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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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‘…I heard only Disan survived.’
Among the Pipis Mercenary Group, only Pipis himself and Disan survived.
Most of the low-ranking mercenaries who had drunk with me in the past had died.
They were people who would have died in the future monster wave anyway.
Still, it was true that I felt a bit of bitterness.
‘Rikinri… This time, you couldn’t return alive.’
He was the one who had a gloomy face until the end, saying their chances of winning were low.
Nevertheless, he said he would do what he could…
“Still, thanks to Rikinri’s sacrifice, Sir Rankbink and I were able to survive.”
“That’s fortunate. He devoted himself to the territory until the end.”
“Sir Rankbink seemed distressed. Well, of course, since the guy who saved him twice passed away…”
“What is Sir Rankbink’s condition?”
“It’s not very good.”
He said he couldn’t use mana.
Apparently, he had seriously overexerted himself.
“So, may I ask why you summoned me?”
“There’s something they shouted at us as we were fleeing.
-It’s no use running away! We’ll turn your precious territory into ashes!
It was practically a declaration of war.
“They will probably target this castle first. I want you to participate in the defense.”
“I have nowhere to run anyway.”
“I’m not saying to defend forever. We’ve requested reinforcements.”
“Reinforcements, you say?”
“That’s right. The way to the Siglen County is completely blocked… but they let their guard down a bit.”
“I sent people to other territories. Venter’s mercenaries are all trustworthy, so they won’t run away. It will take quite some time, but as long as they stay alive, they’ll be able to reach the other territories. Since they’re also nobles, they won’t turn a blind eye to my crisis.”
He said he had asked them to inform the Siglen County of the situation if they couldn’t come to support him.
If it’s to that extent, they certainly can’t refuse…
‘Well, I wonder if it will go as planned.’
It would be difficult to avoid the pursuit of the merchant union and get there, and even if they arrived there on foot…
‘It’s too late.’
I could tell from the recent separate investigation while guarding the villages at the front.
‘It’s really not far off.’
At the latest, one month.
At the earliest, two weeks.
Within that time, the monster wave was estimated to occur.
As I had heard from the lord, the bastards rushed straight to the castle.
Even at a rough glance, there seemed to be over 200 mercenaries, and their armament was incomparable to ours.
The hastily mobilized castle residents were trembling in fear as they looked at them.
We had more numbers, but most of them were civilians, so the moment we engaged, it would be a massacre.
If it weren’t for the wooden fence, we wouldn’t have been able to do anything.
“The situation… is really bad. Depending on the circumstances, you may have to consider revealing your identity…”
“If you don’t like that, it might be okay to run away.”
Even Kayla and Athena voiced negative opinions.
Although Kayla had shown dazzling growth, it didn’t mean she could annihilate them all by herself.
They weren’t monsters lacking intelligence.
They were mercenaries with abundant experience fighting humans, so even if their specs were inferior to monsters, they more than made up for it with equipment, experience, and knowledge.
There weren’t many skilled individuals who could support Kayla, and no one had coordinated with her for long.
In the first place, even fighting together with the awakened Kayla was only at this ant nest.
“For now, let’s try to hold out as much as we can. In the worst case… we’ll have to plan on running away.”
I instructed Athena to secure Thea first if I gave the order.
It was just to reassure my companions, but they seemed satisfied with even this much.
“Kuhaha. So this shabby castle is where you finally ran away and hid? The name of nobility will weep!”
A man with a fairly large build stepped forward and spoke.
Then the lord himself stepped forward and opened his mouth.
“Aren’t you afraid of the law? A mere bandit dares to attack a legitimate noble family of the kingdom? If this is known, you, your family, relatives, and friends will all have their heads cut off on the guillotine after being tortured! Drop your weapons and kneel at once!”
“Hehehe. Nobles still can’t grasp the situation. That great knight of yours also became a defeated dog and ran away with his tail between his legs, and the flimsy soldiers were trampled by us. At least that guy fought to the end, but you and that knight just ran away? Ah, maybe the one who fought to the end was the knight?”
The mercenary leader mocked the lord and continued.
“You’re the one who should surrender. If you obediently offer your neck, we’ll kill you painlessly.”
“Insolent! A mere bandit dares to say he’ll kill a legitimate noble of the kingdom!”
“Phew… What an idiot. Well, nobles value honor, but you already lost all your honor and ran away in shame.”
The mercenary leader threw away his laughter and spoke to the lord as if he was pathetic.
“So, will you surrender?”
“The Owalan Baron family will never surrender to mere bandits!”
“Sheesh. Do as you please. Then prepare to die.”
Faced with the unyielding attitude of Baron Owalan, the mercenary leader refused to continue talking to him.
“Listen, residents! If you open the gates yourself and bring me the head of that idiot, we won’t touch you!”
“It’s a lie! The moment you surrender, they will violate and kill you!”
“But if you resist to the end, you won’t be able to avoid death!”
“Don’t listen to them! Everyone, stand your ground and prepare for their attack!”
As the mercenary leader’s persuasion and threats and the lord’s orders continued, the castle residents began to waver.
However, when it came to action, no one made a move.
It was true that they were afraid of them, but at the same time, there was no basis to believe their words.
They didn’t reveal that they were mercenaries or that they belonged to the merchant union.
In the first place, they couldn’t reveal it.
Therefore, in the situation where the residents thought they were bandits, the option of surrendering was difficult to choose.
