Chapter 14: Siege of Buinyu Fortress (6)

After meeting Count Bellua and receiving a reward, Shatien’s daily life didn’t change much.

Count Bellua still launched a series of small rotating assaults against Baron Buinyu’s castle, and on his days off he unfailingly went to the yard behind the unit to practice swordsmanship.

And today as well, Shatien spent a day that wasn’t much different from the rest.

-Thud, thud.

After wrapping up his mercenary duties for the morning, Shatien was felling a tree with the axe he had borrowed from Miles.

The reason was simple. He wanted to make a training dummy for sword practice.

He had already gone through three of them. The new sword art he had been practicing lately just didn’t let the dummies hold up.

Every time he swung, the dummy kept getting smashed to pieces.

He didn’t like the feeling, so he tried to control it somehow, but he couldn’t rely on his ability every time either.

Thanks to that, Shatien was doing it the brute force way, accustoming his body by grinding through with sheer effort.

“Hmmm. Not bad huh?”

He put the armor he had taken as spoils on the freshly split and trimmed log, and it became a pretty decent training dummy.

Since he had used hard wood, it ought to take the strength he couldn’t fully control.

Thinking that, Shatien drew his sword and aimed at the dummy.

“Hup.”

He was imitating the swordplay he had seen from that veteran of the Holy Empire’s imperial army.

A lightning strike that came down fast and sharp from above, like an owl swooping.

Shatien was refining it. He wanted to make it his own finishing move.

Right on cue, that strange analytical faculty that assisted him kept correcting his line and posture every time he performed the technique, which made it a perfect fit.

-Step, step.

While he was thinking that and settling into his stance, an uninvited guest arrived.

“Good grief! Our rookie does this every single day.”

“Ah, Miles.”

It was Miles, who had somehow become his soulmate in spirit. Wiping away his sweat, Miles plopped down beside Shatien and shouted.

“Hey, bastard. Take a break. Rest. You’ll wreck your body. Proper rest is a good thing too, you punk. Besides, the weekly peddler just arrived.”

“The weekly peddler?”

Shatien’s eyes sparkled at that.

His sword had taken a beating lately from rough use.

If the weekly peddler was here, a blacksmith would have come along, and even if not, he could buy a tolerable sword.

“Good grief!!”

Of course, Miles read Shatien’s mind and groaned.

“Try enjoying yourself for once. I tell you the weekly peddler’s here, and you start thinking about weapons again.”

“Ahem. That’s my idea of fun, Miles.”

“Oh really? You crazy bastard!”

Miles let out a sharp yell.

“That’s not enjoyment, that’s just more work. If you want fun, go drink some good beer over there, or splurge on a little wine, and, ahem. The… you know… the….”

“Yes?”

“Fine, I’ll just say it. You’re at the age to hold a woman in your arms. Go hold a woman, is what I’m saying.”

Miles scratched his head as if embarrassed.

The caravan led by the weekly peddler brought all kinds of goods and a blacksmith, but also tricksters who did performances and prostitutes.

Mercenaries who lived for today and prostitutes were, in truth, a decent combination.

In any case, Shatien chuckled at that.

He couldn’t help remembering Miles suffering through a bout of venereal disease in the past.

“So that’s what you meant. By the way, Miles.”

“Huh?”

“Be careful of redheads.”

“R-Redheads?”

“Yes. I heard many wandering redheads are witches. In our village, there’s a saying not to take a redheaded prostitute in your arms.”

“Huh… is that true?”

Of course, it wasn’t true.

He just made it up. He said it because he didn’t want Miles to suffer another venereal disease.

But it seemed to work quite well.

“Tch… guess that one’s out.”

Gullible Miles clicked his tongue in regret, then looked at Shatien with curiosity and asked,

“Why do you train so hard anyway? It looks like there’ll be a truce soon.”

Lately, neither side had been fighting.

Not even the small probing attacks they had tossed back and forth before.

Thanks to that, the mood was that a truce would come if things kept going like this.

“Haha. You have to train when you’re resting. When you’re busy, you can’t train, you just recover your stamina, right?”

“Heck if I know. Is that what’s good about being young? Anyway, go hard then, Shatien.”

“Yes. Have a safe trip back, Miles.”

There was no point talking more. Miles grumbled and got to his feet. Shatien saw him off, then immediately swung a few more times before dropping back onto the ground.

He had something to think about.

‘Hmm. Even the caravan’s arrival. Right on schedule. Things are proceeding exactly as in the past.’

That meant a night raid would be carried out in two days.

In the past, Count Bellua had used the traitorous captain of the guard to help an elite strike team seize Baron Buinyu’s east gate in a surprise attack.

‘Will I be chosen for it?’

Rumor already had it that a few famous soldiers and mercenaries had vanished somewhere.

People whispered that they had deserted, but in truth they were elite troops Count Bellua had secretly held back for the raid.

‘Maybe my current level of renown isn’t enough?’

It was a battle that would surely be won.

Thirsty for merit, Shatien wanted to seize this chance too and make a name for himself.

