Chapter 310
Chapter 310
The Iron Emperor — Chapter 310
"Distribute one week's rations to the five who've been separated out."
"Understood."
"Make it three days' worth."
Marquis Luchia, speaking with a cold expression, cut the quantity in half before the knight who'd said a week's rations could respond.
"Understood! Three days' worth—see to it at once!"
"Yes!"
At the knight's order, the squire turned away with a complicated expression.
Ever since they'd entered the Reganza Mountains, the monster attacks had grown more cunning by the day. The times they encountered the orcs that formed large colonies had actually posed no real problem.
Because if they formed ranks and responded calmly, there was no trouble.
But the deeper they pushed toward the center, the larger the monsters became, and even the orcs—unlike those in the outer regions—were stronger and appeared in small numbers rather than massed hordes.
The monsters here were specimens that made their living in the Reganza range, and they possessed an instinctive ability to gauge an opponent's strength and weakness. They struck when the soldiers' vigilance lapsed, or whenever a force looked a little thin—darting out to kill soldiers and make off with the bodies.
In the end the knight orders had been divided into several detachments and dispatched to the danger zones, but wherever those detachments left a gap the monsters attacked just as surely.
Which meant casualties were inevitable.
On top of that, at first they'd brought the wounded along as they moved. But wounded without the strength to resist were nothing more than easy prey for the monsters.
Instead it had gotten so bad that even the supply wagons carrying wounded were looted alongside them. The wounded clamored while the soldiers guarding them suffered mounting losses as well.
In the end, the presence of the wounded only caused greater harm.
They'd anticipated it to some degree from the moment they'd put forward the plan to cut straight through the Reganza range, but it was truly brutal.
"I—I'm all right."
"L-look. I can even walk like this!"
Pitiful pleas from the wounded rose from one side.
Those men would have to turn back to the temporary base that had been established partway along the route. There was no escort. In ordinary times they'd be lightly wounded men who could all be brought along, but now even that was impossible. They'd simply have to retrace several days' march back to the temporary base on their own.
Of course, the temporary base wasn't safe either. One of the three bases they'd set up on the march in had sent a final communication reporting a monster attack and then gone silent; the other two were under attack day after day too. But if this operation was to succeed there was no other way. Sharing the rations was the best they could do.
"Re-form the column. Resume the advance."
"Understood."
Marquis Luchia's command was relayed down the ranks, and the great army, having just weathered a rough patch, slowly began its forward march again.
Behind them, the weaklings of the Reganza Mountains—goblins—cocked their heads and stared after them.
* * *
"Kii?"
"Samdori, chow time!"
Even at the soldier's words, Samdori cocked his head as if something seemed off.
"With more communication wizards around lately, guess you've got nothing to do and you're bored, huh?"
The soldier in charge of the hobgoblin set down the food and spoke to him. Samdori, who'd been tilting his head, soon lost interest and fixed his whole attention on the feed in front of him.
"Eats well, don't he."
The soldier simply watched Samdori eat, looking pleased just to see it.
* * *
"Column, halt!"
While the lead element advanced cautiously, one of the monster hunters brought along as guides sensed something odd and reported it to a knight. Namely, that there seemed to be a goblin colony nearby.
"Hmm."
Goblins themselves didn't possess much military threat, but the paralyzing poison needles they used were the problem.
"Wouldn't it be better to make a careful detour as we are?"
When a knight cautiously offered his opinion, the chief monster hunter spoke up with a worried look.
"A detour would certainly be preferable, but goblins and kobold types are at the bottom of the food chain, so there are always predators prowling around them. The goblin village itself is of course quite heavily fortified, so large monsters won't break in. They do, however, ambush goblin hunting parties that venture out."
"Then you're saying there are large numbers of monsters around here?"
"That's correct."
"Hmm."
At the monster hunter's words, the faces of the nobles, including Marquis Bello von Luchia, darkened with concern. The troop losses they'd already suffered were enormous beyond measure. For men who needed to preserve as much strength as possible for the march ahead, a situation in which large numbers of monsters attacked was absolutely not what they wanted.
"Do we know how strong the goblin village's defenses are?"
Marquis Luchia abruptly put the question to the chief monster hunter. At the sudden question the chief bowed his head and answered.
"Not as such. Of course they're very effective against monsters like the giant ones—all manner of traps, or palisades woven from vines and branches—but if we're determined they can be breached without taking losses."
"Mm."
"To do that, however, we'd have to go in wrapped in thick hide. The goblins' method of combat is to first bring down prey with paralyzing needles and then slit the throat in one stroke with their weapons. Truthfully, as long as you watch out for the needles, you can beat a goblin to death with just a club."
"In that case, this works out well."
At Marquis Luchia's words the surrounding knights and nobles all turned to look at him.
"What method have you found, my lord?"
"We strike the goblin village."
"Is there a reason to go out of our way to hunt goblins that aren't bothering us?"
When Count Chiera Pelloman, the commander of the escort knight order, cautiously asked the reason, Marquis Luchia answered with his characteristically cold expression.
"If we kill goblins and scatter their blood about, the surrounding monsters will naturally gather, won't they?"
"Ah!"
"In any case, what monsters want is prey. They charge because you've trespassed in their territory, of course, but isn't finding food their greatest objective?"
"That'll work!"
"Then prepare a force armed in light leather armor. Also, issue the hide coverings we prepared beforehand."
"Understood."
