Chapter 149

Playing around with the trebuchet was fun for a bit, but it was quickly scolded away.

Grace gave me a stern lecture about wasting resources in a situation where we barely had any siege weapons left.

Plus, just flying over with the trebuchet and doing nothing but returning was understandably infuriating.

Bang! Crash! Bang!

“Wow… Is that a person over there?”

“Are they firing a cannon with their bare hands? Is that even possible?”

“Well, they must be doing it because it is possible.”

So, I decided to act on my previous plan: bare-handed cannonball tossing.

It was a ridiculously simplistic technique, yet it proved to be immensely effective. To top it off, I infused it with Red Magic.

Each cannonball exploded upon impact with the walls, causing significant damage.

The distance was quite considerable too, so the enemies couldn’t organize an appropriate response. At best, they could muster a lackluster defense.

‘Throwing really comes in handy, doesn’t it?’

If it weren’t for my throwing technique, I wouldn’t have been able to make effective use of the cannonballs.

Of course, the power would have faltered, and accuracy would have plummeted as well. Right now, I was focusing my assault on just one spot to breach the walls.

Not to mention, the explosion of the cannonballs was something even the instructors hadn’t anticipated. Back then, I hadn’t infused them with Red Magic, so they must have been pretty shocked.

“C-cannonball inbound!”

“Huh?”

The issue, however, was that we were terribly short on cannonballs. After barely throwing a few, we ran out completely.

We were out of steel and stone cannonballs. There had been occasional resupplies, but those had run dry too.

“Let’s first check the status of the walls. What’s their condition right now?”

“Um…”

At Grace’s command, one of the students took a look through a telescope. Since we had thrown quite a few, the damage should be significant.

“It looks like a few more throws might bring them down, but… it’s going to be hard right now. The sun is starting to set.”

“That’s a bummer. I really wanted to resupply the cannonballs…”

Grace murmured as she looked up at the sky. I glanced up as well.

We had wasted time playing around with the trebuchet, and each resupply had taken a while too.

I initially tossed the cannonballs lazily for testing purposes, which is why we ran out.

‘If I had been serious, I wouldn’t have thrown them at the walls.’

Plus, my current condition felt more like I had just exerted a bit of effort. If I had really put all my strength into it, those walls would have come down in no time.

No. I could have just flown over with the trebuchet and swept everything away. But that would have ended things too quickly.

“We need to take the castle soon… We should at least capture it by tomorrow morning to even out the scores.”

Grace nibbled on her thumbnail, clearly anxious. It seemed time wasn’t on our side.

I had wasted time messing around too, so I decided it had to be resolved today. There were plenty of ways to do it.

‘I need to test my skills too.’

While I left Grace in thought, I took a quick look around for an adequate weapon.

Before long, I spotted a spear. That should do just fine.

“Huh!”

Swish!

I channeled my strength into the spear, throwing it just like I had the cannonballs earlier. The spear shot off at high speed.

However, it was a pure muscle throw without any magic, so it just lodged into the wall and stopped there.

I didn’t stop there, though; I continued throwing more spears in succession. There were cracks appearing in the wall, and the spears embedded well.

“Done.”

“…What do you mean, ‘done?'”

“Work.”

“…?”

When I declared the work done, Grace tilted her head in confusion. She seemed to doubt me quite a bit.

Apparently, the ‘human cannonball’ incident left quite a big impression on her. It seemed she didn’t quite trust me when I took on tasks without any commands.

“I’ll go by myself at dawn.”

“Huh?”

“When dawn breaks.”

I interrupted my sentence while looking at the castle.

“I’ll take care of the castle and then open the gates.”

“…Really?”

“Yep.”

The pitch-black night felt familiar to me.

******

Even in civilization, there are still many things that remain unchanged. One of the prime examples is day and night.

Days are bright due to the sun, while nights rely solely on moonlight amidst complete darkness.

However, there were places where even that moonlight scarcely penetrated, namely the incredibly thick forest.

Having lived in such places, my night vision had become exceptionally sharp. I had also heightened my various senses.

‘Lucky me. There’s little moonlight tonight.’

At 4 AM, the time when people are most vulnerable, I slipped out of the occupied territory as I had told Grace.

There was hardly any moonlight at all, making it the perfect night for sneaking in. Of course, whether I could pull it off was a different story.

‘I did learn the dagger techniques and methods from Yoon, but will I manage?’

Quietly navigating through the forest wasn’t the same as sneaking into a castle.

While I could still suppress my presence, facing a human was a different challenge. I felt a bit nervous.

‘Looks like the castle’s lights are still on.’

I soon arrived near the castle walls. Looking up, I spotted the lights burning brightly.

It wasn’t some fancy electronic lighting; it was good old-fashioned fire. It gave off a distinct medieval vibe.

I clung to the castle wall, wary of being discovered, and then stealthily moved towards the location where I had planted the spears in the morning.

I used the spear shaft like a pull-up bar and slowly scaled the wall. It did create a little noise, but it was better than leaping up in one go.

