novelraw Chapter 68 : Chapter 68
Chapter 68 : Chapter 68
Chapter 68
After arriving at the fortress, I immediately sought out the count and headed to the command center.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
‘Has the rumor already spread?’
As I entered the castle, I felt gazes that I had never felt here before.
Slightly scowling faces and gazes filled with a strange hostility.
It must be that the fact that I am the Young Lord has become known.
Seeing familiar faces avoid my gaze, I quickened my pace.
Creak.
When I finally pushed open the command center's doors, the count, who was in the middle of a meeting, looked at me with surprised eyes.
“I have returned.”
“…I heard the report.”
Ignoring the count, who frowned as if displeased about something, I sat down in an empty chair.
“Uh… Ian?”
Was he perhaps annoyed that I was participating in the meeting?
When the fortress is in immediate danger, what…….
Just as Ian was about to raise his voice.
“Ahem!
Ahem!
Count, since the important part of the meeting is over, how about we take a short break?”
An old knight glanced at me and spoke to the count.
“Shouldn't we give the scout leader, who has just returned from a mission, some time to wash up……?”
‘……?’
I slowly lowered my gaze and checked my condition.
Having not been able to wash properly since leaving the fortress, my skin was covered in caked-on grime, and the Orc blood that hadn't been wiped off remained here and there on my leather armor.
‘Hmm.’
Hiding my embarrassed expression, I lifted my head and saw the commanders, with their brows furrowed, cautiously covering their noses.
Ah.
No wonder even the soldiers I thought I had grown close to were coldly running away.
Suppressing my embarrassment, I looked at Sven, and the count said with a completely serious expression.
“No.
To come here without even taking off his armor, the situation outside must be that serious.”
No, it was serious, but not that serious…….
Unable to bring myself to say that I had forgotten to wash, I just stared blankly at the count.
“Then let us continue the meeting.”
Well, I couldn't smell anything from myself, so it didn't really matter, did it?
***
Since the scout team that had returned first had already explained about the Orc encampment, the report was not long.
“…So in the end, we had no choice but to return without even seeing the main Orc force.”
At Ian’s explanation, the commanders couldn't hide their astonishment.
“An Ogre……”
“The Orcs are trying to use an Ogre!”
Despite the unbelievable report, no one doubted it.
Since it was a mission carried out by dozens of soldiers and the fortress's eldest son, it was a mission that couldn't be falsely reported.
As soon as the report was over, the meeting erupted.
Some shouted that an evacuation order should be issued immediately to evacuate the fortress's residents, while others shouted that the soldiers should be moved immediately to secure the clearing.
In the midst of the chaotic meeting, the count, who had been quietly listening to the others' opinions, slowly raised his hand and spoke.
“What do you think?”
Everyone in the command center, who had been planning strategies with spittle flying, closed their mouths and looked at me.
“What about?”
“Would it be better to occupy the clearing, or to stay here and defend?”
There was only one reason to occupy the clearing.
To make the clearing, not the fortress, the battlefield.
“The clearing is wide, but it is not impossible to bypass.”
Whether the monsters bypassed the clearing or not was not important.
“Unless we abandon the fortress, we will have to divide our forces in two, so there is no advantage in occupying it.
With the forest of demonic beasts between the fortress and the clearing, it is also difficult to secure a retreat route.”
“Hmm, no advantage, you say……”
“Even if we deploy all our forces to the clearing, except for a minimal defense force, we will not be able to build a defensive wall before the Orcs arrive, so we would be abandoning the advantage of defense.”
The count stroked his chin as if deep in thought.
“If the legion is truly aiming for the fortress… there must be at least a Legion Commander level Orc.”
Well, to think optimistically, that was the case.
“We don't know if the Legion Lord is coming himself.”
“That’s right.”
Frustration was evident in the count's voice.
“Whether it’s the Legion Commander or the Legion Lord, I will have to face them myself.
In the midst of that, if an Ogre that has lost its reason rampages onto the battlefield……”
It wasn't that I didn't understand the worries of the count or the other commanders.
Ogres were, in themselves, a disaster.
“Even if we win the battle, it may be a victory in name only.”
Even if they won the battle, if the fortress fell, it would be hard to call it a victory.
That's why they wanted to move the battlefield, even if it meant taking a risk.
“And yet, you say it is better to defend this place?”
I met the count's gaze, who was looking at me.
The faint trust within it made me hesitate.
I worried that I might blow away this small trust I had barely gained with a far-fetched plan, but I had only one purpose for coming here as soon as I returned.
“Let's issue an evacuation order now and begin the evacuation.”
The count's face hardened in an instant.
Issuing an evacuation order meant abandoning the fortress.
“And we will mobilize all our forces to drive out the Orcs in the clearing.”
The count and the commanders frowned, as if they didn't understand.
To advance the troops after evacuating the fortress with an evacuation order, it was a ridiculous plan.
Some knights even sneered.
Before anyone else could interrupt, I quickly continued.
“We will use the clearing as a temporary base and supply point, and the forest as the battlefield.”
“The forest as the battlefield?”
Trimia, who had risen to the ranks of heroes through strategy and tactics alone, used to say that there was no more advantageous battlefield than the forest.
Winning impossible battles and surviving even in the worst moments, he was a hero more deserving of the title of a great general than any other.
“Yes.
With ambushes and surprise attacks, we can make any place we want the battlefield, and in the worst-case scenario, it's easy to scatter and flee.
Plus, we can hide our own information from the enemy while seeing all of theirs at a glance, so there is no better battlefield.”
The count looked at me with a strange gaze.
Everyone in the fortress feared the forest of demonic beasts.
How reckless and foolish would the idea of turning that forest into a battlefield sound?
Moreover, to be so sure that humans would have the upper hand over the monsters that were born and raised in that forest.
