189 - 192

The Onset of War

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Here's the second bonus chapter brought to you by the support of Vincent V. from the USA, albeit a little later than the usual update time. I hope you enjoy the read!

Lorist wasn't aware at all that the Second Prince had made his decision to deploy his troops against the Norton Family; in fact, the reason he believed that the Second Prince was crazy in making his ludicrous demands known was because he felt that there was no way that the Second Prince would willingly engage in a full-on conflict against him and believed that the Second Prince's letter was merely an empty threat. Lorist thought that the word 'insane' wouldn't even be able to aptly capture the essence of the Second Prince's mania.

Had it not been for the fact that most of the elite troops of the Norton Family were occupied with developing Blackmud Marsh, Lorist would've taken the initiative and mobilized his troops to teach the Second Prince a lesson himself. However, seeing that the Second Prince had nothing else to say in his letter, Lorist didn't take it seriously and even confidently wrote his insulting reply in hopes that the figurative slap on the face his letter represented would wake the Second Prince out from his pipe dream.

At that moment, Lorist was standing atop a huge wooden 'tank', which was what Lorist called this new carroballista devised by Grandmaster Fellin to satisfy Lorist's request. Apart from its size that is easily three times that of the normal steel ballistas, the 3.6-meter-long, cone-tipped, armor-piercing bolts it used were far heavier than the riding lances used by Terman's knights.

For the convenient installation of the humongous ballista, Grandmaster Fellin also had some experienced master carpenters fashion a large flat cart for ease of transportation. When Lorist first saw the 5 pairs of wooden wheels beneath the cart, he immediately named the 7-meter-long contraption a tank.

It's a shame that the tank wasn't able to move by itself. Given its size, it also took 15 days, a staggeringly long time, to be transported from the ballista workshop at Bladedge Mountains all the way to the Blackmud Marsh with the aid of ten huge work horses. After that, the tank's wheels got caught in a pothole at the marsh, causing Lorist to have to gather 50 family knights and tens of horses to spend half a day hauling it out of the pothole.

"There wasn't any other choice. Due to the incredible recoil generated by the firing of this ballista, normal carts would easily be torn apart from the recoil. That's why this platform cart is not hollow and weighs around 2500 kilograms," Grandmaster Fellin explained in a slightly embarrassed tone.

"Grandmaster Fellin, what you've made is nothing short of a road roller! Didn't you notice that the paths this carroballista traveled through have all been flattened nicely?" Lorist joked. "Tell me more about the might of this ballista."

After that debacle, Lorist still felt that it was better to just call it a carroballista. Even though it did have five sets of wheels, the lack of autonomous mobility is a huge disadvantage.

"The main problem we're facing now still comes from the custom made ballista bolts. Bolts as long as those are a little too heavy and the weight will severely impact the accuracy of the ballista. Despite that, the force of the bolt is indeed increased and it has a firing range of around 500 meters. I can assure you that even a crocodile of 20 meters in length will be killed if hit by a single bolt," Grandmaster Fellin praised his creation confidently.

"Ironspine Crocodile! Careful, they're here! Three of them from the left! There's a huge one and two smaller ones! Carroballista units, prepare to engage!" shouted one of the scouting soldiers at the front. Reports like these were already a common occurrence since two months back, so everyone returned to their usual jobs without bothering with the presence of the magical beasts as they were confident that the carroballista units would protect them well.

Of the three components of the development project drafted by Lorist, the first one which involved the construction of a wall from Hidebull Mound to Tortoise Hill so far hasn't encountered with any troubles with Ironspine Crocodiles. The other component involved filling out tens of meters of the marsh to connect the marsh to the highland hills where the port is near. Given that rocks and earth were constantly rolled down the Mountains, the Ironspine Crocodiles naturally didn't interfere. Additionally, the crocodiles showed little to no interest with the sea and usually wouldn't approach its vicinity, so there was no need to worry about the safety of workers there.

So only the central component of the plan, which was constructing a road from the Blackmud Marsh all the way to the highland hills, was under constant threat of Ironspine Crocodile attacks. There, the carroballista division has already eliminated over 200 of those magical beasts.

Lorist jumped down from the gigantic carroballista and ran forward to take a look. A little over a hundred meters into the marsh, three faint ripples in the mud could be seen approaching. Based on the displacement of the mud, Lorist estimated that the two crocodiles on the left and right are not that big, being only around the 4 meter range. The crocodile in the middle however was slightly larger at around 7 meters. Wonderful, just right on time for us to test this gigantic carroballista out.

"Stand back and move the carroballistas to the side of the gigantic carroballista and lure the crocodiles over here. I'll leave the small ones to you. The big one will be our test subject of this gigantic ballista's might," Lorist instructed.

Lorist had no choice but to order for the other carroballistas to be moved as the gigantic carroballista truly took too long to mobilize. Luring the crocodiles in the direction of the gigantic carroballista would be much faster.

The soldiers manning the five smaller carroballistas happily complied to their orders. To ensure that the ballista bolt was forceful enough to kill the crocodiles, the soldiers usually waited for the crocodiles to be within 5 to 10 meters before firing away. That way, the collection of the crocodile carcasses would also be much easier as the carcasses would slowly sink back into the mud given enough time. However, that method was not without its shortcomings: the larger crocodiles would pose a real threat to the carroballistas. With their much thicker hide, they could still attack with full vigor even after being pierced by a couple of 2-meter-long bolts. They could only be stopped if a bolt pierced them squarely in the head.

At that moment, every one of those soldiers was looking forward to witnessing the might of the huge carroballista and quickly moved beside it and waited.

After the three Ironspine Crocodiles got onto land, their travel speed was significantly slowed by the uneven terrain. Given that they were far less agile on land than in the muddy waters, that made them easier targets to aim at.

Twang! A thunderous sound rang out followed by the unnerving hum of the vibrating ballista string as Lorist saw the ballista bolt silhouette whoosh past his side from the corner of his eye, nailing the forwardmost, 7-meter-long crocodile onto the ground. The crocodile struggled for a few breaths before ceasing to move entirely.

"Great!" Lorist roared excitedly. WIth a super ballista like that, they wouldn't even have to fear crocodiles that were over 5 meters tall!

Just as he was about to turn around and praise the grandmaster, the sight before him shocked him quite a bit.

The soldier who had aimed and fired the ballista was shivering nonstop as the other two assistants by his side gave him massages to his upper body muscles.

"What's up with him?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, this is also one of the weaknesses of the gigantic ballista. One person can only fire it once. Due to the vibration of the steel fiber wire, every archer who fires it will become like that and will have to rest for more than half an hour before being able to recover. Additionally, the archer should not attempt to fire this ballista another time to make sure he doesn't suffer from long term injuries. However, you don't need to worry about this as we have over 10 archers trained to operate this ballista to take one another's place," Grandmaster Fellin explained.

Lorist inspected the ballista closely again and noticed that the steel ballista mounted on the wooden platform was slightly different from the normal ones. Even though the ballista was only mounted with one support pedestal, it was three times as thick as that of the normal ballistas. At the top of the pedestal was a large steel sphere bearing which was clipped nicely into a semi-spherical hole at the bottom of the ballista itself which allowed for ease of movement across multiple axes for aiming. However, the archer had to use his shoulder to prop up the ballista from the rear end to aim before firing. It was no wonder the archer would be that severely affected by the recoil of the ballista.

Lorist breathed a huge sigh and thought that it was probably a mistake to have Grandmaster Fellin to come out with the huge modified ballista. Recalling that the assignment he gave him on researching a new type of bow that could be fired from horseback wasn't progressing well, Lorist concluded that Grandmaster Fellin was not a creative or innovative person.

Even though Lorist had asked for a larger ballista to be built, Grandmaster Fellin merely used the exact same design and enlarged it threefold without thinking about possible optimizations he could've made with some tweaks to the design. What irked Lorist most was the fact that the scale of the enlargement of the design was so perfectly done that he didn't know whether he should praise the grandmaster for his close attention to detail or not.

Oh well, I guess I can't do much about the archers only being able to fire one shot per day. After all, we have a division of soldiers at our disposal. At most, we'll just have to get them to line up for their turn to fire the ballista. I'm sure that we'll eventually wipe the Ironspine Crocodiles out.

