Chapter 524: Come Out, Brother Who Knows How to Fight
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 524: Come Out, Brother Who Knows How to Fight
"Yaaawn."
Ragna opened his mouth wide and let out a long, exaggerated breath, making it abundantly clear that he was currently both sleepy and bored.
Encrid watched him, wondering.
Should he be surprised that the man could walk while dozing off?
Should he admire his complete lack of tension before a battle that carried significant danger?
Or should he perhaps emulate that attitude of treating the Pen-Hanil Mountains like a backyard stroll?
Was yawning and dozing off while walking in a situation like this a sign of strength, or was the man just crazy?
Let's think of it as a strength.
Since Encrid himself wasn't trembling with anxiety, viewing everything in a positive light was better for his mental health anyway.
"The mountains are devoid of vital energy, making the air heavy," Sinar remarked from beside him.
Encrid nodded and kept walking.
Though their pace made it look like they were out for a casual stroll, the terrain they were traversing was no backyard hill; it was the Pen-Hanil Mountains. They had been ordered to intercept the enemy, but they had to find them first to do any intercepting or fighting.
That was why they were walking. In military terms, this was a march.
If you told an ordinary person to march through the Pen-Hanil Mountains, they would likely ask if your head had been swapped with a ghoul's. But that didn't apply to this group.
Still, they weren't actually just taking a leisurely stroll. It was more accurate to say they were advancing while monitoring the enemy's movements.
Of course, they weren't doing the scouting themselves. Ahead of them was the lead group: a ten-man ranger unit, including Finn.
"It's been a while, hasn't it?"
Having slipped back to them the moment they entered the mountains, Finn approached with a smile. She was the scout leader who had fought alongside them during the battle for Cross Guard. She had briefly belonged to the Mad Platoon afterward, but she was currently under Sinar's command.
A deep scar now ran down her left cheek, but her expression remained bright.
"You seem to be doing well," Encrid noted.
"Not bad."
"Don't die."
"I'd like to ask you to save me if things get dangerous, but I've practically lived in these mountains. Trust me, Captain."
She finished with a crisp military salute. Encrid nodded.
Stepping aside, Finn led her unit and forged far ahead once more. She drew away until she was barely identifiable by sound, and eventually, even those faint echoes faded into the distance.
In the meantime, Sinar, who had watched the exchange between Encrid and Finn, approached.
"A womanizer, I see."
"Who is?"
Sinar stared at Encrid with expressionless eyes before launching a sudden verbal attack.
"Could I be talking about the big-eyed housekeeper who isn't here? Or the brawler who calls himself a devoted husband? Or perhaps the swordsman who would get trapped in a continent-sized maze if things went wrong? Lastly, yes, that friend Sachsen could easily be a womanizer, but he diligently meets only one lover. Do you know that the shop she opened is right in the middle of the city?"
Encrid was caught completely off guard by the elf's rapid-fire, quiet, yet relentless teasing.
As he reeled from the surprise attack, Encrid realized anew that Sinar knew the traits of every single squad member inside out. Then again, they were a colorful bunch.
"A maze? You should know how to find your way just by looking at the stars," Ragna scolded, waking from his doze.
"...Captain. I'm asking seriously, do we really need this guy?"
With one hand resting on his axe, Rem pointed at the continent's premier maze-addict with the other. Rem's eyes narrowed into sharp triangles, showing just how absurd he found Ragna's claim.
To Encrid, it looked as though Ragna was saying this on purpose now, fully aware of his own weakness.
"Sachsen's lover opened a shop?"
Encrid quickly changed the subject, knowing that if he let them bicker, the exchange would only grow more vicious. His question successfully threw Sinar's "womanizer" comment into the dark abyss and pushed Rem and Ragna's bickering aside.
"A teahouse. A small one," Sinar replied.
It was far too detailed for a simple explanation, inviting more questions, but Encrid didn't pry further. It wasn't important. He was just surprised that Sachsen had a lover and was devoted to her. While it was a cover business to manage their organization, it was true that Sachsen's lover ran it, so there was no lie in Sinar's words.
Silence fell over the group once more.
Rem stopped humming, and Ragna tried to take the lead to fight off his sleepiness, but Encrid stopped him.
Sachsen and Sinar walked with almost identical, silent footsteps. Even with Encrid's ears, which had become much more sensitive after opening his Will, he could barely hear them.
If they wanted to completely silence their footsteps, I wouldn't hear a thing.
One had trained extensively to acquire that skill, while the other possessed it as a natural talent. Elves were naturally light-footed and agile. Of course, not all elves were the same, but Sinar certainly seemed to be.
Soon, they spotted a marker left by Finn.
