CH 212

Chapter 212 – Mountain of Corpse, River of Blood

After a full hour of preparation, the Holy Kingdom army began its attack.

We were watching the boundary line from a watchtower I had improvised at a point about 2 km from the boundary line, just in case the Holy Kingdom army crossed the boundary line, and we wanted to watch the moment the war opened.

“Kosuke-dono’s power is truly divine.”

Seeing that I had created a magnificent stone watchtower in a very short time, Archbishop Deckard’s attitude toward me had changed drastically.

Come to think of it, the only thing I actually showed Ellen was serving her food, and I’m sure Archbishop Deckard also only knew what my abilities were from what he heard about me. Perhaps my abilities were more astounding to him than he thought.

“I don’t know where this power comes from, though. Well, I think it’s supernatural.”

As for me, I have installed an automatic grenade launcher in a watchtower and am monitoring the movements of the Holy Kingdom’s army.

The grenade had been placed on the walls of Merinesburg, but I temporarily retrieved it to my inventory because I didn’t want to leave it there and have someone else touch it. The maximum range of this weapon is approximately 2,200 meters, so it is possible to attack the Holy Kingdom’s army that has crossed the line from here.

“They are advancing without hesitation, aren’t they?”

Standing with his arms folded, Sir Leonard squinted his eyes and looked far into the distance. He seems to be able to see the Holy Kingdom’s army with his naked eye even at this distance.

“Hmm. At this rate, they will soon reach the boundary line.”

Isla also seems to be able to see the Holy Kingdom’s army with her naked eye. The big eye seems to be as high-performance as it looks. Melty and Ms. Zamir, who are looking in the same direction as Isla and the others, also seem to be able to see the movements of the Holy Kingdom’s army with their naked eyes, although they do not say anything.

“Your eyesight is amazing. I can’t see them with my naked eye.”

I took out my binoculars. When I adjusted the zoom and focus, I could indeed see the Holy Kingdom’s army moving toward here. Wow, I think the number is about 20,000, right? This is amazing. It’s like a tsunami of people. Amazing.

“Can you handle such a large force?”

Archbishop Deckard, who had seen the Holy Kingdom army through the binoculars I had lent him, asked me with a serious expression.

“Well, you can just watch, and you’ll see.”

At the moment I said that, a message came into the golem communicator.

“This is the scout. We have confirmed that the enemy vanguard has crossed the border. Over.”

“Right.”

“Then, we will begin our attack. The first attack will be a bombing by the Harpies. If possible, aim at the rear guard, preferably the Transportation Corps. At the same time, Kosuke will attack the enemy vanguard, and the gunners will attack as soon as that is over. There is no need for mercy. We will lay waste to them.”

Sir Leonard gave the order to attack. Now, let the attack begin.

☆★☆

Holy Kingdom’s POV

About an hour after the disappointing meeting. We had begun to move forward.

As for the content of the meeting, well, to put it simply, it was a pre-war agreement. We decided on the treatment of prisoners of war and how to express our intentions when sending peace envoys, and in the end, we declared war on each other.

Originally, there was no need to conclude such a war agreement with the Liberation Army, which was a bandit army, but when they brought out the archbishop, even though he belonged to the nostalgic faction, I had no choice but to at least negotiate with them.

The instructions from the home country were only two: to exterminate the bandit army and deal with the archbishop in secret. Of course, I couldn’t get rid of the archbishop in the presence of so many soldiers, but in the chaos of the battle, I could get rid of him in any way I wanted.

As for the saint, I was told to capture her and keep her alive as long as possible, but let’s see. I will do everything I can… but as we were marching along thoughtfully, a messenger came running from the vanguard.

“The scouts found a plaque they had left behind.”

“Boundary line? Fine, trample it down.”

They were in a strange vehicle, but there were at most 20 or so of them. There were toilet birds flying in the sky, but they could only harass us to the extent of spreading their filth around. It was depressing to have them flying over my head, but there was nothing I could do about it.

When we had gone a little further, the movements of the toilet birds changed.

Normally, this would not have bothered me, but for some reason, I was strangely disturbed by the change in their movements. I could say that I felt a stirring in my chest. I didn’t care about the toilet birds, which were flying in a wide arc above us, looking down at us. It was that toilet bird that was flying in formation like a charging cavalryman. That was somehow dangerous. I have no proof, but it seemed so.

