“...The Sorcerous Kingdom, hm. Well, if you apply to the brass, you ought to be able to go over there as a member of the army. They view the Sorcerous Kingdom as a threat second only to the demihumans. It seems they want to ally with the Theocracy against them.”
“Really now. It seems there’ll be a lot of problems due to religious differences, then.”
“Yes, precisely. Well, that aside, if your affiliation doesn’t change, you can receive the country’s aid and you can skip those annoying immigration checks… I think. If you go over, you’ll be a godsend to the people who want to know more about the inner workings of the Sorcerous Kingdom.”
“Well, wouldn’t that be nice. Still, if I did that, I couldn’t just go around picking fights.”
“You… the way you say that so seriously is really headache-inducing.”
“I guess it’d be hard on you if it became an international incident, huh.”
The cold wind blew past them. For a while, Pavel went silent, his expression unchanged, but after that, he began muttering unhappily (as usual).
“I’m going to miss that ugly face of yours.”
Olrand smiled wickedly. It was a ferocious, bestial grin, but he was being uncharacteristically shy. Pavel had not said, “don’t go,” but neither had he said, “go.” He decided to make sure that he would have somewhere to return to.
“Sorry about that… Well, I’ll come back after I become stronger. Want me to train you up at that time?”
“Fancy you saying that.”
As Olrand chuckled, Pavel laughed back at him in turn. Their laughter was every bit as ferocious as two wild beasts growling at each other.
Just then, the bell rang.
It would seem that it was time to change over to the night shift. They had spoken at great length, so they would wrap it up with one more thing. As Olrand thought that, that notion evaporated from his mind as the bell continued to ring.
Pavel, followed closely by Olrand, looked to the hills.
Those bells meant “Demihumans sighted.”
Their visibility was clear up to to over four hundred meters away. In the past, there had once been forests and trees there, but the country had conducted a massive landscaping project as part of the wall’s construction to flatten it out.
However, at the furthest reaches of the expansive plains — where there were hills and other obstructions — they saw sparkles in the darkness and moving black shadows.
“Boss…”
It was impossible for Olrand to discern the true identities of those demihumans at this distance while in the dark. Therefore, he called on the man with the keenest eyesight.
“Yes, they’re demihumans… Snakemen,” Pavel immediately answered.
Snakemen had heads like a cobra and scaly, humanoid bodies, as well as tails. They were demihumans that were considered close relatives to Lizardmen. Their serpentine heads had venomous bites and their spears were coated in powerful toxins. Close combat with them was to be avoided as much as possible.
That said, Olrand and his men were seasoned veterans, and they possessed very high resistance to poisons. While their scales provided some protection, they were not hard enough to deflect metal weapons. They might be skilled with their tails, but one could simply consider them another weapon. In addition, they had the advantage at night due to their ophidian sensory organs, but that was not a problem.
Is leading the charge on them going to be our job? No, by the time they reach here, Boss’s unit would have shot them all to death.
Snakemen despised cold objects, so they did not use metal armor and other such items. As a result, it was a simple task for first-rate archers like Pavel and his men to fill them full of arrows.
“So how many of them are there, Boss?”
Usually, there would be less than twenty of them.
“...Boss?”
Olrand was briefly puzzled by the lack of a response. He looked at Pavel, and saw a look of clear vexation on that typically blank face of his.
“What’s wrong, Boss?”
“...There’s more of them? Could this be — this is bad! I’ve spotted members of other species! Armatts, Ogres, and are those Cavens?”
“What did you say?”
There were all kinds of demihumans in the hill region, but they did not have good relationships with each other. On the contrary, they often fought over territory, and apart from cases where Ogres took Goblins as slaves and cruelly used them, these races very rarely worked with each other.
There had even been cases where some of them had attacked the Holy Kingdom after being driven from their lands.
Then this ought to be the same thing. Because if it was not—
“A big invasion?”
He did not know who had said that. Perhaps the person saying so might have thought he was speaking to himself, but it sounded clear enough to his ears.
“Olrand, I’ve got something to ask you.”
There was tension in Pavel’s voice. No, that was only to be expected.
Race, culture, and religion. Just as how there could be many nations composed of members of the same species, creating a cohesive nation was a very difficult task. It was even more difficult when the species of the members were different. Therefore, uniting the demihuman tribes in the hills was a nigh-impossible task.
If that was what had happened, that would mean the beginning of a battle for the Holy Kingdom’s survival.
After that — Olrand’s body trembled uncontrollably.
Uniting all these races would require obvious power. Among mankind, wisdom and wealth would qualify as a form of strength, but the demihuman races prized power. In other words—
That means there might be a frighteningly powerful enemy out there, is that it?
“Tell me with your warrior’s instincts. Why do you think these guys chose to reveal themselves at a fortress like this — at such a well defended place? One — they’re serving as bait to draw out our forces to thin out our defenses. Two—”
“They’re confident of breaking through in a head-on attack. Twenty percent of the Holy Kingdom’s fighting strength is stationed here, and they’re going to crush us like cockroaches.”
Despite feeling Pavel’s keen gaze from beside him, Olrand did not stop talking.
“At the same time, they’re going to use this fortress as a bridgehead. Then, they’re going to crush the morale of the Holy Kingdom and boost their own morale. Is that it?”
“...They might issue a mass mobilization order.”
“Haha! A war like this has only occurred once before in the history of the Holy Kingdom, and now there’s going to be another one like it in our time! What can we say to that!?”
“I’m going to report to the higher-ups. You come with me too.”
“Got it, boss! Oi, you lot! This is going to be one hell of a party! Keep the backup weapons coming!”
If the enemy was an army, they would have to spend a lot of time forming their troops up. This was especially true if they counted numerous races among their number. However, the same applied to the defenders as well. Since they were an army, they would need time to prepare themselves. This held true even on the frontline.
There was a shocking amount of things which needed to be done. There was no more time to idle around.
Olrand ran after Pavel.
Part 2
The slower the enemy attack, the more forces they could gather to this fortress, and the more time they would have to give the mobilization order. This was the perfect scenario for their commanding officers, but Pavel did not share their opinion.