Chapter 100

"Don't be afraid. I know we're frightening and we bite, but you still shouldn't fear. Well done for speaking up today," the Count reassured her.

The girl timidly nodded at him. When the Count took her along on the campaign, she couldn't object. She had no family, no husband either, and warming the Count's bed was her only means of livelihood. When the camp was attacked, she was horrified. She saw soldiers dying, and strange creatures, almost identical to humans, drinking their blood and tearing human bodies apart. Hiding among the chests, she prayed and awaited death. But they didn't kill her.

Even when she started bleeding, as all women do once a month, they didn't kill her. She saw them eyeing her hungrily, but they housed her separately and guarded her. When her menstrual period ended, they sent her to join the other captives. The men immediately tried to claim her. She didn't resist—it was the fate of women—but the argument among the prisoners about who would go first caught the attention of a guard.

Like a cat with kittens, he scattered the men with erect members and showed his fangs. The captives were terrified, and she was taken away from everyone. Again, Stefania thought she would be killed soon, as she was causing so much trouble for her new masters.

But it turned out luck was on her side. They gave her a corner in a nice house, provided her with clothes, assigned her a simple and familiar job, and fed her well. The preachers' sermons about how inhumans were terrifying, confirmed by the presence of these strange creatures, were countered by them as well. But whatever the case, for several days now Stefania had not been afraid of her strange masters and was ready to serve them faithfully.

***

As soon as the main squads of barons approached Savoyardi, Duke Kas began to implement his plan. Another week had passed since he had discussed it at the general meeting. Now he had enough troops at his disposal to repel the city's forces. Yes, they were weaker and fewer, but the enemy was exhausted from a difficult march. Waiting was not an option. They needed to meet them on the road, at the bridge, and block their further movement through the kingdom's territory.

There were even more troops than he had expected. Barons and knights, and where castle owners were absent but their stewards, understanding the threat of the city's troops capturing the duchy, did not skimp and deployed the maximum number of warriors; some left their castles almost unguarded. All the efforts exerted by the duke allowed him to assemble a very solid army on the day of departure.

Five hundred of the duke's personal retinue marched out from the city gates to the bridge, nineteen hundred footmen from barons and knights, seven hundred armored cavalry, a thousand from the renowned mercenary unit "Black Axes of Ilhori," about three hundred mercenaries from merchant caravans arriving at the city, nineteen mages, and fifteen paladins. Only peasants and townspeople, gathering a mere hundred militia, were lacking in contribution, and if not for the new subjects of Baron Savoyardi, who deployed thirty crossbowmen with artifact weapons, the duke would have been greatly disappointed. However, the young ruler looked confidently toward the future. Even if they lose, the city of Savoyardi's troops won't advance further.

Within a day, the army reached the bridge and encamped on the right bank of the river. At that moment, the promised crossbowmen joined them. Besides them, the free settlement provided ten more swordsmen, and also present were the village elder and the man who commanded this entire force.

They all looked simply fantastic, especially against the backdrop of barons' troops dressed and equipped so diversely.

The crossbowmen wore chainmail hauberks and leggings, each had a sword or axe hanging from their belts for some reason. In their hands, they carried powerful crossbows with magical accumulators. Expensive artifacts that made even an ordinary bolt a fearsome weapon, sending it over significant distances and at tremendous speed, if one were to believe claims that there were also enchanted bolts...

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