#052.
“…What is going on?”
Jeong Do-hwan, a man devoid of emotion.
But even he seemed unable to hide his bewilderment at the current situation.
Well, no wonder.
It wasn’t just the terrain changing out of nowhere. A castle? And what about all the troops filling the surroundings?
No matter how emotionless one might be, it would be impossible not to be shaken in a situation like this.
“It’s a Unique Territory.”
“A Unique Territory?”
“You could say it’s a type of illusion.”
“…This?”
Jeong Do-hwan, who had been touching the castle wall with his hand, voiced his doubt.
Ordinary illusions mostly deceive the sense of sight.
But this one had manifested with not only smell but even touch on a level identical to reality.
Could something that satisfies sight, hearing, smell, and touch truly be called an illusion?
“To be more precise, it’s an illusion, yet reality. Or rather, an illusion close to reality?”
It was truly a difficult concept to explain.
Besides, there was no time to explain it.
“What is certain is that we must prepare for a siege battle, and if we lose there….”
I swept my gaze over the group.
“…this will become our grave.”
As I said earlier, this is an illusion, yet it is reality.
What does that mean?
Death here means death in reality.
There are no second chances.
We have to succeed in this war somehow. We must defend this fortress.
“So we’re taking the defense role?”
William, looking around, asked.
“That’s right.”
“That’s a relief, at least.”
“Why?”
“It’s a defense. Isn’t defending a fortress inherently a much more advantageous position than attacking one?”
He was absolutely right.
They say you need ten times the troops to succeed in a siege offense compared to the defense.
So it’s true that the defense holds overwhelming superiority over the offense.
However.
“…Can you still say that after seeing this?”
The defending troops spread out below the ramparts.
“….”
William fell silent at the sight.
He was probably cursing himself for running his mouth so carelessly.
“Ugh.”
“Th-this is war.”
“How are we supposed to… Are we going to die?”
“I’m scared….”
A force of a hundred thousand filled with such pervasive fear that it dampened the spirits of anyone watching.
No, they couldn’t even be called troops.
*The point in time is when the nearby small city was attacked and its refugees were brought into Fortress Yeok.*
The illusion created by a Unique Territory is simple.
It creates the most favorable situation for the one who unfolds it.
This situation was the perfect example.
The Fall of Fortress Yeok.
One of the important wars fought during the Warring States period for the first unification of China.
Fortress Yeok, a place that had to be passed to attack the state of Zhao. Through strategy, Wang Jian plundered the surrounding small cities and sent their refugees here.
The deciding factor was provisions.
The burden of providing for a hundred thousand people due to the suddenly swelled number of refugees.
And Wang Jian, who had to bear the burden of provisions for two hundred thousand on a distant campaign.
He unleashed a desperate strategy to lead an unfavorable expedition to victory, and having successfully cut off even the relief forces, Wang Jian attacked Yeok and absorbed it into Qin’s territory.
That was the situation unfolding through this Unique Territory.
Buzz!
After roughly grasping the situation, glowing text appeared above my head.
『Victory Condition (1): Defend Fortress Yeok from the enemy attack for 3 days until reinforcements arrive.
Victory Condition (2): Annihilate the enemy troops.
Victory Condition (3): Eliminate Wang Jian and Meng Wu.』
The text appearing in the air was the victory condition—in other words, the only way to escape the Unique Territory deployed by the two generals.
*How vicious.*
These were incredibly difficult conditions.
I had encountered various Unique Territories while making my way through the apocalypse.
Of course, all sorts of absurd conditions appeared in the mid-to-late stages, but right now it wasn’t even the apocalypse—only a precursor period.
To think that a condition to defend for 3 days would appear during merely the second omen, called the manifestation of the Treasured Armament.
And it was even the type where one had to fight alongside a large number of troops—one of the most difficult conditions.
It wasn’t as if a person who lived in modern times would have any military command capable of handling such a large force.
Ah, of course, that wasn’t a major obstacle for me.
I had experience handling countless troops as an executive of Baekui.
Of course, besides holding out for 3 days, there was also annihilating the enemy troops or removing the two generals.
But that wasn’t easy.
If I had to pick the most serious problem.
*Never has there been such a disorderly rabble.*
The troops positioned inside Fortress Yeok numbered a hundred and fifty thousand.
Considering the enemy siege force was two hundred thousand, one might think it was a viable number.
But of the hundred and fifty thousand troops, a hundred and twenty thousand were refugees, excluding thirty thousand actual soldiers.
Only about twenty percent of them could properly fight, while the rest were the elderly, women, and children.
Of course, since it was a fortress defense, it might be possible to block two hundred thousand aggressors with just thirty thousand troops.
Especially since this place was Yeokseong, an impregnable fortress that had not permitted a single fall for centuries.
The problem was that this siege wasn’t so simple as to just defend.
“…I’m hungry.”
“It hurts….”
“Cough, cough!”
I could roughly guess how inadequate the supplies had been.
They probably supplied the bare minimum of provisions to the troops who could fight, but that couldn’t be a solution.
“….”
The pervasive anxiety was eroding the troops’ morale.
Well, if it were only a matter of momentum, I wouldn’t even mention it.
Buzz!
Swarms of maggots and flies gathering among the starved corpses.
Plague spread from the neglected corpses, and those with weak immune systems easily fell infected.
*Three days? It looks like we won’t even last a day.*
The situation was dire.
So dire that it would be hard to last a day, let alone three.
*I can see eyes full of dissatisfaction too.*
If we tried to hold out for three days like this, we’d be suppressed by a rebellion first.
“Surrender!”
A thunderous shout rang out.
