The Elf’s Trap
Ring Ring
Joren stood there in a daze, as though someone had struck him squarely on the head.
“Count Joren, are you well? Your complexion is poor.”
“Master? Master! Are you all right?”
“- Ukkik. Uk!
The voices coming at him from the side did not register at all.
“Daliha! This map isn’t wrong, is it? The locations where the trolls appear in this quest are certain, yes?”
To everyone around him, the Border Count’s behavior looked thoroughly bizarre.
He kept waving at empty air and muttering to himself.
“Rio! You said that elf mage accurately predicted the monsters’ location?!”
He muttered for a while, then suddenly shouted.
“Y-yes. All three times, she was almost exact. That made it easy to set traps or ambush them.”
At Rio’s answer, Joren’s expression hardened.
She predicted it correctly all three times before... and this time, she pointed in the exact opposite direction?
It was hard to think it was just an error from lack of skill.
She must have intentionally said it wrong this time. I don’t know why, but... Damn. What in the world is that elf mage woman?
Joren decided to use the simplest method to uncover her intent.
“We must bring that elf here at once. Does anyone know where that woman is now?!”
“I heard she left last night.”
One soldier raised his hand.
“Last night, of all times? Did she say where she was going?”
“My apologies. That part, I... well...”
“Damn it!”
It was frustrating, but there was nothing else to be done, so Joren resigned himself to it.
Suspicious. It’s suspicious as hell... but I don’t know where she went, let alone which direction she left in, so there’s no helping it. More importantly, right now I need to stop the trolls. First, evacuate the residents. For that, I have to convince everyone who’s been listening to that elf’s nonsense prophecy...
He seized Rio by the shoulder and asked, “Do you trust me?”
“Yes, sir! Of course.”
Rio nodded, still looking a little bewildered.
“Then from this moment on, follow my orders and my plan. Can you do that?”
“Gladly, sir!”
“Good. Then gather the men who are working immediately!”
“Yes, sir!”
As the station captain, Rio was as sharp as any proper soldier and carried out the order at once, summoning the troops together.
“The information the elf gave us was wrong! The trolls will appear from the north, not the south!”
“The north?!”
“That mage has never been wrong before. There’s no way...”
Rumbling whispers spread through the crowd.
“Trust me and follow me!”
Joren raised his hand, silencing the commotion.
“Will you be swayed by the words of some pointed-eared fugitive who, just before battle, bolted off only thinking of saving her own skin? Or will you trust the knight who is ready to risk his life to defend this land alongside you!”
“We trust Count Joren!”
Even without using Conversion, the soldiers came to their senses. After all, every last member of the 013 Station guard had more or less owed Joren their lives.
“Station Captain, did you say the residents of the southern villages have already been evacuated?”
“Yes, sir!”
Evacuation meant dispersing people and facilities concentrated in one place to reduce damage from disasters of all kinds.
“Where were they sent?”
“They’re all gathered in Bojedo, to the northeast from here.”
“What? You put all the residents in Bojedo?”
“Yes, but... why are you so shocked?”
Joren nearly tore at his own hair.
“Because the first place the trolls are going to swarm is Bojedo!”
* * *
Joren ordered the tribute loaded on the wagons to be stacked on the southern side of the station. Into the empty wagons went the barricades and wooden palisades that had been set up to the south, taken apart and loaded in instead.
“Come on, hurry up! Move faster!”
Those defenses were then redeployed at the entrance to Bojedo.
“Listen up, all residents! Trolls will appear here in about two hours. So you must evacuate at once. The elderly and the women should board these wagons immediately!”
The people who had come from the southern villages voiced their dissatisfaction.
“What is this, young nobleman? Not long ago you told us trolls would appear in our village, so we fled all the way here, and now you’re telling us to go back again? Are you training a dog or something?”
“First this, then that... which tune are we supposed to dance to?”
Joren, with no time for a war of words, trembled with frustration.
Should I spend EP to use wide-area Conversion? Or make them all listen to me with the Totem of Unity?
Fortunately, there was no need to waste precious EP or the totem.
“Watch your mouths! Do you even know who this man is?”
The native residents of Bojedo had stepped forward to defend him.
“What? Who is he supposed to be? I don’t know which lord’s territory he’s come from, but he shouldn’t be meddling in the affairs of a self-governing village!”
“Tsk. Fools who have never heard of the Border Count’s renown.”
The village chief of Bojedo shook his head and stepped out. He was bald, but his beard was magnificent, fuller than the hair on his head, and he had the look of a dignified old man.
“Even if you are ignorant country bumpkins, must you be so deaf? The Border Count, Lord Joren Tamer, is the man who recently saved this village from the trolls’ grasp! And that was not all. He rode the highways and annihilated every monster in this region.”
“Eh? Then that man, no, that knight commanding the purple-whatever army is...”
