Chapter 1 – Pursuit

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“――Uh oh! Wait, General Igniz!”

A voice reverberated behind him, calling his name. It was the dignified voice of a woman. She told him to wait, but he ignored her and kept climbing the hill.

He wanted to confirm the hill they had retaken from the imperial army with his very own eyes at any cost. Suddenly his view widened. He had reached the hill’s summit.

‘The imperial army must have retreated in quite a hurry. They’ve left their tents and wagons behind just like that. And not only that. Heaps of corpses are strewn all over the hill’s slope. Most of them are imperial soldiers, but some are also our own.

Igniz breathed out. He had been able to grant his men’s death meaning and value. His sigh was filled with relief over this certainty. They were heroes. And they should be extolled as such. Even if honor was of no comfort for those left behind. The Kingdom had been allowed to continue thanks to their dedication. The imperial army had suffered devastating losses and likely had no choice but to withdraw at this point. But――

“Why did the empire suffer so many casualties? This is almost as if…they had suffered an attack while completely unguarded,” Igniz muttered while looking at the hill.

Just as he was asking himself what might have happened to the imperial army――

“General Igniz!”

“――gh!”

Igniz came to his senses because of that voice. Once he looked back, he found a woman standing there. She had carelessly done her long hair up and her body was hidden underneath armor. Her name was Aqua Alphard. Just like Igniz, she had sworn her allegiance to the king as general. She was a divine practitioner under the Goddess ruling over Blue Life.

“What?”

“Don’t give me a 『What?』. You rushed out without a single thanks although I saved you on the verge of death. And although I’ve been calling out to you many times, you ignored me, before eventually starting to mumble something――” Aqua complained testily and let another barrage of muttered complaints follow.

Of course, Igniz had his own reasons as well. But, he thought he should at least apologize to her.

“Sorry for making you worry. And thank you for healing all my wounds.”

“It’s fine as long as you get it. But, don’t worry me so much, okay? Ever since I got to know you, you’ve been――”

“Why are you here?”

“I was entrusted with a letter by His Majesty the King.”

Aqua held out the letter when Igniz interrupted her.

“Why haven’t you told me earlier?”

“I tried to do so many times over, but you didn’t listen to me, remember?”

He took the letter off her and scanned its content. He intended to pretend to be calm, but he probably couldn’t hide his agitation completely.

Aqua called out to him in concern, “What does it say?”

“Don’t ask. And don’t look into it either.”

Aqua looked disappointed for a short moment, but didn’t say anything. Igniz offered a prayer to the War God ruling over Crimson Destruction. In response, the letter went up in flames.

Aqua gasped in shock, “General Igniz!”

“It was His Majesty’s order.”

Igniz let go of the letter’s remains. The flames intensified, instantly turning the paper into ash.

“So, what are you going to do next?”

“Usually, this would be the moment to launch a pursuit, but…”

Igniz turned his eyes to the entrance of the narrow path. Wagons had been stacked up over there. He suspected the imperial army to have piled them up in order to delay their pursuit.

“You surely won’t tell me that you cannot pursue them because of that poor attempt of a barricade, are you?”

“The one deciding this is the Official of Divinities who is the commander of our army. I have no say in this.”

“For heaven’s sake,” Aqua groaned.

She’s probably given up. I can understand that feeling. But, in any organization the subordinates imitate those above them. If the ones at the top ignore the chain of command, the whole organization will collapse. That alone is something we must avoid.

As he let his eyes wander, he was immediately able to find the official. He was just in the middle of climbing the hill. He looked terrible. His face was ashen pale and his eyes were dead. His priest’s garb had become even dirtier than before. He didn’t look like he’d be able to take command. Probably sensing the same, Aqua grimaced.

“Can he hand out any orders in such a state?”

“If he doesn’t we stay on standby.”

“Ah, so that’s――”

“General Igniz!”

Aqua’s words were interrupted by a masculine voice. Once they looked in the direction of the voice’s owner, a soldier was walking off a man. That man had his arm suspended. Igniz assumed him to be an imperial noble, seeing how he wore a uniform of good make.

“What’s wrong?”

“We captured this man when he was hiding in the thicket!” The soldier straightened his back and answered Igniz’s question.

Igniz felt like asking again. It was hard to believe all of a sudden that a person, who might be a noble, would be captured while hiding in a thicket. Once he scrutinized the man’s face, he responded by revealing a menial smile.

Well, I guess it doesn’t change the fact of him being a precious source for information.

“There’s something I want to ask you.”

“I-I will tell you everything. So, please, spare my life.”

Igniz rubbed his temple. The imperial nobles, and even the demihumans at time, he had encountered on the battlefield thus far had all died noble death, so he wondered what was the deal with this guy.

“Why did the imperial army suffer so many casualties?”

“His Highness Alfort decided to retreat after seeing the bonfires.”

“…Alfort? That’s the brat born by Ramal the Fifth’s mistress, right? No way…for such an important person to have participated… But, the reason for so many casualties mus――”

“Alfort, you say!?”

Igniz staggered. The Official of Divinities had pushed him aside and drawn close to the prisoner. Moreover, he grabbed the man’s collar and furiously shook him back and forth.

“Speak! Was Alfort there!? He was, wasn’t he!?”

“I-It hurts――rz!”

“――gh! We cannot afford to stand around here like this! We must pursue them at once! This will allow me to erase all previous blunders! If we manage to catch him, I will become the Head of Divinities! No, even arch-priest won’t be a dream any longer!”

The official let go of the man while announcing his own ambitions.

“Sir Official of Divinities, please wait a moment.”

“What? Do you plan to stand in the way of my career!?” He yelled while scattering his spit.

“We cannot say that this man is speaking the truth. It’s possible for this to be a trap”

“Why would you say that!?” The man howled, before clinging to the official’s legs. “Sir Priest, I would never lie! I have never lied in my life. I’m a man who can’t even hurt a bug! Ah! Right! My lover! I have a lover back home! She’s carrying my child so I must return home alive!”

The man was groveling, wailing loudly. He was genuinely crying. Igniz shivered. It was his first time to encounter such a shameless person.

“…Lift your face.”

“Ah, Sir Pries――shyaa!” The man raised a weird scream.

The official had kicked his face, causing the man to somersault and fall.

“W-Whaay?”

“I am no priest! I’m an Official of Divinities! That is two ranks above a priest! Did you hear? Two! Two ranks! Don’t lump me together with priests! You idiot!”

The official unleashed a flurry of kicks. After a while, the kicking stopped as he had apparently run out of strength. Now he was panting heavily. Judging this to be a good moment, Igniz spoke up.

“What are we going to do?”

“Be quiet! I’m gathering my thoughts right now!”

“Forgive me.”

The official mumbled something for a while, eventually he got his thoughts sorted and raised his face.

“Alright! We’re going to torture him!”

“N-No way! I told you the truth!”

“Shut up!”

The prisoner tried to cling to the official’s legs once more, but the official kicked him away, causing the man to somersault and fall once more.

“Someone take this guy to the pure white temple in MArcab!”

“I shall do so, Sir.”

The one nominating himself was the soldier who had brought the man over.

“Come on, stand up.”

“Sir Official of Divinities! Please believe me! I’m definitely not lying to you!” The man appealed, but the official only snorted at him as if to exhibit his contempt.

The man was walked away by the soldier and soon vanished from the top of the hill.

“Sir Official of Divinities, torturing a noble of the Empire would be bad, don’t you think?”

“It won’t be a problem if we fix him up afterwards. What, don’t worry. The priests of the Pure White Temple are outstanding.

“……I see,” Igniz muttered after a short moment.

He hadn’t meant it like that, but――

“Kuhihi, I thought I might lose my standing, but…this must be god’s will! We cannot stand around here like this! General Igniz, get ready to pursue at once! I’ll also finish my preparations right away!”

“Preparations? Sir Official, you lost the soldiers, didn’t you?”

“General Igniz, I’ll be troubled if you take our unity lightly.”

The official grinned broadly before starting to walk away. His feet were taking him towards the town of Marcab. After he completely vanished out of sight, Igniz asked, “What’s the point in him going to Marcab? That city has no combat forces anymore――”

“Right now, they’re in the middle of gathering over there.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“The dispatch of reinforcements has been decided while you were absent,” Aqua answered Igniz with a sigh.

She folded her arms and looked away. Because of that, Igniz knew that she was hiding something again.

“There’s still more?”

“Another conscription was carried out. Upon the Pure White Temple’s suggestion.”

“Couldn’t you have somehow stopped it?”

“We’re in a situation where all contact with the border fortress has been cut off. There’s no way I could have stopped them, is there?”

“But, then――”

Igniz swallowed his objection. They knew each other for a long time. So he knew that it wasn’t as though Aqua had simply watched without doing anything. It’s just that she didn’t have enough authority.

He quietly breathed out, “It’s nothing. Sorry.”

“Don’t mind it. I mean, it’s true that I couldn’t do anything about it.”

Aqua sighed very deeply and pointed her eyes to Marcab.

“So, what’s the size of the reinforcements?”

“I don’t know the precise numbers, but it’s around 2,000 regular soldiers and 1,000 conscripted farmers.”

“So 7,000 together with my men, huh? More than enough of a force to pursue the fleeing imperial army, but…”

“What are you going to do?”

“Sir Official said that we’re going to pursue, so we have no choice but to do just that.”

“Want me to lend you a hand?”

“No need. Please take care of the injured soldiers in Marcab.”

“Got it. But, don’t try the impossible, okay?”

“…Sure, you have my word,” answered Igniz after a short pause.

※

Chrono ran through the narrow path while leading his men. He assumed that they had already run two kilometers at this point. The stamina drain was pretty intense, however, because of the armor he wore. His chest was hurting and felt as though his lungs were on fire. But, he couldn’t afford to ease up on the speed. He wanted to reach their destination――the place where Igniz had destroyed the slopes with his divine arts――as quickly as possible. Besides, he could hear the sounds of footsteps and wheels from behind.

He feared that he’d be crushed underfoot or ran over by a wagon, if he were to stop now. He frantically forced his legs to move, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep going for much longer.

At last, when his stamina was about to hit the limit, their destination finally came in sight. Chrono raised a hand so that it’d be visible to Mino who was running next to him.

