Volume 5, Chapter 49 – The Queen’s Advent (Part 1)

As the sky gradually darkened and the sun gathered its last rays of color from the distant plain, Boris, standing on the crenellations, let out a sigh from deep in his throat.

“Lord Boris, it’s about to begin.”

A young member of the Blood Clan in an adjutant’s uniform lowered his head and spoke in a soft voice.

Boris waved his hand at the adjutant.

“I know. Go down and order the third to the seventh echelons to relieve the guard.”

“Five echelons…?”

The adjutant’s voice was filled with hesitation. Although the capital’s defense was composed of both the City Guard and the Royal Guard, in reality, apart from some slight differences in title and strength, there was no great disparity in their commanders or discipline. The capital’s City Guard was also managed by Boris, the captain of the Royal Guard, and since he often personally oversaw the soldiers’ daily training, he was highly favored by the soldiers in both the Royal Guard and the City Guard.

The term “echelon” was a formation proposed and implemented by Boris. Each echelon consisted of five hundred men, and the lower the number, the stronger the overall strength. Because a siege defense required fending off the attacking army day and night without interruption, Boris had arranged a counter-strategy based on the existing echelon formation that could both withstand attacks and not overly fatigue the soldiers.

No matter how numerous the attackers were, it was impossible for them to all scale the city walls at once. Plus, the rebel army was afraid of being annihilated in a single blow by the Alvier Tower. The battle had already shifted from the initial fierce melee with no regard for casualties to the current grueling war of attrition.

After several rounds of attack and defense, Boris, as the defender, had thoroughly grasped the enemy’s attack pattern. Apart from the first attack at nightfall, which was slightly more intense, at all other times, only two echelons were needed in rotation to complete the task of defending the city. Therefore, to dispatch five echelons to defend at once was undoubtedly an abnormal phenomenon in the adjutant’s eyes.

Boris’s gaze shifted to the rebel camp, where they were arranging their troops. Although the northern regions of the Blood Clan’s territory were prone to fog as soon as autumn began, the visibility today was quite good.

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“Their reinforcements have arrived.”

“Reinforcements…?”

The adjutant quickly looked in the direction Boris was pointing. Before, because the sun had not yet set, the adjutant, being a mid-ranking vampire, had not noticed. Now, after nightfall, he could see that a pitch-black phalanx had suddenly appeared in the rebel camp—an army that had not been there the past two days.

The adjutant’s face turned grim.

“…At least twenty thousand men.”

“And it’s a well-equipped army that has been through many wars. These twenty thousand soldiers are all equipped with armor, and among them, one thousand are heavy cavalry.”

“One thousand!”

If it had been anyone but Boris who had said this, the soldier would have mocked the speaker for their ignorance. In an era that lacked efficient iron smelting methods, any piece of metal armor was priced in gold coins. Taking the scale mail Yisi was making as an example, if the scales were replaced with metal, and with the complex craftsmanship involved, a single piece would cost at least four gold coins, and this was without any magical enchantments.

Although the plate armor worn by heavy cavalry was simpler to make than scale mail, the amount of iron ingots required was staggering. Adding to that the need to also arm the warhorse under the knight, the cost of equipping a single heavy cavalryman could support a small squad of ordinary infantry. And besides the monetary cost, the cost in time and manpower was also exceptionally high.

In this world, the weapons equipped by infantry were generally long spears, and the spears they used only had metal at the tip; the shaft was made entirely of wood. Therefore, since the fall of Alvier VI, even though the Blood Clan royal family no longer had a formation like the heavy cavalry, they had no power to re-form a heavy cavalry legion.

The adjutant’s voice was filled with disbelief. “How could those traitors possibly have such an army in their hands!”

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“It should be the force sent by the Empire to support the rebels. Although I have not been to the Norta Empire, from what I’ve heard from others, since the reign of the previous king and the new king, the strength of the Norta Empire is no longer what it used to be. Compared to the Church, they are the enemy we truly need to be wary of. In addition to the five echelons I mentioned before, call up the first echelon as well. If I’m not mistaken, they should have other trump cards up their sleeves. It’s impossible for them to charge so recklessly knowing we are protected by the Alvier Tower.”

“Yes, sir.”

Giving Boris a military salute, the adjutant ran down the city wall with an urgent look on his face.

At the same time, another highly conspicuous blood-clan girl, who was still wearing a formal dress despite being on a battlefield, walked to Boris’s side. Even standing next to the captain of the Royal Guard, the girl showed not a trace of fear.

A bellicose sneer appeared on her cold face.

“What, are you scared?”

Not angered by Edith’s teasing, Boris patted his sword and returned a light laugh.

“A little.”

At first, Boris had not thought highly of this noble-born and much-pampered only daughter of the Pescia family. But after Edith had single-handedly reversed a defense that was on the verge of falling, his view had changed. Edith was undoubtedly a talent who possessed wisdom, courage, and strength.

If only Her Majesty had such a decisive personality. It was a thought Boris had on occasion, and he couldn’t help but sigh.

“It’s been two days already. I wonder how the discussions between Her Majesty and those nobles are going.”

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“Didn’t the people in the city say they haven’t seen Her Majesty for two days?”

“I don’t believe Her Majesty would run away.”

“Is that so? I don’t believe it either.” Edith pouted. “But it’s not like you, Boris. I don’t believe in Her Majesty’s character.”

“Are you saying you believe Her Majesty would not abandon her own people?”

“No. What I believe is…” Halfway through her sentence, Edith suddenly paused. A meaningful smile flashed across her exquisite, doll-like face. “She would not abandon the people around her. Although that makes me want to lock her in a cage, as someone who was saved by her, I have no right to say that her meddling personality is a nuisance.”

“Are you talking about Her Grace, Duchess Yisi?”

“Who else could it be?”

Edith’s smile made Boris pause for a moment. Recalling the kick on the outskirts of Celtic City, Boris rubbed his chin and took a step toward the crenellations.

“Let’s hope so.”

WUUUUUUUU—

A mournful and long horn blast.

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Tonight’s battle had begun.

Normally, the rebel army would first send magic soldiers to bombard the top of the wall, covering the infantry behind them as they pushed the magic battering rams and scaling ladders to the wall’s base. What followed would be a brutal melee. But relying on the magic barrier inscribed on the city wall itself, as well as the giant siege crossbows and magic cannons, the rebel army would lose more than half their forces before they even reached the wall. And since he had prepared six echelons, a total of three thousand men, to defend this time, the enemy’s losses would only be greater.

However.

An abnormal movement on the plain made Boris’s pupils shrink.

“That is… what…?”

A huge, daunting stone monster rose from the ground.

Its entire body was composed of giant stones, its joints connected by flowing green fire. It was over forty meters tall. Even with a distance of two kilometers between them, Boris was awed by its size. Although the walls of the Royal Capital were thirty meters high, they seemed insignificant in the reflection of such a behemoth.

A single stomp could probably crush dozens of soldiers.

A monster like this had to be dealt with by him personally. Boris drew the greatsword from his waist. The reason he had been guarding the top of the wall all this time was to defend against existences whose strength far surpassed that of ordinary people. In a world with magic, a high-ranking magic chanter could annihilate several thousand soldiers in a single blow, so there had to be an equivalent existence to hold the enemy in check.

As soon as the monster entered a five-hundred-yard range, he would immediately sally out to fight. Although the aura emanating from the stone monster was very strong, compared to the dragons he had killed, there was still a considerable gap.

He made up his mind. But the stone monster did not move immediately. On the contrary, the first to move were the rebel soldiers, dense as ants—their numbers several times greater than in the previous rounds of attack.