School Transmigration: I, Chosen as the Saint by Dragons at the Start-Chapter 196 --Seizing the Fortress

In reality, the Empire’s spies from those years might not have fully uncovered the truth about Glazed Pavilion, or perhaps they did but chose not to report it.

The only certainty is that relatives of some of the spies involved in the operation amassed considerable wealth through trade within a few short years following the event.

The secret passage leading directly from Glazed Pavilion to the Snow Kingdom palace has been preserved to this day.

Regrettably, the current occupants of the passage are Blight, Woody, and their loyal guards, all faithful to the Empire.

Blight was emotionally opposed to fleeing; he wanted to fight in Mingate until the very last moment, and he hoped the pessimistic jailer could survive and leave.

While Blight considered himself to be of exceptional cunning, he paled in comparison to Messy.

Although not adept at direct combat, Messy’s combination of magic arrays and alchemy, paired with his ingenuity, could indeed create endless possibilities.

Compared to him, the Empire needed talents like Messy more.

Alas, aside from Messy, no one else could maintain such a ward.

After being carried by Woody for several miles, Blight had to accept this reality.

He patted Woody, who then set him down.

With only thirty to forty percent of his strength recovered by the time they approached the exit, Blight pondered how to capture Glazed Pavilion while walking.

He and Woody led a contingent of five hundred guards through the passage, which was only wide enough for two people, thus limiting their speed of march.

This gave Blight more time to think, but no matter how much he considered their situation, the conclusion he arrived at was to adapt to circumstances as they arose.

Glazed Pavilion was originally garrisoned by Snow Kingdom forces.

However, given Snow Kingdom’s historical emphasis on commerce over military, there was no perceived threat from the direction of Glazed Pavilion before the demon army’s invasion.

Consequently, Snow Kingdom stationed only a dozen or so guards there, whose primary duties involved greeting and managing the comings and goings of merchant caravans.

With the arrival of the demon army, those guards had vanished without a trace.

Woody, Blight, and their group lacked any in-depth knowledge of Glazed Pavilion’s defensive arrangements.

Their understanding of Glazed Pavilion was limited to the maps within the palace.

They had no clear idea about how many could be stationed within the fortress, who those stationed might be, or where the demon army’s lines were positioned outside the fortress.

Therefore, Blight concluded that they had to rely on brute force to capture the Glazed Pavilion fortress.

Even if they couldn’t seize control, they aimed to create as much chaos as possible, with all else left to improvisation.

By dusk, Blight and his group reached the exit of the secret tunnel.

The exit mechanism required a key to open, which they hadn’t found.

As Blight stepped forward to break through forcibly, a muffled boom was heard, followed by a strong tremor, indicating something significant had happened in Mingate.

"During the tremor, break the exit open," Blight shouted.

Without a second thought, Woody punched the stone slab covering the exit.

The arcanergy concentrated on his fist acted like a knuckle duster, striking the slab without deforming, yet shattering it into several pieces that fell into the tunnel.

Woody charged out of the tunnel first, with Blight right behind him, and the other guards followed in quick succession.

"Woody, take care of this building. I’ll handle the perimeter," Blight yelled. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Without uttering a word, Woody rushed towards the building.

The demon army soldiers were still stunned by the successive booming tremors and the suddenly shattered ground.

Several hadn’t even reacted before Woody struck them, causing them to spew blood and die instantly.

Woody charged straight to the top floor, with a part of the guards following him to handle the demon army on the first and second floors.

Blight led another group of guards, engaging in fierce combat with the demon army stationed within the fortress and its courtyard, as well as those in the outer fortifications.

The battle in the courtyard was intense, with the demon army stationed at the Glazed Pavilion fortress appearing to be elite troops.

With Blight not yet fully recovered, it was challenging to inflict significant casualties on the demon army.

Positioned in the middle of the demon army’s line, reinforcements continued to pour in through the fortress’s external gates.

"Lock all the iron gates!" Blight commanded while swinging his iron sword.

By this time, Woody had eliminated the enemies inside the fortress and joined the battle in the courtyard.

Wherever his long sword went, the demon army was cleaved in half, significantly boosting the morale of the guard, which quickly turned the tide of the battle.

After sacrificing over two hundred men, Blight’s troops finally managed to close all the iron gates, temporarily blocking the demon army reinforcements from entering the courtyard.

It wasn’t long before the demon army within the courtyard was also annihilated.

Despite the sounds of the demon army furiously attacking the iron gates and even attempting to directly smash the inner walls of the outer fortifications, Blight temporarily gained complete control of the interior fortress, planting a small but poisonous thorn in the demon army’s line.

