The Villainess Will Not Bring Dishonor To Her Family

36 - Siege on Celeste Castle - Part 4

Marquess Folcon Guimont's Point Of View

The first day of our assault on Celeste Castle was over. I would say it was successful, though we suffered more losses than I expected due to unknown magic. We'd been going at it for a while when sudden clouds had filled the sky and poured rain for about half a minute before stopping. Seeing as it wasn't a natural phenomenon I had some of the water mages analyze it with the help of their faeries.

According to them it wasn't faerie magic. The faeries accordingly shook their head as they didn't know how it worked, however, the effect was clear. It was a large scale healing magic that healed everyone within the border of the rain. Except, the rain was always controlled so that the rain never passed the edge of the wall.

It was magic meant for warfare, but it wasn't magic from anywhere near here. I knew enough about foreigners to know that their magic was different. Further to the north they used magic by the help of runes.

Still, healing magic couldn't revive the dead, so as long as we focused on getting the kill, there was nothing for the enemy to do.

By the end of the day I was quite sure that somewhere between 50 and 100 of their men had died, leaving them with around 400 against our 2100. If not for the healing magic we would've killed substantially more. Furthermore, the weakest and most exhausted parts of the wall appeared to have been magically refreshed.

To make news worse, it was reported that traces of light magic was affecting the area as well. With a light magic user and a foreign healing magic we were outgunned in that matter... however... we still held the magic superiority, so I had our mages barrage the castle walls with magic. Their mages must've been running around all day till their exhaustion. Most of them should hardly have any mana left for the next day.

Still, be it fifty or a hundred a day, at one point they will not be able to take breaks from the wall, and they will fall like wheat in a storm. Losing at least a tenth of their fighting force on the first day should hit them quite hard.

There is one thing other than their two special magicians bothering me. It's the fact that the preparations for the assault failed. No. It is the manner in which it failed.

I was prepared for the bandits to fail, however, it was different for the strike force I had sent behind them. They were all good men specialized in city warfare. These otherwise experienced men I had borrowed from my neighbor were all slaughtered before they reached the city line.

I suspected that the observation tower we had taken on our way here had spotted them, however, even then the enemy commander must have predicted their entry direction and caught them unaware. Furthermore, they also spotted the plan of our explosives, though all the bodies of the bandits were quite a bit away from the guard station. The enemy commander appeared to have specifically ordered them to search, for there was no sign of torture on any of the bodies.

The enemy commander had been experienced.

Another thing that worries me is the following:

One of the survivors of the strike force reported the presence of a magic beast. I expect him to be exaggerating, of course, because he's trembling like leaf that has seen something out of this world.

The only thing I got out of him other than 'magic beast' was the following:

'It was smiling' 'Scorog' as well as him holding his ears as he thought back. Also 'Divine fang'.

Scorog was a magic beast of legends. It was said to be the unrivaled leader of all magic beast wolves, to which they all submitted and followed without doubt. Legends said that if you exterminated peaceful magic beast wolves Scorog itself would take command of its armies and eradicate the army hunting them brutally and violently with its fangs shimmering and its pelt appearing as moonlight. The tales of Scorog were drenched in blood.