I turned my gaze downward.
At the forefront of the army was Meng Wu, a man possessing monstrous strength, roaring at the top of his lungs.
“If you surrender, your lives will be spared.”
A common call for surrender, heard everywhere.
But even if it’s common, the timing is crucial.
“….”
They were shaken.
Not just the refugees, but the soldiers as well were wavering at the call to surrender.
*A day? At this rate, it feels like it’ll fall in an hour.*
At that moment, I realized how desperate a situation I was in.
If they were shaken by a simple call to surrender, the war was already over.
Being told to hold out for three days here was no different from being told to die.
I had to make a swift decision, by any means necessary.
“Open the castle gates.”
And that was the method I chose.
“H-huh?”
“The gates?”
The bewildered party.
“Have you lost your mind?”
Even the Hero uttered a “have you lost your mind?”
Wow, after treating him so well, now he’s being blunt with me?
“I haven’t lost my mind.”
“Opening the gates means throwing away the advantage of defending, doesn’t it?”
“That’s right.”
“Don’t tell me… you’re not thinking of facing them head-on?”
“Sharp as ever.”
“That’s exactly why you’ve lost your mind!”
He suddenly flared up in anger.
Well, even without any knowledge of siege warfare, it was common sense how advantageous defending was.
And yet, to open the gates and throw away that advantage.
No matter how you looked at it, it seemed like suicide.
“I know what you’re thinking, but don’t worry. I haven’t given up on this match yet.”
“….”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“…Nothing.”
His staring gaze was filled with doubt, no matter how you looked at it.
Well, it couldn’t be helped.
I would have doubted too in this situation.
But I had no intention of explaining until my mouth went dry.
Seeing is believing.
Because they’d know when they saw what plan I was using to open the gates.
Groan!
As I turned the pulleys installed at the gates, the heavy castle doors began to rise.
“….”
The enemy—Meng Wu and Wang Jian—did not react.
They couldn’t act rashly.
Because they couldn’t possibly know what I was thinking, opening the gates like this.
Regardless of what they thought.
Tap!
I approached the troops lined up in front of the opening gates.
Due to the Unique Territory, they recognized me as the commander.
“….”
But the eyes looking at me were not filled with respect.
Suspicion, distrust, irritation, fear, anger—all sorts of negative emotions were mixed together.
And why wouldn’t they be?
They should be locking the gates tight and barely managing to defend, yet here I was opening them.
If left alone like this, they might revolt right now and offer my head to Wang Jian.
Before that happens.
Shwing—
I drew the sword I had kept in my bag—the Twin Dragon Sword—and shouted at the lined-up troops.
“Those prepared to die shall live, and those clinging to life shall die.”
Though the sword itself wasn’t particularly powerful in terms of raw might, the Twin Dragon Sword was a Treasured Armament specialized in handling troops.
“Uwooooo!”
Its unique effect that boosted morale.
“We can win!”
“We shall be victorious!”
Combined with the effect of raising the allies’ stats, the morale of the troops who seemed ready to die was recharged.
But this wasn’t the end.
“Yeil!”
I called out to Yeil, who was looking down from atop the ramparts.
Thud!
She immediately fell to her knees, clasped her hands together, and began to murmur.
And the next moment.
Whoooosh!
A brilliant light erupted from Yeil’s body, expanding in a hemispherical area, and soon enveloped the entirety of Fortress Yeok.
“Oooooh!”
“A m-miracle!”
“God is with us!”
Some shed tears.
Some jumped up and down in excitement.
Some gazed at the sky with eyes full of awe.
Their reactions differed, but they all had one thing in common: their morale had risen, just as with the Twin Dragon Sword.
『Miracle』
An ability only a Saintess could manifest.
Through prayer, she stirs sacred energy to enhance the stats and morale of all allies within the nearby area.
*She’s on a completely different level from ordinary priests or healers.*
A Saintess is no simple healer.
Especially in large-scale battles is the true worth of a Saintess revealed.
Even though she hadn’t evolved yet, a Miracle capable of raising the abilities of tens of thousands of troops could truly be called a cheat-like ability.
The Twin Dragon Sword and the Miracle—the allied forces’ power had risen thanks to them.
Step, step, step.
They advanced.
But these forces were not armed soldiers. They were refugees.
They were sent by Wang Jian after he occupied the surrounding small cities—used as bait to win the war.
Of course, this wasn’t voluntary, but done by my order.
The vanguard consisted of a hundred and twenty thousand refugees.
I deployed them, who had only been consuming rations, as the vanguard and arrayed them to advance toward the enemy.
Under normal circumstances, they wouldn’t even dare approach, drenched in fear.
“We can do it!”
“We will win!”
Without proper arms, holding farming tools in their hands, they were filled with confidence.
And it was inevitable.
Thanks to the effects of the Twin Dragon Sword and the Miracle, they were currently overflowing with bravery, displaying a spirit rivaling any soldier.
But that was a fleeting thing, like a sweet midsummer night’s dream.
As the refugees who advanced entered range.
“Loose!”
The waiting archers moved.
Thwipthwipthwipthwipthwip!
Arrows fired in formation darkened the sky.
It was truly an overwhelming sight.
“H-huh…?”
“What is…?”
Voices of doubt burst forth.
They were commoners who had never experienced war.
Naturally, they wouldn’t have known the enemy used bows, nor were they prepared for it.
The arrows fired by the enemy traced parabolas as they descended, striking the refugees like a calamity.
Fwooshfwooshfwooshfwoosh!
Tens of thousands of arrows pierced through flesh and embedded themselves in the ground, beginning to paint a panorama of hell.