Chapter 226: The Tin Knight and The Tower of Greed (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 226: The Tin Knight and The Tower of Greed (6)
Bruha Rognir was a participant in the ‘cat hunt.’
The ‘cat hunt’ was the coded term the bloodline used amongst themselves when referring to the battle where the Friedel domain’s army was annihilated. The cautious gray old man had intentionally not designated an official operation name to minimize the chance of any potential issues, which led to the term’s creation.
It signified the hunting of those connected to the Lion (Lennart) but not of the true main line.
“Though, they were quite ferocious for cats.”
They say the bigger and stronger the fish, the more thrilling the fight.
To Bruha, the Friedel domain’s army felt exactly like that.
The bandits, who were numerous but pathetically unskilled, had either burst into flames like firewood or died fleeing in all directions whenever Bruha waved his hand. The soldiers of Friedel, however, never lost their fighting spirit, not even the common soldiers, right down to the very last man.
A few of the knights, despite being surrounded and pummeled by one-sided attack magic, managed to break through the encirclement and cut down some of the mages.
Of course, that didn’t change the tide of the battle.
The Tower of Control had the fundamental advantage in military strength, and to top it off, the Tower knew every detail of Friedel’s movements and strategies.
It was a situation where they were overwhelmingly outmatched from the start; the struggles of a few brave individuals couldn’t reverse the outcome.
Bruha, who primarily wielded fire magic instead of the ice favored by the Rognir bloodline, instantly incinerated a dozen soldiers who had formed a defensive line, ready to die to protect their comrades. He rained fireballs down on the head of a knight who broke through the encirclement, roasting him whole.
A battle that was intense enough to be satisfying, yet whose victory was assured from the start, was a truly delightful and sweet thing.
And now, another battlefield with an assured victory awaited before Bruha’s eyes.
“Lord Bruha. Fresh troops have been supplied from the Hrunal domain.”
“So, what’s the total number of troops in this castle now?”
“Twenty-three 3rd rank mages, ninety-two 2nd rank mages, and three hundred four 1st rank mages. Seventy-five knights and 1,100 standing soldiers. This does not include non-combat labor or the nearby domain residents who could be conscripted in an emergency.”
It was an absurd number, an absurd amount of power.
One could dismiss the 1st rank mages, as many of them wouldn't even qualify as apprentices in other magic towers. But 2nd rank mages and knights were individuals who would have no trouble making a living anywhere else, which made the number all the more staggering.
A whistle escaped Bruha’s lips.
“Incredible. Couldn’t we conquer a decent-sized territory just by ourselves with this force?”
“We are currently gathering the forces that were scattered across the country to key strategic points. According to the staff department’s predictions, we can single-handedly defeat any of the five major cities by the Locria Federation’s standards, or any domain smaller than the royal capital by the Kingdom of Ionia’s standards.”
“And the Empire?”
“We could handle the minor territories, but for anything on the level of a count's territory, it would be wise to join forces with other units.”
“As expected, they’re no pushover.”
Even as he said it, Bruha’s expression wasn’t displeased.
And why would it be? His unit was just one of many scattered throughout the Tower of Control.
If Control, which was still only a quarter of the former Magic State, could muster this much power, how much stronger would they become after devouring all the other magic towers?
And how sweet would a war be where they could overwhelm their enemies with such strength?
“If we had continued to expand our power bit by bit as the Tower Head originally planned, I wouldn’t have seen a battlefield for decades. Was it the Witch of the East’s apprentice who killed Jeras, Skoll, and Hati? I should thank them.”
As Bruha let out a hearty laugh, his adjutant began to laugh along with him.
It was then, at the main gate of the castle where Bruha was staying, that the soldiers standing watch on the high walls spotted something strange.
“Hey, what’s that over there?”
“Huh? Where?”
“Over there, see? Something’s moving. Looks like some kind of ship.”
“Shit, there’s not even a river nearby, let alone an ocean. What the hell kind of ship would be out here? It’s too far to see clearly, but isn’t it just a big carriage or something?”
“No, I’m telling you, it’s a ship!”
“This bastard’s lost his mind… Hey, something’s coming.”
Their argument didn’t last.
The object they were debating—one calling it a ship, the other a carriage—had a single dot shoot out from it, rushing toward their castle with ferocious speed.
Only when the dot drew closer did the soldiers realize it was a knight on horseback.
“What is it? A messenger? Damn, that horse is huge.”
“Hey, it’s not just big. It’s insanely fast.”
Even as the unidentified knight approached the castle gate, the soldiers didn’t feel a great sense of crisis.
After all, this was a castle protected by thousands of troops.
It would be stranger to think that a single knight could just show up and cause any real trouble.
In any case, a visitor had arrived and needed to be reported.
The soldiers shouted to the sergeant sitting in the guard post inside the wall.
“Sergeant! A knight has arrived at the main gate! No banner or anything!”
“What? Just one?”
The sergeant, though puzzled, approached the edge of the wall, perhaps considering the possibility that it was someone of high rank.
In that time, the knight had already dismounted and sent his horse back in the direction he came from.
Faced with such a bizarre and incomprehensible action, not just the soldiers but the sergeant as well were momentarily stunned into inaction.
The next moment.
GRRRRRRRRRRIND!
A grotesque sound, like stone being carved away, echoed in their ears.
“Wh-what was that!?”
From their position atop the wall, they couldn’t see it.
They couldn’t see that dozens of large grooves had appeared at regular intervals on the surface of the castle wall.
Having instantly created ‘footholds,’ the Tin Knight began to scale the wall at a terrifying speed.
