December 34th, seven o'clock in the evening.
The silver moon hung cold and clear against the deep blue canopy of the sky, casting its silver radiance down upon the world below.
It was one of those rare, calm winter nights on the northern seas — no howling gales, no crashing waves. The silver moonlight shimmered upon the still surface of the water, as if countless scales of silver had been scattered across its face.
Far away, a spark flared to life along the dark, heavy coastline — likely the glow of a torch. The spark traced three slow circles in the air, then after a pause, three more…
"All seems peaceful," Bodfing said. "My Lord, I believe it's time to move."
Even with fair weather and no roaring winds or towering seas, winter was still winter. Even wearing the cold-weather coats made from magical beast pelts,
"Have the men take a couple swigs of wine and limber up their limbs — I don't want them going numb and toppling into the water like frozen logs. Falling overboard at a time like that means certain death, and I don't want to see any casualty reports from accidents. Once they're ready, begin the landing."
"Yes, sir. I'll make sure everyone is prepared before we begin the assault. Rest assured, My Lord — we've conducted numerous landing drills. There will be no mishaps." Bodfing snapped to attention as he replied.
The orders were relayed swiftly. The first several large ships began to turn broadside, and the sailors lowered enormous rope nets along the hulls. Then, one by one, flat-bottomed landing boats were lowered into the sea.
A few soldiers nearby raised small leather flasks and took a couple of swigs. Lorist caught the smell of rum — another measure against the cold, designed to add warmth to the body. The
Carrying a small leather flask of rum on winter expeditions had become standard issue for the soldiers. Taking a couple of swigs before a mission, then circulating combat force not only added warmth to the body but also kept one warm for a period of time, preventing hands and feet from going numb in the freezing cold.
The soldiers who had drunk the rum began circulating their combat force and limbering up their limbs. They then double-checked their weapons and equipment to make sure nothing was amiss before climbing over the ship's railing and descending the rope nets. Below, landing boats waited in rows to receive them. They would be the vanguard of the
Several more large ships slowly moved into position, each trailing a series of big wooden crates behind them — these were the components of a portable dock. Once these ships dropped anchor, the engineers aboard would quickly assemble the floating crates into a temporary pier stretching over a hundred meters across the shallow reef zone, allowing the Rock Fortress Legion's monowheel carts and steel crossbow battalions to land smoothly on shore.
Building two portable docks at night was more difficult than during the day, but the weather was favorable tonight — the waves were calm, no big swells rose up, and the silvery moonlight made everything on the sea's surface faintly visible. It was estimated that it would only take four to five hours to assemble both floating bridges. Once the Rock Fortress Legion was ashore, the bridges would be retracted and secured along the coastline. After the destruction of the Mordras Duchy and the Kenmays Family's installation in Westgradle Province, these two floating bridges would be reassembled into a permanent portable dock — a congratulatory gift from Lorist to Count Kenmays, fulfilling a promise he had once made.
Shoot the horse to bring down the rider; capture the king to topple the army. Lorist had never pinned his hopes on defeating the Mordras Duchy's forces in a single decisive battle and then sweeping through the entire duchy. The so-called grand showdown with Grand Duke Mordras next spring was merely a ruse to keep the
The Second Prince's suggestion to sweep through the nobility of the Dalemuke Province first, destroying the Mordras Duchy's war-making potential, wasn't wrong in principle. But even if the duchy were destroyed that way, what the four Northland families would get was a ravaged territory — one that couldn't enhance their strength and would instead require massive investment to restore and rebuild. That was the true reason the four families had rejected the Second Prince's proposal.
When the Mordras Duchy's elite Sea-Mountain Legion appeared in the camp across from the Northland coalition's forces at the end of November, Lorist knew that the Grand Duke's home base, Westgradle Province, had become a hollow shell. His plan to land on Silver Beach and seize Westgradle at the end of December now had an eighty percent chance of success. As long as they could land and quietly surround the provincial capital, Edelice City, and capture the Grand Duke of Mordras without the news leaking out, they could use the Duke's official seals to take Ciss Castle, Varnandis City, and Corbo City without resistance. With those three strongholds in hand, the fall of the Mordras Duchy would be a foregone conclusion.
At this point, the Second Prince was probably at the Grand Duke's mansion in Ghirdusk City, caught between Count Kenmays's enthusiastic invitation — or coercion — while waiting for the New Year's banquet to begin. Over the past month and a half, the Second Prince had likely realized the trick Count Kenmays had played on the oath document, causing his attitude toward the Count to shift from friendly to avoidant, cold, and furious. Yet Count Kenmays continued to show the Second Prince the same respect as always, chatting and laughing as though nothing had happened, making it impossible for the Second Prince to develop any personal hatred toward him no matter how angry he became.
