Chapter 43: Chapter 38 – The Siege

The siege has begun in earnest, and Karine returned to us shortly after.

A constant barrage of cannon fire is being shot at the capital’s walls, which, in turn, are absorbed by magical shields cast over them. Thanks to the range of the cannons, they can’t even respond in kind. It seems like the only people they could use are mages, and… Well, they’re busy shielding the walls instead of attacking.

I bet if it weren’t for the magic used instead of gunpowder, the noise caused by the cannons would be deafening. But they’re actually kind of quiet. Quiet enough to have a conversation close to them.

Can’t be the same for them, though. Cannon balls hitting their shields at full speed and shattering has to be noisy!

Some of them seem to explode on impact. That has to mean they have further magical enchantments. Or maybe explosives? You can’t really tell the difference.

“Well,” Karine says with a sigh, “This much was to be expected. At least they can’t shoot back, and we have nearly unlimited ammunition. There’s no way they have more mana than we have shots.”

Just that we don’t have the time to keep shooting at them forever, either!

Avilia is looking at a contraption next to one of the cannons and then turns towards Karine. “Using magic to create cannon balls on site is not a bad idea, but will they not be weaker than proper ones made of iron?”

“Sure, normally. But they’re reinforced with magic, too. If the defenders let any of them hit the walls, they’ll cause a lot of damage. The amount of mana needed to create one and to lob it over to them is far lower than the mana needed to stop one.”

Portable, rune powered cannon ball fabricators. Isn’t it a bit like 3D printing or something? Ingenious. I wonder who came up with that?

“But that isn’t the entire plan,” I say, “is it?”

A wicked smile comes across Karine’s face. “Of course not. No matter how well our plans are going, we can’t just hope they won’t be able to get reinforcements sooner than we’d like. We need to advance to the next phase of the plan.”

“The infiltration, right?”

She nods. “That’s right. And as it happens, we came to this spot because it’s closest to the secret entrance.”

I scoff. “Not much of a secret entrance if we know about it, is it?”

“Now, now. A city this old was always bound to have weaknesses. And with this war, this just war against an unjust hereditary monarchy seeped in corruption, we were always likely to gain allies who’d know the ins and outs of it.”

Karine looks down to the ground.

“Not that I’ve been a proper part of this rebellion for that long,” she says and turns to look at me. “But I had been preparing for years. And meeting you two finally pushed me to do the right thing.”

“You didn’t have to claim I’m a summoned hero, though.”

“I’m sorry about doing that. But the more I’ve thought about it, the less it makes sense that you wouldn’t be one!”

“Because…?”

“Because you’re an outworlder! You were brought here!”

“But I wasn’t brought here by anyone’s design. All other summoned heroes were, well, summoned.”

“You’ve done a feat no one else could!”

“Because I was transported here and got lucky with my location. Pure coincidence.”

“You learn things so much faster than anyone else!”

“Because of my cybernetics. Where I’m from, at least this much is nothing special. Actual ‘summoned heroes’ just know how to do things without being taught, don’t they?”

Karine sighs. “You may see it that way, but that’s why I think you’re one. There are no records of outworlders who weren’t also blessed by a god. It’s possible you just have had a rougher start of it than most! You’ll see!”

It aggravates me that she might be right. To a degree. If Avilia’s right, others finding out about the being that’s trying to contact me could cause a lot of trouble.

And I should keep all of this secret.

“Let’s just leave it at that then, shall we?”

Karine nods. “He should be here soon, anyway.”

What, were we waiting for someone?

“Ah, there he is.”

I turn towards where Karine’s looking. A cloaked figure is jogging towards us.

“Sorry to keep you waiting!”

I recognize that voice! It’s Vaqelin.

“Alright, with you here, we can finally go for the entrance.”

I perk up as we start walking. “Wait, what? You mean we’re the ones to infiltrate the capital?”

“Oh, didn’t I tell you? It was decided that the ones to infiltrate would be us four and a couple of soldiers.”

No. I’m pretty sure you didn’t say a word about that. Just mentioning infiltration isn’t the same as saying we’re the ones to do it!

“What happened to keeping us out of combat?!”

“Oh, I’m sure it’ll be fine! That’s why we’re here! And why we’re bringing a few escorts!”

“But aren’t we meant to capture the royal family?! How do you think we’ll do that without a fight?!”

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“Oh, if everything goes according to plan, you won’t have to lift a finger!”

I place my palm over my face. Sure. Of course. Right. This is some massive backwards thinking.

“What, exactly, makes you think we won’t have to fight if we go straight into enemy territory?”

“Basically,” Vaqelin replies without skipping a beat, ” We need you to be inside the capital to incite the people as the people’s summoned hero.”

“That’s exactly it,” Karine says. ”We’re going to cause an uproar inside the capital, use the commotion to redirect the capital’s transporter to allow entry from our transporters and then proceed to infiltrate the royal quarters, taking the royal family captive!”

“So that’s how you intend for it to be done,” I say, trying to hide my incredulousness, “But why didn’t you tell us all this ahead of time?”

“I thought I did?”

“You definitely didn’t! All you said was that there’d be an infiltration that’d proceed to take the royal family, with changes to the plans if the infiltration is detected too soon. You didn’t say that it’d be us going in there!”

She coughs. “ Well, it’s too late to fret over every minor thing. We’re almost at the entrance.”

The entrance appears to be safely just behind our lines.

There’s just one problem.

“Karine,” I say, “Where are the soldiers?”

“I don’t know,” she says with a sudden, uncharacteristically serious tone, “They should be here. Something’s not right. Be prepared.”

As we slowly walk closer to the entrance, I hear a strange, crackling noise.

Interference?

Something’s coming!

Something struck my shield. I managed to cast it just in time.

A dagger?

“Aw, I thought I had you.”

It's a voice of a man I’ve never heard before. Arrogance is dripping from it.

Actually, the view before us has changed drastically. Where there was nothing…

There’s a man clad in black armor, kneeling in the middle of the bodies of at least half a dozen soldiers.

A quick look at Karine tells me she looks almost scared. “How? How did he get here?”

“Who’s that?”

“That,” Karine says with fear in her voice, “That is the summoned hero, the black knight of Fortalie. How… How is he here? We took every precaution!”

The summoned hero? I thought he was supposed to be fighting the beastfolk in the periphery, not waiting for us at the capital!

“Heh. Heh heh. Where else could I be? When I was told we couldn’t fast travel back to the capital, I knew something was up.”

He stands up.

“It was a trivial matter for me to get back even without fast travel. Surely you must’ve known I had personal teleportation in my arsenal?”

He casually cleans his sword’s blade.

“Of course, I had to come! I have heard of the ‘people’s hero’. Surely, they’d show up for an event at the capital. Just waiting for me to crush them. I haven’t gotten to try Player versus Player combat yet!”

“Why do you follow their orders? Why do you follow the royals?”

“Why? They give me quests! They give me titles and power! I’ve had so much fun killing everything in my way. What else would I be doing?”

“What about all the people you’ve hurt? All the families you’ve broken?”

“What do you mean, ‘people?’ This is a game! They aren’t real people! They’re NPCs! They don’t really feel what I do to them! Why would I feel anything for them?”

Ah. Yes. I remember. He thinks this is a game world. Not real. He sees a “game interface” of some sort that no one else sees. That’s how he lives with himself and his actions.

He lies to himself.

That changes nothing. And he’s in our way.

“Inexcusable.”

“What, are you serious, lady? You do realize you’re going against a summoned hero here?”

“Yes. And even if you’ve been lied to by the ‘gods,’ what you’re doing is inexcusable.”

“Have it your way.”

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