Chapter 324
Chapter 324
Iron Emperor — Chapter 324
Viscount Jamin, his face ashen at Marquis Luchia's command, spurred his horse and began preparing his forces.
"Earl Pelloman, see to it that the rear echelon returns quickly."
"I will go myself."
At Marquis Luchia's order, Earl Pelloman snapped a swift salute and galloped off. Under ordinary circumstances, as captain of the escort knights, he would not have gone personally, but at this moment supplies were critically important to the Holy Empire army. They had anticipated a short war from the very beginning.
"Count Tain."
Marquis Luchia, who had watched them ride off, shifted his gaze back to the battlefield and called out to Count Saliman Tain, the magic corps commander.
"Y-yes, speak."
Count Tain, well aware that this was no time to stand on a wizard's dignity, bowed deeply as he answered Marquis Luchia's summons.
"Commit all magical power to extinguish those flames and shatter what remains of the walls."
"Understood."
The wizards were already utterly exhausted from the previous assault, but Count Tain simply bowed his head and replied. In this moment, Marquis Luchia stood before him not as a marquis of the empire, but as the man called the Cold-Blooded Swordmaster, one of the Ten Masters of the Continent.
The Holy Empire soldiers who had gained the top of the wall had long since become cold corpses scattered in every direction, and those who survived were being pushed back by the Gauri soldiers' assault, many leaping off the fortress to escape. The tide had turned again in Gauri's favor.
Boooo! Boooo! Boooo!
"Th-the enemy is pulling back!"
"V-victory!"
The moment the short horn blasts sounded, the Holy Empire soldiers still holding out began a frantic retreat. Geom Muhyul, who had been commanding from inside the fortress and cutting down enemies who had breached the walls, smiled as he watched the soldiers on the ramparts cheering.
"Have we held them off once more?"
He did not know what would come next, but for this moment, nothing else mattered. Watching the Holy Empire soldiers retreat, the surviving troops embraced one another and shouted their victory cries.
"Huu, first I need to quickly organize the battlefield—"
"Everyone take cover!"
Just as Muhyul was issuing orders to the officers around him, a voice-shredding scream of warning tore into his ears. The instant he spun reflexively at the ominous shout, a crimson flash erupted across the top of the wall.
KABOOM! KA-KA-KABOOM!
"Aaargh!"
"M-magic...!"
A single shriek rang out. They had unleashed magic onto the fortress walls without regard for the Holy Empire troops who had not yet managed to retreat.
Amid flying stone, the bodies of Gauri soldiers who had been shouting in triumph only moments before were torn apart and rained down like hail.
"You mad bastards!"
Far more Holy Empire soldiers than Gauri soldiers were burned and ripped apart by the detonating magic. The already battered walls, struck by the erupting spells, began slowly crumbling. Everything—man and stone alike—was melting away in the searing flames.
"Uwaaaaaah!"
At this brutal, pitiless reality, Muhyul screamed, forgetting even that he was the commander. From his eyes, which he had thought had no more tears left to shed, red blood streamed instead.
Blood rain fell from the sky. And from Muhyul's eyes as well.
"The casualties among the soldiers..."
A knight voiced his concern to Viscount Jamin, who had taken command in place of the slain Baron Kau. Viscount Jamin, staring at the collapsing wall, snapped at the knight.
"Then would you have me inform the enemy that we are prosecuting a magical offensive?!"
"...My apologies."
"A small number of sacrifices is to be expected in war. Ice magic will manifest shortly. Prepare to lead the men in!"
"Understood."
Watching the knight hurriedly bow his head and raise the signal flag, Viscount Jamin quietly murmured to himself.
"Someone dies in war, one way or another."
Viscount Jamin muttered the words over and over, as if trying to etch into his own mind the righteousness of his actions.
The moment the wizards unleashed their ice magic once more, the blazing fortress walls were instantly sheathed in ice. The sight was grotesque: soldiers who had been writhing in the grip of the flames only a breath before were frozen in place, their agonized forms preserved in ice.
"Breach the fortress!"
