Chapter 330: What are you? An Idiot?

"Also you really don’t have to wear your armor while we are cooking and stuff. Aren’t you going to sweat like crazy near the fires?"

"Well you are not wrong," Claire admitted. "I just thought it wouldn’t be a good look if I am walking around in casual clothes when all of my soldiers are in full gear."

Adrian shook his head.

"No. Just ditch the armor. Put on some proper casual clothes and head over to the kitchen tent. You don’t have to suffer unnecessarily just for looks."

Claire just nodded, gathered up her scattered armor pieces and the stack of black shirts and quietly left the tent.

Adrian let out a long breath and laid back down on his small bed and closed his eyes.

Two days passed by in a complete flash.

The morning air was freezing cold, but the entire military camp was already wide awake and buzzing with the sounds of men getting ready for a slaughter. Adrian stood near his tent and watched as the various armies formed up into their crude marching formations.

Men were grabbing their spears and hastily strapping on whatever cheap leather and wooden shields they had been issued. Some of the luckier ones had short swords hanging from their waists.

Adrian just observed them for a minute before turning his head to look at his own army. Then he turned to look at Count Frankenstein’s troops who were forming up right next to his block.

There was a massive difference between the two groups.

Well, it wasn’t just a difference between Frankenstein and Adrian. There was a huge gap between the armies of the other minor nobles and the forces that Frankenstein had today.

Every other noble lord had just equipped their men with standard, cheap circular shields or small kite shields that barely covered their torsos. Meanwhile, Frankenstein’s army had something entirely different since Adrian had practically forced the Count to adopt a better defensive strategy.

Frankenstein’s soldiers were holding massive tower shields that were almost six feet tall.

The sheer size of the shields was actually a little bit comical when you looked at the men holding them. Most of the soldiers here weren’t exactly tall. Thanks to a lifetime of dealing with extreme poverty, and having zero proper nutrition growing up, their growth was stunted.

The average height of the drafted soldiers in the camp was sitting right around five foot three or maybe five foot four if they were lucky. They were pretty short guys.

Of course, this was just the average for the commoners. A lot of the high ranking nobles who had access to meat and had no lack of food since childhood grew up to be pretty tall and imposing. But on the other side of that equation, there were plenty of people here who didn’t even break the five foot mark.

Giving a massive six foot tower shield to a guy who was barely five feet tall was an interesting visual.

These huge shields were obviously pretty heavy by themselves even for the guys who had some decent muscle on them. Luckily they were mostly made out of layers of hardened leather stretched over a light wooden frame, so it wasn’t nearly as heavy as a solid metal shield would have been.

But aside from the giant shields, there was one glaring issue that Adrian immediately noticed.

Every single one of Frankenstein’s men was carrying a long wooden spear in their right hand.

Adrian just watched them struggle to stay in formation for a few seconds. The men were shaking as they tried to balance the massive tower shields using only their non-dominant left arms.

He walked over to the Count.

"What exactly did I tell you two days ago?" Adrian asked flatly.

Frankenstein looked a little sheepish. He nervously adjusted his expensive cape and cleared his throat.

"Well, I just told them to take the spears just in case," Frankenstein muttered.

"Just in case of what?" Adrian asked, staring at the man like he was facing an idiot. "Do you honestly think these recently drafted peasant soliders have the physical strength to throw those spears all the way up and over a fortress wall? These guys aren’t even knights."

Frankenstein crossed his arms defensively.

"I mean, it is just in case the enemies decide to send their troops out to face us on the open field."

Adrian just let out a heavy sigh and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Why in the world would they get out of a highly fortified fortress?" Adrian asked. "They have high walls which gives them a massive tactical advantage against a siege. Why would they ever send people out to fight us out here?"

Frankenstein opened his mouth to argue but Adrian just cut him off.

"And even if they are stupid enough to send someone out, it is obviously going to be their cavalry. If that happens they would probably try and flank our formations. But even that won’t really be useful because we have mages on our side. You have me and you have Marquis Draven. There is literally nothing that standard cavalry can do against us. They would just get blown to pieces before they even reach the front lines."

Frankenstein just stood there looking embarrassed in front of his own officers.

"Just tell them to ditch the spears," Adrian ordered. "It is totally fine if they just carry their short swords on their hips. It is way better to let them carry those massive shields with both of their hands instead of trying to struggle as they lift it up with a single arm. Just look at them."

Adrian pointed at the front line of Frankenstein’s formation.

"They are trying to lift a six foot tall shield with their left hand which isn’t even their main arm. Are you out of your mind? This siege is going to last a long time today. Their arms are going to give out in twenty minutes and then they will just get shot full of arrows."