Strange.

Something was strange.

We had been waiting for three days at what was surely the crucial point of the supply route, but not a single cart had passed through. Lena and Ashuria were also looking at me with strange glances, and I checked the map again and again before they could ask questions.

Clearly, considering the direction in which Greta’s troops were moving, this road was the shortest route the supply unit could take. If they suspected an ambush, it would be better to add more troops rather than taking another road, which would be inefficient.

This was because there was either a river alongside or rough hills. Lena, who had been waiting for someone to arrive beside me, looked at me with suspicious eyes and said:

“Hey, sir. I’m not doubting you, but is this the right road?”

“They have no choice but to come this way. If we infer from Greta’s army’s marching route and the enemy’s camp that Kerberos marked for us, there’s no better road than this. Moreover, scouts have confirmed that soldiers on horseback were moving along this road.”

Even if the information Kerberos provided was wrong, recalling the locations of major villages within the Empire that I remembered, there was no supply route other than this one. Lena said:

“But it’s been three days and nothing has come. Shouldn’t someone be coming and going constantly if it’s a supply route? I’d think they’d need to supply very frequently if they’re fighting a mobile battle.”

Ashuria said:

“What about waiting a little longer? We can’t just return like this. We brought plenty of food, and we haven’t heard news that the hero was defeated.”

I nodded at Ashuria’s words. This was because if the hero was defeated and the troops were pushed back all the way, they were supposed to signal from the beacon on the mountain ridge. The beacon, clearly visible from this supply route, was standing stupidly as if unrelated to the war.

“Ah, why does looking at that beacon irritate me? It’s more concerning not hearing any news. What if even the messengers trying to relay the beacon were annihilated, and we’re the only ones trapped here?”

At Lena’s words, Ashuria closed the Bible she had been reading and said softly:

“Lena. We must believe in the hero.”

“Well, I guess so.”

As Lena shrugged with an embarrassed expression, I too was stroking my chin with a serious expression. We were clearly ambushing the optimal supply route, but no supplies were coming. Why on earth?

Why are there no supplies?

Is it possible for a unit to fight without receiving supplies?

---

“Wh-what…”

“Hero. You need to calm down.”

In front of the hero’s camp, which had barely repelled Greta’s unit’s attack, the performance that Greta and his subordinates were showing was beyond common sense. The demons, who had been standing with crazed expressions, began to drag the bodies of humans who had fallen to the ground overnight and started roasting them over bonfires.

Some of them giggled as they tore and ate the bodies raw, and there were even those who ate their own kind’s bodies.

It was clearly a meal, not an execution. In plain sight of the human units, they were openly filling their stomachs with human bodies. Even Greta was having a meal, chewing on fallen horse meat and demon stones. They seemed to regard their violent and barbaric acts as appetizers or entertainment.

“Ah, aah…!”

“E-everyone! Turn your eyes away! Don’t be fascinated by such sights!”

The commander, startled, forcibly made the soldiers turn their gazes away, but the smell of roasting flesh, the sound of tearing meat, and the blatantly discarded human bones drove the soldiers mad.

“Ugh… uugh…!”

Several soldiers, terror-stricken, trembled while holding their spears. Some collapsed while retching, and others burst into tears. The hero was blinking with a shocked expression, and Mille too was crying sadly as she watched the cruel acts.

“Too cruel…”

“What is this… Are all demons like that?”

The hero asked the clergy. Without Ashuria and the porter, they were the only ones the hero could ask here.

One of the nuns, looking at the creatures, said:

“…I’ve heard that in the demon world, there’s a violent and barbaric race called ‘ghouls’ that tear and eat their prey indiscriminately. I think Greta’s unit is made up of those ghouls.”

The hero got a headache at those words. He seemed to roughly understand why Kerberos couldn’t provide information about that unit. From the perspective of the moderate Kerberos, it would have been difficult to conceive the idea that creatures who eat their prey would advance while also eating humans.

