Chapter 37: Fools for Leaders

From atop a tower, a tower so high that it enables one to oversee almost the entirety of Prashyufa, was Klauna who was overseeing the stream of civilians slowly evacuating the city. 

Compared to the last time she witnessed the citadel from this tower, Prashyufa now looks more like an abandoned city. The busy streets replaced with an empty road that was filled with litter. Shops were closed and houses had their doors and windows shut. Due to the efforts of the First and the Seventh Army, a mass majority of citizens had either left the city or were leaving. The ones that remained were the stubborn ones. There was no helping them anymore. Not at this point.

Klauna’s eyes then shifted to the other side of the citadel, to the walls that protect Prashyufa. A few thousand soldiers were on the walls, waiting with their weapons drawn out. Below the walls were a few thousand soldiers gathering up into one big formation— a few thousand more trying to get into position within the big line of troops. Klauna squinted her eyes hard and was able to see an out of place figure within the troops. It was a petite girl wearing a beautiful and alluring camisole, her pose as if ordering the others around her. It was most likely Sylendri.

From beyond the wall, Klauna could see tens of thousands of humans gathered together with their allies. They were not really that far away from the citadel, but they were protected with some really powerful interception magic which rendered most long-range attack on them useless. She could see that the humans weren’t exactly finished with preparation as they were still running around their encampment, preparing siege constructs to assault the citadel. 

One of the said constructs looked to be a gigantic crossbow that was visible to Klauna even from this distance. It was probably an elven superweapon. She has heard of such a weapon before, a construct that launches attacks equivalent to a grade seven spell. The humans were probably planning to strike down the walls with it. Although, it does look like it will take them a few more days to finish the construction of it.

Having analysed all that she could, Klauna jumped off the tower before entering into a free fall. She used her body to glide through the air, getting closer to her destination in the process. Once reaching a certain height, she launched the spear Indominatus to the ground. The spear landed on the ground before releasing a burst of energy, forming a red translucent bubble. Klauna then pumped mana into her legs and aim her feet downwards. Her feet crashed into the barrier and her velocity slowed down. Not much, but enough for her to land on the ground gracefully without any injuries.

Klauna slowly got up from the fall and observed her immediate surroundings. Rows of neatly lined up iron boxes, and a bright red and yellow medical tent which was being dismantled at this very moment. It was the encampment of the Seventh Army. Once she got her bearings, she grabbed the spear from the ground and began walking towards her destination— the meeting room within the encampment. It didn’t take long for her to reach it. Inside, were all the officers of the First and Seventh Army. All of them were looking at a map and doing one last check.

"It's time. Yuupiecca, Blackmask, are the preparations ready?" Klauna said as she entered the place, causing the whole room to stop whatever they are doing.

“Preparations have been completed a long time ago, General Klauna,” Blackmask replied to her.

“General… yeah, we are ready. I know I’m late to the party and all… but is it necessary to employ such a measure?” Yuupiecca asked, looking at the points on the map with a frown.

“If it may not have dawned upon you, Yuupiecca, we are far beyond normal methods now. This will buy us the time we need. Trust me when I say we are going to need that time.”

“...” Yuupiecca didn’t respond. He just nodded, a frown still on his face.

The whole area went silent at her words. Unlike the other plans that Klauna had made before, this one, in particular, caused quite a disturbance among her followers. They were not happy at having to execute her plan.

“I did agree to do it your way, but damn... to make such a plan. You are quite the scary person you know that, Ticah? I can see now that my army and I were truly not needed here. Or rather, I can see why you don’t want the other armies to be here,” Leida spoke out

“...The situation has gone to shit, Liliel. Someone has to make the hard choices,” Klauna responded back.

“I know. I’m not condemning you. Rather, I actually respect your determination to go through with this. I’m just saying that this will leave a bad taste in my mouth. I wish now that I had followed my love to the south,” Leida said as she let out a sigh.

Indeed, whatever plan Klauna concocted, it wasn’t pretty. But everyone in the room knew what needed to be done. Klauna would not order something that she wouldn't do herself much less on the subordinates that she cared so much. The time for discussion and debate was long gone. All that’s left to do was follow orders— to save as many people as they could.

“It doesn’t matter now. We are here, might as well get it done right. What is the progress with the evacuation?” Klauna asked.

