Chapter 46: Monsters and Pirates (3)
Chapter 46: Monsters and Pirates (3)
The next morning. As Eugene was busy preparing to depart, the guard captain who had been scouting the surroundings made his report.
"The roads are fine, but when I went to the site of the battle with the gnolls, nothing but bones remained. And only a day had passed."
"Village chief. Inform the residents of what he just said. No matter how much you warn them, some will try to get in there somehow — make them change their minds."
"I shall strictly enforce it so that nothing like yesterday ever happens again."
The village chief bowed his head deeply.
"I also made inquiries among the villagers who had entered the forest, but no one had seen any medium-sized monster worth mentioning."
"That would make sense. If it's this bad even on the outskirts, anyone who went deeper in wouldn't have made it back alive."
He had ordered the village chief to gather information, but Eugene had not held much hope either.
"The pirates will raid again soon. They'll want to plunder the village as much as possible during the harvest season in autumn."
"On the other hand, the monsters will grow more ravenous and run wilder as winter comes. We cannot fight in winter, so our only chance is now."
The knights apparently wished to resolve the monster problem quickly and then prepare against the pirates.
Eugene felt the same way. If they wandered the forest in winter, frostbite would claim the fingers and toes of many men one after another.
The expeditionary force, which included a number of heavy infantrymen and hunters to guide them through the forest, set out in imposing array.
"Even with magic, it will be faster to spread out and search, like casting a net."
At Varda's request, they divided the force into three.
Team 1 consisted of Eugene's original party. Two Richwood knights formed Teams 2 and 3 with the mercenaries supplied by the Morad family.
"Whatever monster you find, sound your horn at once. Do not forget that this subjugation is merely a preliminary skirmish. We must also prepare for the pirates who will come down the river, so we need to conserve our strength."
"Leave it to us! We shall succeed in the subjugation without fail!"
"We shall never disappoint you, sir!"
The knights' resounding replies gave Eugene a pang of heartburn. Not a word about sounding the horn — only talk of successful subjugations and disappointment, that sort of thing.
Their faces, ablaze with the thirst for honor, betrayed a determination to produce results at all costs. For men who had lived as knights, this much was a matter entirely separate from their admiration for Eugene.
"Will they be all right? At that rate, vainglory might drive them into reckless combat."
Having evidently witnessed this countless times before, Varda gazed worriedly toward where the knights had disappeared.
"They'll manage well enough on their own. Neither can I clamp down any harder on knights honorably stepping forward to defend their lord's domain."
Even though he had been delegated authority over the subjugation, Eugene had not even sworn an oath of fealty. Any further control would be a breach of courtesy among knights.
"Varda-nim, what do you suspect it might be?"
"The range is simply too broad, so it's hard to say. It could be a single powerful monster, or it could be several middling monsters that have formed a pack."
"What do you mean by middling?"
"A pack of wolves led by a warg, of the sort you have encountered."
Considered alone, a single warg was not enough to threaten the whole forest. But if a truly strong one led a large pack of wolves, it might just barely be possible.
"Sometimes, when two or three are born from the same litter, the siblings band together and roam as a pack."
"Wargs do that?!"
"I'd rather not even imagine it."
The mercenaries shuddered as though they had just heard something dreadful.
Monsters such as trolls and ogres had never been recorded in this forest. What the records showed were creatures between small and medium size — the sort a knight commanding a number of mercenaries could dispatch.
Eugene's force drove off a pack of wolves they encountered and destroyed one small orc colony.
"How long is it going to take to search all of this."
"Still, at least it's not a mountain. Walking through a forest is better than climbing a mountain, isn't it? And it's autumn, so it's neither hot nor cold."
It was around then that Varda's magical skill and good fortune fortuitously aligned. She had located the tyrant that was ravaging the forest.
Huff!
Huff! Huff!
Puffing out harsh snorts, a flesh-colored medium-sized monster was spotted moving about down below.
"A bugbear..."
Unlike the startled mercenary company commander, Eugene wore an expression of interest.
"So that's what one looks like. I'd been curious ever since I received a letter from some noble asking me to catch one."
"A request would certainly come your way readily enough, Sir Knight. But did you refuse?"
"It was a debt-ridden baron who commissioned the extermination with every intention of stiffing me on the payment. I nearly ended up working for free and getting chased off."
"Pfft. So even a knight like you can nearly get taken, huh."
Despite the impending battle, a sense of shared plight drew suppressed laughter from the mercenaries.
Huff!
The bugbear was a hulking creature a full two heads taller than an ordinary man, its limbs thicker than a Wendigo's. However, unlike the wholly muscular Wendigo, it had far too much fat and appeared sluggish.
"Is it a strong one?"
At Eugene's question, Varda shook her head.
