Chapter 3 – Story 79: Driving Away
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“The zoan are pursuing us from behind!”
Alexius’s face grew pale as soon as he heard that warning.
“Hurryyy! We have to get to Luoma!” He yelled while whipping his horse.
The ones running after Alexius’s party were Garam and his zoan warriors. They were dashing at full speed on all fours, leaving behind countless footprints on the muddy street.
On their way, they had spotted many Holmean soldiers who were left behind by Alexius. But, the majority of those had run out of energy, now sitting in the mud without any will to resist any further.
But, even among them, very few had readied their weapons for a last stand, but once Garam shouted that they wouldn’t be killed if they threw away their weapons and didn’t resist any further, most of them dropped their weapons and surrendered.
Garam then ordered the warriors led by him, “Our target is the enemy commander running ahead of us! Don’t bother with the small fry!”
Garam and Zurgu entrusted the suppression of the remnants of Holmea’s subjugation force to Marchronis and Dvalin for the sake of solely focusing on chasing down Alexius.
But, although zoan were said to not lose in speed to a horse, this was limited to a short distance. When it came to long-distance runs, zoan would never outrun a horse. Even though they had only a little left to catch up, Alexius’s hors managed to shake off the zoan and arrived in Luoma.
“Open the gate!”
Luoma’s city gate slowly opened in response to the loud yelling of the knight leading Alexius’s group. Alexius squeezed himself through the gap alongside his horse, entering the city, before he flopped on the horse’s neck from exhaustion finally kicking in thanks to a wave of relief washing over his body.
But, that only lasted until he heard the gatekeepers yell.
“Zoan! The zoan have come!”
Alexius’s upper body leaped back up like a spring, and he immediately looked back at the gate he had just entered. Once he did, he saw soldiers, who were flooding into the city through the now-fully opened gate, and beyond the soldiers in the far distance, the zoan who had been pursuing Alexius and his party.
That sight overlapped in his mind with the zoan who had pushed their allied soldiers against the 5th Division as it tried to rescue the encircled 2nd Division.
“H-Hurry up and close the gate!”
The gatekeepers, who still hadn’t allowed all their allies to enter as of yet, were surprised by Alexius’s yell.
“But, not all of our allies have entered the city yet!”
“Shut up and do as you’re told! I’m Alexius, prince of Holmea! Or didn’t you hear my order just now!?”
It was unthinkable for the likes of a lowly gatekeeper to protest against a prince. The captain of the guard gave an order to close the gate.
The soldiers, who were still trying to take refuge in the city, screamed when they saw that. As none of them wanted to be locked out, they all rushed towards the gate with desperation written on their faces. But, pushing them aside, the city gate was forcibly closed.
Immediately following you could hear wails of despair from the soldiers on the other side of the now closed gate.
Zurgu called out to Garam who had stopped the pursuit near the city after watching this event unfold.
“Hey, what are we going to do, Garam?”
Even by the lowest estimates, around 200 to 300 soldiers were left outside the gate. It’d be easy for the zoan to rout this amount of soldiers, but it wouldn’t be a good idea since it’d force them to enter the range of the city’s archers.
After pondering about Garam’s question for a while, “No choice. ――Let’s offer the soldiers outside the wall to surrender. If we tell them that we won’t take their lives if they throw away their weapons and surrender, they might obediently do as told.”
Garam wasn’t as generous to let such a number of soldiers flee into the city under his watch. Having said that, it was unnecessary for them to expose themselves to danger in order to beat the soldiers up.
When Garam and his zoan demanded them to surrender, the soldiers were confused. it was rather unlikely that the gate would open, even if they stayed in this place. Even though they were already exhausted from the continuous escaping, they didn’t even possess a single ration or a drop of water. It was clear that they’d soon collapse, even without the zoan doing anything.
One after the other among them resolved himself, threw away his weapon, and walked towards the zoan with raised hands. Watching how their comrades were received by the zoan without getting killed, further soldiers surrendered.
The guards of Luoma could only watch the soldiers walk towards the enemy from atop the wall, but at that moment angry yelling could be heard.
“Those disloyal mutts!”
It was Alexius.
“They won’t be forgiven for surrendering to the enemy without a fight!”
