Chapter 107
“Why on earth aren't you moving? Don't we need to avenge Lord Bahamut?”
“It's not that simple an issue. Getting involved wrongly in this round could be an act that ignores the grand principle of mercenaries we've established.”
In Verpin's personal thoughts, he wanted to cut off Baltimo’s head, the man who killed his master, right away, but he worried that taking one side might cause problems for the mercenaries.
“This is revenge for Lord Bahamut. If we don't move, it's obvious how they will think of us. If Lord Bahamut were here, he would have rushed at those bastards immediately.”
Even after hearing the opinion of Bartus, who spoke as if spitting out the words, Verpin remained silent.
If he moved under the pretext of the Mercenary King's revenge, many mercenaries would follow him.
Then, was their sacrifice justified?
Various thoughts complicated Verpin’s mind.
It was a moment when he increasingly thought it might have been better if he hadn’t become the Mercenary King.
“Master! You need to come out for a moment!”
“What is it?”
“It’s Sir Karl! Sir Karl!”
“…?”
When Karl’s name was mentioned amidst the subordinate’s urgent cry, Verpin, with a puzzled expression, shot up from his seat.
Going outside the guild headquarters and climbing onto the ramparts, he saw a single horse galloping rapidly towards them.
Gallop, gallop.
The horse, running relentlessly, looked at first glance as if it had already covered quite a distance.
The horse, running significantly faster than an ordinary horse, looked extraordinary, and a cloud of dust rose behind the horse that had galloped at such tremendous speed and stopped before the castle wall.
Karl jumped off the saddle and stroked the horse's mane, but the creature tossed its head, avoiding Karl’s touch.
“See you later.”
Karl, having barely placated the extremely irritable Silver, turned around.
“That’s quite the creature.”
“He’s a good fellow, though his temper is a bit foul.”
Watching Karl give a strangely awkward smile, Verpin briefly wondered if Karl had ever smiled during their time together.
“Your expression looks good. It seems something happened during your time away.”
“There was a very small change in thought.”
The two, reunited after a long time, briefly caught up on recent events.
“Your rushing here like this must surely be because of Marquis Baltimo.”
“Will you not move?”
“….”
Verpin faced Karl with a thoughtful expression.
“Considering my grudge, I want to rush over right now, but….”
“You don't need to raise the Mercenary Guild's flag. You must have heard the story of Oleg Yankov. This is a request from me. Cooperate in killing Oleg Yankov. That alone will result in cutting off Baltimo’s hands and feet.”
His eyes shone upon hearing Karl’s words.
Strictly speaking, it was a request, he could repay a debt, and the justification of revenge was added; there was no reason to hesitate.
“I’ll pay the commission fee reliably. By the time Oleg Yankov dies, Duke Ellenhower will be pressing him hard, and Baltimo won't be able to exert his power.”
The final nail was hammered in, and Verpin decided his course.
“Alright. Personnel will be mobilized only from mercenary corps that volunteer for this task. I expect about a thousand men.”
“Good to be straightforward.”
The two lightly clasped hands.
“By the way, establishing a knight order in the meantime. You’ve really changed a lot.”
It was truly unexpected that Karl, who seemed like he would always travel alone, had formed an organization.
“I thought it might be good to try living for once.”
The change in Karl, who had seemed somewhat like a stranger even until they were together, didn't look bad.
“There isn’t much time. How long will it take to gather the men?”
“Two days will be sufficient.”
It had taken about half a day to gallop here.
Even moving after gathering the men, arriving within the time limit could be tight.
“Please be as quick as possible. I can’t guarantee how long they can hold out either.”
“Then I don’t have time to stand around like this.”
The Mercenary Guild headquarters began to move busily for the first time in a long while.
Although it took the form of a typical mercenary request, everyone knew the real justification was the Mercenary King’s revenge.
Mercenaries quickly began to gather at the Mercenary Guild headquarters.
***
“At this rate, it doesn’t look easy to overcome that castle.”
“We didn’t come here with the intention of overcoming that castle in the first place.”
Viscount Jennings and Ellenhower were looking at the Bielefeld fortress, which seemed impossible to capture.
“We are the ones diverting attention; the ones making the move were the nobles of the North-Central region.”
