On the 11th of November, 1778, by the standard reckoning of the Galentea Continent, a hundred thousand steppe barbarian cavalry launched an assault on Pidro City. They fought a bloody battle for an entire day and night—corpses piled like mountains, blood flowed like rivers—and at the height of the fighting, the barbarian cavalry even managed to seize the frontmost wall. Yet under the desperate resistance of the
Both sides suffered devastating casualties in this battle, but the Twenty-Third Battalion's steadfast defense laid a solid foundation for the Northland Four Families' Alliance to destroy the Iberian Kingdom and bring Winston Province and the Southern Province into its sphere of influence. It also gave the Alliance the upper hand in its confrontation with the steppe god of war, Grand Duke Fisaburen. From this moment on, the Norton Family of the Northland firmly suppressed the Fisaburen Family, opening a new chapter in the rise of the Ragebear Dynasty.
— Excerpt from the Galentea War Chronicles: Chapter on the Rise of the Bear — The Bloody Battle of Pidro City "...The Twenty-Third Battalion's surviving strength after the battle stands at one thousand seven hundred and twenty-eight, most of them wounded, with weapons, arms, and equipment more than half destroyed. Of the ten thousand laborers serving as reserves, nearly four thousand were killed or wounded... The steppe barbarians left behind over twelve thousand corpses, and their total casualties are estimated at no fewer than twenty thousand... I have now arrived at Pidro City with the Twenty-Second Battalion and the First and Fourth Guard Battalions. Meanwhile, Viscount Edith has rallied six thousand private soldiers from the traditional Winston landed nobility to reinforce us. The roster is as follows..."
This was a message relayed by messenger hawk from Baron Fareya, and
Fighting for an entire day and night and holding Pidro City, the Twenty-Third Battalion took nearly fifty percent casualties—a remarkable feat. Its commander, Edward Walk, was praised to the skies by Fareya, who commended his achievements at length. Lorist had genuinely not expected this bastard half-brother of his to possess such capability, and he was quite pleased. For the Norton Family as it stood now, even bastards still carried Norton blood. If they proved capable, they would be a great asset to the family.
With Fareya now at Pidro City and having taken over the city's defenses, Lorist no longer needed to worry about its safety. Yet this battle had served as a wake-up call—his own carelessness had nearly brought the entire strategy to ruin. For a strategic stronghold like Pidro City, a single Household Battalion of three thousand was never enough; at least three battalions would have been needed for a proper defense.
And then there were the other major cities—Windbury Royal City, Vanades City, and Kebo City—each assigned only a single Household Battalion, which was indeed insufficient. In Windbury Royal City, the three-thousand-strong Twenty-First Battalion had been reduced to little more than a peacekeeping force and gate garrison. If an enemy actually attacked, there was simply no way to defend all four sides of the city walls... Perhaps it was time to reform the Household Corps' organization. A seventy-five-thousand-strong Household Corps was indeed too large, and being spread across three provinces made command anything but convenient...
Just as Lorist was deep in thought about how to reorganize the Household Corps, Schwarz walked into the command tent. "Your Grace, Baron Kamola of Windbury Royal City has sent a letter. He says the queen at the Rose Palace is throwing another tantrum, claiming she will go on a hunger strike to protest our rudeness and mistreatment toward her. Baron Kamola hopes Your Grace will settle on a course of action regarding the queen as soon as possible, to stop her from causing any more trouble in the city."
Well, Lorist had to admit this queen was an absolute piece of work. She didn't care about the fall of the Kingdom of Iberia, nor did she care about the title of queen — all she wanted were extravagant parties, dances, and banquets. She knew nothing but pleasure. Even after Windbury Royal City was conquered, she remained completely unmoved. She couldn't care less about her own father, Grand Duke Fisablen, or the war between the four-family alliance of the Northland and the Southern Province. The only thing she demanded was that her treatment as queen befit her status. She even tried to use her looks to seduce Baron Kamola and Fareya.