"Grandmaster Fellin, I'm rather satisfied with what this super ballista can do. So, manufacture two more of these. I believe that with 3 of these at our disposal, the family soldiers will no longer be under threat from the magical beasts during the development project," Lorist said.

"Understood, milord. We will definitely build the other two ballistas as soon as possible and have them delivered here to the marsh." Grandmaster Fellin on the other hand was quite elated that he had gained Lorist's approval and instantly agreed to the request.

...

At the end of the 5th month, Ovidis, who was the current commander of the first local defense brigade, sent Lorist an arrow letter.

According to the messenger, the arrow letter was sent by a knight who had appeared before Firmrock Castle yesterday afternoon. The letter was tied to an arrow which was shot up by the knight to the walls of the castle. After seeing the knight leave, Ovidis noticed the letter tied onto it and saw that it was addressed to 'Baron Norton', before he immediately sent the messenger along with a squad of men to Lorist right away.

A 'Z' shaped insignia could be seen on the letter. Thinking that it seemed rather familiar, Lorist recalled that it was the insignia of Knight Hennard's family, the Shazin Family. Upon opening the letter, Lorist was enraged. Even though he hadn't went seeking trouble with the Second Prince, the latter had already began to make his move.

Knight Hennard's message was simple: he stated that when he attended the Northlands noble gathering at Gildusk City, the Second Prince declared that he would launch a military campaign against the Norton Family with the reason being the disrespect they have shown for the Iblia Royal Family and their refusal to heed the orders of the Second Prince by not paying a yearly tribute to him as well as their acceptance of the entitlement by the Andinaq Royal Family. 'Because of that treasonous act', Hennard quoted, the Second Prince decided that he would deploy his forces to mete out punishment.

Knight Hennard also added that he had already been imprisoned by the Second Prince and was forced to provide 10000 soldiers in the battle against the Nortons and that this letter was written by him in secret and sent back to his family along with the order to deploy the soldiers so that it could be relayed to Firmrock Castle after that. He also said that he would do his best to delay the proceedings and estimated that with the hesitance of the other nobles of the Northlands, the Second Prince would not march to Firmrock Castle with his troops before the 20th day of the 6th month and hoped that his timely warning would give Lorist enough time to make his preparations. Additionally, he mentioned that Count Kenmays has also been imprisoned and forced to contribute to the campaign as well.

Sol! Can't you let me farm in peace? Even though I have completely no interest in playing the game of war and domination with other nobles and only want to develop my dominion, why does trouble always come my way? Do they really think that the Norton Family is that easy to bully? It seems that the lesson I taught Duke Loggins wasn't impressionable enough. This time around, I better make an example out of the Second Prince. Let's see if anyone will dare to wake the Raging Bear that is the Norton Family after this incident...

"Pass my orders down. From today onwards, all development work at Blackmud Marsh will be put at a halt. Have all the knights assemble here as soon as possible. I want to host an emergency meeting," Lorist instructed the guard nearby, quickly sending more messengers to rush to deliver the message as soon as possible.

During the night, a small tent was filled to the brim with tens of Norton Family knights with many of them still covered in dirt and grime. Every one of them was curious why Lorist had called for a meeting on such short notice and wondered what was going on.

Reidy pushed the tent entrance open and Lorist marched into it with a solemn expression.

"Greetings to our lord!" Potterfang announced. All the knights within the tent stood up straight and saluted.

Lorist nodded and said, "There's no need for pleasantries. Take a seat. Today, I have gathered you here to tell you of some bad news. The Second Prince has gone insane and wrote me a letter that demanded me to pledge allegiance to him and also for our family to pay 500000 gold Fordes to him as well as supply him with 5 million kilograms of salt yearly without cost. Naturally, I have rejected all of them. Now, he has issued a call to arms to the other nobles of the Northlands to launch a campaign against our family and they will bring their soldiers to Firmrock Castle soon."

The people within the tent instantly broke into loud chatters. What surprised Lorist was that everyone seemed to look rather excited. He really didn't understand why they were so happy even though they were going to war.

"Locke, your plan truly is amazing. You had us fake the wounds on the magical beast carcasses before and now, idiots have come to our door knocking," Els said happily.

Lorist grimaced the moment he heard that. He had asked had the sword and spear wounds on the beasts to be faked back then because he didn't want outsiders to know that the family had such advanced steel ballistas. After all, Lorist understood the principle of not showing all your trump cards to your opponent. The other reason was that Lorist wanted to show the outside world the might of the Norton Family forces that could crush even those ferocious magical beasts with only the sword and spear.

Contrary to Lorist's expectations, however, the Second Prince had interpreted that as a sign that the Norton Family lost a lot of soldiers as a result from the battles with the magical beasts, which was the deciding factor for his declaration of war against the Norton Family. Had Lorist known about that, he would definitely sigh in regret that his smarts had brought another needless conflict to his dominion.

"Milord, please don't worry. Given the might of our family forces, it is a given that we will defeat the allied army of the Second Prince and the nobles of the Northlands. In fact, not only do we have to defeat them, we have to catch as many prisoners as we can," Potterfang said, representing the other knights by expressing their dedication and determination to win the upcoming battles.

"Catch more prisoners? Prisoners take food to sustain, you know!" Lorist rebuked jokingly even though he didn't mind the idea. It was a good thing for them to be confident in their victory. What worried him was their battle lust, which was a little too high for his tastes. For them to all look so happy despite hearing about an inevitable battle ahead, how weird... Why didn't I get this vibe from them on usual days?

"While it's great that you're all confident in our victory, we still shouldn't be careless. I know that our forces are incredibly mighty and we must take this opportunity to teach the Second Prince and the other nobles a lesson they'll never forget to quench their thirst for the riches of our family dominion. However, the variables on the battlefield can change at any moment, so we must still take the necessary precautions lest we suffer any unnecessary losses at the brink of victory. I hope you all will heed my caution well," Lorist reminded.

"Since the enemy is almost here, we must make our preparations as well. I have ordered the work at Blackmud Marsh to be halted for now. Have the garrison soldiers return to their respective posts within the dominion within the next five days and make sure they're ready to mobilize at a moment's notice. As for the formal soldiers of the family, have them gather at Firmrock Castle to make preparations. The new recruits who have been training for two months or longer shall be enlisted into their respective units as soon as possible and make sure they are ready for battle and familiar with the new command structure," Lorist instructed.

"Yes, milord!"

Before the Battle

Show TL Note

Here's the third bonus chapter of the week courtesy of Martin S. from Germany, Kevin H. from the USA and Tomas B. from the UK! Thank you all for the support! The battle is really escalating. Stay tuned to the rest next week~

By the time Lorist arrived at Firmrock Castle, he met up with the messenger of the Kenmays Family right away. The messenger said that he was sent over by the head of the Kenmays Family, Count Kenmays's father. In the letter, the count's father stated that Count Kenmays had been held hostage by the Second Prince and the Kenmays Family had no choice but to send them huge numbers of soldiers to help out with the war effort. However, he promised that the 20000 plus soldiers sent by the Kenmays Family will definitely not attack the castle with their own initiative and would only provide moral support from the rear lines.

"Cunning old bastard," Lorist commented after he saw the messenger leave. However, he understood that even though the Kenmays Family had no choice on that matter, things could change at any moment. While the head of the Kenmays Family promised that his forces would not actively participate in battle, would that really be the case? The moment the situation turns bad for the Norton Family, there's no way the Kenmays Family who has a mercantile background would pass up the opportunity to backstab the Nortons for even more profit.

And given that Count Kenmays was being held hostage by the Second Prince, he would be an idiot to not utilize the 20000 soldiers that were forcefully provided to him. It was extremely possible that he would use the 20000 plus soldiers as the main force to attack the castle. However, what the Second Prince didn't expect was that the Norton Family didn't intend to defend from within the castle. Instead, Lorist wanted to defeat the First Legion of the Second Prince in an open field battle as a grand show of might of the family's forces. The silver lining of that was that the Kenmays Family's forces no longer had to be needlessly sacrificed by besieging Firmrock Castle.

At night time the next day, two mysterious grey-robed men entered Firmrock Castle and announced themselves to be the messengers sent by Baron Felim of the Family of the Pegasus. After confiscating their weapons and giving them a thorough search to ensure that they didn't bring along anything dangerous, Ovidis brought the two to see Lorist.

