6. The Assault p1
—The departure of the large assault force.
Less than two days later, in the dead of night.
The gatekeeper covered his mouth with his hand, stifling a yawn. It was just about the time when even the plants were asleep. It was only natural for a person to feel drowsy, he thought as he spent time alone in the stone watchtower. Or rather, he was killing time.
The night breeze tickled his nose. It was a coolness he would long for during the day. If this breeze blew, it would somewhat alleviate the frustration of his duty.
(Man, it’s been hot lately.)
He leaned his elbows on the railing and gazed blankly at the scenery. It was a comfortable night. The mountain range was silently sinking into the evening darkness, and the light of the stars and moon poured down on its surface. From the depths of the night came the sounds of insects and wild dogs doing their best. It wasn’t noisy at all, so he found himself listening intently.
It was a good atmosphere for a drink. But unfortunately, drinking on duty was strictly prohibited. He would be punished if caught by his superiors, and he wasn’t that fond of alcohol anyway.
However, it was true that there was a distinct lack of amusement.
For a gatekeeper, the greatest enemy was drowsiness.
(That idiot still isn’t back…)
Currently, the person who should have been his conversation partner was absent. He had simply said, “I’m going to the latrine.” He was probably gambling, using a break as an excuse. He wanted to drag him back out of spite, but he had been in the opposite position during his last shift. He had left his partner on duty and gone gambling with his friends. He couldn’t complain.
—This is also taking turns. It’s my turn next… Geez.
The gatekeeper again looked at the unchanging scenery.
But it was only a matter of time before he succumbed to sleepiness. He dozed off and on, feeling like he was drifting in a boat.
“Hey, it’s time for the change of shift.”
“Huh? …Baldo? Is it time already?”
“Yeah, good work. Your partner is doing that again?”
“Well, yeah. You’re too serious.”
“Idiot, it’s our job. Now get back to your bed.”
The gatekeeper rubbed his eyes with his fingers and stretched his back. The one who had just patted him on the shoulder was Baldo, the next gatekeeper on duty. He was one of his colleagues. Although they could interact casually, he had a serious personality that didn’t match his appearance or tone of voice, and he always seemed to draw the short straw. He was often burdened with troublesome tasks by his superiors. He felt sorry for him, but he didn’t feel like taking over his duties.
He was his colleague, but not his kind.
(He’s so inflexible.)
Baldo was quite a nag. For example, he often lectured him about neglecting his gatekeeping duties and indulging in leisure during their shifts. But they were just using their ingenuity to satisfy their hunger for entertainment.
Therefore, among the gatekeepers, seeing Baldo suffer from unreasonable situations had become a form of entertainment, a chance to laugh at the “serious guy.” However, Baldo seemed to have given up recently. The fact that he wasn’t picking on him now was proof of that.
The gatekeeper lifted himself from the chair he had brought.
(I’m grateful that he’s turning a blind eye.)
Apparently, Baldo was worried about the current situation.
It was the laxity of the Imperial soldiers remaining at the fort.
But the gatekeeper laughed it off as unnecessary worry.
(A mere soldier acting like a wise man?)
He must have also heard about the war situation brought by the scouts. The reports that “the Allied Forces are overwhelmed with wounded,” “they have suffered heavy losses due to Lieutenant General Eileen’s efforts, and the enemy army is extremely weakened,” and “there are almost no heroic figures in Dera Branch Castle” had reached even the low-ranking Imperial soldiers. Those assigned to defend Fort Balaboa only had to wait for the good news in their sleep.
—That our invincible Imperial army had won.
—That they had crushed the enemy branch castle with overwhelming power.
(And on top of that, Lieutenant General Rosbern of the ‘Six Wings’ is scheduled to take over command, and this Fort Balaboa itself has no fatal flaws.)
—What was there to worry about?
The relaxed atmosphere that currently filled Fort Balaboa was the result of these factors. The gatekeeper sighed and mocked Baldo in his mind.
“Well, I’ll leave the rest to you.”
“Yeah. Try not to have any bad dreams.”
“Can I even control that?”
The gatekeeper lightly patted Baldo’s shoulder and passed him. Sleepiness had already settled in his eyes and back. He wanted to go to sleep as soon as possible. However, he had to call out to his partner on the way back. Since they were on alternating shifts, if their timings didn’t match, their superiors might find out. He couldn’t be lazy about this.
At that moment, he heard a sigh from behind.
Out of curiosity, the gatekeeper stopped and turned around.
“Are you tired? A sigh isn’t like you.”
“Yeah. The kid who came to our unit has been saying all sorts of things.”
