Emperor of Steel

The next morning.

The soldiers in the Fortress, who ate and drank last night, were waking up from their respective places while rubbing their eyes.

“Ahhm? I slept really well. What about the reinforcements?”

“Haven’t they come yet?”

“A little more time and they’ll be here.”

Not knowing that Luke had lied to them, everyone was still hanging by the ropes.

The swollen hope of a group of reinforcements coming in from the south.

“Reinforcements! Reinforcements are coming!”

“Where? On my, are those reinforcements?”

“Oh my! Let’s open the gate quickly!”

The soldiers opened the gates of the Fortress. But when they saw the starting team of the reinforcements, they were dismayed.

It was because they were the separate troops which had been led by Hobart and Anna.

“What is this? It’s just you guys? What about the reinforcements?” Asked the soldier at the gate.

“Ah, about that…”

The soldiers who were deceived had been told the truth by the one who entered.

When the truth reached the soldiers, they all rushed over to Luke who was in the parade ground.

“Sir, what happened to the reinforcements?”

“Are they not coming, sir?”

“Was that really just a trick?”

The questions from the soldiers flowed out non-stop.

Luke raised his hand as a sign of asking them to stop their questions. And the soldiers who realized that they were being rude to their commander, withdrew.

“We are sorry.”

“Oh, that, we were just…!”

It was short, half of the soldiers were on the verge of crying, and the other half were angry.

“Did you deceive us?” Asked a soldier.

“To deceive the enemy, I had no choice but to deceive you. It was necessary to break the enemy’s attack somehow and divert their flow,” said Luke.

“But…”

The soldiers stared at Luke for a moment.

It was because of the fact that they had been lied to and deceived.

But if they thought about it, if it weren’t for the lie told by the commander, the Fortress would have been captured by the enemy’s continuous attacks.

They would have never been able to enjoy the feast or the party.

“Don’t be so sad or upset. There won’t be any battle for a few days,” said Luke.

“Is that true?”

“Yeah, trust me. This time, that isn’t a lie.”

By the time Luke had told them that, a soldier who was on duty of spying the Fortress came running with news of the Volga Republic army’s camp.

“There are no troops trying to enter the Fortress from the outside, except for a few horsemen who entered the Fortress this morning. There were no reinforcements for the enemy!”

“We were completely deceived by them!” Said a soldier.

“We need to resume our attack right now and wipe out those snakes out of here, sir!”

“Right. Go ahead and issue the order!” Asked a soldier.

The staff was asking Tyron to issue an order to resume the battle, but Tyron didn’t open his mouth. He was deep in thought.

He was a wizard.

Unlike the hasty staff who were knights, he was thinking about various possibilities.

‘In the end, we were deceived and gave them a good pleasant night to rest. But, would attacking right now be the best decision for us?’

They were given some time, like a vacation break.

The soldiers of the enemy drank all night and deceived the Republic.

Tyron was wondering if they would be deceived once again.

‘A trap to attract us? If so, we would fail if we attack blindly.’

Thinking so, Tyron gave orders to his staff.

“Pick out five thousand vanguards. Attack the fort by picking the units which didn’t participate in yesterday’s attack.”

“Understood, sir!”

The staff was disappointed as they were ordered to launch the canon, but were still content with the commander’s decision to attack them.

When the meeting was done, the units were organized, and something unexpected happened.

“What did you say? A messenger from the Fortress has come?”

“Yes. A while back, he was seen holding a white flag.”

The staff frowned at the act. They were all suspicious of what the commander of the Fortress was trying to accomplish.

“Sir, there is no reason for us to meet him. So slash his neck right away.”

“No. Killing a messenger who came in to talk is a barbaric act. It will defile the beliefs of our soldiers and troops, as well as the entire Volga Republic.”

“Then let’s just ignore the request.”

The staff was fighting with one another like wild dogs. Tyron asked the knight who had come in with the information about the commander’s visit.

“Hasn’t he told you why he has come here?”

“He said that he would talk about it directly to the commander of the camp,” responded the knight.

“Is that so? Then what were his role and statement?”

“That, that is…”

The knight was flustered. He looked at Tyron directly in his eyes and said,

“His name is Luke de Rakan. He is a Viscount, and the Commander of the Fortress.”

“What, what did you say?!”

The eyes of the staff around Tyron went wide.

Not a knight or a soldier, but the enemy himself had directly come to meet them!

And he did that after making his subordinates enjoy a night of feast and partying.

“Hahahaha!”

Marquis Tyron burst into laughter.

The staff was all bewildered with Tyron’s action.

“There is a huge gap between us. The descendant of Rakan?”

“Yes, he definitely said that.”

“This is interesting. Call him in. I’ll see what tricks he is trying to do.”

The staff kept on talking, but Tyron didn’t listen to a single thing they said.

Surely the enemy’s strategy was a trick. However, Tyron was wondering what kind of character would the descendant of the Warrior Rakan, who the fairies considered as their enemy, possessed.