Chapter 309: You Don't Notice My Kindness? (3)

“Ahhh! A dragon!”

“Idiot! That’s not a dragon, it’s just a drake! You can kill it with arrows!”

When drakes suddenly screeched across the skies above Sefira land, the startled archers unleashed their arrows. But though the drakes looked close because of their size, the actual distance easily exceeded five hundred meters. Every Sefira archer was a sharpshooter, yet hitting drakes flying high overhead at blistering speed was no easy task.

“Stop! Even if you hit them at your skill level, you won’t pierce a drake’s hide!”

A Star Knight quickly took command of the soldiers, and a Holy Knight followed by aiming an arrow at the drakes. But upon spotting the Holy Knight, the drakes retreated far into the distance or climbed to even higher altitudes. This was a behavior no wild drake would ever display.

“The Royal Order of the Dragon... damn them!”

It was the second day of the war between Sefira and Crown Prince Rukan. The all-out battle everyone had feared and braced for never came. Instead, something far more insidious began. The royal army maintained its encirclement, slowly tightening the distance, while planting the Seeds of Hell.

Naturally, Sefira’s archers launched a preemptive strike on the first day to stop the seeds from taking root. They dispatched only the elite from the Order of the Galaxy to seize the initiative and gauge the enemy’s strength. However, the royal army’s response was flawless.

“Heavy infantry, forward!”

Heavily armored soldiers stepped into the front line, holding massive shields that were ten centimeters thick and nearly the size of an adult man. That wasn’t all. The royal army piled multiple layers of sandbags, advancing while erecting makeshift defensive walls.

The Galaxy Knights scoffed at the sight of the royal army raising shields.

“Fire Leo Archery!”

Leo Archery, the fifth form of the Zodiac Archery, could shatter even fortress walls.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The Galaxy Knights’ Leo Archery hammered relentlessly against the heavy infantry’s shields. It was an overwhelming victory for the Galaxy Knights. The ten-centimeter-thick shields were shattered or torn apart, rendered useless. The Galaxy Knights thought this would surely crush the royal army’s morale; instead, it was their own morale that faltered.

“They have spare shields?!”

Leo Archery obliterated the thick shields, but it couldn’t take the heavy infantry’s lives, as they were clad in heavy armor as well. The soldiers discarded their broken shields and immediately took up new ones.

Still, the Galaxy Knights could fire Leo Archery more than once.

“There can’t be more steel shields that thick. Fire again!” confidently shouted the lieutenant-commander.

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Another round of Leo Archery roared, but this time, the sound was different.

Creak!!

It sounded like steel grinding against steel.

The lieutenant-commander’s assumption was correct. There were no more steel shields. Instead, crimson shields forged from amantir radiated their presence.

“A-amantir?!”

Amantir was dozens of times more expensive than steel, and dozens of times harder to forge. However, it was dozens of times stronger.

“They made hundreds of shields out of amantir?!”

It wasn’t only the Sefira forces who were shocked. General Colton of Browning, who commanded the royal army, watched Sefira’s arrows with open admiration.

“To dent an amantir shield... is this truly the power of arrows?”

Leo Archery couldn’t pierce amantir, but neither was it stopped cleanly. It left holes and torn marks across the shields.

“And they can shoot multiple rounds of arrows with this power...”

Watching the Galaxy Knights draw their bows again, Colton issued commands with his banner. The amantir shields could block Leo Archery, but the soldiers holding them couldn’t endure forever.

“It’s our turn.”

At the general’s signal, the Grand Corps stepped forward from behind the heavy infantry. Aura gleamed vividly along their blades.

Clang!

The Grand Corps’ swords struck down the Galaxy Knights’ Leo Archery attacks. But unlike Colton, the warriors could not admire the power they faced.

“...This is insane. Even a full-powered Aura Sword struggles just to deflect it.”

Though they managed to block the Leo Archery, their hands shook violently. Even their aura had shattered, hanging in tatters.

Colton watched the Galaxy Knights retreat with their bows lowered.

“Hm.”

As he merely observed, his aide rushed over.

“General, the Sefira knights are retreating. They’re exhausted and didn’t arrive on horseback, so we can pursue them.”

