Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

In the end, even Banjay's genius and trickery had its limit. And despite his best attempts over the last three weeks, by the time a fresh, imperial region arrived at the foot of the Basal fortress…

The situation was pretty much the same as during the last stage of the siege of their predecessors.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"To see an entire damned legion all at once," Banjay muttered to himself, staring down at the living and breathing mass of people from the very highest point of the ancient fortress. "It truly is a sight to behold."

Far down below, an enormous mass of humans swarmed the narrow pass leading up to the fortress's main gate. Thanks to his supreme eyesight, Banjay could see all sorts of siege engines littered all over the imperial army, proving that just like he learned how to deal with them in the process of the ongoing conflict, the empire also learned from its past mistakes.

'That cuts off three months of preparation they would need to actually start the siege.'

As little as there was for Banjay to do at this point, he still couldn't help but rack his brains for any smart ideas that could help him change the fate of the kingdom.

'How did they know, though?' Banjay gritted his teeth, once again facing the wall of frustration brought upon him by his ignorance.

Banjay made sure his plan was executed perfectly. In other words, there wasn't a single agent of the empire left within the patriarchate borders, with all of them laying down their lives for their rotten cause and losing their lives at the hands of Salicious troops.

"It doesn't make any damn sense, I know," to Banjay's side, Oxxy commented.

Being the minister's aide for as long as he was, he could pretty much read the man's face as an open book. It was a skill Oxxy would never dare to reveal in public… But with the two of them standing alone at the very top of the fortress, there simply was no physical means for anyone to eavesdrop on their conversation.

As such, the moment right now was one of the rare chances for when Oxxy could stop holding back and reveal both his true face and the true extent of his ability.

Stay connected with empire

Hearing Oxxy's words, Banjay looked over to the side and cast a long, piercing look at the man.

"I know that too," Banjay sighed, struggling to maintain clarity of his thoughts.

The legion took a whole week longer than the worst-case scenario Banjay assumed the very moment he learned of their march.

Three weeks that Banjay spent desperately running around, scheming, planning, and tricking himself into believing it would change anything.

But while it was possible for his methods to work on the bled-out legion he faced in the past, against an overwhelming power of over fifty thousand front-line troops supported by just as many logistic and support personnel…

There was a limit to how far a trickery could get one. Just like the news of the former legion's destruction could only travel so fast, proving that the second legion, the army that Banjay could see at the fortress foothold right now, had to already be on the move by the time Banjay claimed his major victory.

In other words, there was no spy that sent the news to the empire. There were no survivors of the battle who managed to avoid the scrutiny of Banjay's troops only to then brave through the labyrinth all on their own and bring the news to the nearest imperial unit.

Or maybe there was… But that didn't change the fact the second legion appeared far faster than they could if the emperor had only given them the order upon receiving the news.

No matter one's genius or trickery, there was a limit to how fast an entire, massive army could move.

And now, with no more tricks left for Banjay to play, he had to face the impossible odds… again.

"Any news from the saboteurs?" Banjay asked, hoping for at least a sliver of hope to light up his thoughts.

"If any of them survives, we will be sure to watch how they die in the legion's hands," Oxxy pragmatically replied.

Banjay's last-ditch idea; a suicide mission for those who were willing to lay down their lives for the patriarchate. An attempt at somehow blocking the northern entrance to the labyrinth, cutting all the imperial supply right at its most vital chokepoint and effectively allowing Banjay to starve the enemy out.

The last three weeks proved crucial for his efforts to restore the fortress garrison to its peak size, fill the fortress granaries to the brim, and establish all sorts of support services ranging from field hospitals for dressing the lightly wounded, to a fully-fledged hospital hidden within the bowels of the fortress for the heavily injured all the way to piles of simple projectiles the soldiers could throw down the fortress' embankments once the first line of defense would be broken.

But all of those were like a drop of solutions in an ocean of needs. And while they both served their predesigned purpose and also raised the morale of the troops now that a tiny wound would no longer spell death…

The numerical advantage of the imperial troops was simply far too great. Judging from the number of siege engines they dragged along proved they had no desire to turn this battle into a prolonged siege.

"How long do you think we will hold?" Banjay asked, struggling not to let his thoughts discourage him.

"The first layer will fall in two, maybe three days," Oxxy replied, holding nothing back and giving a pragmatically on-point estimate.

"The second layer should hold at least for a week, the third should buy us another week. The main wall will hold a month at most."

For a structure that rose up from the very bottom of the mountain pass all the way to the point of nearing the peaks of the nearby mountains, it was many times thicker and sturdier than any of the other walls within the fortress.

Yet, while it meant it would be far harder to actively damage the Basal's main, curved wall, once even the tiniest scar would appear on its surface, the weight of the material the main wall was built with could topple the entire structure all on its own.

'If the main wall were to break and collapse…' Banjay thought, quickly considering a radical opportunity that he just realized.

It was nigh impossible to collapse the sides of the pass. It simply wasn't within human means to alter the geography to a degree necessary to cause the reaction Banjay wanted. And he didn't have the hordes upon hordes of men necessary to mine the base of the mountain down so that its upper part would collapse upon a slight touch of a pickax.

Still, while altering the sides of the past was a thing no human could achieve without an endless supply of free manpower… Collapsing the main wall of the Basal fortress was well within Banjay's means.

'It would cost me my head, given for how long we defended this place,' Banjay thought, well aware that the shout 'Basal still stands!' became the cornerstone of the unifying force that brought all of the people of the patriarchate together.

And if he ever dared to willingly destroy it, even if only in a desperate attempt to turn the legion's victory in a siege into a bitter draw, he could very well just stay behind and join empire ranks when knowing what the people themselves would do to him on the streets, not to speak about the punishments that dull patriarch would dole out for him.

"You are thinking about something ridiculous, are you not?" Oxxy pointed out with a small, forced smile on his face.

"You know me well enough to read my thoughts, I know. You don't need to rub it in my face every damn chance you get," Banjay nearly cussed his aide out.

As valuable of a helper, secretary, and secret blade as he was, there were moments when Banjay wondered whether all of his service was worth the many, hurtful jabs Oxxy would throw at him whenever they were alone.

"Let me guess," Oxxy's smile turned genuine, "assuming the sabotage won't work, and with how we can't bring down the mountains on those imperial heads…"

Oxxy stopped his sentence before properly finishing it and took a look around, swinging his head as he absorbed and then processed all the information hidden within their surrounding.

Then, as his eyes moved back to Banjay's deadly serious expression, Oxxy's face turned blank.

"Don't tell me…"

"It is my job to find a way to stop the empire from advancing past the fortress and into the hills where they will finally be able to make proper use of their numerical advantage," Banjay countered only to squint his eyes and squeeze his hands down at the stone barrier that protected all the idiots stupid enough to climb so high up from falling all the way back down.

"And what's the purpose of this fortress, if not to be just one of the tools at my disposal to that end?" Banjay turned his head to look right into Oxxy's eyes as he asked.

Yet, before his aide could answer, the sounds of the imperial horns cut through all the distance that separated the legion from Banjay at the very top of the main wall of the Basal fortress. And like a wave of fluid, the imperial army started to move towards the first and the weakest of the Basal's four walls.

"And so, the second siege of the Basal fortress begins."