Faith, Betrayal (4)
I’d never imagined I’d see a sight like this with my own eyes.
Giant fireballs and arrows filling the sky—a scene I’d only ever seen in old war films or comics. More unreal than that, though, was the endless stream of monsters charging toward the walls.
“Kwoooaaaargh!”
How are there so many of them?
I hadn’t been out hunting all that often, but I could still spot several kinds I’d never seen before. From medium-sized monsters, each roughly five times larger than a human, to smaller ones clinging to the feet of those larger beasts, every one of them was different in purpose and shape—yet all of them shared a single goal: to climb over the walls. That made them frightening in a way no amount of variety could soften.
And once they were in range of the wall, the spells and arrows our own soldiers—those hometown parrots—had launched began to rain down on them.
For a moment, the entire battlefield was swallowed by a tremendous roar.
BOOOOOM!
KRZZZT!
THUDDUDUDUDUD!
Explosions sent shards of earth scattering in every direction, and the smaller monsters were instantly swallowed by the blaze. Arrows embedded themselves in the bodies of the larger ones, felling them one after another, while the enchanted shafts, each carrying a pulse of mana, neatly blew the heads clean off the smaller creatures.
But the number of monsters pouring in was beyond imagination. Watching them burst out of the forest in such a pathetic, endless flood was enough to make me laugh in disbelief.
Where the hell were you hiding?
Clearly, even the monsters that had been lurking deepest in the woods were pouring out now. The forest was so vast that if every monster in it had gathered, the number really could become this absurd.
“Fire!”
When I opened my mouth again, the second barrage slammed down from the walls to the ground below.
And once again, the same thing repeated.
The charging monsters collapsed, and the ones behind them tripped over the fallen bodies. I raised a hand slightly, and the mages who specialized in earth began chanting; spears of soil and stone erupted from the ground.
The stupid monsters, whose only talent was rushing forward, were impaled without mercy, screaming as they were.
Good.
The situation was favorable.
The only problem was that it didn’t look like much was happening, but for now, this level of firepower was enough to clear out the trash that had shown up first.
Doesn’t even show up on the radar.
For the moment, all we could do was use arrows and magic as efficiently as possible. I’d thought about chanting spells myself, if only to scoop up a bit of experience, but I quickly gave up on the idea.
To make the most of this huge event the regressor had prepared, it was better to leave the normal-rank and rare-rank monsters to the underlings.
I need to conserve mana.
For the quality experience sources that would show up later, of course.
“Looks pretty routine.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, darling. This is a pretty normal opening. The fact that they managed to slow the enemy with earth magic once is impressive. Castle Rock doesn’t have many flying monsters, so if they keep blocking the entrance and defending like this, the other side’ll start dropping first.”
“That’s good news.”
“Just in case, though, you should conserve your mana. Opportunities like this don’t come around often.”
“I know.”
Even here, it was obvious that the people with more to lose were the ones who got to keep more for themselves. Those who were desperately obeying orders and dumping their firepower on rare and normal monsters because they didn’t want to die were different from the commanders, who were saving mana and stamina for later.
“The first wall’s going to get hit before anything else.”
“Yeah. Looks that way.”
As the defense battle dragged on, the monsters from the first wave finally slammed into the wall.
By sheer momentum, it looked as if they might bring the wall down, but there was no way a massive fortress wall that had protected Castle Rock for centuries would collapse so easily.
The monsters still holding their ground were climbing upward by using the corpses of their own dead as steps.
“Hold them!”
“Kuaaargh!”
“Rain arrows on them! Damn it, arrows!”
“Shake them off with magic!”
The Small Rock Guild, holding the line at the First Wall, was putting on an impressive display.
Wow… they really are desperate.
Of course they were. If the wall broke, they’d die.
Not Castle Rock behind them—them. They’d be the first to go.
Part of me wanted to just let them drop dead right now, but there was no way I could do that. It was still the early stage of the wave; they had to keep holding.
Watching Song Jungwook, who was doing everything he could to protect his guild members from far away, nearly brought tears to my eyes. That was all the explanation anyone needed.
Such noble idiots.
If that wasn’t sacrifice, then what was?
The defenders were protecting their home, but they couldn’t protect themselves. Archers were firing without rest like machines, mages were already showing signs of exhaustion, priests never let their guard drop, and warriors were batting down the monsters that had started to crawl up the wall.
And at the center of it all stood Song Jungwook of Small Rock.
“Don’t let them up! Not one of them!”
He must have wanted nothing more than to run.
But with Red Mercenaries scattered everywhere, that hadn’t been an option.
Honestly, if it were me, even I’d have had trouble abandoning everything and fleeing alone.
Thinking about the guild members he’d built up with his own hands, and the place he’d carved out for himself in Castle Rock, there was no way he could make that choice.
I’d mocked him earlier with the whole hometown routine, but I could say with confidence that this place was more precious to him than any real hometown ever could be.
Hah…
This wasn’t what I’d expected at all. I’d assumed they’d crumble in an instant.
Small Rock’s forces were stronger than I’d thought.
It was only natural that I felt satisfied as a commander watching them work so hard.
“Support the First Wall.”
“Understood. We’ll reinforce the First Wall immediately! Reserve squad, move to the First Wall at once!”
In a situation like this, where the battle could drag on for a long time, the key was how you managed stamina and reserve forces.
Having hundreds or thousands of lives resting in my hands was a burden, sure, but on a battlefield, it was more efficient to think of human lives as numbers.
If I got dragged around by some pointless sense of humanism, that would only create bigger problems later.
There would be some damage on the other walls, of course, but for now it was more efficient to give the First Wall some breathing room. I could see the mages in the reserve squads rushing off in a hurry.
“Hmm…”
“What is it, Sister Heera?”
“Nothing… I was just thinking that you’d make a capable commander.”
“……”
I didn’t answer.
It seemed like Cha Heera understood what I was getting at, more or less.
“Do you like giving people hope?”
I wasn’t looking at Cha Heera.
My eyes were fixed on Song Jungwook of Small Rock.
The reserve troops I’d sent in all of a sudden seemed to catch his eye from afar. Hope flashed across his exhausted face in an instant.
It would probably look like I hadn’t abandoned the First Wall.
“Reinforcements are here! Just a little longer, guys!”
“Yes, Guild Master!”
I didn’t know what he was imagining, but the way he threw himself into the fight as though he hadn’t been discarded was certainly impressive.
Once support was concentrated on the First Wall, the nonstop flow of monsters climbing up toward it finally began to slow.
“I’m not doing it because I like it, Sister Heera. I just thought it’d be best to use them for as long as they’re useful.”
“Mm.”
“The First Wall is going to break eventually anyway. If you look at Castle Rock’s defensive battle records, there’s never been a siege in the last few centuries where the First Wall didn’t get breached. Of course, the outer walls haven’t all fallen either, but the First Wall has always been the first to go, no matter how many battles there were.”
“You did your homework.”
“It’s the sort of thing you can figure out just by reading the records. I don’t know what the architect of Castle Rock was thinking when he built this wall, but if I had to guess, he was probably a little crazy.”
“Why?”
“Because the whole thing was designed to force sacrifice in a defensive battle. Whoever built this place planned it from the start on the assumption that the humans on the First Wall wouldn’t survive… and, well, that’s probably why the other strongpoints are arranged around it too. In other words, the reason Castle Rock has never fallen until now is that it was built on the backs of countless sacrifices.”
“So you’re saying Small Rock is this round’s sacrifice?”
“Of course. They’ll probably last a little longer. Use them up completely, drain every last bit of mana out of them, and then toss them aside cleanly. Dying with mana left over would be unfair to them, and a waste for us.”
“That’s so disgusting…”
“Is that why you said I’d make a competent commander?”
“That’s part of it, yes… but you’re still a complete bastard.”
“They were criminals who were going to die anyway. If we’re giving them a chance to die like this, they should be thanking us. You could even call it an honorable death.”
It was an honorable death, all right.
There was no evidence that they had committed crimes, but uncovering such evidence would be child’s play.
Even if they were lucky enough to survive over there, Song Jungwook was going to die eventually anyway.
He might even be tortured brutally, so dying surrounded by monsters like this was probably the best possible outcome. For a brief moment, he’d serve as an example to everyone else—meaning he’d keep helping us even after death.
“Hold the line!”
“Don’t let them up! Not one of them! What are the warriors doing!”
They’re holding up better than I thought.
The fact that the First Wall was still hanging on by a thread was nothing short of miraculous.
Granted, there were only rare-rank monsters so far, but just keeping them out at this stage was enough to prove the First Wall was doing its job.
If they could stop something stronger than this even once, then Small Rock would have given more than enough value to justify their existence. In that case, giving them a little more support wouldn’t be a bad move.
As arrows began to rain down in concentrated volleys on the monsters below the First Wall, the creatures screamed and a little more breathing room opened up again.
Song Jungwook’s face filled with hope once more, and he sent me a look of complete trust.
Idiot.
He probably thought I’d deployed him to the First Wall so Small Rock could shine.
That was when the rare-rank monsters and stronger finally began to appear from farther back.
I could see heroic-rank monsters, the kind that could only be taken down by working as a party, charging toward the wall one by one.
Now it begins.
The real battle was starting now.
A quadrupedal monster that could cover incredible distances in a single leap was already climbing the wall.
Obviously, magic began pouring into it in concentrated bursts, just as the manual would have dictated.
The first objective was to wear it down by hastily committing the reserve troops as well.
In the middle of all that, I could see Jung Hayan’s magic and Hwang Jeongyeon’s spells raining down too, which meant that if I wanted to knock this thing down, I’d have to start showing some of the cards I was holding.
With the arrival of the new monsters cutting off support to the First Wall, our proud little Small Rock Guild was left to fight the monsters swarming up in close combat.
Supporting them now would be pointless.
The time had come to let them go.
While slowly pulling back the remaining troops, I continued supporting the First Wall only from long range.
Already, screams were bursting out from certain sections.
“Aaaaaaagh!”
“Help me! Somebody—!”
Song Jungwook of Small Rock would be growing frantic too.
I could see him sending me pleading looks, but by the time he turned his head, what would have reached his eyes instead was the reserve force already beginning to withdraw.
“Lee Kiyoung, you son of a bitch! F... fall back! Move the troops back….”
As if he could.
Turning his back on monsters that were flooding forward by the dozens was nothing short of impossible.
The beasts’ howls made his voice sound blurred and distant.
“Lee Kiyoung! Bastard! Lee Kiyoung!! Lee Kiyooooooung!!!”
See you later.
“Lee Kiyooooooung!”
At last, when so many monsters had poured into the First Wall that even his voice could no longer be heard clearly, I opened my mouth and began to form the seal.
“We cannot let Small Rock’s sacrifice be in vain!”
Tears were brimming in my eyes.