They'd brought supplies in anticipation of the threat of monsters and venomous insects, so mere paralyzing needles posed no great threat. Watching the knights bustle into action, Marquis Luchia gazed beyond the forest.
'Once we cross just one more mountain, Gaemun Mountain Fortress will come into view.'
The end of the long, grueling journey was in sight.
"Kiiik?"
"Damn monsters."
A baby goblin playing in front of the tangled mass of vines let out a long shriek, startled by the sudden intruders.
But the intruders' blades fell without mercy, as if utterly indifferent to a young goblin's terror. No—they slashed and hacked as if taking out a sworn enemy.
"Everyone fall back from the palisade!"
The moment they'd killed several of the young goblins dashing about, an urgent shout came from the rear. The soldiers swiftly withdrew, the wizards began their incantations, and blades of wind came flying in at once.
"They're breached—go!"
The knight leading at the front to direct the troops shouted as he charged through the cleanly severed palisade into the village. Behind him the soldiers of the Holy Empire rushed in like men meeting an old sworn enemy.
"Kiek!"
"Kiiiiik!"
Already, scores of goblins had gathered inside the village, their eyes burning with ferocity. They'd heard the shrieks of the young playing around the outskirts.
"Kill every last one of them—leave none alive!"
"Whaa-aaah!"
The Holy Empire soldiers did not flinch even at the goblins' murderous bloodlust. No—as though venting all the torment the monsters had put them through, they charged forward shouting battle cries brimming with killing intent.
"Kiiiiiiik!"
"Damn creatures!"
Goblins rushed at the Holy Empire soldiers, who were charging in with flashing blades, perhaps out of vengeance for the young, yet the soldiers showed no fear at all.
On closer inspection, the goblins advancing in formation actually looked more solid than the Holy Empire soldiers, who were simply charging in a frenzy. But that only lasted a moment. When the poison needles that flew at the soldiers proved useless against their hide garments and armor, the goblins began falling, unable to offer any real resistance against the soldiers' swung weapons.
"Kill them all!"
Did the sight of goblins being cut down like dry straw make them imagine they'd become heroes out of a story?
The soldiers, eyes bloodshot, cursed without pause as their rampage grew ever more savage.
"Kiyaaaaaaak!"
"Kiek!"
"Kkik-kkik!"
As the soldiers' actions grew more violent, a chilling, long-drawn howl—unlike the other goblin cries—rang out from one side. At the same instant, as though on a signal, the goblins that had been thrashing in every direction began retreating deeper into the village.
"They're running! Don't let them get away—after them!"
"Where do you think you're going, you damned demon-spawn!"
Perhaps emboldened by the goblins' flight, the soldiers pressed them all the more fiercely. In the midst of it, several more goblins, who'd turned their backs to flee, sprawled to the ground.
"Aren't the soldiers too worked up?"
"Hmm, they are, but..."
Watching the soldiers, the knight in charge of the subjugation and a squire exchanged worried words. But their worry soon became reality.
FWOOOSH!
"Ah!"
A net spread wide in the air fell over the soldiers chasing the goblins from behind. Not only that—screams erupted from the soldiers who'd pushed into the alleyways.
"Kheu-eok!"
"A—a trap!"
Warnings and screams rang out with dull impacts. The charging soldiers dropped through the ground beneath them, followed by a sound that seemed strangely out of place.
"H-hiik!"
The soldier who'd seen his comrades fall into a trap right in front of him screamed. The leather clothes and armor that had blocked the goblins' poison needles and made the men fancy themselves knights—they couldn't stop the wooden stakes packed densely into the pit floor.
"Keuu..."
Their comrades clutched the ends of wooden stakes that had pierced entirely through their bodies, groaning as if life had not yet left them. At that sight the morale that had soared to the heavens plummeted even faster than it had climbed.
"Th-this is—damn it all, fall back at once and re-form the ranks!"
For the result of a single moment's carelessness, the casualties were severe. Roughly a third of the soldiers who'd come in with the subjugation force lay fallen, vomiting blood.
"This can't be happening."
Even the squire couldn't find words at the scene unfolding before his eyes. The mistake had been regarding it as a simple goblin subjugation from the start and taking them too lightly.
They should have thought once more about how the goblins at the very bottom of the food chain could avoid extinction and survive in these Reganza Mountains.
But it was already too late.
The traps built to repel the attacks of ogres, orcs, and other such monsters had turned the soldiers into cold corpses, while the goblins who'd failed to put up any proper resistance against the soldiers' weapons were now brimming with rising confidence, each one shrieking wildly and capering about.
Crunch.
"Everyone re-form the ranks and prepare to resume the attack!"
The knight who'd led the soldiers in ground his teeth so roughly it made a chilling sound. But at the casualties already before their eyes, the soldiers merely gripped their weapons and hung back, unwilling to step forward. They were afraid they'd lose their lives to yet another trap.
"Archers to the front!"
A command from the rear steadied the frightened soldiers. Archers filed through the ruined wall and drew their bows toward the goblins.
"My apologies."
"Damnation. Even I would've fallen for it."
The knight who'd entered first bowed his head and apologized for his blunder. The nobleman who'd come in behind leading the archers after hearing the screams did not censure the first knight; instead, he clicked his tongue as he examined the goblin traps.
They'd been that cunningly made.
"Damn things—loose!"
The moment the nobleman confirmed the archers had drawn their strings and gave the order, arrows flew into the sky in unison.