Chapter 97: Northern Disturbance ③ Detour the Invincible Fortress (2/2)

The knight pointing his spear behind me and his soldiers all abandon their weapons and run away. It looks like there is no one else to oppose us here.

The city’s outer perimeter is pretty much controlled, so the fighting shifts to the city area, the noble area and the feudal lord’s mansion. It’s not like Roleil has many troops to begin with and they aren’t heavily armed either, but they’re fighting stubbornly. Not burning the city when we attacked is a big factor contributing to that, but they’re still fighting well for a small group of soldiers.

「Release your arrows! 10 volleys!」

That final resistance, the unit protecting the feudal lord’s mansion, doesn’t have long before the 500 bow cavalry’s arrows – 10 shots each, totalling 5000 arrows – rain on them and annihilate their forces, virtually ending the battle in an instant.

「It’s over?」

「Seems like it.」

Celia stands beside me covered in blood. Due to her pleasure of being able to fight alongside me, she turned five people into a bloodbath. The escort unit was expectedly powerful and was able to flawlessly finish off over 100 enemies. ……No, only Christoph got scratched by a spear, fell off his horse and bumped his head and is now resting. He’s really such a useless guy. Although that’s interesting in its own right.

The escort unit dismounts from their horses and enters the feudal lord’s mansion with me, and we walk all the way to the reception hall in front of the soldiers, who have stopped resisting. When we reach the room, we come face to face with a fully armored noble.

He looks to be middle-aged and he isn’t wearing a helmet, but his entire body is covered with a thick armor. A beard decorates his face and his hair is neat, but he doesn’t appear to be that strong to me.

「Barodd Fayeltin, Count of the Treian Kingdom! State your name!!」

「Aegir Hardlett, Viscount of the Goldonian Kingdom. Are you the feudal lord?」

I thought I heard him say ‘Aegir?’ but it didn’t come from the noble in front of me.

「Very well! In honor of the house of Fayeltin, I request a one-on-one fight.」

With a clank, the Count points his sword at me. However, the tip of the sword is wavering and he doesn’t look comfortable moving in his armor. Clearly, he doesn’t know how to handle a sword and he isn’t used to wearing armor.

「Please wait, Count!! Hardlett……-dono has come to this town before, hasn’t he!? 」

A brawny man interrupts from the side. That hoarse voice and rough appearance is unforgettable. He’s Glock, the guard captain of Roleil, who rewarded me for the hungry wolf suppression and tried to recruit me.4 Now that I think about it, it’s natural for him to be here. This is nostalgic and all but it’s not like I can catch up with him now.

「Thanks for taking care of me back then. I never imagined we would become adversaries.」

「……Your surname is from that time’s……I guess that’s fate.」

If we talk any further, it would be rude to the Count. I turn my attention back to him, but Glock walks in front of the Count.

「Count Fayeltin! This is also fate; let me be your representative in th-」

「You won’t!!」

Unlike the high-pitched voice he was using previously, this powerful voice stuns Glock.

「This land is protected by my ancestors, it isn’t related to you, who’s just the guard captain. ……protect the residents, but your duty if I’m defeated, is to surrender.」

The Count readies his sword again. He has good intentions, but it doesn’t seem like this will be a contest at all. Maybe I’ll just knock him out.

「Lord Hardlett, no need to hold back. To a noble, their territory is their life, so know that if you don’t kill me, you won’t obtain this land!」

Fumu……if he has that much resolve, then it would be rude of me to hold back. He doesn’t have the skill to back it up, but I don’t dislike his determination.

「Christoph, lend me your sword.」

It would be unfair to use my spear or Dual Crater. At the very least, I’ll use the same weapon as him.

I hold the sword with only my right hand, while the Count readies his sword with both hands and sizes me up with his eyes.

「Duuooooooh–!!」

The Count raises a shout and emits a spirited voice while charging at me and swinging his sword down. Those movements were really slow and made him really defenseless.

I easily parry his strike and destroy his balance, repelling his sword above his head. Then, I make a single strike sideways.

With a thump, the Count’s head falls and his torso collapses on the spot. I swing the sword to get rid of the blood before bringing the sword in front of my face and bowing slightly. Since he showed me his guts and how prepared he was for death, he deserves a bow from me at least.

At the same time, the surrounding soldiers and nobles, as well as Glock, throw their swords away, take off their helmets and kneel on the ground.

「It is our complete defeat.」

「Really unbelievable military prowess.」

「We deserve this submission.」

I ignore those three nobles who are incessantly mumbling something, then tell Glock to have all the soldiers in the town surrender and disarm themselves.

In only two hours and not much fighting, Roleil falls, and the Majino fortress loses its supply base.

–Third Party/ Treia POV–

Three days later, Majino Fortress, Central Fort

「The Goldonian army is concentrating their forces in the middle.」

「Don’t get flustered, have the sixth division return fire. Loose the arrows continuously and exhaust them.」

「The third division encampment is on fire!」

「Don’t worry. Calmly extinguish the flames and rebuild the roof after.」

Count Majino is taking command himself, since he has his own name attached to the fortress. The way he leads isn’t anything fancy nor does it involve much energetic shouting, but he gives accurate and appropriate orders in response to his men’s various reports. The calm demeanor and long-standing track record in defensive battles of the old veteran gives his men a great sense of security.

An army of a size hardly seen – over 80 000 of Goldonia’s central army and lords’ armies – are deployed on the central plains in front of them, but the old veteran shows no signs of panicking. Even with burning rocks and oil pots being hurled at him by over a hundred catapults and receiving a rain of tens of thousands of arrows, none of the fort’s functions whatsoever are destroyed.

