The Villain Saint is my secondary account

"Let's see, it might be something very important."

Ye Xiao comforted her.

As soon as the door opened, a palace guard appeared, hurriedly kneeling on one knee before Skadi.

"what's up?"

Seeing the other person's anxious expression, Skadi realized that there might really be something important, and her eyes immediately became serious.

Although she was just flirting with Ye Xiao, when it came to the crucial moment, she increasingly exuded the aura of an empress.

"Your Majesty, an urgent report has just arrived from the Western Frontier,"

Cold sweat beaded on the attendant's forehead. "The army of the Duchy of Tedeh has officially advanced into the Kingdom of Doum!"

The Kingdom of Doum is a vassal state of the Loren Empire, bordering the Western Frontier Province, and serves as a gateway between the Loren Empire and the western states.

The Duchy of Tedeh's invasion of the Kingdom of Doom without any declaration was tantamount to kicking down Loren's door without warning.

"They really dare?"

Skadi frowned slightly. "Summon Minister Holman to immediately prepare to mobilize troops to support the Kingdom of Doom!"

"Yes!"

Upon receiving the order, the palace guards hurriedly ran out of the room.

"Ugh……"

As soon as the guards left, Skadi's imposing aura vanished, replaced by a long, mournful sigh.

Clearly, after this incident, it's impossible for her to have any more time for tender moments with Ye Xiao, both emotionally and logically.

"Don't worry, there's a problem here, but I'll come to check on you often."

Ye Xiao comforted her.

"Hmph, you only come to check on things if there's no problem, huh?"

Despite saying that, Skadi felt a strange sense of joy in her heart.

But she always felt that this happiness was not very kind. The situation was clearly becoming more serious, yet she was happy that she could see Ye Xiao more often. No matter how she thought about it, it was too inappropriate.

"how could be."

Ye Xiao affectionately hugged Skadi, giving her a final embrace. "Go ahead and get busy, Your Majesty. The temple for Ella is finished, and we can meet there soon."

"Ah."

The girl watched Ye Xiao leave through the window with a lingering look, then turned around, her eyebrows furrowed slightly, and hurried toward the council chamber.

Just around the corner of the corridor, the royal guards who had been waiting for a long time split into two lines and followed Skadi. Their rapid footsteps, accompanied by the fluttering of Skadi's royal cloak, revealed a murderous aura. "Those bastards, Tedeh, we must make sure they never leave alive!"

……

At the same time, in the western part of the Kingdom of Doum, in a border city east of the Yellow Sand River, was the city of Huangzhou.

On the city wall, Viscount Sodorn of the Kingdom of Doom held a monocular telescope, gazing at the boundless desert across the river, his face filled with worry.

Through the thin mist, the vast, dark camp of soldiers and horses resembled dark clouds in the night sky, with countless torches stretching from the south end of the river to the north end, seemingly without end.

"Reports from the front: the reinforcements of Viscount Persia, Baron Shank, and Baron Lifion have arrived, Your Excellency."

His deputy was reporting to him that reinforcements from his colleagues in the kingdom were approaching the city-state.

"……Ugh."

However, upon hearing that reinforcements had arrived, Viscount Sodorn merely sighed with a gloomy expression.

Since the news of the war broke out yesterday, nobles and officials throughout the kingdom have been dispatching allied forces to assemble in the city of Huangzhou under the king's orders.

With the accelerated protection of the mage corps, the entire army will eventually arrive in about three to five days, but this is far from enough. The Kingdom of Doum alone will need the support of Loren to resist the iron cavalry of the Duchy of Tedeh, one of the three great powers.

Based on calculations, even if Loren's reinforcements set off from the Western Frontier Province, it would take at least a week to reach the Desolate State City, not to mention the possibility of having to transfer troops from the Imperial City, which would take nearly half a month of land march.

Half a month... Whether Huangzhou City can hold out is a real big question.

How many people have gathered in the city now?

“Fifty thousand men, Your Excellency. However, excluding serfs and laborers, there are roughly fifteen thousand knights and infantrymen who have received formal training. If we include the mercenary groups composed of travelers from other worlds, there are probably another six hundred.”

