Chapter 45: Monsters and Pirates (2)
Chapter 45: Monsters and Pirates (2)
The next morning. Eugene and Homi loosened up in the front yard of the mansion. The river, the vast forest, and the open horizon spread out before them at a glance.
"The view is wonderful. At Goldhill, all I could see were vineyards. Looking at scenery like this must be good for the soul."
Homi also found this place, rich with the fragrance of nature, to her liking. She preferred being surrounded by trees and grass to the smell of stone that filled every corner.
"Line up properly."
"Don't cut in line! There's enough supply thanks to the relief goods the lord sent."
At the poorhouse, priests were distributing food. It was a fish porridge boiled with dried fish, wild vegetables, and wheat flour.
"Thank you!"
"May the gods' blessings be upon the lord!"
Women carrying children on their backs and the elderly filled their bowls with porridge, praising Benjamin. Even though he lacked the capacity to directly manage things, he had somehow sent relief supplies.
The unit Eugene led also moved busily as morning arrived.
"W-wash this? Why not just throw it away and buy new ones?"
A young woman grimaced, holding a yellowish pair of underpants between her thumb and forefinger.
"I told you to put some water in the pot when you're done eating!"
A young woman stood with her hands on her hips and her eyes blazing in front of a pot with burnt residue stuck to it.
Along with the camp merchants, they were the twin pillars following the mercenary unit. They were prostitutes.
Even when the work was not sexual, they handled laundry, dishes, cooking, and even armor repairs, reducing the mercenaries' burden.
Replacing rotten cotton or cloth in gambesons and sewing up torn spots. Swapping out broken cords on lamellar armor and weaving the pieces back together were all possible without a blacksmith.
"If you cut out the rotten parts of these apples over there, I'll buy them all at twenty percent of the price."
"Forty percent! We have to make a living too!"
"Thirty percent! If you don't like it, just let them rot more."
"Ayu! Fine, alright."
The place filled with the sounds of haggling everywhere. As a flood of outside visitors arrived, money and goods circulated, and vitality rose in the village.
"The logging site! Gnolls have appeared at the logging site! They say there are still people who couldn't escape the forest!"
But the peaceful morning came to an end with the report of a messenger who was breathless. The woodcutters who had gone to one of the few outlying areas with low monster activity had been attacked.
"Those fools! I told them over and over it was only a matter of time before it got dangerous there too."
"So should we just sit still and starve to death? We have to do something!"
The village elders were angry, but the young men stood their ground. Their livelihood had been disrupted for so long that their preparations for the coming winter were far too meager.
"I meant to head out after just having breakfast, but they're not even giving us that leisure."
Eugene gathered his mercenaries and the two knights belonging to the territory, then set out to intercept.
"Clear the way!"
"The subjugation force is passing through!"
At the guards' shouts, the villagers hurriedly opened a path. Among them, young boys and girls cried and clasped their small, delicate hands together in prayer.
"Lord! Our father didn't make it back."
"My older brother is still in the forest! Please save him!"
Eugene, running at the vanguard with his black cloak billowing, looked so commanding that they apparently mistook him for the lord.
"What are you doing!"
"Get up at once!"
Quite a few adults also went down on one knee, causing the guards to scramble and pull them up. Showing a lord's due to the wrong person could be a grave crime.
The generous Benjamin, who liked Eugene, might have laughed it off, but the guards did not wish to gamble with the lives of their neighbors.
The woodcutters of Richwood ran as if their feet were on fire.
The fact that they were well-versed in the forest's geography and possessed good stamina, combined with the fact that the pursuing gnolls were also threatened by an even stronger monster, preserved their lives.
However, the scent of the woodcutters' terror-drenched sweat gradually began to stimulate the gnolls' wild nature.
Grrrk-?
Grrrk-!
As their fear of the forest's internal predators faded, their eyes glistened with a craving for human flesh.
"Huff! Huff! I can't... run anymore..."
A man who had come as a refugee from a neighboring village gradually fell behind. He had only become a woodcutter a week ago. He was clumsy at running in the forest and physically weak.
"Bite down and run! Gnolls keep their prey alive and eat the entrails first!"
"Hiiik!"
Though the terror of a gruesome death was great, it could not manufacture stamina that was not there. The man forced himself to run but ended up falling.
"Leave him!"
The leader of the woodcutters shouted.
"B-but!"