“Of course, you probably don't believe me.”
I hadn't expected them to believe me in the first place.
“Instead, please give me a hundred soldiers.”
“A hundred?
What can you do with just a hundred?”
“I killed a hundred Orcs with just ten soldiers, so what can't I do with a hundred?”
I grinned, showing my teeth.
Although they couldn't abandon the fortress and prepare for battle in the forest, the thought of 'it's just a hundred soldiers' was clearly visible on the faces of the count and the commanders.
“I will personally drive out the Orcs in the clearing and find out the location and information of the enemy's main force.”
“To drive out the Orcs in the clearing with just a hundred soldiers, your arrogance is excessive.
The two Great Warriors remaining there will be waiting with bated breath.”
The count spoke, half with concern and half with advice.
It might be different for an enemy unprepared for a surprise attack, but driving out the Orcs who had already been ambushed once would not be easy at all.
If it weren't for the rampaging Ogre inside.
Remembering the baby Ogre that had been squirming and clinging to my hand, I grinned and said to the count.
“This is not arrogance, but conviction.
Am I not the only one who can stop an Orc legion with ten soldiers, and shake their encampment with a hundred?”
In the end, the count had no other alternative but me.
The knights of the fortress, who were focused on defense, had little to no experience fighting in the forest of demonic beasts, and the commanders had no experience in chaotic battles, only in defensive warfare.
A problem that had arisen because the fortress was too perfect, because there was no need to fight outside its walls.
After being lost in thought for a while, the count finally opened his mouth.
“…So be it.
Instead, I will give you a hundred soldiers and Vergil's 3rd Knightly Order.
Go and prove your words.”
***
As soon as my departure was decided, the count stopped the meeting, dismissed everyone, and then stopped me.
“What is it?”
“…You met Teheki?”
Ah, did the soldier who returned early report it?
“Yes, well.”
“Why didn’t you mention it in the meeting?”
There was no hint of blame.
It was just a question to satisfy pure curiosity.
So I answered honestly.
“I didn't think anyone would believe me.”
“When I first received the report, none of the commanders could believe it.
It was hard enough to believe that no one had died fighting dozens of Goblins, but to say that you killed Hobgoblins with just a bow, that you met Teheki and survived.
It was all unbelievable stories.”
It wasn't a matter of trust, but simply that they couldn't understand.
It must have been something beyond their comprehension, literally outside of common sense.
“The report I heard when you actually came back was even more of a spectacle.
To think you faced two Great Warriors and a legion with just ten soldiers.”
The count, who had burst out laughing, looked at me intently.
“What is there not to believe in what you say?”
Well.
If I had to say.
“Teheki said he was a Dwarf.”
Before I could even finish my words, the count's face crumpled nicely.
***
After a short conversation with the count, I went to find Hoodwock, who would be gathering the soldiers.
I thought there would be no volunteers for such a dangerous mission, but far more people had gathered than I expected.
“Squad 12 Hanson, 3 seconds!”
“I can draw it one more time……!”
“Are you going to ask the Orcs to wait for you when they're right in front of you?
If you can’t draw it within 3 seconds, you can’t shoot!
Next!”
The soldiers who had heard the heroic tales of the scouting party had rushed to volunteer, and a hundred soldiers who could shoot the Knight Slayer were selected from among those who had trained with the mana stones.
“Once the mission begins, we are not the 3rd Knightly Order, but members of the scouting party.
Understood?!”
“Yes!”
As soon as the order was given, all 30 members of the 3rd Knightly Order, who had been summoned, finished their departure preparations.
The last remaining problem was just one.
“We have enough arrows, but we are severely short on bows.
We only have a total of 12.”
The lack of Knight Slayers in stock.
“12, you say……”
Including the 10 supplied to the scouting party, a total of 22.
It was a lot for a weapon that had lost its practicality, but it would be a lie to say I wasn't disappointed.
“It's okay.
For now, distribute the bows to the strongest soldiers first and have the rest take their basic armaments.”
Since I was planning to continue with small-scale skirmishes anyway, there would be no need for many soldiers to fight at once.
It would be enough for now.
***
On the way out of the fortress.
Thump, thump, thump.
The sound of the soldiers' boots echoed with precision.
The soldiers on the walls placed their fists on their chests and watched us leave.
“What’s that?”
I asked, just in case, and as expected, the answer I was thinking of came back.
“It's a greeting that means they will bury us in their hearts even if we die.”
“Bullshit.”
How could even the greetings in this town be so barren?
At my cynical reaction, Hoodwock chuckled and said.
“Hehe, in the old days, very few people who went outside the walls came back.
Unless the entire army moved, small-scale reconnaissance teams would die off frequently.”
“So ‘go out and die well’ became a greeting?”
“It's said that when a scout died, a close comrade, and then that comrade's comrade, would go out and die with them countless times.
Even if it was forbidden by military law and guards were posted, there was no end to the guys who would try to retrieve the bodies.”
“Just like those fools.”
I gestured with my chin towards the ten soldiers walking ahead.
The fools who had been the first to volunteer for the scouting party, to find even the last traces of their fallen comrades.
“Hehe, you could say that.
Because of that, the Rangers in charge of scouting were said to be most worried about their remaining comrades.
They would have lingering feelings, worrying that someone might die trying to find them.”
“Does that make them feel at ease?”
“Well, it’s a story I heard from a senior scout… That senior said he thinks of it every time he sees that greeting.”
Hoodwock glanced back and continued.
“That no matter what happens in that forest, the fortress will stand strong.”
The promise exchanged without a single word between those who leave and those who stay is everything that supports them.
“They’re unbelievably stupid.”
At those words, Hoodwock grinned and replied.
“That's why they're protecting this place, isn't it?”