The Golem Mage

To them, Alec did not even need to say too much, they were more than grateful that he had saved them from the hands of the Orcs.

They had lived lives worse than slaves, forced to work from the moment they woke up very early until they were finally allowed to sleep late at night.

With little to nothing to eat, they had watched the wills of many strong men break, while others died from hunger, they all looked terribly malnourished, and they were simply happy that, at the very least, a human lord had now conquered the city and he wouldn’t treat them that worse like the orc lord did since they were part of the same race.

And the funny part about it all was that they had not even been expecting food, they had only hoped they would be set free and put to work with decent pay.

However, when the Barbarian warriors brought food over for them, many of them could not control their tears, it was the first time they had eaten their fill in a very long time.

As if that wasn’t enough, when Alec mentioned that by being under him, their harvests would now yield better results, they became even happier.

Alec spoke a lot about how he wanted them all to have jobs and about the development plans he had for the city. Even without those promises, he had already won the loyalty of the residents of this city that had once been controlled by the Orcs.

Now, with the promises he had used to fill their minds with hope, making them wonder if such a future was truly possible, it was clear they were not the type who would ever revolt against Alec.

_ _

At the border city being overseen by Hunter, the small battalion of a thousand soldiers marched forward with stealth under the dark of the night.

They had used a scope to look at the city walls from afar, and they had been able to tell that there were only a few guards watching the whole area.

Five guards, to be precise. Each of them was stationed at a different arrow tower mounted atop the city gates.

Based on the intelligence they had gathered from inside the city, Dave was sure this city did not have any arrow towers before, which made him wonder just how Alec had been able to create ten arrow towers all of a sudden.

Though only five were in use, there were still ten towers on the city walls. No matter how Dave thought about it, even if the residents of the city had been worked like slaves from the day the city was captured, he believed they still should not have been able to build ten Archer towers so quickly.

However, after considering the fact that there might be some talented builders in the region who could construct things faster than normal, he tried to credit it to Alec’s luck.

Perhaps Alec had been lucky enough to get a master builder under his command, making the construction of the towers possible, but even then, seeing this only made him reaffirm his thoughts.

That since the towers had been hastily built, then that meant they could not be that sturdy, he felt they had only been made to give the city some medium of protection.

And because he believed the citizens had been enslaved to create them, he became even more assured that a riot would break out once they attacked. After all, he believed the citizens would definitely try to free themselves from such a lord, one who had decided to use them unjustly just because they had once been citizens of a rival lord he defeated.

After approaching the city gates stealthily, Dave ordered the warriors of the two lords to throw ropes with hooks onto the parts of the walls between the arrow towers.

From there, they would begin climbing.

Though they had used the cover of the dark night to get closer to the wall on the blindside of those who were on the archer tower, but Dave knew that the moment they started climbing, they would definitely alert the warriors placed on night watch.

But that was something he was not afraid of at all.

After all, there were only five guards.

However, while all this was happening, Hunter already knew.

He had already sent his top captain to the main city to ask for reinforcements from Connan and the Amazon Archer Queen, while also having the captain rank golem teleport to the other cities to warn them of the attack.

And if they were not under attack, they were to send reinforcements back as well, even if the number was small he would highly appreciate it, as it would be more than enough to handle the issue he had at hand.

“My lord, should we sound the alarm now?” one of the remaining four captain-rank golems standing beside Hunter asked, but Hunter shook his head.

“No. Since they have decided to enter stealthily, we will also create a trap of our own in secret, but we will make it seem as if we have no chance of winning.”

“Ringing the alarm now would only alert the real masterminds behind this attack, and they might not enter the city. What we need right now is not to frighten them away ahead of time. What I truly desire is to capture them for my liege,” Hunter said.

He then spread out his hands, indicating that they should disperse and hide within the castle, as they all swiftly obeyed.

However, before that, he had one of them go around and inform the city elders to pass on a message: everyone was to quickly move into the houses they have claimed, lock their doors, and no matter what happened, they were not to come out until they were called again.

After hearing this, the old men could immediately tell that an attack was about to happen, so they had the humans move into hiding as quickly as possible, with many of them wishing that the force of their new lords win, the fact that he promises them so many things it means that they wish the best always happens for him.

The fact that there were not many of them, and that they were extremely loyal, made everything quite easy.

Meanwhile, Hunter had already sent a voice transmission to his captain ranked Golems on the Archer towers, instructing them on how they were to act and feign injury when the time came, all so they could buy enough time for the reinforcements to arrive.

After that, Hunter simply returned to the throne room and stood before the City Heart, using his own body to shield it, he then dug his sword into the ground, placed his hands on top of the handle, and said,

“And it begins.”