Chapter 14
Chapter 14
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>Translator: Lord First
>Chapter: 14
>Chapter Title: Morning Star (4)
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*
-Bang—!
-Bang—!!
With each sporadic gunshot, I could feel the enemies scattering in confusion.
It wasn't just because of their poor training. In fact, the more elite they were, the more unavoidable it was.
When ambushed, a competent officer would gauge the enemy's numbers by the frequency of their attacks.
-Judging by the interval between gunshots, the enemy is a single person, or at most a small group.
This much was obvious. The problem, however, was that the gunshots in this forest were coming from more than one direction.
A shot from the east. *Bang*. By the time they moved their forces that way, all that remained in that direction were a few corpses.
As they scattered their troops in panic, another shot from the west. *Bang*.
At this point, the commanding officer's thoughts were predictable. 'The enemy has split their small force to corner us.'
An accurate assessment.
If their opponent weren't a field commander from the Annihilation Squad.
-Click.
Sensing the tension, bloodlust, and fury that saturated the forest air, I slowly raised my pistol. Ahead, three soldiers holding torches were scanning their surroundings.
An act of fear, or perhaps fury. From a distance, there was no difference between the two.
Ivan took a long breath,
exhaled halfway, braced his core, and held it firm,
aimed the tip of the front sight at the target, calculated the distance, and raised it five notches.
With a fluidity like flowing water, a 'learned' skill that was nearly instinctual.
All this in 0.3 seconds.
His wide-open blue eyes scanned the surroundings. The spacing of the three soldiers, their height differences, and the corresponding distances.
When the calculation was complete, he filled his vision with the farthest one.
Fire.
-Bang—!
The moment he fired, he lowered the gun and gripped his axe. There was no need to confirm the kill. They would tell him.
“Damn it! Inov's been hit!”
“Where are you! Show yourself! You bastard!!”
Leaping swiftly through the treetops to the next, he noted that the torches they were waving around served as excellent target indicators.
Using fire in the forest provided too much visibility. Of course, without the torches, the forest would be so dark that nothing would be visible, but that was their mistake, wasn't it?
They shouldn't have chosen a night like this.
Fundamentally, a night raid is a very, very difficult task. It requires an exceptional commander and perfectly trained troops.
Even such soldiers would hesitate before an ambush at night in a forest, especially a foreign one. Perhaps a third of them had already fallen behind right after deployment.
‘In that case, the total enemy force is around fifty.’
Judging by the extent of their dispersal and the size of their scattered squads, that seemed about right.
Ivan, perched above the soldier holding the torch, thought this as he gripped his axe and plunged downward.
-Craaack!!
“Aaargh!!”
A cowardly one. The man who was actually struck by the axe hadn't even managed a single scream.
But he seemed to have been properly trained, seeing as he raised his gun the moment Ivan appeared.
Ivan ducked. The man's trembling finger pressed against the trigger.
There was no aiming process. It was meaningless at this distance, and the man wasn't in the right state of mind for it.
It meant he was panicking, just trying to shoot.
But I couldn't let that happen.
“D-dieee!!”
Ignoring his words, Ivan tensed his thighs. The veins on the back of the man's hand bulged.
In that instant, having already closed the distance, Ivan was swinging his axe.
With one blow, the right shoulder and the nape of the neck shattered simultaneously. Literally, 'shattered.'
A strike filled with ferocious power, then a quick twist of the body for another strike. And another.
Three swings of the axe, all within half a breath. No one here could speak another word.
“Hoo.”
Ivan cracked his shoulders and sheathed his axe.
He picked up the gun held by the nameless soldier, aimed it at the sky, and tied a thin thread to the trigger, stretching it to a nearby tree.
Tucking the gun into the dead soldier's arms and securing it firmly, his work here was done.
Someone would come looking for this place, having heard the gunshot.
The moment they touched this corpse, the loaded gun would fire, and the command post, in their confusion, would misjudge Ivan's position.
The delay in information reaching command, the limited visibility of the dark forest, the fear of an unfamiliar environment, the confusing intel, the steady dwindling of allies.
The more competent the enemy, the easier they are to deceive.
Ivan thought as he raced through the treetops.
So, this... is strange.
The enemy's condition is far too competent for a tutorial.
‘Dian August was supposed to be an NPC who helped with Isabelle's tutorial and then disappeared.’
Ivan narrowed his eyes.
In this situation, if he hadn't been here, could Isabelle have really escaped this forest alive on her own?
Considering the enemy's state—well-equipped with firearms, well-trained troops, and a competent command—this was not a level of danger that a young girl, barely twenty, could overcome.
