Chapter 188 - Episode 182: Victory and Pain
"Rick did it, didn't he?"
"Looks like it. A direct hit to the left shoulder; even if he survives, he'll likely be disabled."
Looking toward the enemy's rear, Noein exchanged these words with Yuri.
Noein had instructed Rick and the others to coat their arrows in the undiluted essence of Angel's Honey during the sniping. Having taken such an arrow directly, Cadne would likely suffer long-term paralysis somewhere in his body, even if he didn't die. As a warrior, he would be finished.
"What do you think, Jeremy? I don't know if we managed to kill King Cadne, but we certainly dealt him a severe wound."
"...To truly strike down that King Cadne... I am filled with admiration for Your Excellency's power."
Jeremy, witnessing the tyrant he once served collapse, was half-dazed.
"Thank you. You're glad you joined my side, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am savoring my good fortune to be able to serve a great lord such as Your Excellency."
Indirectly, Noein had fulfilled the revenge against Cadne, who had caused the death of Jeremy's wife and child. A revenge that Jeremy, as a mere soldier, could never have achieved. That alone was reason enough for Jeremy to swear his loyalty to Noein.
"...The enemy has begun to retreat."
"We neutralized both King Cadne and the enemy general, and inflicted this much damage, after all."
Count Evaldo Rotfeld, the practical commander, was dead, and Cadne, the pillar of the invasion force, had fallen. Golems were rampaging in the middle of the formation, and no reinforcements were coming from the rear. In this situation, the enemy had no choice but to retreat.
"I can't imagine them continuing a personal campaign without King Cadne as their figurehead, so if we just drive them back like this, this battle will be over—"
"Enemy from the left!"
Interrupting Noein, who had spoken as he relaxed his tension seeing victory in sight, Pence, who commanded the main camp's direct guard unit, shouted.
As everyone except the soldiers guarding the right side of the main camp turned their attention to the left, an enemy unit was emerging from the forest. There were a little over twenty of them.
One of them had a bow drawn, aimed at Noein—and released the arrow.
"Your Excellency!"
Jeremy instinctively threw himself in front of Noein. The arrow flew straight toward Jeremy,
and was blocked by the shield of Matilda, who had leaped out even further ahead.
"..."
"Intercept them! Protect Lord Noein!"
Ignoring Jeremy, who wore an indescribable expression as his act of shielding with his life proved unnecessary, Pence, leading the direct guard, shouted, and the soldiers charged toward the enemy. Noein also sent the golem he had kept by his side crashing into them.
Yuri also drew his sword, taking a stance to protect his lord.
"You piece of shit!"
"If we can just take that guy down!"
"Like we'll let you!"
"Don't let a single soldier through!"
Noein's golem swung its arms and legs, and the enemy soldiers tried to approach Noein while dodging them.
However, perhaps because they had moved through the forest from the rear, they seemed exhausted. On top of that, they were under attack from Pence's direct guard. Unable to cope, they were cut down one by one, or beaten to death by the golem in the moments they were distracted by the guards.
Judging by their movements, the enemies also seemed skilled, but it appeared they couldn't withstand the wave of attacks from the golem and the most elite direct guard unit while not in peak condition. Though they held out for a reasonable amount of time, they were eventually annihilated without ever reaching Noein.
"...That was a bit chilling. Thank you, Matilda, and you too, Pence and the others. You saved me."
"I have merely fulfilled my duty, Lord Noein."
"It's just our natural obligation."
The enemy knew as well that taking the commander's head meant victory. For that reason, Noein had the direct guard watch the forests to the left and right, but even so, the enemy's current surprise attack had been quite brilliant.
If Matilda hadn't been there, he might have been felled by the arrow, and if he hadn't placed the elite led by Pence by his side, the enemy might have broken through the defensive line.
"...Thank you, Jeremy as well. I certainly saw that you tried to protect me by risking your own body."
"...I am humbled."
Jeremy, whose desperate action had ended in a somewhat anticlimactic fashion, answered looking a bit awkward. However, it was a fact that he, who had been given neither weapon nor shield, had still attempted to throw away his life with nothing but his own body to protect Noein.
"...Lord Noein, what shall we do about pursuing the retreating enemy?"
Yuri, looking toward the front line, asked.
"Should we pursue them?"
"I believe it is unnecessary. Rather, our own soldiers are exhausted, so it would be difficult. I think it will be sufficient to just place sentries so we can notice if the enemy redeploys and invades again."
Whether it was the infantry units, the Crossbow units, or Radley's detached force, no matter how high their morale, they could not continue fighting indefinitely. They were fatigued from fighting the enemy's elite, and there were casualties.
"If Yuri says so, let's do that. While assigning those with remaining strength to watch the invasion route, we'll move to treating the wounded and cleaning up the battlefield... and then, preparations for one last push tonight. Send a messenger to the capital city Noeina and have the reserve army and reinforcements from Viscount Koenitz's territory help us."
"Yes, sir."
Noein made his decision, and Yuri nodded and began issuing specific instructions to the officers.
.....
Past noon. On the invasion route through the forest where a fierce battle had been waged until just a moment ago, cleanup was progressing, carried out by the Arqvist territorial army and reinforcements from Viscount Koenitz's territory.