"It's white," Sachsen said, discovering it first.
It was a thin cloth tied to a branch. Blue meant enemy contact, and white meant traces found. If it had been red, it would have indicated that battle had broken out and casualties had occurred—but if there had been a fight, they would have felt the change in the air beforehand. Their sharp sixth sense would have picked up the traces of battle.
And now, his sixth sense—which had developed alongside his heightened five senses—whispered to Encrid.
The enemy had moved faster than expected.
It was an intuitive judgment, but also one reached through instantaneous calculation. His intuition had simply bypassed the process to give him the answer first.
Encrid and his companions had only just passed the entrance of the Pen-Hanil Mountains. According to Krais's predictions, they should have met the enemy around the halfway point, two to three days later. Meeting them now meant the enemy had moved much faster.
Just because they had laid their cards on the table didn't mean they had to play by the rules. The enemy had made the first move to gain the upper hand and secure the terrain advantage, assuming Encrid's side was unprepared.
In this situation, Finn could indeed spot the enemy now.
Was the timing and situation of finding these traces a coincidence? Encrid doubted it. The enemy wouldn't leave traces so easily unless they were fools.
Encrid's mind quickly processed the situation. Finn's role was to scout and find if the enemy took another path. She would do her duty, even at the cost of her life.
But...
"There's more than one."
A white cloth was tied to a branch, and another white cloth was folded into the shape of a bird on the ground. One bird's beak pointed right, the other left.
This meant there were at least three enemy paths.
This was something even Krais couldn't have predicted. But there was no need to panic. Encrid, having finished his calculations and relying on his intuition, spoke.
"Sachsen, join Finn's scout unit. Ragna and Sinar, follow the center. Rem, take the left. I'll take the right."
There was no reason to hesitate. Encrid moved immediately.
"Well then."
Sachsen leaped up into the trees. He moved silently across the branches, faster and quieter than a bird, disappearing into the canopy.
Encrid watched him go, then double-checked his decision. If the enemy was split, was it right for them to split too? Was it a trap? Even if things went wrong, they could just confirm the situation and immediately retreat.
The enemy they expected to meet in a few days was right in front of them.
Did they want us to panic and fumble our orders? Or did they want our chain of command to shake in an emergency?
It was a plausible tactic. When multiple high-level combatants gathered, they often clashed in opinions. But Encrid's Mad Platoon strictly followed one man's orders.
"Hey, don't push yourself too hard. I'll clean things up quickly and catch up," Rem said as he moved out.
Encrid turned right. Ragna and Sinar walked forward in silence, their pace twice as fast as before.
*
Did they pull some tricks?
Krais felt anxiety bubbling up like a fountain from deep within his gut, but he remained perfectly calm on the outside. He drank tea, smiled, cracked jokes, and did his job. Showing anxiety in his position would affect morale.
So he must not show it. Even if his legs shook when he was alone, he had to pretend everything was fine in front of others.
"Don't tense up too much when you fight."
Those were the words Encrid had spoken at the departure ceremony.
Good grief, is that something you say to soldiers heading into battle?
He screamed inwardly, but Krais skillfully utilized Encrid's words.
"It means we will win even if we relax!"
Of course, instead of standing on the platform himself, he delivered the message through the commanders.
The one who said it was the Demon Slayer, the Lord of the Border Guard, the King's close friend, the Savior of the Western City, the one who silenced the Gray Forest. Honestly, even if he had just barked like a dog, the allies' morale would have soared. Because if Encrid spoke, they would believe even a bark had some profound meaning.
"We!"
"Will win!"
"Even if we relax!"
"We will win!"
What a splendid slogan.
Krais watched the troops depart with the slogan created by the commanders, and then he busied himself with various other tasks. Yet, his anxiety grew of its own accord, pressing on his brain and forcing him to think.
Did those Azpen bastards really do nothing?
They said they wouldn't fight a full-scale war, just a demonstration, so let's not fight? We agreed on this, right?
What if they don't keep their word?
What are you going to do about it? A single word is enough. In the end, the victor's words become the truth. An unspoken agreement is easily broken.
So Krais had also pulled a few minor tricks of his own. Of course, "minor" was just his own opinion; the enemy might think otherwise.
*
Both armies gathered at a distance around Greenpearl. They arrived at similar times, but Azpen finished their deployment first. Their numbers exceeded five thousand.
The Border Guard's forces were three thousand at best. However, they weren't just any three thousand. Krais had poured Krona into military funding. The result was this: three thousand elite soldiers, excluding any rabble.
"Unit, advance."
The heavy infantry took the lead. Five hundred of them. A small number, but not insignificant. All of them had uniform equipment. Steel breastplates, chainmail underneath, and a gambeson beneath that.
Usually, when war broke out, uniform equipment was rare. Especially for heavy infantry, many had to procure their own gear. As a result, some would show up in tattered armor. They were lucky if they could even match the color of their armor, but the Border Guard's heavy infantry had completely uniform gear.
A standing army was like a pig that constantly devoured Krona just to be maintained. They did nothing but eat and defecate. But the place where these pigs proved their worth was the battlefield. Since war was inevitable, Krais did not spare any expense on the military.
"I poured my blood-like Krona into making this," Krais muttered to himself from the rear.
Though the materials of their weapons differed slightly, even the weapons in their hands were of similar shape. From a distance, they looked identical. It wasn't an amount a single blacksmith could produce in a short time, so they had been steadily manufacturing and stockpiling them.
To the left and right of the heavy infantry, spearmen and archers lined up, split evenly. Their equipment was also uniform: blue gambesons and deep leather helmets. These were troops who wore uniform gear and had undergone the harsh training that started with Audin and was passed down to Ropode.
In the center, standing on a hastily constructed platform, was Graham, the Castellan of the Border Guard and the public supreme commander. He took a deep breath, puffed out his chest, and roared.
"All troops! Prepare for battle!"
In response to his roar, the drums rolled. Boom, boom!
The commanders issued orders simultaneously, and the allies began to form up. Formations and drills are the power that showcases a military's discipline and order. If you want to know how well-trained an army is, look at how well they align their ranks. This was a saying agreed upon by the continent's leading strategists and historians.
And here, the elite soldiers of the Border Guard proved it.
Clack, thud!
They stepped forward and aligned their ranks. This simple movement proved how well-trained they were. There was absolutely no disarray, not a single person chattered, and even as they marched, their ranks and files remained perfectly straight.
From afar, the army looked like a single living organism. The Azpen army had also formed up and gathered by branch, but the Border Guard possessed a level of order that was on a completely different level.
A wall of an army, standing straight. This was the wall Krais had prepared. The greatness of a refined army was completed by uniform attire and drill, and this in itself became a deterrent that made the enemy gulp.
Well, are you still going to charge after seeing an army like this?
Indeed, some of the Azpen commanders gulped.
What is this? Why are those bastards standing in such perfect lines? Is it really okay to fight them? They won't suddenly order a charge, right?
In every army, there were those who prided themselves on being the vanguard. Naturally, Azpen had them too. Even they hesitated. But the one who claimed to be the commander of the vanguard realized his own hesitation and roared.
"Bullshit! Does standing in a straight line mean you fight well? Waaaaah!"
By roaring, he inflated his temporarily shrunken courage. His subordinates roared in unison.
"Waaaaah!"
As hundreds roared at once, the surrounding troops caught the fever and joined in. It was deafening. The roars swept across the battlefield. The Azpen army raised their voices to create a semblance of morale. It seemed as if some energy was gathering above the massive crowd of soldiers. It was a plausible illusion.
Watching this, Graham raised his left hand, devoid of any smile.
Boom—boom—boom—boom—boom.
The drums beat five times. It was an order to count to five in their heads and then roar.
Amidst the chaotic curses and shouts of Azpen, the elite soldiers of the Border Guard, without a single exception, let out a unified roar at their commander's signal.
"Even if we relax!"
At the commander's lead—
"Even if we relax!"
The unit roared—
"We will win!"
At the lead again—
"We will win!"
The response followed.
Boom! It was like a clap of thunder.
The unified roar, which clearly conveyed its message, completely crushed the chaotic shouting of Azpen. The enemy's gathering morale dispersed like dust. The ground shook, and the air trembled.
Listening to his allies' thunderous roar, Krais thought that at least the start was good. But his anxiety didn't vanish completely.
Now, Audin. Do the rest. I believe in you, Son of the God of War.
Krais summoned his faith, which he only called upon when needed.
On this battlefield, they had Audin, Teresa, Ropode, and Pel. He had left them behind on purpose. Even if Azpen kept a knight or two behind to attack, this force was enough to hold them off. Still, because his anxiety wouldn't fade, Krais had also pulled a small trick.
Abnayor had pulled a trick by sending the flanking force much earlier than expected, and Krais had taken measures where a full-scale battle might break out.
"Come out, Brother who knows how to fight!"
In the center, between the two deployed armies, a giant priest rode out on a massive brown horse. His name was Audin.
They said they would avoid a full-scale war, but they never said they wouldn't fight at all. Even if the enemy pushed in, wouldn't it be perfectly fair to beat a few of them to death beforehand to boost morale?
At least, that was what Krais thought. Of course, Abnayor would absolutely never agree with Krais's way of thinking.