"It's already too late. Trying to save him will get you killed too. Think of your little sister who'll starve without you. He's an outsider anyway, isn't he?"
"Damn it! I'm sorry!"
It was a world where hostility and territorial behavior toward outsiders were the norm. It would have been stranger for them to feel enough loyalty to risk their lives saving a stranger.
Thanks to the fallen man, everyone else would become safe. When chased by monsters, there was no need to be faster than the monster itself. Being faster than just one person was sufficient.
"N-no! Please, take me with you!"
The man struggled to his feet and begged, but the woodcutters did not look back.
BWOOOO!
Just before the man was pounced upon, the sound of a charge horn echoed through the forest.
In the instant the gnolls hesitated, a knight of Richwood appeared, leaping over a tree stump.
DASH!
A sword swung from horseback split the gnoll's throat.
Grrrrk-!
The gnolls following behind attacked in fury at the death of their kin, but they ran straight into Eugene's cavalry.
"Damn! It's gnolls?!"
"Still, there aren't many hyenas in sight."
Gnolls were nothing like goblins or kobolds, which even rookie mercenaries could kill alone.
Even experienced mercenaries had trouble defeating them without injury, and their ability to command hyenas made them even more dangerous.
"Since they've come down this far, if we let them live, they'll come back. The village could be endangered, so sweep them all away!"
Yet when Eugene charged at the vanguard, they all followed with a battle cry. Eugene's mere presence on the battlefield swept away the hesitation of his subordinates.
"Watch out for the hyenas!"
"Don't get close to the underbrush! One suddenly leaping out will bite your throat!"
Experienced monster hunters shouted warnings, but in the chaos of battle it was impossible to keep a perfect watch on everything around them.
In the end, one mercenary was caught by surprise when a hyena leaped over a rock and bit into his arm.
CRUNCH.
Fortunately, it had bitten down on his bracer, sparing his arm, but the struggle with the hyena pulled him from his horse.
"Die!"
Even with the hyena on top of him, the mercenary drew a dagger and stabbed wildly into its belly.
YELP!
The dagger struck a vital spot. The strength went out of the hyena's jaws, and its head lolled aside.
GRRRK!
But behind it, a gnoll with a club was approaching.
"Urgh!"
The mercenary tried to stand but collapsed in sharp pain, apparently having sprained his ankle. The hideously grinning gnoll raised its club to smash his head.
"N-no!"
At that moment Eugene burst in from the side and drove a lance charge straight into the gnoll.
BA-BOOM!!!
The impact was so tremendous that it was neither a mere thud nor a crash, but a thunderous blast like flesh exploding.
The spear punched straight through the gnoll's thick right arm, armpit, chest, and left arm in one line.
"Are you alright?"
Pinned rigid by the spear, the gnoll convulsed.
THUMP!
Thump.
Thum...
Th......
Through the palm gripping the spear shaft, Eugene felt the pierced heart's final beats fade away.
"You seem fine. Pull yourself together, we're still in battle."
Eugene smiled at the mercenary, whose face had gone blank with shock.
THUD.
As the spear with the gnoll skewered on it hit the ground, the mercenary scrambled backward on all fours. Eugene was already charging ahead, where he dispatched three more gnolls.
BANG!
A hyena leaped up from the grass, aiming for Eugene's flank, but it was struck by his shield and sent flying.
SPLAT!
After being slammed against a thick tree trunk, it slid down, spewing blood.
"What are you doing? Quickly, assist the knight's flanks!"
At the mercenary captain's order, his men rushed forward to protect their employer, who had charged ahead.
"For honor!"
"We will show you the sword of Richwood!"
The knights also charged toward the clustered gnolls.
But Eugene reached them first and began hacking away with a sword in one hand and a flail in the other, forcing everyone else to back off.
"St-stay clear of Sir Eugene!"
"You'll get swept up!"
The knights and mercenaries recoiled in alarm.
Silver flashes burst close around Eugene while a black whirlwind raged farther out. Gnolls caught within were cut apart, crushed, and swept away.
"Commander! If we try to guard the knight's side, we'll die too!"
"...You bastards, are you going to just stand there and watch? Keep your distance and stick close!"
Gruaaaar-!
As if to erase the mercenary commander's embarrassment, a cry filled with terror rang out.
Once Eugene smashed their formation, the knights and mercenaries poured through the breach and slaughtered them. The gnolls finally began to flee.
"Don't let a single one escape!"
