Chapter 85
Chapter 85
The Iron Emperor — Chapter 85
Boom!
"How many times is this now!"
"We have no excuse."
The voice of Duke Camillien Perren Roselin, commanding the North Roselin forces, shook the barracks. The knights merely repeated that they had no excuse, hanging their heads.
"Does this make any sense? What is this about a Demon King, and a Heavenly God?"
The first one or two reports they'd dismissed as coincidence. But now, this was the fifteenth report to come in through magic communication. And the sole survivor... he only mumbled the two words Demon King and Heavenly God back and forth. He had lost his mind to terror.
Duke Perren spat curses and hurled the furnishings inside the barracks.
"You worthless bastards, do you still have something to say? Get out, now!"
"Commander."
"Out!"
The empty barracks was a mess after the knights filed out. When the King of South Roselin died, Duke Perren had thought his time had come. But it wasn't long before he noticed the chilling looks directed at him from within the North Roselin camp.
"Damn it."
Still, he consoled himself that abandoning South Roselin and defecting to North Roselin had been the best choice. He would have been purged for treason in South Roselin anyway, wouldn't he?
"Marquis Baikal, you bastard... how long will you keep obstructing me?"
Crash!
Duke Perren overturned the one bed that was still intact, his eyes burning with rage as he chewed over the name of Marquis Helios Baikal. On the battlefield where he had been buying time, Marquis Baikal's unit had suddenly realized they were being used as bait and, like a cicada shedding its skin, had vanished from the field. And the humiliation he'd suffered from the overall commander of the North Roselin landing force!
"Guard!"
"Sir!"
At Duke Perren's shout, the guard posted outside the barracks rushed in. Having regained some composure, Duke Perren spoke in a calmer manner.
"Summon all generals and staff officers of baronial rank and above."
"Sir!"
Watching the guard run out, Duke Perren bit his lip as if making a vow.
'If I can't produce clear results here, I will have no justification left.'
He knew better than anyone that if he failed even at the task of occupying cities and small villages — let alone crushing the enemy's main offensive — he wouldn't even receive the payment he was owed for betraying South Roselin.
"First, I'll have to root out the enemy guerrilla unit."
Duke Perren's eyes gleamed like a wounded beast as he stared at the wrecked furniture.
* * *
"Our casualties?"
"Three lightly wounded, and the rest are untouched. Two of the three wounded will be fit to grab a sword and cause trouble again within three days."
Eulji Buru's report rang out clearly. Go Jin-cheon nodded with his eyes closed, then slowly rose from his seat and asked again.
"How many does this latest group bring the total to?"
"This village had large numbers, so including those before, twelve thousand people have been relocated."
"Hmm."
A groan escaped Jin-cheon at Buru's report.
Twelve thousand.
They had gathered these people in a short time, but the number was too large. The entire population in Gauri was fifteen thousand — eighteen thousand, including slaves. If a comparable number of new people were suddenly added there, it would obviously cause considerable chaos.
"It can't be helped."
Jin-cheon's voice was low. It was an unavoidable choice, now that they had decided to found a nation. And it wasn't something they could stop simply because it was a burden.
"Once the three wounded men have recovered somewhat, they are to head immediately for the base, leading the civilians we pulled from here."
"Got it."
"Then you may go."
"As commanded!"
Once Buru had left, Jin-cheon slowly studied the map on the table.
'I'd very much like to see what kind of idiot this commander of North Roselin is.'
Jin-cheon chuckled and shook his head. He couldn't understand the North Roselin command, who had taken no measures whatsoever even as his own forces were being shattered piecemeal.
"But even if they are idiots, I should be more careful now..."
After securing a base of operations, he had nibbled away at the territory, moving through small villages and fighting without much trouble so far. Besides civilians, the only real harvest had been the remnants of the South Roselin army.
Though they were stragglers, their hatred for North Roselin and the Holy Empire had been hardened over generations. To them, Jin-cheon was the man who had given them a chance for revenge.