And just as he was burning with impatience,

-Sssss.

Someone crept through the brush. It was a knight under Count Bellua.

By all accounts, he was exceptional, a veteran who had won a tournament three times.

“Hm?”

The knight spotted Shatien and twitched an eyebrow. It almost felt like Shatien had been waiting for him.

‘As if that kid knows anything to wait for me. Haha.’

But right away the knight felt that was too far-fetched. He clicked his tongue inwardly and looked at Shatien.

“Shatien, right?”

“That’s me.”

“Good. His Excellency Count Bellua has a special offer for you. Will you join us? It’ll be a very honorable position.”

It was as expected.

* * *

The deep hours before dawn.

-Creaaak. Creak. Creak.

A hidden side gate in a remote part of Baron Buinyu’s castle opened.

It was a secret passage they had learned of from the captain of the guard who was in league with them.

“Seize the gate completely. Move quickly.”

As they passed through the corridor, the knight in command of the raid gave the order.

-Swish.

The hundred-man Death Squad, including Shatien, sprinted for the gate.

‘Strange. It’s a day earlier than before.’

His memory wasn’t wrong.

No matter how he thought about it, the date was different.

Shatien felt a prickling unease.

If this had changed because of his interference, there was no guarantee the operation would succeed.

But the strike team, himself included, had already slipped through the side gate and were running for the main gate.

The arrow had already been unleashed.

There was no helping it.

-Swish.

-Mmph? Ugh!

Fortunately, the gate’s defenses weren’t heavy, just as the captain had said.

The strike team moved silently, dispatched the baron’s guards at the gate, and went straight up onto the gatehouse.

-Woosh.

They shook Baron Buinyu’s banner fixed atop the gate.

It was the signal to send once they had seized it.

In response, a single fire arrow rose into the sky from their own lines in the distance.

That meant they would move out at once.

“?”

“Huh?!”

But at the very moment when it seemed everything would go smoothly,

-Bwoooooo!

A sound rose that chilled the strike team to the core.

A horn breaking the silence of dawn.

“It’s an ambush!”

“The gate! The gate! Check the gate, quick!”

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. It looks like we’ve been discovered.”

“Damn it!”

The unexpected situation threw them into confusion.

The knight leading the strike team spat a curse, then steadied himself and issued rapid orders.

“Knight Guillaume. Take half the men and hold the gate. Remember this. If the gate closes before our allies arrive, it’s over. Understood?”

“Yes, Sir Knight Lowe.”

“Good. The rest, follow me. We draw the baron’s troops away.”

“Yes.”

Shatien was assigned to the commander, Sir Knight Lowe.

Knight Lowe deliberately exposed their position and ran through the inner city.

It was good for the team guarding the gate, but it was a different story for them.

“Waaah!”

“There, the enemy!”

“Kill them to the last!”

Because they moved so blatantly, they were quickly surrounded.

Baron Buinyu’s soldiers bore down on the strike team with high spirits.

Of course, the strike team wasn’t about to sit and take it.

“Aim!”

They had received heavy support for this battle.

Each member of the strike team carried a crossbow as a secondary weapon.

-Chk, chk, chk.

Every single one of them packed serious firepower.

“Fire!”

-Swish! Swish! Swish!

“Gah!”

Thanks to that, the baron’s soldiers who rushed in naïvely through a narrow approach were struck by a storm of bolts.

Hit with a blazing volley at point-blank range, they couldn’t hold and dropped like flies.

“Insane! How can they have so many crossbows? That’s impossible!”

The officer leading the baron’s troops blanched and shouted.

For them all to be carrying such expensive weapons shattered expectations.

With the forces he had on hand, he couldn’t subdue these foes.

Already over twenty men had collapsed in that single volley.

“Damn it. Where are the reinforcements?”

“They’re coming from the north gate nearby, sir.”

“At this rate we’ll be wiped out before those slugs get here.”

Fortunately, the reinforcements arrived faster than expected.

The captain of the north gate, who happened to be outside, heard the horn and mustered immediately.

“Good! Then push in at once. Their reload is slow anyway. Don’t be fooled by the power, just close in and stick to them!”

The baron’s officer brightened and gave the order.

-Waaaaaah-!

Enraged, the baron’s soldiers shoved forward in a mass.

With the enemy waves cramming left, right, and front, Sir Knight Lowe shouted urgently,

“Fall back to the wall. Quickly!”

In open ground they were at a disadvantage, but if they went up and fought in a narrow space, taking turns, they had a chance.

The strike team, Shatien included, fell back up the spiral stairs at once.

Then,

“Damn it! It’s blocked!”

A man in the lead shouted.

The upper part of the stairway had collapsed from the previous siege, blocking it.

‘…This will get harder.’

Following from the very back, Shatien thought to himself.

Of all places, they had gone into a blocked space. It was a dead end. It meant they were trapped in this stair tower with nowhere to go.

Now they had to break back out through the enemy instead.

‘With things like this, there’s no avoiding a fight.’

Shatien sighed inwardly.

Tonight felt like it was going to be very, very long.

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