The moment the Tin Knight reached the top of the wall, the heads of the nearby soldiers and the sergeant were separated from their bodies and sent flying into the air.
But they weren’t the only sentries guarding the wide wall. Soon, other sentries shouted.
“E-Enemy attack! Enemy att—”
Slice!
The Tin Knight, having cut down all the soldiers on the wall in an instant, heard a voice from his neck.
The small skull on his necklace sang.
《Straight ahead! Straight ahead! The dirty old man’s blood is up ahead!》
Following the skull’s guidance, which was quite helpful even if not as good as a minimap, the Tin Knight began to run.
Naturally, the enemy wasn’t about to let him go unchallenged.
“Over here! The intruder is here!”
As befitting those preparing for war, the soldiers were well-armed and their reactions were swift.
The Tin Knight charged without hesitation toward the dozens of soldiers rushing at him.
CRACK!
The charge of the Tin Knight, whose entire body was made of metal, was a sufficient weapon in itself.
A soldier who collided with the Tin Knight was sent flying backward with the sound of shattering bones. At the same time, the soldiers’ spears struck the Tin Knight’s body, but attacks not imbued with mana failed to inflict more than a scratch.
The Tin Knight, in turn, didn’t waste mana using sword energy on such opponents, instead fighting purely with his body.
He slashed with his sword, used his shield to deflect attacks and make them stab each other, stomped with his feet, and struck with his elbows.
These weren’t freshly armed conscripts, but standing soldiers who trained regularly, and dozens of them were slaughtered in the blink of an eye.
And before their blood had even fully pooled on the ground, all sorts of magic rained down on the Tin Knight’s head.
The Tin Knight threw himself to the side and rolled.
He snatched a brick fragment created by the explosion.
Gauging the enemy’s position from the angle of the attack and the flow of mana he felt around him, he rose to his feet and hurled the brick.
“Don’t stop the attack! Completely crush—”
SPLAT!
The head of the mage giving the order instantly burst.
Splattered with the overflowing blood and brain matter, the other mages beside him panicked and wiped their faces.
It was an opening.
An opening born not from a lack of magical skill, but from a lack of familiarity with war itself.
The Tin Knight’s feet stomped hard on the ground.
A few spirits and magic dolls tried to block the Tin Knight’s path to protect their masters.
The Tin Knight’s eyes quickly scanned the enemies.
How much sword energy was needed to sever the neck of the magic doll in front? Where was the spirit’s core? Would it be more helpful to the chaos of the battlefield to kill them instantly or to wound them just enough to make them go berserk?
These weren’t actions he consciously thought through.
But the memories etched into the Tin Knight’s body, his immense combat experience, calculated the optimal and most efficient action for the current situation in the blink of an eye.
Again, in a fleeting moment, the enemies were swept away.
The enemies were endless, but unlike usual, the Tin Knight’s movements were unrestricted.
With no need to limit his range of action to protect someone, he literally rampaged freely throughout the castle.
One moment he was cutting down enemies in the west, the next he appeared in the east. If he saw a weak structure, he destroyed it to bury his foes. If the situation seemed disadvantageous, he fled to another location without hesitation.
“Where is he! Where the hell is he hiding now!”
If this had been an open plain, things wouldn’t have unfolded this way.
Even the Tin Knight couldn’t guarantee victory in a head-on confrontation against all the mages, knights, and soldiers gathered in the castle.
But a battle, a war, was not a game where the side with the higher total power simply wins.
Even with thousands of troops, only a limited number could fight in one place. And no matter how immense the mages’ firepower was, they could only unleash a fraction of it against a target that popped up here, there, and everywhere like the Tin Knight.
The death toll, which had been only three right after the battle began, reached three hundred in less than thirty minutes.
What was most terrifying for the enemy was that despite moving so much, the Tin Knight’s movements didn’t slow in the slightest.
If a human had moved this much, they would have been out of breath or their muscles would have been strained, but the concept of fatigue did not exist for a magic doll.
No, a normal magic doll might have had its parts creak and groan like a machine run without rest, but the Tin Knight’s body possessed a self-repair function.
Even if his joints or other parts were strained and began to creak, as long as he was supplied with mana, he could continue fighting while simultaneously repairing himself.
It was as if he had been designed from the very beginning for just this kind of endless battle.
The battle continued, and at the thirty-minute mark.
《Supply! Supply! Main gate!》
Following the skull necklace’s guidance, the Tin Knight leaped onto the wall above the main gate where he had first entered.
At the same time, a girl in a white magician’s outfit popped into existence out of thin air.
The girl, Gale, asked.
“Retreat or continue?”
The Tin Knight raised his right hand.
Gale smiled lightly, placed a hand on the Tin Knight’s back, and poured mana into him.
It was Dorothea’s mana, familiar beyond measure.
“I’ll throw in some extra service while I’m at it.”
『Storage』 『Float』 『Bind』
The characters that floated around Gale’s body merged into a ball of light, which then began to hover around the Tin Knight.
The orbs then absorbed the excess mana that overflowed, more than the Tin Knight’s vessel could contain from the mana Gale had poured in.
“If you run low on mana, you can just break one and absorb it. The conversion efficiency is low, so it’s not something I’d use without Dorothea’s support, but this should be the best for you, right?”
The Tin Knight gave a thumbs-up, as if satisfied.
Gale gave a slight tip of her hat in farewell, then tapped the heel of her shoe on the castle parapet.
In that instant, she vanished.
“There he is, he’s over—Gah!”
[‘The Tin Knight’ exclaims, “Let’s just hit a clean four digits!”]