The Angel Guardian and the Witch's Power (3)
Cloud and Sylvia bent low, cheerfully gathering herbs, when Carlos's unit swiftly crossed the hilly region and halted right in front of the heretical village. With pikemen, spear-throwers, and cavalry all mixed in, roughly one hundred eighty men stood in perfect alignment, not a whisper of conversation among them. The soldiers, their faces tight with rising tension, silently prepared for the blood and stench of battle that was about to begin. At the front, Carlos sat his horse with stern composure. That curly-haired beauty with golden locks had been born in the frontier territory of Valentino and, after graduating knight academy, became the bright hope of the young knights of the entire Rotia Kingdom. Carlos gazed at the heretical village's scenery with an expressionless face. Already in his head he had pinpointed the defender's position and weaknesses, and had worked out the most efficient and optimal method to win this fight. The heretics' weapons and armor were shabby, their defensive formations pitiful. Victory in the very first clash was slowly solidifying into certainty. Just then, the female lieutenant who had gone ahead to scout the enemy appeared riding from the rear, cutting through the front ranks. She wore a black eyepatch over one eye, long black hair tied into a single ponytail that dangled like a puppy's tail, and a trident—known as a trident—glittered brilliantly at her back. “From the scouting results, there are also elves and what appear to be foreign men inside the village, and a golden-haired woman who is highly likely to be Lady Sylvia. They are fighting on one side of the village.” “So the report that Sylvia is here… is true….” Carlos murmured with a troubled voice. He had wanted to launch the unit against the heretics for some time, but several retainers of Lord Valentino had opposed him, and he had failed to achieve his will. Those retainers were, like all of them, men who took bribes from the heretics. But today, just in time, reports arrived one after another: that Sylvia had come out on patrol with a single servant to the border region, and that a figure resembling Sylvia had been captured by the heretics. Carlos could no longer hesitate. He had persuaded his father by mentioning the bond between Valua and him, then mustered the fierce opposition of those retainers who had been bribed by the heretics, and finally sent out the unit to rescue Sylvia. Running to save her, he nevertheless felt grateful. Thanks to her, he had accidentally achieved something he had long dreamed of. Now the only task remaining was to win the battle, rescue Sylvia, locate the ledger recording the heretics' transaction records, and exterminate all those parasites clinging to Valentino like leeches in one stroke. With that hope in his heart, Carlos turned and shouted to the crowd behind him. “Listen up, everyone! We stand here today to judge the heretics who have carelessly defiled the Light Tower left behind by the hero Ophelia! Those who have mercilessly trampled the ruins that still carry the traces of the ten-year war, who have tormented innocent villagers, will pay the price today! With our own hands! Let us swing the sword of justice into their throats with our own hands!” His golden hair whipped in the wind, and his white armor blazed under the sunlight. Then the one-eyed female lieutenant cried out. “Hurray! We are the proud sons and daughters of the Valentino family!” Every soldier echoed her words in a roar. “Hurray! We are the proud sons and daughters of the Valentino family!” “Hurray! With the honor of the Valentino family, let us drive these filthy heretics out of this sacred land!” “Hurray! With the honor of the Valentino family, let us drive these filthy heretics out of this sacred land!” “Hurray! Follow us, the pride of Valentino, the bright hope of the Rotia Kingdom!” “Hurray! Follow us, the pride of Valentino, the bright hope of the Rotia Kingdom!” The horses stamped their rear hooves, raised their front legs, and whinnied. Spears flashed upward, then plunged down. The horn sounded. “Sons and daughters of Valentino, forward!” Carlos thrust his sword toward the front, and every soldier, faces aflame with excitement, charged ahead with a thunderous shout. *** “Ten million zents! Ten million zents! Ten million zents!” Cloud, even