All My Summons Become Divine Girls

Chapter 277: The Sixth Under Siege

Hajin reached the eastern wall while Flint standards continued appearing beyond every ridge facing the town.

Aria counted each formed company through Divine Eyes, separating supply drivers from armed personnel before adding another marker.

Uriel’s copied movement order had warned of more than a thousand, although the road carried enough banners to hide errors.

Juna stood beside Hajin with her ears angled toward the returning vanguard files approaching from the southern pass.

Their armor still carried ash-white marks from Dreth’s Zone, making all seventy-two recognizable among the fresh companies.

No soldier from the destroyed forward shoulder returned with them, while twenty-three disabled survivors remained outside the marching ranks.

The six household retainers captured behind Uriel sat inside the quarry yard, carrying no field assignment or vanguard stitch.

Aria closed the count after the last rear company crossed the eastern distance marker.

[ New Flint combatants: 1,180 ]

[ Recognized fit vanguard survivors: 72 ]

[ Active siege force: 1,252 ]

[ Excluded from active force: 23 disabled vanguard / 6 household retainers in Sixth custody ]

"One thousand two hundred fifty-two," Hajin said, watching the companies open around the valley, "Dreth needed replacements before his men would advance again."

"The seventy-two still smell afraid," Juna replied, following their route toward the central standards, "someone new is moving them."

A tall officer rode ahead of those survivors with seven iron-colored Shards rotating around his left forearm.

He wore no Flint crest above the rank bars, though every company standard lowered when his horse passed.

A sealed ash cylinder rested across his saddle, connected to the marked veterans by thin lines visible only through Divine Eyes.

[ Deputy Corven ]

[ Core Manifestation: Seven Shards ]

[ Portable Zone Circulation Bank detected ]

"It cannot create Dreth’s Zone by itself," Aria said, tracing the cylinder’s inner route, "but it preserves one circulation pattern outside the pass."

She recorded Corven’s seven-Shard core separately from Dreth’s Zone signature, preserving him as an individual target inside the shared ash pattern.

Corven dismounted beside the seventy-two veterans, placing the cylinder into a prepared wagon socket before dividing them among four command lines.

Ash-white marks brightened across their armor, allowing his signals to reach every veteran without passing through ordinary field messengers.

Dreth appeared behind him with his chest plate strapped over Hajin’s cut, keeping one hand near the reopened seam.

The commander gave Corven the pass socket key, then turned the main army toward food stores, clinic routes, forge approaches, plus shelter bells.

One hundred twenty shield troops moved toward the western wall with a ram and shock-dampening frames behind them.

Thirty-six lighter fighters entered the worker lanes leading toward Ferra’s forge, disappearing beneath the orchard terraces after their first turn.

Another twenty-four elites carried fire canisters beside segmented reinforcement frames along the clinic approach.

The remaining companies widened around the valley, planting standards where every shelter road could see Flint ownership claimed again.

[ Active siege allocation ]

[ Western wall assault: 120 ]

[ Forge approach: 36 ]

[ Clinic approach: 24 ]

[ Encirclement and reserve: 1,072 ]

Herald wagons began reading surrender offers through speaking horns, naming food protection for households that stopped supporting Hajin.

"They are splitting the siege before the first attack," Hans said, reaching the wall with route boards under one arm, "we cannot answer every horn with you."

"We do not need to," Hajin replied, moving the western-wall marker toward Loccy, "send each front the person who built it."

Loccy received the wall plus food-store defense, where trenches and frames gave Burdenfall a boundary away from the clinic.

Ferra closed the forge worker gate behind prepared floor channels, refusing militia reinforcements who did not know her marked safe routes.

Vella kept the clinic teams inside their treatment lanes while barrier crews cleared every patient from the outer windows.

Juna took the internal loop, using scent reports to identify any company leaving the visible routes toward another target.

Hajin remained on the wall until each assignment began, leaving control with the people responsible for holding it.

A western gate bell interrupted the Flint horns, sounding the contract pattern Marrick had assigned Seliza’s trade convoys.

Eight reinforced wagons waited beyond the gate under black-and-red covers, carrying grain, medicine, coal, plus empty cradles for outgoing gold.

Twelve Serpent guards surrounded them while Taren stood beside the lead team in his plain traveling gray.

Hajin crossed the interior wall toward that gate as Flint scouts repositioned to count the arriving convoy.

Taren looked from the siege standards toward the clinic frames entering town, his breathing unchanged despite the army around them.

"Matriarch Seliza sent the contracted relief load and scheduled gold transport," he said, presenting three stamped passage sheets, "the road closed behind us."

Marrick checked all three seals from inside the gate before accepting the lead wagon into the regional ledger.

"The clinic needs medicine first, the forge takes coal after its worker lane clears," Hajin said, returning one signed receipt, "gold waits inside the guarded yard."

"The contract permits that order," Taren replied, moving beside the lead wagon, "my guards remain with every load until collection."

The first two wagons entered while Corven’s eastern companies planted another standard across the trade route behind them.

No Flint company attacked the convoy during passage, though ridge scouts copied every wagon number plus Serpent guard position.

Taren watched the portable Zone bank settle near Dreth’s command ridge before turning back toward Hajin.

"That deputy belongs to the Flint main army," he said, keeping his mild voice below the gate crews, "seven Shards, trained to carry another man’s battlefield structure."

"Uriel brought his movement order," Hajin replied, watching Corven direct the marked veterans, "now Aria has his circulation bank."

Taren’s attention shifted toward the clinic, where Vella’s staff received the first medicine crates beside fifteen occupied treatment frames.

"Your pass report reached the southern trade camp," he said, following the bodies under registry covers, "the numbers sounded exaggerated."

"They were short by Kenny," Hajin replied, moving the separate Flint cover through the clinic lane, "Dreth killed him after he refused an execution order."

Taren removed his gloves before helping one wagon crew lower the medicine chest, treating the answer as work instead of court news.

The remaining relief wagons entered under separate receipts while Flint companies completed their ring around the internal roads.

Corven raised the portable bank above the command ridge, sending one ash-white signal through the seventy-two marked veterans.

Three attack horns answered from the western wall, forge lanes, plus clinic approach while surrender claims continued around the shelters.

Taren stayed inside the gate with Seliza’s convoy as Hajin turned toward the first western alarm.