The Northland's four great families — the ones he should have been wary of and focused on — were the Norton Family. And yet, he had stumbled into a catastrophic blunder under the honeyed words of a mere merchant-turned-count.
Perhaps it would only be when spring arrived next year that the Second Prince would realize, upon hoping for a decisive battle between the Northland coalition forces and Grand Duke Mordras, that the entire Mordras Duchy had already slipped quietly into the hands of the four great Northland families. Only then would the Second Prince understand that he had truly been deceived. Without a battlefield ablaze with the fires of war, the Second Prince would be unable to fish in troubled waters. As long as they prevented the Second Prince from conscripting troops to form a new White Lion Legion, he would have no means to conquer Queen Cary of the Andinac Kingdom. Thus, the Second Prince would have to live at the mercy of the four great Northland families, praying for Lorist to send troops to Andinac Kingdom soon so he could reclaim his throne…
The plan to land on Silver Beach at year's end and launch a surprise attack on Grand Duke Mordras's stronghold was kept secret even from their three allies, precisely to prevent any leaks. According to the plan, the Norton Family's Tiger Wing Legion was supposed to deploy and arrive at the lower reaches of the Mitobo River by next spring, crossing a pontoon bridge to the main camp to prepare for the great battle against the Mordras Duchy. However, next spring, Lorist would still dispatch the Tiger Wing Legion—not to confront the Mordras Duchy, but to campaign against the usurper Queen Cary of the Andinac Kingdom.
"My lord, the first wave of soldiers has successfully landed ashore. The sailors are now towing the boats back,"
This was the narrowest stretch of shallow sea along Silver Beach. The distance from the seagoing ships to the shore was only about a hundred meters. Lorist snapped back to reality and looked toward the beach. Over a hundred flat-bottomed landing boats were being towed back toward the ships by sailors using ropes tied to the stern. Except for a single steersman, each small boat was now empty.
Lorist recalled how he had once designed three horizontal balancing boards for these landing craft, only to have his idea rejected by several shipwrights from the shipyard. They had redesigned the landing boats, modifying them into the current form with a square bow and a rounded stern. Not only did this increase the number of troops that could be transported, but it also made it easier to maintain balance—though it required an extra steersman at the stern.
"My lord, I have returned."
On one of the flat-bottomed boats being towed back to wait for the next wave of personnel, a figure suddenly appeared. The person quickly climbed up the lowered rope net, reached Lorist's side, and spoke.
It was El, the commander of the first batch of scouts to go ashore.
"What about those fishermen casting nets in the shallow sea during the day? It forced us to wait until dark to begin the landing," Lorist asked.
The landing was originally scheduled for daytime, but when Dawn's flying fish ship scouted Silver Beach, they discovered something unexpected: four or five small fishing boats were out in the shallow waters during winter. This was utterly bizarre. It was winter now—just three or four days of good weather, yet fishermen were still venturing out to sea. This completely unforeseen situation caught them off guard. Lorist had no choice but to wait until evening to lead the fleet toward Silver Beach, changing the landing time to night.
"My Lord, those are people from the Black Pearl Trading Company. Their fishing grounds and salt pans are located behind the tidal flats at the southernmost end of Silver Beach, which are now under our control. According to the prisoners, they were out fishing during the day to supply the freshest seafood for tomorrow evening's New Year's banquet hosted by the Grand Duke's estate. It's been like that every year," El replied.
The Black Pearl Trading Company — Lorist knew of it. It was the largest trading company in the Madras Duchy, and rumor had it that the Grand Duke of Madras was its biggest behind-the-scenes shareholder. This Black Pearl Trading Company held a monopoly over the seafood and salt trade of the Madras Duchy. The snow salt sales that Count Kemess was responsible for had been boycotted in the Madras Duchy, and it was all this company's doing. The salt they produced by boiling seawater was of abysmal quality and exorbitantly priced, yet it still managed to sell throughout the entire duchy.
In addition, the Black Pearl Trading Company had built small fishing boats to catch fish in the shallow seas and harvest kelp, shellfish, and other marine products to sell to the four central kingdoms. This was also one of the few specialty products of the Sidigler Province. Lorist hadn't expected that they would also need to supply the freshest seafood for the Grand Duke of Madras's New Year's banquet, braving the winter seas to do so — quite the effort on their part.
Lorist glanced at the two portable pontoon bridges being assembled from large wooden crates. They had only connected about a dozen meters so far. Forget it — there was no telling how long it would take for those two bridges to be completed.
He turned to Bodfinger and said, "Borg, I'm going to take a landing craft ashore first. You stay here and coordinate."
