NOVEL NEXT Chapter 55: Siege
Morning arrived, but Prince Ludwin found himself not in his bedroom, but rather in my father's study. He groggily made his way to the dinner table and sat there, appearing listless. Alicia seemed unusually cheerful after we spent the night together, her maid uniform fluttering as she skipped while serving toast with ham and cheese.
"Good morning, Your Highness. May I inquire why you slept in my father's study?" I asked.
"Eli, didn't you hear the cannons yesterday? We were attacked. As a prince, I have to be there to encourage our soldiers," Prince Ludwin explained.
"Oh, I heard them alright. But why bother? We have a rotation schedule. I trusted the acting captain to handle it. There's no need for you to personally go to the wall or stay at headquarters for every attack, is there? Right, Alicia?" I turned to Alicia, who had direct military experience.
"Yes. While we only have one general, captain, or team leader, we also have vice leaders. They usually handle tasks the leaders cannot do, such as night raids or surprise attacks. According to Sir Zach, scout teams or vice leaders should wake the leaders if they encounter something they can't handle. Hence, we should sleep in an easily accessible area. Were you woken up by a scout team or vice leaders, Prince Ludwin?"
"Of course not," Gladeus smirked. "They could lose their job if they dare disturb royals."
I rolled my eyes. However, the prince isn't a general; he doesn't have to be a de facto leader. It makes little sense to disturb his sleep unless dire circumstances, such as a need to retreat, arise. After hearing our discussion, the prince widened his eyes, but his henchmen remained unfazed. Either they informed the prince, and he ignored them to play the hero, or he didn't know, and they didn't inform him.
"Well, Lady Eli, we are leaders! Good leaders need to work harder than everyone else!" the prince declared. He was trying so hard to hide his embarrassment. But I could see his cheeks flush a red tinge.
"Let the military general handle military affairs. We should fill feystones for them to use, shouldn't we?" I turned to Alicia, and she nodded.
"My coworker promised to teach me how to enchant feystones to explode. I need a feystone full of mana for that. Your help would certainly be appreciated, Lady Eli, since you have greater mana control than me."
"I am a dark mage though."
"The drawing could still be done by you while I enchant them. And I know you're a triple mage with 4 in fire and water too. If you still cannot handle your secondary elements, just fill feystones which I and the other fire mage could use."
"Alright! Let's go there after I take a bath," I said while yawning. "Prince Ludwin, you may follow us after a respite. It was hard seeing you so haggard."
"Hck!" Gladeus held his mouth, suppressing laughter. Thor turned the other way, his face still stoic, but his mouth twitched. The prince blushed. Well, he was a pampered kid in the capital. He has never been attacked in the middle of the night by monsters, unlike Shadowstep County, which has constantly been under attack by a stampede of monsters weekly.
"Let's go to the barracks."
We left the vain prince alone and went to the barracks. After filling about a hundred feystones, I took a walk on top of the walls. A soldier accompanied me all the way, fearing something would hurt me. As I took in the view, bells rang, signaling an attack from Elderans. Hordes of monsters emerged from the distant forest, and several humans with cannons followed suit from behind.
Cannons were fired, and we retaliated with our cannons. Meanwhile, goblins and orcs marched from down below to the wall. Troops gathered and shot them with guns and bows. Uncaring of monster casualties on their side, they shot at our walls and towers, cannonballs flying back and forth.
"How many times have they attacked us like this?" I asked a soldier who had been following me.
"About twice a week. We desperately need ammunition. Without it, we couldn't hope to withstand those thousands of monsters."
"Shadowstep County dealt with these kinds of monsters all the time when we were a countryside county. Though I must admit there were a lot more monsters this time," I muttered. "But those cannons at a distance were really distracting. We couldn't focus on these monsters without taking care of them."
Yes. When cannons hit the wall, it disturbed our balance. Goblins and orcs have some claws on their feet, so they don't slip. Moreover, cannonballs hitting the walls really disturbed our morale.
BOOM!
Speak of the devil. A cannonball struck a wall near me just now. The violent rumble sent tremors from the front wall to my feet. The cowardly soldiers all ducked at once, and the covering fire from their arrows stopped, allowing those goblins to gain ground as they climbed the walls with their claws and ladders.
As I looked toward Elderan's direction, a sound whispered to me, and my heart thumped. Hatred surged within me, saying, "Kill them! Kill all Elderans!"
My vision turned red. I walked toward the battlements and drew my gun. But I held back and whispered to my other self, "Stop it. You are insane. Guns are not effective at this distance. Don't waste bullets at mere goblins."
