Chapter 251: The Devil’s Choice (1)

The Lester Kingdom almost lost their walls, but had managed to survive. However, the battle wasn’t over yet.

Siegfried continued to attack the capital without a break. Because he knew that most of the soldiers defending the Lester Kingdom were civilian militias, and he had found out that their fatigue had reached its peak, he was attacking over and over in order to take advantage of that.

The battle continued on through the day and into the night, well after the sun had set. Unlike the previous day where he had retreated for a bit before attacking during the night, this time, he sent in a team that had been standing by to attack during the night.

“Knights, stay vigilant on the walls. And soldiers, divide into two groups! A resting group and a fighting group!”

Duke Palan divided the soldiers so that one set would rest while the other fought so that what happened the previous day wouldn’t happen again. However,  tonight’s nocturnal assault was fiercer than last night’s. 

“Waaaaaaaaahh!!”

“For paradise!!!”

The Republican soldiers clinging to the walls tonight were more fanatical than last night. The energy of the potion that Eliza had gradually fed them was finally starting to show its effects properly. With their bloodshot eyes and cut-off arms and legs, they no longer looked like living human beings.

“Spearmen! Don’t let those soldiers climb up the walls!”

“Bring it on, you bastards!”

“Rick! That punk is being reckless again… I’m leaving this to you!”

“Tommy, we’re already at our limit here… damn it!”

The soldiers fought with all their might, but they had reached their limit. In order to cover the soldiers, the knights were fighting much more aggressively. Except for the short break they took, Rick and Tommy continued to lead the knights all over the walls, driving off the Republican soldiers. 

As time went on, they didn’t have the energy to use their Aura, so they just swung their iron swords. And when they lost their swords, they picked up the enemies’ weapons and used that to start the cycle all over again. Perhaps this is what hell on earth was like? Now, the Lester Kingdom’s soldiers knew nothing else but madness and simply continued to kill their enemies. 

Like that, the night passed… and a new day began. Unlike the previous day, the Lester Kingdom’s soldiers took turns to take a break. But, that didn’t mean it improved their physical conditions.

People say that a man who fought in a war in his right mind was a lunatic, but… The Lester Kingdom’s soldiers were beyond exhausted and had almost turned insane because of their fatigue. There were even soldiers amongst them who had collapsed with their weapons in their hands due to their exhaustion.  At that moment, they didn’t care that they were in the middle of the war. All they wanted was to lie down and close their eyes.

‘This is dangerous. This is really…’

Queen Leila walked around, boosting the morale of her soldiers. Their exhaustion was a palpable thing. Their fatigue had gotten so high, that relying on the soldiers’ mental strength to raise their morale was impossible.

‘What should I do? What should I do…’

In a dilemma, Queen Leila tried to think of something to do, but then…

“Your Majesty!”

Someone rushed towards her.

“Sophia? Why are you here?”

While Leila was with the soldiers on the wall, Sophia had been at the rear comforting the soldiers’ families and raising public opinion. But now, she was running toward Leila with two men behind her, lugging something.

“Your Majesty, please install this on the wall immediately. Quickly, Your Majesty.”

“What is this?”

“I don’t have time to explain, but it will definitely help.”

Sophia’s eyes were serious. 

Queen Leila studied what Sophia had brought with her eyes. 

It was a thick wire. However, it wasn’t just a regular thick wire. It was a wire with blades as sharp as thorns blades here and there.

“How do you want me to install this?”

“It won’t take long, Your Majesty. You there, quickly please.”

Sophia had the men she brought with her quickly set up the pile of wires on the wall. 

“Kaahhh!!”

Of course, the Republican soldiers who had turned into berserkers weren't about to let that happen. But, under Sophia’s orders, knights stepped in to deal with the enemies on the wall while her men rushed to finish their work.

“Now’s our chance! Hurry!”

“Quickly!”

Installing it wasn’t a complicated process.

Clang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

They just had to spread it out and hammer a couple of thick nails in the wall to hold it in place.

Queen Leila was quite surprised by what she saw once it was set up.

“This… this is?”

A thicket of thorns had appeared on the wall. It seemed like the Republican berserkers were greatly troubled when they tried to climb over it.

“Kahh! Gahh!”

