Ch.222Midnight Makeup

In the late afternoon, still too early for the sunset’s glow to arrive.

The three thousand soldiers who had recklessly attacked the Wall paid the price for their foolish charge, now lying on the prairie ground.

There were no survivors. Their end was pathetically empty, in stark contrast to how fiercely they had charged. Fortunate for me, at least.

Even after watching more than half their allies die, the remaining two thousand made no attempt to support them. Amin was likely among those who stayed behind. That was the only troublesome part. They wouldn’t fight so easily next time.

“What are our losses?”

I asked while Lena treated me, securing a bandage around my wrist.

Right after the battle, completely exhausted, I returned inside the Wall riding on Nigel’s horse.

It had been quite arduous to cut down hundreds of infantry soldiers who fought with suicidal determination, especially in my utterly fatigued state.

I hadn’t noticed during the fight, but my physical condition wasn’t great either.

The impact from falling off the Wall, the damage from blocking Havar’s cavalry charge, and the wound to my abdomen at the end.

Now that the battle excitement had faded, my entire body ached everywhere.

“Of our thousand cavalry, we lost four hundred light cavalry, fifty heavy cavalry, and twenty knights. The infantry lost about five hundred… Nearly a thousand casualties out of our four thousand troops.”

Though the exchange ratio was overwhelmingly favorable—sacrificing a thousand to kill three thousand—Ludwig’s expression wasn’t particularly bright.

Well, the annihilation of the light cavalry would be a painful loss for him.

Heavy cavalry alone couldn’t keep up with the Ka’har horsemen.

“We took quite a beating too… So what about the remaining two thousand? Light cavalry won’t fall from the sky. While they can wait for Orhan to arrive eventually, we need to head back to the mainland as soon as possible.”

“You’re right… So we’ll have to try a classic stratagem.”

Lord Landenburg muttered quietly.

=====[White Banner Corps]=====

That night.

Amin’s camp was dead silent.

Only a few sentries patrolled halfheartedly, while most soldiers were deep in sleep.

They had been ordered to rest well until dawn, when they would head south to penetrate the Dane territory.

The warriors accepted this reasonable order without complaint.

After such an intense battle, they assumed the imperials would be equally exhausted, so there would be no problems.

It would take at least two days to tend to the wounded and recover their strength.

Yet Amin, who had given the order, couldn’t sleep himself.

“Damn it! Why! Why did that ghost woman appear there!”

The wine glass he threw shattered into pieces.

Spilled arhi soaked into the tent floor.

Amin grabbed the bottle with rough movements and poured its contents down his throat.

Streams of liquid that he couldn’t swallow dripped down his chin.

‘Haah…’

Jargal, watching, secretly sighed.

Setting aside that a commander on the battlefield was drinking, arhi wasn’t a weak enough alcohol to be guzzled like that. It was closer to hard liquor.

Amin was already visibly drunk beyond measure.

After gulping for a while, Amin put down the empty bottle beside his chair.

“That damn whore. How much did she shake her vulgar ass to still be alive…!”

His unfocused eyes trembled unstably, and his face, flushed with alcohol, alternated between red and pale.

He had clearly lost his composure.

The intoxication revealed the fear he usually concealed.

“Damn… damn it! How could the imperials…!”

At first, there had been no problems.

Everything was fine when he sent the troublemakers who might oppose him to the Wall, and while he was deliberating between supporting them and standing by.

But the moment that crimson flash shot from atop the Wall, all his plans twisted.

At first, he thought he had seen wrong.

Since they had unilaterally attacked the Empire, he assumed Haschal, who remained as a hostage, would have been killed or imprisoned long ago.

That had been Amin’s original purpose from the beginning.

But it wasn’t a mistake.

The woman who committed the insane act of jumping from the Wall with a human body not only moved perfectly fine but even defeated Champion Havar with her bare hands.

For Amin watching, it was nothing short of a nightmare.

As was the slaughter that followed.

“That fire, what was that fire… Now she’s using dark magic too! Doesn’t she know any shame…!”

Ironic words from Amin, who had allied with sorcerers.

But he never had the decency to reflect on his own faults to begin with.

He pulled out a new bottle and gulped it down again.

“The ghost woman is coming! She’s coming to kill me!!”

Amin screamed at the top of his lungs.

Watching his drunken tantrum grow louder, Jargal could only wonder how to stop him.

—-

The sentries patrolling outside the tent grimaced at the shouting that reached them.

“There he goes again. Every time he drinks…”

“Just ignore it. It’s not the first time, he’ll quiet down soon enough.”

The sentries were merely going through the motions, not particularly vigilant about their surroundings.

If Havar had been alive, it might have been different, but the remaining men were ruffians more interested in plunder than honorable combat.

