Episode 62
Officially, they were not supposed to be part of the Srein military.
Shhh, bang!
An arrow flew through the fog and struck the heated armor of a heavy infantryman.
The arrow didn’t bounce, but went through the armor and pierced the skin. If it were a normal wound, it would only cause minor damage, but it was enough to trigger the hallucination-inducing effects of the Doodoo mushroom.
“Shield! Raise your shield! Arrows!”
Before the knight’s order could be given, arrows that blackened the sky covered the enemy lines.
Shushu shu shu shu! Pububububuk!
Arrows rained down on the soldiers who were unable to respond in time.
Although their heavy protective gear kept damage to a minimum, there were many casualties.
At that moment, a force of nearly 200 slaves rushed in.
“Army of Hebron, lift your heads to the heavens!”
“Smile!”
Silent laughter filled the battlefield.
The slave soldiers used Sardia’s maneuvers to close the gap and stabbed the heavy infantry with Sardia’s swordsmanship. They aimed for the armor joints as they had been trained to do.
“Yangik!”
The soldiers who had been acting as the left and right wings soared like spear blades. They instantly destroyed the enemy’s left and right flanks.
“Retreat!”
Even though they had the upper hand, they pushed back the slave soldiers. It was a move to seize the opportunity for sure victory.
“reversal!”
Soon, the entire army turned and covered the enemy. The moment the black shadow of death fell, the enemy fell down with a thud.
“Iredem, in the name of Louis de Hebron, I command you. Primordial Death, Blessing of the Dead, do your duty. Raise the dead and reverse the course of nature. Arunasdapiradiem.”
The dead were resurrected immediately. They attacked only the heavy infantry of Srein, but the enemy did not notice this. They held on, screaming and yelping.
Rather, it seemed that Hebron was analyzing the current situation coolly. As the master of acting, Lucy, shouted in an urgent tone, his voice was carried by the wind and spread to all directions.
“… … Something is strange! It seems like this land is cursed. Everyone who died, enemy or friend, has turned into undead! We, we have to get out of here!”
The fog obscured the view. The fog did not obscure the enemy, so the friendly archers could not clearly see the current situation.
I shouted, swinging my sword with flames shooting out.
“No way! Retreat! Don’t let them set foot on Hebron!”
While 100 archers led the chariots to Hebron, 200 slave soldiers remained on the scene.
They surrounded the enemy in layers and attacked them.
That’s when I shouted.
“Headless knight! It’s Dullahan!”
An Iredem has taken hold on Durahan’s head.
Iredem sucked in my aura and created a body.
The dagger in Iredem’s hand was imbued with a dark aura. He charged into the enemy lines and swung his sword without hesitation, and it seemed that he was now quite accustomed to the swordsmanship I had taught him.
“Ugh!”
I ended up stabbing the knight in the neck.
When he fell, the command structure of the heavy infantry collapsed. There were centurions and tens leading the infantry, but they became targets for me and Iredem.
“Retreat! Retreat!”
This time it was a real order.
The slave soldiers retreated without looking back.
The battlefield was left with corpses, zombies, a hundred or so heavy infantry, a Dullahan, and me.
“You wicked Durahan, take the sword of Hebron!”
Iredem taught me swordsmanship. He didn’t just teach me the form of swordsmanship, but he also learned actual swordsmanship through sparring.
Serenade and Iredem’s daggers clashed. The dark energy and aura collided, but no extreme reaction occurred. This was because the source of the two energies was the same.
It was a long distance anyway. The enemies watched me and Durahan fight from afar. It was a situation where I had to run away immediately, but they couldn’t take their eyes off me.
Kagagagang! Shake! Shake!
Every time I swung my sword, there was a sound of wind.
I swung my sword more vigorously than ever. It was a gesture so extravagant that those skilled in swordsmanship would have clicked their tongues at it and said it was too much of a show.
However, all those who were supposed to be knights were killed. Those who survived were heavy infantrymen of the House of Srein. No matter how skilled they were, they were nothing more than mere soldiers.
“Huh!”
Those who were watching me shouted. It was because it seemed like I was being pushed by Dullahan. Dullahan’s energy had become even stronger, and its size had more than doubled. My aura was also being consumed by that amount.
“Let’s finish it.”
I whispered to Iredem, and his skull nodded slightly.
Whoosh whoosh!
The flames of Inferno rose like a pillar of fire, pushing Iredem back. I swung my huge but not particularly threatening fire sword with great force.
“For Zenon!”
A pillar of fire engulfed Dullahan. Dullahan, engulfed in flames, was consumed by the pillar of flames. To be exact, he was sent into a dark space.
‘It was a perfect performance.’
It was a play that was created with great care in the introduction, development, turn, and conclusion.
If this were a concert hall and not a battlefield, everyone would have stood up and applauded.
dump.
I sat down, breathing heavily and shaking my upper body as if I had no more strength left to fight.
Only then did the soldiers of Srein pick up their pace. They ran without a care towards the east.
‘Go, return to your homeland and tell of my deeds. And take away the curse that has been placed on this land.’
If I had put my mind to it, I could have easily crushed those soldiers.
But I wanted to inflict even greater damage. I wanted to trample the Srein Count down to the point where he would never be able to get up again.
After Srein’s soldiers left, the slave soldiers returned with 25 wagons.
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I gave an order to Centurion Bernie.
