〈 Episode 58 〉The East Targets the West 5

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"Sergen."

I slowly called out to Sergen, who had been silent.

"What is it?"

She looks up from her meeting and asks me.

"Can I have some command of the soldiers?"

Sergen thinks for a moment, then agrees, and I gather my soldiers, minimally prepared.

"Click!

I touch the bell once. A ringing sound.

"That's it."

I test how far my voice will carry on the mountain. Roughly, I can be heard from a hundred meters away.

"Sir chamberlain, where do we go?"

"Chamberlain?"

"Yes, our rumor has it that you are the chamberlain to Sergen."

One of the soldiers chuckles.

"I'm just a man hired as an escort."

"Aye, it's been rumored that you were the one who stopped the last Deckard raid, so if you're not a chamberlain, what are you?"

"I'm just...well, no...they could have stopped the attack without me."

"Honestly, when you told me to paint myself with leaves and grass juice and stay in a tree, I was like, what the fuck is this... No, it made it so easy for me to defeat the raid, I was like, wow, what kind of strategist is this, predicting every move the enemy makes?"

Not really, just observing and anticipating what the enemy would do based on probabilities and what I would do.

"Well... I'm glad you think so."

"Besides, the first time I saw you throw yourself in the way of an explosion around Sergen, I thought, 'Oh, you're really there for us.

The soldiers, those who had lived through Sirtus's extermination, seemed to believe me.

"Honestly, Sergen tends to be a little too reserved in his raids, and a lot of knights try to talk him out of it, but he doesn't listen."

Even when he first met her, he remembers her going off on her own to chase down orcs and monsters.

"Not exactly the personality of a leader.

Her lack of leadership and reliance on her raiding party or knights suggests that she doesn't listen to or trust others.

"However, you seem to be listening carefully this time, Tyr. Rumor has it that it was Tir's plan to keep Sergen out of the last raid?"

"...Is that so?"

"Yes, he is the one who rushes at the first sign of an enemy, so we had to ask the knights because we were curious as well... My goodness, such a combative person would not step forward... After all, there is no one else who can be a chamberlain but Tir."

I listen to them, then slowly recite the plan.

"Do you understand? You're about to do the most dangerous thing in this operation, and frankly, it's a risky one."

"Is that... true?"

"So, you're going to do what you're going to do, and then you're going to run as fast as you can."

"What?"

"You can run. You are the fastest men here, aren't you?"

The soldiers who were sent out were those who were the fastest on their feet, regardless of their fighting ability.

"You were chosen because you have a better chance of survival than the others, so I would say that your highest purpose is to survive."

"Yes."

One of the men raised his hand.

"Yes?"

"Do you think they're wearing camouflage like last time?"

I was going to say it outright, but I hesitated because it was a matter of their survival.

"Yes."

"Hmm, well, then I guess we'll just have to spread them out like a beehive of people in each zone to better organize the signal."

"I think ignition stones would be better so we can pinpoint locations."

You take their input as best you can.

"Firestones...that would also keep the enemy at bay, wouldn't it?"

"There are other ways to create more smoke."

One of them raises his hand.

"I've made the mistake of using ignition stones before, and they make a lot of smoke when they're struck together...wouldn't that be better?"

The majority chimes in, and slowly their preparations are completed.

.

"Assault."

They were only a hundred strong, but to the bandits, who were natives of the Great Forest of Hammel, it was a piece of cake to pinpoint their location.

"Tadat! Tadat!

The bandits charge, slashing through thick tree trunks and slashing at branches. They were the kind of men who doubted they could put a blade to the armored soldiers and knights, but there was nothing they could do about it, feeling more threatened by the blades at their backs.

"Sharp!

Their shoes slapped against the puddles of water from the brief rain, but they continued to charge nonetheless.

"We're charging in groups of 100, left, right, and halt."

"The remaining 200 intend to advance, when the 300 have exhausted their strength."

"The arrowmen will follow behind the 300 and take up positions in sequence."

"Hmph."

Arms folded, one of the Hounds watches it from a tree high in the distance.

