Chapter 64
Chapter 64
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 64
Chapter Title: Destroying Porhen Gorge
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Adelson left Bieltona the very next day.
It wasn't just because of his own business; he also felt like he was being a nuisance amid the bustling activity in Bieltona.
But in just one day, not only the Arrowhead Unit members but every soldier in Bieltona had come to know him.
It was only natural.
They had learned that Adelson was the one who procured the fur coats they were all wearing.
“Until next time in Velotra.”
“Use it carefully. It’s extremely dangerous.”
“Yes.”
With those words, the two men shook hands.
After Adelson departed with Belson, Lian headed straight to find Barus.
“Captain Barus.”
“Ah, Lieutenant Lian. Did the guest leave well?”
“Yes, thanks to your consideration, I was able to meet him properly.”
“Good. He’s practically a great benefactor to Bieltona, so I was worried he might have lacked anything during his stay.”
“Not at all.”
“I was just about to talk to you after the guest left. Perfect timing.”
Barus immediately spread a map across the table.
He pointed to Porhen Gorge on the map depicting the entire Bieltona region.
“Now it’s time to end it.”
“Yes.”
Lian answered without hesitation.
He had come specifically to discuss that very matter.
And so the meeting began.
Unusually for a Bieltona strategy session, Raymond of Eagle Company and the platoon leaders were also in attendance.
Eagle Company had originally been due to return, but after the recent battle, they had decided to commit fully to Bieltona’s fight.
Once all the officers had gathered, Barus spread out the map and spoke.
“In the current situation, it’s no exaggeration to say the barbarians in Bieltona are virtually depleted. Their overall commander is dead, and over five hundred elite soldiers under him have all perished.”
It had been a battle with no rear guard, like fighting zombies.
The barbarians’ forces had been drastically reduced as a result, but Bieltona’s soldiers had also suffered considerable losses.
Homel spoke up.
“Even with their forces diminished, isn’t it still too much to break through Porhen Gorge head-on?”
Porhen Gorge could pass as a fortress in its own right. No, from the defender’s perspective, it was far superior to any ordinary castle.
After all, a force of two or three hundred could hold off more than a thousand enemies there.
But that didn’t mean Bieltona could afford to just sit back and regroup indefinitely.
Barus spoke with a stern expression.
“If other barbarians reinforce Porhen Gorge, it’ll be a catastrophe for us.”
They had to seize Porhen Gorge completely before reinforcements arrived.
Lian spoke with equal resolve.
“But even if we take Porhen Gorge, will that end the war?”
“What do you mean?”
Barus asked.
Porhen Gorge was the fastest—and only—route south from the north, a natural fortress.
If left in barbarian hands, Bieltona would suffer the same agony over and over.
Lian shook his head.
“Even if we reclaim Porhen Gorge, defending it would require throwing in massive numbers of troops all over again.”
Precisely, around a hundred men could hold it defensively, but the problem was housing the soldiers.
Bieltona Castle and Porhen Gorge were close, yet not close enough.
The barbarians could occupy Porhen Gorge precisely because they had built a village there to live in.
Thus, for Bieltona’s forces to defend it ongoing, they would need to construct an adjacent base.
“To do that, soldiers and local residents would have to endure long stretches of forced labor once more. It’s a vast area, so securing livable positions for everyone is essential.”
“But we can’t just hand it over to them either, can we?”
“That’s why I’d like to cautiously propose an idea.”
“...An idea?”
As Barus posed the question, the other officers all turned to stare at Lian.
The plan had first taken shape in a conversation with Barus.
Lian’s posting here meant either abandonment or a test from some high-ranking figure.
Under that assumption, Lian naturally dismissed the idea of being abandoned.
Even as a commoner, his status alone wouldn’t put him out of favor.
It made even less sense given his track record so far.
That left just one possibility: he was being tested by someone.
He didn’t know who, but given the kingdom’s current politics, it was plenty convincing.
‘Simply subjugating the barbarians won’t cut it.’
Lian saw Bieltona as potentially a massive opportunity for himself.
Which meant ‘predictable’ results wouldn’t suffice.
He needed something definitively beyond imagination.
“I plan to scale the walls of Porhen Gorge.”
“...?”
“What?”
“What do you mean, scale the walls?”
The long-serving Bieltona officers sounded baffled.
But unlike them, Raymond’s lips twitched upward.
Homel asked Lian.
“Lieutenant Lian, you mean climbing over the walls of Porhen Gorge?”
“Yes.”
“Huh-”
“Haha, Lieutenant Lian. Have you forgotten how sheer and towering those Porhen Gorge walls are? How do you expect to climb them?”
“We can climb them. That’s what the long training has been for.”
“...Training?”
The officers’ brows furrowed slightly. Barus then fixed his gaze on Lian.
