Chapter 224
Chapter 224
Iron Emperor — Chapter 224
"What are you two, fishermen?"
"......."
"......."
There sat Samdopyo and Buyeo Gi-yul, diligently urging the soldiers on as they made nets—and Gye Ung-sam, the man happily rubbing salt in both their wounds.
It was no exaggeration to say that Ung-sam, itching with boredom from the prolonged, monotonous warfare, found his sole amusement in these two.
Because Ung-sam was their superior, they couldn't say a word back and simply kept working while he hunkered down beside them and resumed his daily amusement—or whatever one wanted to call it.
"A message!"
Clop! Clop! Clop!
Just as Ung-sam's taunting was pushing Dupyo and Giyul to their absolute limit, their fellow officer Mong Ryu-hwa appeared on horseback, and neither man had ever been so happy to see him.
"Damn, what now...."
His entertainment interrupted, Ung-sam dusted himself off, stood up, and received Mong Ryu-hwa's salute.
Ryu-hwa saluted Ung-sam and was about to speak when he spotted his fellow officers. A grin spread across his face, and he tossed them a friendly jab.
"What are you two, fishermen?"
"......."
"......."
"Bwahahahaha!"
At Ryu-hwa's quip, Ung-sam clutched his stomach and rolled on the ground laughing, while Dupyo and Giyul demonstrated with their fists the iron law that mercy does not exist among fellow officers.
Having fully assessed the work's progress—largely through the very physical experiential learning Samdopyo and Buyeo Gi-yul had just provided—Mong Ryu-hwa returned to the command tent and saluted.
"Reporting! I have checked the progress."
"Did you weave a net with your face?"
"......."
Jin-cheon's dry retort left Ryu-hwa speechless.
His fellow officers' "experiential learning" had been a little too enthusiastic, leaving clear net marks on Ryu-hwa's face. Desperately avoiding the stares that Eulji Buru and Uru were drilling into him, he began his report.
"The net work was completed before noon, and the repairs on the yudonno for the final assault are also finished.
"As for the yudonno, of the twenty-two units damaged in the earlier North Roselin wizard ambush, we salvaged the intact components and reassembled five operational yudonno. They can be deployed immediately."
"Hm."
"And what about the piglets?"
Buru, seated off to the side, asked about the piglet orcs lost during the earlier attack, as well as the orcs who had been pulling the winches around the clock and were sidelined with torn muscles.
"For that, we decided to use the war horses as a stopgap."
"Hmm."
"What of the earth to fill the moat?"
"That part, from the South Roselin supply unit...."
As the questions continued, Ryu-hwa, whose position required him to oversee the entire picture, reported every detail of the preparations to confirm that everything was ready.
"Is it time to finally put an end to this battle?"
Having been informed that all preparations were complete, King Alsein displayed a fierce determination to carry the war through.
"It is."
At Jin-cheon's agreement, King Alsein felt his fists clench. He had watched the siege drag on for days and days without saying a word, but every commander in the tent knew exactly how long the king had been counting down to this day.
"King Alsein will take overall command today."
"Your Majesty!"
King Alsein looked at Jin-cheon with an expression that was half joy and half guilt. In ordinary circumstances, for the sake of his dignity, he would have exchanged a few more words, but at this one moment, he did not want to yield the honor to anyone.
The truth was, without Gauri, this war could never have even begun.
To freely hand over the chance to make a name for himself in the final battle that would bring such a war to a close was no small thing.
And the sight of Jin-cheon doing exactly that, then wordlessly picking up his weapon and slowly walking out, was a moment that showed Go Jin-cheon in a new light even to the South Roselin nobles.
"Ain't war all about chargin'?"
"Naturally."
At Buru's remark as he fell in step behind him, Jin-cheon dismissed the question in a single phrase, a deep smile tugging at his lips. In truth, the one most itching to move had been Jin-cheon himself, even more than King Alsein.
Though, of course, the meaning behind that itch was a little different....
* * *
Boom! Bo-bo-boom! Boom!
The beating of drums rang out at the hour when the sun surveys all creation from its highest point....
Advancing in step with those drums, the sea of Gauri and South Roselin allied forces surged forward, the glint of their spears and blades catching the light. It never failed to instill dread in the troops atop Partean's walls as they looked down upon it.
Though they had yet to launch a single charge, ever since taking up that formation their ranks had never once broken.
Anyone who had studied even a little military doctrine easily understood the destructive power that radiated from such an ironclad formation.
"Think they'll actually attack today?"
"Who knows...."
BOOM! THUD!
The low murmur of the soldiers' voices was again interrupted by the noise.
"Dammit, don't they ever get sick of this?!"
Another log launched from a yudonno hammered into the wall.
By now, the North Roselin soldiers had grown so accustomed to it that they responded with practiced routine, but the sound of those impacts—ringing out day and night without rest—remained a constant source of anxiety.
CRASH!
Once more, the wall shuddered with the blow.
Every time the wall shook, the soldiers' heads instinctively turned toward the allied forces. The troops of the alliance, standing utterly still like an iron wall and staring fixedly at Partean, always gave the impression that they were about to surge forward at any moment.
"These days, I see that sight in my dreams when I sleep."
"Dammit, are they trying to bleed us dry or what?"
The North Roselin soldiers had initially steeled themselves to defend the fortress to the death, but their minds and bodies were being worn down, and there was no stopping it.
The reason was simple.
The difference between those attacking and those struggling to defend.
Of course, defenders sometimes draw out strength beyond their normal limits, but the strength and composure of those trying to break them can just as easily shatter the defenders' will.