The problem was that, while the queen was admittedly a beauty, she was already around forty or fifty years old. Baron Kamola and Fareya naturally had no interest in this old woman, and they were probably worried about their reputations as well. After being rejected by these Northland nobles and officials, the queen actually conspired with her maids to lure the soldiers standing guard at the palace gates into her bedchamber. The next day, every soldier who was released from her quarters staggered out through the palace gates with dark circles under their eyes, faces pale and green, their legs trembling... Baron Kamola was already at his wit's end with this queen and wished he could just put a sword through her and be done with it.
Of course, Baron Kamola only thought about it in his head. Killing a queen would cause an absolute uproar among the nobility. No one wanted to bear that kind of infamy. Setting aside her questionable personal morals, the queen posed no real threat to anyone, and her demand for treatment befitting her status was perfectly legitimate. Even as a prisoner, any action taken against her had to account for her father. No one wanted to make a mortal enemy of a third-rank Great Swordmaster and a powerful Grand Duke hailed as the God of War of the Grasslands.
Everyone knew that. But now that Baron Kamola had complained about it several times, it was time to come up with a plan of action.
"Here's what we'll do, Schwarz. Write a letter to Baron Kamola and have him select a few Fisablen Family knights and around a hundred soldiers from the captured Fisablen Family forces. We'll release them, re-arm them, and have them escort the queen back to Fisablen Family territory. While you're at it, tell him not to touch the queen's personal belongings. If her luggage isn't sufficient, we can even send her off with some expenses. That way, we'll be rid of the trouble."
Lorist gave his orders. This really was the best way to handle it — escort her out with proper courtesy, and everyone would have peace of mind. As for whatever storms the queen might stir up after returning to the Fisablen Family, that was no longer his concern. Even the other nobles would likely give him a thumbs-up for his magnanimity...
"Yes, Your Grace. I'll write the letter right away," Schwarz said.
"Oh right, Schwarz — still no word from El and Reddy?" Lorist felt it was a bit odd. He had given El and Reddy an order a few days ago to find a way to capture some live prisoners from the Fisablen Family forces on Bobiqi Mountain, to question them about the situation on the mountain and find out how many troops Grand Duke Fisablen had left there as a garrison. But after receiving the order, El and Reddy had simply vanished. It had been several days now with absolutely no word from them.
Schwarz shook his head. "Your Grace, I really don't know. Big Brother El and Senior Brother Reddy left with ten guards that day, and there's been no news since. They didn't take any messenger hawks with them either. I've sent the scout cavalry out on patrol these past two days to look for any signs or marks they might have left, but every one of them came back saying they found nothing..."
"Strange. Where on earth did they go?" Lorist stroked his chin in thought.
"Your Grace, could something have happened to them?" Schwarz asked worriedly.
Lorist laughed. "That's impossible. With Reddy's skills and El's abilities, even if Grand Duke Fisablen himself tried to deal with them personally, he couldn't take them all down. At least one of them would've managed to get away. Besides, they had ten guards with them — if they split up, several would make it back. I think they must have run into something that delayed them. They'll probably return in a few days."
That reminded Lorist of Old Man Mobinhan's magnificent golden eagle. What a pity — Tager's project to train a flock of eagles capable of scouting enemy movements on the battlefield in cooperation with Old Man Mobinhan wouldn't bear fruit for another two or three years. Otherwise, the Hunting Horse Corps wouldn't have suffered such a devastating blow in the Muyeyuan Province. They could have spotted that old fox Fisablen massing his Grass Barbarian cavalry in ambush long before, and the Hunting Horse Corps would never have walked into the trap…
Come to think of it, the messenger hawks currently used by the family had taken five or six years of training before showing any real results, so it was understandable that producing a flock of eagles capable of identifying and scouting enemies on the battlefield would require such a lengthy training period. He had already made a promise to Old Man Mobinhan — once such a flock of eagles was successfully trained, a baron's title over a territory was practically guaranteed. He trusted Old Man Mobinhan would give it his all. When you delegate, trust fully; when you doubt, don't delegate at all. Since he had entrusted this task to them, he believed they would handle it well.
