Volume 6 - CH 10

Chapter 10 – Ascending The Connecting Bridge

The commander ordered Eto to use the key the night after he and his group arrived at the battlefield.

“Please wait, let me do it.”

Kohaku enthusiastically requested. She spread her right hand toward Eto, urging him to hand over the key.

Margrave said to Eto that it was a hunter’s hut-like building on the eastern side of the lake, and just as he said, there was a hut right next to the lake. At the entrance of the hut, there were about three guards dispatched by the small mustached commander. Incidentally, Eto and his group were also being watched by two knights, which made Eto think, ‘What conscientious attention.’

As Eto tried to hand over the key to Kohaku, the knights that watched them glared at him, seemingly saying ‘don’t let a child touch such an important key.’ But, without minding the knights’ gazes, Eto handed the key to Kohaku. Needless to say, the Knights who were watching it tried to stop Kohaku from entering, but right before they were able to succeed, the two B-class adventurers behind Eto released their aura. And that aura was so intense that it even made Eto, their ally, feel a burning sensation on his back.

Like that, Kohaku evaded the knights who couldn’t move and quickly entered the hut, followed by Eto and the others.

“Errr, if I remember correctly, it is the shelf in the front, right? Un, it must be this one! This is the only shelf that is integrated with the building. And there is a keyhole at the top of this shelf.”

Kohaku confirmed the method to use the key she heard from Eto one by one, as if playing a riddle.

“This is it! I will insert the key here, okay?”

“Aa, go on.”

“Rotate it to the left.”

As Kohaku rotated the key to the left until it couldn’t go any further, the group heard a roaring sound as if many monsters roared simultaneously from the bottom of the lake.

Hearing that, Kohaku and Sorano rushed out of the hut, leaving the key intact. Meanwhile, Eto looked at the lake illuminated by magical lights from the window of the hut. And then, the surface of the lake in the center slowly rises, making a large amount of water fall down like a waterfall. The wind generated by the spray of water blew up to the hut. And when the roaring sound from the lake stopped, there was a bridge connecting the fort that wasn’t there before.

“Amazing! Amazing! Eto and Dad saw it too, right?”

Kohaku excitedly ran into the hut.

“Aa, I saw it.” Amou said with a smile.

“Kohaku, I’ll push the key in if you don’t, you know?”

“No! I will do it!”

Kohaku slipped past Eto and went back to the shelf.

“Push the key to the back and–”

When Kohaku said that, Eto noticed that magic power had moved behind the key. He didn’t feel anything earlier, but maybe it was because the mechanism when pulling out the connecting bridge and leaving it in that state is different.

“–lastly, pull out the key.”

As Kohaku pulled out the key, the movement of magic power that Eto felt from inside the keyhole stopped. With this, the bridge should now be fixed on the lake.

“It’s a night raid, night raid!”

Until suddenly, the group heard a scream from the outside. Although they were prepared for battle, they heard no footsteps approaching the hut. It seems, the one who moved in a hurry was the soldier on the enemy side.

Apparently, the allied knights launched a night attack with the appearance of the connecting bridge as the signal. Subsequently, the knights who were watching Eto and his group also disappeared.

“If they plan to do a night attack, why don’t they tell us first!”

“Well, isn’t it fine? Let’s just forgive them because it was fun.”

When Eto complained about the knights, Kohaku, who fully enjoyed the appearance of the connecting bridge, made a generous remark toward the knights.

Thus, just like that, Eto and his group returned to the tent and found that neither Narl nor Nii had returned, probably still gathering information outside.

The next day, the group heard from Narl that the night attack by the knights was unsuccessful because of how hard the gates of the fort were.

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Eto and his party climbed a hill overlooking the battlefield and watched the knights attacking the fort. Eto didn’t think that the “Battlefield tour” that he joked about before going out would become reality.

Being disliked by the commander, Eto was not called to the strategy meeting and was ordered to wait after using the key. Looks like the effects of the “Hero of The Kingdom” title wasn’t exhibited there.

The southern fort actually has a first gate at the entrance of the lake, blocking the way to the connecting bridge. And even if the knights managed to cross the connecting bridge over the gate, the second gate will prevent them from invading the fort.

And currently, the attackers are having trouble capturing the first gate.

“Sorano, about the first gate, if I’m not wrong, there is a magic barrier applied on it, right?”

“Un, no doubt. I don’t know whether it is reinforced with magic tools or the gate itself is a magic tool, but it’s a quite powerful physical and magic barrier.”

“Do you think it can be destroyed with the Knights’ battering ram?”

Saying that, Eto turned his gaze to the battering ram waiting near the first gate. The knights carried a log with a thick rope tied to it, and around it there is also a shield unit blocking magic and arrows from the walls.

“With only that, it would be difficult. They just used the trees they cut down as it is, without reinforcing it at all.”

Sorano shook her head.

There is a possibility that the knights only tried to show that they’re attacking the gates to the enemy while they had a separate corps moving from behind, but from above, Eto can only see that they were repeatedly attacking the gate forcefully. And that only unnecessarily increases the damage to allies.

Even if they somehow manage to break through the first gate, there will be the new issue of how to cross the connecting bridge. There is no place the knights can hide on the connecting bridge. Therefore, from the point of view of the enemy mages and archers from the wall of the second gate, they will be easy prey.

Which means, when the attacker is trying to cross the bridge, it will be essential to make a long-range attack to the second gate to reduce the casualty as much as possible.

However, the enemy lined up hostages that couldn’t move to use as a shield on the second gate. Even from where Eto and his group stood, they could see the hostages tied to a large board made of wood. In short, unless the knight deals with this problem, it will be difficult to attack the second gate, even if they somehow manage to break through the first gate.

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For that reason, Eto held a doubt about the way the knights attacked the gate. Because from there, he couldn’t see any intention to use strategy or tactics at all. It is said that the strength of the allied knights is several times that of the enemy, so to continue attacking as it is may be a way to win, but it will definitely cause more casualties to the allies. And Eto’s biggest concern was whether the Commander was thinking of ways to rescue the hostages with minimal damage or not.

There are two things that Eto was asked by Margrave. One is to operate the connecting bridge using the key, and the other is to stick to his own justice for the people in his territory. That is why, rather than just watching the stalemate continue, Eto decided to ask the Commander about his doubt.