It was raining heavily when a soldier stationed at the northern wall of New Grenton noticed a huge shadow approaching. When he looked closely he finally noticed that the shadow was an approaching army. The soldier quickly gave a signal to the people below the wall. Seeing the signal the soldiers started forming up and a messenger was now running towards Iselv"s group. ...
The second prince Niel with his army at hand had finally reached New Grenton. Niel looked at New Grenton and was a bit surprised. He had been to this city a few years back, and back then Grenton wasn"t any different from most of the towns of the kingdom. But now as the name of the city changed its name into New Grenton, even the look changed and was now looking like an impenetrable fortress. The walls have grown taller and thicker, and the mana barrier that enveloped said walls have a more complicated spell placed.
The overall defense of New Grenton seems to be just as good or even better than the Capital. Niel was already aware of the changes made to New Grenton but seeing it with his own eyes was something else.
"It has grown even stronger than before... If I"m able to defeat them and take this fortress from Iselv, I can make this my central base." Niel was already thinking about what to do after his victory. He wasn"t doing this because he was a.s.sured of victory. In fact, by his estimates, the chances of victory were extremely slim, but thinking of defeat before starting was a loser"s mentality.
Also, the worst-case scenario can only happen if Ren was within the city walls, but based on the information he received from the spies he placed inside New Grenton Ren was somewhere else. Knowing this, Niel knew this was the best chance to conquer New Grenton.
Niel then signaled a mage beside him to enhance his voice by using a spell.
"People of Grenton, I am Niel Reschbeauch the second prince of the Reschbeauch Kingdom. I have come here to give you a chance. Surrender and lay down your weapons and this rebellion of yours will be forgiven. If you resist then only death awaits you!"
Niel"s voice which was transmitted throughout New Grenton didn"t even make the people in New Grenton twitch. His threats were useless in front of the current citizens of New Grenton, in fact, what he said made them angrier.
"A chance?! You come here and threaten us with death? Heh, we were already supposed to die when the Elder Lich came, death doesn"t scare us. When we declared our independence you come here as fast as lightning, but when we needed your help to defend our home you left us to die! Who would surrender to you!"
Most of the citizens had the same underlying thought.
"Second Prince Niel Reschbeauch, I am the third prince Iselv Reschbeauch! The answer we of New Grenton have chosen is freedom! We won"t lay down our arms for you!" After Iselv spoke a thunderous roar resounded from within the walls of New Grenton.
"Do you wish to follow this fake?! How dare a fake such as you besmirch the name of my long lost brother!" When Niel shouted, an arrow came flying towards him only to blocked by the s.h.i.+eld of one of his personal guards. Niel was surprised to see an archer was able to hit him from such a distance. That was a near-impossible shot as the distance of him and the fortress was beyond the range of any archer he knew. It was even more impressive that the shot was made during such heavy rain, which made simply seeing the target from such a distance an incredible feat. Not only that the blowing wind was quite strong which should have affected the trajectory of the arrow. With all these factors Niel couldn"t help but admire whoever shot the arrow.
Still, seeing this happen, he knew that this was their response. Niel and his personal guards backed a bit further away before he spoke again.
"Fine, then you have chosen death!"
...
Lara who shot the first arrow was already ready to shoot another and without any warning, she once again released another arrow at the second prince.
...
The second prince had already signaled his men to bring out the catapults but as he was giving the order, his personal guard once again blocked another incoming arrow. When Niel saw this he felt shocked and irritated. He was shocked because the archer was still able to reach him even at this distance. He was irritated because this supposed little brother of his was able to recruit such a talented archer.
"My liege, this archer is dangerous and with the rain as camouflage, it"s hard to spot the arrow. I advise you to please move to the backlines." Niel"s personal guard, Berold gave a suggestion as his vigilance increased. Even though he could protect Niel from such an attack he didn"t want to risk it.
Niel started to think about the pros and cons of moving to the backline. "If I move back morale might fall a little bit, but if I get hit then that would either increase or decrease morale... There"s also the possibility of me dying. If that were to happen then all of this would be meaningless..." Niel silently contemplated for a little while and decided to listen to Berold"s advice and moved to the backline. Even though he was a bit reluctant this was the best course of action at the moment.
...
Lara who saw the second prince moving farther back wanted to shoot another arrow, but the distance and the current weather made shooting him a difficult task even for her. As Lara was thinking about what to do next, she saw a boulder coming towards her. Lara didn"t bother to dodge as the boulder that was arriving suddenly exploded into dust.
Kithra and her mage corps intercepted the boulders with various spells. In response to the boulder attack, Lara started to gather mana and chanted.
...
Valdel decided not to join this battle and was in the city protecting the citizens just in case some debris from the battle reached some populated area of New Grenton. Alongside him were the usual people, Kuro, Rachel, and Natasha. Kuro followed Valdel because he was her master. Rachel and Natasha, on the other hand, didn"t join the battle and chose to follow Valdel simply because they weren"t allowed to fight.
When the opponent was an Elder Lich a monster that threatened humanity, the holy maidens could lend aid. But now that it was an internal fight within a human kingdom they weren"t allowed to intervene. They were only allowed to subjugate the a.s.sa.s.sins since those were fights in the dark, but now that it was a battle out in the open battle they could no longer interfere.
The two holy maidens who were helping Valdel move some of the citizens of New Grenton to safer grounds noticed the immense gathering of mana. They looked at who was gathering such an amount and saw that it was Lara.
"Hmmm, does that girl perhaps have the same potential to become a holy maiden?" Natasha wondered as she could also detect traces of divine power within Lara"s mana.