novelraw Chapter 31 : Stampede (3)
Chapter 31 : Stampede (3)
Stampede (3)
The Forest of Death, from which escape is absolutely impossible.
The moment you set foot inside, the forest emits a mysterious wavelength that soon makes it impossible to find your way.
In the end, you become doomed to wander the forest forever—escaping becomes impossible.
The forest itself feels like a magnet, pulling you in. Or perhaps, it feels as if the forest has its own will, intent on devouring people.
Because of this, a party must have someone capable of handling a pathfinding magitech device to avoid getting lost.
In a stampede, the real trouble isn't just the monsters.
"Pram! Thank you so much!"
"We survived because of you!"
Thanks to this, Pram received high praise among her teammates.
Everyone had thought no one would be able to activate the pathfinding magitech device.
But the moment it landed in Pram's hands, it began to function.
"But how did you do it?"
"Pram, are you by any chance a mage?"
So, curiosity flooded among the group.
None of them had any training in magic.
However, Pram had only held the device, yet it activated. Normally, it required the input of a spell with magic power to function, yet she did none of that.
No one could believe that a child who had never learned magic could do such a thing.
"I told you, I have no idea!"
"Come on, be honest~"
"I really don't know! My legs hurt so much I could die right now, so stop talking to me!"
After a single moment of heroics, Pram became the center of attention, which was a great burden.
She was already out of breath from running around like mad.
And the stampede was not over yet. Since everyone needed to take care of themselves, Louis addressed the team.
"You guys should rest now. You must be exhausted."
At that moment, someone shouted in their direction.
"Louis!"
Silia, who was standing at the entrance of the camp tent, called for Louis.
At the deputy-commander's call, the team was startled.
"I'll be back for a bit. Don't cause any trouble while I'm gone."
Leaving those words behind, Louis headed to the tent set up at the base.
As someone weak in physical matters, Pram lagged behind the others.
Fortunately, with Louis nearby, she hadn't become monster food.
"To think the weakest among us would have such a talent—who could have guessed?"
"I really don't know myself. Ah~ I'm exhausted."
Tired from her teammates' enthusiastic welcome, Pram yawned and half-closed her eyes.
"Probably even young master Louis couldn't pull that off."
When Victor praised her again, Pram replied with a mischievous grin.
"True enough. For once, I'm better than the young master."
"Shh! Quiet!"
"Mm...!"
Dimo, looking shocked, clapped a hand over Pram's mouth.
Startled by the sudden contact, Pram's eyes widened as she protested.
"Why'd you do that all of a sudden!"
"Watch your mouth! What if the young master hears you!"
"What about the young master, ah...!"
Pram realized what mistake she had made.
Louis had an unusually sharp sense of hearing.
Even the sound of a stone dropping far away seemed like it was right next to his ears.
This fact was common knowledge among all the team members, thanks to their time together.
Given Louis's sensitive senses, one should never talk behind his back lest it incur his displeasure.
But....
'I heard everything, you brats.'
Standing in front of the distant tent at the encampment, Louis had already listened to their conversation.
Normally, he would have scolded them, but for now, letting them rest was more important.
"Come in."
When he heard the voice from inside the tent, Louis stepped in.
He took a seat facing Silia, who had been waiting, and asked,
"Is it alright to allow a mere soldier into a tent meant only for officers?"
"For now, the other officers and the commander are out in different areas. There's nobody here to judge, so relax."
It wasn't a lie. There was no sign of any other officers nearby.
Silia continued,
"You'll be able to rest easy here for a while."
"Does that mean the operation was a success?"
"That's right. At least for now, we can relax a little."
Because they had played their bait role well, this time they were guaranteed a proper rest.
It also meant that Klein's magic array had worked effectively.
Thanks to that, the surviving soldiers could sleep peacefully tonight.
"What happened to Rejir?"
"He's still alive. He's probably sleeping in the fortress's medical tent by now. Looks like he swallowed some kind of poison, but somehow he survived."
"I got the poison out before it could spread completely."
Thanks to Louis's intervention, the poison's effect was reduced by half.
Of course, even that would be fatal for a normal person, but Rejir turned out to be an aura user.
With his reinforced body, he could withstand the weakened poison, but he was still unconscious.
"But why did you save someone from a hostile family?"
Normally, leaving him to die would have been the logical choice. Whether he died from the poison or killed himself, who would care.
There was a reason he was kept alive.
"That guy suddenly attacked our group. The reason should be obvious."
Rejir must have held a grudge against Louis for dragging him into this demon realm.
It was nothing but brazen hypocrisy at this point—but it was no longer surprising.
"What was your squad leader Eike doing?"
When a soldier attacks comrades during wartime, it's up to an officer to stop it.
But here, neither soldiers nor officers were in their right minds.
"He teamed up with Rejir to try to kill us."
"...."
At that, Silia narrowed her eyes.
Indeed, when Louis's team escaped the forest, squad leader Eike was nowhere to be found.
"So what happened to Eike?"
"I killed him. Or, more precisely, he was betrayed by Rejir."
"You know what happens to a soldier who attacks their allies during a stampede, right?"
"We were clearly acting in self-defense."
Louis raised his hands low, showing his innocence.
If anyone deserved punishment, it was Eike and Rejir.
"Then there's no point in keeping Rejir alive."
"If we do that, we'll never find out who's behind this."
What was a rookie like Rejir relying on to attack his own allies?
Moreover, it wasn't his sole idea; even the officer Eike had cooperated.
Come to think of it, Eike was also a new officer.
It was unlikely he'd have done such a thing without someone's instigation.
Especially not during this stampede.
"So that's why you saved him?"
"I'm sure there's someone who incited them to kill us. There's no rush to kill him—we can do that after discovering everyone involved."
