Chapter 3 – Story 120: Pursuit
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After coming down from the tower gate, Souma immediately summoned his chief staff. Once they had gathered, the first one Souma addressed was Pipi Totto Gigi, the bird general leading the harpyians.
“Pipi, how is the situation with the retreating Romanian army?”
While making the cobalt blue feather growing out of her head sway, Pipi answered, “The forces of Romania are retreating towards the Plains of Calireya.
In the eyes of humans, Pipi looked completely like a girl with her childish face. Seeing her stand on attention while giving a report was a heart-warming sight, somehow reminding one of a child who was standing on tiptoe and stretching its back to make itself look taller.
“So they’re heading for the Plains of Calireya without showing any signs of reforming their ranks?”
Pipi nodded at Souma’s question and replied, “Yes. I should receive a message as soon as they make any efforts in that direction, but as of now, such a message hasn’t reached me.”
Souma tilted his head in slight confusion due to Pipi’s report. He couldn’t believe that King Doldea would agree to withdraw just like that after becoming so enraged. Souma had expected them to very likely gather and reorganize their troops after taking some distance from the royal capital, just to attack Holmenia once more afterwards.
Of course, the blood that had risen to King Doldea’s head should have receded by now thanks to the surprise attack by the zoan,’ Souma believed, but at that point, Garam provided an unexpected piece of information.
“Soma, we took the few surviving Romanian soldiers prisoner and were able to get some juicy information from them.”
‘Given that a serious man like Garam is using a term like juicy, it must be quite crucial information,’ Souma assumed, but even he was surprised by Garam’s following words.
“King Doldea was apparently injured by an arrow.”
“Is that true!?”
Garam nodded when Souma reflexively raised his voice.
“It’s not like the prisoners were present when it happened, so I can’t vouch for its credibility. Moreover, they have told us conflicting information, ranging from King Doldea having been lightly injured to him being on the verge of death. Even so, it seems like there is at least no doubt about King Doldea getting injured by an arrow.”
Seeing the way how Romania is retreating as if they have no desire for Holmenia at all, even though they marched so deep into Holmea, it’s quite possible that King Doldea has actually died, Souma suspected. At least King Doldea must be in a state that makes it impossible for him to take command of the army himself, so they’re probably trying to retreat before the news spreads to all their soldiers.
“In that case, it’s a golden chance for us!” Souma clenched his fists tightly.
Even under normal circumstances, such a sudden, hurried withdrawal would make it difficult to control the army, but if King Doldea can’t take command because of an injury on top of that, the chaos among Romania’s ranks is probably going to continue for a good while longer.
‘We gradually brought Holmenia under our control, but according to our initial plans, we should have secluded ourselves in Bolnis after we defeated the Black Wall at the Conte. If I consider the reconstruction and rule of the newly gained territory thanks to the completely unforeseen conquest of Holmea, I’d love nothing more than to focus on those tasks as much as possible. Yet if skirmishes with Romania continue, they will further whittle down our already-limited people and funds. To prevent that, I’d like to deliver a blow to Romania’s army that will make it impossible for them to recover for the next few years. Having said that, our side is bolstered by many common people. If you make those uncontrollable masses move once, it becomes difficult to stop them. Assuming Romania’s army showed signs of reorganizing its ranks, I intended to clamp down on the reins strongly enough that I’d be able to avoid the people clashing with Romania’s army straight from the front. But things are different if King Doldea has fallen.
Souma made up his mind.
“We will thoroughly crush Romania’s army!”
Everyone immediately responded, raising their voices so loudly that it was hard to tell whether they were full of admiration, astonishment, or excitement. Nonetheless, it allowed Souma to confirm that everyone was fully on board with this, and thus, he further continued, “We will have all our zoan warriors pursue Romania’s army right away. ――Garam, can you handle that part?”
Even if they were overflowing with fighting spirit, the zoan had just exhausted themselves by fighting a very forceful battle where they encircled the enemy and suffered attacks. Hearing Souma worry about their exhaustion, Garam hit the chest with his fist.
“Of course. Rather, the warriors would probably become upset if you told them to take a rest at this point.”
Souma nodded at Garam’s confident statement, “Very well. Garam, please lead the zoan warriors of the Fang Clan and Mane Clan, chasing after the main force of Romania’s army. Banuka, I ask you to assist Garam as his second in command.”
Next, Souma faced Eladia.
“Please have the elven archer cavalry pursue the enemy alongside Garam.”
Currently, Eladia wasn’t wearing her Chief Court Lady attire, but pants for horse-riding. But that was all. Her mannerism as she bowed and answered, “As you command,” was no different from her usual elegance.
After confirming her response, Souma looked back to Garam once again.
