Knight Chevani stared at the entire camp of listless, dispirited soldiers and wanted to weep. It was infuriating — how could this happen? As a knight, especially a
If not for the fact that he still remembered his responsibilities as commander, Knight Chevani really would have marched up to the castle and challenged that Gold-Grade Marksman to a duel to the death by name. He had been through countless battles in his life, yet he had never encountered anything so absurd — thousands of men kept awake and driven to distraction by just three fire arrows. It was a complete and utter humiliation. This was truly hateful. What was he to do? Judging by the soldiers' condition, there would be no siege today either.
After agonizing over it for a long while, Chevani finally made his decision: relocate the camp! Move the encampment two hundred meters back. At that distance, the
Josk, Belunech, and Pachico stood atop the castle, gazing at the Duke's army's main camp in the distance. The enemy had finished building four siege towers the day before yesterday, rested yesterday, and if nothing unexpected happened, today was very likely when they would launch their attack. When that time came, it would certainly be a bloody battle.
From the perspective of defending the Maple Forest Mountain Manor, the terrain offered an enormous advantage. The entire manor sat atop a massive protruding rock formation. Apart from charging up a slope over two hundred meters long and a dozen meters wide to assault the castle's front face, the enemy had no other option — the castle walls on both sides combined with the cliff face below dropped a full dozen meters or more. Forget about attacking; even assault ladders weren't long enough for attackers to climb up.
The castle's front face had no windows apart from the gate and drawbridge. Instead, it was studded with densely packed arrow slits, allowing defenders to shoot safely from behind cover indoors. The Duke's army's previous assault had failed precisely because of these arrow slits, and nearby defenders had even hurled fire-oil jars through them, destroying three siege engines.
"Strange — it's almost ten o'clock and they still haven't started the attack. What are they dawdling for?" Pachico said.
"Yeah, are they really not coming until this afternoon?" Josk was also puzzled. They were all ready to fight, yet the enemy was dragging their feet — it was enough to make anyone anxious.
Belunech studied the enemy camp in thought. "It can't be deliberate, can it? Could they be waiting for us to let our guard down and then catch us by surprise? No, that doesn't make sense either. It would take a considerable amount of time to push those massive siege towers all the way to the castle walls — we'd have plenty of time to prepare for battle."
"Who cares? Let them come — we'll kill one, we'll kill a hundred. We only need to deal with those four siege towers. The enemy bringing those four towers up actually blocks their own longbowmen's line of sight — I'd say that's a good thing," Josk said. As an archer himself, he naturally understood how formidable those well-trained ranged units were. Last time, from his elevated position, he'd taken on a full squadron of longbowmen. He'd managed to pick off around fifty, but it had nearly exhausted him.
"The enemy commander has a keen eye. After only one probing attack, he identified our castle's defensive weak point — the top of the castle is indeed the only vulnerable spot. He built those four siege towers specifically to grind us down in a war of attrition. Look — once those siege towers strike directly at the castle top, every arrow slit on the castle's front face becomes useless. Arrows won't work; the front of the siege tower is reinforced with thick wooden planks. We can't throw fire-oil jars through the arrow slits — they're too small, and we can't reach across the moat anyway. They currently have three thousand troops, five or six times the number of our castle garrison. Even if it takes three of their soldiers to trade for one of ours, they'll still come out on top. All I can hope for now is that their soldiers' morale is low and they lack fighting spirit. Otherwise, getting through today is going to be very difficult," Belunech said.
"Our chance comes when those four siege towers get close enough to lower their drawbridges. The moment that happens, if we can toss these fire-oil jars through the opening on top, then Lord Josk ignites them with fire arrows — that siege tower is done for. If two of those towers go up in flames, our pressure eases significantly. Over four hundred Family Knights should be enough to help us hold the castle's top floor," Pachico said, glancing at the pile of fire-oil jars beside him.
Steward Spell and the young miss Baila climbed up to the top floor, panting as they walked over.
The young miss Baila asked, "Hasn't the enemy attacked yet?"
"No, they haven't. Greetings, my lady," Pachico said, giving Miss Baila a bow. He couldn't help it — after all, his wife, the one who had given him that precious son, had been a gift from Miss Baila.
Belunech gave Miss Baila a curt nod. The two knew each other but had no real relationship. One had been the former fiancée of the young master; the other had spent over two years recuperating at Northfield Town and wasn't very clear on family affairs — he'd only heard that
Josk flatly ignored her, pretending she didn't exist. Reddy had once told him about this woman, who had tried to lord it over Lorist. She'd arrogantly taken Lorist's sword with the intent of melting it down to forge a weapon for herself, and Lorist had taught her a lesson. That story had left Josst with a very poor impression of Miss Baila.
