episode_0050

The 8th Imperial Army Corps, to which Linus belongs, recently landed at the southern tip of the small kingdom of Avoca.

The small kingdom of Avoca is a peninsula country that extends out like a boot.

It is a close ally with frequent traffic since ancient times, as it is located across a narrow sea from the empire’s capital, Calvasar.

The Demon King’s army invaded the Avoca Kingdom, and the kingdom’s army struggled and continued to retreat south.

Now we have reached a situation where there is nowhere to retreat but the sea.

Accordingly, the empire moved the entire 8th corps to the rear of the Avoca Kingdom army in the name of saving the kingdom.

If the Avoca Kingdom is breached, it is possible to advance straight to Calvasar by boat, so it was necessary to prevent the Avoca Kingdom from collapsing at all costs.

After landing, the 8th Corps, which joined the Avoca Kingdom Army, advanced northward with great vigor, but was stopped by the strong resistance of the Demon King’s army at Naktalyeong, 1/3 of the peninsula.

With magic and all kinds of catapult weapons flying at each other, both sides dug trenches on the front lines and entered into a tedious standoff.

The corps command was having a hard time trying to figure out how many corps the Demon King’s army was currently facing.

If you know where they are, you can roughly infer their strength and respond accordingly.

But right now, there was no way to know how many troops would be waiting behind those damn trench lines.

Moreover, if they are the elite 9th Corps of the Demon King’s Army that disappeared from the border area of Avoca Kingdom, pushing further from here would be suicidal.

Linus and Dian met each other in the front line trench in a stagnant situation where they could not do anything.

# # # # #

“I am Linus.”

Linus held Dian’s outstretched hand.

“You enlisted a month ago, right? I also came in around that time. Let’s do our best together.”

In fact, Dian is one of the new recruits who enlisted a week ago when the 8th Legion was just forming its landing force, and is technically Linus’ successor.

However, it is meaningless to divide up ranks among new recruits of the same class when they die within half a day of entering battle.

“By the way, yummyam, where are you from?”

Dian asked as they sat side by side eating potatoes.

“Even if I tell you, you probably won’t know. Just know that I come from a small territory in a small kingdom in the corner of the empire.”

“You came from the territory? So are you a noble?”

“He was the child of a serf.”

“Then shouldn’t it be incorporated into the noble army? Why are you in the imperial army?”

“Our lord is a good person, but other than that, he is incompetent. I didn’t want to follow him into battle and face a meaningless death. So I applied to the imperial army.”

Then Dian tilted his head.

“That’s strange. If you don’t want to die, you can just run away. Even here, there is nothing different from the nobles, right?”

“You can’t do that. We can’t just sit back and watch as the continent falls into chaos because of the restless Demon Lord’s army.”

“Of course it’s Linus. I found the right one.”

As Dian mumbled something unintelligible, Linus gave her a suspicious look.

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s nothing. good. Then I will help you.”

“What are you trying to help me with?”

Then a strange sound was heard.

Whigrrr-

“It’s magic!”

As soon as Dian and Linus threw themselves to the bottom of the trench at the same time, the entire trench shook with a loud roar, and a pile of dirt fell on them.

Whigrrr- Boom- Whigrrr- Quagwang-

“You’re a bastard, you really horny bastards.”

Dian cursed as he looked at the salt that had spilled on the floor, making it difficult to eat. Linus’ potatoes had also rolled around and were very dirty.

After a while, when the enemy’s sporadic magic attacks stopped, Dian and Linus shook themselves off and stood up.

“Uproar, uproar.”

Dian clicked his tongue as he looked at the pieces of soldiers who had been unluckily hit by magic scattered all over the place.

“Hey, Linus. You said you didn’t like dog deaths, right? If possible, do you want to survive until the end and end this unfair situation?”

“That… okay… .”

Linus, who was distraught at the miserable sight of corpses scattered about, stumbled and answered.

“It was good. Let’s move together with me. Let’s get out of this damn trench and go to the devil’s castle. Follow me.”

“Where are you going?”

“Follow me and you will find out.”

# # # # #

“You arrogant bastards! How dare you tell me where this is!”

Battalion command post behind the trench.

The battalion staff was yelling at the two soldiers who came in from nowhere at the entrance.

“I have something to suggest to the battalion commander.”

“Are all your platoon and company commanders gone?!”

“I told you, but everyone ignored you, so you ended up here.”

Dian was confident despite the harsh reprimands of the staff, while Linus stood behind her looking somewhat nervous.

“What else?”

At that time, the battalion commander’s voice was heard from inside the command center.

“Sorry, battalion commander. Two soldiers suddenly came to me saying they had a suggestion. It’s probably not a big deal at all, so he has to be transported to the rear or something like that… .”

“Battalion Commander! We will capture enemy prisoners!”

“Shut up, you bastard!”

“Tell them to come in.”

The staff, who were screaming, had no choice but to let them into the command center at the command of the battalion commander.

“Hmm.”

Inside the command center, the battalion commander asked while looking closely at the faces of Dian and Linus.

“You are going to take prisoners? Why?”

“Isn’t the reason we can’t advance or retreat right now because we don’t know where the guys in front of us belong?”

“That’s right.”

“Then wouldn’t we be able to find out if we capture a prisoner and interrogate him?”

“That’s true too. But how?”

“Please give permission first. Then I will tell you.”

