Departure
Departure
Time flowed on and on, until at last the day of the expedition arrived.
"Surprisingly calm, I must say."
After completing every possible preparation and finishing the final inspection, I took a hard look at myself, but felt nothing whatsoever. Neither tension nor any sense of exaltation.
Then again, given how many incidents I'd already set in motion, feeling tension now would have been laughable in its own right. But unlike me, Asilie responded with her usual worry again today.
"Don't do anything weird. You have to go and come back in one piece? Understood?"
But the direction of her worry was a bit subtle.
"What, big sis? Weird behavior? If other people heard that, they'd get the wrong idea..."
"Don't go jumping into the middle of the enemy out of nowhere, or sneak over the walls to take out the commander first, or decide a surprise attack is best and launch a night raid by yourself, alright?"
"......"
"Alright?"
I couldn't bring myself to say I understood...!
Her persistent attempts to wring an answer out of me nearly caused a scene as I tried to leave the house, but luckily Tie deftly held her back, so I got out without being late. By the end, though, it was closer to Asilie simply giving up and letting me go.
"Well then, shall we get going, Laika?"
[Alright!]
I straightened my clothes while watching Laika bound out excitedly, then headed toward the south gate with the little dog.
By now, the departure ceremony was probably well underway near the royal palace, but it was an event that had nothing to do with me. I was, after all, not part of the official expeditionary force, but merely a wandering knight who happened to be joining to offer personal assistance to Margrave of Levien—that was the story we'd aligned on.
Because of that, I was essentially covering all my own travel expenses, which meant I'd left my horse behind to avoid the hassle of buying feed and was walking on my own two feet. Thanks to all the time I'd spent walking with the elves in the west, though, it wasn't particularly uncomfortable.
[But master, you're rich. Why are you so stingy?]
Thanks to all the Magic Power I'd fed Laika before the journey, its vocabulary had grown surprisingly respectable, so the question itself was entirely reasonable. I had the reward money from the investiture ceremony, plus the funds I'd squeezed out in the west, and since anything that would've cost a fortune had all been given to me for free, a considerable sum had piled up at home.
Even after commissioning Mr. Balkun to buy three blue potions, it hadn't made a bit of difference—I had enough wealth that anyone in similar circumstances would wonder what the hell my deal was.
"I spend when I'm on the move and there's something worth spending on, or when I need to move fast. Otherwise, I've learned to save."
But having a lot of money and spending freely were entirely separate matters. I didn't have any steady income, and most of it was windfalls that had fallen into my lap by chance. That kind of money was perfect for losing all financial sense in a moment of carelessness and ending up scraping for cash, so it was better to be as frugal as possible. Why else did lottery winners so often end up wrecked?
While waiting for the expeditionary army near the south gate, I whiled away the time answering Laika's questions and chatting about this and that, when slowly, from far off, the clamor grew and a crowd began surging toward us.
Children who knew nothing and ran around excitedly at the sight of the splendid army. Adults who'd gotten roaring drunk from the morning and shouted for them to show the Demonfolk what was what. Someone watching them head back to the battlefield with a heavy heart. Hype men and minstrels crying out hope, dressing them up as heroes of the age who would achieve unprecedented feats and bring glory to the kingdom.
Amid the farewells of all these people, the army moved. It was a sight that could only be described as magnificent and grand, yet this too left me utterly unmoved.
These were people moving to drive home the counterattack wedge that hadn't even been properly attempted across a war that had dragged on for seven long years. Ragnis had her family's revival riding on this expedition, and the royal family likewise needed a resounding victory to seize the people's hearts.
Unlike the crowds who seemed to feel nothing but hope, those marching seemed to feel nothing but pressure.
"Shall we get moving too, then?"
[We're not going together?]
"We are, but not inside the capital. We'll link up after we're a bit farther out, before the army starts moving at proper speed."
Fortunately, the army's march was slow as molasses, so the plan to join them at the designated position seemed to face no issues. And indeed, as soon as we were a reasonable distance from the capital, Sir Renisa spotted me from afar and approached, and I followed her to where Ragnis was, as naturally as could be.
"So the hero who fled the departure ceremony all by himself has arriv— wait, what about your horse?"
Instead of riding in a carriage, Ragnis had chosen to don armor and ride a warhorse, making her scarcely distinguishable from the knights escorting her.
