Chapter 152 – Don’t Stop The Party (1/2)
“Set the spears, which were soaked with oil, on fire and launch them.”
“The targets are the immortal soldiers! Do it with the intention to burn them to nothing before they can crawl out from the box!”
Imeraria’s and Nelgal’s instructions are flying around. Brightly burning spears and of course fire arrows are shot towards the castle one after the other by the allied forces of Orsongrande and Horant.
Is it an amusement for the present soldiers that sometimes the main body of a spear thrower ends up catching fire?
“… That, is that fine? To set fire to the castle…” (Puuse)
Puuse, who was assigned the overly ambiguous position of temporary advisor, addressed Imeraria while showing an unsettled expression that doesn’t fit her post.
“No problem. Originally something like a castle is made out of stone which makes setting it on fire basically difficult. Not placing burnable things in the vicinity of the outer walls is the standard. Given that Nelgal-sama confirmed it as well, the surrounding pens and such will probably get burned, but there’s no problem for the castle itself.” (Imeraria)
“I-Is that so? You are quite knowledgeable.” (Puuse)
It was inevitable that Puuse’s thoughts were funny for Imeraria.
“*chuckles* I was born and raised as First Princess of Orsongrande. A castle was my home.” (Imeraria)
“Ah.” (Puuse)
Seeing the person she is talking with in a new light, Puuse blushes.
“It’s fine. Please ask me anything as I shall teach you if there’s something you don’t understand. Besides, I believe that there are various things you want to hear from me as well.” (Imeraria)
Once Imeraria returns her sight ((to the castle)), flames are rising on the other side of the castle gate and the groans, which rose successively, are vanishing.
“The disabling of the immortal soldiers seems to be going well. If we fire for a bit longer, they will probably be immobilized completely.” (Nelgal)
Imeraria, who nodded at Nelgal’s words, shifts her look towards Sabnak.
Meeting her eyes, Sabnak nodded silently.
“Well then, Nelgal-sama, just as planned.” (Imeraria)
“Got it. Start the operation!” (Nelgal)
Alongside Nelgal’s order, several spears, which haven’t been ignited, were shot by Horant’s soldiers.
The aim of the spears is Prime Minister Kuzemu who was suspended by a rope outside the castle just like a pilloried criminal exposed to public view.
“Eeh!?”
His voice can’t be heard, but Kuzemu, who watched the brightly burning front yard in a daze, began to squirm again after witnessing a spear hitting the wall right next to him and stone splinters hurling about.
However, his body, which was completely bound by a rope, had less flexibility to move than a caterpillar.
The rope came apart quite a bit when several spears pierced it, but at that time Kuzemu had already died to blood loss.
One spear severed the rope with the tragic corpses hanging onto it by chance. The corpse, which bumped about as it hit the protuberances on the outer wall, fell into the burning front yard.
“His fall has been confirmed. He is likely not alive anymore.”
“Yea, I saw.”
The conversation of the officers accompanying Nelgal was drowned out by the noise.
The soldiers are able to fully savour a sense of accomplishment for punishing a treacherous retainer who tried to manipulate them for his own selfish desires. They were grateful towards Orsongrande’s side for conceding them the opportunity for that.
However, the thoughts of a part of the generals are different.
“… Does that mean that we’ve been told to get rid of him by ourselves in order to not leave behind records that a high official of Horant was killed by the hands of Orsongrande? I don’t know whether it was according to the counsel of that elf, but if you take her lightly because she (T/N: Imeraria) is a little girl, it won’t be strange to have even the name of our country changed before we realize.”
“Sorry, I didn’t hear you properly.”
The scandalous words were lost in the noise.
When the soldier, who was next to him, asked again feeling that he failed to hear an order, he corrected himself after clearing his throat.
“Nelgal-sama’s instruction is to charge as soon as the fire abates. Time is valuable, too. Begin extinguishing the fire with the magic soldiers who can use water magic. Have the infantry check the situation and act as guards of the magic soldiers. We will limit the fire’s range to the still remaining immortal soldiers.”
“Acknowledged.”
The magic soldiers, who moved back to the rear and were on standby, slowly advance towards the burning castle after receiving the order. With the water magic users in front, the other magic soldiers are made to follow as well just for caution’s sake.
“Orsongrande’s forces will storm in from the sides and our Horant forces from the front, huh? However, what is the plan? There are no gates at the sides, but…”
There’s no point in me worrying, a single general shakes off his idle thoughts.
“Attack as soon as the fire fighting has finished! We came this far! We will show our true strength to the soldiers of Orsongrande.”
The general showed a smile to the soldiers who answered with an uniform voice.
No matter what, I won’t tell them that everything of this is just a decoy, he smiled wryly.
☺☻☺
Inside the castle there were around 50 soldiers of Horant’s Kuzemu camp left besides the immortal soldiers.
Their duty is to carry out miscellaneous chores like setting up traps under the instructions of Gaap, who received training from Hifumi, or checking the situation of the opponents and traps after the enemy storms in, but that doesn’t mean that they are combat personnel.
They are familiar with the structure of the castle as soldiers originally defending inside the castle.
“Will it be alright if it burns this much?”
The room on the second floor, which was made into a break room, was crowded. The brightly burning front yard was visible from that room which is located on the west side of the castle.
“Probably it’s no problem. The castle’s main part hasn’t caught fire and something like the fire spreading won’t happen either, I guess.”
“And the immortal soldiers? They were finished off easily.”
Having received a standby order, except for those who left on patrol, they are bored and put their energy into chatting. For them this was also an important communication for the sake of distracting themselves from their worries.
“The defence at the front was done in. Won’t the first floor be stormed any time now?”
“Yea, if I remember correctly five people have to check the state of the traps on the first floor.”
Five people, whose role had been decided beforehand, get up, take their tools and walk towards the corridor leading to the first floor.
“If it goes smoothly, they might be able to kill a commanding officer or such.”
“From where are you getting such confidence…?”
Staying on standby while talking, they see off those leaving the room and the remaining soldiers stand up as well.
“Well then, shall we prepare for the time when the enemy will reach the second floor after breaking through?”
“… Hey, isn’t it fine if we don’t do it after all?”
Looking at the arranged tools, one of the soldiers mutters.
“Just give it up already. We have no other choice but to do what we were told to do.”
A soldier, who carried the same tool, said “This is our fate.”
☺☻☺
“For real…?”
A soldier of Orsongrande, who looked up the wall towering high over the surroundings on the east side of the castle dumbfoundedly, respected the soldiers of Fokalore who were climbing the four-meter-high wall swiftly while hanging onto kusarigama‘s with long ropes attached.
A soldier of Fokalore who stood on top of the wall, looks down on the 20 chosen soldier of Orsongrande below.
“Leave the kusarigama as it is. It looks like they have already started to put out the fire. Let’s hurry.”
Once he told them without delay, he jumped off the wall on the other side.
All of the 10 present soldiers of Fokalore climb up the same rope and jump down towards the other side one after the other.
From there on it was this battle’s worst scene of carnage for the soldiers of Orsongrande.
Different from the soldiers of Fokalore, who were at the most equipped with leather breastplate as lightweight armour, many of Orsongrande’s soldiers are wearing metal armours and helmets. It goes without saying, but those are slightly different in weight.
“What a trifle!”
There are also those who cling to the rope, but the majority falls without even holding on for half a minute.
Giving up and removing their equipment, they arrive on top of the wall. Furthermore it took a full 20 minutes until all of them mustered the courage to jump down from that height.
☺☻☺