"It sits at the bottom rung of medium-sized monsters. Its strength is considerable, but it's lumbering, and while its fat makes swords and arrows hard to sink in, it doesn't possess regeneration like a troll either."
The mercenaries were tense, but showed no signs of fear.
"The lady mage is right. It's the sort of creature we could simply outrun on foot if it came to that. Still, its strength is great, and there are not a few cases of knights perishing while fighting it in close quarters."
And there was one more thing. The bugbear had a trait that could not be ignored.
"You must be careful, Sir Knight. It's fairly intelligent and has a habit of picking up tree stumps that can serve as shields."
The bugbear the party had discovered was indeed holding a shield. Even though its specifications ranked low among medium-sized monsters, that shield was the reason knights could not afford to let their guard down.
"So all I need to do is manage the distance well. Let's deal with it at once. I'll engage it from the front, so you men fall back and provide ranged support only."
It was the back of a knight who always took the lead to minimize harm to his subordinates. Though all of them were older than Eugene, his retreating figure gave them the same sense of security they had felt watching their fathers when they were young.
A feeling of being protected, that is. It was an utterly foreign sensation for a mercenary.
"Will you be all right?"
A village hunter asked Eugene as he advanced alone.
"The bugbear is a monster knights despise. If you face it alone, all the weapons you cherish will end up caked in its grease."
The bugbear was a creature that yielded nothing worth taking from its corpse, yet the fighting was both filthy and dangerous.
"That's fine. I intend to beat it to death anyway."
"Excuse me?"
The hunter asked again, his face showing he had not understood. The mercenaries, on the other hand, looked at the bugbear with pitying eyes, as if foreseeing what its future held.
BWOOOO!
At the horn that sounded in the distance, the Richwood knights who had been dispersed and searching marveled.
'Indeed, a remarkable mage. To have already found something.'
'So the rumors that she sees the vast forest as though it were the palm of her hand were no idle talk after all.'
The reasons nobles sought mages were many, but the greatest was, as ever, for war.
Yet magic of powerful destructive force carried severe backlash and was difficult to control. There were cases where rampaging magic ended up inflicting damage even on the army of the lord in question.
That was why forest magic was always highly sought after. It posed no risk of going out of control, offered advantages to an army's operations, and was useful in many ways even in peacetime.
"Even if I acknowledge that Sir Eugene is extraordinary, I cannot simply stand idle and watch!"
"All of you, follow me!"
By the time the two knights arrived from their respective directions, the situation was, regrettably, already over.
"A bugbear!"
"So that was the culprit."
The mercenaries exclaimed at the medium-sized monster lying dead with its eyes rolled back.
"Sir Eugene has departed in that direction."
The hunter who had tracked the unit's trail pointed the way to follow.
"It's my first time seeing a bugbear."
"Likewise for me."
The two knights were now in their late twenties and had spent all their time in Richwood, leaving them short on worldly experience. The older mercenaries, rather, knew more about monsters.
"Was their skin originally blue like this? I heard rumors it was flesh-colored."
The knight asked an old mercenary.
The bugbear before them was a mottled blue all over its body, as if doused in blue paint.
"There are regional differences, but flesh-colored is indeed the norm. In places with strong sunlight, the skin tans brown. This one is simply..."
The mercenary hesitated a moment before speaking.
"...so thoroughly beaten that its whole body appears bruised."
"What?"
Both the mercenary who spoke and the knight who heard it wore dumbfounded expressions.
The most intense memory for the mercenaries under Eugene's command was the scene of him fighting the Wendigo. They would never be able to forget him severing that thick arm with a single blade and skewering two bandits on a javelin.
But the longer they followed Eugene, the more the memories delivered by sword and spear gradually receded.
"Found another one. Well done, Homi."
Eugene praised his squire at the sight of the second bugbear visible across the way. Apart from her magical guidance, her sense of smell had proven a great help.
Bugbears marked their territory with urine, and their body odor was intense. Once magic filtered the area in a broad sweep, Homi's nose went to work, narrowing the search range in an instant.
If he followed his heart, he would have liked to stroke his darling Homi, but she was now a proper squire. He had to preserve her dignity before the mercenaries.
CLINK.
The moment Eugene hefted his flail and charged, the mercenaries followed behind.
"Ranged attacks only, just like before. Those bearing melee weapons, maintain a wide encirclement and focus on keeping it contained. You may withdraw from position if the beast charges recklessly."
"Understood! Sir Knight!"
Even under sudden ambush, the bugbear calmly raised its shield and club. Showing no sign of fluster, it smiled with eager appetite.
"Horse meat. Woman meat. Delicio..."
BANG!
The slurred words, uttered while swallowing its drool, instantly transformed into a scream.
BOOM!
BA-BOOM!
The raucous noise of a leather sack bursting echoed through the forest.
