99. Why is Reality Like This?
The battle that took place in Coveville ended after 6 hours.
The victors were Narba and the special forces.
As the sun approached the horizon, the soldiers also collapsed to the ground. The clamor that had been noisily resounding for a long time stopped, and what came instead were sighs of relief that burst out one after another.
They survived. They won.
There were dozens of soldiers who forgot all about military discipline and collapsed to the ground, relieved by these two facts. The knights were also busy breathing heavily and spitting out their dry saliva.
On the other hand, Narba quietly gazed at the river while throwing away the captured sword stained with its original owner’s blood. Where Narba’s gaze fell, there was a ship that was quickly moving away, cutting through the water.
There was a pagan warrior standing on the stern, staring at him.
The moment Narba met the warrior’s eyes through the helmet’s face guard, he clicked his tongue.
“It was a diversion.”
It’s not that the warriors are reckless because they are hot-blooded. Rather, it is their standard tactic to pretend to be careless while their enemies are distracted by their flashy dance and honor.
The warriors’ cries for revenge for their comrades were nothing more than a bluff. The warriors’ true purpose was to escape.
Of course, Narba was not going to let them go.
If he had intended to let the enemy troops, whom he had barely managed to divide, go, he would not have turned a blind eye to the looting either. Narba took advantage of the fact that the warriors were tied to the ground after landing and attacked them by surprise, and he ultimately aimed to annihilate them.
In the end, the warriors had no choice but to sacrifice themselves to report the facts they had learned to their main force.
While Narba and the special forces were fiercely fighting against the fierce momentum, those who were planning for the future secretly packed their equipment and boarded the ship. The result of this cruel and reckless gamble was a success.
Because even if the rest were annihilated, they would be able to report to the main force.
Narba turned his back on the bloodstained ship without hesitation.
The water is still the territory of the pagan warriors. Even if he forcibly raised the soldiers who had been on a forced march and fought in a series of battles, it was obvious that they would fail.
Moreover, there were not no losses.
As he turned away from the ship and entered the village, he saw soldiers groaning in pain, exhausted and grieving.
“Ugh… uuugh…”
“B-Blood, the blood won’t stop. C-Cauterize it!”
“No… Even if you cauterize it, this won’t work.”
There were many people who were flustered and didn’t know what to do next to the dying soldier.
The soldier kept squirming, clutching his severed shoulder and bleeding profusely. Eventually, after continued groaning, one of his desperate comrades grabbed the hilt of a sword.
“…I’ll end it quickly.”
The other soldiers who had been watching in a daze closed their eyes all at once. It was a moment later that the tip of the sword pierced the soldier’s neck. The soldier who had stabbed him held the limp body in his arms and quietly sobbed.
Narba averted his gaze, his eyebrows furrowed at the sight.
‘After ambushing the enemy special forces who had already started a feint, and approaching them while they were disorganized and unable to properly form ranks because they were looting, we started by killing almost half of them, and yet there are 38 dead and 4 more who will die soon.’
It was to find the eight knights he had brought with him to serve as adjutants. Fortunately, all of the knights had survived unharmed.
However, just because they survived does not mean they were not injured.
Sir Husten Orn.
He was lying down and groaning, with bandages wrapped tightly around his bleeding head. The fellow knights would occasionally come to Husten with worried faces, even as they encouraged and organized their subordinate soldiers.
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“Son, drop the book and pick up a sword. The knights are swords, swords.” Hustan said, raising his hand with difficulty each time.
“I guess Sir Hustan is looking at his son.”
“…They weren’t the pagans we knew. These guys were the first to be so creepy.”
The knights exhaled, holding their crumpled helmets between their forearms. Narba chose to quietly distance himself rather than deliberately point it out with sharp words.
However, Narba’s heart was as heavy as theirs.
‘There is also one seriously injured knight.’
Of course, it is true that the special forces were outnumbered. Moreover, it was an arduous battle, as they were physically exhausted due to the forced march and the battle.
However, there were plenty of advantages as well as disadvantages. Narba took the lead and broke the enemy’s fierce momentum.
Narba maintained his formation to prevent the friendly lines from collapsing while disrupting the enemy’s formation. If we discuss who was the most active in this battle and who bore the most burden, it would naturally be Narba.
The knights and soldiers also fought hard.
The knights bravely led the soldiers against the advancing pagan warriors, and the soldiers did their best.
The vanguard, which never backed down with its solid formation and high morale.
Despite having these three elements, one-third of the troops were lost as a result of the suicide attack, the last outburst of the warriors. There was only one reason for this absurd result.
‘We were completely defeated in terms of troop quality.’
The warriors were strong. The warriors of the other world were far stronger than the soldiers of this world.
First of all, even if they were not knights, they had enough skill to hold their ground or get in the way. Moreover, there were those who could not be killed immediately even if they were aimed at the heart or neck.
At this point, it was fortunate that the soldiers did not flee in terror at the sight of the warriors swinging their axes while swallowing blood even after being stabbed in the chest.
The only unusual thing was that there were fewer wounded than expected. The soldiers who faced the warriors either died with a single blow or died quickly from fatal injuries even if they survived.
Narba realized the cause of this strange statistic and let out a bitter laugh.
‘They are bastards who are good at killing people.’
Purely excellent combat skills and strong will that could be called murderous intent.
Even if they were not warriors with strange powers, there were more than a few who swung their axes, knowing that they would die, but willing to kill their opponents as well. Most of the soldiers who barely managed to defeat their opponents were killed by the warriors.
Narba sighed, feeling bitterness, a sense of danger, and annoyance at the same time.
‘I can’t believe I’m meeting similar…the same guys again.’
That’s when he was alone and triumphant.
Footsteps began to approach Narba stealthily.