At Viscount Jamin's shout, fresh war cries burst from the mouths of the soldiers who had been watching the ghastly scene with pale faces. Once again, the truth was hammered home: their only path to survival was to obey their commander's orders swiftly...
"What is that sound?!"
Eulji Buru and his soldiers, who had been cautiously approaching the battlefield on horseback, froze in place the moment the ground shook and a thunderous roar erupted. Only a moment ago, the sound of soldiers cheering had reached them, leading them to think the battle might already be over. This sound, to them, was like a bolt from the blue.
"We clear the forest at speed! All of you, follow me!"
Their column, cautious until now, began to accelerate. Fortunately, the roar had swallowed the noise of their movement, and they remained undetected.
As they neared the edge of the forest, they saw the Holy Empire soldiers surging forward with battle cries.
"Gaemun Mountain Fortress..."
A voice, hollow with despair, escaped someone's lips at the sight of nearly a third of the fortress's front face collapsed. And seeing the Holy Empire soldiers charging toward it as if to deliver the final death blow, every man froze.
"Huu."
A sigh drained of all strength escaped Buru's mouth. They had ridden themselves to death for days without sleep, and yet...
"Look here. Now it’s come to this, ain’t we gotta jump in too?"
Buru looked back and spoke in a sorrowful voice.
"We came all this way. We have to go, if only out of sheer frustration."
The deputy commander, riding up beside Buru, replied without a trace of hesitation. The soldiers, too, nodded to one another and fixed their eyes on Buru. Seeing their steadfastness, Buru tightened his grip on the reins and faced forward again.
Gaemun Mountain Fortress looked impossibly far away, blocked by the pitch-black mass of Holy Empire soldiers stretching before them. Yet not a single man shrank back.
"Well, I did train these bastards proper."
Buru smiled with satisfaction.
Buru slowly raised his great axe and swept it down toward the wave of enemy troops.
"All forces, cha—"
"W-wait! General, hold on!"
The moment his deputy commander's words checked his order, Buru turned his head.
But Buru's gaze went not to the man who had called him, but toward the direction of the Holy Empire's main camp.
To be precise, toward the rear of the camp where the Holy Empire army was massed.
"N-new reinforcements?"
A colossal dust cloud was rising over the hill behind the Holy Empire main camp.
"It can't be..."
A trembling voice escaped the soldiers' lips.
A flag rose over the crest of the hill.
It was tattered and torn, but no Gauri could possibly fail to recognize it: the flag of the three-legged crow.
"That's—!"
They were the ones Buru had sent away to survive.
"Those, those crazy bastards!"
They were the ones he had left behind because he had seen no path of escape for them.
"Why did you come back here?!"
They were the ones whose anguish he had taken into his own heart, the ones he had vowed to fight for, to carry their share as well.
"Cheon Yuhwa, you insane son of a bitch!"
Buru's wretched cry echoed hollowly.
They had come back.
Like moths flying toward the flame...
"Huuuk, huk. Huuu."
The wizards, so drained that even maintaining their Fly magic was a struggle after squeezing out nearly all of their mana, labored to catch their breath as they began slowly withdrawing toward the rear. Beneath their feet, Holy Empire soldiers streamed past, charging toward the collapsed fortress wall.
"We will withdraw for now—"
"Ah!"
The deputy corps commander's words, directed at the surrounding wizards with a strained expression, never reached their end. The gazes of the wizards turning to pull back were all fixed on a single point.
"What is that?"
A flag rising over the hill at the rear of the main camp, accompanied by a colossal dust cloud, had seized their attention. It was a flag of a shape they had seen until they were sick of it.
"It can't be!"
The thought of the Gauri force said to have crushed the rear echelon flashed through the wizards' minds. A substantial portion of their troops was already charging toward Gaemun Mountain Fortress, and even some of the forces held in reserve at the main camp had moved forward, poised to be committed to the battle at any moment.
True, nearly ten thousand troops remained to defend the main camp, but they could hardly feel secure against a Gauri force said to have annihilated more than thirteen thousand men.
"Inform Viscount Jamin at once!"