in the dead of summer, pulled out snow boots with his bare hands as if they were ice, and stuffed a sack the size of his head full of them. “Let's go! That's enough!” “Not enough! More! More!” “There’s nowhere to put them!” Sylvia, feeling an inexplicable unease, grabbed his collar and complained, but he ignored her and kept leaping around the herb field. He stuffed snow boots into every possible hiding place—pockets, even his panties. Cecil at the rear looked full of money-making greed at the mention of ten million zents per herb. Thud. Suddenly the bushes shook, and a faint earthquake rolled through. It was the vibration coming from the tower. “What the hell?” Cloud and Sylvia sensed something ominous and looked up at the Light Tower. “Dodge!” Suddenly Sylvia hugged Cloud’s waist and hurled him aside. At the same moment, a deafening boom accompanied the explosion of the tower’s bricks, which burst outward in every direction. From the collapsing tower strode a bizarre giant. “Grrrrrr…!” He looked like an ogre but wasn’t one. His build was ogre-sized, yet he bore a closer resemblance to a human. Plump like a fat person, he wore only a white cloth around his lower body that barely covered anything, and his teeth and nails were as sharp as knives—cutting through bone at a mere graze. “Hahaha! I’ll kill every last one of the Valentino bastards!” A cult leader sat on the giant’s shoulder. While he laughed madly, his eyes caught Cloud and Sylvia staring blankly from a relatively close distance. “Hey! First fill my belly, then grab and eat those two bastards quick!” The giant, fresh out of its shell, glared at them with eye-brow-less, ferocious eyes. Cloud’s heart dropped. A giant? There was no way he could fight one. “Wait! Wait!” he cried out in panic. “Old man! The heretics use spells, I’ve never heard of them summoning giants!” “Hmph! We don’t know about spells! That’s why we paid three hundred million zents to some witch just recently and bought this guy! This is the ultimate weapon to exterminate the Valenti no scum!” “A witch?!” “Exactly!” the cult leader told the giant. “Hey! Eat that noisy bastard who’s been annoying me since earlier!” The cult leader pointed at Cloud, but the giant just wiggled his fingers without moving. Instead he scowled, covered one ear, and spoke in a blunt drawl. “Grr, you’re too noisy.” “What? Hey! I’m your master! You’re a livestock monster, and you’re not going to obey?” The cult leader shouted, but the giant, even more irritated because it hurt his ear, scowled deeper. “Grr. I think I’ll eat you first, the one who’s been yapping beside me. Anyway, now that I’m free, I can do as I please.” The giant reached toward the cult leader sitting on his shoulder and pinched him between thumb and forefinger. The cult leader flailed comically in the grip. “What are you doing, hey! Put me down! I can’t! I can’t, hey! Grrraaaagh!” The giant hurled the cult leader straight into his open maw and gulped him down in one swallow. “W-what? You brought an untrained one?” Cloud watched the absurd scene and let out a bewildered laugh. At least one less enemy. But the danger was still there, and a greater one was approaching. The giant belched, then looked at Cloud and Sylvia. “Grr, my belly isn’t full yet, so I guess I have to eat you too.” The giant took one heavy step forward and crouched, stretching his hand toward Cloud. “Holy shit!” Cloud’s eyes widened. He jerked his head toward Sylvia beside him. “I’ll distract it somehow—don’t follow me!” “It’s too dangerous on my own!” “Just leave it to me!” He leaped away from the giant’s reach, but the giant deliberately pursued, and the giant’s long stride caught him in an instant. And when he was finally cornered, the giant reached out again. “Why are you always running away?” The hand was huge. Big. “Damn, damn… s-sword!” Looking around, he saw nothing but glittering shards of broken bricks. There was no sword to be found; he hadn’t brought one in the first place. Could he even block an attack from a giant with a sword? “I’ll eat you deliciously.” In a moment of desperation. It was dangerous. He had to do something. “Cloud! Wait!” At that moment Sylvia, who had been watching until then, kicked off the ground and dashed forward. She stripped off the robe that had been shielding her and vanished from view in an instant.