“All troops! STOP!” Mino shouted, followed by the noise behind Chrono slowly dying down.

Feeling relieved, Chrono dropped his speed. If he were to be honest, he’d admit that he wanted to sit down right now and here. But, they had to prepare everything to ambush Argo’s army.

“Captain, what are we gonna do next?”

“…This…desti…”

“Sorry, I’ll wait for ye t’catch yer breath.”

Mino awkwardly scratched his head after hearing Chrono miserably squeezing out some incoherent words. Going along with Mino’s offer, Chrono put his breathing in order while walking. Eventually he reached his destination and stopped there.

“We’re here.”

“Here? Isn’t this the place where General Igniz scattered all the stones t’hold us back?”

“To be precise, it’s one of them. I’ll explain how to use the stones later on… We’re going to build a defensive encampment over here to stop Argo’s royal army.”

“We’ve got the tools, but if we start to carefreely chop trees, the enemy will catch up with us.”

“There’s no need to chop trees, so that part’s alright.”

Chrono turned around, looking at his subordinates. They numbered 1,500, consisting of 710 infantrymen, 460 heavy infantrymen, and 330 archers. No, given that Nasul and nine others were acting as rear guards, they numbered 1,490. In any case, there was something Chrono could rely on besides manpower. For example――

“Don’t you think we can use the wagons?”

“Oh! So we’re gonna build a barricade by turnin’ over and pilin’ up the wagons!”

Mino clapped his hands together as if he had grasped the idea. The narrow path had a width of around twenty meters. Just the length of the wagons’ loading area exceeded two meters. Since they had 50 wagons, it’d be easy to block the path.

“As expected of ye, Captain! We’re goin’ to start right away!”

“No, there’s something I’d like to talk about before that.”

“Ye wanna have a discussion at a time like this?”

“I know that we don’t have any time, I’d like to get some input from other viewpoints.”

“Gotcha. But, I’m gonna have Nasul continue with his duty as rear guard.”

“Of course. I’m not overly keen about dying because we eased on the vigilance either,” Chrono agreed.

“Centurions, gather! Everyone else, rest up until you get yer next orders! Ye’re also free to eat, but don’t do anythin’ as stupid as wolfin’ down the hard bread and candy you were provided!”

Mino’s voice thundered through the narrow path, causing the men to become astir. But, once they knew they could take a break, one after the other sat down on the ground. Almost as if a ripple had passed through them.

In spite of the situation, Chrono couldn’t help but to reveal a smile at that.

“Gaaah, just when I thought I’d finally get a rest, us Centurions have to gather. What a pain.”

“I’m about to start crying for real here any moment as being a Centurion has virtually no side benefit.”

“Both of you, it is a prestigious position to have, Taiga chided Arided and Deneb.

Lizad stayed silent. And for some reason Horus was nowhere to be seen. Probably having noticed that, Mino spoke up.

“What happened to Horus?”

“It’s not like I was with him all the time, so I don’t know.”

“I thought he might be in the rear since he had been pulling a wagon.”

“I have not seen him either.”

“…Exhausted,” muttered Lizad quietly after Arided, Deneb, and Taiga.

“Exhausted? You mean he can’t move because he’s out of steam?”

“…Affirmative.”

Liza nodded lightly at Chrono.

“I’ll drag him over.”

“No, we don’t have any time for that now. Let’s start talking right away.”

Chrono knelt down on the spot, causing Mino, Arided, Deneb, Taiga, and Lizad to kneel down in a circle. Chrono picked up a wooden stick and drew a vertical line on the ground. It represented the road.

“We’ll build a defensive encampment over here. Although I call it like that, it’s more like building a barricade out of wagons.”

Chrono added a horizontal line while intently staring at the ground. It felt slightly unreliable. Probably feeling the same, Arided and Deneb spoke up next.

“Lord Chrono, I kinda would like you to spare us from entrusting our lives to this.”

“I’d like to have a defensive encampment that’s somewhat more reliable.”

“How about we do it like this?” Mino asked and drew a second horizontal line.

“A two-layered barricade, huh?”

“Aye. We’ll be able to fall back once they break through.”

“Alright, we’re going with that. Since it’s going to be difficult to separate which is which, let’s call them first and second defense line.”

“Here and here. I kinda would like to deploy archers atop the slope.”

“In that case, the archers will require guards.”

Arided drew circles at the two ends of the first defense line and Taiga added arcs next to the circles.

“Nice, it’s become more like a defensive encampment now. If we can hold out for three days with this…”

“Three days?” Mino furrowed his brows into a frown in response to Chrono’s remark.

“Is it impossible?”

“Going by my estimate, two days will be the maximum, if we’re lucky.”

“Two days if we’re lucky, huh?” Chrono mumbled under his breath.

In other words, it’s highly likely that we won’t hold out for two days. I think it might be a rather pessimistic outview, but it’s Mino’s estimation. I can trust his words a lot more than my own judgment.

At that moment, Arided timidly raised a hand.

“Umm, Lord Chrono?”

“Do you have some sort of good idea?”

“If we must buy time at any cost, umm, then it’s fine for us to stay back. Even if we may look like this, we’re still women, so we might be able to at least buy some time.”

Chrono didn’t answer. He wasn’t as ignorant as to not understand the intent behind Arided’s suggestion. They’d stall for time by letting Argo’s army rape Arided and the other women. If you only considered efficiency in buying time, it’d be one of the most efficient methods. But, it’d be the worst choice on all other aspects.

“Arided, never make such a suggestion again.”

“I-I understand.”

Chrono spoke in a voice so low that it startled even himself. He had unintentionally lowered it. But now it was too late.

She probably thinks she got me angry.

Arided was looking downward with all blood having drained from her face.

I messed up. I didn’t intend it, but I ended up destroying the mood here. Like this, no good ideas will appear. Some composure is necessary to produce good ideas. I have to somehow fix the atmosphere.

“…Arided, bring your ear close.”

“…Okay.”

Once Chrono beckoned her over, Arided brought her ear close to him.

At once he licked it. In response――

“――――gh!”

“I had planned to bed both of you after getting back home safely, so I’d be troubled if you were to become the playthings of Argo’s soldiers. I prefer to keep that privilege to myself,” Chrono commented with an exaggerated shrug.

Arided drew her body back while holding her ear. He worried that he might have come across as too much of a pervert. But, her pale face was now tinged red. Apparently it had quite some effect on her. All that was left now was to give her a little push.

“If you lik――”

“Gaaah! I’m kinda troubled if you desire me at a place like this! I feel sorry for Layla, but if you desire me so much, I kinda have no choice but to respond to those feelings! Uuhh, I’d like to be forgiven for being a weak woman who seeks affection over her friendship! Should you knock me up, I kinda would like you to properly take care of bringing it up!” Arided said while interrupting Chrono.

She was shaking her head while holding her cheeks with both hands.

“Both of you. Both.”

“”Both…”” Arided and Deneb muttered with meek expressions.

“Yep, both of you. Yeah, right. Just kidd――”

“If you wish for it, we’re fine with that as well, Lord Chrono.”

His words were interrupted once more. This time it was Deneb. Startled, he looked her way. Probably embarrassed she was fidgeting around while looking downwards.

“It’s unexpected for you to be so open-minded to abnormal plays, Deneb. Did you kinda awaken to it recently?”

“I haven’t awoken to anything. It’s just I l-love Lord Chrono…”

“Accepting abnormal plays because you love him is a form of perversion.”

“I’m not perverted!” Deneb objected angrily. “I just thought that I kinda need to endure in order to be together with Lord Chrono.”

“Well, you certainly got a point there, kinda. Being compared sounds like a pain,” Arided said while pushing up her chest.

Chrono assumed that she was likely conscious of Shaela. But, as far as he was concerned, small or big boobs still remained boobs in the end. There existed no ranks here. All forms were filled with dreams.

‘I’ll make both their boobs――twice the dreams――mine.

He thought that this didn’t sound bad at all, but then shook his head to rid himself of his perverted delusions. He didn’t want to disappoint Layla and Shaela by making the two his lovers and he didn’t want Elena to look at him like a worm either. In the first place, this was intended to be a joke. Now he feared that if he didn’t somehow manage to get things straight――

“You got Deneb’s approval, so please take kinda care of us sisters.”

“Please, kinda.”

Both bowed their heads. It was increasingly getting harder to wave this off as a joke. Chrono looked at Mino, hoping for some help. In response, Mino nodded.

As expected of my adjutant. It looks like he’s understood.

“Captain, congratulations. Arided, Deneb, ye have my blessings.”

“I shall bless you as well.”

“…Bless.”

Mino clapped his hands, followed by Taiga and Lizad joining in.

“I kinda didn’t expect that we’d be able to get your blessing.”

“It seems like it’s become quite a challenge now, but I’ll do my best.”

Arided and Deneb looked very happy.

It’s almost impossible to call this a joke now. But, I should switch my thinking here. I achieved the goal of calming down the mood and I feel like it’d have come to this with those two sooner or later anyway. In short, this is the best outcome, Chrono persuaded himself.

“Anyway, we must manage to hold out here for three days!”

“Gotcha. We’ll exhaust all our options to hold this place for three days. But…”

Mino nodded reassuringly, but then he opened his mouth while appearing to find it hard to speak.

“Is there anything else worrying you?”

“Aye. I feel uneasy ’bout the low morale.”

“Yeah, okay, that’s…right, I guess.”

Chrono took a look at his resting men. Then again, the ones, who had been Chrono’s subordinates to begin with, were relatively relaxed, but those who had joined their unit only recently, were hanging their heads or trembling in deep worry. Their eyes were particularly impressive. They were lifeless. The look of dejected losers, no, people who have partially given up on life. Chrono thought that he had to somehow get them back on their feet.

“We’ll go all out here and get their spirits rallied.”

“How exactly?”

“That will be the role of Arided and Deneb’s elves. Please take care of it!”

“Even if you ask us to take care of it, I don’t know what we should do,” Arided objected sullenly.

“Could you kinda give us slightly more detailed instructions,” Deneb cocked her head cutely.

Considering it was those two, Chrono felt like they were slightly unmotivated. He had a bad feeling about this, but――

“It’ll be fine if you blow away the enemy soldiers with Explosive Fire Dance. We’re on a narrow path, so you don’t need to worry about the range, and it’s a nice measure to regain the men’s spirit since it’ll be quite flashy.”

