Absolute Loyalty

"So what do you plan to do with that advice from the god Itami? If I am not wrong, Foulque is the name of the shiny brat who follows princess all around right? "

"Obviously I am going to kill him. From what I understand god should be on our side... after all if we succeed to win this game, he will get himself a whole planet. So he shouldn't have any reason to give us bad advice"

"That is true... but to kill him is just... "

"Cass don't say things like 'it is not fair for him' , 'he is one of princess close friend' etc. If killing him helps us somehow I will just do so. I just don't care about him. "

"Yeah i get that, but still killing people with no hostility against us is not my style. "

"I will do it so don't worry. Besides I bet he has lots of coins! I can't stand being poor"

"You... Oh never mind, I give up"

"Hn, morale is useless in most situation, bit killing him now is not good idea. We need to do it after confrontation with wolfman. Or else this fragile army will be in trouble. "

"True, Losing one of leaders just before battle, soldiers will be confused. Not to mention army of this world is not like ours... if Foulque dies his soldiers will insist on going back or just disperse."

"Well you can't blame them, Who would want to be killed by the beasts in place they don't care a shit about? Even if they win there is not much in it for them. If it was against other humans at least they get to plunder and ****. "

"Soldiers in name, bandits in life huh"

"Yep, private army of nobles are pretty much like that. History says that"

"Oh it seems your girl is waking up ,Mr white horsed Prince! "

"Please"

Itami looked at Elea who is slowly opening her eyes. Blood red eyes, long snow white eyelashes, pale pink lips and with her tiny body she looks like a majestic little doll made just for him. She was wearing black kimono with colorful flowers blooming here and there, with her pure white colored hair dropping down to her slender shoulders, she looked at Itami expressionless face.

His breathing hastened, and his heart was pounding. What is happening to me? I were just fine when we first met, why am I like this now?

Elea forced her weak body up to sit and kept staring at Itami with her blood red eyes.

Itami kept looking back silently, confused with his own feelings. How is it possible for me to have this kind of feeling? Itami was different from Kael and Cass. If you say those two are light, Itami and Isano were darkness.

Events that happened on Itami's birth was just... too gruesome to describe. Yet here he is... can't even steady his breathing before a girl who is at least a decade younger than him. It just doesn't make any sense to him.

Itami forced himself to calm downd and spoke with as carefree tone as he could.

"Yo, How do you feel? "

"I feel fine" Elea tried to get up from the bed but she g.r.o.a.n.e.d in pain and fell back down.

Itami almost moved subconciously to help her but he somehow forced his body to freeze.

"I will get you something to eat, apparently you are supposed to take your medicine after you ate something." Itami headed towards door.

"How long did I sleep?" Elea asked weakly. It seems like talking is taking great effort and energy from her.

"One day, better not move, I will be back soon" Itami headed towards the tent where army cooks.

*****

"Your highness our scouts found huge number of Wolfman hiding themselves in trees of the forest to the right"

Ascelot knitted her burrows at the report and ordered with stiff tone

"Summon Sir Arminel and Sir Foulque here, Oh also the scout who brought this information too"

"Yes your highness" soldier saluted and got out.

After thinking for a while Ascelot looked to her right side where commander of her personal army stands with upright back.

"Luke, what do others say about me? Are they angry because I brought them here to die? "

Ascelot was asking how her own private army felt about her merciless order to fight against uneven odds with her. Private army of royalty live and die with their lord, they were marked from birth so in case their lord were to die, they will be hunted down by kingdom and scorned by many.

So their fates relied heavily on her decisions, knowing she felt extremely guilty for giving them no other choise to follow her here, Luke answered with smile

"Your highness, soldiers are happy to be on real battle field instead of training. They are very excited about fight to come. Please don't worry about them. It is our duty to be both sword and shield for you, Your highness"

Ascelot smiled bitterly at his words and looked at the map. Their camp were located at the foot of a mountain. Right side is full of forest of the mountain while on their left side there were huge rocks with a narrow passage between them. This is why they decided to camp here even though it is very dangerous to be this close to the forest, specially when they are expecting Wolfman. If they have to retreat, they can escape through narrow passage and will be able to fend off wolfman with small number of people while doing so.

To fight against an enemy with superior indvidual ability, perfect coordination, high morale and blood l.u.s.t, just what one should do to win? No matter how much wrack her brain, she couldn't think of an answer.

Only thing she could think of was numbers, but from the refugees report enemy is middle size pack, which means their number must be 1500 at minimum. To defeat them normally one would need 3 times as their numbers. But it is not really reliable thing since in battle one with better strategy will win, and these numbers are only stands for defeating them, who knows how many will be sacrificed for that victory?

Only after coming here did she understand why her father kept himself humble and kept the peace, even though nobles, prime minister, mage guild even some merchants challenged his authority. Winning battle is meaningless if your losses are too great.

With her 4 thousand she would probably win the battle against the Wolfman pack, if they were to simply crash against each other until last man stands. But their alpha wouldn't do something like that foolish. Even to that beast his soldiers must be important.

So in the end it comes to how the enemy decides to attack. Arghhh... I can't let enemy take control of things like this... I am supposed to control the flow of the battle, I need to lead him to act as I want.. but how?

Think.. think you stupid Princess! Uhmm to make my enemy act as I want him to, I need to... right! to lure him with something. But with what exactly? Meat? haha it seems my brain has stopped working...

