Editing Tales of Leo Attiel:Volume3 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 3===


Darren Actica’s domain had been known as the Dharam region since long ago. It had once belonged to the ruling family, but it was officially awarded to the Ruband House – an experienced military family which had been put in charge of Dharam Castle – in recognition of an unparalleled achievement that they had accomplished. It was also at that time that the principality was cleanly divided into the domains of the sovereign-prince to the north, and the fiefs of the vassal-lords in the south, the two being separated by the Iron Chain, a mountain range that ran straight through the centre of the country. The seventh head of the Ruband family indulged in dissipation and debauchery, bringing his House to ruin, and it was the Actica House, a branch family of the Rubands, who inherited the domain.

Within the principality, it was a region known for its rich harvests. As it was also situated roughly at the centre of the country, large market towns had easily established themselves at the heart of the trade routes, and as the grain-producing area also faced a river, the region quickly gained wealth. It was simply because Darren had the financial means to employ large numbers of mercenaries whenever necessary that he was able to oust the previous sovereign-prince.

Right now, that same Darren had only been able to mutter “Impossible…” before finding himself at a loss for words.

It was around midnight, and he was on horseback. After sending troops for the surprise attack on the holiday villas, Darren Actica had climbed into the saddle so as to personally take part in capturing Guinbar.

His hobby was hunting, but he had not organised a hunt since the death of his oldest son, Togo, and throwing himself onto a horse, and grasping sword and bow again after so long had left him feeling exhilarated.

''I’ll thrust this sword at Savan’s grey head.''

His blood grew heated at the thought.

He had been waiting impatiently for the report that ‘Lord Leo has been killed’, yet those who rushed to find him were not only messengers, but also several dozen soldiers, all of them wounded and staggering as they walked. The report they brought was that Lord Leo’s assassination had failed, that their commander had been killed in action, and that they had also lost over a third of their numbers.

At first, Darren was left speechless, but then, his armour-clad body started to tremble violently. This was the second time that he had been caught out, and he was by now truly afraid of the man called Leo Attiel.

“Retreat!”

All Darren could do was utter that single word, and return to his castle. On the way, he was constantly worried about what was at his back.

Given that Lord Leo had laid an ambush to turn the tables on Darren’s forces and encircle them, he must naturally know who the ringleader was, and what actions he, Darren, had been taking.

''Then what will the prince’s next move be?''

Would he strengthen Guinbar’s defence, or would he meet up with Savan’s troops and attack Darren’s territory?

''No, that’s impossible. Even a prince wouldn’t be able to invade a domain within our own country without first consulting the sovereign-prince. So in the meantime, I need to come up with a new plan.''

He arrived back at his castle. It was called Olt Rose, and was said to have been named after the lover of one of the heads of the Ruband family. He had been going to remove his armour as soon as he entered, but before he could do so, a soldier who had been sent out on patrol came tumbling in before him.

“The prince’s troops have broken into our territory!” He announced, in a voice so high-pitched it was almost a squeak.
They numbered approximately six hundred. What Darren had thought ''impossible'' had become real.

They had moved fast. In what had virtually been a night attack, Leo had captured the fortress on the border of Darren’s territory. Most of the troops which had originally been stationed there had been called up for the assault on Guinbar. The remaining soldiers had never dreamed that Lord Leo would be attacking them, so there had been virtually no fighting, as they had surrendered at the first sound of warning shots from the enemy cannons.

Continuing northwards, Leo’s forces had also taken a fort that was governed by one of Darren’s relatives. For all that it was a castle, it was on open ground; since it only had jurisdiction over the neighbouring villages, the building was not large, and had no more than twenty or so soldiers guarding it. There was no way they could oppose Leo’s Personal Guards, who were charging towards them with cannons and guns.

The prince had waited at the castle for the three hundred men in his rear guard, before setting off once more with a troop of six hundred. And so it was that Leo was approaching Olt Rose Castle, with his soldiers mostly unharmed.

“T-That bastard! He can’t possibly be planning to put to the torch the territory of a vassal to the ruling House? That devil’s spawn is finally revealing his true nature!”

Darren hit the gorgeously-made table before him. Normally, he should have broken into Guinbar Castle by now; at around about this time, Savan, the man who had harmed his son, was supposed to have been driven into a corner, and Darren should have been gloating down at him. Yet in reality, it was Darren who had been driven back against a wall by those who had destroyed his son.

''How can something this absurd be...''

