A Nightmare Spilling from the West
A Nightmare Spilling from the West
Fortunately, the twenty additional wyvern troops weren't anything special.
It just meant I had to throw my axe and work my needles a little harder because I was short one Magic Power bomb. Aside from the two that got away because I didn't have enough hands to catch them and the collateral damage from the wyvern corpses crashing down, it was a pretty successful fight. I even managed to scavenge a few extra Magic Power rounds.
Afterward, wondering if there was anything else I could help with, I parked my wyvern on the rooftop of a building near the marching troops. The one who called out to me was Regimental Commander Raynel, the man I'd laid hands on earlier.
"The brigade commander has many questions for you, good sir! Please, come to the command post first!"
He was looking at me like I was some piece of shit who'd pulled off a win, but his words had gotten remarkably polite. Still, he wasn't stingy about showing gratitude, even bowing his head first. So I returned the courtesy as best I could from atop the wyvern and headed back to the command post.
Judging the situation based on a strategy far more successful than expected and the memories of my past life, I'd naturally assumed only the mopping-up remained. But when I returned to the command post—which had shifted locations at some point—the talk I overheard and the atmosphere I saw were completely different. It created a scene where the soldiers were startled by my wyvern suddenly dropping down, and I was startled too, wondering if some other problem had cropped up.
Fortunately, Ragnis came running over to me, and I quickly got the story of what was going on.
"There's a separate main force..."
The nuance felt like a combination of the mobile warfare and hammer-and-anvil tactics I knew, but... I couldn't shake the feeling it came with some otherworldly customization. It was almost enough to make me want to send praise to the kingdom for holding out this long while waging war against bastards like that.
"So you're saying if we can't take the inner fortress quickly, shit gets complicated?"
"Mm, to be more precise, taking the outer fortress was the real headache from the start."
While the other soldiers went to fetch the brigade commander, Ragnis gave me a quick summary. Her explanation was that from the beginning, they hadn't even thought they could take the outer fortress and then deal with the Demon King's Army's main force.
The Silver Eagle Independent Combat Brigade was essentially a vanguard and a decoy. If they could quickly penetrate the outer fortress, great. But if not, they were supposed to play the role of the anvil, holding out while the forces from the cities behind us acted as the hammer, launching a counterattack against the Demon King's Army's main body. At first, I'd wondered why they still hadn't retaken Levien if they could occupy the place and end it with just these troops, but as I suspected, what you see isn't everything.
Anyway, because we blew that plan wide open on the second day, they said we were starting with an enormous time advantage. What I'd done today was a far greater achievement than I'd anticipated.
"If we can break through to the inner fortress like this... I don't know about a complete recapture, but the kingdom's offensive could continue for quite a while."
According to the command staff's projections, the time it would take for the Demon King's Army's main force to reach here was at least four days. It's not like the distance was short, and the fact that an entire army unit was moving made me automatically want to ask if that was even possible. But for this once, it was apparently a situation where the Demon King's Army would be the ones wailing in grief.
I nodded, realizing yet again that an army rife with strategy and tactics just wasn't my thing. Ragnis, meanwhile, slyly shifted her gaze to the wyvern behind me and asked.
"Anyway, what the hell is that wyvern? Did you have something like that prepared?"
No matter how well-behaved it was, it was still a wyvern captured from enemy lines. Because we didn't know what might happen if I left my seat—hence the situation requiring the brigade commander to come out personally—the wyvern, despite the unfamiliar environment, sat in an unbelievably docile posture, silently locked in a staring contest with Laika.
To be precise, it had been a staring contest until just moments ago, but it had averted its eyes. The wyvern's head drooped slightly lower, and seeing Laika's tail wagging furiously, it was clear who had won.
I'd thought it seemed strangely obedient. Was it one of the more docile ones among wyverns? The sight was so ridiculous I let out a dry laugh.
"Found it on the way."
I'd answered with nothing but the truth, without a shred of hesitation, but I got stung by sharp looks. I feel wronged here!
"The truth. I captured it from the Demon King's Army."
"Does that make sense? No matter how much the Demonfolk trained it, there's no way it'd be this docile."
"After I punched it a few times, it got docile on its own..."
The looks coming back at me were cold. It was only after I said Ranje and her battalion members were witnesses that I was able to gain some of Ragnis's trust.
I felt a little bitter that the women around me seemed to trust my words less and less these days, but seeing Alt, the brigade commander, appear in the distance, I straightened my back and feigned nonchalance.
"Honestly... I have nothing to say. I don't regret doubting you. However, seeing this tremendous result, I can't help but think it was simply my own narrow-mindedness."
