Chapter 150: According to the Plan
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 150: According to the Plan
Back Attack, age eighteen.
“Hey, you punk. Do you have any concept of strategy?”
Richard was in the middle of dressing him down.
“I told you to wait by the target until we moved in! Why do you keep leaving your assigned position? You got a death wish?!”
“I-I want to,” Back Attack stammered, avoiding his gaze.
“Then do it!”
“…What am I supposed to do if I can’t?”
“Why can’t you?”
“…”
Back Attack’s lips trembled. He couldn’t bring himself to answer.
“Seriously. All you have to do is stand still in one spot. Why is that so hard… Ugh, you frustrating little shit.”
Richard irritably kicked a water bucket next to him.
“Don’t be so hard on him.”
Sharas, the war shaman of Yagnar’s army, tried to calm Richard down.
“He’s still just a kid, isn’t he?”
“Kid? What kid? He’s all grown up. He’s eighteen.”
“Maybe the teacher is the problem?” joked Mookup, the Orc Legion Commander.
“Then you should have taught him,” Richard shot back with a cold glare.
“Hey, Back Attack!”
Mookup threw an arm around Back Attack’s neck in a headlock and dragged him away.
“Let’s not argue with this blockhead and get out of here. We won, didn’t we? Let’s have a drink!”
“He’s still a damn kid! What are you doing trying to get him drunk?!” Richard yelled.
“He’s all grown up at eighteen. Ah, right. Back Attack.”
Mookup whispered secretly in his ear.
“The back alleys in this town are… pretty wild. Let’s go together. Your big bro is gonna… make a man out of you today!”
Thwack! A staff struck the back of Mookup’s head.
Sharas was scowling intensely.
“Don’t teach the kid weird things.”
She took Back Attack by the hand and sat him down at a table.
“Tch.”
Mookup rubbed the back of his head.
“Guys like us never know when we’re gonna die, so we have to live it up while we have the time.”
“You can do that on your own time.”
Sharas slammed a board game box onto the table.
“Let’s have some more wholesome fun.”
“What’s this?”
“It’s called Mahjong. I’ll teach you the rules. You got a performance bonus from this mission, right? You’ve got some money? It’s more fun if we bet a little…”
“Hold on!”
Richard shot up and flipped the table over.
“Neither of you will do! Get the hell out of here! As for this one…”
He grabbed Back Attack by the ear.
“I’m taking him for more training!”
“Richard is too strict with the kid.”
“At this rate, he’s going to die working without ever knowing any of life’s pleasures.”
“Get lost, you bastards!”
Richard yelled, chasing Mookup and Sharas away.
Fuming, he sat back down at the table across from Back Attack.
“It seems you’ve gotten quite close with the officers,” he said, his voice a warning.
“I don’t like you, Back Attack. To be precise, I don’t like the very strategy that uses you.”
The Orc Lord Yagnar hadn’t taken Back Attack in because he was a kind and merciful person.
“Throwing a weak little kid onto the battlefield first… It’s a disgrace to an orc warrior. A warrior who knows honor and strength should always lead the charge.”
“…”
Yagnar’s army was known for being a thoroughly nationalistic and conservative group, so the fact that a human was among them was a top secret.
When they were to capture a fortress, Back Attack would infiltrate it, disguised as a civilian.
From the inside, he would carry out missions like coordinating with Yagnar’s army to let them in or assassinating key figures in the defensive line.
“If you don’t like it, why don’t you go tell Yagnar to take me off the mission?” Back Attack snapped, his pride wounded.
Grip!
Richard seized his cheeks in a powerful grip.
“Don’t get smart with me. Everyone else might forgive the mistake you made on this mission, but I won’t. Acting on your own during an operation is a grave offense.”
“…”
“The next mission is the reclamation of Cruaden.”
Cruaden was the most strategic location in the west.
A Labyrinth City.
Every lord in the west coveted it.
To possess Cruaden meant to hold hegemony over the west.
Orc Lord Yagnar had already arrived just outside Cruaden and set up camp.
