Chapter 25
Chapter 25
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: The Fall of Kesilian Fortress and Gekson Castle
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One day before the Bekavia camp received word of the front lines' collapse.
Anton bowed and reported to Als.
“The enemy retreated through the Gariton Mountains as predicted, General. Per your orders, we feigned pursuit to disrupt their numbers and cut off their scouts.”
It was the effect of the field battle they had drawn out.
The Bekavia forces fleeing through the mountains couldn't accurately gauge the size of the army pursuing them into the deep darkness.
They must have thought it was the full force, but in reality, only about three thousand guerrillas had shouted noisily to carry out the pursuit.
The rest of the army lay quietly in wait on the outskirts of the Rohaden Highway.
And only once Anton severed the enemy scouts did Als begin the main operation in earnest.
“Alright, now let's get this operation properly underway, shall we?”
“...”
The officers gazed at Als with eyes full of awe.
His foresight rivaled Juras's, and his schemes were profoundly ingenious.
‘This man is no mere mercenary.’
‘Who the hell is he? Could some renowned strategist be hiding his identity here?’
Als's stratagems were so exquisite—and vicious—that the officers thought exactly that.
“Alright, now we'll split the army into two. Anton!”
“Yes!”
“You head to Gekson Castle and topple it as promised.”
“Understood.”
“I'll detach ten thousand for you. Depart immediately. Every minute counts when we're short on supplies.”
They could scrape by for a day on the pre-issued rations, but anything beyond required plunder.
“Right away!”
Anton led the first ten thousand toward Gekson Castle.
Afterward, Als took the remaining twenty-five thousand toward Kesilian Fortress.
The rest of the forces were positioned at key points for information warfare, severing enemy spies heading to Carrington.
As Als and his army appeared, alarms rang out at Kesilian Fortress.
Berid Malone, the garrison commander defending the fortress with two thousand reserves, muttered in disbelief.
“H-How did the Crossing army get all the way here...?”
This place was quite a distance from Carrington, where the fighting was underway.
Malone knew the results of the first engagement but had no information afterward.
“They said reinforcements were coming from the alliance front lines...”
To such a Malone, Als boldly thrust forward the corpse of Kasola Teltail.
“Carrington has fallen! We've annihilated the reinforcements meant to aid you scum, so you have no hope left!”
The Bekavia soldiers' morale plummeted the instant they confirmed Teltail's body.
Seeing the enemy with the corpse of their reinforcing general, they prematurely assumed the reinforcements were wiped out and Carrington lost.
Als seized that moment to urge surrender.
“Choose! Will you be buried here with this shabby fortress, or will you surrender!”
Malone, the fortress commander, wasn't in a position to make a sound decision.
The Crossing army's sudden appearance.
Startled like Deng Ai crossing the mountains to catch the Qiang overseers off guard, Malone's judgment swung to extremes in this unexpected crisis.
“S-Surrender is... difficult!”
Surrender is difficult.
At those words leaving room for negotiation, Als's lips curled up.
“Then I'll give you thirty minutes. We'll open the north gate of the fortress, so head to Arandal along that road. Arandal will be the site of the ceasefire negotiations, so if you go there, you won't suffer at our army's hands.”
It was all a bluff, but faced with an offered escape route, Malone had to decide.
Fight or flee.
As he agonized, deserters began pouring out in droves.
The reserve forces here were full of men too old or too young for regular units to begin with, so they quickly lost the will to fight.
Seeing the Crossing army preparing to attack from the south gate while leaving the north open, they hurriedly evacuated the fortress and fled.
Judging proper battle impossible, Malone followed Als's suggestion, abandoning the fortress for Arandal.
Had they holed up in Kesilian Fortress, it would've taken at least half a day without siege engines, so Als had saved time with mere words.
Als entered Kesilian Fortress bloodlessly and began emergency resupply using its stores.
Meanwhile, Anton heading to Gekson Castle faced a different situation from Als.
Kesilian was a purely military fortress with no civilians, so routing the soldiers sufficed for capture, but Gekson was different.
It had eighty thousand inside, led by the castellan with a thousand trained private troops.
If the castellan mobilized the townsfolk for a desperate siege, it would be no easy matter here either.
Anton followed Als's instructions to the letter.
He showed it to Gekson Castle's soldiers and townsfolk.
Rumble! Hundreds of wagons advanced in unison.
They overflowed with entrails that turned the stomach just to look at.
Splash! He spread them all at the castle gates.
“Th-That's...!”
“M-Monsters! Those aren't human!”
“Kyaaaah—!!”
The people of Gekson panicked in horror.
They assumed the entrails were human.
In truth, they were livestock guts, but entrails look similar regardless, and few ever see human ones often, so from afar, no one could tell they were beast innards.
“U-Ughhh!”
“I-I don't wanna stay here!”
Just witnessing the horror sent fortress-wall soldiers fleeing inward.
Castellan Antasian paled.
Anton issued an ultimatum to such an Antasian.
“Choose. Repeat Carrington's slaughter here in Gekson, or preserve your lives...!”
“C-Carrington fell?”
“Otherwise, why would our army be here?”
That made sense. Antasian knew of the initial devastating defeat via report, so he found nothing strange in Carrington's army retreating.
‘But it's weird. Even accounting for that, it's too fast...!’
He sensed something off there, but Anton swiftly acted to deny him time to think.