"Damn it, they're still stuffing serfs into the numbers at this point."

Viscount Sodorn couldn't help but curse as he listened.

What are serfs? They are poor people who usually till the land with hoes, and they may not even have enough to eat. The weapons they carry are probably just cheap pitchforks and sickles, which might break if hit by a shield.

What's the point of having an extra city wall for defense if such an army is fighting against the regular army of the Principality of Tedeh?

As for the otherworldly travelers... those guys are indeed quite strong on average, but he knows very well that they have no loyalty or sense of unity. They might be okay with doing routine bounty missions or sending messages, but they are unlikely to be of any help in fighting a losing battle.

Sodorn's throat bobbed slightly, and a faint anger rose in his chest, so much so that the veins on his hand holding the binoculars bulged.

As early as when he discovered that the Duchy of Tedeh was gathering troops in Falling Star Valley, he wrote to the king, requesting that the Loren Empire's reinforcements be sent to garrison the area.

As a result, the group of portly royals insisted that Tedeh could not possibly break the peace treaty between humans, and discussed things like not wanting to be "stationed by Loren troops due to a little accident, which would cause a deeper impact on sovereignty," and refused to ask for help in advance.

Ultimately, it wasn't until the other side swaggered across the border that those good-for-nothings realized they were in deep trouble and ran to Loren crying for their parents.

Chapter Ninety-Six: Western Front War

They don't even consider that a small country sandwiched between two major powers, lacking sufficient military strength, can't guarantee its sovereignty by just talking without choosing a powerful ally to rely on...

Viscount Sodorn sighed helplessly as he thought of this.

At least being a vassal state of Loren would preserve the royal family, and the territory would still bear their own name; but if it were conquered by Tedeh, regardless of the final outcome of the war, the Kingdom of Doom would most likely cease to exist.

Just as Viscount Sodorn was pondering, a loud horn blast came from the other side of the river.

The vast army camp of the Duchy of Tedeh stirred up again.

"They just set up camp, and they're already launching another attack? Don't these guys need any rest at all?"

Viscount Sodorn was taken aback by what he saw, but time did not allow him to think about it. He hurriedly ordered his deputy to urgently mobilize the reinforcements to take up their posts and set up defenses.

Tedeh's army did not give them much time to react. Less than an hour after the horns were sounded, Sodorn could already see the enemy's massive army arriving on the other side of the Yellow Sand River.

At the forefront were rows of heavily armored shield guards, followed by musketeers wielding long spears, and further away, towering siege weapons such as honeycomb rockets and magic cannons could be seen.

A golden halo surrounded their feet, and it seemed that this enchantment enabled the army to cross the wasteland without stopping and reach the city.

However, Viscount Sodorn had never seen such a large-scale army with such a collective aura before, and cold sweat suddenly poured down his forehead.

How can we fight this? Putting aside the enemy's superior equipment and the size of their initial siege force, just look at that extravagant group aura—it looks like it's been applied to over 100,000 people... Such a huge consumption of magical resources, just for the sake of traveling—how powerful must the mage corps be to withstand such extravagance?

"Viscount of the Sodorn family in the desolate city of Huangzhou."

Just then, a loud yet gentle voice came from Tedeh's army.

Upon hearing this, Viscount Sodorn looked up in surprise and saw a blonde girl in a white dress and a flower wreath in her head, surrounded by several knights, riding a pure white horse with a single horn on its head, standing in the open sound amplification circle amidst the vast army, and slowly speaking.

"Through the mercy of our lord, we do not wish to cause unnecessary bloodshed. We beseech Your Excellency to cease resistance and refrain from subjecting your people to the calamities of war."

"You stinky fart!"

Viscount Sodorn, already short-tempered, felt his blood pressure surge to his head upon hearing this. "Wasn't the war started by you duchy scum, and now you dare to claim I 'plunged the people into disaster'??? How could your mother have given birth to such a hypocritical, sanctimonious dog-like face? You disgust me to death!!!"

This mix of family ethics and realism in his speech was already quite offensive to the natives who were now being invaded by the culture of otherworldly travelers. Not to mention that this frontier lord, who did not have much of an aristocratic air, often interacted with the people and was gradually corrupted by what he heard.

