Local Defense Legion

The local defense legion comprises 25 brigades, numbering 75 thousand men in total, with Gold-ranked Knight Freiyar as the commander, with two gold-ranked knights, Belnick and former slave fighter Jades, as his aides.

## Guard Squad

100-odd fully-equipped men, under the command of Ovidis.

38 of those men were Ovidis’s own subordinates. When they went to the bandits’ stronghold to plunder the goods, Shadekampf also managed to get thirty other people to join them. After they returned, Patt suggested that we form a guard squad with the people that had joined them so that Lorist would look far more impressive upon your return to his homeland escorted by one. That’s why he picked another 30 men from the bandit captives to fill up the numbers required for a full squad and appointed Ovidis to be the captain of these men.

 The men Ovidis choose were men that he knew really well: they had been forced into banditry to survive the harsh days after the war and didn’t do much evil across the years. They were more than happy to cast away their status as bandits to be in the Norton’s service, especially after Lorist showed them his true abilities on the battlefield. Ovidis guaranteed that they will definitely be loyal to Lorist at all times.

Their equipment was issued on the orders of Shadekampf. Given that the men have all awakened their Battle Force, two sets of armor weren’t too much of a burden. Patt also said that the better armored they are, the less likely they are to die, thus being able to better protect Lorist.

## Defense Brigades

The former-bandit Ovidis's defense company was revamped into the first local defense brigade that would defend Firmrock Castle. Knight Pajik on the other hand was tasked with forming the second local defense brigade to defend Maplewoods Bastide.

Lorist hoped to form the Third Local Defense Brigade and the Second Navy Marine Brigade at Silowas Island. Nors had come with the 1000 soldiers who were mostly veterans and in another two months, the family would be sending over another 1000 new recruits. After that, a recruitment drive would be started on Silowas Island to recruit 1000 local youths and that would be enough for a third Local Defense Brigade.

Originally, Lorist intended to have Jim become the leader of the Third Local Defense Brigade that was to be formed and stationed at Silowas Island as he felt that it was about time he let the man go his own way since he had spent so much time with him. However, Patt fell in love the beauty, Martha, of Whitebird Restaurant, and wanted to remain on Silowas. Lorist could only give Patt his blessings for him to one day return with a beauty in his hands and let him take Jim's position instead. Thus, Patt was made the leader of the Third Local Defense Brigade.

The Norton's breached five camps of Royal Defense Legion under the command of Count Aslan, in one night and not a single enemy escaped. The surviving soldiers had all been captured. They also got most of their war horses. 500 troops defeated 7500. Around half of the Local Defense Brigade troops were incapacitated, with 147 of them dead and another 120 or so injured. The losses were suffered mainly during the final confrontation when the last of the cavalry managed to band together and launch a counterattack. After all, the Local Defense Brigade troops were only used to fighting defensively. Assaults like these are not their forte,

### Hanayabarta Invasion

When the Hanayabarta Kingdom invaded Silowas Island, after receiving Freiyar's message, Charade quickly notified the Whitebird Town garrison to make preparations for battle and instructed the third local defense brigade to come over to the town quickly to reinforce them. The hundreds of  foes who arrived on shore on the first few ships were successfully intercepted by the garrison force, but there were many more ships behind them. More and more enemy troops began to swarm them. The hundreds of  foes who arrived on shore on the first few ships were successfully intercepted by the garrison force, but there were many more ships behind them. More and more enemy troops began to swarm them.

After Josk drew the blademaster away, the Whitebird Town garrison crumbled from the overwhelming force of the enemy. At the critical moment, Patt and his third local defense brigade troops arrived and managed to drive the enemy away. Following that, Jim led his regiment of 500 guards to reinforce them, giving them the upper hand in battle. Charade was commanding the troops during the battle and thought that the reinforcements they just received would be able to drive the enemy out. He was right, the enemy couldn't resist them for long and were quickly beaten. But just as they saw the enemy retreating from the town, more than a hundred large-class merchant vessels arrived and started unloading their forces. This new wave of enemy troops was far stronger than those we had just beaten. They had many silver and gold ranks, as well as two blademasters. The local defense brigade suffered heavy losses right away, up to a thousand died. The first regiment leader of the brigade, Joseph, and the fourth regiment leader Donowan, died during that time.

Seeing that the situation was turning bad, Charade ordered them to evacuate the citizens of Whitebird Town to Farama Village as soon as possible. Other than that, he gave the order to arm the laborers and send them to fight off those pirates. At that time, they thought that they were merely pirates and didn't think for a second that they were actually the slavers and traders of the Hanayabarta kingdom.

Charade brought Jim and more than 20 guards to leave in a hurry. They had no clue what happened to them after that. A few soldiers brought the unconscious and injured Patt back from the frontlines soon after. Fortunately, Supervisor Hansk had a few medicinal concoctions with him, one of which he gave to Patt right away. After that, he prepared a carriage for Patt and other to be brought to Farama Village. The troops that escorted them to the village included 300 or more from the third local defense brigade and more than a hundred guards, who were all injured in some way. Coupled with the sixth logistics regiment stationed at Farama Village, they had less than a thousand men defending the place. Also, they managed to evacuate more than 1000 of the Whitebird townsfolk, all women and children.