The staff could not help but be shocked at the bold statement made by a single soldier to a battalion commander. It was the same for Linus.

However, the battalion commander asked calmly.

“Before that, let me ask you one thing. Going out to capture prisoners in the current situation is tantamount to suicide. Is there any reason to do such a dangerous thing?”

“Even if you are stuck here, it is the same as dying. If you’re not lucky, you’ll be killed by a catapult or magic, and there’s no option to retreat. If we push further from here, the sea route to Calvasar will be wide open.”

At Dian’s words, an interesting light appeared in the battalion commander’s eyes.

“Wouldn’t it be possible to receive support from other corps?”

“That’s not possible.”

“Explain it.”

“Currently, the Empire has no reserve corps to deploy here. If there were, would you have sent only one corps? Rather, since there is a sea here, we will put it as a second priority and focus more on defending other strategic points connected by land. So, one way or another, in the end, our corps has to end here.”

The battalion staff looked at each other in somewhat surprise at Dian’s words. ‘A mere warrior can see that far ahead?’

“But I don’t want to wait for someone to die in the trench without even being able to draw a sword. If we could capture prisoners and determine which corps they are and whether they are worthy of our corps attacking head-on, wouldn’t we be able to escape this shitty situation?”

The battalion commander, who was silent for a moment and looked at Dian, opened his mouth.

“Did you say Dian? A junior warrior?”

“Yes.”

“Good. I approve.”

“Battalion Commander! But the risk is too high!”

The battalion commander shook his head in response to the staff’s objection.

“It’s just as the sergeant said. Anyway, our corps has to choose between advancing north from here or being buried in the sea, and if that’s the case, we’ll have to use all our methods to move forward in a better direction. Approve. Dean and Linus. You two, take the prisoner.”

“Thank you. I won’t disappoint you.”

Dian answered with confidence.

“But how?”

“Oh, it’s very simple.”

As Dian explained, the battalion commander’s eyes, which had maintained his composure until now, wavered somewhat.

“This is crazy… .”

“War is something that cannot be fought without going crazy.”

Dian grinned.

# # # # #

“Are you really okay?”

It’s time for the dawn to break

The window on the second floor of an abandoned farmhouse behind the trench.

Linus asked anxiously from behind the netting that covered the window for camouflage.

“Ah, I heard it’s okay.”

Dian chuckled as he peered at the enemy lines through the net.

“Write it down. two people. From east to north. Normal stride length.”

Linus was skeptical and wrote down Dian’s observations in his notebook.

The notebook was filled with observation records from the past week. They were all about the enemy’s alert posture.

After the battalion commander’s approval, Dian sat down here and studied the enemy lines persistently all day, writing down everything he saw in his notebook.

We plotted it on a map and calculated all the optimal infiltration routes, and today we are checking for the last time to see if there are any changes in the enemy’s border operations.

“Okay, Linus. It’s no different from before. It will be perfect if I go in today.”

“I’m worried whether this can really succeed.”

“What difference does it make if you worry? And this is exactly what you wanted. Contributing to peace on the continent.”

Dian tapped Linus on the shoulder.

“Trust me and follow me. Then you and I can both survive with our arms and legs intact until the end of the war.”

“What on earth do you believe and can you be so confident?”

“I believe in you.”

“Me? What do you mean by that?”

“Let’s go. If you’re late, you’ll have to waste another day until this time tomorrow.”

Dian and Linus came down from the farmhouse, climbed into the trenches, and moved to the front lines.

I stopped and waited at the viewpoint of the infiltration route selected by Dian, and after a while, I heard the sound I had been waiting for.

Whigrrr-

From the rear of our troops, several blue beams of light flew in a parabola and fell right in front of the trench.

Dian shouted as the magic hit the floor and thick smoke rose.

“Run!”

Dian and Linus climbed up the trench and ran toward the front with all their might.

Whigrrr-

Just as they entered the first gunfire, a second magic attack fell in front of their direction.

Dian and Linus, who broke through the first smoke, hid themselves in the second smoke that rose later.

Hiding behind the third and fourth magic attacks and gunfire, they continued to run, getting closer and closer to their target.

“This is really crazy… . That’s crazy… .”

Linus muttered incessantly as the ear-piercing roar and vibrations pounded through his head.

It was an extremely reckless maneuver that could have resulted in death by being caught in a friendly attack if the speed was not matched.

However, other than this method, there was no way to overcome the empty wasteland between the trenches.

“It’s all here! There you go, Linus!”

After breaking through the fifth gunfire, they finally threw themselves into the narrow bush area located near the enemy trench, which was their target.

Whig rrr- Kwaang- Whig rrr- Kwagwang-

Our troops’ magic attack passed them by and stopped after sweeping the enemy’s trench once.

Dian and Linus lay down on their stomachs under a bush and waited for their moment.

The enemy’s trench, which had been noisy for a while due to the allies’ seemingly meaningless magic attack, gradually quieted down.

It seems that this has been overlooked because powerful bombardment without a specific target has become routine.

Dian, who was quietly lying down and squinting at the sun in the sky, nudged Linus and signaled him to move forward.

After watching this for a week so tiresomely that my eyeballs were falling out, the border at this point is the weakest.

Linus and Dian slowly crawled through the bushes with daggers in their mouths.

It must be completed quickly before the patrol team circling the trench returns.