No sooner than shouting that, he snatched a bow and arrows from a nearby guard, quickly nocked an arrow into the bowstring and fired it. The arrow struck the back of a soldier who tried to surrender to the zoan with his back turned to Luoma. At once, the soldier fell to the ground with a thud.
The air stirred.
“Y-Your Highness…! What have you done!?” The guard captain’s face turned pale.
The number of soldiers accompanying the subjugation force from Luoma was by no means small. If the soldier had been one of those, it’d mean one of the city’s residents had just been killed in front of their eyes.
However, Alexius yelled back, “Why are you even asking!? What are you doing!? Shoot down all those traitors!”
“B-But…!”
“Are you a traitor as well!?”
The captain’s face froze due to Alexius’s threatening demeanor. And while almost crying, he ordered his men, “Fire your arrows at the soldier who surrender to the enemy! Shooot!”
But, no one was able to move right away. The guards only looked at each other, but then started to finally release their arrows after their captain repeated his order.
The soldiers, who were about to surrender, were horrified by this. They hadn’t expected to be shot in the back by their own allies. Some of them ran towards the zoan in a hurry, others turned towards the city without surrendering, waving their hands.
But the arrows rained down on all of them without making any distinction.
This also surprised the zoan. They called out to the soldiers, urging them to hurry up with their hands while telling them to surrender.
However, the soldiers, who had been left outside the city, were lost and didn’t understand who was friend and foe anymore. They were simply moving back and forth without an idea what to do.
Another flurry of angry words reached them from atop the wall.
“You idiots! Stop this foolishness at once!”
But, this time it wasn’t Alexius, but Adomius who had belatedly arrived on the wall.
Of course, it wasn’t as though any of the guards was shooting arrows at their allies because they liked it. Rather, they looked relieved when they heard Adomius rebuke and immediately lowered their bows.
Immediately Alexius reprimanded Adomius while fuming, “You bastards! How dare you, a lousy regimental commander, defy my order!?”
But, Adomius protested this head-on, “Your Highness, do you really understand what you have been doing here!?”
Alexius faltered as he hadn’t expected to get a rebuttal. Adomius loudly told Alexius, “Your Highness, have you ever heard this story?
In the past, a unit of soldiers with commoner roots got isolated on enemy land during a skirmish with Romania. The man leading that unit judged that it would be difficult to retreat at this point, and quickly surrendered to the enemy. After the battle was over, many generals hesitated to exchange this man and his troops, who had surrendered without fighting to the bitter end, during a prisoner swap.
However, there was one general who took the initiative and proceeded with the exchange for the man and his soldiers. And not only that. The general personally met the man and his soldiers after they came back, and not only did he praise the man for having come back alive without pointlessly wasting the lives of his men, but he even promoted the man to a responsible post afterwards!
Do you know what happened later on!?”
Adomius hurled his words at Alexius who was bewildered by the sudden story.
“The man was called Borgus and he was a soldier of commoner descent. And the one who saved him was His Excellency General Darius!”
Mentioning General Darius in front of Alexius was taboo. Adomius was well aware of that, but at this point he couldn’t care any less.
“Borgus and the soldiers, who were saved at that time, volunteered to become the rear guard during the battle at Bolnis for the sake of saving General Darius who was in a dangerous situation. And they bravely fought to the last soldier, buying the time necessary for the general to escape safely!
If you threaten them with power, soldiers will fight! But, they will only consider risking their lives for a commander who understands them!
Right now, you not only drove the soldiers, who had been left behind, to the enemy, but you even drove their hearts towards the enemy! Only that is something you mustn’t do! ――Look around you!”
Adomius waved his arm widely, pointing at the surroundings.
“Your Highness, do you not understand that you pushed away the hearts of those who are here right now!?”
At last Alexius noticed how the soldiers were looking at him. No respect and love towards the kingdom could be found in their eyes. Instead, disappointment blended with scorn gleamed deeply within.
No sooner than drawing back out of fear due to the multitude of eyes fixated on him, Alexius whirled around with his overcoat fluttering and his face pale, just to quickly leave the wall.
All that was left in his wake was a suffocating silence.
After a while, Adomius sighed deeply and then yelled loudly, “Do not mention a word to anyone about what happened here! The one who ordered to shoot the surrendering soldiers was me alone!”
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