"Yes!"
At the deputy corps commander's order, the wizard beside him dove into a swift glide downward.
The wizard, flying down as if sliding toward the spot where the vanguard banner stood, approached Viscount Jamin—who was staring back with a puzzled look—and shouted.
"Enemy forces have appeared in the rear!"
"What did you say?!"
As Viscount Jamin's face drained of color, the wizard pressed on.
"It appears to be the unidentified force that reportedly annihilated the rear echelon. I cannot be certain, but it is estimated to be a significant army."
"Damn it! That could mean the main camp itself is in danger!"
"Y-yes!"
When Viscount Jamin shot the question back, the wizard nodded frantically.
"Adjutant! Sound the retreat horn immediately!"
"But no orders have yet been relayed from the main camp—"
The moment the adjutant hesitated after being given the command, Viscount Jamin's voice erupted.
"Can you not see for yourself?! If they were spotted from the sky, the main camp may well not have identified them yet. Sound the retreat now!"
"Understood!"
A short while later, the Holy Empire forces that had been surging toward Gaemun Mountain Fortress began slowly pulling back. Faster, even, than they had advanced.
The horn blasts that brought the nightmare from earlier flooding back into the minds of the Gauri soldiers, locked in chaotic melee, rang in their ears. When the Holy Empire soldiers who had been grappling with them tooth and nail only moments ago began to withdraw, Geom Muhyul shouted toward the half-collapsed watchtower.
"It may be an enemy ruse! Maintain strict vigilance, and all troops are to identify positions where they can take cover in the event of further attack!"
At Muhyul's shout, the soldiers kept a wary eye on the retreating enemy while checking their surroundings. The Holy Empire's earlier action—using the sacrifice of their own soldiers as a springboard—had left the Gauri soldiers' nerves stretched to the breaking point.
"The enemy..."
The moment the cry of the soldier who had climbed onto the shattered watchtower reached them, tension rippled across the faces of Muhyul and the other soldiers.
"The enemy really is pulling back! The enemy wizards are withdrawing too!"
"For what reason...?"
At the soldier's shouted words as he clung to the watchtower, doubt swirled over the faces of those who had been braced for the worst. They had already lost the advantage of defending from the walls. Extermination, they had thought, was only a matter of time. So this sudden turn of events was not easy for them to understand.
"P-please wait one moment!"
The soldier delivering the report fixed his gaze on something in the distance from the watchtower. Those below held their breath and stood waiting at his single sentence.
"I can see an enormous dust cloud behind the enemy's main camp. And... friendly forces! I can see friendly banners!"
"Are you certain?!"
When Muhyul's voice, charged with excitement, shot toward the watchtower, the soldier shouted back with conviction.
"I am certain. It is unmistakably the Samjoko Flag!"
"Uwaaaah!"
"Waaaah!"
A cheer roared from the soldiers at the confident cry.
"Taedaesaja Eulji has arrived."
Now that it was all but certain the lights they had seen deep in the night the day before had been Eulji Buru, Muhyul felt all the exhaustion he had been holding back crash over him at once.
Amid the cheers filling the fortress, Muhyul smiled bitterly. The arrival of reinforcements was a miracle in itself, but he knew their numbers would fall short of even five thousand. He could not let himself rejoice as the soldiers did.
'But why are you being so reckless?'
According to the soldier's report, Eulji Buru's unit was charging toward the rear of the enemy's main camp. After the traces of battle from the day before, they would not even number five thousand now.
He had made a choice that a force of fewer than five thousand should never make. To charge more than thirty thousand troops with soldiers who—unlike the Black Armored Ghost Cavalry—included large numbers of men who had only just completed training...
"Bring the cavalry! Every man who can still stand will strike the enemy's rear and ensure our comrades reach us safely!"
Muhyul knew full well how unreasonable his own order was. But he could not stand by and watch his comrades march to their deaths.
"General! Another force has appeared from that forest over there!"
"What?"
At the fresh cry, Muhyul was thrown into deep confusion. As he struggled to get his bearings, a stammering voice reached his ears.