Subjugating the Female General (12)
"Waaaaaah!!"
With a furious battle cry, Duke Balanos's army charged toward Cadis Fortress. The soldiers racing at the very front carried shields instead of swords, and they were a valiant sight. Arrows rained down in sheets from the fortress walls, but the shield-bearers threw everything they had into turning them aside.
The shield troops formed up two ranks deep. Behind them, archers sat and loosed volley after volley at the fortress, trying to keep the defenders from shooting back. And behind the archers, more soldiers sprinted through the gaps in the shield wall with assembled ladders in their hands. Hundreds of them poured forward.
The bowmen on the Cadis walls loosed arrows in a desperate bid to stop those ladders from going up. Some of the ladder-bearers crumpled and fell, but one by one the ladders began to find their places against the stone. The covering fire from Balanos's own archers, hammering the ramparts without pause, made all the difference.
The moment the ladders were set, lightly armored soldiers started climbing, one after another. An enormous host scaled the walls. Down below, a battering ram rolled forward under the push of dozens of men, grinding toward the gate. They drove it into the massive doors of Cadis Fortress again and again. The gate was built to last; it would not yield easily. But if they kept pounding, who could say what might happen?
Just as the climbers were about to crest the ramparts, spearmen who had been hiding behind the battlements surged into view and began thrusting at the men in the lead. There was no room to dodge on a ladder. A soldier had to cling on with one hand and bat the spear aside with the other — and those who failed to react in time were run through and toppled backward into empty air. The same scene played out on ladder after ladder all along the walls of Cadis.
From the second man up, though, they were ready. They parried the spears and fought for every inch of stone. Now and then the defenders shoved a ladder back and sent it crashing down. Even so, the number of attackers standing on the wall began to grow. The archers who had been shooting from the ramparts threw down their bows, drew their swords, and joined the melee.
Cadis still held a clear numerical advantage on the walls, and the men who made it up were being cut down almost as fast as they arrived. That grinding, inconclusive struggle dragged on for five hours. The soldiers on the Cadis ramparts never got a moment's rest. They had to keep moving, keep fighting, without pause.
After five hours, the men climbing the ladders began to rotate. The troops who had gone up first belonged to Duke Balanos's First Legion. Now Count Hudin's forces took their place in the assault. The Cadis army had been fighting without proper rest or a single meal, and they were running on fumes.
That was when a rotation began on the Cadis side as well. Marquis Cadis's troops pulled back, and Duke Adrian's army stepped up to hold the wall. The ramparts were narrow; they could never hold a large force at once. The Cadis commanders had built their strategy around that fact, cycling fresh troops into the fight. Word had reached them that Duke Balanos's supply lines were faltering, which meant the longer they could drag this out, the better. And Duke Adrian's army was a cut above Marquis Cadis's in every respect.
The two forces moved as one, completing the handover with practiced precision — the fruit of endless drills conducted at Cadis Fortress while Balanos's army had been on the march. Once on the wall, Duke Adrian's troops began methodically clearing the enemy from the ramparts. The grinding assault resumed.
At last, as darkness fell, the first day's siege came to an end.
Back in the imperial capital, the news reaching Dong-hyun only grew worse. First had come the report that the army had met fierce resistance the moment it entered the Cadis Canyon and was struggling to advance. Then, in rapid succession, word arrived that the rear army's main camp — the one responsible for the supply lines — had been badly overrun, and that provisions were no longer flowing as they should.
"This isn't good..."
Dong-hyun's unease deepened. Cadis Fortress was the kind of stronghold you had to starve out slowly, given enough time. The walls were high, and the gate above all was built like a mountain; it was a fortress that did not fall easily. But knowing Duke Balanos's temperament, Dong-hyun was certain the man would force a siege even with his supplies running thin. He trusted Balanos well enough — but the opponent on the other side of those walls was Adrian, and that was what worried him.
If they failed to conquer the Kairan Kingdom here, the quest would end. From everything Dong-hyun had studied and every piece of intelligence he had confirmed, a failed campaign this time would leave the Krantz Empire without the strength to ever try again. That meant the quest itself could fail. Staying in the palace was no longer an option.
