Ch. 165 The Army Approaches the City (2)

The castle had a good supply of thick wooden stakes used for reinforcing fortifications.

Making the tool Wilden envisioned was not much of a problem.

Need to drive spikes into the surface of the logs? Simple, the thing this castle lacked the least was sharp objects.

And there was no shortage of ropes.

After a night of supervision, the kingdom’s Soldiers successfully crafted four such large logs. If they could use racks to support the logs, defending the city would be even simpler.

Just place racks that were much taller than the parapet behind it, and when the enemies climbed up, push the logs down.

Then, the Soldiers could pull the logs back up at any time.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much time.

In the early morning, the rain that had lasted for a day and two nights stopped.

The Anglo-Saxons tried to send a small squad of Soldiers to flank the back of the castle through the woods, but they were spotted by the castle’s sentries.

Adlan ordered the ballistae to fire, and after a few snaps of the bowstrings, there was no more movement in the forest.

It was unknown how effective such blind firing was, but at least everyone was aware that the Anglo-Saxons might appear from the rear.

Wilden returned to Mia’s side.

Such engineering was not of interest to Mia; she had simply returned to her small room—the stable—to rest after seeing the first log completed.

Melina was hugging one knee, sitting against the stable door with straw beneath her, looking like an expert from the outside world. Even while sitting, she struck a pose of looking down on everything, watching the hustle and bustle inside the castle.

Wilden nodded to her, then walked into the stable and sat down next to Mia’s sleeping mat.

The sound of armor rubbing against itself startled the young girl.

“Hmm? Mei Mei?”

“Why is that the first thing you say when you wake up in the morning? I think the world is still quite beautiful, right?”

Melina replied: “Please, I would prefer you call me Melina.”

“Then shall I call you Nana?” Mia yawned.

“Please don’t do that.” Melina rolled her eyes slightly.

“Haha.” Wilden laughed.

It had been a while since Melina’s little dark side had appeared.

Perhaps it was because she was always traveling with others, making the blockhead a bit socially anxious.

Until Mia saw clearly who was in front of her: “Hmm…”

“Wilden, are you done?”

Wilden replied: “Just about. The rest is up to them.”

The Soldiers who had already learned how to make the logs would be working at full speed afterward.

Mia realized that Wilden seemed to have something to say to her.

“What is it?” She sat up and adjusted the crown on her face.

When normal people wake up, the first thing they might do is rub their eyes.

But Mia couldn’t do that.

“The enemy will be ready within three days and then begin their attack,” Wilden said.

“You saw them?”

“Yes, they have assembled three thousand men. The scouts say that is all of them.”

“Oh…” Mia didn’t know what to say.

As a participant in a siege, she would now be working with one thousand Soldiers to block an enemy three times their size.

This was the real deal, a real war.

Excited?

No, Mia didn’t feel excited about this.

She understood that war was not a good thing. She was accustomed to human blood and death, but she was definitely not the type of Soldier who enjoyed witnessing death.

“War always has a price,” Wilden said to her.

“Hmm?” Mia was a bit surprised.

Did Wilden guess her inner thoughts?

Wilden shrugged: “People always die in war. You need to be mentally prepared.”

“I know,” Mia said, turning her head away.

Except for Wilden, Melina had hardly given Mia much advice.

Of course, the usual bickering didn’t count as advice.

Perhaps it was because, in Melina’s heart, this sister was still quite perfect?

“You can’t save everyone,” Wilden replied. “Your abilities can eliminate more enemies.”

Mia was silent for a moment.

She understood why Wilden said that.

She always hoped to be able to save as many wounded as possible during the battle.

To the point where she prioritized that over eliminating the enemy.

Seeing that Mia didn’t say much, Wilden continued: “You can resolve them before they can cause you any harm.”

“Fine.” Mia pouted.

“Hmm.” Wilden nodded.

“You’ve experienced defending a city before, right?” Mia didn’t let the silence continue.

“Yes,” Wilden replied. He pondered for a moment and began to talk about the things he had experienced in the past.

That was probably when he was in Stormveil.

The reason it was ‘probably’ was because some of his memories were still blurry.

“Can you tell me about things inside Stormveil… um, like the streets, the buildings, and such?”

Mia asked.

This counted as part of the intelligence. Stormveil was unavoidable; it was a place she had to go.

“I have some impressions,” Wilden replied. At Mia’s request, he used grass stems to lay out some patterns on the ground.

“This should be the main road,” he said, pointing to the thickest grass stem, then used other slightly shorter ones to lay out corners at both ends of the ‘main road’.

Wilden told Mia everything he still remembered one by one.

But he always used uncertain words like “probably” or “should” to explain.

There was nothing else to do in the castle.

Sightseeing? Forget it. One thousand people had packed the castle, and the Soldiers had countless things to keep busy with: maintaining weapons, servicing equipment, and training.

Besides Adlan’s wife and attendants, there were few civilians.

These days were anxious and unbearable for almost everyone, and as another day passed, even Mia was infected by the restlessness here.

Well, especially Artoria.

The young girl was unusually excited.

Filled with nervousness and anticipation, she would always head up to the tower, sometimes staying there to sit for the whole day.

She almost couldn’t help but watch the distant Anglo-Saxons at every moment.

From here, those with sharp eyes could easily see those camps.

Calling them camps…

…was actually just a pile of crude, multicolored tents that made one doubt whether they could even provide shelter from the wind and rain.

As for siege equipment?

Basically, there was only the most basic stuff.

Scaling ladders carried by Soldiers rushing upward, and siege rams.

As for catapults?

Those barbarians didn’t have that kind of patience.

They preferred an offensive like fire; as long as the flame did not die out, they could burn everything in their path to ashes.

But once they encountered ‘water,’ they would suffer a crushing defeat where their entire army was wiped out.

In the eyes of the Anglo-Saxons, the Britons were a weak race; they were not as good at fighting as themselves, yet they possessed vast amounts of good land and wealth.

However,

‘Their good days are coming to an end.’

Gazing at the distant Anglo-Saxon camp, Artoria thought, clutching the sword in the stone in her hand.

As for Kay.

He seemed much calmer, seemingly to make himself appear more mature and reliable to handle the real, major event that was about to come.

Since no one had conferred any official position upon him, he got along quite well with the Soldiers.

Kay was, after all, a knight, so those officers knew to respect him a little whenever they saw his armor.

But if one paid closer attention to his eyes, they could see his nervousness in that gaze that would occasionally look toward the southern sky.

On the third day of the siege.

The sentry sounded the horn in the early morning; the Anglo-Saxons were preparing to lay siege.