Chapter 119: Fourteenth Episode: Chapter 1 (1/2)

Chapter 119: Fourteenth Episode: Chapter 1

Translator: EndlessFantasy TranslationEditor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Prodigies don't grow on trees like wild fruits. For example, Toby Ryan Creech was born into nobility as a viscount, but he realized really soon his talent lies not in household management, but performance. He likes entertaining people and seeing how people just take in his characters and the situation these characters were in.

The banquet had entered its peak hours. Slowly, the servers struggled to keep up with providing fresh glasses of the drinks. Deiss Kingdom was famous for being the origin of beer, so even though beer was the cheapest drink in the world, the Deiss people was so proud of it, they served it in a royal banquet.

Alcohol numbs, and it also makes people wild. Some of the less restrained nobles invited the equally unabashed ladies to the dance floor, moving flirtatiously, seductively. The tempo of the music changed, and elegance was substituted with passion, urging everyone to start looking for a partner, to start piling themselves into the crowd of uninhibited effrontery.

The main hall of the Lombardy Castle couldn't possibly fit all the guests, so the Royal Household arranged for the orchestra and picnic seats on the hill on the right side of the castle. It seemed every country follows this rule tacitly. The ones drinking in the hall were always the top nobles in the capital, and the lesser nobles would always be seated outside.

Ricky conversed with a few of the ladies, who, by the way, were always the best choice for a cover. Usually, men would only talk to people they're familiar with. To learn about a stranger, they would have to ask the women. Ricky's classy appearance and witty banters quickly led these less cultured Deiss noblewomen to believing he was a special envoy from West Percy who was an old captain, as well as being trusted by the West Percian royals.

Showing off his disguised hand full of calluses, Ricky told stories of his ”seafaring adventures”, of the culture of another land. To satisfy the Deiss who loved war stories, he even described with detail several of the famous naval battles! To the landlocked Deiss, nothing is more exciting than navy and fleets! Even several Deiss generals gathered around Ricky. Obviously, the soldiers would only care about new, fresh ways to do battle.

”Normally, the battleships we talk about were the huge ships with sails. Whenever we meet enemies with a fleet of their own, we would go into formations most navy employ. Of course, the ranged attacks go first. In my country, our battleships were equipped with heavy crossbows and catapults, but usually these ranged attacks can only last for two or three rounds before we have to go melee. We'll crash into each others' bow, we'll use hooks to pull the enemies into water, and we'll raid the enemies' ships…”

”Mr. Envoy!” A Deiss officer interrupted Ricky. ”Does your country not have those cannons on your ships? You know… The one the Titans were using.”

Ricky shook his head, ”The cannons the Titans were using were not stable enough, after your country had that battle with the Titans, the analysts of the land had been looking into the matter, but they only arrived at one conclusion. Even though the Titan's win was mostly because of their cannons, but the timing in which cannons appeared on the battlefield was still too early…”

At this point, Ricky noticed the crowd in front of him suddenly dispersed, even some of the dancing pairs went to the side. Ricky felt weird, but he soon saw the main reason this happened; Prince O'Neil Andrew Morisette of Titan Empire sauntered into the main hall.

Ricky hid himself into the crowd. He heard whisperings, but the liar extraordinaire didn't care about these, he knew the operation has started, he's only questioning why Oscar would attract attentions now.

”Graceful Princess Opareal, ola… Excuse me, I meant Duchess Einsenstein, may I have the honor of having this dance with you?” Oscar bowed and extended his hand at Opareal who sat in the couch.

Princess Opareal Roulexberg sighed, she had no excuse to refuse.

With Princess Opareal's hand in his arm, Oscar signalled the conductor of the orchestra. ”First Love, please!” He then turned to the Princess, ”This is my favorite piece.”

With the music that represented first love, the Princess twirled and turned around Oscar, whose hand supported her on her waist.

”You did this on purpose, didn't you?” As she faced Oscar, she asked accusingly.

Another spin, they faced each other once more.

”No, I'm just loyal to my favorites.”

”I think you are mocking me!” Opareal's voice was soft, she knew everyone was staring at her.

”I think you're too sensitive. As a Duchess, this is not a good trait.”

”Huh! You really are mocking me!”

”Why would I mock you? Is there a reason to? You said it yourself, we will play our own parts.”

The pair slowly turned in the center of the dance floor. By this time the day before, they were exchanging their passion toward each other with the most intimate body language known to them, but by now, no one could tell if they have even a sliver of feelings toward each other.

As the music faded into its final refrain, Opareal lifted her head.

”I think… I will turn back on my words.”

”Oh?”

”You said you were leaving!”

”Are you stopping me?” Oscar smiled, the music stopped, but his hands were still around the Princess.

Opareal turned away suddenly. She knew not why she said what she said. It's not a bad thing if he'd left, at least she wouldn't need to worry about these petty feelings.