Still, if a while passed and there was still no news of El and Reddy, he might have to trouble Old Man Mobinhan again and borrow his golden eagle to search for their whereabouts.
"Your Grace, we've held Pidro City, but wasn't it said that the Mountain Barbarians might attack the Norton Family's territories in the Northland?" Schwarz said, writing a letter while bringing up another concern.
"Don't worry, it's fine," Lorist said with a smile. "The Mountain Barbarians never descend from the mountains to raid and plunder when winter approaches. Right now, the Mountain Barbarians of the Myriad Dragon Mountains are busy stockpiling supplies for the winter. Every winter is a life-or-death threshold for them. They're not like our family's forces, equipped with ample cold-weather gear and training. No matter how cold it gets, we can still move freely through the snow and wind on our skis. If the Mountain Barbarians really wanted to attack our family's lands, it would have to be next spring. And by then, we'll already be back in our territory with defenses prepared. We'll teach those raiding barbarians a lesson they won't forget."
"Mm." Schwarz nodded and continued writing his letter.
After another ten days or so, there was still no word from El and Reddy. Lorist was just about to send a message to Tager, asking him to borrow Old Man Mobinhan's golden eagle once more to search for the two of them, when he received a letter from Fairleigh reporting that the Grass Barbarian army below Pidro City had finally withdrawn.
Since Fairleigh had taken over Pidro City's defenses, the Grass Barbarian cavalry had launched several more attacks over the following ten days or so, but each one had been utterly futile, costing them men and horses for nothing. Moreover, none of these assaults matched the ferocity of the one that had raged for an entire day and night. The final few attempts were particularly half-hearted — the first wave would meet some resistance and suffer a few casualties, and after that the whole thing devolved into something of a game. They would shout and holler without charging, hiding well beyond the range of the steel crossbows, until the trumpet sounded the retreat, only then withdrawing with visible relief.
Fairleigh mentioned a peculiar situation in his letter: on the night before the withdrawal, the Grass Barbarian cavalry's main camp had suddenly descended into chaos. Fires blazed skyward, men shouted and horses shrieked, and fierce fighting and battle cries echoed through the air. It looked very much like the camp was under genuine attack. Fairleigh considered the matter and concluded that the four-family Northland alliance had no spare troops to launch a raid on the Grass Barbarian main camp, so he feared it might be a barbarian trick and held his position. Come morning, he discovered it had been a real assault. The Grass Barbarian camp had been burned to the ground, with Grass Barbarian corpses scattered everywhere — at least thirty to forty thousand of them. The remaining Grass Barbarian cavalry had vanished without a trace.
It couldn't possibly have been their own forces that raided the camp. The good news was that the siege of Pidro City had been lifted, forcing the Grass Barbarian army to withdraw — a remarkable victory.
Arriving alongside the news of this victory was an escort detail dispatched by Baron Kamora from the royal capital of Windbury. They accompanied the queen, her numerous maids, and a hundred carts in a grand procession to the main camp. Baron Kamora himself had not come, but he sent Lorist a letter explaining that in order to get the queen to return to the Fasabrun family's territory, he had been forced to agree to several rather outlandish demands — such as letting the queen take away all the furniture from her bedchamber. This was the reason the convoy had grown so enormous; now not so much as a chamber pot remained in those quarters.
Then there were the queen's three hundred-odd maids. Baron Kamora found it rather a pity. These maids, just like the queen, were all women of loose morals, and he had originally planned to form them into a pleasure brigade to serve the family's armed forces after the queen's departure. But upon further reflection, he realized that these maids all hailed from families of fallen or destroyed nobility, and they would likely bring nothing but trouble to the clan. So he agreed to let the queen take them all with her.
Additionally, Baron Kamora reported that in order to get the queen to set out, he had been compelled to give her a hundred thousand gold Fordes as annuities for the past several years. Only then had the queen climbed into her carriage and departed. Furthermore, because the queen carried so many vehicles and possessions, the ten released Fasabrun family knights and one hundred soldiers would likely be unable to guarantee the convoy's safety. He had been forced to dispatch the Second Security Battalion to escort them all the way, and delivering them to Lorist's main camp now completed the mission.
