Chapter 6

* * * I, too, was mocked as a fool in my youth. But I still took control of the country. You can do that, too. Guess I just have to believe him. A panicked soldier brought me the news: The enemy was on the attack. I’d expected as much. “All right, fight with your lives, gentlemen! The enemy is scared! We can win this!” The men whooped energetically at my call. We were all in this together, no doubt about it. There was no way we could lose if our enemies were attacking us, without a plan, simply for being there. “Leave them to me!” Laviala yelled. She took cover behind a small rampart jutting out from the fort and, raising her head, unleashed a flurry of arrows. The enemy soldiers who got hit went down. Laviala’s bow technique was quite good; lots of elves were highly adept at archery. As for the enemy soldiers, their arrows were bouncing off the rampart, unable to reach her. We’d fashioned the fort to naturally lead attackers to the front, but since we’d made it too steep to climb, our assailants became target practice for our bows. Whether they shot arrows or magic fireballs, they didn’t have the power to break down the walls. This fort was made entirely of dirt. It couldn’t be burned down. It couldn’t be dismantled. There wasn’t even a gate to pry open. It was exceedingly simple. This was the most that could be built in a night, but because it was so simple, our foes were at a loss. The opposing forces started attacking again once they finally realized there was a way up to the fort on the flank. But that was also according to plan. We’d deliberately made the path sloped, narrow, and zigzag. When trying to break through, they would inevitably get slowed down where the path bent, resulting in a bottleneck. That was when we’d fell them from above with arrows. “Shoot them all! This path only leaves them more vulnerable! They’re fish in a barrel!” The first ten who came up all perished immediately. We could see everything the attackers were doing from our position. What’s more, the path was too narrow for the enemy to break through by relying on numbers alone. We could pick them all off when they were coming single file. “I was worried whether a dirt fort like this would be effective, but it seems to do the job,” the veteran commander Kivik said, astonished. “It was just a hunch I had,” I replied. When we’d been strategizing, for whatever reason all I could think of was a world where everyone was fighting with dirt forts. It might’ve come from the knowledge or experience of Oda Nobunaga. In that world, merely by creating a difference in elevation with dirt, the forts could easily fend off their attackers. Even a hundred men could repel a thousand without much trouble. Indeed, since no enemy soldier could fly, even dirt could be made into as vexing a fort as any, with the right handiwork. A castle, after all, was only ever a place to have a superior vantage point over an opponent. If you had the time, it was great to make a stone castle, but a defensive point could be made without it. With a suicidal push, some of the enemy had finally made it up the sloped path and were trying to get into the fort itself. They certainly were audacious. Crossing no-man’s-land to get at us? I’ll take you up on that. However, they all quickly turned pale. The way they’d come didn’t lead to the fort. A great, deep trench lay in between; not even the strongest leap could carry them across it. Ah, so you have a moat. Cut off a man’s path forward with that, and you’ll stop him dead in his tracks. There was Oda Nobunaga at it again with the commentary. Maybe he liked to talk. Laviala shot the soldiers who had been stopped. Unlike my foes, I could move my troops around using wood planks. “This dirt fort seems simplistic, but it’s actually really sophisticated. I’m shocked,” Laviala mused. “Yeah, so am I. Just by messing with their path in, we can get this much of an edge.” “As long as they keep coming at us so naively, we can’t lose. I mean, all our men are still in good shape.” Laviala looked behind her. She was right; there was hardly an injured one among them. We were fighting from an overwhelmingly superior position, so we had almost no fear of death or even any real danger. On the other hand, the enemy probably already had over a hundred casualties. Those who came from the front got shot up, and the ones who tried to invade up the slope were destroyed piecemeal. None of them had expected us to have a fort all the way out here. If they were only going to rush in without thinking, they were just going to raise their body count. They clearly hadn’t devised even the slightest plan for capturing the fort. In the end, the enemy withdrew, having accomplished virtually nothing. They seemed to have finally given up taking the fort. “Shall we give chase?” Kivik asked. Well, it is a chance to beat them up even more… “No, it’s fine. We don’t have as many troops as they do. Going out would only work in their favor.” We celebrated our win with a victory cheer. “Sure, I was the one who thought of this plan. But without all your courage, it never could have happened. You have my gratitude!” At my words, the men came alive, with the cry “Long live the Nayvils!” reverberating across the land. Hearing that we’d gained the upper hand, my brother sent us reinforcements. With those, we could protect both Fort Nagraad and the one on the other shore. In a letter, my brother praised my building a fort on the enemy’s land, saying, “I cannot express what an accomplishment this is.” He may not have been happy I was having success, but he was undoubtedly pleased about the threat being largely mitigated. With Mineria apparently having to give up on taking us by storm, the tense war situation cooled off for a bit. The enemy had lost too many men. They surely had no choice but to go back to the drawing board. I received an order from my brother to return home. Understandable—I was only ever supposed to be emergency help, after all. I would return to my land with Laviala. “Salute Lord Alsrod!” Kivik had all the men salute me before I went. “You are a hero for the ages, Lord Alsrod! Nayvil has been saved thanks to you!” “If I’m a hero, then so is each and every one of you! Let’s fight for Nayvil with our heads held high!” I replied somewhat loftily before departing. On the road home, Laviala said to me, “I thought I knew everything about you, but your achievements exceeded my expectations three times over.” “I can’t argue. I exceeded my own expectations three times over.” I’d gone into battle prepared to die, but we’d managed to drive the enemy back. Apparently, Laviala wasn’t satisfied, though; she was puffing out her cheeks cutely. It meant she was pouting. “Is something wrong?” “You should have told me you had such incredible powers! Hiding things from me is just cruel!” “Like I said, I had no idea myself! What do you want me to do? Personally, I think it’s all thanks to my job.” “You mean that Oda Nobunaga thing?” “Exactly.” I nodded from atop my horse. “Who cares about Spellswords? This has to be the strongest profession there is!”