Chapter 81 – An Unforeseen Disaster (2)

One hour ago, when the Sun rose to the middle of the sky, Cairo’s soldiers, who were on guard duty at the First Defense Line, looked at the border with relaxed expressions. Work had always been boring for them. There was no one in sight, and they had nothing to say about working on the border while having nothing much to do.

Finally, after being unable to stand his boredom, a senior soldier sat on the floor, leaned his head against a wall, and said bluntly, “I am going to sleep, so inform me once this shift is finished.”

“I understand.”

It was a normal situation. On the Southern Front, where there was no need for them to endure their drowsiness and watch the border, they rested when they wanted to.

Just how much time had passed? The next shift’s soldier came to him.

“G-get up! I think you should see this!”

“Man… What happened… Ugh!?”

He was a senior soldier, yet he was forced to wake up from his sleep. He was about to shout in anger, but when he looked at the scene outside the fortress, he was utterly speechless. Far away, he could see thousands of people attacking the First Defense Line. At first glance, he easily recognized they were armed forces with the flag of the Hector Kingdom. He was dumbfounded after seeing that. Finally, after 10 seconds passed, he came back to his senses and shouted, “Call the commander right now! Hurry up!”

“Y-Yes!”

The soldier went out right away.

Even though they were at the forefront, it took a considerable amount of time for the enemy’s presence to be known to them. And it was only troops coming for now.

Then, a commander, who didn’t look all that good, came hurriedly.

“What the hell!”

The commander of the First Defense Line, Count Donald, confirmed what had happened with a pale face. As it was reported, the troops of the Hector Kingdom were advancing, and if things went on like this, it wouldn’t be long before they would attack the wall itself.

Honestly, according to the manual, they had to attack back immediately. The first step was to block the enemy’s approach by using weapons prepared on the wall. Still, even though the soldiers hurried and readied their arrows to fire, he still didn’t give the orders.

’…Does the Hector Kingdom truly intend to declare war on the Cairo Kingdom’

The relationship between Hector and Cairo wasn’t bad.

Especially, as the Hector Kingdom was having a tough time recently, there was no reason for them to wage war in their current state.

Maybe it was just military training? But if they intended that, there was no reason for them to march with flags fluttering widely. He thought so because the Hector Kingdom had no cause for it. Just as a cause was important for war between nobles, a cause was absolutely necessary for one nation to wage war on another. Due to all that, his thoughts were intertwined.

Even though the soldiers were waiting for his command with arrows aimed, he didn’t give it.

‘If I give the order, a war might actually start. That is a problem that no single noble can shoulder. And as the Hector Kingdom is approaching so fast, it can be interpreted that they just want to talk to us soon. Let’s try to talk with the commander of the Hector Kingdom. It isn’t like it will be too late to make a judgment then.’

Count Donald was a typical scaredy cat commander with no war experience.

Eventually,

“Lower all the bows for now. If we show them that we aren’t willing to fight, they might resort to talks.”

He made a stupid mistake.

The Hector Kingdom had no intention of talking. As their distance to the fortress got closer, they rang the drums on the battlefield loudly, and the commander also ordered them to charge in unison.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

“Full-scale attack!”

“Attack!”

Tatata!

It all happened in an instant. Hector’s soldiers rushed through with siege weapons, and Cairo’s soldiers were shocked at the sudden situation, not knowing what to do. The war had only just begun. Still, as it was a scene they never thought would happen on the Southern Front, they couldn’t easily accept what was going on.

Eventually, Count Donald also came to his senses. The war he wished wasn’t true had turned into a reality, and he realized that in order to survive, he had to prevent the enemies from crossing the wall.

“Everyone, fire the arrows!”

“Release them!”

Papak!

Hundreds of arrows rose high into the sky and fell toward their enemies.

Contrary to the menacing sight in front of them, the enemy didn’t lose their spirits for a long time. Only in a few seconds, the troops of the Hector Kingdom had raised the shields they had prepared in advance high, and the number of people they lost wasn’t too much. Truthfully, most of the arrows didn’t even go far and were stuck in the ground. That wasn’t only because of lack of training. Aside from neglecting training, some of the soldiers were drunk even though it was morning.

If they had known there would be a war, they would have never taken even a sip. But as the war started so suddenly, they couldn’t adjust to it. It was a literal mess. When they saw those approaching the wall, they realized not many enemies were killed by the arrows.

“We don’t have enough arrows.”

“Hurry up and bring more!”

“Is the magic weapon not working?”

“Damn it!”

It was a total mess. Because the arrows weren’t prepared in advance, some soldiers had to run to get them, and the magic weapon which was purchased a month back didn’t work. It was a scene that showed the reality of the Southern Front of Cairo. And unlike the Western Front, where one didn’t die from being careless, the Southern Front was so comfortable that even such basic needs of war were messed up.

