Chapter 331: 30 Reinforcements (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 331: 30 Reinforcements (1)
Immediately after checking the communication, Caden fell into a long, heavy silence.
Looking at Roman Dmitry waiting before him, he swallowed his devastating grief and spoke the truth.
"...Luna's Fortress has fallen."
His voice trembled.
For all intents and purposes, the war was already over.
They had been hopelessly outnumbered from the very beginning. That was why they had to defend Luna's Fortress at all costs. Yet, the fortress had fallen. The fates of Sebastian and Jairo were unknown, and Luna's soldiers had likely been reduced to mere food. There was no chance they had abandoned the fortress to survive. Because the fortress housed a temple dedicated to God, the people would have defended it to their dying breath.
"I will not ask you to stay any longer. The fall of Luna's Fortress means we have no forces left to turn the tide of this war. I am truly grateful that you made the long journey to Arcadia, and I am sorry that we cannot repay you. The future of the Luna Kingdom is already over."
He clenched his teeth.
In his heart, he wanted to beg them to fight to the bitter end, just to grasp at that final sliver of hope.
But he couldn't.
As a devout believer in God, he could not allow Dmitry—who had shown them such goodwill—to be sacrificed in vain. His desperate efforts to teach them Luna's technology, and his choice to step away now, were all so he wouldn't be selfish.
With tens of thousands of Orcs occupying Luna's Fortress, asking thirty men to reclaim it and rescue the people would be forcing a one-sided slaughter. It would be a betrayal of their goodwill. Even if their alliance was conditional, Roman Dmitry had genuinely cared for Luna's safety. Caden could not drag Dmitry into hell alongside them when the outcome was so painfully obvious.
If they parted ways here, Caden intended to head to Luna alone.
He would likely die.
If captured by the Orcs, he would suffer the horrific fate of being flayed alive, but he would fulfill his duty as a knight of Luna. Truly, life was unpredictable. When he was just a child training with the sword, people had asked him why he worked so hard on something so unnecessary.
Arcadia was a peaceful world.
Since there was no war, weapons were deemed needless, and many pointed out that building fortresses was a pointless endeavor.
But just like that, Luna's future was over.
Arcadia could never return to the past. A single betrayal, a single war, had bred absolute distrust.
It was then.
"I told you before. The choice is mine to make."
Caden looked at Roman Dmitry with a bewildered expression.
When Isabelle had proposed cooperation, Roman Dmitry had refused. Even when Caden bowed his head and begged him to save Luna, Roman Dmitry had drawn a strict line. That was the man Caden remembered. If this was a war with no chance of victory, Roman Dmitry was someone who would withdraw without hesitation upon learning the truth.
And yet.
"From the moment Dmitry and Luna signed the contract, Luna became a vassal state of Dmitry. Caden, the fate of Luna is not for you to decide. So cut the weak talk, and tell me everything you know about Luna's Fortress from this moment on."
Roman Dmitry had not abandoned Luna.
* * *
His heart pounded wildly.
For a moment, Caden doubted his own ears. He had clearly stated that Luna's Fortress had fallen, but Roman Dmitry did not seem to care in the slightest.
What was even stranger was that the other soldiers were exactly the same.
Normally, if a commander declared they would carry out such a suicidal operation, those around him would try to stop him. Yet, Dmitry's men accepted it calmly, without much of a reaction. Caden couldn't understand it at all. He had known things were unusual ever since Dmitry said they would send only thirty reinforcements, but this far exceeded his expectations.
He could no longer hide his true feelings.
If there was even a sliver of hope, he wanted to do whatever he could for the Luna Kingdom.
Caden spoke up.
"Luna's Fortress is a fortress in name only; it isn't very suitable for defense. The walls are low, and the interior isn't spacious enough to accommodate a large number of people. As you know, Luna is not a highly populated country. Usually, the residents live in the villages near the fortress, while major supplies like food are managed inside. If Graxar's Orcs have captured Luna's Fortress, they won't all be able to fit inside."
"Your reasoning?"
"Graxar wants to turn other races into food. I heard reports that when they attacked the eighth storage, they did not hesitate to kill to subdue the defenders, but afterward, they kept the survivors as captives, feeding them only the bare minimum. They likely intend to raise other races like livestock. If so, inside Luna's Fortress, there won't just be tens of thousands of Orcs, but also the captured people of Luna. To manage such a large population, a portion of the Orcs will inevitably have to camp outside."
Therefore, there were two possibilities.
"We can assume two options for the Orcs. First, they might have deployed their forces inside and outside Luna's Fortress to reorganize their ranks. Or, they might have left a garrison behind and departed to attack other races. Graxar is extremely warlike. Now that he has started this war, he will move relentlessly until he conquers Arcadia. In fact, ever since his initial declaration of war, Graxar has been continuously attacking the surrounding areas without pause."
The more he spoke, the clearer his mind became.
Roman Dmitry listened intently. Because he had far less information here compared to the Salamander Continent, he absorbed Caden's words to gather sufficient intelligence.
Perhaps because of that intense focus, Caden, too, found himself taking this absurd operation seriously.
"If it is the former, reclaiming Luna's Fortress is practically impossible. But if it is the latter, there is exactly one way. The passage leading to the Ice Warehouse. The Ice Warehouse is a naturally formed cave that the Luna Kingdom uses to store ice and keep food fresh. A secret passage from that cave leads outside. If we utilize it, we can sneak into Luna's Fortress without having to breach the walls."
He shared everything he knew.
The choice was now Roman Dmitry's.
In truth, even with the secret passage, infiltrating Luna's Fortress while it teemed with thousands of troops was a reckless operation. But now, Caden wanted to follow him without complaint. Just like Roman Dmitry's soldiers, he supported what Roman was trying to do.
