Hyde Marches Out to Suppress the Heretics! #3
Two days had already passed since they set out.
Just when it seemed that one more day's march would bring the forest that held the Crescent Moon Sisterhood's stronghold into view, Loras spoke up while chewing on castor seeds.
"Lord Oscar, it's been a while since we've seen real combat. How about loosening up a bit first? I know of a small band of bandits holed up in a cave near here. Let's grab them on the way."
"Fine by me. Our Holy Crusade is the sword and shield that keeps the peace in Durgien. Clearing out a bandit nest in advance sounds like a good idea."
Soon the soldiers' company stormed the cave where the bandits were said to be camped.
Waaaaaah—!!!
There were thirty bandits. Even allowing for the fact that their own numbers were far greater and their arms and training superior, the slaughter that unfolded was shockingly one-sided.
"Loras, you killed five, so I'm one ahead of you!"
"What are you talking about, Tristan? I just cut down six. Wait—seven? No, maybe six. Hell, I don't know!"
"You're the one spouting nonsense! Your form's been off lately—maybe you should turn back now. Your arm's wobbling!"
The knights in full plate especially tore through the infantry like chariots. Every flash of their blades sent blood spraying in a spectacle that bordered on the surreal.
Among them, Loras's skill stood head and shoulders above the rest. Even in heavy plate, his arms moved light as feathers, and every time they did, heads rolled across the ground.
"This is so dull it barely even counts as a warm-up. Cough."
Watching Loras wipe the blood from his face with the back of his hand, the young squire Paulo breathed in awe, "Sir Loras, you're so cool—."
Even if the bandits and heretics of this world had no human rights to speak of, calling the act of killing people "cool" still sat wrong with me.
Still, Loras's skill was better than I had expected. I had taken him for a Bronze Badge knight, but at this level he was easily Silver Badge caliber.
I should tweak the details of the plan a little more.
Right then a soldier came galloping up, blue cross banner streaming, and reined in before Oscar.
"Lord Oscar! Urgent report! The advance party dispatched by the Church clashed with the Crescent Moon Sisterhood at their stronghold roughly five hours ago!"
"The advance party? Who was leading them?"
"The leader was said to be the Bronze Badge knight Galatea!"
"Oh? Sir Galatea herself?"
Galatea.
That name stirred one of the few warm memories I still carried from this world. A kind, upright woman. Good enough that I wouldn't have minded making her my second wife.
While I was thinking that, the courier shouted in panic.
"The thing is—it's not confirmed, but there's word that Sir Galatea was taken alive by the Sisterhood. The Crescent Moon Sisterhood is holding her hostage and demanding that this suppression force withdraw—."
At that, Loras's brow furrowed.
"Galatea's a strong woman. You're telling me she got captured by the likes of the Crescent Moon Sisterhood? That doesn't make sense. You sure you've got that right? Cough."
"According to a survivor, there's a criminal among the Sisterhood no one's seen before. Someone who called herself Las of Wrath—."
Wrath.
One of the Seven Deadly Sins designated by the Church.
The mention of a criminal who claimed that name sent a ripple through the soldiers.
"Las of Wrath?"
"Never heard that name before. That's one of the Seven Sins."
"A new Great Sin Seat…!?"
"Shit, if that's real we should pull back."
"Damn it, I knew that little Paulo brat was bad luck the second he started yapping about Great Sin Seats."
The unrest among the soldiers grew. Some of them trembled as if someone had dumped cold water over their heads.
While Loras, Oscar, and Tristan kept their mouths shut, the one-eyed but seasoned knight Baldwin spoke calmly and steadily.
"Young master, we should withdraw. If the report is true even by a fraction, we have no chance of winning."
Oscar's silence stretched on.
Then the boy squire Paulo cried out in flustered urgency.
"Galatea's a famous knight! If the heretics have taken her prisoner we have to go rescue her right away! And it's a chance to execute a Great Sin Seat and make a name for ourselves!"
Of course Paulo's words only drifted emptily over the heads of the forty men.