“It seems the other side is doing the same. Haven't you heard the news? About whom they sent there.”
“It seems they used their heads a little. But won't Sir Karl be there?”
“Even if it's Sir Karl. I wonder if it will be alright when the objective strength is inferior.”
A slight shadow fell over Ellenhower’s face as they faced each other across Bielefeld.
“If we had raised troops later, they would have taken over the North-Central region entirely. It would have been much easier for them to consolidate forces than for us, being more skewed towards the northwest.”
Viscount Jennings’ words were correct, which was why they had moved somewhat hastily and quickly.
It wasn't impossible to overcome the castle if they set their minds to it, but now was not the time to move so recklessly.
“Let’s wait a little longer. If good news arrives from the North-Central region, they won’t be able to hold out in Bielefeld forever either. In the first place, many of the northern nobles will be busy tucking tail back to their own domains.”
There was a vague expectation that Karl would employ some method, but there was also a slight anxiety about ‘what if’.
“Has there been any word from Sir Karl?”
“It seemed he intended to mobilize the Mercenary Guild.”
“Just as you thought.”
“Yes. I thought, indeed, that’s Sir Karl.”
Viscount Jennings’ face showed much less anxiety than Ellenhower’s.
It meant he trusted the man named Karl Meyer that much.
“It will be two weeks at most. After that, we will be crossing Bielefeld. Please wait just a little longer.”
“Yes, I too believe it will turn out that way.”
Ellenhower, his face more relaxed than before, once again looked up at their endlessly long defensive wall whose end could not be seen.
Soon, they would be able to cross that detestable barrier and enter Marquis Baltimo’s lands.
***
Blovisce fortress was truly filled with the corpses of allies and enemies.
For the past three days, they had to fend off the enemy's relentless offensive.
For some reason, the enemies were desperately trying to climb onto the castle walls like demons.
“Block them! Don't let them onto the walls!”
Count Vito shouted fiercely, striking an enemy soldier’s neck with the sword in his right hand.
Crunch!
His sword too was damaged from fighting so fiercely for three days.
The sound of the enemy soldier’s neck breaking was heard as he fell.
Shaking off the blood, Count Vito surveyed the surrounding situation.
“Why on earth are these guys' eyes like this?”
“…I don't know either. I never experienced anything like this even when I was with Marquis Baltimo.”
They were clearly fighting without reason.
No matter how elite the soldiers, normal soldiers couldn't possibly fight like this, uniformly without fear.
Right now, they were climbing onto the walls with their eyes rolled back, as if possessed by some evil spirit.
“They must have done something to the soldiers. Otherwise, this couldn't happen.”
The nobles and soldiers of the hastily assembled North-Central coalition stared ahead with pale faces.
The initial number of enemy troops heard was around 500 knights and 800 soldiers, but the number that actually arrived was a large force of about 500 knights and 1500 soldiers.
“Although Blovisce is a well-built fortress, in this situation, I don't know if we can hold out for the five days Sir Karl mentioned.”
Even if the enemy troops were considerable elites, if they had at least been soldiers in their right minds, five days might not have been too much trouble.
But reality was different.
The enemies were an army that knew no fear, and their own forces numbered only about 200 knights and 700 soldiers, less than half the enemy's number.
Furthermore, the only troops trained well enough to be expected to fight were Count Vito’s and the Sinice soldiers of Mollio and Pato.
“Sir Karl will come.”
Towards the people turning desperate, Pato, the young lord of Sinice, shouted in a firm tone.
“Sir Karl will definitely come to save us.”
“….”
People nodded silently.
“We just need to hold out for two more days. Sir Karl said five days. If we hold out just a little longer, we can survive.”
“Heck, we’ve already held out for 3 days, can’t we endure the remaining 2?”
Despair began to vanish among the people, replaced by hope.
Though the source of their strangely blind faith was unknown, they believed Karl would surely come to save them.
“If we can't stop those demon-like beings anyway, none of us here will survive.”
The nobles present nodded.
“Let’s all see each other alive.”
And towards those scattering back to their respective positions, Count Vito muttered grimly.
As they nodded and headed to their posts, Count Vito gripped the sword he held tightly.
