Otherworld Nation Founding Chronicles

“Well, Fine. Let’s just take this time to recover and send another assault later.”

Tonino orders the siege equipment to be prepared in anticipation of the next assault.

Siege equipment are difficult to bring fully assembled so they’ve only assembled a part in the capital city. They intend to put them all together after arriving at Fort Terrier.

They come in different varieties such as catapults, siege towers, stairs, battering rams, and ships.

If you brought this much then normally you would have enough force to be able to bring the enemy down.

Furthermore, they now have prepared countermeasures for the fire medicine.

“Now then, let the siege begin.”

(Almis POV)

The bowmen fire arrows as the enemy siege towers draw near the edge of the moat.

The arrows kept pouring like rain.

Alongside the siege towers, the enemy also used boats to cross the moat. They then set up ladders against the walls and try to climb over.

They also tied together boats like a bridge. Using that, they bring over their battering rams and begin attacking the fort gates.

“What an intense assault, yes?”

Perm mutters while avoiding arrows.

“However, we won’t fall with just this much, you know. We, too, have defensive siege equipment.”

About the same time I said so, one of the enemy siege towers becomes engulfed in white smoke.

Then, the sound of explosions shakes the area and a second and a third tower gets engulfed in white smoke.

“Fire medicine, huh……”

“Yes, that’s right. Courtesy of our catapults and ballista.”

Ismere was quite knowledgeable in other areas apart from construction too such as regarding these siege equipments. These were made under her instructions.

Javelins don’t have enough range after all.

Since Ismere was able to construct ballista, I asked her if she could make crossbows and I got an affirmative.

However, it seems mass producing them wouldn’t be the best idea. They weren’t that much powerful, she said.

When I thought about it, the Battle of Crecy was an example of this. Furthermore, we probably won’t be able to make much with the present level of technology.

While it’s unfortunate, the bowmen themselves aren’t in any real pinch so I’ll just have to pass on the idea.

“They aren’t breaking though.”

Ordovices points ((at the enemy towers)).

Wha? That’s strange.

“Several sorcerers probably put up a physical barrier!”

They’re also using countermeasures like damp cloth and fire-resistant pelt…..

“The enemy commander has done his homework, huh. However…..”

“Tsk, They keep coming no matter how much you kill them!!”

Gram curses.

He’s proactively killing commander-like enemies but their morale isn’t changing.

They seem to have a proper system of command hierarchy. It only shows that they’re an army refined with a high degree of training.

Furthermore, because the enemy soldiers are furnished with metal shields, our arrows are having quite a hard time picking them off. 30% of our arrows are iron while the remaining 70% are bronze. We are indeed going to have a hard time.

In other words, it’s not going to go down like before with the battle slaves.

And because stones are being thrown every now and then, we also don’t have the leeway to safely fire our arrows.

“This won’t do…..Ron, sorry. I’ll leave those who manage to come up to you.” (Almis)

“Understood. It’s probably about the time they get sick of having their stairs fall off and having stones dropped on them, anyway.” (Ron)

Ron draws his sword. About the same time, an enemy climbs over the fort wall. However…..

“You did well! Eat some steel as a reward.” (Ron)

(TLN: Literally, ‘Okay, great job!’ only and in a funny manner. I added another sentence to adapt it. I don’t know how to adapt the funny tone in English so I’ll just make it badass. I’m not a good writer so sorry if it still doesn’t click.)

Ron cuts him down with his sword right in half. The enemy falls into the moat dyeing the water deep red.

“Alright, it’s our turn now!!”

Ron and the others kill the enemy one by one and let them fall into the moat.

“Look out!”

A man repels an arrow heading straight at Ron.

He’s one of the new recruits from the DeBell Clan, Joseph.

“Alright, I got a chiliarch to owe me one!” (Are you alright, Sir Chiliarch?) (Joseph)

“Yeah, I’m alright but…what you said and your true intention got reversed though.” (Ron)

The South Gate.

The situation here is somewhat worse.

“Hmmm, the enemy’s attack is quite intense, huh. It seems like they’re concentrating their assault here.” (Bartolo)

Bartolo drinks a liquor bottle dry. He then drops it on an enemy soldier’s head.

The enemy soldier instinctively protects his head with his hands.

Unfortunately, he was holding on to a ladder so down he goes.

“Now’s not the time to be drinking liquor, Sir Bartolo.” (Bolus)

Bolus brandishes his spear over his head and strikes a climbing enemy soldier.

Everyone’s very busy.

“The enemy commander has quite the unpleasant character too, huh. Instead of the vigorous and strong young commander in the north gate, he’s attacking the middle-aged old-timer in the south.”

While saying so, Bartolo skillfully moves and supports the bowmen. He doesn’t give off pointless commands.

That being said, his orders are limited to what he could cover.

One after another, the enemy soldiers crossed the moat and are climbing up the walls. It’s quite a bleak situation.

“It can’t be helped. Let’s use the new weapon we received from Lord Almis.”

Bolus ordered twenty soldiers to bring forth cylinders.

The twenty soldiers aimed them down at the enemy soldiers climbing up the ladders.

“Fire!!” (Bartolo)

Flames spout out from the cylinders.

The enemy receives the flames directly. They then fall as they catch fire.

A lot of them got so surprised about the sudden flames that they instinctively let go of the ladders and fall to their deaths.

The ladders, too, catch fire and then fall into the moat below. They sink into the water while producing steam.

