Chapter 21 ─ Everyone's battlefield

A new morning came, Rei had his bags ready as he was preparing to leave for Norden.

Our acquaintances were bidding us farewell.

Oliver, Isaac, Alfred and Sig, who gave us some words of encouragement.

"Please don't attack your companions by mistake."

I can't tell him he is wrong as he is right.

Rei would be capable of that and say "They were in my way" as if he didn't care.

Eli with her servant girls were together with Rose, who was discouraged for some reason.

Rei said to her after hugging her.

"Are you worried?"

"You always make me worry."

"But it's because of other matters, this time it's different."

"Even if it is!"

She lifted her head to look at Rei, tears overflowing from her beautiful eyes.

"It's a war. A battlefield where hundreds of men die! To say you'll be fine just because you're a cheater, it's so selfish, I really don't want you to go..."

Rose clung to Rei quite tightly. You could tell how much she loved him.

Rei was an insensitive sometimes, but at times like this he knows what to say.

"I promise you that every day I will write a letter and send it using teleportation. I'll detail everything I do, is that okay with you?"

"Please include that you ate your vegetables and don't say it as a joke."

"... I will."

The hug ended. Now it was Eli's turn to hug which was ready, she looked like a little puppy wanting affection.

The hug was totally different from Rose's. There was no trace of concern in her words.

"Prince, I know you will be fine. After all my prince is super strong and no one is stronger than you."

"Hahahaha, Eli, your words certainly only prove that you're the worthy wom─ the woman who understands that I won't die easily! It's not that you're inferior to Rose or that Rose is inferior to you! I love you both the same way!"

Rei almost dug his own grave.

I've come to realize that harems are more annoying things than they appear. In anime and novels, the female opinion is never taken into account, so you think it's a joke when I read the article in the newspaper that said "Jealous girlfriend stabs boyfriend for secret dating! She swears she did it because he played with both of their hearts!". That scares me since Rose has shown symptoms of being yandere.

Thank you Rei for sparing me that bullet.

Rei grabbed his bags and then said with a wicked grin.

"See ya. I'll be back with the head of the general or whoever is in charge."

He used flight magic and we left for the location that was pointed out to us on the map.

◇◇◇

"It really flew away..." (Isaac)

"I will never believe this no matter how many times I see it." (Oliver)

"Sometimes I wonder if he's really human." (Alfred)

"Whatever. Everyone, back to your duties. The academy is still in class. Eli, you go back to class too and don't try to excuse yourself that you're worried to be absent."

"Moo, silly onii-sama! I would never do that!"

Eli showed her a pout of how angry she was at that tasteless joke. Before walking off she looked at Rose dejectedly.

"Is something wrong, Rose-sama?"

"... Nothing, I'm coming."

Rose said that with a droopy look as she looked at the ground and clasped her hands close to her belly.

◇

"Umm, where will the camp be?"

It had been two hours since Rei flew out of the capital, straight to the war zone.

We had already reached the northern border, the wasteland changed from forests to a mountainous desert area.

In the game, these areas were purposely created to make the combat more serious.

After searching the entire area, we found a flag of the Kingdom.

Rei descended, obviously the knights became alert.

"Intruder!"

"Who is he?"

"Prepare your weapons!"

"Identify yourself!"

Rei was surrounded in a circle with knights pointing their spears at him.

He had some food in his mouth so he was chewing without caring that he is surrounded.

I was about to tell him not to kill them.

But he went ahead to close this blunder.

He pulled out of his pocket a crest along with a letter.

"Idiots, put away your weapons if you don't know who you're aiming at."

"I am the new Duke Redblade. The king sent me this letter to come here."

Rei tossed both items to a nearby knight, checked it out, and then went to call a general.

Generals were sometimes the royal knights themselves.

It would not be unusual to see one.

After a while of waiting, one arrived.

The general was annoyed.

"Hey busybody, who do you think you are to come in here like you're the boss of the place, huh?"

"Hah? What the fuck are you say... ing..."

After turning to see who it was, Rei was speechless.

I could see the guy, it was Bret, the one we saved a little while ago.

I had heard that the king rewarded him for his deeds, the ones Rei did. But I didn't imagine he was here.

Rei was shocked, but then he showed that he really is narrow-minded.

"Who the fuck are you? I feel like I've seen your face before."

Everyone fell to the ground when Rei acted like he knew him and then didn't.

The soldier next to Bret said.

"I-Insolent! This man is the captain of the 9th royal knight squad! He's becoming a legend in the capital."

"Like I give a shit. I came to this place to end this war."

Bret acted even more arrogant than Rei.

"A brat who only wants to make achievements to show off is nothing but dead weight. A man like you is of no use on the battlefield."

"The king may have sent you, but it doesn't mean we're letting you go to fight. The men out there are giving their all!"

