Chapter 67: Townsperson A Overruns the Fortress City

The morning of the fifth day since the fort’s fall arrived. During the interim, I had spent my time systematically firebombing every Imperial fort and garrison in the vicinity, save for the Fortress City Cardacia itself. At this point, Kardachia was the last major stronghold of the Est Empire remaining in the Bulzeni Region.

As for the city, our Sentlaren Kingdom forces already had it completely surrounded.

However, because the city still held a large civilian population, we had issued a formal proclamation: an indiscriminate attack would commence in five days. We urged the civilians to evacuate during that window, intentionally leaving the siege lines open at the East Gate to facilitate their flight.

A significant number of people fled during the first two days, but the crowd had visibly thinned by the third. By yesterday, only a few families were seen trickling out.

Now, the fifth day had come. The morning of fate was here.

Up until now, I had been dealing exclusively with soldiers, but today I would be killing those who weren't. Of course, since my role was limited to aerial bombardment, the psychological impact would likely be less severe for me than for the men fighting the ground war.

Even so, firebombing an urban center—attacking a civilian population—still weighed heavily on my conscience.

But it was too late for second thoughts. I had already stained my hands with blood for the sake of my own ego. I was the one who chose this path.

I will take Ana back. And this time, I will protect her to the very end. To the current me, nothing in this world mattered more than that.

I boarded the Vytol Custom and ignited the Wind Magic Engine.

“I’m counting on you!” the Garrison Commander shouted.

I gave him a silent thumbs-up in return. The Vytol Custom roared, rapidly gaining speed before soaring into the vast, open sky.

Don’t think. Don’t think. They’re just the enemy. They chose to stay and fight instead of heading the warning.

I repeated the mantra to myself until I reached the airspace above Fortress City Cardacia.

Once in position, I began raining down glass bottles filled with gasoline onto the sturdy complex at the center of the city. This was the lord’s manor, the heart of Kardachia’s defense; it apparently functioned as the city hall and military barracks all at once.

The Imperial Army seemed to have realized that I was responsible for the recent string of aerial attacks. I could see soldiers pointing up at me from the high spires, desperately letting fly with arrows to try and bring me down.

Their efforts were utterly futile.

I was hovering at an altitude of roughly 200 meters. Magic has a range of only a few dozen meters, and even a longbow’s effective range is a hundred meters at best. Even if someone possessed an arrow capable of traveling 200 meters horizontally, they couldn’t possibly fire it 200 meters straight up against the unrelenting pull of gravity.

I’m no physicist, so I’ll leave the specifics to the experts, but it’s a simple fact: you cannot win a battle when there is such a staggering disparity in technology.

I recalled hearing stories of people in another world who tried to down stratospheric bombers with bamboo spears. It was a romanticized impossibility. When an opponent can unilaterally dump firepower from an "out-range" position where you can't even touch them, no commander—no matter how brilliant—can lead their troops to victory.

All they can do is surrender, retreat, or hunker down and pray during a siege.

I emptied my mind, dropping bottle after bottle. After several duds, one finally shattered and ignited, the impact triggering an explosion that sent flames roaring upward. The fire quickly spread, leaping to the unexploded gasoline from the previous drops.

After that, the conflagration grew of its own accord every time I dropped another bottle.

Once I confirmed that the heart of Kardachia was thoroughly engulfed in flames, I moved on to the barracks locations marked on my map and began dropping bombs.

I made a conscious effort not to look at the results.

I spent the rest of the sortie circling the city, dropping bombs on enemy squads moving through the streets. I didn't check to see if I hit my marks.

If I looked back, if I allowed myself to see the civilians dying below, I knew I wouldn't be able to keep going.

By the time I finished tearing the interior to pieces and numbing my own soul, the resistance was hollow. When our allied forces finally breached the gates and stormed the city, they met almost no organized opposition.

I saw the national flag of Sentlaren raised over the scorched plaza in front of the lord's manor and atop each of the city gates. Only then did I turn back toward the fort.

Two days later, I accompanied the Garrison Commander into the fully suppressed city. It had been half a century since the Sentlaren Kingdom last held Kardachia.

I heard that yesterday had seen some intense fighting against remnant soldiers and civilian insurgents who had resorted to guerrilla tactics. It had been a brutal urban skirmish with high casualties on both sides, but in the end, Sentlaren emerged victorious.

The remaining civilians, with a few exceptions, were formally deported. They were packed into carriages and sent back toward the Est Empire. The wounded prisoners were handed over as well, sent along with the civilian convoys.

It felt like a cold, harsh policy to drive out the residents, but I understood the pragmatism behind it; it was the only way to avoid a quagmire of endless terrorist attacks and urban unrest. Besides, I was told the Est Empire had done the exact same thing to the Sentlaren citizens when they first captured the city.

Consequently, the only people left in the Fortress City Cardacia were our troops, a handful of local civilians, and the healthy prisoners of war.

As for the prisoners, they were put to work. Forced labor. They were tasked with tilling the fields and repairing the buildings I had destroyed.

In this era and at this level of civilization, I suppose this was the norm. In fact, considering the original game's storyline involved the total massacre of the Royal Capital's population, this treatment was probably considered incredibly lenient.

For the first time in weeks, I was able to leave the cramped confines of the fort behind and sleep in a spacious room on a soft, feathered bed.

That night, the information I had been desperately seeking was finally delivered to me.