The city of Blackwatch was one of the wealthiest capitals outside the region of the Central Empires.
Excluding the capitals of the elven and dwarven lands, it was likely the wealthiest of them all. Founded through the union of a hundred rchant republics, this was only natural.
The rchant confederations of Blackwatch controlled all land trade with the Central Empires, and many claid they paid fortunes to pirates to attack rchant ships, causing terrible damage to the economies of the Kingdom of Solene and the Kingdom of Burning Ice.
Even though no one had proves of it, few truly doubted the rumors. After all, the barbarian forces simply didn’t attack Blackwatch ships.
Blackwatch, its capital, was an extrely wealthy tropolis. Well, to be more specific, it had been an extrely wealthy tropolis.
The current Blackwatch was in flas, surrounded on all sides.
Nearly all of its millions of citizens had fled in desperation through the back gates, while more than two hundred thousand soldiers besieged its walls.
From the high, mighty walls, protected by imposing magical arrays pulsing in shades of blue and purple, mana cannons fired relentlessly, unleashing a true inferno upon the enemy army.
Each shot tore smoking craters into the ground, flinging chunks of flesh and twisted armor high into the skies as the acrid stench of magical gunpowder and burnt blood spread across the field, clinging to every breath.
Unfortunately for the defenders, the enemy army also possessed cannons, and they bombarded the city without a single mont’s respite.
Every now and then, a shot pierced the defensive barriers and slamd into the city with a terrible boom, making the ground tremble for entire blocks and claiming hundreds of lives in a single instant.
Entire buildings collapsed in clouds of dust and fire, streets that had once pulsed with comrce vanishing amid the muffled screams of those buried beneath the rubble.
It might seem like a small thing, but to the attacking forces, it was a clear sign that Blackwatch’s magical arrays wouldn’t last much longer.
"Ah... an entire winter, and we still haven’t managed to get past those bastards."
An irritated yet noble and dignified voice echoed through the interior of a large military tent set back from the front lines.
Its owner was David Darkwall, a powerful fourth-stage warrior and current leader of the Darkwall family.
Sitting stiffly in a carved wooden chair, he kept his eyes steady as he raised a goblet of wine to his lips.
He swallowed the greenish liquid in a long gulp, the sweet heat sliding down his throat and blooming warm in his chest.
"Hm... you don’t seem the least bit uncomfortable with this delay, Lord David. You’ve already exhausted all my reserves of green fairy wine, fufufu~"
A sweet, resonant female voice joined David’s, carrying a feigned complaint.
The owner of that voice was a woman with hair as white as freshly fallen snow, pale skin, and serene eyes.
Her voluptuous figure was wrapped in an elegant black dress that hugged every curve of her body, the silken fabric clinging to her ample bust and slender waist before flowing down over wide, generous hips.
Leaning lazily back in a velvet-upholstered armchair, her chest rising and falling with slow breaths, she cradled a long, powerful black sword in her slender arms—a weapon far too large and heavy for such a delicate fra.
She was Ysara Vorhn, the widowed queen, ancestor of the current king and mother of Mireya Vorhn, the warrior princess who had fallen in the eternal forest.
Her eyes gazed at the last bottle of green fairy wine, one of the thirty she had bought from that rchant.
The bottle was already half empty, and soon it would be completely gone.
"I’m so sorry, Your Majesty. When that rchant has more wine, I’ll personally go buy a whole cartload for you." David shook his head, slightly disappointed in himself for having ignored that wine back when he’d had the chance to buy it.
In any case, it didn’t matter now.
"Your concerns are misplaced, don’t you think?" Ysara tilted her head slightly, a teasing smile playing on her pale lips. "You should be thinking more about what you’ll do when Ethan’s mother cos out of her seclusion."
"My wife?" David scratched his chin, furrowing his brow slightly.
"I highly doubt she’ll still accept you treating her as such." Ysara’s fingers slowly traced the hilt of the sword cradled in her arms.
"I’ve been in near-constant seclusion for the past few centuries, but even I know how much she loves that child. Are you really confident your father will be able to stop her when she advances to the fifth stage?"
"She’s still in the early stages of her advancent, but apparently, she’s having quite a bit of success."
"The boy was a lost cause and a disgrace to our family." David shook his head again, his tone firm. "I don’t regret a thing."
Honestly, knowing that woman was still in the early stages of her advancent did cause him so anxiety.
The reason? The ti it took to advance varied with talent.
If a diocre talent took too long to advance, it usually ant they would fail. But in the case of great talents, it was exactly the opposite.
The longer they took, the more terrifying the resulting foundation would be.
Knowing that woman’s talent, David could only sigh in defeat.
In any case, he would deal with the consequences later. Ethan was already dead, anyway.
With a soft grunt, David stood up, his eyes turning toward the tent’s entrance. He could hear hurried footsteps approaching rapidly, followed by the characteristic creak of heavy steel armor.
A figure appeared in the tent’s opening, his face brimming with contained excitent.
"Lord David, Matriarch Ysara! We’ve breached the enemy’s final wall! Our soldiers are already fighting in the heart of the city!"
The mont they heard those words, David and Ysara’s eyes lit up simultaneously.
With broad smiles, the two left the central military command tent, gathered with the experts from the Kingdom of Solene, and advanced, ready to decapitate the Blackwatch forces with a single blow.
Finally, it was ti to end this cursed battle and open, once and for all, the path to the rich Central Empires!
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