Amin’s words seemed quite reasonable to them, and having found a convenient excuse, their discipline had considerably loosened.

This night was exceptionally dark and quiet.

Even the crescent moon’s light was dimmed by clouds, and not even the usual insect sounds could be heard.

Warriors with extensive battle experience, aggressive yet intuitive fighters, might have sensed something ominous.

But such men were already rotting beneath the Wall with Havar.

Rational decisions aren’t always right.

Especially on the battlefield.

– Swish!

Two arrows pierced the back of a sentry’s head.

They collapsed without even a single cry, their breath cut off.

Drowned out by Amin’s shouting, the sound of their fall went unheard by anyone.

Ten minutes later,

flames engulfed everything.

===[Haschal, ten minutes earlier]===

I’m dying of sleepiness…

I forcibly suppress a yawn trying to escape my mouth.

The fatigue and weakness making my body sag felt similar to when I’d stayed awake for three days straight.

“It seems all the sentries have been taken care of. Shall we begin?”

Nigel, lying prone beside me, whispered quietly.

He wore black armor with charcoal rubbed on it to hide its shine, covered by a black cloak.

Just like me and the other knights.

We were now boldly infiltrated into the enemy camp where two thousand Ka’har had gathered.

With just one hundred and seventy-five of us.

The operation plan was simple.

While the enemy thought we were resting and let their guard down, we would infiltrate under cover of darkness, set fires to cause confusion, strike key targets, and withdraw.

Specifically, the horses, food supplies, and enemy leadership.

The horses were most important. Just killing or severely injuring the horses would completely neutralize the enemy’s mobility, their greatest strength.

We also needed horses to safely withdraw.

Everyone except the knights too severely wounded to move had been deployed for this infiltration.

The soldiers couldn’t join us. Their skills weren’t sufficient to move without being detected, and descending the Wall would have been difficult for them.

Yes, we didn’t exit through the Wall’s gate.

We would have been discovered immediately if we had.

At a corner of the Wall far from the battlefield, ten ropes should still be hanging.

The ropes we used to descend.

It was Ludwig’s idea. He thought it seemed possible after seeing me jump from the Wall.

Thanks to that, I had to experience rappelling again.

The knights were a bit awkward at first, but after I demonstrated once, they all managed without much difficulty.

After descending the Wall, we crawled all the way here.

We risked discovery once or twice along the way, but each time we quietly ambushed and somehow resolved the situation.

I was terrified when Amin shouted about Haschal coming, but Hersella’s explanation that it was just drunken rambling helped me calm down.

Anyway, everyone must be very tired, but they’ve managed to follow without falling behind.

[Do you think they’ve suffered as much as you? Your strength hasn’t fully recovered, and your cracked bones haven’t healed yet.]

‘Weren’t you the one who told me to go?’

[Of course. This is an excellent opportunity to discipline Amin. As his sister, I couldn’t miss this chance.]

My heart warms at this display of proper sibling relations.

This is how siblings should be.

[Gouge out his remaining eye and cut all the tendons in his limbs. Let him become a flailing blind man, to be killed by Orhan or live a life of contempt.]

Yes, very proper indeed.

“Lady Haschal?”

“Oh, right. You asked when we should start? Let’s see… the knights on the other side should have reached their positions by now, so we can prepare immediately. We attack all at once in 3 minutes. Pass that on to the knights.”

“Understood.”

Nigel nodded and relayed the order to the other knights.

Forty knights spread out in a line each took out oil-soaked arrows, javelins, and jars filled with sticky oil.

I also prepared to shoot fire arrows. I didn’t have enough strength back yet to use Karma Fire.

Three minutes to go.

“It’s time! All knights prepare to throw! Use all your strength!”

I gave the order in a low voice while lighting and shooting an arrow.

High into the air, like a signal.

So all knights could see it clearly.

“Begin throwing!”

The knights responded in unison, hurling the oil jars.

With physical abilities far superior to ordinary soldiers, the jars flew like shot puts, crashing and breaking against tents everywhere.

“What, what is this! An enemy attack!?”

“Something from the sky…!”

The Ka’har’s commotion reached us, perhaps awakened by the sound of breaking pottery.

“This is…! This is oil! They’ve thrown oil containers!”

Too late to realize now.

I load a second fire arrow.

This time aiming at the center of the enemy camp, where dozens of horses were tied. The knights lit their arrows and javelins.

“Fire! Turn it into a pit of flames! Burn them all to ashes!”

With my resounding command, one hundred and seventy flames cut through the air.

As the fire arrows embedded in the oil-soaked ground and tent coverings, flames spread instantly with unstoppable force.

The White Banner Corps’ camp burst into flames.