Chapter 3 – Story 75: The Humiliation of Sunomuta 15 – Yell (End)
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“…What is Jahangil saying?”
Souma could see how Jahangil was puffing out his chest and screaming something in his direction. But, his voice was drowned out by the cacophony of weapons clashing, screams and other noises, failing to reach Souma in the end.
“Something about being a mash for zousants, I think…?”
The elven girl Erika answered Souma’s question. She was somehow able to make out Jahangil’s yelling thanks to her elven ears. This helped Souma to understand what Jahangil was going on about.
“….Oh, a match for a thousand, huh? That’s what it was.”
Initially it had been their plan to withdraw by using the bridge like this if the enemy were to invade the troop headquarters, but in such a case the rear guard would play a crucial role since they’d have to stop the enemies, who would pursue them, until everyone managed to escape. It was only logical for Souma to assign this essential role to Jahangil and the dinosaurian unit under him as they were widely accepted as the most powerful combat force under Souma.
However, this decision came with a huge concern. Namely, Jahangil’s character.
His dauntless courage to not fear the enemy would sometimes transform into recklessness where he was liable to get carried away and chase the enemy too far. And no matter how much stronger a dinosaurian might be, they’d still be in danger if they ended up surrounded by enemies after intruding too deep behind enemy lines.
Accordingly, Souma had indoctrinated Jahangil with one story in advance.”
“Jahangil, do you know the term, a match for a thousand?” Souma had leaned over Jahangil’s face as the dinosaurian lazed around on a sunny spot in the courtyard of the lord’s residence in Bolnis, and told him the following: “A match for a thousand refers to heroes who cannot be bested even by ten thousand soldiers. In the place where I used to live, a person called Zhang Fei was described as such.”
Beforehand Jahangil had merely yawned, showing his lack of disinterest, but as soon as he heard the name of a person, his eyes flew wide open. His tail, which had lazily slid across the ground until then, started to hammer the ground, and he tried to raise his huge frame slowly. His eyes were obviously filled with the desire of challenging Zhang Fei to a duel to find out who was stronger.
Souma quickly clung to Jahangil’s neck and told him that Zhang Fei had died a long time ago. In response, Jahangil snorted loudly as if defining this as boring, and returned to his previous position.
Relieved after seeing that, Souma continued with his story, “So, that Zhang Fei held a bridge with only few soldiers, repelling several tens of thousand enemy soldiers. Because of that, people extolled him as a mighty warrior who was a match for a thousand. Do you understand? Because he held back the enemy on the bridge, he was regarded as a matchless warrior.”
Souma indoctrinated Jahangil with this while adding some convenient dramatization. And as a result of that, Jahangil was properly protecting them at present.
But――
“Ah…he’s yelling about being a match for a thousand again,” Erika said.
Souma hadn’t anticipated that Jahangil would turn his way and yell “A match for a thousand” each time he scattered the approaching enemy. He felt a bit sorry for Jahangil’s sons who had to cover their father’s back which got exposed to the enemy every time he pulled off that stunt.
Souma revealed a wry smile at that, but suddenly he noticed something being odd. Usually, Shyemul would always be the one reacting first to whatever he said, but currently she remained silent. Once he turned around, wondering what was going on, Shyemul was staring at him with her eyebrows deeply furrowed.
“What’s wrong, Shyemul?” Souma asked.
For a short while Shyemul stayed silent as if searching for the right words, but then she asked, “…Are you alright, Soma?”
At first Souma tilted his head, not understanding what she was talking about. But, he immediately recalled the time when the veteran soldiers were approaching their headquarters.
“Yeah. ――I’m fine now. That was me getting startled by the enemy’s spirit,” Souma answered while scratching his head awkwardly. “But, it was a big help to have had you at my side in that situation, Shyemul.”
The one giving the order to retreat in Souma’s place, who had lost himself, was Shyemul. Fortunately they had taught the people, who were left in the headquarters at that time, the steps during a retreat before the battle started. Because of that, just the order to retreat was enough for everyone to withdraw without much chaos or disorder.
When Souma thanked her, Shyemul answered powerlessly, “…Yeah, I know.”
