Chapter 120 : Smallpox
Chapter 120: Smallpox
The long night would eventually pass.
As dawn broke, the officers of the Ortu Alliance began blowing their whistles to assemble the troops. Countless wolf-headed humanoid soldiers walked out from the shattered houses of the ruined village, and from time to time, a woman’s miserable scream could be heard.
Seeing that the soldiers gathered rather quickly, the officer’s fur-covered face showed satisfaction. “After a night’s rest, it seems my warriors have all recovered well.”
“Next, we will join our brother unit to attack the main city of Haparos! Ancestors above! From today onward, the humiliation the Kingdom of Paria brought upon us shall be washed away with their blood!”
“Awroo~!”
After one wolf’s howl, a chorus of howls followed in unison. Under the officer’s lead, this thousand-strong unit composed of spearmen, musketeers, and artillery slowly advanced toward the fortress city under Haparos’s domain.
At the end of the village where they had first invaded, a limbless human stick hung from a wooden stake at the entrance. His blood-soaked golden hair swayed weakly in the wind.
The Kingdom of Paria was powerful—this was not their self-praise but a reputation built from the blood of surrounding nations.
The rise of the Kingdom of Paria began with the breeding of horses and various riding beasts. The Paria grasslands were elevated, with a temperate climate well-suited for animal husbandry.
Criminals who had fled from the main continent occupied this region. After a short period of recovery, they returned to their old ways—raiding and kidnapping people.
But this time, they no longer wandered aimlessly. Backed by the vast plains, they enjoyed natural advantages in mobility and logistics. Breeding warhorses and beasts of burden allowed them to replenish their strength quickly.
The gentle terrain surrounding the Paria grasslands made for the best cavalry charge grounds. Combined with mages’ enchantments that boosted the knights’ speed, neighboring countries could scarcely resist Paria’s iron hooves.
You could not fight them—the weak were devoured, and for tough opponents, they would simply encircle and wait until your provisions ran dry before striking the fatal blow.
Defeat the enemy, capture people, sell slaves, strengthen the army, expand territory, deepen strategy—this cycle repeated endlessly, making them stronger with each war. In regions without natural defenses, this operational logic was virtually invincible.
It was difficult to inflict any meaningful damage on such highly mobile cavalry, and invading their land was impossible, as your supply line would become your fatal weakness.
Until the rise of the Seris Federation, it all came to an abrupt end.
In recent years, the Dwarven Kingdom of Sekast had purchased vast amounts of weaponry from Seris—hundreds of thousands of cartridge rifles, thousands of wheeled Maxim heavy machine guns, and even more advanced wheeled field artillery.
Seris also taught them a specialized frontline tactic—pikemen with several-meter-long spears stood in the front, machine gunners by their sides, with musketeers and artillery in the middle.
This rendered Paria’s once-invincible cavalry advantage completely useless. Few could survive the barrage of such firepower to reach the front line—and even if they did, they still had to break through the wall of pikes.
Paria had considered military reform. They purchased large quantities of muskets to arm their frontline cavalry, even equipping them with powder-filled explosives to create breakthroughs.
But all of it was futile. After Sekast received Seris’s arms, they began dumping their own inferior weapons to surrounding countries.
The dwarven craftsmen could not mass-produce firearms as Seris could; their muzzle-loaded cannons had shorter range, and they could not make machine guns. Yet, their exquisite craftsmanship compensated for some of the gap.
They managed to achieve partial self-production of firearms and sold them to other nations for profit to support the kingdom’s finances.
The first recipients were the beastmen tribes, who had no unified state—only a loose alliance for intertribal trade and communication.
They were once the worst victims of Paria’s cruelty. Many beastmen still lived primitive lives when Paria’s organized cavalry burst into their homes, capturing them as slaves.
One could say Paria’s entire wealth was built on the trade of beast slaves. The hatred born of that blood-soaked history was beyond words.
Thus, once the Ortu Beastmen Alliance learned dwarven tactics, they sold everything they could to purchase muskets and other weapons, launching a full-scale counterattack against Paria alongside the Dwarven Kingdom.
Paria’s border cities had always served mainly as supply stations. As long as they possessed some defensive capability, that sufficed—their primary function was to serve as cavalry bases to aid rapid offensives.
But once the front line was pushed back into their own territory, with no natural barriers for fortress defense, their disadvantage became painfully clear.
Almost every army formation they encountered was of this hedgehog type—even supply convoys were heavily guarded—leaving no weak points to strike.
Often, thousands of heavily armored cavalry would charge under magic shields and acceleration enchantments in a desperate assault.
Charging through a metal storm of shrapnel and Maxim gunfire, they paid tremendous casualties to reach the enemy, only to meet death at the line of pikes.
Even when a coalition unit was destroyed, the cost in lives was enough to make the Parian King vomit blood.
It was not that he lacked muskets—but most of the High Nobles were cavalry lords, indifferent to firearm production and storage. Their manufacturing lagged behind the enemy, and their musket troops were too few to make a difference.
The Ortu Coalition’s momentum was unstoppable, swiftly occupying several border territories and carrying out bloody massacres along the way.
Blood debts repaid in blood—nothing more fitting.
Mitia had heard a little about Paria’s plight. Because Paria had withdrawn most of its forces from the Pralo Defensive Line to quell the fires at home.
However, she was not ready to intervene. Paria might not withstand much, but its national foundation still existed—and the coalition’s overextended supply lines would make the war drag on.
Although she did not approve of the Ortu Alliance’s brutality, she would not comment—not when their momentum was at its peak.
Most beastmen within Seris’s borders were once residents of the Ortu Alliance. Their hatred toward Paria ran deep. Until that fury was vented, she could not do anything about it.
Moreover… a deadly crisis had just arrived from across the ocean.
【Infectious disease—Smallpox…】
Bang!
【Patient developed widespread pustules, raised edges with central depressions, oozing yellow pus. High fever, labored breathing—deceased.】
Pustules? It had been at least a week already—and she was only learning this now?!
Mitia’s expression grew darker as she read the report. Rising to her feet, she threw the document that had just been handed to her, hitting Golitsyn on the head as he knelt before her.
“The person is already dead and you’re only telling me now?”
“Have I not told you? All foreign arrivals must be monitored. Once any show symptoms, they must be questioned immediately and placed under medical observation!”
Taking a deep breath to suppress her anger, she knew it wasn’t entirely their fault—smallpox spread far faster than current communication or medical systems could handle.
The most urgent task was to contain the outbreak.
Mitia said, “Seal off Sendegas Port! Sound the alarm—full lockdown! Prohibit all travel and movement! Immediately! At once!”