Chapter 65
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 065
Chapter Title: Herding
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It's more common than you'd think for the person at fault in an accident to be the one throwing a fit.
"Roland... did you let all the gnolls escape?"
There wasn't a single gnoll corpse in sight.
As if pointing it out, Conrad—who had arrived at the gate belatedly—spoke in a scolding tone. Roland nodded calmly, without a care.
"Those bastards were incredibly fast. We didn't have a chance to do anything."
"......"
Conrad didn't even bother responding and just walked away. His steps were visibly furious. Roland smirked as he watched the man's retreating back.
"Looks like he's finally dropping the pretense."
"What happened?"
Woojin, standing beside him, asked cautiously. It seemed there was some hidden tension between the two.
Roland answered readily.
"He came to me separately and gave me a secret order. If a battle broke out, he told me to kill all the gnolls inside the gate."
The situation started to make sense.
Roland and his Holy Knights under him possessed exceptional skill. So, they must have planned for the expeditionary force to apply pressure from outside the gate, while Roland cleaned up inside in response.
But Roland hadn't acted on the secret order aggressively. As a result, all the gnolls had escaped, leaving the expeditionary force with a major lingering threat.
That seemed to be Conrad's thinking, at least...
"And yet he blames others. How petty. It wasn't a situation that could have been resolved in the first place."
Gnolls weren't idiots.
After confirming the expeditionary force's army, Logar had pulled his subordinates back from the start, with retreat in mind. Slaughtering them all would have been practically impossible.
Even if it had been possible, it wouldn't have mattered. The moment battle began, the gnolls would signal the enemy raid with beacon fires.
"I warned them about this in advance. Was my explanation not clear enough?"
He had given prior notice to the expeditionary force's leadership. He thought they had struck with all that in mind, so why was Conrad reacting like that?
When Woojin asked, Roland pondered for a moment before sharing his thoughts.
"This is just my guess... but the archbishop seemed willing to accept your opinion. But Duke Edwin and Sir Cornelius opposed it."
The leadership's opinions had clashed. That must be why the main force had waited so long after the vanguard entered the gate.
It was a somewhat unexpected claim.
"What makes you think that?"
"Just think about their positions."
Archbishop Conrad and Duke Edwin.
The two men shared similar goals at first glance, but closer inspection revealed major differences.
Conrad aimed to build achievements.
Successfully completing the second expedition with the duke's support would earn him backing from the kingdom alliance and various nobles, boosting his political influence even further.
On the other hand, Edwin wanted to become king.
He dreamed of reclaiming the old kingdom's territory, ascending a new throne, and ruling there. But natives had already settled the land first.
Coexisting with those eyesores was undesirable. The gnolls needed to be dealt with now. Once the expedition ended, Conrad would return to the pioneer city with his church forces.
And Cornelius had opposed negotiating with the beasts from the start. With opinions leaning that way, full-scale war with the gnolls was inevitable.
'The secret order to Roland... was a desperate attempt to avoid this somehow.'
Eliminating all the gnolls at the gate might have prevented backlash.
Conrad had issued the preemptive command to Roland as a last resort, but even that had failed, leaving him visibly emotional.
"......The situation is more complicated than I thought."
War and politics.
Problems in realms he'd never experienced. He felt his lack of expertise there acutely. He hadn't even considered conflicts among the leadership.
When he said that, Roland grinned and replied.
"If you cause as much trouble as I have, you'll learn to read the higher-ups' minds. You have to walk the tightrope if you don't want to get kicked out."
Even causing trouble required finesse. Woojin listened attentively.
The expeditionary force continued its smooth advance.
Beast ambushes had noticeably decreased. The reason was clear. They had entered gnoll territory.
"When do you think the attacks will start?"
Roland asked. Woojin answered without much thought, as he'd been mulling it over constantly.
"Probably within ten days... but we'll have to wait and see. It might even resolve without major conflict."
There were too many variables.
Just as opinions had divided among the expeditionary leadership, the gnolls' high-ranking females would gather to decide how to respond.
Roland found the explanation intriguing.
"They're really no different from humans... By the way, do female gnolls hold higher positions?"
"Usually, yes."
Gnolls formed a matriarchal society, a trait of hyenas.
Curiously, female hyenas were larger and stronger than males, due to higher testosterone secretion—commonly thought of as a male hormone.
Gnoll males were formidable warriors too. Veteran males with experience often rose high by defeating females.
In summary...
"The entire tribe are warriors."
"......That's a real problem."
Roland let out a deep sigh. The Holy Knight's expression darkened further. He seemed to have finally grasped the second expedition's predicament.