Souma felt that something was out of place. Whenever he would say something like this, Shyemul would either claim that he was a helpless foal without her at his side while throwing out her chest in soaring pride, or she’d smile all over like a puppy who got praised by her owner while saying that it was only natural for her to help her Navel Master. But, this time he couldn’t find a sliver of joy in Shyemul’s expression as she was apparently preoccupied with something else. Far from it, her eyebrows wrinkled up even further.
“Hey, Soma.”
Being called out with such a leaden tone by Shyemul, Souma became nervous.
“Was it really just you getting startled by the enemy earlier?”
Souma was puzzled by that question. Just when he thought she might tell him something important, it was something like this. While pulling a face as if he couldn’t understand why she’d ask this, he answered, “Yes, but what about it?”
Shyemul closely scrutinized Souma’s face. After doing so for the time of a slow count to ten, Shyemul suddenly averted her eyes.
“I see. In that case, it’s fine.”
Although those were the words leaving her mouth, it was obviously not fine. Souma’s state when they tried to retreat after setting the trebuchets ablaze was doubtlessly abnormal. And Shyemul had seen him in such a state only once this far. It was right before the Grand Festival Borollo which the zoan restarted five years ago.
It was the time when they had lured 《Savage Mane》 Menuyn Nulga and his gang into the mud and threatened to set them on fire in order to punish them, who didn’t approve of Souma as Clan King. In the end, Souma fell unconscious after his face turned pale and his body trembled all over back then as well. And Shyemul had an idea why it happened.
It was the price for repelling Holmea’s army, which had attacked the village of the Fang Clan, for the sake of saving them. At that time, Souma had used fire as means to burn the enemy to death in order to win against the Holmean army with just a few zoan warriors. But, back then Souma had barely dropped into this world without having had any time to adapt, and in no time his mind was exposed to a situation where it was about to break because it couldn’t bear the cruel tragedy of him having burned a big number of people to death with his own hands. At that time, it seemed as though Souma had somehow recovered his sanity.
But, Souma carried away deep injuries in his heart which weren’t visible on the surface. And this injury was opened up again when the same situation of people being hurt by fire took place in front of his eyes, even if it was just the threat of doing so.
However, five years had already passed since that time. And during all that time there were absolutely no signs for a relapse. Because of that, Shyemul thought that even his inner wounds had completely healed by now. Yet, that proved to be a terrible misunderstanding. Far from healing, the wounds had dug deep into Souma’s heart, grew even wider and deeper, taking root like a huge tree.
A while ago, the idea of stopping the enemy pursuit by setting the trebuchets on fire coupled with the speed of the veterans’ advance, which went beyond expectation, probably made Souma realize that the enemy soldiers would get wrapped up in flames at this rate, triggering his fit. What made this whole thing even nastier was Souma’s completely lacking self-awareness of his condition.
Shyemul shuddered when she imagined what might have happened, if they had prepared a trigger to genuinely set the attacking enemies on fire instead of just trying to hinder them from advancing. She didn’t want to imagine how deranged Souma would become after being faced with people being burned alive because of his own plan.
After considering things up to this point, Shyemul noticed that there was no way for Souma to not have come up with this level of planning, which she thought of on the fly. However, that sort of plan, where the enemy would deliberately be lured into a fire trap, never left Souma’s mouth up until now. On top of that, it’d be totally fine to burn the bridge now, but Souma didn’t even try to suggest it.
Maybe he’s not aware of it himself, but is he unconsciously avoiding plans that could burn people to death?
Shyemul felt a freezing chill travel down her spine because of that conjecture. If Souma was simply avoiding fire-based attacks, it wouldn’t be much of a problem. She believed him enough that she had no doubt about his ability to come up with alternative plans.
But, assuming he couldn’t even think of the enemy using fire-based attacks, that’d be a big problem. Besides, if an enemy fire attack led to casualties on their side, Souma would be in danger of having a fit again.
For Shyemul that would already register as a nightmare.
