“Ugh. Even without the Crimson Ghoul, it’s still powerful.”

“At night, it’s incomparable to daytime.”

The soldiers of the Eastern, Southern, Northern, and Central armies groaned in pain.

I smiled inwardly.

Actually, the ghoul’s raw attack power is similar to that of a normal monster.

Yet there were two reasons why the Imperial Guards were deployed to deal with it.

The ghoul does not disappear unless the shrine priest performs the ritual.

Its pain threshold is far lower than that of other creatures.

It’s troublesome to deal with, but right now, these are huge advantages for me.

Perfect for faking it!

“Besides, I know how the scoring counts.”

I confirmed this during the “real battle” with the ghouls during the day.

Even if it doesn’t disappear, if consciousness is judged to be lost, the score counts.

Of course, the magic tool doesn’t shake to check consciousness like a person would.

In other words, once the ghoul’s mana disappears, it counts as a point.

So it’s easy.

“Cut off the mana of the ghoul being attacked by the Western army.”

[Understood.]

As I gave the order to Awen, the Western army’s heavy armored soldier swung his hammer.

“Hey, don’t just swing wildly.”

The hammer narrowly grazed the ghoul’s head.

“Grrr!”

Just as the ghoul, eyes flickering, tried to attack the Western army—

“Awen!”

[My child.]

When Awen sent a calm telepathic message,

“Grrr...”

The hesitant ghoul glanced toward me, then suddenly collapsed.

And Awen cut off that ghoul’s mana flow.

Ding!

[Western Army: 107]

The count increased.

A knight with a fresh impression affectionately patted the head of the heavy armored soldier who swung the hammer.

“Well done, the training has paid off!”

“Huh? No, um...”

The heavy armored soldier looked at his hammer in confusion.

“It only grazed it...?”

There were others who raised their scores with similar staged acts between the ghouls and me.

They got cocky and shouted,

“Is that some kind of sword energy? Sword energy!”

“Yeah! Prince Balzac of Astra reportedly split a Lizardman in two just by swinging his hand’s edge!”

I laughed incredulously.

“Sword energy, my foot.”

It was perfect as a summer fan substitute.

Awen said to me,

[Shouldn’t we discipline the troops?]

“Not today. Giving them confidence is a success.”

[Why?]

“The Western army always comes in last and gets called trash.”

Their self-esteem must have been bottomed out.

The Western army knights couldn’t even respond to the blatant insults from other armies.

“The start is to give them confidence and a taste of success.”

[To make them feel that effort leads to skill.]

“Seems like something only a veteran army leader would say?”

[A little kid who has lived barely ten years isn’t in a position to lecture one who’s ruled here for three hundred.]

Awen chuckled.

I crossed my arms and looked around.

The other armies looked puzzled.

“Why are the Western troops so easily defeating ghouls like that...?”

A Central army soldier’s low-ranking troop caught a ghoul that the Central army soldier had missed.

“...?”

The Central soldier kept glancing back and forth between the low-ranking Western soldier and the fallen ghoul.

“Is it the difference in weapons...?”

Then he threw his gauntlet like our low-ranking soldier.

“Gyaaah!”

He took a hit.

“?????”

This time, the Central soldier’s face was full of question marks.

Silin shouted furiously.

“What are you doing!”

The low-ranking Western soldier, seeing that, grew even more confident.

Then, from the void, the score measurement device rang again.

Ding!

[Western Army: 112]

The Western army’s deputy general shouted,

“We’ve taken the lead! Western army, don’t stop the attack! Victory is within reach!”

Waaaahhh!

The Western army’s momentum soared to the sky.

I chuckled and gave Awen a series of orders.

“Take down the ghoul at the 11 o’clock position.”

“Don’t let the Western army take down all of them; share the points appropriately with other armies.”

“But don’t let others get more than the Western army!”

[Got it, got it. Such a picky master.]

He sounded amused.

‘It must be terribly boring for a smart guy like Awen to live only in this narrow land.’

Two more hours passed like this.

Since it was a staged game, the ghouls were defeated at a tremendous speed.

Other soldiers thought the ghouls, having lost their leader the Crimson Ghoul, had become a disorganized rabble.

After a while, the Southern Wonhwa shouted,

“Why is it that we find it so hard to defeat ghouls that the Western army takes down so easily?!”

Southern Wonhwa was last place, so he had reason to shout.

The Northern Wonhwa sighed deeply.

“It seems impossible to turn the tide with such a score gap...”

The Southern and Northern armies were tied for fifth and fourth place respectively.