"Messy, you truly brought us hope," Blight thought, looking out from a high vantage point.

King Fedony of Milan had aged quickly over the past decade.

Since the assassination of his close friend Kunle, the position of Prime Minister of Milan Kingdom had remained vacant.

This was partly due to his deep friendship with Kunle and partly because he could not find another talent like Kunle to be his right-hand man.

Before every significant event, Fedony would always ask himself what Kunle would have done.

Unfortunately, Kunle was no longer there, leaving him alone to make decisions and bear all possible consequences independently.

Kunle was an extraordinary figure.

Despite appearing ordinary and hailing from a prestigious family within Milan Kingdom, he was considered weak, a disgrace to his lineage.

As such, Kunle, labeled as "defective," was never acknowledged by his family as a legitimate heir.

Thus, from a young age, he could only enjoy the status of a bastard child, studying and living alongside other nobles’ illegitimate offspring, including the then future King of Milan, Fedony.

The two quickly became friends.

If one were to say that everyone’s talents are fixed, strong in some areas and weak in others, then Kunle’s talents were undoubtedly concentrated in his intellect.

Even then, Fedony felt that Kunle possessed the brain of a sage, and under the guidance of that sage-like intellect, he gradually began to stand out.

One year, an accident occurred during a royal celebration when an earthquake struck, centered on the grand hall where a banquet exclusive to royal family members was being held.

Being a bastard, Fedony did not qualify to attend the banquet, thus narrowly escaping disaster.

The royal family suffered heavy casualties, with the King of Milan and his heirs among the casualties.

Fortunately, the earthquake’s damage was severe only at its epicenter, with minimal casualties elsewhere in the capital.

After ascending to the throne, Fedony swiftly restored order, and Kunle, for his contributions to the post-disaster reconstruction, became the Prime Minister of Milan Kingdom overnight.

Fedony never asked Kunle if he was behind the earthquake.

He knew that what decimated the entire royal family was not a mere seismic event.

Fedony harbored no anger or unease about this.

He was an ambitious man, and his attachment to the royal family had been severed when his mother was brutally murdered.

His feelings towards the cruel and harsh royal household of Milan Kingdom were nothing but hatred.

He was determined to change the nation and had climbed to his position over what were metaphorically the corpses of "rioters."

Kunle, without consulting him, had orchestrated an assassination that catapulted him to the pinnacle of power.

Their minds in perfect harmony, they jointly governed Milan Kingdom.

In governing, Kunle was a true polymath.

Within just two to three years, Milan Kingdom experienced a qualitative leap in its national strength.

The people were well-fed and clothed, there were no longer vagrants or riots, the treasury was full, and the military was strong and vigorous.

Regrettably, this golden era lasted only a brief two to three years; Kunle was assassinated fifteen years ago, on a night by a poison dart from Crimson Plum Blossom.

Afterwards, Milan Kingdom experienced some decline, yet its military strength remained considerable under Fedony’s stewardship.

Kunle had often said that the greatest threat lay to the west of the Eternal Desert, for the unknown was the most terrifying, and that region had never been tread by humankind.

King Fedony constructed defenses along the line of the Eternal Desert and conducted regular patrols, trusting in Kunle’s usually accurate instincts.

Yet, the threat of the demon army arrived sooner.

When the demon army first laid siege to Mingate, the troops followed Fedony’s orders to launch an assault on the demon army, with Glazed Pavilion naturally being the focal point of the attack.

The tactics were straightforward: archers and catapults provided cover, cavalry charged, infantry followed, and special forces assisted.

The demon army employed similar tactics, the only difference perhaps being their wolf cavalry rode genuine wolves instead of horses.

Thus began a grueling battle.

With Glazed Pavilion as the epicenter, the flames of war spread eastward, igniting the entire front.

From morning till dusk, King Fedony’s troops advanced only a few dozen meters towards Glazed Pavilion; the battlefield was so strewn with corpses that it began to impede combat operations.

The fighting around Glazed Pavilion was the most intense along the entire front from west to east.

Reinforcements for the Imperial Alliance continued to pour into Glazed Pavilion from the west, matched by no less than the demon army’s reinforcements.

Glazed Pavilion had become a meat grinder.

At dusk, Fedony suddenly felt the ground tremble and, sensing that something was amiss, sent his captain of the guard to check on the demon army’s situation.

After a quarter of an hour, the captain returned, his face alight with excitement, to report to the King of Milan that the Glazed Pavilion fortress was now under our control.

Fedony immediately left the central command tent and, mounting his prized steed, galloped toward the front lines.

The royal guard, momentarily taken aback, quickly followed their king under the captain’s lead.