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Chapter 220 - The Beginning (2)

After all the generals received their orders, they took their assigned soldiers and marched toward enemy territory.

The rumor spread quickly.

The Holy City of St. Hall, with its Church of Peace worshiping Irene, the goddess of peace and abundance, had officially become the religious capital of the Aenia Empire with the occasion of the conquest.

Moreover, the artists of Musereal, the Art City, were singing of the new history that the Aenia Empire was about to make, just as they had promised Arthus.

The people reacted with unbridled enthusiasm.

Even though wise policies and news of consecutive victories were good enough to sway the public sentiment of the continent, the most effective method was to take advantage of the songs made by the artists in Musereal. They were essentially bards that sang joyously about the mighty power of the empire.

Along with those songs, the influence of the Holy City of St. Hall played a crucial role as well. St. Hall had used to be the religious capital of the Eurasian Empire that brought together the people of the continent as one. Because of that, there were still believers of the Church of Peace left throughout the continent.

For those believers, the Sun Warriors of the Church of Peace were a symbol, a model they admired, and their decision to join the imperial army had ultimately led to the Aenia Empire rebranding itself as a more trustworthy empire.

There were ten generals, each leading a corps. Among them, the Fourth Corps, led by the current fourth sword of the Imperial Ten Swords, Rockefeller Igdom, was heading to Vivaldi Town, one of the free cities that had recently declared independence.

‘Arrogant bastards.’

Rockefeller, who was in the lead, gritted his teeth.

The mayor of Vivaldi Town was Vant Larson, the greatest chess master in the entire continent, and Rockefeller had played chess with him a couple of times during the Eurasia Empire.

Evidently, Rockefeller had lost, as his opponent was the best chess player, but he had still gotten the impression that Vant was a true gentleman when he had played with him at the time.

...But to think that a man like Vant would go behind his back like this. Because of Vant’s betrayal, everything in regard to Vivaldi Town infuriated Rockefeller. The fact that he hated men without loyalty the most didn’t help at all.

‘I need to vent my anger by publicly beheading him.’

Rockefeller thought that his tasks were quite easy for a first mission. Even though Vivaldi Town had taken advantage of the chaos to declare independence, he didn’t think that they had enough time to establish a proper army to defend themselves.

Rockefeller turned around and saw the soldiers of the Fourth Corps following behind him. He felt reassured knowing that in this corps, there were members of the second imperial knight group he had used to lead, but also many newly recruited knights who were quite powerful.

On top of that, he had to conduct his mission somewhere not too far from the capital, so he was sure that he would be able to bring news of victory to the emperor before any of the other generals.

Because of that, Rockefeller increased the pace of the march. He wanted to get to Vivaldi Town as quickly as possible to kill Vant. As a result, the Fourth Corps ended up covering the distance that would’ve normally taken at least a week in just five days.

In the lead, Rockefeller raised his hand as he slowed down.

“Everyone stop.”

He urged the soldiers to halt because he could finally see Vivaldi in the distance.

“I think this is a good place to set up the barracks.”

Deep down, Rockefeller wanted to attack right away, but he knew that all the soldiers were exhausted after the five days of forced marching. He knew better than to foolishly force an attack when his soldiers weren’t yet ready.

With that, the Fourth Corps began setting up their barracks, and as they were doing so, the guards that were on duty on the castle walls reported this to Vant with their eyes wide open.

"What? The imperial army is setting barracks in front of the castle walls?”

“Yes, Mayor! No, excuse me... Your Majesty!”

Just as Henry had planned, Vant had become the king of Vivaldi Town. However, just because he had acquired this title, it didn’t mean he had obtained the power of a king right away. For the time being, he was just someone with a fancy title.

In spite of that, Vant was still somewhat satisfied. Even if he was essentially a puppet king, he was a king nonetheless. Moreover, since the new guiding principle of Vivaldi Town was about equality and no class division, he didn’t want to exert the authority of a king anyway.

Hearing this, Vant quickly gave out orders.

“Declare a state of emergency and announce that the alert levels are at maximum.

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Vant did what Henry told him to, and soon, the guards whom he had just ordered hurriedly made their way out of Vivaldi Tower. The moment he saw the guards leave the tower, Vant tore up the caller scroll he had in his pocket.

