Chapter 345 - 250: Red Poison Snake (2)

Now, the enemy had won victory after victory, reaching Kolon in just over a month.

Kolon, its soldiers having been drawn away, was left with only the City Guard Army, hastily hired Mercenaries, and conscripted Militia.

The nobles in Kolon City, risking death at Damon’s hands, railed daily against this dereliction of duty.

Some soldiers even began to feel that resistance was pointless and would vanish by the next day. It wasn’t until a dozen deserters were caught and flayed in front of everyone that this dangerous trend was brutally suppressed.

Otherwise, they might have surrendered before the battle even began.

It was all too absurd. This was a war for their very survival, yet Marshal Damon was ignoring it completely.

To put it bluntly, while the Little Duke had seemingly inherited the title of Duke, most of the Northern Territory’s nobility actually supported Damon. The true power and authority belonged to the Rogue Knight.

But now, he seemed to have forgotten all of this.

Panto had sent men and message crows to inquire, but the only response he received was the two words "Hold fast." There was no news of reinforcements or any intention of returning.

So now, after the defeat of Old Marquis Cross at Black Stone Castle, Panto was forced to consider how he could defend Kolon with only Kolon City’s ten thousand City Guard Army soldiers, twenty thousand conscripted Militia, and ten thousand privately hired Mercenaries.

He ultimately came to one conclusion: unless Damon returned with reinforcements, or a Meteorite fell from the sky and smashed the Northern Border Corps, Kolon City could not be held.

Therefore, he was no longer thinking about how to defend Kolon, but rather where he and Penny’s faction would go after the city fell.

Frankly, he was just a Scholar well-versed in governance, academics, and medicine; he was completely clueless about military affairs.

Even a famous general like Old Marquis Cross hadn’t been able to hold Black Stone Castle. He didn’t believe he could hold Kolon just because its walls were a bit taller.

"Ororen, the Duke of the West already told me what you did in the Western Territory." Panto looked at the Mercenary Corps leader, deciding to put more pressure on him to ensure he’d fight harder in the coming defense. "Therefore, you should know the consequences for you if this war is lost."

Ororen’s expression immediately soured, the light in his eyes flickering uncertainly.

...

Standing once more on the hillside, Levi gazed at Kolon City in the distance through his spyglass.

He couldn’t help but sigh with emotion.

It felt like only yesterday that he, along with one beast, had fled Kolon with Liya. But now, counting the days, it had been almost exactly a year.

He was no longer the lone, insignificant soldier he once was. Now, he was the renowned Lion Hunter Knight, the Lord of High Cliff Castle, with a domain of nearly ten thousand people and several thousand elite soldiers under his command.

Above Kolon City, several Snowbirds from the Ice and Snow Mages circled back and forth. They soared high and then swooped low, always maintaining a certain distance to avoid being shot down by enemy Casters or Crossbows.

"Lord, do you think we can take this city?" Leiden asked, his face full of worry. He stood in a patch of grass where new shoots were sprouting, staring at Kolon’s massive, twenty-eight-blade-high walls.

As someone born and raised in the Wilderness, he hadn’t seen many fortified cities. In his mind, Black Stone Castle with its Thirteen-Blade City Wall was already a great city, but now he realized it was nothing in comparison.

If facing Black Stone Castle felt like being a frog in a well, then facing Kolon’s twenty-eight-blade-high walls made him feel utterly insignificant before the vastness of the world.

Even from such a great distance, its immense presence was overwhelming.

"We have to take it, whether we can or not," Levi said, lowering his spyglass and looking back at the army’s encampment.

Countless Military Artisans were working through the night, assembling Cloud Ladders and Siege Vehicles.

The officers had calculated that even though carrying the siege equipment made at Black Stone Castle would slow their march, it was still far faster than building new ones upon arrival at Kolon.

Therefore, they had unanimously decided to bring the equipment with them, which now only needed to be assembled and reinforced to be ready for use.

