The Regressed Mercenary’s Machinations Chapter 321

Episode 321: They’re very dangerous guys. (2)

People looked at Giselle with bewildered expressions.

Even now, they are securing territory, erecting fences and building defensive walls. So why are they suddenly building a fortress?

There is no such thing as building a fortress in the forest. Even if we make a concession and say that it is built to defend against the occasional monster that appears, that is not the case here.

We haven’t even reached our intended location yet. It was too much to build a fortress here, which was neither a strategic point nor a route of attack.

Gillian asked again to confirm.

“I understand that there is still some distance to go until the destination. Is this really a fortress and not a defensive wall?”

“Yes, it’s temporary, but we still have to build it to the level of a fortress. Make sure everyone participates without exception.”

“It will take some time to build the fortress.”

“Should we hurry? This number of people should be enough.”

“……All right.”

The people moved according to Giselle’s orders. This was because they had learned firsthand that in this forest, it was best to unconditionally follow the lord’s words.

There was also the reason that even if I opposed it, he was someone I couldn’t communicate with anyway.

As thousands of troops and workers moved in, the fortress soon began to take on a decent appearance.

Boom! Kwung! Boom!

The sound of people cutting down trees was constant. As they moved to expand their territory, the surrounding area quickly became an empty lot.

Still, there was an abundance of timber, as we had already cut down a huge amount of timber and were still cutting it down.

The trees growing in the Demon Forest there are incomparably larger and stronger than those growing elsewhere. If you stack them in several layers, even a wooden fence would be as durable as a stone wall.

Jiselle called out to the dwarves as she looked towards the outer wall of the fortress that was slowly taking shape.

“Build a watchtower that can launch arrow attacks.”

Galvarik nodded. If you build a fortress using wood, you can build a defensive wall, but you can’t climb up on it and fight.

The plan was to raise the platform and make it function similarly to a castle wall, but it was bound to be less useful than a castle wall.

That is why we need to build watchtowers and other watchtowers to effectively respond to external attacks.

“Of course there should be something like that in a fortress. As expected, there are watchtowers all around… … .”

“No, not like that. They should be built so tightly that they’re completely stuck behind the wall. Based on their current size, I’d have to build about… … a hundred of them.”

“A hundred… …?”

At those words, Galvarik’s face turned pale.

There is no way a lord with mystical knowledge would do something like this for no reason.

He is a lord who prefers to destroy things directly if possible. But he still builds fortresses and puts a lot of effort into defense.

What kind of guys are they going to fight? I already have a bad feeling about this.

Jiselle’s words did not end there.

“Make a catapult too. There should be dozens of them. They don’t need to be sophisticated. They don’t need to have great range. As long as they can attack this area, that’s fine. I don’t mind if I just use them once and throw them away. Got it?”

“Oh, I see.”

Galvarik, who was about to step back, asked cautiously with a very tense expression.

“Your Majesty… … Is the enemy you’re fighting this time very dangerous? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you prepare this much.”

Others might be a little nervous about making these preparations, but they weren’t too worried, because Yeongju had solved everything up until now.

But Galvarik was also the one who had worked with Giselle the most. That was why he knew that the preparations he was making now were not simple.

“There is nothing in this forest that is not dangerous.”

Jiselle didn’t go into detail. There was no need to stir people up by saying it already.

Since you have a goal, you are bound to run into things that get in your way.

If they knew now, the workers might try to get away after they noticed. It wouldn’t be too late to tell them after the fortress is built.

“I’ll tell you when I’m ready. Until then, I don’t want people to feel uneasy.”

“… … Okay, I understand.”

Galvarik nodded and turned around at Giselle’s somewhat heavy words.

Before Galvarik could leave, Giselle called him again.

“Galvarik.”

“……?”

“It has to be made very strong, you know?”

Galvarik chuckled at those words.

“I’m a dwarf. I’m the best at making things on the continent. Even elves can’t do it for me.”

Giselle also smiled at Galvarik’s confident words. It seemed that the dwarves’ pride had been slightly hurt by the elves’ activities.

As the dwarves boasted, the fortress was built so sturdily that it was hard to believe it was made of wood.

The wizards are now skilled enough to be compared to anyone else on the continent when it comes to construction. All the time-consuming tasks, such as trimming materials and carving magic circles, are handled by the wizards.

When they joined forces, the work speed could only be extremely fast.

What took longer than expected was making the catapult. The dwarves put their heads together to make a makeshift catapult.

“I need to collect all the tendons of the monsters I’ve caught so far.”

“The ogres I caught recently would be suitable.”

“I said it doesn’t matter how sophisticated they are. The goal is to make as many as possible.”

Catapults were not something that could be made by grinding laborers. Since they required engineering knowledge, most of them had to be made by dwarves.

The laborers and soldiers could only help out with chores on the side.

The dwarves scraped together monster sinew and wood to build dozens of makeshift catapults.

Galvarik scratched his chin as he looked at the catapult he had created.

“Hmm… … Is this really okay?”

To be honest, it was too crude to be used in war. Its range and accuracy were considerably lower than those of a regular catapult.

Basically, a catapult is a weapon for attacking walls. It must have a range much longer than the enemy’s arrow range, and it must also have high accuracy and destructive power.

However, because these were hastily made from scrap materials, they only had about half the performance of existing catapults.

Even though this was a task that only a dwarf could do, Galvarik was still not satisfied with it.

“How about asking the General to send a proper catapult? You could ask Ferdium.”

“There’s no need to do that. There aren’t that many anyway. What’s important now is the numbers.”

“It’s because the performance is a little low.”

At Galvarik’s words, Giselle tested out a makeshift catapult. Although it was less powerful than a proper catapult, its destructive power was quite decent.