“Archers… no, not reachable.”

Their flying position is high. Unfortunately, we don’t have a bow that can reach that far.

The bad premonition was accelerating.

“Mage squad, prepare defensive barriers──”

Just as they were about to give their support, an out-of-tune whistling sound came from behind us. What was that sound? I turned around at that moment. A thunderous roar rang out in rapid succession. At the same time, there was a rush of shock and then a downpour of earth, sand, and rain. The horse I was riding was so startled by the roar that it made me almost fall off my horse.

“W-what was that? Uwaaaaah!”

I screamed as I looked at my hands, wiping the dirt and rain that had suddenly fallen on me. The thing poured down on my face. It was mud mixed with blood and pieces of flesh.

“W-what the hell? What’s happening?”

Next, I began to hear what sounded like a series of thumping explosions from the vanguard. When I turned my attention in that direction, I saw that explosions were actually occurring repeatedly in the direction of the vanguard and that soldiers were being blown away each time.

“What in the world is going on? Is it a magic attack or…! Where are they shooting from!”

In the confusion, no one responded to my voice.

☆★☆

Bang bang bang! The sound of the automatic grenade launcher firing echoed.

“A little further to the right.”

“Haiyo.”

Following Isla’s instruction, I slightly adjusted my sights and fired again. A series of shots rang out, and a burst of explosions could be heard in the distance.

“It hit. Keep the distance and sweep fire.”

“Roger that.”

I kept the angle of elevation of the automatic grenade launcher and swung my head to the left and right little by little, firing multipurpose grenades in rapid succession and laying waste to the enemy vanguard. The automatic grenade launcher’s sight is calibrated to 1,500 meters, so beyond that distance, it is a matter of shooting by eye. But still, Isla has a good eye. The one-eyed people might have excellent abilities as sniper observers.

“The power of this gun is tremendous. You should have deployed these in the gunners’ corps.”

“The bullets are consumed too quickly, and the succession capability is not as good as it should be. Each bullet is this size, you know. And the bullets are very heavy.”

I pointed to a 40mm diameter multipurpose grenade that was being fed into an automatic grenade launcher via a belt link. The size of a single bullet is simply too different from that of a light machine gun bullet, and at this rate of fire, it would soon run out of ammunition. I have only about 900 rounds of ammunition for this weapon.

Incidentally, the box that holds the ammunition for this weapon holds a maximum of 48 rounds and weighs about 30 kg. It is impossible to carry a large amount of ammunition without me.

“It’s a big mess, isn’t it?”

“Of course it is.”

Sir Leonard muttered while looking into the distance, and Melty agreed with him. Archbishop Deckard’s face turned pale as he saw the battlefield scene through binoculars.

“Archbishop Deckard. It is better not to force yourself to see the battlefield.”

“B-but…”

“The battlefield is a battlefield, but it is not a battlefield on which you should be standing. It is admirable that you are willing to see what we have done, but it is a needless effort. This is our battle, not yours. Even if you were not here, as long as the Holy Kingdom’s army sent troops to the Kingdom of Merinard, this battle would have happened.”

Leonard took the binoculars from Archbishop Deckard’s trembling hands and looked into them himself.

“Oh, this is quite a nice tool. Hahaha, that disgusting self-proclaimed holy knight is in a panic for no reason at all. It’s exciting, so exciting!”

Sir Leonard laughed out amusedly as he looked at the battlefield, which was probably a scene of hell due to the aerial bombardment by the Harpies and my automatic grenade launcher. He’s got a pretty good personality, this old man in many ways.

☆★☆

Holy Kingdom’s POV

The large explosion that followed the unpleasant whistle sound and the explosive attack by something flying in out of nowhere finally stopped. I understood that something dropped by the toilet birds apparently caused the loud explosion that accompanied the whistle sound, but I had no idea what the attack that had overrun the vanguard was. The scouts reported that something like a watchtower had appeared in their path at some point, but was there a connection?

“Regroup the troops quickly. Treat the lightly wounded first, then the seriously wounded. But abandon those who have lost limbs and are unlikely to survive.”

“Ha!”