Lorist had no choice but to set about hosting the queen's arrival. Regardless of everything, she was still a noble, and a welcoming banquet was unavoidable. Even though the Fasabrun family was their enemy and Lorist had personally destroyed the Kingdom of Iberia — even capturing the former king himself and handing him over to the
At the welcoming banquet, the queen did not treat Lorist as a mortal enemy. Quite the contrary, she was actually grateful that Lorist had carried off the second prince, giving her several years of peaceful, pleasant days. This finally gave Lorist a firsthand taste of the queen's sheer absurdity and utter lack of heart. However, Lorist still landed himself in trouble. The queen did not care at all about the fall of the Kingdom of Iberia. What she cared about instead was that she had now lost her income from annuities. Weeping and wailing, she demanded compensation from Lorist.
Lorist politely reminded her that Baron Kamora had already provided a sum of a hundred thousand gold Fordes, had he not? The queen declared that was nowhere near enough — her annual pension was twenty thousand gold Fordes, so Baron Kamora's hundred thousand amounted to only five years. She was still young, not even forty — in reality, she was already forty-six — and could surely live another twenty or thirty years. What would she do after those five years were up? The queen burst into loud sobbing.
Lorist was drenched in sweat. He had truly encountered a world-class character this time. He could only say he would do his best and scrape together another hundred thousand gold Fordes for her, which finally stopped the queen's wailing. But perhaps Lorist had been too easy to push around. After pocketing the hundred thousand in gold banknotes, the queen demanded another two hundred thousand before she would agree to leave. Lorist lost his temper and refused, whereupon the queen simply camped herself in the military encampment.
Before long, Lorist had every reason to regret it. Baron Kamora had wanted to organize the queen's maids into a pleasure brigade to serve the family's armed forces, but instead the queen had gone ahead and started soliciting clients right there in the main camp. One maid for one night cost one gold Forde, and if a customer paid ten, the queen herself would keep him company. Though the queen was a bit on the older side, she was still decent-looking, and she carried the title of queen. For an ordinary soldier, spending ten gold Fordes to bed a queen was the kind of boast that could last a lifetime — they would borrow the money if they had to. And so the queen's business boomed, with more customers than she could handle.
Lorist's face had turned white. This was the front line, during wartime — everyone's legs were as weak as noodles, and this was preposterous. He had wanted to enforce military discipline, but when he looked into it, the soldiers and knights visiting the queen hadn't actually violated any of the Family's military regulations — they only went to the queen during their off-duty hours, and they never left the main camp. It was hard to punish anyone over this…
As for the queen, Lorist didn't dare go over there anymore. If he did, he'd very likely get tangled up by several naked maids — last time Boddfinger had gone to round up the soldiers, he'd nearly suffered a public embarrassment…
He'd been treating the queen with courtesy for so long that he couldn't very well turn on her now. The queen plying her trade in the military camp sounded odd, to be sure, but it hadn't actually caused any real trouble. On the contrary, it had boosted the soldiers' morale — if anything, that sounded like a good thing…
In the end, Lorist chalked it up to bad luck and handed over another two hundred thousand gold Fordes to send the queen on her way. An armed battalion from the Phasaburan Family, dispatched from the Babilichi Mountains to escort her, had already been waiting outside the main camp for nearly ten days.
Before her departure, the queen was still reluctant to leave. She requested that if they could let her stay in the main camp until next spring before setting out, she would willingly forgo the two hundred thousand gold Fordes. Lorist thought to himself, *Please, just leave already. If you stay here until next spring, every penny of the entire Family armed forces' wages will end up in your pocket…* Fine. The queen was even more formidable than Grand Duke Phasaburan — at least the Grand Duke hadn't extorted three hundred thousand gold Fordes out of him. Watching the convoy grow smaller in the distance, that was what Lorist was thinking.
…(To be continued.)