As the group got closer to the wall, gasps and cries could be heard in the distance. A massive hole had been blasted through the Main Gate, the power of said attack so strong that it had even collapsed the surrounding wall.

Although the walls of Gican City were not the best in the whole Kingdom, they were still extremely reinforced. Even if they were too big to inscribe, they could still use the abundant metals that flowed through the City to reinforce the interior and some weak points.

Jule could not even imagine what sort of attack was needed to tear apart such a big portion of the wall, at least he could not think of a single one that could be in the hands of enemies to the Kingdom.

This made Jule wonder as to the origin of the attackers… Some monsterkin may have the firepower to destroy the City walls, but they would have long been spotted by the scouts. Moreover the murders of the farmhouses were not made by monsters, whoever caused it was clearly organized.

This only left either Grandia or an enemy noble.

It would be extremely unlikely for Grandia to be able to sneak a whole army through the border, but the strongest human country was known to have many unknown relics and scrolls, it could be a possibility.

The other possibility was that an enemy noble had taken the city by surprise and attacked. Although most fights were done by controlled conflicts in order to lessen the consumption of resources, any noble with a big enough resentment could just ignore this and send a disguised group of soldiers. The crown would generally only give light punishments unless it resulted in the death of a noble or it was extremely taxing to the country, attacking the City defending the most important borders would surely cause a wave that no noble could deal with.

Jule decided to reserve his judgment until he could find more clues, the expedition had taught him that impatience was the source of failure.

...

At the gate, the smell of burnt wood filled the air, the ground was completely turned over and trampled, many pieces of charred stone thrown about haphazardly.

Many corpses were strewn about the land, most of them unrecognizable. A big percentage of the bodies were burnt, elemental residue clinging to their bodies, further back, some corpses with sword wounds could be found, mixed with some bodies pelted in arrows.

Parn halted the march and walked towards the bodies, trying to find any clues. Even though Jule was still not used to such gruesome sights, his experience at the farmhouse had given him such a shock that he could stomach milder sights, which prompted him to help Parn in turning the bodies over.

After a while of turning over the bodies belonging to the Gican City garrison, Parn finally found something and audibly gasped.

Jule turned his sight over to the corpse, trying to avoid the concave look of his skull, some earth particles floated above his body, a clear sign as to what led to the soldier’s death. Jule’s eyes wandered over to the crest present on the soldier’s armor and noticed that it was not the Redshield Dukedom crest.

A castle and a lion…

The crest of the Royal Army…

Why would…

Jule’s mind was chaotic, many thoughts swirling about.

Had the Royal Army come to the aid of Gican City?...

That didn’t make much sense, even if the City requested aid, they couldn’t have arrived so quickly. Besides, they still couldn’t find a body that belonged to another group,and they had searched extensively.

Was someone trying to frame the Royal Family? This made even less sense, as the ruse would be discovered immediately, an attack of this scale would put the Royal Family on alert and they would show extensive proof of their innocence.

Jule wracked his mind trying to think of possibilities, he just couldn’t fathom why a body belonging to the Royal Army was present…

In the depths of his mind though, he remembered a conversation he had just a few days ago, when he was equipping his armor with Parn…

Even though he wanted to deny it, he was too sharp not to connect the dots, and a despairing thought came to mind…

Had the King finally lost his sanity?

Just the mere thought of such a ridiculous theory made him scoff at himself, but the more his mind forced the idea onto him, the more sense it made.

Only the Royal Army could easily access Gican City and release an attack of this scale. Only could they be so informed as to know when the City was at its weakest point…

Jule bit his lip so hard that it started bleeding. Although his father was one of the strongest men in the Kingdom, The Royal Army just so happened to have some of the only people who could defeat him.

In Dresden, skilled commoners who wanted to surpass their lot in life had only two options, they could either join one of the hundreds of mercenary groups that looked for recruits and head to Zanya or they could join a noble’s army and rise in the ranks.

The Royal Army had always been the priority choice for these commoners as they wouldn’t gain noble enemies if they rose through the ranks, this was offset by the extremely high ceiling all applicants to the Royal Army faced. In the end only the most skilled and determined commoners managed to join the Royal Army.

Jule had only seen a few of them in the past. Even if he believed that commoners were foolish, the strength these few exceptions radiated was by no means a lie. Although they would always be less than their noble counterparts, they still deserved a shred of respect in Jule’s eyes.

Parn clearly shared Jule’s train of thought, he could barely control himself, his hand twitching whilst gripping the hilt of his blade.

Nevertheless, Parn returned to the group with Jule and they continued their march further into the city.

Once they passed the gates, they were welcomed by the ruins of the City, many soldiers from both sides littered the street, and mixed in between them, were commoners who had gotten stuck in the crossfire. The buildings were all scorched and crumbling.

Jule felt a tightness in his chest by the sight of these destroyed buildings.

He held no love for the people who inhabited the city, but the city itself held many memories for him, this was the place he grew up in after all.

More importantly, this place held all of the warm memories from his childhood, of a time when his father and mother lived and laughed together with him.

He could only tighten his fists and rein his emotions back into place, he had already made a fool of himself far too much today.

…

They walked further into the city, the barren buildings and many corpses a constant sight throughout all of their journey.

Once they got halfway to the Castle City gates, they could finally hear some signs of life.

Parn ordered the soldiers to stand by and decided to scout ahead, shadowed closely by Jule, who was the strongest in the group. In case they faced an enemy party, they could surely beat them back with their combined strength.

They used their strength to climb a few ruined buildings, and from the roof, looked towards the place where all the noise was coming from.

They watched as the local cathedral from the Church of Arpentia was surrounded by a mob of commoners, all wounded or carrying someone who was wounded. The wooden gates at the entrance of the church were opened wide, a constant influx of wounded people coming in and leaving in a better condition.

Parn and Jule stared at the sight for a few seconds.

It made sense why the Cathedral was unharmed, no faction wanted to gain the wrath of this monolithic entity, yet they both felt it was a bit too convenient that the church could treat so many wounded without prior warning.

Either way, they were relieved that the invaders had not outright murdered the civilians, at least this way, Gican City had hopes of recovering.

When they returned to the group, the slight break from all the recent happenings gave them a chance to observe the state they were in.

For most, the adrenaline had long worn off and they were working on fumes, the pain from the various wounds they suffered back at the Altia Plains coming back in full force. Others were extremely exhausted, they had marched non-stop for a full day by now.

Some had even outright collapsed, their bodies being carried by some of the strongest refiners in the group.

Even if Parn and Jule forced them to keep going, they wouldn’t be able to fight when the time came, as it stood they could barely even stand straight.

Therefore, they decided to send them to the Cathedral, to be healed and take rest, while the strongest of the group kept going with Jule and Parn towards the Castle Gate. They could also defend the citizens in case some of the attackers returned with a thirst for blood.

Parn decided to give the Female Commander from the subjugation authority over this new group, it seems that he also believed that she held promise.

The soldiers left with audible sighs, their mental and physical trauma was considerable, they desperately needed some relief. Besides it just so happened that most of the citizens had gathered in the Cathedral, so they could also hopefully reunite with their families.

….

In the end, the resulting group numbered a measly 32.

Most of the group was formed of the rank 1 body refiners that hadn’t been harmed in the battle, and 8 rank 2 body refiners. Though in truth, Jule and Parn, together with the two rank 2 mind refiners that stayed behind, formed the true core of the group.

Once they reorganized from the departure of the other soldiers, they continued the trek down the main road. Even if they had managed to destroy the outer wall, the castle wall was much more reinforced than its counterpart, thanks to its relatively small length and size.

They hoped that the siege had been stopped there and that they could help influence the result of the battle.

…

As they got closer, the amount of destruction became a magnitude of order less, a clear sign that the Redshield forces had retreated, hoping to continue the struggle and turn the situation around at the castle wall.

After walking for a few more minutes, they finally reached the castle wall.

The Royal Army was surrounding the wall, they had clearly consumed whatever had allowed them to destroy the main wall, resulting in an extended siege.

With the unavoidable truth in front of his face, Jule could only falter. He could barely even comprehend the fact that the Royal Army was invading their City. His father had always been loyal to the crown, even if some nobles were trying to gather around him, it shouldn’t have warranted a response on this scale.

A hopeless feeling rose from his depths, if they gathered the rest of the Redshield Army, they could perhaps beat back the forces of the Crown, but they had been spread all throughout the Dukedom and the border to Grandia.

Jule held no doubts that his father would pull them through this chaos and get revenge on those who had slighted him, there was simply no other possible future for a man of his scale.The only problem was that they would have been dealt a crippling blow with the loss of their Capital.

Jule stared at the Royal Army with seething hatred, no matter the reason, they had betrayed his father and his years of service…

And for that, they would pay.

He did not let his anger get the best of him though, he had already seen the consequences of such a thing.

They needed to find an opening or a way to help the garrison stuck in the Castle Town.