Chapter 439 -439-Psychological Warfare Comes First
Yet the pirates outside the city continued celebrating.
And they kept celebrating for three whole days and nights.
Over those three days, the nonstop festivities outside Radiant Moon City left everyone inside increasingly anxious.
The humiliation was almost harder to endure than an actual siege.
No one knew whether the royal capital had truly fallen.
Every senior official in Radiant Moon City became suspicious and restless.
After the pirates finally ended their celebrations, another strange development soon followed.
Warship after warship began arriving outside Radiant Moon City.
There were vessels of every type, and everyone aboard wore broad, joyful smiles, as though they were celebrating some momentous event.
The officials of Radiant Moon City finally sensed that something was wrong.
They began whispering among themselves.
"Could those be the Pirate Crews that were besieging the royal capital?"
"They’ve actually turned around and come here to reinforce the pirates outside our city?"
The reinforcements themselves were not what truly frightened them.
What terrified them was what those reinforcements implied.
Their expressions changed drastically.
"Doesn’t that mean... the royal capital really has fallen?"
"Now, aside from Radiant Moon City, every city in the Lather Kingdom has already fallen into the hands of the King’s Edge Pirates."
"If that’s true, then what’s the point of us continuing to defend Radiant Moon City?"
The city’s senior officials fell into deep thought.
Meanwhile, the civilians and merchant guilds inside the city had already begun forming their own suspicions.
They were tired of living under constant wartime tension.
All they wanted was to return to normal life as soon as possible.
They were sick of being confined within the city.
They wanted freedom.
The freedom to sail the seas again.
Just then...
a Pirate Crew outside Radiant Moon City delivered a letter.
It was both a declaration of war...
and a demand for surrender.
The contents were simple.
The royal capital of the Lather Kingdom had already been captured by the King’s Edge Pirates several days ago.
At present, every city in the kingdom except Radiant Moon City had fallen under the control of the King’s Edge Pirates.
Seven days from now, the King’s Edge Pirates would assemble several million troops, more than ten thousand warships, and tens of thousands of cannons to launch an all-out assault on Radiant Moon City.
They were given three days to surrender.
Otherwise...
once the assault began, no one in the city would be spared.
But if they surrendered voluntarily, they would receive extremely generous treatment.
The senior officials of Radiant Moon City stared at the letter.
Their hearts were shaken.
Their thoughts became chaotic.
The absolute confidence in its wording, along with the unmistakable determination to capture Radiant Moon City, seemed to show them exactly what awaited anyone who continued resisting the King’s Edge Pirates.
Every other city in the Lather Kingdom had already fallen.
Was there really any point in Radiant Moon City continuing to hold out?
If even the royal capital had been lost...
why couldn’t Radiant Moon City surrender as well?
Besides...
what would happen if they continued resisting?
Once several million enemy troops arrived, how long could a single Radiant Moon City possibly hold out?
By then, everyone in the city might die.
But if they surrendered voluntarily...
there were plenty of benefits waiting for them.
"This is precisely the moment when a new regime is being established. Everything needs to be rebuilt, and people of talent like me will be desperately needed. Radiant Moon City must not stand in the way of my future!"
"I think surrender is the best option."
"Don’t misunderstand me. I’m certainly not doing this for personal gain. What benefit could my great family possibly lack?"
"I simply don’t want the innocent civilians of this city to suffer at the hands of pirates!"
"We should surrender."
"There’s no reason to keep fighting."
"We’ve held out for two months already. We’ve done more than enough for the fallen Lather Kingdom."
This time, the senior officials of Radiant Moon City reached a decision very quickly.
They would surrender!
The pressure of refusing was simply too great.
Although they still had doubts about whether the King’s Edge Pirates had truly captured the royal capital, they no longer had the courage to keep gambling.
They were like drowning men.
The moment they saw something that looked like salvation, they instinctively grabbed onto it.
That was simply human nature.
...
Hilt accepted their surrender.
She swiftly took control of the entire Radiant Moon City.
Several hundred destroyers and frigates fell into her hands.
Along with an incalculable quantity of supplies.
Only after everything had been settled...
did the senior officials of Radiant Moon City discover that they had been tricked!
The royal capital had never fallen to the King’s Edge Pirates at all.
It was still standing.
It was merely surrounded.
As for all those "reinforcements" they had seen arriving outside Radiant Moon City...
Hilt had secretly ordered warships to sail away at night, then return openly during the day.
It was all an illusion.
A deliberate performance designed to make the defenders believe that more and more pirate forces were arriving from the royal capital!
The pirates’ three-day celebration?
Fake.
The claims written in the surrender letter?
Also fake.
For the first time, the senior officials of Radiant Moon City realized just how foolish they had been.
And yet...
they did not regret surrendering.
The moment they laid down their weapons, they had all felt an indescribable sense of relief.
It was as though an enormous weight had finally been lifted from their shoulders.
...
With the situation in Radiant Moon City resolved, Hilt gathered several thousand warships and set sail toward the royal capital.
She knew...
John had already been waiting for her for a long time.
This had always been an unspoken cooperation between the two of them.
They had never even communicated directly.
Yet the moment John appeared outside the royal capital, Hilt had already understood his intentions.
Radiant Moon City alone possessed terrifying defenses.
The royal capital was even stronger.
If John had chosen not to attack Radiant Moon City himself, then he was obviously using the royal capital as bait...
to force Radiant Moon City into surrendering.
Hilt understood John’s intentions perfectly.
So she decisively launched one psychological tactic after another.
And in the end...
she captured Radiant Moon City without shedding a single drop of blood.
Likewise, after taking the city...
John never told her what to do next.
But Hilt understood him perfectly once again.
She brought all of her forces to reinforce John.
...
The royal capital.
It had now become an isolated city.
John stared at the city every single day.
As long as he captured it...
he would obtain the Conqueror’s Proof.
And once he obtained the Conqueror’s Proof...
he would advance to the next round.
By now, John had captured every territory in the Lather Kingdom except the royal capital.
And after Hilt’s reinforcements arrived...
two million troops had gathered outside the city.
...
Aboard the flagship.
"How are we supposed to attack this place?"
Hilt asked with a headache.
Before arriving, she had already known that the royal capital’s defenses were powerful.
But only after seeing them with her own eyes did she realize just how absurdly strong they were.
Even with two million troops at their disposal...
she still had no confidence in breaking through.
It felt like a ferocious beast staring at a hedgehog.
There was simply nowhere to bite.
Even someone as intelligent as Hilt had no choice but to ask John.
"Stop thinking about it."
John replied calmly.
"I’ve spent an entire month thinking."
"And I’ve only come up with one solution."
"A frontal assault."
"A frontal assault regardless of the cost!"
John continued,
"I’ve sent envoys to demand surrender several times during this period."
"The king’s determination to resist is extremely strong."
"And the officials under him are unusually united."
"Other than attacking by force, we have no other option."
"Then we attack by force," Hilt said.
"We’re leaving this world eventually anyway."
"We can’t take any of these things with us."
"So no matter how great the losses are..."
"we can afford them."
John smiled.
"Exactly."
"I’ve already established a new set of wartime rules."
"I think they’ll have some effect."