrived several days later than scheduled was because Marquis Monica borrowed troops from Baroness Anna of Gem Territory. I had to take men to assist in eliminating those merchant convoys. But even then, the seized goods weren’t even a tenth of what they had stolen.”
Yam let out a cold laugh. “There are always people courting death. But with things turning out like this, what does Marquis Monica plan to do?”
“I don’t know.” Akar shook his head. “I’m not good with these matters anyway. When I left, it seemed she had already entrusted everything to Anna, leaving her in charge of handling it.”
Yam thought for a moment about Anna’s methods and then fell silent.
Anna only appeared kind when dealing with their own people, but in truth, her methods were anything but gentle — even brutal. Still, Monica wasn’t easy to deal with either. Since she had dared to delegate all affairs to Anna, she was clearly intending to let Anna take the blame later. Yet, with Anna’s sharp mind, there was no way she hadn’t seen through it. And the fact that she still accepted… made the situation quite intriguing.
“Second Uncle! Third Uncle!”
“Oh?” Upon hearing Aches’s voice, Akar turned around, his expression lighting up with joy. “Our hero has returned.”
A faintly shy smile appeared on Aches’s face.
“You truly did a remarkable job.” Yam looked at Aches and smiled as well. “Without you, this war might have dragged on endlessly.”
Before this, the fighting between both sides had been fierce and deadlocked. Their forces were evenly matched, so before Yam and Akar could defeat the enemy’s Third-Tier Bloodline Users, no one could predict the final outcome.
Yet, amid this stalemate, Aches suddenly led Sien and a small group of men to launch a surprise attack on the Aust Empire’s command post, successfully killing their commander. They even burned the enemy’s banner and desecrated the commander’s body by hanging it naked from the flagpole — an act that caused chaos and panic among the enemy ranks.
From then on, the battlefield was no longer a mutual slaughter but a complete annihilation of the surviving enemies.
After the battle, of the enemy’s force of more than two thousand, over a thousand were killed or wounded, more than four hundred were captured, and another five hundred fled in all directions.
It was, without doubt, a glorious victory.
Of course, Yam’s own forces had also suffered heavy losses.
One Bloodline User had fallen, two were gravely wounded, and among their three thousand soldiers, nearly a thousand were casualties — almost a one-to-one ratio with the Aust soldiers.
That number included the severely injured.
About four to five hundred were lightly wounded and would be able to return to battle after recovering. Most importantly, after surviving this brutal conflict, their combat experience and fighting spirit had grown stronger — a rare and precious gain for Yam and his men.
“What do you plan to do next?”
“The situation in the north is still unclear, and we can’t afford to be careless. The best course is to take advantage of the enemy’s collapse and press our attack — completely wiping out the southern remnants,” Yam said after a moment’s thought. “I don’t intend to let this opportunity slip away.”
“Then let’s divide our forces,” Akar suggested after a moment’s thought. “The enemy is in full retreat, those Aust bastards are scattering in panic — we can’t allow them to regroup.”
“True,” Yam nodded, “but I don’t recommend splitting our troops.”
“Why not?” Akar asked, puzzled.
“That Aust Empire Bloodline Knight.” Yam’s tone grew solemn. “He’s extremely powerful. We don’t know what his bloodline is or what his ability does, but when I fought him, if I hadn’t mastered Flame Stream Eternal to protect myself, he would have killed me several times over.”
Hearing this, Akar’s expression also turned grave.
Although he possessed close-combat skills, in training duels with Yam, he always lost whenever he failed to maintain distance and suppress Yam through ranged attacks.
And now, even Yam had been suppressed by this Bloodline User — meaning that if Akar faced him alone, the result was obvious.
“I’ll follow your command,” Akar said, no longer insisting on his idea.
Yam nodded, then turned toward Aches. “You’ve done very well. Stay with us for now — you’ll get more chances to temper yourself. I can sense your bloodline aura growing dense. You must be close to advancing to Second-Tier. Indeed, war is the best forge for Bloodline Users.”
Aches didn’t think much of it.
Just the thought of fighting alongside his two uncles filled him with excitement.
“By the way,” Akar suddenly asked, “how did you discover the enemy’s weakness?”
“It was the Demonic Sword.”
At the mention of it, Aches’s expression turned serious. He quickly handed the sword to Yam and explained, “That night, when we accidentally entered the enemy’s ambush circle, it was the sword that warned me.”
“I smelled a very distinct scent — it was similar to Cindy’s aura.”
Yam’s eyes widened instantly, and even Akar’s expression turned strange.
Seeing their reactions, Aches realized his words sounded misleading, and he quickly clarified, “Not what you think! I— I don’t know how to explain it. I smelled blood, but not the usual stench of rust or iron — it was oddly fragrant, like nectar? I can’t describe it clearly.”
“But at that moment, the first image that came to my mind was Cindy.”
Yam and Akar exchanged glances, both with grave expressions.
“I remember,” Akar said, “before you left, you brought the Demonic Sword to Gem Territory and met Cindy. She spent a long time with the sword, didn’t she?”
“Mm.” Yam nodded slightly. “She said she had made a pact with the sword to protect us. I didn’t think much of it back then — the war was urgent, so I departed quickly.”
“Now it seems…”
Yam fell silent, nodding grimly.
The bond between Cindy and the Demonic Sword was deepening, and Yam couldn’t tell if that was good or bad. One thing was certain, though — Cindy’s growth was astonishing. Not physically, but mentally and spiritually. Though not yet eight years old, she already had her own set of principles and worldview — but behind that system was an unsettling indifference toward the world.
That fact alone made Yam uneasy.
“And then?” But this wasn’t the time to dwell on it. Yam needed to understand the Demonic Sword’s new power.
“Then I saw outlines — silhouettes,” Aches continued. “From those shapes, we realized the enemy was lying in ambush. So, we struck first and broke through before falling into their trap.”
“Later, we rescued part of our scattered soldiers — the ones I’d led out with Uncle Sien before. But this time, I noticed one of them had a faint blood-red outline, just like the Aust soldiers I’d seen earlier.” Aches paused, recalling carefully. “So, I checked Uncle Sien and the others for comparison and confirmed that man was the enemy in disguise.”
“I didn’t know how he managed to mimic us so perfectly, so I pretended not to notice and lured him into delivering a message. I even revealed a bit of my identity, thinking that was the only way to make him take the bait.”
“You did well.” Yam smiled and nodded. “You can’t be blamed for not figuring out his disguise — that was his bloodline ability. We still don’t know exactly what it is.”
Yam took the Demonic Sword and said solemnly, “That’s why we need this sword to find out.”
“By the way — have you checked the army and the prisoners?”
“Yes.” Aches nodded. “Right after returning, I inspected them. None of the soldiers or prisoners were disguised.”
“Good.” Yam patted Aches’s shoulder. “You’ve been cautious and thorough. You’re already a fine commander.”
Aches’s face brightened with genuine joy — there was nothing more meaningful to him than earning the approval of his two uncles.
“But before we set out again, there’s one thing we must do first.”
Yam gripped the Demonic Sword tightly and said in a low voice, “Let’s go back and deal with the one in the dungeon.”
Almost at the same time Yam took the sword from Aches’s hand—
Inside the fortress dungeon, two soldiers entered, escorting a young woman.