The Next Morning.
I thought the battle would start right away, but three knights stepped forward again, just like the day before.
I faced them from the top of the castle wall.
“You fought well yesterday. I commend your bravery. But you know you can’t win, don’t you? Surrender and give up.”
Once again, they were persistently asking us to surrender. But it seemed they were getting frustrated. Despite their numbers being more than four times ours, they found us more resilient than they had expected and were struggling. Perhaps their slower-than-anticipated progress was making them worry about their food supplies.
Still, my response didn’t change.
“Stop babbling and come at me.”
“… I’ll kill you.”
The second day’s battle began.
They advanced over the corpses of their fallen comrades from the previous day. It was a disturbing sight, but they had no choice but to press forward.
Today, they attacked with spells aimed directly at the castle gate from the outset. We had done what repairs we could overnight, but it might not hold for long.
Peasant soldiers were already clinging to the castle walls, and the siege was underway. We were managing to hold them off for now, but if the gate was breached, things would get rough…
As I thought about that, a knight emerged from the enemy ranks. Even from atop his horse, I could see he was a huge man, carrying a hammer on his shoulder. This was… bad news.
“Prioritize attacking that knight!”
I ordered the nearby soldiers to target him, and a rain of arrows and stones descended on the knight. But his full plate armor, reinforced by an aura, rendered our attacks largely ineffective, and he didn’t slow down at all.
I hurried to command them to aim for his horse, but the enemy knight had already reached the front of the castle gate.
The massive knight raised his hammer, and in the next moment—
The fortress shook from the impact. The sound of metal twisting and the dust cloud rising made it clear: the gate had been breached.
Cold sweat ran down my back.
Damn… Had I underestimated what a knight was capable of? I’d been cautious, but I hadn’t expected him to destroy the gate with a hammer…
As I hesitated, a man leapt forward.
“Duke, leave this to me.”
Kurt jumped down from the inner wall and blocked the path in front of the gate. In case of the worst, I left the command of the troops on the wall to Erich and positioned the reserve force just behind Kurt.
The massive knight slowly emerged from the passage through the castle gate.
“What’s this? Is this scrawny guy all you’ve got?”
His face was hidden behind his helmet, but I could see the sneer in his demeanor.
“…”
Kurt, as usual, said nothing in reply and calmly held his sword.
“Well, fine. I’ll take the glory for myself.”
The massive knight raised his hammer and swung it down at Kurt with surprising speed for his size and heavy armor. Dust rose with a thud, but when it cleared, Kurt was no longer in that spot.
Instead, he had moved into the space inside the knight’s guard.
“What? Did I miss?”
Even then, the massive knight seemed confident in his heavy armor and large frame, showing no sign of panic. He raised his hammer to strike for sure this time, but—
He slipped.
Contrary to the knight’s intent, the hammer did not lift. His wrists had been severed, left behind where he stood. Kurt had neatly sliced through the only gap in the armor that allowed joint movement.
“What… what is…?”
With a single swing, Kurt took the knight’s head, leaving him with no further words.
It seems I had been the one who underestimated what a knight was truly capable of.
