114 - - Fourteenth Complete Victory.
"The smell of death is terrible, isn\'t it?"
One of the cavalrymen muttered to himself. It was Rissima, one of Knogen\'s men.
"Yeah, they must have killed more people in the capital than expected. I dread the dawn."
"I don\'t think the Marquis de Berthaume would say that."
"No, I don\'t like it either. I don\'t want to eat breakfast in the midst of corpses and the stench of death.
"Worried about breakfast? That\'s what I\'m talking about.
A chuckle escapes from within the Order.
"But still, it\'s as if we\'re walking through an uninhabited field. This is a residential area for the townspeople, but I don\'t see a single soul. I can feel the presence of people, though.
"Well, that\'s because we\'re wearing such heavy armor. They wouldn\'t come to us even if they knew we were here.
"Sure, that\'s true."
As you slowly walk along the road with the breadbasket on your right and the residential area on your left, the road splits in two. If you go to the right, it leads to the west gate, and if you go to the left, it leads to the main gate of the royal castle. We took the right without hesitation and headed for the West Gate.
There was a bonfire burning at the West Gate, and we could see it clearly from a distance. Incidentally, there is a light leaking from the building of the headquarters of the Royal Army near the south gate, which is also clearly visible from a distance.
"They haven\'t made any moves. Are they really all idiots?
"Rishima, don\'t say that. I think they\'re serious, too. Maybe."
Once again, laughter breaks out among the Knights.
When they reached the west gate, they found the gatekeeper had fallen. Quickly, several soldiers dismount their horses and rush to him, taking his life.
"Rishima, you\'ve got it!"
"Leave it to me!"
Rishima and his group entered an area lined with knight residences. The few remaining soldiers close the west gate of the castle.
"That\'s just what faerie dragons are supposed to do! They do a good job."
They had been sprayed with scales from the sky that paralyzed their bodies. I was a little worried that they might resist, since I had told them that it would take time to take effect since they were sprayed from the sky, but my fears seemed to be unfounded.
The Lamarons were staying at the place where the knight\'s house was originally located. Some of the houses have been destroyed by the civil war and their invasion, but there are still quite a few usable houses left. They were forced to use them. After 30 minutes of waiting... Rishima came back.
"Mr. Barsam, it\'s done. It was an easy job, no resistance at all. All that was left was..."
He looked at the dozens of women in front of him. All of them were in tattered clothes. Some of them were crying, others had empty stares. I turn away.
"Let\'s get some restoration magic for now..."
I cast the largest amount of recovery magic I could use on them.
"Now their bodies should be back to normal. Let them rest somewhere until daybreak. Treat them with the utmost respect."
The women were treated politely by the soldiers as if they were carrying treasures, and disappeared toward the merchant district. I watched them go and dug a huge hole next to the west gate with earth magic.
"All right, bury the soldiers at the west gate here!"
"Marquis! I see a bonfire from the west!"
I rush up to the top of the west gate, leaving the soldiers at the west gate to be dealt with.
A bonfire approaches from the distance. I use my sense detector to find out that there are about 300 people in the bonfire.
"The enemy has returned! Prepare to greet them.
The bonfire grows bigger and bigger. The sound of horses\' hooves and armor grows louder.
"Open the gate! Open the gate! Open up! Master Beau is back! Open the gate!"
They are pounding on the gates. I look over the top of the ramparts
Who is it?
What are you doing? Open the door!
Who are you?
"You\'re an idiot! Of course it\'s Deputy Commander Beau Leyrick! Open the door!
Hey, hey. I\'ll open it now.
I gesture for Rishima and the others to open the gate.
The gate opens slowly. As if they\'d been waiting for us, Leirik\'s troops enter the castle. RHISHIMA and his men are surrounding Lamaron\'s army as if to welcome them.
When they have all entered the castle, the gate is closed. If you look closely, you can see women on horses and on the shoulders of soldiers. And not just one or two. There appear to be more than a dozen women.
The cavalryman in the center of the troop suddenly takes off his helmet. He looks around suspiciously.
"What? Why are all these people here? What happened? Hey, somebody report!
Beau Leyrick.
A cavalryman with a helmet under his arm looks back.
"You must be Beau Leiricq. Don\'t kill him. Don\'t kill the girl. Do it!