‘Why...? Could it be that annihilating the enemy isn't the condition for clearing the tutorial?’
Sometimes, there are games like that. Where you have to learn the controls while fleeing from a powerful enemy.
But how? And to where?
Considering the remaining distance to Frichenkaya, the probability of a naive kid who can't even get her bearings escaping the forest safely would converge to 0%.
Even in his confusion, Ivan did not stop moving.
He could worry after the situation was resolved.
*
“Captain, it happened again. This time, all three of them were hacked to pieces by an axe, they say.”
“Hmph. What is this…?”
The man groaned, stroking his chin.
It felt like facing a tiger.
A hunting method that slowly strangles the group, picking off the weakest ones first.
The countermeasure was simple. Just consolidate the troops.
But he couldn't do that. His target was the 'Hero's daughter'.
“Wouldn't it be better to gather the men now…?”
“You fool. Isn't that exactly what the ones out there want?”
The enemy is a small force. That's obvious.
If they were facing a large-scale counterattack, they wouldn't be using such a troublesome method.
Let's assume a small, highly elite strike team is currently scattered in that forest.
-Bang—!
Another gunshot rang out. From the west this time.
And soon after.
-Bang—!
This time, from beyond the north.
The gunshots were gradually closing in on his position.
“They already know our position.”
“Sir?”
“I said, they already know this is the command post! You idiot! Don't you get it?”
“Ah, yes. I suppose so, but... then why aren't they attacking us directly…?”
Wouldn't it be much simpler to strike the command post and then hunt down the panicked troops one by one?
Why were the enemies engaging in such a troublesome act?
It's because.
-Bang—!
>-Bang—!
At the end of the two gunshots from different directions, a shocking realization flashed through the man's mind.
“Give me your gun.”
“Sir? Ah, yes!”
He snatched the man's gun and fired into the air. *Bang—!*
The man stood frozen for a moment, then let out a growl.
“It's one person.”
“But Captain, the direction of the gunshots...!”
“Damn it, what a cheap trick!!”
-Crack!
The man roared, crushing the gun in his hand.
“Those are our guns! That bastard killed our men and rigged them to fire! It's a simple trap a child could make, and we missed it!”
The man threw the remains of the gun to the ground and drew his sword.
“He must have fired the first shot to gauge our reaction. To see if we had line-of-fire detection! Our response was too swift. Damn it!”
Ordinary soldiers would seek cover the moment they hear a gunshot.
But the command post was different. Their captain possessed line-of-fire detection.
As soon as the shot was heard, he had pinpointed its direction and dispatched a pursuit team. That had been his fatal mistake.
“Why didn't he strike here directly? Either he's not confident he can take us, or he's in a situation where he can't afford to waste time. Why would someone trained to that level think like that? Huh?”
“B-because he's alone…”
“Exactly! Damn it all. The gunshots were a decoy from the start! Gather all the men! Curses, I didn't want to face the Hero's damn daughter myself…”
The scar on the man's face twisted.
The Hero's daughter. Even if she only took after the Hero by half, a monster's spawn is still a monster.
He remembered the Hero. He remembered that absurd incarnation of martial might.
No matter how young she was, he couldn't let his guard down. The Hero himself had been just a young brat of around thirty back then.
The man rolled his shoulders and stepped forward.
“I'll deal with the girl myself. Gather the men and bring me the bastard in the forest.”
“Yes, Captain!”
*
“Are you the Hero's daughter?”
Isabelle stood under the moonlight, staring directly at a man who had emerged from the forest.
Behind her, a group of people sat huddled together, steeped in fear.
A crowd of people, gathered before a bonfire, shivering from the cold as they watched her.
Isabelle shook her head. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and forced her grip to tighten on the sword that felt heavy in her hand.
“No.”
She opened her eyes. The moonlight cast a dim glow on the surroundings. The man's silhouette became a little clearer.
This was the first time she had fought with her life on the line, and the first time she had fought with the lives of others on her back.
But it was all right. Because this was 'right'.
“I am the daughter of Maximilian and Marie.”
Not the daughter of the Hero, but the daughter of two people.
With that meaning imbued in her words.
The man standing before her let out a long laugh.
The horns on his head jutted toward the sky.
A demon. Isabelle swallowed hard. This was her first time facing a demon, too.
“Excellent.”
The man nodded and adjusted his grip on his sword.
“I am Aiphelos. Formerly of the 6th Dragon General's Royal Guard Infantry Division. A centurion.”
“Isabelle. Of Thales. A knight.”
The night wind rose. The coniferous trees rustled. *Bang*. A faint gunshot echoed from the distance.
The two of them charged toward each other.
*