Chapter 598 - 365: The "Dull" Victory Day

Chapter 598: Chapter 365: The "Dull" Victory Day

The siege of Delong Castle was over.

It took a total of eighteen hours—an absolutely astonishing efficiency for a siege.

The biggest challenge had been breaking the Protective Shield. Once the army entered the city, they met no effective resistance, only some hastily assembled barricades that were quickly cleared away.

The besieging force had zero deaths and only a single injury—someone who had tripped and fallen in the dark because they couldn’t see the road clearly.

Of Delong Castle’s defending garrison, over four thousand surrendered and became prisoners. A few small units escaped from the other side of the city. Figxin did not pursue them; those men weren’t important.

As for the few hundred who remained in the city to resist, they had been completely annihilated.

A very satisfactory loss ratio.

What was not satisfactory was that a few people had indeed failed to heed Figxin’s warning to stay hidden in their homes.

She had even delayed the attack until nightfall to give people ample time to go home.

In truth, given the Northern Legion’s firepower, they didn’t really need the cover of darkness. Attacking at night or during the day made no difference.

But, whether out of curiosity or some kind of sickness in the head, there were still those who insisted on coming out to the streets to watch the spectacle.

According to the statistics, civilian casualties in Delong Castle amounted to 15 dead and 23 wounded.

For a city with nearly fifty thousand civilians, this number was quite acceptable, almost negligible even.

And if something happened to them, it happened. She had never held a high opinion of such people anyway; each one gone was one less potential risk to society.

The problem was, the deaths and injuries of these few people had caused considerable psychological trauma to the Northern Warriors who had hurt them.

From its inception, the New Northern Army had always adhered to the creed of coming from the people and fighting for the people. All its soldiers were children from ordinary families in the Northern Domain.

They had strict discipline, which they followed resolutely. Protecting civilians and not taking any of their property were written into their code.

Therefore, accidentally causing civilian deaths brought a significant sense of guilt upon these young Warriors.

After all, fighting an enemy army was one thing, but harming unarmed civilians was another entirely.

Even though they weren’t at fault, the Warriors still blamed themselves deeply.

To help these soldiers recover mentally, Figxin requested Zog send over a group of psychologists from Deepwater City, hoping they would be useful.

She had never really believed in psychologists before. Their work didn’t seem as concrete as that of a "proper" doctor; instead, it seemed more akin to the unreliable work of a Divination Warlock.

But there were no better options.

She needed those demoralized Warriors to recover. The mission was not over, and there was still much to do.

For now, they had only taken the northern part of Sutton’s territory; they were still a long way from storming the Royal City.

The damaged parts of Delong Castle needed to be repaired so it could serve as a defensive fortress.

While this place was useless against the Northern Domain’s firepower, it was quite effective against old-fashioned armies.

They were still at a severe numerical disadvantage and needed some time to build up their strength in this area.

However, the damage to Delong Castle was a bit severe, making it difficult for them to repair it on their own.

Figxin hadn’t expected the Magic Grenades to be so effective. All the military installations in the city had been reduced to heaps of slag.

Calling the sites "ruins" would have been a compliment. It was now difficult to even tell that buildings had once stood there. So, calling it "repairs" was misleading; it was actually a complete rebuild.

They could only wait for Zog and his reinforcements to arrive.

Figxin woke at dawn.

She too had slept outdoors the previous night, together with her Warriors, refusing any special treatment.

Well, it wasn’t that she had *no* special treatment. Compared to the ordinary Warriors sleeping directly on the streets, she had a tent.

Still, even with a tent, she had already set herself leagues apart from traditional nobles.

Having the Warriors sleep on the ground was a move born of necessity; there was simply nowhere for them to stay in the city.

The Lord’s Castle and the Barracks had been turned into craters. Delong Castle wasn’t exactly a tourist city, so it didn’t have enough inns to accommodate two thousand people.

Fortunately, the Warriors had plenty of experience with field training, so these conditions weren’t too terrible. And Figxin was no pampered Princess.

Besides, this necessary measure was not without its rewards.

As Figxin watched the cautious and astonished townspeople on the streets, she was certain that the Northern Legion had already won the hearts of the people.

Future recruitment efforts would be incredibly smooth.

"Have Zog’s people arrived?" Figxin asked her adjutant.

The adjutant was in charge of the early morning watch.

The battle may have been won, but guard duty still had to be posted.

"We made contact fifteen minutes ago. The contingent is only twenty kilometers away."

"Then it should still be a few hours. Get ready, we’ll go to the city gates to welcome them later. To be honest, I’m getting a little hungry," Figxin said.

In their pursuit of marching speed, the Northern Legion hadn’t carried many supplies.

And because of their discipline not to take anything from the masses, most of the Warriors were now starving.

...

Zog arrived at Delong Castle, accompanying a large supply train, a Beastman construction team for civil engineering, a medical team, and a propaganda squad.

He held a map of Sutton in his claws, coloring it with a colored pen.

’This map-coloring game really is fun.’

After taking Delong Castle, Zog had already colored nearly 35% of Sutton’s territory red.

He also believed that after they had displayed such overwhelming strength, the Dukes of the other domains would probably not resist any further. Therefore, they only needed to take down the not-quite-right-in-the-head Sutton VII to achieve complete success.

Furin looked disdainfully at Zog for coloring the map red, making it seem as if they were some kind of bloodthirsty, evil organization.