Chaos Orientation (4)
The attack never came.
Whether the constant night watches and patrols by the paladins and mercenaries—regardless of rank—had been a waste of effort or a worthwhile precaution was something we would only know later. Of the two other things we had been waiting for, the first to arrive was Ziegfried.
He brought back solid information, at least.
“Are you sure it was monsters? Not them fighting among themselves?”
“Positive. The distinctive stench that gnolls leave behind when a large group bands together is hard to mistake for anything else. Something burst out from inside the mountain stronghold and slaughtered everything, leaving the whole place drenched in blood.”
It was those damn gnolls again. If roughly fifty of them had swept through our side, the bandits—or whatever they were—had left traces suggesting well over a hundred in their mountain base.
“Roughly when?”
“From what I saw, it couldn’t have been more than a few hours earlier. Probably happened right around the time we repelled the attack on us. I’m not a professional hunter, so I can’t be exact.”
The timing was far too convenient. No matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t simply dismiss it as coincidence. If possible, I would have liked to investigate more thoroughly.
Yes. If possible.
“Lucia! The messenger we sent to the castle is back!”
“Already? Did the mercenary who left just turn around and come straight back? They didn’t send a new messenger from the castle?”
“Yes! The same mercenary who left has returned!”
A messenger returning directly from the castle was not a good sign. In situations like this, the standard procedure was to let the messenger rest inside the castle and then send a fresh one back to guide us. This applied even if the messenger was a mercenary. Responses might vary slightly depending on the person, but when the one who sent the message was a saintess, there was even less room for deviation.
In other words, there was a very high chance that the messenger had either been turned away at the gate or had been unable to make contact for some reason and had rushed back immediately.
“I’m sorry, Saintess. The castle is surrounded by a gnoll horde, and I couldn’t ride straight back because I was chased all night.”
The latter, then.
“How many gnolls were surrounding the castle?”
“It was nighttime when I arrived, so I couldn’t count them properly, but there were at least several hundred. They had the castle completely encircled to prevent anyone from escaping.”
A textbook siege. If this had been a battle between humans, negotiations would have taken place during the encirclement—deciding whether to surrender honorably or clash once in a decisive battle.
And that was exactly the problem.
The opponent wasn’t human. They were bipedal monsters wearing the hides of hyenas. There was no way they would be negotiating with the humans inside the castle.
“Did they have any siege weapons?”
“I couldn’t observe closely, but they might have had a few ladders. Since it’s just a baron’s castle, that might be enough.”
One shouldn’t imagine every castle as a towering structure four or five stories high with solid gates. The cost of materials, the skilled craftsmen required, and the overall construction expenses were no joke. As a result, most baronial castles took the form of fortified manor houses—essentially closed-off agricultural estates. The walls were usually only two to three stories high, and the “gate” was little more than a reinforced double door that opened outward.
Even so, if the defenders stayed inside, barred the gates, and properly guarded the walls, they could hold off hundreds of gnolls without much trouble. But—
“We need to move quickly.”
“Saintess, it’s too dangerous.”
“I know. I know that, but we can’t just look at the situation and walk away.”
No matter how I looked at it, this wasn’t a case of gnolls randomly gathering into a massive horde. From everything I had learned so far, when gnolls formed such enormous groups, their primary activity was pillaging—not laying siege to a castle.
“If it’s me, the Saintess, and you together, we can manage somehow.”
Ziegfried, who had rarely shown this side of himself lately, suddenly reappeared with that characteristic overbearing aura. His voice was filled with absolute confidence, a tone that brooked no argument. His slightly condescending gaze. The subtle arrogance woven into his voice that said this is only natural.
“That’s…”
“We should go, right? We have Lucia, and the Hero is making such a firm declaration.”
Yulia added her own pressure. As both an imperial princess and a patriarch officially recognized by the Pope—a contradictory pair of titles in the current political climate—her words carried immense weight. Either position alone would be difficult for a paladin to oppose. This held true even for officer-knights, not just regular ones.
Above all, paladins took their vows extremely seriously—the oath to serve the divine by protecting the weak. That conviction had not vanished even when the Church had been brought so low that they had desperately shoved me into this body as a last resort.
So how could anyone refuse or raise objections when the Saintess, the Hero, and the Patriarch all spoke with one voice?
“Understood. We will prepare to depart immediately.”
The paladins were settled.
“As for the mercenaries, if the situation looks too dire, I will permit a retreat. If you wish to leave now, I will return your advance payment but waive any penalty fees. However, if you stay until the end, I will add a performance bonus equal to five times the originally offered amount.”
“An opportunity to uphold our faith and earn money at the same time doesn’t come often. We will gladly accompany you, Saintess.”
Binding the mercenaries wasn’t particularly difficult either. I had deliberately selected those with some degree of religious faith, and since I—the Saintess—spoke to them directly, they accepted with smiles. That was enough.
