Chapter 64
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Chapter 64: Under the Winter Sun
The Asreks family achieved total victory.
The Crimson Flame Legion faced total annihilation, with barely a hundred soldiers escaping the battlefield. Duke Ferdinand Sais, family head of the Sais family, flew into rage. He immediately confined his first heir Fenrir for reflection while stripping General Red Fox of all power and placing him under house arrest.
When this lopsided noble war concluded with an even more shocking outcome, the entire Belmar Duchy trembled.
How could a minor Count with merely three thousand troops crush the allied forces of the Joseph family and the Crimson Flame Legion? Their combined army exceeded thirteen thousand, including ten thousand of the duchy’s finest elite troops.
Yet the Asreks family didn’t just defeat them – they obliterated them entirely.
Not only did they destroy the enemy forces, but they also seized an entire count’s territory!
Such deeds defied belief. This was nothing less than a miracle!
Nobles who prided themselves on unshakable composure now stirred restlessly. Both the gloating Queen’s faction and wavering Senator’s faction dispatched spies to investigate every detail of the battle.
The capital Hertonmar buzzed with surface activity while hidden tensions simmered beneath.
At this critical moment, an emergency Noble Council convened.
The summons came from Iron-Blood Duke Haidrich Hamilton.
The agenda was straightforward – the Sais family’s shameless invasion of Asreks territory and interference in Joseph family affairs violated all codes of noble honor and Knightly conduct, demanding severe punishment.
During the fierce conflict, none had intervened – not even the Iron-Blood Duke who monitored Midi Asreks closely, despite his own granddaughter fighting in the battle.
But with victory decided, all turned against the defeated like rats abandoning a sinking ship.
Though appearing hypocritical, this followed the nobility’s unspoken rules.
Until matters concluded, none would interfere. No aid came, not even symbolic gestures, for involvement meant entanglement. The Joseph family learned this bitterly, serving as Sais’ cannon fodder only to lose all territory when Midi counterattacked through their weakened defenses.
Now, with outcomes clear, noble politics entered its most effective phase.
Four words defined it: Winners reign, losers yield.
With victor and vanquished established, the next step was converting battlefield success into concrete gains.
Though unfamiliar with such maneuvers, Count Ingman Asreks grasped the essentials. With the Iron-Blood Duke’s open support, their alliance swiftly proposed this emergency council.
The Iron-Blood Duke stood as Judge, condemning the Sais and Joseph families’ dishonor. Count Ingman delivered impassioned accounts of ravaged lands, tortured civilians, and Crimson Flame Legion atrocities.
Behind hours of rhetoric lay two demands:
1. War reparations
2. Territorial concessions
The Sais family resisted, but the Hamilton family’s fifteen-thousand strong Golden Branch army loomed at their borders. With Crimson Flame Legion destroyed, Sais defenses crumbled under pressure from old rivals.
Though the Sais family’s deep reserves meant they could theoretically fight on – true great nobles withstand defeats – rejecting the proposal now risked dissolving the Noble Council itself.
This would ignite civil war between Queen’s and Senator’s factions.
With their elite legion destroyed and first heir disgraced, civil war favored Sais least. They needed time to recover morale, rebuild forces, and restore balance.
After two days of heated debate, the Sais family yielded.
They agreed to pay reparations to cover the Asreks family’s wartime losses.
Two mines and five surrounding towns would be surrendered as compensation for launching the unauthorized war.
As for the Joseph family…
The Joseph family simply ceased to exist.
This wasn’t due to Midi’s cruelty, but rather the Josephs’ terrible luck. Quinn Joseph vanished under Fina’s magical bombardment during the York County battle. Meanwhile, Count Joseph’s soulless body deteriorated steadily until collapsing shortly after the Elvin Town conflict ended.
Thus, the Joseph family’s lands naturally became part of the Asreks territory.
Annihilating forces three times their size, securing Elven friendship, and doubling their domain –
This stood as an unquestionably brilliant victory.
Yet Count Ingman remained impassive. Whether facing Senator’s faction nobles’ venomous glares or Queen’s faction members’ enthusiastic flattery, he maintained polite composure – neither arrogant nor submissive, never letting triumph inflate his ego.
He behaved exactly like the overlooked Count who quietly cast votes in Noble Council meetings.
Business as usual.
Ingman knew keeping low-profile best supported his son. Let this battlefield-absent father safeguard his child’s hard-won gains!