“The kid assigned to your unit—you mean…”
“The one named Sol. That kid has been saying strange things lately, it’s troubling.”
“Strange things?”
When the gatekeeper frowned, Baldo scratched his head.
“Ah, for example, after the acting commander left for the attack, she said she had a bad feeling or something. She keeps saying, ‘We might be ambushed in a few days.’ She keeps telling me to be careful.”
“Haha. Is she a prophet or something?”
The gatekeeper also knew the little girl in question. There was no one who stood out as much as Sol.
“Doesn’t she know the scouts’ information?”
“I thought so too. She’s new, and she’s isolated. So, I told her.”
“Did it have any effect?”
“Not at all. She’s still running around the fort, fiddling with equipment, and Nudd was about to snap. No, he completely snapped.”
Baldo put his fingers to his temples and sighed. That little girl was one of the troublesome things he had been burdened with.
A suspicious person of unknown origin and age. She claimed to be “from Dada Village,” but that was also dubious. The lord’s mansion in Dada Village had been set on fire by someone and burned down.
There were no records or registers. He had heard rumors that it was unknown whether the little girl was actually a farmer’s daughter. Or she might be from the Allied Forces.
But her entry into the fort had been easily approved. According to the acting commander’s adjutant, “There’s nothing suspicious about her.”
His judgment was highly regarded.
(So, she was approved with surprising ease. And then there’s her usual behavior. Her strange, natural airheadedness seems to have increased the credibility of her being a ‘naive, sheltered girl,’ and it seems like their vigilance has decreased.)
—Three reasons contributed to the little girl’s acceptance. The first was to insist that the Empire’s invasion was a righteous act. The second was that she had received the approval of a trusted adjutant. And her behavior. After considering these factors, they probably judged that accepting her would be more beneficial.
She was an important tool. Therefore, she was assigned to the fort defense unit, a desirable position. The Imperial soldiers who were part of the Dera Branch Castle attack force were probably resentful of her.
—In other words, it was correct to see her as just lucky.
However, despite her suspiciousness, the little girl’s behavior itself was eccentric, so he didn’t want to approach her. The gatekeeper looked at Baldo’s face with a bit of sympathy.
“That’s a troublesome thing you’ve got there.”
“Well, I’m used to this kind of thing. I’m also taking care of my sister’s kid.”
“Ah, that’s right.”
Baldo’s gaze drifted away, and his cheeks relaxed.
What he was seeing was probably—his sickly sister and her child, who were waiting for him to return in his home village. After his sister’s husband died prematurely, Baldo seemed to be taking care of the two of them. However, his income as a mere soldier was all they had. Their life could only be described as poor.
But their happy life as a family of three was well-known. After all, Baldo would endlessly boast about his family when drinking. Therefore, if you drank with him, you would inevitably learn about it. The gatekeeper also remembered being told about “his sister’s good nature” and “his child’s growth” until he felt sick.
That’s probably why he was so concerned about Sol, the ultimate troublemaker. He must be seeing his sister’s child in the little girl.
Anyway, his family stories would go on forever.
The gatekeeper, overcome with sleepiness, moved to end the conversation.
“Man, that’s great. I’m jealous as a single guy. Before you start bragging, I’ll take my leave—”
“Wait… what’s that?”
His breathless voice lacked any hint of jest.
Wondering what was going on, the gatekeeper leaned against the railing and followed Baldo’s gaze. There were several figures by the torches at the gate.
A cavalry unit about the size of a platoon was looking up at them. About fifty people? They were wearing dark cloaks, so he couldn’t see their faces from above. He could only see their equipment through the gaps in their clothing. It was standard issue for the Imperial army. Behind this group, two covered wagons were parked.
The gatekeeper thought, “Are they returning from a night patrol?”
But Baldo’s expression remained stern.
“Halt, that platoon! Identify yourselves!”
Baldo questioned them in a loud voice that woke him up. His voice was sharp, exuding intimidation. That’s when the gatekeeper noticed something was off. Come to think of it, they wouldn’t send a platoon-sized unit on a night patrol. Two hundred soldiers remained at the fort. It was impossible that they would send out twenty-five percent of their personnel to patrol in the middle of the night. The presence of the wagons was also puzzling. It was far too grand for a night patrol.
Tension filled the air. His muscles tensed. The gatekeeper gulped and braced himself, waiting for a response.
After a while, the large man at the head of the platoon raised his voice.
“We are messengers from Rear Admiral Donnell! We have come here to deliver an important message to Adjutant Sanson Harpalia and to urgently receive a supply of much-needed food!”