The moment my order is given, the swords of Rishima and the others flash. Soldiers fall before they can scream. They strike the Lamarons with a single thrust to the vital point, and then slay them without hesitation. Unresisting, the army of three hundred is quickly reduced to less than half its original number.
"What the hell! What are you doing! What are the others doing! Mutiny! This is mutiny! Fight back! Fight back!"
Röhrig is shouting like a madman. But in the meantime, all the infantry are defeated, and the cavalry are taken out one by one. Only about 30 cavalrymen were left to protect him.
"What! What the hell is wrong with you people! Why are you doing this!"
"Beau Leyrick."
Breathing on his shoulder, Leiric turns around again. His eyes are bloodshot.
"Who are you?
"It\'s Bartham Darke Linos. I have come from the Heedata Empire to retake King\'s Landing. See that big hole in the ground there? Your graves."
Leiric\'s eyes open wide.
"Do it!"
In the blink of an eye, the cavalrymen guarding Reilich were routed and he was struck from all sides and knocked from his horse, helplessly.
"d*mn you guys... don\'t think you can get away with this..."
"Well, what happens now?"
He calls out to Rayric, who has been stripped of his armor and stripped naked, as he climbs down from the gate.
"My army will make sure that you..."
"Well, let\'s go take a look."
He ordered his soldiers to throw the rolling Lamarong soldiers into a large pit and to protect the women the Lamarong soldiers had brought with them. No one seemed to be injured, but I cast a restorative spell on them for the time being. All of the women were young, some of them children no older than a year old. I glare coldly at Rhaelik. He turned away from me and looked down.
And then me, Rissima, and a few cavalrymen accompanied Rayrick through the town of the knight\'s house. Rayric is completely naked and tied behind his back, unable to move.
"Where are the soldiers... where are the soldiers...?"
"They are all in a long sleep in the house they used as a dormitory."
"Nonsense... our elite troops are not going to let you..."
"If you want, we can go take a look. The battle lasted what, half an hour? It didn\'t take long, did it?"
Leyrick is crestfallen.
After a while, a cavalryman came from the direction of the south gate.
"Marquis! We are finished.
Thank you. We\'ve just finished the west gate. Anyone injured?
No. Everyone is fine. But there was no sign of the commander.
"I see. Well, I\'m sure Knogen and the others will take care of that.
By the way, that man...
"Yeah, his name is Leyrick. He\'s the deputy commander. Most likely he went to raid the neighboring villages for food. They even kidnapped a woman and rounded her up when they came back. I thought he would know a lot since he was the deputy commander, so I let him live.
"Well done. Now, may I ask this Leirik a question?
Good. Permission granted.
"Hey, the commander was here. Where\'d he go?"
"..."
Reilich turned away and decided to ignore him completely.
"May I torture you, Marquis?"
"No, that would be a waste of energy and time. I\'ll take care of it.
We walk slowly. When we arrived at the south gate, it was in a beautiful state with not a speck of dust. I let out a sigh.
"No, the soldiers at the south gate were quickly cleared out... The troops in charge of the barracks and the troops in charge of the Royal Army\'s headquarters were free until the operation was completed, so they were cleaning up.
"What about the other Lamaron soldiers?"
That has not been done yet.
"I see. That can be dealt with later. Don\'t worry about it.
Marquis!
A horse gallops in from the south gate. He\'s one of Knogen\'s men.
"We captured six men we believe to be Lamarons who were traveling down the river on a raft. We\'ll escort them back now.
"Yes, please. You guys are... okay. I\'m just finishing up. Tell Knogen to have a nice trip back.
"Awe!"
With these words, the man rode his horse to the south gate again.
"So there\'s practically no damage, huh?"
"Yes, that\'s right. Speaking of which. Ramalon has seven survivors, including Rayrick here and the six we captured... a rare victory."
Rishima analyzes the situation in a nonchalant manner with her hand on her chin.
Hearing our conversation, Leirik shivers on his horse and squeezes out his voice.
"Who in the world are you people? No way, it\'s really the Great Demon King..."
"We\'re not the Devil King or anything. We\'re just men. Don\'t worry. We may have beaten you, but that doesn\'t mean you\'re weak.
I turn my gaze once again to Rayrick.
"We\'re too strong."