Among the scattered remnants from the now-regional war, there were quite a number of young South Roselin nobles. None were high-ranking, but they were at least useful as working-level personnel, so Jin-cheon had been putting them to good use.
The first time they encountered Jin-cheon's Black Armored Ghost Cavalry, they were always being led away as prisoners or were already in a state of collapse. In that situation, the sight of the Gauri army's majesty had struck them with intense force.
And perhaps because they had appeared just as death was closing in, nearly everyone — except some of the nobles — held goodwill toward them. And since joining Jin-cheon's unit, there had been no defeats.
As a result, now that the South Roselin capital had been destroyed and its king murdered, Jin-cheon's unit had become a new focal point for the scattered remnants. And thanks to the geographical information those remnants provided, Jin-cheon could continue the campaign with relative ease.
Still, the vanguard of every attack was always Jin-cheon's own unit. They had only fought small battles, but by always taking the lead in every fight, they were slowly building both hope and legend within the hearts of the remnants.
"Your Majesty!"
"What is it?"
Hailon rushed into the village hall where Jin-cheon was staying. Having racked up small achievements over time, Hailon was now tasked with interpreting for the soldiers and guiding the South Roselin civilians. But now, his expression was urgent.
"Are there more of our troops here?"
"What do you mean?"
At Hailon's sudden question, Jin-cheon responded in his usual blunt tone.
"While gathering the people from the village we occupied today, we heard that a black-haired foreign unit is fighting not far from here."
"What?"
Jin-cheon couldn't help but raise his voice at Hailon's words. Black hair was definitely an uncommon color. If there were enough such people to form a unit, rather than just one or two, Hailon's surprise was only natural.
"Hailon."
"Yes!"
"Go out immediately and summon every commander from South Roselin."
"As commanded!"
Hailon raised his head and called out his acknowledgment, saluted, and ran out of the village hall.
By this point, the composition of Jin-cheon's unit had become quite complicated.
Over two hundred riders of the Black Armored Ghost Cavalry, over a hundred of the archer cavalry, and three hundred personnel drawn from the new recruits to serve as interpreters and evacuation escorts. On top of that, over five hundred soldiers made up of South Roselin stragglers. The total force now exceeded a thousand, and it had lost the ability to remain concealed.
But the reason they hadn't been seriously caught despite these numbers was that they had been thoroughly sanitizing their surroundings. They annihilated small enemy units through meticulous ambushes and never bypassed even a small hamlet, evacuating everyone along their line of advance to suppress rumors entirely. But being this quiet was itself a problem.
The North Roselin soldiers that Jin-cheon's unit had dealt with now exceeded five thousand. Moreover, South Roselin's able-bodied men and any villages of notable size were joining up with the Eastern Army, making the early harvests hard to repeat.
It was time to decide: withdraw, or find another path. While Jin-cheon was lost in various thoughts, Hailon's voice came from outside.
"The commanders of the South Road Army have arrived."
"Enter."
The South Road Army.
Anyone hearing it would easily think it was short for the South Roselin Army. There was that implication, but the name actually meant an army gathered while Jin-cheon's unit was headed south — hence, the South Road Army. Of course, the unit name had been given by Jin-cheon.
"We pay our respects, Your Majesty."
The four young South Roselin commanders entered and awkwardly offered a military salute to Jin-cheon. The mere sight of them saluting Jin-cheon, a foreigner, showed how much they trusted him. The title "Your Majesty, the Yeolje" was one they used of their own accord, not something forced upon them.
"Hailon, did you explain the earlier information to them?"
"Yes!"
When Hailon answered in a loud voice, Jin-cheon nodded.
"Sit."
At his natural, informal command, the young warriors promptly sat on chairs and looked at Jin-cheon. Jin-cheon spoke.
"Do any of you know anything?"
"They seem most likely to be mercenaries from the north."
"The north?"
When the warrior who had entered first answered cautiously, Jin-cheon asked further, his expression one of curiosity for more detail.