After long deliberation Oscar finally spoke as if he had reached a decision.
"We withdraw. Well, we cleaned out the bandit nest in the cave, so the expedition has already paid for itself. No one will complain about this much. And Sir Loras's condition doesn't look good either."
Oscar's judgment was sound.
Which made it all the more disappointing.
I wish they'd just charged the heretic stronghold like dogs and smashed everything to pieces.
"Th-that can't be! What about the hostage! The Holy Crusade is the sword of all the people! You're going to retreat while a prisoner is still in their hands? We set out to hunt heretics, not bandits!"
Squire Paulo was still shouting as if he hadn't grasped the situation at all.
Everyone turning their horses around was, of course, bad for me as well.
I had a reason I absolutely had to reach the Crescent Moon Sisterhood.
Only then could I save Dihon.
Looks like it's my turn to step in.
"Lord Oscar, Sir Loras, and the rest of you knights. Let us continue as we are. I have a connection with Galatea myself. I may even be able to offer some small help in rescuing her."
"Hyde, what help can a man who's never even held a sword give?"
Loras's question was only natural.
And I had more or less expected that a fool like Loras would ask exactly that.
In fact, I was hoping he would.
I raised a single finger.
"I do not know the exact location of the Crescent Moon Sisterhood's stronghold, but I do know a secret passage that leads in and out of it. I heard of it from the apostate Nomad and the wicked woman Nicola."
"A secret passage?"
Oscar reacted at once.
As his expression shifted through several colors I pressed the advantage without missing a beat.
"Do you know that I was the one who threw the Bluebeard couple and the apostate Nomad into the heresy inquisition? When I first saw through their true natures I also learned the secrets they kept."
A secret passage.
It was common enough for cultists to build emergency escape routes into their strongholds. The Crescent Moon Sisterhood had done the same.
Claiming I had heard of it from Nomad and the Bluebeard couple was a lie, but the fact that I knew its location was no lie at all.
Back when the Crescent Moon Sisterhood had captured me and I was on the verge of being castrated, I had fled through that very passage.
I had been caught again in the end, but it was still a route no one else ever used.
"If we use the secret passage for a surprise attack we might even take the head of a Great Sin Seat while they are off guard. Rescue Galatea and strike down a Great Sin Seat at the same time—doesn't that sound like a fine plan?"
"And why should we believe you?"
The one-eyed knight Baldwin frowned.
Age had dulled his skill a little, but that same experience made him a hard man to persuade.
I spoke to him.
"I swear upon the honor of Psyche, my wife and my everything. The only oath greater than this would be one sworn in the name of Elohim. But to use the name of God lightly in an oath is a blasphemous thing, so I ask your forbearance."
At the name of Psyche everyone glanced at one another.
Just as I thought they were beginning to tip, Loras curled his lip in a sneer.
"Hyde, I was wondering what guts a soft bookworm who'd never held a sword had for tagging along on our journey—turns out you were hiding a secret like this! You were planning to use the secret passage alone and snatch all the glory for yourself!"
You stupid bastard.
Loras, thank God you're an idiot.
You're playing out the exact script I predicted.
Oscar agreed with Loras.
"So that was it after all. Lord Hyde, I am rather disappointed you kept such information hidden until now. Well then, everyone—what do you think we should do? Our crisis may yet become an opportunity."
I could see the greed glittering in Oscar's eyes.
A chance to rescue a hostage and suppress a Great Sin Seat.
Opportunities like this were genuinely rare.
Oscar in particular had taken a severe scolding from his father Archibold over the matter of marrying Psyche; he would be desperate to restore his honor.
He could not possibly refuse a bait like this, and in fact he did not.
I drove the wedge home.
"Then let us go with a small elite force. This journey must be kept secret so that no information leaks. No one must know where we have gone."
From this moment our subsequent movements would be a perfect mystery.
With that, every condition for my plan was complete.
"We're almost there. The Crescent Moon Sisterhood is said to have settled in the ruins of an old temple of the goddess Diana from the days of the ancient Rom Empire. Heretics nesting in a place of idol worship—."