When one of the men removed his hood, Lorist was so shocked that he jumped off his chair. "Baron Felim, why have you come?"

This man was indeed Baron Felim Chalvode of the Family of the Pegasus.

"Just call me Chack. Even though it's our first time meeting, I have a good feeling about our Family of the Pegasus forming an alliance with the Family of the Raging Bear. That's why I have come to express the intention of my family to befriend your family," Baron Felim said as he laughed while extending his right hand towards Lorist.

Lorist stepped forward and shook his hand firmly.

"It is my pleasure to receive the amicable intentions of the Family of the Pegasus. However, right now, the Norton Family is in quite the predicament. I'm sure that you understand that well. Why, then, did you come here and even offered your assistance?" Lorist asked.

"Well, let's get straight to the point. Our Family of the Pegasus has had enough of that buffoon of a Second Prince. The reason I've come is to propose an alliance between our two families and cause the Second Prince to sustain a huge loss. That way, he will have an even harder time suppressing my family as well so that we can take our time to recuperate and develop," Baron Felim said straightforwardly.

Upon seeing Lorist's questioning gaze, the baron laughed and said, "To be honest, I'm actually quite reluctant to come all the way to the Northlands. As I'm sure you understand, the original dominion of the Family of the Pegasus is within the Southern Province of the former empire, which has been divided into three commanderies by that buffoon ever since he came into power. During the days of the civil war, I've become the Second Prince's subordinate and battled along his side for five whole years, hoping that I can receive a noble title and be enfeoffed the former land of my family.

"However, I didn't expect that during the formation of his kingdom. the buffoon sent his messenger to me and asked my family to provide a huge sum of funds, citing the reason that the formation of the kingdom has caused them to be quite tight on money, and saying that I will only receive the title if I agree to help out. I trusted the words of the Second Prince and agreed to help him raise some money, with the condition that my family will be enfeoffed our former land when we are given a noble rank again, to which the Second Prince agreed.

"In the end, on the day when I was entitled, I found out that the land I had been given was actually in the Northlands. When I asked the Second Prince why, he said that he wanted to deploy his troops against the Melein Duchy and explained that the three commanderies of the Southern Province would be the frontlines of battle.

"I only found out later that it was the sum of money I had given him that prompted him to have suspicions about my family's wealth. He thinks that hundreds of years ago when my family fought Krissen IV in the Newmoon War, we hid a lot of our wealth within our family dominion and believes that to be why we were able to procure such a huge sum for him so easily. And so, the Second Prince sent his men throughout our old dominion and dug all over the place to look for the so-called treasures and even desecrated the tombs of our ancestors."

As he said that, the baron's eyes were reddening with rage. "I only discovered the ruined graves when I paid a visit to the old dominion a few years ago. When I confronted the Second Prince about it, he insisted that he wasn't behind it and put the blame onto the Melein Duchy's forces when they invaded. Naturally, I had to hold my temper back then since he was a king after all.

"Before I came to the Northlands, the Second Prince encouraged us nobles who had been enfeoffed land here to start fighting against the old noble families of the Northlands and promised that no matter how much land we obtained as a result, he would acknowledge our ownership over it. That's why battles broke out all over the Northlands a few years back. Even though I was only a baron, I still managed to conquer the lands of a nearby viscount and two other barons. After linking the four dominions together, I no longer sent out any more troops and wanted to focus on managing my territory.

"Two years back when the Second Prince launched his assault against the Madras Duchy, he ordered me to send some support. So, I had my cousin brother bring 1000 soldiers there only to have them completely killed off by that buffoon with not even one of them returning alive. My cousin brother who had fought with me for over ten years and was a Three Star Silver ranked knight who could've become Gold ranked like me, gone, just like that, and that buffoon didn't even attempt to address that matter and pretended that it didn't even happen!"

The longer the baron told his story, the angrier he got. "That buffoon then occupied the dominion of Duke Loggins who was defeated by your family and the moment he got a foothold here it the Northlands, he instantly dropped all attempt at diplomacy. After I paid my yearly taxes to him, he sent a tax officer to demand for extra money that was due from the lands of the two barons and viscount I've conquered! Not only that, he sent his soldiers to ransack the houses of the citizens of my dominion. Even though I argued that I've already paid the due taxes, the officer said that it was only for my own barony and not the other two baronies and viscounty.

"Thus, I went to look for that buffoon again and he said with a straight face that the situation has changed as the Northlands, which was under the rule of Duke Loggins formerly, is now under his personal rule. That's why he forbade battles between nobles from that day onwards and even said that he would take the lands of the defeated noble families back into his own hands. The hard work I put into conquering the three extra territories had all gone to waste! What would I take to feed my 10000-strong army and my citizens?!"

Clutching Lorist's hand emotionally, Baron Felim continued, "That's why I have decided to join hands with the Norton Family and give that buffoon a lesson. I have an idea that can allow you to defeat the buffoon's First Legion within a single battle."

The baron's idea was a rather simple and straightforward one: ambushing during the night. As the Family of the Pegasus had been forced to lend 5000 soldiers to aid with the war effort, Baron Felim wanted to reenact the 'Daybreak Assault' that Duke Madras had managed to pull off. He believed that if Duke Madras could pull it off, then there was no doubt that an allied effort between the Family of the Pegasus and the Family of the Raging Bear would succeed.

Lorist smiled as he shook his head and told the baron that there was no need to go out of their way for a night ambush as he was confident that he would be able to crush the Second Prince's First Legion in an open field battle and also show the might of the Family of the Raging Bear to the world at the same time.

Lorist told the baron that he did not need the latter to do anything aside from ensuring that his 5000 troops wouldn't rush into the battlefield lest they get involved in the assaults of the Norton Family forces.

A little bewildered by Lorist's confidence, Baron Felim reminded Lorist that while the Second Prince was a first rate buffoon, the First Legion he commanded still numbered up to 60000 people. With the addition of Baron Shazin's 10000 soldiers and Count Kenmays's 20000 plus family forces. as well as his own family's 5000, coupled with a ragtag combination of the various forces of the smaller noble families in the Northlands, he estimated that there would be a little over 100000 soldiers in total. He wondered if Lorist actually thought that facing off against a threat as huge as that in a single open field battle was possible.

Lorist merely laughed and told Baron Felim that Count Kenmays and Baron Shazin had the same thoughts as he did and that they would definitely not willingly march head-first into the battlefield. With only the First Legion and the combined forces of the smaller noble families actively participating, Lorist merely dismissed them as a disorganized mess.

"But, I should at least contribute in some way, shouldn't I? I won't feel satisfied just sitting down idly doing nothing," said Baron Felim unwillingly.

"How about this," Lorist said before he went into deep thought and brought out a map of the Northlands. "You ought to include as many cavalrymen as you can among the 5000 soldiers you're sending to the Second Prince. The moment the First Legion he commands is defeated, your troops can take advantage of the chaos and travel to conquer the Hendliff Suspension Bridge and the Freist Castle when they least expect it. That way, the two towns and three bastides nearby will be under the control of your family. I believe with that, you'll be able to sustain your family forces and possibly even expand it."

"What you're saying is...?" Baron Felim said hesitantly.

"That's right. I'm also prepared to drive the buffoon of a Second Prince out of the Northlands with this battle so that he doesn't cause any more turmoil over here and keep everyone on edge," Lorist said confidently.

Baron Felim continued, "Then, what about Gildusk City?"

"Of the dominion formerly belonging to the duke, I plan to hand half of it which includes Gildusk City to Baron Shazin. Essentially, you'll be splitting the dominion with him equally in half," Lorist said without hesitation.

"Alright, then it's a deal." Even though he wasn't able to gain Gildusk City for himself, with the Hendliff Suspension Bridge under his control, he would still be able to profit somewhat from collecting toll there, and Baron Felim was more than satisfied with that arrangement. Right now, he only had one worry, and that was whether the Norton Family could actually defeat the Second Prince's forces.

"Don't worry. In ten more days, you will get to see with your own eyes where all my confidence came from," Lorist said while smiling as he sent the baron away.

