The Count’s Youngest Son is a Player

Chapter 76

“Second outer ring, Zone C, Sector 12. The defense barrier has been breached.”

“First outer ring, Zone B, Sector 5. The noble families’ private soldiers are engaged in battle with monsters!”

“Fourth outer ring, Zone A, Sector 16. The encirclement has been penetrated, and some monsters have entered the city area!”

Reports from guild members stationed in each sector poured in amidst the combat. The First Knight Order of Knights, concentrated at a D-Grade Gate, was managing its defenses without much difficulty.

However, the areas entrusted to the guard and temporarily hired mercenaries were gradually having their encirclements breached.

No troops were specifically deployed in the First outer ring, prioritizing the defense of the mansion instead.

Given that it was an area dense with noble houses, where private soldiers and knights were plenty, it was left untouched.

Of course, key members of the Count Ashton’s family and individuals from closely associated noble families had already completed evacuation to the mansion.

Additionally, in place of Raul, Bernard was overseeing the operational headquarters at the mansion, monitoring the situation on the frontline and reporting only key matters to Raul.

The Second outer ring was not heavily residential. Hence, the capital’s guard and mercenaries were focusing on setting up defensive lines around populated areas, and though breaches occurred here and there, they seemed to be holding up for now. The real problems lied in the Third and Fourth outer rings.

The areas were vast, and apart from the local guards, there were no standing armies, making defense difficult. With hundreds of thousands of residents, it wasn’t feasible for Raul to move them at will; the only option was to devise a strategy that minimized damage as much as possible.

“What’s the situation with the central army?”

Right after the Gate Wave erupted, guild members had been positioned near the central army’s main camp to relay information. Twenty minutes had already passed, and there should have been some news by now.

“Part of the standing forces and cavalry has been deployed, but it seems we need more time to commit the rest of the troops.”

“What are you talking about? The corps commander?? They should have departed by now!”

“Well… it seems the commander and the higher-ups are all at their residences in the First outer ring. With only junior officers available, excluding the duty officer, it’s difficult to mobilize the troops without proper command. We are trying to contact the commander through magical communication, but it’s not connecting well… The duty officer doesn’t seem inclined to make any decisions independently, probably worried about taking responsibility. What should we do now?”

“This is such bullshit!” Raul gritted his teeth in frustration.

The corps commander hailed from the Randal household, and most of the officers were from the Marquis McNeil family.

Despite the situation, it seemed they had ignored his orders, hoping beyond factional divides they would act. But fury alone wouldn’t solve the situation.

“Tell our officers to move anyway. It’s an emergency, so forget about responsibility and all that. And Bernard!”

“Yes, Master.”

“Send some knights and part of our forces to the commander’s residence. Take a magic communicator with you, and the moment you arrive, connect with the central army’s communication network!”

“I will dispatch them immediately.”

Because of the inept corps commander, the situation was on the verge of worsening significantly. However, there was no intention to unnecessarily widen the scope of operations.

“Have all forces strictly maintain their operational zones. Holding the defense line is how we minimize casualties. Regrettably, the monsters that slip through are to be left to the reserve troops and the central army.”

“Yes, Master!”

Fighting from behind the barricades and temporary watchtowers set up along the defensive line was the most efficient way to minimize casualties among the troops.

After all, covering this vast capital with just 12,000 men was practically an impossibility from the start.

“Huff. There seem to be more victims than I thought.”

A deep sigh escaped Raul’s lips.

* * *

Boom!!

“Yikes…”

Three gnolls, monsters with dog heads, burst through the front door into the house.

Sniff sniff sniff.

Drooling and snorting, the gnolls immediately detected the scent of humans and charged toward a particular room in unison.

“Oh, no!”

Sam screamed, hugging his wife and child.

‘I should have evacuated sooner if I had known this would happen.’

He had ignored the First Knight Order’s advice because he needed to open the bakery early in the morning, never expecting such a disaster.

Clang, clang!

The gnolls, having approached their prey, bared their gleaming teeth and emitted joyful howling.

Frozen stiff, all Sam could do was shiver while clutching his family.

‘Someone, please, save us!’

Suddenly, a gnoll’s breath was on his neck, and just as it was about to bite down on Sam’s throat with its wide-open jaws,

Bang! Crunch.

“Who allowed this bastard in here!”

A knight who had burst through the window decapitated the gnoll.

Clang, clang!

The startled remaining gnolls drew their claws to attack the knight but,

Thud. Clang!

Others who appeared behind the gnoll dealt with the rest.

Covered in gnoll blood, a shocked Sam looked up to see a very young knight smiling at him.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“Oh, yes, yes. Thank you! Thank you!”

Realization that he had survived made Sam’s legs give way. Then, he noticed the emblem on the knight’s cloak.

A golden eagle. It was the symbol of the First Knight Order.

“This place is dangerous. We’ve cleared the main road, so hurry to the nearest temple for safety.”

“Ah, understood. Thank you so much, Sir Knight.”

Sam repeatedly bowed his head and then, with shaky legs, left the house with his family.

Watching their departing figures was the young knight, Dalton. Accompanying him were two who were Raul’s classmates and newly initiated squires of the First Knight Order.

“Phew. Is this sector cleared then?”

“Where to next?”

“Just a moment.”

