Before Crossing the Mountains
The orc settlement appeared before the expeditionary force before we even crossed the mountains.
“It’s an orc village under the Demon King’s army.”
“At that size, it was bound to be spotted. We should strike it down in one go.”
After all, we only needed to get past the mountains.
“Huh? What are you thinking?”
“If we get caught before entering the mountains, it’ll be dangerous. We’ll use the nun unit. Casey. Eri, Marie.”
I had already decided to wipe them out in advance. There was no reason to pull the entire expeditionary force just to deal with them. These nuns had been prepared precisely for moments like this.
“““Yes.”””
“You will lead the nun unit and charge straight into the orc settlement. Show no mercy. Kill every last one of them, even the children.”
“““Yes.”””
Intelligent orcs and goblins had to be exterminated down to the young ones. There had been an incident before where that idiot Maria spared some baby orcs and goblins, only for the village women to end up raped. These monsters operated on a completely different set of rules from humans.
“The nuns are going to fight? My lady, isn’t that dangerous?”
The knights tried to dissuade me, but it was already too late. The nuns charged forward in an instant.
The orcs couldn’t prepare for the sudden assault. They probably never dreamed that an orc village inside the Demon King’s territory would be attacked.
Crunch!Crack!
It began with an orc’s head being smashed open, and from there the massacre truly started.
“Are those really nuns?”
The duke uttered something rather rude. What else could they be if not nuns at first glance?
“Yes. They’re clearly nuns.”
Obviously they’re nuns. They deliver justice’s judgment upon evil. They’re nothing like the Holy Kingdom’s clergy who just sit in the back flinging heals.
“Can they use miracles?”
“They can use a bit of healing.”
Not as well as the Holy Kingdom, but they know how.
“A-ambush! Requesting support for Lady Berna—!”
“It is the Saintess’s command! Die!”
Crunch!
The orcs couldn’t hold out long against the nuns’ surprise attack. A few tried to flee, but Seria’s teddy bears blocked their escape route.
“Oh. Pretty sharp senses.”
“S-spare me… spare me, please…”
A few orcs begged for their lives. Of course, there was no way we would spare them. Everyone knew their pleas were nothing but an act. If they escaped, they would have alerted the Third Legion or some other demon legion. The fight would have become much harder.
“The humans you killed probably begged for their lives too, right?”
At Seria’s words, her teddy bear’s punch shattered an orc’s skull.
Crack!
I used to see that sight often. Those teddy bears are ridiculously strong. A few hundred of them could probably sweep through an entire demon army.
“War is no game.”
“Soldiers of Ashtar! Cross the mountains! We will show the demons the fury of Ashtar!”
After razing the orc settlement, we crossed the mountains.
“Gyaaaaaaaak!”
This time, flying monsters attacked us from the sky.
“Gargoyles.”
“We run into them the moment we start climbing?”
It seemed there were quite a few aerial monsters in these mountains. The instant we began our ascent, I could feel malice coming from all directions.
“Archers, step forward!”
“Yes!”
A rain of arrows poured down on the gargoyles.
“Khyaaaaaaaak!”
“Graaaaaak!”
The gargoyles, turned into pincushions by the mana-infused arrows, plummeted straight to the ground.
“Mages, fire your spells!”
The mages’ elemental magic shot down the harpies.
“There are quite a lot of monsters in these mountains.”
“It is the Demon King’s territory, after all. It’s different from the mountains in the Empire.”
These were mountains in the Demon Realm. Naturally, there would be some aerial species like harpies. But… their numbers were far greater than expected.
“Giyaaaaak!”
“There are quite a few of them, aren’t there?”
“Yeah. Way more than just ‘quite a few.’”
This was starting to look like a pretty big problem. The one in charge of the Demon Realm’s aerial monsters was that bastard Seto. He might have already prepared for this. Damn it. After getting beaten once, has he finally grown some brains?
He might even be here right now. If that was the case, this wouldn’t just be the Third Legion. We’d be in danger if we didn’t fight with everything we had.
“At least it’s fortunate that the enemy numbers are smaller than what we originally planned for.”
The duke had originally intended to conscript up to thirty thousand. But if we brought thirty thousand, there would be no troops left to defend Ashtar, so we came with only twenty thousand. We couldn’t be certain Seto was here, but the larger the expeditionary force, the greater the risk.
“Aerial monsters are Seto’s specialty, right?”
“Then does that mean this is his direct legion?”
That came from Seria and Kise, who were following beside me. It felt too ambiguous to say Seto had come. Those were wild harpies and gargoyles. Otherwise they wouldn’t be attacking so recklessly.
“No, that’s not it.”
“But the consumption of arrows and mana is too high.”
“That’s definitely not good.”
We had many archers, but we still had to face the Third Legion. If we took damage fighting gargoyles and harpies here, it would be troublesome. I was taking down harpies with Mana Bullets, but if the battalion got lured into fighting aerial monsters here, it would be a problem.
“There seem to be quite a lot of them. We cannot afford to waste arrows and mages in a place like this.”
An Ashtar knight pointed at the sky.
“Then we’ll use the magic stone guns.”
The Ashtar gun corps stepped forward. Technically, they were a unit that had only ever hunted aerial monsters coming from Ashtar territory. Would they be able to handle this? It was worth a try. If they couldn’t shoot down the harpies here, those magic guns would become useless anyway.
Excluding the gun corps from the ten thousand troops, the number of personnel for direct combat dropped to under ten thousand. The gun corps moved to the front and aimed their muzzles at the sky. More precisely, at the harpies swooping down like a hailstorm.
Giyaaaaaaaak!
Bang!Bang bang bang!
Along with the monsters’ cries, gunshots rang out. Hundreds of mana bullets shot down the harpies in a single volley. The harpies that had withstood one or two shots gradually lost strength and fell from the sky. Those whose wings were torn or who somehow survived were executed on the spot by the Ashtar forces.
“Filthy monsters.”
“We should wipe these bastards out while we’re at it.”
Voices filled with hatred poured from the commanders’ mouths. We had raised our troops under the banner of Eldacrad’s revenge. The soldiers’ loathing toward monsters was immense. Ironically, that seemed to be fueling this expedition.
After a long hunt for harpies and gargoyles, the soldiers obtained a massive amount of magic stones.
“My lady, what should we do with the magic stones?”
A soldier from the gun corps asked me.
“Why are you asking me?”
“The duke is quite far ahead. The path is narrow, so it’s difficult to get permission. We will follow your orders as the Saintess.”
Is that really okay with you guys?
“The one who killed the monster gets the magic stone.”
“The lady says the one who killed it owns it!”
Waaaaaaaah!
What the hell. Fuck. They suddenly started fighting like madmen. The harpies and gargoyles in the sky were getting smashed like sparrows and falling. Not a single soldier was injured.
“Will the kids’ mana be okay? I’m genuinely worried.”
“They’d probably pretend to die if Lady Olivia told them to.”
“Why?”
“Well, Lady Olivia’s position in Ashtar is very solid right now. After it was revealed that the prince was a piece of shit, you were the greatest contributor to driving out the succubus mother and daughter, starting with sympathy. There’s also the title of Saintess. And the Ashtar citizens’ loyalty to Ashtar plays a part too.”
In other words, they followed me out of a mix of sympathy, the Saintess title, loyalty to Ashtar, and various other reasons. That felt a bit off. Especially since it wasn’t even the original Olivia receiving that treatment.
“She’s popular from the start.”
“Why?”
“With your appearance, my lady, it would be strange if you weren’t popular.”
Well, during the first generation’s time of being bewitched, she hadn’t gotten along with her family. She also had no real connection with the Ashtar army. So among them, I must seem like Ashtar’s very own Saintess.
“Ugh. It feels strangely unpleasant to have people I’ve never even met swearing loyalty to me.”
It’s sickening. Absolutely sickening.
Seria must have found my awkwardness amusing, because she leaned close to my ear and whispered.
“Didn’t a large number of the Kingdom’s forces follow you back when you were Noah?”
That was only because they got close to me after fighting together a few times. Most of them had only followed the princess anyway. I was just second in the chain of command.
Bang!Bang bang bang!
The harpies and gargoyles were completely annihilated. Cleaning up the corpses became the bigger task. The power of the magic stone guns was stronger than I had expected.
Crossing the mountains turned out to be easier than anticipated. The problem was that part of the mountain range had been destroyed midway. It looked like the work of magic. There was still some distance left until we reached the Third Legion’s territory. Because of the destroyed area, we were at risk of being exposed to monsters.
“Strange. Were the mountains always like this?”
I had moved to the front to assess the situation when the duke’s mutter reached my ears.
“Uh… that is… well…”
“What is it, Olivia? Do you know why it’s like this?”
I knew it all too well. It was Noah. Noah had done that. It would be best to gloss over it casually so it didn’t interfere with the expedition.
“That is the work of Sir Noah. Sir Noah dropped a meteor, which caused this.”
“Sir Noah?”
“That’s what Noel told me.”
I pushed the blame onto Noel. I felt a little sorry for Noel, who was probably somewhere in the rear supply unit disciplining the hero.
“We can only hope it doesn’t get discovered.”
The only demon force in this area capable of facing an army of this size would be the Third Legion. There was no way a new army could have formed here in just a few months after I had beaten them down.
“Now that I think about it, where is my second brother? Or rather, my little older brother?”
Ashtar’s second young master had joined the military early and possessed considerable combat experience. He would have been helpful on this expedition.
“I left the second son as bait to disguise this as a joint training exercise.”
“Then we’ll have to prepare to defend the territory in case of emergency?”
“It seems so. Leaving it to only Rocton feels a bit uneasy. But he used to handle that much on his own. It should be fine.”
I had wondered if I might see my second brother, but it seemed this wasn’t the opportunity. Could another of the Four Heavenly Kings be targeting Ashtar? The die had already been cast. No matter how dangerous it was, it was best to focus on the expedition for now.
“From here on, we are truly entering the Demon Realm.”
We had almost crossed the mountains. Fortunately, we had barely encountered any battles with monsters so far. At most, it had been a few harpies and some forest goblins. As we continued onward, something came into view in the distance. A wooden fortress and a massive demon army.
“Is that the Third Legion?”
“Judging by the level of the fortress, it is not human-made.”
Of course not. It was where Berna’s army was stationed. They would only have the most basic facilities.
“Then we should fire the magic stone cannons right away.”
“Install the magic stone cannons here.”
Come to think of it, how did they even bring the magic stone cannons? Carrying them across the mountains should have killed half the troops. I had been skeptical, but I could see soldiers transporting the magic stone cannons. Were the Ashtar forces insane?
“They’re quite large. You really managed to carry them.”
“We assembled them.”
They carried the parts all the way to the mountains?