Chapter 112: Chapter 112
At the time of the Battle of Mount Aman, when Conrad and the high nobles were captured, their direct forces lost their central leadership entirely and were either taken prisoner or fled to their homelands.
In contrast, the army of the Ajun Kingdom that fought alongside them was able to unite as one under the command of the escaped deputy commander, Count Glusa.
Of course, more than half of the force that had originally reached over six thousand were killed or captured, and among those remaining, over a thousand became prey to monsters while roaming the mountains and fields of Pendia.
“Is this… really all of them?”
“That is correct, Your Excellency.”
Count Glusa sighed deeply as he looked at the miserable remnant forces.
Eighteen hundred men, and since most of the knights and proper elite soldiers had died or been captured, an army where the majority were dregs who had gathered merely at the mention of a holy war…
Had Duke Ramis, that foolish man, not simply charged blindly, they would have preserved far more than this.
However, the situation was too dire for him to comfortably blame others.
Right now, they were stranded in the middle of enemy territory, and nearby was a monster-like knight so overwhelmingly powerful that one could scarcely believe it even while seeing it with one’s own eyes, leading an army.
After long deliberation, the choice the count made was to cross the Blade Mountains and return to Ajun.
“The Blade Mountains… you say?”
“Would that even be possible?”
“We have to try. At least it is a more realistic method than breaking past Solod Castle.”
East Solod Castle, which guarded the passage leading from Pendia to Libert, was famous for possessing massive castle walls and various defense systems, as befitted a historical border city.
No matter if Conrad had drawn out most of the troops, leaving only a minimum guard force behind, simply locking down the castle walls meant this current army had no way to breach it.
If they loitered in front of Solod Castle like that, there was a high probability that Cheryn’s pursuing army would strike their rear.
Their fate after that was obvious.
‘It would be the end.’
Had it been an ordinary light conflict, it might have been different, but this time they had invaded using a holy war as their justification.
With the mindset of escorting the evil witch Princess Cheryn to the Holy See and burning her at the stake.
Therefore, conversely, if they were captured as prisoners, there was a high likelihood that they could hardly expect proper treatment.
If they were extremely lucky, they would rot in Pendia’s underground dungeon until a massive ransom was paid, and if things went poorly, they would surely be offered as magic sacrifices by that witch princess or burned at the stake.
Compared to that, the Blade Mountains were ultimately just a mountain range.
Whether high cliffs or valleys, as long as they carved a path forward somehow, they believed it would work out… at least until they actually attempted it.
“Aaaaaakh-!”
“Harpies!”
“Count, Your Excellency, come this way! A basilisk is-!”
Most of Pendia’s monsters were filtered out in the east, and the rest were hunted down while roaming near human habitats, but among them were rare specimens that succeeded in surviving and fleeing to remote corners beyond human reach.
After hundreds of years of such a process repeating, the inner reached of the Blade Mountains became like a miniature Demonic Realm, where powerful monsters rarely seen elsewhere lurked all around.
Considering that the terrain of the Blade Mountains was so rugged that even such monsters could not easily cross it, breaking through was out of the question.
Count Glusa lightly dipped his foot in only to pull back in utter terror, losing nearly three hundred soldiers as the price.
Even this was preserved only thanks to the active efforts of the priesthood from the Western Holy See, including the cardinal; otherwise, they would have surely been wiped out.
“The Blade Mountains… are not a place humans can pass through.”
Having barely escaped looking like a beggar, the count muttered those words and slumped his head low.
The others lacked even the energy to speak in reply, but they agreed.
Afterwards, they changed their strategy to waiting and stalling for time.
The plan was to huddle in a quiet corner, hiding and holding out amid the chaos.
If the civil war dragged on, there was also a chance worth hoping for that a second crusade would depart from Libert or Ajun.
However, this too became absurd before a few months had even passed.
Shortly after Conrad collapsed, Elvin fell in an instant as well, and Pendia was unified under Cheryn’s hand.
“What should we do now, Your Excellency?”
“That is…”
Count Glusa suppressed the urge to reply, ‘Why are you asking me that?’