“We'll consider negotiations failed. All units, battle prep! Show these fools the blood festival from Carrington!”
Roooar!! The morale gap was clear.
Antasian hurriedly stopped Anton.
Whatever the circumstances, pitting Gekson's current strength against ten thousand regulars would mean unimaginable casualties even in victory.
Cherishing his domain's people like family, he wanted to avoid that above all.
“Terms! Tell me the surrender terms!”
“...Simple. We'll open the north gate, so lead all citizens to Arandal. Do that, and you'll keep your lives until the ceasefire.”
“Th-That's all?”
“But we'll need spoils. Leave valuables and food behind. Violate this, and we'll send pursuers.”
“Guh! ...Very well.”
“We'll enter from the south gate in thirty minutes. Best flee before then.”
No choice remained.
Gekson's citizens streamed out the north gate toward Arandal, and Anton's ten thousand entered the castle bloodlessly.
Entering bloodlessly, Anton swiftly gathered valuables and food.
As a granary-region castle, Gekson had ample stockpiles.
Anton dumped the entrails from the hundreds of empty wagons, loaded them with food, and shouted.
“Now, forced march!”
The march he proposed was so grueling even officers were stunned.
They had to move nonstop for two full days.
With food wagons in tow, stragglers were inevitable.
He addressed that using Gekson's valuables.
“Those who keep up to the end get an equal share of these treasures! Everyone, push on!”
Thus, Anton's unit hustled toward the rendezvous Als designated.
*
*
*
The fall of Kesilian Fortress and Gekson Castle.
Hearing the detailed report, Sophia's eyes widened as she yelled.
“Send word to Arandal immediately! Lock the gates and prepare for siege!”
The enemy's intent was simple.
Bekavia's second city.
By capturing Arandal, they aimed to end the war.
“It's planting worms in the heart! Sending Kesilian and Gekson's people to Arandal means embedding spies among them! Absolutely do not accept the refugees! Macully! Concentrate all intel forces around Arandal!”
“Princess, but the enemy lacks supplies. Will they really push north to Arandal?”
“They resupplied at Gekson! That's enough volume! They could forage more en route!”
“No intel yet on them heading to Arandal.”
“No, they definitely did. Nothing else explains it.”
This was a chance, instead.
Sophia couldn't hide her excitement at finally seizing a counterattack opportunity.
“Our army heads to Arandal too! Begin march prep now!”
Arandal fortifies and holds; she would catch them from behind.
Thus, Sophia's army stationed at Carrington set off for Arandal—a step too late.
Confident she had perfectly read Als's scheme.
Day six of the war.
Fighting intensified on the northwest front.
Juras mobilized his full force for a total assault, met by Albad's Kaien with divinely inspired defense.
“As expected of the legendary Strategist... No gaps whatsoever.”
Juras laughed, admitting he couldn't handle it.
The other officers were daunted.
“To think he'd have no gaps like this... Strategist Kaien!”
“Gillas Melburn and Yussis Goldray. Their timely judgments are fearsome too. Has Lutger Rosenberg's absence finally been filled?”
Gillas and Yussis, famed as Kaien's disciples.
They handled offense and defense as his left and right arms.
This exquisite harmony left the Crossing army suffering defeats everywhere, unable to secure tactical footholds.
“Hmph! Crossing trash, it's a century too early to target Albad.”
Leading his wing, Gillas mocked before heading to central commander Kaien.
“Master, we've repelled the enemy probing our right. They've fallen back significantly.”
“...Hmm.”
Even amid successive victories, Kaien looked dissatisfied.
“Master? What's wrong?”
“It's odd that crafty fox using such brute-force tactics.”
Juras didn't attack like this without special circumstances.
He maneuvered to create advantages, luring the foe to attack.
“Isn't that just you overrating him, Master? Besides, Crossing struck first. If they meant to hole up, they wouldn't have declared war.”
“No, something nags at me. Check other fronts' status immediately.”
At that moment, Kaien's intel lagged a day behind.
Juras's all-out push had, per Als's request, cleverly severed spies.
Thus, news of Kesilian Fortress and Gekson Castle's falls reached them now.
“Kesilian Fortress and Gekson Castle fell...?”
Gillas narrowed his eyes.
Kaien wore an expression of dismay.
Sophia, pursuing the Crossing army north to Arandal, arrived at Gashal Pass—one gateway to the city—and stared blankly at the soldier's report.
The Gashal base, which should have fallen, stood utterly intact.
“Pardon? The Crossing army? Never saw them!”
“Th-The refugees passed through here!”
“Yes! But no Crossing army.”
Strange. Too strange.
‘They can't threaten Bekavia's major cities without passing Gashal Pass.’
Only one answer emerged.
‘They bypassed forces in this situation?’
Then where to?
Macully Kuhn spoke up.
“Maybe they looped back to Carrington? Anticipating we'd leave?”
“No. They'd gain little from empty Carrington.”
Even seizing it yielded minor terrain perks.
Carrington's gentle plains offered little positional advantage anyway.
If so, Bekavia could just return and face off again.
“Then where did they bypass to? We concentrated scouts here; impossible to slip into our territory undetected.”
“Our territory...? Ah... A-Ah... Aaaah...!”
Sophia finally realized the Crossing army's bypass route and screamed in rage.
Her gaze snapped to one place.
The battlefield there. The northwest front, where Kaien clashed with Juras.