“Then! Everyone who wants to fight the Kingdom to their last breath, hands up!”
With a thunderous roar, numberless hands rose in unison. Everyone who did so had their fists tightly clenched, the grim set on their faces showing their determination to resist.
It was frightening. Everyone here had chosen a path that could only end in their deaths. Even so, there was something which outweighed the fear of death which motivated everyone here.
It was the desire to not repay the kindness and succour they had received with treachery.
“Then ― we fight! We fight to repay the debt we owe! Jugem-san! I’ll leave the battle plan to you!”
Jugem strode forth and stood by Enri’s side.
“…I’ve seen your resolve. You’re all going to die here. Are you all alright with that?”
The veteran’s words were met with unanimous approval.
“You’re able to shout so loudly despite your pale faces. Magnificent. …However, I’m sorry to rain on your parade, after you all loudly proclaimed your decision. Shouldn’t you let the young ones run away first? After all, if anyone’s going to die, it should be us and the old uncles.”
An older man spoke up.
“He’s got a point ― but isn’t that impossible? The enemy’s sealed off both gates. Even if we climbed over the walls, they’d spot us right away.”
“Well, that’s true… if we were just running away normally, like you said.”
Jugem grinned evilly as he continued.
“We can’t hide and then run. So what we’ll do is we’ll open the main gate and lure the enemy inside. While they’re caught off guard, we’ll hit them hard. If we can do enough damage, the enemy will gather their dispersed troops and focus on us.”
Jugem looked around.
“I say that, but the enemy may know it’s a ruse. If that’s the case, as long as we have enough attack power, the enemy will have no choice but to gather their troops up. Any questions?”
“Doesn’t look like it, but Jugem-san, where should they flee?”
“Isn’t that obvious, Ane-san? Into the Great Forest of Tob. I’ll assign Agu and Britta, who both know the forest, to the escape party. I’m sure we can manage for a while without them around.”
The villagers had already prepared themselves for death, but it was only natural that they wouldn’t want their children to perish with them. Knowing that their children were in danger dampened their fighting spirit.
Jugem addressed them with a serious expression on his face.
“Listen up. The first round is a battle to make the enemy consolidate their troops. The second round will be a battle to deplete their fighting strength, so they don’t have any left over. The fiercer that battle is, the better the chances for the escapees.”
“Hahahaha! Is that all! Ahhhh, well, that’s a relief.”
Those words were joined by several laughs. That laughter wasn’t born of desperation or madness ―
it was just a simple, relaxed laugh.
“As long as my wife and children can be saved, I have no regrets. Now’s the time to repay the kindness Ainz Ooal Gown-sama showed us!”
“Ah, that’s right! If I grow old as a coward, I wouldn’t be able to look myself in the face!”
“Then … what about the escape team?”
Jugem looked carefully at everyone as he answered Nfirea’s question.
“Ane-san and Ani-san will be responsible for protecting the women and children. And like I said earlier, we’ll need Britta, Agu, and the other goblins to help guide them through the woods.”
“―Eh?”
Enri exclaimed in surprise.
As the village chief, she had an obligation to stand with the others. Since she had ordered the villagers to die, then she could do nothing less than stand by their sides as they fought. Even so, the villagers exclaimed before Enri.
Their eyes said they unanimously agreed with Jugem. Just as Enri was thinking of how to refuse, the matter had already been taken out of her hands.
“Enri-chan, I’ll leave it to you.”
“Please take care of my children. Although my wife’s already dead… at least, these kids…”
The villagers took turns to hold her hands, imparting their hopes and thoughts to her as they squeezed them tightly. Nfirea sidled up to Enri, whose eyes were filling with tears.
“Enri, let’s go. Our struggle is to live on. We can’t lose that battle. And who knows, Ainz Ooal Gown-sama might come to save us again. At that time, it’ll be better if we’re around, as the ones who set foot inside his domain.”
“He’s right, you know.”
“Jugem-san…”
“That horn you used to summon us… I think you should use it afterwards, don’t you think? If you used it now, it would be like trying to put out a burning house with a glass of water. It would be better if you blew it after all this was over and summoned more of our comrades to help you.
Enri clutched her eyes, which were full of tears.
“I got it! I’ll protect everyone’s wives and children! Let’s go! Enfi!”
One side of the gate opened slowly.
“We should have used the flame arrows from the beginning. Well, the follow-up flame arrows were wasted…”
Prince Barbro’s face twisted into a frown. They had wasted too much time. In order to make up for the delay, the men would need to be force-marched. But that was unavoidable.
This was all the fault of the Marquis’ men. If he hadn’t given the order to use flame arrows himself, who knew how much more time would have been wasted?
Barbro looked to the sky, cursing his misfortune for being saddled with incompetent underlings.
He considered the time that would be needed later ― the first thing being how long it would take to hang the villagers.
He would hang them on the village’s walls, to show everyone the final fate of anyone foolish enough to defy the royal family.
Next, he had to find anyone who had close ties with Ainz Ooal Gown. That might take longer than stringing the villagers up.
“Damn. I should have brought an interrogator along. First, we pretend to spare the lives of anyone who cooperates… then we kill them later. As for the kids…”
There was no point in letting them live. To begin with, children could not live without their parents, so hanging children with their parents was a form of mercy.
“Is there enough rope for all of them? If we could get some from the village, that would be good…”
The soldiers near the gate were slowly advancing. Pride filled Prince Barbro’s chest as he saw the royal flag advancing at the head of the column. When he ascended to the throne, he would make sure he had ceremonial guards like that.
The soldiers holding the flags packed themselves into the gate ― and were then flung back out.
Shortly after, the gigantic creatures that had sent them flying loomed in the opening of the gate.