A force with immense strength, ferocity, and intelligence. Their fangs now targeted the expeditionary force.
......Three days later, deep into the night.
An ominous instinct jolted Woojin awake. He felt a faint rumbling in the ground. He crawled out of his tent immediately and scouted the surroundings.
Far off in the plains, thick clouds of dust rose. Woojin quickly identified the source.
'Bull beasts.'
The black bull beasts from before. But not just one or two. A massive herd charging straight at them.
Large gnolls ran alongside the bison herd, constantly bellowing ferociously to drive them on. It was just like lions herding prey together.
The gnolls were driving the beast herd. Alert soldiers heard it too.
"Night raid!! Night raid—!"
The words that had haunted soldiers' nightmares before. But the expeditionary force had learned from failure. Awakened soldiers rushed into defensive positions.
"Volley!!"
Pew pew pew pew—!
Silver arrows from the expeditionary force blanketed the sky. The gnolls retreated without hesitation, and momentum carried the bison herd forward.
Thud, thwack thwack!
"Moooooh!!"
Bulls struck by silver arrows bellowed in agony. But bull beasts were stubborn. They charged relentlessly, even as arrows hammered them.
If the herd broke through, formations would shatter. To stop them, priests from the Church of Wisdom rushed forward.
Woojin eyed the items in the priests' hands. Quill pens, of all things.
'Quills of Dedication.'
Instruments unfit for battle. Strangely, priests of the god of wisdom Talros manifested holy power through these quills.
Scratch, scritch scratch...
As the priests moved their quills, glowing letters appeared in the air from the tips. It resembled magic, but wasn't quite the same.
'Dedication of Wisdom.'
Dedication meant offering to a god.
Wisdom priests offered learned knowledge to the god, gaining temporary divinity in return. The rarer or harder-to-master the knowledge, the greater the power.
Keeeeng—!
The written letters coalesced into spheres of blue light. They shot forward, slamming into the charging bulls.
Boom boom boom!!
Glaucous explosions erupted, toppling bulls to the dirt. Silver arrows followed. The bulls thrashed to rise but soon went limp.
"We got them!!"
"Woooooh—!"
They repelled the night raid with minimal losses. Cheers erupted among the soldiers.
But the priests' faces were grim.
'The dedicated knowledge is lost.'
In exchange for potent divinity, priests forgot the knowledge in those letters. Even restudying it was difficult.
This limitation forced priests to study various fields relentlessly.
The problem was, the raids didn't end there.
As dusk fell and deep night came, gnolls sent herd after herd of beasts at the camp. Varied kinds: bison, deer, boars, rabbits...
For Woojin, it was a boon.
"Eat slowly. Plenty more."
"Woof!"
Excited wolves wagged their tails. Each time the force hunted a herd, Woojin secretly extracted cores and fed them to the wolves.
Thanks to that, the wolves were far stronger than before the expedition. But no new abilities. The beasts gnolls sent were plain ones without special traits.
That was natural. Sending powerful herds would be tough for the gnolls.
'The force handles the weak ones well... but things are worsening.'
The wolves loved it, but nightly raids left soldiers sleepless. Accumulating fatigue wore down body and mind.
They could endure with willpower so far. But the biggest issue remained.
'Supplies are depleting too fast.'
Nightly barrages of silver arrows, javelins, and priestly divinity were burning through combat reserves.
Reinforcements with supplies were coming. But they lacked stamina to hold out, and even early departure might not reach them.
'The gnolls will surely cut off the reinforcements.'
Supply troops weren't as numerous as the main force. Perfect prey.
In response, the force began recovering and reusing silver arrows to conserve. But it meant little.
Weapons blessed by the War God's divinity were consumables. After a few uses, they lost power, becoming mere metal.
Clack, clink—!
A silver arrow bounced off a boar beast. To stop it, Holy Knights from the Harmony Church had no choice but to step in.
Whoosh!
Their blades wrapped in glaucous light—not divinity, but Mana Arts.
Knight training left little time for study. Thus, most Wisdom Holy Knights were mana users despite the name.
Woojin watched the battle from afar.
'They can't use divinity, but they fight well enough.'
Knight clashed with charging boars. Outnumbered, they slashed leg tendons to weaken, leaving kills to soldiers.
Soldiers thrust spears into boars. Their first real melee. Screams and shouts erupted everywhere.
Woojin scanned the battlefield... then turned to stare into the forest.
Amid the gloomy shadows, ghostly eyes like will-o'-the-wisps flickered. He knew whose they were without looking.
'The gnolls are learning the force's tactics.'
The anticipated disaster approached.