Chapter LVII – Their army is marching on.

41st of Summer, 5859
Earlywatch Estate, Outskirts of Casamonu

It was supposed to be a simple mission. March the retinue onward; apprehend the traitorous duke as ordered by Count Leon.

Seven days had passed since the beginning of his special military deployment however, and Sir Korvus had yet to see even a brief glimpse of the man he was supposed to be looking for. Korvus was a clever man, clever enough to smell something fishy from a mile away, but his pleas for tactical retreat had been denied by his liege. All he got was “How dare you call yourself a man when you cower away from a bunch of idiots in a mansion?” and replies akin to that written in a flowery, overly-polite language which managed to be more insulting than actual profanity.

Korvus could do nothing but wait now, resting his backside softly on the wool cushion which had been graciously carried all the way here by his retainers. His idle rest was interrupted by one of his retainers entering the tent “Sir, your steward has sent us a message. Apparently the Shinasi household in the village have been lagging behind in their taxes.”

“They have? As always, those revolting…” Korvus coughed to give himself pause before he ended up saying something overtly uncouth about his least favorite group of subjects. “I’ll deal with them properly when I return.”

“On that topic of that sir, when will you be making a return?” The retainer looked at the absurd scene outside the tent: a group of the finest soldiers in Gemeinplatz surrounding a mansion without making any attempts to attack.

“My plans were for a prompt return, but things haven’t turned out as planned.” Korvus took a look outside as well, the count’s soldiers looking as idle as him. “The count doesn’t want me to lose men if possible, so we’ve cut off the mansion’s water pipes and we’re waiting for the people inside to surrender any moment now.” To be truthful, he had been waiting for them to surrender “any moment now” for the last seven days.

“But sir, they should have exhausted all their water supplies by now.” The retainer wasn’t a military commander or a siege expert, but even he could see that a small mansion filled with a lot of soldiers should have been having issues by now.

“That’s what I have been thinking for a while.” Korvus tapped his foot impatiently. Really, what was taking them so long? “I called for some engineers in Casamonu, along with requesting a cannon from His Excellency. We should breach the walls today at least. I doubt they will hold much more after we start pounding them.”

“Understood, sir. One last thing, your opponent has moved their emperor to E2.”

Korvus had to pause to take the last sentence sink in. “My opponent has done what?”

“Chess sir. You were playing by post against a dwarven official who’s playing white. He claims that he can beat you even if he’s playing the smokecloud opening.”

“I know that it’s chess, you fool! I was just appalled at him using the infamous smokecloud opening in a serious match… Move my otherworlder to H4. What does that dwarf think he’s doing with me?!”

“Yes, sir.” The retainer left the tent, soon leaving the scene altogether on his horse. Sir Korvus wished he could just hop on a horse and return as well. Conducting his administration work through post wasn’t working out well. He had peasants to tax, retinues to train, feasts to attend. Being made fun of some puny dwarf through chess shouldn’t have been what’s worrying him at this moment.

Another retained, this one armed, entered into the tent and saluted Sir Korvus. “Sir!”

“What is it now?” Sir Korvus had lost his nerves a bit after having been reminded of the mess he’d have to sort out after coming home.

“It’s nothing bad or trivial, sir!” replied the retainer in a hurried tone. “The cannons have arrived!”

“Cannons? Multiple?” Sir Korvus readied himself to jump off the cushion.

“Yes sir, two cannons, engineers and a geomancer to man them. His Excellency has been kind to us.” The retainer stepped aside to let his superior pass. “They’re currently outside, and are awaiting your orders sir.”

The commander finally jumped off of the cushion. “Excellent news!” He got his helmet on and fixed his hair up a bit while running outside. Sir Korvus’ armor clinked and clanged while he ran, alerting all the soldiers in the presence who had to take off their helmets and salute him. They had to stifle a laugh while watching the unathletic sixtysomething run across the field like a madman. The retainer guided him to a small group of people who had gathered around an even smaller pair of cannons. They all wore bright yellow vests, showing that they were men of the count of Casamonu.

The fanciest-looking engineer out of the group saluted Korvus, taking off his hat and lightly bowing down. “Sir Korvus, we’re ready to fire whenever you order us to. We’ve already been briefed on the situation. The cannons have already been sighted to fire at the mansion, sir.” He patted one of the cannons next to him, which stood on a wooden carriage meant to be dragged by horses. The cannon was quite small, being quite thin and around half the length of an adult man.