“”I can’t use it.””

The twins said at the same time.

“Didn’t you tell me that you finished acquiring the magic arts of all attributes back when I made the ice cream?”

“We have acquired the magic arts of all attributes, but we can only use them up to intermediate level.”

“Explosive Fire Dance is a high-ranking spell of the fire attribute. The only one capable of using it is Layla.”

Silence swooped down on the place. Chrono knew that it was his fault for not having checked in advance. But, being told they can only use magic arts up to medium level under these circumstances puts him in a bind.

“So, what are we going to do?”

“”Who knows?””

Arided and Deneb both cutely cocked their heads in response to Chrono’s question. At that moment――

“Ah, I’m so pooped. I wanna rest a bit longer,” Horus arrived while muttering that.

“Horus! Why are ye actin’ like a sloth despite bein’ a centurion!?”

“I-I’d like you to not shout at me. I’ve been carrying luggage for dear life today,” Horus appealed with teary eyes when Mino yelled at him.

Something in Horus’s words caught Chrono’s interest.

“Horus, what were you carrying?”

“Umm, what I carried was――”

“I made Horus carry wheat flour and yer luggage, Lord Chrono,” Mino answered, interrupting Horus.

Chrono felt something akin to dizziness assailing him. Suddenly, a certain idea popped up in his head. It felt like a jigsaw puzzle had been aligned instantly.

“Captain, did ye think of somethin’?”

“It’s a slightly unusual method, but I think it’ll work fine as a replacement for the Explosive Fire Dance. Alright!” Chrono clapped his thigh and stood up.

“I came up with an idea to raise morale! Since Argo’s royal army hasn’t moved yet, we’ll split everyone in groups and build an encampment!”

“The break’s over! We’re going to build an encampment next!”

As soon as Mino got up and shouted, the men interrupted their break and stood up as well. With a slight delay――

『Nasul speaking. I have bad news. Argo’s royal army has started to move』, Nasul’s voice came through the magic communicator.

“Sorry, forget I said anything!” Chrono shouted while crossing his arms.

“All hands, remain on standby!” Mino barked.

Their subordinates stopped moving. Chrono took his magic communicator out of his pouch and addressed Nasul.

“Chrono speaking. Does that mean they started to advance?”

『No, they’re preparing to do so. They’ve gathered at the hill and seem to be quarreling over the order of their ranks. What should we do? Attack them? We’ve resolved ourselves』

“No, you guys keep monitoring them.”

『Roger』

“I’m counting on you.”

Chrono put the communicator back into his pouch. He hadn’t expected that Argo would make its move so quickly. Fortunately, it looked like they still had some leeway. As he was pondering whether they should ambush the enemy or prioritize building an encampment――

“”…Lord Chrono!””

“It’s okay,” Chrono smiled at the two elves who seemed worried.

Then he directed his eyes at Mino. He had started to feel like he must somehow handle this by himself, but Chrono had a capable adjutant. In short, they could do both things――ambushing the enemy while building an encampment――at the same time. But, this wouldn’t be enough. He had to boost morale. That was an urgent matter. And he guessed that now was the perfect time for it. They would take the wind out of the enemy’s sails and achieve a glorious victory in their first battle. In such a case, it’d definitely boost morale. But――

Will we be able to pull this off? Chrono questioned himself while lightly shaking his head. If we don’t do it, we won’t be able to hold out for three days. In that case, we’ve got no choice but to go through with it.

He made up his resolve and breathed in deeply.

“Mino and Taiga, you stay here and gather stones and build the encampment! Stack the stones behind the First Defense Line! Arided, Deneb, Horus, Lizad, follow me! Also…the heavy infantry, too! I leave organizing the troops to you!”

Chrono began to hurl out orders once again.

※

Chrono ran through the narrow path while leading a hundred heavy infantrymen. At a point around one kilometer away from the spot where Mino’s group was building the field encampment――

“Alright! Stop here!” Chrono raised his voice and stopped running.

After getting his breathing in order, he turned around to his men. Half of them were looking worried. Fifty of the hundred were men he’d brought with him from the Erakis March and the rest originally belonged to other battalions, so it was only natural. He wanted to raise morale by succeeding with this operation.

As he thought about all that――

“I’d like to be spared from going back the original path.”

“Somehow all we do today is running.”

“Lord Chrono’s luggage was extremely heavy. Just what’s in there? Or rather, isn’t it weird for a centurion like me to carry luggage in the first place?”

“…Silence.”

Lizad rebuked the other three centurions. By the way Horus was carrying the box with Chrono’s stuff while Lizad was shouldering a bag with flour.

“Lord Chrono, is it okay for me to put down the luggage?”

“Sure.”

Horus placed the box on the ground, and a short moment later, Lizad placed the bag on the ground. Chrono walked up to the wooden box and opened its lid. After removing the bottom, he grabbed the gold coins beneath and scattered them.

“Whoa! It’s gold coins!”

“Since it’s a part of the plan, you’re forbidden to pick it up,” Chrono said with a sigh when Arided jumped at the money.

She adorably tilted her head while looking up to Chrono.

“Even if you act all cute with me, no means no.”

“That’s pretty curt.”

Arided tossed away the coins with a sigh.

“Horus, Lizad, scatter the flour on top of the coins.”

“What a waste.”

“…Affirmative.”

Horus seemed unhappy, but Lizad opened the bag and scattered the flour on the ground. Seeing that, Horus began to do the same while appearing to be somewhat reluctant. Chrono scattered more gold coins and then installed the false bottom in the chest again.

“Huh? That’s all gold coins?”

“I feel like quite a few were still left.”

“As might be expected, I won’t scatter all of it here,” Chrono responded with a wry smile.

In response, Horus stopped moving all of a sudden. He looked in Chrono’s direction full of spite.

He probably wants to ask why I had him carry the whole chest if I don’t plan to scatter all of it. But, since I was in a hurry, I didn’t pay any attention to the small details.

Thinking that he should trick Horus, Chrono smiled. Thereupon, Horus awkwardly averted his face and resumed his work.

“Something like this won’t serve as much of a hindrance.”

“Rather, it’s going to raise the enemy’s morale.”

“No need to worry. Stopping them by using gold coin is just the first stage,” Chrono explained with a shrug

“”First stage?”” Arided and Deneb muttered.

“Yep. The fist stage is about stopping them here with gold coins and the second stage is to use Revolving Dance and have it cause a whirlwind that involves the flour. But, this won’t work as much more than a smokescreen. Because of that, the main part of the plan can be found with the third stage. If it works out smoothly, we’ll be able to kill many enemies and raise the morale.”

“Lord Chrono, your smile is full of evil.”

“But, right now that’s kinda reassuring.”

Arided and Deneb’s body’s trembled once Chrono explained his plan.

※

At that time a priest had arrived in their village. The priest said that he was recruiting soldiers, promising them ten silver as salary and a tax reduction for the year in return for enlisting. He also claimed that they’d get bonus pay depending on their efforts and might even get hired as regular soldiers. After hesitating a bit, Kay listened to a friend and decided to become a soldier. If they had ten silver, his family wouldn’t need to go hungry, and if he managed to get hired as a regular soldier, he’d be able to rise through the ranks based on his strength alone. All of this sounded very attractive to him. But, now that he was driven on like a sheep, he started to feel doubts whether he’d really be able to make a career in the army.

No, he shook his head. Everything starts from here. I’ll make a name for myself during this mission. And once I become a general, I’ll tell the soldiers around me that I used to be one of them.

He shivered as he imagined their stare, brimming with reverence and respect.

“Halt! Check the white area!” The commanding officer shouted.

Kay stopped and carefully looked ahead of him. Thereupon, he found the ground to be dyed white. Readying his spear, he slowly approached the white patch. The wind blew past, swirling up white smoke. The part that looked like it had been painted white seemed to be flour, as far as he could tell.

It’s not poison, is it? Kay swallowed hard.

The other soldiers apparently thought the same, seeing how their movements suddenly slowed down noticeably. However, Kay got angry, scolding himself that it wasn’t suitable for a future general to act in the same way as the mob.

“Fuck,” he cursed, before stepping forward and starting to run. And then, after arriving at the white ground, he retrieved something from the white powder. It was quite heavy. A gold coin. No, he didn’t know whether it was truly a gold coin since he’d never seen one before. But, he wondered whether this thick and heavy feel wasn’t genuine proof for it being the real deal.

“A-A gold coin!” Someone shouted, causing Kay to click his tongue.

“H-Hey, are you for real!?”

“Yep, it’s definitely a gold coin!”

“That’s mine!”

“As if I care! First come, first served!”

The narrow path was awash with soldiers in no time. They quickly started to fight over the coins.

All of them are fools.

Of course, Kay got a brain unlike them, so he picked up a few coins and then backed off. From his position further away, he watched the others messing around while flipping a coin with his fingers. His conviction that he’d become a general had been only strengthened through this. He got his hand on a big sum of money just a few days after becoming a soldier. It wasn’t anything everyone could do easily.

When he flipped the coin again, he noticed a woman standing on the slope. Kay narrowed his eyes, wondering what she was doing there.

The woman held out a hand and shouted something. In response, a whirlwind surged towards their group.

“Ouch!” Kay covered his eyes.

Some of the white smoke had entered them after being kicked up by the whirlwind. The others were groaning in pain all over the place, apparently having suffered the same fate. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand while feeling pissed at the woman who had caused this.

But, he couldn’t stop tearing up. He checked his vicinity hiding his eyes beneath an arm. The whirlwind had turned everything into a layer of white. And beyond the white curtain, he could faintly see a fire being lit.

The word magic art crossed his mind.

I see, the woman is our enemy and she’s trying to fight us.

Kay put the gold coin into his pocket and tightly grasped his spear. If his opponent was up for a fight, he wouldn’t shirk away from it. The next instant he wondered whether she was going to come at him, his visual field was dyed crimson.

Kay was completely confused in his head while pushing against a wall. He asked himself why he was pressing against this wall. He still remembered how his visual field dyed crimson. But, everything after that was the problem here. When his vision returned to normal, a wall was right in front of him. And no matter how he spun it, he found it weird for a wall to suddenly appear out of nowhere.

What was even weirder was his visual field. It was a murky white. Since the wind had died down, his visual field should have cleared up by now. Yet, it remained a murky white.

The sounds were odd, too. Mumblings as if his head was covered by a thick blanket.

How strange, he thought while pushing against the wall. After pushing several times, something caught his attention. It was a spear. The spear was leaning against the wall.

And at that point Kay realized that he was lying on the ground.

He breathed out in relief. If he was lying on the ground, things were simple. He just had to get up. He put strength into his arms, but he couldn’t stand up. He sensed like his arms and legs were convulsing. Asking his comrades for help was an annoyance, but Kay decided that he couldn’t do without.

When he let his eyes wander while on the ground, he gasped. People…his comrades were lying on the ground. Moreover, not just one or two. Even ten people would be an understatement. Many. A lot of people had collapsed. Some also stood, but if you had to describe them in a word, repulsive would be the one you’d choose. Their whole bodies were bloated, and their skin was peeled off or missing altogether. Just like hell. As he looked at this hellish scenery, anxiety welled up inside him.

Don’t tell me, he muttered. No, he planned to mutter it, but only a wheezing left his mouth. His heart thumped.

Impossible. I’m going to become a general. I spotted the gold coins faster than anyone else and retreated so that I wouldn’t get dragged into the scramble for them. I did well. I’m a guy who can do stuff well. And yet I’m going to die during my first campaign. On top of that, while not knowing what got me――

“Don――――!”

Dark red blood spilled out of his mouth in exchange for words. But, Kay screamed. He screamed while flapping his arms and legs.

NO! NO! Don’t wanna! I don’t wanna die! I don’t wanna die in a place like this. Why must I die in such a place? That’s definitely weird as fuck!

※

So dust explosions pack such a punch, huh? was the impression Chrono embraced.

He recalled the scenery he had watched earlier. First a white whirlwind had occurred. A whirlwind teeming with wheat flour. Then a fire was ignited. And in the next instant the white whirlwind had turned into a blazing pillar of fire.

As he stood stock still in sheer amazement――

“WHOOOOOO! Lord Chrono, you kinda taught them a good lessoooooonnn!”

“I’m sure the enemy is pissing their pants right noooooow!”

Arided and Deneb roared. However, the hundred heavy infantrymen behind them had fallen silent. Leaving aside Lizad who was taciturn even under normal circumstances, even Horus was completely silent. Probably thinking that it’d be bad for things to stay like this, the two elves kicked up even more of a fuss.

“”Lord Chrono! HURRAH!””

Once the two raised their hands, a stir spread. Voices mentioning Chrono’s name could be sparsely heard. But as time went on, those voices turned into a large wave, before the air was filled with loud chants of “Lord Chrono, hurrah!”

That feels somewhat nice.

Chrono turned around to his men, staring at Horus, Lizad, and the hundred infantrymen behind them. He slowly drew his sword and pointed it at the dust explosion site.

“Charge!”

“YEEEAAAAHHH!”

His men answered his yell with war cries. Lizad started to run and Horus followed him. Chrono tried to run with them, but he couldn’t Arided and Deneb had grabbed his mantle. He looked at them over his shoulder.

“Lord Chrono, you mustn’t charge with them!”

“It will lower the morale you raised at such great pains!”

Arided and Deneb told him with low, stifled voices.

The heavy infantrymen―minotaurs and lizardmen―dashed past the three. They plunged forward while roaring and causing the ground to shake.

It’s not as though they don’t feel completely desperate, but I guess that’s still better than having a low morale. Even if they’re just putting up a brave front, they’re still lively so far as it goes.

“Okay, so what should I do then?”

“We’ll kinda follow slowly after them.”

“It’s uncool, but if you were to die, it would not only cause the moral to plummet, but the rearguard would collapse altogether as well.”

“…Got it.”

Chrono went after his men while being protected by Arided and Deneb. They quickly reached the place where the dust explosion took place.

Chrono reflexively covered his mouth. It was a terrible sight to behold. Probably having been trampled by the minotaurs and lizardmen, the corpses had stopped looking human. Just the corpses laying at the edge of the path had barely managed to maintain their original shape.

Chrono stopped, looking down at a corpse.

‘Still young. Probably a boy.

He had passed away with his eyes wide open. A lead-like weariness assailed Chrono.

I had no other choice. The boy had pointed his weapon at us. I had no choice but to kill him.

The instant he sighed lightly, he heard a loud bang.

Once he looked in the direction of the noise, soldiers of Argo’s royal army noisily fell down. Lizad had used a magic item, unleashing lightning at them. Leading his men, Lizad had then charged. While mercilessly trampling the fallen enemy soldiers underfoot.

An enemy readied his spear. A boy with an innocent face. But, Lizad swung his big mallet down without any mercy. The enemy soldier’s head was pulverized.

“H-Hiiii!” The soldier next to the fallen corpse of the headless boy shrieked and tried to run away.

But, he couldn’t. He was thrust forward by a soldier behind him. Lizad lowered his mallet on the head of that soldier. Another skull was smashed in with the eyeballs shooting out of their sockets and a torrent of blood gushing out of the nose.

The soldier, who had pushed his comrade, roared and charged with his spear at the ready. He stabbed with a yell full of energy. Its tip pierced Lizad’s chest. In the next instant the spear handle bent and snapped apart with a dry crack. Lizad stepped forward. At that moment――

“S-S-S-S-Sorry――” The enemy soldier discarded his broken spear and tried to apologize.

However, he didn’t manage to finish his words. Because Lizad swung down his mallet. The soldier collapsed.

Next to Lizad fought Horus. He lightly stabbed his spear at the face of an enemy. And even though he had really stabbed it out very lightly, the enemy soldier raised both hands as if to cover his face. Using that opportunity, Horus thrust out his spear once more, piercing through the torso of the enemy.

Horus proceeded to repeat the same with the next enemy soldier as well. The enemy soldier was finished off without being able to do anything by Horus just stabbing out his spear lightly in the beginning.

Wondering what was going on here, Chrono stared at Horus as he launched his third attack of the same kind. He immediately noticed that Horus was exploiting his enemy’s reflexes. Moreover, the enemy soldiers hadn’t received any proper training either. As amateurs they’d reflexively protect their faces if a spear was lunged at it. Horus used that against them. Still, Chrono was surprised about Horus using a way of fighting that used his head.

After a short while, everyone started to imitate Horus. Chrono thought it might just increase their fatigue since it increased the number of swings, but he didn’t stop them. He assessed it’d be better for them, if they could block the enemy movements by lightly thrusting out their weapons.

By now the bottleneck path was buried in enemy corpses. Narrowing his eyes, Chrono looked for the enemy commander. Further down the path he spotted a man encouraging the soldiers. He was sitting on a horse while waving his sword around. Chrono felt relief wash over him after realizing that it wasn’t Igniz. Then again, now wasn’t the time to feel relieved.

Chrono himself wasn’t such an outstanding commanding officer. Rather, he thought he should focus his attention. He took the magical communicator out of his pocket and held it close to his mouth.

“Nasul, are you there?”

『I’m hiding on the narrow path’s slope in the flank of Argo’s army』

He immediately received an answer. He let his eyes wander upon hearing those words. But, he couldn’t tell where Nasul and his men were hiding.

That’s only natural, I suppose.

If someone like Chrono could have spotted them, they’d have been discovered long ago.

“Attack the enemy commander. Afterwards, use fire-based magic arts. I leave the timing to you.”

『Roger』

After the curt reply by Nasul, Chrono cut off the call and stared at the narrow path. The battle was proceeding in their favor. You could even call it a one-sided massacre. Of course, they couldn’t become careless because of that. The enemy lines hadn’t collapsed yet.

The thickets on the slope shook lightly, followed by several arrows leaving them. Hit by those projectiles, the enemy commander fell off his horse. Chrono thought that this would be the perfect time to push, but a man, who appeared to be the adjutant, immediately took over the command. Having said that, all he did was to yell while swinging his sword.

At that moment, a second volley of arrows was fired. The arrows stabbed the adjutant. And just like his superior, that guy also fell off his horse.

Suddenly a big number of fireballs poured down. The fireballs exploded the instant they came in contact with the ground or soldiers, blanketing a part of the path with fire. Screams filled the air. Some enemy soldiers had even turned into living torches. They tried to erase the flames by rolling on the ground, but the flames’ force didn’t weaken from that. And probably because they smelled the stench of burnt human flesh, some surrounding enemy soldiers started to vomit. Causing even more soldiers to barf. And thus triggering a chain of barfing.

One man wiped his mouth and drew his sword. Chrono assumed him to be the third-highest-ranking officer. The instant he opened his mouth, an arrow embedded itself in his eyeball with a thud.

Arided was the one who shot it. The enemy soldiers fell over on his horse’s neck and stopped moving altogether.

“I’d kinda like to put an end to this soon,” Arided said with a sigh, lowering her bow.

A fourth officer didn’t appear. Well, someone among the humans should be high-ranking enough to take command, but they couldn’t quite do so after the predecessors had been killed in a row.

“The enemy commander is down! PUUUSH!”

“OOOHHHH!”

As soon as Chrono yelled, his men answered with war cries. Thereupon――

“I’m sick of this. What regular soldier!? We’re just being used as disposable pawns here, aren’t we!?” An enemy soldier threw his weapon away.

His action was passed on to the whole unit in a flash. Soldiers started to head back through the narrow path. Some tried to stop their comrades, but their words didn’t reach since the escapees had already fallen into a state of panic. They were swallowed by the wave of humans, vanishing quickly out of sight. Chrono saw this as a chance.

“Pursuit them!”

Following Chrono’s order, Horus and Lizad charged while leading their men. Each time they swung down their weapons, an enemy fell. The narrow path transformed into a pandemonium of hell, full of angry bellows and screams. But, any hell would eventually find its end.

As time passed on, the voices became quieter. Lizad swung down his mallet once again, causing an enemy to collapse. And then silence reigned.

Lizad checked the vicinity while extending and retracting his tongue. But, the area was filled with nothing but dead enemy soldiers. The survivors had run away long ago, and now they could be only seen as small dots far, far ahead. They could chase after them, but it’d come with the risk of encountering the enemy main force.