“Indeed! Lord Tamer is no hollow hereditary noble, but an Upper Knight who possesses both valor and virtue. He called in the Holy Knight Order to resurrect the dead, and even shared the blessings granted by Her Majesty with the common folk. How could we ever repay such a debt?”
The chief began to sob, and Bojedo’s residents gathered around Joren in response.
“Bojedo village chief Decal designated as a leader among the surrounding autonomous villages.”
In the midst of the commotion, Joren quietly murmured, “Thank you, Count Joren. Then as now, you came to protect us.”
“Truly, Troll Slayer, may you wipe out the seed of those vile monsters!”
“Long live the Border Count!”
The chief led the chant, and a thunderous wave of cheers rolled out in response.
The stray thoughts that had occupied Joren’s mind, including the mysterious elf, were swept away by the tide of celebration.
“Let me fight too!”
“Me as well!”
Burly men were volunteering themselves for battle.
“Very well, everyone. We’ll defend our own home with our own hands!”
Lifted by the surging momentum, Joren raised his voice.
“Warriors, draw out your courage!”
“Draw it out!”
“Draw out the trolls’ hearts!”
“Draw them out!”
“And then we’ll draw out the jewels!”
The Border Count lifted and brandished several exceptional mana stones.
“I will award these mana stones as prizes to the three who slay the most trolls!”
“Waaahhhhh!”
The residents' Conversion rate is surging out of control. Due to overload, the system's calculation processing is delayed.
* * *
The civilian population in Bojedo was being moved south in its entirety.
“Once this is done, we need to move the people from Darckovo next. It’ll be tiring, but bear with it.”
- Mi...noho. (Understood.)
The Minotaur centaurs were already at the brink of collapse from pushing the wagons until their hooves were practically on fire.
“Count Joren. This may be presumptuous, but may I offer a tactical opinion?”
“Speak.”
Rio stepped forward with a suggestion.
“Now that you’ve ordered the evacuations, the villages will be empty. Would it not be better to leave the trolls to flounder in the deserted settlements and focus our defense on the station?”
“A concentrated defense?”
“Yes. That would keep us from having to split our forces into three separate groups.”
What the trolls attacking the station were after was the beacon tower. More precisely, their target was the mana stone that functioned as the beacon.
“Besides, if those trolls are after the mana stone, that makes it even more worrying. If the mana stone were destroyed...”
The beacon’s mana stone also served as the power source for the streetlamps around the station, so if it was broken, the entire area would be plunged into night-black darkness.
“That’s a fair point. If the mana stone runs into trouble, night patrols will be in serious danger as well. But right now, we have to protect both villages.”
“May I ask why?”
For Joren, the extermination of the trolls was the top priority.
But he could not say that aloud.
“First. If the trolls run wild, they’ll smash the houses to pieces, won’t they? The remaining livestock would also be harmed. If possible, I want to protect not only the people’s safety, but their property as well.”
With so little time to move everyone, there was no room to worry about livestock or household goods.
“Second. Those brutes are definitely coming by a fixed route. If so, there’s nothing difficult about defending the path they have to take.”
For defenders, there was no better intelligence than knowing exactly where the enemy would strike.
Especially in Darckovo, the trolls’ route was plainly visible. That was thanks to the information provided by the gremlin scout named Hogi, who had attacked the area just before being converted.
“Third. The more we split our forces, the more theirs will be split too. Unless an individual soldier can outmatch a troll in direct combat, being surrounded at the station would be dangerous.”
“Understood. I will follow Count Joren’s orders.”
“Thank you.”
Impressively, Rio did not press the matter any further and obeyed.
Joren then went to the adjacent village of Darckovo.
“Oh! Count Joren! I never thought I’d see you again...”
The residents here also recognized him, so there seemed to be no problem in ordering an evacuation.
“Gather all the villagers at once.”
Soon the people were gathering in front of the village hall.
“But something’s strange.”
Joren tilted his head.
“What is, sir?”
“Why are there so few children?”
“Children? Now that you mention it...”
As someone who had cared for younger siblings since the day they were born, it was impossible not to notice.
“Right. This village isn’t that large, but I remember there being quite a few children.”
The day after the monsters that had appeared here were slain, the children, moved by the Bora Company’s exploits, had run up saying they wanted to become knights just like the Border Count.
“I’ll check immediately!”
Rio hurriedly looked around and quickly asked a resident he knew well.
“Ma’am, where are your children?”
“The kids? They went off with RingRing this morning. Why do you ask?”
Other women added their voices as well.
“That’s right. Said they were going up the mountain to pick strawberries or something.”
“My kids went too. Said they were going to explore an interesting cave. But why are you asking about the children?”
The residents, still unaware of the troll attack, were unconcerned.
“Who is this RingRing person?”
At Joren’s question, Rio went pale, swallowed hard, and answered.
“RingRing is... the nickname of that elf mage I mentioned earlier.”