Chapter 3 – Story 77: The Humiliation of Sunomuta 17 – Humiliation
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T/N:
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A unit of merely a hundred people arrived on the bridge point battlefield where even Alexius himself was about to be swallowed up by Souma’s encirclement-
“W-What is happening here!? No way! For the Black Wall to be in such a state…!” Baron Kantbias exclaimed.
He had been ordered by Alexius to stay in the rear as reserve after incurring the prince’s anger, but curious about the progress of the battle, he had belatedly arrived here after resolving himself since he’d be punished either way, regardless of whether he stayed away or came to take a peek.
However, even Kantbias hadn’t imagined the current state of the battle as it was unfolding on this battleground. Albeit he had felt anxious because of General Darius’s secret message, he knew that the subjugation force was not only fielding more than twice as many soldiers as the rebellious slaves, but also was bolstered by Holmea’s strongest army corps, the Black Wall.
No Holmean would believe it if you had told them that this battle was bound to head in the direction of a defeat before the actual encounter. But, now that Baron Kantbias was taking a look at the battlefield, he could even tell from afar that the army of black corps had been torn apart with the remnants about to be encircled by the zoan.
That sight couldn’t be described as anything but a nightmare for any Holmean.
“Your Excellency! What should we do!?” His retainer asked, implicitly requesting a retreat.
As if to shake off his own hesitation, Baron Kantbias declared, “Get the ranks in order!”
There was no need to deliberately ready the ranks, if one was about to retreat. In other words, Baron Kantbias’s order demonstrated his will to join the battlefield.
His subordinate knight spoke up in a way that sounded more like a shout, “Please stop, Your Highness! We won’t achieve anything with these few soldiers! You’re basically asking us to commit suicide!”
Even Baron Kantbias knew at least that much. But, this was only more of a reason for him to not retreat.
“His Highness Alexius has been cornered over there! We must save him, even if it’s in exchange for our lives!”
It’d be absolutely unforgivable for the revolting slaves to get hold of the head of Holmea’s next king. As such, Baron Kantbias was convinced that they had to rescue the prince, no matter the costs.
But, it’d be kind to only describe the situation as dire.
Holmea’s flag, which indicated Alexius’s whereabouts, was in the middle of the zoan encirclement. They’d been to break through that encirclement and secure a means of escape to rescue Alexius. In addition, Baron Kantbias’s troops were no more than a hundred men.
But, I must do it anyway!
Psyching himself up like that, Baron Kantbias charged towards the battlefield, his chariot leading the unit.
◆◇◆◇◆
The appearance of Baron Kantbias and his soldiers on the battlefield was immediately noticed by a harpyian who was flying in the sky. At once she flapped her big wings, wriggled her legs and whole body, and danced around in the sky.
This was a body language the harpyians had developed to communicate with their brethren on the surface. A harpyian, who was next to Souma, would decipher this and inform Souma of the content.
“New, enemy, group, come. ――Lord Soma! A new enemy unit seems to have appeared in the east!”
“A new enemy unit, you say!?”
Even though it was the appearance of a new enemy, Souma sounded relieved in a way. He immediately ordered the harpyian, who found them, to scout out that unit.
Then he pressed the telescope, which he managed to somehow retrieve from Jahangil, against his right eye and searched for the enemy unit, trying to confirm them with his own eyes. But, the western riverbank was somewhat lower than the eastern one, and the small hill, which had served as foundation for the fake fortress, got in the way, making it impossible for Souma to see them. He started to hop around on the spot, trying to somehow get a peek of them nonetheless, but all his efforts were in vain.
“Morad! Lend me your shoulders for a moment!”
At that moment, Souma spotted the dinosaurian who was propping up the black banner nearby. Startled by Souma’s pushy attitude, Morad widened his small eyes, before nodding his head repeatedly. After entrusting the flag to someone else, Morad knelt down and Souma jumped on his back.
“Hurry! Stand up!”
Rushed by Souma, Morad still raised his huge frame slowly. Souma tried to see the new enemies while stretching himself on top of Morad’s back, but he still couldn’t see them. Souma climbed Morad’s back and then stood up on his shoulders.
“Soma! That’s dangerous! Stop it!” Shyemul screamed from below, but her words didn’t reach the current Souma.
Even though his body was swaying dangerously, he desperately sought the enemy with his telescope.
“A bit more…a bit more…!”
In the end, Souma ended up standing on his toes on Morad’s shoulders. All the fur across Shyemul’s body stood on end when she saw that and she screamed soundlessly.
“…! I found them!”
The instant he yelled that, he finally lost his balance and tumbled down from Morad’s shoulder. But, because he was falling forward, Morad fortunately managed to catch Souma by quickly extending it, sparing Souma from any injury. As he lowered Souma on the ground, Shyemul was already waiting for him with a very angry look on her face.
“Soma! How many times do I have to tell you to not do anything dangerous!?”
However, right now Souma couldn’t afford to bother with the fuming Shyemul.
“He came! He came after all!”
He could only see them for an instant, but there was no mistake. Souma was convinced that the situation, which he had feared the most, had occurred just now.
“Shyemul! Contact Garam’s group through the drums! As soon as possible! This battle will be decided at this very moment!”