"Milord, did you reject his suggestion because you feared that he would be a spy sent by the Second Prince?" Tarkel asked hesitantly. As Lorist's personal attendant, he was there the whole time during the discussion between Baron Felim and Lorist.

Lorist shook his head and said, "Tarkel, you don't understand. As a noble, Baron Felim will definitely not work as the Second Prince's spy. Even if the Second Prince were to emerge victorious as a result of his efforts, if word of him being sent here as a spy spreads out, the Family of the Pegasus's hundreds of years of reputation will have evaporated. Everyone will be going on about how they sabotaged us and they will be isolated by the other noble families. To them, that fate is even worse than complete decimation."

"Then, why didn't you take him up on his suggestion? With Baron Felim's men sending crucial intelligence to us, wouldn't we be able to achieve victory far more easily?" Tarkel asked.

"Tarkel, I want to use this battle to show the world the might of our family. And fighting in an open field battle instead of turtling up in the castle will be the best way to do that. While it is indeed much easier to achieve victory by launching an assault at night, it will let others think that we won only because we used cheap tricks and nobody will truly be convinced of our might. I want to use this opportunity to kill the chicken that is the Second Prince for all the other monkeys to witness[1], that is, to make an example out of him so that the others will think twice before even considering provoking the Norton Family!"

"The Second Prince is a chicken and the others are monkeys? Milord, your words are too deep for me to comprehend," Tarkel said as he scratched his head in thought.

...

On the 14th day of the 6th month at the Somm River within the western part of the Northlands, the Kenmays Family forces that have arrived there were setting up their main camp. Near 10000 tents were erected in neat order, forming quite the magnificent army camp.

The Second Prince was currently riding a big, green-colored Zeno Horse with a proud air about him as he marched into the camp.

"I am very satisfied with how the Kenmays Family forces is operating," the Second Prince praised Count Kenmays with a haughty tone.

"As your faithful subordinate, this is the very least that I can do," Count Kenmays replied exasperatedly. He didn't think that the Second Prince would actually imprison him and force him to mobilize 20000 of his family forces for the campaign and even had him supply the resources needed for the Second Prince and the allied noble army as well as handle the logistics.

He had thought that with 30000 soldiers in his control, the Second Prince would think twice about messing with him. It was completely out of the count's expectations that the Second Prince would abandon all decorum and shamelessly hold himself hostage to force his family to comply with the demands. The moment he recalled that fact, the count felt so humiliated that he wanted to die. However, he held that urge back and could only grind his teeth in secrecy.

"Hahahaha, with a force of 100000 soldiers, is there anyone within this realm that would dare to bar my way?" the Second Prince said as he laughed out loud. He had completely ignored the presence of Baron Shazin, Count Kenmays, Baron Felim and the other nobles and treated those soldiers as his own already. In fact, the Second Prince has decided that after taking care of the Norton Family, he would once again attack the Madras Duchy on the following year. With a force of 100000, the grudge-holding Second Prince couldn't wait to pay back Duke Madras for the troubles he has caused.

"Heed my orders. We will rest for two more days before packing up and departing. Our 100000 soldiers shall march to Firmrock Castle in the grandest fashion possible to wake that dumb bear out of its stupid delusions. Perhaps, upon seeing our arrival, that dumb bear might actually come out and surrender! That way, it'll save us far more trouble," instructed the Second Prince as he waved the horsewhip in his hand.

Noon of the 17th day of the 6th month, the 100000-strong army finally arrived within the line of sight of the guards of Firmrock Castle.

The Second Prince brought the various nobles of the Northlands to a spot that was roughly 600 meters away from the castle to check it out. The Second Prince nodded and said, "This castle is indeed easy to defend and hard to besiege. No wonder the Norton Family dares to be so arrogant. However, they'd never expect that I have 100000 men under my lead. I can already imagine the leader of the Norton Family curling into a ball while crying out profusely within that castle and regretting his pathetic decision. Hehehe... Heed my orders! Begin setting up camp right away. We have all the time we need, so take it slow."

"Your Majesty truly is wise," said the few other Northland nobles beside the Second Prince in unison.

The moment the praise of the nobles stopped, a loud, resounding sound of a horn could be heard coming from Firmrock Castle.

"This... This is the tune of assault!" cried a surprised noble out loud.

The others were all dumbstruck by the scene that were unfolding before their eyes. Did the Norton Family go insane? For them to come out for an open field battle instead of hiding within the castle and fighting defensively, what in the world is going on?

Just when the nobles finished that thought, the gates of Firmrock Castle opened and countless soldiers clad in shiny, silvery armor marched outward and charged in the direction of the Second Prince's forces.

The Second Prince's expression changed immediately. Even though he had 100000 soldiers, he had only just arrived and still required some time to gain a proper foothold. If the Norton Family forces manages to rush over and catch his troops off-guard, then he truly would become a laughingstock.

"Baron Shazin, Baron Felim, Count Kenmays, order your troops to assemble immediately!" The Second Prince made his decision swiftly to have the troops of the three families intercept the first wave of the Norton Family's forces.

"Yes, milord." Only Baron Felim responded to the Second Prince's order before he headed out immediately.

Knight Hennard and Count Kenmays on the other hand merely looked at each other.

"Your Majesty, without me personally leading them, my forces will definitely not heed any orders," Knight Hennard said.

"It's the same for me too," Count Kenmays said.

Both of them understood that if the Second Prince continued to hold them hostage by his side, even though their forces would follow the order to go into battle, who knows what they would do once they were on the battlefield? If they did not act upon their orders, the Second Prince would be ultimately responsible for what would transpire.

"Fine, both of you can go lead your troops," said the Second Prince. He figured that since those two were already so deeply involved, he didn't have to worry about them secretly working with the Norton Family. It was also true that there was no guarantee that their troops would carry out their orders perfectly without them personally being in the lead. However, the Second Prince was still worried that the two nobles would only help out superficially and won't really put their best efforts into it, so he decided to send someone to follow and supervise them.

"Wait a second. The two of you shall bring two of my guards with you. Baron Shazin, you will protect the left flank of my army along with Baron Felim. Count Kenmays, your family forces shall defend my right flank. After that, I will transmit additional orders by blowing the horn, understood?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," Knight Hennard and Count Kenmays said before they left hurriedly with two of the Second Prince's guards.

"Heed my orders! The First Legion shall march forward and assemble into the assault formation. Have the longbowmen make firing preparations. As for the troops of the other nobles, stay behind the ranks of the First Legion to await further orders and be prepared to intercept the enemy." No matter what others said, the Second Prince did in fact emerge from battle during the vicious civil war. Even though he hasn't fought that many battles, his orders reflected his experience and mastery over troops.

The First Legion of the Iblia Kingdom were well-trained as they responded to the orders rather quickly. After receiving the Second Prince's orders, the sword and shield infantry stepped forward followed by the pikemen behind them while the longbowmen completed their preparations. The two cavalry divisions of the legion surrounded both flanks of the army and were prepared to intercept the enemy soldiers that were charging straight into them.

Loud drumming sounds rang out as the forces of the Norton Family began assembling into their formations 400 meters away from the Second Prince's forces. They took on a similar formation with their infantry being in the middle, flanked by two cavalry troops on either side. The troops assembled into one square formation after another lined up next to each other within the line of sight of the 100000 enemy troops.

The battle was ready to break out at any moment...

1. The author used a Chinese idiom here that literally states 'killing the chicken to frighten the monkeys'. It essentially means to make an example out of someone as a warning for the others.

Ballista Storm

Hi guys, this is your first regular chapter of the week and I really have to apologize for letting the cliff hang for so long. Sorry for the note I have included in the main chapter body as the release note only takes 1500 characters. It's important, so I would appreciate it if you readers took your time to read it.

As much as I don't want this to pass of as an excuse, I suppose I owe you guys an explanation, and here it is: for the past week, my sibling has contracted dengue fever (which is not too uncommon in where I live) and has been hospitalized. That's why for the early part of the week, I was a little caught up with hospital visits, hence the delays. He's just discharged yesterday afternoon and is doing fine now, and I do intend to at least try to release 4-5 chapters this week, maybe a double chapter tomorrow if I can really find the time.

I've also read some of your comments in the previous chapter, and the following part is important.

