“So this is the next place we have to conquer, eh?” Alice asked. She sat atop her horse, staring at the fortified walls on the horizon. Beside her, Suleiman had a solemn expression on his face. Alice raised an eyebrow when she didn’t receive an answer, and she turned her head to face the Padishah. “Right? This place here, you want to conquer it, yeah?”

Suleiman retracted his gaze from the walls and gave Alice a small smile. “That’s correct. This is Belgrade, the fortress that stopped my ancestor so many years ago.”

Alice nodded. “Do you want me to punch down the walls again?” she asked. She rubbed her chin and furrowed her brows. “It looks pretty reinforced, but I think it shouldn’t take more than seven hits to knock it down.”

Suleiman’s lips contorted into a wry smile. “Major General Lowenherz,” he said and took in a deep breath. “Quite frankly, I and my people are dumbfounded by your strength. I fear that if I rely on you, there will be certain unwanted consequences. I want to give my people a chance to shine, so I’d like to request for you to stay behind this time and fulfill your role as leader of the Janissaries.”

“You want me to stick around and defend you?” Alice asked with a slight frown. “You wouldn’t be using me to my full potential if all I did was guard you. If you don’t let me break down those walls, how are you going to get through?”

“Major General Lowenherz,” Suleiman said and stroked his beard. “Even if I hadn’t met you, I still would’ve pushed forward with this war of expansion. I have my ways.”

Alice pursed her lips and crossed her arms over her chest. “Alright,” she said. “If that’s what you wish, I won’t lead the charge and guarantee a victory for your men.”

A bitter expression appeared on Suleiman’s face. “Please, don’t say it like that Major General Lowenherz,” he said and lowered his hands onto his horse’s reins. “It truly is a little troublesome to have you lead the charge even though you do it very well. Certain unsavory rumors may spread about us.”

“No, no, I understand,” Alice said and shook her head. “I’ll just stay in the back, letting everyone else charge forward into danger even though I can protect them.”

“Major General Lowenherz…,” Suleiman said before sighing. “As the leader of my people, I’ll be fighting on the frontlines as well, but only after the wall has fallen. I can tell you want to fight and make a name for yourself. You’ll be able to do that while defending me as well.”

“Did I say I wasn’t going to defend you?” Alice asked, raising an eyebrow. “I said I’ll stay back and defend you, so I’ll stay back and defend you. Stop worrying so much.”

Before Suleiman could say anything, Burc hopped up onto Alice’s shoulders from his position in a basket hanging off of her horse. The white cat licked his paw before nuzzling his face against Alice’s. “Alice,” he said and yawned. “You’re awfully moody today.”

Alice wrinkled her nose. Was she being moody? “What does a cat know about moodiness?”

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“Everything,” Burc said. “We invented moodiness. Humans learned it from us.”

Alice stared at Burc before turning her gaze back onto Suleiman. “I want to see how you’re planning on taking down those fortress walls.”

Suleiman gave Burc a grateful smile and nodded at Alice. “Almost a century ago, my ancestor failed. He underestimated the strength of the walls and didn’t bring enough supplies or people to conquer it. In siege warfare, the side who has the most supplies wins if the battle is drawn out. However, if one side has an overwhelmingly greater amount of people, they can gain victory through sheer numbers and sacrifice. However, thanks to my engineers, we’ve found a way to change that.”

“Are you talking about those … things?” Alice asked. The army had been transporting large, heavy objects underneath a cover, but judging from their shape, Alice could tell they were similar to the thunder shooters the dwarves made back on the eastern continent. However, she couldn’t find the right word for her translation.

Suleiman raised his eyebrows. “Are you curious about them? It’s true that they’re going to be the main force for this operation.”

Alice nodded. Siege warfare wasn’t really popular back on the eastern continent. It was practically impossible to build impenetrable walls since an earth elemental could simply remove the ground from beneath the walls any time it felt like it. The thunder shooters that the dwarves developed were mainly used to shoot at dragons. If Suleiman could build something that strong, then wasn’t it possible his enemies could as well? If she got hit by one of the projectiles, it’d probably hurt a lot, maybe even taking her out of combat directly. “Do the enemies have them as well?”

Suleiman smirked. “If they did, I wouldn’t be confident in dealing with them,” he said and shook his head. “They have similar weapons, but none are as powerful as my bombard. We’ll outrange the enemy weapons and slowly whittle down their walls.”

“Slowly?” Alice furrowed her brow. “How long is that going to take?”

“I suspect it’ll take ten days at most,” Suleiman said and nodded. “If we undermine the walls by digging out part of its foundations, we can reduce the time it takes.”

“Ten days…,” Alice murmured. “How about you let me go over there and punch the walls down. I guarantee it won’t take even an hour. Think of how much time you’ll save.” She stroked her horse’s mane while maintaining eye contact with Suleiman. “Don’t forget. The more time you save during a siege, the less supplies you’ll use up.”

Suleiman gave Alice a wry smile. “That certainly does sound very tempting,” he said. “However, there’s something I have to take into consideration that prevents me from deploying you as a fortress smasher.”

“What consideration? You mentioned it earlier.”

“Well,” Suleiman said and stroked his beard. “You’re a witch. The Holy Roman Empire has established a force to capture witches. If they discover I’m recruiting witches, the whole empire will turn against me.”

Alice tilted her head. “Huh? Didn’t you recruit me despite knowing I was a witch? Why does that suddenly matter now?”

“I didn’t expect your abilities to be so … flamboyant,” Suleiman said. “If it were a subtle ability like growing crops faster or spreading illnesses to my enemies, I’d gladly let you use your abilities as you wished. However, having a witch punch down a fortress wall to conquer a kingdom is simply asking for the Holy Roman Empire to target me.”

“Is the Holy Roman Empire to the north?”

“Yes.”

“Isn’t that where you’re planning on expanding?”

“It is.”

“Doesn’t that mean you were going to war with them anyway?”

“I was planning on it after establishing myself in this kingdom’s lands.”

Alice nodded. “Well, since you’re going to go to war with them anyway, let me punch down the wall.”

Suleiman sighed. “Out of curiosity,” he said, choosing his words carefully, “do you … get pleasure out of punching down walls?”

Alice’s expression darkened. “What exactly are you trying to say about me?”