Chapter 77
Chapter 77
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 77
Chapter Title: One-Man Siege Warfare (2)
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Ranger Hyal.
He was a veteran ranger assigned to guard duty at the outpost.
Inside the log outpost, he warmed himself by the firewood stove.
Bubble bubble bubble bubble...
The brass kettle placed on top of the stove boiled, spewing steam.
Hyal took a sip of his tea.
'The soldiers who switched shifts should be back by now.'
He had boiled tea intending to share it when the guys from the ramparts returned, but no one showed up.
'Is the snow delaying their return?'
Bibuak Citadel was small in scale, but its walls were unusually high for its size, making the stairs extremely steep.
When it snowed, the already narrow and tall stairs became slippery, and soldiers often got hurt.
Looks like someone got injured this time too.
'Should I take a quick look around?'
Hyal stepped out of the outpost.
It was snowing, but not much had accumulated on the stairs yet.
Judging that the soldiers would have no trouble returning, he decided to wait a bit longer and headed back inside.
Just as he was about to open the door.
"Huh?"
Beyond the white snowfield, something moved beneath the black walls.
The drainage ditch connected to the outside of the walls.
Something black twitched in the small hole designed for rainwater to drain.
Hyal furrowed his brow.
It happened often enough.
When frozen dirt clumps or leaf piles got stuck in the drain, water couldn't flow out and pooled up to freeze solid.
Sometimes small beasts would approach to eat the cockroaches or rat corpses caught in there.
'A dog? Or a rabbit?'
Hyal walked toward the drainage hole in the wall.
A bulging snow mound came into view.
"What?"
Hyal's eyes widened.
From afar, it looked like the drain was just clogged, but up close, looking down beside the snow mound revealed a large hole in the wall that shouldn't be there.
And in it.
"You've been spotted."
A boy with black hair, black skin, and red eyes was digging a tunnel.
"You bastard!"
Hyal immediately drew his sword.
The blade, infused with bluish mana, swung toward the intruder.
But.
Whoosh!
A crimson aurora rippled from the tip of the boy's sword.
Hyal nearly cried out.
'3rd Circle!? No, that's almost 4th Circle!'
Unlike his youthful appearance, the opponent was incredibly skilled.
Hyal mustered all his strength and barely blocked the boy's sword.
Clang!
The moment their swords collided.
Chill...
Hyal felt an intense cold transmitted through his blade.
Before he could react, the frost engulfed his sword, hand, wrist, and even elbow in white rime.
Crack crack crack!
Heavy ice armor sealed his right hand.
His right arm suddenly felt like it weighed over 30kg, causing Hyal's body to stagger.
The haze from moisture in the air freezing obscured his vision.
Right then.
...Boom!
The boy's thrust shield slammed into Hyal's body.
The powerful shockwave left Hyal's mind reeling.
Crash!
Ice shattered from his right arm, lightening the weight dramatically.
Thinking the impact had broken the heavy ice restraining his arm, Hyal swung his sword.
But.
"!?"
What shattered wasn't just the ice on his right arm.
His own frozen right arm had also splintered into pieces like frozen meat smashed by a hammer.
"Aaaargh!?"
Hyal screamed.
But as a seasoned ranger, even in his scream, he coldly tracked the enemy's movements.
Swish.
The enemy lowered his center of gravity and slid like a ghost.
He discarded the shield he had just swung onto the ground, stepped on it with his left foot, and kicked off with his right to propel forward.
The enemy, moving at incredible speed over the smooth ice, tilted his body almost horizontal.
Slash!
The sharp blade finally severed Hyal's Achilles tendon.
But Hyal was a veteran ranger too.
In the instant he fell, he hurled the dagger from his bosom.
The dagger was condensed with a 3rd Circle knight's mana to its limit.
Boom!
Unable to withstand the mana, the dagger exploded in midair, spraying iron shards everywhere.
Hyal was certain this would deal a fatal blow.
But.
Kakakakak!
The mysterious boy swept away all the airborne fragments with swordplay bordering on the divine.
Hyal's eyes widened as if they would tear seeing the trajectory traced by the boy's blade tip.
"Meursault!"
That was his final death cry.
Ding!
A crescent-shaped slash extended from the boy's sword tip, sending Hyal's head flying into the air.
...Spurt! ...Spurt! ...Spurt! ...Spurt!
Blood vigorously spurted from the severed artery, freezing in the extreme cold into blooming red salvia flowers.
Finally, the boy who had used the shield as footing straightened up.
"Furosange's rangers are all pretty skilled."
Federback.
He was rampaging through the interior of Bibuak Citadel unhindered.
