Chapter 109: Battle of North Soqya (Part 5)
"What? Dolrcocha has fallen?"
Hearing this news, the elders of the other five city-states were all shocked.
They hadn't even finished plotting how to gang up on the Viscount of Lanwan, and the other side had already thrown a punch, seemingly knocking down one of their members with the first blow.
These individuals still failed to realize how ridiculous their loud scheming appeared to Charlotte.
"When I came to report, the city-state hadn't completely fallen. There were still citizen-soldiers fighting in the city," Doris tried to explain, but this was clearly an attempt to save face for Dolrcocha.
Everyone present knew very well that if the defending side failed to organize any decent resistance at the beginning of the battle and was breached by the enemy as if they were just passing through, what could they expect from street fighting afterward? Such sporadic resistance could at most consume a little of the enemy's stamina; against superhumans, it might not even consume much stamina at all.
"Whether it has fallen or not, Dolrcocha is undoubtedly in dire peril now," Balotelli spoke, his tone no longer carrying the strategic confidence of a few days ago, but instead a hint of pleading. "Please, everyone, dispatch the allied forces to rescue Dolrcocha as soon as possible."
The Viscount of Lanwan's decisive strike had indeed frightened the elders of the other five city-states. They no longer mentioned the matter of the allied forces' command – the allied forces were almost gone, so what command was there to speak of?
"Badan has currently assembled six thousand citizen-soldiers, including fifteen hundred superhumans," Elder Lester of Badan said with a frown. "However, these forces alone might be a bit thin against the Lanwan army."
A few days ago, Lester would never have said such a thing. This elder, in his bid for command of the allied forces, had consistently claimed that Badan's strength was perfectly capable of confronting the Lanwan Viscountcy alone. But after personally witnessing the fierce offensive of the griffin knights, this elder had also become cautious.
"Camela has also assembled six thousand citizen-soldiers, including twelve hundred superhumans," said Alvaro, the elder of Camela. "However, Camela is too far from Dolrcocha. If we support Dolrcocha by land, it might be too late."
Lester understood Alvaro's meaning: going by land was too slow, so they had to go by sea. However, Camela's naval fleet had been completely wiped out in a major naval battle of the alliance two years prior and had not yet recovered. For Camela's army to travel by sea, they would clearly have to rely on Badan's naval vessels.
In his heart, Lester was completely unwilling to accept Alvaro's request. Alvaro was an old general of Camela. In his youth, he had led troops to defeat Badan's citizen-soldiers once. Since then, he often brought up that war on various occasions, mocking the Badan people for not understanding combat. As Lester was also serving at the time, he was subsequently singled out by Alvaro multiple times, becoming the representative of the "cowardly and battle-shy Badan citizen-soldiers" in Alvaro's words. Lester could be said to have absolutely no goodwill towards Alvaro.
But considering the current situation, Lester still said with a dark face, "Badan can lend you ten sailing troopships."
"What good are ten sailing troopships? Can they even hold three thousand soldiers? Besides, we also need to transport ballistae and foul oil," Alvaro was somewhat dissatisfied.
"There's nothing to be done if it's not enough," Lester said. "My Badan citizen-soldiers also need to travel by sea. If all the ships are lent to you, what will our citizen-soldiers ride in?"
"It's only a three-day journey from Badan to Dolrcocha by land. Why do you insist on taking a boat?" Alvaro slammed the table and questioned.
"The ships belong to Badan. Our citizen-soldiers can take them if they want. Do we need any other reason?" Lester also slammed the table.
Seeing the two about to argue again, Balotelli quickly stepped in to mediate: "You are both doing this to resist the Oran people; there's no need to quarrel over such matters. Badan's citizen-soldiers taking ships can support Dolrcocha sooner, fearing no strong enemy; their courage is commendable. Camela's lack of ships is no cause for alarm either; you can act in two waves. The first wave should try to get the superhumans to Dolrcocha. On behalf of my city-state, I thank you both for your strong support."
Lester's expression softened slightly after hearing Balotelli's words.