His scathing rebuke surprised the white-clad girl in Tedeh's army, who turned to her knight with a rather unpleasant expression, "...Are people these days all so rude?"

"...Only these barbarians are like this, their mouths are full of vulgar language, Your Majesty, you can just ignore them."

The knight, who looked like a tin can, replied somewhat helplessly.

"So that's how it is. They are descendants of barbarians."

The girl nodded as if she was confused, but her mutterings were amplified by the sound-amplifying array.

"You're the barbarian! Your whole family are barbarians!!!"

Sodorn immediately flew into a rage, declaring that a man could be killed but not humiliated. With a wave of his hand, the soldiers on the wall immediately set up their muskets.

The defenders on the city walls were separated from Tedeh's army by a sandy river. Sodorn had originally intended to intercept them when they crossed the river, but having been humiliated in this way, he decided to engage them in battle ahead of schedule, as they wished.

"As expected of barbarians, even with firearms, they only act recklessly."

But then they saw that the girl's face also darkened.

"shooting!!"

At Viscount Sodorn's command, thousands of muskets on the wall roared to life.

A barrage of lead bullets ripped through the night sky, finally firing the first shot in the battle for the Kingdom of Doom.

But then, what happened next shocked Viscount Sodorn.

But then the girl in white interlaced her fingers and chanted ethereal words as if in prayer. A golden radiance, like a ribbon, swept across the heads of the entire army in an instant.

"In the name of light, protect my loyal knights."

The ties expanded, forming a dome of enormous radiance, which transformed into an insurmountable barrier across the riverbank, blocking all the bullets.

"Your Excellency, what is that...!?!"

"...Holy Light???"

Sodorn's eyes widened, and he read out the answer in shock before his second-in-command could.

As a viscount of a small country, he naturally had some knowledge. This young girl, all by herself, was able to casually summon a holy light barrier that could encompass most of the battlefield!

What is this concept???

In Sodorn's entire life, he had never heard of a Holy Light mage of this caliber.

And what's more, the army of the Principality of Tedeh even includes a coalition force from the Holy Temple!?

And the spells this guy used were nothing short of miraculous... Sordorn could only think of one possibility regarding the other's origins.

But it was precisely this possibility that he couldn't accept—

why? ? ?

Shouldn't the Holy Maiden of Light be on our side?

But he clearly remembered that the Holy Maiden of Light should have come from Loren, so how could she be in the army that Tedeh was invading the Kingdom of Doom?

“Your Holiness, you need not waste your divine magic on this.”

Her knights asked with concern.

"It doesn't matter,"

The girl in white gave her subordinates a gentle smile. "I failed to protect my people before, but I won't this time."

Then, her warm, spring-like gaze turned cold and arrogant as she looked at the bewildered Viscount Sodorn on the wall and uttered words as cold as a judgment: "As for these rude barbarians, let them be completely purified here."

"Om-"

As soon as she finished speaking, a deafening roar suddenly echoed in the sky.

The people on the city wall looked up and saw that the night sky was suddenly filled with twinkling stars.

No… upon closer inspection, those weren’t stars, but a vast expanse of warships.

Countless majestic figures, like flying behemoths, pierced through the clouds, with countless steel cannons protruding from beneath the hull, and rows of propellers stirring up surging waves.

Viscount Sodorn gazed up at the cannonballs streaking across the sky like a meteor shower, watching the sky illuminated by brilliant fire, and murmured softly, his face ashen:

"ended."

Chapter Ninety-Seven: The Holy City

The next day, the golden ship arrived above the holy city.

In the upper cabin, Ella sat alone on the edge of the bed, scrolling through the system window with her finger, looking at the messages on the player forum, her eyebrows slightly furrowed.

"The borders of the Kingdom of Doum have fallen in less than a night?"

Because of the system, news about events happening around the main city spreads very quickly among players.

After all, even magical messages rely on the magic network for transmission, and in areas with scarce magical resources, they basically have to rely on messengers.

Only the players' World Tree system, something whose origins remain unknown, can easily transmit information over extremely long distances without delay.