It was a sword he had wielded even more fiercely since the moment he was first saved by Karl.
The Count, who had trained relentlessly like that, had already reached the rank of Superior.
“Come at me with all you’ve got!”
The Count, shouting as if letting out a lion’s roar, stabbed at an enemy soldier’s abdomen with his dull sword.
Along with that, the fierce battle resumed once again.
“Aaaargh…! Hand! My hand!”
A soldier fighting fiercely beside Count Vito collapsed, his hand below the wrist severed by an enemy axe.
With blood spurting out, the soldier writhed on the ground in agony.
“Chase!”
A soldier rushed towards the fallen soldier and plunged his spear into the torso of the axe-wielding soldier.
Perhaps they were close friends, as the soldier quickly took out some cloth from his pocket and tried to staunch Chase’s hand.
Thwack!
The enemy soldier's axe, thought dead after being pierced by the spear, now lodged itself into his friend's head.
Watching his crumbling friend, Chase, whose hand was gone, grabbed his fallen friend’s sword with his left hand, charged forward, and plunged the sword into the heart of the axe-wielding enemy soldier.
“Krrrrrk!”
A blood-curdling sound came from the enemy’s mouth.
Even in that situation, the enemy soldier, eyes rolled back, tried to move his body.
“Uwaaaaaaaaaah! Die, you son of a bitch!”
Chase put all his strength into stabbing and pushing the sword, running to the edge of the wall.
And the moment the enemy, pushed to the wall, fell over the rampart, Chase also fell down the wall and disappeared.
A hellish scene of pandemonium was unfolding.
The clash between the frenzied enemy and the allies trying desperately to survive was fierce.
***
“What on earth did you do to our soldiers?”
“What do you mean, what did I do? What are you implying I did?”
“My soldiers are rushing forward like moths to a flame, not even listening to my commands!”
Count Yevgeny, who wielded considerable power in the North, though not as much as Marquis Baltimo, yelled at Oleg while watching his own soldiers charge madly towards the castle walls.
“Isn’t charging offensively a good thing?”
His appearance, speaking with narrowed eyes and a smile, was unmistakably mocking.
However, there was nothing the Count could do.
That man alone was a problem, and behind him stood 300 members of the Red Wolf Knights.
“Weren’t you so happy when plundering? Didn’t you declare that if you took the lead and breached the castle this time, you would take more than half the spoils and domain?”
“Well…! That doesn’t mean I told you to make my soldiers like that!”
“I merely provided a little motivation.”
Oleg, smiling quietly with narrowed eyes, was nothing short of a devil.
“After this battle ends, I will formally protest to Marquis Baltimo!”
“Do so.”
Oleg, who hadn't lost his smile until the end, chuckled softly.
“A man who can't say a word when facing me, protesting about what.”
Even hearing his mumbling, which was meant to be heard despite being muttered to himself, Yevgeny could only flush red and tremble.
What could he possibly do about the 300 knights present right here?
Although he was a powerful lord in the North, the number of knights he commanded was merely 80.
Not only in number but also in skill, they were utterly shabby compared to Baltimo’s knight orders.
“Hmm… Shall we start moving?”
Oleg, who had been smiling with narrowed eyes, raised his hand and summoned the Red Wolf Knights.
He had preserved his forces for three days, rested enough, and observed enough, so it was time to start moving.
Those defenders were also quite exhausted from fighting desperately, so they just needed to go in lightly and get a taste of blood.
“By the way, Karl Meyer isn’t here, is he?”
Oleg, looking towards the front with a subtle expression, felt a nagging unease remaining in a corner of his mind.
The reason he hadn't actively engaged in the assault for the past three days wasn't solely to preserve his forces.
It was because Karl Meyer was nowhere to be seen.
But the fact that he hadn't appeared even after watching for 3 days meant Karl wasn't there right now.
According to the rumors related to him, it was impossible for him not to step forward in such a situation.
“I should push through as quickly as possible. Can't know what that guy will do.”
Oleg, being someone who knew how to use his head somewhat, judged that he should start hurrying the capture of Blovisce Castle to prepare for any unforeseen anxieties.
And a short while later, the assault of the Red Wolf Knights began.