The mercenary who had served as messenger was left in the carriage. Even if I could somewhat relieve his physical exhaustion with miracles, mental fatigue was another matter. We pushed the horses to their maximum speed and headed for the castle.
Even though it was only a baron’s castle, and even though the entire domain consisted of just one or two villages with a total population of five to six hundred, it was effectively the heart of this entire region. It could not be taken lightly, whether in terms of defensive capability or local economy. If it fell, the surrounding area would become either complete lawless territory or an uninhabited wasteland.
For that reason alone, it was right to offer aid if we could. Still, the difference in scale made anxiety inevitable.
“If there’s even a Demon King involved…”
“I’m here. I just need to smack it a few times with this sword.”
In such situations, Ziegfried’s naturally overbearing attitude actually proved surprisingly helpful. After all, these were the words of the Hero himself, steeling himself to face none other than a Demon King or its monsters.
What followed was rapid movement. Once we had decided to help, there was no point in hesitation. Besides, it was hard to believe that gnolls who understood and were currently executing the concept of a siege would ignore the possibility of human reinforcements arriving.
Which meant the gnolls must have had some kind of method prepared. The fact that the word “Demon King” had slipped from a paladin’s mouth—even as a mere possibility—was no coincidence.
“We’ll arrive after sunset. Will that be all right? The imperial knights always said that fighting monsters is best done while the sun is still bright.”
The problem was that the messenger had returned far too late. No matter how much we pushed the pace, there simply wasn’t enough daylight left. While I could restore the stamina of both men and horses with healing miracles, using that power at night would brightly reveal our position to the enemy.
“That won’t be a problem.”
“Do you have some method, Hero?”
“We can use something that shines even brighter at night. If the opponents are monsters, using this to break their morale might actually be more effective than a surprise attack.”
I wasn’t sure whether he was acknowledging Yulia as an imperial princess or as a patriarch, but the overbearing attitude he usually displayed toward her had completely vanished. That was good, but this attitude of his was still a problem. Was it a matter of personality, or something else entirely?
Never mind. At least he possessed all the qualities a hero should have. His attitude might be like that, but when it came to helping the weak and those in need, he showed no shortcomings. If that was the case, it probably wasn’t a personality flaw—just a tolerable quirk that everyone possessed to some degree.
Besides, there was no point worrying about it now.
“There’s smoke rising from the direction of the castle…”
We had ridden hard and finally reached the vicinity of the castle. Even as the sun was nearly set, the black smoke rising from that direction was clearly visible. As we drew closer, all kinds of screams and monstrous shrieks reached our ears. There was no doubt—this was a siege in progress.
“Saintess, what should we do?”
“We provide support, of course. Ziegfried will take command. Follow the Hero.”
When I looked at Ziegfried with a gaze that asked Can you handle it?, he returned a slightly surprised look, as if he hadn’t expected me to entrust him with command. But from my perspective, right now we needed Ziegfried’s bold, aggressive style more than the naturally conservative and cautious approach the paladins would take.
Whether he lacked command experience or not, what did that matter at this point? The paladins—ten of them, eleven including Ziegfried—had never charged into a triple-digit gnoll horde before either.
“Understood, Saintess. Then, Hero?”
The paladin accepted my order without any visible doubt. Whether he was following blindly or had reached the same conclusion through his own reasoning, I couldn’t tell.
“Uh… huh?”
In the end, the only person who panicked at this development was Ziegfried. The mercenaries had handed over the horses in better condition to the paladins and were staying back to protect me and Yulia, so they had no reason to be flustered.
“You can do it, Ziegfried. You’ve been making all the calls by yourself, fighting every battle, and winning every time so far.”
“Well, that’s true, but…”
“Have some confidence. I believe in you.”
That was enough to settle Ziegfried’s hesitation. At my words, he lifted his gaze again and met my eyes. I could feel his confidence returning with every passing second. The doubt directed at himself faded, and the conviction and self-assurance that had been buried deep inside rose to the surface.
“All right. I’ll be right back.”
With those words, Ziegfried drew the Hero’s Sword. I, as the Saintess, began doing what was naturally expected of me. I poured out a massive amount of divine power to wash away the fatigue of the paladins and their horses, then packed the Hero’s Sword with divine power until it was practically overflowing.
“Some of the gnolls are rushing this way. About twenty of them.”
“I’ll take the lead. Follow me.”
Yes, Ziegfried. At least in a situation like this, that arrogant demeanor of yours looks far better. A hero who has lost his confidence and doubts himself is one of the most pathetic sights imaginable.
“We’ll go that far too. Yulia, prepare your divine power.”
“Divine power? For what?”
“Just make it shine!”
When we reached the top of a gentle hill, we could see that the castle’s low outer wall—made of wooden palisades—had already fallen. Fortunately, the defenders were desperately holding the higher inner wall, fighting off gnolls trying to climb over it.
The moment we released a powerful burst of divine power to announce the arrival of the Saintess and the Hero, I clearly felt someone in the middle of the gnoll horde lock eyes with me.