Chapter 3 – Story 108: Holmenia Battle 1 – Stones and Arrows
<– Previous Chapter | ToC | Glossary | Next Chapter –>
“Oh, here they come. Look at them go!”
Dvalin, the one appointed as earth general, cheered while watching Romania’s royal army swarming towards them from atop Holmenia’s wall. Then he shifted his eyes to the side, looking at Norðri, the former dwarven Warrior Leader of the Marven Copper Mine――a dwarf with a red beard――as he screwed up his face into a sullen grimace.
“What? Is there anything else you’re unhappy with?”
After a short moment, Norðri answered, “…No, I get it. But, it’s not something I can get on board with so easily.”
For Norðri, who had been exploited as a slave for many years after his hometown was completely destroyed by Holmea, the current situation of him standing on Holmenia’s wall to protect the country was very conflicting. Given that Dvalin had also been turned into a slave and dragged all the way to the West by humans, he could understand the notion. But, the difference between those two dwarfs was that Dvalin had already found closure five years ago.
“Look, I know it’s hard to swallow, but now that we’ve opened that cask of great wine, we’ve gotta drink it all up.”
Dvalin was repeating a dwarven saying. If you open a famous, high-quality wine once, its taste is going to gradually deteriorate. Before it gets completely spoiled, you have to drink it all up. Basically, it means if you start something once, you have to see it through to the end, or to use a common proverb: 「In for a penny, in for a pound」.
“Yeah, yeah, I know! We’ve already opened the lid.”
The 「opened the lid」 mentioned by Norðri referred to the execution of the dwarf who got violent against a resident of Luoma after getting drunk. From the start, when they entered under Souma’s command, they were forced to pledge that they’re going to comply with the military regulations and they were also told that they’d be strictly punished, if they went against those regulations. Moreover, right before entering the city of Luoma, Souma released an official note, telling them that he’d severely punish anyone hurting innocent residents, no matter the reason.
Yet, the dwarves, including Norðri, pleaded with Souma to reduce the punishment since they felt sympathy with their kin.
Back then Souma told Norðri that he’d leave the judgment to him. Many of the dwarves rejoiced, expecting leniency. But, only Norðri felt shocked at that moment.
That dwarf had broken military regulations and on top of that gone against Souma’s promise to guarantee the safety of the residents, basically voiding both of these. He couldn’t simply reduce the punishment out of sympathy or because the dwarf had been drunk. If he did, it’d create a dangerous precedent where people would later cause minor offenses and then use drunkenness or their difficult past as reasons.
As a former Warrior Leader who commanded the warriors of the Marven Mine, Norðri understood as much to a painful degree. Much less to say about Luoma having been the first city they conquered in Holmea. Any precedents there would become the norm for future conquests.
Considering it like that, he had to show leadership by being especially harsh in his punishment, rather than reducing it.
For Norðri, who understood as much, being told by Souma that he’d leave the punishment of the offender to him was nothing more than Souma asking him, 「Do you people really feel like following me?」.
For this reason, Norðri overcame the opposition of many of his brethren and sentenced the offender to death. And many of his brethren criticized Souma, who was present during the execution as cruel and heartless. Many also felt disgusted with Norðri who had decided that judgment.
Recalling all that, Norðri’s face turned grim, but still revealing a faint smile, he said to Dvalin, “However, the wine in the opened casket was quite a joy.”
Back when Norðri was trying to forget things by drowning himself in booze after the execution, Shyemul visited him, saying that Souma sent her.
“The executed dwarf will be treated as a warrior and his family will receive a pension in line with that.”
With the drunkenness doing its worst on top of his already foul mood, Norðri spat out, 「I was forced into executing him, so what’s with the kindliness now?」.
Thereupon, Shyemul formed a bitter smile so obvious with her beastly mouth that even a dwarf could tell and answered, “Yeah, I also asked him whether he was doing it out of self-satisfaction. And Soma confirmed just that.”
With him being easily able to imagine Souma smiling very bitterly, Norðri couldn’t help but burst into laughter. Even though he knew that this was nothing more than self-satisfaction, Souma still felt so troubled by the dwarf’s execution that he couldn’t help it but to do it. That was nothing more than a clear sign that Souma regarded dwarves as normal people. Unlike many humans on this continent who regarded dwarves as inferior race, slaves, and worms, Souma saw them as the same people as himself. Norðri felt truly surprised and happy about that.
Norðri deliberately slapped his face with his palms.
“Alright. Thinking about all the pesky stuff can wait for later. Now it’s time to get things done quickly!”
With those words Norðri turned around to the array of catapults and the dwarves operating them behind him.
“You lot, are the heated stones ready!? this is the perfect opportunity to show your pride as a Marven warrior!”
Once Norðri raised his right arm, the dwarves roared, “YEEEAAAHHHH!”
◆◇◆◇◆
When attacking a fortress, the ones to move first would be the archers. Approaching the wall while relying on a defensive wall of big shields or similar, it’d be their duty to dispatch the enemy archers and stone throwers hidden behind the parapets.
