Chapter 168
Chapter 168
Iron Emperor — Chapter 168
The rain of stones pouring from both camps had now become a rain of arrows.
"Keep shooting!"
Shouts of encouragement rang out everywhere, and the archers loosed arrows with every ounce of strength.
"Damnation! I said shoot and get down!"
When several terrified archers crouched against the wall instead of shooting, Baron Bels screamed himself hoarse.
The sustained arrow barrage was failing to deal a decisive blow to the North Roselin forces.
"Damn it all!"
Soldiers who had charged forward bearing large shields gathered in clusters, forming sheltering screens, and the enemy archers kept loosing arrows from behind that cover. They were deliberately dragging this into a war of attrition.
"We're out of arrows!"
"Here too!"
As the stockpiles of arrows piled at their feet ran dry, voices clamored everywhere demanding fresh arrows. Realizing the arrows were already depleted without having thinned the enemy ranks much at all, Marquis Baikal's face darkened.
At this rate, once the enemy infantry began their charge, the means to hold them off would dwindle.
"Conserve your arrows! Keep as much of your body behind cover as possible and stand ready. The enemy will breach the walls soon!"
Judging the situation untenable as it stood, Marquis Baikal ordered the archers to curtail their arrow expenditure, while Baron Bels scurried about, shouting at the soldiers in cover to gather up every fallen arrow around them.
A handful of brave soldiers began moving about, shielding themselves with their shields as they picked up arrows directly.
Waaaaah!
"The enemy charge is beginning!"
The moment the observer on the watchtower shouted, Marquis Baikal started issuing new commands.
"Bring the prepared oil cauldrons forward! Shield-bearers, escort the cauldrons!"
Watching the soldiers move with desperate haste, Baron Bels bellowed to the archers.
"Now! Pour every remaining arrow you have!"
Once more, a rain of arrows began to fall from the sky.
* * *
Screams filled the world.
Princess Yunias wished this nightmare would end quickly. A war that had always felt far away had now drawn close enough to feel with her own body.
Bang!
"Who goes there!"
As the door was flung violently open, Princess Yunias's escort knight leveled his sword. The man who appeared was Baron Bels, drenched head to toe in blood.
"Baron Bels!"
"Princess! A message from His Majesty the King. Lead the refugees and escape through the fortress's rear gate!"
Princess Yunias's eyes clouded with despair.
This had already been discussed before the battle began. But now that the moment was upon her, her legs refused to carry her.
Where could she possibly go now...? The port city had no fortress capable of holding back the enemy. Baron Bels shouted toward the hesitating princess as though pleading.
"Princess! You must move at once! The north gate has been breached and the enemy is on the verge of flooding in. At this rate, the refugees will be annihilated to the last!"
"I understand."
Knowing that the longer she hesitated, the greater the danger to her people, she could hesitate no further.
Baron Bels began escorting Princess Yunias toward the rear gate. Enemy troops seemed to have already entered the fortress; the clash of swords and screams could be heard here and there.
Fortunately, the citizens following Princess Yunias were obeying the knights' direction well, and they began to slip out of the fortress at speed without major confusion.
"There! The South Roselin wretches are escaping!"
"Damn."
A curse slipped unbidden from Baron Bels's mouth. The pack of North Roselin soldiers rushing toward them numbered about twenty. And more kept appearing behind them, one or two at a time.
"We'll deal with them fast and keep moving!"
Baron Bels threw himself forward first, intent on stopping things before they snowballed. A dozen-odd knights charged after him.
But before they could cut down a single foe, a cry burst out that forced every brow to furrow.
"Bels is here!"
SWISH!
"Gurgh!"
The soldier's shout relayed the news in the span of a single stride, and the ripple effect was immense.
All this time, the North Roselin army's highest-priority kill targets had been Marquis Baikal and Baron Bels. And against Baron Bels in particular, their wariness had been especially fierce.
The North Roselin side, still remembering the "battle"(?) from five years ago, had designated him an enemy who absolutely had to die.
In the blink of an eye, North Roselin soldiers began to converge.
"Baron Bels! Flee with the princess at once!"
One of the knights looked at Baron Bels with eyes already resolved to die. But they were caught between a rock and a hard place.
"Argh!"
"Kyaaah!"
"Princess!"
In the moment he had glanced away, North Roselin knights had cut down the escort guards and were seizing Princess Yunias.
Enemies were closing in from every direction. Baron Bels hurled himself forward, but it was already too late.
A North Roselin soldier had just cut down Princess Yunias's last guard and grabbed hold of her.
"I've caught the princess of South Roselin! Gahahaha!"
"Kyaah! Let go!"
"Oohuhuhu! Ain't she nice and tender!"
His face twisted with madness, the soldier was groping Princess Yunias with one hand and laughing like a lunatic.
But the tip of the sword in his other hand was pressed against her nape, leaving Princess Yunias utterly helpless.
"Oh dear, the princess!"
A hooded refugee limped forward when the princess was seized. But there was no mercy in the hands of a blood-drunk soldier.
The sword that had been aimed at Princess Yunias's neck mercilessly slashed across the refugee's body.
Sckk!
A flash of light passed, and a fountain of blood sprayed. The refugee's hood fluttered into the air. Every gush of the spraying blood soaked into the hood.
"Guuaaaargh!"
"Oh dear, Princess. You almost got blood on you."
The soldier's sword, which had seemed about to cleave through the hooded refugee's body, failed to accomplish its purpose and lay rolling on the ground along with his arm.
And the hood that had been draped around the refugee had instead fallen over the soldier's body, preventing the blood from spraying onto Princess Yunias.
"Ah!"