Finally,

Tak.

A ladder was placed on the wall.

Count Donald realized what mistake he had made when he saw the enemy troops coming up quickly.

‘If this is the case, we won’t last long.’

His face turned pale as he understood the clearly-unfavorable situation. As soon as he judged that they couldn’t stand against Hector with the current strength of the First Defense Line, he screamed at the soldiers, “Call the reserve unit right now! Bring all the personnel stationed in the units to the First Defense Line, and report to the Royal Family that the Hector Kingdom has declared war on us! It is an urgent situation here! Move fast!”

The soldiers went out.

The war was a reality now. And from now on, it was their turn to pay the price for their carelessness.

At the same time, once they heard that the Fifth Defense Line was attacked, Henry and the others hurried.

“Huff… Huff…”

Henry was out of breath. Even though he didn’t want to, he had to walk for a long time, but now, as he had been running as fast as he could, he was out of breath. The distance between the Fifth Defense Line and the reserve unit was more than he had expected. And as the officer had said that it would take about 2 hours to go there by walking, it meant he needed to run for at least another hour from now.

‘Is the Southern Front made of mindless bastards? If the purpose of the reserve forces is to support quickly in case of an emergency, shouldn’t they be less than an hour away? Ugh, these fucking idiots.’

He swore a lot inwardly. Henry thought it was good to join the reserve unit and be in a secluded place, but he forgot about the fact that reality was hard and rough. Also, Henry’s vision was actually looking for something else.

‘If it is Roman Dmitry, will he be able to reach there soon?’

As soon as he heard the news of war, Roman led his troops and ran straight toward the First Defense Line. In fact, they were so fast that it took less than 3 minutes for them to vanish from Henry’s eyes. He tried to catch up to them, but he soon understood that he could not catch up with them.

He felt a bit flustered. Roman Dmitry had trained hard while the other nobles were resting in the shade and making fun of him, but when the war broke out, he was the one who showed a significant difference in physical strength right from the start. On the contrary, Henry was gasping for breath along with his men. They all looked like they were on the verge of dying. As they were running nonstop, some of them even looked dehydrated.

Eventually, Henry sat on the ground. He kept exhaling roughly.

“Huff… Huff… Huff… Let’s take a break!”

If they didn’t move quickly, the First Defense Line would be in danger. But, so what? What good would it be if he died from exhaustion before even reaching there? With those thoughts, Henry laid down.

The first place to be attacked was the First Defense Line. But the place that faced the crisis of falling before that was the Fifth Defense Line.

Bang!

Rumble.

“The gates have opened!”

“Stop them!”

The gates were smashed open.

The gates, which were made of steel, had low durability due to negligent maintenance, and Hector’s soldiers knocked them down with a few hits from the siege weapon. And that was the start of hell. In addition to the enemy troops climbing up the ladder, screams of the enemy forces rushing through the gates like a tide could be heard from all sides.

The commander of the Fifth Defense Line, Baron Bruce, staggered back with a pale face.

‘It’s all over.’

There was a reason it was called the Paradise on the Southern Front. Baron Bruce was a rotten person, and besides being in charge and living in luxury here, he never imposed military duties on anyone.

The risk? What would be the risk if there wasn’t going to be a war?

This time, at the request of Viscount Bale, he dispatched nobles who were of little use to the Fifth Defense Line, and even this morning, he felt good at the thought of getting rewards from him for that. But based on what he now knew, not even the reserve forces that would show up would be able to change this situation.

‘To hold on to the Fifth Defense Line anymore is suicide. In order to live, I need to leave this place and run away.’

He made a quick judgment. And rather than it being about doing the correct thing, it was focused on his own survival.

Baron Bruce shouted, “Hold onto your position till the very end! Innocent people’s lives will be in danger if this line is crossed! Risk your lives, and never, ever give up!”

However, contrary to the words he had shouted out loud, he had no intention of risking his life. Still, didn’t he need people to buy him time to escape? And as Baron Bruce knew that, he ordered his man and started to run away quickly.

“Commander! Where are you going?!”

“I plan to contact the Royal Family. Hold the front!”

Obviously, there were people in the way who asked him that, and he lied to get away. No matter how things turned out later, he decided saving his life was more important. As Baron Bruce was fat, normally, running for only one minute would make it hard for him to breathe. But today, he was really fast somehow.

At this point, Baron Bruce, who had fled from the Fifth Defense Line, was sweating heavily.

‘I need to run. If I arrive at the rear camp, I will be safe from the Hector Kingdom barging in.’

How far did he run?

At some point, he saw a group of people who were running quite fast in his eyes. And, at the forefront of them, there was Roman Dmitry.