The hero’s face hardened as he thought that far.

“Wait… That means…”

Greta steps forward to fight and creates corpses, and the soldiers then tear them apart to eat. If Greta’s advance can’t be stopped, the deeply infiltrated unit will start harming civilians. Soldiers who realize they’ll become food for the ghouls if captured lose their fighting spirit, and as rumors spread widely, the morale of the entire army drops.

And this unit doesn’t need supplies.

Because there’s plenty of food on the battlefield.

Greta, too, as a descendant of the ancient dragon, was a barbaric warrior with a good enough stomach to make do with horse meat for meals. He wiped his lips and threw away the leftover meat. The muscular hind leg of a horse flew to the front of the camp.

“What are you so afraid of?”

Smoke spewed from Greta’s body. Realizing he had completely broken their spirit, he wore a triumphant expression. After wiping the blood on his mouth with a handkerchief, he handed it to a subordinate below.

“Do not worry. Are we not by your side?”

Was that phrase so terrifying? This place was full of soldiers who would gladly throw down their weapons and flee at a word from the commander. The hero thought:

Can we really hold out against that monstrous unit?

Can we defeat Greta and stop their assault?

[Fight to the end. Don’t doubt anything and hold out to the end.]

The hero once again recalled the sentence Kerberos had written. Although he couldn’t understand what that meant, Kerberos herself was now a comrade fighting against demons.

There was only one thing the hero could do now.

“Wuut!”

A golden flash flew, targeting Greta’s chest. Though he twisted his body to avoid it, the hoses were damaged, and black liquid spewed out. The smoke, gushing out like blood, momentarily refreshed the atmosphere that had been subdued.

Greta smiled as he blocked the hoses, and an arrow flew, targeting such a Greta’s cheek.

“Ugh!”

The sharp steel arrow scratched Greta’s face, creating sparks. A few scales fell off, and Greta’s face was tinted with displeasure. Mille’s arrows didn’t stop there and blatantly pierced the foreheads of two ghoul soldiers who were eating meat outside.

“Heeeek!”

“Kyaaaaa!”

The demons began to scream and hide their bodies, and the fear was disappearing from the soldiers’ faces.

Fear is felt towards unknown opponents. People feel overwhelming fear when they think the opponent is invincibly strong and incomprehensible. When you let them know they can win, what takes its place is the spirit of struggle.

The hero gripped his sword and said:

“Everyone. Look at what those monsters are doing. They are garbage who insult the bodies of our comrades and mock us! Everyone! If we are pushed back, those monsters will trample our families! That evil monster will destroy our fields and burn everything we loved!”

The hero’s sword emitted sword aura like a torch. Seeing the golden light, Greta frowned.

“Everyone! Will you let those monsters do as they wish?”

“N-no!”

“We must stop them!”

The spirit of struggle began to revive in the soldiers’ faces. The hero gripped his sword tightly and glared at Greta. Greta raised the corners of his mouth and once again began to apply strength to his body. Smoke spewed from his entire body, and black liquid began to swirl violently from the hoses he had roughly blocked.

The commander shouted:

“Prepare to attack!”

Greta too, raising the scales all over his body, shouted:

“Attack! This time, break through them and advance to the capital! If we just kill that hero, victory is ours!”

Cheers. The sound of weapons clashing.

Among them, the only one not fighting was Bibs, the man who had withdrawn to the rear.

---

“Demons are all liars. You shouldn’t believe them easily. No matter how much it seems like the truth, you need to reconsider.”

Kerberos said that while looking at the work site. In the midst of some kind of work that had begun at Kerberos’s strong request, soldiers and workers could only look at Kerberos with puzzled and suspicious faces.

“No, what does this have to do with the war that’s happening now?”

“I heard there’s a commotion up there, shouldn’t we be fighting there too?”

Kerberos didn’t answer their doubts. Instead, she just looked at the distant horizon, biting her nails.

“I’m sorry, hero.”