Episode 48: The Hungry Hounds, Capital Blockade and the March
The vast central council room of the Imperial Palace was frozen cold in a silence more wretched than a house of mourning.
Emperor Alexander III, his eyes rolling back in a frenzy, was pounding the armrest of the Golden Throne with his fists. The envoy, the Minister of the Interior, whom he had sent to the North with such dignity, had fled back to the capital covered in blood, his right arm completely severed. The horrific reports that Eleanor had reduced the Emperor's edict to ashes before his eyes and that Caelon had severed the envoy's arm while declaring all-out war had completely shattered even the Emperor's remaining sanity.
"Gather the entire army immediately. Conscript the Imperial Central Army, the Imperial Knights, and every single private soldier of the nobles residing in the capital without exception, march them north, and behead every single one of those traitors who dared to insult me, displaying their heads in the Imperial Palace square!"
A beastly roar spewed from the Emperor's lips. The Emperor was formulating a shallow and arrogant calculation: if the Northern Iron Cavalry numbered 10,000, the Empire would crush them by leveraging its numerical superiority with a massive army of 100,000 men gathered from across its territory. However, no sooner had the Emperor issued that bold order to march than the Minister of Military Affairs, who had been prostrate on the floor of the conference room, bowed his head with a pale face and delivered a desperate report.
"Your Majesty, while we can somehow manage to gather troops, the Imperial Army's storehouses currently do not have even a few days' worth of provisions left to feed the soldiers. Iron ore to repair weapons has completely run dry, and there is no way to even find leather to pad the armor."
"What kind of bullshit is that? The Imperial supply depots are empty? I told you to requisition food and weapons immediately, even if you have to pressure the merchants in the capital!"
The Emperor screamed, his veins bulging, but the Minister of Military Affairs slammed his forehead against the floor, shedding tears of blood.
"Even if we try to extort the merchants of the capital, they do not possess a single item to begin with. This is because Liliana, the acting head of Castillo's trading company, completely swept up and preempted all production for the next three years a few days ago by handing over three times the Imperial supply price in cash to grain and iron ore wholesalers across the continent. It has long since been swept into Castillo's firmly closed warehouses, down to every single grain of rice and piece of iron circulating within the Empire."
"What? What did you say?"
The Emperor's jaw began to tremble.
"That is not all. To fill the gap in Your Majesty's forces, we requested the participation of renowned mercenary guilds across the continent, but they have all flatly refused the Imperial Order's request. It is said that this is because Liliana bribed the entire guild with a massive amount of gold coins, showering them with 'money sufficient to live on for a lifetime just by breathing without helping the Imperial Order. The Imperial army has now literally been reduced to a ragtag bunch of cannon fodder, on the verge of starving to death without any weapons."
At this horrific report of economic slaughter, all the nobles in the council chamber turned pale with shock. As mother-in-law Eleanor set the stage for war by flaunting her military might in the North, daughter-in-law Liliana, remaining in the capital, had launched a pincer attack using her immense capital power to completely starve the Emperor's army to death from the very start.
In war, victory or defeat is decided by supply lines before swords and magic even clash. Liliana accurately pierced through the cold nature of war and held the Imperial family's leash in the most painful grip.
***
At the same time, at the main headquarters of the Castillo Merchant Guild located in the center of the Imperial capital, Liliana stood by the window of the massive grand office on the highest third floor, gazing coldly down at the chaotic streets of the capital spread out below.
Noisy shouts from the direction of the Imperial Army barracks that soldiers who had not received rations were rioting and refusing to train were faintly carried by the wind to the headquarters.
Behind her, a massive tower of mountain-sized contracts for hoarding and confirmations for the purchase of mercenary guilds stood. Dozens of chief merchants stood in formation, holding their breath in awe of Liliana's devilish yet genius business acumen.
"Master of the Merchant Guild. The Imperial Minister of Military Affairs has secretly sent someone to beg with tears of blood, offering five times the market rate if you please release even a tiny fraction of the military provisions."
The Chief Merchant approached cautiously and reported the news of the Imperial family's miserable begging. Liliana's red lips twisted upward in a seductive yet cruel manner. The image of the frail young lady who once could not even breathe properly in the shadow of her husband and father-in-law was nowhere to be found. She was now the very embodiment of a perfect and ruthless monster, wielding Castillo's immense capital as a weapon to grip and shake the heart of the Empire.
"Five times? That is truly a cute, desperate struggle. But what can I do, Chief Merchant? Even if the Emperor were to bring a hundred times the market rate, I have no intention of putting even a single grain of oat into their mouths. For the Emperor should not be begging for food with money; he would have to descend from the throne immediately and offer his neck at my mother-in-law's feet, begging for his life."
Liliana pronounced this sentence, elegantly placing her hand, clad in a white silk glove, on the windowsill.
"Cut off the Imperial Army's food supply lines even more thoroughly. Buy up every single piece of firewood and charcoal from around the capital so that they cannot even find fuel to sharpen their weapons. Before His Highness the Grand Duke of the North's Iron Cavalry arrives in this capital, the Imperial Army will suffer a terrible internal rebellion, rising up on its own out of hunger. I will pave the most perfect and cruel Silk Road in the world so that my mother may enter this Imperial Palace without shedding a single drop of blood."
That chillingly overwhelming declaration from the daughter-in-law was capable of completely overturning the tide of war solely through capital. The officials bowed their heads in unison and swore blind obedience to Liliana's absolute command. The capital was no longer the Emperor's property, but was transforming into a massive tomb slowly suffocating under Liliana's perfect control over capital.
Meanwhile, the Grand Duchy of the North was the most barren yet magnificent region of the continent in the Empire.
While the starving imperial hounds trembled unarmed in the capital, the earth-shaking roar of a massive and ferocious march, piercing through the vast blizzards of the North, was completely tearing apart the ground of Winter Castle.
Boom boom boom-!!!
The massive black iron gates opened, and the continent's strongest 10,000 Black Lion Iron Cavalry, the pride of Grand Duke Caelon of the North, finally began their ruthless and overwhelming southward advance toward the heart of the Empire. Their formation was on a completely different level from the ragtag troops of the capital. It was an army perfectly armed with the continent's finest provisions, which Liliana had prioritized for the North, and the massive magic stones Eleanor had unearthed in the Karman Mountains.
The soldiers' faces were filled not with hunger, but with explosive bloodlust and murderous intent, and the steel greatswords they wielded emitted a cruel, deep blue radiance in the morning sunlight. The very vanguard of the army.
Beside Grand Duke Caelon of the North, who shouldered a massive greatsword and exuded a blood-red aura, Eleanor, draped in a pitch-black uniform coat and mounted on a black horse, cut through the wind with a noble posture. Eleanor wore her most dazzling smile as she felt the intense heat emanating from the ten thousand beasts she led throughout her body. She stood at the forefront of the continent not as a defender, but as a perfect conqueror thrusting the sharpest blade into the heart of the enemy.
"Truly reliable and magnificent hounds, Caelon."
Eleanor whispered languidly to Caelon, who followed beside her while gripping the reins of the black horse.
"The Emperor in the capital must be shedding tears of blood from his throne right now, looking at the empty treasury and starving soldiers. I have just received news that my admirable daughter-in-law has completely severed the lifeline of the Imperial Palace."
Caelon burst into beastly laughter and cast a deep, blind gaze at Eleanor.
"Before the horrific and perfect pincer attack of the Lady and the Daughter-in-law, the Emperor is as good as dead. We Northern Iron Cavalry merely serve as scavengers, clearing away the corpses of the enemies so that the Lady may sit on the Imperial Throne most comfortably and elegantly."
"Scavengers? You are too humble, Grand Duke."
The overwhelming mana of a 7th Circle Archmage finally began to swirl like a storm in Eleanor's red eyes. Elegantly extending a hand from her black horse, she pointed to the massive ice mountain range ahead that blocked the advance. It was a rugged glacial canyon that had to be crossed to descend from the North to the South.
Under normal circumstances, it would take the army days just to cross this canyon. However, a storm of crimson hellfire spewing from Eleanor's white fingertips engulfed the sky and began bombarding the entire canyon in an instant. Glaciers frozen for thousands of years melted like paper with a terrible scream, and the rugged mountain range transformed in a mere minute into a massive archipelago, allowing the army to traverse it most quickly and smoothly.
Ten thousand Northem Ironclads erupted in cheers, stunned by the Archmage's astonishing power to create the march route itself through magic.
"Her Highness the Grand Duchess's great magic has opened our path! Charge madly toward the Imperial Capital without a single rest!"
Caelon's thunderous roar tore through the blizzard and echoed throughout the army.
"Long live the Great Ruler, Her Highness Eleanor! Behead the Emperor!"
Ten thousand beasts shattered the earth and began an unstoppable, rapid southward march toward the Imperial Palace.
The Imperial Capital, starving and terrified with rusted weapons, faced the Northern Black Lion Legion pouring down ferociously, armed with the most perfect armor and overwhelming morale. The two most terrible and perfect scythes of the Grim Reaper, capital and force, were closing in without an inch of mercy to take the life of the foolish Emperor.
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