“No. Do not pursue.”

“...Pardon?”

“Sefira is not the sort to retreat so carelessly. There will be an ambush or a trap.”

As the lieutenant was also from a noble family, he pressed his argument to Colton, his superior.

“General, all they can do is fire arrows. Also, the Grand Corps is more than capable of blocking them.”

“Lieutenant, this is your first real battle, right?” Colton asked.

“Yes, but I’ve read thousands of military treatises and memorized them all. This is clearly an opportunity.”

“Did none of those books say that the best victory is one achieved without fighting?”

“...?”

“If you don’t understand, then stay silent. An incompetent commander is more dangerous than an enemy’s trap.”

Colton waved him away, clearly done with the conversation. The lieutenant withdrew, lips clenched tight.

“

Tsk

. Young people these days.”

Clicking his tongue, Colton looked down at the snow that had settled on the bridge of his nose.

“Does Crown Prince Rukan not know that wars should never begin in winter...”

He disliked this war, but as a soldier and as a noble of the Lillian Kingdom, he could not disobey the prince’s orders. However, he intended to preserve his pride at the very least. Rukan’s original command had been clear: crush Sefira in one stroke. In other words, Rukan had ordered him to wage an all-out battle regardless of casualties. However, Colton ignored it. Instead, he tightened Sefira’s noose slowly and methodically.

“A god’s child indeed—treating human lives as worthless.”

No matter whose orders they were, Colton would not allow the army he had raised to be sacrificed meaninglessly.

* * *

In Sefira’s conference room, the senior vassals sat, faces dark. Even Hissop, who should have forced himself to remain composed as the patriarch, sat grave.

“I can’t believe General Colton is commanding the army....”

By his record alone, Colton didn’t look like much of a great general. Out of a hundred battles, he had ninety-nine defeats and one victory.

Judging by results alone, he seemed utterly incompetent, but no one who knew the truth would ever utter the word incompetent around him. In those ninety-nine battles, defeat had been unavoidable, yet he had still withdrawn with the minimum possible casualties and losses. In the one battle he won, which was still under circumstances where defeat should have been inevitable, he had achieved a decisive victory with only a minimal force.

What made it even more astonishing was that the opponent was the Samael Empire. Colton had defeated the army of the most powerful nation on the continent. Even Reganon, known for remaining calm under any circumstances, gnawed at his nails.

“General Colton is the type who relentlessly targets whatever his enemy hates most. Certainty is dangerous in war, but ambushes, traps, and deception simply won’t work against him,” Reganon said, troubled.

Sefira had tried to bait the royal army, wagging its tail enticingly, but it hadn’t worked at all. No matter what they did, the royal army didn’t budge. They simply planted the Seeds of Hell and slowly tightened the noose.

On top of that, drakes from the Royal Order of the Dragon provoked them day and night. The provocation couldn’t be ignored either. The moment they did, the drakes would swoop down in the blink of an eye and take lives.

“If the encirclement tightens to the districts where the civilians live, we’ll have no choice but to evacuate everyone into the inner fortress. And once that happens, Sefira is finished.”

“Who doesn’t know that? We all know it! But what solution is there—what solution?!”

Reganon recalled the Family War against Bydent. Bydent had prepared shields against arrows, but they hadn’t been ten centimeters thick, nor had they possessed amantir shields. And most importantly, they hadn’t had patience.

The royal army was different. They far surpassed Bydent in every aspect. After Sefira’s overwhelming victory against Bydent, their morale had soared only to plummet now.

“The difference between Bydent and the royal army is like heaven and earth....”

No one could refute; the royal army’s response had been simply too perfect.

Hissop’s gaze drifted to the elders’ seats, to where Panir had once sat. But Panir was gone now. He had gone to the royal palace. No one even knew if he was still alive.

If only I’d stopped him...

They had sacrificed Panir just to buy a single week. Hissop felt like he might burst into tears.

“Elder Reganon, you know General Colton well. Is there truly no way to deal with him?” Hissop asked.

He hoped Reganon might have some insight, but the answer he received was a merciless reality.