I have to prepare as many options as possible so that it doesn’t come this far. Very likely, several people should have died after getting swallowed by the trebuchets’ fires. For the time being, I must hide this from Souma. Afterwards, I have to consult with 《Ferocious Fang》 and the others as soon as possible, Shyemul decided secretly.
◆◇◆◇◆
The battle raged on even as Shyemul was racking her brain over Souma. The veterans resolutely launched themselves on the dinosaurians, trying to somehow break through, but in front of Jahangil’s fury, all of their attempts ended in fruitless vain.
At this rate, it’d be impossible to penetrate the enemy lines. Making that decision, the commanding officer ordered his men, “The bridge is no option! Wade across the river!”
The Conte was wide, but its water level was only slightly higher than the waist of an adult man, so it wasn’t a river that couldn’t be crossed. Of course, the soldiers’ movements would slow down during the crossing and they’d turn into perfect targets for the enemy’s ranged attackers. But, under these circumstances, it was more realistic to wade across the river while relying on numbers than breaking through the defenses on the bridge.
Upon their commander’s order, the veterans formed a turtle formation and stepped into the river.
Hiakis had reached a hill which was slightly elevated in comparison to the surroundings where Souma’s headquarters stood. Watching the spectacle of the first soldiers being pushed onwards by the following soldiers, he yelled as if screaming, “Stop! Don’t go in there!”
However, his voice was far too weak to reach the veterans over all the battle noise.
The veterans started to successively wade through the river in their turtle formation. As might be expected of veterans serving in the Black Wall, they firmly kept the formation secure as they waded through the river while being exposed to the water stream, even if it was weak.
But.
Just when they had reached the middle of the river, the first line suddenly collapsed. Moreover, this didn’t happen because they simply lost their footing or something like that. As if to prove that, one row of veterans after the other fell into the river.
All of this was happening because of ropes. Several stakes were rammed into the ground along the riverbed and sturdy ropes had been tied to those stakes, forming a rope net. The soldiers, who had stepped into that net without being aware of it, were tripped up by the ropes.
The soldiers, who got tripped up, tried to somehow stand their ground as they were about to fall over. But, the turtle formation became their disaster. The following comrades, who didn’t know about the rope, pushed against their backs, causing the soldiers to fall into the river.
The river itself wasn’t deep, but if you fell into it in the middle of it, you’d naturally swallow water. In short, you’d drown. And if someone drowns, they’ll cling to anything they can find around them, trying to save themselves. This was the natural survival instinct of any living creature.
No matter how harsh their training as soldiers might have been, they wouldn’t be able to suppress their natural instincts when confronted with a sudden change in the overall situation. And once they tried to cling to something in the middle of the river, only the bodies of their comrades were viable targets.
“Uoohh!? S-Stop! Don’t grab my shield!”
At the moment his shield was lowered as a drowning comrade held onto it, he was mercilessly assaulted by the arrows of the elven war archers and the stones of the dwarves. The veterans were pierced by arrows and crushed by stones, collapsing one after the other.
The blood dying the water quickly turned the river crimson. Seeing all this happening from the rear, Hiakis shouted as if spitting blood, “You idiots! Someone, who has come up with such thoroughly prepared plans, would never overlook the possibility of us wading through the river!”
Before long, huge columns of water began to rise from the river in succession. It was unclear whether they had been hidden in advance or taken along during the retreat, but the enemy began to hammer the river-crossing veterans with trebuchets.
“Why? Just why? How is something like this possible…!?” Hiakis muttered in shock.
Breaking through the center of the enemy headquarters had seemed to be the best option, but looking at the actual results, it had led to the worst-possible outcome. The front, which had appeared to be the thinnest part of the encirclement, turned out to be the hardest as the river posed a wall they couldn’t scale no matter what they did. And on top of that, the zoan in the rear used the terrain to create a thick encirclement, despite being a small force.
I should have always tried to use all possible means which seemed the very best during this battle, and even looking back at them now, they don’t look like bad moves at all. And yet, what the hell is going on with this battle situation?
A heavy impact struck Hiakis’s head as he stood still in bafflement. His helmet was sent flying and while blood was dripping down his head, Hiakos looked above him. Thereupon he spotted harpyians flying high up in the air, drawing large circles.