"Are our Catapults and Bed Crossbows ready?" he then asked.

"Lord, including the ones from the Count of Monvert, we have a total of five Catapults and twelve Bed Crossbows. We also have dozens of barrels of fire oil—more than enough for a battle," Leiden reported.

Levi nodded.

He had discovered oil pine in the Wilderness and had his men harvest it to produce fire oil.

This type of pine, exceptionally rich in oil and prone to spontaneous combustion, grew only in the cold north and was almost nonexistent in Debei’s territory.

Its effect was a step below an Alchemy Creation like wildfire, so it wasn’t a restricted military material. Even if he used it, no one would criticize him.

To be honest, the way this war had progressed was something no one had expected. They had imagined they would have to endure a grueling fight to take Kolon, but the reality was the exact opposite. Their advance had been almost unbelievably smooth.

Their only major loss was half of their Casters, who had been tricked by Cross. As for the few thousand soldiers killed by the wildfire, that barely counted as a minor loss for the two-hundred-thousand-strong Northern Border Corps.

Just as the Northern Border Corps marched south, a crisis suddenly erupted at the White Bone Fortress in the south, forcing Damon to head south to provide aid.

Honestly, it all felt like they were blessed by heaven. Even the Lord himself couldn’t help but mutter a few words of thanks to the Holy Light Goddess.

It was all just a little too coincidental. Otherwise, under normal circumstances, they would probably still be fighting a hard battle at Kalia Town, nowhere near reaching Kolon.

’I wonder how Tina is doing at High Cliff Castle without her Lord here. Is that little thing Buji behaving itself? Has the wheat been harvested?’

’Have those Giants rebelled? Have the Giants been diligently smithing?’

Having been away from home for so long, the Lord couldn’t help but feel a pang of homesickness. He had a sea of worries on his mind.

Unfortunately, High Cliff Castle was simply too far away. It would take a message crow a week to fly there, and besides, there were no message crows that could fly back to High Cliff Castle from here.

The Lord made up his mind: after this was all over, he had to get his hands on some Communication Magic Stones. That way, if he ever got really homesick, he could have a long chat with Tina.

...

On the morning of the second day after the Northern Border Corps had fully encamped outside Kolon City, countless prisoners from the Southern Territory were herded into an open area, trembling with anxiety.

They were empty-handed and dressed in tattered cotton clothes. They wondered if it was because they had eaten too much these past few days that the Northern Guys no longer wanted to feed a bunch of useless mouths. They feared they were about to be collectively beheaded or used as cannon fodder to fill the lines.

But just as they were tensing up, the words that would spare their lives came from the mouth of a noble. They were filled with disbelief, and when the noble repeated the order, they became ecstatic.

As for the part about having to go south to White Bone Fortress, they paid it no mind at all.

Sith listened to all this in silence. After Old Marquis Cross was executed by the enemy, he had become the commander of this defeated, remnant army.

He had vented his anger before, but whether he pounded his fists until they were a bloody mess or did anything else, it couldn’t change the established facts.

Old Marquis Cross was dead. Even if their defeated army still numbered thirty or forty thousand, they were now prisoners, useless in the current situation.

Their only hope for a turnaround was to head south and rendezvous with Marshal Damon.

So, when a few carts of supplies and damaged weapons, pulled by old horses, were handed over to them, he commanded the troops to continue south, marching toward White Bone Fortress without a backward glance at Kolon.

Several thousand Armored Cavalry sent by the Northern Border Corps followed them with cold eyes until sunset, only turning back as the last light faded.

To Fulina, these thirty-thousand-plus men had already lost a battle. Their morale was low, and it would be difficult for them to regroup and launch another attack on the Northern Territory.

Moreover, they didn’t even have Leather Armor—only cotton clothes and broken weapons. They were worse off than a Militia corps; a single charge from a Cavalry Team could shatter them.

Therefore, rather than waste rations on them, it was better to send them to White Bone Fortress to wear down the Demons. It would also help her salvage her reputation.