The highest priority was given to rescuing the wounded and recovering the bodies of the dead. The lightly wounded enemy soldiers had retreated on their own, and the severely wounded who had a chance of survival seemed to have been carried away by their comrades; only those merely waiting for death remained. To such dying enemies, the soldiers delivered the final blow as a last mercy, trying as much as possible to ensure they felt no pain.
"This person is severely wounded, over here! You have a light wound, so please receive first aid from the soldiers over there! This person... please lay them further back. They will be more comfortable if we give them strong painkillers."
The one issuing instructions at the makeshift first-aid station was Liris, who had apprenticed under the doctor Selfers several years ago and had now become a doctor with a certain level of skill. She had volunteered to accompany the army, and several other youths who had newly become apprentice doctors were working busily.
The severely wounded, the lightly wounded, and those with no hope of survival. Liris made those judgments and sorted the injured.
In another place, soldiers recovered Crossbow arrows that still looked usable and took armor and weapons from the enemy corpses that looked like they would fetch a good price. Magic stones were recovered from the corpses of monsters killed by the enemy at the rear of the column, and certain materials that sold for high prices, such as horns and fangs, were carved out.
"...This is incredible. It's a mountain of treasure."
"Because strong monsters you rarely see are lying dead in piles and left behind. I bet this will never happen again."
As if trying to release the tension after the fierce battle, the soldiers exchanged light banter and let out dry laughter.
Furthermore, transporting the vast number of enemy corpses was an important job. The enemy soldiers who died from monster attacks numbered in the hundreds, and they could be put to effective use. For example, simply piling them up like a wall in the middle of this invasion route and leaving them exposed would break the enemy's will to fight if they were to invade again.
After utilizing them for a while, they could simply be burned to prevent harm from decay.
"...It seems it was a tremendous battle, but I wonder how you lot managed to fight with this little force."
The one who muttered this while looking at the gruesome mountain of corpses was a soldier who had come as a reinforcement from Viscount Koenitz's territory. A soldier from the Arqvist territorial army responded.
"It's because it's to protect our land and families."
"We have nowhere else to go but here. We'll fight no matter what comes."
The Arqvist territorial army soldiers said this calmly and laughed. In the Arqvist territory, where former refugees made up the majority of the population, the will of the residents to protect the land was exceptionally strong. Many had resolved to protect the current happiness given to them by Noein when they were in despair, no matter what it took.
Noein watched the soldiers and doctors working here and there on the battlefield. Matilda stood by as a guard, and Frederick Koenitz, who led the reinforcements from Viscount Koenitz's territory, was also nearby.
"Frederick-san, you've been a great help. It would have been quite a strain to clean up this state of affairs with only the exhausted Arqvist territorial army."
"This is a simple task... rather, I feel sorry that I can only contribute to the cleanup of the battlefield. For my part, I am simply amazed that you all repelled the elite of the Lancel Kingdom army on your own."
Frederick said with a wry smile. Noein and his people had prevented the invasion of a neighboring country with a single Baronet's territory. It was undoubtedly an achievement that would remain in the history of the Lordberg Kingdom.
"It's the result of various strokes of luck overlapping. It was a coincidence that we were able to learn of the enemy's invasion in advance, and in this battle, if even one plan had failed, we surely would have been routed."
Noein replied with a slight, bitter smile. This was not humility, but his true feeling. To Noein, fighting a battle like walking a tightrope by relying on eccentric strategies was undesirable. Noein believed that true strength lay in acquiring the power to win through orthodox methods, or becoming such that one could avoid fighting altogether.
Just then, the attendant Dant approached. He stopped before Noein, saluted, and spoke.
"Reporting. Our dead are 14. 6 territorial army soldiers and 8 conscripts. Additionally, there are 32 severely wounded. Among them, 6 are particularly severe, such as having lost arms or legs, and 4 have no hope of survival."
Hearing Dant's report, Noein closed his eyes for a moment, just a few seconds, to mourn the dead.
While inflicting great damage on the enemy, the deaths on their side were less than ten percent of the entire army. He couldn't think of it as a cheap sacrifice. The 14 who died, and the 4 who were about to die, all had lives.
However, as the lord, he must not think now that they were pitiful, or that he hated the death of his residents. Because they fought of their own will to protect the Arqvist territory, their homes, and their families. It was Noein's role and duty not to let those deaths be in vain.
"I see, thank you for the report... you should also receive treatment quickly."
"Yes, sir. Excuse me."
Dant, who saluted once more, seemed to have taken a blade to the face; a wound ran from the bridge of his nose to his left cheek, and blood was still flowing lightly. A scar that would likely never disappear would remain.
"...Excuse me, Frederick-san, I am going to visit the dying soldiers."
"Ah, I understand."
After saying that, Noein headed toward the space set up at the edge of the first-aid station where those with no hope of survival lay.
They fought to protect the Arqvist territory, their new home, and were now going to die. Noein thought that it was his duty as the lord to offer words of gratitude to such heroes and tell them not to worry about their families.
Since he couldn't even speak to the 14 who had already died, Noein felt he should at least do this much.