「You have to be calm first; if something happens, take a second to think. This fortress will not waver so quickly.」

Unlike a field battle, the situation in a siege is not so fickle. Endurance and precise planning means everything.

With a roar, burning rocks destroy the roofs on top of the fort that were constructed to shield from arrows. But nobody panics from seeing the crumbling roofs.

Small holes in the floor on top of the fort have wooden stakes that support platforms that are used to raise the wooden roofs. Most arrows that reach the top of the fort have flown a long distance in a parabolic trajectory. As long as there is a covering, the soldiers can drastically lower the number of casualties in the shootout. It won’t be able to withstand an attack from a catapult or ballista, but if it breaks, it can be trashed and rebuilt. Considering the simple structure of the roof, which only requires hammering in, it just takes a few minutes before it get restored to its original state.

「Count Majino! Even with such a fierce attack these few days, the fort hasn’t even budged an inch!」

「On the contrary, the enemy has suffered many casualties in the span of those three times and retreated! Shouldn’t we go out and pursue them?」

The old veteran laughs cheerfully and shakes his head.

「Haha, that’s dangerous thinking. Things are going well now and you want even more; that’s what will ruin you.」

He calls him over to overlook the big picture through the window and talks to him kindly till the end.

「Time is our friend. The ones who need to take a risk is the enemy, not us. We just have to see through the ventures the enemy takes and crush them, then victory will be within our grasp.」

「Yessir, I apologize for saying too much.」

「It’s fine, you can’t be called a youngster otherwise. You can calm down once you get old.」

The Goldonian army gathers their forces in the center and strives to brute force their way through. However, most of the arrows from the offensive side gets stopped by the roofs and are unable to do any damage, while conversely, the arrows loosed by the soldiers in the fort are aimed downwards, bringing down Goldonian soldiers with relentless force. Sporadically, the catapults blow away the roof and soldiers all together, but even so, it doesn’t make much of a dent in the sturdy fort. The tall towering walls have several holes, in which bowguns are stuck out of the purposely created openings, take the lives of even more Goldonian soldiers.

Some soldiers manage to cling to the fort’s walls, but since the holes are too small to enter, they have no choice but to climb ladders. While doing so, they would have to bathe in an endless flood of arrows.

When a certain number of soldiers cling to the walls, the arrows stop and the windows for the bowguns close. The highest window is opened and tremendous amount of flaming oil is poured down, burning the ladder-climbing soldiers to death without leaving any trace of them behind.

「We fended off Goldonia’s fourth attack!」

「But the enemy cavalry is trying to bypass through the forest to the east.」

No matter how sturdy the fortress, there will always be a weak point. Goldonia’s cavalry will aim for the part where there is nothing but fences surrounding the bare fort, where no walls have been constructed due to terrain.

「Count Majino!」

「I have placed a squad of spearmen there. No need to worry.」

The cavalry try to instantly pass through the opening in between the moats, but as soon as the lead horses reach the gap, the earth crumbles below their horses’ feet. The following horses stumble and get tangled with each other, causing chaos to occur.

In fact, there was no gap in the moats; a thin plank was placed over a hole and just dirt was piled on top. It wouldn’t be a problem for a few infantry, but for a large army or horses, they’d fall instantly into the bottomless pit. Spearmen appear from hidden locations one after the other and repel the confused cavalry, killing all the soldiers that have fallen in the hole. The infantry that followed right behind the cavalry receive a rain of arrows and end up retreating painfully.

「It’s not something to get flustered about. If you deal with it calmly, you will definitely be able to stop the enemy.」

The elder Count’s men were embarrassed and making warped faces, but quickly smile again.

「Anyways, has the messenger we sent to Roleil not come back yet?」

The old veteran’s sole concern is the issue of resupply. Arrows and oil should be coming everyday from Roleil, but they haven’t come since the day before yesterday. There is a warehouse for supplies within the fort so they aren’t in trouble in the short term, but it’s not something they can ignore for long either.

「Count Fayeltin hates me……that’s why I don’t want to talk about this.」

「It would be dumb if supplies stop because of hate towards the Count. Although it shouldn’t be that way……」

「This is a serious national problem, so I hope it’s nothing but a trivial mistake.」

With noisy clattering, the soldiers burst into the command room. Their state of panic contrasts greatly with the calm old veteran and his men.

「Give an accurate report calmly……」

The old veteran smiles gently to try and calm the soldiers, but the soldiers interrupt, even if they have to be rude.

「A portion of the enemy has bypassed the Erg Forest and attacked Roleil!! The town has fallen, and Count Fayeltin has died in battle!! I repeat, Roleil has fallen!! 」

The subordinates lose themselves for an instant, but just as their revered superior said, they calmed their hearts and turned to the old veteran.

「Count Majino……how should we respond?」

The old veteran’s eyes are wide open and is staring blankly with his jaw dropped. His eyes look disturbed and there is no trace of calmness as he reaches his trembling hand to the cup of tea on the table. That hand knocks over the cup and it shatters on the floor.

Aegir Hardlett. 21 years old. Late summer. Wartime.

Subordinate Units: 11 200

Infantry: 2700, Cavalry: 1500, Archers: 800, Combat Engineers: 200, Bow Cavalry: 6000

Subordinates: Leopolt (Chief of Staff and Deputy General Commander), Celia (Adjutant, Escort Captain), Irijina (Captain), Luna (Bow Cavalry Commander), Pipi (Mascot)

Current Location: Roleil

Accomplishments: Annihilation of Treia Eastern Defence Forces (surrender), Captured Roleil