The Village in the Territorial War (2)
The Village in the Territorial War (2)
The account of the territorial war I heard from the knights and soldiers was slightly different from what I had expected.
A sudden territorial war was simply more than Morena Territory could handle.
While Morena Territory was still reeling from the sudden declaration of war, Murasen's forces cut straight through the territory and arrived before the central village just two days later.
And then came the battle.
But, unlike what Murasen Territory had planned, the battle did not end quickly.
The wooden palisade surrounding the village was sturdier than expected, and all the villagers had stepped forward to defend their home.
Perhaps because of that, the territorial soldiers fought much better than expected, too.
"No, when you think about it, it was all thanks to the acting lord who commanded them."
"Was his name Ohen? No one expected a retired old knight to lead people so well."
"His leadership was great, but his skills were incredible, too. A retired old knight fighting and defeating active knights... Thanks to him, it took us forever to break through the wooden palisade."
Seeing their knight sprawled out, unable to withstand the torture, the soldiers scrambled to tell me everything that had happened.
They had fought desperately, but it seemed their efforts hadn't been enough to turn the tide of the war.
They held out fiercely for several days, but in the end, the wooden palisade collapsed, and Murasen's forces pushed into the village.
That was what had happened yesterday.
The collapsed palisade and the black smoke we saw were remnants of that battle.
"We'd beaten that acting lord to the brink of death and occupied the entire village, but then the Lord suddenly barged in, leading his knights."
"I mean, normally, other territories aren't allowed to interfere in a territorial war. But since the Lord himself stepped in, we couldn't really say anything."
"That Lord's ability was truly terrifying. Every one of our knights who attacked him collapsed helplessly. Because of that, we had to flee in a hurry."
Once they started talking, they poured out information as if competing to tell me more.
It was difficult to piece their story together.
Still, the situation was easy to sum up.
The Lord of Morena had arrived with the First Prince's knights and saved the territory.
And,
"The acting lord defeated two knights..."
There was only one reason a retired old knight would suddenly become that strong.
Ivana must have bestowed her ability on him.
That meant Ivana was still in the territory.
Viscount Morena must have rushed here to save his daughter as well.
But neither the knight nor the soldiers we had captured knew anything about Ivana.
"We were only told to capture the nobles. We were also ordered to avoid killing the territorial citizens as much as possible."
They probably hadn't been able to identify exactly who was involved.
"We've told you everything we know."
"Please, let us work under you instead. We were planning to make a quick buck and run away anyway."
"We got caught by that trash knight and couldn't even escape... We've been waiting for people like you to show up!"
The soldiers said all sorts of things to save their lives, but I had no intention of letting them live.
After killing them, we stepped out of the forest and looked toward the wooden palisade.
Black smoke was rising above the half-collapsed palisade.
Ivana was inside.
It seemed Ivana had used her ability on the retired knight, but since we'd come all this way, we had to meet her at least once.
But I had no intention of letting anyone else know we'd arrived.
We decided to move at night.
Time passed, and darkness fell.
Balea and I quietly approached the wooden palisade.
Lesty did not come with us.
"I'll wait outside. I'm just an ordinary mercenary, so scaling a wooden palisade at night is a bit much for me."
"I thought you were awakened and a priest."
Balea looked puzzled, but Lesty grinned at her words.
"An artifact appraiser and a heretical priest, yes. I'll stay out here and see whether there's any information left behind by other believers."
The only people outside the palisade were Murasen's forces, who had set up camp over there.
In short, he was saying he would investigate Murasen's side.
I allowed him to act alone, and that was how Balea and I ended up approaching the palisade by ourselves.
It was a dark night, with the moon hidden behind the clouds.
Beneath the wooden palisade, Balea whispered to me.
"The Princess's escort knight, an acquaintance of the Grand Archduchess, and on top of that, the son of a duke who's a Holy Knight of a secret cult."
On the way here, I had told Balea about the cult and the Holy Knights.
Even after hearing the story, and even after making a new contract with the Divine Sword, Balea had only smiled.
Yet she chose to bring it up now.
In a way, was this just like Balea?
"That's all I've heard so far, so I wonder how many more secrets you're hiding."
Her whisper was soft, as if she were speaking of love, but it also felt like a devil's temptation, giving me a slight chill.
I subtly changed the subject.
"But I'm also Lady Balea's friend."
Yet my words seemed to please Balea more than I expected.
Hearing them, Balea smiled brightly.
She looked at me and said,
"That's right. I hope that's your greatest secret, Young Lord."
With those words, Balea placed her hand on the wooden palisade.
Tap.
As she placed her hand on it, branches began to sprout from the palisade, which was made of cut timber.
It was her ability.
The sprouting branches took the shape of stairs, stretching all the way to the top of the palisade.
"Let's go up."
Though I could have climbed it normally, I stepped onto the stairs Balea had made and headed for the top of the palisade.
I climbed up the palisade and knocked out the sentry, allowing Balea and me to slip safely into the village.