"Th-th-that!"
Even though this was the second time, the hunter who had accompanied them was horrified by the spectacle he could never grow accustomed to. A scene of a massive flesh-colored monster being dyed blue in real time unfolded before him.
ROOOOAR!
In hideous agony, the bugbear swung its club, but it was utterly meaningless. Compared to Eugene's large flail, the reach and speed were far too great a mismatch.
WHIZZ!
THUNK!
GRAAAH!
As bolts loosed by Homi and the mercenaries embedded themselves in its quivering chest and belly, yellowish fat oozed out.
"Ugh! Disgusting."
"Why's there no blood, just grease streaming out?"
"Yet where the Squire's bolts hit, blood does flow?"
"Compared to hers, our crossbows are toys."
The bugbear, capable of understanding human speech, was enraged. These were foes who, under normal circumstances, would have wept and fled from its charge, yet they now dared to jest and trade jokes while inflicting pain.
But far from meting out punishment, it could not even lower its oaken shield from its head.
WHOOOSH!
For it knew that if it exposed its vitals to the weapon swung by the monstrous knight before it, death would be instantaneous.
From Eugene's perspective, it hardly mattered, for the creature had such ample flesh that targets abounded everywhere.
BANG!
"Hey! Lower your arm, quickly!"
"Rather than suffer uselessly until death, just let one blow grant you peace!"
The mercenaries shouted at the bugbear as it turned livid blue and wailed. It was mockery at base, but a trace of pity was mingled within.
GROOOOAR!
The bugbear was in such agony, tormented in both body and pride, that it was on the verge of leaping madly into the air.
BOING!
As the iron bar struck its abdomen, the belly fat rippled in concentric circles—like a single stone dropped into a still lake.
Unable to endure the pain any longer, the shield guarding its head finally came down, and Eugene reacted immediately.
CRACK!
The flail shattered its forehead, dealing death to the bugbear.
"Perhaps due to all the fat, it withstands impact better than expected. The feel of striking it is exquisite."
Eugene spoke as he swirled the iron rod caught in his grip.
He was not the type to revel in slaughter, nor was he interested in hunting. Yet battering a bugbear to death held a peculiar sense of pleasure.
"Bugbears are originally classified as dangerous monsters precisely because of their shield and their sheer bulk of resilience."
Varda, too, wore an expression of watching something wondrous at the brutal yet efficient hunting method.
"Sir Eugene! We've come to reinf..."
"Late again."
The knights who had rushed over at the sound of the horn had missed their chance to fight this time as well. They had merely discovered a bugbear that had been discolored livid blue with its head burst.
"Not a single mercenary corpse, not even a bloodstain to be seen."
"Looks like he simply beat it to death one-sidedly and moved on?"
The mercenaries could not believe how immaculate the battlefield was. Even if bugbears were considered manageable among mid-tier monsters, to a mercenary they were nothing short of a god of death.
With only a single knight present, the mercenaries would inevitably have to disorder the flanks and rear. In that process, casualties among the wounded and dead were unavoidable.
BWOOOO!
Meanwhile, at the third sounding of the horn, the knights set their faces with resolution. This time, they would absolutely arrive in time!
That wish was granted.
"What in the..."
Yet even though they joined partway through, the knights could muster no nerve to intervene and could only watch in a daze.
BANG!
BOOM!
They were watching a bugbear whose entire body was being crushed under Eugene's spirited whirlwind drumming.
"Apologies for the honor being undivided. The beast charged in far too recklessly, you see."
"It is quite all right, Sir."
To Eugene, who smiled as he rested his flail across his shoulder, the knights could make no reply.
"I shall leave that one to you, Sirs."
"Oh!"
Eugene pointed toward the bugbear's nest.
There lay a female bugbear, her belly modestly swollen as if she were pregnant. All around, the skulls of every manner of beast and monster inhabiting the forest lay scattered about.
"Judging by the traces, the bugbears were indeed the ones disturbing the forest. They've collected the skulls of every creature that lived in this area."
The hunter spoke with conviction.
There were four bugbears, and one among them was even with young, which made it understandable that they had been rampaging through the forest, turning it upside down in their feeding.
"To keep as many as three males. Is bugbear society polyandrous?"
"I wouldn't know that much. It's a case I've never seen before either. Perhaps that particular female was simply that alluring?"
"..."
While Eugene and Varda conversed, the knights charged. For it was a matter of a knight's pride to have the subjugation end without taking down a single one themselves.
A female of smaller stature. Being a heavily pregnant specimen as well, it was unable to mount any meaningful resistance and was assailed from all sides until it became a lump of meat.
"My magic catches nothing more."
At Varda's words, the mercenaries cheered. What they had thought would be a tedious and exhausting protracted campaign had ended far more easily than expected.