Dong-hyun rang the bell in his chambers. The maid waiting outside opened the door and stepped in.
"You called for me, Your Majesty?"
"Tell Count Rodos Banel to come in."
"Count Rodos Banel, Your Majesty? At once."
The maid left immediately to carry out the order. Count Rodos Banel held the post of Commander of the Imperial Guard. The Guard doubled as the capital's defensive garrison, and if Dong-hyun took the field, they would naturally march with him. They were the troops he could deploy as he pleased.
A short while later, Count Rodos Banel entered the emperor's study.
"Your Majesty. You summoned me."
Banel dropped to one knee and offered his respects. He looked to be in his early forties, with a sturdy build and a pair of calm, measured eyes. He was, of course, a noble of the emperor's faction. His family had held the command of the Imperial Guard for generations, and given the nature of that post, the title of family head was passed down young. When a house's business was the running of an army, it paid to have a younger man holding the rank.
"You arrived sooner than I expected."
"This servant comes running the instant Your Majesty calls. It could be no other way."
"I commend your loyalty, Count Banel. The reason I summoned you is this: I intend to take the field myself for the conquest of the Kairan Kingdom. Duke Balanos set out to conquer Kairan, but the situation has taken an ugly turn."
At those words, the kneeling Banel's shoulders gave a faint tremor. He was a man who rarely showed what he felt, but Dong-hyun's announcement had clearly shaken him. A young emperor moving twenty thousand troops on what looked like a whim — anyone would have been startled.
"As you command. I shall make ready."
Banel offered no argument. He simply obeyed. Dong-hyun's decision might well have struck him as strange, but the scene said everything about the depth of his loyalty.
"How long will you need?"
"Two days should suffice. The Knights of Krantz and the Dragon Knights — does Your Majesty intend to take them both?"
The emperor kept two knightly orders under his direct command: the Knights of Krantz and the Dragon Knights. The two orders had long competed with each other, honing their skill in the process. The Knights of Krantz leaned toward the role of the emperor's personal guardians, while the Dragon Knights spent more of their time in the field, acting on the emperor's orders abroad. Their temperaments differed, but both were the emperor's own, and their quality was beyond question.
"If we're going to do this, we may as well do it properly, don't you think?"
"As you command. It shall be done. Your Majesty — if I may be so bold, would you issue orders to the Minister of Finance, Marquis Vitus Metz, regarding our supply?"
Banel made the request without the slightest hesitation. He was asking for what he needed to carry out Dong-hyun's command as efficiently as possible. He would obey any order without question — and yet, when it came to the work of actually getting it done, he would not hesitate to ask even the emperor himself. Dong-hyun liked that unbending streak in him.
"Very well. I shall instruct Marquis Metz myself."
"You have my gratitude. This humble servant will take his leave."
Count Banel withdrew from the emperor's study. With Banel's request still in mind, Dong-hyun had Marquis Metz summoned.
"I will take the field myself for the conquest of the Kairan Kingdom. The Imperial Guard will need two days to prepare, so see to their supply."
"I beg your pardon? What is Your Majesty saying? Duke Balanos is already leading the conquest army — is there any need for you to go as well? Does Your Majesty have any idea how much it costs to move the Imperial Guard even once?"
Marquis Metz was nothing like Count Banel. He was already well into a lecture.
"Ah — I don't want to hear it. Duke Balanos may be moving the conquest army, but the situation is turning ugly. I will go myself. Make the preparations."
"But... what difference will Your Majesty's presence make? Just stay here, I beg you."
Marquis Metz was a prickly old man pushing seventy. Perhaps because he did not have many years left, he talked back to Dong-hyun — emperor or not — at every turn. In the end, unlike Count Banel, Marquis Metz unleashed a full barrage of nagging. Dong-hyun countered by casting a point-blank Do it because I told you to.
And yet, watching it all, Dong-hyun found himself thinking that Count Banel's loyalty and Marquis Metz's loyalty were cut from the same cloth. Both men, in their own way, had the emperor's interests at heart. The future of the Krantz Empire, he decided, was still a bright one.