“It’s progressing smoothly; about ninety per cent of Prashyufa have been evacuated. There are at least a few more thousand civilians still under evacuation.” Cera responded.

“How long more before they are evacuated?” Harbin asked.

Cera looked upwards and did a small calculation in her head. “We’ll be done by dusk, I think.”

"Cera, facilitate the evacuation. Make it go faster. The citadel will fall in six hours. Those that can’t make it out by then, we leave them behind."

The whole room went into a disorder when they heard Klauna’s words, a various look of shock and perplexion on their faces. They didn’t know how to respond. They know full well by now that Klauna doesn’t joke around. She meant what she said and she just said that the mighty Citadel of Prashyufa will fall within six hours— the mighty citadel that has protected their lands for thousands of years.

“Six hours? The humans have just arrived? I thought we will have a few days at least before this citadel will fall,” Leida asked in shock, just like the others in the room

In order to explain her reasoning, Klauna moved forward and pointed on the map— at the gates of Prashyufa. “Sylendri will open the gates and charge right at the enemy, thinking she could catch them off guard. She’ll eventually retreat through the very same gates and the humans will flood the citadel. I expect the whole thing to happen within six hours.”

Leida found it hard to believe Klauna’s words. She’s been the General of the First Army for a long time; it was hard to believe someone would make such an obvious mistake. Even Leida who she admits wasn’t that good of a strategist would know better than to do that. “That’s rather far fetched don’t you think? Nobody can be that stupid…”

“When I planned for the battle at the Plains of Fate, I thought the same as well. I gave them the benefit of the doubt, thinking that they can’t be that incompetent. I lost very good soldiers because of that mistake. I’m not leaving it up to chance anymore, I’m assuming the worst-case scenario here as the most likely outcome,” Klauna explained further.

“Still… that’s rather hard to believe.” Leida said.

“I don’t care what you believe. We are ditching this place within that time anyways. Cera, I’ll leave the evacuation up to—.”

Their discussion was disturbed by the sound of a large horn. It was the Kingdom’s signal to attack.

“No way… is that…” Harbin yelp out.

“Are you serious? Are they really going to attack the humans? With these numbers?” The Watchtower Warrior murmured

“Interesting. It might seem that the seventh general might be correct in her deductions, big sister,” Samiyadare said.

“Hmmph, case in point, Liliel. Any objections?” Klauna said to Leida who had a complex expression on her face.

“... so it is. To think we have such fools leading the kingdom. I can’t say I am not disappointed at this,” Leida said with a bitter smile.

Klauna then walked up and raised her voice for everyone to hear. “I hope everyone is prepared. We will soon be engaging against the Alliance. There are still many civilians that we can save, but as selfish as it may be, I want you all to prioritise yourself. Try not to get caught during the chaos and confusion and retreat at your discretion if things get too hard or out of hand. I’ll leave the rest of this operation in your hands.” 

The officers of the First Army nodded at her words while the officers of the Seventh Army gave a salute. After giving her words of encouragement, Klauna then started walking towards the exit of the meeting room. 

“Wait up just a moment, Ticah. Where are you going?” Leida asked Klauna.

“There are things that I need to settle before leaving the citadel. I’ll rendezvous with you at the west gate,” Klauna said back.

Leida only gave her a deadpan look. “Couldn’t you have finished settling things like a few days ago. We had all the time in the world to get things done.” 

Klauna didn’t respond and left the room in a hurry, not willing to answer her question.

“Oi! Come back here, Ticah!” Leida yelled out.

Seeing Klauna did what she just did, Harbin couldn’t help but let out a sigh. “She’s always like that… always leaving things for last. I keep telling her to get her act together too…”

Leida nodded to Harbin’s statement. “Talk about doing things at the last minute…”

“You are not qualified to say that, Big Sister,” Samiyadare commented.

Leida ignored her little sister’s remark before facing the other officers in the room. “Well you heard the lady, we got six hours, soldiers. Let’s get going! Go go go go go!” 

Everyone in the room saluted Leida before going their own ways. They were ready to finish things up for the great evacuation of Prashyufa. Every single officer that was present in the room was given a copy of the grimoire for easy communication with each other. Everyone except Klauna who left before Harbin could give one to her and Lina who was not present in the meeting.