Some of you have expressed the desire for chapters with cliffhangers to be stockpiled and released in one go. I understand that many of you also prefer to be able to read the chapters ASAP. So, here's a poll for TRL readers to decide on the general release direction I will take in the future. I haven't ironed out the details for what I would do for witholding cliffhanger chapter releases, but generally if the cliffhanger chapters are less than 3, I will release them all at once. And if the continuous cliffhanger chapters span more than that, I might release them as two halves. Please also feel free to comment and discuss other chapter release methods that you feel is better if you neither like the release ASAP option or the stockpile release option.

Without further ado, here's the poll:

http://www.strawpoll.me/13140028

P.S. the recent chapters were a little longer than the usual 6-page chapters I do, so I hope you forgive me for a slightly lower weekly chapter count. I usually try to release 6 chapters under normal circumstances, but if they get a little on the long side, the number could drop to around 4-5 per week (including bonus chaps). Number of regular chapters per week will remain the same regardless of chapter length, and same applies to bonus chapter donations. The amount I take per bonus chapter will stay the same regardless of chapter length, that's the least I can do as a translator who has received the support and trust of you, my awesome readers. That's all.

400 meters away from the Second Prince's army, the Norton Family arranged themselves in a weird manner with three square formations of silver-armored infantry soldiers lined up next to each other, forming a straight line of sorts, with cavalry troops flanking both sides of each of those three square formations.

Even though the Second Prince had experienced many battles, he was also confused by the odd formation. While having cavalrymen flanking both sides of the infantry troops would allow quite a bit of flexibility in that they would be able to both attack and defend, lining up three square formations in a row decreased the overall defensiveness. Additionally, the space between each of the three square formations were a little too wide and if they were closer together, they could form a larger rectangular formation instead.

Eventually, nine square formations were formed neatly with each one having roughly one regiment of troops at a total troop count of roughly 20000. It seems like the Norton Family had indeed sustained huge casualties from fighting the magical beast wave. But despite having only 20000 troops, they chose to fight an open field battle... What's going on here? Are they so desperate that they lost all their wits? Or are they going to engage in a suicidal battle to make sure we suffer even more to retaliate against me no matter the cost, the Second Prince wondered.

And so, the Second Prince decided not to mobilize his troops and have his First Legion assume a defensive formation. If the Norton Family troops don't show any movement in the coming moments, the Second Prince would order Count Kenmays or Baron Shazin to send out part of their forces to test the waters. Since the Norton Family only have that many soldiers in contrast to the Second Prince's own 100000, which was easily five times as much as the former's, the Second Prince figured that the Norton Family wouldn't be able to fight their way out of this predicament no matter what.

At that moment, the Second Prince was already considering whether to move the soldiers of the allied noble army to the front of his First Legion troops so that he would be able to sustain far less losses.

"Your Majesty, the Norton Family does seem rather wealthy. Look, all of their soldiers are wearing a shiny, new metal armors that cover their whole body for optimal defense. Tsk tsk tsk..." The one who said that was a high officer in the court of the Iblia Kingdom, who was in actuality the personal guard of the Second Prince, Blademaster Louinse. Had it not been for his presence, Baron Shazin Hennard, who was a Gold ranked knight, wouldn't have stayed by the Second Prince's side so obediently for such a long time.

The Second Prince turned his attention back to the forces of the Norton Family and instantly felt a mix of hate and jealousy. Even a normal soldier of the Norton Family was equipped with defensive armor more complete than that of his own knights, causing them to look far more impressive in comparison. All of them looked like shiny, gleaming tin men.

"Hmph! Even if they have money, they have nowhere else better to spend it apart from the defense of their own soldiers. After all, they have to rely on these soldiers to fend off the assaults of those magical beasts. If they don't arm them enough, how would the soldiers be willing to stand off against those ferocious beasts? However, it won't matter. These shiny armor will eventually be mine anyway and I will form a personal guard that will be given the armor we take for ourselves today. Just follow me closely by my side," the Second Prince said before he gripped his horsewhip and waved it in the air harshly, as if the armor of the Norton Family would belong to him in mere moments.

"Your Majesty, look, what is that? A war chariot?" Blademaster Louinse said urgently as he called out to his liege. The battlefield had been introduced to yet another variable.

The Second Prince snapped out of his daydream and raised his head only to see one chariot after another fill up the ranks of the Norton Family. Countless black chariots traveled between the space of the square formations and took their place at the very front to form a defensive line. It was as if they didn't even consider complementing the square formations and decided on the spot to line up in a straight line. In fact, the row of chariots even blocked the cavalrymen behind.

These chariots looked like wide-open wooden boxes with one fully-armored coachman for each controlling the horses and two fully-armored pikemen equipped with kite shields and two other soldiers at the back. Each chariot was manned by 5 soldiers in total.

"Haha, so this is the vanguard of the Norton Family?" the Second Prince said before he laughed out loud. "Does he really think his chariots stand a chance against my 100000-strong army? Is the dumb bear treating us like magical beasts? They must be brain dead... Hahaha... This is far too idiotic. Have they been isolated from the world of men for far too long?"

"Your Majesty, what do you mean?" Blademaster Louinse asked as he didn't understand why the Second Prince was ridiculing the Norton Family troops.

"My dear Louinse, as a Blademaster who concentrates all your attention on the path of the blade, it's understandable that you're not well-versed in the art of war. It is obvious that the Norton Family intends to take advantage of the wide-open battlefield by surprising us with the war chariots. They intend to use the chariots which have good defense and mobility to break through our defense line to massacre away as well as allow their troops at the rear to follow up with the assault to gain victory in one fell-swoop," explained the Second Prince.

"So what's the problem then?" the Blademaster said, still confused.

The Second Prince felt a little tired and annoyed from having to explain the basics of military strategy to the fool. "My dear Louinse, you don't understand... Hundreds of years ago, humankind has already abandoned usage of war chariots on the battlefield because of its impracticality. No matter how good the defense or mobility, as long as the chariots enter the firing range of longbow troops, the horses would definitely be the first to be shot at.

"As long as the horses are killed, the chariots will no longer be able to advance would even become obstacles to the troops that are charging up from the rear. And usually, if only a single chariot is stopped, a chain reaction would occur causing the other chariots will crash into one another as a result. To prevent that from happening, the distance between each chariot must be increased. However, that in itself will decrease the impact of the chariots' charge.

"Also, the use of chariots are also really situational with terrain being the most important aspect. A simple ditch of 1.5 meters deep can easily stop the advance of those chariots. The most crucial point here is that we have a large number of cavalrymen. As long as the cavalrymen circle around to the back of those chariots, the soldiers riding the chariots will be defenseless against our cavalrymen's attacks. The reason I was ridiculing them was because the Norton Family treated us as magical beasts. Using chariots against magical beasts is indeed a valid strategy because those beasts don't have ranged attackers and don't know how to circumvent the approaching chariots to attack them from the back. However, it's downright delusional to think that this tactic will work against us."

"I see, I didn't know that chariots had so many downsides. I even thought that riding on a chariot seemed pretty imposing. Your Majesty, after we defeat them, let me have one of those chariots to play around with. Hmm? Your Majesty, look over there. Are those two huge things chariots too?" Blademaster Louinse said curiously after seeing two huge 'chariots' appear at the ranks of the Norton Family's forces that were each pulled by tens of horses. It advanced slowly between the three infantry square formations before stopping entirely.

...

It was entirely Lorist's fault. As he had felt that victory was already at bay, he didn't bother to give the family knights specific instructions. The strategy he had initially chosen to employ was to fire a few waves of ballista bolts to crumble the morale of the enemy before letting the other units charge into the disarrayed enemy ranks.

It wasn't that Lorist underestimated the Second Prince's 100000-strong allied noble army, but he truly had access to far too many ungodly powerful ballistas -- five whole brigades of them. Each brigade had 500 carroballistas with a grand total of 2500 of them within the division, each with a firing range of 320 meters. The only thing that piqued Lorist's curiosity was how many volleys of ballista fire the Second Prince's First Legion could endure.

