Chapter 3 – Story 111: Holmenia Battle 4 – Stray Arrow
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“J-Just what the heck is going on!?”
King Doldea shouted in surprise at the zoan surprise attack while sitting in his palanquin. Even he was aware that the time of retreat was the most dangerous for the withdrawing side. Because of that, he had chosen relatively fresh heavy spear infantrymen and deployed them in front of the city gate in preparation for an enemy counterattack.
However, as if sneering at his forethought, the zoan had launched an attack from the sides. Not only King Doldea was shocked by this. Unrest spread across the entirety of Romania’s army due to this unexpected surprise attack.
Moreover, at this point, Romania’s soldiers had already reached the limit of their stamina. On top of that, it was just the moment when the exhausted soldiers let their guards down, believing they’d be able to finally rest after this.
The soldiers tried to quickly intercept the zoan, but for this reason one after the other fell down after tripping over their own feet or simply sat down on the spot.
The ones delivering the first strike on those troops were the elven archer cavalry led by Eladia. They, who rushed out from amidst the zoan pack after whipping their horses into gallop, greeted the panicking Romanian army by letting arrows rain down on them.
The Romanian soldiers attempted to quickly raise their shields to block the arrows, but the shields, which would usually feel so light, were now weighing down on them like blocks of lead. Unable to properly ready those shields, the soldiers collapsed in succession after getting spiked by the arrow rain.
And that ‘s when the zoan rushed in.
The ones leading the southern and northern raid teams were, of course, Garma and Zurgu. These two brave warriors, who were representing the plains, roared loudly at the same time as if having agreed on it in advance.
In response, half of the zoan running behind them changed from being on all fours, stopped and stood up on two feet. Then they swiftly grabbed the slings hanging from their belts and started to shoot stones, which they had picked up on the way, at the enemy soldiers.
Those stones came down on the Romanian soldiers who were lucky enough to escape the elven arrows. If directly hit by a stone that was thrown by the strong arm of a zoan, a human’s flesh will be smashed up and their bones will be shattered, even if they wear armor and helmet. Heaps of corpses formed in the Romanian lines as the soldiers got showered by those stones.
And just as the enemy soldiers were thrown into utter chaos by the additional stone attack, the remaining half, which hadn’t joined the stone throwing, charged into the disorderly mob that was once Romania’s army.
In no time, screams and angry roars filled the air. It had turned into a melee where splashes of blood and the glittering of blades intersected.
“What are you doing!? Repel the zoan!”
Doldea rebuked his soldiers, trying to somehow regain command over them.
But then, a single arrow came flying. It hadn’t been aimed at King Doldea in particular. It was merely a stray arrow.
But, that arrow struck the king as if having been drawn to him. Hit by that unexpected projectile, King Doldea groaned quietly before falling out of the palanquin.
“Your Majesty!”
“King Doldea!”
The royal guards helped up the king, their faces ghastly pale. Fortunately the king was still breathing. But, King Doldea’s eyes were wide open yet unfocused, probably because of the pain from being hit by the arrow and falling from the palanquin.
At that point, Daraios and Piarta arrived belatedly.
“His Majesty is…! Is my father alright!?”
Her face white as a sheet, Piarta clung to her father’s body as he was surrounded by his guards. No matter how mannish she might usually act, her father had been struck by an arrow in front of her eyes. It was only natural for her to be flustered.
“Your Highness! Please calm down!”
Daraios yelled while grabbing Piarta’s shoulder and tearing her off her father. Next he quickly checked the state of King Doldea’s wound.
“Please do not worry. The arrow has missed his vital spots!”
The arrow had pierced the top of his right shoulder. As long as it didn’t damage any big veins, it shouldn’t turn into a serious situation. But, they couldn’t afford to be careless. After all, King Doldea was already of old age. Even an injury that might appear to be nothing serious could reap his life.
Daraios immediately applied emergency treatment.
If I were to rashly pull out the arrow, I might widen the wound needlessly, he judged and after apologizing in advance, he snapped the shaft halfway without pulling the arrow out. Then he used a piece of cloth to stabilize the wound’s opening alongside the arrow.
During all that time King Doldea only groaned light, but never regained his consciousness.
We must fall back at once and let a doctor see to his wound.
As he thought that, a familiar voice reached Daraios’s ear.
“Your Highness! Are you safe!?”
The one arriving at that point was Demetria while leading the Hundred Flowers. Seeing his granddaughter, Daraios raised his voice.
“Demetria! Take His Majesty alongside Her Highness and withdraw at once!”
And then Daraios faced Piarta.
“Your Highness, take His Majesty to a safe place. Leave this place to me!”
Piarta hesitated a bit, but nodded in the end.
“You have my gratitude, Your Excellency.”
With those words, Piarta left King Doldea to one of the Hundred Flowers members and mounted her favorite steed which Demetria had brought along.