A white light radiated from the scroll, and soon after, Henry appeared. Instead of greeting Vant, Henry just asked, “Have the imperial troops arrived or something?”

"Yes, exactly! Just like you said, the troops of the Aenia Empire have invaded and are currently building barracks in front of the castle walls.”

“Did you just receive the report?”

"Yes.”

“Do you know how many men they have?”

“I have a rough estimate. They told me that there seems to be about one corps.”

"Is that so?”

Not even Henry could predict how many troops Arthus would send to Vivaldi. Wanting to confirm the numbers, Henry climbed up the castle wall, and nobody stopped him.

After all, countless wizards and craftsmen had already climbed the walls in order to expand them.

Once Henry made it up, he used his magic to greatly improve his eyesight.

“Hmm... Interesting.”

This magic had elevated Henry’s visual acuity to extreme levels. He had also gained some clairvoyant abilities.

‘So the captain is the former leader of the second imperial knight group, huh?’

Henry scanned every nook and cranny of the barracks with his enhanced eyesight. He could see Rockefeller constantly giving out orders. Henry also looked closely inside the barracks for a little longer to see if there were any other important people he might’ve missed.

However, no matter how hard he looked around and inside the barracks, it seemed like Rockefeller was the only person with authority.

‘Were the rumors wrong? They should know that the city troops gathered in Vivaldi Town alone are the size of one corps. What are they thinking, attacking Vivaldi with just one imperial army corps?’

Of course, even though both armies were considered corps, the quality differed greatly. Vivaldi had recruited mercenaries and, later on, ordinary people, such as farmers, whereas Rockefeller’s army was made up of highly trained soldiers.

But regardless of that, Vivaldi was now an independent country that stood on its own and even had castle walls to prevent an invasion from outsiders. Thus, the fact that they planned to attack with just one corps clearly meant that they were looking down on Vivaldi Town.

‘We’ll have to show them what we’ve got.’

Deep down, Henry wanted to use stealth magic to sneak into the center of the Fourth Corps barracks and cast an area of effect spell. He knew this would be a very easy and simple way to wipe them out. Henry also knew that currently, there weren’t any wizards in the Aenia Empire army who were skilled enough to see through his stealth magic.

Moreover, it seemed like they had just finished their march and were trying to recover. In a situation like this, Henry could catch them off guard and ambush them, effortlessly killing them all. It would be a piece of cake for him.

However, Henry decided not to go with his imaginative plan. He realized that if he stepped forward and took care of Rockefeller and his men in this situation, Vivaldi Town would only grab Arthus’s attention. If that happened, they would find themselves in a storm of trouble.

Arthus already knew about Henry because of the right minister, and if he found out that Henry was here in Vivaldi, he would most certainly send all of his troops here.

Henry knew that if that happened, no matter how hard he tried, Vivaldi’s collapse would only be a matter of time.

‘I have to be cautious with the tactics I use during this war. If we\'re lucky enough, everything will be over in a short period of time... But most wars have lasted for a long time.’

Because of that, he had to be extremely careful of what tactics he used, when he used them, and where he used them. He had to come up with a method to gain the upper hand in this war.

As a result, what Vivaldi Town needed at the moment was for the enemy to be under a hopeful illusion. More precisely, Henry wanted to delude the enemy into thinking that a single corps could conquer Vivaldi if they tried really hard. He needed them to have this illusion in order to keep them here.

The reason for this was simple.

Henry wanted to plan this hopeful illusion into the enemies so that he could keep Rockefeller, a great talent, tied up here in Vivaldi Town. Of course, the bonus would be keeping the entire Fourth Corps here as well.

After Henry came to a conclusion, he tapped his temple to dispel the vision-enhancing magic.

‘There’s a saying that the best offense is the best defense, but I’ll show you that the opposite is also true.’

Henry was done strategizing. It was now time to execute his plan. He used teleportation to set his plan in motion.

* * *

The Fourth Corps.

A total of thirteen thousand troops.

On the principle that ten thousand troops made up one corps, thirteen thousand was definitely a large number, which was another reason why Rockefeller was even more confident. Thus, the previous night, he had deliberately cherry-picked the higher-quality meat from the supplies to feed the soldiers in preparation for the attack.

Thanks to that, the soldiers had been in high spirits the next morning.

‘It’ll last two days at most.’

That was the conclusion Rockefeller came to as he saw his troops.

He slowly made his way up the command tower and shouted, “Today! We will be the first of the ten corps to announce victory and become the protagonists of a glorious story!”

“RHAAAA!”

“All troops! Prepare to attack!”

“HOAAAHH!”

Just like Rockefeller, the troops of the Fourth Corps were also confident to the point where they were already convinced of their victory. It was only natural for them to feel this way, because even though they had heard the news that city troops had gathered in Vivaldi Town, they knew they were just an unorganized group of farmers and second-rate mercenaries.

The soldiers soon got into position to attack.

Rockefeller gave the order, “All troops, CHARGEEE!”

“HAAaaa!”

With that, more than ten thousand troops charged forward, making the ground rumble.

Thud, thud, thud.

The ground shook as if there were an earthquake. The infantry of the city troops waiting for the imperial army on the castle walls gulped as they saw the enemy charge at them.

“T-they’re coming.”

The rumble they created was truly a daunting warning, which was why Vant also gulped as he kept his eye on the advancing enemy troops.

“Nock your arrows!”

“Nock!”

“Shoot!”

Twang, twang, twang!

Vant was the one commanding the city troops. He did so while using the voice-amplifying artifact that Henry had created.

Vant took part in this in order to boost the morale of the soldiers. He wanted to respect the new guiding principle of equality by participating in the battle despite his position of king.

It was a brilliant decision on his part.

Arrows rained on the imperial troops.

Basically, anyone who was strong enough to draw a bow had become an archer on the spot and shot arrows at the enemy. This was one of the advantages that the city troops had.

Imperial soldiers fell left and right, but those dying to the arrows were only the novice soldiers or those who hadn’t reacted fast enough to the arrows.

Soldiers who could use Aura at least at an elementary level had already enhanced their armor with Aura to deflect the incoming arrows.

The imperial troops eventually made it to the front of the castle wall and placed their siege ladder, which they had made the day prior, on top of the castle wall. The length of the ladder was just right for the castle walls.

Even though Vivaldi Town had expanded its walls to prepare for this kind of situation, sending scouts to gather intel on the opponent was an elementary war tactic.

Thus, Rockefeller was confident that he’d be the one victorious. He had heard from his scouts that Vivaldi had successfully recruited a large number of city troops. However, because they had done so without properly assessing the recruits, Rockefeller knew that most of those soldiers were weak and unskilled.

Because of this, Rockefeller thought that as long as he had sturdy ladders and strong soldiers, he would be able to quickly take over the castle walls. After the first ladder, dozens of other ladders were simultaneously set against the castle walls.

In response to this, the city troops showered the imperial soldiers with arrows and dropped boiling oil on the ladders to prevent them from climbing.

However, all of this had almost no effect. The imperial soldiers could handle most of these attacks with ease as long as they shielded themselves with Aura.

Just as the first imperial soldier reached the top of the wall, Vant shouted at the top of his voice, “It’s time! Push!”

“Gaaa!!!” the troops groaned in pain.

Given how many enemies were climbing on the ladder, the city troops had no way of pushing them away. However, they weren’t pushing the ladder, but the huge levers that were on one side of the castle wall.

When Vant gave orders, the troops waiting in the rear began pushing the huge levers in unison, as if they were manning a ship’s oars. The levers looked like the handles of a ship’s steering wheel. The giant steering wheel wasn’t upright like one on a ship, but was placed flat on the floor with a central axis to the floor

The troops began rotating the steering wheel-like object by pushing its levers.

Whir, whir, whir...!

Seeing the levers rotate, the soldiers atop the ladder gasped in surprise.

“Uh... HUH?!”

“W-what is this?”

“What’s happening to the castle wall?”

As the city troops were pushing the levers, the sturdy castle walls were turning sideways. However, it wasn’t the entire castle wall rotating; it was just the middle part, the so-called waist part of the castle wall that the craftsman had added.

“Gaaa!!!”

“I’m falling!”

Thud, thud!

As the castle wall waist rotated, the sturdy siege ladders tumbled like a house made of playing cards.

“Hahaha! How’s that?! This is the secret weapon the Archmage has given me! I hereby call it the waist-turning castle wall!”

Vant was overjoyed that Henry’s trick had worked on the imperial troops.