Lord of Caldera - Chapter 161

Chapter 161: Chapter 161

Then, a large shadow appeared on the wall.

“Bjorn!”

Lugues’s mouth hung open in astonishment. Not only Bjorn but also soldiers in unfamiliar uniforms appeared on the fortress walls.

“The fortress has truly fallen.”

There was no longer any room to deny it. The fortress had indeed been captured. His mind swirled with questions of how this could have happened. Even if he had left only a minimal force, it should have taken ten times Bjorn’s forces to mount a successful siege. But Bjorn’s army shouldn’t have had nearly enough soldiers.

“My lord… my lord!” His knight snapped him out of his daze. The knight, looking distraught, spoke urgently.

“My lord, the fortress has been captured. We must retreat.”

“Retreat? Where are we supposed to go?”

“We need to regroup with the soldiers in the dungeon. If we linger here, they may come out to attack you.”

“Haha…”

Lugues felt like letting go of his sanity, but his loyal followers continued to press him back into reality, forcing him to confront the dire situation. After closing his eyes briefly, Lugues spoke in a defeated tone.

“Return to the dungeon.”

There was nowhere else to go. The greed that once glimmered in his eyes had been replaced by a deep gloom.

“They’re leaving,” Bjorn murmured, watching from atop the fortress wall. Though the distance made it hard to see clearly, their weary movements were obvious.

“Give the order, my lord,” a man beside him said.

“Hendrik.”

“If we pursue them now, we can capture them.”

Hendrik’s gaze bore into Lugues’s retreating back with barely restrained fury. After all, he had been one of the people most directly harmed by Lugues’s cruelty. A thousand times over, he wanted nothing more than to tear him apart.

“Leave it,” Bjorn replied.

“My lord, if you feel any familial bond, then—”

“It’s not that. At this distance, we can’t catch them anyway.”

Perhaps with ordinary men, they could. But catching up to Lugues and his knights at this point would be too difficult, and pursuing them too deeply could risk their own forces being ambushed.

“We’d only exhaust ourselves needlessly. You understand this as well, don’t you?”

“Yes… but,” Hendrik replied reluctantly, biting back his frustration. He knew he wouldn’t be able to reach them, but a part of him wanted to at least see Lugues running away, humiliated.

“Stop wasting energy on it,” a voice interrupted from behind.

“Sir Rey,” Hendrik acknowledged.

Rey, who had just arrived, stopped Hendrik. “This fortress was captured due to our lord’s strategy. Don’t jeopardize it by acting on your own.”

“Fine,” Hendrik muttered, letting out a bitter sigh. Rey’s words hit home. If he acted on his grudge and weakened their forces, he wouldn’t be able to face Sylas. After Rey left, Hendrik sighed deeply.

“He’s a difficult man.”

“He’s just loyal,” Bjorn replied.

“Too loyal, if you ask me. It wouldn’t hurt for him to be a bit more flexible, like Sir Toby.”

“She’s the reason we captured the fortress in the first place. Whether she’s flexible or not, we have no grounds to complain.”

Hendrik clicked his tongue, turning away. It was true; he couldn’t argue with that. The memory of the fortress’s capture was still vivid in his mind.

“Who would have thought she’d scale the wall by herself and open the gate…”

Lugues had left only a skeleton force to defend the fortress, and the nighttime patrols were riddled with gaps. Climbing the wall undetected as a single person had been easy. And the moment she set foot atop the wall, it was over.

“Aah! M-Monster!”

“Fall back! Get the spears and crossbows!”

“Get close, and you’ll die!”

The enemy soldiers, terrified by her near-supernatural prowess, had only been able to retreat. Rey had rushed down and opened the gate. By the time they brought spears and crossbows to confront her, Bjorn’s army had already stormed in.

“Too late.”

Her words to Hendrik, spoken among the scattered remains of fallen soldiers, still sent a shiver down his spine.

“What is our lord planning, anyway? Leading such formidable people…” Hendrik muttered.

“Who knows,” Bjorn replied.

Bjorn thought of Sylas—the man he served, the one who promised to make him the King of the North. How far his master could see, Bjorn couldn’t know, but one thing was certain.

“No matter what he does, I must rise to a position where I can support him.”

Reclaiming this territory entirely would be the first step toward that goal. Bjorn closed his eyes, letting Sylas’s words echo in his mind: King of the North.

As soon as Lugues returned to the dungeon, he called all the knights together. After explaining the current situation, he scanned the room with a heavy gaze.

“What should we do now?” he asked.

“We should retake the fortress immediately,” suggested a young knight seated at the far end.

“Even if they’ve captured it, they don’t have many soldiers. The interior will still be unstable, so if we attack now…”

“Nonsense!” an older knight, who had supported Lugues in the succession fight against Bjorn, cut in.

“Do you have any idea how fortified Beldaine’s fortress is? Attacking now would be like ramming our heads against a rock!”

“If we create chaos inside, there might be supporters who rise up for us!” the young knight countered.

“They’d all be in prison by now. We’re dealing with Bjorn Beldaine here,” the older knight replied.

Even though Bjorn had been away from the fortress for years, as the former heir of the family, he likely still had supporters. Stabilizing the interior wouldn’t have taken him long.

“Frankly, we’re lucky if they aren’t setting up traps pretending to support us. Some of our own might have already defected to Bjorn’s side.”

“I agree,” Lugues said, looking for other suggestions.

This time, a middle-aged knight spoke up. “If we continue the dungeon raid and use any relics we find in war…”

“Don’t be absurd,” Lugues dismissed the idea immediately. The shortage of supplies meant they couldn’t afford to continue raiding the dungeon leisurely.

“We have enough provisions for a week at most. What if the raid isn’t finished by then? Should we eat weeds?”

The middle-aged knight’s face flushed with embarrassment, and he fell silent.

“What about attacking the Greve territory? Elmholt, specifically,” suggested another knight.

“Elmholt?”

“Yes.”

It was an intriguing idea. With Lugues’s interest piqued, the knight calmly explained.