The Holy Man of Another Century Gospel

Chapter 210 Reinforcements
Waking up in her own room and in her own bed, Sophie no longer felt the excitement she had when she first returned to Lutia. Instead, she began to miss the monastery where she had thought she wouldn't be staying for long.

She didn't know if she would ever have the chance to go back there again in her lifetime.

If I hadn't stayed...

When faced with an inescapable predicament, Sophie couldn't help but think about another possibility—the possibility that she had already returned to Leslie.

The demon siege had lasted for twentieth day. She was trapped in despair in her sleep, but upon waking, she actively sought hope.

"At least His Highness is still here..."

His Highness also told her that the situation was much better than the prophecy the gods had foretold—that their family would die in the destruction before the High Priest fled Lutia.

"Another day has passed, that's good."

Sophie couldn't remember when she started using this phrase as her catchphrase.

She didn't know how long Lutia could hold out, or whether she and her family would survive the day the city fell, but she had secretly made up her mind that she would die with His Highness.

As she was about to leave, her father called her back.

"Sophie, did you ask the question I asked you to yesterday?"

“I haven’t seen His Highness,” Sophie said. “His Highness is very busy right now, spending more time outside the city than inside. And these past few days you’ve asked me to come back to stay, so how could I have had a chance to see His Highness?”

"How about we look for another opportunity?"

Mr. Horn couldn't hide his anxiety. "Her Highness the Saintess has always kept you by her side, so she must like you very much. She will definitely consider what you say."

Although she knew that her father's words of affection didn't have any deeper meaning, Sophie's heart still skipped a beat.

On her deathbed, she still wanted to reveal her relationship with His Highness to everyone...

"Don't ask! I can't afford to lose face like that!"

Another voice called out, and Sophie, who was about to leave, immediately went back inside. "Grandpa!"

Earl Horn leaned against the door, his eyes fixed on his granddaughter, holding her wrist tightly.

"Sophie, tell the Holy Maiden that when the demons invade Lutia, I am willing to shed the last drop of blood in this old body to fight the demons, and I will never desert my post!"

His last words were spoken while he was looking at his son.

The latter kept wiping away sweat, saying, "Father, if I die here, the Horn family will be finished."

"If Lutia falls, the empire will perish, and the Horn family will be finished too!"

The old count glared angrily. "Before Lutia was besieged, I told you to take your family and leave beforehand, but you refused. Now you want to use your daughter's connections to escape Lutia. I will never allow it!"

"That's because you insisted on staying behind alone. How could I abandon you?"

This wasn't the first time they'd argued like this. Sophie had tried to persuade her father or grandfather before, but now she just felt powerless.

"There are still many wounded people waiting for me to treat. I'm going out now. Father, Grandpa."

"You're the eldest daughter of the Horn family!"

Her father then turned his gaze to her, "She is Her Highness the Holy Maiden's personal advisor, a person of high status. This kind of thing can be done by ordinary nuns. You should go find Her Highness the Holy Maiden quickly."

"You're not allowed to go!" the old count roared again.

Sophie ignored everyone and ran out of the house without looking back.

I really shouldn't have stayed at home.

Arriving at the nearby cathedral, she first went to check Eric's study, where he was indeed not there; only Elise was organizing letters.

"Did Your Highness return yesterday?"

“Hmm.” Elise glanced at her. “They left just as dawn broke. Another reinforcement is lingering on the outskirts of Lutia; Your Highness has gone to meet them.”

Sophie sat down and watched her tidy up for a while, then suddenly asked, "If people outside can come in, can people inside also go out?"

Elise looked at her. "You want to go out?"

“It wasn’t me, it was my father,” Sophie sighed. “He wanted me to beg His Highness to find a way to get him and his family out of Lutia.”

“I will tell His Highness when he returns,” Elise said.

