Chapter 181: Be lucky and don’t die!

“What was that just now!? Magic!?”

“What a deafening sound!”

“And those tremors and storms of dust…it was so powerful!”

“Look up there! There’s smoke there…is that where they’re firing that wide-range magic!?”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me! No way we can we fight against that! Let’s just run!”

The soldiers, all of whom haven’t seen a cannon before, thought that the attack just now was some kind of magic.

Seeing such tremendous power filled them with dread, prompting them to escape to as far a place as possible.

“E-Edel-sama! It’s too dangerous…! At this rate, we won’t be able to approach…!”

“Calm yourself! Look closely at the ground! Not that much has holes in them!”

As the cloud of dust gradually cleared, they were able to see the condition of the ground ahead.

While the ground was gouged quite deeply here and there, there were about 10 or so meters between the holes. That meant that compared to a volley of arrows, the chances of receiving a direct hit should be lower.

“Be lucky and don’t die! Go!”

“““O-ooooooo!”””

The remaining soldiers gave a do-or-die shout and then simultaneously restarted their march toward the capital.

However, as though to snatch away their newfound resolve, another volley of cannon fire descended upon them. Thunder, tremors, and flying dirt happened once again.

Some soldiers couldn’t endure the fear anymore and left.

In truth though, the cannon projectiles didn’t hit anybody even once. This was unfortunately not noticed by anyone.

After a while, they finally made it to the capital’s gates. At that point, the Albert army was reduced to only 5,000 soldiers.

◇　◇　◇

“Alright, the cannon scare tactic worked well. Now then, everyone fall back!”

Through the body double on top of the walls, I gave the instruction to retreat to the dwarves.

In this kingdom at least, no one has used cannons in warfare.

That was likely because they focused more on developing martial arts and magic but didn’t put much attention to developing weaponry.

So, when our cannons made a roaring sound and produced a wide explosion on the ground in front of them, they probably thought it was some kind of magic. If they knew what a cannon was, there was a chance they would have been less scared.

“They’d even be less scared if they knew we were aiming at only the ground and not them.”

A way to put it was that we were just bluffing with our cannon shots. That being said, we still managed to reduce their numbers.

Even with a reduced number of troops though, my father was unsurprisingly not deterred from charging toward the capital’s gate.

“Gaion!”

“Yes, sir! Waaaaaaaaaaa!”

At the very front was a man named Gaion. Standing at over 2 meters tall, he was quite a giant of a man. This was, without a doubt, one of the so-called four generals of my father.

While riding a horse that seemed small because of him, he wielded a club and headed straight to the gate at great speeds.

*Dogoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!*

Like that, he swung his club against the gate. That single blow destroyed the said gate, allowing him to pass through.

“…what power.”

He probably possessed some kind of Gift.

With a person who could do something like that, it was no wonder the Albert army was unmatched in castle sieges.

On a side note, Gifts that granted overwhelming power to people was another reason why weaponry development had such low priority.

“Oh well, it’s still within our assumptions.”

The Albert army got into the capital and were now headed toward the palace.

However, when about half of them had made it into the capital, I rebuilt the destroyed gate.

“!?”

“The gate fixed itself!?”

“We can’t get in…!?”

The gate suddenly reappearing before them, the soldiers at the back were forced to stop.

That resulted in nearly 3,000 soldiers being unable to enter the capital.

I had already incorporated the royal capital into my village, so not only was I able to build walls, I was also able to do other things like instantly rebuilding the destroyed gate.

My father didn’t seem aware of what happened to those in the rear. At the very least he didn’t stop the march of the remaining 2,000 soldiers toward the palace.

The end of this battle was getting closer and closer.