“Of course, there is no reason to delay any further.” Korvus looked at the massive tubes of bronze in front of him. He didn’t want to even begin imagining how expensive it must have been to cast these. They’d be quite expensive, even in a place with abundant copper like Casamonu.

The head engineer motioned Korvus to stand aside, and the rest of the men began dispersing from the front of the cannon. All of the men who operated the cannon had woolen muffs to protect their ears from the sound of the heavens splitting apart. The head engineer took out a muff and handed it over to Sir Korvus. Korvus wore it without hesitation. He knew how loud these machines of war could be.

The head engineer turned to his crew. “Are you ready?” They all nodded and raised their thumbs up. “Begin loading then!”

The process of loading began with shoving the gunpowder inside the barrel. A gunner carried a bag of gunpowder into the opening of the cannon, leaving it there for another crew member to ram inside with a long rod. In the meanwhile, the geomancer brought by the team formed a larger roundish rock to be used as ammunition. Forming such a small formation of rock was pretty easy for a geomancer, though it’d quickly become tiring after a few volleys. The cannonball made out of rock was shoved inside the cannon as well along with some hay to pad and stabilize it. Lastly the time came for firing the cannon itself. Another gunner holding a stick with a burning hemp cord at the tip of it was responsible for this part. All the other gunners, a crew of 4, ran away from the cannon, closing their ears even if they had their muffs. All the soldiers near the cannon did the same upon seeing that the cannon was about to fire. The burning cord was inserted into a very small hole in the back of the cannon, making contact with the volatile bag of gunpowder which had been inserted before…

BOOM!

The heavens split in twain, and a great black cloud of dust suddenly covered the field from the two cannons firing simultaneously. Two great balls of stone, flying so quickly as to not be followable by the human eye, made quick contact with the walls of the mansion like a pyromancer’s knife through butter. Castles and other fortifications would have thick stone walls packed with earth to protect against such an attack, yet the thin walls of the old mansion were not made with sieges in mind. The speeding balls cut through the bricks like a pyromancer’s knife through butter, making its way to pommel the men behind the walls. Many men were injured or killed just with one stone making its way through them without stopping, the cannonballs jumping like a skipping stone on a lake before it came out of the other side of the mansion and landed on a field of wheat. Without giving their enemy a chance to recover, the gunners got to work on loading the next volley.

In the meanwhile, the men of Sir Korvus were not standing idle. He had concentrated his forces towards where the cannons had made a breach, the men preparing to assault the mansion after their defenses had been sufficiently weakened. Korvus didn’t intend to give any quarter after Sir Baha hadn’t surrendered after all this time. A few hand cannons went off from Korvus’, the men inside the mansion unable to retaliate against the superior range of firearms. None of these shots managed to make their way to their intended targets, there was no chance of that from this range with such inaccurate weaponry, but it didn’t hurt to shoot in the general direction of your enemy.

Sir Korvus was watching the scene from the back, letting the men handle their business mostly on their own. A small smile had crept upon his face thinking about the fact that he wouldn’t have to sit under that tiny tent anymore. He suddenly felt someone’s finger tapping on his back. Turning around, he found the retainer he had sent away before for chess. Korvus had to take off his muffs to hear him in the cacophony of war.

The retainer could barely speak straight, and beads of sweat were flowing like a river from his ghostly face. “Sir! Sir, you must hear this! I was attacked by another army on the way to your estate!”

“W-Wha-” Korvus’ surprise was interrupted by another volley of cannons firing. He almost fell to the ground from the noise, his head spinning and his ears ringing. “Argh!..” The retainer and Korvus threw around a round of profanity while recovering their senses.

“Ahem, what do you mean an enemy army?! How many?!” Korvus began asking questions with the speed of a running dragon on a flat plain. “Whose men are they?! Where are they coming from?!”

“Sir, some of them were wearing the colors of Sir Baha, while the rest wore the colors of various local lords in Casamonu. They were heading towards here, coming from the opposite side from right…” The retainer pointed towards a hill that sat on the opposite side from the breached wall. “…here?”

Sir Korvus could see, even with his bare eyes, flags and men on horseback standing on the hill. Reinforcements had arrived just in time… for Sir Baha.