“Don’t screw up. Do it right. I know you’re like a wild horse, running around as you please, but try to act more like a soldier.”
Richard let him go. Then he picked up Back Attack’s dagger.
“Why are you taking my weapon?!”
“The blade is a mess, you little shit!” Richard roared. “I’ll sharpen it for you, so wait. Can’t you even take proper care of your weapon?”
“Help me!”
Infiltrating Cruaden wasn’t difficult for Back Attack.
“I’m a guard from Yorhain village, just ahead. The orc army invaded, and I fled.”
It was a well-orchestrated play.
Every single person from Yorhain village had been massacred so that when he claimed to be a survivor, his identity couldn’t be verified.
To that end, Back Attack had memorized the village’s geography, customs, main industries, population, and the names and relationships of its people beforehand.
He was an agile, intelligent, and talented rogue with a gift for acting.
Once he succeeded, his status would become more than just a simple refugee.
“What do I know about the orc army?”
He would be brought deep into Cruaden’s command structure.
“Their leader is a big, scary-looking orc. The officers called him Yagnar. The one who attacked the barracks was a man named Legion Commander Mookup. And there’s a shaman. A woman.”
He would build more trust by cross-verifying the information they already had.
“The enemy is low on food. How do I know? Because when they set fire to the village, they yelled to be careful not to burn the food supplies. They said they had to save every last grain of rice.”
He would mix in false information, designing the enemy’s defensive strategy for them.
“If you can drag this into a long siege, you’ll be able to stop them. They’re low on arrows, too.”
Simultaneously, Yagnar’s side would engage in a few skirmishes to corroborate Back Attack’s testimony.
They would actually hide their food supplies in another area and let spies see it, making them believe Back Attack’s words.
Back Attack was like a small jockey holding the reins of a colossal beast, a Trojan horse.
Now, he would lead it to its doom.
On the promised day, Back Attack would quietly leave his bedroom and head for the supply depot.
No one suspected him. After all, he had spent a month painstakingly becoming a core officer of the defense force.
According to the plan.
Back Attack started a fire.
Next, he would open the castle gates.
His destination was the South Gate.
The complete opposite of the North Gate, where Yagnar’s army was positioned.
He berated the guards there, where security was relatively lax. Our army is quietly marching out the South Gate to strike Yagnar’s rear, so open the gate!
He bluffed without blinking an eye in front of the suspicious guards.
Just follow the plan. Please, just follow the plan.
Despite his convincing performance, his stomach churned as if he were about to vomit.
As he raced toward his set destination like a train on its tracks, anxiety began to sprout in his heart.
It was the unavoidable dread of a human life stained with betrayal and lies.
What if I’m the one being tricked?
During every single mission, this was always the moment he feared most.
Mookup, Sharas, and Richard.
And Yagnar.
The fear that they would all betray him rushed up from behind and consumed him.
Just like his own father and mother, long ago.
Like the tanner. Like the head nun. Like the merchant guild owner.
Just as they had all worn kind smiles at first, the betrayal that came later was bitter.
“A-Are you sure our army is really marching out?”
“Should we open the gate? Is it okay to open it?”
As the naive soldiers asked for confirmation again, his palms grew sweaty.
Enemies were on all sides.
He had to trust in his allies’ support, but trust was the furthest thing from his life.
When gripped by fear, Back Attack wanted to run, just as he always had.
Follow the plan? Wait by the target?
All you have to do is wait, so why can’t you do it?
Despite Richard’s scolding, he couldn’t help it. What could he do when his body reacted first?
His breathing grew ragged, and his heart pounded like crazy.
Just like when he killed the tanner, when he killed the head nun, when he killed the merchant guild owner.
Barely suppressing the anxiety and terror that consumed him like a swamp from hell, Back Attack shouted.
“Open it!”
Let’s stick to the plan. Please!
“O-Opening?”
The soldiers undid the latch on the gate.
Let’s do it right this time.
He didn’t want to disappoint Richard.
Back Attack repeated it to himself over and over.
He wasn’t the same as he used to be.