His calm, steady eyes held no dismissal or mockery of Lian’s proposal.
They signaled serious consideration.
“You don’t mean that bizarre wooden wall you built here, do you?”
“Exactly.”
It was training to climb using holds barely 1cm thick.
Among those who had trained diligently and grown proficient, some could now scale a nearly 10-meter wall multiple times without pause.
Lian continued.
“The situation has actually improved. Any troops that might have been positioned atop the gorge are gone now. The enemy has to commit everything to blocking the entrance.”
“But even with that training, scaling Porhen Gorge’s walls doesn’t make sense.”
“Not everyone needs to climb. If a few make it up, they lower long ropes, and the rest ascend using them.”
“Haha... That’s far too implausible.”
“No way... Not without magic...”
“Everyone.”
Amid the opposition, Lian spoke quietly.
His plan went beyond mere wall-climbing.
Something far more crucial remained.
“I intend to end this war—and destroy Porhen Gorge.”
“What?”
“Lieutenant Lian! You’re not just spouting nonsense, are you!”
One of the officers finally yelled at Lian.
Destroy Porhen Gorge?
How?
Demolishing that colossal gorge was impossible without one of the kingdom’s top mage talents on hand.
Or hurling boulders with massive siege engines for days on end.
Either way, utterly absurd.
Lian shook his head.
“If we don’t destroy Porhen Gorge, other barbarians will settle here before long. Bieltona will face the same tragedy again, and this place will turn into a perpetual war zone.”
“Lian.”
Raymond called to him then.
Lian turned to Raymond, who asked softly.
“Do you have a method?”
“Yes.”
Lian produced the box he carried.
It was the very item Adelson had brought himself.
Everyone’s attention locked onto the box.
Lian opened it slowly.
“...What is that?”
“What the hell?”
Most faces showed pure confusion. But Barus and Raymond stared at Lian in astonishment.
It was utterly unexpected.
“Lian, this is...?”
“Yes, exactly what you’re thinking.”
Lian answered Barus’s question, making the captain’s pupils quiver.
As the others shot Lian quizzical looks, he lifted the fist-sized black orb from the box.
“It’s called a blast orb.”
This fist-sized sphere packed destructive power rivaling the 5th-circle spell Flame Buster.
Faces around the room twisted in shock at Lian’s explanation.
5th-circle mages barely numbered ten across the entire kingdom.
Each was a walking catastrophe in wartime.
And now an object matching their might?
Raymond asked Lian amid the stunned silence.
“Where’d you get this? Must’ve been no small feat.”
It wasn’t something you could easily acquire in the kingdom.
Black-market dealings without permits meant execution for seller and buyer alike—it was treated with utmost severity.
Lian gave a faint smile at Raymond’s question.
“It was obtained with official authorization.”
That was the favor he’d asked of Adelson.
With an era of war looming, war-related acquisitions were essential.
‘Mr. Adelson took my advice perfectly for this to work.’
Turning the Hamel Merchant Company into a war supplier had been Lian’s scheme, but Adelson’s prowess went beyond.
He was already circulating—and owning—blast orbs that nobles struggled to procure.
The blast orb’s emergence flipped the mood entirely.
“But even blast orbs won’t demolish the gorge if you just chuck them in.”
“That’s why engaging the enemy is unavoidable. After fully suppressing them, we plant blast orbs at the base of both gorge walls. That’s the key.”
“Phew... Why not just use the blast orbs to wipe them out instead?”
“But that wouldn’t fully eliminate the gorge, so Bieltona would become a battlefield again before long.”
An absurd weapon called the blast orb had fallen into their hands.
As the other officers suggested, detonating the upper gorge with them would simply bury the barbarians alive.
But that wasn’t Lian’s desire.
He sought Bieltona’s total peace and lasting truce.
“...Fine. We’ll do it that way.”
Barus, lips pressed tight, rendered his verdict.
No one craved Bieltona’s ceasefire more than he did.
With a viable path forward, there was no cause to abandon it.
The other officers nodded as Barus decided.
“Let’s do it. It’s the last one.”
“Phew, impressive right to the end.”
Nothing in Bieltona had ever been easy.
Raymond smiled faintly at the scene.
A single man—Lian—had forged this atmosphere.
“Eagle Company will lead the charge at the gorge.”
“Sorry, but that we can’t yield, Captain Raymond.”
The other officers nodded along with Barus.
“Bieltona’s final battle... the vanguard must be ours. And...”
Barus glanced at Lian.
“Can you pull it off? It’s no easy feat.”
Focus on the blast orb had overshadowed it, but ending the war without casualties hinged first on Lian’s gambit.
Climbing Porhen Gorge’s walls.
Lian nodded to Barus’s query.
“I’ll make it happen, no matter what.”
Barus rose from his seat at Lian’s words.
“Let’s go—for the final battle.”