“Dang, what a great weapon. It’s called a ‘Flame Cylinder’ if I recall correctly? The one who made this is a genius. Was it Ismere?” (Bartolo)

TLN: Author used 炎筒. It’s literally Flame Cylinder/Pipe/Gun. They still shouldn’t have known about guns so I crossed that out. I don’t have any other names for the thing. Anyways, it’s the Japanese word for Flare with a character missing (発炎筒). If someone could think up a better name given such context, I’d be happy to use that. Flamethrower is a whole different word in Japanese btw.

“Why thank you for your compliments, Bartolo.” (Tetra)

Tetra suddenly appears and answers.

“Ah, Madame. It’s dangerous here, you know? You’re a sorcerer, right? Be obedient an…” (Bartolo)

Five fireballs appeared around the circumference of Tetra’s staff. They then immediately fly towards an unsuspecting enemy just as he was about to climb over the rampart.

“Sorry. I was wrong about you.” (Bartolo)

“It’s good that you understand.” (Tetra)

And once again, Bartolo inquires Tetra.

“So, how does the thing work?” (Bartolo)

“Simple. You mix gunpowder with olive oil then you blow it with wind from a magic circle. Then you add fire from another magic circle this time attached to the mouth of the cylinder. It’s important to note though that you should cut the fire magic circle first before the wind magic circle after using the weapon. This is because normally the wind would be the one pushing the fire out of the cylinder so that it doesn’t ignite the fuel inside it. So, should you cut the wind magic circle first the fire might go inside the cylinder and cause it to explode.” (Tetra)

“Eehh…quite a scary weapon, huh.” (Bartolo)

Nonetheless, the Flame cylinder is quite frightening visually that the enemy soldiers’ pace took a hit. Slowly, the tide of the battle turned in our favor. The number of enemies climbing over the walls started to dwindle.

“Well, as for a weakness, it consumes a lot of fuel, huh.”

“That and the range is quite short. It would be difficult except in sieges.”

The two continue cutting down enemy soldiers as they talked.

Thus, the day ended with the war having made no significant progress or change.

“How many did we lose?”

Tonino listens to the report. Then, he breathes out a huge sigh and lets the soldier who sent the report leave.

“We suffered huge losses, huh.”

Carlo quips as he takes a sip of wine.

“Good grief…”

This time, they lost a lot of siege towers and bowmen. The bowmen got burned and crushed to death along with the towers.

Archery is a special skill that takes a lot of time to master so recovering the lost bowmen would be difficult.

“That fire blowing cylinder is damn troublesome.”

“That’s cheating, you know. Thanks to that, the troops are stricken with fear…”

Nonetheless, there’s no rule that you can’t use weapons like flamethrowers in war.

“Shouldn’t we have to change our strategy?”

Carlo concernedly asks Tonino.

Tonino shakes his head.

“No, we won’t change the plan. There won’t be problems, see. We still have plenty of time. For powerful enemies, you only have to tire them out to take them down.”

—–

“The casualties are……well, not a bad amount considering we took such an attack.”

There was a tinge of joy in my voice as I said so.

Though saying this is a little imprudent but I’m just happy that none of the people from my original village died. Although out of the 27, I’ve only brought 12.

Amongst the twelve, six people have ascended into managerial ranks in the army with the help of Ron and Gram. The other six are under my and Tetra’s protection so them getting KIA’d would be unlikely. However……

I want to have at least this much partiality be overlooked.

Or perhaps I should say that since losing bureaucrats and commanders would jeopardize territorial management, it would only be end up the same as with me having no such special feelings.

“Now then, I was thinking of bringing out some liquor even if just a small amount but….Perm, what do you think?”

“Would it be just fine? Although I’m not that versed in military matters……I can still say that a drink is probably necessary in times of trouble or emergency.”

“I also agree. It’s the first day after all. We have to be positive in the beginning.”

Bartolo also agrees.

“I know you just want to drink……”

Tetra candidly retorts Bartolo.

However, Tetra didn’t particularly disagree as if saying she won’t have any problems with it.

The other clansmen show their agreement too.

“Gram? Ron?”

The two shake their heads when I ask them.

“To treat everyone to liquor…….I agree with that. However, we must keep our vigilance.”

“It’s not the time for everyone to be drunk when a night attack is highly likely.”

It’s a reasonable opinion.

“Then how about we get some people to keep watch, like those weak to liquor or those who lose by lottery? Also, we should have the guys exercise self-control when drinking.

Wine in the Adernia Peninsula has an incredibly low alcohol level. You don’t have to worry about getting drunk unless you drink like there’s no tomorrow.

“Well, then, let’s end today’s council.”

Just like that the first day passed…..

Is what I thought.

“Night attack!!”

I got awoken by a soldier.

“It seems it went down just like Ron and Roswald said, huh.

I hurriedly went out to the action.

“Hmmm…we don’t know how many is attacking, huh.”

“It seems they’ve extinguished their bonfires so we wouldn’t know how much they’ve sent to attack. In other words, they’ve only probably sent a few since their objective is most likely to not let us sleep.”

Ordovices mutters as he strokes his moustache.

“Otherwise, they wanted it to appear as such while really intending to truly attack…for the meantime, let’s divide our troops into two. One half would sleep while the other shall fight.”

We could always wake the other half up should the enemy intensify their attack.

However….

“It seems we won’t be able to sleep soundly tonight huh.”

I let out a sigh.