Reincarnated to the Past 44 (Patreon)

Reincarnated to the Past
Chapter 44

-VB-

It took time, but preparations came to an end.

What started out as a large raiding party a small army at Istria, and then, once the Byzantion levies joined us, we became a force to be reckoned with. Eight hundred warriors and soldiers stood inside the southern gate, waiting on my order to march towards Perinth.

They were more than enough to take down a post-Bronze Age city.

“MEN!” I roared, and they looked up towards me. I stood on top of the southern gate’s battlement and looked down at them, some two meters above them. “Today, we march upon the Perinthians!”

There was a cheer among some, but I did not. My stoic stare caused the cheer to peter out.

“We do not attack them out of malice, revenge, or any other petty causes!” I raised my sword and pointed it towards the direction of Perinthus. “No, we fight, we raise our swords, and we kill because it is in the defense of our people!”

Some stirred.

“Perinthus rejected the offer of peace we’ve given them! More than that, they struck envoys who entered their camp with good will! We offered them a hand to join us in joyous peace where no boy or girl back home have to wait for their brothers and fathers to return home! We offered them a quick end to a meaningless war!”

My warriors grunted in agreement.

“Instead, they reveled in their strength and beheaded our people!”

The Byznations and Istrians looked upset at the thought of such cowardice and barbaric act.

“They spat at us! They laughed at us! They thought us weak for wanting peace!” I grinned and let my lips stretch painfully. “Well, they certainly ran away when we kicked their ass, didn’t they?!”

“““YEAH!”””

“But are we going to just let them go?! Are we going to let them kill our people and get away without consequences?!”

““““NO!””””

“We march upon Perinthus!” I roared. “We will bring down their walls! We will make them beg for mercy! We will make them see the follies of such barbarism, of spitting on the hand that would have spared them, of laughing at peace!”

The riled up soldiers and warriors raised their spears and roared with me.

“Only once when they desire peace with all their beings, we will raze their city and carve into their minds for generations to come why PEACE is what they should have accepted!”

-VB-

Rom shivered at the changed atmosphere of the soldiers and warriors.

He knew that his master cared less about peace than others here might believe. He wouldn’t have led an army to take over city after city if he desired peace. No, master awas above simple concepts like that. He told Rom in length about how to achieve peace. How, to protect their heartland, they needed a buffer state that could prevent man-made disasters from reaching deep within.

In private last night, master told Rom that was always the point of this campaign: to ensure the safety of Istria and the Lower River Kettin. However, he would speak differently when he talked to the soldiers. He would declare that they would kill for peace. For the right to return home to their families and not worry about a dagger at their back. To ensure their safety.

But all it would do was weaken both an already weakened Byzantion and nearly eradicate Perinthus. From there, they would march westward to put other cities near Perinthus to siege.

Master intended to carve out an area that would become wholly submitted to him, and they would support Lower River Kettin.

It was … it was something beyond Rom. To think in terms of cities and their influences rather than looting a single city could do for the Kettia.

He jolted as the gate opened and the soldiers and warriors marched out.

Rom didn’t doubt for a second that his master would sway the soldiers with his words and awe the warriors with his martial prowess.

Once Perinthus fell… Once the surrounding cities fell…

What would happen?

What could happen?

To subjugate so many cities within a year…

Wouldn’t it be the rise of a new kingdom?

Rom felt his lips turn up in an anticipatory smile.

He couldn’t wait to see such a thing.

-VB-

I tsked my tongue. Instead of fighting us on the ground, the Perinthians chose to fight on their walls.

Like almost all Dark Age city walls, it wasn’t a very tall wall; Istria’s walls were just a bit taller than it at three men while this was close to two and a half men. Unlike Byzantion and Istrian walls, their walls were wooden. Oh, they were thick timber walls, but it was still wooden.

Rom looked at me nervously from my side.

The two of us stood at the front of the marching formation, now stopped and attempting to set up camp. Our army stood about half a kilometer outside the walls, which was far outside any archer’s range.

“Rom, have the men prepare for attack.”

He bowed and quickly ran off.

“And while they prepare,” I chuckled. “I should do some terrorizing, eh?”

With Rom gone, he left the wagon carrying my weapons behind. I unlatched the ox that was driving it and dragged it forward myself. I heard the men behind me slow down in their camp set up, and probably they wondered why I was moving forward.

I stopped just three hundred meters (I believe) outside their walls. Narrowing my eyes for a better look, I saw Perinthian men slowly nocking their arrows.

As if they could hit me. None of them were master bowmen (hopefully), and even then, I was still well outside their range.

But not outside of mine.

I pulled out my bow, a massive beast that I already used once against the Perinthians upon the Byzantion wall. I nocked the bowstring - more like a bowrope - with a shortspear, and pulled.

The wood and the rope creaked and groaned from a force that would have snapped a cow’s spine in half, but they resisted.

And then I let go.

With a deep and loud twang, the bowrope reset itself and the shortspear flew true. It sailed a few degrees into the air, and then -.

I grinned when I saw one of the soldiers get speared right through the torso and fall off the wall.

“What are you waiting for, men?!” I roared as I nocked another spear. “Are you going to let me take them all out?!”

There was a moment of silence before there was a clattering of bronze weapons and what few iron weapons we had. Soldiers and warriors donned their armors and helmets.

I loosed another spear, and this time, I missed, but the way some of the men manning the wall ran away from the spear lodged on the top of the wall made me grin. I didn’t stop firing my spears until I ran out, and by the time I did, there were nice footholds for my men to climb on top of to reach the top of the walls.

Soon, six hundred or so soldiers and warriors stood ready behind me.

Rom stood by my side with a hollowed ram horn. He took a deep breath and -.

Vvooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmm….!!!!!

I tossed the longbow aside and lifted my sword up, pointing its tip towards Perinthus. “CHARGE!”

My men roared and charged forward. The sound of twelve hundred feet stomping and charging rumbled the earth and filled the air.

I relished in this moment before I too joined the charge with my sword and axe.

I wasn’t going to lose to any of these posers!