Not a single gnoll managed to escape. They all fell, struck in the back by spears or bolts.
"Hoo! Is it over now?"
"Help!"
"..."
As soon as one mercenary caught his breath and spoke, a scream resounded from elsewhere in the forest.
"It's not my fault!"
Under the stares of his comrades glaring from all sides, the mercenary sweated profusely.
'Even if we release more relief supplies, I'll have to issue a ban on entering the forest until the subjugation is finished.'
Eugene organized his management policy as he rallied the troops.
"Keep moving! There are still enemies to fight and people to rescue!"
Moving to the direction of the scream, they found an herbalist just moments from being mauled by a gray bear.
"I've never seen monsters and wild beasts running amok together like this before."
The mercenaries fired their cavalry crossbows at the bear, but its hide was too thick for the low-powered bolts to inflict fatal wounds.
The enraged bear abandoned the herbalist and charged the nearest knight.
"Beast! Count it an honor to die on my spear!"
He was the knight who charged to the vanguard out of greed for martial glory, just as he had when fighting the gnolls.
NEIGH!
But the horse panicked at the charging bear, reared, and thrashed about. Naturally, the knight trying to thrust his spear lost his balance.
"Hetape! You stupid horse!"
As his beloved steed collapsed, the knight tumbled ungracefully to the ground. The bear pounced upon him as if to maul him.
THWACK!
Just as the bear was about to tear into the man, its pot-lid-sized forepaw was smashed into bloody pulp by Eugene's flail.
The bear roared in pain and glared at Eugene, but the iron striking head was already swinging up from beneath its muzzle.
As Eugene grew more accustomed to the flail, he had become increasingly skilled at slipping attacks into an opponent's blind spots.
CRAAACK!
The bear froze with its head thrown back like a howling wolf.
Sway... sway...
The massive gray body wobbled for about two seconds before toppling backward with a THUD! For some reason, the bear's raised paw at the very end looked comical.
"Th-thank you for saving my life! Sir Eugene."
"It's fortunate you don't seem injured."
The unhorsed knight looked up at Eugene with a completely changed gaze.
-A young outsider like him was given full authority over the subjugation? I have my pride as a vassal too.
-We were the ones who had served all this time, so why did the head of the house give authority to someone who had not even sworn fealty...?
It was true that the local knight had resented taking orders from a newcomer appointed to command the entire subjugation.
But after fighting beside Eugene, he realized the man was practically a monster in human skin. This was no one to posture against out of petty pride.
'I've rescued them all.'
Eugene sent the survivors, who endlessly expressed their gratitude, back to the village.
"Country bumpkins should just stay quietly stuck in the village instead of being a nuisance."
"Sir Knight, you are truly merciful."
The mercenaries, having caught their breath, directed irritation at the fleeing survivors and respect toward Eugene.
But there was a slight misunderstanding. Eugene had not been running around so diligently out of mercy or chivalry.
It was because he still considered himself a soldier.
The country, the people, the world—everything had changed, but the identity of a soldier remained indelibly imprinted on Eugene's soul.
Eugene's heart had remained calm even while facing three outstanding knights in the Hall War and while slaying the Wendigo.
It only broke that calm and began racing when civilians under his responsibility cried out to be saved.
After rescuing the people, Eugene summoned the village leaders and issued several directives.
"We banned entry into the forest as you instructed, Sir Knight. But we cannot keep it up for long. Their livelihoods have taken too great a hit, and winter will be here in a few months."
The village chief spoke with a face full of worry.
Because Lord Benjamin was often absent, the village chief was a capable man who played a major role in running the village alongside the scribe.
"No one will starve to death this winter. The main house has decided to send additional food supplies, considering the circumstances."
"Oh! That is truly fortunate!"
The village chief sighed in relief at the scribe's words. The knights of the territory, on the other hand, grew fired up.
"We cannot just lean on the main house's support."
"On our honor as knights, we must subjugate the monsters disturbing the forest."
Continuing to rely on outside aid would be no different from announcing that they were incapable of defending their own territory. For a knight, that was a humiliation akin to death.
With a knight of Eugene's caliber and even a mage present, they were unlikely to get a better chance to clear the forest.
"Sir, please lead us! Whatever lurks in the forest will fall before our spears and blades!"
The knights struck their chests with gauntleted fists. The subtle dissatisfaction and rivalry they had harbored vanished cleanly, leaving only the gaze of soldiers looking to their commander.