"My lady, what brings you here?" Pachico asked.
"Old Grandpa Kreis said we shouldn't have let little Rock come back — he's simply not cut out to be a lord." Miss Baila proceeded to criticize Lorist right in front of everyone.
"What did you say?!" Josk's face instantly changed as he spun around to glare at Miss Baila.
"Am I wrong? Wasn't all of this brought about only after little Rock came back? If he hadn't gone and robbed the Keimas Family of their money, would the Grand Duke of Northland have come after us? If he hadn't gone changing rules and infuriating the people of Northwild Town, would they have led the Grand Duke's army into our family's territory? If little Rock had never become lord, we wouldn't have to be mobilizing our forces like this now, and the people of Northwild Town would be treating us politely, just like before, and they wouldn't have been massacred either..." Miss Baila was full of conviction.
Josk had never expected Miss Baila to come out with such twisted logic, and he was so furious he couldn't even speak.
Belluneck shook his head. He'd heard that this young lady was willful and unreasonable, but he hadn't expected her to be this shameless in twisting words to suit her argument. Still, he knew that the old Steward Kreis doted on Miss Baila, and this temper of hers had been spoiled right out of him. He couldn't be bothered to argue with her either — after all, he knew that once Lorist won this war, Miss Baila was sure to suffer for it.
"Don't bother with her. The woman's not thinking straight, so don't lower yourself to her level. Let the Lord deal with her when he gets back." Belluneck grabbed Josk's arm and quietly urged him to stand down.
"She doesn't know what's good for her. I don't understand why the Lord won't punish her. Last time she offended him, she should have had her Family Knight status stripped right then and there, so she'd stop causing trouble for him. I really wanted to slug her just now — and she still dares to point fingers at the Lord..." Josk was truly furious.
Pachico felt very awkward — he never imagined Miss Baila would say something like this. Nearby, Steward Speer smiled bitterly and said, "Miss, with the enemy at our gates, how can you say such things? When the Lord gets back and hears about this, you'll surely be lectured..."
At the mention of Lorist, Miss Baila finally huffed an indignant "hmph" and fell silent, walking over to the city wall to gaze at the enemy encampment in the distance.
"Steward Speer, what are you doing up here?" Belluneck asked.
"Oh, it's like this — old Steward Kreis heard that the enemy has built four siege towers, so he sent us up to remind the three lords that you can use the stone ball tactic to deal with them," Steward Speer replied.
"Stone ball tactics? Don't tell me you're referring to those eight large stone balls in the flowerbed?" Belluneck froze for a moment, then caught on, his face lighting up with delight. "Damn it, how could we have forgotten about that!"
"What stone ball tactics?" Josk and Patchicko looked baffled.
"Ha ha, Brother Josk, Patchicko, come over here and take a look — those eight large stone balls sitting right over there." Belluneck walked to the other side of the castle and pointed downward with a grin.
Just inside the castle gates lay a flowerbed, and within it sat eight large stone balls.
The moment Josk saw them, he understood. "So those eight stone balls actually serve a purpose like that! I always thought they were decorations for the flowerbed. I kept wondering why they weren't carved into statues — figured you lot just couldn't find a decent sculptor."
Patchicko still wasn't getting it. "What use are those eight stone balls?"
Belluneck smiled. "Those eight stone balls each weigh several thousand pounds, and they've all been carefully shaped so they can fit right through the castle gates and roll down the slope along the drawbridge. Imagine pushing those siege towers halfway up and then having these balls come rolling down — now that would be quite a sight."
Patchicko was stunned for a beat, then sprang to his feet. "Ha ha, our family actually has this trick up its sleeve! Let's see how those siege towers survive this. We'll teach that Grand Duke of the Northland a lesson he won't forget! This war is as good as won..."
"You might not believe it, but these eight stone balls are already two or three hundred years old..." Belluneck said to Josk. "When the first Norton ancestor built the family's estate castle here, the mountain barbarians besieged them almost every year for the first several years. The longest siege lasted half a year. They repelled the mountain barbarians in the end, but the losses were devastating. That was when they came up with the stone ball tactic and carved the first great stone ball. During the very last mountain barbarian siege, they released the stone ball, and the result was... gruesome. The family records say the entire slope was covered in human paste — several hundred of them. Every step you took was nothing but bloody mush."