Even if it has half the performance, it will still be flattened when hit by a human.

Giselle patted Galvarik on the shoulder with a satisfied smile.

“This is enough.”

“Are you sure it’s okay?”

“Yeah, I said numbers are important, right? You have to beat them with overwhelming force.”

What can I say if the customer says it’s okay? Galvarik and the dwarves just nodded with bewildered expressions.

With everyone putting their all into their assigned tasks, most of the preparations were completed within a few days.

People could not help but marvel at the magnificent fortress they had built.

“Wow… … Looking at it like this, it’s amazing.”

“Would you be able to stop them even if real ogres came rushing in?”

“It’s a shame to be in the forest.”

Although it lacked proper internal facilities, it was more than sturdy enough to block something.

The height was as high as Jiselle had wanted, and the walls were thicker than average castle walls because they were made of many layers of wood.

There were countless watchtowers and catapults placed there. It seemed like they could hold off tens of thousands of soldiers.

Of course, it would be helpless against fire arrows, but if it was against a monster that uses fire, the lord would not have made something like this.

After inspecting the fortress several times, Giselle gave new orders.

“Make the entire area in front of the fortress an open space. So that we can secure our view.”

During the construction, most of the trees in the area were cut down. However, if you go a little further, the trees are densely packed again.

With so many trees, attacking monsters becomes less effective, as the dense trees block arrows and catapult attacks.

Gillian knew it too, so she asked, measuring the distance into her field of vision.

“How much should I secure?”

“Enough so that even if we use fire, the forest won’t burn.”

“All right.”

That would require a huge amount of space. Soldiers and laborers immediately went outside the fort and cut down the trees.

Boohoo! Boom! Boohoo!

Giant trees were torn down and moved into the fortress. With a considerable area being emptied indiscriminately, it was inevitable that monsters would be encountered.

“Kwaaah!”

There were monsters that I had encountered before and there were also new ones. However, the soldiers easily defeated the monsters that appeared due to their overwhelming numbers.

The soldiers who had cut down the trees to the point where the surrounding area was empty went a little further. Then they encountered them again.

“Keeeeeek!”

They were Grex, with a disgusting appearance. There were only a few of them, and they quickly approached the soldiers when they spotted them.

He raised his claws and moved his spider legs wildly. The soldiers’ expressions at the sight of this rotted away.

“Oh my, isn’t it more disgusting to be alive?”

“I said it wasn’t that bad.”

“Let’s kill him quickly and get to work.”

Peeing!

The Grex couldn’t even approach the soldiers because they were pierced by the arrows of the elves waiting behind them and fell.

“Wow, these guys are really weak?”

“Doesn’t it look like you’re no different from other people?”

“But let’s be careful, their fingernails are so hard and sharp that they can dig into the ground.”

Now the soldiers did not look down on the weak enemy. They did not let their guard down and advanced, cutting down trees little by little.

“Keeeeeek!”

The Grexes appeared again, letting out a creepy scream. They were appearing more and more frequently.

This time, the soldiers who easily dealt with the monsters discovered new things where Greggs had been.

“What is this?”

“It’s a hole?”

“Did you sell the land?”

The soldiers were curious to see several holes in the ground, as this was the first time they had seen holes dug in the forest.

“Step back!”

As the soldiers approached the hole, Lumina and the elves hurriedly came running.

She and the elves fired arrows straight into the hole.

Papapapat!

“Keeeeeek!”

A chilling scream echoes from beneath the ground. Somehow, the grex were hiding inside the hole.

When the Grex were attacked, they crawled out of their holes. However, as soon as they came out, they were shot by the elves’ arrows and died.

“That’s enough. Let’s fill in the hole and step back.”

At Lumina’s words, the soldiers quickly filled the holes with tired expressions and turned back.

After receiving the report, Giselle gave Gillian a new order.

“We can go no further than this. Now, destroy the fortress gate.”

“Are you talking about the door?”

“The place made of doors will lose durability. Fill that place up thickly as well. Leave the back door alone for supplies.”

“Then you are not planning on going forward?”

“Now everyone wait inside. Those who need to go out will climb the rope and come back.”

Isolate yourself in the forest. What kind of powerful thing could it be that makes you take such a defensive stance?

Kaor, who had recently fought many monsters in the Shadow Mountains, asked.

“I’m preparing for a monster wave coming right now. Is there something like that in the Demon Forest?”

“Similar. I built a fortress to deal with many monsters.”

“Um, then when does it start?”

“It’s up to us to decide now. The preparations are all done.”

“We decide the Monster Wave?”

Kaor asked again with a bewildered expression. How can you create a monster wave from here?

[While investigating the Grex, we learned something new. The wizard who miraculously returned from the destroyed scout party found out where the leader of the Grex was. The leader was in the most comfortable space inside the area. We called it the ‘Queen’.

The queen ate the food the Greggs brought her and laid eggs, which the Greggs hid deep underground.

Jiselle nodded as if there was a way.

“Yes, we can decide. It’s a problem that can be solved by force.”

“No, how do we force it to happen? Will the monster listen to us?”

[The Queen was always peacefully eating food. Even though she was under the protection of the Grex, we couldn’t figure out how she could live in this harsh place with only weak fighting power. We hypothesized that the Queen might have some special ability.]

At Kaor’s question, Giselle looked around at everyone and said.

“If you don’t listen, you have to be made to listen.”

“How?”

“There is a way.”

[So we decided to conduct an experiment. The wizards and the great knights kidnapped the queen and brought her to the camp.]

Jiselle continued with a cool smile.

“Kidnapping Queen Greggs.”