Breaking the Deadlock

Following Zhang Tie's instructions, the vehicle carrying the three of them did not drive over. Instead, it stopped with its lights off. Zhang Tie stayed behind to protect Olina, while Kita headed toward the castle alone.

Before long, Kita reached the drawbridge beneath the castle.

The drawbridge had been raised, and a moat more than twenty meters wide protected the castle. That moat was also the final warning to intruders. Under the castle's defensive system, anyone who crossed the moat without permission gave the castle the right to attack, because they had crossed its defenses and entered someone else's private territory.

Standing at the moat's edge, Kita looked up at the several steam ballistae atop the towering wall across the water, and his heart tightened slightly. Though it was already deep into the night, the lights on the wall still let him clearly see the cold gleam of their muzzles, pointed, intentionally or not, toward the drawbridge below. Even the cover of a honeycomb ballista used for scattershot attacks, which was rarely deployed on ordinary days, had been removed. Its muzzle was tilted slightly downward, aimed straight at the ground below the castle.

In Kita's memory, the muzzles of those steam ballistae normally lay level. Prompted by Zhang Tie's reminder, he carefully observed these details he usually overlooked, and sure enough, he sensed the faint yet palpable killing intent from atop the castle walls.

"I am Kita, Lady Olina's captain of guards. Lower the drawbridge!" Taking a deep breath, Kita stood at the moat's edge and shouted toward the castle with all his strength. In the past, whenever those in the castle saw Lady Olina's convoy arrive, the drawbridge would automatically be lowered.

Kita shouted the same words twice below. At first, there was no movement from the castle. More