Chapter 356 – 356. Struggle, and Struggle (4)
– One –
“Kiaaaaa!”
“Aaaaagh!”
Tat tat tat!
The imperial soldiers screamed and charged forward.
The screams of evil, the disfigured face with mottled burn marks all over the face, and the tattered combat uniform that had been burnt, everything was tattered.
It wasn’t like that.
Everyone charging from the front was looking miserable.
Their appearance was more suited to beggars or rebels than imperial troops.
“Kill! Kill the Imperial Dogs!”
“They’re nothing short of defeated soldiers! Against them, we can win with just enough time! They’re self-destructing!”
On the other hand, the rebels were unmatched in spirit.
They were standing on top of the fort’s barriers made of weaving wood, and were firing at the Imperial army.
Beyond the barriers,
Tutu tutu!
Awesome love!
Arrows fly
Fufufufufufu!
“Turn it off, ugh…!”
“Kukkuk, kukkuk!”
The Imperial soldiers must have been envious of the porcupine’s thorns, so they imitated it by driving arrows into their bodies.
But is it because of excessive envy and jealousy?
Fluff, fluff.
“Kreak…”
“Turn it off…”
They say the end of their lives with the end of that one imitation.
Fall down.
Fade away
“Push, push!”
Kurrrr!
Tat tat tat!
The foot soldiers run with the chariots in front.
Many are dying, but the Imperial army still has enough and overflowing infantry troops.
Ting, titititing!
Raising the shield above his head, he made his way through the rain of arrows.
After thousands of lives were lost,
Bang!
Cranky!
“Done!”
The first cavalry that crashed into the fortress walls appeared.
Bizarrely, they only rammed the tip of the battering ram into the wooden barrier once.
Click!
The person who appears to be the squad leader manipulates something attached to the battering ram.
He turns his head with an urgent expression.
“Back off, boys!”
“Yes!”
Tat tat tat!
Soldiers hurriedly fall out of the train.
Run away without looking back.
The rebels look at them with puzzled expressions.
With their backs exposed, the Imperial soldiers looked like easy prey for the rebels on top of the barrier.
Food.
Foot.
Laughter breaks out.
“The poor guys… Feed them arrows in the back of their heads!”
“Yes!”
Kku-gu-gu-guk!
Rebel soldiers standing on top of the wall pull a protest.
The moment I was about to let go of the arrow with a fishy feeling,
Chii-i-i-i…
Black smoke billows from below.
“Huh?”
“What, what?”
As the rebels lower their gaze, the siege weights hanging from the trolleys are charred and emitting smoke and heat.
It was ominous.
“This, this,”
“Escape,”
Before the commander of the rebels could give an order,
Aaaaa!
Fuhuaaaaagh!
Chungcha causes a huge explosion.
Along with the wooden barrier, the rebels standing on it are also torn apart.
People explode
Rumble.
Dump.
Blood and filth flow as rainwater.
Debris is scattered between deflagrations.
It clings to somewhere and flows down messily.
“Quaaaaagh!”
“It hurts, it hurts!”
“Buy, save, Goddess…”
Those who died in an instant must be the lucky ones.
It must be the influence of accumulating a lot of good karma while you were alive.
Their deaths were clean, as even the brains that felt the pain were crushed in an instant.
Even if it was visually messy.
Those who do not, let the whole world know through desperate cries that their breath has not stopped.
Which,
“There!”
“Rush over there!”
“Tear apart all the surviving rebels!”
Whoaaaaa!
Tutututututututu!
It became a signal to call the Imperial Army infantrymen, not the healers belonging to the rebels.
Because the foot was the fastest, the soldier who arrived first over the barrier,
“Khihyaaaaa!”
Screaming,
Dig!
Jumped up into the air.
The soldier who flew up through the dust,
Visor!
Whoops!
I pulled out a short sword hanging from my waist in the air.
Holding the hilt upside down,
Woowook Huh.
Falling on top of a half-torn rebel soldier.
His face, crushed by burns, was stained with joy.
Jump on top of him,
Fu-wook!
Deude Deuk!
“Keep it up…”
Cut through the bones and drive the knife through his chest.
Dump.
Unable to overcome the speed at which they rushed in, the Imperial Army soldier collapsed on top of them.
The two bodies overlap.
As if a lover caressed,
Whoop, whoop!
Kwajik!
Kududeuk!
