TL: We’re nearing the end of the arc, finally.

The mood in the forest was turning awkward.

As a Grandmaster wizard in the royal court, Fleetwood understood many of the events that happened before his very eyes, but he did not know how to react to it.

[Divine Artifact Resonance, Ancient Magic, knowing all our plans....! Mother Marsha, what’s going on?! If this is really a dragon before us, we won’t be able to stop him from running even if he is at a young age.] (TL: I feel like it’s becoming a running joke as to how many different ways Brendel can be mistaken as.)

But Brendel was just as confused like them.

After that phenomenon, he had no desire to continue talking to them and wanted to leave. The biggest problem to him right now was the amount of people who had witnessed such the powerful magic that happened in the area. Anyone with common sense would believe that something wondrous appeared in this region. The southern region must be in a state of confusion right now, and adventurers from nearby, including the disliked wizards, would be rushing all over to this area very soon.

[Shit, this whole area is going to be in a state of chaos. I need to leave as soon as possible in case any idiots come after me.]

Brendel had considered many times as to how he would affect the history, but he did not expect to do just that after a few months he arrived in this world. He was not prepared for that and also not concerned about the Lionheart, but worried about the plan to take over the land he was targeting in the Randner region. He was even worried that it would change the princess’s next move in the future.

[A butterfly effect that changes the entire future will be the worst outcome—]

Brendel was already having cold sweat on his forehead and the tips of his fingers were cold.

When Brendel was still considering this problem, there was a sudden applause in the forest. He looked over to Fleetwood and Makarov immediately, but found they were initially confused as well, before they broke into a delighted smile.

Brendel immediately turned around and discovered a middle-aged man wearing a thick purple coat with an inner white shirt walking out from the forest. The latter was clapping with a large smile on his face.

“So this is Mister Brendel mentioned by the Cunning Fox? A young genius indeed. Your plan is really something that a normal person couldn’t come up with.”

[Another person with an Unsealed Element power? ....Wait, I recognize this person.]

The corners of Brendel’s eyes twitched. He was Count Barre Deorwine, the right hand of Duke Rhun, and ruled over the fief Matthiola.

Brendel had conversed quite a few times in the game with him. Although he looked like he was someone who backstabbed people easily, he was actually a rare noble who was honest and upright to a fault. While he was considerably skilled, Buga turned out to be the greater warrior and reached over level eighty, approximately forty years later.

He ultimately met his demise against the Tree Shepherds, and was quite a considerable loss for Aouine.

Brendel turned towards him and smiled a little in spite of himself, his tone relaxing a little as he recalled these memories: “Plan?”

“Indeed.” Count Barre said: “According to my knowledge, the dragon race are mostly on their own under all circumstances. At most they would travel along with their mate, right? By pretending to be a dragon, you are free to do whatever you wish, including that stunt of summoning the Lionheart.”

Brendel immediately heard Rauze’s remarks.

“That man seems to understand us quite well.” She said.

[But you don’t know him. Barre Deorwine is very different from Fleetwood, Makarov and Buga. This man is a realist, and wouldn’t seek to initiate a conversation just to intimidate me. There is no doubt that he has taken measures here. This person is also someone who has unsealed his Element power.... The entire situation has become much more complicated than having the Tree Shepherds around.]

Brendel’s mind was starting to give warning signals to his body to consider running away. He glanced around his surroundings.

[You’re still just a loli dragon, facing these many Gold-ranked fighters would not be in your favor— Holy shit!]

When Count Barre appeared, Brendel had subconsciously recalled that he was a true holder of a fiefdom. After looking closely in the forest, he indeed discovered human figures in the vicinity, and the numbers were large enough to rival Conrad’s army.

[Of course you had to bring an army in order to stop the damned Tree Shepherds! But this area isn’t under your territory, bringing your soldiers into this area is practically asking to fight with Count Randner. Is this Duke Rhun’s goal?]

Suddenly he recalled a certain land at the borders of the Randner’s territory.

