True King's Ecstasy

The people inside the fortress were anxiously waiting for something to happen as they already knew they had nothing to do right now.

Kids kept constantly crying and women were anxious about their husbands, brothers and relatives. Most of the men were assigned to the military task as well as some simple tasks including the farmers.

"Why do we have to face this war? Why are they attacking us?"

"Exactly, didn't empire and kingdom had a friendly relationship, what's happening,"

People were confused and they feared the empire which was the most formidable force in the whole human continent.

"Shhh! Shut up and do your work, viscount's dogs are everywhere," He mainly said it because he knew even a single mistake would cause a huge problem at this moment.

*Boom

While they were talking with each other they suddenly heard a huge explosion outside the wall which shooked all of them to the core of their body.

"What's happening?" Shocked by this turn of events, they questioned but soon they heard voices of soldiers warning them.

"Don't stay here, go inside, do you want to die?" They shouted in a hurry while climbing the wall with arrows and other weapons.

Meanwhile, Julius and Cedric were on the wall giving orders and looking at the empire army with disdain.

"This wall is strong, they won't be able to break it with puny magic spells," With pride in his works, Cedric said.

Another magic spell hit the same place on the wall leaving a charred mark but they couldn't damage it or so they thought but the wall was clearly taking damage slowly.

"Release your arrows, kill these empire dogs," Under their commander's order everyone shooted injuring many on the empire side but the damage wasn't enough to stop them.

As soon as their last attempt at night attack failed, Pete decided to finish this war in a full frontal attack. He didn't want to prolong things for too long as his aim was capital.

This arrow and magic exchange went on for another few hours until the empire mages broke that equilibrium.

Julius realised seeing the wall what their aim was. Mages kept attacking the same spot, again and again, to damage the wall without trying to attack units. Their aim was to create a spot to enter the fortress for the artillery.

"Hold the wall, they are going to break it," Frustrated about this situation, the kingdom side shouted with anger.

No matter how they tried they couldn't protect the wall as it broke with a high sound opening a huge wall in the fortress wall making the empire side happy and releasing a huge battle cry.

"It's over, everyone shoots them, don't let them come here without any damage, " Both magicians and archers on the kingdom sides got ready to attack hearing Cedric's orders, but then they saw something unusual.

"My lord, these people don't look like soldiers, they look like-"

Everyone paused for a minute before realising what he was talking about.

"They are normal people, why are they sending them to the front lines," Confusion remained until Julius noticed their faces which were filled with fear.

"Something is not right," Muttering to himself, Julius looked at Cedric only to see his face disfigured in anger and disgust.

"Cedric, do you know who they are?" To Julius' question, he showed a hard face but in the end, he decided to answer as it wasn't his place to keep secrets.

"Your highness, they are-"

"They are from villagers surrounding our territory, I have seen some of these people when I do my annual visit," He couldn't even finish his next words, Julius felt different types of emotions inside his body.

"First that letter, now this, how far are they going,"

While this was happening all the bait citizens kept walking in their direction. Behind them, empire soldiers followed using them as shields.

It was a disgusting war tactic to use but a useful one. The kingdom soldiers hesitated to shoot their arrows at their own people.

"Your highness, what do we do? They are getting rather close," Unable to come to a decision Cedric decided to take orders from Julius. He felt bad for his people as well as Julius who had to take this difficult decision but he didn't want to accept the defeat to the empire.

"Ugh~"

Julius felt troubled, he felt a massive weight of this decision on his mind as he kept looking at the frightened faces of the citizens. He felt like time was going slowly for him while looking at both sides of the battlefield.

"Shoot- Shoot them, Attack, don't let the empire invade our defence," With a difficult face, he took this decision.

He felt like giving up his crown prince position right now and running back and hiding somewhere. The weight of the decision he had to take was not something a youngster like him should deal with.

Right after he gave his order, Cedric forced everyone in the fortress to attack as most of them hesitated to attack knowing these are not enemies.

"If you don't shoot now, they will enter this fortress and the same thing will happen to us, these empire dogs don't have hearts," Xedric shouted in anger.

"But-"

"Shut up," Julius had blood coming out of his hand from the fingerprint mark showing how frustrated he is.

"It was hard for me to take this decision, don't make this harder for me,"

Everyone went silent with his words. They didn't have a lot of time to finish this task as the citizens were rather close to the shooting range.

"Shoot!"

*Zing *Zing

(Fireball)

All the archers and magicians started to rain attacks on the empire's side of the battlefield. Seeing their plan crumbling down Pete felt frustrated.

"Tsk, so they don't care about their citizens," He was disappointed. He expected them to be more shocked and surrender seeing this grandeur show.

"They have rather intelligent people in their army, my lord, it was unlucky they didn't bite our bait but we will win this war," Ferosa's fearless words had a confident tone to them.

"We will finish them with our next attack,"