Fortunately, the troops which had been meant to capture Guinbar had all been led to Olt Rose Castle. Although they had fewer cannons and guns, Darren’s side had more soldiers.

With Leo’s forces drawing closer and closer, it was time to make a decision. Should they face them in open battle, or should they prepare for a siege?

In those days, the warrior code was strongly entrenched and held that, “Since we outnumber them, we should attack them head on, not sneakily hole ourselves up.”

The people of Atall had very little experience with war and yet – or, no, perhaps it was ''because'' they were not used to it – many of their men were mesmerised by those warrior values, and the soldiers were beating their spears against their shields, insisting that they should launch themselves against the enemy.

Foremost among them was Dingo Actica, Darren’s second son. The desire to avenge his brother burned just as fiercely within him as it did in his father. He was only twenty years old, but he was built along the same burly lines as his father and brother, and, again just like them, he had gone as a marauder to lay waste to other territories. With his teeth bared as he yelled, he cut an impressive figure.

“Father, our enemies aren’t mercenaries – half of them are just peasants and traders. We should boldly sally forward and overpower them head-on.”

Yet Darren did not give his consent. He had felt the sting of his previous lessons, and had learned that ''you can’t make light of Leo.''

He simply placed riflemen along the outer ramparts of the town, then firmly closed the gates and gave every sign that he was readying himself for a siege. At the same time, he sent a messenger post-haste to Tiwana, the capital, with a request for Sovereign-Prince Magrid to intervene. The way he saw it, ''Leo can’t have gotten Magrid’s permission to get rid of me.''

Which meant that Leo had, once again, acted on nothing but his own judgement. Ever since the incident at Conscon, the sovereign-prince must surely be nervous about what Leo might do, and if he was informed of the circumstances, he would probably bring his son under control.

“If I make my excuses convincing enough, the prince who ‘arbitrarily invaded a vassal’s territory’ will lose all trust. I’ll be able to have his Personal Guards taken away. And… right, if Leo’s falls from his hero’s pedestal, then Savan, who is so strongly tied to him, will also be brought down.”

That was how Darren justified himself to his son and to his vassals.

“We only have to wait, and not only will Leo self-destruct, he’ll also provide us with plenty of excuses for invading Guinbar. There’s absolutely no reason to get impatient at this point.”

The next day, he managed to persuade his vassals, and they agreed on a siege.

Another unexpected event occurred, although this time, it was a fortunate one for Darren. When they had arrived before the ramparts of the town of Olt Rose, Leo’s troops had assumed that Darren’s forces would charge out to fight them, and so they had taken up position to the south of the walls.

It was close to dawn when they were attacked by surprise. Right, not ‘Leo attacked by surprise’, but ‘Leo was attacked by surprise’.

The prince had set up camp to the south. The roads along the gently-sloping hills were bathed in the pale light of dawn when, all of a sudden, that light was covered in dark shadows. Upon closer inspection, the shadow turned out to be men on horseback, drawing closer to Leo’s camp while the sound of their horses’ hooves rang out.

When the soldiers standing sentry raised their voices to sound the alarm, their heads were cut off. The enemies were fast. Leo’s men desperately tried to fight back, shouting to wake their companions as they did so. The riders flung their lit torches in every direction, and many of the tents caught fire.

Leo was also pulled out of sleep, but by the time he had gone out to take command, the group of riders had already picked out an archery unit, and vanished. They were as swift as a gust of wind.

They left behind them three dead, and five who were too seriously wounded to be able to move. Moreover, some of their provisions had been burned.

While fires burned within the camp, a group of bowmen, thought to be allies to the riders, had lined up in formation before anyone had time to notice them, and released their arrows into Leo's base.

This was clearly an outside attack, but nobody could figure out where on earth they came from. Leo had naturally placed guards on watch-out in the area around the camp, so just how skilled must the enemy be to have easily slipped through that net of sentries?

The next evening, the same thing happened again.

The camp’s defence was a lot tighter than it had been the previous night, but the enemy concentrated on attacking at a single point, and easily ploughed their way through to Leo’s headquarters.

Unlike the previous night, he had arranged for riflemen to be on duty in shifts, yet the enemy seemed to have perfectly seen through that as well. The riders in the lead were pulling carts, and the instant that Leo’s side opened fire, they jumped from their horses and set fire to the hay inside the wagons. They then struck the horses’ rumps, and directed them towards the camp.

A second group of riders appeared, with bowmen riding pillion and, just like the night before, a hail of arrows rained down.