"Yes. The warriors of the north have black hair. Also, the place with the most northern warriors is South Roselin. One reason is that this was the only region where there was no oppression during the demon hunts, but the kingdom also accepted quite a number of them to bolster its military strength."
"Hmm."
Jin-cheon recalled what Risel had previously told him about the demon hunts. That was why their explanation came easily to him. At that moment, a soldier's report sounded from outside again.
"Your Majesty!"
"Don't shout outside. Come in and report."
At Jin-cheon's gruff tone, a soldier ran in with a tense expression, dropped to one knee, and cried out.
"The patrol unit rescued a dozen or so soldiers who appear to be stragglers. They report that a large-scale battle is taking place nearby."
"A large-scale battle?"
Jin-cheon's surprised voice burst out. It wasn't just Jin-cheon who was surprised; the South Road Army commanders were the same.
* * *
"Loose!"
Swoosh-swoosh-swoosh!
A rain of arrows that blackened the sky flew into the fortress. The defenders poured arrows back without pause in response, but far more arrows were coming in than they could shoot out.
"Aaargh!"
"Uwaaagh!"
"What are the shieldbearers doing? I said protect the archers! Everyone, stand firm. Those North Roselin dogs will fall back before long. Don't die — just hold on!"
Seeing an archer tumble from the wall, a knight shouted desperately, but even the shieldbearers knew it was futile. The assault from below the fortress was that ferocious.
Whoosh!
Boom! Boom-boom-boom!
"Aaaagh! My back is on fire! Someone put it out!"
"It's magic!"
Screams erupted, dousing the knight's encouragement like cold water. As the South Roselin archers' response to the North Roselin arrow barrage began to slacken, wizards who had crept close unleashed their fireballs, which burst across the top of the wall.
The shieldbearers, who had been throwing their bodies into protecting the archers, caught fire themselves and tumbled from the wall, leaving the exposed archers as prey for the arrows.
"What are the wizards doing? Fire counter-magic!"
"Baron Bels, it's dangerous here!"
A knight who heard the voice of Baron Silen Bels, leading the resistance, shouted through the screams. But Baron Bels cut down a North Roselin soldier climbing the wall and shouted back at the knight.
"If they break through, it's over anyway! What does it matter if it's dangerous or not?"
"Even so, it's dan... guhurk!"
Boom-boom-boom!
"Swalon!"
The knight worried for Baron Bels could not finish his words. Sir Swalon, engulfed in flames, flailed his arms and then shouted in desperation.
"Baron Bels, I go on ahead! You cursed converts of North Roselin, I'll send you into the bosom of that Lord God you so desire!"
"No!"
"You, you madman!"
Swalon, wreathed in fire, rushed to the wall and grabbed the ladder the North Roselin forces had set. Panicking, a North Roselin soldier cursed and stabbed at Swalon's body with his sword, but the act was meaningless against a man who had already transcended life and death.
As Baron Bels watched Swalon rip the enemy ladder from the wall and hurl himself off with it, he stepped one pace closer to despair.
Bwoo!
Bwoo-woo!
"The enemy is retreating!"
"We held them!"
"Waaaaah! We did it!"
The sound of horn-shell trumpets echoed across the battlefield, and the North Roselin soldiers who had clung like a swarm of dogs receded like the tide. Baron Bels looked around the corpse-choked vicinity of the wall and watched the soldiers' hopeful cheers. They were warriors who had survived another day. They had earned the right to celebrate their survival.
"Damn it."
Baron Bels suddenly remembered Marquis Helios Baikal.
'If the Marquis were here, he would not be as weak as I am, even in this situation...'
Watching the soldiers rejoicing in their survival, Baron Bels saw himself growing weaker by the day.
'Will those men even survive tomorrow's battle?'
Baron Bels shook his head. The cheers of the soldiers, lit by the setting sun, offered no guarantee of tomorrow.
The situation was despair.