While Ingman handled political attention, crowds gathered around the Iron-Blood Duke.
More intriguing than courting the uninvolved Count was the Hamilton family’s quiet scheming.
They’d stayed completely neutral, offering no official support – yet by sending their "unofficial" heir Fina, they’d secured victory and converted a Senator’s faction family to the Queen’s side.
What masterful maneuvering! Beyond mere cunning!
Great nobles spun elaborate theories about the "individual action" being a calculated ruse, particularly given Fina’s battlefield dominance.
The Iron-Blood Duke accepted praise without committing to explanations. Let rivals fear Hamilton’s inscrutability – ambiguity bred advantage, strengthened status, and pressured enemies.
Yet the Duke knew truth: Fina truly acted independently. Victory stemmed entirely from Midi Asreks’ own power, unrelated to Hamilton influence.
What next for that black-haired rebel who’d stolen his granddaughter and defied him? The Duke pondered. Someone like Midi wouldn’t remain obedient Queen’s faction pawn.
Unaware of the Duke’s attention, Midi currently resided in a small town hundreds of kilometers from the clamorous capital.
Autumn Ancient City held neither resources nor strategic value – its sole distinction being mountainous terrain.
Tiered buildings climbed slopes like painted screens, elevation differences creating striking vistas. Winding mountain paths added to the charm.
At the city’s highest point stood an elegant but decrepit villa, long abandoned due to ghost rumors.
One week prior, an anonymous buyer purchased both villa and hill with flawless Asreks-family authorization papers. The city lord hosted this "wealthy stranger" cautiously, unaware the true buyer was territory master Midi Asreks himself.
Though insignificant alone, Autumn Ancient City’s position shifted dramatically when combined with Alice’s forest and the absorbed Joseph lands – now sitting at the heart of new territories.
Not just geographical center, but the convergence point of magic veins.
They gathered countless tiny surges of magic into streams, merged those streams into flowing rivers, until finally forming an ocean beneath Autumn Ancient City – beneath this hill, beneath this villa.
The entire territory became a grand magic array, its Eye located precisely here.
Now, any disturbance anywhere would be instantly detected by Midi’s group, while the territory’s defensive power received tremendous enhancement. This magic-ocean villa naturally became Belmar Duchy’s ultimate residence for adventurers.
The magic veins controlled by major families paled before this "Infinite Magic" dwelling.
For Fina the Super Transmuter who "levels up through magic absorption", this villa became paradise itself – leveling while sitting, lying, even eating!
When Midi proposed moving in, none rejoiced more than the Queen of Magic.
Mountain City’s tranquility, sparse population, and natural beauty also pleased the Mist Sorceress Alice, evident from her frequent strolls.
As for Midi? His happiness simply mirrored the girls’ contentment.
This afternoon marked their rest after one week’s labor – having cleaned the long-abandoned villa while installing numerous mechanisms and defenses.
Golden sunlight flooded the sunroom through glass panes.
Fina dashed in first, the red-haired girl’s petite figure immediately claiming the largest sofa.
"So warm… so comfy…" The magic queen sighed contentedly, curling up cat-like, eyes slitted, her face full of contentment.
Outside lay winter’s final snowfall blanketing the mountain in white, yet dotted with emerging green shoots as vines and weeds pushed through frozen earth, heralding spring’s approach.
Alice sat sideways on a bench, her gaze softening as she observed nature’s revival.
Midi watched both girls’ silhouettes, endless longing in his eyes.
"Get us drinks?" Fina’s playful voice chimed. "Midi, make Southern black tea!"
"Of course," Midi smiled.
"Stun black tea," Alice added quietly.
"Your wish," Midi responded, then glanced at the black-haired girl. "Music?"
Alice shot him a cold look but still retrieved her Witch’s abode cello.
Rich, deep notes soon flowed from her fingers.
Amidst cello melodies and steaming tea aroma, watching cat-like Fina bask in sunlight and music-absorbed Alice, Midi suddenly overflowed with unspoken words.
His past life held deep love and countless debts to them.
This reincarnation brought grand ambitions – navigating noble intrigues, leading battlefields, uniting factions, building armies, expanding territories…
Wishes fulfilled? Not yet.
Gran Forest’s inferno approached. Delos Empire’s ambitions loomed. Countless crises awaited.
But now, Midi desperately wished to freeze time – if only briefly.
For ultimately, he simply wanted this peaceful afternoon.
This leisurely idleness.
This winter sunlight shared with them.
