Chapter 228: The Tin Knight and The Tower of Greed (8)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 228: The Tin Knight and The Tower of Greed (8)
“Urgent report, urgent report!”
“What is it?”
“The 21st unit has been annihilated!”
“What?”
A muscle in Teur Rognir’s face twitched. As his most powerful rivals were killed off one by one or cast aside for their mistakes, he was now considered the most likely candidate to become the next tower head.
He took the report from his subordinate, his hand trembling faintly.
The contents of the report were nothing short of horrific.
The death of the 4th rank mage, Bruha Rognir.
The 3rd rank mages and skilled knights serving as his guard were also wiped out.
The forces of 2nd rank and below had somehow survived, but with their entire upper command decimated, any strategic action other than merging with another unit was impossible.
But most importantly…
“…A single, plain-looking magic doll suddenly invaded, wreaked havoc throughout the castle, then cut off Bruha’s head and fled?”
Teur was dumbfounded.
Wondering where to even begin, he asked the first question that came to mind.
“Why is this news only reaching me now? If a battle occurred, shouldn’t it have been reported here immediately?”
“W-well, sir, at first, they didn’t consider it an incident worth reporting. By the time the situation became serious, they no longer had the capacity to send a report.”
After returning to the Tower of Control, the gray old man and the Witch of the North had gone into seclusion, claiming they had preparations to make. In their stead, Teur had been given command of the front lines.
And naturally, minor incidents like ‘a guard on duty spots a suspicious person’ were not reported to the general headquarters one by one.
Such matters were for the local commander to handle at their discretion or to be summarized in a regular report later. If every unit reported every trivial incident in real-time, the command center would be physically buried under the workload.
In that sense, it wasn't entirely illogical that they hadn't immediately reported ‘a single magic doll infiltrating a castle guarded by thousands of troops.’ The result, however, was the worst-case scenario.
And the bad news didn't end there.
“The commander of the 24th unit, Lord Herunal, has been taken down! The culprit was Gale Elilaz’s familiar, the white knight!”
“The 26th unit, which received Lord Herunal’s request for support, spotted a ship flying in the sky while en route! They attempted to shoot it down but were defeated instead! The enemy forces reportedly consisted of members of the Lion Duke’s bloodline wielding terrifying strength and soldiers who appeared to be enhanced with Enchantment!”
“Survivors report that no matter how many enemies they defeated, new troops were continuously reinforced from the ship! Given the soldiers’ bizarre appearances and the fact that they left no corpses, it’s suspected they might be undead!”
“Another battle has broken out! During an engagement with enemy soldiers, a large-scale curse and poison mist spell was unleashed on the battlefield! Judging by the vicious tactic that doesn't distinguish between friend or foe, it must be the work of a necromancer—and a particularly vile one at that!”
“Large-scale troop movement has been observed from the Tower of Protection!”
“Update the map. Now.”
At Teur’s quiet but firm command, his subordinates quickly began moving the pieces on the map.
The result was clear.
“…A 4th rank mage… no, that’s not it. They’re precisely targeting only the ‘Rognir’.”
The units led by Bruha and Herunal were among the elite, so one could assume the enemy was simply targeting large, powerful strongholds. However, the units that had taken damage also included much weaker ones, and even some that were on the move rather than stationed at a specific base.
They all had one thing in common: the unit was led by someone of Rognir blood.
Even among units led by 4th rank mages, those commanded by individuals who had achieved that rank by marrying into the family were left unscathed. The enemy’s intent was painfully obvious.
“Are you saying our military intelligence has been leaked, sir?”
“No. If that were the case, they wouldn’t be moving alone. Other raiding parties would have joined them for a more effective invasion. They must have some means of detection.”
A rather threatening attack, Teur thought.
If the enemy was only the Tin Knight’s party, subjugating them wouldn’t be too difficult.
If he gathered the scattered forces and formed an encirclement, no matter how skilled the enemy was, dragging the fight into a war of attrition would put his side at an advantage.
But right now, the Tower of Protection stood behind the Tin Knight’s party.
The Tower of Protection was making threatening moves on every front, as if ready to attack at any moment, and it was highly likely this was no mere bluff.
If he pulled troops from a strategic point and deployed them elsewhere, they would launch an offensive and push forward without mercy.
Teur fell into thought.
The gray old man and the Witch of the North had returned to the tower and gone into seclusion to prepare, leaving Teur with full authority over the troops in the meantime.
He had planned to maintain the current status quo until the old man returned, believing they would remain in a standoff for a while, but…
“…Sticking to the old strategy when the situation has changed is something only a fool would do.”
Teur began to move the markers representing the Tower of Control’s forces on the map.
He pulled the troops from the border with the Tower of Annihilation inward, freeing up the forces originally stationed there to move freely and hunt down the enemy.
The complexions of his subordinates changed colors as they watched his new arrangement.
“Lord Teur. If you do that, the front with the Tower of Annihilation will be left defenseless.”
“If they decide to turn their swords on us, the situation will become uncontrollable!”
“Preparing for contingencies is important. But unlike Annihilation, who might betray us, these enemies are an immediate threat. If we leave them be, there’s no telling how much damage they’ll cause. We must crush them early.”
“But, sir, isn’t it just one ship?”
