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Volume 2 Chapter 1 Part 9

Lassic stood at the foot of the hill, his arms folded, glaring at the castle.

「It seems that they have no intention of surrendering after all. 」

After the attacks from the heavy trebuchets that he ordered have settled down, he waited for a while, but there was no response coming from the castle whatsoever.

It has now been four days since the siege has started. Designed and built by the contracted magician Moreno, the huge stones and flame bullets fired from the two heavy trebuchets were used to consequently whittle down the castle’s defenses.

Lassic knew that the enemy probably did not place their armies at the back of the castle so that they could flee at any moment, but instead they probably chose to barricade themselves inside of the castle with no intentions of leaving it. Nabir Gerje might have been an undisputed tyrant, but no one can deny that he at the very least managed to earn himself the loyalty of his Lords and soldiers.

「Well then, shall we be on our way? 」

Moreno, Lassic’s contracted Mage, called out to him with his usual light tone.

「We might as well. 」

Lassic released his crossed arms and slowly raised his right hand. His disheveled hair and the fur on the cloak hanging over his shoulders swayed with his every motion.

「Charge!!! 」
Then Lassic shouted as he swung his arm down.

「Petr Squad, moving out! 」

Seeing Lassic signal, the young man who still had the appearance of a boy commanded the rest of his unit to head out with a tone of voice that sounded more playful than it should have.

After the battle against the combined forces of Selvis and Waldrind, Petr has been made into a Baron who was entrusted with the rule over the castle that has been sieged in the last battle and the town that was below it. He managed to become an independent Lord, yet despite that he still does not have a family name of his own.

Petr was originally from one of the villages ruled by Lassic, and by some strange twist of fate he caught his interest when he was still just a kid, so he hired him into his services and started training him to become a squire.

After Theo left for Artuk, Petr naturally offered to become Lassic’s subordinate Lord, but much to his surprise, Lassic has flat out refused his offer.

「Theo was the who made you into a Lord in the first place, and the first Lord that you have voluntarily chose to become subordinated to. There will come a day when he is going to need our help again, and that will be the day when we will have to give our Crests back to him. But until that day comes, protecting our independence as Lords is going to be our most important job. 」

Petr was also convinced that this was the case with them, and decided to support Lassic as an independent Lord instead.

「All of the soldiers with the tower shields should advance forward in a single horizontal line. Crossbow users, stand behind the soldiers with shields and shoot if necessary! 」

After saying so, Petr has leisurely climbed the side of the hill they were standing on while the enemy archers appeared on the castle wall and started shooting arrows at them.

「Large shields users, there is no need for you to stop. We are still too far away from them. 」

Petr raises a hand and addressed his soldiers.

(They probably want us to get into close range so that they could corner us.)

Petr thought that the enemy was determined to defend the castle to the death.

(But last time, we were the ones prepared for that.)

It feels strange that the positions have been reversed in just a month.

(But what are you going to do with protecting the castle then?)

The one who commanded the besieged castle was the late Nabir Gerje’s brother, but although he was a Lord himself, his rank was actually lower than the one that Petr had. On the first day of the siege, the opponent’s contracted Mage came to see Lassic in his camp as a messenger, but he just did that in order to tell him that the defenders of the castle were prepared to fight back against his invasion, and then he simply left.

(Perhaps being loyal to a Lord who is already dead is also one of the ways you can live as a Lord…)

Petr muttered to himself as he moved forward. And when he was within striking distance of the enemy’s arrows, he raised his shield. He discerned how long it would take for the incoming arrows to reach him and uses his shield to deflect only those that are likely to hit him. His shield already glowed with the power of the Crest of protection.

「Tower Shield Corps, prepare! 」

Petr’s voice still sounded high-pitched, like the one belonging to a boy. As a result, whenever he was shouting commands to his soldiers, his orders were evidently lacking in both dignity and power. However, when the soldiers in his unit silently heard the instructions given by their Lord, they immediately proceeded to carry them out without a bit of hesitation.

It was the effect of the 「Myrmidon」 banner that Petr has obtained along with his Crest, which enabled the emotions of the soldiers within a given unit to be suppressed and for everyone’s awareness to be shared between one another. It is said that it originated from an army corps led by a superhuman who came from the divine world called Olympus during the Extreme Chaos Era.

Petr likes to lead mobile light infantry corps that has been assigned to him. Right now, he had no choice but to order his men to move in a formation because they were in the middle of a siege battle, but when it comes to the battles carried out in open fields, he could command his soldiers to move as flexibly as it was needed of them. Under any normal circumstances it would be almost impossible to train your soldiers to such an extent by using only ordinary methods, but thanks to the strategy devised by the former contracted Mage of the late King of Selvis with whom Petr has recently signed a contract of his own, it somehow worked out, and he had to admit that it felt incredibly good to have the soldiers do what he wanted them to do without ruining the formation.

(I’m not a hero like Lord Theo or Lord Lassic, and the soldiers I lead are far from fierce. Still, as long as I stand on the battlefield, I have my own role to play, and and I am going to play it the best way I possibly can!)

Petr told that to himself while also reminding himself that this cannot be helped and that now he simply needs to do what needs to be done. And in order to see his mission through, he must not think about it too much.

Right now, his troops have come close enough to the castle the the enemies should be well within the range of their crossbows.

「Keep holding the tower shields up, and load the first round of the crossbow… 」

Petr gave another order and measured the distance it should take for the bolts to travel.

「Crossbow team, stand up… Aim… Shoot! 」

And then he ordered his troops to shoot their bolts towards the castle when the amount of arrows that the defenders fired towards them was the smallest.

Soldiers with crossbows stood up all at once and fired their crossbows at the enemy soldiers. In the meantime, however, some fell from enemy arrows. but in exchange the same thing happened on the other side, and a number of the enemy soldiers has fallen from the castle walls when they were hit by the crossbow bolts.

「Sit down and load the next series of bolts! 」

Petr continued to give orders.

At that time, in the corner of his vision he could see the siege tower ferociously climbing up the slope.

Like the heavy trebuchet, it was designed and built by Moreno. A turret with the same height as the castle wall was assembled in front of the cart with eight wheels, and a battering ram was also provided for it. The rear was covered with a triangular roof to keep out arrows, and thatched with bundles of straw soaked in plenty of water. Due to its shape, it is called a 「Wooden Horse」 among Lassic’s forces and their allies. The siege tower contained a mercenary army led by Captain Grak, and it was pushed entirely by the human manpower alone, but as a result of that, the speed of its advance was incredibly, unbelievably slow.