"After that, the family spent over a decade gradually carving these eight stone balls and placing them in the flowerbed, just in case. If we deploy them now, it will be only the second time in two or three hundred years. We'll get to witness the power of this stone ball tactic with our own eyes."
Josk thought for a moment and replied, "I just hope that when the stone ball is sent rolling, it won't scare the enemy all the way back to Northfield. If that happens, His Lordship's strategy could change."
"The enemy is moving..." came Steward Speer's shout from the other direction. The three rushed over to take a look and were all stunned.
"What's going on? The enemy seems to be relocating their camp—pulling back. What happened?"
The three exchanged glances, utterly unable to figure out what the Duke's army was playing at.
…
Knight Chievanni's eyes were bloodshot as he glared furiously at the castle they had dubbed Maple Forest Manor. If the rage burning in his eyes could have materialized and been hurled across the distance, that castle would already have been engulfed in flames…
On the slope leading up to the castle, the remains of soldiers lay scattered everywhere, crushed into unrecognizable pulp. Of the four siege towers they had spent days painstakingly constructing, two had been knocked flying and lay strewn at the bottom of the slope, while the other two had toppled on the slope itself, with a massive stone ball lodged between them, still spinning lazily in place.
Morale soared as the troops rubbed their fists, ready to storm Maple Forest Manor in one decisive push. Knight Chievanni had already steeled his resolve—as long as the siege towers could be bridged to the top of the castle walls, he would maintain the assault no matter how heavy the casualties. Even if it meant a war of attrition, he would grind the Norton Family into the dust.
After breakfast, the troops were methodically drawn up in formation. Knight Chievanni then directed the soldiers to push the four siege towers forward and begin their assault on Maple Forest Manor. By the time the towers had been pushed halfway up the slope, an hour and a half had already passed—it looked like the real attack wouldn't kick off until the afternoon. But even if it meant fighting through the night, Chievanni was determined to capture the Norton Family's main stronghold.
After resting for half an hour, the soldiers pushed the four siege towers forward again. They had advanced barely a dozen meters when a soldier cried out, "My Lord, the gate has opened! The drawbridge is coming down!"
This was something Knight Chievanni had long anticipated. What other options did the Norton Family have besides sending suicide squads to rush out and burn the four siege towers? They should have known that once the towers reached the castle roof, everything would be over.
Knight Chievanni waved his hand with composure. "Longbowmen, step forward. Sword-and-shield soldiers, hold your shields ready. Spearman, prepare to support."
Before long, the well-trained Northland Legion soldiers formed three square formations ahead of the siege towers. If the enemy inside the castle rushed out, they would be met with a devastating blow.
The enemy did not charge out of the castle—but Knight Chievanni and every surviving soldier would never forget what they witnessed at that moment. A massive stone ball came rolling out of the gate with a deep, rumbling growl. It rolled across the drawbridge, picked up speed as it descended the slope, going faster and faster and faster...
Everyone was frozen in shock, watching the enormous boulder—which was larger than a four-wheeled cargo wagon—barreling straight toward them.
Finally, someone screamed, "Run!"
All three square formations collapsed instantly. Every man turned and ran, but they shoved against each other, pushed each other down, trampled each other. The four towering siege towers blocked their only path of retreat. Some clear-headed soldiers abandoned all thought of self-preservation and leaped straight off the five- or six-meter-high slope, not caring if they broke bones on impact. The soldiers still crowded in front of the siege towers, watching the colossal stone ball bearing down on them, could only let out agonized screams—
With a deafening crash, the stone ball slammed into two of the siege towers beside it. Splinters of wood and severed limbs of soldiers went flying. Blood-soaked, the stone ball and the wreckage of both towers tumbled down the slope together.
Before Knight Chievanni could even let out a sigh of relief, a soldier cried out in horror, "There's another one—"
He looked up to see a second massive stone ball rumbling down the slope toward them...
Knight Chievanni, thinking quickly on his feet, shouted, "Topple the siege towers right now! Block it—"
What a hair-raising moment! Before the stone ball could reach them, the remaining two siege towers were finally tipped over by the soldiers, forming a barrier in front of them. The stone ball smashed through the first tower to splinters, but became lodged in the wreckage of the second...
The surviving soldiers let out a collective cheer of relief, but Knight Chievanni simply slumped in his saddle, drenched in cold sweat. He could only glare furiously at the castle on the slope, knowing full well that as long as they still had stone balls, there was no way he could take the castle from the front.
...