Oscar Archibold halted before the place called the Witch Forest and surveyed the surroundings.
He looked over Loras, Tristan, and Baldwin in turn. Then his eyes settled on me.
"Lord Hyde, from here on you will take the lead and guide us, since you know the secret passage. Don't worry. We will keep a thorough watch on the rear."
Three knights present and they want the man who's never swung a sword once to walk in front?
The insides of petty men's heads are always transparent.
These bastards plan to use me as bait and run if things go south.
Then they'll go back to Agarpe and deliver the sad news: "Psyche, your husband Hyde is dead!"
Psyche will grieve terribly, and Oscar will cheer in secret.
After all, Psyche is far too young to live out her life as a widow.
She's still a virgin, no less!
In other words, if I die, Psyche will once again be drowned in a flood of marriage proposals from every man around.
"I will take the lead."
But I agreed to go first without special protest.
Actually, this is better.
I was getting irritated by the sluggish pace of the vanguard.
Arriving before nightfall is ideal.
I advanced through the forest with a stride that was surprisingly familiar.
From behind me Oscar asked,
"Lord Hyde, I already knew you were the one who captured Bluebeard and the apostate Nomad. How much do you know about the Crescent Moon Sisterhood?"
"Only that they are a gathering of mad women who worship the goddesses of the moon. And that the men offered to them as sacrifices suffer any number of terrible fates."
I carefully measured out the information I gave.
Then Tristan, the seaweed-haired knight of the Agarpe family, tossed out a greasy joke in a slimy voice.
"I hear they're so desperate to castrate men they can barely stand it. If we get caught, we're getting the knife too, right? Loras, keep a good hold on your equipment. If they grab you, every woman in Durgien will weep."
After a good deal of chatter a stone drainage pipe appeared, belching filthy wastewater that formed a swamp. The stench was foul. Looking at it I told them all,
"This is the drainage pipe that expels the stronghold's wastewater. This is the secret passage. No one guards it. Let us enter at once."
A waste pipe spewing piss, shit, and unidentifiable chemicals.
When I pointed toward the passage—barely wide enough for a single person to crawl—every face crumpled at once.
"We have to crawl through a place like this? The smell—ugh—it's so foul my nose feels like it's rotting."
Oscar in particular looked utterly disgusted.
Perhaps it was too much for a young master born the son of an archbishop and raised in luxury.
I had of course expected them to balk.
I decided to remind them once more of the goal and the profit.
"That is precisely why it is a secret passage. No one would ever imagine a person entering through here. Or would you prefer to go through the front gate over there?"
I pointed. Dense clusters of torches burned among the dark undergrowth.
The Crescent Moon Sisterhood's patrols were moving with considerable thoroughness—enough to be genuinely intimidating.
Even the guards visible at a glance numbered around thirty. There would be more inside, so roughly a hundred would be stationed in the abandoned temple ruins.
"We slip in secretly, rescue the captive, take only the head of the Great Sin Seat, and come back out this way. To achieve a feat no one else can achieve, one must do what no one else will do."
Worry deepened on every face.
Honestly, what a bunch of frustrating bastards.
"If you cannot even endure a moment's discomfort, then all of you may turn back. I will go alone."
The instant I moved to enter the waste pipe, Loras gave a start. He grabbed my shoulder and said,
"I'll go first. I can't let a soft bookworm steal the glory of taking the first step into the enemy's den. Someone also needs to clear the area around the secret passage quickly."
"Loras, my brother! I'm coming with you!"
Tristan stepped forward as well.
Hey, Tristan, you bastard.
You're an Agarpe knight.
Isn't your job to stay until the end and protect me?
Well, I never expected anything from you in the first place.
The two knights scrambled in quickly. Seeing them, Oscar muttered something about "If we just handle this one matter well—," then crawled into the waste pipe himself.
When Baldwin followed him into the pipe as well, I was finally able to smile.
"Stupid bastards. Go choke on shit water."
I'll take the other secret passage.