“I see, so once again that Chou brat has thwarted my plans.”
“Yes. I apologize, General Nguyen.”
To the west of Keiyou was the main camp of the besiegement team. Ten days had passed since we started to attack the walls of the impenetrable citadel. My men were likely all dead asleep in an attempt to recover even a little after their exhausting day.
The young strategist who was reporting the situation to me and my generals trembled as he continued. “That man... Chou Sekiei is inhuman. No matter where we are and no matter what time of day it is, he appears, swinging his sword and shooting his arrows. As per your orders the captains take command behind shields during the day and avoid torches at night. However, even with all these precautions, there are many casualties. The men are spreading rumors that Chou Sekiei is the reincarnation of the Undefeated Kou.”
“A tiger’s cub is still a tiger. If I were an ordinary soldier, I might wonder the same thing. To think that our spies were able to grasp details on Keiyou’s manpower and positions before we launched our attack, and yet we’re still unable to take the city...” I stared down at my left arm. The arrow wound from the other day had almost completely healed.
Chou Sekiei was only one man. Yet he alone was able to boost our enemies’ morale while lowering ours. If only I hadn’t suffered such a disgraceful injury during our first battle! I listened to the sound of the kindling crackle in the fire; it was early summer, but the nights were still cold. Biting back my anger at the Chou brat, I turned to the strategist. “What does the damage look like on our side?”
“Fortunately, we’ve not lost that many soldiers. However, there is an unusual number of wounded. We’re running out of medicine and bandages. They’ve also taken the men we sent to prepare for an evacuation.”
“Tsk, that cursed brat! This is his plan to buy himself time?” In a fit of rage, I knocked all of the pawns off of the tactical map. Under normal circumstances we would’ve long taken Keiyou by now. However, ever since our duel on the first day, the enemy had closed the gates and—despite the clear difference in forces—resisted our every attempt with a fearsome level of passion. If we don’t change our tactics soon, then... I looked down at the letter in my hand and felt my face twist.
There was fear in the strategist’s exhausted eyes. He must not have been able to get much rest. “What did His Imperial Majesty say?” he asked in a hushed voice.
I pressed my fingers against the bridge of my nose and tossed the letter onto the table. “‘Leave a defending force at Keiyou and use your army to charge the southern bank of the great river.’ The rest of the letter contains words of encouragement and praise.”
The generals and the strategist fell silent, their faces severe. The emperor’s judgment was sound and they were all well aware of that. Even if we failed to take Keiyou, we had Seitou now, which meant that we’d gained infiltration routes from both the north and the west. We had a strategic advantage over Ei. Three years ago, my friend and I approached the emperor with a plan: “Get the army through the Nanamagari Mountains and the great forest, force Seitou to submit in one strike, and then attack Keiyou.” Emperor Adai had accepted the plan and it was thanks to him doing so that we had gotten to this point.
But the enemy has fewer than three thousand soldiers. We have over thirty thousand! If we can’t even take down a single city on our own, then my—our—reputation as soldiers would be dragged through the mud. How could I bear such humiliation? What would I tell the families of the soldiers who’d lost their lives on this expedition? I could see determination on everyone’s faces; it seemed that they shared my opinion.
My lieutenant general, the lower half of his face hidden away behind the mask of a demon, spoke up. “What shall we do? Should we launch a full-scale attack without worrying about possible casualties?”
“No.” I shook my head and gazed down at the fire. In order to defeat the Chou brat with my own hands, I’d not been giving the emperor regular updates on the situation. I had to win. “Keiyou’s walls are tougher than what the intel suggested and our enemies’ morale is high. We will not be able to take the city with our usual siege weapons. We do not have enough time to starve them out and we will surely lose His Imperial Majesty’s favor if we lose any more men.”
I looked around at my subordinates. We’d survived the trip through the great forest and the Nanamagari Mountains together. They were akin to my family. I could not drag their names down with my own bullheadedness. I had to make a decision, even if I was reluctant to do so.
“We will use that. Make sure the shock troops are wearing heavy armor and helmets. This is an order.”
All of the subordinates fell silent and looked down at the ground. We were all well aware of just how powerful the new Seitou weapon was. Our usual leather wouldn’t be enough to protect ourselves and so we’d been training to fight in metal armor, which was far better at shielding us. However, we were the Crimson Knights. Our true power had always come from our cavalrymen, who would charge into battle and emerge victorious within minutes. This was how we had defeated all of our enemies—even those more powerful than us.
Would it tarnish our honor to use a new foreign weapon and clad ourselves in such heavy armor? I didn’t allow myself to dwell any further on that question. Instead, I slammed my hand on the table and spoke through gritted teeth. “We must win. It is far better to resort to tactics that we may disapprove of as warriors than it is to lose. Chou Tairan may be stuck in the capital, but we risk him returning if we spend too long here. We will take Keiyou tomorrow morning! We will put Chou Sekiei’s head on a stake and murder everyone in the city except for Chou Tairan’s daughter!”
“Yessir!” With that, my subordinates filed out of my tent.
Now that I was alone, I looked over at my suit of crimson armor. Shadows from the flames danced over its metallic surface. “It’s true that even a tiger’s cub is a tiger, but even so, he is far too strong. Just who is he?”
No one was present to answer. The only sound I heard was that of the final remnants of kindling crumbling away in the fire.