Night of the Soulless Heathens – 414



#414. Tempest 3

“This guy knows what elegance is.”

Indim commented as follows after hearing what Azadin had said.

“If being a eunuch and becoming a court lady is considered to be a form of elegance then I have been forcibly spreading the art of elegance to many people. I am also a member of the clan but I really don’t like my clan. How can you say that you select your messenger through a fair election while using talented people as your servants and as rugs?”

“But whether it was fair or not didn’t you hit the bottom in that election? You were so bad that I even heard people say you weren’t from our clan. Surely you weren’t being slandered for not being able to do your best?”

“But what are you four people of Hwajopungwol going to do?”

“Oh you avoided answering.”

Azadin who was the underdog within the herald clan avoided answering. Seraph ignored Indim and answered Azadin.

“I will stay by your side for you have carried on Arael’s legacy.”

“I think it would be better to serve you than the Northern Emperor. I think I would have a lot to gain by assisting the future queen.”

Both Seraph and Indim promised to assist Midiam by Azadin’s side.

“It’ll be hard to settle down in the Northern Qi because of the Northern Aragasa. Okay. What about Dimia?”

“Dimia is hiding near Ascendar. She is there to get information from the Northern Qi side.”

“You are suffering alone in this world. I have formed an alliance with the Etar clan so ask them for help. It would be better to work together with them.”

“Okay but it’ll take a while to deliver. Ascendar is far away.”

“I don’t think anything will happen before then so we won’t be defeated without a fight. So let’s look forward to the Aragasa archers’ performance in this Bisen conquest. Show off your skills this time and show the power of Aragasa.”

“Of course. Just prepare a bunch of arrows.”

Indim was confident as he waited for his chance to demonstrate his skills.

*********

The shortest route between Bisen and the Kingdom of Banreung was a rugged mountain path that was barely wide enough for one carriage to pass through.

Evacuation routes were being built wherever possible to handle the usual water traffic but now each route had small checkpoints and obstacles installed.

But Azadin chose this route instead of the canal.

Bisen like the Kingdom of Banreung also had developed artillery so if artillery was installed in a fortress near a waterway it could cause massive damage by firing the artillery.

Fortunately the land defense troops prepared by Bissen surrendered as soon as they saw Azadin’s forces.

No matter how desperately you defend alone you will not be able to overcome this overwhelming number.

But occasionally there are those who are possessed by a strange madness.

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“A herald clan like you is the king. Don’t insult the throne! This is a natural fortress where you can fight ten thousand men alone! We will risk our lives here to stop your army! If a blizzard rages your army will have to consume more food!”

The captain of the guard at the outpost was possessed by some madness and declared that he would risk his life to fight Azadin.

Azadin sighed.

“I’ll take care of it.”

Midiam Azadin’s fiancée and leader of the Aragatha archers took up her bow.

As his soldiers and retainers watched Midiam fired arrows from an absurdly long distance that a normal bow would never be able to reach.

“Dirty messenger clan! Those soulless blasphemies walking around in human skin those disgusting….”

-puck!

An arrow went through the battlements of the guard post and pierced the roof of the captain’s mouth.

When the captain of the guard died instantly his subordinates immediately let go of the guard post and gave way.

“Good job. Medium.”

“Even a child of the clan can do this so it would be embarrassing to be praised.”

Medium answered humbly. She spoke sincerely but to those around her it seemed as if the future queen was being humble despite her amazing abilities.

Although she was still a young girl her beauty and wisdom were admirable.

“Hmm. Great.”

“Is that an arrow from the Herald Clan?”

“Our future queen is truly wonderful.”

The morale of the soldiers watching rises.

“Hey Captain. You’ve got an amazing wife?”

The Minotaur warrior Selim also approached Azadin with joy.

“But isn’t it a mistake not to bring the hippogriff? Rather than going through such a rough path it would have been better to fly to the hippogriff…”

In the end I came here to talk about using a hippogriff.

“No. If we deploy hippogriffs to the front lines we will need hippogriff feed for supply.”

“If it’s feed why don’t we just distribute it on site?”

“It would be nice to see people being eaten on the battlefield and keep their morale up right? And I don’t want to feed the flesh of my enemies to my hippogriffs who might have Nether Corruption.”

Azadin suppressed Selim’s opinion that the hippogriff should be used in any situation.

Feeding humans will solve the Hippogriffs’ supply problem but the morale of the soldiers accompanying the Hippogriffs will drop once they have tasted human meat.

“This battle must be concluded quickly and with as little supply loss as possible.”

Initially Azadin had only selected 100 men to capture Bissen.

There were ten light cavalry led by Lord Karna and Lord Ismilla ten archers of the herald clan led by Midiam twenty heavy infantry led by Selim and the rest were peasant soldiers armed with slings and short spears.

