The army inched its way toward the city, until they were just outside the range of the city’s archers, where they briefly stopped.
Then, a single word roared from Rojan’s mouth. “Charge!”
“Charge!!” The shouts of the thirty thousand soldiers roared toward the city, shaking the bones and nerves of its defenders.
Commander Moon rode with his soldiers toward the city, but Rojan stayed behind - his role was that of the strategist, not a combatant. Besides, the Tero Kingdom couldn’t afford his combat fees.
Even as the Tero Kingdom’s soldiers reached the city walls, everyone in the area heard a loud, metallic groan.
As if by magic, the gates to the city slowly opened.
Although Rojan had promised him this scenario, Commander Moon couldn’t help but suck in a deep breath as he watched the gates open. Opening from the gates from the inside - this was a tactic that everyone had thought of, one time or another.
But very few, if any, had ever succeeded in this endeavor. One needed only a small force was needed to reach the city gates, but once the gates began to open, that force would be hard-pressed to stay alive, nevermind continuing to open the gate.
Yet, as his forces reached the city wall, the gate continued to open, allowing his soldiers to rampage inside the city.
With the city’s soldiers having to defending against the mass of enemy soldiers surging through the city gate, less soldiers were available to stay and defend the walls. Thus, many of Commander Moon’s soldiers scaled the walls with ease, and successfully brought the battle on the ramparts to equal footing.
Without their advantage of terrain, the city’s defenders quickly crumbled before the might of Commander Moon’s army. Soon enough, Commander Moon stood in front of the City’s former lord, who looked to be in shock.
Who could blame him, though? Since he’d ordered the enemy’s messenger killed, not twenty minutes had passed before his enemies had forced their way into his study, where he’d been hiding.
That night, Commander Moon’s soldiers escorted the former city lord to the city square and beheaded him in front of the city’s residents.
Meanwhile, In a tavern situated in the northern part of the city, Rojan sat across the table from two people - a man, a woman.
“Thanks for the help this time, I owe ya one.” Rojan lifted a mug of beer and toasted the two.
“Hey, no problem.” The man chuckled. “It was pretty good practice. Celina and I haven’t been able to find too many challenging missions nowadays. If you find more, let us know.”
“Will do, Mark. So, what are your plans now?” Rojan asked.
“Hm.” Mark chomped into a chicken’s leg, then downed his mug of beer. “Celina and I are going to cross the Krohan Empire to find the Alliance of the Rising Sun… from the rumors we’ve heard, they might be what we’ve been looking for.”
“Oh?”
“Why don’t you join us? It’ll be safer if we travel together. Besides, there’s not much time before we’re supposed to be at Venite, right?”
“I’ll be heading over as welll, but I have some things I need to do first.” Rojan shrugged. “With the Tero Kingdom’s current state of affairs, it probably won’t be long until the Krohan Empire marches from the east. My parents are stubborn and likely won’t want to leave, but I still want to try and convince them to move somewhere safer.”
“Ah, that’s right. You’re from eastern Tero, right?”
“Yeah.”
Celina spoke up. “You should tell your parents you’ve found a wife somewhere safe, and that it would be ideal for the two families to live together. Your parents are old school like that, right?”
“Me? A wife? Come on, even my parents would realize that would be unrealistic. There isn’t a woman in this world who’s my match.”
“... I really don’t understand how that ego of yours fits into your head.”
“Why, thank you for the compliment.”
“Fuck you.”
“Ayyy, there it is. Anyway, I have some errands to run before I leave, so I’ll leave you two to it. Safe travels.”
With that, Rojan left with a jaunty salute.
As soon as he was out the door, Celina turned to complain to Mark. “Yeesh, he’s a goddamn pain to talk to.”
“At least he found us some fun this time.”
“Mm… do you think they’ve found the bodies yet?”
“Probably, if I were the Teroian commander, it’d be one of my priorities.”
“Mm.”
The waitress came by the table. “How will you be paying for your dinner?”
“Ah…” Mark started, then handed over some silver coins. “This enough?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Great.”
Celina and Mark glared at the empty seat Rojan had previously occupied. The rascal had left so quickly just to dodge the damn bill!
...
At the same time, Commander Moon was staring down a hallway inside the castle walls, near the southern gate where his troops had swarmed into the city.
As it turned out, the gate wasn’t locked manually by putting a bar over a lock, like in most cities, but was instead controlled from a separate room hidden away in the castle wall.
This design change was to make it harder for insurgents to open the city gates from the inside. Rows of soldiers could line the sides of the hallway, making it so that any invaders would have to fight their way through a hundred layers of defenses. Furthermore, because the hallway was closed off, it waseasy to trap invaders for eventual extermination.
There was only one way in and out - a death trap.
Yet, what Osen saw were two even lines of armored corpses, blood staining the ground. More importantly, he didn’t see the bodies of any insurgents.
Frustrated, he rubbed his temple. Just who were Rojan’s friends?
He spoke to an officer standing by his side. “Clean the hallway up and make sure the gate still works.”
“Yes, sir!”
…
Rojan hadn’t been completely lying when he’d told Mark and Celina that he had errands to run. The lie, was that he only had one errand - to secure himself a weapon.
When the Tero Kingdom had started massing troops to attack the Armoa Kingdom, the city had confiscated numerous weapons, and had commissioned their blacksmiths to forge many more. But, Rojan had never trained with a sword, sabre, or axe. Truthfully, he’d never seen the point of training with such weapons.
The sword and sabre were incredibly ineffective weapons against heavily armored foes. While axes fared better, they were prone to chipping and shattering.
Rojan’s weapon of choice was quite simply, a hammer.