While she was smacking her head the door of her tent pulled up and several people flooded in. All of them saluted and bowed their heads, they were Foulque, Arminel, Minghans(1000 man leader) and some of the Jaguns. After they gathered around the strategy table, Ascelot gestured at a man and said "Alright tell us what you saw in the woods in details"

"Yes your highness! Around 400 meter in the south of the forest we discovered a huge glade. There were at least few hundred Wolfman , and more were coming from the woods. It seemed like they hunted recently, I saw blood stains on their furs are yet to dry. Also there was Omega between them. It fit perfectly with 'White devil' description refugees gave us. That is all" soldier saluted again.

Arminel said with expressionless tone "They are probably shock unit of the enemy since their Omega is with them"

One of the Minghan behind him agreed "I agree, Since Omega acts independently, probably their Alpha attached some troops with him so that he can see how we react when Omega attacks us"

Other Minghan who stood right side of the Arminel said thoughtfully "Having Omega act as unit leader, this Alpha is very smart. When we dont have mages around an Omega attack will be tough to deal with, let alone Omega with few hundred wolfman behind him."

Arminel spoke again "But it means at the least we will know where Omega strikes because he will be leading attack this time. Also this chance for us too, we need to make sure that Omega dies at his first attack no matter what!

The reason Omegas are hard to deal with is they attack randomly, finding our weak points at right time as we are busy to deal with Alpha or Betas. But this time we can fully focus on him!"

Ascelot thought for a while then said "He may be just a decoy. Think about it... If we focus too much on Omega then I bet their Alpha will make a move. Besides if his purpose is to gauge our reaction, Omega probably will not make move himself. He can be there as more of morale support"

Arminel's burrows furrowed "Yeah, In the end Omegas are loners... so I also don't think he will move in with the army. He will act cautiously like every other Omega... but still we need to form elite team to take care of him when he goes for attack! This elite unit must focus solely on the movement of Omega and counter it! "

Foulque who were silent till now, cleared his throat then said "Since we got only 3 Minghans they cannot be in the elite team. We have no choice but to form team out of most capable Jaguns. So how about we each choose 3 jaguns from our armies and form team if 9? "

Arminel shook his head helplessly "9 people with low-7 blessing of god huh? If they work together well, they may stand chance to last for 3 minute against Omega"

Foulque face went red, he stuttered "W..What? Is Omega that powerful? Then If Jaguns are useless against him, how are we going to form elite unit? "

"We got no option but to send our Minghans with 9 jaguns.. Although I want to be in elite team myself, I cannot leave the front or morale of the army will plummet"

At this point Ascelot eyes lit up as she said "I think that will be unnecessary."

"Your Highness, what do you mean by unnecessary? How are we going to deal with the Omega without elite unit? "

"Well did you forgot about sir Kael? He said he will go for 'White Devil's bounty... so I think he can take the Omega out. So we can just focus fully on how to deal with their attack "

Arminel nodded his head "Yes, He certainly is powerful. He stopped my enraged attack so easily... About our formation I would like to suggest few things"

And like that they spent hours to discuss about upcoming battle. In the end Arminel and his army took the center position while Foulque divided his forces to left and right wings, leaving left wing to his Minghan, lastly Princess's army were in reserve unit. Their main role is to support one of the wings if enemy is about to break through them.

After the men left, Ascelot slumped his shoulders and let out deep sigh. Who knew it will be this troublesome just to deal with Wolfman? They aren't even that smart... they are just beasts yet she is already at her wits end. While his father is now preparing to fight against 3 million army of White eyes she complained about him not sending out any soldiers and caused wreckage by leaving castle in secret... White eyes are not stupid as these beasts, except from their pure white eyes and 2 meter huge body they are pretty much humans.. also their battle prowess is on whole different level, they are what you call born warriors...

They learn to ride horses before they learn how to walk, having superior archery skill while riding they are really troublesome to deal with.

Lets just deal with these beasts quickly and hurry back to help father! Father must be at his limits just to deal with all those nobles.

*****

While Ascelot and others were still in their strategy meeting Itami brought food for the two girls in his tent. While he were away Jina woke up and it seems girls tidied themselves.

Itami placed foods on the table then moved the table closer to Elea's bed. After that he grabbed 2 chairs and sat on one of them then gestured Jina to sit and started eating.

These soldiers... everything they make turned into mud like food. Although it is tasty, always eating food like this felt bad.

But girls seem to think otherwise, they ate theirs quite fast. While eating he never took off his eyes from Elea. It is like his eyes are glued to this girl whenever she is nearby... The way her mouth moves while munching food looked very cute.

It is just unfair to have so much beauty... just by simply being there she could make me breathless as well as helpless...

"I heard from the cooks, It seems soldiers spotted large number of Wolfman in the forest. They may attack us any moment now"

Hearing Itami's word both Elea and Jinas eye went through various emotions. Both of them stared at him waiting his next words.

"During the attack both of you are to move to the Princess's side and follow her. This way it will be easier for me to find you later if something were to happen. " Itami spoke with an air of authority leaving them no other choice but to accept his words.

"Master what will you do during the attack? "

"I will go for bounty placed on White devil and if possible the Alpha. But I am good with just White devil" when he mentioned 'White Devil' Elea's eye lit up with flames of hatred, making her blood colored eyes look like some predator.

"Also after this I.. no Cass will be training you two, I will be doing many crazy things in the future so I need strong and capable killers instead of two frail young girls. "

Well wording it 'killers' maybe overkill, but he needed these two to be at least bbe able to take care of themselves. Things will get lot more chaotic from here on, so if they remain as they are now they will end up buried in the dirt in no time.

Both of them stayed silent at his words, well they must be quite shocked at that he wanted them to become killers.

Itami stood up and started to put the heavy armor on by himself. Although he managed to do so yesterday by himself, today he struggled helplessly, after seeing his pathetic struggle for a while, Jina came over and helped him.

He took his sword got out of his tent and started to walk towards the forest.