While they were berserkers who continued to rush forward regardless of whether their arms and legs fell off, they couldn’t move forward when their movements were restricted after being entangled in the wire. The soldiers didn’t miss the chance to stab the berserkers in the chest with a spear. 

Stab!

“Keugh!”

Previously, they hadn’t been able to deal with the berserkers, so the knights were absolutely necessary. But now, regular soldiers were able to stop the berserkers. 

“Sophia, what on earth…?”

When Queen Leila looked at her with surprised eyes, Sophia responded.

“It was developed a while ago.”

What Sophia had brought up was what Earth knew as barbed wire. 

Quite a while ago, Sophia had come up with the idea and had mentioned to Milton that it would be great to use it as a fence for sheep. At that time, Milton had been quite surprised. While Milton knew about it because of his previous life’s knowledge, he had forgotten about something so obvious. Yet, Sophia had developed it all by herself. If he thought about how there was once someone on Earth who had made a ton of money from this idea, he realized that Sophia was really an extraordinary person. 

However, the value of iron in this world was much higher than that of Earth. It would be a waste to use iron to make fences for sheep when they didn’t even have enough to make weapons or armors. Eventually, the proposal had been rejected and the barbed wire that Sophia had made in large quantities was treated as miscellaneous goods and left in the Grand Duke’s storage. 

Once Sophia recalled this, she realized that it may help the troops to drape it over the walls. 

“Sophia! Do we have enough?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. There’s more than enough to cover all the walls. We’ll even have leftovers.”

“Good. Duke Palan, immediately…”

“Immediately install on the walls what Her Highness the Grand Duchess has brought! Northern Knights, you’ll be protecting the craftsmen!” 

Before Queen Leila could finish her sentence, Duke Palan quickly gave out orders. That’s how urgent the situation was.

“Come here.”

“Make sure to keep your head down!”

The knights escorted the craftsmen with the barbed wire like they were important people and moved along the walls. Everywhere they went, the barbed wires were quickly installed and results were better than Sophia expected. 

“Keughhhh!”

“Kahhhh!”

Currently, most of the Republican soldiers were berserkers. If they were regular soldiers, they would have hesitated or tried to do something about the barbed wire in front of them. After all, barbed wire was easy to get through with just one thick blanket.

But, regardless of what was in front of them, the berserkers didn’t hesitate and they didn’t care about the barbs digging into their flesh. Once they were completely trapped by the barbed wire and were unable to move, they were stabbed by the soldiers’ spears.

Stab! Stab!

“Die, you bastards!”

“Be careful not to push off the fencing!’

“Hahahaha! These bastards are all dead now!”

Quite often, small ideas changed the world. Sophia’s invention turned the tide of war to heavily favor the Lester Kingdom. 

***

“Your Excellency, our casualties are too great.”

“Sir, I think we need to have the soldiers retreat a bit for now. They’re not able to advance because of the enemy’s obstacles on the walls.”

Without batting an eye, Siegfried responded to his staff’s opinions.

“No.”

“Your Excellency!”

“This is a battle that must be won. But at the same time, there is a time limit.”

Siegfried spoke to them in a determined voice. 

“We need to end this battle before Milton Forrest arrives. We can’t slow the attacks down now.”

“But, Your Excellency, the damages are too great. And it’s not just damage, but the results aren’t great either, sir.”

“Still, that can’t be helped.”

“Your Excellency! Then please stop giving strange drugs to the soldiers.”

“......”

When one of the officers spat out blood as he remonstrated, the mood turned cold and awkward. In that atmosphere, the officer clenched his jaw and continued.

“You all know as well. You all know that the Fuhrer has been feeding the soldiers an elixir that’s closer to a drug and causing them to be addicted before sending them out to battle. There’s a limit to how much we can just cover our eyes and pretend not to see it!”

The other officers avoided his eyes while Siegfried responded calmly.

“Are you criticizing me?”

“If Your Excellency is to be criticized, then it’ll be by how history judges you. We’ve already decided to follow, how can we be considered differently?”

In other words, if you have sinned, then we will also have to bear the price of those sins as well.

Siegfried nodded.

“Then, why did you bring that up here?”

“It was merely a suggestion made as an officer of this war, Your Excellency. The soldiers’ bravery has become so extreme that it has become poison and now, they can’t get through the traps that are clearly in front of them properly now, sir.”