In short, withdrawing at this point was the best option. Yet, Chrono didn’t feel disappointed. He had planned to not chase too far from the very beginning. This is why he brought heavy infantry, which would be relatively slow on their feet, with him. The operation had proceeded as planned. They made the enemy suffer a little more than 200 casualties. That was a fairly sizable achievement.

“”All hands, attention!”” Arided and Deneb yelled.

The men turned around all at once.

“”Give us a speech!””

“You’re putting me on a spot with such sudden demand,” mumbled Chrono under his breath.

The two nudged Chrono’s sides.

“I’d like you to do it with a peace of mind since we’ll follow up on you, if necessary.”

“But, we kinda want you to not use any too demoralizing words.”

“You’re setting the bar high.”

Chrono looked at his subordinates and cleared his throat. He racked his brain about what he should say here, but no good words came to mind. Arided and Deneb elbowed him, obviously urging him to speak. Stirs spread among his men and as such he didn’t have any time to lose.

Chrono lifted his sword into the sky, “We sent them packing like losers!”

“”Uuuooooohhh! Lord Chrono scared the enemy senseless!!”

“Hurrah, Lord Chrono! Hurrah, Lord Chrono! It was good to have followed him while trusting in his capabilities!”

“…Hurrah.”

Arided, Deneb, and Horus yelled in response to Chrono’s shout. Lizad’s tension was slightly low. Meanwhile, the normal soldiers kept chanting, “Hurrah, Lord Chrono!”, and in no time that turned into a loud chorus.

※

“Did you see the sorry state of Argo’s army?”

“One guy even apologized all of a sudden.”

“I crushed the heads of three enemies.”

“What, only three? I killed five.”

Chrono advanced through the narrow path while hearing his men talking behind him. Their destination was the field encampment which Mino and Taiga were constructing right now.

When he sighed lightly, Arided and Deneb peered into his face from his sides.

“Lord Chrono, why are you sighing while looking so depressed?”

“Are you kinda worried about the field encampment?”

“Hmm, no. I’m not particularly worried about the encampment,” answered Chrono honestly.

Even if there should be some trouble here and there, Chrono expected the encampment’s construction to progress smoothly because Mino was there. He had sighed for another reason.

Arided and Deneb adorably cocked their heads, further asking, “”What is it kinda then?””

“…I just think I might have fired them up a bit too much,” he replied after some time.

He had smiled wryly at the “Hurrah, Lord Chrono!” chants. The strategy had succeeded and he managed to boost their morale. But, he became worried as he felt that his men became too restless, going by the conversations he heard from behind him.

“Lord Chrono, that worry is needless. All of them kinda know that the situation hasn’t changed for the better.”

“It feels like they’re frantically trying to pep-talk themselves or distract from harsh reality.”

“In that case, it’s okay, I suppose.”

If only one of them had told me this, I would have been doubtful, but with both claiming this to be true, I feel like there could be some truth to it. I guess it means everyone is trying to find a ray of hope in this predicament. In such a case, it’s probably unnecessary to chide them.

He kept walking while listening to his men. Thereupon――

“Oh? The encampment has come into sight.”

“The construction is kinda proceeding well.”

Arided and Deneb commented while shading their eyes. Meanwhile Chrono narrowed his. A barricade to block the narrow path――the First Defense Line――had been piled up. It was as uneven and rough as a parapet. The Second Defense Line was visible beyond.

“Hurry up and gather stones! Stack up what you find behind the barricade!” Mino shouted instructions at the men.

Taiga was nowhere to be seen. Chrono assumed that he was handling another job.

Suddenly Mino turned in their direction. Arided and Deneb nudged Chrono’s sides with their elbows. Understanding their aim, He thrust his fist high up in the air. In response――

“Our captain’s back! Our captain’s back after he beat Argo’s army black and blue!”

Cheers rose in response to Mino’s yell.

It feels like I’ve become a hero, but I mustn’t get carried away. This is a play. I’m the driver as a commanding officer. And if I get drunk by success, it’ll make driving difficult. Driving while drunk is bad.

As he admonished himself like that, Mino ran over. He stopped right in front of Chrono and bobbed his head in greeting.

“Captain, good work out there.”

“Mino, you as well. Nice job on the encampment.”

When Chrono gave him words of thanks, Mino pulled a difficult expression. Chrono didn’t understand the reason, but apparently this wasn’t the answer Mino had hoped for. Sweat started to run all over his body.

Without a moment’s delay, Arided and Deneb planted themselves next to Chrono and proudly pushed out their chests.

“Lord Chrono has magnificently slaughtered 400 soldiers of Argo!”

“Argo’s troops got scared of Lord Chrono and ran away!”

“You lot! Our captain taught them a good lesson!” Mino turned around, shouting.

Once again, the men cheered loudly. They had exaggerated the story somewhat, but Chrono thought this much was okay.

Chrono waved at his subordinates while stumped by his own lack of ability to play by the ear. Even though he had just remonstrated himself to not get drunk by success, he now felt awfully good.

“Captain, good work once again. I’ll take care of the encampment’s construction, so take a rest for now.”

“I need to talk with Mino about something. Everyone else, go ahead and take a break.”

“”Roger, kinda!””

After Chrono exchanged a look with them, Arided and Deneb saluted and started to walk away. Horus, Lizad, and their men followed the two elves. Chrono stared at Mino――

“Sorry for being a boss who can’t flexibly adapt to the situation.”

“No, it’s my fault for puttin’ ye on the spot. On that subject, they said you killed 400 people, but…”

“In reality, it’s around half that… As I thought, they’ve exaggerated it a bit too much, huh?”

“I don’t mind since we want the moral push from it. It’s important to get the men to adopt a positive outlook.”

“…You’re right,” agreed Chrono after some time.

He wondered whether it was really alright, but they had said something similar in a war movie he saw in his previous world.

Yep, the truth isn’t always important. Right now boosting morale is more important than ethics. Well, to be honest, it’s inevitable to be worried about a situation where you have no choice but to trust on something intangible as mood――

After sighing, he cast another look at the defensive encampment.

“That side looks like it’s proceeding fine. But, why has it become similar to a parapet?”

“It’d seem like it’d be blown over by the wind, if we’d kept it all at one height, so we went with this shape.”

“I didn’t even take the wind into account. It’s good that I left this to you, Mino. I wouldn’t have been able to get this far by myself.”

“Yer praise makes me feel embarrassed.”

Mino scratched his head, looking bashful.

“By the way, how many wagons have we left?”

“Five…”

“That’s more than enough. Also, I don’t see Taiga anywhere. Where did he go?”

“Taiga is,” Mino looked up the slope.

Drawn in by that, Chrono followed his eyes, just to find Taiga and his men doing some sort of work up there. He guessed they were getting materials.

“Once the battle starts, we won’t have any time, so I have them gather firewood.”

“Sorry, that was thoughtless of me. Lizad and the other lizardmen are going to become immobile if they can’t warm themselves.”

“What, it’s an adjutant’s duty to cover the blind spots. Come t’think of it, what are ye plannin’ to use the stones for?”

“Didn’t I explain it?”

“Not that I knew.”

“Actually, I thought we’d throw them at the enemy.”

“…Captain.”

Mino loudly wheezed through his nose.

“You want to say that it’s not very noble-like, right? I know that, but don’t you think it’ll turn into a power weapon if we have the lizardmen and minotaurs throw stones at full strength?”

“I kinda feel like ye becomin’ less like a noble by the day.”

“I threw my pride to the dogs anyway. Besides, I’ve never seen a noble-like noble to begin with.”

“I felt like Lord Leonhart is a genuine noble.”

“I think I’d croak if I imitated Sir Leonhart.”

Chrono shivered when he recalled how Leonhart had cut down ten cavalrymen as lone rider. He’d be fine to try it at least once if he had ten lives, but Chrono had just this one life. And he wanted to cherish it.

“Also, we want to save on arrows, don’t we?”

“Ah, there was that as well, true.”

“Though I really don’t want to fight wars while constantly worrying about supplies.”

“I’m with ye on that,” Mino responded with a sigh to Chrono’s grumbled complaint.

Suddenly Mino fell silent――

“How about ye take yer meal anytime soon?”

“Is something the matter?”

“I’m tired of those painful stares.”

“Stares,” muttered Chrono and looked behind Mino.

Thereupon he spotted Arided and Deneb looking their way from the shadows of the First Defense Line. They were moving their mouths, forming the word meal.

“I might have made them wait a bit too long.”

“It’s a big help that yer quick on the uptake. Just one little thing…”

“What’s up?”

“Be honest, what do ye plan t’do with Arided and Deneb?”

“O-Of course I’ll cherish them as lovers.”

“That’s great t’hear. Looks like I’ve worried for no reason.”

Once Chrono answered with a shrill, nervous voice, Mino breathed out in relief. He had some things he wanted to say, but he decided to drop it. He had obtained two dreams and he thought that it was fine like that.

“Umm, Mino? When I’m going to explain things to Layla――”

“Please spare me that,” Mino interrupted Chrono.

“Figures,” Chrono said, hanging his head. “Okay, I’m going to get my meal.”

“Aye, take a nice rest, Captain.”

Mino bowed his head as if tilting forward while Chrono headed over to Arided and Deneb. He stepped across the First Defense Line――the hollow part in the barricade made out of disassembled wagons――and groaned lightly. His legs were too short, and thus the barricade dug into his nether region. Being unable to cross it while it looked like it’d be possible was plain and effective harassment.

Once he climbed over the First Defense Line, Arided and Deneb linked their arms with his on either side. They continuously pushed their breasts against him. But, as might be expected of a metal armor made by Goldi, no softness was transmitted through it.

“Sheesh, we were already getting kinda tired of waiting.”

“But, if it’s a bit, we’ll endure.”

Chrono moved to the slope while being pulled along by the two. As he sat down and took out the hard bread from his pouch, the sound of crunching could be soon heard. Arided and Deneb were biting through the tough bread. Chrono let his eyes wander, just to spot Horus and Lizad also eating hard bread at a slight distance.

“The hard bread has a nice consistency and tastes great. It’s a tastiness I could get addicted to.”

“…Delicious.”

Horus and Lizad appeared to be satisfied. Or rather, it seemed like Chrono was the only one feeling unhappy about it. He groaned and then bit into the bread with his molars. Since it became softer during the chewing, he broke it apart and swallowed it down.