Although it was a dark night, the village wasn't that dark, thanks to the torches set up everywhere.
I could see my surroundings even without light, but it was still better to have at least some illumination.
As the rising smoke had suggested, the village was a mess.
Ruined houses and smoke rising from various places.
A corpse covered in cloth lay beside a collapsed house, while painful groans and weeping echoed from the houses that were still relatively intact.
This village was no longer the warm, friendly-looking place I had seen before.
Balea and I avoided the patrolling soldiers as we headed toward the center of the village.
"Oh, this place is..."
As we made our way through the village, we happened to pass by the inn where I had stayed.
Though the regression had made my stay there something that had never happened, the female innkeeper and her daughter remained in my memory.
Fortunately, the inn was safe.
Just as I was about to pass the inn after reminiscing for a moment, a young woman's voice drifted out from inside.
"Mom! We're completely out of herbs for painkillers!"
At the sound of her voice, I remembered. It belonged to the daughter, whom I had thought was just a waitress.
"Did you check the basement, too?"
Following the daughter's voice, her mother, the innkeeper, replied.
"There's nothing!"
"What should we do? The potions Ivana gave us ran out a long time ago..."
As I listened to the mother and daughter's voices, several groans echoed from inside the inn.
I sensed several presences, and it seemed there were many wounded people inside the inn.
"Are they patients...?"
It seemed the relatively intact inn was being used as a temporary ward.
I stopped in my tracks.
Balea looked at me curiously, but I focused on listening to the conversation inside.
"It would have been nice if Ivana had stayed here..."
"Since the Lord has arrived, it's only natural for her to return to the mansion."
"Hmph. A Lord who never cared about us even once and only finally showed up because the territory was on the verge of ruin?"
"Still, those bastards retreated because the Lord brought his knights."
"Hmph. We only managed to hold out this long because Sir Ohen and Lady Ivana did their best. Without those two, we would have been ruined a long time ago."
The innkeeper seemed to find it difficult to disagree with her daughter's words.
"Ivana became so kind after returning from the capital..."
"I never expected her to come out in person to treat the soldiers."
"Honestly, Knight Ohen felt more like Ivana's father than the Lord, who barely showed his face."
"Stop! The Lord is here, and someone might hear you. Lady Ivana must be having a hard time, too, so don't go causing trouble."
"...Yes. I understand."
"I'm worried about Ivana. Knight Ohen is in critical condition, yet the Lord is talking about taking Ivana back to the capital..."
The conversation between the two stopped for a moment.
Then came the daughter's lament.
"Right. More importantly, what do we do? Everyone will suffer so much without painkillers..."
As I listened, I took the backpack off my back.
Then I took out a few potions and a bundle of herbs used as painkillers and set them down in front of the door.
It was a gesture of gratitude for the delicious meal I had enjoyed in the erased timeline, as well as payment for the information I had just overheard.
Balea watched me curiously, but she didn't ask any questions.
As expected, bringing Balea along was a good choice.
Knock, knock.
I tapped on the door and left the house.
The sound of the door opening, followed by the daughter's startled voice, echoed behind us, but we had already hidden in the darkness.
What was more, Ivana had personally stepped forward to treat the wounded... and had even bestowed her ability on Knight Ohen.
It was a side of her I'd never seen before.
"Has Lady Ivana changed?"
Balea answered my muttered question as we walked.
"That's probably her true personality. She pretended to be stiff, but it was obvious she was forcing herself."
Just as she herself was unique, Balea possessed an outstanding ability to read people.
If she said so, there was a good chance it was true.
If so, it seemed the danger to her life during the terror attack had changed Ivana.
Come to think of it, she had seemed different from before when we'd last met.
We kept walking, avoiding the torches, and soon the Lord's mansion came into view.
The mansion looked bright, surrounded by torches.
Perhaps because I was seeing it in the dark of night, it looked incredibly cold, unlike before.
Knights stood guard in front of the mansion.
Come to think of it, those knights were the same ones I had seen in the erased timeline.
They were the Royal Knights, the knights of the First Prince.
"Now, how should we get in without being caught..."
While I hid in the bushes, wondering how to infiltrate the mansion, Balea tapped me on the back.
When I looked back, Balea was staring at me with a pitying expression.
Then she placed her hand on the ground.
Thud.
The ground sank, creating a tunnel.
It was a tunnel leading to the mansion.
I looked from the tunnel to Balea.
To think she could even create a tunnel... I hadn't known she was this versatile.
"I thought your ability was closer to an illusion..."
Come to think of it, even when we climbed the palisade, it hadn't been an illusion.
Unfortunately, she did not reveal which side her ability belonged to.
Balea spoke as she entered the tunnel first.
"It doesn't matter whether it's an illusion or not. If everyone believes it's real, then it's reality."
Indeed. It was just as she said.
In any case, mana was an ability that turned illusions into reality.
I decided to just think that Balea's ability had improved.
And I followed her into the tunnel.
That was how Balea and I managed to enter the mansion without being detected.