The Fortress Battle (1)
The Fortress Battle (1)
The fortress lay to the west of the Viscount's territory.
It stood not far from the territory's border, connected in the distance to the road leading from the territory to the capital.
After walking for about ten minutes along a narrow path that led from the road to the capital and into the forest, we caught sight of a fortress built from wooden palisades.
An old wooden palisade fortress, built right in the middle of the forest.
It had been built to monitor the monsters emerging from the forest and clear them out if necessary.
Until recently, though, this had been an abandoned, uninhabited fortress.
As the Kingdom stabilized and the territory expanded, the forest had become a safe zone.
But now, things were completely different.
"It looks incredibly busy, with carts and soldiers coming and going."
The single path through the forest to the fortress was scored with countless wheel ruts and hoofprints. They were still so clearly visible that they must have been made not long ago.
Even now, a carriage escorted by soldiers was entering the fortress.
"Supplies are going into the fortress, but there are barely any wheel ruts leading toward the capital..."
Strangely, they weren't sending any goods toward the capital yet.
If they planned to flee anyway, they could have sent the goods ahead of time.
Perhaps they still felt some lingering attachment to the territory?
Then again, abandoning one's territory was no easy matter.
They could claim they were fleeing monsters, but if they abandoned their land, it would be difficult to escape the critical scrutiny of the capital's nobility.
For us, this was a stroke of good fortune. If this fortress were merely a temporary stop on the way to the capital, our dash all the way here would have been in vain.
Miguel, peering over the wooden palisade, frowned.
"There are more troops than I expected."
The number of soldiers visible beyond the palisade was no joke.
Having rushed here in one go, we were now hiding at the edge of the forest, surveying the area beyond the palisade.
Although we had learned as much as possible about the fortress from the knights and soldiers serving as our network of intermediaries, we absolutely had to verify the information on-site.
As expected, there were more troops than we'd been told.
The soldiers patrolling atop the palisade seemed to be maintaining a reasonable level of military discipline.
Then again, the looted goods included not just food and ordinary items, but also various jewels and precious treasures.
If military discipline at this fortress were a complete mess, there was no way the looted goods would still be intact.
"So, we besiege the fortress?"
Though it was a small, old fortress made of wooden palisades, it was still a fortress.
It was a stronghold capable of easily fending off an enemy with more than twice its numbers, and it served its purpose well against monsters.
But against a knight—no, an awakened noble—it was practically useless.
Unless it had proper stone walls, there was no way a wooden palisade fortress could hold out against raining fireballs and shaking earth.
And indeed, we had such a noble right here.
But the other knights saw that noble as nothing more than an ordinary knight.
"It seems we should focus the fight around the knights. The regular soldiers will have a hard time scaling the palisade."
The other knights agreed with Miguel.
Perhaps because it wasn't just some temporary makeshift fort, the palisade looked to be over two meters high. At that height, ordinary people would have a hard time climbing over.
And it wasn't as though we had any siege equipment with us.
But that was only a problem if we couldn't break down the palisade.
I unsheathed the greatsword slung across my back.
"I'll take the lead. I'll smash the palisade, so everyone just follow behind me."
"That is far too danger—"
The knights stared at me in surprise, and Miguel reflexively started to object.
But when I looked at him, he broke off mid-sentence. He seemed to have remembered what had happened not long ago.
Miguel bowed his head to me, and I continued.
"Soldiers, charge right behind the knights. Raise your shields to protect yourselves."
After giving the soldiers their orders as well, I rose from the grass.
The soldiers' expressions darkened at my order to join the attack, but none of them dared disobey me.
The knights, too, looked half-believing and half-doubtful when I said I would smash the palisade.
No, to be honest, they looked as though they found it impossible to believe. And with good reason—the palisade was incredibly thick.
On top of that, it was made from a hard wood known as ironwood.
Ironwood was famous for not easily splintering, even if a knight channeled mana into their sword and hacked at it repeatedly.
Before launching the attack, I gave one final order.
"Kill everyone except for a few we'll interrogate."
I was prepared for controversy either way, but it was still better if none arose.
The knights and soldiers we'd encountered earlier didn't matter, since they were branded as deserters. This fortress, however, was still an official military facility in the territory.
Rather than let rumors spread and face questions over whether there were looted goods or not, it was better if no one survived to learn that we were the ones who had attacked.
After confirming that everyone had heard my final order, I raised my sword.
"Charge!"
At my command, the knights lunged forward, and I ran alongside them.
Between the forest we emerged from and the palisade stretched a flat plain several dozen meters wide.
Though weeds had overgrown it, it was still an open field, completely devoid of trees.
Had I been moving carefully alone, I might have reached the palisade undetected, but there was no way the knights could go unnoticed as they ran in full plate armor.
"A-An ambush!"
The soldier who spotted us first cried out, but the alarm bell didn't ring right away.
"Is it... monsters?"
"Plate armor! They're knights! They're knights!"
"Fucking hell! Why are knights coming here? Is it... a rebellion?"
"Rebellion or whatever, we have to stop them! Ring the bell, quick!"
Clang! Clang! Clang!
A rebellion? I heard something strange in the middle of all that.
But now wasn't the time to pay attention to such talk.
