Chapter 126: Sharon’s Defense of Gantz
There was a logic to how things unfolded. Since the enemy would always be approaching from the side of the Kingdom of Belta, Gantz would inevitably be the first to come under assault.
Alan had compared the relative value of the two cities and entrusted Selena with Ares, which was the more important. Sharon knew that was exactly the sort of decision Alan would always make. But she also knew that, in this war, the situation in Gantz, which was her responsibility, would greatly sway the overall outcome.
「Selena, Gantz has been surrounded. They have six thousand men. But I expect more than half of them will be heading your way. I’m going to have Gloria help us here first. Gloria, I’m counting on you.」
「Got it, Sharon.」
「Fufufu, I’m quite looking forward to cutting loose myself.」
Once she finished her report, Sharon headed for the office. The moment Iris had issued a proximity warning, the gates had been shut and the troops deployed. First, following Alan’s example, she would convene a meeting with the city’s key figures.
「Thank you all for coming. I am Sharon Conrad, entrusted by the Lord Protector with command of Gantz. I will hold this city. I look forward to your cooperation.」
She let her gaze pass over the faces of the guard captain, the head of the Adventurers’ Guild, and the head of the Commercial Guild. None of them could quite hide their unease, tension, and simmering dissatisfaction.
「The enemy has at least six thousand men. Can we really win?」
「Yes. There’s no problem.」
「And how can you be so sure?」
It was Silas, head of the Commercial Guild, who asked.
「The enemy’s objective is to bring down the Lord Protector. To do that, they need to seal off both Gantz and Ares. Sooner or later, they’ll have to assign more than half of those six thousand men to Ares. Most likely they’ll send four thousand to the more dangerous Ares front. That leaves two thousand to handle Gantz. We also have a respectable number of troops of our own. Against that scale, we won’t just hold. We can even go on the offensive and take the enemy commander’s head.」
Gantz had a thousand troops stationed in it. There was no need to tell them the exact figure, but from the state of the barracks the people of Gantz could feel for themselves that the garrison had grown considerably since the city was first occupied. As a fortress city, Gantz was never easy to take to begin with. And so long as Sharon was in charge, she had no intention of letting it fall.
「By the way, this arrived to my state not too long ago.」
Silas produced a letter sent in the name of Count Benjamin of Gantz, demanding that the Commercial Guild collude with the attacking force.
「So the enemy commander is named Benjamin, then.」
As she read through the letter, Sharon recalled the bodyguard who had accompanied them during their petition in the royal capital. That man was probably a relative of the Count of Gantz.
「And what is the Commercial Guild going to do about it?」
「If I meant to side with them, I wouldn’t be showing you the letter at all. But I do want to know whether there’s any real chance Gantz will fall.」
Silas had sent his own daughter, Arista, as a kind of hostage to Alan. She was currently in Ares, nominally serving as a maid under Cleria’s care. At first Sharon had thought Alan had simply been taken in by Silas’s scheme to get Arista close to him—but in hindsight, it might also have been an effective safeguard to keep Silas from betraying them. She would have to apologize to Alan later.
「The Lord Protector has left Gantz in my care, and I will not allow it to fall. I’ve been given more than enough force to prevent that. Right now we’re sitting in a defensive posture so that part of the enemy force will move on toward Ares ahead of the rest—and to flush out anyone here who might be tempted to side with them.」
「We’re on the Lord Protector’s side. That won’t change so long as Gantz doesn’t fall.」
「Good. Then I’ll be counting on your continued cooperation. And I have a request for you, Captain Guido of the city guard.」
「What is it?」
「Given the situation, it wouldn’t be appropriate for the city guard to handle the main gate. I’d like you and your men to remain on standby in your barracks and at home. If you can’t accept that, I’ll have to place you under restraint—but surely it won’t come to that?」
「No need to go that far. I’ll keep my men in line.」
「For now, lying low is the wisest course. That way you won’t leave a bad impression no matter who wins. One more thing—the lord’s manor will be set on fire. It’s on a hill, so there’s no risk of the flames spreading, but make sure your subordinates are properly briefed so no one panics. The same goes for all of you.」
Smiling sweetly, Sharon pressed the point on the heads of the Commercial and Adventurers’ Guilds.
