Chapter 329
Chapter 329
Steel Emperor — Chapter 329
It was Buru who had made his life a misery from their very first meeting, yet the man he had grown closest to was also Buru.
Gerard's freewheeling nature and Buru's easygoing character had a resonance neither could quite explain. Whether or not the sea understood Gerard's worry, it remained utterly still.
* * *
Dae Mu-deok rushed out of the command tent with his subordinate commanders in tow. The dispatch rider from Gaemun Mountain Fortress was the reason for his haste.
"Where is the messenger!"
"I pay my respects to the Daedaero!"
Mu-deok, who had come at a run, finally laid eyes on the messenger he had been waiting for. The soldier, coated in pale dust, had snapped a military salute the moment he saw him.
"What news!"
"I shall report."
Nel, who had ridden as messenger, swiftly delivered the news to the anxious Mu-deok. After the hobgoblin pens had collapsed under the Holy Empire's magical assault, Nel—who had been responsible for them—had taken up this role as a courier.
From Nel, Mu-deok heard of Buru's entry into the fortress and the desperate last stand of the wounded men who had given their lives to make it possible. He closed his eyes and lifted his head. An indescribable storm churned across his jaw-clenched face.
"I see."
Mu-deok's voice, after a long silence, was heavily subdued. The situation was far worse than he had anticipated.
"The messenger will go and rest."
"......."
Mu-deok ordered Nel to take his ease. But no acknowledgment came. Mu-deok, already turning back toward the command tent, pivoted to face Nel again.
"What are you doing."
Mu-deok asked again in the same heavy tone.
"......I must go."
"......."
"The place where this humble soldier belongs is Gaemun Mountain Fortress. If you would but grant me a single cup of water, I shall count it the highest honor."
"......Haa."
A heavy, sighing sound escaped Mu-deok's lips.
Nel was displaying an iron determination to return.
"Water...... bring him a cup of water, icy cold."
"Thank you!"
When Mu-deok forced the words past his barely parting lips, Nel threw himself prostrate with a bright smile and repeated his thanks over and over.
"Go. Go and deliver this without fail. Tell them to hold. Tell them I will come at once."
"Yes! I shall carry it out without fail."
Mu-deok turned away, his heart grown heavier. As he neared the command tent, the vigorous neighing of a horse rang out again in the distance. The hoofbeats swiftly faded.
"Rest is over. All units, prepare to march!"
Mu-deok gave the order to advance.
* * *
Eulji Buru, risen before dawn, walked the circuit of Gaemun Mountain Fortress, so much of it now in ruins.
"Hmm."
The troops had worked in shifts on emergency repairs, but Buru's eyes still narrowed as he reached the sections where the hideously collapsed walls had been blocked with whatever furnishings remained. Even those were obstacles at best—barely capable of serving as walls.
"Forgive us."
When a groan escaped Buru, Geom Muhyul, attending at his side, bowed his head like a criminal and asked forgiveness. Yet this was surely the best Muhyul could have done.
In the defensive battle that had stretched through the previous day, stockpiled supplies had been depleted far faster than expected, and a wall once breached became the enemy's number-one target. Walls already broken could not long withstand repeated magical attacks and crumbled easily, and the work of patching them had continued day after day.
Buru, late as he had been in reaching Gaemun Mountain Fortress, could hardly be ignorant of that.
"Ain't blamin' you. Don't go lowerin' your head for no reason."
At Buru's gruff tone, Muhyul raised his bowed head.
"Just burns me up, not havin’ any skilled Pyeonjeon archers."
"That's true."
The Pyeonjeon could strike at the enemy’s blind spots, but it was so difficult to master that only a handful of archers existed—and most of those who were trained were away in Roselin.
Among the Pyeonjeon archers who remained, the only ones who could be called proficient were a few instructors too infirm for the field and a handful of recruits still in training. Even they had been wiped out to the last man in the first day’s fighting.
The troops Buru had brought were little different. A few ordinary archers were mixed in, but there were no skilled Pyeonjeon archers. Even those who could shoot it were not proficient enough to use it for sniping.
"An' still, with the master havin' built that grand magic defense formation, this is all we got......"
It was the communications wizard assigned to Buru's unit who spoke, clicking his tongue. He meant that they had held out even this long only because of the grand magic circle Risel had erected.
"Ain't a damn thing we can do."
Buru felt a renewed dread of magic.
In every war before this, wizards had been little more than fodder for the Gauri army, but the Holy Empire's systematically organized magic corps was of a different order. The absence of Risel, Hwi-garam, and the skilled Pyeonjeon archers was felt all too keenly.
"What's that?"
At one of the smaller breaches, there had apparently been nothing left to plug the gap with—only a net, the kind used for pit traps, draped across it.
"Rather than leaving it open, I thought hanging a net like that would be better......."
It was obvious that the enemy could simply grab the netting and climb, but it was still better than a gaping hole they could charge straight through.
"But why's a net even here? You been catchin' sparrows?"
"Don't you remember that net?"
"What're you on about?"
Muhyul had broached the subject but seemed unable to continue. He sighed and spoke to Buru, who was staring at him blankly.