“Garam, I might call this a pursuit, but there’s no need to force an engagement. Please attack them with arrows from a distance and whenever there’s an opening, repeatedly assault them with the zoan warriors and immediately withdraw. If it looks like you could suffer casualties, it’s also fine to just act like you’re pursuing them.”
That explanation by Souma rang a bell for Garam.
“Oh, I see. It’s the same as breaking up a crowd of cows, huh?”
Whenever Zoan hunted cows, the hunters would surround the herd, deliberately showing themselves or making noise to frighten the cows. The cows would get confused by that, and the hunters would take down any single cows that then veered away from the herd. Garam understood that he and his warriors were supposed to use the same principle here by making Romania’s army lose its order altogether through the application of pressure and then picking off the smaller units which split away from the main force.
“Correct. ――Dvalin, Jahangil, Marchronis,” Souma called those three next.
One of them made his beard shake, the other released a rough snort, and the last one placed his hand on the hilt of his sword.
“You three will stay with me, leading your respective forces. We will follow Garam as the main force, helping the people of Holmea while cleaning up the enemies who had been scattered by Garam’s army,” Souma explained and then looked at Marchronis, “Marchronis, please have your unit take the central role in helping the people of Holmea.”
The news that Holmea had already surrendered to Souma and that Romania’s army had been repelled hadn’t circulated all across the nation yet. As such Souma judged that it’d likely cause less chaos to have fellow humans like Marchronis’s men do the rescue work than having other races show up in front of Holmea’s people all of a sudden.
Moreover, Souma emphasized, “After coming this far, I’d like to avoid silly situations such as coming under friendly fire due to being mistaken for an enemy. We aren’t their enemy. Please make sure to tell the people of Holmea that we’re their allies.”
“Affirmative. ――I’d like to borrow the help of Setius’s unit, Lady Eladia’s subordinates, and the other races, if possible, though.”
Marchronis’s subordinate Setius had been entrusted with the supply unit that was following the main force. Marchronis was asking to borrow manpower to distribute food and clothes to the rescued citizens of Holmea.
Once Souma asked for the reason behind his request, Marchronis answered, “Having only humans handle it will likely cause less confusion as they’re more likely to be accepted by Holmea’s people. But, if it’s for the sake of wiping away the prejudices against the other races, it’s better to have those other races join the ones providing relief to the people when they’re exhausted and hurt.”
Speaking up to this point, Marchronis revealed a bitter smile, lightly bowed his head to Eladia for some reason, and continued, “Moreover, there’s nothing as effective as having beautiful women being the ones helping out, I’d say.”
I can agree with that.
Souma instructed everyone in line with Marchronis’s request. Even though they were going to use their beauty and gender, Eladia flashed a refined smile while saying, “If that’s the case, my sisters can easily take care of it as it’s their forte. Please leave it to us.”
However, despite just smiling, Eladia was somehow scary. Souma felt guilty as if he had tossed a pitiful lamb in front of a starving tiger, but he decided not to think about this for now. Rather than that, he regarded the countermeasures against Romania’s army to be of the highest priority.
“Next, Zurgu.”
“Sure! Finally, it’s my turn, eh?”
Called out by Souma, Zurgu looked as excited as a child on the day before an excursion.
“Zurgu, lead the warriors of the Claw Clan and mop up the remnants of Romania’s army scattered across Holmea.”
This was an era where many of the soldiers had been hurriedly enlisted without being drilled in military regulations. Those soldiers were liable to quickly disperse once they fled. It was a time with no communication devices. Just as the army staff couldn’t get in contact with soldiers who had scattered once, it was likewise impossible to call them back. Moreover, even from the point of view of the stray soldiers, they couldn’t join up with the main force, even if they wanted to. Hence, those soldiers would try to go back to Romania on their own.
It’d be fine if they single-mindedly tried to withdraw to Romania, but if those were units led by slightly quick-witted commanders, they’d likely take the opportunity and destroy roads as well as bridges, loot villages, and set them on fire to pester their pursuers. This would later turn into a hindrance to the restoration. Thus, in order for this not to happen, they had no choice but to deal with the units of Romania’s army, which were dispersed all over Holmea, in addition to Romania’s main force.
However, it wouldn’t be easy to mop up all of Romania’s scattered soldiers. To accomplish that, they wouldn’t just need mobility to chase the enemies, but also outstanding tracking skills, precise decision-making, and above all, a high search ability.
And the one whom Souma entrusted with this crucial task was Zurgu. Zurgu smiled all over his face due to that.
“Ayes! You can count on me!”
But Zurgu wouldn’t be done just because he rejoiced over the heavy responsibility granted to him and the upcoming conflicts.
“It’s only natural, but Lord Soma, could I borrow your 『Net』?” Zurgu asked in a provocative manner.
Souma answered, “Of course,” before shifting his eyes to Pipi.
“Pipi, I’d like you to back up Zurgu. Please spread your 『Net』 over Holmea’s eastern parts!”
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