Perhaps this was one of those times.
"Huh?"
A murmur began to spread among the soldiers watching the allied side. Duke Palsieon and the nobles manning each of the watchtowers shifted their gazes toward the allied forces.
"So it finally begins."
Duke Palsieon's voice fell low.
Movement began stirring behind the Gauri lines, which had been completely still until then. Countless carts emerged through gaps in the formation.
At the same time, the entire army slowly began advancing toward Partean.
* * *
"Advance slowly to within one hundred paces!"
Clad from head to toe in antique armor, King Alsein sat astride a massive warhorse, rallying the soldiers.
"Load every yudonno that is ready!"
As the infantry and the earth-laden carts moved to the front, the commander operating the yudonno roared the order. At once, the crews began loading something different from what they had been shooting so far.
"Watch the rear!"
Despite the clamor, the soldiers moved briskly and had every preparation finished before long.
"Just give the order!"
One soldier shouted out boldly.
On the walls of Partean, the North Roselin soldiers who saw the Gauri and South Roselin forces completing their assault preparations began to move with increasing urgency.
They weren't oblivious enough to miss a buildup like this. Yet those very reactions were also already anticipated.
King Alsein took in the sight of his soldiers, their fighting spirit blazing at his command, ready to charge forward into the first and final assault on Partean.
"Yes. The arrow has already left my hand."
As King Alsein murmured in a low voice, he slowly drew his sword.
"All forces, charge forward!"
"Charge!"
The troops pulled their carts and began rushing forward at speed.
Clatter-clatter-clatter!
"Yudonno—fire all at once!"
Thwoom! Thwoom! Thwoom!
Over the heads of the soldiers racing toward Partean, logs soared into the air, each trailing something behind it.
* * *
Had the waiting been that long?
The Gauri and South Roselin allied forces charged forward, their war cries riding ahead of the drumbeats that hammered at the heart. The North Roselin army that watched them approach was subtly different now from the iron-disciplined force it had been at the start.
True, the yudonno's destructive power fell short of its penetrative force, but its impact was still terrifying.
After suffering damage that destroyed defensive weapons before they could even be used, the defenders had moved their matériel to safer positions to reduce further losses.
As a makeshift measure, the supplies needed for the defense had been scattered here and there, and the soldiers scrambling to retrieve them only added to the chaos.
"Hmm."
Duke Palsieon watched the charging Gauri army, unable to shake the feeling that something was wrong.
"The preparations to counter their catapults are complete, and the archers are fully deployed on the walls."
Baron Nyureon, Duke Palsieon's aide, ran up and reported with a face full of resolve.
"I leave the catapult operations to your discretion. The archer corps commander will retain independent authority over the archers. They are to attack without waiting for my order the moment any target enters their respective range. Something feels off...."
"Understood."
"Does it not also look strange to you?"
At Duke Palsieon's question, Baron Nyureon drew in a sharp breath as he beheld the charging allied forces. Then, with eyes still unwavering, he spoke.
"Their siege tactics are certainly peculiar, but judging by the size and momentum of their army, I believe this one battle will decide the outcome."
"So it will."
Duke Palsieon looked away from the allied forces—charging with what bordered on recklessness—and turned his gaze to their rear. The yudonno, which had fired nonstop day and night throughout the entire siege, had fallen silent.
"What are they plotting?"
The previous attacks the alliance had unleashed had caused little substantive damage, but they were not something he ever wanted to endure again. And on top of that, the enemy's siege weapons outranged their own....
It was one of the attacks he never wished to face a second time.
Hadn't those very siege weapons already cost them a considerable number of soldiers and precious wizards?
Thwoom! Thwoom! Thwoom!
"Damn it all."
As if to tell him not to worry the moment the thought crossed his mind, the enemy siege weapons launched from their lines in a rising volley.
"All units, evade the enemy siege weapons so long as you maintain formation—... What is that?"
Duke Palsieon, in the middle of issuing orders to the soldiers, cut himself off mid-sentence and stared at the incoming logs. The logs themselves were clearly unchanged, but he could see something pale trailing behind them.
The sense of unease from earlier only swelled.
BOOM! BOOM! CRAAASH!
The logs hammered the wall once more.
But something was different.
"What is it?"
Human instinct, it seemed, could not suppress curiosity even with the enemy charging at them.
A few soldiers craned their necks over the wall to look at the logs that had struck the base of it. The knights, who had also seen something tied to the logs as they flew in, leaned out alongside the soldiers.
"Why would they...."
A soldier tilted his head in confusion.
It was because something utterly ill-suited to a siege battle had been carried here.
"It's a net?"
At the comment from another soldier next to him, the first soldier began to turn back around—then froze solid at the sound of a joking voice from one side.
"Long time ago, I went to the sea, and there I saw fishermen hauling their nets. The fish were stuck in 'em thick as could be...."
The remark was meant to relieve the tension of battle, but the rigid soldier couldn't hear a word of it. All that remained seared into his mind was the sight of enemy troops swarming black across the nets as they climbed, fish replaced by men.
When word of what had been tied to the logs reached him, Duke Palsieon's face went pale.
"Nets...."
The weight and bulk of the nets had made them strike the lower part of the wall, but the danger was already obvious enough.
What if the enemy, instead of using ladders or siege towers, climbed the nets draped over the wall from every direction?
"Remove those nets immediately!"
The nightmare began.
At Duke Palsieon's cry, the knights relayed the order to the soldiers, and a desperate struggle to stop the nightmare began.