Chapter 363: Bum. Ba Bum Bum.

Adrian stood at the front of the army and watched the sun slowly creep over the horizon.

The army stretched out behind him in every direction. His own men formed the solid core of the formation. There were eight thousand of them, all outfitted in the standardized, heavy plate armor that Adrian had given them.

Draven’s four thousand northern soldiers flanked them on both sides. The warlord’s men looked rougher, carrying longswords and massive iron shields just like the soldiers of oresfall. Though, their shields were slightly thinner than the ones that the soldiers of Oresfall used.

Then there were the minor nobles. They had contributed another three thousand troops between them. It was a complete patchwork of different house colors and mismatched equipment that honestly didn’t great, but numbers were numbers.

Count Frankenstein and Baron Kaldwin alone had provided more than two thousand of those men.

He turned to look at Draven and Sebastian. Both of them were already mounted on their warhorses and waiting for the signal.

His eyes shifted over to Claire. She was standing at attention with her hand resting comfortably on the pommel of her sword. The two new S-rank knights, Kaelen and Zara, were flanking Aria.

His daughter was just sitting on an empty wooden crate that was placed upside down. She was casually picking at the hem of her dress like she didn’t have a single care in the world.

’Okay.’ Adrian thought to himself. ’Everything is prepared.’

He took a deep breath and snapped his fingers.

A bunch of spatial rings appeared in his palm. They were simple silver rings with a small magical runes carved into the inner and outer surface. He walked over to Aria and crouched down in the dirt. He ruffled her hair with one hand while gently pressing one of the rings into her small fingers with the other.

Aria looked down at the silver band and then back up at his face.

"Papa, what is this?"

"There’s something inside the ring that will help us out during emergencies," Adrian said. "I want you to hold on to it since it’s very important."

She nodded seriously. She slipped the ring onto her thumb since that was literally the only finger it would fit on.

Adrian straightened up and moved down the line. He handed identical silver rings to Claire, Kaelen, Zara, and Draven. Each of them took the rings without question, though Draven did raise a thick eyebrow as he inspected the metal.

"What’s in it?" the marquis asked.

"Emergency supplies and a few surprises," Adrian answered vaguely. "If things go wrong out there, you’ll know exactly when to use it."

Draven grunted and pocketed the ring.

Adrian glanced over at Thorne. The big man stood off to the side with his own dedicated team of soldiers. Thorne’s orders were completely different from Claire’s today. She was heading straight to the front lines to lead the vanguard with Adrian, but Thorne had been assigned to the safety protocols.

His job was to move the injured soldiers to the temporary medical tents in the back and keep the supply lines from getting overrun by enemy flankers.

It wasn’t a glamorous position at all. The tight look on Thorne’s face made it extremely clear that he wasn’t happy about missing out on the main fight, but he had accepted the role anyway.

Those were the orders of his lord after all.

Once all the rings were distributed, Adrian looked back at Draven and gave him a firm nod.

Draven raised his hand high into the air.

Sebastian reached down to his belt and pulled out a massive, curved war horn that had been polished thoroughly. He brought the mouthpiece to his lips and blew hard.

The sound that came out was incredibly deep and resonant. Adrian had passively amplified the horn with a bit of sound magic, just enough to make sure every single soldier in the massive army could hear it clearly.

The note of the horn hung in the air for a long moment before finally fading away.

Then the drums hit.

A single massive bang echoed from the back of the Oresfall formation.

Then another.

Then a third.

Soldiers with huge war drums strapped to their chests began banging the drums. It was a steady marching beat that vibrated right through the ground and traveled up into Adrian’s bones.

Bum. Ba bum bum.

Bum. Ba bum bum.

The army started to move forward.

Adrian walked on foot while most of the high-ranking nobles rode on horseback. Draven was up there somewhere in the crowd, his massive frame incredibly easy to spot even from a distance. Sebastian rode right beside him with the horn resting on his lap.

Aria sat high up on Adrian’s shoulders. She was using his hair as a literal handle as they marched and he didn’t mind it at all.

On the other side of the fortress wall, Reiji sat inside a military canteen.

The building had been constructed long before he ever arrived in this world. It was a massive, long wooden hall filled with rows of tables and benches that could easily seat a few hundred soldiers at once.

But right now, it was completely empty except for him, two local girls, and the white-robed man sitting across the table.

The girl on Reiji’s left held a glass of expensive fruit juice. She carefully tilted it toward his lips whenever he made a small, lazy gesture with his hand. The girl on his right was busy peeling an apple with a small knife. She sliced it into neat little pieces and fed them to him one at a time.

Reiji chewed slowly and just stared up at the wooden ceiling.

The white-robed man sitting across from him didn’t say a single word. He just sat there like a statue.

But while they were busy with their own stuff, the doors of the canteen suddenly banged open loudly and hurried footsteps echoed inside the empty canteen.