The regiment leader of the guards, Mort, who was stationed at Seaview Manor brought a regiment of troops to Farama Village, only for them to encounter the enemy fighters that were making their way to the village for an assault. After driving away the enemy, Mort entered the village and they finally had enough people to defend themselves. But the enemy fighters that came after brought a blademaster along. That blademaster attempted to barge into Farama Village alone. Fortunately, the third local defense brigade had installed more than a hundred steel ballistae on the village walls. The first volley of 40 plus bolts instantly turned the blademaster into a pincushion. The enemy were staggered by their losses and ceased their attack on them temporarily. At that time, the regiment leader of the sixth logistics regiment, Knight Ollison, had intended to fire the ballistae right away, only to be stopped by Knight Mort. Knight Mort said that we should use longbows to drive those fellows away to make them think that they didn't have other long range weapons to defend themselves with so that they could catch them by surprise with their ballistae when they mount a full-scale attack. Only with that could they cause them a huge loss. The blademaster seemed incredibly proud and overbearing, dashing towards the walls without hesitating. Seeing him approach, Knight Mort ordered his men to use the 40 plus ballistae mounted on the wall to fire in two separate volleys when the blademaster was less than 60 meters away. While the blademaster managed to deflect four bolts heading directly for him at first, the second volley pierced through his torso entirely. He was dead on the spot. Knight Mort was afraid that the bolts weren't enough, so he ordered the longbow troops to fire two more volleys at the blademaster. There was hardly anything left but the bolts and arrows when we were done. When Knight Mort determined that the enemy fighters were less than 200 meters from the village, he ordered the ballistae to fire again. They didn't expect their balistae to have such a range, they lost around 50 of their men before running off, tails between their legs. The moment Knight Mort and Knight Ollison heard the report of some guards and soldiers that just came over, they decided that there was no way that they could defend Farama Village. According to the men, the enemy had two more blademasters with them. While that wasn't that huge a threat during daytime, the night would impact the vision of the ballistae operators greatly. The effective range of the ballistae would be greatly reduced. The moment a single blademaster got close, it would be the end of them.

Mort believed that they should use the opportunity when the enemy fighters were retreating to make their escape. Only by reaching Swordfish Ridge would we be able to defend themselves until reinforcements arrived from the mainland, given the advantage the elevated terrain afforded them. As long as they defended the routes up the hill with their ballistae, no number of blademasters would be able to break through their ranks.

Knight Ollison thus ordered the sixth logistics regiment to mount all the steel ballistae onto carriages to serve as escorts on their flanks. The sky was still somewhat lit during their time of departure, but it didn't take an hour for the darkness to blanket them. When the enemy found their tracks, they followed along and called for more reinforcements. This was when Knight Ollison elected to stay back. He took just over a hundred local defense brigade soldiers and guards with him and prepared an ambush for the enemy. Not long after they resumed their escape, sounds of fighting broke out in the distance. However, it only lasted half an hour. By the time it quieted down, they had already arrived at the foot of Swordfish Ridge. The way up was not an easy one. Given that the enemy was going to arrive at any moment, they prioritized getting the women and children up the ridge, all the while forming a semi-circular defense line with the carroballistae to defend the route uphill.

They held their position against the enemy for over an hour, but the ballistae became worn and ineffective from the repeated use. Knight Mort quickly ordered 20 of those ballistae to be brought uphill along with half of the bolts they had left. The rest of the bolts were used by their remaining ballistae. They would destroy the ballista when we ran out of bolts for it and retreat to the ones that still had to make sure they didn't fall into enemy hands. Mort cut the last ballista in half, ignoring the sword swung by the enemy behind him. In the end, he was impaled through the chest by a pike.

All the guards and local defense brigade soldiers died after a long and grueling battle. Right at the most crucial moment, Josk rushed down from the ridge and began firing, causing the enemy to flee once again. Only then did the remaining people manage to go up to Swordfish Ridge. With 20 ballistae and Sir Josk's marksmanship defending the routes uphill, they felt a lot safer.

The third local defense brigade that numbered 3000 people only had 400 or so injured soldiers left that boasted little to no battle capability. Only the two guard regiments stationed at Seaview Manor fared slightly better, 400 of the 1000 soldiers managed to retreat safely.

## Local Defense Division

The local defense brigades were consolidated into the first local defense division with Belnick as its commander and Pajik as the vice.

Lorist had Pajik become Belnick's right hand. He passed control of the second local defense brigade to his second in command and helped Belnick with the reorganization of the third local defense brigade, as well as the formation of the fourth and fifth brigades.

The first local defense brigade was stationed at Firmrock castle and the second brigade at the citadel at Tortoise Hill. After reorganizing the third, they were stationed at the port city. The fourth and fifth still had to be trained for at least three months in military regulations after their formation. They were used as reserve troops and stationed at the training camp until the House forces return from the expedition to the Hanayabarta archipelago.

## Local Defense Legion

As for the 20 slave-formed police brigades at the Hanayabarta archipelago, they would join with the five local defense brigades at the dominion to form a local defense legion, comprising of five divisions which each encompassed five brigades. In total, the legion would have 75 thousand men and would become one of the most important defensive forces for the Norton house.

The remaining 20 local defense brigades would begin training within the dominion in various aspects, such as battleforce awakening, military engine training, and other martial training. Lorist informed his household knights that he hoped for the Norton house to have an unparalleled elite force that is fitting for the name of the Roaring Raging Bear within the next two years.