“…I’ve been the one ordering it to be made like this, yet…” Chrono sighed.

“”Yet?””

Arided and Deneb tilted their heads cutely.

“The hard bread isn’t overly tasty, is it?”

“It’s plenty delicious.”

“It’s kinda wrong to be picky about food.”

Unfortunately, Chrono couldn’t garner any sympathy. While feeling a pang of sadness, he ate his hard bread.

“Hah, it’s somewhat lacking, but let’s keep it at this.”

“Sleeping right after having a meal is bad manners.”

Arided laid down on the slope after finishing her hard bread, causing Deneb to chide her.

Looking at them like this, they do have different personalities after all, Chrono assessed.

“Ahh, I wanna eat candy.”

“You already did, didn’t you?”

“No. They were re-distributed when we were provided with the hard bread, but we got too small an amount,” Arided answered Chrono’s question with a sigh. “Ugh, it’s painful for food to decrease without you even eating it.”

“We’re going to fight together, so things should be split fairly.”

“I know that, but I’m kinda not all that happy with it. Boooh,” Arided pushed out her lower lip, sending glances in Chrono’s direction.

She was likely aiming at Chrono’s share of candy. He felt like he wouldn’t have an issue to give to her, but――

“Lord Chrono, I kinda recommend you to give her the cold shoulder since she’ll only take advantage of you if you spoil her.”

“Ugh, it feels like my own little sister is backstabbing me.”

“I’m not,” Deneb denied with a fed-up voice.

While casting sidelong glances at those two, Chrono swallowed down the rest of his bread and breathed out in relief.

“Deneb has always been sharp as a tack.”

“I’m not going to lose to you, big sis.”

“Starting to get all cocky as soon as you became Lord Chrono’s lover; how impertinent!”

“I want the person I love to see the real me!”

“The real you…that’s ridiculous!”

The two started to quarrel loudly. Chrono looked up at the sky, thinking that he’d sure like some quiet after taking a meal. Probably because his view was flanked by slopes on either side, the sky felt narrow. At that moment――

『Nasul speaking. Argo’s army has begun to move once again』

Nasul’s voice came from the magical communicator. Chrono took it out of his pouch and yelled, “Chrono speaking! How fast are they advancing?”

『They’re somewhat slow, but they should arrive at your place in around an hour. Should we hinder their march?』

“Nasul, you guys focus on surveillance.”

『As you command』

Just as Chrono put the communicator away and stood up, Mino ran over to him.

“Mino, get ready for combat!”

“Gotcha! Horus, Lizad, have yer units line up behind the First Defense Line! Arided, Deneb, take yer archers and their guarding infantry, and deploy on the slopes on both sides! Taiga, yer on stone supply duty! Get ready so that ye can join in at any given moment!”

Mino nodded powerfully once Chrono gave the order. He took his magical communicator out of his pouch, and started to give detailed instructions. As Chrono was admiring him, Deneb walked up to him, looking embarrassed.

“Lord Chrono, do you kinda have a moment?”

“What’s wrong?”

“We’re going to head into battle from now on, so――”

Without waiting for Deneb to finish, Chrono hugged Deneb and stole her lips. After enjoying the feeling of her lips to his heart’s content, he let go of her, causing Deneb to sink down on the ground. He guessed that she was quite embarrassed as her face was bright red.

“Is it OK with this?”

“I-I wanted to have you stroke my ears, but this was an unexpected development.”

“Being kissed all of a sudden, that’s epic!”

Deneb turned her face away while holding her mouth. Arided pointed at her, guffawing.

I’ve done something inexcusable.

Once he caressed her ears with a feeling of apology, Deneb’s body trembled and her eyes became moist. Since she stood up, he stopped stroking her.

“Lord Chrono!”

“――gh!”

The instant his name was called, Arided put a hand around his neck and kissed him. Then she let go of him with a shpop.

“The rest kinda follows after this! Nihihi,” goggled Arided and started to dash towards the slope.

“Ugh,” groaned Deneb and began to run in the opposite direction of Arided.

With a slight delay, the archers and infantrymen followed those two. Chrono wiped his lips with the back of his hand, and headed to Mino at the First Defense Line.

The first line consisted of the lizardmen led by Lizad, and the second line consisted of the minotaurs led by Horus. The third line was a mixed unit made up with lizardmen and minotaurs.

“…She put her tongue in.”

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear anythin’,” Mino snorted loudly through his nostrils and raised the corners of his mouth.

Lured in by that, Chrono smiled as well.

As he thought, his foster-father’s words were correct after all. The situation was what it was, but as long as someone was smiling and laughing, they still had some leeway. They were still alright.

※

Around the time when the sun had passed its zenith and begun its westward descent, Chrono stood behind the First Defense Line, waiting for the time of battle to come. Suddenly Mino bent over.

“They’re here.”

“Yeah, I know,” Chrono nodded at Mino’s whisper.

He couldn’t hear their footsteps, but he knew that the enemy was closing in. As he gazed ahead of him, he saw enemy soldiers appearing from the shadows of the slopes. Their vanguard stopped its advance at a distance of around 100 meters from the First Defense Line.

Chrono’s legs were trembling. But that was only natural. The number of enemies was overwhelming. As far as he could see, the entire narrow path was filled with enemy soldiers, like a carpet that stretched into the distance.

“It looks like General Igniz isn’t with them.”

“Seems like he sent a replacement, though.”

The instant Mino answered in a whisper, a man on horse came forward from further down the path. He wore a priest’s garb. He approached while pushing his allies aside with his horse.

“Should we attack him?”

“He might be planning to offer us a retreat. Let’s hear what he’s got to say for the moment.”

“I think yer aimin’ a bit too high with yer hopes.”

The man approached up to a distance of around fifty meters, beyond the front row of his own army.

“I’m an Official of Worship for the Pure-White Temple!” The man shouted from atop his horse.

Chrono found it odd for a temple official to be on the battlefield, but the official continued nonetheless.

“I have something to discuss with your commander! Who is it!?”

“What ye goin’ to do?”

“So far as it goes I’ll listen to what he has to say. Though I don’t have an overly good feeling about it.”

“Me neither.”

Chrono stared at the official and breathed in deeply.

“I’m the commanding officer, Chrono Chroford! What is it that you want from me!?”

“Our objective is to catch Alfort! Open up the way right away!” The official shouted back.

My bad feeling has been spot on. Still, how did he find out about Alfort? No wait, even low-ranking soldiers knew about Alfort’s presence. Very likely one of their prisoners had divulged it.

“I’m unable to understand what you’re trying to tell me, Sir Official!?”

“Don’t lie! It’s information we extracted from a prisoner through torture!” The official’s face became bright red when Chrono played dumb with him.

A stir occurred among the soldiers of both armies. Chrono believed he could somehow fuddle his way through this, but he hadn’t expected Argo to have tortured the information out of a prisoner.

“If you got it now, open the way! If you do, we’ll spare your lives!”

“I’d like you to give us time until tomorrow to answer you!”

“Don’t screw around with me! Won’t Alfort get away if we wait until tomorrow!?”

“I said it with that intention in mind, you idiot!” Chrono yelled back.

In response, the official’s face turned dark red.

It looks like I managed to piss him off. Maybe I should have chosen my words a bit better. No, it’d have resulted in this outcome anyway, no matter what words I chose. Regardless of whether we open the way or they push through, if Alfort gets captured, it’ll lead to questions about who’s responsible for it. In the worst case, it could even turn into a problem for my foster-father. And even if no blame would be shifted on us, it’d still put Shaela’s body in danger. There was no room for negotiations from the very start.

“Negotiations are dead!” The official shouted and turned the head of his horse around.

Chrono looked up to Mino, “So he says.”

“Don’t phrase it like it’s someone else’s problem. Wouldn’t it have been fine to negotiate with him a tad longer?”

“If I could have secured an advantageous promise under these circumstances for us, the prospect would have been enough to keep going.”

“Yeah, yeah, I just wanted to say it. Rather, I wondered what ye’d do when he told us to make way.”

“If I didn’t have anything important to protect besides my life, I’d have done so. But, in the end, we still have a chance by duking it out, don’t we? Well, my lacking trust towards that guy also played a role in this, though.”

Chrono sighed lightly.

“If that’s how things are goin’ to be, we got no choice but to win.”

“Of course we’ll win,” Chrono nodded reassuringly.

To be honest, our chances are slim. But, there’s no point in fighting if you plan to lose anyway. If you fight, you do it with the intention of victory. Otherwise, victory will be impossible.

“Advaaance!”

As soon as the official’s voice echoed through the narrow path, the enemy soldiers started to move. They slowly approached with their spears at the ready. Rather, you could even call their movements fearful.

Chrono took a look at the enemy soldiers’ equipment.

It’s not good. Or rather, you can call it outright bad. With such equipment, we’ll be able to make our stone throwing work.

“Horus corps! Ready your stones!”

“Everyone, hold your stones!” Horus repeated Chrono’s shouted order.

Horus and his minotaurs picked up the stones stacked at their feet. The stones looked tiny in comparison to the big minotaurs. But, in reality they were as big as a baby head. If they hit a bad spot, the target would die.

“Start throwing!”

“Goooo!”

Horus and his men threw their stones all at once.

“Stones are incoming! Dodge them!” An enemy soldier shouted.

Chrono had expected them to fall into panic, but that didn’t come to pass. The stones thrown by Horus’s corps drew a curve and dropped in the rear.

“That’s not how you throw them! You throw them…like this!”

Chrono picked up a stone, and threw it with an overhand throw. However, the stone dropped way before it reached the first line of enemy soldiers.

Well, they’re close to fifty meters away, so it’s only natural for my throw to come short.

Yet, the enemy soldiers guffawed at that throw. Probably getting cocky from this, one of them walked forward.

“Hey, hey, those stones aren’t reachi――gyaarh!”

He had apparently tried to provoke Chrono, but he didn’t manage to finish his words. A stone thrown by Lizad hit him square in the face. The man didn’t move, the stone sunken into his face. But, he wasn’t the only one. All enemy soldiers had stopped moving. Then again, it was the same on Chrono’s side as well.