“I see. You have a point.”

After answering like so, Siegfried looked up at the wall.

The Republican soldiers couldn’t cross the obstacle on top of the wall and continued to fall. It was clear that at this point, berserkers weren’t working. It would be better to prepare the ordinary soldiers and send them up instead.

However...

“There’s no retreat. Don’t stop now. Continue attacking the enemy like this.”

“Your Excellency!”

“Enough.”

Siegfried fimly cut off his staff.

“All your worries and advice make sense. And I won’t ask you to pay for the crimes, so…”

Siegfried turned to look at everyone around him. 

“All the sacrifices of today are the paving stones for victory. Have faith in me.”

“Sir, are you serious?”

“In the next day or two, we will have a chance to win.”

At those words, the officer who had risked his life to make the suggestion nodded.

“Yes, sir. I’ll take your word for it, Your Excellency.”

“Thank you.”

“For the future of the Republic…”

Hoping for true equality and eternal paradise with the victory, the Republicans believed in Siegfried. 

For the first time, Siegfried felt guilty as he looked into their eyes.

‘It’s too late. All I can do now is win.’

***

“We currently have an overwhelming advantage in the battle on top of the walls.”

“Good.”

Duke Palan clenched his fist in victory when he heard the report. Sophia’s barbed wire was working very well against the Republican’s berserkers. The berserkers were like a bug caught up in a spider’s web, so all they had to do was stab them. Because of that, there wasn’t much for the knights to do on the wall now.

“Have a third of the knights standing by the gate. We don’t know when the gates might be breached, so triple the shields… no, make it five times.”

“Yes, sir!”

Listening to Duke Palan’s order from the side, Queen Leila spoke up.

“Don’t you think you’re focusing too much on guarding the gates?”

“Since the defenses above the walls have stabilized, the enemy will most definitely move to break through the gates.”

“But I think the gates of the royal capital are strong enough?”

“Yes, Your Majesty, the gates are tripled, but there’s a one in a ten thousand chance, so I think it’s better for us to be prepared. 

Marquis Ryan Catel was already waiting by the gates. For Duke Palan to add more knights to the gates showed that he wasn’t willing to give the Republics even a gap for a needle to get through. 

“I’ve left everything to do with the war in your hands, and yet, here I am, nagging about it. I’ll trust you.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

Having received Queen Leila’s trust, Duke Palan focused on the siege.

‘I can protect this. If we continue like this, I can protect them until His Highness the Grand Duke arrives.’

Although carelessness was something to be avoided…

As the war continued to go in their favor, Duke Palan became convinced of their victory.

***

Two more days passed.

The Lester Kingdom’s capital had perfectly blocked all the Republican’s attacks. In the middle of the battle, Jake had tried to climb up the walls with the Ghosts by dragging the remaining escalades, but the Lester Kingdom had made preparations in advance and Rick burnt the escalades with the oil.

And just like Duke Palan had expected, the Republicans had tried attacking the gates with a battering ram, but that hadn’t worked either. The gates to the capital city of the Lester Kingdom had a special feature where several layers of iron slabs had been added to the wood. 

At one point in time, Siegfried himself had stepped out and used his Aura blade, but had only managed to slightly damage it. Instead of damaging it, Siegfried had gotten damaged instead as arrows and catapults poured down upon him.

The Lester Kingdom’s capital was the definition of an Iron Wall of Defense. 

The capital had plenty of supplies, so they didn’t need to worry about starving. They believed they could last until Milton Forrest returned.

However…

“We’re ready, sir.”

Eliza looked at Siegfried with a smarmy smile.

“It’s finally done?”

“Yes, sir. It’s enough now. You can use it whenever you want.”

“......”

Rather than looking happy after hearing Eliza’s report, his face expressed bitterness. Even if he was Siegfried, he was still reluctant to use it, but...

‘There’s no other way.’

For a second, Siegfried recalled the words of his officer who insisted on speaking his opinion.

He had said that if anyone were to judge Siegfried, then it would be history that would judge him.

“History will put me down as the devil.”

“Oh? You’re hesitating over it now?”

“Well, I'm a human being as well, aren’t I?”

Siegfried looked towards the wall as he spoke to Eliza.

“I can’t give up now. Do it.”

“Yes, then as you say…”