"Don't mention it to him!" Sophie's voice rose and fell in an instant. "The demons are surrounding us, it's going to be very difficult, and people might even die. I don't want His Highness to be in a difficult position because of this, especially since he's so busy right now."

Elise looked at her. "But those are your family."

“I’m right here,” Sophie said, looking at her.

Elise didn't say anything, but sorted and organized the last stack of letters and put them on the bookshelf.

"Have you been doing these things all this time?" Sophie asked.

Elise nodded. "My abilities are useless on a battlefield like this, and His Highness doesn't need me to protect him. Apart from occasionally helping His Highness organize his things and acting as his liaison, there's nothing else I can do. I don't even know basic divine magic, otherwise I could treat the wounded like you do."

Sophie thought for a moment, "But you're strong, you can help carry people... or even corpses."

Elise looked at her. "Are you short-staffed over there?"

"It's very lacking."

They were both silent for a short while.

"Then I'll go take a look. Don't expect me to stay."

“Please stay… Seeing corpses all day is driving many people to the brink of collapse.”

On their way to the wounded soldiers' camp, the two saw a winged person descend from the sky and drift towards the palace.

Meanwhile, at the commander's camp, a winged person took off and flew towards the south of the city.

“Although the number is not large, reinforcements are finally arriving in Lutia one after another... The pressure on Your Highness and the Grand Marshal should be relieved a bit,” Sophie said.

Elise's gaze followed the winged man as he flew away, without uttering a word.

Flying over the much quieter city area and then over the southern city wall, the winged man flew higher, his eyes searching the ground before finally finding the person he was looking for.

He landed.

"Your Highness, there are winged people who have flown in from the city."

Eric looked up, slowed down slightly, and waited for the winged man to land beside him.

"Your Highness, the Grand Marshal has asked you to slow down your actions. Another reinforcement army is approaching from the south. The Grand Marshal's intention is to wait for the two reinforcement armies to join forces before coordinating with them."

"Another reinforcement?"

Eric pulled back, raising a hand to stop the knights behind him. "That's good. I don't mind waiting a little longer. Where did they come from, and how many are there?"

"They came from Grandia, about two or three hundred people," the winged man replied. "The leader is Marquis Ambrose."

Eric felt the name sounded familiar, not from "The Thorn Soul Crown," but from someone in this world who had mentioned it before, but he couldn't quite place it.

"Ambrose...where are they now?"

"In a small town more than a hundred miles south of Lutia."

“We’ll have to wait.” Eric grinned. “Has the reinforcements outside received the message? We need to make them retreat temporarily and hide themselves.”

"The Grand Marshal has already sent someone to inform them."

"Then let's go back into the city to rest first." Eric ordered the knights to return, as it was not safe outside the city, even though they had just broken through a demon camp yesterday.

They returned to Lutia from the west gate, as they mostly left the city from there. The Knights' encampment had also moved from the east city to this side. Only Eric would return to the east city every day, not because he was fond of the comfortable rooms in the monastery there, but to discuss the battle situation with his uncle.

However, he just came from there, so there's no need for him to go back right now.

The knights rested for a while, while Eric went to the place where the demon sorcerer was imprisoned.

Ten days later, the latter had lost a lot of weight, but he was still very energetic every time he saw Eric.

"Kill me! Or let me go now!"

“Don’t rush.” Eric sat down beside him. “You’re provided with food and lodging here, and you don’t have to risk your life like I do. Why are you in such a hurry to leave?”

The sorcerer stared coldly at him: "Did you send any messengers to the Demon King?" "I sent three winged people, and they were all shot dead by your archers, okay?" Eric didn't even blink. "Now no one is willing to send messages to your Demon King."

"idiot!"

Eric touched the weapon at his waist.

"...What I mean is, you have to let me show my face."

The sorcerer calmed down considerably. "They probably thought I was dead. I showed myself, and that's when they understood what you meant. Do you still want your warriors to come back alive?"