「U-Understood.」
「This situation will last, at most, three days. We’ll have it settled before the Lord Protector confronts the Prime Minister. For those three days, I need you all to keep quiet and not get any funny ideas, all right?」
The manor on the hill was the one place Alan had left untouched when he first occupied Gantz. Challenging the existing lord’s prerogatives would have weakened the impression of the legitimacy of his rule, and Alan had disliked that. But now that the enemy were marching on the city again, Sharon decided there was no longer any need to show mercy.
「It’s been an eyesore from the start. Put it to the torch.」
She had already evacuated the staff and had anything of value carried out. The manor itself looked expensive enough as a structure, but Sharon didn’t particularly care. If they needed one, they could always build another. For now it would be ideal if the enemy surrounding Gantz lost themselves in rage. It would make a perfect provocation.
A volley of Fire Bolts from Sharon and her men turned the manor into a mass of crimson flame.
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「Benjamin-sama, look over there.」
The steward, Dennis, pointed toward the hill. Their old manor house was wrapped in blazing crimson fire.
「Curse them! How dare those savages do that to the property of the House of Gantz!」
The Gantz family’s manor was the very symbol of their rule. To rule Gantz was to live in that house and look down on the commoners below. And now it was burning.
「Unforgivable. In that case, we storm them in one stroke!」
「But my lord, weren’t our orders from Lord Luchiria, the overall commander, to maintain the siege of Gantz until Ares falls?」
Lord Luchiria’s main force had already advanced toward Ares after confirming that Gantz was fully surrounded.
「We’ve come this far; there’s no reason to hold back now. The citizens of Gantz must be longing for our return. We’ll take it back in a single rush!」
At Benjamin’s furious command, the all-out assault began.
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「There’s hardly any resistance at all,」 Sharon grumbled.
The enemy troops were far weaker than she’d expected. She had her soldiers intercept those who tried to reach the walls, but they were so feeble it was hardly even a fight.
The enemy were little more than bands of strays and ruffians, closer to bandits than soldiers. Anyone fit to be a proper soldier had already signed up for the better-paid recruitment drives in Ares and Gantz.
The men now attacking them were the troublemakers weeded out at the recruitment stage. They had some stamina, but no understanding of how to move in coordination. Their officers weren’t thinking at all, their equipment was a jumble, and their preparations were so poor they hadn’t even brought proper siege engines. Their only ‘plan’ was to swarm the points of attack and try to push their way inside. It made them perfect targets for arrows and spells.
Now and then, some lucky or nimble fellow would manage to climb a ladder or scramble up the stone and actually make it onto the wall. But the sentries cut them down as soon as they were spotted. The enemy didn’t understand coordination. Once Sharon’s men set their spearpoints together and charged as a unit, even the lone ‘heroes’ who managed to get through were helpless against superior numbers and were quickly killed.
Sharon had a thousand troops under her. She assigned one hundred men to each of the four walls, with an extra hundred concentrated at the main gate. She herself stood ready with the remaining half of the force. They were thoroughly prepared—but it didn’t look like they would be needed at all.
「At this rate, we might end with nothing but a few skirmishes,」 she muttered.
In practical terms, though, failing to wipe out the enemy here would make things troublesome later. Sharon came up with a plan.
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「Benjamin-sama, look! The main gate—Gantz’s gate is finally opening!」
At Dennis’s shout, Benjamin turned, just in time to see the main gate swing wide. The soldiers broke into cheers. It wasn’t their doing, of course—but they were utterly convinced there were people inside Gantz who longed for their rightful lord’s return.
「The righteous are rewarded in the end,」 Benjamin said smugly.
「Indeed. Everyone has been eagerly awaiting the return of the rightful Count of Gantz, Lord Benjamin!」
The soldiers licked their lips in anticipation. Gantz was one of the greatest cities in the Kingdom of Belta. A chance to loot such a place might come once in a lifetime, if ever. For plunderers, it was the finest prey imaginable.
「Forward! Take Gantz back into our hands!」
But once they passed through the main gate, what awaited them was a solid wall of spearpoints—Sharon’s troops, drawn up and waiting.
