Chapter 41
Chapter 41
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 41
Chapter Title: Words: Chains or Salvation (1)
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“We need to inform the others right away.”
Especially the lord, the heroes, and Ms. Veronica.
“H-Huh, but...”
At that moment, the soldier spoke up anxiously.
“It’s just a guess, isn’t it? And even if it’s true, knowing that doesn’t give us a way to deal with it...”
...He had a point.
This was all just my speculation.
Not a 100% confirmed fact.
And as he said, even if the Troll Lord was somewhere in that troll horde.
Could we really find it?
Its appearance was almost indistinguishable from a regular troll.
On top of that, trolls kept regenerating.
...Wait a second.
Did they really keep regenerating nonstop?
Even with it right here?
I recalled the historical records on the Troll Lord.
The common trait found in its lairs.
Every lair always contained an enormous cavern, and that cavern was always packed with food supplies.
So people thought the Troll Lord was stockpiling food to hide away for long periods.
But no matter how long it planned to hide, did it really need a cavern that size?
Some speculated it was to constantly intake nutrients.
Indeed, the later the lair was discovered, the more drastically the remaining food had dwindled.
Far more than could be explained by just a few extra days of eating.
So the conclusion was clear.
“...To recover its forces, it needs that much nutrition.”
Right. The Troll Lord wasn’t a god.
Infinitely regenerating troops from nothing? That was divine territory.
It was creating its horde and sustaining their regeneration based on nutrients.
That’s why everyone assumed the Troll Lord always had a lair.
But if you flipped that logic around...
Wasn’t this why its advance had taken twice as long?
Over those ten long days, it made everyone think it was hiding deep away, scattering our main forces.
Then, seizing the opening, it would unleash its stockpiled energy to sweep through in one go.
The puzzle pieces were falling into place.
The reason it kept circling the outer edges of the Ode Swamp? To hunt other monsters and keep intaking nutrients.
And why, during this anomaly, so many monsters had strayed from their territories to raid villages or attack low-rank adventurers? That fit too.
What was its goal?
Exploiting how every battle with a Troll Lord had focused on ‘finding the lord.’
Seize Hasler in a blitz, then swell its troll numbers using the food there.
Was this seriously a strategy a monster could devise?
It required knowledge of all past history.
Trolls didn’t record history.
If they did, each Troll Lord would’ve shown up with progressively better tactics.
“Crazy... What the hell is this thing? Does it inherit all the memories of its ancestors or something?”
This was dangerous.
If our main forces scattered searching for the Troll Lord like this, Hasler was done for.
We needed to stick to the troll legion and force a war of attrition on them instead.
The one in the middle of that horde couldn’t replenish nutrients.
Keep wearing them down, and its nutrition would run out soon enough.
Then the troll horde’s regeneration would stop.
It might feed on its own kin for energy, but since they were summoned from its own nutrition, efficiency would suck.
And even if not, it didn’t matter.
Cannibalizing its own would be a dead giveaway, letting us pinpoint the Troll Lord.
“I need to tell them quick...”
Wait, hold on.
Would telling them change anything?
It was still just my guess.
What if we dragged them into attrition and it wasn’t there?
What if it was just hiding deep after all?
That’d be total annihilation too.
Exhausted from fighting the horde, then ‘never mind, go search for the lord’?
Not everyone was a born hero like Jenny or the late Marquis Harkur.
Impossible.
I needed a plan that covered both possibilities.
Main forces search for the Troll Lord as planned.
But if it was here and suddenly surged with more troops, we could still handle it.
“...We don’t have hero-party-level forces for that. No way.”
If the regular troops had that kind of destructive power and kill potential...
“Ah.”
We did.
That kind of destructive power and kill potential.
I’d placed a bulk order for instant bomb materials at the general store before.
And the lord had ordered more separately.
Had to be thousands of sets at least.
“Bombs. We use the bombs.”
A way for regular forces to output hero-level destruction.
Just spam mid-tier spells with no delay nonstop.
“Take me to the lord right now! Immediately!”
“Y-Yes?! Uh... Yes!!”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ “We must find the Troll Lord immediately. The agile adventurers, knights... and heroes need to step up!”
Lord Strau Parain had gathered all the key forces facing off here.
“Tch, no choice then.”
“Fuck off with the orders! We’ll handle it ourselves.”
Including the heroes, one a musclehead with a rebellious attitude.
“Th-That bitch...”
“What, muscle pig.”
And the S-rank adventurers too.
They decided to scour the Ode Swamp and surroundings once more.
Killing the Troll Lord was the only way to end this.
But...
“Everyone here has already searched the Ode Swamp for its lair. And found nothing.”
Veronica was right.
These people had torn through the swamp and area like madmen for nearly ten days.
Sure, some spots might be unseen, but ten days and nada.
How long would it take starting today?
“...So it hasn’t been found in the Ode Swamp, huh.”
Suddenly, amid the assembled elite troops, a voice spoke up from outside the group.
“...?”
“Huh? That guy...”
“Kane?”
A lean build, tall stature.
A man with a neatly groomed appearance.
It was Adventurer Instructor Kane.
“...Who?”
Lord Strau tilted his head, so Kane bowed politely and introduced himself.
“Greetings, my lord. I’m Kane, the instructor at the Hasler branch of the Adventurer’s Guild.”
“Ah... I see. But why are you here?”
It was the question on everyone’s mind.
An instructor wasn’t combat personnel.
Why wasn’t he at the shelter? And he had a soldier with him, so not acting alone.
“I have crucial information you all need to hear.”
With a deadly serious expression, Kane began unloading his speculation.
The Troll Lord was incredibly cunning and shrewd.
For some reason, it understood human psychology well and seemed to know the history of past Troll Lord battles.
Using that to scatter our main forces far away, then strike in one blow.
People hadn’t cared about the delay, but the advance had taken twice as long—ten days.
From these points, high chance the Troll Lord was hiding in that horde.
And finally, we needed to attrition them here as much as possible.
“I know attrition against a Troll Lord is the dumbest thing possible. But this case is different. It’s showing a completely new pattern from past ones.”
Backing it with records and data he’d uncovered.
He tried his hardest to convince them.
But...
“...What nonsense is this?”
Of course, the heroes didn’t buy a word from some lowly commoner.
“Ha! You incompetent fuck. You think that makes sense? Delusions?”
Dayrun unleashed on him the humiliation he’d taken from Veronica, even throwing curses.
“What if it’s wrong? We all die. You stupid fake-teacher fuck!”
“Who cares about worthless adventurers or commoners like you. But us heroes can’t die in a dump like this—we’ve got the world to save.”
“He seems like an academy teacher from what Dayrun said... but we can’t proceed based on some half-baked commoner’s guess.”
Not as nasty as Dayrun, but the other heroes were deeply skeptical.
How could they trust some random guy who popped up?
“We’ll safely go hunt for the Troll Lord’s lair.”
“If you’re so sure of your guess, go do it yourself.”
“Kuhaha! What can that lowly commoner teacher do, seniors?!”
Naturally, they geared up to do what they’d planned: search for the Troll Lord.
But Kane didn’t care.
“I don’t need your help anyway. Never expected it.”
“...W-What?”
The only ones Kane had wanted to convince were two people here.
“I came to ask a favor of Lord Strau and Ms. Veronica.”
“...Me?”
“What favor?”
The two who’d listened quietly tilted their heads.
Kane addressed the lord first.
“The instant bomb materials. Release every last stockpile you have. From the general store and the castle—all of it.”
“...!!”
The bulk orders had just arrived, so combining store and castle? Easily over 5,000 sets.
All of them?
“Not a bad deal. Even without the main forces here, we can match their destructive output.”
Of course, it minimized casualties, and if the Troll Lord was here, it’d definitely burn through its nutrition.
“If it turns out it’s not here and we just wasted bombs, I’ll pay the full cost somehow.”
“......”
Kane was going all-in.
Pay in full or nothing.
5,000 sets, wholesale 100-150 bret each.
750,000 bret total.
A lifetime’s earnings for an average commoner, but even if unpaid, the lord wouldn’t lose out.
He’d planned to deploy the bombs anyway to block the horde with minimal losses.
“...Very well. You developed them, and we bought them thanks to you. Use them all.”
Lord Strau knew of Kane.
The instant bomb’s creator.
Without him, they wouldn’t have ordered that much oil, spray, and flint.
Handing it all over wasn’t bad.
“Thank you. And Ms. Veronica.”
Kane bowed to the approving lord, then turned to Veronica.
“Uh, yeah.”
“If it turns out the Troll Lord is here, we’ll need someone who can take it down. Could you stay behind?”
The moment he asked her.
Objection flew from elsewhere.
“Hey, you think you can just pull forces as you please, commoner?”
One hero glared at Kane, thoroughly pissed.
True, Kane wasn’t a commander, lord, hero, or S-rank adventurer.
Just some random commoner who barged in.
Trying to move even one key asset rubbed them wrong.
But Kane had an answer for that too.
“Huh? Do you need help from us ‘worthless adventurers’ after all? Scared you won’t find it? Or can’t beat it even if you do?”
His head tilted innocently, but his face was the most infuriating in the world.
“Y-You bastard...”
“Fuck off, we don’t need you! We’ll find and kill it ourselves! 100% our achievement, so prep the rewards good—including what was for adventurers, all of it!”
They took the bait, throwing a tantrum as they scattered toward the Ode Swamp.
“...Now it begins.”
This scattered the main forces.
Now, the Troll Lord would make its move.