However, Alvaro sneered, "Elder Balotelli, you certainly understand these Badan people. A mere Viscount of Lanwan is indeed a strong enemy for them."
With that, Alvaro stormed off, leaving an embarrassed Balotelli and a grim-faced Lester.
The elders of the two city-states, Sudaman and Koloro, looked at each other, unable to get a word in from beginning to end. No one here asked for their opinions.
Pishos, the elder of Little Sassinian, did have the clout to speak, but impenetrable mountains separated Little Sassinian and Dolrcocha. The only clear path required passing through Ambratu. Expecting the Little Sassinian army to travel such a great distance to rescue Dolrcocha after receiving the news was deemed unreasonable by everyone.
After the brief meeting concluded, Pishos immediately had someone send the news of Dolrcocha's fall back to Little Sassinian.
Green Plains Duchy, Riverside Castle.
Today, Riverside Castle was newly decorated, filled with flowers and splendid ornaments. Even the servants in the castle had all changed into brightly colored new clothes.
Nobles, great and small, from the Duchy gathered in the castle, solely to attend the wedding of Andre Mellerfield, the eldest son of the Duke of Green Plains and heir to the Duchy.
Even if his relationship with Jose Mellerfield was terrible, for such a major event in the Duchy, Count Perode Mellerfield of Steng still attended with his two sons.
The wedding had not yet begun, but Stanley, Count Perode's younger son, was restless, constantly craning his neck into the crowd, seemingly looking for someone.
"What are you trying to do?"
After several repetitions, Count Perode finally couldn't resist putting down his teacup and asking.
"I'm going to settle accounts with that brat Charlotte," Stanley blurted out.
He regretted it as soon as he said it; saying such a thing would surely earn him a scolding from his old man.
Indeed, Count Perode frowned and, without sparing any face, cursed, "Look at yourself! What do you look like? Being played for a fool by a little girl, and you still have the gall to settle accounts with her? If I were as stupid as you, I would have found a rope and hanged myself long ago. How can you live and show your pig face to people?"
The eldest son, Chester Mellerfield, silently sipped his tea nearby, not daring to try and persuade Count Perode. He knew his father's temper was just this bad; his curses were extremely harsh, and he didn't care who the target was. If he tried to intervene, the old man not only wouldn't listen but would scold him as well.
Stanley lowered his head, shamefully enduring his father's abuse and the strange gazes from the other nobles, a sense of resentment inevitably welling up in his heart. It was clearly Charlotte who had lied and deceived him, yet after his old man learned of this, he had praised Charlotte multiple times and instead given him a severe scolding.
Oh, he had been scolded more than once.
While Count Perode was scolding his son, Duke Jose Mellerfield couldn't even find his own son to scold.
Monika had changed into her beautiful bridal gown, her heart filled with a sweet, expectant, yet reluctant mix of emotions as she bid farewell to her mother.
However, just then, a servant with an anxious face found Jose Mellerfield, who was talking with Count Philip.
"Mr. Andre is missing!"
Monika heard the servant say.
"What did you say?" Jose Mellerfield grabbed the servant's collar in disbelief.
The servant quickly explained, "I was just helping Lord Andre with his ceremonial attire, but Lord Andre said the attire didn't fit and asked me to get another set. But when I returned to the dressing room after changing the attire, I found Lord Andre was gone. Mr. Wolf has already had the servants search the entire castle but couldn't find Lord Andre."
"Bastard!" Jose Mellerfield was furious. "Have Wolf take the knights to search! That fellow dares to cause trouble for me at a time like this! I absolutely will not spare him!"
Squads of knights were dispatched, heading to all possible locations to search for Andre.
Time ticked by, until it was past noon, the originally scheduled time for the wedding, when a disheveled Andre was brought back by two knights, his hands tied behind his back.
The long delay in starting the wedding had already caused much discussion among the nobles. Andre being brought in like this made everyone's imagination run wild.
"Where on earth did you go?" Jose Mellerfield asked through gritted teeth.
"I..." Andre was about to speak when Wolf Von Derlen cut him off.
