Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem-Chapter 442: Tricks

One barbarian at a time was brought before Mandra when they were caught. They were questioned on their communication methods, signals, names, and favorite food just to confuse them. Your next read is at novelbuddy

As expected, the barbarians came up with different methods for how they communicated or were supposed to communicate with their allies outside the city. There were bird calls, hoots, arrows with specific fletchings, and some even had notes prepared.

They were lying.

Mandra’s Eyes of Truth weren’t even needed to determine that, but they helped narrow down the parts of truth the barbarians had subconsciously or actively sprinkled in to make their lies more believable.

Yan knew it was too early to celebrate since this was merely the first step of Zach’s plan. But they had fulfilled the necessary condition to move forward with the next step. They had found out how the barbarians were supposed to communicate with their allies outside the city.

They knew how to fool the other barbarians. Now, they just had to silence the barbarians in the city before they could proceed to the next step. It would be a shame if their plan failed because the barbarians still in the city managed to see what they were doing and sneak out a message to the rest outside the city walls.

Rittel’s troops worked double-time to chase and hunt down the barbarians. They knew that this was their chance to get an edge over the barbarians. If they had to be reckless and lure the barbarians out of hiding, they were. They made a little more noise than usual. Enough to tempt the barbarians into attacking without being loud enough to make them suspicious.

After several hours since night fell, no more barbarians were found no matter how and where they looked.

It was time.

First, they launched a silent arrow out of the city, telling the barbarians to be ready since they were making a move on the gate. It was just that they were Rittel’s troops, not barbarians.

Then, a few moments later, they started causing a ruckus in front of the gate like two groups were fighting each other. It wasn’t overly loud since they didn’t want to sound like they were fighting the entire city. It was a tiny scuffle. But if someone was on the other side of the gate, they would hear it.

At the same time, they prepared thick and dark cloths to cover their eyes with, rotating with the ones play-fighting.

Slowly, the fighting died down, and a couple of brave soldiers who had borrowed the barbarian infiltrators’ dark clothes started pushing open the gate.

It was dead silent outside, even after the gate cracked open a gap wide enough to see through. It was pitch dark, clouds hiding the moon and stars.

It reminded Zach of the view from the Urus Keep at night. But it was warmer and much less isolated. Also, unlike the ordinary soldiers who couldn’t sense anything and thought it looked completely empty outside, he could sense the presence of enemies.

It was amazing how they were hiding in the darkness without showing so much as the glint of a sword or the rustle of clothes and armor. Not even their breaths could be heard.

A quick whistle rang out, signaling the troops of Rittel to cover their eyes with their dark cloths.

Ten seconds later, a bright blue flare shot up in the air, exploding into a rain of searing light.

It exposed the legion of barbarians lined up outside the city gates, waiting to enter when they received the signal. But instead, they received the gift of being blinded by Mandra’s light. Their eyes, which had adjusted to the darkness, did not stand a chance in front of that bright light. They lost any ability to see.

Even the trained barbarian troops could not help but fall into panic at suddenly being blind in the middle of enemy territory. They immediately drew their weapons and prepared to defend themselves.

To help them along, Mandra shot a few spells into them, kick-starting their response.

Once the sounds of battle and clashes rang out, the barbarians started swinging.

They cared about themselves and their lives. They were going to take down all the imperial troops attacking them, even if they were blind.

The problem was that the imperial troops hadn’t attacked yet.

The barbarians were fighting themselves. They had fallen for the mind games and tricks.

However, not all of them had been blinded by the light, and not all of them were panicking.

Just like the Empire had people much stronger than ordinary soldiers, the barbarians also had powerful fighters, several of whom had already slipped past their comrades to mark Mandra before she could unleash any more of her spells onto their army from atop the city walls.

Otherwise, she alone could have decimated most of the army before the Empire’s troops even got a chance.

But doing so would also invite the barbarians’ strong fighters to join the battle of the weaklings and slaughter the ordinary soldiers.

It was mutual courtesy to fight the ones at a similar level of strength to prevent as much needless destruction as possible.

It was similar to how Sio, Violina’s great-grandfather, had withdrawn from the Empire. If he and people of his level got involved, the younger generations and weaker people wouldn’t even get to live.

Without that check, too many would die for anything to ever be worth it.

Of course, if someone didn’t care about retaliation or the future generations, there was nothing stopping them. But right now, both sides were keen to preserve their forces.

The barbarians had to admit that they had been tricked. But there was nothing they could do about it but accept the fight.

While Zach’s maids and the barbarians with braided hair looked at and sized each other up, Rittel’s troops moved out.

The light in the night sky had faded, plunging the world back to darkness right as the barbarians slowly adjusted to the light. Once again, they were unable to see anything. But this time, they weren’t being attacked by one another.

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The enemies were in their midst.