That's why Lorist made a careless mistake. What he truly underestimated was the battlelust of his subordinates. The moment the tune of assault was blown, Potterfang's 3 heavy-armored brigades, Fiercetiger Loze's 3 pike cavalry brigades, Terman's knight division, Yuriy's light cavalry scout brigade and Josks's mounted archer brigade all rushed out of Firmrock Castle, leaving the carroballista division that was making preparations to be the main attacking force at the rear. Lorist, who didn't expect that to happen, was flipping mad when he saw that unfold before his eyes.

At least those fellows didn't turn stupid from the battlelust and know how to get in formation first before rushing into the enemy lines, thought Lorist before he hurriedly ordered Malek to direct the carroballista division to get into formation ahead of the other soldiers.

On the other hand, Els himself was up to some other mischief and insisted that the supersized carroballistas Grandmaster Fellin built to be deployed as well. He ordered his guards to painstakingly bring the gigantic carroballistas out from the castle gates past the drawbridge out to the battlefield.

"Locke, I'm not being stubborn. i just want to see how far these super ballistas can fire. According to Grandmaster Fellin, they can shoot as far as 500 meters. Think about it, by launching only two bolts to the enemy's command center, we will be able to shake this battle up quite a bit. Maybe, we might even wrap this battle up before it even beings, just like that 'shoot through the brain'[1] tactic you mentioned, with which the enemy forces will crumble in confusion and mayhem from the loss of their leader," Els said.

Fine, I'll let him do as he likes since we're gonna win anyway, thought Lorist, too lazy to continue arguing with Els.

"No matter what, just make sure you clean up the mess after playing around with it," Lorist said as he yawned. Incidentally, he had 'worked' himself quite tirelessly with Telesti the night before and didn't get enough sleep.

"Alright, Malek, if the preparations of the carroballista division is ready, you may begin. The sooner we finish, the sooner we'll be able to rest. After this, we still have to go back to developing Blackmud Marsh," Lorist said to Malek, who was mounted and riding forward beside the super carroballista.

"Yes, milord," Malek said as he made a knight salute and headed to the front.

Having nothing better to do, Lorist sat down on the super carroballista and looked at Els give his commands. "It's that spot over there in the middle with the huge rectangular flag with the royal crest on it. That represents the Second Prince. He must be beneath that flag, so just aim there..."

"But sir, I really can't see it clearly enough," complained the archer who was operating the super ballista. It couldn't be helped as average humans couldn't see a spot 500 meters away with perfect clarity. Perhaps, only eagles were capable of that.

"Sheesh, what a useless idiot you are... How did you become an archer with that eyesight of yours? Have someone else who has better eyesight take your place," Els reprimanded with dissatisfaction.

After finally settling on the right person to make the shot, Els jumped down the super ballista and headed for the other one. Before he left, he had a few guards stay to give instructions in his stead. "When I finish the preparations over there and give the order to fire, you shall follow suit. Understood?"

The horn resounded once more and the carroballistas at the front row advanced tens of meters before stopping once more, followed by the second and third rows. After that, all three rows of carroballista units adjusted their aims.

Subsequently, the drums began to pound. For as long as the drum beat went on, the ballistas must continue firing without stopping unless the ballistas malfunctioned for some reason.

The two shield-bearers at the front of each 'chariot' squatted down, revealing the loaded steel ballistas behind them, before one loud twang another rang out across the battlefield in a constant, repetitive rhythm.

Countless bolts whooshed through the distance that separated the two armies, heading straight for the First Legion's formation, causing one cry of agony after another to be heard. The frontmost row of soldiers collapsed within an instant with black, iron ballista bolts piercing through their bodies. Some ballista bolts even skewered a few soldiers in one shot.

The First Legion also responded rather swiftly. The blow of a horn could be heard as the two cavalry brigades on each flank rushed forward with the obvious intent of taking out the ballista troops as they were busy reloading to spare their own comrades from the fate of being impaled once again by the powerful ballista bolts.

Lorist who was seated on one of the super ballistas clicked his tongue and thought that the Second Prince did indeed have some military experience after all. However, what the Second Prince didn't expect was how advanced the steel ballistas of the Norton Family were compared to normal ones. It only took less than 40 seconds for the next bolt to be loaded, and that time even included the time an archer required to take aim.

The pulley-like mechanism Lorist included when he designed those ballistas allowed the next bolt to be easily loaded by a simple tug of a lever at the side of the ballista to cock the string followed by an assistant placing the next bolt into the slot, similar to the mechanism used in older machine guns in Lorist's world.

Another round of twanging rang out as the second volley was launched straight into the cavalry brigades that were charging straight for the carroballistas, completely decimating their ranks.

Apart from a few hardy war horses that neighed out loud from the searing pain, the whole battlefield was almost entirely quiet. Even the cavalrymen who were following the first wave behind stopped advancing altogether. There was still a 300 meter distance to cover, and the time that they required to reach the enemy ranks would be well enough for another four to five volleys of ballista bolts. To them, this wasn't a battle. It was a massacre.

Another honk of the horn rang out, prompting the longbowmen of the First Legion to step forward and begin firing in rage right next to their fallen comrades.

Perhaps due to the lackluster quality of the longbows of the First Legion, thousands of arrows landed straight on the ground with only a couple managing to reach the ranks of the carroballistas. However, with the shields protecting the soldiers on the carroballistas and the armor the horses were equipped with, apart from one unlucky horse that got struck in its rear, there were no other results to show for the volley of arrows fired by the First Legion.

Due to their short firing range, the longbowmen of the Second Prince's army marched forward to make up for the deficit, only to be hit squarely once again when the third volley of ballista fire began, easily crippling half of the ranks of the longbowmen. The lucky ones that managed to avoid being perforated by the iron bolts stared at the fallen corpses that littered the battlefield before letting out cries of panic as they abandoned their bows and fled. They had lost all hope.

Twang, twang! This time around, Els finally ordered the two super ballistas to fire. Unsurprisingly, the two archers that fired the super ballistas were stunned from the recoil of the shot.

However, something out of Lorist's expectations occurred. After the two super ballistas fired, the flag representing the Iblia Royal Family collapsed, causing the rear of the First Legion to break into mass confusion.

Baron Shazin, also known as Knight Hennard, and Baron Felim's troops that were stationed at the left flank of the First Legion, also began to leave the battlefield. In a mere couple of moments, all that could be seen in their direction was the dust that had been kicked adrift from the movement of man and horse. As for the Kenmays Family forces that were positioned at the right flank of the First Legion, they retreated two hundred meters before beginning to set up their camp, taking up a neutral stance.

The twanging resumed as the fourth volley of ballista fire began. After that, three short honks of the horn could be heard accompanied by a continuous drum beat. That was a signal for the carroballistas to advance 30 meters forward before resuming fire.

By the time the fifth and sixth volleys were released, the remnant enemy troops that managed to survive already turned tail to escape.

The drumming finally stopped before a loud, sharp honk was heard, signalling for the troops to pursue the fleeing enemy soldiers.

"Norton!" A loud cheer rang out as the pike cavalrymen, light cavalry scouts, mounted archers and knights charged towards the enemy.

Els jumped down from the other super carroballista and got onto his mount before shouting out, "All mounted guards, charge forth! Let's go catch ourselves some prisoners!"

"Gosh, what's up with you guys? Are you really that excited for battle? Also, shouldn't your war cry be something simpler like 'kill'? Why are you so specific about catching prisoners?" Lorist said with a hopeless expression before turning around only to see Reidy trying hard to hold back his laughter.

Reidy had followed Lorist along when he was 16 and 4 years had already past. As Lorist's eldest disciple, he had just broken through to the Silver rank ten or so days ago and was just recently knighted by Lorist. He was currently the youngest knight of the Norton Family.

"What are you laughing about?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, did you forget that you said that the Norton Family could only use prisoners and criminals as unpaid laborers?" Reidy reminded.

Good Sol! Lorist suddenly realized the real reason his knights were so eager to do battle and why they were so happy when they heard war was about to break out. In actuality, they had wanted to catch prisoners to take their place in the development of Blackmud Marsh. No wonder back then Potterfang said that the knights of the family would do their best to capture more prisoners, not to mention Els's weird war cry.

Lorist laughed out loud and grumbled, "What do I do with you guys, sheesh..."

