I Became a Civil Servant Who Can Use Magic

In the deep dawn, where only the faint sound of insects could be heard.

Inside the tent.
Loen, who had been asleep, suddenly opened her eyes.

An unfamiliar sensation was felt.

The magic she had set up was alerting her of an external intrusion.

Swish.
Loen, who got up, rushed out of the commander’s tent without even having time to put on her uniform properly.

‘For the surveillance magic to be activated at the crack of dawn…’

Loen stood still on the dirt ground covered with thin grass.
The cold and damp night air brushed against her cheeks.

Looking around, the corps’ campsite was still quiet.
Only the waves of tents stretching in all directions and the intermittently burning bonfires flickered faintly in the darkness.
It was a scene no different from usual.

That’s why it was even stranger.

‘The corps mages and Seraphine must have also spread surveillance magic, but am I the only one who woke up?’

Is it purely my imagination? Or a malfunction of the magic?
Loen, who was pondering, stretched one hand upward.

‘That can’t be.’

She was thinking of waking people up first.
She had no intention whatsoever of dealing with this carelessly.

Just as she made that decision.

“Loen Franz.”

Ten masked individuals appeared as if fluttering in the wind, surrounding Loen.

“Not bad. To notice the ambush despite using an artifact to break surveillance magic…”

One of them uttered words mixed with admiration.

“There are people who want your death. So, your rampaging without knowing how scary the world is ends here.”

Then the masked person next to him revealed their main purpose.
As expected, their aim was assassination.

No sooner had the words ended than their attack began.
They pulled out muskets in various ways and immediately fired.

Whizz, click.

“Barrier.”

Bang! Ratatata! Bang!!

The consecutive firing sounds and acrid smell of gunpowder tickled Loen’s nose and ears,
And cracks formed in the barrier due to the bullets pouring in from all directions.

Loen’s eyes narrowed.
Cracks forming? From mere muskets?
It seemed clear that these were some kind of specially treated weapons.

Swish.
Half of the masked individuals drew swords and closed the distance.

The other half pulled out different muskets and continued to shower bullets.

Crack.

As the cracks in the barrier worsened, Loen opened her mouth.
She was thinking of creating distance from the approaching enemies first.
There was no reason to engage in close combat when she didn’t know what tricks the assassins might use.

“Flight.”

At that very moment.

“Now!”

As if they had been waiting for this moment, those positioned in the back fired something towards Loen.

Bang! Rattle.

What flew through the night sky was a steel net woven with solid iron chains.
It was clearly special equipment aimed at blocking Loen’s movement and pulling her down.

‘This isn’t the skill of someone who’s only dealt with mages once or twice.’

Loen was certain that these were not simple guerrillas but a professional assassination group.
And a quite high-level one at that.

Special muskets and even a net to prevent flight…
They seemed to have prepared very thoroughly.

“She cast magic in succession, so she’ll need casting time for the next spell. Rush her now!”

Finally, a faint mana light bloomed on the swords of the assassins who had greatly narrowed the distance.

It’s over now.
The assassin who gave the order smiled under his mask.

Well, no matter how talented, a young noble-born mage lacking experience couldn’t possibly fend off a surprise attack from professional assassins.

Soon, that woman would be entangled in the considerably heavy net and fall to the ground.

To avoid this, she would need to cut the net with an attack spell stronger than a mana bullet.
In that case, casting time would naturally be needed.

But there wouldn’t be such leisure.
The assassins had already reached close proximity.
It was ultimately a dead end.

It was at that moment when they raised their swords, certain of assassination success.

“Mana Blade.”

Slash—!
The net, split in half, fell helplessly to the ground.
Immediately after, Loen soared even higher.

“!!”

The assassins’ eyes widened in shock at the unexpected sight.
There’s no way she could finish casting this quickly. Which means.

“There was no information about her being a 6th-rank mage..”

One of the assassins muttered unconsciously.

The difficulty of assassinating 5th and 6th-rank mages was on a completely different level.
6th-rank mages were not beings that could be killed by such nighttime surprise attacks.

In the moment the assassins hesitated due to bewilderment.

Loen’s cold gaze swept over the assassins below.

‘There’s a mage hiding among them.’

Seeing how quiet the surroundings were despite this commotion,
It was certain that someone was casting a sound-blocking spell.

Having reached this conclusion, Loen immediately stretched out her hand and fired a spell towards the person standing at the very back.

“Mana Cannon.”
“Mana Shield!”

Boom!
Although he hurriedly tried to deflect Loen’s spell, he was scattered into dust along with his shield due to the spell’s power exceeding expectations.

With the death of the enemy mage, the sound-blocking spell was lifted.

Only then did the sound spread through the air to the surroundings.
The corps campsite stirred at the sudden noise.

“Assassination failed. Everyone scatter—”

Just as the assassins, who exchanged glances at the target’s magic skill far exceeding expectations, were about to retreat quickly.

“Chain Lightning.”

Loen’s counterattack began.
A gray beam burst from Loen’s fingertips.

The chilling beam of light rushed towards its targets, cutting through the air like a living viper.

Judgment.
Dark Light Sphere.

Starting with this, consecutively cast spells swept away the survivors.
A giant mana spear pierced through the backs of those fleeing, and black fragments that scattered in all directions slashed the enemies’ entire bodies.

The annihilation of the assassins was instantaneous.
From the moment they missed Loen, the result was already a foregone conclusion.

“Ugh.”

Finally, even the last remaining assassin collapsed to the ground with a short groan.

Simultaneously, allied forces who sensed the commotion poured out of the tents.

“It’s an ambush!”
“Lady Loen!”

What greeted the eyes of those who hurriedly prepared for battle and came out of the tents was…

Piles of corpses of masked assassins miserably strewn about,
And above them.

The figure of Loen floating alone in the quiet night sky under the moonlight.

“Since that day, ambushes have been continuing endlessly.”
“They must be employing these tactics to slow down our advance.”
“With three major cities falling into the corps’ hands, they must be panicking from their perspective.”

After the fall of Rofenberg, followed by the second and third cities.

Now, with only the last major city of the Southern Alliance remaining.

Starting with the assassination attempt on Loen, the enemy began interfering with the corps’ advance in various ways.

Blocking the path by laying down an enormous number of trees on the march route was basic.
Sometimes rocks would roll down while passing through ravines,
And ambush attacks by hundreds of mercenaries were frequent.

Of course, there was no major damage thanks to magic,
But it was inevitable that the advance speed slowed down.

Once, Loen asked a captured mercenary prisoner.

“Why did you attempt an ambush when you clearly knew you’d be defeated?”
“It’s because of money.. They promised a hefty reward enough to live on for a lifetime. I even received a quarter of it as an advance payment already.”

The mercenary continued, watching Loen’s reaction.

“And, it’s now known to almost everyone that y-you will arbitrarily wield power to swallow up the entire south.”

The conclusion was that with both justification and eye-popping money being offered,
There was no reason to refuse employment.

Loen inwardly muttered.

No wonder…

The Southern Alliance was gathering forces through false rumors and justifications.

They were cunningly exploiting the weakness of the current era where information exchange doesn’t occur quickly.

‘Indeed, I mustn’t give them time.’

As time passes, only the damage to both the corps and the imperial south increases.
The only answer was to sweep away the Southern Alliance as quickly as possible.

It was a moment when Loen reaffirmed this once again.

The vanguard continued its march despite numerous interferences.

And finally.

The corps’ vanguard discovered the Southern Alliance’s army.

They were positioned in a gently rolling terrain area where convex hills were randomly mixed.

A corps meeting was convened at the scout’s report.

“Operations staff. The number of enemies?”
“…Thirty thousand.”

At his words, everyone let out a heavy sigh.

The number of the vanguard was seven thousand.
It had decreased due to leaving fifteen hundred each in the second and third cities for maintaining public order.
It was unavoidable due to the much faster advance speed than the main force.

‘Seven thousand versus thirty thousand…’

It wasn’t for nothing that the Southern Alliance had been buying time through all sorts of methods.
They had finally created a large army to face the corps based on their powerful financial resources and influence.

However, what was unexpected was.

“My, they’ve gone mad. To even bring in outside forces.”
“What can we expect from those who have joined hands with demons in the first place.”
“I wonder what they offered in exchange for the elves to agree to participate.. I simply cannot understand.”

The participation of elves.
They had brought in the Red Band Elf Tribe, an external force, through the port.
This meant it wasn’t just a crude army composed of private soldiers and mercenaries.

The operations staff spoke while glancing at Loen’s eyes.

“Among the thirty thousand troops, about five thousand are elves. And they are all armed with muskets and cannons.”

To borrow a term from Loen’s previous life, it meant modernized troops.
Of course, limited to the elves.

At his words, the expressions of some officers who had experience fighting elves darkened.
Our casualties could be significant.

The staff continued.

“People often dismiss muskets and cannons as weapons only elves use. But this is by no means a level to be taken lightly. Especially in the case of cannons, they have enough power to take the lives of low-level knights.”

Some officers murmured.
To that extent?

“Moreover, due to a considerable number of elf knights and mages being deployed, the enemy is not far behind the vanguard in terms of knight forces.”

Eventually, the command’s opinions were divided into two.

“If we defeat them, the Southern Alliance will be effectively annihilated, so is there any reason to wait further? I believe we should advance even if it means accepting some casualties.”

Those who advocated advancing as is, and.

“Given that we don’t know what variables might occur, wouldn’t it be better to wait until the main force arrives? If twenty-five thousand of the main force join, we’ll be far ahead numerically.”

Those who advocated waiting for the main force to join.

As both sides’ arguments clashed fiercely.

Swish.

Loen finally raised her hand.

The conference room once again fell into heavy silence.

All that remained now was the final decision of the Corps Commander, Loen Franz.

The gazes of everyone in the conference room naturally focused on Loen in the seat of honor.
She still had her arms crossed, leaning back in her chair.

Loen’s thoughts had remained unchanged from the beginning.

‘The situation itself is different from when we faced Duke Donnelly’s corps.’

At that time, because the opponent was an imperial corps, unnecessary casualties were minimized.

Non-lethal area-of-effect magic artifacts were deliberately used on the soldiers.
Because the goal wasn’t to dismantle the corps.

But now it’s different.

‘The Southern Alliance’s private army, mercenaries scraped together from all over, and even the Red Band Elf Tribe that secretly crept in through the port…’

They were people she had no reason to hold back against at all.

They were clearly enemies of the empire.

Loen detached her back from the chair and looked around the entire conference room.

“There’s no need to wait.”

Then, leaning her upper body forward, Loen declared.

“As soon as we form our battle lines, the vanguard will advance towards the Southern Alliance’s army.”