The billowing smoke dulled the aim of the riflemen and, despite the threat from fire and arrows, riders came charging in, and once again brought chaos to the camp. At about the same time, the guards that the riders had previously broken through came racing towards the camp in a mass, and immediately tried to chase the enemies down.

“Fools. Do you think you’ve outmanoeuvred us? Those guys actually believe we’d fall for a pincer movement, huh?”

The second wave of attack started up. A detached enemy force which had been lying in wait further back had been waiting for the moment when the guards would turn their back on them. Given the situation, a pincer attack was no longer feasible for those on Leo's side.

While the guards were thrown into confusion, the first wave of troops made a leisurely exit, and the detached force soon followed suit. They had been fast both when attacking and when pulling back. What they left behind them was soldiers in agony, voices crying out the names of those who had been pierced by arrows, and brightly burning fires.

“Damn it!” shouted Leo, violently flinging down the helmet that he had just been about to put on.

This was the second time they had been had by the enemy. Thinking that those in the castle might seize the opportunity to open the town gates, Percy, Camus and Kuon had strengthened the defence at the front, and had ordered most of the soldiers to stay awake, but, in the end, there was no more movement before dawn. All it did was increase the soldiers’ fatigue.

Leo summoned Percy and the others early in the morning.

“Did Darren pretend to hunker down in his castle for a siege, while actually having forces hidden in the surroundings?” Leo suggested a first analysis, but Percy disagreed.

“The troops that attacked us were the best of the best; and I don’t see how Darren could have hired people that good in so little time.”

The assailants excelled at handling their horses. While there weren’t that many of them, and although they had seemed to charge headlong in, their movements when they were disrupting the camp were coordinated, and when the time had come to retreat, they had turned their horses around with impressive speed.

There weren’t that many highly-skilled horsemen in Atall, so they were probably marauders or mercenaries who were used to setting towns and villages ablaze. And among them, there was only a very limited number who could boast of such outstanding abilities…  

“It’s probably Lance Mazpotter,” Percy suggested a name.

“Who’s that?” asked Camus. There was an irritated crease running down the centre of his forehead, and he had hardly slept since the previous evening.

“He’s the leader of well-known band of marauders here in Atall. He’d recently been keeping quiet, but…”  According to Percy, the man had been born in Atall, but when he was young, he had apparently been a pirate and a bandit who had laid waste in the northern coastal countries. Towards the end of his twenties, he had returned to the principality and taken up trade as a marauder. He was skilled with a sword and proficient in strategies that made use of horses, so his considerable talents had been sought by any number of territories. By the very nature of the marauders’ trade, it was often difficult to know who their employers were at any given time.

“A little while ago, there was a rumour or two that he had recently been spotted at Oswell Taholin’s castle.”

“Oswell, is it?” Leo ground his teeth.

They had met face-to-face during the banquet. Oswell Taholin was the only one of the vassal-lords who had argued that the sovereign-king should send reinforcements to Conscon Temple. Yet when Allion had sent an envoy, his attitude had been that he knew nothing of Conscon, and after that, he had not said anything further on the matter. Ever since then, Leo had found him strangely suspicious.

“So basically, he’s secretly connected to Darren?” Camus’ indignant words were ones that Leo agreed with.

As a result of their council of war, Leo decided to move their camp.

The river that flowed through the centre of the castle town became wider to the southwest of the ramparts. Although not on a scale that you could call it a forest, there were trees growing on the south bank. With the river behind them and the trees to defend them against another surprise charge from the riders, Leo had his men take up position again. The ground dipped slightly, so in all honesty, it wasn’t the best place for observing or intercepting an enemy, but it was far better than staying out in the open in front of the castle town.

“How are we going to take the castle from here?” Kuon voiced his displeasure. This passive attitude of having to helplessly wait for the enemy to make their move was sure to get under his skin.

“We've got cannons. We could just blow holes through the walls.”

“We want to avoid harming the town as much as possible. When we took our previous position right in front of it, it was to deliberately lure the enemy out,” explained Percy, but even so, it was originally only supposed to be for three days.

The reason for that was not so much that they were granting Darren a three-day grace, but because they were intending to spread rumours that, “even though Darren has a greater number of soldiers, he is a coward who would not come out to fight, and his lack of character caused the town to suffer needless damage.”

Their aim had been to change the target of criticism within the town, by turning it away from Leo and towards Darren instead. So because of that, these surprise attacks were a very serious blow to Leo's side. Moving the camp's position seemed like a definite sign of weakness but, understandably enough, Leo could not think of any alternative.