While Dalton was receiving instructions from Bernard through the guild communication, his classmates took a moment to catch their breath.

Dalton, along with some of his fellow trainee knights, was part of the reserve team assigned to clean up the monsters that spilled out.

The problem was that the area they were responsible for was too vast. They had luckily saved a family just moments before, but many had already been sacrificed. And even now, many more were probably losing their lives.

“Let’s move! There are goblins in Sector 21 of Zone D.”

Dalton shouted and rushed out, with his classmates quickly following him. As they ran through the main road, they were flanked by the ruins of houses and the corpses of monsters.

* * *

Kane concealed himself in the darkness, holding his breath and intensely watching a location he was sure was the hideout of the Imperial Hounds, a noble’s mansion.

Since he had agreed to become Raul’s retainer, he had been watching this place, looking for clues or deciding on the timing for intrusion.

Raul had instructed him to keep a watch, confident that there would be some movement if the gate caused issues today, so Kane was vigilantly observing the mansion without even blinking.

‘Strange.’

On the outside, there seemed to be nothing unusual. The mansion’s front gate and the surrounding walls were as usual, lit with bonfires, and the guards maintained their posts.

This made it all the more suspicious. After the monsters had poured out of the gate, every noble’s mansion seemed like a disturbed ant hill with soldiers and knights rushing about.

‘How can this place seem as if nothing’s happening?’

Flames rose in various parts of the capital, screams and the sounds of clashing weapons filled the air, yet everything here seemed unchanged?

Feeling certain about his hunch, Kane took another hard look at the mansion before blending back into the shadows.

‘If something seems off, inspect the sewers or the underground rather than the mansion, right?’

Remembering Raul’s advice, Kane headed towards the sewers under a nearby bridge. The capital, Thurium, was a city more than a thousand years old. With time, it underwent multiple expansions, rebuildings, and extensions, resulting in an incredibly complex network of sewer passages underneath it.

The underground had almost turned into a labyrinth where the city’s lowest classes, like vagrants and serfs, often hid.

While the guards patrolled the underground in the First Outer City for the sake of maintaining law and order, their rounds were merely superficial, covering only a short, predetermined route.

Thus, informants or spies like Kane occasionally used the underground for infiltrating specific areas.

However, not even the most knowledgeable information guild had fully mapped out Thurium’s underground geography.

‘It’s been a while since I’ve been here.’

Kane entered the underground through a familiar entrance, navigating towards his destination using a compass and his memory.

After winding through the complex passageways for a while, Kane suddenly stopped in his tracks and extinguished his lamp’s light.

‘What! Could that be?’

Kane’s face hardened as he quickly disappeared into the darkness.

* * *

Thud! Whoosh!

Crash!

“Don’t fall back!”

“Quickly evacuate the wounded to the rear!”

Once again, in front of the D-rank Gate. Despite nearly an hour having passed, the fierce battle was still ongoing.

While the initially emerged Armored Boars had mostly been dealt with, as time went on, stronger and more challenging monsters began to appear.

A legion comprised of humanoid monsters with boar heads, dubbed ‘Boarman’, armed with various weapons like spears and axes, was continuously assaulting the First Knight Order’s defensive line.

While ordinary Boarmen could be taken down by spears, the C-rank monsters known as ‘Elite Boarman’ were impervious to damage unless it came from sword qi, leaving not even a scratch on their hide.

Had Raul not strategically positioned his knights, they would have never been able to hold back the onslaught of more than 50 Elite Boarmen.

Around thirty knights and squires engaged the elite monsters amidst the soldiers, while those armed with shields and spears focused on defensively keeping the monsters at bay as much as possible.

However, given their numerical disadvantage, it was inevitable for injuries to occur.

“Ahh, my leg!”

A soldier impaled in the thigh by a Boarman’s spear screamed as he fell to the ground. Immediately, the soldiers in the rear hurriedly extracted him from the frontline and sent him to the back.

“May the holy light bless us all. Cure!”

Priests bustled among the wounded soldiers evacuated to the rear, chanting healing spells. They were specially invited by Raul in anticipation of today.

Moreover, medics equipped with various herbs and potions were conducting emergency treatments, ensuring that as long as one didn’t die instantly, the soldiers’ lives were not in danger.

Such prompt medical attention in the rear allowed the encirclement to hold despite being outnumbered.

Whoosh!

“Gwaaak!”

Raul’s spear penetrated the forehead of an Elite Boarman. And with rapid succession, his throwing spears claimed the lives of three more Boarmen.

Swoosh.

As Raul brandished the drawn spear, he kept the monsters in front of him at bay. Around Raul, the corpses of fallen monsters had piled up like a small mound, causing the remaining monsters to hesitate, overwhelmed by his momentum.

‘It seems about time for it to appear….’

Tap. Whoosh!

A Boarman attempting to climb over the barricade from Raul’s left had a hole pierced through its temple.

Raul had chosen the spear precisely to cover a wider area.

Indeed, Raul was single-handedly holding off almost 10 meters of the defensive wall. No monster, whether D or C-rank, could withstand Raul’s spear.

“Grrraaaahhh!!!”

And then, the moment Raul had been waiting for. A guardian elite, surpassing the Gate’s rank and signifying the final wave. The B-rank monster, [Lion Mane Boarman Champion], finally revealed itself.

(To be continued)