The Tin Knight’s party’s raid was sudden, but that in itself proved their numbers were small.
If a large force had crossed into Control’s territory, it was impossible that they wouldn’t have been detected beforehand.
The enemy’s numbers had to be small enough to evade the surveillance network—perhaps truly just a single ship’s crew.
Mobilizing a large force to catch such a small number of enemies was, by any measure, the height of inefficiency.
“No. This much damage was inflicted in just a few hours. Rather than testing the waters and letting the damage grow, it’s better to crush them in one fell swoop. And prepare a magic message. Make sure security is tight so it can’t be intercepted.”
“Who should we contact, sir?”
Teur stated calmly.
“Every Rognir on the battlefield.”
*
《Ahead! Right ahead! The blood of that filthy old man is there!》
《Ahead! Right ahead! The blood of that filthy old man is there!》
《Ahead! Right ahe—》
Clack, clack.
The skeletons chattered noisily, their bones rattling.
Watching the necromancy compasses, which should have been pointing to different targets, all aim at a single location, Dorothea spoke.
“Looks like they’re all gathered in one place. They must have realized we’re picking off only those with the tower head’s bloodline.”
“They’re quite fast. Unlike us, who are unburdened, they should have all sorts of restrictions.”
An army, by its very nature, becomes slower the larger it gets.
The traffic jams during the holidays were nightmarish enough; it was needless to say how much worse it would be for an army where the vast majority traveled on foot and had to secure supply lines.
In contrast, what about Dorothea’s party?
The number of people who needed to eat and sleep was a mere four: Dorothea, Adelaide, Gale, and Trot.
Thanks to the Gloves of Haider that Dorothea possessed, they had no need to resupply. The flying ship they rode could move at high speeds that left a galloping horse in the dust, and they could even rest during transit, albeit with slightly reduced efficiency.
Moreover, the Tin Knight, as if it didn't even need that ‘minimum rest,’ was joyfully repeating a crazy schedule of move-fight-move-fight-move-fight that made one’s tongue and head ache just thinking about it.
Any ordinary army would have been picked off one by one without even knowing what hit them. The fact that the enemy had managed to assume a defensive posture, even if they were a few steps behind, spoke to their competence.
And to what they had to do to achieve it.
Sophia spoke up.
“They must have abandoned the slower units and quickly gathered only the high-ranking mages who can use flight magic or ride on familiars. Miss Dorothea, is the place where the bloodline members are gathered a magic tower?”
“No, it’s half and half. Half are holed up in a magic tower, and the other half are in that castle up ahead.”
At Dorothea’s words, the party looked at the castle before them.
Cap’n Bill let out a whistle.
“Whew~ Nice. Looks like there’s a ton of stuff to plunder.”
He was right.
The party had stirred up trouble in many places and plundered a few castles, but the one before them had a completely different atmosphere from the ones they had conquered so far.
For one, it was enormous. It wasn't a single structure but was divided into multiple sections like an outer castle, an inner castle, and annexes. There was even a city district within the outer walls.
Its grandeur and splendor were overwhelming.
Aside from the river running alongside it, the castle was situated on an open plain, so it wasn't a geographically impregnable fortress. However, as if to compensate, an extraordinary amount of mana radiated from its walls and the inside.
“Balascamb. It was the capital of the Magic State Aeolia back when it was still a kingdom. It holds great symbolic value for the Rognir family, so its magical defenses are outstanding. They probably aren't much inferior to a magic tower's.”
Gale shook her head, implying a frontal assault would be difficult.
For Gale, who was so daring she seemed to have lost all sense of fear, to say that meant the place was truly difficult to capture.
“Tsk. I guess that’s the end of picking off just the leadership, then.”
Dorothea clicked her tongue with a displeased look. Sophia spoke in a placating tone.
“To move this quickly, the enemy must have overextended themselves. They probably left most of their regular foot soldiers behind and had only the high-ranking mages capable of high-speed travel join up here. Their front lines must be in disarray, so it would be best to retreat for now and observe the situation. There’s also the risk of being surrounded.”
Sophia wasn't wrong.
If the 4th rank mages were holed up here, it would certainly be difficult to target them. But conversely, it also meant they couldn't be active on the front lines.
Forcing the enemy to make such a drastic troop movement and limiting their tactical options was a sufficient achievement in itself.
No, considering all the enemies they had already ground to dust, it was more than enough.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that you must not retreat now!]
However, the Tin Knight had a different idea.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that the next time you meet, the witch's power will have grown even greater. Before that happens, you must chip away at the enemy's strength until Control and Protection are on roughly equal footing!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ insists that your only chance of victory is to set the stage so you can focus solely on fighting the witch!]
It was rare for the Tin Knight to rate an enemy so highly, so the party members looked somewhat surprised.
Dorothea asked.
“So what do you want to do? Are you going to charge into that castle alone and tear the place apart again?”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ admits that sounds like fun in its own way, but complains that there would be too many problems with the mana supply process!]
Its tone suggested that if not for the gaps in the mana supply, it could do it alone.
“Then what?”
The Tin Knight pointed a finger at Dorothea.
To be precise, at her right hand.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that an ally reusing a powerful enemy's ultimate skill is the stuff of legends!]