"Who could fault the brigade commander for making a rational judgment? On the contrary, it's because you didn't withdraw your trust and gave me this opportunity that I could produce such results. I'm merely grateful."
I bowed my head, following noble etiquette, albeit in a simplified form. Alt, the brigade commander, looked at me with an odd expression. His look seemed to ask why a man who knew how to show such respect had slapped Raynel across the face back at the command post. But he quickly got his expression under control and waved his hand.
"I'm not a noble, so you needn't stand on such ceremony with me. More than that... I know you're tired from battle, and I'm truly sorry, but in this war against the Demon King's Army, time is life. I have many questions I'd like to ask. I'll keep it as short as possible, so could you spare some time?"
"Of course I should."
Having already heard the situation from Ragnis, there was no reason to refuse. I readily accepted. The brigade commander's gaze then drifted slyly over to the wyvern behind me.
"Ah... we need to move locations. Will the wyvern not run wild?"
"No. You don't need to worry about that now."
"...Now?"
Because my doggo seems to have properly seized the initiative.
Even though I hadn't asked out loud, Laika understood the situation and let out a short bark.
◈
The Demonfolk member who received the situation report from the wyvern troops that had fled from Eldmia, shedding bloody tears, closed his eyes for a moment and fell into thought.
Without definite magical intervention—enough to tamper with the internal Magic Power and spell formula in a specific way—Magic Power rounds would never detonate from ordinary impact. It was the same safety mechanism the Demon King's Army had built into the early-stage Magic Power bombs they'd tried to detonate in the Itisel interior via gate.
"It's definitely that Eldmia."
A member of the Human Race who had recently become a new headache for the Demon King's Army. Unless Itisel had raised a unit called 'Little Eldmia' and bred monsters that could wield Magic Power, it couldn't be anyone else.
"His movements?"
"Seeing as he disengaged to the rear after the battle, it's speculated he's at the command post."
"Can we strike around and hit it from our side?"
"...I believe it would be difficult."
It wasn't that they hadn't prepared for war. But no one had predicted that the sturdy outer fortress would fall in just two days.
Naturally, the war supplies for a prolonged engagement had been moved near the outer fortress. Right now, they were pressed for time just to mobilize all available supplies and troops to defend the inner fortress. In this situation, there was no way to bypass the Human Race army undetected and attack the command post.
If the wyvern unit had been intact, they might have at least attempted it, but only two wyverns remained.
"Every time he shows his face, he torments us in every conceivable way. Could he actually be the Hero?"
A Hero of the Human Race who used Magic Power had never existed in the history books, but it was a situation that truly felt like a reasonable suspicion. The Demonfolk gathered in the meeting room simply showed their agreement with silence.
But he had no intention of wasting time in such pointless agreement. The senior commander who had brought up the topic, the overall leader of the Levien occupation force, set aside his grumbling, rose from his seat, and gave orders to the Demonfolk.
"Prepare for a defensive siege. I'll deal with him personally."
"D-Division Commander Irap!"
"I won't hear objections. The command's directive is the Demon King's very order. Eldmia is to be captured or killed on sight. As one who holds the rank of division commander, I cannot disobey that."
"It's too dangerous! At least let us—!"
Division Commander Irap silenced the protests with just a raised hand. He was grateful for the loyalty of his subordinates who stopped their objections as if by magic. But he hadn't reached this conclusion emotionally, either, so he had no intention of withdrawing it.
"I'll conserve my stamina as much as possible to survive, and to do that, I'll approach via wyvern. I'm the one with the highest chance of both coming back alive and fulfilling the command's directive. You can manage the defensive siege without me anyway."
Since he was a man who'd risen to division commander through sheer force, unless he was lowering the drawbridge and slaughtering the enemy, there wasn't much he could actually do in a defensive siege. His original reason for remaining in the city was to hold out in the worst-case scenario of the inner fortress being breached, or to quickly shift to the offensive when friendly forces acting as the 'hammer' arrived. So taking action personally was far more efficient than having his subordinates move.
"As it happens, there's only one wyvern."
"There are two, however..."
"We need to send one to deliver a warning to the other cities. Do you think an enemy who showed up with the means to breach the outer fortress in just two days came for a casual visit?"
This would be a battle that sounded the signal flare, announcing the intensification of a war that had been stagnant. They needed to act swiftly before the enemy encirclement made it impossible for even a wyvern to fly out.
"Can it carry two? Then find one who'll go with me. Someone who can pilot a wyvern."
Since fighting on foot was far more powerful for him than riding something like a wyvern, the division commander hadn't even learned how to ride. At his words, around fifteen Demonfolk gathered in the meeting room simultaneously raised their hands. Irap looked at the sight and smiled bitterly.
Thinking that even if he died, it wouldn't have been an entirely futile life.