Wolf leaned close to Jose Mellerfield's ear and whispered a few words.
After hearing Wolf's account, Jose Mellerfield stared at Andre's face, clenching his fists involuntarily.
Andre shrank his neck in fear.
Jose Mellerfield finally controlled his emotions, called his younger brother, Count Philip, aside, and said, "Andre might have an illegitimate child..."
In the morning, Andre had suddenly received news that his lover, Marie, had come looking for him. So, he snuck out of the castle to meet his lover before the wedding, only to find out that Marie was pregnant. It was his first time becoming a father, and he was at a loss, which was why he had been delayed outside.
Later, Wolf Von Derlen arrived with the knights and caught Andre and his mistress red-handed. Andre roared at Wolf to let Marie go, or he would rather die than go back with Wolf.
Wolf didn't think much about it and had the knights tie them both up and bring them back together.
After hearing all this, Count Philip's face was as black as the bottom of a pot. He took a deep breath before saying, "We'll deal with other matters later. Let's complete the wedding first."
Jose Mellerfield nodded and promised, "I will take care of that Marie and that unborn illegitimate child."
After a delay of several hours, the ducal heir's wedding finally began.
However, it was completely different from the romantic, sweet wedding Monika had dreamed of. Although the wedding at Riverside Castle was still lavish and high-profile, the atmosphere was exceptionally dull and tense. The Duke, her parents, and her husband Andre – none of them had a smile on their faces.
Walking down the red carpet, scrutinized by the various gazes of the surrounding nobles, Monika felt not a shred of blessing or envy. At this moment, she only felt like she was walking through a field of thorns.
She didn't understand why the wedding she had looked forward to since she was old enough to understand would turn out like this.
Soqya Peninsula, Dolrcocha City-State.
News of Little Sassinian's troop deployment had reached Charlotte via messenger raven and giant eagle courier. However, Charlotte wasn't too worried. Before deploying her troops, she had instructed Pacino Mellerfield to hold his position firmly.
Charlotte believed that as long as Pacino didn't leave the city, with three hundred Oran knights, over a hundred Direwolf warriors, and one griffin, he could completely defend against Little Sassinian's attack.
In Dolrcocha, Charlotte, while implementing the "voting punishment" operation, also ordered the conscription of labor and carts in the city to pack up valuable items from Dolrcocha's public treasury and transport them back to the Lanwan Viscountcy. When conscripting labor, she demanded that families without young children must be chosen, taking the entire family away at once.
Compared to Ambratu's public treasury, Dolrcocha's contained much more money. Charlotte hadn't had time to count the exact amount, but packing it up and taking it away was the right thing to do. In addition, Charlotte also found large quantities of cloth, grain, medicinal herbs...
Of course, there were also some useless things, such as large amounts of wine and weapons.
Seeing the huge warehouse of wine, Charlotte couldn't help but think: only a city-state like Dolrcocha, whose pillar industry was mercenaries, would store wine as a strategic material.
Although Charlotte's territory also had taverns, they couldn't possibly use this much wine.
The same went for weapons. Charlotte had seized too many weapons in Ambratu, enough to expand her army by another five or six thousand. Transporting so many more weapons back would be a waste of manpower and resources.
Thus, Charlotte had Rayne Nazares burn all these things.
The knights and knight-squires of the Lanwan Viscountcy rested in Dolrcocha for nearly three days before the scouts sent to the front lines sent back intelligence via messenger raven – Badan had deployed its troops.
"They're certainly slow enough," Charlotte muttered, looking at the note in her hand.
"Actually, it's already very fast," Robin Mancini spoke fairly on behalf of the Badan people. "They probably deployed their troops the moment they received news of our surprise attack on Dolrcocha."
"Forget it, whether they're fast or slow," Charlotte crumpled the note into a ball, looked at the knights behind her, and said, "After resting for so long, everyone should be full of energy, right? Then let us use the long-prepared banquet in the banquet hall called Dolrcocha to entertain these guests!"
"Your will!" the knights replied in unison.
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