Oscar bent at his waist, leaving a kiss on the Deiss Princess's cheek. ”Opareal, I will never forget how you look when you wore your wedding dress.”

As he turned around and left, her eyes shone a undescribable brilliance, but as soon as he disappeared into the staircase, her brilliance faded, replaced by a sense of dreary. It was almost… cold.

”Milady, I am summoned.” Marquis Harriens Van Rousted stood in front of the Princess.

”Send people to watch the Prince. I have a hunch… something bad may happen tonight.”

Harriens was a little surprised.

”What are you standing there for?” Opareal Roulexberg glared at the commanding officer with impatience.

”Oh… Milady, I'm glad. You have made a right choice.”

Opareal didn't react to Harriens' flattery, she chose to look away in disgust instead. She did make a choice, but even she doesn't know if her choice is a correct one.

Oscar climbed the stairs with the companionship of four knights and entered a wide corridor. It was dim, someone had extinguished the torches in the corridor, leaving only a yellow gas light at the corner of the staircase.

Oscar pursed his lips and slowed down, adjusting his breath frequency.

Suddenly, the young Prince turned unexpectedly, slamming his hand on the throat of the knight behind him. The dimness had him caught by surprise, and he fell down with a thud. The knight's comrade unsheathed his long sword, but everything happened so fast, he was too close with the Prince! Oscar tackled him with his elbow, while parrying the long sword with his other arm. Just like that, Oscar's elbow slammed into the second knight's abdomen, creating a dent on his armor. He couldn't even yelp before slowly sliding onto the ground.

The two other knight in front of Oscar joined the fight. One was brandishing a sword toward Oscar's neck, and the other had placed a warning whistle into his mouth.

Another silhouette fluttered in the darkness before the sword stopped in its track, its owner's face twisted in pain; the whistle didn't sound, a dagger had found its way into that knight's torso.

Doramy slowly let down the body in his arms and immediately gave the boy a big hug.

”Old pal! I can't believe it! You can still move?” Oscar almost laughed out loud.

”Of course, you brat! I'm still strong enough to beat you up, so don't you worry about me!”

Four bodies laid in the darkness, Oscar was curious about the stranger's silhouette, it wasn't Snowstorm, but his skills were good.

”Let me introduce him!” Doramy recognized the perplexed look on Oscar's face. ”Shaw Curlink, another super assassin. His codename by the Morisette Dynasty is Black Devil.”

”An imperial assassin?” Oscar was surprised, he never knew the Morisettes have their own assassins.

”Okay! This is no time to talk about these things!” Doramy picked up a long sword from one of the fallen knights and passed it to Oscar. ”It's time to go!”

***************

”Yes! It's time!” Marshal Vann Hewitt Alan nodded at his secretary-cum-adjutant, Colonel Payne Lubelly. It was 9 o'clock in the evening of Church's Year 797, 31st Day of the 10th Month, according to the battle plan, the winter attack against Deiss should be starting soon!

”Marshal, I don't understand, why do you want to conduct this battle by yourself?” Colonel Payne looked at Marshal Alan, puzzled.

Silver Fox's stare pierced through the veil of darkness between him and the enemy's land. He sighed. ”Yaran people is a nation of fighters. The divine Roman Empire had utilized all of their military power before they were able to stop them and drive them back to the North. However, after so many years, the invasiveness and fighting spirit of the Yaran have not dwindled, instead, it grew stronger and stronger! This is why I have to stand in front of the army, our enemy is the Deiss who has the valor to fighting until the last man standing!”

”You mean… our advance would not go as smoothly as we thought it would?” A little startled, Colonel Payne asked. It would be his first experience on the battlefield. Even though both he and Marshal Alan were not on the vanguard, leading a troop still inspired a sense of panic in the officer who had never been on a battlefield.

”Our advance?” Alan shook his head. ”Our advance would be met with the strongest counterattack from the Deiss. Like I said, they are not afraid of sacrificing, even though it is the last person available to fight.”

”So… what do we do?”

Silver Fox turned to his herald officer. ”Inform Duke Steinberger and his Wolfriders to kill every single person with a weapon after they occupied the enemy's camp. Captives… are optional.”

The herald officer turned his horse around and headed straight to the black forest under the moon.

The black forest was quiet with only the occasional neighing. A cloak of darkness shrouded over the forest and the uneven ground outside of its area. Looking northward from the edge of the forest, a massive military encampment was set up. With thousands of fire source, they lit up the area with their starry glow like a fire pit.

All of a sudden, torches lit up on the clearing near the edge of the forest one by one, like the stars that appeared in the night sky. Light and shadow of the torches congregated into a luminous river of light, flowing through the land with he low rumbles of the horns and the order of the officers. Mist transformed the edge of the forest into a foggy veil, leading the river of fire through the plains and hills, disappearing into the trough at points, marching through the highlands at others.

