The Cornflower Witch Chapter 265

Crimson rays shattered armor, and silver lances pierced flesh.

Men and horses fell, bones shattered, bodies torn apart.

Monsters shrieked, blood gushed, flesh ripped.

In the intense battle that night, the Anti elite suffered their greatest losses since the fall of Regas. Many elites perished under the rays of the evil-eyed monsters, and soldiers died in large numbers from strange and wicked eye magic. Even after a night of fierce fighting, they failed to flatten the Three-pronged Forest, and the battle, after leaving countless corpses on both sides, had to be called to an end.

The Anti army temporarily withdrew from the Three-pronged Forest to regroup and recuperate. Meanwhile, the Hundred-Eyed Cult members, with Prince Jobs, relocated away from the forest.

In the two months that followed, all the towns in Regas learned the outcome of this great war: the Anti elite suffered heavy losses, and Prince Jobs was still alive.

This outcome, for a time, stirred the people of Regas into changing their minds. Prince Jobs began to dispatch numerous envoys to communicate with hidden factions across the land, gathering forces once again to resist the Anti Kingdom.

Thanks to the victory in the Three-pronged Forest, many began to believe that Prince Jobs might truly restore his kingdom. Consequently, more people started to rally around him. However, this time, unlike before, Prince Jobs had few loyal guards left. His entire team was controlled by the Hundred-Eyed Cult, and whenever someone came to pledge allegiance, they were quickly swayed and absorbed by the cult.

Thus, leveraging Prince Jobs and the name of national restoration, the Hundred-Eyed Cult’s influence began to snowball, establishing hidden branches in various cities, secretly gathering intelligence, and recruiting members.

On the other side, in the Three-pronged Forest, Katchis personally entered the fray and fought the cult leader, but unfortunately did not win, only gaining a slight advantage. He himself sustained minor injuries, delaying the subsequent pursuit.

In the two months that followed, despite continuously pursuing Prince Jobs and searching for his whereabouts, the Hundred-Eyed Cult’s concealment made Prince Jobs’s movements elusive, repeatedly causing Katchis to fail. His prestige further declined, causing other Anti nobles within Regas to lose their awe and to feign compliance with his orders.

In response, Katchis, using royal authorization, publicly hanged several disobedient Anti nobles, finally curbing the downward trend.

After his injuries healed, the ‘Baron Cerberus’ finally calmed down. With his meticulous planning and intelligence gathering, Prince Jobs’s true whereabouts began to be exposed.

“This time, we must be fully prepared to capture Jobs,” he said, determined not to be as careless or restrained as he was last time.

The reason he had previously ordered the nobles of Stream Valley City to act was to get their hands bloody with Jobs, making it impossible for them to turn back. He then intended for these individuals to spread out and persuade other hidden rebellious forces to surrender, continuously dividing and drawing them in, ultimately making it impossible for any rebellious forces within Regas to trust each other or cooperate.

Unfortunately, the current Prince Jobs no longer relied on those former Regas nobles and loyalists. The Hundred-Eyed Cult by his side possessed a stronger ability to win people’s hearts, and their cultists were easier to command, even capable of carrying out suicidal missions—something ordinary armies could not achieve.

With the change in circumstances, the situation within Stream Valley City gradually fell into obscurity. Katchis’s elite troops had long since been redeployed from the area to the front lines, to pursue and search for Prince Jobs’s whereabouts.

“So, can we leave now?” Sylphidya asked the officer left in charge of Stream Valley City.

Sylphidya had been stuck here for two months, and even with her good temper, she was starting to lose patience.

“I apologize, Miss Sylphidya, without Lord Katchis’s written order, I cannot allow you to leave,” the interim mayor of Stream Valley City, who was also a knight and officer in the Anti army, refused, shaking his head.

“Is that so…” Sylphidya pondered for a moment, then spoke again.

“It seems you won’t budge, no matter what, right?” she asked, confirming one last time.

“This… yes, unless Lord Katchis commands it,” he said, steeling his resolve and continuing to refuse the beautiful maiden before him.

“I understand.” Sylphidya stopped arguing and turned to leave with her people.

Her resolute departure surprised the officer, but there was no good reason for him to question her further at that moment.

After leaving, Sylphidya summoned the key personnel of the accompanying caravan.

“Katchis won’t remember Stream Valley City for a while, so we can’t keep waiting,” she told them her plan.

“I asked the acting mayor, the officer, and his response was that unless Katchis himself gives the order, he won’t budge.”

“I understand. He’s afraid of Katchis blaming him if he agrees, so he doesn’t dare to allow it or take responsibility.”

“So, we don’t need to beg or trouble him anymore. We just need to find an opportunity to leave,” she explained her analysis to everyone.

“Start packing your things.”

“Yes.” The people present were also getting a bit agitated, and they were particularly excited to see Sylphidya make a decision.

Soon, everyone left, and only one person remained. He looked at the young woman, then lowered his head, wanting to speak but hesitating.

“Speak, what is it?” Sylphidya noticed his hesitation.

“Thank you, Lady Tiya. It’s like this…” he slowly began to share his worries.

“I want to ask you, my lady, to take a prisoner from the city with you when you leave,” he said, gathering his courage to make this somewhat unreasonable request.

