It’s already two weeks since the last day of the festival; currently I’m overseeing the road construction for the village, the road will connect the village and the Habsburg castle to further increase the presence of the village in area, for road construction we used tar rather than stone because its much more sophisticated the road constructors were curious why I chose tar though but I just told them that they must use it with no questions ask.
Tar was first used in 8th century AD in the Arab Empire Particularly in Baghdad it may be expensive but at least It can be used for the long term, now the real problem is not the road construction but the security of these roads, with bandits running here and there merchants and peddlers might be robbed when using this road to solve this problem we made an outpost every 200 meters so that we will be alarmed immediately in case of robbery, it may be a crude method but we have no choice.
While I was overseeing the road construction a messenger arrived and gave me a letter, the messenger told me that it’s from my brother so I hastily opened it and read it, “Dear Brother, please I need your help immediately, with father gone the security of the castle is low, because of it bandits are running rampant in the vicinity of the castle, recently they’re starting to gather in huge numbers and now plans to raid the castle, I already sent letter of reinforcement to all available nobles under our family but you are the only one closest here so please come immediately and gather all of your available troops so that we can hold while the other nobles come here and exterminate those despicable rats from behind, please brother we must save the castle for father”
How in the hell can I help him? I only have a total of 40 men including volunteers and half of them are injured veterans! Well even if they are veterans most of them can't fight properly but still their experience maybe helpful but he didn’t even include in the letter the total number of enemies! At least he must give estimation.
What to do? What to do? While I was pacing back and forth when Anselm came and ask what was wrong, I told him everything that was written on the letter and when he heard it he suddenly laughed and said “Milord there’s no need to worry about the bandits why do we need to confront them anyway? Habsburg castle has a solid defense and those bandits will need ladders to climb the walls, so we just need to stay at the castle walls! We can wear them out until reinforcements arrive you know? What are you worrying about?” “What I’m worrying about is that there is no clear number of enemies! We might face thousands you know? If we include my troops then the total troops in the castle will be only 200! Not to mention you guys are injured while the other half is newbies and volunteers.”
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But Anselm still insisted that it’s alright that even though they are injured they can still fight and that I’m underestimating them, after arguing back and forth with him I finally gave my consent, after a whole day of preparation we head to the Habsburg castle directly on the way though we encountered some bandits for the sake of making the volunteers and newbies accustomed to battles Anselm and his men just stayed on the side while letting the newbies and volunteers fight but when the situation calls for it they help.
We also met some mercenaries I employed only 10 of them though because I don’t really trust mercenaries they’re just slaves of money and when push comes to shove they’ll just abandon you for their own safety or worse betray you, after all that we finally arrived at the castle the surroundings is silent and the castle fully ready for battle with burning oils on the gate and ballista armed and ready.
When I neared the castle gate I saw a familiar figure my older brother Werner behind him my mother and my sister Adelheid, my brother and I had a little talk and I learned that the total number of enemies almost reached 800, I was shocked and asked when will the enemy attack according to him tomorrow, when I asked when the reinforcements will arrive he just said 3 days after tomorrow when I heard all of it I sunk in despair, why did I never study in any art of war books! This is so stupid fighting 800 with 210 its 4 versus 1 for crying out loud!
When Anselm saw my countenance he laughed and said “Milord even though you have the wits surprisingly you don’t have your fathers guts! Look at Lord Werner even at the face of danger he’s still composed and relaxed learn from him at least.” Well that hurts my own men called me a coward; of course I’m scared I never experienced any bloodshed or war in my life! Well in my previous life at least.
Gathering my wits and with the intelligence of a modern man tried to concoct various schemes to at least outsmart the enemies on the oncoming siege, suddenly a bright idea came to me, I told my plans to Anselm and Werner and when they heard Anselm laughed and said that I’m mad while Werner seconded the opinion, they just said that they will consider it if they have no more choice, sigh I need to go to my room and relax I thought, when I entered my room I saw Adelheid waiting for me inside.
When I saw her I was flabbergasted by her beauty but wondered why is she inside? Is she planning something? While I was thinking of all sorts of things she suddenly requested for me to take a sit next to her, HEY! HEY! HEY! YOU’RE NOT PLANNING ON DOING SOMETHING TO A 9 YEAR OLD RIGHT? I thought but even though I was scared i still went to sit near her, while I was walking toward her slowly she suddenly said something that shocked me