Four Days before Siege: Garland Troupe Explains the Plan

"After dealing with Bismarck's pests three times in the battlefield, I am proud to say that our forces had read an apparent pattern in his strategy, or lack thereof."

Times then scooted a cylindrical plastic container attached to his legs. Inside, Times took a scroll, breathed, cast his mana to unfold the paper, and let it hover before him. He then gently flapped his wings forward to move the piece towards me. It flowed towards me in midair until it stopped a few inches before me. There, I saw a map with red lines and circles written around it.

Times continued, "There is no doubt in my mind that the kapres have the best men when it comes to terrestrial battles, but they are outmatched when it comes to aerial strikes. But the biggest flaw in Bismarck's strategy is his rampant insistence on rushing towards his enemy head-on without much of a plan or grace. When he locks eyes with his price, he will capture it with the unstoppable force of innumerable soldiers. His strategy is simple: go in, explode, and maybe then he would win. There is no doubt in my mind that he would do the same thing this time, but he had no more tricks in sleeves. He does, however, have an insurmountable amount of men and resources. And Bismarck would capitalize on that. He would walk towards us with an army bigger than anything he had ever sent so far in hopes to overwhelm our forces. We have seen it for ourselves; they have swords, arrows, small cannons, big cannons, machines, shields, and armors. True, their forces are quite overwhelming, but there's only one route our enemy would trek if they wish to travel to the Keep on-foot."

Times then waved his wing, and a red curving line dazzled on the map he gave me.

"Auld Mountain Pass is a ravine that connects the Marshes and the Keep in-land. And it's the only safe route for anyone to use if they wish to walk from the foot of the mountains towards our walls. The only other ways they could use to infiltrate us is through climbing or flying, but both methods have been proven futile so far. They will definitely climb into the ravine, and we will annihilate his forces there. I guarantee that no soldiers would live to see our gates. If they do, they will be met with an onslaught of arrows."

"Hmm…" I nodded. "The most obvious course of action here is to just throw boulders at them and have it trample their soldiers; maybe shower them with arrows, too, from within our walls once they climbed far enough. But we need to, at least, give Bismarck the benefit of the doubt; since you had already read the pattern of his attacks after three battles, I'm sure he had also gained mastery of the Keep's defensive strategies. He would definitely anticipate us hurling rocks and sticks at him."

"Agreed, my Lord Praeceptor," Times' voice is much more enthusiastic now, almost as if there's a certain child-like excitement that had been momentarily awakened from his heart. "Thus, I propose a three-step assault while our enemy travels."

"Elaborate."

"Permission to let the author of this strategy, General Garland Troupe, to present the plan, my Lord."

"Granted."

Times then marched a few steps backward. Once he's in line with his fellow generals, he stomped twice, and the man I presumed to be General Troupe stepped forward. Man, it had only been a minute, and I already forgot their names. Haa…

General Troupe knelt before me with his wings laid on the ground like a piece of clothing. "Praise be upon my Lord Praeceptor and our sovereign god—"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it." I interrupted while waving my hand. "Tell me the plan."

"Err…" General Troupe nervously looked back at Times; the warlord nodded slightly at him. "Okay, so I'm not very good at explaining stuff, so I hope—"

"What's your name again, General?"

"What? Huh? Uhh… Garland Troupe, my Lord."

I snapped my fingers. "Ah, yes, Garland! Can I call you Garland?"

"With pleasure, my Lord."

I leaned closer towards him with my hands on my knees. "Just explain the plan like I'm your pal, how about that, Garland? Can you do that for me?"

"I'll try my best, my Lord Praeceptor." Garland then continued when I perked my brows upward. "So, we heard from our spies that Bismarck will divide his forces into three. The first one will come four days later, then the next one comes the day after that, and you know the rest. Bismarck will personally lead the third and last wave of soldiers."

"How certain are we of this information."

"Err…" Garland chuckled. "To be honest, sir, it doesn't really matter. Besides, we really don't have much time to fact check the spies anyway; take them with a grain of salt, but they're the best we got, so I really can't complain."

"True," I was about to ask Garland to continue when I noticed the murderous aura around Times and the ensuing nervousness around him. It doesn't seem like the warlord is pleased with his general's rudeness, not like Garland realized anyway. Poor guy will probably get nagged later. "Continue, Garland."

"Aight, so…" Garland then climbed up towards me before halting. "Oh, sorry, I mean, can I come closer to you, sir?"

I wordlessly gestured for him to come forward.

"So the first part of this ravine is this super narrow damn entryway that can probably only fit two kapres at most. How they pull their shit up is their own goddamn problem now, for all we care, right? But we already prepared for this attack a week prior, so we carefully planted like, a fuckton of explosives all over the narrowest part of the ravine, which is the entryway, right? And I tell ya, this is some slick top-tier kinda boom-boom shit, sir; you'll love this. The potential is, like, higher than me on a Sunday afternoon, know what I mean?" Garland couldn't contain himself anymore and cackled like a damn madman.

"Oh, god…" I heard Times whisper while shaking his head, already regretting letting Garland explain the plan.