I stopped the march of the army and tried to assess the situation. The current attack alone has resulted in numerous casualties even though we had not yet even come into contact with the enemy.

“Can the magic barrier stop that weapon dropped by the toilet bird?”

“If it is a barrier using chorus magic by all the mages… but it can only protect the mages and their surroundings. It would be impossible to protect all 20,000 soldiers.”

“Then can’t we just knock them off?”

The mage commander, who leads the mage corps, shook his head at my question.

“The altitude is too high for even chorus magic to reach them.”

“Damn it! Then we have no choice but to be tortured like this by them!”

I screamed out in rage. If they continue to attack us in the same way, we will be annihilated before we can see the enemy. Although there are only a few of the toilet birds that seem to be scouts left in the sky above us now, there is no telling when they will return in formation.

Perhaps they have run out of that whistling, exploding weapon, but if they are returning to Merinesburg to resupply… there is a good chance they will be back again. No way it was only a single blow.

Worse yet, if they have a large stockpile of those weapons, the closer we get to Merinesburg, the more intense their attack will be. Obviously, the closer to the supply point, the more frequent the attacks will be.

Since we are already in their sights, even if we run away now, they will not stop attacking us unless we run very far away. It is depressing to think of the amount of damage that will be done in the meantime. Although we are advancing on the ground, they are flying in the sky. It will not be easy to escape.

“We would have to fight a short battle.”

It would take half an hour on foot to reach Merinesburg and even less time if we marched at a run. They will be holed up in Merinesburg. We don’t have siege weapons, but if we get close enough to the gates, we can blow them away with the chorus magic of our mage troops.

The enemy numbers are small. The attacks of the toilet birds are a threat, but once the gate is breached, we should be able to overrun them with our numbers. The toilet birds’ attack would stop once the supply points were destroyed.

“Notify all troops to charge into Merinesburg. Be careful that the mage units do not suffer any losses. I want the gates of Merinesburg destroyed by chorus magic.”

“I understand. That is the only way.”

It seems that the mage commander came to the same conclusion as I did. If we continue to inflict casualties at this rate, we will be unable to maintain morale. Their attacks are unidentified and severe. Those who are directly hit cannot escape death, and those around them are also seriously wounded. It is dangerous to be exposed to these attacks for a long time.

At that moment, from the direction of the vanguard came a buzzing sound like the wings of an unpleasant insect and the screams of the soldiers. What is it this time?

☆★☆

“The march has stopped.”

‘They must have halted their march to assess the situation. They have been hit hard by an unidentified attack. It is only natural.”

Sir Leonard peeked out his binoculars. He must be laughing.

“It’s time to move on.”

I had finished shooting about half of the ammunition I had prepared and had finished retrieving my automatic grenade launcher. I left half of the ammunition because I might have to use it during the defense battle in Merinesburg. I knew it wouldn’t be a waste to shoot them all here, but I didn’t want to shoot them all just in case. It is a survivor’s saga to fear running out of bullets. It can’t be helped.

“Before you do that, you have to give the gunners the go-ahead to attack. Now that they have stopped, we can do whatever we want.”

With these words, Sir Leonard used the golem communicator to give the order to the gunners on the air board to attack.

“Roger that. Let’s show them what we can do, over.”

From behind the golem communicator, Jagira’s voice commanding the gunners could be heard, and at the same time, ten air boards literally glided down the highway. A few moments later, a booming, electric saw-like roar begins to ring out from a distance.

“It’s overwhelming. The Holy Kingdom’s army is being shredded to pieces.”

“Hmm. It’s like mowing the grass.”

“Then that light machine gun must be Kosuke’s mowing scythe.”

“Stop.”

I seriously want you to stop calling it my mowing sickle replacing the Small-moustache-san’s electric saw.

But if this happens, the Holy Kingdom’s army will no longer be able to march. After all, they are being swept by ten light machine guns when they are at a standstill. Since they have no knowledge of guns, the best they could do to defend themselves would be to hold up their shields. Unfortunately, however, light machine gun bullets cannot be protected by shields or armor made of wood, leather, or, at best, thin steel plates.

“This is Jagira of the Gunners’ Corps. A white flag has been raised by the Holy Kingdom’s army.”

Well, that’s to be expected, isn’t it? Yeah.