One second passed, another second passed――around the time when more than ten seconds had elapsed, the stone came off the man’s face and fell to the ground. With this probably breaking the overall balance, the enemy soldier toppled backwards. No one tried to prop him up. All enemy soldiers took distance from him as if he was carrying some infectious disease. Yet, silence continued to reign.

“…Crushed,” muttered Lizad, beaming a smile on Chrono’s lips.

The enemy soldiers backed off as if seized with fear.

“Shower them with stones!”

“Throw them! Go go go!”

“…Throw.”

As soon as Chrono yelled his order, Horus and the others resumed their stone throwing. The cooperation between the first and second line didn’t go smoothly. But, they succeeded in keeping up a barrage of thrown stones. Short screams could be heard intermittently, and some enemy soldiers collapsed. If an arrow fired by a composite bow counted as bullet, stones thrown by lizardmen and minotaurs could be regarded as cannonballs. If they hit the head or body, it’d be fatal, and even if they hit the limbs, the enemy soldiers were incapacitated. Probably realizing the dreadfulness of stone throwing, the enemy soldiers started to scream.

“Run away!”

“Where should we run to, smartass!?”

“Hide yourself!”

“There’s no place to hide, you moron!”

With the enemy soldiers falling prey to the stones as they couldn’t hide themselves anyway, Chrono’s smile deepened. The narrow path continued in a straight line all the way to a place where the slopes were overhanging. The distance was several hundred meters. Thus, this place here was the most efficient location when it came to stone throwing.

“The slopes! Stick to the slopes!” A shout reverberated.

The enemy soldiers parted to the left and right, staying close to the walls. Those soldiers, who were too slow in acting, and the soldiers in the rear, who had lost their meatshields, fell prey to the stones next.

The Official of Worship is…, Chrono let his eyes wander. Thereupon, he spotted the official outside the range of the stone-throwing. Just when did he run away? Well, Official of worship is a fairly high post in a temple, so his ability in detecting danger must be quite outstanding.

“Gyaaa!”

A short scream. Once Chrono looked in the direction of the yell, he found an enemy soldier with an arrow stabbed in his back. It was an attack by the archers who had lined up atop the slopes. Arrows came flying down, piercing the soldiers who were stuck to the slopes. Stones from the front, arrows from the sides ―― Argo’s army could neither advance, nor retreat. However, that was limited to the enemy within the range of the stone throwing. The ones unable to move were at most several hundred――or in other words, the majority of the enemy army was fine.

“At this rate, things will get tough, huh?” Chrono muttered while covering his mouth with a hand.

※

Igniz sat on a rock, listening to his subordinate Van’s report.

“What should we do?”

“We remain on standby.”

Van frowned when Igniz answered after a short while. Igniz could understand his feelings. Van had his heart crushed by Chrono. And yet, he stood on the battlefield once again. All because of his wish to take revenge for his friends who had been brutally murdered. However, they were being told to stay back in the rear. Igniz understood Van feeling like frowning at this.

“General Igniz, I feel honored to have been fighting under you. I considered last year’s invasion into the Erakis March as being for the sake of the Kingdom. But, this treatment is…”

“Stop right there.”

“………As you command,” Van answered after a long spell of silence.

Igniz was proud of having been defending his homeland. It was unthinkable that he didn’t feel angry and disgruntled at his current situation. But, for this very reason he believed he should endure for now. He followed the maxim that one, who led troops, shouldn’t act on personal feelings.

A soldier moved at the corner of Igniz’s eyes. When he lifted his face, wondering what was going on, the Official of Worship just appeared from the shadows of the slope on his horse. Igniz thought the official had simply taken command at the frontline to monopolize the achievements, but this didn’t seem to be the case. While the official got off his horse, Igniz stood up.

“Sir Official of Worship, how did the negotiations go?”

“They failed. Bloody hell, just who’s that guy anyway. I was so kind to give them a chance to survive, and yet he refused it just like that. Even though it was already hard to excuse him turning down my offer, I cannot even begin to believe that he’s a noble, seeing how he uses stone-throwing as a means of combat,” the official grumbled while kicking the ground in irritation. “In the end, he’s just the son of an upstart, I guess.”

“The son of an upstart?”

“What, you didn’t know?” The official asked in obvious contempt in response to Igniz’s muttering.

Van tried to step forward, but Igniz stopped him with his eyes. He couldn’t afford to lose a veteran subordinate at this point.

“I’m sorry to admit, but my knowledge is quite lacking. If possible, would you be kind enough to tell me?”

“Humph. The father of the guy called Chrono seems to be a former mercenary. His name is Chrod. He apparently gained his noble rank after buttering up to the emperor during the civil war thirty years ago.”

“Ah, I see.”

No wonder he’s fighting in a way that doesn’t suit nobles at all, Igniz could comprehend now.

“Still, for the son of a guy who became a noble after being a mercenary…”

“Is there anything noteworthy about him having been a mercenary before becoming noble?”

“It means he’s going to be tough. Should I lend you my assistance?”

“…Unnecessary,” the official barked back angrily.

“Okay, please tell me whenever you need my help. Come to think of it, you mention that the imperial army has thrown stones――”

“It’s no problem. We’re exceeding them in numbers. We can face down their resistance.”

The official’s face twisted in displeasure, before he climbed on his horse once more.

“Where are you headed?”

“I will move to the hill. I can command the army from over there just fine,” the official spat out and spurred on his horse.

Watching him leave, Igniz addressed Van, “Do you know a mercenary called Chrod Chroford?”

“I’m not really informed about mercenaries.”

“I see,” muttered Igniz and sat back down on his rock.

He thought it’d be easy to come up with countermeasures if he knew what sort of man Chrod Chroford was, but it seemed like it wouldn’t be that simple to hear stories about him.

“General Igniz, do you think they can overcome the resistance with numbers?”

“Normally I’d think so. Why do you ask?”

“Well, I’d like to get revenge on him with my very own hands. It wouldn’t be very funny if my target dies in some place unknown to me. Moreover, him getting killed by that creepy official would suck. It’s the same for you as well, isn’t it?”

“I’ll pretend you didn’t ask,” Igniz answered with a wry smile.

※

In the evening Chrono stood next to Mino, looking out on the battlefield. Lizad threw a stone at an enemy soldier who tried to advance. The stone flew in a straight line before burying itself inside the man’s face. The soldiers collapsed on the spot. But, stepping over his dying comrade, a new enemy soldier closed in.

Again, huh? Chrono cursed in his mind.

The stone-throwing had shown outstanding results. The narrow path was littered with dead enemies, and new enemies couldn’t even advance without climbing over all those corpses. And despite that, the battle’s progress still remained disadvantageous for them.

“Forward! Climb over your allies’ corpses and push forward!” A man shouted from atop his horse in the rear.

It was the commander who had taken over from the Official of Worship. He just waved his sword around, shouting at the soldiers to advance, but they couldn’t dislodge a useless guy like him.

The reason was obvious. The difference in resources. It was especially painful that they had to save on arrows. If they wouldn’t need to worry about the number of arrows, it wouldn’t be impossible to get rid of that guy, but――

“Good! We’ll be able to win if we maintain this pace! All of you, keep going!”

“G-Got it!”

“…Affirmative.”

Chrono encouraged his men while stifling his own worries. Horus and Lizad responded while continuing to throw stones. Leaving aside Lizad, Horus looked very exhausted. Not only had he been continuously throwing stones, but enemy soldiers had appeared one after the other as well. Horus was a mentally weak guy to begin with. It was obvious that stress only expedited his fatigue.

While harboring the wish of wanting to somehow overturn the current battle situation, Chrono looked backwards――between the First and Second Defense Line. Taiga’s unit had been supplying stones to the front, but the stones had clearly shrunk in size compared to the start of this battle. They were in the process of running out of stones.

Chrono shifted his eyes to Mino next to him, “How does the situation look in your eyes?”

“It’s gradually gettin’ worse.”

“…Right.”

Chrono sighed lightly. The opinions of Chrono, who was basically a beginner, and a veteran like Mino matched. There was no doubt about the battle becoming increasingly worse for their side.

“Got some idea to turn it all ’round in one swipe?”

“Turning the tables, eh? That’s be great.”

Chrono smiled. He thought it’d would feel awesome, if they could make a comeback from this situation. Then again――

“I wonder whether some good idea to make that happen actually exists.”

“As might be expected, that’s askin’ a bit too much I’d think.”

“Well, it’d depend on the timing, but pushing back the enemy would be possible.”

“We push them back and then?”

“We’ll…”

Chrono shifted his eyes to the enemy commander. He was still yelling around while brandishing his sword atop his horse.

“…take the commander’s head and thus buy time by throwing their frontline into chaos.”

“It kinda feels like hopin’ on an unexpected effect occurin’.”

“If we can stall for time, allowing the main force to get away, it’d be great. And if it causes the enemy to give up, it’d be even greater.”

“So, how ye’re goin’ to take his head?”

“You’re awfully straightforward. I’d expected you to drop at least one sarcastic comment about this whole idea.”

“Sarcasm or whatever; I’ve got no plan to get us out of this mess. Bfft,” snorted Mino through his nose. “I’ve said this and that, but I think ye’ve got talent, Captain.”

“That’s too much praise,” Chrono smiled bitterly.

Chrono felt like he’d get carried away from too much praise and started to get worried whether it might not raise some death flag.

“I’m just pinnin’ my hopes on yer talent which sent Argo’s army back home last year. Let me ask once more: what kind of plan do you have?”

“Mino, where’s my barrel?”

“Barrel? Ah, I left it with Clay,” Mino answered while clapping his hands together after tilting his head in confusion beforehand.

“Bring it over.”

“Gotcha.”

Mino headed to a slope, just to return soon while shouldering a small barrel.

“I brought it, but ye mean this here?”

“It’s alcohol.”

“――gh!”

Mino likely remembered how Igniz had turned into a living torch. Mino fearfully stared at the barrel on his shoulder. But that was only understandable. For him alcohol was some dangerous, unidentified liquid.

“Yer goin to burn the enemy to death with this?”

“It’d be great if it had that much firepower, but…at most it’d just startle them.”

“What’s the point in doin’ that?”

“We’ll plunge into the space opened up by the enemy’s retreat.”

“That’s…,” Mino hesitated to continue.