Finally, the fiery stream collided with the firepit as the cold breeze brought about the smell of war. Equines neighs, passionate screams, smokescreens, all of these were sent into the forest by the wind, which were then soothed and deadened in the midst of the dense leaves and branches.

”Infantry forward!” Alan recited his order swiftly.

Almost immediately, from behind the Marshal, shouts rang through the woods as footfalls thumped the ground. The cling-clangs of shields and weapons sent the birds flying, as well as waking the whole area up. There was no fire, no orders from commanders from this troop as the Titan Infantry fell into their neat battle formation. The warriors were ready to throw themselves into the battlefield, into the massacre, into the infernal hell.

Right now, the Second Encampment of the Deiss Southern Border Defense was hell. This was the largest encampment on the south of the Deiss Kingdom, placed by the Supreme Command of Deiss. There were six divisions and three border brigades stationed all year long. The encampment was built on a hill with soil, stones and hard wood, forming a simple but effective wall. The wall's about six meters tall, and was reinforced with steel bars and iron chains on the inside. A spiked fence was erected outside the wall before the trench. The whole encampment was about 1,100 meters in length and 600 meters in width. It's like a rectangular city located at the northern entrance of the black forest, Devari Valley. It kept watch over the border, observing the Titans on the opposite. This surveillance had faded into the history, however, and the Titans were standing almost face-to-face with the Deiss Warriors with less than thirty meters between them.

The Wolfriders was one of the legendary troops of House Steinberger. These soldiers had developed a variety of tactics and formations based on the forest terrain, as well as superb horse-riding techniques. Currently, the Wolfriders were starting their harassment on their enemy with different types of whistling. With a loose formation, they kept up a raid against the wall with burning arrows and javelins. They were like wolves, always teasing their enemies, drawing their attention. Whenever the enemy archers were going to attack, there would be a new batch of knights taking over, taking down the archers who were just targets on the wall.

”Retreat! Retreat! Archers off the wall! Now!” The Camp Commander-in-Chief ordered while the Deiss Warriors shifted from inside the camp. The melee soldiers concealed themselves in various foxholes, the archers retreated from the wall and formed a tight formation in the empty space in the encampment.

”Distance three hundred, front-right thirty degrees, a team of cavalry heading toward two o'clock.” A soldier from the watchtower reported.

The commander of the Deiss Bowmen matrix turned to his men, ”Archers, distance three hundred, front-right toward two o'clock, elevation seventy, fire!”

With this order, a rain of arrows was unleashed from within the fire pit! The flame brightened the dark fletching which flew into the night sky. Soon, a team of assaulting Wolfriders started to quiver as their torches tremored with the falling arrows, knocking bodies off of their horses interspersed with sparks of fire.

”Prepare the catapult! Depth six hundred, aim at one o'clock, elevation angle zero!”

The Titan observer accurately calculated the position of the enemy's camp, and passed on their instructions, to which the operators adjust the angles of their machines to. They turned the winch to tighten the rope and lower the arm. When that's done, the Titan fighters lit the oiled boulders, causing the darkness to be expelled by blazing fireballs.

”Scatter out! Boulders…” The Deiss observer turned and yelled at the archer phalanx, but a louder boom ended his attempt to warn them. A flaming boulder dragged its fiery tail, hitting the watchtower like an unstoppable meteor. The hardwood building was demolished in an instant! The explosion brought upon torn bodies and wood splinters as the Deiss Warriors on the clearing watched with hopelessness the meteor that was descending upon their heads!

The archers screamed in fear and agony in response to the meteor crashing into the crowd. It rolled and crushed many bodies, before drawing a drain filled with flesh and blood, broken shields, and snapped bows.

Another boulder came! Its landing deviated from calculations and found its way into a resthouse in the camp. Shrieks and the sound of the building falling apart started simultaneously! As more and more fire arrows and boulders found their marks, a camp-wide fire started breaking out, the Deiss Warriors were busy trying to extinguish the spreading fire, but screams from the other side of the wall forced them to stop what they were doing.

”Infantry! The Titans are attacking!”

”Archers!” The Commander-in-Chief of the Second Camp wiped his ashy face and went up the wall!

”Archers spread out on the wall, spearmen, chain warriors, swordsmen, axe warriors, greatswordsmen come up here, handle the oil, the rolling woods, and stones!”

Once they've gotten their orders, the Deiss Warriors almost lunged forward together, filling in the spaces on the wall, they will not yield even one standing space to their enemy.

The Commander-in-Chief watched as the Titan troops came into light. Battering rams, siege towers, ladder units, archers, pikemen, infantry! The Commander-in-Chief felt a little lightheaded, he didn't know how much longer his camp can withstand the attacks, nor could he predict if his country behind him would be lost.

***************