My vision turned back to normal as I breathed a sigh of relief. Goblins started to climb the battlements, but with my dark tentacles, I grabbed them and threw them away from the wall. The ten-meter drop would surely kill any invading force. My tentacle strength could even lift Alicia now. If one tentacle was not enough, such as for orcs, which weigh about 200 kg, I could simply use two or even three tentacles for easier throwing.
These stupid small fry were easy for me since they had no ranged weapons. I wondered why these soldiers were having a hard time with them. Well, if you got surrounded, I'm sure you would be having a hard time. But this is not on the plains or fields; it's atop a wall. The royal guards were struggling when surrounded by more than three goblins or two orcs? Not only that, they got surrounded even when they had superior numbers atop the wall? How laughable. I could control fifteen tentacles now, so as long as I'm not completely enclosed, I'll be fine.
I threw my twelfth goblin and fourth orc from the wall when Prince Ludwin and Alicia came up to me, seemingly worried. I ignored them, walking up the stairs in a crouching position like a novice. I remembered Alicia being taught to walk like that during military training. But they were so slow; it was amusing. Well, they were still in their teens and never had their first battle yet, so it was understandable. They were not used to it. I was helped with the fearless skill, so I was okay even if cannons hit the wall in front of me.
"Lady Eli! It's dangerous. Let us return to the barracks!"
"Eli! What is a lady such as yourself doing here on the front line? Let's go back. Frontlines are for foot soldiers, not leaders!" Prince Ludwin chided me, with Thor and Gladeus backing him up.
"Hmm… Alright! Let's go to Narwhal's place! I wonder how his store is doing!" I had seen everything I needed to see here. The only thing left to do was rendezvous with Narwhal.
At the bottom, I was scolded by Gladeus and Thor for risking my life unnecessarily. I argued that the enemies didn't have guns and cannons could not reach the battlements, but they didn't relent.
"I see. Eli's suggestion was sound. How about we help directly against the invading force? As Eli suggested, enemies do not use guns, and we mages could show our powers directly against mere monsters that have been harassing our soldiers." Prince Ludwin and Alicia nodded.
"Well, this battlefield is unique as enemies do not have dedicated range troopers such as gunners or archers. I guess it would be permissible?" Gladeus frowned as he tried to judge the danger our proposition entailed.
"Cannons could collapse a wall. If it did, you will be in danger!" Thor vehemently refused.
"Well, it didn't seem that way to me. We have John Sark here. So, walls cannot collapse. The enemy only has 10 cannons," Prince Ludwin said. He was eager to go against goblins and orcs, huh?
"Well… However, Your Highness, please follow our direction. It is a danger zone up there. The enemy also has guns too. It was simply our luck that they didn't use it in this attack yet."
"Nah… as long as we are three steps away from it, they couldn't hit us even when they had guns from below the walls. Or we could simply hide behind battlements," I tried to explain about the archer's point of view and the parabolic path, as well as the soldiers in front of us.
We managed to persuade Thor and Gladeus to permit us to patrol the wall. Gladeus argued it could raise morale dramatically if soldiers saw royals directly on the battlefield, and that put the final nail in the coffin for Thor's decision. He then agreed to let Prince Ludwin be on the wall and kill goblins with their protection if they added another ten royal guards with him. But that's the talk for tomorrow. I wanted to see Narwhal now.
Narwhal's store was bigger than I expected. As I came in, it looked more like a restaurant than a toy store. Seeing that, we ordered pasta from the clerk and seated ourselves. Of course, I left the group soon after they found their seat and approached Narwhal at his office.
"Greetings, Lady Elidranthia." I looked around, and he nodded.
"R663. How's it going with the store? Why is it a restaurant?"
"Please call me Narwhall as we are in public with your friends. The store went swimmingly well. Toys were sold at that table, but they weren't very popular, so I improvised. The toys are now an addition. You can play after you order something to eat. Your games of chess, Othello, and cards without gambling were only popular with friends, after all. The more expensive toys like 'Illusion War VR,' as you named it, were too costly for even the royal guards to buy. Knights preferred to kill zombies or goblins and show them to each other in the rooms upstairs. It cost five silver just for two games, and it was quite mana-intensive. The device itself cost ten times that, so it was not sellable."
"I see. I was just testing it. If it comes to this, I should suggest things like leaderboards, a subscription system, microtransactions with swords and blades, price discounts if you came with others, and rentals." I tried to narrate as many marketing suggestions as I could to Narwhal. I asked him more deeply, but apparently, this business hasn't recouped its investment but is no longer in the red.
On the other hand, the farms we invested in as a side business were a disaster. With Elderans staying so close to Shadowsteps, the farms were often deserted and raided by them. They didn't kill any villagers, but they took everything of value. My father chased them, but it was futile. I sighed and set aside another 300P or 300 gold and told him not to worry about it. After we kick Elderans for good, those crops will yield a profit.