There was an enormous gap even to third place.

The number of ghouls gradually decreased.

Silin anxiously looked at the magic tool floating behind the scoreboard.

It was a device measuring the mana of monsters in the area and showing the monster extermination rate as a percentage.

[Extermination rate: 97%]

The extermination was fast.

Because Awen had chased away most of the ghouls.

It was lucky it was staged; these ghouls were very strong, empowered by Awen splitting off his consciousness.

‘If they knew there were actually more than three times as many of these ghouls, they’d faint.’

[Who knows, maybe three times isn’t even all of them.]

Awen smiled broadly.

Silin let out a scream-like shout.

“Hurry! Get a move on!”

But the scores never reversed.

“Don’t ever let the Central army defeat you.”

Absolutely.

That was my firm order.

The Southern Wonhwa muttered, watching the extermination rate.

“99%... It’s really over now.”

And then—

Beep!

The announcement tone for mission success sounded along with the extermination count.

The last remaining ghoul fell to Iseze’s sword imbued with sacred power.

[Western Army: 207]

The Western army finished off the last ghoul splendidly and kept first place.

The final rankings were as follows:

[Western Army: 207]

[Eastern Army: 144]

[Central Army: 98]

[Northern Army: 56]

[Southern Army: 44]

The Southern Wonhwa slumped down.

“Last place... how can we be last... nearly five times less than first place...?”

The Northern Wonhwa looked miserable too.

“I’m doomed by my father and sister...”

Sebastia, who had been clearing ghouls at the front of the Eastern army, looked at me.

Sweat beaded on her forehead, but she looked refreshed.

“Isn’t a nearly sixty-point gap too much? How exactly did you train your soldiers?”

“You set a new record for monster extermination too, didn’t you?”

Sebastia laughed softly and lightly tousled my hair.

“Will you share your training method next time? I’ll pay you handsomely.”

I smiled gently.

And then...

“This is ridiculous. How can the Central army... how can I be only third place—!!”

Silin sat down with a defeated expression.

Sebastia sneered at Silin as she passed by.

I glanced at Silin and followed Sebastia at a quick trot.

Thus, our ghoul extermination was over.

I smiled wryly at the Western army, who were still staring blankly at their hands.

“Told you, didn’t I? I said we’d be first.”

The Western army looked at me with teary eyes.

“My parents didn’t believe me, but only the Wonhwa believed me...”

“We did it...”

“We who were called trash of the Imperial Guards...”

“Yes, we did! We made it!”

The Western army’s men rushed to me.

“Wonhwa─!”

“Waaah─!!”

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, could you give me some space?

I’m not really into this kind of thing.

‘Is it because of the little commander of the knights... this damn buff.’

I grudgingly patted the deputy general who came to me first.

After a couple hours of rest, the Wonhwa army set out for the Imperial Capital.

In front of the five Wonhwa stood a carriage.

The moment Silin saw the carriage, she shouted sharply.

“Why is there only one carriage? And such a shabby one... Where’s my carriage?!”

The knight answered flustered.

“It looks like the ghouls destroyed the others.”

I sighed softly.

‘Is that so?’

[It’s important to remove means of escape so the hostages don’t run away.]

‘You’ve lived in this area for three hundred years—how do you know all that?’

[The funerals of imperial humans are interesting. They bury precious things with the deceased.]

‘Right. Before this became the imperial tomb, it was the burial ground of regional nobles.’

[Yes. Even though my children are stationed here, people stubbornly came to bury belongings and corpses.]

Awen smiled wryly.

[Humans are hard to understand. They fear us so much yet do such things.]

‘They call it blessed land. There’s a theory that burying bodies there turns one into a god.’

Those nobles probably preferred the ghoul-infested side.

Originally, blessed land was outrageously expensive.

Only nobles from the first district of the Imperial Capital could afford it, but this place was left empty because of the ghouls.

‘That’s why it could be used as a graveyard.’

Even regional nobles had elite troops capable of breaking through the ghouls to bury bodies.

How many books must have been buried by such people?

Probably the Crimson Ghoul tolerated humans reading books nearby.

Having spent so much time reading, it’s no wonder he knows human affairs well.

Lost in such thoughts, I paused.

“Oh! So the sacred power from the blessed land is why you became so strong.”

[Even without that, I was a strong individual from birth.]

While we were talking, Silin shouted.

“How can you bring such a carriage?!”

“Th-The Wonhwa, we barely got this from the village chief...”

“No excuses!”

