Merchant Noble is out (1/3 chapters for today)
War of Attrition
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What stood in front of Leo and his men was a giant fortress. Could it be called a fortress-type city that contained an entire town within? A deep moat was dug in front of the walls, and the walls themselves were the highest they had ever seen among the cities they had come across. It was about as tall as a three-story mansion.
As Leo’s soldiers approached the castle and started shouting, an old man suddenly poked his face out from above the castle walls. He was an elderly man with his pure white mustache, but his sturdy body suggested that he was still very much active. Judging from Leo’s reaction, that old man seemed to be the Marquis of the Eastern Frontier.
“Hey, Marquis! You’ve caused enough trouble! Let’s fight already.” (Leo)
As Leo shouted while swinging his sword wildly, the old man laughed cheerfully while stroking his mustache.
“No, no. We have been specialists in defense for generations. I shall not move from this castle. If you want to fight, feel free to attack. I will face you.” (Marquis)
Leo immediately sent the prisoners he had gathered locally to attack. However, it was completely useless. With arrows and stones raining down from above, the prisoners had no way to cross the moat or scale the walls. One after another, they fell, and by the end of the day, the entire prisoner unit had been annihilated.
Leo then came up with a plan to lure the Marquis out of the fortress. His soldiers attacked the villages within the Marquis’s territory. The villagers were slaughtered one by one, and all the food was taken. The once lush territory was engulfed in flames. But even as the surrounding forests burned fiercely and the area around the fortress was ablaze, the Marquis did not move. Even Leo, who orchestrated the attacks, was dumbfounded by this.
“What kind of nerve does it take not to react at all when your own people are being attacked?” (Leo)
Next, Leo drove the villagers who had been burned out of their homes toward the castle. The villagers, running in panic with arrows shot at them from behind, reached the doors of the fortress and desperately begged for help. But even then, the gates did not open. Despite the villagers’ desperate cries for assistance, the gates showed no signs of opening.
“Hey, old man! Can’t you hear the cries of your people begging for help? You’re unfit to be a lord.” (Leo)
Again, even though he was the one responsible, Leo criticized him. But the Marquis didn’t care at all.
“Hahaha! I don’t need to be told that by you, boy. Besides, the job of the Marquis is to defend the kingdom as the keystone of its defense. It’s not my job to protect the commoners who are crying and screaming down there. Even if I let them into the castle, they’d only be a burden. You can kill them all if you want.” (Marquis)
“Heh… heh, heh, heh. This old man is insane.” (Leo)
“Is that so? I’m quite sane.” (Marquis)
The Marquis looked down with a calm expression as the villagers were killed by Leo’s soldiers.
Leo and his men struggled with the siege of the castle. Time passed without them being able to make any progress.
In a siege, Leo’s army’s advantages were nullified. Specifically, their mobility and the high level of individual skill. The cavalry and a siege were a terrible match. Even if they could ride their horses, it wouldn’t mean anything. No matter how skilled an individual was, humans had their limits. They couldn’t fly through the sky or possess the monstrous strength to break through the castle walls.
What they needed was something Leo had considered the least necessary which was manpower. According to what Arc had heard from Tyr, when it came to sieging a castle, the attackers needed to have three times as many soldiers as the defenders just to be on equal footing. Though they didn’t know how many men the enemy had, it was clear that Leo’s current forces were insufficient. Thus, Leo had no other choice and reluctantly transitioned to a prolonged siege, starving the enemy out.
A month passed since the start of the siege against the Marquis of the Eastern Frontier. Leo’s soldiers had isolated the castle and were trying to starve the defenders. But the castle had been designed to repel invasions from neighboring countries. It must have had an abundant stockpile of emergency provisions.
During this time, long rains continued. Arc knew from his time traveling the kingdom as a merchant that this was the rainy season. It was rare, but this region of the kingdom had a rainy season. Once the rainy season started, the days remained damp for a while. Days without rain became rare. This humidity was a natural enemy to the soldiers. The little food they had was rotting, and it was Leo’s soldiers who started to starve first.
“Damn it. Even the horses are getting skinny.” (Leo)
Leo clicked his tongue as he looked at the horses, resting limply in the rain.
Horses eat hay. The enemy of hay was also humidity. With the recent long rains, the hay had been rotting more and more. Both the men and the horses of Leo’s army were running out of food.
“Is there no more food?” (Leo)
“We have no choice but to eat the horses.” (??)
“Where in the world is there a fool who would eat his own feet?” (Leo)
Leo scolded the soldier who had suggested eating his own horse out of hunger. For a cavalryman, their horse was as important as their own life. A cavalryman without a horse was no longer a cavalryman. Leo made a quick decision.
“Retreat. The heavy rain today is dangerous. We’ll retreat tomorrow.” (Leo)
He swiftly decided on the retreat. In effect, it was a defeat. For Leo, who had never lost before, the decision to retreat must have been painful. Moreover, they hadn’t even fought a single battle. Retreating without a fight was surely humiliating for a warrior. An ordinary person wouldn’t be able to make such a decision. They’d drag things out and end up causing the worst possible outcome.
Even Arc couldn’t have given the order to retreat here. They hadn’t lost a single soldier yet. Concerned about appearances and the eyes of his soldiers, he wouldn’t have been able to order a retreat. The fact that Leo quickly recognized the defeat and decided to retreat showed his remarkable talent in battle. But… With this, Leo had lost. All the efforts he had made over the past few months to suppress the rebellions across the kingdom were now wasted. Arc, too, had to take action for the sake of the Warden Household.
Arc hurried to the cabin where Yulia was waiting.
“Arc-sama…” (Yulia)
“Yulia. Leo has decided to retreat.” (Arc)
“I see. This will lead to serious consequences.” (Yulia)
“Yeah, Leo couldn’t win. No, from the perspective of the nobles, it’s fair to say he lost to the Marquis without even fighting. It’s entirely possible that the nobles we’ve suppressed up until now might start rebelling again.” (Arc)
“Leo’s soldiers are exhausted. Given their numbers, one defeat could mean their end.” (Yulia)
“We need to make sure we don’t get caught up in it when that happens.” (Arc)
Arc said this as he opened a metal box and took out some paper that hadn’t gotten wet yet.
“Is Yuna here?” (Arc)
“Yes. She’s hiding in the nearby mountains.” (Yulia)
It wasn’t just Yulia who had been following Arc. Yuna had been watching from a slight distance, serving as a liaison with Mikanda when necessary.
“I’m going to write a letter. Deliver it to Yuna as soon as possible.” (Arc)
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