Chapter 72

Story 42. Jealous Innocence (4)

Chapter 72

The new recruits were defenseless. They looked like a bunch of idiots, unaware of the danger surrounding them. Some began to look around nervously, but I thought it might be too late. They were also making way too much noises.

Suddenly, tiny rocks were thrown at the group. More and more things were thrown at them, and they weren’t just rocks.

“Huh? What are these?”

“Gyaa! D-dead things!”

“You idiot! They are just the heads of rats and snakes!”

“B-but why would anyone throw these things at us…! Aaa! Gyaa! U-up there! Look!”

The recruits began to panic, and I shook my head. Have they never seen dead things before? It was clear that these were a bunch of pansy rich boys. While they screamed and ran around like idiots, I saw a couple of shadows on the nearby cliffs.

Large dark figures with red eyes and yellow teeth.

“W-who are they?”

Eriez and his group tensed when they spotted the strange figures. With a frustrated sigh, I explained to them, “They are the barbarian who live around here. They usually remain hidden and only come out to steal and kill. No one really knows where they live.”

“B-barbarians?”

I held my sword tightly. I suspected that these monsters might show up, but I didn’t expect them to appear from the cliffs like that. Based on the reports I read, they always waited for the travelers on the path about 10 minutes down the road… Instead, they were slowly descending to block the way from behind the recruits.

One of the boys screamed, “W-what?! I-I was never told that there were barbarians around the castle!”

I shook my head in frustration, “Well, you better believe it. Do you think they are just ghosts or something?”

There was no way to avoid a fight. Some of the smarter boys took out their swords and faced the barbarians, who were approaching them from behind. The path they were on was very narrow. One wrong footing could mean falling down the cliff.

One benefit of a narrow path was the fact that the fight could only occur between two people, one on one. This could work to the recruits’ advantage if they had at least one excellent swordsman. I yelled at them, “Don’t let them overwhelm you! You can’t lose any ground! What they are trying to do is to corner you to a more dangerous area and kill you all at the same time. There are only a few of them, so fight back! If any of you learned even the basics of swordsmanship, you should be able to kill them. Make sure to always have a retreat path cleared!”

Then suddenly, heavy rain began and drowned my voice. Even worse, some of the cowards from the newly recruited group tried to run away in the opposite direction. Didn’t they know this was a bad idea? This was what I was afraid of.

“GYAA!”

With a pained scream, one of the cowards fell to the ground. I saw that a rusty black dagger was stuck in his ankle. Where did the blade come from?

From more of the barbarians who were climbing up from the cliff below! The boys began to fight against these men, but there were so many of them.

“It’s a surprise attack…!”

The recruits’ eyes were filled with fear. They were completely surrounded, and there were so many savages. The scariest thing was the fact that these barbarians were unafraid of death.

There was only one way to escape this situation. I screamed again, “Fight the ones behind you and retreat to where you came from! There will be more of those things waiting for you ahead on an even narrower path, so go back!”

I was yelling as loudly as I could, but was anyone even listening to me? I began to think that perhaps it would be better to give up on most of the recruits and just grab a few smart ones up the cliff.

Just then, Eriez grabbed me and lifted me on top of him, so I straddled his shoulders.

“Huh?!”

He handed me a broken flag and its pole. When one of the barbarians threw a dagger at me, I used the flag to block it. Eriez said to me, “Now, you can lead us! Go ahead!”

His voice was reassuring and confident. Now that I was at a higher ground, I could see better. As I expected, the way to escape this situation was to go back, not forward towards the direction of Minurd. In fact, the majority of the barbarians were eliminated in the back, but those recruits who were brave enough to fight seemed hesitant to continue and escape.

I yelled at them, “Maintain the ranks and begin to retreat as a group, but I need a few of you to follow me! I want only the quick ones light on their feet!”

I used the flag to order, then I stood up on top of Eriez to jump up to the cliff again. Some of the stupid recruits misunderstood my move and screamed, “H-hey! You are going to run away and leave us? How could you! You said you are one of us! Gyaa…!”

However, Eriez swung his sword and directed his men towards the back. He yelled, “No, let’s trust that guy!”

Thanks to him, the fight became more organized. Four recruits fight with their lives, so they would not lose any ground while allowing the rest of the brothers to escape, including those who were injured.

Only two recruits followed me. One of them asked, “W-what are you going to do? Maybe Eriez should have been the one following you…”

I replied, “No way. That guy is way too big. There has been a lot of rain around here lately, so the cliffs here aren’t very stable. Only a few days ago, there was a collapse in one area… That is what we are going to do. We are going to cause a landslide to kill all the barbarians. We might be able to win that way.”

“What? How…!”

I pointed at the big rock nearby and explained, “We need to dig underneath that rock, so it rolls down.”

“…!”

The boys were obviously scared, but they had no choice but to follow my order. Thanks to the rain, the rock was supported only by mud, so it wasn’t hard to dig underneath and around it. It was only going to be a matter of time.

I said to the recruits, “Just make sure you don’t fall with this rock, okay, you idiots?”

“Can’t you be nicer?”

However, it turned out that it was me who was an idiot. As the rock began to slide, I was the one who was standing on the weak spot.

“Argh!”

Before I lost my balance and control, I decided that it would be better to jump myself.

“What? Look at that crazy bastard..!”

They were right because where I landed on the narrow path was precisely where the barbarians and Eriez were fighting. Before my feet touched the ground, I grabbed one of the barbarians’ heads and pushed him away.

I slit the throat of another barbarian and threw myself towards Eriez.

“Step back!”

The giant rock was coming towards us.