He assumed this to have been a stone drop by them. They had spotted the enemy commander from the sky and started to attack. If the commanding officers were sniped on top of the division being surrounded by the enemy, it’d be impossible to maintain something like a command structure.
The enemy is planning to thoroughly cut off any systematic resistance we could mount. I attached lower-ranked soldiers with crossbows to the officers above regimental commander, but there’s no way they’ll be able to properly aim their arrows within this chaos. We have no way to resist these attacks.
We’ve been completely outwitted.
Hiakis ground his teeth audibly.
“Does this mean we’ve danced on that guy’s palm all this time…!?”
They pretended that they’d cross the river, just to attack Marven. They pretended to have built a fortress in one night, just to build some fake in reality. And just as we thought that they had transformed that fake into a genuine fortress, they merely built siege weapons in order to defeat us. Even the zoan, who appeared to have retreated, used their legs to quickly get in our back and flanks. And the idea of breaking through the enemy headquarters as an ideal move to overturn the situation resulted in the enemy’s encirclement using the terrain instead.
And now, even the veterans, who should be the most reliable in this sort of predicament, were stuck with allies and river being in the front and rear, completely negating their power.
“I see. He’s definitely an extraordinary strategist who makes full use of falsehood. Isn’t this the very definition of prophecy…?”
Those were the words how Baron Kantbias had described the Divine Son of Destruction during the war council, but in reality, Darius had written everything down in the secret message he had sent to the baron. And now Hiakis finally understood why General Darius had insisted so much on avoiding a battle in this place, just that he was full of regret.
General Darius had continued to warn everyone that the Divine Son of Destruction would become a huge calamity for Holmea, despite being scorned with insults and having his reputation sullied. Hiakis could understand General Darius’s feelings from the bottom of his heart at long last.
General Darius has understood the Divine Son of Destruction much better than us, who are facing him here, while being under house arrest in the distant capital. But, Hiakis thought, General Darius only knows the Divine Son of Destruction through hearsay passed on to him by his subordinates. Yet, there are some things you can only understand when facing him directly like we’re doing at the moment.
Hiakis had noticed a grave misreading by General Darius. It happened while they were surrounded by the enemy. He spotted a seizable number of humans among the enemies, who were attacking his men. Hiakis assumed those to naturally be the inhabitants of Bolnis. In other words, all of them used to be Holmean citizens until just five years ago. And now those humans were struggling hard, trying to kill their former countrymen.
But, even if their eyes might have been dazzled by money, they weren’t forced to fight. They acted as if their fight was a righteous one. They were attacking their former countrymen with eyes full of the conviction that they were doing justice. And Hiakis could easily tell that it had been the Divine Son of Destruction who led those people to believe this.
This is terrifying. Something extremely dreadful.
Exactly because Hiakis had always idolized and looked up to General Darius, he could tell. Exactly because Hiakis had continued to get to know various generals like resourceful ones, brave ones, or famous ones, he understood. This was no deed any of such generals would ever be able to accomplish.
It impossible with such a halfhearted approach! This is the act of a monster. The deed of a terrifying monsters which destroys the principles of the world! That guy is a monster who devours all the humans living in the land he conquers, using them as nourishment to grow even more gigantic. Such dreadful monster won’t stop at being just Holmea’s calamity!
At that moment, a stone shot by a trebuchet on the other side of the river directly struck the brace of a burning trebuchet. With its brace destroyed, the trebuchet’s frame tilted over widely while whirling up sparks. Hiakis looked up to the burning trebuchet, which hung over him, with an aloof face. He was surrounded by screaming soldiers, so he didn’t even have the option to flee.
In front of the staring Hiakis, the trebuchet screeched as it tilted over even further. With death right in front of his eyes, Hiakis shouted out all the fury that burst out of the depths of his heart.
“Your Excellency! Your Excellency General Darius!” Even while being aware that his voice wouldn’t reach General Darius, Hiakis couldn’t help but shout at the top of his lungs, “This guy won’t only bring calamity to Holmea, but all of the West! Your Excellencyyyy!”
The yell vanished underneath the trebuchet as it came crashing down.
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