He had already created twenty-four secret entrances connecting to the outside—perfect for guerrilla warfare.
He had even called in the ten knights waiting outside to set fires in various spots, plunging Furosange into further chaos.
Then.
"Executioner."
A shadow poked its head out from the roof of the fodder warehouse.
Haundid was calling Federback.
Federback noted the three arrows embedded in his shoulder.
"Deeply lodged?"
"Oh, this? It's nothing. Just stuck in my leather bracer."
Haundid grinned and brushed off the arrows from his shoulder.
Federback nodded.
"How are the Furosange bastards reacting?"
"They're furious, going insane. Viscount Serubret's eyes were bloodshot. He's out there personally wielding a sword and torch."
"Figures. I declared war openly, after all."
Federback had deliberately let a few soldiers live.
This infiltration wasn't to reduce their numbers—it was to instill fear and chaos.
At that moment, an explosion rose from the western walls, black smoke billowing up.
Countless footsteps headed that way.
Meanwhile, a minimal number of footsteps went in the opposite direction from the blast.
Rustle rustle rustle.
Eleven people, including Federback and Haundid, gathered at a burrow entrance.
Haundid said,
"With just a bit of vinegar, baking soda, and straw, I can whip up a small priest bomb."
"Even better with iron filings and salt."
Federback nodded and crawled through the burrow.
Haundid pulled out a leather pouch from his bosom and poured it over the hole.
Trickle trickle...
A mix of ash and stone powder flowed down the wall, freezing into icicles that sealed the burrow.
From the other side, it would look like an ordinary wall.
Federback and the knights moved to a snow-covered hill.
"What about the ones who fled outside the gates?"
"Quite a few. All deserters from the Furosange side. Morale seems rock bottom."
"A little shaking, and they'll collapse on their own."
The most fatal thing for those who had failed once and were isolated.
Internal strife.
With morale already low, soldiers' discipline and sense of belonging hit rock bottom.
The defeatist mindset of "we can't win" makes them see their group as a sinking ship.
The moment the idea spreads that "escaping that ship is smart," the group crumbles completely.
Rustle rustle rustle.
The eleven from House Meursault, led by Federback, settled in a snow cave far from Bibuak Citadel.
Soon, a ranger appeared atop the rampart watchtower.
To watch for enemies fleeing outside the walls.
Federback sent him a special gift.
Thwip!
An arrow arced through the air, striking the ranger on the watchtower square in the chest.
He clawed at the air a few times before plummeting headfirst toward the base of the wall.
Haundid exclaimed,
"That was at least seven hundred meters, right? You handle the bow amazingly. I could believe you're a ranger yourself."
"Just a hobby I picked up. More importantly."
Federback asked Haundid,
"Did you learn anything about the mage called Shedioldis?"
"I captured and tortured some soldiers, but nothing came up. Just that she's a freeloader who suddenly appeared one day and fixed Young Master Pin-in's wrist. That's all they know."
"Hm. Next infiltration, I should pay her a visit."
Of course, it wouldn't end with just visiting.
He intended to capture her and dissect every part of that body to find where the nauseating stench came from.
After that, Federback visited Bibuak Citadel every night.
Sometimes at midday instead of night.
Amid the 24-hour blizzard, no one could spot Federback with his white hair, white skin, and white clothes.
The soldiers of Bibuak Citadel called this Federback the “Wendigo” and feared him.
Wendigo was a monster from northern indigenous legends, meaning “an ominous being in the blizzard that lives by eating people.”
Inside the citadel, whenever three or more people gathered, they talked about it.
“They say Federback of House Meursault is targeting us.”
“No matter how many people he eats, he never gets full.”
“He appears on nights when the blizzard rages. That’s why they say he takes away naughty kids.”
“Not just kids—drunken husbands, violent husbands, husbands who can’t bring home money, husbands who can’t perform at night… anyway, any man gets taken, apparently.”
“That monster wanders the snowfields and can appear anywhere a blizzard blows. Maybe tonight it’ll come to our house too…”
The ghost story grew fleshier and more massive with each passing day. And every morning, the frozen corpses discovered lent it substance.
Perhaps because of that, deserters from the Furosange camp numbered over a dozen a day. It wasn’t limited to the ragtag original defenders of Bibuak Citadel. Not even Furosange’s elite soldiers were exempt—even rangers deserted.
Or rather, no one knew if they truly deserted or if the Wendigo had killed them overnight, leaving them frozen under some remote drain.
The isolated Furosange House in Bibuak Citadel was wasting away, captive to the nightmare named Federback.
And.
Whoooosh…
Tonight, the blizzard howled as always. The people inside shuttered their windows and doors tight. The Wendigo would come soon.