“Make sure to kill the survivors. Record the list of friendly deaths without fail.”
“insect!”
I sat down and practiced my aura. Perhaps because there were corpses everywhere, the aura that had been exposed on the ground rose quickly. I spread the aura I received from the outside throughout my body, while examining the condition of my body.
‘Now it’s hard to expect rapid growth without killing them.’
The amount of aura I have accumulated far exceeds that of a high-level knight.
While I was practicing Aura, the slave soldiers collected the corpses. They stripped them of their weapons and loaded them onto the wagon, sorted out the items, and wrote down a list on paper.
“The bodies were collected.”
There were only a few clean corpses. This was because the corpses of those who had been resurrected as zombies quickly decomposed.
I picked out the ones that were still in good condition and put them aside.
They were intended to be returned to Slane.
“Inferno, burn everything.”
All traces were erased. Now only the heavy infantry of Srein were left behind. It would take at least a month for them to return to Srein. Until then, Hebron’s soldiers would pursue them, distract them, and slow down their retreat as much as possible.
A hawk flew across the sky and landed on my shoulder. As I untied the note tied to its ankle, the word ‘rumor’ appeared.
It meant that Amy had spread the rumor in the Jaylesons’ estate.
-Undead have appeared in the wastelands south of Hebron!
-The bandits who attacked Hebron have turned into undead!
-The bandits used Srein’s swordsmanship!
-The Lord of Hebron has defeated the Durahans and burned all the undead!
-The bandits cursed by the Warlock have fled, and Hebron’s army is in pursuit!
A hundred or so heavy infantrymen suddenly became a cursed army. They were associated with the undead, which was forbidden in the kingdom of Zenon, and could not return to Srein.
There was nothing left for them to set foot on but the wasteland. The best they could do was wander there and wait for the call of the Srein.
‘If we do it well, we can even roast a heavy infantryman.’
Bunny came up to me and reported.
“I have completed the inventory list.”
The weapons recovered from the heavy infantry and cavalry were considerable. It was roughly worth two thousand gold.
But there was something more valuable than that, and that was the war horse.
He secured eleven war horses and seventeen cavalry. The former were the horses ridden by knights, and were of a different breed and training.
Even if I sold it at the top of the surplus right away, I thought I could easily get 150 gold.
The seventeen cavalry were also well trained. They were small and slow, but they were incomparably superior to the transport horses used in Hebron. These too could be purchased for 80 gold.
“Bring the wounded horse to me.”
There were quite a few horses that had been wounded, big and small, by traps and arrows. If you add them all up, there were 34 horses that survived.
Two slave soldiers brought out herbs and bandages from the wagon.
The subjects of medicine I studied did not include children or pregnant women, but horses were included, because horses were much more important to the nobility than the elderly.
Heeeeeeeing.
“Shh, don’t worry. I’ll fix you up so you can run again.”
* * *
“… … Even though I try to look at it favorably, you keep irritating me.”
“I’m sorry, my lord.”
Amy bowed deeply.
Her pale nape and flowing hair caught my eye. Although she had been washing up fairly frequently these days, her old habits had left her, and she had been wearing the same clothes for days.
Amy was the backbone of Hebron.
It would be difficult to envision a future for Hebron without her.
Regardless of Amy’s loyalty, Baron Ludwig had offended Hebron.
It was three days’ journey by carriage from Hebron to the Baronship of Ludwig. In the old days it was four days’ journey, but after taking Nurha and Delgain, the road was improved and it could be reached in three days.
Tracking the movement of the infantry of the Srein Heavy Infantry revealed that they also stopped in the territory of Baron Ludwig.
Amy’s father, Baron Ludwig, knew this fact but turned a blind eye to it. Although he could not resist Viscount Srein, it was a mistake not to share the troop movements with Hebron.
“It’s just a small mistake compared to what you’ve done for me. But how long do you think I can put up with it?”
“I will warn my father.”
“I will do it myself.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Amy didn’t show any signs of regret.
I could only swallow a sigh.
“I will make the Baronial domain of Ludwig subordinate to Hebron. The tax will be 20%. Depending on the Baron’s attitude, it can be reduced to 10%. Also, the condition is that you will provide support when the branded monsters appear.”
It was common for great nobles to protect surrounding small lords.
Although the lords had to pay double taxes, they were able to reduce the costs of maintaining public order through the protection of the great nobles.
“that……!”
“Is this not possible? Am I setting too strict a condition? I think I’m being generous.”
Amy brought a map.
It was a newly drawn detailed map centered on Hebron, but the Barony of Ludwig was not marked on it.
Amy took a few more pieces of paper, spread them out, and wrote Baron Ludwig on them.
Amy brought a bunch of chess pieces.
The barony was represented by the castle ‘Rook’, the viscounty by the queen ‘Queen’, and Hebron by the king ‘King’.
The infantry had ‘pawns’ as pawns, and the cavalry had ‘knights’ as horses.
Amy placed the chess pieces as if she had a military deployment map engraved in her head. Then she moved a few pieces and advanced east.
Looking at that appearance, I nodded my head in agreement. Hebron had been at war with Srein, but Srein was a territory that could only be encountered after crossing the Jayleson Viscounty.
Even if they tried to destroy it, only the surrounding lords would benefit.
Amy’s strategy presupposed the expansion of Hebron.