“Your Excellency, may the fortunes of war be with you!”
Leaving such a remark, Piarta and her Hundred Flowers began to retreat with such momentum as if they were trying to rout Romania’s armed forces. After making sure of their departure, Daraios took his beloved halberd from an attendant.
“Don’t make such a fuss, brave soldiers of Romania! The enemy numbers are small! There is no need to fear them!”
Daraios’s loud voice thundered across the battlefield, overpowering the screams and weapons’ noise.
“Daraios is with you now! Cheer up, my fellow Romanian heroes!”
◆◇◆◇◆
The dwarves, humans, and elves cheered and applauded atop the wall as the zoan attacked Romania’s army from the left and right flank. However, amidst that air of excitement and enthusiasm, several men, who stayed out of view, had their breath taken away.
All of them were young knights of Holmea.
While making sure that the elves and dwarves were focused on what was happening beyond the wall, their eyes were pinned on the stairway leading up the gate tower. They gently opened the thick door, which had been sturdily built in preparation of an enemy scaling the wall, and slipped into the room with the stairway. Confirming that they had all entered, they locked the door from the inside with the bolt.
After making sure that no one would be able to come inside, the young knights exchanged looks and drew their sword.
“Got it? Display your loyalty towards your motherland. We will go down in history as loyal retainers.”
As soon as their leader said so, the others nodded at him with zeal burning in their eyes.
Their objective was to assassinate the Divine Son of Destruction. Blinded by their racist views owed to their youth, they didn’t look kindly upon handing their beloved motherland to the Divine Son of Destruction whom they had despised as a revolting slave thus far.
However, they would never carry out their plan.
“What are you people trying to do?”
A calm voice asked them. But, at the same time, the voice was brimming with a spirit that couldn’t be described with words.
Thinking that they had been spotted, the knights looked up to the stairway’s landing in panic. Up there stood a small childish figure.
“G-Grand Prime Minister…!”
Anyone in Holmea knew that person. Ponpius had been called the right arm of the previous king.
“What a foolish thing are you trying to pull off…”
Sensing the pity in Ponpius’s voice, the young knights ducked like children who were getting scolded for a prank. Only their leader objected.
“But, at this rate, Holmea is――”
But, Ponpius cut down his protest with a single sigh. Up until now Ponpius had held a sword so many times that he stopped counting. And yet, this was easily exceeded by the times when he overcame scenes of carnage and shouldered the weight of responsibilities, such as using his rhetoric abilities against the frenzied king and generals of enemy nations as former prime minister. The likes of hotblooded youngsters would never be able to measure up to him.
“So you’re trying to smear the final days of your motherland with disgrace in order to satisfy your own vanity, huh…?”
Souma and his troops had entered the city with only a few members and were literally trying to repel their archenemy Romania. It was ridiculous to someone like that in the back.
“If you do something like that, Holmea will be shunned as cowardly and evil by all countries――no, every single person in the West.”
It wouldn’t just be foreign countries either. Which lord would follow a country that stabbed its protectors in the back and broke agreements whenever they were inconvenient.
Still, if a country had the power to suppress such criticism and dissatisfaction, it might somehow work out. However, Holmenia didn’t have that power anymore. In that case, the country would likely be unable to prevent the powerful lords from going independent and thus causing Holmea to break up in many smaller nations.
“Holmea is already gone.”
The young knights were smashed by Ponpius’s sorrow-laden words.
“If you get it, leave this place at once. You never came here. And I never saw you either. Make sure to remember that.”
Urged by Ponpius, the knights left the stairway room while disheartened. After watching them disappear, Ponpius too relaxed a bit.
The Divine Son of Destruction was someone you couldn’t take down even if you had ten thousand soldiers. But, now that he holed up in the city, even that man could be killed. Ponpius had feared that some of the hotblooded guys might get such a bad idea and waited for them in the stairway room, but now he was relieved that it didn’t develop into a serious incident.
Yet, he had never expected that he’d protect the life of the man who destroyed Holmea. With a bitter smile on his lips, Ponpius looked upstairs. The Divine Son of Destruction――Souma should be up there, accompanied by just a small number of guards.
Ponpius had resolved himself to get dragged into something outrageous, if he got involved with the Divine son of Destruction. But, he started doing all sorts of things that easily toppled his expectations like marching into the capital with a small number of troops.
For heaven’s sake, he’s really out of this world.
Ponpius sighed as if extremely troubled.
“Someone like Sir Aurelius might call it interesting, but――”
At that point, Ponpius lowered his eyes at his feet. However, he wasn’t looking at the slightly dirty, wooden stairs, but at the capital’s gate through the wood and stones forming this gate tower.
“――what a horrible thing he has done.”
Ponpius’ body trembled by the fervor passed on from down there.
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