"Anticipating?"

As expected, the Cercen's slayers reacted with horror. When they had lost so many of the hermits, they had thought the Millions would kill them.

"Giving him another chance.

The Million he knew would never do that.

"No, technically, his behavior is...

It's almost non-existent. Biting his lower lip hard, he stares at the great conflagration in the distance.

"The ones who didn't retreat...they're just a bunch of victory-drunk novices...how the hell did you deal with the hermits? You said you prepared for it, not just got lucky and caught them in an ambush?"

"Well..."

The hermit who survived the last guerrilla war hesitated.

"I think it's because we were caught off guard."

"No, it's natural for you to be caught off guard, I know scum like you act that way, and the most important thing is, how the hell did they know?"

"...."

"See, that's the problem, what do you think I'm asking you, I just want to know their reasoning. If they knew about the ambush beforehand, and they couldn't calculate an all-out war now, then the ambush in the last war was a...training exercise?"

She didn't hide her disbelief.

"How on earth..."

She watched as more and more black smoke rose around the bandits charging in three directions.

"Uh..."

And then, a ringing in his ears.

"Peeeeeeee....

It was the sound of a tearing flute, like a bird call that could be heard for miles.

"Fuck, I knew it!"

She pulls out her dagger in a rush and starts running from the tree.

.

"Poof!

The tree bursts into flames, red with fire and ignition stones, quickly filling the sky with smoke, and the bandits begin to hesitate, realizing that what they see before them is blazing black smoke.

"Chawak!

One of the hounds swings his whip, skinning the back of the hesitant bandit.

"Who told you to stop?"

"Aaaah!"

They barely manage to raise their weapons, their voices shrieking, their eyes dying, their steps teasing. They don't stop, as if they're begging to be saved.

"Rattle!

The sound of a bell on the bridge. Everything was starting to turn into horror in their vision.

"Falcon, I think it's an ambush!"

One of the bandits shouted.

"Ambush or whatever, they're outnumbered, so just come on in, you pigs!"

Outnumbered or not, they're expendable anyway. If you can take a few knights instead of killing all 500 of them, that's a win.

"Hit them fast!"

Again their advance slows to a crawl. You crack the skull of one of the bandits in the back row.

"Now, every time they slow down, this is what happens to the head of the one in the back."

Brain fluid spurts out, and you stare in amazement at the bandit behind you, whose head has been ripped from his torso, barely able to close his eyes.

"Aaaaah!!!"

It could be you. With that thought, the bandits scramble forward on their backs.

"What happened?

'It's him. That little shadow.'

The Shadows, the name given to the hermitages that Million uses for expendable supplies. And the best of them can be used as his hounds. That's the one who's making me panic now.

"A shadow who can barely name a hound?

The kind of thing that would make their pride golden.

'Go, kill him, finish him off.

It was a tactic to stroke their egos.

"There's nothing in the smoke!"

It was an ambush, but the smoke did nothing to harm the bandits. Just enough to make them blind?

"What, if they're going to smoke us, why not use those Hunters to attack us?

I saw three rows of bandits advancing in separate columns, and I thought it was some kind of strategy where you move ahead and hit one side first, but there was no such thing. There was just smoke, and nothing happened.

"This son of a bitch..."

One of the hounds mistook the current maneuver for an oolong.

"Tear him apart!"

They were just defending where they were, after all. The fact that they were sticking to that kind of tactic, and yet they had created this signaling system...

"It's for defense.

Setting fires for defense? Sure, the smoke would certainly give away their location. But it's not as effective as it could be.

"Those who can start fires, go somewhere else, and leave the forest fires alone!"

"What?!"

"Now!"

Instead, you can use this signaling system to screw them over. One of the bandits rushed to light a fire, and with it started a forest fire that spread far and wide.

"Yeah, I don't know how long he'll last, but I'll give him a try.

Soon enough, the bandits are charging toward the center of the raiding party. The hounds pushed onward, coordinating the bandits, despite the acrid, stinging smoke that rose with each step.

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