Earl Bulat’s withdrawal was enough to cause Valentina to become cautious. His departure wasn’t merely limited to a thousand soldiers leaving. Rather, unrest was clearly spreading among the western lords’ army.
The former Adelaiyda army boasted big numbers, but they couldn’t be controlled well. Their current numbers amounted to roughly 6,600, but it was questionable at best whether they could move in a way befitting their numbers.
──Did I rush things too much?
Valentina asked herself in the rear of Osterode’s army. Delaying the decisive battle until she had rallied more combat forces under her command should have been possible for her. But, Valentina ended up acting, nonetheless. For the sake of defeating Elen and the other Vanadis while they were unable to use their draconic tools.
But, that might have been a mistake. Fighting at the head of her soldiers like they did wasn’t Valentina’s style. Wasn’t it rather Valentina’s style to take them down one by one with her own methods? Regardless of the question whether they could use her draconic tools or not.
The blaring of horns forced her consciousness back on the battlefield. The battle would begin any moment. She knew that right now wasn’t the time to think about such things.
A scout she had dispatched earlier returned, reporting to Valentina. He told her with a somewhat perplexed tone, “About the greatsword with the golden hilt and guard…I managed to spot up to three of them…”
Valentina’s eyes flew wide open. At the same time, she cursed bitterly in her mind.
──With such a childish trick.
Valentina accurately realized the measure adopted by Arma Zirnitra. During the last battle Valentina had only appeared in front of Elen after she had confirmed that Durandal was with the central unit. Even if Durandal had been carried over in the midst of her attack on the enemy’s right wing, she could have withdrawn under the cover of her soldiers since she’d know about its arrival in advance.
The black-haired Vanadis had absolutely no intention to attack the unit where Durandal was stationed. She didn’t feel like braving such a danger. Arma Zirnitra had read that and prepared counterfeits while buying time with yesterday’s meeting.
──It’s probably just to the extent of adding melted gold coins as decoration to a greatsword with a closely resembling shape, though.
Unless she didn’t check it from nearby, she wouldn’t be able to tell whether it was the real Durandal. And now that it had become like this, she could use the hand of surprise attacking the enemy commanders. And an assault like she had performed on Elen would be difficult as well.
As a matter of fact, this was a gamble for Arma Zirnitra. If Valentina concentrated her troops in one spot to steal the greatsword over there or gained control of the space with a Durandal, even if only temporarily, she’d immediately know whether it was the real Durandal. Given that only one real Durandal existed, she’d become able to freely rely on the power of her draconic tool after pulling off such maneuvers twice.
However, Tigre and the others suspected that she might not use such methods. It’d all depend on the question whether Valentina would be able to switch her thinking completely after having proceeded up until her by repeatedly taking extremely cautious measures.
“You can’t say that it’s out of the question, though,” Elen said.
Her ruby eyes had clearly told everyone that she would definitely settle their dispute if Valentina should appear in front of her once more.
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