NOVEL NEXT Chapter XCIII – Thy wall be done.
65th of Summer 5859
The walls of Casamonu, Casamonu
It was a hellish night, especially for those guarding the walls of Casamonu. Their day had been ruined by one simple thing:
BOOM! Crackle…
A group of noisy neighbors had arrived to pound their walls in quite the rude manner. What’s worse, quite unlike a noisy neighbor’s kid making noise, the League had grown large enough to be a danger to their livelihood. Plus, the neighbor’s kids usually didn’t have an explosive cannon manned by a revolutionary catgirl wizard capable of bringing down castle walls.
Without the HOA anywhere in sight, the defenders on the walls had to deal with their neighbors by their lonesome. Sir Corvus had ordered the cannons of the city to shoot at the one cannon down below, but with a lack of experienced artillery crew, his artillery only managed to pound the earth around the cannon. Soon he had found himself out of gunpowder, and that was that for their cannons. Now they stood idle like the useless bronze tubes they were.
All that Corvus could do, and what he was doing right now, was ordering his men around to make sure that they were plugging the walls. Every mason in Casamonu had been drafted to reinforce the side of the walls which were being pounded by the cannon. Such a draft was justified in the face of this aggression shown to them by the Demon King outside of the walls. It was a heroic effort in their eyes, suitable for those who were living to see the avatar of evil in the flesh attack their city. A line of clergymen lined up next to the hardworking masons, quoting scripture at them for motivation while doing no physical work themselves. Corvus himself joined the clergymen in doing no real work; a lord such as Corvus would never stoop so low to touch a bucket of mortar.
BOOM! Crackle…
Another section of the wall was hit, and pebbles along with dust flew of the wall and flew into the faces and mouths of the masons. There was a bout of coughing and swearing while the old stone masons tried to reorient themselves after the explosion. The section that they had been repairing had gotten hit again. Normally having to work on fixing the same thing again would have been mildly annoying, but it was more of a life-and-death situation than annoying for those on the walls.
BOOM! Crackle…
With their adversaries down below getting better and better at aiming, the explosions had gotten even more accurate and frequent. The same section had been hit again. The masons got to work to try and plug the cracks forming in the wall before it’d completely collapse.
BOOM!
This time, the explosion was right above their heads. A couple of the masons and the soldiers overwatching them were wounded from the shrapnel. The wall was yet to be patched up. As the cannons were loaded back up again, the masons saw that the wall wouldn’t survive another round. They ignored the soldiers surrounding them and ran for it, running away from the weakened section.
BOOM! Crackle!
From a solitary old man in a cave, to a dozen fugitives, to a force numbered with three digits…
Brown and his men had gotten far in their march on, far enough to breach the walls of an actual castle.
65th of Summer 5859
Below the walls of Casamonu, Casamonu
Ayomide was feeling sleepy. Also bored. She was bored after having had to stand right next to this abominable copper tube without doing anything but cast wind magic. Everyone around her had stopped talking after having stood in the same spot with her for the last day. The excitement of battle had been, as is usually the case, replaced with sheer boredom as the siege dragged on to its second day.
“How are you faring, Lady Orange? Are the accommodations suitable around here for your royal tastes?” Here he was, to at least relieve her of some boredom. Shinasi dropped by the cannon after having finished patrolling the place and making sure that nobody inside Casamonu was trying to get out.
“It’s not as good as my royal seat covered with purple satin attended by my team of a hundred servants, but it’ll have to do.” Ayomide yawned after having launched another cannonball. “Somebody should get me a chair to sit on, at least.”
“Ayomide, we don’t have any chairs in the entire camp.” Such luxuries were far away from a makeshift siege camp “I haven’t found any chairs in the wild either, so we’re out of luck.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Yet another round was launched by Ayomide. They had been stockpiling cannonballs whenever her magic power ran out, and they had lots in the stockpile to quickly load into the cannon. “We’ll get to sit all we want when we siege this place down. Who knows, you might even find yourself an actual seat covered by purple satin?”
“If I find such a good seat, I’m firmly planting my butt on it and never moving it again.” replied Ayomide. The march, the scuffle in the village, she already had enough action to last her for the rest of her life despite her being only at the start of the battle against slavery. She’d have retired already if not for… well, Ayomide didn’t exactly know it at herself at that moment.
“I’ll make sure to shop for a good satin seat when we’re in town, then. Hopefully the shopkeepers will be a bit more responsive to us in our second visit.”
“I have the slightest suspicion that they’ll have to be a bit more responsive to us.”
Ayomide launched another cannonball, which cut their conversation in half. Following the great ball of smoke from the exploding cannonball was another greater ball of grey smoke as a wide section of the wall gave up on standing and crumbled down. There was a rumble which reached even the ears of the siege camp. After that, silence. The wall was rubble, and the rubble wasn’t a wall.
Through the breached wall, Ayomide could see the city itself. Or, she could see the rooves of the building from this far away at least.
65th of Summer 5859
Casamonu, City of Casamonu
Sir Corvus had, after having built up the courage to go up on the walls, almost been crushed under the rubble of the collapsing wall. His fine fur cape was now dirtied by dust, and his mood had been sullied by his new neighbors.
“Sir! Sir, are you fine?” A retainer ran to Corvus, helping him get up.
“I’m not! I’m not…” He looked at the breach. It was big, but… “They can’t defeat us if we continue to defend in the city. Get the men to calm down and go back to their positions!”
The retainer responded with a salute “Yes, sir! Anything else?”
“We must make sure that they don’t dare enter this breach. Station all available garrison members to around here, and make sure that the masons are here as soon as possible to repair this mess! That’s all, now get out!”
“Understood, sir!” The retainer made a run for it, leaving Sir Corvus alone. An urban area, walls or not, was a defensible position to have. The savages below, with their copper spears and helmets, couldn’t possibly win if they tried to assault the city itself. The cramped streets of a city made for excellent chokepoints which he’d use to choke the fugitives if they tried to enter the city. Hence, as long as Sir Corvus’ men weren’t forced out of the walls due to running out of food or water, they could defend this place indefinitely. Most luckily for Sir Corvus, he had already made quite the stockpile of food with all the raids he had conducted in the rural areas of Casamonu. He estimated that they could last for half a year, and by then reinforcements from the Empire would surely come to relieve his forces.
Sir Corvus would be fine as long as his food stocks were fine.