“My lord, I’ll quit being a valet when I get back.”
“Then what are you going to do for a living?”
“At least I have to go to a foreign country where I won’t meet guys like this.”
John with a quick mind.
John bluntly revealed his ambition, not even using honorifics, while holding a crossbow tightly, with sweat dripping down his face. He was half-crying as he spoke. Narba gave a faint smile as soon as he heard the ambition.
“They will follow you no matter where you go. They will chase you even if you are alone when you finish everything. What are you going to do by running away?”
“Oh, I’m going to sell the land with that sincerity.”
John sighed, speaking humorously.
However, the hand holding the crossbow was trembling. The corners of his mouth, which he had forced up to smile, soon shook, and finally tears began to flow down from under his eyelids.
John eventually shook his head, looking very depressed.
“…Do I have to keep fighting guys like that?”
Narba replied calmly but clearly and firmly to that look.
“Yes.”
“If not, even some holy blood, just…”
“Holy blood?”
Narva turned her head, wondering what he was talking about, and John spoke hesitantly.
“That… I remembered a rumor that the blood of those who manifest the Stigmata is effective in defeating demons… I thought it might be better to do it now that you’re injured… if you’re going to do it anyway…”
“? Why would I be injured?”
“Yes?”
At that moment, John stopped crying in atonishment and looked up at Narva.
“No. Didn’t you perform a miracle when you caught that horrible pagan just now? You must have exposed your holy blood to perform a miracle, so you must have been injured.”
“? For what?”
“????”
John’s gaze turned blankly at Narva, his gun hanging limply.
Then Narva raised the back of her hand with a rare confident smile.
“If I were to seriously inflict a wound, when others who do not know the circumstances see it.”
On the back of her hand.
“Wouldn’t they think it was because my skill was lacking?”
There was not a single wound left, except for the Stigmata.
***
April 26, 1213.
It was a morning when the mist had not yet cleared.
As Chief Urphson was offering his offerings in a devout manner, a warrior soaked in cold sweat came to him. When Urphson left the altar and headed for the river as soon as he heard the warrior’s words, a serious atmosphere filled the surroundings.
“The warriors of the chieftain…”
“What happened? Why did you come back first on your own?”
The warriors grew in low voices.
Urphson pushed his way through them and looked down at the warrior kneeling on the gravel. The warrior on the gravel had his head bowed in shame and had even laid down his ax, the symbol of a warrior.
The rest of the warriors on the ship remained silent with their heads bowed on the deck.
As soon as he saw Urphson, he cried out as if he were wailing.
“Chief, punish us for our arrogance in ignoring your warning!”
Urphson was able to receive shocking news through him.
-Annihilation.
All 860 brave warriors and 10 precious ships led by Chieftain Hart had fallen into enemy hands. Only 50 survived, and only one ship remained.
It was a disastrous result. Even Urphson, who had predicted that half would survive even in the event of a defeat, was shocked.
“What should I do!”
“….”
“How much did you screw up to lose so many troops! I trusted Hart and sent him. But how!!!!”
Urphson looked down at the kneeling warrior with eyes filled with anger and said.
“Tell me everything you saw and heard. Now, here. Without missing a thing. Right now!”
Only then did the surviving warrior slowly open his lips.
And as the warrior spoke of what he had seen and heard, Urphson’s expression changed with each passing moment.
A surprise attack while they were plundering. The audacity to show their teeth fiercely despite being outnumbered. The commander who supported all of this. The bright blue cross that shone clearly on the back of his hand.
The moment the story finally reached the duel with Chieftain Hart, Urphson had completely forgotten his anger.
Urpsson looked at the kneeling warrior and the ship alternately with a blank look and uttered a sigh.
“No way. No way he’s a great warrior of that level…”
The warriors serving the great gods and the followers of the extraterrestrial starlight, Lux Stella, had clashed more than once or twice.
Right now, the followers of Lux Stella had driven the warriors into a corner, starting from the place where Ilennio, the one who had turned his back on the gods, had breathed his last, and thrusting their swords and spears in all directions.
The reason this was possible was because the protection of the God of War had been undermined in an absurd manner.
That too, 600 years ago, by a mere human who had not a single drop of the hero’s bloodline mixed in him and who did not receive the protection of any god.
The nameless warrior king of the ruined kingdom.
The king, who was able to command the army directly only after all his subjects had fled, stood at the forefront without fail to kill the undying and willingly fought dozens, hundreds of battles, and finally killed him.
His amazing feat could not help but impress even the warriors he fought against. He became an existence that all warriors revered, even though he was an enemy, and that remained an exception even to this day.
-Even to those who followed Lux Stella.
Urpsson understood why Hart and the warriors had been defeated.
“If what you say is true, the opponent is a warrior among warriors who can follow the ways of the warrior king to a considerable extent. It was only natural to lose, so I will not ask for further responsibility.”
“Chief, what are you talking about! Even if there is a reason, I shamefully lost and ran away, how can I hold my head up if I don’t even receive punishment?!”
“Haven’t you learned how those chosen by the extraterrestrial starlight fight?”
“That’s… I know it, but… is it a test?”
“If so.”
“Well… like those shady guys, when facing a great warrior, they retreat if they think they’re losing, and then they wait for the guy who was waiting in advance and ex…”
Only then did the warrior’s expression begin to spread with astonishment as he realized the connection.
The way the followers of Lux Stella fought did not fundamentally deviate from the ways of the warrior king, except for the number of people involved. Urpsson looked down at the warrior who had realized the fact and carefully opened his mouth.
“Return to the fight.”
“Wh, what, Chief.”
Urpsson put his hand on his chest and placed it over the box he had been hiding.
“I will use the remains of the warrior king to fight them.”