ALL NOVEL
Chapter 88: Going After the Fake Romie
“Yet another bunch of escaped nobles.”
The garrison troops shook their heads when they saw a bunch of people holding colorful flags staggering in their direction.
Following the White Knight’s defeat, Sophia capitalized on the opportunity and furiously advanced her troops, clearing away all the enemies in the way. She stomped on a number of important Hungarian fortresses before arriving at its capital, Budapest.
The bulk of Hungary and the nearby nations’ soldiers had joined the alliance army and died alongside Hunyadi, so they struggled to put up a defense against the Eastern Romain army. Due to that, Sophia’s conquest had been smooth-sailing.
The swift collapse of their fortresses induced fear among the Hungarians.
Hungary’s king and high nobles rallied their troops to make a last stand at Budapest, but at the same time, quite a number of officials and nobles didn’t think that there was much hope left for Hungary and fled to the nearest Holy Romain Empire.
Just recently, a group of them arrived at Vienna with their family and retainers.
“Do you think the Eastern Romain Empire’s Basilinna will be able to take down Budapest?”
“That doesn’t sound plausible.”
The soldiers scratched their heads as they spoke. Despite having heard about recent developments, they still found it hard to believe that the little hamster known as the Eastern Romain Empire had become capable of biting.
“Budapest is Hungary’s capital. It’ll be tough for the Eastern Romain Empire to take it down if the people there are determined to fight to their dying breath.”
“She should still be quite far from Budapest. I heard our superiors saying that it’s just an intimidation tactic; she’ll probably just plunder a bit before returning.”
“Oi, you should know better than to chat on duty!” a commander berated the soldiers. “You, you, you, and you, go and check those entering the city!”
“…Fuck!” the soldiers cursed under their breath.
Most of the nobles seeking refuge here had relatives or friends in the Holy Romain Empire. Checking them was a waste of effort, and they might risk offending someone powerful too.
The commander always dumps the worst jobs on us.
Just as they had expected, the other party chased them off as soon as they approached.
“Scram!” a middle-aged man dressed in opulent clothes berated.
The soldiers could only disregard their commander’s furious glare and sheepishly back down. Someone as unreasonable as that was obviously a noble. Unless they were tired of living, it was best not to get involved with people like that.
…
“That’s surprisingly smooth-sailing…”
It was an open secret that Empress Frederina’s military capabilities were non-existent—even her own subordinates were reluctant to discuss military matters with her, let alone kings from the other nations—but Sophia didn’t expect it to be this disastrous.
How is the security in the Holy Romain Empire still so lax when I have been rampaging in Hungary?
I know that they are in the midst of mobilizing their troops, so it might be hard for them to reinforce their defenses in the spur of a moment, and I did pull off a feint to make them lower their guard, but still…
Is it fine for your capital to be this defenseless?!
Sophia had been sending in a steady stream of people into Vienna, disguising them as merchants, clergymen, bards, and even mercenaries, and all of them managed to enter the city without a hitch.
According to the reports she had received, Vienna’s defensive measures were also very lax.
“This is a good opportunity for us to strike.” Sophia clenched her fists. “We shall overrun the city tonight!”
…
At nightfall, the world fell silent.
Several soldiers dressed in untidy clothes yawned as they dragged their feet toward the city walls to inspect the area. Just then, they heard rustling behind.
“What’s that?” one of the soldiers asked with an alcoholic burp.
He tried his best to widen his eyes to see who it was, only to be met with a sharp, silver gleam. Ten assailants clothed in dark quietly charged at the remaining soldiers, making quick work of them.
One of the assailants quickly scaled the city wall and waved a torch at a specific tempo.
Upon receiving the signal, the 10,000 soldiers of the Eastern Romain army began to make their move.
But before they could even reach the city gate, a pitch-black current suddenly rushed into Vienna under the cover of the night.
“Basilinna, what’s that?” one of the commanders asked Sophia.
Sophia was first bewildered before she broke out in ravenous joy. “It’s our Caesar! Our Caesar has returned!”
“Don’t they close their gate at night?” Shu Yichao was perplexed to see Vienna’s gate open while rushing in with his troops. “Is it another bug?”
It took him considerable time to thoroughly purge the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and dispel the debuff on him. As soon as he was done, he turned around and resumed his conquest. It was time to swiftly color the map.
His coloring was much more enjoyable this time.
“Luckily the Metal Fortresses have a low attrition rate in the Auto Battle mode.”
He did enjoy fighting battles, but using the Auto Battle mode saved him a lot of time.
He had previously tried the Auto Battle mode with his Elite Horse Archers, but the attrition rate was inexplicably high. To his relief, the situation changed with his purchase of Metal Fortresses. Now, he could skip small skirmishes.
“But I should still personally oversee the siege on the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. Brothers, charge with me! We shall take down Vienna and curb the fake Romie!”
…
“Bad news, Your Majesty!”
Frederina was still groggy when her aide dragged her out from her love bed with her male lover.
A bowl of cold water was splashed on her face before she was dragged onto the palace walls. What she saw bewildered her.
“What’s going on?!”
Her palace was constructed on elevated ground, which was strategically advantageous and granted her a bird’s eye view of the city, but it was precisely because she could see everything that she started sweating profusely.
It was midnight.
Vibrant flames danced under the dull, grayish sky, painting the sky beautiful but ominous crimson. The entire city was blazing under the flames of war, and suffocating smoke drifted upward to veil the sky.
Frederina was stunned.
Led by a blood eagle flag, countless Eastern Romain soldiers dressed in superior armor and draped in red robes roared in excitement as they charged ahead and massacred anyone who stood in their path.
“The Scourge of God has attacked Vienna?!” Frederina was scared out of her wits.
“Your Majesty, it isn’t the Scourge of God!” her aide said, “That flag over there is the blood eagle flag, not the blood twin-headed eagle flag. It’s the Eastern Romain Empire’s Princess Sophia!”
“Sophia?” Frederina took another look and realized her aide was right. She exhaled in relief. “That’s good, that’s good.”
We should be able to hold our ground if it’s only Sophia.
“I didn’t think the rumors were true. How old is she to be leading an army to war? Why isn’t Constantin keeping her in line? And… she’s a lunatic! Another fucking lunatic!” Frederina slowly lost her composure.
Why is she attacking us before properly settling Hungary? Isn’t she afraid of the Hungarians cutting off her path of retreat?
Ah… The current Hungary doesn’t even have the troops to cut her path of retreat.
“The Scourge of God is over there.”
Another aide cut off Frederina’s thoughts and pointed in another direction.
“!!!”