Now, continuing to huddle here in the northwest was no longer safe either.
Once the kingdom stabilized, an armed force of this size was bound to be discovered quickly.
For now, they were eking out an existence by hiding at the foot of the uninhabited mountains and hunting, but living like this forever was impossible.
Furthermore, because this area had been devastated in the past due to Duke of Morayen’s exploitation, there was nothing even to plunder.
Everyone was starving, and since several deserters who left under the pretext of procuring food never returned, it was only a matter of time before their existence was exposed.
In the end, after much agonizing, the count came up with a second clever plan.
“We go east.”
“If you say east… don’t tell me…?”
“Yes. We will return to Ajun through the Demonic Realm. Since I have entered and exited the Demonic Realm several times during past crusade activities, it is entirely possible.”
Of course, thrusting a large-scale force of over a thousand men into the Demonic Realm without proper preparation meant that more than half would perish, but realistically, that was the only possible method of return.
The remnant soldiers of the Ajun Kingdom began a desperate march of hardship…
*
“…So that is what happened.”
“Those fellows went through quite a bit of hardship as well.”
Capital Hasra, the Red Palace.
Sitting in a chair, Shan held hands with Cheryn, who was lying in bed, listening with interest to the backstory she shared.
Since several months had already passed since the vampire attack, Cheryn no longer kept guards inside her bedroom.
However, Shan still held the queen’s hand every night until she fell asleep before leaving.
After all, how could he resist when she whined that she was too scared to fall asleep otherwise?
At first, the two stayed up all night swallowing hard while merely holding hands tightly, but as time passed, they grew accustomed and gradually took things a little further.
Interlocking their fingers, gently rubbing and tickling each other’s fingers, or softly scratching palms or the backs of hands with fingernails.
Slyly reaching hands up to wrists or forearms, or pulling the other’s hand to stroke against their cheek.
Meanwhile, whenever one pretend-accidentally brushed with their lips, they would look at each other in surprise before exchanging bashful expressions.
Every time he received such novel stimulation, Shan felt the urge to jump straight into Cheryn’s bed.
Had guards not been standing by outside the bedroom at all times, he might really have done so.
At any rate, thanks to slyly satisfying their desires like this every day, he was able to treat her relatively calmly during broad daylight.
Though it would be more accurate to say he had moderately suppressed it with a substitute rather than completely resolving it.
“What do you mean ‘fellows’? Who told them to invade? They came on their own and brought hardship upon themselves.”
“Still, it differs a bit from the rumors I heard? I heard there were around two to three thousand men left, all carefully selected elites.”
“That was a false rumor I spread, of course.”
When he gave her a look asking why she would do such a thing, Cheryn smiled softly and spoke.
“Only if there is a threatening force does it make sense for a young queen to panic and send the Lord Protector.”
“So I am the one going to capture them.”
Honestly, when he had merely heard the story, he had thought it would suffice to pick a few random knights and have them lead a subjugation force.
Currently, the troops directly under Cheryn’s command numbered around a thousand men.
Since all conscripts had been disbanded and the forces of the northern and eastern lords had been sent back, the scale had diminished.
Even then, excluding the royal palace guards and capital guards, the available forces were even smaller.
However, since Palles and Treba would lie along the route those bastards were taking, simply requesting standing army support from the local lords of those regions would make it easy to assemble thousands of elite troops in an instant.
At that level, even a child could easily crush the remnant forces of Ajun.
In other words, there was a separate reason Cheryn was specifically sending Shan.
“First, the first reason is the cardinal of the Western Holy See. I want to wring as many secret arts of the Old Faith out of that bastard as possible.”
Thanks to having the firm foundation of the Holy See, the Old Faith believers, unlike the New Faith believers, preserved many secret techniques handed down since ancient times.
From ‘Flames of Purification’ to things like ‘Chorus’.
If they could capture the cardinal alive and extract such knowledge, its usefulness went without saying.
“Someone of a cardinal’s stature must be a tremendous fanatic; will that be possible?”
“I have prepared a truth serum of decent effectiveness.”