The ones acting next would be the combat engineers. While the archers would suppress the enemy attacks, they’d carry over simple sandbags filled with soil (tunics that have had their cuffs and collar stitched together) to build defensive positions, and prepare a road to move siege towers (movable towers equipped with battering rams to break walls and ladders to scale the walls). Afterwards, they’d directly set up ladders against the wall from the defensive positions and climb the wall, using the siege towers. Moreover, they’d use the battering ram to break the wall or gate to open up a hole in order to invade the fortress.
This was the standard procedure when performing a siege battle in this era. And Romania’s army also went along with that basic strategy, meaning the archer unit was the first to move.
The archers, who had been split in several platoons, approached the wall while hidden behind a wall of big shields which were carried by lower soldiers.
But, they were greeted by a passionate welcome of dwarven catapults which had been installed atop the wall. Faced with the red-glowing, heated stones fired by catapults, the big shields were little less than thin paper. The soldiers carrying those shields and the archers behind them were all blown away without any resistance, whenever a stone hit directly.
In addition to being affixed on the top of the wall, the catapults widely exceeded the archers in range. In front of this brutal onslaught, several of Romania’s archers were turned into mush before they even entered the range of their arrows. But, even though the catapults possessed a high, destructive force, their accuracy was relatively low. It was impossible for them to shoot down all of the archers who were getting closer after having split up in small groups. As such, Romania’s archer units were gradually drawing closer to the wall amidst the rain of catapult stones.
What awaited those archers next were the elven war archers and the archers of the former Holmean royal army. It was obvious that archers on elevated ground would be at a clear advantage in range and power, if both sides used the same bows. Souma’s side use that locational advantage, letting a barrage of arrows rain down on the enemy archers.
Because of this, Romania’s archers, who had barely made it into the range of their arrows, had no choice but to weather through this storm by hiding their heads and limps behind the big shields.
One of the commanding officers lost his nerve due to this frustrating situation, stood up, raised his voice, and spurred on his men, “Don’t falter! We have to shoot back!”
However, his action turned into foolhardiness instead of a heroic deed. A well-aimed arrow soon pierced the head of that captain. The arrow, which penetrated the metallic helmet, went all the way from the upper right of his head, coming out at his upper left cheek, around the temple area. This was clear proof of the power behind those arrows.
The one having fired it was the zoan warrior Shahata who had been entrusted with a unit of elven war archers.
“Well done!”
The elven woman next to him praised, but Shahata only returned an apathetic thanks in response. Shahata himself was well aware that the power of his arrows exceeded that of his elven counterparts by far. But, that was only natural. An Elfen Bow is no magic weapon. The power of its arrows was defined by the physical strength of its wielder. And naturally, the arms of a zoan, who would be running across the land on all four, wouldn’t lose out to the slender arms of an elven woman.
However, at the same time Shahata also realized that he’d never reach the level of elves in regards to accuracy since he couldn’t read the wind flow like them. Because of that, he interpreted her praise as nothing more than excessive flattery.
But, this was a misunderstanding, triggered by him having been removed from being Souma’s guard, albeit unavoidable, which then led to his old, stubborn side coming out. As a matter of fact, Shahata surpassed the elves in yet another point, although he didn’t notice it himself.
It was his keen sight allowing him to spot the captain in a swarm of enemy soldiers.
Unlike the elves who hunted in the forests, zoan would hunt in the plains, taking on cows which acted in groups. As the zoan hunted such groups of cows every day, they could instinctively tell what specimen to attack in order to split or confine the group.
Without realizing this himself, Shahata accurately pinpointed the commanding officers and people similar to them from among the thousands of soldiers, and aimed his arrows there. And the elven archer, who had praised him, had naturally realized as much.
But, oblivious to such matters, Shahata glanced in the direction of the tower gate where Souma was, grumbling, “Though I believe I’d be of much more use at Lord Soma’s side as his guard.”
◆◇◆◇◆
“Our army is becoming disheartened by the fierce counterattack of the enemy who seems to not spare a single thought to preserve their energy for later!”
“Our siege weapons are getting targeted by the catapults of what seem to be dwarves! Don’t bring them close to the wall!”
“The archers are being stopped by an elven archer unit. The same applies to our infantry as well!”
King Doldea flew into a rage, his face all red, due to the reports arriving at his place.
“What a sorry state! How disappointing!”
The thing irritating him the most was how his own soldiers were kept in check by the lowly demi-humans and their leader, the Divine son of Destruction. Just thinking how Aurelius was grinning at the embarrassing display of Romania’s army on the other side of the wall almost made King Doldea’s head boil over. But, no matter how much King Doldea reprimanded his soldiers, it didn’t change a thing.
On top of that, this tough siege battle also caused the enhanced motivation of Romania’s soldiers to slowly disappear. And while they weren’t aware of that, the accumulated fatigue started to appear on their faces at the same time. A part of the soldiers was already in a state where they were barely moving while using their spears and swords as canes.
Watching Romania’s army being in such a state from a far distance, someone uttered in mute amazement, “Just what the hell is this…?”
It was Princess Piarta who had belatedly arrived at Holmenia while leading her Hundred Flowers.
<– Previous Chapter | ToC | Glossary | Next Chapter –>
Translation Notes: