Chapter 161
Chapter 161
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 161
Chapter Title: Finally, He Descends (8)
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“Do you know what the Empire’s weakness was?”
Yanick asked me one day.
Wondering what this was all about, I just stared at him blankly.
It seemed my reaction was not to his liking.
He chided me for a good while.
I couldn’t care less about an empire that had already fallen, so what did he want from me?
Eventually, tired of his own nagging, he started talking to himself.
“It was the knights.”
That, too, was completely out of the blue.
The sharpest sword the Empire possessed.
The most powerful weapon that allowed the Empire to become the undisputed superpower it was.
That was the knights.
And yet, he claimed those very knights were the Empire’s weakness.
“Because of the knights, the Empire's commanders began to neglect tactics. Why bother wracking your brain when you could just send in the knights and call it a day?”
He said their lopsided formations, centered on heavy infantry, were also a result of this.
Since all they had to do was hold out until the knights finished the battle, their military evolved to reduce casualties rather than to crush the enemy.
“It wasn't so bad up until the middle imperial period. Back then, commanders still knew how to use their heads, and there weren't that many knights. The problem came after that. At some point, the number of knights exploded. Those knights all flocked to the battlefield to build their reputations, and the Imperial Army was reduced to a supporting role.”
In short, the more the knights distinguished themselves, the more the Imperial Army, as a single combat unit, was bound to decline. His words sounded quite plausible to me.
“But the real problem was something else. At some point, the knights started to become warlords. They’d set themselves up in prestigious houses or knightly orders, and all the big shots—the Ascendants, the Zodiac Knights—would just squabble amongst themselves. The same guys who used to come running before they were even called now wouldn't show up unless the battlefield was prestigious enough for them.”
As I, who had been indifferent, showed some interest, Yanick grew even more excited and continued.
“That’s when the Imperial Army really went down the drain. It got to the point where a commander's competence was measured not by their tactical skill, but by how great a knight they could bring to the battlefield. Isn't that the end of the story right there? I mean, is it any wonder that by the late Empire, all the Centurions and commanders were nobles or bureaucrats, not soldiers?”
For a soldier, the most important virtues were connections and politics! And a rotten country like that was the continent’s greatest power!
Yanick lamented in an exaggerated tone, as if performing in a play.
I watched him for a moment before speaking up.
So what does any of that have to do with us now?
The Empire had already fallen, and what mattered now wasn't the history of a ruined nation, but how to stop the enemy's knight while our Master was away.
What's more, the enemy's forces were double our own.
This was no time for the army's supreme commander to be giving a leisurely history lecture.
“You foolish squire. Were you even listening to me?”
Yanick clicked his tongue once and said nonchalantly.
“Take down the knight, and the rest will crumble on their own.”
But the problem was how in the world we were supposed to take down that knight.
“How do we take him down…?”
* * *
It began, as always, with the Imperial Army’s specialty: a volley of javelins.
“Throw!”
Javelins thrown with all their might by the light infantry flew through the air in staggered waves.
*Swoooosh.*
Even seeing the dozens of javelins, the ogre didn't react much.
It simply raised a hand to cover its face, protecting its eyes as it strode forward.
A few javelins were lucky enough to inflict shallow wounds on its skin, but most failed to pierce its tough hide and bounced right off.
But the Imperial Army kept throwing javelins.
And throwing javelins wasn't all the Imperial Army was doing.
*Bwoooooo!*
*Dum, dum, dum.*
Soldiers blew horns and beat drums from all directions.
*Whoosh, pop!*
Some of them even fired rescue flares at the ogre.
The ogre's steps faltered.
But that, too, was only for a moment.
“Kwwaaaah!”
With a roar, the ogre began to run straight ahead.
The distance closed in an instant.
Just then, dozens of long poles shot up from behind the shields.
Each pole had red and yellow cloths tied to it.
The soldiers waved the poles frantically, disorienting the ogre’s vision.
“Throw!”
While the ogre was momentarily distracted by the flags, the Imperial Army threw their nets.
This time, too, the ogre didn't react much.
Perhaps it thought it could tear apart such flimsy nets whenever it pleased, or perhaps its attention was stolen by the disorienting flags.
It seemed to be the latter.
The netted ogre flexed its muscles.
But the nets thrown by the Imperial Army were no ordinary nets; they were special items woven with a unique knotting technique, devised by hunters from a kingdom across the southern sea to catch big game.
The ogre was about to learn that difference firsthand.
“Kwuhh?”
The ogre stopped advancing and flailed its arms.
But the more it struggled, the tighter the nets became.
“Kwoooaaar.”
The female ogre roared fiercely.
Its red muscles bulged even more, and the nets grew taut, looking as if they would snap at any moment.
The Imperial Army did not just stand by and watch.
“Throw!”
While the ogre was briefly focused on the nets, the soldiers threw more.
One layer, two layers, three, four.
Several layers of nets were cast over the red giant.
The strong heavy infantrymen grabbed the ropes attached to the nets and strained with all their might.
Far from falling, the beast thrashed about even more violently.
In the process, chaos erupted as soldiers, unable to withstand the ogre's strength, collided with each other and fell over.
A few unlucky ones were dragged along with the ropes and trampled by the ogre.
But the soldiers were persistent.
When the ogre tore off one net, they threw two more.
When the soldiers holding the ends of the nets were sent flying, even more took their place.
“Kraaaaaaaaaaaah!”
The thoroughly enraged ogre roared.
“Hook it!”
It was then that the Imperial infantrymen hurled grappling hooks that seemed better suited for a siege.
*Thwack.*
Hooks caught on both of the ogre's ankles.
“Pull!”
Swarms of heavy infantrymen grabbed the ropes connected to the hooks and pulled.
“Push!”
Meanwhile, spearmen used blunted poles to push the ogre's upper body.
Of course, it wouldn't be an ogre if it was pulled so easily or pushed over so simply, but the soldiers didn't give up.
“Hup, ha! Hup, ha!”
The large heavy infantrymen strained, sweating profusely.
Pushing from one side, pulling from the other.
“Kwuh?”
The ogre, which had been standing firm, finally toppled backward.
But that alone wasn't enough to finish it.
It was nearly impossible for ordinary soldiers' attacks to inflict a fatal wound on an ogre.
If Rocarno Matiasi or the other kids had stepped in at this point, things would have been resolved easily, but unfortunately, for the provincial knight and knight-aspirants whose heads were still in the clouds, attacking a fallen opponent was absolutely unthinkable.
In the end, the finishing blow was up to the Imperial Army.
“Cover it!”
The moment someone shouted, Imperial soldiers swarmed forward and draped several layers of soaking wet cloth over the fallen ogre.
As if that wasn't enough, soldiers with shovels approached and piled mud on top.
In an instant, a small burial mound had formed in the middle of the battlefield.
The mountain of earth heaved continuously.
But that didn't last long.
The movements, which had been growing more violent, completely ceased at a certain point.
One of the kids, who had been watching the scene with bated breath, let out a gasp of horror.
“How on earth…?”
It was the same question I had asked Yanick.
What did he say back then?
‘Distract it, bind its feet, knock it over, then finish it. Easy, right?’
His answer was so absurd that I had been left speechless.
But that absurd method had actually worked.
‘How does this work, you ask? Knights are arrogant. They’ll never dodge the piddling attacks of mere soldiers.’
That was what Yanick had said as we watched a knight, bound head to toe in special chains thrown by soldiers, crawling pathetically on the ground.
‘No matter how strong they are, how can they withstand the weight of dozens, hundreds of soldiers pressing down on them?’
The finishing method was even more absurd.
Heavy plate armor that ordinary soldiers couldn't even scratch after stabbing it for a hundred, a thousand days.
‘Alright, cover him. Finish him. Done.’
Instead of trying to break through such armor, the War Legion buried the knight alive, whole.
In the end, the knight suffocated, meeting a miserable end in the middle of the battlefield.
It wasn't much different from the method the Imperial Army was using now.
The only difference was that the opponent was an ogre, not a knight.
Back then, they had used anti-knight weapons like the Knight-Slayer and special chains, whereas now they had mobilized javelins, nets, and ropes.
In the end, the principle was the same.
Of course, Yanick would never admit it.
If he were here, he would have thrown a fit, insisting that this kind of brute force, which might barely work on a low-level knight without a blessing, was completely different from the anti-knight tactics he had created.
But thankfully, he wasn't here, and this crude method was more than enough to take down the ogre.
“This easily…?”
“Was an ogre always this easy to beat?”
The words uttered by Rocarno Matiasi and the kids were filled with a sense of futility.
They had fought tooth and nail just to barely handle a large-class monster, only to see soldiers take one down with such ease. It would have been stranger if they hadn't felt a sense of defeat.
But contrary to their thoughts, the soldiers had by no means taken down the ogre easily.
There were soldiers who had broken hands and feet or cracked their heads while holding the ropes to restrain the ogre, not to mention the considerable number of soldiers who had been sacrificed during the rehearsals—practice runs against trolls and other large-class monsters while clearing out empty dens.
Even after all that practice, just in case, they had collected paralytic poison used by goblins and coated the fishhooks attached to the javelins and nets with it.
Whether the poison worked or not, I couldn't say, but it was clear that the Imperial Army had made considerable preparations to take down the ogre.
“If it had been not an ogre in that spot, but…”
The kids kept glancing at Rocarno Matiasi.
It was clear they were all trying to gauge how effective the Imperial Army's tactics would be against a knight.
I couldn't know exactly what conclusion they came to.
I could only guess from their stone-hard faces.
Meanwhile, the Imperial Army continued to move diligently.
*Thump, thump.*
Soldiers began driving fortification stakes into the mound of earth where the ogre was buried.
It was a kill confirmation, to prepare for any unforeseen circumstances.
“We’ve defeated the ogre!”
Only after driving in a dozen or so stakes did the Imperial Army finally erupt in a victory cheer.
But unfortunately, it seemed it was far too early to celebrate.
“The allied city’s forces…!”
While the Imperial Army was dealing with the ogre, the allied city’s soldiers, who had been tasked with holding back the remaining non-humans, had been routed.
It was an unexpected situation.
It shouldn't have been too much for them to simply hold the enemy and buy time.
I soon found out why.
“The Valkyries!”
Valkyries were unilaterally slaughtering the allied city's soldiers.
A total of twelve Valkyries.
These were not the young Valkyries from before.
“Ah…”
The messengers of death I had encountered several times in my past life.
Each one a powerhouse capable of facing a knight on her own.
The very image of the ill-tempered crows that would appear behind you and plunge a blade into your back the moment you were certain of victory.
Even the wolves that followed them, running wild.
It was exactly as I had seen in my past life.
The unknown Cradle professor and Rangfin Haime, who had gone to face the elder-class non-humans, had yet to return.
There was no telling when the other Cradle professors, who were said to be recovering inside the fortress, would appear.
If that were all, we could have at least formed a phalanx and tried to hold out.
But there was one Valkyrie, mounted on a particularly large wolf.
The sight of the Valkyrie, holding a brass shield and a great spear, calmly approaching us was familiar.
A notorious Valkyrie who had struck down countless knights in my past life.
“Hrist of Chaos!”
The apostle of chaos, who incites war and sows discord, was there.
“I know you won’t listen.”
I said, biting my lip.
“Everyone, run.”
I took out Barisada, drew the string, and nocked a bolt.
“What?”
While the clueless kids were asking questions, Hrist turned her head toward us.
Her gaze passed over Rocarno Matiasi and the kids, then stopped on me.
*Tilt.*
She tilted her head with a blank expression and casually patted the wolf’s shoulder.
*Thump.*
The wolf kicked off the ground and leaped into the air.
“Unit, prepare for battle!”
The Imperial Army assumed a combat stance.
Brimming with confidence after defeating the ogre, they advanced fearlessly toward Hrist.
“Don’t block her! Retreat!”
I screamed at them.
But they never had the chance to heed my words and fall back.
*CRASH!*
Hrist landed right in the middle of the Imperial forces.
With a single, playful swing of her spear, space itself distorted.
The spears held out by the spearmen vanished as if erased from their tips, and the heavy infantry's formation was literally crushed.
Watching this, I frantically pulled Barisada’s trigger.
*Swoosh.*
In an instant, all the energy and vitality drained from my body.
It was everything I could currently offer the witch.
*BOOM.*
Hrist, who had been slaughtering the soldiers, swung her spear fiercely.
*It was blocked!*
The Faceless Witch lamented.
She said a price this small wasn't enough to use her power to its full extent.
She needed a greater price.
For example.
*A contract?*
It was a proposal I had rejected flatly every time until now, but this time, I had no choice but to consider it.
If I didn't accept, it would be a massacre.
The Faceless Witch urged me on.
The wolf Hrist was riding kicked off the ground and leaped into the air.
The wolf and Hrist closed the distance in an instant.
“Dammit!”
Just as I was about to accept the witch’s proposal with a heavy heart.
*SWOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!*
With a deafening roar, an unknown object fell from the sky.
Before I could even realize what it was.
“Found you.”
A familiar voice struck my ears.
*Rustle.*
Jet-black hair, fluttering chaotically, filled my vision.
“My little squire.”
A pale face turned to look at me.
Black eyes curved into a pleasant crescent.
Red lips drew a long arc.
“Professor Navian!”
Behind that welcome face, streaks of light were continuing to fall from the sky.
It was the moment the Cradle’s reinforcements had finally arrived on the battlefield.