Rei would have sent him flying before he finished his sentence, but he seems to have zero interest in Bret.

He grabbed his bags and headed for a large tent, there stood an officer of lieutenant rank.

Rei kicked him out.

"From now on this place is mine. Fuck you if you think I'll give it to you."

And so it was our arrival on the battlefield.

◇

Night fell. Rei spent it sleeping after putting a protection spell on the tent.

Since everything was dark, he went out for a walk.

Before we knew it we reached the forest.

I asked him.

"Rei, what are we doing here?"

"I'm bored, I want to see what the battlefield is like."

"But it's not the battlefield here."

"When I was flying, I found that some people were hiding here."

"Really!"

That really surprised me. So Rei noticed that, but didn't attach any importance to it until now.

"What will you do?"

"I'm curious nothing more. If they're enemies, I'll leave them to teach that old shit a lesson. If they're allies I won't do anything."

After a bit of walking Rei activated stealth and we arrived at the enemy camp.

The men here did not wear the same armor as the Kingdom knights.

The Kingdom's were gray while these men's were purple.

Rei walked through the enemy camp as if it was a normal walk.

The men there were making a small fire to heat food, thanks to some blankets they could hide the heat and the intensity of the color, the smoke was another matter.

Apparently they were using wind magic so it wouldn't be noticed.

It's a well thought out plan

There are about 100 men, they seem to be sentries as they have few weapons.

A man with a dog-tailed mustache and large bulging bulges sat near the campfire.

"We successfully managed to infiltrate to spy on those idiots."

"No doubt this feat will make the very great General Bodin Mont go down in the history of Norden heroes, gajajajaja."

His laugh was as horrible as his face.

The guy with the weird mustache revealed more.

"This war was sponsored by our adjutant in the Kingdom."

"General, is it okay to say that out loud?"

"Huh? All of us here are from the same country. No one will reveal anything, besides we just have to hold on for a bit."

"Soon we will move and then the real show will begin, gajajaja."

We stood there for a while longer to listen to them.

Rei put excrement in their food without them noticing.

He sabotaged their weapons and beds.

He even brought them a hive of bees to sting them.

I asked him if he did it to help the allies and he said "I just wanted to have a few laughs".

We stayed like that all night.

◇

We had been going on for a few days now.

The war was neither advancing nor retreating.

It was really exasperating.

We went into Bret's tent to hang out, after a few minutes a knight came in to report.

"G-General, I bring bad news!"

"Tell them..."

"G-Generals Urs Penber and Royce Skyner have fallen in combat!"

Murmurs we heard.

"Those were the captains of the 8th and 6th squadrons weren't they?"

"This is bad, only General Bret is left to make this an automatic rout."

The soldiers were in an exasperating situation.

◇

Before we knew it, night fell.

The soldiers were becoming increasingly stressed.

The war had wiped out half of our troops.

But Rei was calm, he had been told not to fight and he listened.

He was at a campfire, no one was around us as they gave us dirty looks.

"This is awkward."

"As if it matters."

It really was boring and uncomfortable sitting around being watched by everyone.

"Excuse me, can I sit next to you?"

Suddenly, someone spoke to us.

Rei looked to see who it was and noticed an older man. He is probably in his 60s.

He was covered in dirt, Rei told him.

"Get lost. There's plenty of room around here."

"Hehe, don't say that. It's at these times that one should be with more bonding between companions."

"Hah? What are you talking about old man?"

"If I tell you, can I sit down?"

"Tch. Do as you please."

"Thanks."

The old man sat down next to us.

"In these times, when the general loses his life. The morale of the soldiers drops totally. We don't know what to do, we don't know if the war is over, let alone if the superiors will finish this."

"I have fought on the battlefield for 50 years. You could say I'm one of the few who have managed to survive to reach old age, hehehehe."

"Now that you mention it, I don't have a grandfather."

"What's your name?"

"Reidel Redblade."

"Redblade! I see, it's a shame to say it, but your grandfather died in combat. I belonged to his brigade."

This was a very unexpected and interesting talk.

"... So, what was my grandfather like? My father says he didn't get to know him well."

"Well, you definitely got his look, that was the reason I came to see you. Because I thought 'Death has already come for me, I'm seeing the ghost of the man who died in my hands'."

"...?"

Rei glared at the old man.

"I carried your grandfather's body, with his last strength he said to me 'I'm sorry for not being a good father' but I couldn't convey those words."

"The Redblade ducal family is full of closed people, your father didn't even bother to socialize with others."

"I see, my grandfather was a foolish man. To die on the battlefield, how absurd."

"He wasn't. Dying is natural, what's horrible is having a message you can't get across to your family."

"I have a wife, 4 sons and 2 daughters."