At first, I'd worried she might be more vulnerable to things like a potential ambush, but the lance and shield hanging from her saddle made her look even more knightly than the knights guarding her, to the point where she seemed safer instead.
But how was I supposed to address this? I subtly tested the waters, but the knights were acting as if I didn't even exist...
Fortunately, Ragnis understood my gaze and immediately provided the answer.
"They're house retainers. They already know enough, so you can speak freely as long as you don't raise your voice too much."
"Good. I left it behind to save money. I'm used to walking anyway."
At my casual answer, Ragnis's eyes narrowed. Lately, Sheryl had been giving me looks like that too, and Asilie as well—it felt like I'd been getting those glances more often.
"...You didn't leave it behind because you were afraid of being assigned to the cavalry if you had a horse?"
"Oh? I hadn't even thought that far."
Even so, would they really go so far as to assign a wandering knight who'd joined through personal connections to the cavalry? Still, it wasn't entirely out of the realm of possibility. At my sincere admiration, Ragnis let the tension drain from her eyes and let out a deep sigh.
"Shall I give you a warhorse?"
"The wandering knight will remain a wandering knight, my lady. More importantly, give me a rough idea of the plan."
Since this expedition was strictly a military operation, I hadn't heard anything from Ragnis in advance.
The only information I had was that the Levien Margraviate was a fortress city situated on relatively high ground, and that the Demon King's Army had reinforced it even further after occupation. Of course, in a world where aura and magic ran rampant, that alone didn't make it an impregnable stronghold—but the fact that the Demon King's Army there had the advantage over us attackers in many ways was the same as in my past life.
The likelihood of me charging in alongside the soldiers was low, but at the very least I needed to avoid being a hindrance, so I threw out the question hoping to hear at least a little now. Ragnis wore an ambiguous expression as she spoke.
"According to the intelligence gathered by the royal family, it's said to be difficult to retake using the methods the Demon King's Army employed. They've attempted disruption operations consistently, but the enemy had already finished reinforcing the position. We'll confirm the specifics when we arrive, but the commander said that without additional intelligence, it'll likely be a traditional engagement."
For reference, the 'traditional' siege warfare Ragnis spoke of was a bit different from my past life.
The most common method was to smash the gates with a siege ram, but the ones pulling it weren't ordinary soldiers—they were aura users. I'd once watched knights of the Ogatorf household demonstrate it for their squires, and when about fifteen of them latched on and ran, they exuded the majesty of a dump truck charging forward.
Beyond that, there were approaches like sweeping the walls with magic before the assault, or prolonged mental battles where each side spent over thirty minutes just countering the other's spell formulas. If you had a solid manpower pool, it was supposedly possible to conclude a siege with minimal casualties—but against Demonfolk, it was clear things wouldn't end so easily.
"So in the end, we'll have to figure it out when we get there."
In novels, you'd see cases of identifying a weakness in the walls and finishing everything in one stroke, but as always, reality was harsh.
"We agreed to hold an informal meeting at the command post when we make camp later, so maybe something more will come up then. We'll need to get acquainted anyway, so come along."
"Might as well. Oh, what was the commander's name?"
"It was someone named Alt Kenche. They said he's not a noble, but apparently he's famous on the battlefield. Even my teacher had heard the name."
"Aha, a war hero. Speaking of which, I don't see Sir Radnelbandes. Is he in talks with the commander?"
"Yes. Once the proper siege begins, every mage becomes precious. I asked for his help. He's probably working on plans while traveling with them."
Even with Sir Radnelbandes, who was called a Grand Battle Mage, joining the fight, they still couldn't charge into a siege with blind confidence? I'd never seen the old man fight directly, but he had to be strong.
"War is a difficult thing."
"...I never expected those words from you. Weren't you called the War God by the orcs?"
Where the hell had she heard that? That particular story must have been hard to ignore, as the gazes of the escort knights, who had been silently staring elsewhere, briefly flicked toward me before scattering again.
"That title didn't come about because I'm great, it came about because orcs are ignorant. What I'm good at is nothing more than brawling."
Even that I wasn't confident in anymore, but I didn't bother putting it into words.
The only consolation was that this time the enemy used Magic Power too, so at least I'd be able to distinguish stronger signatures from weaker ones.