Chrono knew what he wanted to say. They’d die in vain if the enemy didn’t retreat. Probably intending to object, Mino opened his mouth, but at the moment Taiga rushed over.

“Lord Chrono, Adjutant Mini, I have a report to make.”

“What’s the matter?”

“It looks like we have run out of stones,” groaned Taiga.

“Mino, I leave the time of throwing the small barrel to you.”

“Captain, ye don’t say…”

“The enemy will gain momentum, now that we’re out of stones. Taiga, we’re going to charge. Come with me.”

“Ayes, Sir. Taiga unit, grab your weapons and assemble.”

Chrono clapped Mino’s shoulder and then walked up to the First Defense Line so that he’d be able to jump over it at any moment.

“Ah, it seems we’re going to run out of stones soon,” Horus wailed pathetically.

Even if it’s inevitable since he’s mentally weak, I’d like him to have some self-awareness as a centurion. But, if Horus displays such shameful behavior, I feel like I must shape up instead.

Hiding in the shadow of the First Defense Line, Chrono directed his eyes at Taiga’s unit. Around a hundred of them had already gathered.

“Aaahhh! All the stones are gone!”

“Charge!”

As soon as Horus screamed this, the enemy commander ordered his soldiers to attack. When the enemy soldiers let their eyes wander to check the reaction of the comrades around them, the small barrel passed above Chrono’s head.

“Lizad! Strike the barrel at the same time as it comes down!”

“…Lightning.”

The barrel fell down just as Chrono yelled. With a slight delay, Lizad used his magic big mallet to unleash lightning. Hit by that, the barrel exploded and crimson flames spread all over. Some enemy soldiers turned into living torches, but most of them got away from the place, escaping the worst.

“Taiga unit, follow me!”

Chrono drew his sword and rushed out from his cover. He reached the flames in no time. It’d have been great if the fire’s intensity could have waned until he closed the distance, but the flames were raging vigorously. Almost like a fire wall. Making up his resolve, Chrono jumped into the wall of fire. It was hot, but it only lasted an instant. In the next instant, he broke through the fire wall, just to run into an enemy soldier staring at him with a startled expression. His body twitched――

“Kiieeeeeee!”

Chrono screamed in a weird way, stopping the enemy soldier from moving. Using that opening, Chrono thrust out his sword. The point stabbed through the enemy’s throat, resulting in the soldier crumbling on the spot.

“H-How dare――”

“Lord Chrono, duck!”

The enemy soldier next to the fallen one, probably his friend, spoke up. But his words were swallowed by Taiga’s shout. The instant Chrono crouched down, Taiga jumped over him. As expected of a tiger beastman, he possessed outstanding jumping power.

“Flames!”

Taiga unleashed one flash with his greatsword. An explosion occurred and the enemy soldier was blown away.

At that point, the Taiga unit swarmed in. The beastmen showered the fallen soldiers with merciless blows. The enemy tried to shift towards counterattacking, but they probably lacked combat experience.

It was a chance. Chrono wanted to advance like this and take the enemy commander’s head. He stepped forward, but Taiga was faster than him. He cut into the mass of enemies, blowing them away with his magic item. The other beastmen flooded in once again, widening the opening.

“Take down the beastmen! Don’t let them get close to me!” The enemy commander shouted while swinging his sword.

He apparently realized that they were targeting him. The Official of Worship and him seemed to excel at sensing danger. Chrono thought that it wouldn’t have hurt for them to be a bit slower on the uptake in this regard, but he also knew that this would be asking for too much.

Chrono’s group pushed towards the enemy commander in one block. But, it was quite difficult for them to advance. The effect of the surprise attack had faded and the enemy had switched to counterattacking.

Sheesh, how annoying.

Seemingly believing that the danger had passed, the enemy commander grinned――

“Heavenly Pivotal Dance!”

Chrono used his magic art. The magic formula ran down like a waterfall and a dull pain ran through his temples. A jet-black orb came into existence and headed for the enemy commander. The commander widened his eyes in shock.

“Magic arts! Knock it down!”

The enemy soldiers stabbed their spears at the orb in response to their commander’s shouting. But, the orb flew straight ahead while slipping through those spears. The enemy commander turned his horse around, planning to run away. Chrono clicked his tongue. The commander’s way to deal with this was correct. Heavenly Pivotal Dance wasn’t fast by any means. If he galloped away on his horse, it’d never catch up with him.

“M-Move aside! You bastards, open a path!” The commander yelled hysterically.

He couldn’t run away while his own soldiers stood in the way. Probably planning to cut them down, he brandished his sword. But, it was too late.

Chrono gripped his fist and the enemy commander’s head vanished. Blood sprayed out of the torso as it fell off the horse, now headless.

“Retreat!”

“Flames!”

As soon as Chrono shouted his order, Taiga swung down his sword, causing an explosion and thus blowing away the enemy soldiers. Chrono and his men turned around and started to run. They didn’t expect to be pursued, but――

“T-They ran away!”

“C-Chase them! After them!”

“Get revenge for our friends!”

“Kill them aaaaaall!”

The enemy soldiers shouted and ran after Chrono’s group. Chrono thought they’d fall into chaos with their commander dead, but he hadn’t anticipated even in his wildest dreams that they’d go berserk――

Still, just when did we gather so much hate? No, right now I don’t have the time to think about stuff like that. I must run away.

“Run, run!”

“Lord Chrono, us two are at the end of the group!” Taiga shouted, seemingly having arrived next to Chrono at some point.

Chrono looked back over his shoulder. Only enemies were there. No allies. And the enemies were chasing them with bloodshot eyes.

“Excuse me!”

“Ogghh!”

A shock ran through his abdomen. An impact as if he’d been hit with a log. Then his visual field gained in altitude. Taiga was shouldering Chrono, running just like that. He was fast. They steadily widened the distance to the enemy soldiers. Chrono wondered whether this wasn’t much faster than him running on his own two feet.

“No, I also put in all my effort into it.”

“You are going to bite your tongue.”

“I won’t bi――nh!”

Chrono tried to mutter a complaint, but he couldn’t. Taiga suddenly jumped. Although it was a lower section of it, he easily leaped over the First Defense Line. The ground quickly came closer, followed by an impact piercing Chrono as soon as they landed. He had trouble breathing.

‘Shit, I can’t give my orders.

Mino ran up to the First Defense Line with the poleax in his hand.

“Wind!”

“…Lightning.”

Mino released a shockwave from his poleax which Lizad boosted with lightning from his big mallet. The enemy soldiers screamed as they got blown away or fell on the spot. Chrono stared at them while feeling like praying that they retreat. But――

“Shit, how dare you!”

“Don’t stop running!”

“Ugh, my body got slightly numb!”

“Teach them about the grudge of our fallen friends!”

The enemy soldiers didn’t stop. Probably under the influence of adrenaline or another secretion, they had stopped feeling pain and fear.

At that moment, arrows rained down on them. It was a reinforcement by Chrono’s archers. Pierced by arrows, the enemy soldiers fell like flies. The casualties went up quickly. And yet, the enemy soldiers didn’t stop. They pushed onwards while climbing over the dead bodies of their comrades.

“Guaah! D-Don’t falter!”

“As if we’d succumb to this!”

“Uuooohhh!”

The next instant the enemy soldiers shouted all this, logs rolled down on them. Chrono assumed those to be fallen trees, and not felled ones. Once he looked up the slope, he found Arided waving at him. Without being able to do anything, the enemy soldiers were blown away. Silence descended on the battlefield.

“R-Ruuuuuunn awaaaayy!”

The enemy soldiers threw their weapons away and started to flee. They had probably come to their senses after seeing their friends getting squashed by the logs. Arrows poured down once more, resulting in more enemies falling after screaming shortly.

“I am putting you down.”

“Carefully please.”

After feeling the ground under his feet, Chrono sighed lightly. He immediately headed over to Mino. Mino was glaring at the enemy while shouldering his poleax. They had retreated to a location around a hundred meters away from the First Defense Line. And even though it had been such a tough battle for Chrono and his men thus far, it didn’t look like the enemy had decreased in numbers.

“Mino, thanks for the cover.”

“No need to thank me. But, stop tryin’ to do the unreasonable, Captain.”

“It’s just that I thought we had to cut off the vanguard.”

Taiga would have done it for him, but right now they were in a fairly perilous situation. If the commander were to stay back in the safe rear during such a time, it’d lower morale.

“At least they’re staying away. Is it because we killed their commander?”

“I think that also plays a role, but they’re mostly watching the situation for now.”

Mino suddenly shook his body while glaring at the enemy.

“These guys seem a bit dangerous.”

“Dangerous? You mean they’re strong?”

“Aye. They smell like veteran soldiers.”

“Hmm, I see,” agreed Chrono conversationally.

Even if he was told about the smell of veteran soldiers, it didn’t tell him anything, but since Mino was the one talking about it, Chrono assumed something like that must exist.

He faced the enemy once more. Their eyes were bloodshot, but their faces were expressionless. Now that he had heard Mino’s words, Chrono felt like they couldn’t underestimate these guys. Then again, it didn’t matter whether the opponents were veterans or beginners since it didn’t change anything about Chrono’s work. They would buy time for the main force to escape and return to their fief alive. That was all.

“You think they’ll come attacking once a new commander arrives?”

“I doubt that’ll happen anytime soon.”

“Why?”

Mino pointed his finger upwards. In the next instant, the area darkened. Chrono looked up to the sky in a hurry. Only then he noticed how the sun was about to vanish beyond the horizon.

“It’s almost as if we’d aimed for this timing.”

“I’m also surprised by this.” Mino scratched his head awkwardly. “Leaving aside the matter with the timin’, we’re surrounded by hills, so the night will become quite dark. Any decent commander wouldn’t attack under such circumstances.”

“Decent commander, eh?”

‘To be honest, I don’t feel like that official is a decent commander. No,’ Chrono shook his head, ‘If we keep the enemy’s pace, we won’t be able to regain the initiative. It’s essential to have an offensive mindset.

“Mino, split the unit in four groups.”

“Four groups?”

Since Mino furrowed his eyebrows skeptically, Chrono explained to him the roles of each group. The first team would defend the First Defense Line to the last, the second team would reinforce the encampment, the third team would take a rest, and the fourth team would――

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Translation Notes: