Living Souls in the Dead Lands
"Spears!"
"Reload! Hurry!"
As the armored skeletons charged, the officers' shouts grew sharper and more urgent.
Knights, mages, and holy knights could have simply charged out and ended the matter in moments. But this was only the first day. If the asymmetric forces and the heavy war engines held in the rear were thrown against nothing more than armored skeletons, they would have nothing left when a true crisis arrived.
Soldiers existed precisely for situations like this.
I still don't know how strong these armored skeletons really are, but here I will trust my subordinates.
They could not solve every problem themselves. Having decided to rebuild the kingdom, Lillian knew they could not insert themselves into every single engagement. For now she would leave it to her troops. If the enemy proved stronger than expected, that would be the moment to step in.
"Just do it the way you were trained!"
They had spent half a year under instructors Akina herself had selected. The Wolf Mercenary Group carried out the basic tactics of the spear-and-gun formation, using their spears to pin the enemy infantry in place.
"Free fire!"
Once the lines were set, Lillian gave the order for free fire and watched the results.
Her men planted their spears and formed a solid wall that checked the armored skeletons' advance. Behind that wall the magic gunners finished charging their weapons and fired through the gaps between their own comrades.
Crack! Shatter!
Skeletons struck in the skull or torso by the magic guns sprouted clean holes. At point-blank range the weapons hit with devastating force.
Ordinary blades and spears would have struggled against the undead's natural resilience, but the mana-charged shots of the magic guns disrupted the very flow of mana that animated them. Mid- or high-grade undead might have shrugged it off, but low-grade skeletons collapsed under the assault one after another.
Of course, every shot drained the gunners' mana. Soon they reached the point where further charging became impossible.
"Second rank forward! First rank fall back!"
"Magic gunners move first! Spearmen, hold the line!"
Changing ranks in the middle of combat was never easy, yet Lillian—who had learned command under Akina—successfully rotated her second rank into place. Only after the third rank had taken its turn did the undead force finally break. Akina reviewed the casualty report, confirmed the losses were remarkably light, ordered a short rest, and then set the column moving again.
I hope they keep following orders this cleanly in the battles ahead…
For now they obeyed without question. But if a chance for personal glory against Saryeong Kingdom ever appeared, there was no telling what reckless moves they might attempt.
I never wanted this unnecessary war in the first place.
Honestly, Akina opposed the entire campaign. The king, rather than stabilizing a kingdom already on the brink, was using the crisis as an excuse to bleed the nobility of power. The nobles themselves, if they had poured the cost of this expedition into developing their own lands, would have reaped several times the profit. Instead they chased the power that Black Soil represented and forgot the duty they owed their people and territories.
How many commoners will freeze or starve to death this winter…
She was a noble who held the ordinary values of this world: she despised democracy that rejected the aristocracy, and believed royalty and nobility should rule the people. That was why the sight of kings and lords playing power games instead of governing made her sigh. Yet with almost no central authority of her own, the only path left to her was victory in this war.
"They seem to have finished gauging our combat strength."
"I agree."
"Shall we scout the surroundings?"
"No. These are undead strong enough to destroy an entire kingdom. Send griffins out carelessly and the odds of them being shot down are high."
Her adjutants offered various suggestions, but Akina chose caution. Undead of undeniable power were operating on their home ground, under a darkness that completely blotted out the sun. In such conditions griffin riders would see almost nothing and would more likely be picked off one by one.
That was why the griffins that normally ranged ahead of the column now flew in tight formation directly above the center of the army.
Griffins can ignore terrain and strike like a hammer from any direction. I cannot afford to waste them.
They were an elite arm useful for far more than scouting. She would conserve them for now. She scanned the landscape again.
The farther we go, the darker it becomes.
"Go to the Purification Knights and ask whether they can clear the clouds."
"Yes, my lady!"
She had not named anyone, yet the nearest adjutant answered at once and spurred his horse toward the Purification Knights. He returned a short while later with a grim face.
"I asked. They say the clouds carry a dark-magic-like energy, though of a different kind. They could attempt it, but it would drain both their holy power and their stamina, and they cannot erase the entire cloud cover. They say it would be pointless."
"Well done."
Akina clicked her tongue inwardly and raised her voice.
"Light the torches we prepared!"
They had brought plenty against just such a contingency. For the moment that would have to be enough.
Meanwhile, two vampires watched in secret as the humans lit their torches and trespassed on their territory.
"A fairly strong army."
"Tempered by civil war, no doubt. Personally I wanted to see the power of that strong one called Akina and those Purification Knights. A pity."
"They will have anticipated our surveillance as well."
The pale-skinned middle-aged man spoke with careful respect to the one who looked far younger—barely more than a youth. A vampire's appearance froze at the moment of turning; that was all it was.
"It was a low-probability reconnaissance to begin with. No matter. We return."
"Yes. Ah, one more thing."
"Hm?"
"Wouldn't it be simpler just to send skeletons and zombies in waves until they are worn down?"
The middle-aged vampire suggested grinding the enemy down with sheer numbers.
"Her Majesty desires an overwhelming, undeniable, absolute victory. That is why she sent Lady Sirin."
"That noble Akina is rather pitiful. I hear she ranks among the strongest in the human world."
"Which is exactly why Her Majesty's intent will land all the harder. We can show them we are not sitting still out of weakness."
Having confirmed the expedition's mood and the soldiers' level of training, the two melted back into the darkness, offering a silent prayer of mourning for those who walked willingly toward their own deaths.
When the clocks told them night had fallen, the expedition built a wooden palisade from the timber they had brought and established camp. Without firelight even the ground a few paces ahead vanished into blackness, so the overall mood was somber. The Wolf Mercenaries, however, were noisier than the rest—perhaps because they had just seen the fruits of their training.
"Now I get why they kept drilling the spear-and-gun formation."
"Right? Ordinary cavalry or monsters would be easy meat with this."
They had felt the formation's power in real combat. Its weaknesses, though, had also become obvious.
"But against anyone they call a real powerhouse, it's useless."
"True. No matter how efficient the tactic, it doesn't work on the strong."
The spear-and-gun line was specialized for fighting humans of similar strength or ordinary cavalry. A handful of knights or a single high-grade monster charging in would shatter it at once. Even so, it remained far more efficient than the free-for-all fighting they had known before.
"Everyone, eat well."
"You too, Kaisent."
Kaisent passed among the mercenaries. He had joined the commander's party for the meal, yet he ate the same bread and soup as the rank-and-file instead of the richer fare the other mages enjoyed. Anyone else might have wondered why; the mercenaries who had lived with him for so long already knew. While everyone else filled their stomachs with soup and bread, he refused special treatment for himself.
"Honestly. The kid's too kind for his own good."
"I know. At his age he ought to be a little selfish about food."
Children that age usually grabbed whatever they could to fill their bellies. Kaisent showed none of that selfishness.
Meanwhile, having rejoined Lillian's group, Kaisent soaked bread in soup and ate steadily. He had grown used to this world's food culture and made no complaint. The first complaints came instead from Lillian and Priscilla.
"Damn it. They just handed the cooking to whoever was free."
"Exactly. The bread's one thing, but this soup was thrown together."
Until now Kaisent had always struggled to coax real flavor out of scarce ingredients so that whoever ate it would find at least a little pleasure. This soup, however, showed not the slightest care for the eater. It was bland, the balance of ingredients ignored, simply dumped into a pot and boiled.
"Even I, who value the chance to eat more than the taste itself, have to say this is a bit much."
Lilith, who after harsh years with her former master had come to prize leisure over flavor, still grumbled at a soup made with zero thought.
"I wanted to cook myself, but Lady Akina stopped me. She said a mage doing that sort of work would be looked down on by the other mages."
"Haa. Mage snobbery never changes."
"Wherever you go, mages start with the same old lectures."
"Wait—your world too?"
"Yep. They go on about the laws of the world this and that, and treat cooking like some lowly chore."
"So educated people are the problem in every world."
The party, now comfortable enough to banter with Lilith, took turns needling the empty pride of the learned. While they talked, Kaisent finished every scrap of food and began glancing around.
"Doesn't something feel off to you?"
"Off? What do you mean?"
"The atmosphere isn't that bad."
"Well, of course it—"
"You're right. I've been feeling a strange dissonance for a while now."
While Lillian and Priscilla tilted their heads, only Lilith nodded in understanding.
"What kind of dissonance, Master?"
Arty, unable to sense auras, could not follow what Kaisent and Lilith were talking about.
"This is territory ruled by the dead. In a place thick with the aura of death, the mood should naturally turn heavy and listless."
"But not only us—everyone else seems fine too."
Aside from the unnatural darkness caused by the clouds, the expedition's spirits were not particularly low. In other words, they were not feeling the death aura unique to the undead. Lilith and Priscilla, who still remembered the world drowning in death energy when the Dead Moon rose, both realized something was wrong.
"No aura of death in a land ruled by the dead?"
"What does this mean…"
Naturally none of them could guess what the situation implied. They settled for simply staying alert.
That night the camp suffered not a single raid—even though the surest way for Saryeong Kingdom to torment the expedition would have been to strike while they slept. A few sharp-eyed people sensed something was amiss, yet because they could not name what it meant, they kept silent. They could not warn the others that the enemy had spread some strange energy, nor could they say "be careful because there's no death aura in Saryeong."
Then the mounted scouts Akina had sent out returned with news.
"My lady! We found a village!"
"What? Civilian houses?"
"Yes! And astonishingly, people are living there—living people, not the dead!"
The report left Akina and everyone nearby speechless.
"Living humans inside Saryeong Kingdom?"
While they struggled to process the news, the commander of the Purification Knights, having heard the same report, approached Akina. He was a man of dignified bearing—the very image of a knight.
"We will verify it ourselves. Assign us a single escort unit."
"This is not a task that requires the Purification Knights to move in person. I believe you understand your own importance better than anyone."
"I do. Even so, I wish to confirm it with my own eyes."
"I refuse. We will handle the verification. Conserve your strength."
"…Understood."
Akina judged that a Purification Knights force at full strength would be essential if anything went wrong, and she blocked their impulsive move. She watched the commander turn away without further protest, then began selecting a contact force with her adjutants.
Thud-thud-thud-thud—
"What!? What unit is that!"
Moments later a cavalry detachment burst from the main army.
"It's the Purification Knights!"
"They're moving with troops from another fief!"
"What the hell do they think they're doing!"
Akina seethed at the Purification Knights' reckless advance when no one yet knew what traps the enemy might have laid. She wanted to tell them to go die on their own, but the royal court had paid both official "donations" and private "personal donations" to the Church just to secure these knights. They were also the core combat power of the entire war; she could not simply abandon them.
In the end Akina was forced to dispatch a thousand men with orders to bring the Purification Knights back.