Chapter 35: Luring the Tiger Away from the Mountain?

Just as Gaierte and the guards disappeared into the darkness outside the mansion with heavy footsteps, Baron Jiefulun irritably waved away the maids who tried to continue serving him.

“A bunch of idiots! They can’t even deal with a little critter that sneaked in. Those guys on the north wall are useless!”

“Hmph! But now that Gaierte, the great mage, has gone there himself, there should be no problem...”

Cursing under his breath, he sat back down on the soft couch, grabbed the gold-rimmed wine glass beside him, and downed the remaining amber liquid. The cloying, spicy taste barely suppressed some of the anger in his heart.

He was about to call for more wine and a musician to dispel the bad luck—

“My, my lord! Something terrible has happened!”

Another guard stumbled and crawled into the hall, his helmet askew, his face drained of color, his voice distorted by extreme terror.

“The…the south wall! By Night Whisper Forest! Suddenly there are…so many torches! A dark mass of orcs! They…they’re gathering, pushing a battering ram! It looks like they’re…about to attack the city!”

Clang! The gold cup slipped from Jiefulun’s hand, rolled onto the thick carpet, and quickly spread a dark stain. The fury on his face froze instantly, replaced by an incredulous shock.

The “little trouble” at the north wall hadn’t been resolved yet, and now a large group of orcs had gathered to attack the south wall...

After coming to his senses, Jiefulun gritted his teeth. “Damn it! So it’s a decoy!”

It wasn’t surprising that Jiefulun thought so. Just after Gaierte had been sent to the north wall to quell the disturbance, the south wall reported the orcs mobilizing to attack.

Under his command, he only had Gaierte as a high-level combatant. As for his elite soldiers, they were either ordinary civilians or first-rank apprentice warriors or apprentice crossbowmen—none of them were of any real use.

They were certainly enough to deal with ordinary people, but if that orc army contained second-rank or higher combatants, even with the advantage of the city walls, it was hard to say whether they could fully resist the enemy’s assault.

Without Gaierte holding the fort, the south wall’s defense would indeed be somewhat dangerous.

However, the “rat” that had sneaked into the north wall couldn’t be completely ignored either. If Gaierte could finish quickly, resolve that trouble, and then rush to support the south wall, it should be in time!

As his thoughts raced, Jiefulun suddenly stood up. The shock faded from his face, replaced by a fury at being outmaneuvered and a harsh cunning that believed he had figured out the whole situation.

He immediately redeployed.

“By my order!” Jiefulun’s voice was decisive and resonated in the empty room. “All personnel in the mansion barracks, except for necessary sentries, assemble immediately! All crossbowmen, shield guards, and spearmen are to be mobilized, led by Captain Hark, and rush to reinforce the south wall!”

His eyes locked onto the guard in front of him. “Tell Hark: I don’t need him to defeat the orcs. I only need him to hold the wall! He must defend it, not a single step back! Use every log and rolling stone to smash those hairy beasts! Hold until Mage Gaierte returns to reinforce us—that is victory!”

The guard acknowledged with solemnity, turned, and ran off.

Jiefulun let out a long sigh.

The mansion’s guard had been depleted by more than half in an instant. This was undoubtedly a risky move, but if the south wall fell, everything would be lost. He could only gamble—gamble that Gaierte could finish quickly, that the commotion at the north wall was only a small problem caused by his rabble of a garrison being caught off guard.

Wait... If some orcs had already sneaked in, then...

“Someone!” Jiefulun called over a personal guard from the mansion, lowering his voice. “On my orders, take an elite squad and set up an ambush in the dungeon. Make sure you keep a close eye on those ‘goods’. If any ‘rats’ sneak in... heh, eliminate them on the spot, understand?”

Hearing this, the guard immediately nodded in agreement, then received his orders and withdrew.

After giving his orders, Jiefulun clasped his hands behind his back, walked to the window, and gazed at the distant south wall. The warmth from the sweet wine had long faded, leaving only a sense of emptiness.

He turned his head somewhat displeased to look at the musician in the room. “What are you staring at? Keep playing, keep dancing.”

Soon, the luxurious room was once again filled with soothing, melodious lute music, and Jiefulun lay back down on the large bed.

Outside the lord’s mansion, the clamor of orders, the clashing of metal, and hurried footsteps quickly spread.

The previously silent barracks exploded like a stirred-up hornet’s nest. Lamps blazed, shadows flickered.

Sleeping soldiers were roughly awakened, cursing as they donned armor and grabbed weapons. Under the harsh shouts of officers, they stumbled out of the camp gates, still dazed with sleep, and rushed toward the south wall.

But what no one expected was a tearing sound that split the night sky from the north without warning.

It was not thunder, but a more muffled, more violent, terrifying roar that seemed to tear open the very guts of the earth in an instant.

Immediately afterward, a blindingly intense blaze, mixed with rolling smoke, shot into the sky, violently piercing the black veil of night and illuminating the silhouette of nearly half the northern district in an eerie, brilliant light.

Even the clamor from the distant south wall was stunned into an abrupt silence by this terrifying “fireworks” from behind.

...

North Wall.

On the patrol path, guards lay scattered, unmoving.

Liko flicked her hand as if shaking off non-existent blood droplets. Her erect cat ears swiveled alertly, listening to the area that had fallen silent, leaving only the sound of wind.

“Done~ It went even smoother than I expected.” She murmured to herself, her fluffy tail drawing a contented circle.

The human guards were more slack than she could have imagined. Except for the few she had deliberately allowed to escape, she had taken them all down with almost no effort.

Everything that had happened here had already drawn the lord’s attention. Liko could see the distant pinpricks of torchlight heading her way.

Now, it was time to send a signal to her companions waiting in the distant forest.

Kicking aside a guard blocking her way, Liko arrived at the watchtower by the city wall. She pulled a small jar from her waist and splashed its pungent liquid all over the nearby haystacks.

Then, she took out a flint. Click! A small flame appeared, which she casually tossed onto the liquid. Whoosh! The flame shot up instantly, standing out sharply against the darkness.

After doing all this, Liko did not run. Instead, she stood still, hands on her hips, nodding at the spreading fire as she admired her handiwork.

But just then, a strong sense of crisis surged in Liko’s heart, making all her fur stand on end. She instinctively dove to the side.

Behind her, there came an extraordinarily intense and rapidly rising magical fluctuation, along with an ominous heat and vibration from the stones of the tower base.

The next moment. *BOOM——!!

A blindingly intense purplish-red light burst and gushed from every crack in the base, instantly engulfing the entire bottom of the watchtower.

Immediately, an unimaginable shockwave, carrying countless fragments of stone, broken wooden beams, and burning hay, sprayed in all directions!

The towering stone-and-wood structure groaned under the strain, then, in an earth-shattering explosion, snapped in two!

The upper half of the tower leaned outward, in a slow-motion yet unstoppable, menacing posture, before crashing down onto the outer wall!

*CRASH——! CLATTER——!!

More violent sounds of impact, stone shattering, and wood exploding in flames followed in succession. Smoke and flames shot into the sky, illuminating nearly half the night sky over Black Cliff Territory!

Liko was directly blasted away by the terrifying explosion shockwave, slammed into the brickwork of the city wall, and coughed up a mouthful of blood in disgrace.

Though not dead, she was not much better off.

Liko struggled to lift her face, now covered in dust, and stared at the towering flames and smoke plume. Her expression grew extremely complicated.

“Ugh... cough, cough...”

“Is... is this a human trap? Such terrifying power...”

“But... with such a big commotion, the ‘draw attention’ mission... should be considered overfulfilled, right?”