Chapter 187: Chapter 175: Reflections

It had been hard to tell how many soldiers the Nerlians had fielded to defend the castle. Ben had told Regina how to count large numbers of people in military formations, and she’d had some practice with her own swarms, but the soldiers had been mostly hidden behind the walls.

As it turned out, the number was larger than she’d first thought, probably because not all of them stood on the walls or ventured out for the sortie. They must have kept some in reserve, especially if they had expected a longer siege. Still, the battle had just cost Nerlia several thousand soldiers.

Assuming you could consider them soldiers. Just by looking at them, Regina was pretty sure most of them were local militia. Still, there were at least a thousand or so more professional ones. Men-at-arms? She wasn’t sure about the terminology. It seemed like a pretty large garrison when most of the Nerlian army was off fighting a war somewhere else, but she supposed that spoke to the strategic importance of the place.

They had clearly been commanded by the local noble. A small group of drones dragged him in front of Regina shortly after the last of his forces surrendered, and Regina looked him over curiously. The guy wore armor with silvery embellishments, but it looked actually used, and there were traces of dried blood on the breastplate. Seems leading from the front is encouraged here. He looked like he was about thirty, with dark hair and an unremarkable face.

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