Bodfinger was taken aback. "My Lord, why not rest in the cabin for a while first? It wouldn't be too late to go ashore once the pontoon bridges are finished — that would be much safer. A landing craft isn't exactly great for visibility, and with everyone crammed in, it wouldn't be good if something went wrong."
Lorist smiled. "It's fine. I'll take a few guards with me. You heard what El just said, didn't you? I want to go interrogate those prisoners more thoroughly — we might be able to get more of our people into Edelris City."
Once Lorist had made up his mind, Bodfinger had no choice but to comply. He ordered a flat-bottomed landing craft to be held back for Lorist and his guards. El, as the commander of Lorist's personal guard detail, boarded the landing craft once more.
To demonstrate the courage of leading from the front and to land alongside the soldiers, Lorist proactively picked up an oar. But once the landing craft pushed away from the main ship and he began rowing, Lorist discovered that the experience was truly excruciating. The seawater splashed up by the oar struck his face with a bone-piercing chill that made his entire body shudder. His rowing hands grew stiff and numb from the cold, and he could only repeat the mechanical rowing motion, praying inwardly that they would reach shore soon.
There was one more thing — with heavy snow falling in winter, Silver Beach was not the hard-frozen sandy shore he had imagined. Instead, it had transformed into a vast snowfield. A thick blanket of snow covered the beach, and where it met the seawater, some of the accumulated snow had already frozen into murky chunks of ice.
The square prow of the landing craft ground into the ice and snow, the heavy impact sending chunks of frost cascading into the seawater. A family soldier rushed down from the shore, seized the tow rope at the bow, and hauled with all his might while shouting over his shoulder: "Get ashore quick! Keep your steps light — don't stomp on the ice and snow! If you want to warm up, go over there, drink a few mouthfuls, and get your limbs moving!"
"Uh, My Lord, it's you…" The soldier suddenly realized that the men sitting in the craft were Lorist and his guards.
Lorist tapped the tip of his foot against the plank and vaulted lightly onto shore, giving the soldier a pat on the shoulder. "Well done. But why can't we stomp on the ice and snow?"
"Oh, My Lord, you see, a few of the soldiers from the first landing wave got ashore and started stomping their feet right next to the boats to warm up. Turns out what was under all that ice and snow wasn't a sandy beach — the sea itself had frozen over into one massive sheet. The moment they stomped, the ice cracked and the entire boatload of men plunged into the water…" the soldier explained.
Lorist's heart tightened. "What happened to the people who fell in?"
"They're fine, My Lord." The soldier grinned. "The whole bunch of unlucky devils went straight into the drink, but the water only came up to their thighs — it wasn't deep at all. After they were hauled back up, Lord Pacheco ordered them to strip bare, dry off by the fire over there, drink some wine, rub themselves with oil, and circulate their combat force to get their bodies moving. Once their wet clothes were dried by the fire and they put them back on, they were good as new. Just a moment ago those fellows were still running around bare-bottomed next to the bonfire, had us laughing ourselves to tears…"
Lorist relaxed and chuckled as well. The image of a bunch of grown men running in circles around a fire with nothing on was quite amusing. Still, he had to be grateful for the world of combat force — without it, those men would have already lost half their lives. Falling into water in freezing conditions comparable to minus twenty or thirty degrees would have been a tragedy. Fortunately, every soldier in the Rock Fortress Legion possessed at least Bronze-tier combat force, making their physical constitution far more resilient than even the super-soldiers he remembered from his previous life.
Ever since Knight Pacheco had advanced to the Gold tier, he had been transferred to serve in the Rock Fortress Legion. Having him command the first wave of landing soldiers gave Lorist complete peace of mind. Before long, Lorist spotted Knight Pacheco running over toward him.
"My Lord, what are you doing here?" Knight Pacheco drew to attention and saluted in front of Lorist.
"I went ashore ahead of the others. El and his men have captured the people from the fishing grounds and salt works to the south — I'm going to take a look and ask about the situation in Adderitt City. How many men have landed so far?"
"My Lord, about one and a half battalions so far," Knight Pacheco answered.
"Mm. Even though Silver Beach is still a full day's march from Adderitt City and the snow is heavy, we need to stay cautious. Send one fully assembled battalion to seize that small hill over there — it's the only high ground in the area, and once we control it, we can monitor everything around us. After everyone has landed, we'll move out together toward Adderitt City." Lorist pointed at a snow-covered hillock in the distance.
"Yes, My Lord. I'll send someone right away," Knight Pacheco replied.
"Good. El, let's go take a look at that fishing ground and salt works," Lorist said to El.
"Of course, My Lord. It's just over there. We'll need to cross this stretch of beach to get to it," El said.
……(To be continued.)