Read Novel Full Chapter 73 & 74
Here’s the chapter, enjoy~
Chapter 73 – Useless Death
“What the hell?”
The sound of a machete cutting through the wind was heard, and the sentry’s head flew off. Yadar dances in at an unseen speed and quickly slays about ten of the imperial soldiers.
The sounds of battle drown out the sound of gunfire, but Myrril is probably running amok in the rear as well. There is no sign of backup coming out this way.
“Yoshua!”
I nodded to Yadar and readied my AKM.
I carefully aimed and killed the cavalryman with a single shot as he tried to run forward, hiding behind his horse. As I expected, the leather armor was no protection, and the soldier, who had taken a 7.62mm round in the back, fell off his horse and stopped moving. I checked the rest of the horses, but there was no sign of any other cavalry coming out.
“Message control complete!”
“Vanguard control complete!”
“The rear is also under control. Everyone, can you come here for a minute?”
As I approached Myrril’s voice, I saw the scene I had expected.
A corpse with its eyeballs pierced out lay folded on the ground. In the back, there was a short magic staff lying on the ground and a man struggling with a bullet in his elbow. The middle-aged man, who appears to be a mage, turns his eyes with anger and hatred towards the Dwarf girl who is standing over him.
“Kuh, just kill me!”
Yeah, that’s what you’d say in this situation. I’m not thrilled to hear it from an old man’s mouth at all, so please don’t.
“If that’s what you want, I’ll do it. When will the main force of the Imperial Army pass through? What is the size of the force entering the kingdom that will be heading for Casemaian?”
“Do you really think I’m going to let that information out? You filthy half-beasts!”
We listened to the insults that were desperately released and looked at the man with cold eyes.
Myrril let out a sigh and shook her head as she dropped the man’s rank insignia and papers in her hands to the ground.
“If you don’t want to say anything, that’s fine. We’re on our way to your main camp to see the Golem anyway. If anyone asks how I know, I’ll just say I heard about it from my friend.”
“…Screw you! I have not spoken a word to you.”
“Your superiors don’t know anything about that. People believe what they want to believe. If I do that, your family and your relations in the Imperial Capital will have a hard time, won’t they?”
“Why do you say that?”
“As a mage, you are an imperial nobleman, right? You must be a low-ranking nobleman in such a remote area. People in the center of the military have no trust in such people. I’ve heard that it’s common practice for the imperial army to take families, hostage in the name of protection.”
The source of this information was either Minya or Merel-san.
In any case, it seemed to be a hit, and the mage mastiff dropped his head in disappointment. [T/n: I don’t know why he called him mastiff.]
“The passage is in three days. The main force of the mounted Golem unit will be split up to the west ahead of here, and after the demons are eradicated, they will meet up in the royal capital.”
Before wondering how long the main force is, the other three seemed to have their attention on something else.
“…Demons?”
“There’s no point in playing dumb. The news that a Demon King has risen in Casemaian has reached the Imperial Capital.”
“It’s not too far off from the truth, but… the stupid prince was probably the one who made the claim.”
I indeed decided to become a Demon King, but I don’t know what it is about this feeling of bewilderment. It’s like I’m sitting in the parlor of a stranger’s house with no one living there. Or rather, that’s exactly the situation I’m in. If there’s another real Demon King, wouldn’t I be a pretender?
This is the kind of thing that Japanese businessmen do. I’m not used to sitting on the top seat, I’m a petty little citizen, after all.
“We have already heard that the damage to the kingdom’s army is enormous. Even though it is due to the incompetent king’s blunder, the emperor’s decision is that if we don’t crush it now, it will leave bad aftermath.”
“I see; that’s why they brought out so many Golems. They’re just trying to subdue an old country that would collapse in a civil war if left unchecked.”
“If they’re going to send the main force, it’s more likely to go to Casemaian.”
…Could it be that I am the cause of another major battle? I’m sick and tired of this.
“Even if the king is incompetent, don’t you think it’s strange that 30,000 troops of the kingdom that calls itself the most powerful country are wiped out?”
“No, you don’t. I don’t believe it either. At best, I’d say it’s half a story, or at best, a story about two or three hundred that were repulsed, with a twist.”
“It’s not impossible either. I know the damage was extensive, but it was all hearsay, and we don’t know who reported it or how.”
Myrril-san and the others are whispering to each other, but no matter what they say here, the decision of the imperial army will not be overturned, nor will any conclusion be reached.
The interrogation ended with noja loli’s comment, “They’re idiots too.”
“I see. I get it. You can go anywhere you want.”
“…!?”
Leaving the mastiff sitting there in a daze, I pulled out the bikes, and we started to move towards the empire. I let Yadar’s bike take the lead, and Myrril looked back at me in the side cart and shook her head in disgust.
“I think I understand how Yoshua feels now.”
“What are you talking about?”
“After the battle, I woke up and thought, ‘I don’t need to kill him too,’ and…”
A single .45 caliber round is fired from the UZI, and a small explosion is set off in the forest behind.
“…The emptiness of it all ended in futility.”
Whether it is the pride of a mage or a last-ditch effort, it seems that the mastiff tried to shoot us in the back with attack magic and was shot in the eyeball just like his friends.
“That’s about it.”
“Yeah, that’s exactly how it is.”
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.