In any case, the delayed alarm bell let me reach the very base of the palisade.
Though I'd started later than the other knights, I was the first to arrive.
I didn't slow down, even when I reached the palisade.
Instead, I swung my sword with all my might.
My greatsword was fully charged with mana, and a shimmering haze rose thickly along its entire blade.
I filled the unbreakable, sturdy greatsword with mana and even applied the 'Mana Materialization' ability to the blade.
If the palisade still held after that, I planned to carry it around with me from then on.
Thud!
It was certainly sturdy.
When I cut through people or other trees, it usually made only a soft slicing sound, but this wood gave a heavy thud, like an axe splitting timber.
Still, the result was the same.
Wood splinters burst outward, and the wooden pillars shattered, flying in all directions.
Crash!
The soldier who had been standing atop the section of palisade I smashed came plummeting to the ground.
"C-Crazy!"
"The palisade broke!"
"Oh my god, he's a noble! He's not just a knight! He's a noble knight!"
The other soldiers screamed and scattered in all directions.
Indeed, when it came to breaking the enemy's morale, nothing quite matched a display of overwhelming power.
Our side seemed deeply shocked as well, but unlike the enemy, their spirits soared.
As I smashed more of the palisade, the knights leaped through the gap I'd made.
Miguel and several knights climbed atop the palisade to strike down the soldiers, while the soldiers following behind entered the fortress through the opening I'd made.
After demolishing enough of the palisade, I stepped into the fortress as well.
In that brief moment, the fortress had descended into utter chaos.
Fights were breaking out everywhere, and people were fleeing while screaming.
"That crest... The Gracia Dukedom? Why have the Duke's knights come here? This is the Viscount's fortress!"
"Oh, we just came chasing after some bandits. Isn't this a warehouse for stolen goods?"
Nearby, a fortress knight spoke while struggling to block a sword, and one of our knights answered mockingly.
"Not me! I was just doing what I was told!"
"Yeah, and I'm just doing what I was told, too."
A fortress soldier pleaded with his hands raised, only for one of the soldiers I'd brought to thrust his spear and reply.
It wasn't a sight I particularly wanted to see, but it was all because of the orders I'd given.
Fortunately, there were no residents of the territory in sight.
There was no way they would show commoners the place where they gathered the looted goods. That was precisely why I'd ordered everyone here to be killed.
I moved again.
Blood had to be spilled anyway. I had no intention of putting that burden on anyone else.
I circulated my Mana Cultivation Technique to lighten my body, then swept through the fortress like the wind.
I helped soldiers who seemed to be in danger and broke up enemy formations where they had clustered in large numbers.
I even intervened in the one-on-one duels between knights.
"We have to hurry. This is no time to observe chivalry."
Fortunately, the knights agreed with me.
Once the knights abandoned their one-on-one duels, the battle was quickly brought to an end.
Although the fortress had more regular soldiers, we had more knights—and, on top of that, we had me: an 'awakened noble' knight.
With me swiftly taking care of their knights, the remaining soldiers had no choice but to give up the fight.
But we had no intention of taking prisoners.
First, we interrogated the knights we'd spared and the surviving soldiers.
Perhaps they thought we might spare their lives, because they answered our questions right away without needing to be tortured.
Just as we'd heard, this fortress was indeed a gathering place for looted goods.
They had been storing all the various goods they'd looted in a warehouse in the center of the fortress.
It was a wooden fortress warehouse. Seeing the massive structure, which seemed completely out of place in such a fortress, I understood why they had gathered the looted goods here.
It seemed our work here was almost done.
Once we eliminated the witnesses, burned down the warehouse and the fortress, and left, the task the Duke had assigned us would be complete.
What happened after that was none of my concern.
After confirming everything, I heard some unexpected news.
There was another reason military discipline at the fortress had seemed decent today.
Normally, the soldiers at this fortress were as disorganized as any other official deserters, but today, they couldn't afford to be.
It seemed Viscount Lansarot was visiting this place today.
"When is he coming?"
"He should be arriving around this time."
At the soldier's words, I turned to Miguel.
"Clean up the soldiers and leave immediately. If you take the road, you'll run into him, so go through the forest. I'll follow behind."
Meeting the Viscount directly here would inevitably cause trouble.
Yet I couldn't very well order the knights to kill the Viscount the way they had killed the soldiers and knights framed as deserters.
In that case, it was best to make ourselves scarce quickly and avoid any encounter.
"Alex, you have to come with us too."
"I'll burn this place down and then follow."
"But isn't it just as important that you don't get caught, Alex?"
At Miguel's words, I pointed to my clothes and the knights' armor.
"Unlike all of you, I'm wearing ordinary leather armor and a common mercenary breastplate."
The knights would be recognized at a glance, but on the surface, I looked like nothing more than an ordinary mercenary.
If I set the place ablaze quickly and fled, there was no way anyone would recognize me.
Having made that decision, just as we were about to finish off the surviving soldiers and knights, a certain remark I'd heard while smashing the palisade suddenly came to mind.
"What was that about a rebellion?"
The territory had indeed fallen into chaos, but was there anyone capable of starting a rebellion?
Then I received an utterly absurd answer.