Book 5-10.3
“I need only thirty of you who wants to die with me.”
The Red Storm warriors looked around at each other at Haisha’s unexpected statement before asking why Haisha was acting so weird.
“Ah! I said it wrong. I need thirty of you who are confident you won’t die.”
“Be more specific! What the hell does that mean? Why are you speaking nonsense in the middle of the night?”
Shubeon was the one to ask what everyone was thinking.
“Runa… Assistant Warrior’s order and test for us. We will take over the gate with just thirty of us.”
“He’s crazy!”
Shubeon’s face turned pale as he shouted out loud. The first thing the Glow, Runa, the Greatest Warriors, and the Red Storm did after taking the Fedore region was to verify the infamous gate of the Henkel Plains with their own eyes.
All of their heads dropped at that time after looking at the small but mighty gate.
The Red Storm warriors had approached the gate both individually and as a group multiple times to try to find a way to take it.
However, none of them could come up with a method. The only thing they figured out was that the Red Storm was able to safely reach the wall of the Gate.
Shubeon shouted once more.
“Runa, that bastard has finally gone crazy. How dare he talk such nonsense like this.”
Thrint quieted everyone down before looking toward Haisha and asking a question.
“Haisha, explain in detail. Just what is going on?”
“Sigh.”
Haisha let out a short sigh before explaining everything that just happened with Yulian and Runa. All of the Red Storm warriors’ expressions changed.
They also understood why Haisha said they were able to do it.
“If that is the only method, who else but the Red Storm would be able to do that?”
“Good job. There is no need to worry about it.”
All of them took Haisha’s side before stepping forward to say they will take part in this mission.
“But isn’t that expression about having confidence to not die too much? I don’t think it fits us, Haisha. Hahaha.”
All of them started to laugh at one of the warrior’s comment. After that, all of the warriors almost simultaneously stepped forward.
“Twenty of you will not take part. You will need to create the charge line with the other warriors.”
Seeing all of the Red Storm warriors stepping forward, Haisha reminded them about only needing thirty of them. This did not seem to do anything as none of them stepped back.
None of them wanted their comrades to go into danger.
In fact, they were all looking around, hoping that their friend would step back.
“Hey hey, don’t worry. We won’t die. So you step back.”
“That’s what I wanted to say. So Shubeon, you step back.”
Another warrior responded to Shubeon’s words, but Shubeon shook his head as he answered.
“Isn’t it still a bit better for me to do it? I’ve always had great endurance.”
“You’re also just as good with charging through a formation, so step back. We need to reduce the burden on the Glow since Vibli-nim and Egane-nim are not here with us.”
“Is that the case? But isn’t it still better for me to go? Hahaha.”
Shubeon looked around before laughing once more.
Shubeon continued to laugh. The rest of them didn’t know what was funny, but laughter was contagious. All of the other warriors started to laugh as well.
“What is so funny, everyone?”
The owner of the voice that cut through the rough laughter of the men was none other than Violet.
“We greet Violet-nim.”
All of the Red Storm warriors bowed their heads and showed their respects to Violet.
She was someone who joined them in war as a woman. At the same time, she did not try to use her identity as a woman or as the Glow’s wife for any special treatment. She sweated with the warriors and raised their strength and morale with her incantations. Because of that, all of the warriors respected her as a warrior. That woman who earned their respect to have almost as much influence as the Mother of Pareia had shown up.
“All of you were laughing. Is there something funny going on?”
Haisha answered Violet’s question.
“It is nothing much. We were just letting out the jitters before heading out to battle. What brings you to visit us, Violet-nim?”
Violet started to smile as she answered.
“Did I come somewhere I should not have come?”
Haisha had a nervous gaze as he quickly shook his head and answered.
“No. Of course not. All warriors welcome Violet-nim’s visit.”
The news had already spread to all of the warriors that Violet helped remove the nervousness from the warriors before a battle, as well as the fact that she could bless them to feel stronger. In addition, although it was not perfect, she was also able to protect them against the enemy’s curses and magics that may fly at them from just about anywhere.
Haisha and the Red Storm thought Violet had come to visit them to bless them before the battle.
“Have you decided who will be going?”
However, her words made them feel like that was not the only reason she had come to visit them.
“We are discussing it right now.”
That was the only answer Haisha could give.
“Then may I watch from the side?”
“What?”
“I will be going with all of you.”
“You cannot do that!”
All of the warriors shouted at Violet’s response.
Once Marquis Spotch Rin Cullery arrived at the gate, he started to inspect the soldiers while also sending out a lot of scouts to keep tabs on the enemy’s movement.
Marquis Spotch was a master and had studied a lot of different strategies, and after having been involved with even the small scale battles for the empire and the allied nations, he truly could be considered a wise leader.
‘It prevents a lot of enemies from entering, but it also does not allow us to have a lot of defenders.’
That was Marquis Spotch’s first thoughts after taking a look around the Henkel Gate, this natural fortress that he had heard so much about.
The narrow width of the gate made it impossible for them to station a large number of soldiers around it.
Thankfully, the three tiered construction of the gate with higher and higher heights made it possible to station more troops than the enemy, as well as giving them the opportunity to station even more troops behind them. They would always have more troops than the attacking side.
Marquis Spotch looked out to the Henkel Plains that missed its opportunity to harvest the wheat and clicked his tongue. He was certain that the price of wheat would rise significantly next year. That was because this was not a war that will end in just a few days.
Although it did not matter to Marquis Spotch whether the price of wheat went up or not, as the commander during a war, he needed to pay attention to all of these small details. Rations were one of the most important necessities of war.
‘I am just glad that there are a significant amount of wheat that was purchased this year still remaining in the gate.’
Marquis Spotch thought about that before gathering a few knights and starting to inspect the area between the fortress and the start of the road of victory.
“You can start.”
Marquis Spotch gave the order and a knight signaled the flag bearers. Once they received the signal, the flag bearers quickly started to waive their flags in the air.
As the flags started to waive, tens of arrows started to fly from the gate.
Ting. Ting. Ting.
As a couple of the knights knocked down some of the falling arrows, Marquis Spotch started to frown.
“The momentum behind the arrows is too weak. Have the archers not been trained properly?”
Viscount Stearthur, who was the defensive leader of Henkel Gate, had a look of disbelief as he answered.
“Not at all. The distance of our arrows is fifty meters. The distance between the fortress and this area is around seventy meters. Our current archers are all veteran archers. That is the only reason they are able to send their arrows this far.To be honest, at this distance, the arrows are just an obstacle. If the enemy gets a bit closer to the gate, they will be able to do significant damage.”
Marquis Spotch was not annoyed at the fact that ViscountStearthur, someone many ranks lower than him, made toward him. It was because he was a Marquis who knew that a knight like Stearthur was the type of knight you needed in war.
“I like it. Please let me know if there is anything else I need to know.”
“Just in case the enemy sends small detachments to climb through the mountain and hit the side of the fortress, we have put watchtowers on the mountain ranges on either side of the fortress.”
“It is a good amount of preparation.”
“We prepared it just in case it was needed. There are not many archers in the watchtowers, but it should be enough as the enemy will need to send a small detachment in order to invade through the mountains. It should be able to completely seal off the line that could be used to attack through the mountains”
“Anything else?”
“Originally, we planned on putting a watchtower in the middle of the road of victory to fend off the front area as well, but …….”