Soon, Roman Dmitry spoke.
"From now on, I will explain the plan."
* * *
Whoosh!
The wind howled.
Piercing through the blinding blizzard, three men walked toward Luna's Fortress.
Atop the fortress walls, a human soldier—grabbed by the scruff of his neck by the Orc Kalot—suppressed his terror and shouted at the approaching men.
"Halt! This is Luna's territory!"
His body trembled violently.
Behind the parapets, Kalot and the other Orcs were watching the situation closely. They had their weapons aimed, ready to slaughter the soldier's family at a moment's notice. Looking at his wife's terror-stricken face, the soldier could not bring himself to refuse Kalot's orders. He felt deeply sorry for Dmitry's reinforcements. They had certainly come to save the Luna Kingdom, but Luna's future was already over.
Step.
They stopped walking.
As the men looked up at the walls, the soldier spoke again.
"Identify yourselves."
"I am Roman Dmitry of the Dmitry Kingdom. I have come to aid Luna at Luna's request."
The other two men were Chris and Kevin.
The soldier scrutinized Roman Dmitry, a look of doubt crossing his face.
"I heard Dmitry's reinforcements numbered thirty. Why are there only three of you? And where is Sir Caden, who went to Dmitry?"
Roman Dmitry smirked.
It was a pathetic act. The soldier's pale face and awkward tone made the situation glaringly obvious, even without needing to know the truth beforehand.
"People of Luna, listen to me!" he suddenly shouted, raising his voice.
As the soldier looked on in flustered panic, Roman Dmitry continued with his original purpose.
"Luna has become a vassal state of Dmitry. You now belong to Dmitry, and as of this moment, you will follow my, Roman Dmitry's, orders. If you swear allegiance to me, I will not abandon you."
It was a sudden, jarring turn of events.
Neither the soldier nor Kalot understood what was happening. In the scenario they had envisioned, such a situation simply did not exist.
"If you are prepared to face death and fight to the bitter end, I will save you."
It was then.
Atop the walls, the Orcs raised their heads. Perhaps they finally sensed that something was terribly amiss.
"Chwiik! Attack!"
As Kalot shrieked, the Orcs loosed their readied arrows at Roman Dmitry.
At that exact moment.
Heavenly Demon Sword Technique - First Half, First Form.
Flash!
A single strike.
Roman Dmitry's sword slashed the massive castle gate apart.
* * *
Inside the secret passage.
Caden, who was waiting for the signal, anxiously asked the comrade beside him, a man named McBurney.
"...Do you believe this operation will succeed?"
Roman Dmitry's plan was shocking.
After assessing the enemy's movements and confirming the latter hypothesis, Roman Dmitry had stated that a small group—including himself—would draw attention at the main gate. Meanwhile, the remaining forces would infiltrate through the secret passage. Their top priority was liberating the captives.
It wasn't just for the safety of the prisoners.
Graxar had made a fatal mistake. Securing captives was a strategic choice for the future, but if those captives regained their freedom, the Luna Kingdom would recover its strength in equal measure. That was the big picture Roman Dmitry envisioned. If they raised an army from within using the freed captives, their meager force of thirty men could instantly multiply hundreds of times over.
And then, a head-on clash.
From start to finish, it was an incredibly difficult mission.
Drawing the enemy's attention with only three people was absurd enough, and even if the infiltration team made it through the secret passage, there was a high chance they wouldn't be able to overpower the internal guards. Even in the most ideal scenario where they successfully freed the captives, they would have to face over ten thousand Orcs alongside people whose weapons and physical conditions were severely lacking.
That was why he had asked.
Yet, to his question about the operation's success, McBurney reacted calmly.
"Yes, of course."
There was not a single shred of doubt in his voice.
McBurney had experienced countless wars, starting from the Southern Front. By trusting and following Roman Dmitry, McBurney had seen situations far more absurd than this one lead to victory multiple times. Furthermore, Roman Dmitry had a track record of annihilating ten thousand troops in Rascal all by himself.
It wasn't that reclaiming the fortress wasn't dangerous, but no matter what sacrifices had to be made, he did not doubt Dmitry's ultimate victory.
Such absolute conviction.
Caden felt a strange sensation. He genuinely grew curious about the man named Roman Dmitry, wondering where this absolute trust originated.
‘If he truly pulls off this operation...’
The status of a vassal state. He thought it might not be so bad after all.
At first, he hadn't fully agreed with Isabelle's urging to seek out Roman Dmitry, but Roman Dmitry had not abandoned Luna even under these terrible circumstances. The fact that Dmitry needed the Luna Kingdom to control Arcadia was actually not that important anymore. From the moment Luna's Fortress fell, their initial promise had lost its practical meaning, but Roman Dmitry was not a man who would turn a blind eye to the weight of a promise.
If Isabelle was the proxy of God, Roman Dmitry was a king in the truest sense.
Caden, who had never accepted any ruler other than Isabelle, began to dream of a new kind of future.
Roman Dmitry leading Luna.
In an Arcadia where peace had been shattered, that was the most ideal future he could imagine.
It was then.
Boom!
Rumble!
"Now."
Finally, the promised signal was given.
* * *
Crash!
The massive castle gate shattered into pieces.
Atop the walls and beyond the ruined gate, the Orcs fell into absolute chaos. As the teeming monsters unleashed their ominous, murderous intent, Roman Dmitry took the first step forward.
"Let's go."
"Yes, sir."
Chris and Kevin followed closely behind him. As if this were nothing at all, they approached the sea of enemies filling their vision with completely unhurried steps.