"Anyone wanting to take down this castle must pay a painful price," Half-Face evaluated, then turned his head towards Ireya, "Your guardian knight is unexpectedly competent."
"Mother said that although Alfred seldom speaks, cherishing his words like gold, he never disappoints. He is the perfect embodiment of the knight spirit," Miss Rabbit proudly stated.
"There are still such fools in this world. You make me a bit curious to meet him," Jude tidied his hair disheveled by the wind, "but that depends on whether your stepmother is willing to let us in."
Jude was not intentionally trying to dampen morale.
Primarily, he simply could not figure out a way to sneak past the soldiers outside and slip into the castle.
Vanessa had probably assembled an armed force of less than three hundred, most of whom were militia. Such a small number seemed insufficient for besieging a castle.
However, Vanessa's advantage lay in her years of living within Teacup Castle, ensuring her ample knowledge of the castle's layout. Simply by blocking the main gates and guarding the secret passages, she could essentially sever any communication between those inside and the outside world.
Then, after nightfall, Vanessa split her forces into two teams, one guarding the first half of the night, and the other taking over for the latter half, keeping everything orderly.
However, the seemingly calm and composed beautiful woman was not as composed as she appeared.
In fact, she had become increasingly anxious over the past two days. Although Ireya had not shown up, there was also no further news from Fajia.
Vanessa didn't know whether Honey Bear and his team had succeeded; after taking her money, those fellows had vanished without a trace.
Despite Fajia repeatedly assuring her that the young man from the Boleslaw Family was extremely skilled at tracking, capable of digging someone out from the ground unless they had turned to ash, her unease only grew as Honey Bear still hadn't shown up.
Moreover, with the castle in the hands of that man named Alfred, Vanessa was even more perturbed.
She could never have dreamed that the old man, usually silent and mocked as a Retirement Knight, could be so ruthless.
After receiving a letter from Ireya, he had taken the castle with only three men.
It was said that he pretended to deliver wine to the castle, deceiving the guards at the entrance, then directly took hostage the elderly wife and two sons of the steward, Fosto.
He forced Fosto to lure Knight Pablo, responsible for the castle's defense, into an empty room where they ambushed and easily subdued Pablo, binding him.
Following that same method, they gradually eliminated any potential resistance within the castle, eventually taking control smoothly.
Vanessa had heard about this from a coachman who had narrowly escaped from the castle. Her initial reaction was to doubt her ears.
Because it was just too astonishing.
The incredibly robust Teacup Castle, which had historically repelled numerous powerful enemies and aided the Arias family in defeating invaders, was so easily taken by a decrepit old man, with merely a few cats in tow.
If word of this got out, it would be a disgrace to the Arias family.
Yet that was not all; upon receiving the news, Vanessa denounced Alfred as a traitorous rebel and, leveraging her prestige, quickly mustered an army within her domain, besieging Teacup Castle for three days, only to discover... it couldn't be taken back.
Vanessa had originally thought that with her just cause and the presence of many familiar old men inside, once her troops marched in and she called for support, the people inside would tie up Alfred and open the gates to welcome her.
But Alfred had already foreseen this and the old knight had preemptively divided the people in the castle into two categories.
Those with families by their side and those without. The latter group he locked up immediately, dumping them all into the dungeon, while the former were selected by Alfred for their youth and strength and sent to defend the city walls.
He then kept their families under separate guard, and told those defending the walls that should the city fall, their relatives would be killed first.
With such a sharp blade hanging over their heads, and Alfred also displaying a handwritten letter from Ireya, allowing Fosto to personally verify it and read it aloud publicly,
The crowd was thus bafflingly coerced onto the old knight's scheme, helping to defend the city.
So, Vanessa was stupefied once again, having planned to subdue the enemy through intimidation without actual combat, but clueless if a real battle ensued.
Moreover, she hadn't prepared siege weapons in advance, and her personnel were insufficient.
She tried attacking and ended up with two militiamen dead and four wounded. Knight Harvey, who was supervising from the front, was nearly struck by a sneaky arrow shot by Alfred from behind the arrow slit.
Fortunately, his armor played its part, shielding him from this fatal arrow.
Otherwise, Knight Harvey might have become the first noble to fall in this siege.
Seeing that a direct assault was ineffective, Vanessa could only order her men to surround Teacup Castle.
But time was not on her side. Despite Vanessa's repeated strict orders to prevent the leakage of what had occurred during the day's election, there had been so many witnesses,
Among them were numerous followers of the Arias family. These people returned to Green Field with Vanessa and inevitably, some couldn't keep their mouths shut, defying Vanessa's orders and secretly telling their friends.
Then their friends told their own friends, who told the friends of friends... Soon, the word spread exponentially, and before long, over half of Vanessa's army had heard about it.
In the face of the gentle-looking lady, these men appeared fairly restrained, but privately, more and more discussions began to emerge.
Hearts began to waver.
Vanessa saw this and felt urgency in her heart; she resolved that as soon as the sun rose tomorrow, she would launch a final assault, regardless of the casualties, to take back Teacup Castle, as she could no longer afford any delay.
Meanwhile, Miss Rabbit and two others were still looking for a way to sneak into the castle.
Unfortunately, after a full circle, they saw no opportunity.
Until Li Yu pointed to a high section of the wall, asking Ireya, "If someone lowered a basket from here, could we just sit in it and be pulled up?"
"That's true, but the problem is, how do we contact someone inside the castle to have them lower a basket here?"
Half-Face paused, then added, "Moreover, although those soldiers outside the castle are mostly focused on the gates and secret passages and don't pay much attention to the walls, you've seen that there are still patrols nearby.
"We need to reach the base of the walls and then climb up before they spot us, and the timing is quite tight."
Ireya also felt that Li Yu's idea was somewhat impractical.
However, the latter said, "What if I had a way to communicate with the guards inside the castle?"