[No, that’s not it.... These are not Duke Rhun or Count Barre’s men. That particular land at Rander’s borders, doesn’t it belong to the Princess? That’s where the Royal Cavalry Academy is. Eke was most likely used as bait in order to lure out the political opponents, and with the troops from the princess—]

He hardly participated in Aouine’s civil wars because he was busy raising his levels in the game world. Even though he roughly understood how the battles’ conclusions were, he did not know the details of them. If his suspicions were correct, then the princess must have recruited soldiers from the very beginning, even before the Madara’s invasion.

[Then it’s no wonder why she was able to suppress the nobles with such little political clout for so long. I had never understood how she did it. So this is Makarov’s contributions?]

He glanced at Makarov. This plan looked like something that the latter would conceive, but he did not understand the royal faction entirely. It somehow looked like there were separate tangents operating at the same time. The king colluded with Madara, while the princess gathered her own forces?

He shook his head slightly. Guessing what was going on with the royal faction was making his head spin.

“Which means,” Count Barre continued: “You’re not a dragon at all, right?”

“Miss Rauze, why didn’t you warn me about the men around us—” He turned his head away from their gazes and whispered to Rauze.

“The magic reaction was so strong that this little me was paying full attention to it. Plus, they are just some little insects buzzing around. What’s there to pay attention to? Well, that person who just came in is a little bit stronger.” She replied.

[Insects? That’s a whole army out there. In order to fight Conrad there must be more than a thousand men. Barre used to say his favorite pastimes were playing poker and commanding a large force to fight a smaller force. Even though it’s sort of a joke, but it goes to show how nasty his personality is. Also, what is he thinking? That Ancient Magic that Rauze cast is the real thing!]

Brendel did not believe her in the slightest. He had killed many dragons in the game and knew them well enough. Judging from her age, there was no possible way that she would be able to match them physically. With this thought in mind, he became even more careful in coming up with his response.

“But his Dragon Magic....” Makarov looked confused and asked, but Fleetwood interrupted him: “If I am not wrong, that magic came from a scroll. Since Mister Brendel is capable of acquiring the Golden Apple and invoking the Lionheart, then having a Dragon Scroll would not be a difficult task.”

Brendel looked incredulously at Fleetwood.

[Aren’t you a grandmaster wizard, how can you fail to differentiate between.... T-that....]

If Fleetwood was not mistaken, then it meant the possibility was indeed there. He lowered his head deeply with his canines shown, and whispered urgently: “Miss Rauze, did you use a Dragon Scroll?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Well you see, that’s like the only way where they would lay their hands on you right?” Rauze’s voice was in a gleeful pitch: “I haven’t beaten people up in a long~~~ time.”

[Dear dragon boss, you’re right in guessing that they would fight us because of that.... But we might not win against them!]

Brendel was certain this problematic girl could not be relied on, so he took a deep breath and lifted his head: “Mister Barre, perhaps you’re right. I’m not a dragon. But are you going to try and find out how many scrolls I have?”

Barre shook his head just like Brendel expected him to: “That’s fine. No matter how many scrolls you have, are you confident that you can fight against an entire army? Mister Brendel, that would be folly, so please hand over the Golden Apple.”

Brendel wanted to punch that incredibly fake smile off that irritating bastard’s face, but he had to force himself to think of a proper response.

“Is that so? How about if you include us?” A clear voice rang out from the east direction.

The bushes were parted and revealed a group of approximately twenty Elven warriors covered in blood. Nalaethar took down his helmet and stared at Count Barre with an indifferent expression at him.

[[[Silver Elves....?!]]] Count Barre and the other men’s eyes popped upon when they saw them. No one had seen them for centuries. He nearly choked when he saw them appear, and squeezed out his words after a long time with much difficulty.

“Our allies of the past, the Silver Elves, you were the only race who had never participated in any civil wars. Are you going to go to war with the humans over one person?” Barre clenched his fists; the Golden Apple was too important to let it slip by.

Nalaethar nodded as he looked at Brendel: “I owe him a promise.”

“Very well.” Barre sighed in exasperation as he tried again: “But do you really think that you can match our whole army with twenty men? We acknowledge your skill, but we vastly outnumber—“

His words quickly faltered. It was not only him, but the people beside him quickly held their breaths, including Brendel.

Everyone saw a large patch of blinding silver armor appear, as Elven Knights riding on unicorns came forward to join Nalaethar and his men....

The Eversong Army.