Although the number of troops was not adequate for a siege they mobilized the asymmetrical force of Lord Jecht the former Inquisitor Lord Astarte and Seraph and Indim the four members of the Flower-bird-Pung-Wol.

Azadin’s strategy is to deploy heroes with outstanding skills to increase the fighting power of the entire unit.

In order to maintain combat power while minimizing the need for supplies it was necessary to rely on the elite. And if they could defeat Vissen with such a small number of people the reputation of Azadin’s forces would also increase.

The only problem was that the common soldiers were terrified.

“With such a small number of people the expedition to Bissen is a success.”

“Even if it is to reduce the supply is the king in his right mind?”

On the other hand Lord Astadair laughed heartily and affirmed Azadin.

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“Yes yes. You have to destroy a castle with a small number of troops to gain fame. Your thoughts are indeed the same as mine. As expected…..”

“No that’s not true.”

Azadin clicked his tongue as he looked at Lord Astarte who still claimed him as his son.

After surrendering to Azadin Lord Astarte tried to stop drinking and now had a pipe in his mouth instead of a drink.

In the North a medicinal herb called flaming acid often used to treat alcoholics was burned in a pipe and was clearly effective in reducing drinking.

“Hahaha. I know you’d say that. I know. The truth is sometimes hard to accept.”

Sir Astarte laughed heartily exhaling smoke from the flaming mountain.

“….”

“Your Majesty the scouts ahead are giving the signal.”

Indim who had been out on scout duty sent a signal.

“what?”

“Look King Azadin. This is evidence of disrespect.”

Indim pointed to the village ahead.

*********

The post station village was in a terrible state of destruction.

In the middle of the village by the well people were lined up dead. All the flesh on their bodies had been carefully torn off and only their heads remained intact stuck on spears.

Azadin shuddered at the horrific sight.

“I guess I have to hold a funeral. But this is…..”

“It’s a sign of being eaten. It wasn’t the work of Breena or the goblins. It was the work of humans.”

Indim looked out the window and testified.

The spears that hung people’s heads were human. The tools that separated human bones and flesh were also human knives.

Judging from the sword marks left by beings with longer and stronger arms than goblins it is clear that this was done by humans or elves.

“Cannibals…..”

Azadin frowned.

Although food prices have skyrocketed because of Fimbulbert it is actually only three months since the autumn harvest.

It’s a time when there should still be plenty of food but they’re so hungry that they even eat humans?

Is everyone losing their minds because of the fear of Fimbulbert?

Or perhaps the Nether gods are manipulating their followers into cannibalism.

Because the Kurt tribe’s Mejeri encourages cannibalism.

Either way seeing this behavior made it clear that the sane people of Bissen would suffer.

“We must quickly defeat Bisen and sort out the situation.”

But then the scout Indim sent a signal again.

“King Azadin! We have discovered Visen’s forces. It looks like they are about to start a full-scale fight.”

“A full-scale battle? How many troops do you have?”

“About 100 of them all elite soldiers. They are probably the ones who raided the village and killed the people. They were waiting quite a distance away so they must have known we would come by land.”

“Hmm. I thought that might be the case so I organized the unit as quickly as possible.”

Azadin was surprised that Vissen’s reaction was much quicker than he expected.

Judging from Jecht’s testimony and the appearance of Bishop Bissen that he had kidnapped it was expected that Bissen would have become a den of hell where no normal people existed.

But for some reason instead of displaying the irrational behavior typical of fanatics the enemies are responding with classic strategies and tactics.

“You said elite soldiers? The enemy’s weapons are”

“Musket and pike formation.”

Muskets and Pikes. This formation which operates with a mix of musketeers and chariots is a unit in which the musketeers placed between the pikemen mainly attack and the pikemen protect the musketeers by blocking the enemy’s approach.

The standard way to overwhelm this unit is to overwhelm it with a volley of fire from the line musketeers who are all musketeers.

But there are currently few places that can operate that many musketeers and supply them with gunpowder.

The Dwarf Blunderbuss soldiers of Banreung were such a unit but the one who destroyed that unit was none other than Azadin.

“Can you deal with it?”

Azadin asked Midiam Ismail Seraph and Indim.

“Of course.”

“of course.”

“It’s just this much…”

They all seemed confident. To the other soldiers who didn’t know English it sounded crazy.

‘You’re going to fight a gun with a bow? Are you in your right mind?’

‘Are we waiting for the gunpowder to run out? We have fewer troops. We have to take the enemy’s bullets with our bodies.’

‘Even though the opponent occupies the high ground and has a superior terrain…’

The soldiers felt uneasy but Azadin ignored their feelings and quickly gave orders.

They maintained a formation with the heavy infantry in the lead followed by the archers of the herald clan.

A bizarre battle began with archers and hoplites fighting against musketeers and pikemen.