1. I did some googling and I believe the author was referring to J.F.C. Fuller's work, 'Military History of the Western World'. More details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_1919#The_Plan

The Unfortunate Blademaster

Hi guys, here's the second regular chapter of the week. The coming chapters will be a little more cliffhangery, so I'll try to release two at once.

Other than that, I just reviewed the poll results and they were rather close, with a difference of less than 50 votes out of ~700 at the time of writing. After reading the comments section of yesterday's release, I have decided to make a new poll with an added option suggested by a fellow reader, rleon14, that is, to add a cliffhanger tag with a progress bar that indicates that the concurrent chapters ought to be read in one go. In essence, chapters will not be withheld for those who want to read it right away and don't mind cliffhangers. But, there will be a [Cliffhanger 1/2] in the chapter title as a warning for those who prefer to hold back until all related chapters are out. I personally think that this is a rather good compromise and I would love to see your opinions on it. I will keep this poll up for a couple of days to ensure as many readers vote as possible.

So, please vote for your preferred chapter release method here:

http://www.strawpoll.me/13146717

On the 17th day of the 3rd month in Year 1771 of the Grindian Calendar, the battle that transpired at the Northlands would henceforth be known as 'The Raging Bear's Massacre'. The allied noble army led by Krissen Iblia (the Second Prince), King of the Iblia Kingdom, to admonish the Norton Family who refused to submit to him, engaged in a short-lasted conflict outside Firmrock Castle. Of the 100000-strong army, half of them left the battlefield at the early stages of the battle while the rest were completely wiped out. King Krissen Iblia only managed to flee the Northlands along with tens of his personal attendants.

Of the soldiers that remained on the battlefield to fight the Norton Family forces, there were up to 51000 men of the First Legion of the Iblia Kingdom. The Norton Family on the other hand had up to 45000 soldiers on their side. However, they made use of their arsenal of an estimated 3000 ballistas to launch ranged attacks. By the time the sixth volley was fired, the morale of the First Legion's troops had completely crumbled, with them being ordered to retreat after sustaining more than 10000 casualties. Subsequently, the Norton Family launched their pursuit and ended the battle in a landslide victory.

The various historians and military scholars of the Grindia Continent only had these words to say about that battle: unexpected victory. The Norton Family had relied mainly on their advantage with ranged weaponry to launch an attack against an enemy that was not well-prepared. The tight defensive formation the First Legion soldiers were in only boosted the effectiveness of the ballistas. Additionally, the First Legion troops were also unable to react well because they were almost constantly suppressed by ranged fire, causing them to eventually fall into ruin. Apart from the disparity in technology, the military tactics used by both sides were roughly on par and there was nothing else about that battle that was too eye-catching.

...

Count Kenmays rode over on horseback with two of his attendants from the distance and greeted Lorist. "Brother, that attack of yours was amazing! I can finally breath a sigh of relief now that the Second Prince is defeated. He actually imprisoned me for more than a month and even threatened my family! Gosh, you can't believe how frustrated I was."

As Count Kenmays's force of 20000 didn't leave the battlefield and merely set up camp nearby to take up a neutral position, Mons Malek commanded two carroballista brigades to watch the camp of the Kenmays Family cautiously and let the other three brigades partake in the pursuit of the enemy forces.

Lorist greeted the count with a smile and even gave him a hug after he got off his horse. "Well, I'm just relieved that no harm has been done to you. Now, you understand why I refused the Second Prince's invitation, right? I already knew long ago that he didn't hold any good intentions. If I had gone there, who knows if I will be able to make it back to my own dominion..."

Count Kenmays spat on the ground angrily and said, "Who would expect that a king with exalted status would actually resort to underhanded methods like that? He's nothing if not an insidious thug. What an embarrassment to us nobles. I will definitely not trust him in the future."

Lorist laughed and said, "Don't worry, you won't have to see him in the Northlands ever again. Also, bring a squad of troops with me to Gildusk City for some matters."

"Umm..." Count Kenmays was stunned. After a while, he recovered and stammered, "Lo-locke... You... Are you really going to kill him off? No-no matter what, he's still our king... Ki-killing a king is definitely not something you want associated with your family..."

Lorist shook his head and said, "I am not that irrational. I only want to chase him out of the Northlands. I will capture him before sending him off officially. However, if he does die on the battlefield for some reason, then that would save me a lot of trouble. The reason I want to go to Gildusk City is to bear witness for Baron Shazin and Baron Felim's signing of the agreement to split the city up so that they won't have any disagreements about territory in the future."

Count Kenmays asked curiously, "What's going on between those two?"

"I have divided the dominion of Duke Loggins into two halves for those two. They left the battlefield so quickly just now because they're afraid that they would get the short end of the stick if they're late to arrive," Lorist explained casually.

Upon hearing that, Count Kenmays's mercantile instinct to take advantage of every opportunity he could find tingled. He objected and said, "It's a little too much for only them to take the dominion, right? As your friend, I demand to be treated as an equal. You must also care for my family too, you know..."

Lorist faked a laugh and said, "My friend, your family has already taken over the whole of the eastern part of the Northlands, yet you want to stretch your influence over here? Listen to yourself, sheesh..."

"This..." Count Kenmays was speechless as that was indeed a fact. There wasn't really any more incentive for his family's dominion to expand. At most, they could take over two other dominions further to the east and connect the Kenmays Family dominion to that of Baron Felim. However, those two dominions were quite impoverished and would require lots of funds to develop. Count Kenmays felt that it would be better to leave them to be buffer zones between the Kenmays's and Felim's dominions.

"How about this, you ought to split some of the land you conquered in the eastern Northlands among the nobles who are living off your family and send those traditional nobles of the Northlands to me. I will take charge of assigning new dominions to them. As for the new nobles that have only come recently, we will send them out of the border. That way, the whole of the eastern Northlands will belong to the Kenmays Family. How does that sound?" Lorist suggested.

"I have to go back and discuss this with my father first. If he agrees with your proposition, then we will do it your way," Count Kenmays replied after giving it some thought.

At that moment, four horses could be seen approaching from the distance. It was Els and his two guards.

"Lock--, milord, you should see the results of firing the super carroballistas..." Since Count Kenmays was there, Els referred to Lorist formally instead of using his nickname.

Els headed to the fourth horse and heaved the corpse on it onto the floor. That corpse had a huge hole bore through the torso. It was obvious that it had been caused by the bolt fired by the super ballista.

Who's that old guy? Well, at any rate, it definitely isn't the Second Prince. He's not that chubby-looking. From the look of this corpse, the Second Prince should be at least ten years younger. This fellow looks to be around 60...

As the cheerful Els inspected the corpse, Count Kenmays's face turned completely pale once he recognized it. "This... this is Blademaster Louinse. H-how was it possible for you to have killed him?"

"Why isn't it possible?" Els said seriously. "This old guy was such a big idiot that he actually attempted to stop the bolt of the super ballista with a single sword! Even though he managed to divert the first bolt, he spat out blood on the spot and the second bolt that headed his way pierced him through completely and even knocked down the battle standard of the Second Prince, causing him to fall into a stupor. His guards feared that we would fire another one of those bolts and quickly brought the Second Prince with them to escape. That's how the whole legion's morale collapsed immediately.

"Look, milord. Wasn't my decision to use these two super ballistas worthwhile? You heard that guy say it too, right? This old guy is a Blademaster! A freaking Blademaster! Haha, with but a shot of our super ballista, the Second Prince lost a Blademaster. Hahahaha, I'm just so pumped up right now! To tell you the truth, I wasn't willing to believe the prisoners who said that this old man was a Blademaster at first! Haha, our super ballista is truly unparalleled!"

"It's just a fluke!" Lorist cursed to snap Els out of his giddy laughter. Lorist himself probably wouldn't have believed that they managed to kill a Blademaster with the two super ballistas before the battle even began, but the proof was right in front of him. It's no wonder Els was in such high spirits given that the alleged Blademaster's corpse was on the ground like that.

This result was completely out of anyone's expectations. The unfortunate Blademaster Louinse had actually sealed his own fate. The first bolt fired by the super ballista was actually slightly off course and it would have flown over the Second Prince and the rest and missed them entirely without causing any casualties. However, Blademaster Louinse, perhaps feeling that letting a ballista bolt fly past him like that was humiliating, decided to leap and parry the ballista bolt with his sword.

