After standing behind the Sorcerer King and participating — but obviously not speaking — in meetings, after a long argument that made Neia’s legs hurt to stand on, they had finally arrived at two possible courses of action.
The first was to flee to the south after liberating one prison camp and throwing in their lot with the armies that ought to be stationed there.
The second was to strike first and conquer the aforementioned small city.
While both of these opposed courses of action had their own merits and flaws, they eventually went with the latter, after the Captain of the Paladin Order, Remedios, shouted for it.
Remedios had a top secret reason for choosing to assault the city.
After questioning the demihumans — and of course, killing them afterwards — the town which was their target apparently contained a someone with royal blood in their veins.
If they were truly of the royal bloodline, it was very likely that the situation would improve. Even if they were not royalty, it would be a godsend if they were a great noble with a certain degree of status and connections. They could bank on the fact that they had saved his life to ask the southern armies to apply pressure, and possibly ask for reinforcements.
However, Neia had her doubts.
“Your Majesty, do you really think there will be a member of the royal family or a powerful noble there?”
Neia had been allowed to ride a horse out of deference to the Sorcerer King’s status. Otherwise, the sort of horse which a low-ranking squire like Neia would have been allowed to ride would have been taken for use as a pack animal long ago.
“I think it’s a trap. Even if it isn’t, the city will be garrisoned with many troops, and depending on the situation there might be demons present. Captain Custodio ought to be very aware of that. Even so, she has decided to fight an uphill battle like this. Sometimes, you need to wager everything on one bet.”
If they did not seek the aid of the south, people would begin to starve soon. If that happened, Neia knew that the Liberation Army would not be able to carry on.
Soon, they saw their objective, the small city, in the distance.
From her horse at the tail end of the column, Neia looked at the militiamen marching ahead of herself.
They were citizens of the Holy Kingdom who had been rescued from the prison camps. The reason why the paladins had pressed them into military service when they should have been resting was because they discovered that there were far more demihumans in the town than in the earlier prison camps.
There were many more weakened people than expected, so they were not expected to make good foot soldiers. Even so, it was better than nothing, and so they were mobilized.
Neia’s level of skill would be hard-pressed to hide such a large force from the eyes of the demihuman scouts, so they needed to move as quickly as possible.
And the result of doing so was that the people only became more and more exhausted, and the number of adults sitting on cargo wagons only grew. The fact that they could actually sleep on the shaking and rattling wagons only served to show how tired they were. In contrast, the children were cheerfully running along.
The priests were probably not used to long journeys on foot either, given how they would look enviously at the cargo wagons from time to time.
Even in this state, they’re going to be thrown straight into a battle once they arrive. Are they really going to be all right?
During their strategy meetings en route, they had decided to immediately attack the city upon reaching it. That was because they lacked both provisions and time.
Attacking a city with enemies lying in wait during daytime was extremely dangerous.
It would be easier to approach at night, but it would be very disadvantageous to humans, who did not have night vision abilities. In particular, night battles were very dangerous for the citizens, who only had what combat training they had received as conscripts.
With that in mind, they had decided to attack during the day.
The battle lines had already been formed up ahead of them. At their head were the paladins. Behind them were militiamen holding wooden walls they had made after wrecking the prison camps, and at the back were the priests.
The plan was the same as last time, using the angels to suppress the enemies on the walls while the paladins broke down the gates; a tactic which relied on brute strength for everything. The citizen-soldiers’ job was largely limited to frightening the enemy through weight of numbers. Therefore, they had ordered the civilians to avoid fighting, and if they had to fight, to gang up on their opponents, among other things.
“...Now then, show me how you will do this.”
The Sorcerer King muttered to himself.
As an observer, the Sorcerer King would not be involved with the battle.
While they wanted to draw on his strength for a siege like this, nobody opened their mouth to ask him during their meetings. The Sorcerer King paid no heed to the pleading gazes directed at him, and he was now positioned in the rear echelon.
The battle began like it had the last time.
It may have been a small city, but it was very large for the region. Its portcullises were reinforced with iron, and there were murder holes above it. The walls were not built of wood, but stone. The walls and gates were also much better made than those of the prison camps, which had largely been scavenged from materials taken from the villagers. However, because this city had less than ten thousand residents, one could not say it was impregnable.
The attackers found it troublesome, while it left the defenders uneasy. That was probably a more appropriate evaluation of the situation.
Remedios led the paladins in a charge, while the angels attacked the demihumans on the walls.
However — the angels occasionally vanished into motes of light after being hit by enemy attacks.
It would seem the demihumans were the same Bafolk they had encountered previously in the camps, but as expected, the ones defending this city were very skilled troops.
The most obvious of them was a Bafolk on the walls — hiding among the battlements — and holding a well-made longspear. He had already impaled many angels.
That Bafolk gave a mighty cry.
Perhaps it was some kind of skill, but it did not affect the angels or the paladins breaking down the gates beneath him. Was it because of a narrow area of effect, or was it only effective on allies? The details were unclear. However, it would be good to remember that he possessed some sort of special ability.
Looking down, both sides were fighting fiercely outside the gates
The Bafolk thrust their long spears from the other side of the portcullis — from inside the city — at the paladins, who blocked them with spiked shields. Thus, they prevented the enemy from attacking the paladins with the battering rams. Remedios, on the other hand, directly cut apart the longspears they stabbed at her.
The demihumans dumped boiling water on them through the murder holes. However, the paladins already had 「Protection Energy Fire」 cast on them in anticipation of this, and so no matter how much water got on them, the paladins were unscathed.
Of course, since this was winter, things would be troublesome if they were drenched and then the temperature fell, but it was fine for the moment.
If they had used boiling oil instead of water, their swords would have slipped easily from their hands. Perhaps oil was precious to the demihumans but they did not make such preparations.
The slowly-advancing civilians carried the wooden walls which they had brought along to use as shields. While it would have been better if they had been made out of metal, it could not be helped given their lack of proper arms. It might not have been terribly sturdy, but it was better than nothing, and the citizen-soldiers hidden behind them began spinning up their slings. They were aiming at the demihumans fighting with the angels. Of course since they were not used to combat, the stones they threw struck the angels more often that not.