"Sigh. Back in the early days of settlement, when we went out to hunt orcs on a large scale—didn’t the units hold a competition over who could catch the most?"
"......."
"You don't remember?"
Muhyul cautiously asked Buru, who had fallen silent.
There was no way Buru could have forgotten. Hadn’t he hauled all the nets off the ships to catch orcs back then, only to get beaten black and blue by Go Jin-cheon afterward?
"Those were the nets used at the time. The Great General worked desperately with the axemen to repair them, but in the end he couldn't, and they were left abandoned. Since they were already ruined, we figured we'd keep using them and moved them over here."
"Keu-hum."
"And of course, the iron nets General Uru made back then were here too."
As Buru half-listened to Muhyul's explanation and turned his head away, he caught the sound of Avilrun muttering behind him.
"I've heard of catching fish with nets, but sparrows......."
"Gandengi, stop yappin’ behind my back. Tch, ignorant bastard."
Buru exaggerated the rebuke to deflect the awkward situation, and Avilrun immediately fell quiet. No—a despairing murmur followed.
"To be called ignorant by the Great General......"
"......."
Despair, self-reproach, regret, lamentation......
Avilrun's soliloquy encompassed every one of those emotions, and as the cautious voices comforting him followed, Buru's steps came to a natural halt.
"Sniff, to be called ignorant by General Buru......"
"Shh. Quiet."
"W-we've been caught."
The moment Buru stopped walking, the voices of the soldiers following behind him instantly died.
"I-I mean, isn't it strange? Hanging a net in midair to catch sparrows...... it doesn't make any sense."
Avilrun, courageous as ever.
Even facing Buru's killing glare head-on, he did not forget his one word of defiance.
"Bastard never worked a farm, has he!"
"My homeland lives by hunting, actually......"
"......."
At the freshness of it—reminiscent of Gye Ung-sam and the trio—Buru slowly clenched both fists and spoke.
"What good is it just chasin' sparrows? They're just gonna fly right back anyway."
"Th-that's true."
Unlike Buru, who was speaking as he slowly approached, Avilrun had begun backing away before he even realized it.
"So what you do is, you stand a pole on one side and hang the net. Then you whoosh the sparrows from the other side, and the sparrows flee the opposite way an' get caught in the net."
"Ah!"
Avilrun let out an exclamation as if he had only just understood. But by then, he was already inside Buru's striking range.
A moment later, Buru lightly dusted off his hands and straightened up. Behind him, Avilrun was groaning and being supported by his comrades.
"Don't go interruptin' me with some worthless nonsense."
At Buru's words, Avilrun did not reply but did not forget to mutter one thing under his breath.
"Ugh. Fish or sparrows, swimming or flying—long as they get caught, that's all that matters. Went an' got curious for nothin'......"
"......."
At Avilrun's self-reproachful mutter, Buru, who had been turning away, stopped short again.
"What'd you say!"
"H-hic!"
At Buru's suddenly erupting voice, Avilrun hiccupped on the spot and stared at him with terror-stricken eyes.
"I-I was sayin' this time it really is my fault, sir!"
"Say it again!"
When Buru seized Avilrun by both shoulders and pressed him again, Avilrun desperately began to work his mouth.
"Fish or sparrows......"
"Not that!"
"They swim or fly......"
"That! That's it!"
"Huh?"
Avilrun, who had been gripped by terror, stared at the elated Buru with a look of momentary bafflement.
What in the world was he laughing about like a madman?
"Fish or sparrows, or even people......, fish that swim or sparrows that fly through the sky, and......"
As Buru looked around him with a faint smile playing at his lips and continued speaking, Muhyul and even Avilrun himself began to grasp the meaning.
"Wizards!"
"Right!"
They had recalled the characteristic of wizards who moved across the battlefield by flying through the air. To Buru now, wizards and sparrows were one and the same.
* * *
As the sun lifted its head above the encircling mountain range, the short night passed. Even for the Holy Empire's forces, committed to battle in rotations, the exhaustion was no different—the movements of the troops heading to breakfast were heavy.
"As soon as breakfast is finished, everything is prepared to resume combat."
Count Chiera Pelloman, who had called on Marquis Bello von Luchia's tent early in the morning, offered a military salute and delivered his report in brief. His silences had only grown longer since the events of the previous day.
"Your flaw is that you are too humane. Are you aware of that?"
At Marquis Luchia's offhand remark, Earl Pelloman bowed his head and replied.
"I apologize."
"Still, faithfulness to orders is a strength."
Marquis Luchia, having briefly washed his face and hands in the water a servant had brought and dried them with a cloth, continued speaking to Earl Pelloman, who stood to one side.
"The attack will begin after noon."
"After noon, you say?"
"Yes. We should have taken the fortress yesterday. Because those fools pulled the army back, all the fatigue that had been accumulating will have surged in at once. Half a day's extra rest will be more efficient."
At Marquis Luchia's flat, uninflected voice, Earl Pelloman gave a small nod. In truth, there was a vast difference between the situation of pushing forward in constant rotation and beginning a siege anew.