Black hair, black eyes.
At the sight of the man revealed as the hood fell away, Princess Yunias let out an involuntary gasp. Almost at the same instant, a decisive command left the man's lips.
"Kill them all!"
"Aye!"
The answers rang out in perfect unison.
At the same moment, hoods flew into the air all across the crowd of refugees, and dozens of swordsmen burst forth.
"What the hell are you bastards—!"
Startled by the sudden reversal, a North Roselin knight rasped out the question in a voice near to tearing.
SLASH!
"That is Joui-du Daehyeong Gye Ung-sam of Great Gauri. Heh heh."
Gye Ung-sam's great blade had already swept through the questioning knight's throat as the answer was given.
The Gauri swordsmen were already rapidly mopping up the battlefield, which had become a scene of chaos.
Behind them, Ung-sam offered a respectful military salute to Princess Yunias, whose eyes were half-dazed, and spoke.
"I, Gye Ung-sam, have come by His Majesty the Yeolje's command to protect you, Princess."
"Ah..."
Whether from relief or something else, Princess Yunias stood there with tears streaming down her face. In that brief span, the North Roselin soldiers who had ringed them on all sides were butchered to the last without even the chance to scream.
"Gauri!"
Only then did Baron Bels, having received salvation from an utterly unexpected quarter, shout with a brightened face. Only then did the knights recognize them and sheathe the swords they had held at guard.
"Hmph. Seems it's always the same sorry sight with you."
"Lord Dupyo!"
Baron Bels answered Samdopyo's voice—the man was flicking shreds of flesh from his Mukbit Bong with a practiced swing—with a half-dazed smile.
"Go on, get moving. We've still got orders to carry out."
"Thank you!"
Even Dupyo's brusque tone did not grate on Baron Bels in the slightest. In the eyes of the South Roselin people watching these men, who had cut down the North Roselin soldiers like the wind and vanished just as swiftly, they looked exactly like a light of salvation.
* * *
Duke Vix Hauer, commander-in-chief of the North Roselin main army, who had belatedly entered Altareng Fortress, roared at Viscount Caen Felipe, the vanguard commander, drowning out his excuses.
"What! They escaped?"
"My apolo—"
The fiery-tempered Duke Hauer's kick buried itself in Viscount Felipe's gut before the reply could end.
Thwuck!
"Urgh!"
"Are you joking with me right now! What in the hell were you thinking, letting the most important target slip away!"
Viscount Felipe, his waist jackknifed from the impact to his abdomen, forced himself to continue desperately.
"B-but they left leading the refugees, so they can't have gotten far. I've already dispatched about five hundred mounted troops in pursuit."
"Damnation... How can they just vanish like that right before your eyes!"
Duke Hauer, having barely reined in his fury, narrowed his eyes as he watched Viscount Felipe's retreating back.
"A fool who doesn't even understand the priorities of war."
"Indeed."
"Huh?"
When an answer came to his muttered aside, Duke Hauer flinched and involuntarily turned his head.
"Who the— grrk."
Before he could finish the sentence, Duke Hauer felt a foreign intrusion in his throat and crumpled to the ground.
"This should buy enough time."
Flicking the blood from his great blade onto the floor, Gye Ung-sam slid the blade into its sheath and quietly began slipping out of the fortress.
Save for Viscount Felipe, every high-ranking noble—Duke Hauer and over twenty staff officers and commanders—had become cold corpses.
In the end, before they could even taste victory in battle, the North Roselin expeditionary force suffered the crippling blow of its command staff being annihilated, and was forced to abandon any further pursuit.
The mounted troops that had chased after the refugees were likewise discovered all without exception, riddled like porcupines and bleeding out onto the ground.
* * *
The eyes of King Alsein and Princess Yunias, gazing at the smoke rising from Altareng Fortress, were utterly leaden. Chosen as their final bastion, the fortress to which they had led their people had fallen without even holding out a single day.
King Alsein abruptly turned his gaze to the clamorous procession of wagons racing toward them. In thousands of wagons, his people rode with uniformly haggard faces.
"You said you are Lord Samdopyo?"
King Alsein called out to Samdopyo, who was driving the wagon he and his sister rode in. Dupyo inclined his head slightly and answered.
"That is so."
"I was told that the Yeolje of Gauri commanded you to rescue us."
"That is correct."
Dupyo answered King Alsein's questions with care.
Staring out at the thousands of wagons, King Alsein could not decide whether to be grateful for their meticulous preparations or to grieve over them.
The days they had fought until now were beginning to feel empty.
Silently, King Alsein gazed endlessly at the distant smoke rising from Altareng Fortress.
While an awkward silence hung, Princess Yunias broke it and spoke.
"Where are Lord Gye Ung-sam and the other knights from earlier?"
"They will have remained at Altareng Fortress, carrying out operations to delay the pursuit. By now, they should be following after us, I expect."
At Dupyo's answer, Princess Yunias nodded and looked around. Just then, Dupyo spoke up as he drove the wagon on.
"His Majesty the Yeolje bade me convey these words."
King Alsein slowly turned his head toward Dupyo's voice.
"What are they?"
"He said that when you cannot hold it, the best course is to withdraw."
"Is that so..."
A feeble voice from King Alsein followed. At that, Dupyo added one more remark.
"Only by surviving... can one take revenge and reclaim a lost kingdom. I believe that from here on, further sacrifice would only be to pile up more dead."
At Dupyo's words, King Alsein said nothing more. He silently leaned back in the swaying wagon and closed his eyes.
Anyone could say such a thing. But that made it no less true.
Yet in King Alsein's mind, the people he had been unable to protect would not be forgotten.