It's just that even the Blademaster himself underestimated the velocity at which the bolt was flying at. While he did manage to divert the bolt mid-air, as he wasn't able to pass the momentum to the ground in the air. All the force contained within the bolt was transferred through his sword into his body, badly injuring his internal organs and causing him to vomit blood. The truly unfortunate part was that the Blademaster had landed right in the trajectory of the second bolt.

Had the Blademaster stood still and not react, those two bolts fired by the super ballistas wouldn't have harmed anyone and would at most only cause some distress among the troops. But fortune is fickle by nature. Perhaps, it was the old Blademaster's fate to have died on that day. Needless to say, everyone else on the battlefield was dumbstruck as a mighty Blademaster had died that easily. If two more bolts like those before came again, who would be able to deflect them? Without much consideration, the Second Prince's guards hurriedly evacuated with their master, leaving the entire legion of troops to fend for themselves.

"Hey, what are you doing?! You can't get up there! Come down this instant!" Els shouted as he pointed to the super carroballista.

Lorist turned his head only to see that Count Kenmays had climbed his way up the super carroballista. At that moment, he was caressing the steel ballista as he would a stunning beauty, mumbling, "What a godly weapon..."

"Pull him down right now!" Els shouted angrily.

Count Kenmays was brought down from the carroballista by two guards in the end.

"What are you doing?" Lorist asked with a solemn look.

"Brother... Oh Brother Locke... You must sell me one of these godly weapons no matter what..." Count Kenmays said frantically as he clutched Lorist's hands.

"No way," Lorist said, shaking his head.

"Come on," pleaded the count once again with a wanting look.

"Nope, I'm serious," Lorist replied.

"Sigh..." Count Kenmays also understood that Lorist wouldn't sell him such a powerful weapon. But he knew that he had to try no matter what.

"Why are you sighing like that? These two super ballistas are made just for use against magical beasts. It's not like your family dominion is near the wildlands anyway, what would you do with one of these?" Lorist asked curiously.

"To defeat Blademasters of course!" Count Kenmays answered, much to Lorist's surprise.

"Do you know how many Blademasters are there in the Iblia Kingdom?" Count Kenmays asked.

"I have no idea," Lorist said. "I only know that the Andinaq Kingdom has two working for the Third Prince. I also heard that Duke Melein himself is a Blademaster. As for the Iblia Kingdom, I only know of two who work for the Second Prince, that's about it."

Count Kenmays stretched his palm out and said, "The Iblia Kingdom has a total of five Blademasters."

After saying that, he kicked the corpse of the old guy and said, "However, there's only four remaining. The Second Prince himself has two by his side, one of whom was the Second Prince's tutor when he was younger, Zarinan. However, that old fellow had always wanted to become a Sword Saint and often secludes himself to train and research the path of the sword. Before the new year, he visited the Northlands, and that was the only time I've seen him. He then left for Windbury City at the end of the 3rd month to escort the queen there. The other Blademaster is this old guy here, Louinse. He can be considered Zarinan's junior apprentice brother. Since Zarinan is busy training to become a Sword Saint, Louinse is the one who guards the Second Prince."

Count Kenmays kicked the corpse of the old man a few more times and said, "This old guy truly is the worst. The Second Prince relies on him to toy with the Gold ranked knights of the other nobles and he happily complies and doesn't stop until his opponent is completely humiliated. Not only that, he's a greedy prick who is also extremely lustful. That time, he forcefully took poor Viscountess Justine from me and even forced me to give him a gold Forde note worth 10000 gold coins! Oh, I better check if he still has it on his person..."

Count Kenmays searched the corpse so thoroughly that his hands were covered in blood, but he still couldn't locate the note.

Lorist turned to look at Els only to see the latter smirking. He instantly understood that Els had long searched the corpse of the Blademaster and took all his belongings.

As his attendant wiped the blood off his hands, the count said, "Apart from the aforementioned two Blademasters, the others usually stay with the Second Prince's father-in-law, Duke Fisablen. That's also one of the main factors for the Second Prince's fear of the duke. Firstly, Duke Fisablen himself is a Blademaster, as well as his trusted subordinate and family knight, Viscount Kristoph. The last Blademaster is a woman called Xanthi, but I don't know her family name. She's also Princess Sylvia's adoptive mother and is also rumored to be Duke Fisablen's lover. However, she had a miscarriage for some reason after her pregnancy and that was just around the time Princess Sylvia's parents passed away, causing her to decide to raise the princess as she would her own child.

"Currently, the suspension bridge built by my family connects to Duke Fisablen's sphere of influence, the Wild Husbandry Province. So, you can understand how much pressure the duke's Frontier Legion and his three Blademasters put on me. I can't even sleep well at night because of that. But, if I have that killer weapon of yours, I would feel much better..." Count Kenmays explained as he begged.

Lorist smiled and shook his head before he said, "My answer is still the same, I cannot afford to let this weapon out of my hands. But you shouldn't need to worry. Now that the Second Prince is out of the picture, the affairs of the Northlands will only be dictated by us four families. As long as we form an alliance, nobody will dare to cross us. We will definitely help each other as one no matter which one of us gets into trouble. Even if Duke Fisablen plots against you, he will have to take us three other families into consideration. If you're still worried, you should just destroy that metal suspension bridge of yours. I believe the Blademasters wouldn't bother to jump across a ravine just to cause trouble for your family."

"Hmph, in your dreams." Count Kenmays knew that Lorist was only joking as there was no way that they would destroy a bridge they had spent so much to build. Additionally, the toll collected from the bridge was also a good source of income.

...

Lorist remained at Firmrock Castle for another day and ordered Potterfang to have his three heavy-armored infantry brigades set up a prisoner camp in front of the castle to process the prisoners before transporting them to work at Blackmud Marsh. He also made sure Els dealt with bringing the two super carroballistas back to Firmrock Castle. After Count Kenmays had his forces head back to his family dominion, Lorist brought him along with a few other guards to Gildusk City.

After three days of travel, Lorist received word that the Second Prince was still on the loose and nobody had any idea where he had gone. Additionally, Baron Felim assaulted Freist Castle and Hendliff Suspension Bridge according to his agreement with Lorist and was currently attacking the two other towns and three bastides near that area. He reported good progress and it was only a matter of time before he conquers those places.

The dominion formerly belonging to Duke Loggins consisted of Gildusk City, Hendliff Suspension Bridge and Freist Castle, as well as three bastides and seven towns. Knight Hennard occupied Cherry Blossom Ridge, which was one of the bastides, and Evanson Town. Only two bastides and six towns remained for the taking.

As for the three bastides Baron Felim conquered, apart from one which used to be part of the duke's dominion, the other two belonged to some nearby landed nobles. As the three bastides were not too far apart from each other, Lorist assigned them under Baron felim's control. Since the landed nobles joined the Second Prince's war effort, Lorist didn't bother to show them any mercy.

On the other hand, Knight Hennard wanted to occupy another bastide and four other towns within the duke's dominion, as well as Gildusk City, the capital of the dominion. The messenger that came before noon reported that Baron Shazin Hennard's progress was much faster than that of Baron Felim. So far, apart from Gildusk City, he had already taken control of the four towns and bastide.

Along the way, the group witnessed batches of prisoners being escorted to Firmrock Castle, causing Lorist to marvel at the potential of men. In but a few short days, the remnant soldiers of the allied noble army had actually managed to flee that far before they were captured.

That night, Lorist had a few cups of wine with Count Kenmays at the campsite and chatted for quite a while. Just as he was about to take a rest, a messenger came riding into the camp.

The moment he entered the tent, he knelt down and said, "Lord Norton, please save our two leaders!"

What's going on?

After hearing the messenger's report, Lorist gasped in shock and said, "What? Did you say that Gold ranked Knight Tabik was captured and imprisoned in the duke's manor by Princess Sylvia? Knight Hennard was captured as well from attempting to save him?"

"That's right, Baron Felim has already surrounded the manor with his troops and requested the princess to release the two of them, but the she refused and threatened that she would kill those two should Baron Felim's troops dare to enter the manor. Right now, they're in a stalemate and Baron Felim urgently requested for you to hurry to Gildusk City to solve the problem and save our two leaders," said the messenger as he sobbed.