“Dyungjeo, dungeo, dungeoeoeoeooh!”
Poke his stomach
A piece of meat pops up.
Blood wells up.
Thick anger blooms with resentment.
The quickest soldier is not particularly overly fitful.
He only announced the beginning,
“Aaaaa!”
“Die, everyone die!”
Woo-wook, Woo-wook!
Chaaaaagh!
Aaaaa!
Save, save, aaaaa
Around the collapsed barrier, inside the fortress, each other eagerly harvests the lives of others.
The rebels kill the imperials, and the imperials kill the rebels.
“Die!”
Fu-wook!
Charleureuk!
An Imperial soldier thrusts a knife into the rebel soldier’s stomach.
“Turn it off!”
The rebel soldier raises his eyes.
His face is contorted with pain and anger.
His eyes are bloodshot red, and veins form on his face and neck.
“You, you die!”
Weeeee!
Throws the skewer the rebel soldier was holding.
The sharp tip of the skewer rips the throat of an Imperial soldier.
Woowook!
Push Yi Yi Profit!
“Kuk, kuk kuk kuk!”
Blood spurted out like a fountain, staining the rebel soldier’s clothes and skin bright red.
The rebel soldier’s face is stained with joy.
But for a while,
“Ugh…”
Dump.
Dump.
With chaeng.
They fall side by side
Ha, ha, ha
A rebel soldier lies on his side and gasps violently.
Smile faintly at the same time.
I feel a deep satisfaction in the fact that I can take an imperial soldier with me.
Even if it is only a temporary intoxication, the rebel soldier closes his eyes, satisfied with the fact that he was not defeated unilaterally.
Haaa…
Even the sound of breathing gradually fades away.
Knock!
Damn you!
A soldier tramples their corpses with his boots.
Crushing their bones and stepping over them.
“Aaaaa!”
He was holding a huge hammer with both hands.
It was clear that it was meant to be used to knock down barriers.
However, the barriers were already clearly broken.
So instead of foolishly knocking elsewhere,
Whoa!
Puck!
Kwajak!
“Cuck!”
Knock on the person over the barrier.
“Die!”
Whoa, whoops!
Hui-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-ik!
Splat, squeak!
Mince
The existence that was a human a moment ago turns into bright red meat.
Without even thinking about removing the bones, the whole thing is finely chopped.
Borrowing the power of a heavy tool, it was not that difficult.
However, the rebels did not just suffer.
Awesome love!
Fufufufufufu!
“Keep it off…!”
The soldier with the hammer becomes the first arrow holder.
Dump.
With Tang.
Arrow rain flies
“Block it! Block it! So that the dogs of the empire don’t set foot here, pour down arrows wherever you can!”
“For the saintess!”
“For the Goddess!”
The battlefield is stained with blood.
Kwaaaaagh!
Due to the chungcha with a built-in bomb magic tool, various parts of the barrier explode.
A battle ensues in which the rebels have no choice but to lose.
It was clear that the desperate resistance would not last long.
– 2 –
By the time the battlefield is stained with blood,
“General. Our soldiers are taking too much damage.”
“I guess so…”
In the commander’s barracks, a major general and a brigadier were alone.
“Due to the enforcement of this operation, there will be a lot of complaints from the soldiers. Why did you order such an unreasonable operation?”
“…”
“No, let me be honest. Why did the commander-in-chief propose such an unreasonable operation, and did the general approve of it?”
The warden quietly avoids his gaze.
“General. Please tell me.”
“…”
“If the mages had preemptively struck the barrier with a joint chant, wouldn’t the damage to our troops be much less than now? There is a way to carry out the operation stably enough, so why on earth did you order an operation that was sure to increase human casualties?”
Woo woo.
The warden lets out a long sigh.
I stare at the ceiling without speaking.
With a troubled expression on his face, he barely lowered his gaze.
Finally, we meet the brigadier’s eyes.
The warden’s eyes were filled with deep pain.
“I had to keep my mouth shut.”
“Yes, yes…? Now, did you not hear me…?”
The brigadier general asked with a pale face.
But there’s no way he wasn’t listening.
Because he was also an Auror user, he has transcendental sensory receptivity.
There was no way he could shut off his senses while operating on the battlefield.
Therefore, his keen hearing, amplified to the fullest, must have clearly captured the words the warden said.
“Due to the last fire, a considerable amount of provisions were lost.”
“Oh, my God…!”