‘But why can’t I feel any presence up here?’

Just before I crested the wall, I peeked my head out to assess the situation. The wall seemed eerily quiet.

I wondered if I had been spotted, but quickly realized why.

“Zzzzz…”

“…”

Right. There’s always that one hopeless loser, isn’t there?

But even though they were a loser, it was understandable given the time of night.

Furthermore, they were students who weren’t accustomed to standing guard. It’s got to be tough to battle drowsiness.

‘But wait, not just one of them is sleeping; they all are?’

Looking around the wall, I noticed some were flat-out leaning against the wall, completely out cold. I was curious how Kara would react if she saw this.

No, perhaps she had scolded them harshly before, and they were just half-listening or grumbling. They probably thought, “Who would attack at this hour?”

They’d soon find out how foolish their judgement was. I tightened my arms and hoisted myself over the wall.

Once there, I pulled out a dagger from my pocket and covered the mouth of the sleeping student.

“…Huh?”

Thud!

The student finally registered something, but it was too late. The dagger was already embedded in their neck.

Of course, it wasn’t a real dagger but a special kind. If you pierce something with it, the blade gets retracted inside.

You could call it an assassination dagger. It looked like a toy dagger, but it was definitely a test weapon with sufficient effectiveness.

Buzz—

A barrier enveloped the student who got stabbed in the neck. It was much quicker than usual.

The speed seemed to be because it was meant to prevent screams, I guessed.

‘This is fun.’

Once I took down all the sentries on the wall, I looked at the dagger. Pressing the tip of the blade with my palm, it slid back inside.

I thought about playing around with it, but I decided to save that for later. I didn’t want to die in such an absurd way.

“Huh? W-what’s going on? What the…!”

While I was fiddling with the dagger, someone appeared on the top of the wall.

I immediately threw the dagger in the direction of the sound. It was a smooth reaction.

Thwack!

“Ugh…!”

But the accuracy became an issue. The dagger hit the student square in the head.

They fell back, eyes rolling back as they fainted.

Given the way the barrier formed around them slowly compared to the others, it was clear they were startled and panicked.

‘This is why vigilance is important.’

Aside from the student who got ambushed while heading to the bathroom, all the watchmen had slacked off.

The professors were likely watching the whole scene, probably tsking their tongues and marking down deductions. I bet they took off a significant amount.

Meanwhile, I had infiltrated in a way that was close to common sense, so I’d probably get a nice chunk of points. Honestly, I found it fun to do this too.

‘Sometimes you gotta play it straight.’

Playing with the trebuchet was all part of the plan to induce complacency.

…Actually, that was all a lie; I just messed around with the trebuchet purely for fun. I quietly moved my steps downwards.

The inside of the wall was pretty standard. There were weapon racks and several barracks.

The storage building for supplies was a wreck thanks to my destructive tendencies, leaving it haphazardly repaired.

‘Let’s see. Where’s Kara’s sleeping place…’

I checked each tent like it was a search party. Everyone except Kara had a dagger stuck in their necks.

They’d probably wake up in the morning and angrily curse the guards. Of course, even if the guards had acted normally, I would have still broken in.

Finally, after rummaging through all the tents, I found one last remaining. With Antonio taken care of, Kara should be resting in there.

Swish—

“Zzzzz…”

Just as I expected. Peeking through the entrance of the tent, I found Kara sleeping soundly.

Unlike everyone else, she was alone, but this wasn’t because she took the reins of command.

She probably just had a high chance of being uncomfortable sleeping with others. I bet she preferred it this way.

“Hmm…”

Before I handled Kara, I peered down at her sleeping face.

Having kept my presence suppressed, she was blissfully unaware, lost in her dreams. Truly, a beautiful woman, even in her slumber.

Her attire, while not as light as a dancer’s outfit, was considerably less restrictive. Especially with her toned thighs tantalizingly visible between the blankets.

“…Heh.”

Suddenly, an amusing idea struck me. I recalled the customs of Tartar using all the knowledge I’d gotten from the Soul World.

To be precise, how they would refer to Kara back during the tribal coalition. She had, after all, belonged to an army.

While she was the chief’s daughter back then, she was also a warrior. Though she was a valued person, she would’ve had to stand guard just like anyone else.

Thus, it was obvious she had some trauma concerning military life.

Swish—

I carefully leaned in and whispered in her ear.

“Kara… Kara.”

“Mmm…”

Just calling her name softly made her frown. Simultaneously, her brows wrinkled as if she might wake up any moment.

Now, all that was left was my final blow. I stifled a chuckle and delivered it.

“It’s time for watch duty.”

“Waahh!!”

With that final line, she let out a weird noise and shot upright in a flash, her reaction was truly stellar.

“…Huh?”

After sitting upright for a moment, she stood there blankly.

She seemed to be trying to grasp what was going on when she turned around. Our eyes met.

“…Huh?”

“Hello.”

I waved lightly as a greeting.

“Did you sleep well?”

“…”

Kara’s expression was truly a sight to behold.

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