Moreover, since they were people who had lived in a frontier territory, unlike those who had lived in a peaceful territory, they had a slightly stronger resistance to threats.
‘They’re brave, so to speak.’
Of course, that was only a relative level.
‘The people from the Great Forest border region or the areas bordering the non-human alliance are truly brave.’
In the end, while they exchanged words, there was no major change in the situation.
“But why is the lord stepping up himself? Doesn’t he usually have someone else do it?”
“There’s hardly anyone left to order around. And he’s trying to boost morale in his own way.”
In fact, it must have been to boost morale that he personally led the punitive expedition.
At the time of the attack, the conscripted soldiers were the most numerous.
Therefore, they couldn’t help but be greatly affected by morale, and in such a situation, the most effective way to boost morale was to have an excellent supply and for the lord himself to directly participate in the war.
The equipment supply was unknown, but I had brought the food supply, so it was somewhat resolved.
As for the latter, it could be said that he had summoned his own courage.
‘But they were defeated.’
In such a situation, if he shut himself in the mansion for safety, the castle could fall before long, so he had no choice but to step up even while receiving such humiliation.
Befitting a lord of a developing territory, he wasn’t a complete fool.
‘Although the result is a mess.’
While I was explaining the situation to Athena, the conversation was finally cut off, and they began preparing for an attack.
The first thing they pulled out was fire arrows.
It was a natural choice given that our side had a wooden fence.
However, our side wasn’t foolish either.
As soon as the fire arrows poured down, the lord immediately gave an order.
“Throw dirt and pour water!”
Some dirt and water had been poured on the wooden fence in advance, but it couldn’t properly block the fire arrows.
Fortunately, their side weren’t experts either.
“Damn it, shoot properly!”
Half of the arrows fell in the wrong places, and even the ones that hit properly didn’t have much effect as the fire was quickly extinguished.
If the number of bows was overwhelming, it would be a different story, but that wasn’t the case either.
‘That’s fortunate, at least.’
When the first attack ended in almost failure, the lord mocked them, saying they were indeed bandits without foundation, and the angry mercenary leader gave up on the fire attack and started giving orders.
“Shields up! Break through from the front! Grimink and Abinas, follow me, and the rest, attack the castle walls!”
It seemed they didn’t even try to hide how they would move since the difference in power was severe.
“…We should go to the gate too, right?”
“If it’s dangerous, we’ll have to.”
Amusingly, the place we were guarding was behind the wooden fence near the gate.
Above the gate were the lord, Venter hired by Kuman, and Pipis.
Pipis seemed to be taking orders from Venter as there was only one mercenary left, Disan.
‘Venter’s mercenary group isn’t much either.’
Their side had also significantly reduced in number.
Just from what I could see, I could confirm that there were only about fifteen people guarding the gate.
Even among them, several injured people stood out.
‘They were big enough to guard four villages…’
They were falling into ruin due to one bad contract.
“…The bastards are armed with hammers and axes.”
“The hot water?”
“It’s ready.”
“We’ll be able to hold them off for a while. But how long the supplies will last… For now, we defend as much as possible.”
“What will you do if they break through?”
“Tsk, unlucky… If they break through… We’ll have to stop them behind the gate as much as possible.”
Pipis and Venter had a conversation about how they would act, and after hearing their conversation, I spoke to Kayla and Athena.
Going out to fight was indeed suicidal, so that was the right move.
The problem was that once the entrance was breached… the cavalry could move.
“If the gate is breached, we’ll also go down and block them.”
‘If the cavalry rushes in, it’s over. If a melee breaks out… the castle residents are no match.’
Sticking to the wooden fence and enduring is the best option.
After the preliminary battle of verbal confrontation and failed fire attack, the proper defense began.
The merchant union’s mercenaries, armed with good equipment, slowly approached the castle as if pressuring it, and the residents and troops of the castle waited anxiously for them to enter the range.
When they got close enough, the lord gave the order to attack, and the people started throwing stones at the bastards.
Stone throwing.
The most primitive means of long-range attack.
‘They can’t handle bows, and there are no slings, so they have to do at least that.’
They had to do whatever they could.
It indirectly showed how unfavorable the situation of the castle was.
Nevertheless, the reason I was confident that we could hold out for quite a while was because fighting while sticking to the castle gave an overwhelming advantage.
As long as we had enough food to last for a while.
In response to the people’s stone throwing, the mercenaries raised their shields.
Thud, thud!
If they were bare-handed, it could have had a greater effect than expected, but with sturdy shields and armor, it didn’t help much.
It only slowed their steps slightly.
When the bastards reached the bottom of the wooden fence, the lord shouted.
“Stab them!”
Tung, thud!
The residents on top of the wooden fence diligently stabbed with spears to keep the enemy in check.
Meanwhile,
Bang! Crack!
Some mercenaries covered the top with shields, and some began pounding on the wooden fence with hammers and axes.
A very primitive form of offensive and defensive battle.
“Block them! Block them!”
Of course, knowing that everything would be over if the wooden fence collapsed, the lord encouraged the residents.
They even dropped the stones they had.
Indeed, the destructive power of heavy stones relying on weight was stronger than the awkward spear thrusts.
“Urgh!”
Being blocked from below, the mercenaries also took hits, so they couldn’t help but be disrupted in their work.
Kayla, Athena, and I were no different.
We stabbed down at the enemy with long spears.
The difference from the others was…
“Damn it! Dodge!”
“They’re skilled!”
We inflicted proper damage while avoiding their shields.
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