「Charge!」
Her men leveled their spearheads and thrust as one, and the attackers crumpled in front of them. Even so, more of Benjamin’s troops, driven by the promise of plunder, kept pushing in from behind. They were shoved forward, pressed toward the front—only to be run through the moment they reached the spear wall.
「Stop pushing! Fall back and reform the line! Pull back, I said!」 Benjamin screamed.
But the greed-maddened press of his men didn’t stop. Shoved from behind by the soldiers surging forward, Benjamin stumbled and was spat out in front of the enemy commander. His eyes met those of the young girl staring him down. He’d already realized that with the difference in weapon reach, a straight fight here would put him at a disadvantage.
Still, Benjamin forced himself to his feet and donned a mask of dignity. Facing his foe, he proposed single combat.
「Let us settle this with a duel between commanders.」
They had broken through the gate. Their numbers were twice the enemy’s. Even so, against trained spearmen he couldn’t deny he was at a disadvantage. But the enemy’s commanding officer was just a girl, while he was skilled enough to have once served as a personal guard to the House of Gantz. In a duel, Benjamin judged, he had a real chance.
「In that case, if you lose this duel against me, your men will all surrender quietly—yes?」
The girl who led the enemy answered him in a cool, clear voice.
「Agreed. I’ll not go back on my word.」
With both sides’ troops halting their fighting to watch, the duel between Sharon and Benjamin began.
The Divine Sword Style taught its practitioners to put everything in their hips. Its swordplay wasn’t about flashy tricks of the hand. It was the heavy strike, driven by the rotation of the hips, that shattered heavily armored foes. The style had been born on the battlefield to make full use of the weight of advanced armor and helmets; it was practical swordsmanship for war.
But his opponent’s sword was different—fast and light. At first Benjamin had thought she simply didn’t understand the principles and was swinging her blade at random. That wasn’t it. Her movements were based on a completely different, alien logic of the sword. Only belatedly did Benjamin realize that with the sluggishness of his own style, he couldn’t keep up.
Even so, with that slender girl’s arms and the light weight of her leather armor, he was sure her blows couldn’t pierce the specially ordered armor he wore. He might be inferior in technique, but he still believed he had a chance to win.
「Your sword is slow,」 Sharon observed.
「You talk big. I’m just getting started,」 Benjamin growled.
He gathered his fighting spirit, focusing it and focusing it, preparing to unleash his trump-card strike. A slip of a girl like this could never endure the Divine Sword Style’s lethal heavy blow. If he could break her stance and send her flying, he could do whatever he wanted with her afterward. Once he beat this girl, nothing would stand in the way of his occupation of Gantz—so he believed.
「Final Blade.」
At Sharon’s chant, her sword took on a magical glow. The light of that enchanted blade illuminated Benjamin’s face, frozen in dawning despair. No armor could hope to stop a magic sword.
With two rapid thrusts, she drove the blade through both his shoulders, piercing his prized armor as if it were paper. The blows had clearly ruined the muscles or bones in his arms; Benjamin’s hands could no longer support his sword, and both arms hung limp at his sides.
「W-Wait! Don’t kill me!」
His plea for mercy went unanswered. Sharon reset her stance, and her technique came to completion.
「Corinth-Style secret art—Justice Judgment.」
Her sword flashed down from the high guard in a single, lightning-fast stroke. Sharon’s magic sword cleaved Benjamin from the crown of his head straight down, helmet and all.
「Benjamin-sama!」
Dennis cried out in anguish as the young man he had raised up as his new lord was cut down. His cry made it plain to every attacker that they had been decisively defeated.
「This man is a second-rate Divine Sword Style swordsman at best. I watched him for a bit, but he was no match for the Corinth Style. Gloria, I’ll leave the rest to you—just as we planned.」
「Roger, gaooo,」 Gloria replied.
A dragon’s roar echoed from outside the walls of Gantz. Right on cue, Gloria had landed in the enemy’s rear, driving them toward the city interior.
「I won the duel. So—what’s it going to be? You’re far too weak to be worth talking about. If you surrender now, I’ll settle for something as light as forced labor.」
「We surrender! We give up!」
Dennis shouted for them to keep fighting, but his protests were in vain. Hounded into Gantz by the dragon, the remnants of the attacking army threw down their weapons one after another before Sharon’s wall of spears, surrendering in the name of their own lives.
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