Originally, existing truth serums were meant to lower resistance to mind magic, practically closer to sleep inducers.
It was merely a trivial item that would not even work on a powerful priest like a cardinal.
However, the truth serum created using the corpse of the succubus Yure, which they had successfully developed not long ago, was a different story.
“Using the succubus’s vitreous body as material yielded quite a decent product. There is no need to separately cast charm magic either. He will probably spill everything down to his mistress’s underwear color while pissing and shitting his pants. Well, if even that fails, wouldn’t torturing or killing the priests who came along do the trick?”
Cheryn spoke with a smile like a villainous witch.
Of course, even that merely looked adorable in Shan’s eyes.
One could truly call them a match made in heaven.
Cheryn added that after extracting all the information, he should kill them off.
Because keeping the cardinal alive would expose the fact that their secrets had leaked, as well as the existence of such an outstanding truth serum.
“And secondly, after disposing of them, I want to ride the momentum to explore the experimental site said to be next to the northeastern city.”
“Ah, that place?”
The ancient memory that surfaced back when he drove Thousand Shapes into the hydra’s back.
Among them was an unidentified location where various monsters were imprisoned.
Though the city itself would have burned down due to the Ajun Kingdom’s crusaders, the experimental site hidden nearby might still be preserved in the form of ruins.
If they happened to salvage even a secret technique for taming monsters, there could be no greater harvest.
“I needed a justification to explore that area for a while now, so I suppose I should be thankful that an opportunity arose just in time.”
Given the nature of the Demonic Realm, large numbers of troops were unnecessary anyway, so after subjugating the remnants, most could be sent back, and an elite unit composed only of a small number of knights, priests, and mages could do the exploring.
“Honestly, in my heart I want to go directly as well, but my status is what it is after all…”
Cheryn let out a sigh while looking at the crown placed right beside her bed.
It was already somewhat strange for Duke Velakar to personally step forward to subjugate remnants, which was why she had even exaggerated the threat of the remnants, so if the queen declared a personal campaign here, it was bound to attract attention.
Above all, Cheryn had plenty of work to do in the capital.
“Finally, while you are away, I must cast the fishing line in earnest. By the time you finish your work and return, things will probably be quite interesting.”
It had been one month since he received the title of Duke Velakar.
When Shan faithfully carried out only his duties as a capital noble instead of going to govern his own fief, the nobles opposing Cheryn’s policies grew extremely anxious.
In such a state, if Shan led an army out of the capital, they would naturally begin taking action in earnest.
Cheryn only needed to wait quietly and then pull up the fishing rod in line with Shan’s return.
After briefly chuckling to herself while devising a sinister scheme, Cheryn let out a small groan with a gasp.
“N-Not there. It tickles…”
*
The next day, Cheryn named Shan as the leader of the army tasked with subjugating the Ajun remnant forces discovered this time.
When royal knights including Roden and Lug, along with their squires and five hundred soldiers, were added to the mix, several officials expressed concern.
“Would it not be better to simply instruct the local lords to carry out the subjugation? For the Lord Protector to step forward personally… Moreover, have too few troops been mobilized?”
“I wish for even one fewer of the kingdom’s subjects to be harmed. If the Lord Protector steps forward personally, we can subjugate them with minimal damage. Furthermore, those bastards are moving quickly to the east, so if we are careless, we might lose them.”
It would have taken at least a week for a deserter who broke away from their group to report their movements and for that report to reach Hasra.
The logic itself that an elite force had to be mobilized as quickly as possible was not wrong.
On the road setting out, Roden clicked his tongue while looking at the supply wagon placed behind them.
“No one would ever imagine that supplies for exploring the Demonic Realm are inside that.”
This Demonic Realm exploration was being conducted in utmost secrecy, so even the other royal knights, excluding Roden, were scheduled to be informed only after arriving on site.
Though a few people had already felt suspicious due to the fact that several mages from the Magic Society, which was currently under reconstruction, were specifically mobilized.
Upon leaving Hasra and heading north, Arwin let out an excited whinny and raised her two front hooves high to show her delight.