It was a clear violation of the rules set by the commander. If Kelian found out, he wouldn't let it slide.
But during this stampede, there would never be a more perfect time to kill an ally.
Except for a moment's rest, it wouldn't be strange for anyone to die at any time.
"So, aside from Rejir's grudge, there are others targeting you."
"That's what makes this the perfect opportunity. You can kill someone quietly in the chaos and claim they died to monsters."
There were plenty of plausible causes of death besides monsters—
Grazed by a poison spine, dying from starvation and eating the wrong plant or animal, disappearing in some special place like the Forest of Death.
And...
"There's always the chance we'll run into higher-rank monsters, isn't there?"
"......."
At Louis's words, Silia's face clouded over. The mere rumor that higher-rank monsters could appear filled every soldier with fear.
Unlike the low-level ones, they possess intelligence. There's no guarantee a bait tactic like today would work on them.
"Did they say those monsters would actually target us?"
"Strictly speaking, we're just on one of their possible routes. If we're lucky, they might just ignore us and pass by."
After all, the true enemies of the monsters weren't the fortress troops, but other monsters occupying rival territories.
Since they have intelligence, they're likely to make rational decisions.
In short, if you don't go near them, you won't have to fight.
"With monsters like that looming, is there really anyone who would care if a comrade dies?"
Who would mourn the death of a shrimp crushed between fighting whales?
If anyone would, it'd be Kelian alone.
He was the only one in the fortress capable of facing higher-rank monsters.
"Enemies on all sides..."
Monsters, the Forest of Death, and even possibly hostile allies.
If someone survived all that, "lucky" wouldn't even begin to describe it.
With that in mind, Silia voiced a question.
"But how did your squad survive? In that Forest of Death?"
Even Silia found it incredible that they made it out alive.
The fact that it was Pram, Louis's squad member, who made it possible was shocking.
"I told you before. My squad members aren't ordinary kids."
At the time, there was no one who could use the R-Type Guide.
Eike was dead, Rejir was unconscious. Louis could find the way himself, but he couldn't use the magitech device for it.
It requires advanced magic or magitech knowledge to operate. The moment Pram grabbed it, she made it work.
"No wonder Pram is the most frail among us."
She wasn't a child talented with the sword. Rather, she had a different talent altogether.
Louis had been just as surprised at the time. Pram's frailty made sense in retrospect.
"If she keeps surviving, she could become an excellent mage one day."
If she managed to keep going, that is.
To do that, what Pram needed to pick up now wasn't a sword, but a staff—or a book.
"Not just a mage, probably in many fields."
In his past life, Louis had played nearly every class in the game.
Knight, mage, archer, thief, druid.
Normally, you'd pick one of these five basic fields, but each field also split into specializations.
Every class had a first and second job change.
The characteristics of skills changed according to the personality selected for the character.
If you went "good" with mage, you became an Elemental Master handling elements.
If you went "evil," you became a dark mage wielding demonic power.
When Louis played as a mage, he'd picked "good", but since it wasn't his main, he wasn't skilled with it.
'Among all the classes, the most powerful was...'
Suddenly, Louis recalled his main character. Since that had been his main, he'd meshed with it perfectly.
Of all the classes, it had the best balance of offense, defense, and speed, and boasted the best performance in both boss fights and mob hunts thanks to its area skills.
Of course, if your HP hit 0 you died—but with that class, it was hard to reach 0.
It wasn't even a healer, yet whenever HP dropped below half, its passive self-healing kicked in.
'It was a great class, but...'
Unfortunately, it was an "evil"-route class, so its storyline appearance was utterly horrendous.
It was his main class, but he'd rather not see it appear in real life.
"It's a pity that such promising kids ended up in a place like this."
They might die before ever realizing their dreams. In fact, there were already those targeting Louis and his teammates.
"Come to think of it, you don't even have a squad leader now."
Soldiers without a commander usually end up marginalized.
In situations like this, they should quickly be reassigned to another squad.
"I'll command your squad tomorrow."
"Are you sure someone like the deputy-commander is willing to become a mere squad leader for kids?"
When Louis spoke with a sarcastic tone, Silia snorted.
"Don't flatter yourself. Since we've lost a R-Type Guide user, I have no choice but to fill that spot myself. Besides, tomorrow you might face something even scarier than the Forest of Death."
The pathfinding magitech device was indispensable during this time.
Monsters that disrupted the very concept of direction itself could appear.
"Higher-rank monsters."
****
'What on earth is going on?'
As he walked around the encampment, Kadim fumed internally.
'Don't tell me Eike got defeated?'
Kadim had selected Eike, a new officer, to kill Louis and Rejir.
Taking advantage of his position within the fortress, it was easy for Kadim to rope low-ranking officers to his side.
But why hadn't Eike returned?
'And now Rejir is still alive!'
Should he silence him immediately?
No, if Kadim approached the medical tent at random and made a move, people would find it suspicious.
It was better to be cautious about silencing him for now.
"Officer Kadim."
As Kadim reached a spot out of sight, a voice called from behind.
Despite the suspicious approach, Kadim replied calmly.
"It seems Eike is dead."
"I know."
"Should we secretly take care of it now? They are probably sleeping."
When the mysterious man suggested it, Kadim shook his head.
"No. There are also soldiers on watch."
"Then could we sway them as well...?"
"Do you think all the fortress troops are on my side? Plenty of them resent me."
During the stampede, assassinations are less effective.
If traces of soldiers killing each other are discovered by monsters, the commander will step in personally.
"If we can't kill them ourselves, how about sending them near the monsters?"
"How?"
"It's possible. If Officer Kadim would share your rewards with me, that is."
"......."
It was an arrogant suggestion, but Kadim listened to the man's explanation.
Afterward, he decided the rewards were worth sharing, and raised the corners of his mouth.