’Never mind that... a war is being waged, I’ll take care of this misunderstanding later.’
"I will, Sir Bjorn, rest assured."
Justinian nodded.
"I also apologize for the sudden summons."
"No, it was our mistakes that led Rhyne and Elberich to even think of executing this foolish plan."
"Let’s place that behind us now. What matters is today, and how we crush Rhyne."
Bjorn nodded. "My army is under your control."
"I will use them well."
As Bjorn departed to et with his generals, Cassia stayed behind, looking at Justinian with a sly smirk on her face.
It looked like she was more comfortable with Justinian than he initially thought.
"W-what did you tell your father?"
"I’ll explain later, we still have a war to wage after all."
Justinian scratched the back of his head, reluctantly smiling at her avoidance of the question.
She was right, they had bigger fish to fry than just talk about misunderstandings and romance.
"Everyone! Prepare yourselves, we will begin our attack soon!"
Justinian approached the ssenger bird that was resting on top of a tent, grabbed it, and neatly placed a letter that was addressed to Matthias.
One that ensured if Rhyne attacked the capital in their absence, he knew what to do to fend them off.
"Go!"
"Now then... all that’s left to do is to wait."
***
Elberich’s POV - Border between Farsen and Ferlain
***
"Matthias was correct; it seed like Rhyne did underestimate ."
Elberich stood with his army just by the border, numbering eight hundred in total; his army was significantly weaker than those of Vesuvian or Rhyne.
But with the elent of surprise and Rhyne’s army being split up, that didn’t matter.
Including the fact that the border was completely undefended, further solidifying that Elberich was barely even a threat to Rhyne, he didn’t even bother positioning an army to watch for his movents.
Vesuvian had the strongest military among them, Elberich had the biggest economy, while Rhyne had the best balance between both.
But now, with Rhyne losing that balance due to this now-failing rebellion.
He was now easy prey.
"My lord, are you sure about this?"
One of his generals asked, seeing the defended walls of Ferlain in the distance.
The plan that Matthias had laid out for them was simple.
While Vesuvian and Justinian marched onto Ferlain, Elberich’s job was to tire down the defenders by besieging them.
And how exactly?
By using his absurd treasury to buy the best siege engines and rcenaries money could buy.
"Search the cabin that Rhyne was hiding in. If successful, we could end this war without having to besiege the city for hours."
Elberich answered his general by avoiding the question, instead ordering him to detain Rhyne when he was still oblivious.
"...O-of course."
The general grabbed a few rcenaries with him, ensuring the success of the operation as Elberich continued to think about how to besiege the city.
"My n and siege engines should be better and outnumber Rhyne..."
Elberich muttered; he was still unsure. Would Justinian really forgive him for siding with Rhyne? Or was Matthias lying, and would he be executed on the spot?
Either way, it was clear that the winning side was Justinian’s; he had no choice but to trust Matthias’ words.
"Fire the trebuchets! Give that pest Rhyne what it feels to be betrayed!"
FWOOSH!
FWOOSH!
FWOOSH!
The trebuchets flew at the sa mont the sun was at the right position, the mont when most of the guards patrolling the battlents would be blinded by its rays.
And it was the perfect mont when Elberich stationed his n and prepared the attack.
He may be considered lesser than the two of Justinian’s other vassals, but he was no slouch.
"Crush them!"
The coward had now beco the lion.
***
BOOM!
CRASH!
BOOM!
The sounds of flaming rocks filled the sky as Ferlain’s defenders were caught off guard, the first barrage alone wiping out dozens of n.
"We’re being attacked, ring the bells!"
The entire city was now besieged, with the inside now being lit afla, further weakening the defenses as guards focused on putting out the fires that would eat them from the inside.
None of them expected being attacked from Elberich’s territory, and now that it had happened, they were wholly unprepared.
"Charge! Mount the walls!"
Unlike Justinian or Bjorn, Elberich wasn’t a fighter; he may wear armor and wield a sword, but his specialty is in command, preferring to stay in formation and order his soldiers.
Maintaining morale as he does.
"RAHHH!"
The first row charged, a band of rcenaries, one that Elberich wasn’t afraid to sacrifice for the first assault.
They were only rcenaries, not his actual n, so everything was fair ga.
TWACK!
TWACK!
Wooden ladders filled the city’s eastern walls; the wall was completely undefended as those who were ant to guard it were still putting out fires.
"This is going well... Justinian and Vesuvian probably don’t even need to arrive for Ferlain to fall."
And that was the point, and exactly why Matthias planned for Elberich to side with Justinian.
Matthias planned for Vesuvian and Justinian to et, purely for the reason of fixing relations between both, and having them see the new Justinian.
And at the sa ti, mitigate losses from the two sides by having Elberich take on the actual threat.
A plan that Matthias created after seeing Justinian talk about the night raids, a plan that was a step ahead of both Justinian and Rhyne.
because Matthias wasn’t just a normal, skilled steward or castellan of Snowkeep.
He was still a slightly prominent character in the original novel, and that ant he wasn’t just incredible; he was legendary.
FWOOSH!
FWOOSH!
The sounds of dozens of more trebuchets shooting at Ferlain rang out, with the screams and shouting of slaughtered n from the inside mixing with the noise.
It was a complete massacre.
"My lord! We’ve gotten Rhyne!"
Elberich’s general arrived, with Rhyne tied up and thrown onto the ground.
"What’s the aning of this!?"
Rhyne yelled out, his hair and face a disheveled ss; it was clear he was no longer the scheming mastermind that Elberich chose to serve at the start.
But now a failure who let his overconfidence and pride fail him.
"Your downfall, Rhyne."
Elberich coldly replied, gesturing to his capital on fire, and attacked, with defenders barely able to fight the first wave of rcenaries that Elberich had bought.
"All hail House Thirell! Glory to Lord Justinian!"
There was no going back now.
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