“Of course I want to.” Eric looked at it. “The problem is, does your Demon King even care if you can go back alive? After fighting for so many days, you still haven’t taken Lutia. Your people are getting more and more insane. The moat is full of demon corpses.”

The sorcerer fell silent.

“We have more and more reinforcements coming in, and I’ll be going to pick up another batch of reinforcements to enter Lutia soon,” Eric continued.

"You actually managed to leave the city?" The sorcerer couldn't hide his surprise. "After we fell, didn't the Demon King send more warriors to surround the west?"

"There are quite a few more than before, but we've driven them all back... though the cost wasn't small."

Eric's expression turned serious.

"I think the Demon King lacks the determination to take over the moat. After all, even if the moat is blocked, there is still a high wall that is difficult to break through... He seems more obsessed with eliminating our defensive forces on the city wall first. The catapults that have appeared these days are like they have a supply cheat code. There are more and more of them."

The sorcerer frowned, not understanding a certain term in his words, but too lazy to ask further, "But you still have reinforcements arriving one after another, and the people on the city wall can't be defeated indefinitely."

Eric nodded. "So to put it bluntly, your Demon King doesn't seem to be very smart... quite different from what I imagined."

The sorcerer glared angrily, "You are not allowed to insult the Demon King!"

Eric shrugged, indicating respect and understanding, then asked, "I was wondering if Luca is actually a strategist?"

The sorcerer paused for a moment, then pursed his lips. "Luca played a significant role in the Demon King's unification of the tribes, but the Demon King's bravery was even more important."

Eric smiled. "It seems Luca truly deserved to die. While it's regrettable that I couldn't capture him alive, I didn't let him return to the Demon Realm, so I did accomplish something."

Despite the sorcerer's persistent attempts to obtain more information, he didn't stay there for long. After once again giving a perfunctory reply that he would write to the Demon King, he went outside to where the knights were resting and joined them.

It wasn't until the afternoon that the Winged Ones sent another message, saying that the two reinforcements outside the city had joined forces and they needed the Winged Ones' cooperation to help them break through the weak points of the Demon Clan's defenses and enter Lutia.

Eric immediately grabbed a map and pointed to a place southwest of Lutia. "Are they all here now?"

"Yes."

"What is the Demon Clan's current deployment?"

The winged man pointed at the map, "Here, here, there's a demon camp. The demons aren't numerous, but they're scattered, making them difficult to wipe out all at once."

"Then we can only take a risk, infiltrate to their east, drive them west and south, and cut off their connection with the main camp."

Eric glanced at the map, then at the winged people. "While we're moving, have the reinforcements break through this way immediately, encircling the demons. Don't linger in battle; the main objective is to enter the city."

"I understand, Your Highness."

The drawbridge at the west gate was lowered, and Eric led his knights out of the city again, heading southwest.

The winged man pointed out the direction and the location of the demon soldiers in the sky. After running along the city wall for a while, Eric saw a group of scattered demon warriors. Almost at the same time, the demons saw them too. Two of them ran towards the south of the city, while the others ran towards their camp on this side.

"Chase!"

Eric pointed in the direction of the crowd, then chased after the two lone demon soldiers.

The winged people who had been following in mid-air accelerated their flight toward the town where the reinforcements were located.

Pfft!

Two heads flew off one after the other. Eric swung his longsword, flicked away the blood, reined in his horse, and swerved sharply, chasing after his companions while glancing back at them.

These two demon soldiers must be the outermost low-ranking soldiers, he thought to himself.

As long as the demon camp on the front lines of the battlefield doesn't focus its attention here and doesn't send out more troops to encircle and annihilate them, it will be relatively easy for the two reinforcements to break through and enter the city.

Having caught up with the other knights, Eric continued his charge, chasing and killing the soldiers driving away the demons. He hadn't run far before he spotted one of the camps.

They had just swept through this area a few days ago. It was a newly built camp, and there weren't many demons left there. Eric led the other knights to continue the pursuit while a group was left to eliminate the remaining demons.

