Chapter 77
Chapter 77
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 77
Chapter Title: Siege of Como City (2)
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The group of thirteen, including Corporal Wilhelm, cautiously approached the walls of Como City.
The silence was so profound that only their own breathing and pounding heartbeats echoed in their ears.
They crawled across the ground, slicing through the impenetrable darkness ahead.
"If we're spotted, we're dead..."
Several guards were stationed atop the walls of Como City right now.
If they got caught by those torch-bearing bastards...?
Whistles and trumpets would blare instantly, and rocks or arrows would rain down on them from above.
They only had the bare minimum gear needed for infiltration—no way to fight back. They'd just die.
'Fortuna, please.'
Corporal Wilhelm prayed fervently to the goddess as he crawled through the mud.
Midway, the thought hit him—what if he died here like this...?
But he managed to suppress that fear.
"Better to die than discharge without a plan..."
Some say that once you're out of the army, you can do anything.
But most soldiers regret it after discharge.
Not because military life is fun or comfortable.
It's great seeing your parents again at first, but if you don't inherit your father's farm...
You end up in the city doing the most menial, lowly jobs—eating worse food than army rations and living in barracks far more squalid than anything in the service.
No matter how hard you work your whole life, you'll stay stuck there.
That's the horrific life you'll drag out for ten, twenty, thirty years before croaking.
'Better to die than live poor.'
As he pressed forward, a signal to halt appeared from the darkness ahead.
It was just the lieutenant up front raising his hand, but it was the signal nonetheless.
Once stopped, the rest gathered in one spot.
"Luckily, no one's on the wall right now. So we hook the rope and climb up together. Any brave volunteers to go first?"
"I'll do it."
"Corporal Wilhelm, you sure?"
"......Didn't the deputy regimental commander say this mission could sway the war's outcome? For the Empire, I can gladly die."
The lieutenant was moved by those words.
To throw himself into the most dangerous part of a dangerous job.
He even thought guys like this should be commissioned as sergeants to brighten the army.
"I won't forget your courage and loyalty. Corporal Wilhelm goes first, secures the top. We'll climb while he watches."
Wilhelm swallowed hard.
Then he hooked the rope onto a merlon jutting from the wall.
He tugged it taut a few times and began climbing.
"Please don't spot me."
Soon enough, Wilhelm successfully scaled the wall.
No sooner had he reached the top than two men in pairs appeared, yawning.
"Damn it."
Wilhelm drew his sword and stabbed one in the throat as he yawned.
As the other guard reached for his whistle...
"Shut your mouth, punk."
Wilhelm delivered a kick that neutered the whistler.
The guy, no longer quite man nor woman, was in too much agony to even scream.
Wilhelm took out the other one in the meantime.
"That was close."
He immediately signaled the others to climb up.
After Wilhelm came the senior officer, the lieutenant, followed by the NCOs and soldiers ascending carefully.
The lieutenant clapped Wilhelm on the shoulder.
"Corporal Wilhelm's the top hero here."
"Thank you, sir."
"I'll hold the torch and play guard now. You lot head down to the base first."
"Yes, sir."
No need for further words now that they were this far in.
They'd been thoroughly briefed on the operation before setting out.
"Good luck to us."
The next morning, alarms rang out across Como City.
Two guards had been murdered.
No other traces remained...
But that alone made the situation obvious.
"Attention, everyone!"
The city's mayor bellowed those words.
"Imperial scum have infiltrated our city. They're eyeing us at every chance. Stay vigilant, all of you."
Wilhelm let the mayor's words wash over him.
He scanned the surroundings.
To get these malcontents on board with opening the gates alongside him...
For now, he slipped through the city, observing people closely.
'Gotta pick ones who look ripe.'
"......Just one question."
Guys who snapped back right away when approached like this were full of grievances; polite replies meant fewer complaints.
And the one Wilhelm approached blew up immediately.
"I'm busy as hell—what the fuck do you want? What now? Piss off, or I'll kill you."
"Nothing much."
A smile crept across Wilhelm's lips.
The guy looked overflowing with resentment.
'This punk'll do nicely.'
"I'm stuck here too after manual labor outside. Just looking for folks to group with. You know how it is when the city's sieged—strength in numbers."
"......Fair. But why let you in?"
Wilhelm tossed a 100-mark coin to the man.
"This enough?"
"Enough?"
Wilhelm used the opening to kick the man's leg out.
A groan escaped the resentful man's lips.
"Fuck, that hurts..."
"Don't get it? We band together to survive. You look like a day-labor drudge hiding where soldiers can't patrol. Don't you need muscle, punk?"
The seething man nodded at those words.
Someone strong upped your odds in the chaos ahead.
"Name's Antonio."
"Fabio."
"Cool name."
Having given the alias Fabio, Corporal Wilhelm thus joined a huddle of low-end laborers holed up in a city corner.
As Wilhelm entered the group's hideout...
He got a rather rough welcome.
"......Who the hell's this guy you dragged in?"
"Shut it, Luca. This punk's got solid fists. Us bottom-feeders need muscle to guard our rations."
Even with soldiers patrolling everywhere, security gaps always formed in a city.
So they had to clump together—or risk beatings and losing hidden food stocks.
"True enough."
"What's your name?"
"Fabio."
"Parents named you right. So, what'd you do outside?"
Wilhelm saw his chance.
"Same as you—hauling shit or odd jobs in the city."
"Sounds familiar."
"Hey... aren't you sick of living like this?"
Heads tilted at that.
The city was sieged—who knew when death would come? Bored? Absurd.
They clicked their tongues at the nonsense.
"Look, say we scrape by here somehow. What changes? We'll choke down gruel blander than dirty mop water or hardtack crawling with weevils."
No one could argue.
That was their lives so far.
Dozens more years of that, dying miserably.
"So what's your point? Rubbing in our hopeless lives?"
The mood sharpened.
Wilhelm recalled the regimental commander's near-brainwashing instructions before entry.
'Vent their life's grievances and stir them up.'
'Once riled, shout about the chance to change their fates.'
"Hey, life's hopeless either way. Wanna bet on the Empire?"
"You nuts?"
"Who's nuts— the guy okay with weevil bread forever?"
"......"
"We break through the gate guards and open 'em up."
One guy cocked a fist.
Wilhelm smashed his waist, dropping him.
"You idiots. If the Imperial regimental commander opens the gates, how much you think he'll pay us? Open once, flip your lives."
Lives turned around—eyes lit up.
Living like this, they'd given up forever; hope sparked excitement.
"What if we die?"
Wilhelm dropped the act and grinned.
"Better than dying like this, right?"
The group's leader-type, Antonio, nodded.
Beating weevil-ridden hardtack into mush for a lifetime was pathetic...
Obviously better to seize a shot at flipping fate.
'Guards here are kinda dumb too.'
"We're in, punk."
Wilhelm gripped Antonio's hand tight.
And when night deepened, Antonio and the crew began moving stealthily.