Chapter 96 : Chapter 96

Chapter 96. Beneath Lucerne City

Time passed soundlessly beneath a veil of tension.

When the fourth night’s darkness had fully swallowed the land, the three forces—Sabda, Caphis the Scorpion, and Steward Winter—quietly completed their assembly deep within a dense oak forest to the northeast of Lucerne City.

Torchlight swayed among the trees, casting its glow over one sinister, greedy face after another.

Mounted on an especially tall warhorse, Caphis pointed with a thick finger at Lucerne City’s blurred silhouette in the night.

On the city walls, the sparse torches looked like dying candles in the wind, and even the faintly visible figures of the defenders appeared thinly scattered.

He split his mouth in a grin, revealing a row of yellowed fangs.

“Baron Sabda,” he said in a rough, booming voice. “Then we move according to the plan we agreed on before! I’ll lead the men and go give that rotten gate a good pounding first!”

Then he paused, deliberately drawing out his tone, his ambition utterly undisguised.

“But... heh heh, my lord baron, haven’t you overlooked one thing?”

Caphis’s voice carried open mockery.

“What if my boys are just too fierce and smash through Lucerne City in one charge by pure accident?

“Then... the good stuff inside might not be divided the way we agreed before.”

Sabda sat upright on horseback, his posture straight and composed as the night wind stirred his dark cloak.

Hearing Caphis’s naked declaration of ambition, he merely cast him a faint glance.

His thin lips parted slightly. “That would naturally be... even better.”

He withdrew his gaze at once, no longer looking at Caphis’s face, twisted with excitement.

“Remember this. At dawn tomorrow, attack the city on time.

“The commotion must be loud. They must believe that we are determined to take the city at any cost.

“When the time comes, no matter the result, withdraw immediately according to plan.

“Then join forces to intercept Eli’s reinforcements!”

“Understood!” Seeing that Sabda had not taken offense and had instead seemed to tacitly approve that little “what if,” Caphis grew even more pleased with himself. He threw out a broad arm and shouted, “Brothers, keep your spirits up! Eat well tonight, drink well tonight, and sleep soundly! At sunrise tomorrow, follow me and smash open Lucerne City’s turtle shell! The gold, the grain, the women inside... all of it will be ours!”

At once, his desperadoes erupted into beastlike howls and cheers.

Sabda no longer paid any attention to the rising uproar from Caphis’s camp behind him.

He pulled his horse around and turned his gaze toward the western plain, which looked especially empty and deathly beneath the moonlight.

Behind him, the two hundred of Alders’ household soldiers brought by Steward Winter, together with the five hundred main troops from Runestone City under his own command, began to move with him toward the preset ambush point.

The horses’ hooves had been wrapped in thick cloth. As they stepped onto the soft earth, only dull, muffled thuds could be heard.

But Sabda was far less calm than he appeared.

His heart pounded violently in his chest, as though it might burst straight through his ribs.

He clenched the reins hard, forcing down the boiling emotions within him.

When the familiar, open outline of Windrest Plain finally entered his sight, a smile of triumphant ambition crept onto Sabda’s handsome yet chilling lips.

He could already see Eli’s reinforcements plunging headfirst into this net of death.

He could already see the endless wealth and population of the Obsidian Territory and Lucerne City falling into his hands.

He could already see the glorious future in which he became the true overlord of the southwestern Western Frontier.

This grand play would ultimately end with Sabda Medici taking the final bow.

Not far behind him, within the shadows, Ragnar sat on horseback.

He silently watched Sabda’s back, faintly trembling beneath the moonlight.

His hand gripped the hilt at his waist tightly.

In his eyes, there was no fanaticism—only bottomless worry and a heavy burden.

Can this reckless gamble really be won?

He lifted his head toward the dim and murky stars above, but found no answer.

...

Beneath that same moonlight, Lucerne City was an entirely different scene.

On the walls, there were indeed only sparse torches and a handful of soldiers patrolling back and forth.

What Caphis saw was no different from the truth on the surface; the city was perfectly playing the part of a place stripped thin of troops.

Yet inside the walls, on the broad streets and squares near the city gates, an oppressive killing intent hung in the air.

Nearly a thousand soldiers had gathered there.

They included the four hundred or so defenders of Lucerne City under Brandon’s command;

the four hundred soldiers from the Black Territory brought by Buck, along with forty murderous Black Crow Knights;

and the ninety-six Golden Lion Knights under Ron’s command.

They stood in dense, orderly formations like a steel flood poised to surge forth at any moment.

They remained silent in the darkness, while their armor and weapons reflected cold glints under the occasional shaft of moonlight.

Every citizen in the city had long since received strict orders to bar their doors and windows and remain hidden inside their homes.

The entire city had become a silent barracks.

Inside the council hall of the lord’s residence at the city center, the lamps burned brightly.

Eli stood before a massive sand table.

Gathered around it were Buck, Ron, Brandon, Bol, Aika, and the other core officers, along with dozens of junior officers.

