Chapter 76 - Well Informed

This time, Zaos didn't feel much when dozens of those mercenaries fell dead with arrows on their heads. However, the other recruits couldn't help but shiver at the thought that their arrows pierced the flesh and even killed human beings. Elius knew that the second volley of attacks would take too much time, but the first wave had been more than enough. The mercenaries equipped their shields and assumed a defensive stance before turning around and seeing a new force behind them. Due to the shock, they didn't notice that the armored soldiers behind weren't incredibly short, so they tried to run away instead of fight back. However, out of nowhere, a group of one hundred or so soldiers mounted on horses appeared and attacked the mercenaries.

"Run toward the town's gate! Now!" Elius shouted.

No one understood that order, but they obeyed it anyway. At the same time, the riders stopped their attack when Elius and the recruits reached the city gates that had been opened. The surprise attack had served its purpose… give a chance to everyone to enter the city.

When the cavalry finally stopped attacking, the mercenaries had the chance to turn around and see what was going on. They couldn't help but be dumbfounded since they were fooled by an army of kids and only one hundred riders. When the almost destroyed gate closed, the mercenaries clenched their teeth in annoyance, and they almost charged again, but for some reason, they stopped. Zaos, who had quickly climbed the walls alongside Elius, saw the mercenaries disappearing in the distance when they entered a small forest.

"That was odd, sir," Zaos said.

"Don't mind them. Return to your squad and make sure to keep them focused," Elius said. "The same goes for all of you. The gate is almost destroyed, and repair it will take days. The mercenaries retreated for a strategic reason, so don't fool yourselves by thinking this is over."

Zaos turned around and noticed that the town probably only had around ten thousand inhabitants despite being completely walled. The normal garrison of such a place probably wasn't bigger than two hundred men. Considering that a good number of them probably died on the first day of the attack, things weren't looking good.

The town of Krisaldia didn't have many things that could make it stand out. Aside from the pretty tall walls, everything else was pretty ordinary. Such a town was probably built in order to offer some support to the military base, so it was only expected.

"For the time being, you guys should check your gear and clean before resting for a while," Zaos said to his squad members. "Stay close to the walls, though. Another fight might break out at any moment."

Zaos climbed the walls again and noticed that there were many wounded soldiers. Elius was checking things with them. The place had plenty of weapons since it was there where the weapons and gears used by the soldiers in the Northern base were forged. But the number of people who could use them was too few.

"No wonder I didn't see many archers or a single ladder to climb the walls on the mercenaries' side," Zaos thought. "They didn't imagine that the town would hold out for more than a single day."

While that was good, it was also bad, and Zaos knew that. The next time they come, the mercenaries won't pull their punches. Still, it was weird that they attacked so early in the morning without using the standard tool for a siege.

After checking their gear and cleaning them, the squads waited for further orders since they couldn't quite rest appropriately while they were so tense. Zaos decided to meditate to calm himself down as well, but Drannor showed up.

"Hey, Zaos," Drannor said. "It looks like we enlisted in a pretty intense year, huh."

"If you hadn't said it, I would have never guessed," Zaos said.

"Still, this situation is kind of odd," Drannor said. "I didn't know much about the enemies here in the North, and that is one of the reasons I came, but I heard a few things about the enemies in the other regions. I didn't expect to see them here, though."

"… Tell me what you know," Zaos said.

"You don't know about them, how weird…" Drannor said.

While Zaos focused a lot of his time on learning more about the world, he tried to learn more about practical things instead of military affairs. After all, he was the future head of a militaristic family. Learning about those so early on would only make him worry a lot.

"My father once told me about how we are in the center of a great land," Drannor said. "He didn't mention a single thing about the enemies in the North, but he mentioned several things about the other regions. In the South, there is another kingdom that is very similar to ours. In the West, there is a country that is divided into many parts in the ocean. Father said that their military forces rely on vehicles called ships. While in the East… there is a land of never-ending conflict that has not a leader, but hundreds of them. The population there is extremely large. That is why for the past hundred years, many lords have been fighting against each other to unify their lands. Since there is no king, there is no army, but there are plenty of mercenary groups."

"I see… so these guys came from that region," Zaos said.

Still… that was weird. Why would two groups that were so different from one another would suddenly work together? Zaos had a hunch that something like that never happened before, but it was evident that they were working together. Their timing was just good, not to mention, the mercenaries were quite away from their home. Zaos was getting tired of finding new evidence that was telling him that he would live from now on, in an age of conflict.