At that reply, the gatekeeper breathed a sigh of relief.
Rear Admiral Donnell. The name of the acting commander of this fort.
The very person who proposed and organized the assault force. He was currently away from the fort, commanding on the field. If they were his messengers, a platoon-sized unit wasn’t that strange. Of course, it was too many people if they were only delivering a message, but it was reasonable if they were also transporting food.
However, the gatekeeper then thought about the war situation. They had returned to the fort specifically for food supplies. This meant that they had exceeded the initially anticipated number of days of fighting. Apparently, they were expecting a prolonged battle on the field. The defeated soldiers gathered at Dera Branch Castle must be putting up more of a fight than expected.
—They’re still holding on after losing to the ‘Strongest of Mankind’?
(Well, good luck to them.)
Just as he was about to open the gate, he was stopped by a hand. Caught off guard, he looked at Baldo, the owner of the hand.
He nodded silently and shouted at the platoon below.
“Take off your cloaks and show us your faces!”
“Hey, Baldo…”
Taken aback, the gatekeeper nudged Baldo. This question was pointless. No one could remember the faces of over a thousand Imperial soldiers who had entered the fort. The number of farmers and new recruits drafted for this battle was enormous. Unless they were acquaintances, their faces and names wouldn’t match. Therefore, in Fort Balaboa, they used the name of the leader of their unit as identification.
Especially now, when they weren’t even on high alert.
(You didn’t actually believe that kid’s nonsense, did you?)
—The Allied Forces will launch a surprise attack in a few days. It was a prophetic statement. A child’s prattle.
He must have been just as taken aback as the gatekeeper.
The cavalry unit fell silent, as if at a loss for words.
Silence dominated the darkness, and tension filled the air again.
“Understood. Then we have no choice…”
The large man at the front reached for his hood as if in response. Following his lead, all the members of the platoon grabbed theirs.
The next moment, a flock of black cloaks danced in the evening darkness.
The gatekeeper stared, his vision obscured. They had all thrown off their cloaks at once. The cloaks acted as a curtain, preventing him from seeing their faces from above.
The moment the gatekeeper was about to let out a cry of bewilderment—.
“We’ll break through head-on! We will raise our Laptenon flag here again!”
—A powerful impact shook the watchtower.
A groan escaped the gatekeeper’s lips. There was no way he could withstand the unexpected vibration. He lost his balance and tumbled backward. As he landed on his backside, a dull pain like ripples on water spread throughout his body. In that instant, he desperately lifted his head. If the back of his head hit the stone floor, he would lose consciousness.
As an Imperial soldier, he had to avoid that.
Because they were currently under attack.
(Wh-what… what’s happening!?)
The gatekeeper was also a member of the Imperial army.
He used the momentum of his fall to stand up and regain his balance. And with that momentum, he leaned out from the railing.
Was this tremor a natural disaster? No, the answer was simple. One of the cavalry unit had… kicked the gate with all his might…
(No… way.)
The gatekeeper’s face turned pale. He was awake, but it felt like he was in the middle of a nightmare.
The situation was unfolding below, where the black cloaks had fallen. The cavalry unit dismounted their horses and retrieved their weapons from the waiting wagons. Standing near the fort gate, at a distance from them, was the giant man who had been at the head of the cavalry unit.
The gatekeeper recognized him. There was no mistaking that face.
His figure, illuminated by the torchlight, was strikingly characteristic. Sooty blond hair reminiscent of a lion’s mane, bulging muscles that looked like armor. And the giant, with a neatly trimmed beard under his nose, had one foot on the cracked fort gate. He was looking back, holding a broadsword—which had been hidden under his cloak until now—in one hand.
Only one person fit this description.
The up-and-coming hero touted by the Laptenon Kingdom.
(His name was Bogart Ramholt, wasn’t it…?)
The shocking facts didn’t end there. Mixed in with this group were famous warriors. A veteran soldier who had been on the front lines for twenty years, the woman who had beheaded the gatekeeper’s superior, a thin magician dressed as a cleric, all elite soldiers who wielded weapons for the Kingdom. And all of them were people who… hadn’t been reported to be dispatched to Dera Branch Castle.
The gatekeeper was seized by the illusion that the ground beneath his feet was crumbling.
(No, so… could it be… !?)
—This was supposed to be a good opportunity for an easy promotion. The sweet dream he had held until tonight was crumbling.
As the gatekeeper hurriedly rang the alarm bell, Baldo shouted,
“Enemy attack! The Allied Forces—they’ve come to capture the fort with a small force…!!”
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