Though Shan occasionally took him out beyond the castle walls to run, the fellow seemed to prefer setting out for battle alongside an entire army like this.
One could call him a natural warhorse.
Mid-march, Shan let out a soft exclamation while looking at the surrounding scenery.
“This side has improved tremendously compared to before as well. Before, there was really nothing but total ruins.”
Was it about two years ago? During the time he marched alongside Duke of Morayen against Elvin’s army, this place was truly like hell.
Every visible village was in ruins, and rotting corpses hung from trees or wooden palisades after being lynched.
Compared to that, though there were somewhat fewer people relative to the size of the villages now, signs of reconstruction emerging one by one could be seen.
It was thanks to Cheryn relocating a portion of the conscripts while offering various support measures.
Moving north, Shan obtained supporting troops for the subjugation from the lords of the fiefs he passed through.
To be precise, from the queen’s proxies and administrators who held various real powers on behalf of the lords.
The subjugation force, which had been a mere five hundred men, quickly swelled to over a thousand as it marched north.
Among them, only the queen’s direct force of five hundred men was armed with mass-produced magic weapons, but that was more than enough for subjugating remnants.
After all, Shan and the royal knights were at the forefront.
On the sixth day of marching northeast like that, Shan was finally able to confirm the location of the Ajun remnant forces.
“They already headed east?”
“Yes. I saw them pass by two days ago in the afternoon.”
A knight of a small barony, flanked by Garn City to the south and the Tesen River to the north, bowed his head politely.
He said that because their numbers were so vast and everyone looked like beggars, it was impossible not to recognize them.
“As a knight of Pendia, I am ashamed to have backed away upon seeing the enemy, but since their numbers reached a staggering thousand, the fief’s forces had no way to deal with them…”
“I have no intention of blaming you. Protecting the fief alone was well done.”
Shan patted the shoulder of the young knight, who was intimidated in the presence of a great knight, to encourage him.
According to the story, the Ajun remnant forces appeared to be moving straight to the right along the Tesen River.
Then again, there was no way those bastards possessed a map accurately detailing Pendia’s terrain, so if they were vaguely pushing east, that was indeed the surest method.
As a bonus, drinking water could also be obtained without major issues.
“Then they will pass the Raunur River.”
“The upper reaches of that river extending from the Blade Mountains are shallow enough to cross on foot. Those bastards probably do not know that, but if they just keep walking along it, they will naturally cross it.”
Now that he found out where the enemy was, there was nothing to hesitate about.
Had the enemy been somewhat stronger, he would have requested support from Palles, but according to the knight’s statement, those bastards were merely around a thousand exhausted and starving remnants.
Shan and the subjugation force moved rapidly eastward right along the Tesen River.
Their speed as they moved vigorously while eating fresh food kept in refrigerators was incomparable to that of those bastards who barely staved off hunger with wild berries and mountain beasts.
Right around a day and a half later, the subjugation force finally succeeded in catching up to the rear of the Ajun remnants.
It was right when those bastards were in the middle of crossing a shallow river.
“T-That…”
An Ajun soldier walking mindlessly absentminded let out a sigh at the groans coming from behind him.
Thinking that even though they were starving for days to the point where their stomachs stuck to their backs, they were leisurely enough to chatter.
But that lasted only a moment; as the commotion grew louder, his head naturally turned back as well.
Above all, because he heard the words, “It’s the enemy!”, which no soldier could simply ignore.
Soon, his dim, lifeless eyes widened as if about to pop out.
Early evening as the sun was setting dimly.
Unlike them, an army fully equipped with arms was pursuing from behind.
At the forefront, a knight in golden armor charged forward with the twilight wrapped around his back, his green eyes glowing.
“Ah…”
Green eyes: that terrifying, absolute undying one, the one who brought death just by drawing near.
Improperly finished sentences repeatedly pieced together in his mind before collapsing again.
Even so, just one single truth was lodged firmly in his head.
Anyone who encounters that being dies!
“Eeugh, aaaaaaaaaah-!”
The moment the nightmare-like sight he had seen several months ago was revived, the soldier wailed like mad, threw away his weapon, and ran.