CH 74

Chapter 74 – The Last Barrier

After making contact with the advance party of the imperial army, we drove for a while, and suddenly the forest opened up, and our view widened.

“Keep going straight.”

Myrril in the side cart relayed the signal from the Winged People who were on alert in the sky to us.

The weather was good, the road was paved and easy to drive on, and good vistas on both sides made us feel good. …It should be, but Heimann-jiisan’s expression was sullen.

That’s right. It’s impossible to place tanks on such flat terrain with a clear view.

Even before that, if we were riding around on our bikes like this, we’d be exposed to the Imperial Army.

“Any enemy ahead?”

“No enemy 20 miles ahead. …Well, as you can see.”

So they’re not paying attention. And the advance troops are over 30 kilometers out. How confident is the imperial army in their ability to control the kingdom? Or are they just plain stupid?

There’s also the possibility that it’s a trap, but I don’t know.

“It’s not as if the forest has opened up.”

“Maybe they’ve cleared the land. To keep the area near the border unobstructed.”

After carefully trimming the undergrowth, they must have mixed in some gravel or something because there was nothing but compacted soil for about ten meters on either side of the road. The ditches in the middle of the road are probably for water drainage, but they also seem to have the purpose (or the main purpose) of restricting the route of the carriages. Such a scene continued far into the hills.

“Yadar, you can go ahead. It looks like I’m out of options.”

“Hold on, old man!”

The XR accelerates with a squeal of laughter. You two are getting along well, aren’t you?

The speed itself wasn’t that fast because of the small displacement, but the flat road surface made it very easy to accelerate. The way she was going at it while lying down lightly on the handlebars, it looked like she was enjoying herself like a biker from the old days. Heimann-jiisan seems to have a bit of a speed freak in him.

“Hey, Yoshua. I know that you can take steps to secure your vision in case of an invasion, but have you thought about what you will do when you invade?”

“I don’t know. If we’re going to do all this, why don’t we just turn it into a field?”

Those who are leading large armies will be wary when they see such a paranoid approach. It may serve as a deterrent to discourage them from invading the empire. I don’t know; I’ve never commanded one.

In the case of those of us who plan to use tanks, although we won’t be deterred from invading by the vantage point, we will be lost in another way.

Where should we wait for the enemy to come?

Incidentally, we don’t plan to invade the faraway imperial capital, mainly because of the cost of fuel.

There is also a way to hide the body of the vehicle at the edge of the forest that existed before the visibility opened up, and snipe the incoming enemy with the tank gun from one side to the other, but it is too stupid to take the strategy of annihilating the enemy or crushing ourselves.

At any rate, many of the Golems ― in quality but not in number ― were unrelated “kingdom invasion forces.”

The enemy was still 20 miles (32 km) away. According to the Winged People above, it seems to be a watchtower. The number of enemy troops in position was four.

We drove about 20 kilometers off the road and moved through the remaining bushes to monitor a small hill.

Indeed, near the top of the hill, there is a kind of barrier blocking the road.

We approached it at a distance of about 20 meters and started to eliminate the enemy soldiers.

“Yoshua, take care of the one at the far end.”

“Y-yeah.”

I move away from Myrril and aim at the soldier standing guard behind the building.

My rifle is a bolt-action rifle with a scope, and Myrril’s is an open-bolt submachine gun with a simple iron sight. It is natural that there is a difference in firing speed, but what about this division of roles?

“Let’s go. 3, 2, 1…”

Myrril-san shot down three of them without a moment’s hesitation and waited with an excited face for my results.

Stop that pressure!

“Control is complete.”

“Okay, let’s move.”

With no sense of urgency, the others hurried through the bushes and approached the surveillance glass. There was no reaction from anyone when they saw the three dead bodies with their eyeballs shot out.

Incidentally, the soldier I shot was a normal body shot. No way.

When we reached the top of the ridge, we could see a sparse forest ahead. Houses and farmland continued to dot the landscape, and about 10 kilometers ahead of us, the silhouette of a huge city hovered behind the forest at dusk.

I was busy digging a hole with my storage when I heard the bouncy voice of Myrril-neesan.

“Behold, Yoshua. That’s the light of the Imperial Capital.”

Yes, that is your wing.