“That prisoner is not a bad person, he is my maternal uncle. He used to travel extensively, but a few months ago, he participated in Prince Jobs’s rebellion and was captured by the Anti people during the fighting. He has been imprisoned in the dungeon of Stream Valley City and suffered a lot of torture.” “Fortunately, the situation has changed now, and those Anti people don’t much care about the prisoners in the dungeon, as if they’ve been forgotten. That’s how I was barely able to bribe the guards to visit him.”

“His name is Hynes. My mother is his sister, and my maternal grandfather’s ancestors were knights who followed ‘Knight King’ Regard in conquering the four directions. So, when Prince Jobs rose to power some time ago, he joined him according to his ancestral oath.”

“Unfortunately, my uncle placed his trust in the wrong person. Jobs was not as wise and brave as his ancestors. In the defense of Stream Valley City, he abandoned the city and fled. My uncle and other knight descendants consequently suffered a great drop in morale and were defeated by the Anti people in the chaotic battle.”

“He was injured and there are no doctors in the dungeon. Even if he can tough it out with his own strength, with the harsh environment and malnutrition, his condition is constantly worsening. If he can’t get out, I’m afraid he will soon die in the dungeon.”

“I have no ability whatsoever, and I don’t know how to get him out of the dungeon. This is all the money I’ve saved up. I know it’s insignificant, and it’s also rude to beg you with money.”

“But I truly cannot find any other way, so… this is all I can do.” His words were a bit disjointed, and he didn’t know how to express himself, only tears slowly streaming down his face.

Seeing this, Sylphidya gently shook her head.

“Alright, don’t cry first. Tell me the details of the situation,” she said, wanting to know more about the person.

“My uncle, he loved to go on adventures and travel since he was a child. Every time he came back, he would bring all sorts of new and interesting things to my mother and me. When I was little, I often sat by his side and listened to his stories…”

“He never married, saying that people like him were destined to be like the wind, drifting everywhere, unable to give anyone a lasting promise.”

“I didn’t expect him to still join Prince Jobs, trying to find the glory and legends passed down by his ancestors.”

“I know his personality, he can’t bear to live an ordinary life, so joining Jobs’s army this time was inevitable.”

“I am very grateful to my uncle. My maternal grandparents’ family was not well-off, and after my mother married and moved to Scorched Stone City, she had to work many jobs to help with household expenses. When I was little, I always looked forward to my uncle visiting me. He would bring good wine and sit with my father, drinking and sharing his experiences and adventures with our family.”

“That lively and enthusiastic look of his, I always admired it. So as I grew older, I also joined the caravan, hoping to make a living while traveling around.”

“Hearing that Stream Valley City had fallen again, everyone in the family was worried about his safety. So when Lady Tiya said she was going to Stream Valley City, I eagerly signed up and joined the caravan, specifically to look for his whereabouts.”

“Last month, after much inquiry, I learned that he was imprisoned in the dungeon. When I went to visit him, he was already semi-conscious. Fortunately, his cellmate was also an old comrade-in-arms, otherwise he would have died much earlier.”

“But his condition is very poor now. If he can’t get out soon, I’m afraid…” he said, his voice turning sad again.

“Yes, I understand.” Sylphidya nodded, telling him not to worry.

Hynes, she silently memorized the name.

Though she felt nothing for Prince Jobs, she held great respect for the knights in history who loyally followed Regard in pioneering the forest kingdom.

The scenes she witnessed in the Shadow World—the fallen Baron Horlin, Knight Morick who escorted her to the forest, and Commander Cassius of the Knights in the Shadow World—all left a deep impression on her.

If he was also a knight, or someone embodying the ancient knightly spirit, Sylphidya would be very willing to lend a hand and pull such a person from despair.

That night, Sylphidya, thinly disguised, dressed in a black gown and a black veil, stepped into the darkness.

Over the past two months, she had found time to focus on improving her various abilities, and had expanded the plants controlled by her “Autumn Courtyard” to a fifth type: the “Bewitching Mushroom,” a fungoid species with hypnotic properties.

In the dark, the young woman walked down the chilly street with a lantern in hand. There was no candle lit inside the lantern, but rather beautiful, glowing mushrooms. Their colors varied like a kaleidoscope. As Sylphidya passed, tiny mushroom spores drifted from the lantern, lulling the soldiers and residents along the way into deep slumber.

Not long after she left her residence, the caravan members, wearing masks, led their horses out. Their masks contained White Camellia leaves that Sylphidya had given them beforehand, to detoxify and weaken the hallucinatory effects.

However, prolonged exposure to these mushroom spores would still affect them. So, in a hurry, they moved as quickly as possible, following the young woman towards the city gates.

“Who are you?” On the city wall, the patrol leader saw the group preparing to leave the city and asked in confusion.

Before he could call out to his teammates for vigilance, a series of thuds sounded behind him.

When he turned back, he saw that his companions, who had just been chatting and laughing, were now sprawled on the ground, and he himself felt a deep drowsiness.

In a haze, he tried to rally his spirits, pinching the tiger’s mouth between his thumb and forefinger, but still found it hard to keep his eyelids from drooping, his body unsteady.

Finally, he looked at the blurry figure standing in front of him and slowly collapsed.

He could never remember who that figure was; he only remembered the person in his hazy vision was extraordinarily beautiful, like a dream.