“Not excuses, but because of the year-end festival, there were no carriages to rent anywhere...”

Silin had completely lost her mind over the various events of the ghoul extermination.

She had abandoned all pretense.

‘Well, it seems she had already started showing her true colors a little to the Wonhwa army.’

Sebastia sighed.

“Enough. Let’s get in.”

“Get in here?! Why would I─!”

“If you don’t want to, then ride a horse.”

Said Sebastia as she got into the carriage first.

The Southern Wonhwa followed, adding,

“You can walk if you want.”

I got in after them.

Only the Northern Wonhwa stayed outside to persuade Silin.

“It can’t be helped. If we take this carriage, we’ll arrive at the Imperial Capital by today.”

“...”

“Go ahead, okay?”

Silin reluctantly got in with the Northern Wonhwa.

Once we were all seated, the carriage began to move.

Outside, mounted soldiers escorted us.

‘About three or four hours to the Imperial Capital.’

The exhausted Wonhwa dozed off, forgetting their pride.

The Southern and Northern Wonhwa leaned on each other and fell asleep.

Sebastia crossed her legs, folded her arms, and closed her eyes.

And I too...

“Awen.”

[Yes.]

“If I fall asleep, watch carefully what that girl might do.”

[The arrogant human brat, huh? What would she do?]

“Don’t come out; defend with Ombre magic... then tie that girl up tight... and... kill... her...”

That was the last thing I remembered.

I leaned on the spear and fell asleep.

Several hours later.

Silin glared at the sleeping Erilot as if ready to tear her apart.

“How can such a girl be number one?”

It was unbelievable.

Her Central army was worse than those dirty, incompetent soldiers.

“Did she cheat somehow?”

Did she get a special magic tool from her family?

“Couldn’t be otherwise...”

“Let’s get some sleep.”

It was Erilot’s voice.

Silin’s eyes snapped open.

“What did you say?!”

“How can you grumble for three hours straight? Because of you, sometimes I wake up, sometimes I don’t...”

Erilot yawned quietly and rubbed her neck.

“You really are...!”

When she yelled, Erilot opened her eyes brightly.

Others woke up from the noise too.

The Southern Wonhwa, Northern Wonhwa, and even Sebastia woke as well.

The Northern Wonhwa rubbed her eyes and mumbled,

“What’s going on...?”

The Southern Wonhwa and Sebastia frowned.

“What is this noise?”

“Seriously.”

Silin bit her lips tightly and glared at Erilot.

“I tried to hold back on this good day of ghoul extermination, but I just can’t. I’m going to court-martial you.”

“What?! The number one Western Wonhwa?!”

The Northern Wonhwa shouted in surprise.

Sebastia gave a bitter laugh.

“For what crime exactly?”

“Disobedience, undermining the discipline of the Wonhwa, and possession of prohibited magic tools during this extermination.”

“Prohibited magic tools?”

The Southern Wonhwa frowned.

She looked between Silin and Erilot again, asking,

“What does that mean?”

“If not, then how else did the Western Wonhwa tame the Crimson Ghoul?”

“The one who tamed a dragon, right? It’s possible.”

“That was a monster originally tamed that turned into a dragon, wasn’t it?”

“That’s... what I heard.”

“It still doesn’t make sense. If she didn’t have a magic tool, maybe she illegally traded with the Crimson Ghoul?”

The Northern Wonhwa’s eyes went wide.

Silin smirked crookedly.

“So you scared the Crimson Ghoul away like that? I don’t believe the taming story. Show me proof.”

Erilot looked at Silin with a casual expression.

“What proof do you want?”

“Anything!”

“I’m the top contributor to this extermination. If you want to challenge that, you have to find proof of wrongdoing.”

“Ha...! You’re scared because what I’m saying is true!”

Erilot smiled faintly.

“So, you just don’t want the Western army to be first, huh?”

Silin’s face hardened.

“Did you hear what the Western Wonhwa said? She’s ruining our Wonhwa’s unity!”

“What unity are you talking about? You keep winning while the others are just playing second fiddle?”

“Look at this—!!”

“You—get a grip.”

Erilot sighed and stared steadily at her.

“This term’s Wonhwa is the worst because of you. You’ve blocked their growth to steal all the victories.”

“I... can’t believe it...”

“Of course they’re responsible too. But you’re the biggest trash for taking hostages from families and demanding loyalty.”

“You—!!!”

Silin shouted and stomped.

At that moment,

The carriage stopped.

“This is the imperial palace.”

A knight’s voice was heard outside the carriage.