Chapter 626: It’s Him, It’s Him

"Enemy attack!"

A mournful horn blast echoed through Egret Castle as all the knights hastily donned their armor and rushed to the battlements to observe the enemy and defend the fortress.

Count Egret, now clad in his hastily donned armor, also ascended the castle walls, gazing at the combined knight order charging toward them in the twilight. Coral Island’s elite knights wore silver helmets and armor, those of Red Crab Island donned gold-plated helmets and armor, while Golden Island’s elite knights were clad in gray. Even their warhorses varied in color.

Despite the obvious patchwork nature of this composite knight order, Count Egret still felt his body tense. At the forefront of the knights, a tall, fluttering banner caught his eye—a long red flag embroidered with a blooming black tulip.

This emblem was burned into his memory.

Three days ago, the Roaring Knights had crumbled beneath this very banner.

"It's him, it's him, it's him..." Count Egret's chest heaved with a faint tremor as he recalled that legendary battle. Marquis Tidalwave, wielding the full might of his knight order, had been utterly overturned by an implausibly young knight from Sapphire.

Marquis Tidalwave was his liege, one of the highest-ranking landed marquises in the Kingdom of the Eagle.

Thus, he knew all too well the marquis’s strength. Having followed him since youth, now well into middle age, he had witnessed the prowess of Domain Knights many times, especially during large-scale campaigns on the frontier. Even the renowned Bearskin-Clad Marquis Rock held slightly lower status than Marquis Tidalwave.

He had always believed that unless a dragonrider appeared, his liege was invincible—never imagining he would be defeated by some upstart from Sapphire.

Over the past two days of rest in the castle, he had been numb, refusing to accept reality.

And yet—

"It's him... He's here. He actually came to Egret Castle!" Count Egret forced himself to calm down, then roared, "Men of Egret Castle! The enemy from Sapphire is strong, but united in battle, none can breach our impregnable walls!"

"Defend the castle!"

"Drive back the Sapphire curs!"

The knights responded fervently, their shouts bolstering Count Egret’s resolve. Perhaps in a duel, he would be no match for the knight called Liszt Tulip. But this was no duel, nor a charge on open ground—this was a castle defense.

The knights of Sapphire had never excelled at siege warfare. Every expansion decree saw them swarm like locusts, seizing supplies before swiftly retreating.

They neither stormed castles nor held territory.

"If only that arrogant fool Deborah Yuhuashi, who relied on Marquis Tidalwave’s favor, hadn’t forsaken the castle’s defense for a reckless charge—the battle would never have collapsed like this! Even with Liszt’s ancient warrior inheritance, he couldn’t have caused such chaos!"

Now composed, Count Egret even found the leisure to blame Deborah. Though a sword saint himself, he looked down on the all talk and no skill Clearwater Sword Saint, Deborah.

His gaze returned to the approaching combined knight order.

Gripping his sword tightly, Count Egret cleared his mind, his expression unreadable. Egret Castle was backed by mountains and girded by water, easy to defend and hard to attack.

Repelling the enemy would be effortless.

Yet in the next moment, his calm fractured. At the head of the combined knight order, astride a resplendent giant bird, was none other than Liszt—the man who had brought low Marquis Tidalwave. Behind him followed nine intermediate magical beasts, the Blizzard Beasts, which had wreaked havoc on the Roaring Knights.

Now, Liszt had drawn his Swift Shadow Bow, nocking an arrow and taking aim.

Count Egret hadn’t forgotten how Liszt had methodically dismantled the Roaring Knights, ultimately turning the tide against Marquis Tidalwave.

"An heir of the ancient warriors, personally joining a siege?"

The answer to his silent question came in the form of three flaming arrows. *Kaboom! Kaboom! Kaboom!* Each struck a different window, exploding and blasting apart the wooden shutters.

It was both a greeting and a signal.

Next, the combined knight order drew their bows, loosing a hail of suppressive arrows at Egret Castle. Meanwhile, Hiddleston, battle-hardened, needed no further orders from Liszt. With its eight offspring, it began bombarding the walls with rock grenades and spikes.

"The blade cuts flesh, the heart cuts deeper!"

Liszt, lost in the moment, unexpectedly bellowed a battle cry before launching his attack. Then, with a powerful leap, he came crashing down from the sky.

Boom!

Amidst the castle's retaliatory arrow rain, he bulled his way through with his Dragon Aura, touching down on the battlements of Egret Castle.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Instantly, a swarm of earth knights thrust their spears from the inner walls, trying to skewer him like a pincushion. His eyes went cold as the Frostbite Dragon Slayer Sword danced, conjuring waves of flames that sliced the knights' spears clean in half. The dragonbone's hardness and sharpness, combined with the Dragon Aura, made it devastatingly sharp.

After severing the spears, he swung the Frostbite Dragon Slayer Sword again, cutting down several counterattacking knights. Not bothering to see if they lived, Liszt immediately sprang up, leaping toward the next battlement.

His goal was clear—to eliminate all defensive forces on Egret Castle's battlements, allowing his elite knights to storm the supposedly unbreakable castle. If he were a dragonrider, one dragonfire blast could’ve torched the whole place. But since he wasn’t, he had to do the hard labor himself.

Riding a dragon made all the difference.

*"If I could just make black powder, the siege would go much faster... Dodo Island’s got sulfur, charcoal can be burned on the spot—all I need now is a saltpeter mine. The formula—one part sulfur, two parts saltpeter, three parts charcoal—is burned into my brain... But perhaps I should wait until I become a dragonrider before inventing such a devastating siege weapon."*

Even while clearing Egret Castle’s defenses, Liszt found time to let his mind wander.

Black powder had long been on his invention list. Unfortunately, when he had saltpeter, sulfur was scarce. After discovering Dodo Island, sulfur became available, but his saltpeter ran out, putting the brakes on black powder. Though its combat utility might be limited—it can’t match raw mana or magic—in an era where anti-magic materials fortified castle walls, black powder’s sheer physical force would be an unparalleled tool for demolition.

*"I’ll have to seriously search for a saltpeter mine later."*

Shaking off his thoughts, he refocused on the task at hand.

Thanks to Liszt’s relentless efforts, Egret Castle’s resistance was completely silenced. The Egret Count stayed hidden, and the earth knights followed suit.

The towering, sturdy castle now resembled a comatose giant—no matter how strong, it couldn’t escape its fate.

Countless elite knights from the mixed brigade began scaling the outer walls, guided by Liszt’s path-clearing, ready to engage in urban combat within the castle. Liszt himself blended into the ranks, activating his Magic Eye to pinpoint earth knights with dense mana, marking them as priority targets.

Soon, he locked onto the Egret Count’s position. Leading the knights, he plowed straight for him.

Capturing the Egret Count would mean Egret Castle’s surrender.