“General Colton does not fear retreat. Even if Sefira charges in with nothing to lose, he’ll calmly withdraw, then occupy the empty inner fortress and estates. To defeat him, you’d need to force him back with a larger army and stronger champions than his.”

Recruiting more troops than the royal army was impossible; even mobilizing the civilians wouldn’t be enough. There were no stronger champions than the royal army.

“....”

There was no solution. They could only watch as the royal army slowly strangled them. The fact that a reckless attack would only tighten the noose faster was so obvious it wasn’t even worth discussing.

Seeing despair fill the conference room, Reganon produced what little good news he had.

“It’s not time to give up yet. Crown Prince Rukan has declared Sefira traitors, but the nobles’ response has not been favorable. If the master families had joined him, General Colton wouldn’t be advancing this slowly in winter.”

Rukan had failed to secure the nobles’ full support, and that was undeniably good news. Still, the vassals looked unconvinced. Reganon forced himself to speak more optimistically.

“My lord, this winter is harsher than any in recent memory. In Lillian, January is colder than December, and the cold lasts until March. They’re advancing calmly now, but once the cold deepens, even they will be slowed and their morale will fall. Our archers may not be able to stop the royal army, but we can delay them. If we harass them persistently and drag things out, Sefira still has a chance.”

At Reganon’s words, Hissop finally raised his head. It wasn’t that they truly had the advantage, but remaining mired in negativity would accomplish nothing.

“Elder Reganon is right. Crown Prince Rukan lacks the nobles’ support. He’s planted the Seeds of Hell—an act deserving condemnation from outside powers. And the royal court itself is split into three factions. Rukan cannot keep the royal army tied to Sefira forever.”

When Hissop publicly declared that there was still a chance, color returned to the vassals’ faces.

“My lord, now that you put it that way, you’re right. The ones who should be impatient aren’t us—it’s the royal army.”

“I see it now. General Colton’s goal is to wear us down until we surrender. That’s why he’s acting so unhurried. If we stay calm and respond steadily, it’s the royal army that will eventually withdraw.”

What had begun as forced optimism slowly began to sound convincing, even to themselves. In the end, it was still only hope. But if things unfolded as imagined, victory wasn’t entirely impossible.

Hope returned to Sefira. The vassals launched into earnest discussions on survival.

“If we’re committing to a long war, we must conserve food. Reduce meals from three a day to two, and halve the portions.”

“I agree, but we must not reduce rations for soldiers standing guard all day in the cold. Instead, we can cut rations for the helping hands. With the weather worsening, many of them have little to do anyway. Missing a meal won’t be fatal for them.”

“If there’s fasting, everyone must do it, including us. Otherwise, resentment will arise.”

“I agree.”

“So be it. And snacks and desserts will also be forbidden.”

“My lord, rather than a complete ban, what if they were given as rewards?”

“A good idea. Approved.”

The meeting that had begun in despair ended with hope.

Another week passed. Besil, Keter, and Daat didn’t show any sign of returning. Even so, Sefira endured. They proved they would not collapse in their absence. And indeed, the royal army’s advance visibly slowed, thanks to the brutal cold and heavy snowfall.

“January already....” Hissop muttered to himself while wrapped in thick blankets.

His office was as cold as a freezer. No brazier was lit inside in order to save firewood. Instead, firewood was supplied generously to the soldiers standing guard outside.

“I wanted to celebrate Keter’s first birthday and his coming-of-age...”

Keter didn’t know his own birthday, so Besil had chosen one for him: January 1st, the first day of the new year. And next January 1st would mark Keter’s nineteenth birthday, the day of his coming-of-age.

“Keter, please, just be alive.”

Hissop clasped his hands and prayed to the god of mercy. But as if to prove there were no gods, hurried footsteps echoed down the corridor.

“...!”

Just hearing them made Hissop feel nauseous and dizzy.

“My lord!”

Hissop irrationally resented Navakin, who never seemed to bring good news. This time, he prayed it would be different.

“T-the people who drank from the well are vomiting and complaining of severe stomach pain. The physician says the well water appears to be contaminated!”

In the dead of winter, could a well become contaminated by natural causes? The culprit was obvious.

“Rukan...!”

It was obvious that Rukan had poisoned the water source.