“Only the supply officers, some courtiers, and Your Highness know. They have been thoroughly locked down, so the rest don’t know. You understand the truth, and you’ve been keeping it a secret until now.”
“… Is the food situation that serious?”
The warden nodded several times in silence.
His face was also very serious.
“Even in order to receive supplies, it’s to the point where we have to retreat after capturing only the rebel fortress. Even so, if we don’t reduce our mouths to less than 100,000 here, most of the expeditionary force will die of starvation while moving south.”
“That, so…”
“That’s why I ordered an unreasonable operation on purpose.”
The silence of the warden moves to the brigadier general.
A bitter smile forms on the warden’s face.
“The Imperial Army always wins. But if the enemy is hunger, there has never been a single victory in the history of the Imperial Army. No commander, no great general, has ever won a single victory against that ferocious enemy.”
“…”
Despite the warden’s self-deprecating jokes, the brigadier general couldn’t help but smile.
“Your Highness, then, simply for the sake of reducing your mouth to eat,”
“No, it’s not like that.”
The warden immediately denies his guess.
There is a hint of determination in his voice.
“Isn’t the number of healing priests too insufficient? All healers are suffering from chronic depletion of holy power, but there are still a lot of soldiers who need to be treated urgently. In addition, due to the unsanitary environment, deaths due to infection continue to rise. One. Can you imagine how much the morale of the soldiers will be affected by dying from illness without ever having fought the enemy?”
“…So, before the soldiers die, are you trying to give them the honor of having died during the operation?”
Swoop, Swoop.
The warden silently nods his head.
“It’s hard to understand.”
“I couldn’t help it.”
Hard.
The brigadier goes to this.
Not anger at the Warden or Regal, but at the helplessness he felt.
It was a reaction against it.
“… General. Can I ask you one more question?”
“I informed you, Governor Lee, what reason is there to hide it anymore? But,”
“Yes. I will also keep it a secret.”
When the brigadier responded promptly, the warden was relieved.
Of course, such feelings are not openly expressed.
“Did you at least apply the amplification spell to the soldiers who are running on the front line?”
“… At the weakest level, I ordered him to cast the amplification spell to the extent that he could only move.”
“Is it really the weakest level?”
“…”
Whoa.
The warden lets out a sigh.
If he had a cigarette, he wanted to bite it right now.
However, such luxuries are not in the supply, so the warden tries to ignore the influx of smoking urges.
Shed it
Suppress.
“For the soldiers whose details were critical, they gave a rather high-level amplification spell.”
“… They will surely die before they taste victory.”
“I see… I hope you understand that that was also one of the means to keep quiet.”
“…”
The brigadier is silent.
It wasn’t an unreasonable demand, but I couldn’t stop the reluctance that surged to the depths of my stomach.
“If we are to go south after occupying the fort and clearing the rebels, we plan to go as far south as possible to the south of the communication line. Immediately after that, we plan to request supplies and equipment, as well as replenishment of healing priests. At that time, I told Her Highness to recruit soldiers. , I’m thinking of requesting additional dispatch of troops as well. I’ll have to report the situation to Jedo, build a camp in a suitable place, and take a close look at the health of the soldiers once again.”
The brigadier didn’t even ask, but the warden revealed his plans ahead of time.
The brigadier nodded his head reflexively, as if that alone had cleared up a lot of his curiosity.
“In addition, since the loss of contact with us is prolonged, the Jedo or Whiskai family must be considering sending additional troops. Perhaps this is already underway.”
“Ah…”
“This time, I was lucky enough to find a fortress, but it would be difficult to say that other troops were not additionally trained elsewhere.”
“That’s right.”
“So shouldn’t we also call in others to take care of the reconnaissance?”
Swoop, Swoop.
The brigadier nodded his head.
“Whether or not it goes according to plan, our first priority is to get out of the danger of starvation. If we achieve that, then the opportunities for treatment provided to soldiers will increase slightly. So please keep quiet until then. Do you understand?”
“…Yes, General.”
The brigadier reluctantly replies.
He replied that he would, but he didn’t show much reluctance.
“Do you have any more to share?”
“No. I’m leaving.”
“Like that. I’m asking for the wires.”
“Yes…”
He wakes up with his shoulders drooping.
I trudged out of the barracks.
“Whoa…”
A long sigh escapes.
The warden had no choice but to become aware of the fact that he was gradually getting tired through chronic fatigue that did not go away.