◆◇◆◇◆
Baron Kantbias and his men charged the enemy with the resolve to die, but at that moment the zoan took a baffling action.
They had been trying to envelop even the rear of the 5th Division with their encirclement, but as soon as a drum could be heard from somewhere, they all started to retreat at once.
This surprised Baron Kantbias. They were no more than a measly hundred soldiers. A force so small that it could do at most some damage against a small enemy force. And yet, the zoan not only released their encirclement, but they even fell back as if being scared.
That was very abnormal.
“Your Excellency! What does this mean!? The enemy is withdrawing!”
“I don’t know!”
It was totally unexpected for Baron Kantbias as well. But, at the same time it was godsend. He didn’t know the reason, but now that the zoan had retreated, it was the perfect opportunity to rescue their allies.
Baron Kantbias searched and called for Alexius in the middle of the friendly army which started to flee like water that got released by a dam bursting after the zoan canceled their encirclement.
“Your Highness! Where are you, Your Highness!?”
After doing this for many times, someone finally answered.
“Ooohh! Baron Kantbias!”
It was Adomius, an officer of the Black Wall. Alexius was limply leaning hanging onto his shoulder, looking as if he used up all his energy and willpower.
“Ohhh, Your Highness! It is a pleasure to see you safe and sound!”
However, they couldn’t afford to stand around here and leisurely rejoice over their survival. Currently the zoan were pulling back for some unknown reason, but it wasn’t guaranteed that they would attack once more. Baron Kantbias believed it to be essential to take Alexius to the rear as soon as possible.
“Give a horse to His Highness and Sir Adomius!”
Two knights dismounted upon Baron Kantbias order, yielding their horses to Alexius and Adomius.
Baron Kantbias told Adomius as he was pushing Alexius’s body up the horse, “I shall take the rear guard! You people take His Highness and fall back as quickly as possible!”
“You have my gratitude…!”
Their enemies were zoan who ran at the speed of an average rider. Moreover, currently they had momentum going for them as they just routed an enemy who had fielded twice as many soldiers as them. If a mere hundred people tried to stop those zoan as rear guard, it was a foregone conclusion that they’d be annihilated.
But, they didn’t have the leeway to have a discussion about that. Adomius entrusted the command of the hundred elite cavalrymen of the Black Wall under him to Baron Kantbias, hoping to help out, even if only a bit. But, no matter how much the Black Wall is known for being peerless elites, a mere hundred cavalrymen won’t change much. Yet, having their black armors nearby would give the other soldiers some peace of mind.
After watching Adomius retreat while taking Alexius along, Baron Kantbias addressed the soldiers, “Listen! Our duty is not to obtain deeds of arms! We are to hold back the enemy pursuit! We will retreat in rank and order!”
Baron Kantbias had the soldiers fall back slowly while displaying a readiness to accept the challenge to a fight at any time.
◆◇◆◇◆
Zurgu had finished getting his ranks in order after gathering his warriors in front of Baron Kantbias’s soldiers, and now called out to Garam.
“Hey, Garam.”
Garam noticed the faint undertone in Zurgu’s voice.
“Yeah, I know even without you telling me.”
He had the same opinion as Zurgu. He asked Shishul to message Souma through her drum.
“Contact them via drum. Great Clan Chief 《Ferocious Fang》 requests permission to pursue!”
Hearing Shishul’s drumming, one of the zoan translated the drum signals for Souma. But, Souma rejected the request.
“Don’t! Get in formation and wait!”
The people around Souma couldn’t object because of his unusually grim expression. Souma released a tingling air of tension like a wild beast, which had been just caught and put into a cage.
He shouted, “How much longer do I have to wait for the reports of the scouting parties who I sent into the vicinity!?”
“I-I think they will b-be back soon.”
Everyone was scared by Souma’s threatening behavior. And all of them couldn’t help but feel relieved when the scouting parties finally started to trickle back in.
“No enemies at the upper and lower stretches of the river!”
“No enemies towards the town in the rear either!”
The zoan and harpyian scout reports gathered at Souma’s place. But all of them supported the fact of the enemy simply fleeing in front of them. Because of that, Souma gradually started to have doubts.
At that point, the harpyian, whom he had sent out to directly scout the new enemy unit, came back.
“The new enemy has just been one unit for a while now! Their flag shows a wildcat on indigo blue. According to the list of Holmean nobles, those seem to be soldiers of Holmea’s Baron Kantbias!”
Souma became flabbergasted. After blinking his eyes several times, Souma asked out of curiosity, “…A wildcat on indigo blue? It’s not a golden lion on black ground?”
“Yes. It was undoubtedly a wildcat on indigo blue ground.”
Souma’s eyes stayed widened for a while. Apparently he had misinterpreted the flag he saw as having a golden lion on black ground.
But, what the hell does this even mean?
Shyemul shyly called out to Souma as he was totally confused.
“Hey, Soma,” Shyemul faltered.
Before this fight, Souma had frantically continued to come up with plans while becoming so fretful that even she as a zoan could tell. Telling something like that to Souma felt painful for Shyemul.
“――Didn’t you simply overthink things?”
Shyemul’s words hit Souma like a brick wall.
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Translation Notes: