Chapter Ninety: Set in Motion

A few more months passed, and the seasons shifted. In the blink of an eye, autumn had arrived.

That year, the situation in the Northern Domain changed again and again, too quickly to take in at a glance.

First, the Duchy of Endely in the south led its order of knights in a brazen campaign against the surrounding lands. At the same time, it turned hostile to the Five Great Duchies, and winning battle after battle, it shattered its formidable enemies in one sweep, thoroughly defeating the powers that had previously blocked its annexation, and driving them into siege beneath their capital.

In the north, by autumn, in a season that should have been one of rest, the many duchies had only just breathed a sigh of relief in the Northern Domain’s grim, bloodless atmosphere when they discovered that war had flared anew.

In this season of harvest, Aedis rose in arms without hesitation. He led thirty thousand troops, and with the mobilized reserve soldiers the total reached fifty thousand. Taking advantage of the fact that the south could not spare its hands at present, he began attacking the surrounding city-states.

The surrounding powers were thrown into alarm at once, and a wave of upheaval began to spread. Aedis’s sudden move left them somewhat unprepared.

After all, autumn was the season of harvest. In this season, no matter where one was, every lord in every kingdom would set aside their affairs and return to their own lands to organize their subjects for the grain harvest. There were few exceptions.

Even the Duchy of Endely, locked in great war to the south, had no choice but to temporarily slow its offensive in order to organize the people for the harvest; otherwise, it would not even be able to supply its armies with provisions.

But Aedis was the exception.

First, there had been decades of accumulation by the desert tribes of the northern wastes. With the full support of the Church of Nature, all of this had been stored in the royal treasury, and even after such long consumption, it was still enough to use.

Second, there was the matter of institutions.

Under the world’s original system, beneath the king stood the lords, and beneath the lords were the enfeoffed knights. This layered arrangement was indeed convenient in many ways, but it also brought countless problems to rule. Edicts could not be carried out efficiently.

This was especially true in the seasons of sowing and harvest. The great and small lords, together with the knights beneath them, had to return to their own lands, lead their subjects in planting and reaping, and collect the year’s taxes and levies. With everyone acting only for their own domain, not only was military power extremely dispersed, but great inconvenience and waste were also created.

In Aedis’s realm, however, because the noble lords had been stripped of their former autonomy and all officials were appointed by the state, administrative efficiency was vastly improved. Moreover, since the current legions used a full-time hired soldiery, with all soldiers supported by the state, the trouble of conscription was eliminated, allowing rapid deployment whenever needed, with none of the other city-states’ difficulties.

Under such circumstances, with prepared forces striking against the unprepared, even though the surrounding city-states had taken some defensive measures, such as erecting watchtowers and the like, they still found themselves pushed into a passive position under the crushing force of this mighty army.

The lords were scattered and isolated, the knights in little knots of three or five, utterly unable to form any respectable fighting strength. Aside from individual combat ability, they had no advantage at all against mustering forces that numbered in the hundreds or even thousands.

What was more, even in terms of individual strength, Aedis’s side was by no means at a disadvantage.

After the northern tribes submitted, a great many priests joined Aedis’s side, greatly strengthening the army. In addition, as battle aura gradually spread, anyone in the army of rank of a squad leader or above was given the chance to cultivate battle aura, and most were already close to the point of awakening it.

With all these advantages accumulating one after another, Aedis struck outward with astonishing speed.

Among these targets, Roya on the northern border and Baro, which Aedis had already annihilated five thousand men from before, were the first to bear the brunt.

At the frontier of the Baro Duchy, within a large camp.

"Bill, how is the situation around us?" A voice rose slowly in the quiet, heavy camp, breaking the stillness.

Standing before Aedis, Bill frowned at the map. After hearing the king’s question, he hurriedly rose and replied.

"Your Majesty, Lord Nadiel’s side is progressing smoothly. Because that region was where the Church first spread the faith, the Roya Duchy has been almost completely infiltrated by our believers. Even many of the noble lords there already belong to us. In addition, the Roya king is still young and not yet of age, so his decisions are inevitably slow. As a result, matters there are advancing very smoothly under the guidance of the believers, and they are already close to the city of Roya."

Aedis nodded. "And the hostages we sent out to persuade surrender?"

"They have already returned to their own families in accordance with our instructions," Bill replied.

"Among those families, these hostages were, by our arrangement, almost all the eldest sons. Although there must certainly have been much manipulation, and although they have surely changed over so long a time, they still retain a certain influence and can affect their families."

"In addition, with the group we previously infiltrated and bought over, that is already enough for us to open the situation."

He bowed slightly, then continued, "Moreover, in response to your summons, Your Majesty, several great priests who were originally defending the northern border against the demonic tide are already on their way here. Please need not worry."

Hearing this, Aedis finally nodded. He turned back to the map before him and said no more.

The army continued to assemble. After entering the Baro Duchy’s territory, the other side finally reacted. Large numbers of lords who had initially returned to their domains gathered together and began attempting to counterattack and defend against Aedis.

Yet there were too few of them. At each gathering, there were no more than several hundred men. Barely forming a force of a few thousand, they were then routed by one charge from Aedis and completely scattered.

At once, the surrounding lords were filled with fear and no longer dared test this utterly unfamiliar army. Under the king’s summons, they gradually gathered within Baro City, apparently hoping to rely on the walls for defense.

Yet faced with this situation, Aedis showed no sign of haste at all. On the contrary, he calmly established his camp nearby, slowly digesting the newly won territory in silence and assigning officials one by one to manage it, as though in no hurry to take the city.

Facing this, the royal house of Baro, while puzzled, also felt an enormous pressure descend upon them.

Originally, if Aedis had chosen to push straight in, then because of the great distance, his supply lines would inevitably have been stretched enormously. If the siege dragged on too long, problems would easily arise in the rear supplies, and in the end he might even collapse outright.

But now that Aedis had chosen to camp directly instead, matters were different.

Take those great and small lords who had been driven into the city by Aedis. Their arrival certainly brought some military strength to the city, but it also placed enormous strain on its logistics. Moreover, with so many armies of different allegiances stationed in the same city, the place quickly became extremely chaotic.

In these circumstances, Aedis dispatched troops to burn the wheat fields that had not yet been reaped, and under the guidance of his believers he slowly attacked the various domains, gnawing away at the Baro Duchy step by step.

Still, unless some unexpected event occurred, such a situation could not last long. After all, this place was far from Aedis’s homeland, and with the enemy’s strength still intact, rashly taking root here would only tie down his own power and slowly wear it away.

So Aedis continued to wait, waiting for the war on the other front to come to an end.