"My wife left us several years ago. She told me she will wait for me, two of my sons have also died in the war and one of my daughters was killed."

Hey, this is getting scary. It's an erotic game not a horror game. Old man stop, please.

"What hurts you is not that they are leaving this world. What hurts... is not saying a last word to them. If you had a lover, she would be sad if you die."

Rei reacted in such a way that he managed to understand Rose's behavior.

Rose knows that Rei is strong, but she is a human being. He may die someday, Rei didn't think that just because he could die by accident would cross his mind.

Rose must be terrified that one day she will wake up and never be able to see him again.

He clicked his tongue and said.

"Tch. That Rose, thinking unnecessary things, I'm not going to die. I'll never die, I'm a cheat lord for a reason. Others may die, but I won't die easily."

"You're wrong about that young man, the generals who died were men who managed to earn their position with hard work, they didn't die because of carelessness or being overconfident, they died because the enemy was stronger than them."

"Being arrogant is fine. Being confident too, but on the battlefield a single carelessness can lead to your death."

Rei was angered by the old man's words.

"In that case take care of yourself, old man. You're the one most likely to die because you're an old man."

"Hehehe, no doubt, but my children need sustenance. And I can't afford to die until they can support themselves, it's the younger ones who are left."

"... In that case you shouldn't come."

"I must. The economic situation is bad, many of us thought that with these bills the economic issue would improve, but it got worse."

Rei started to sweat, this is clearly his fault.

He knew something bad would happen from playing the villain.

"For that reason young man, don't say things like that. There's always someone waiting for you at home, you don't know what torment they might be enduring without hearing from you. You can be arrogant at home, you can be confident in your city, but not on the battlefield. The only thing we have is assured death if we step on a wrong step."

Rei became annoyed and stood up.

"Don't compare me to you. I'm me, I won't die easily."

Rei went straight to his tent to sleep, but not before seeing that the old man was saying goodbye, it annoyed him more.

◇◇◇

The next morning, everything was normal.

Rei woke up as if he had had a good night.

"Kuro, I feel fine. Last night was just foolishness, I'll tell that old man to go fuck himself."

"You shouldn't say that to a person who gave you advice."

"As if that matters to me─"

Rei walked to the outside, as we went outside, we saw something impossible to believe.

"Pour more water over here!"

"The fire is spreading!"

"A medic, call a medic!"

The Kingdom camp was under attack.

There were several mutilated bodies, fires and above all the weapons were looted.

It was an absolute victory.

Rei grabbed a wounded knight who was running to aid an ally.

"Hey, how did all this happen?"

"You didn't hear about it despite being here? They came in the middle of the dawn from the forest."

"They shot flaming arrows and after fighting them off they came from another flank to attack us."

"We could do nothing, they took General Bret."

"This war was a waste of time since they planned this all along!"

The enemies in the forest... they must be the mustachioed group we encountered earlier.

Rei clicked his tongue and annoyedly left the place.

"Tch. lose? I don't lose, you guys told me not to do anything and that's why this happened."

"If you had let me do all the work, this would never─"

His grumpiness was cut short when we stumbled upon something we didn't want to see.

The old man from yesterday was in a bloodbath, he had a few arrows embedded in his back like a sword cut.

"Hey old man, hang in there!"

Rei rushed over and used a skill to pull the arrows out of his sword.

"Erase!"

The arrows were erased as if it was a computer keyboard option.

Now the important thing.

"Full Recovery and Replenish!"

With full recovery he will heal his wounds and with resupply he will replenish the blood loss.

In a few seconds the old man was back to his old self.

"You see, old man. I told you that─"

There was a problem, though.

The old man wouldn't wake up.

Rei ripped the armor off his chest and placed his head there.

"... There's no heartbeat."

"Don't fuck with me!"

"Reanimate!"

Rei proceeded to use a skill that consists of making the old man's heart beat again.

He tried it once as a child on a chicken that died by accident in the kitchen.

Rei managed to bring it back to life.

"Reanimate!"

"Reanimate!"

"Reanimate!"

"Damn it, come back to life you old fuck!"

No matter how many times I did it, we were even around two hours doing this.

It was already half a day.

Rei stopped trying.

The old man had died.

Even if you had cheating skills, even if you had self-confidence, it's no use if you can't save others.

That's what I just learned.

Rei stood up, carefully leaving the old man's body on the ground.

He flew off to who knows where.

I asked him.

"Rei, where are you going?"

There was no answer from him.

As a few seconds passed, I saw a small platoon of enemy forces in the distance.

They had a large lump dragging, it must be Bret.

Rei seeing them descended with great speed and said in a very angry tone.

"I'm going to kill them all, I'll finish Norden with my own hands!"

Rei was furious at the death of a person he didn't even know.