The demon soldiers scattered and fled, and Eric and his knights also dispersed to pursue them, targeting those who tried to turn back and report to the main camp in the east of the city.

When they joined up with the reinforcements who had broken through from the town outside the city, the latter were already fighting with the demons who had fled from two camps.

Eric glanced around quickly, and amidst the chaos, spotted a noble knight who appeared to be the leader. "Marquis Ambrose?"

“It’s me.” The latter looked him up and down. “You’re Saint Eric? You’re too young.”

Eric had no time to care about his attitude. "Have your men move immediately to the west gate of Lutia and enter the city from there."

"Huh? Why were we able to wipe out all these demons!" Ambrose immediately asked.

"Because the demons' camp outside the south city could send people at any time to surround us and wipe us all out!" Eric roared. "Can you stop them?"

Ambrose glanced eastward, then at the warriors and demon soldiers locked in battle, and reluctantly ordered, "Ignore them, keep moving forward!"

The leader of the other reinforcements was an old nobleman in his fifties or sixties. He noticed Eric and quickly rode over. "It seems your words are more effective, Your Highness."

"Earl Egerton?"

"it's me."

The knights provided cover for the reinforcements marching toward Lutia, while the scattered demon soldiers, realizing they were not being attacked, fled a distance further, regrouped, and then surprisingly charged at them.

Eric raised his longsword, his gaze quickly landing on one of the demon warriors who seemed to be their leader. "Stop them!"

The knights charged toward the demon soldiers who had returned, while Eric rushed toward his chosen target, feigning an attack on the demon in front of it, raising his sword only to bring it down again, this time to stab it.

The demon warrior leader reacted quickly to the sudden attack and dodged it.

Eric had already charged up behind it and immediately swung his sword fiercely.

when!
The longsword struck the demon's blade, and Eric Lema spun around, charging at it again. Just as he was about to get close, he suddenly threw the longsword in his hand.

The demon warrior leader immediately parried with his sword.

when!
A longsword is not a throwing knife; its target is obvious and it is easy to block.

Pfft!

"Uh!"

With a sword piercing his throat, the demon warrior leader fell backward, only to see another knight appear behind him at some unknown time.

Picking up the longsword Eric threw and handing it to him, Edward quickly mounted his horse and ordered the knights to stop chasing the demon soldiers who had scattered again after their leader was killed.

Two reinforcements were rushing toward the west gate, with Eric leading cavalry to provide cover from behind, glancing back every now and then. The fleeing demon soldiers only dared to follow from a distance.

His gaze fell on the front again. The reinforcements brought by the young nobleman Marquis Ambrose were mainly cavalry, and their strength was relatively strong. Therefore, they were more focused on eliminating those demons. The Earl of Egerton, on the other hand, brought only infantry, which looked more like a militia that the old nobleman had temporarily put together to support the capital.

The journey back to the city went smoothly, and the drawbridge was raised again once the last infantryman entered the city.

"You've worked hard, Holy Maiden. I must go see His Majesty."

Ambrose left with those words and led a troop of cavalry straight to the palace, while Earl Egerton stayed behind and asked Eric to take him to the commander's tent.

It was only on the way that Eric learned of Ambrose's other identity from Egerton.

"He is the Queen's younger brother and also His Majesty the Emperor's brother-in-law. Princess Iskra, the youngest princess besides Princess Natalia, married him."

Eric suddenly remembered where he had first heard the name Ambrose—Natalia had told him about it during his stay at the Black Ice Wall.

“Besides, he is also a longtime friend of His Majesty the Emperor and has a very high opinion of himself,” Egerton added. “So please, Your Highness, don’t take his rudeness too seriously.”

Eric shook his head.

He never cared about Ambrose's attitude.

"Because of our childhood relationship, Ambrose was the nobleman my brother trusted most..."

(End of this chapter)