He had carried out countless missions over the past few years, and not once had Richard, Mookup, or Sharas betrayed him.
Yagnar will come.
Mookup’s 100-man elite assault squad, hidden by Sharas’s spell, ‘Grand Veil of Concealment,’ would be waiting right outside the gate.
The moment the gate opened, they would storm in, secure him, and seize the gate.
Then, Yagnar’s main force would immediately leave the North Gate and charge toward the South Gate.
The Orc Lord would conquer Cruaden.
It’s okay.
“Open it!”
With dubious expressions, the soldiers opened the gate.
Beyond it, there was no one.
“Hah…”
Back Attack felt so dizzy he could throw up.
It was because of the spores.
Brother Caleb said it. The spores here cause status effects.
Sleep, despair, confusion, or hysterical laughter. Was it one of those four?
This was probably confusion or despair.
“Dammit…”
The memory of that day kept coming back. That worst possible moment.
Like a hallucination or a delusion.
He could see stone castle walls rising above the mossy ground.
The faces of the guards floated in the air.
Yagnar never came.
The army never entered.
Back Attack had been had. He had been betrayed again.
Just as he had been by his mother.
Just as he had been by the tanner, the head nun, and the merchant guild owner.
Yagnar…
He… retreated.
He had abandoned Back Attack.
Why?
Because at dawn, the Orc Lord’s homeland had been surprise-attacked.
The orc capital, Wyrkar, was in crisis.
Upon receiving the dispatch, Yagnar had immediately given up on Cruaden.
A single human left behind inside was not an important resource to them.
Just me again.
I was tricked.
I was the only one who was sincere. Again!
Screech!
Sparks flew as steel scraped against the ground. It took the guards only ten minutes to grasp the situation. There was no army marching out. Back Attack was a spy.
Kill that cunning little bastard!
Slash!
Back Attack slit the throat of an advancing soldier. The dagger’s blade was so sharp it tore through human skin in an instant.
“Stay back!”
He shoved the charging soldier with all his might.
Thud!
Richard went tumbling.
“Richard!”
A startled Back Attack stumbled backward.
“Did you come to save me?”
“Grrr…”
No.
That couldn’t be right.
His mind snapped back to reality.
Richard wasn’t there that day.
That Richard is a hallucination!
No, wait.
Let’s think again.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Richard charged at him, wielding a greatsword.
“Ugh…”
Back Attack felt the whole world spinning.
CRASH!
He dodged the downward-swinging greatsword because his body remembered the experience of sparring with him for so long.
His vision cleared completely. There were no castle walls, no guards.
A mossy floor. Mushrooms.
The scenery of Bearhim’s garden.
This isn’t the past or a dream. Richard is enthralled! This isn’t Cruaden, it’s the Labyrinth!
Richard held his greatsword sideways.
A sweeping slash aimed at the ankles!
“Stay away from me!”
Dodging the horizontal slash, Back Attack used Shadow Leap.
He ran up the steps of the castle wall.
I have to escape the South Gate!
If I leap to the other side, I’ll break my legs and get caught. I need to find a place to land and run.
The soldiers were chasing him.
A giant guard holding a greatsword.
He looks like Richard, doesn’t he?
Run north, no, run west.
Thwip! Thwip!
Arrows rained down.
One lodged in his forearm.
Thank god it wasn’t his leg.
It wouldn’t hinder his running.
Cruaden’s supply depot was burning. Chaos erupted both inside and outside the fortress.
Never again.
Amidst the harsh lesson, Back Attack made a vow.
I will never trust anyone again.
The pain of betrayal hurt far more than the arrow in his arm.
So much so that he felt it would be better to just die.
“Peaceful Mind.”
A single spell shot from the wand washed over his mind.
“Purge.”
Clorence was aiming his wand.
“Pff-hahaha… Hah… Hahk…”
Back Attack, who had been running while bursting into laughter, felt his mind slowly clearing.
“Hah… Hah…”
Like a fish thrown on land finally returning to the sea.
“Hah…”
Back Attack came to his senses.
Richard was being held fast by a combat doll.