"Look up. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info" De Jong was worried about Robin, but suddenly heard Robin's indifferent voice.

"What?" De Jong looked up to see Robin standing in front of him, a former comrade with two visible blood holes in his lower lip.

"Bump!" With a muffled sound, De Jong's face received a heavy punch from Robin, even if he noticed Robin's forward steps and raised hand in advance, De Jong still took a solid blow, he was hit back again and again by this huge momentum, and Robin also rarely dragged the stump leg of the immobility to follow up violently, grabbing De Jong's collar.

"Why do you want to close the gates, why can't you inform the inhabitants outside the city?" Robin's voice was completely lost, and his question sounded like he was cutting fresh leather with a saw blade with jagged teeth that had almost been smoothed, a little harsh, but piercing De Jong's heart even more sharply.

Why didn't the inhabitants outside the city be informed?—De Jong didn't want to justify himself—and the only reaction in his mind when he heard the news that the orc army was approaching Riptide Castle was to seal it off immediately, and at the same time hurry to inform His Majesty to flee from here. Both the military mobilization order and martial law were issued in consideration to protect the safety of His Majesty the King and the safety of civilians...... To tell the truth, he had not taken this into account at all - he had been captain of the palace guard for many years, not the captain of the sheriff.

But that is not an excuse for De Jong's own mistakes. There was no excuse - at that moment, De Jong admitted that he had not thought about the inhabitants of the city at all. From a small soldier back then, step by step to the position of captain of the Red Court Guard in front of His Majesty the King, De Jong has been in the upper aristocratic circle of Riptide Castle for a long time, and he is no longer the hairy boy De Jong of the year, and like Robin, his parents died early, in fact, he has already broken away from his original background and become a real nobleman.

De Jong didn't think there was anything wrong with this - His Majesty had given him everything he had now, and he naturally wanted to put His Majesty's safety first in everything - and even not so long ago, De Jong felt how terrible it was to not notify the orcs of the attack on the inhabitants of the city, and wait for them to retreat into the city before sealing the city gates.

However, De Jong now knew that he was wrong, so wrong that he wanted to kill himself - the trolls outside the city, who had ended the lives of the inhabitants in a brutal and barbaric way, desecrated their bodies, De Jong did not know if their souls would return to the Light, and he was not even sure if the Light existed - but he knew that the dead bodies of the inhabitants could no longer return to the dirt of their homeland - the trolls, who had the definition of barbarism to the fullest - shredded corpses, cannibalism.

What's more, there was nothing he could do while the inhabitants were slaughtered and devoured - De Jong could neither kill his warriors with his men and fulfill his mission to protect the civilians, nor could he shoot them with bows and arrows to end their suffering early - the trolls were not stupid, they were far out of range of bows and arrows.

With a "bang", Robin's right hand touched his waist, and pulled out half of the two-handed greatsword that had followed him for many years; under the reflection of the torches on the city wall, Robin's face was cloudy, the snow-bright blade flashed cold, and the breath of death enveloped De Jong.

"Let's do it. De Jong murmured, not wanting to resist. He resents his misjudgment and omissions for causing the tragic deaths of innocent people, and he is ashamed of the harm his actions have caused to his comrade-in-arms Robin. If killing yourself with your own hands can make Robin's heart feel a little more happy, then ......

"You owe me my life, De Jong. Robin jerked the greatsword back into its sheath, loosened De Jong's collar, and stared at him intently, the hatred in his gaze that could not be dissipated, but added something else.

"One?" De Jong wondered and smiled wryly - how could there be only one, Tess's family...... He owes Robin four lives, the inhabitants who died tragically and were devoured by trolls...... I owe dozens of lives to the people of Fort Riptide, how can there be only one?

"You owe me my life, De Jong. But for now, I'll take back Tess's debt from the trolls and orcs, and you can be bold enough to continue to serve the King as captain of your guard, but, De Jong, remember, when this battle is over...... No matter what the outcome is, as long as I am alive and you are still alive, I will ask you for this life. Robin spoke word for word, his slightly crude Arathi Highlands country accent, but to De Jong, who was accustomed to hearing the accent of Riptide Castle used by the nobles—he seemed to have returned to a dozen years ago, when he was only a small recruit, but he was young and strong, and he had a friend to fight with his back......

"I'll wait, Robin. If you and I can survive this battle, I will pay you my life, to Tess......" De Jong coughed with difficulty, and then spat a mouthful of blood on the ground, and on his face, a fist-shaped blood mark was faintly visible—the mark of Robin's fist—because the skin on the joints had long since worn away from the constant hammering of the hard wall battlements with his fists during the previous struggle, and the blood dripped down Robin's fingertips to the ground, and he didn't even know it.

"Prepare to defend the city. King Solas, who had been silent, spoke suddenly. His Majesty's voice was full of decadence, and it seemed that the tragic death of the inhabitants had dealt him quite hard.

"Yes, Your Majesty. De Jong nodded slightly, and then looked around, blood dripping from the lips of every palace guard as far as the eye could see—no one, not least the soldiers of Riptide Castle, could hold back from biting their own lip after witnessing such brutal mistreatment of their compatriots.

Taking a long breath of iron-smelling air, De Jong bred up his spirits and began to lay out the fortifications on the walls - Riptide Castle was built on top of a hill, and the height of the walls and hills was much higher than the flat ground outside the city, so there was only one way for the orcs to take the city wall - and that was to storm the gates.

With nearly 2,000 palace guards in place in the battle area near the city gates, De Jong began to plan the use of the temporarily mobilized reserve of wounded veterans, and the entire castle of Riptide was filled with the sound of the soldiers' footsteps coming and going, and the crisp sound of armor striking the scabbard.

If you want to rely on a few thousand soldiers to resist the onslaught of the orcs, although there is a strong city to rely on, it is almost wishful thinking, not to mention, you have to send a small number of sentries to surround the walls of Riptide Castle to guard, in case there are really orcs from other places to climb the city walls;

Knowing that this might be their last battle, every palace guard was just quietly checking that they were fully equipped, some of the guards from the nobles' homes were better equipped, and they were checking the bows and crossbows that their masters had assembled for themselves - everyone, including King Solas, was waiting for the orc attack, for what might be the last moment.