Every face carried the same mixture of solemnity and excitement that preceded a great battle.

“Gentlemen,” Eli said, his voice breaking the silence in the council hall, “there is no longer any need to repeat the plan. Its core is only one thing: patience and timing.”

His gaze swept across the room. “At dawn tomorrow, Caphis will undoubtedly launch a fierce assault on Lucerne City. Brandon!”

“Sir!” Brandon straightened at once.

“You will command the defenders on the walls. Rely on the fortifications and hold against Caphis’s first wave of mad assault.

“You must pin down both their momentum and their strength beneath the walls.”

“Understood! My lord, rest easy! I’ll make that brute believe victory is already within his grasp!”

The eyes of the old soldier shone sharply.

Eli’s finger then cut hard across the sand table toward the city gates.

“When Caphis fails to break through after a prolonged attack, when his momentum is blunted—or when he believes he has achieved his purpose and begins to withdraw according to the script Sabda wrote for him—

“that will be the moment we strike. Captain Ron!”

“Baron!” Ron pressed a hand to his chest, his voice ringing with force.

“The Golden Lion Knights will serve as the vanguard of the entire army!

“I want you to use your fearlessness and your blades to show those rebels what the true strength of the Western Frontier is.”

“The Golden Lion Knights will not fail you!”

Ron’s answer was decisive, brimming with powerful confidence.

“Captain Buck!” Eli turned to Buck.

“My lord!”

“You will lead the Black Crow Knights and the veterans of the Black Territory close behind the Golden Lions.

“You must shatter Caphis’s line completely in the shortest time possible. Break it apart. Scatter it.

“Throw them into utter chaos and panic!”

“Yes! I’ll make sure none of them leave alive!”

“That will not be necessary.”

Eli’s finger tapped the section of the sand table marking Sabda’s hidden force on Windrest Plain.

“After defeating Caphis, remember this: there is no need to wipe them out to the last man.

“What we need to do is drive them like a panicked flock.

“Drive Caphis’s routed, broken men toward Windrest Plain, where Sabda’s main force lies in ambush.”

He looked around at the officers. “When those terrified, armor-losing fugitives pour straight into the ambush position Sabda so carefully prepared...

“Will Sabda first receive those routed men?

“Or will he turn his spears around to deal with us, the pursuers close behind them?”

At once, several suppressed chuckles and excited growls broke out in the council hall.

On the battlefield, nothing was more dangerous than friendly troops whose courage had broken and who were fleeing for their lives.

Bol grinned broadly and slammed a fist into his palm.

“Brilliant, my lord! Let Sabda have a taste of what it feels like to be crushed by his own reinforcements!”

Using routed soldiers as the spearhead, turning the enemy’s own momentum back upon its master—this tactic was exquisitely clever.

“Exactly!” Eli’s voice suddenly rose. “When the time comes, Sabda and his main force will not only have to face the full assault of our high-morale army from behind—

“they will also be smashed apart from the front by the routed remnants of their own allies.

“In this battle, defeat for them is certain!”

“Yes, my lord!”

All the officers answered as one, their voices filled with absolute faith in victory.

Seeing the war-fury burning in the eyes of the commanders under him, the cold severity on Eli’s face eased somewhat, and a faint smile appeared.

“Good. There is no need for anyone to be overly tense.

“All the necessary preparations have already been completed. In this battle, timing, terrain, and men are all on our side.

“Sabda has calculated everything, only to dig his own grave.

“Have the men seize what time they can to rest and gather their strength.

“Tomorrow... victory will be ours.”

“Victory!” “Victory!”

The low, powerful cries rang out again, sweeping away the final shadow before the great battle.

...

At last, the darkest hour before dawn passed, and a wan strip of pale light appeared on the eastern horizon.

At the edge of the oak forest outside the city, Caphis sat atop his tall warhorse.

He looked at the more than five hundred men before him, who had spent the night resting and had now been whipped into a frenzy by greed.

Most of their armor was a chaotic mess, and their weapons were all different shapes and kinds.

But every pair of eyes gleamed with hunger for wealth and slaughter.

Caphis drew in a deep breath of the icy morning air, and the violence in his chest was fully ignited.

He suddenly ripped the massive chopping blade from his waist and raised it high.

Its edge reflected a dazzling, icy glare in the faint light of dawn.

He bared his teeth in a savage grin and roared toward Lucerne City with all the strength in his body, the sound shaking the air:

“Brothers! Dawn’s here! Time to get rich!

“Attack the city—NOW!!!”

“AOOOOOO—!!!”

Like a pack of beasts released from their cage, more than five hundred desperadoes let out earth-shaking howls.

They waved their weapons and surged forward like a burst black torrent.

They rushed madly toward Lucerne City, which in their eyes was already theirs for the taking.

The thunder of heavy footsteps, the clash of metal, and the coarse shouts and curses instantly tore apart the last silence of dawn.

The curtain on slaughter rose with a crash beneath the blood-colored morning light.