Two days later.
"Captain!"
As soon as the knight asked, the captain of the knight corps raised his hand to stop him from talking and said, "I can see it too."
Yes, he could see it from a distance, but that didn't mean he could believe what he was seeing. If the broken doors of the cities weren't enough, they could even see the bodies hanging from the city walls.
The high stretch of the wall looked like a village house before winter, where they put out the pieces of hunting games to dry for the winter.
The captain and his two-hundred-strong army of knights were close enough to see the sight while they were distant enough not to be attacked by any surprise attack from the city wall.
"Don't approach the city. We will take a tour around the city wall." The knight captain ordered, and the group followed. It was the same on every side of the wall. Lines of bodies were hanging from the top of the wall at different lengths.
"Captain…" Although he was calling his immediate superior, his voice had a hint of anger laced into it. He was not alone, and the captain could very clearly understand why.
Most of the body was naked, without a single string of clothes on it. Yet there would be a few spread across the wall that would have full armor on their bodies.
Of course, it wasn't like the enemy had forgotten to take off their armor before hanging the bodies on the wall. The captain had no problem understanding the intentions of the enemies. They were doing it to provoke them in the process.
From the expressions of the knights around him, he very clearly understood that it was working. Just as he was about to say something to calm them down, one of them shouted, "That is Pat."
The captain looked up to see a naked body, which was almost one and a half times larger than the bodies around him. Pat was a 100-man commander, and it was normal for a knight captain like him to know about Pat.
However, Pat was special. When the emperor sent an army to the other side of the sea, Pat accumulated a lot of fame and rapidly rose through the ladder of hierarchy.
He was the one who had single-handedly fought against a small tribe of orcs and lived to tell the tale. What was more surprising was that he did it with his bare hands.
"To think he would die like this…" one of the abides voiced his thoughts out loud.
"No matter who it is, we can't take our enemy lightly. They are not just strong but also very cunning."
"But the report said that it was the daughter of a noble. Even if she had a few knights following her, how strong could they be?"
"Not just any daughter of a noble, she is the youngest of the generation to become a royal knight. You should not underestimate her, in my opinion."
"But what can a single knight do? Most importantly, the report says that the enemy was just 200 soldiers…"
His abides started debating about the legitimacy of the situation. The captain had no intention of joining the fruitless debate and said, "No matter who it was or how strong they were, they didn't just defeat the 1000 soldiers strong force, but also put the bodies of our fellow soldiers on display to provoke up."
"They are not as simple as we thought them to be." The abides listened to the captain warn them, "And if my guess is correct, this is also a trap."
"Captain," one of the abides pointed at a distance, trying to attract his attention. As they were talking, they had already taken a half-circle tour around the city. All three of the gates they had seen had been shattered.
However, unlike the other gates they had seen before them, the scenery in front of them was a little different in front of this gate. There weren't just bodies hanging on the wall. Crosses were raised high above the wall, putting the bodies on full display.
"There are women and children on the cross." One keen-eyed knight noted. "Could it be that they have slaughtered the slaves and servants of the army?"
"Even if they had done that, they have no reason to put the bodies on display." The captain shook his head, adding, "They might be the noble family who had switched to our side."
Even as he was explaining, his gaze kept returning to the display of impaled heads. Even if he had seen worse in the battle with the beast, it was a really gruesome sight to think that a human was behind all of this.
"Even the shaman corps might not do something so brutal."
"Are you sure that it was the daughter of a noble that was leading the army?"
"It must be the one who is helping her from the side." Even if they were talking, they never stopped moving. Soon, they passed the third gate and moved towards the fourth.
*Phhhhhrrreeeee*
As soon as the tail of the army had just passed the third gate, a sharp whistle resonated in the empty city. Before they could understand what was happening, a cavalry group came out of the gate.
They were half a kilometer away from the gates and never came too close to the gate, fearing a surprise attack from the top of the wall. The problem was that even if they had expected an attack from the wall, they had never expected them to ride a horse and come out of the city.
"Enemy attack." Even without the declaration, everyone in the knight corps could clearly see the approaching enemy.
However, considering the enemies were on horses and riding at full speed, they didn't get the chance to regroup before the enemies made contact with the tail of the knight corps.
"Left turn." However, they were not a knight corps for nothing. They turned their horses with one word from the captain.
The captain knew that taking the right turn would make it easier to make contact with enemies. However, a right turn would mean they were entering the range of attack from the wall. So, the left turn was the right choice.
Like a big snake on a Gameboy, he made a big turn and attacked the tail end of his corps. As he inched closer, he could see the enemy's leader, in full knight armor, cutting down his soldiers with a glaive.
The leader gave off an air of dominance, but in reality, she was relatively weak. And as soon as the initial shock faded, his knights also started to block the attacks. It didn't take long for him to reach the enemies. The enemy took off again as he was about to pull his long sword.
"Follow them." Knowing there was nothing but an open plane in front of them, he ordered his knight to follow.
Only then did he notice one of the problems. They rode for three days straight, with only brief breaks. It was natural that the enemy still managed to outpace them despite having superior horses. He knew he could not just give up like this.
"Mana riding!" He shouted as he injected light energy into his horse. The horse, who was on steroids, began to speed up, and they started to close the gap.
Just as he felt they were about to catch up, the enemy suddenly turned and entered the city again. Only then did he realize that they had just made a full circle around the city as they were chasing the enemy.
"Bastard." He mumbled before shouting, "Stop." Like a well-trained machine, the knights stopped at his first order but needed clarification.
"We don't know how many of them are hiding in the city," the captain said, unable to accept the fact that the enemy had just played with him. But he understood very well that they couldn't take their enemies lightly.
"But…"
The captain raised his hand to stop him. "Our horses are tired. Let's take some rest first before deciding what to do."