Ch.127127. War (3)

‘That day’ appeared, on the surface, to be almost no different from any ordinary day.

It was around the time Baron Lefante was trying to somehow salvage the completely shattered internal logistics caused by the recent series of intense incidents.

Suddenly, the door burst open and his most favored servant—the head butler—appeared and, as he always did, shouted with an urgent expression.

“It’s, it’s a disaster!”

“What is it this time? Has someone died or disappeared? Has something strange happened? Has a natural disaster struck?”

This was a rather sharp response to give to someone who, though called a servant, held a position equivalent to almost a chief secretary in modern terms, but the Baron couldn’t help it.

Every other day… no. In a situation where major accidents were occurring several times almost daily, it was only natural that the Baron, who directly received reports and handled these matters, would become hysterical and irritable.

The famous mercenary regiment from the Holy Empire, hired at great expense, had mysteriously disappeared, and overnight all the flags inside the castle had been broken (with traces of something having gnawed at the flagpoles).

Additionally, a large furnace had frozen solid overnight, halting operations, and precious gunpowder had exploded after being struck by lightning during transport.

The situation was so dire that barracks under construction had completely collapsed due to an overnight earthquake, and when troops were dispatched, they became stranded by a typhoon.

Though he didn’t know the exact method, the lord had noticed that someone with malicious intent was hostile toward them, and he was anxious to hear what had happened this time…

“Enemy troops! Enemy forces have appeared! A magic user claiming to be the acting lord of Alreinos Forest has appeared right in front of the lord’s castle!”

“…What did you say?”

What had actually happened this time was something the lord could neither comprehend nor understand.

Baron Lefante’s domain was a territory of considerable size, and the lord’s castle in particular was not just a castle but could be considered a fairly large provincial city divided into outer and inner fortifications… and an urban area.

Naturally, defense lines had been established to protect the only city in this territory, and mechanisms had been built to prevent approach through various security systems.

“How, how did they get past the security…!!”

He was about to reprimand them for allowing an enemy army to reach the heart of the territory, but suddenly realizing the current state of his domain, he fell silent.

More than half of the 1,000 men-at-arms had disappeared for some reason, and the 300 famous mercenaries hired at great expense had vanished without a trace.

As a result, those stationed at the defense line were literally conscripts just there to fill numbers.

Their armament was so poor that not even half of them had been provided with cheap gambesons, and with neither training nor wages, they had absolutely no motivation—how could such men stop an army?

“…………”

In that brief moment, having organized his thoughts, the Baron decided to ask about the practical situation instead of reprimanding.

“…Alright, fine. So what kind of forces are they? How many are there?”

Gathering the circumstantial evidence, it wasn’t difficult to find connections between these forces and the incidents that had been occurring within the barony, which is why the Baron asked about the magic user with a surname taken from old legends and his army…

“Well, these are plant humans… Rather than explaining, I think it would be better for you to see for yourself!”

The head butler tried to explain but couldn’t find the words due to a lack of vocabulary, and instead suggested that the Baron would be better off seeing with his own eyes.

…Normally, he would never listen to such a careless suggestion, but the Baron was now in a situation where stress had accumulated from dealing with all sorts of incidents.

“Fine! I’ll go myself!”

Thus, wanting a clearer and more definitive conclusion, the Baron chose to act on his own decision despite feeling an ominous premonition, as if doom was waiting with its jaws open.

Rising from his office chair for the first time in a long while, the Baron, despite being an Aura Awakened, was still a middle-aged man who felt inevitable stiffness in his body. He tried to stretch as he picked up his beloved weapon and stepped out of his office.

His personal weapon—a polearm over 2 meters long with a longsword blade of about 70 cm attached to it.

And… after walking for some time.

“—Ah! M-My Lord!”

“You’re working hard, soldier.”

While the guards (men-at-arms) on the wall were flustered by the appearance of the Baron with his escort, the Baron nonchalantly stepped forward to look at the invaders beyond the wall…

‘…Huh?’

The army that entered the Baron’s sight was different from what he had imagined an army would look like.

Among the forces led by the magic user called Alreinos, the beings that made up the largest number and proportion were wolves… wolf-men.

These creatures, reminiscent of bipedal wolves, unlike the werewolves people commonly imagine, were small in stature and resembled wet, skinny dogs rather than wolves.

Their average height was around 160-165 cm. Their bodies appeared not so much muscular as extremely emaciated, looking as if skin had been placed directly over bone, and their hunched posture and abnormally developed long arms gave these beings an alien feel.

The sparse fur covering their skin was filled with shadow-like black leather, and their eye sockets were completely obscured by shadows.

There were about 300 of them—not strong enough to be undefeatable by armed soldiers, but not beasts to be ignored either.

Besides these beasts, the magic user had brought other types of troops as well.

First, there were about 100 of… something made of a complex entanglement of rock, soil, wood, and plants.

With an average height of about 3 meters and massive builds, these creatures carried crude weapons like clubs made of wood or stone.

Judging by their life force alone, they might not be high-level opponents, but they would be quite difficult for soldiers armed with mass-produced spears to handle.

And… among them was also a griffin with a giant, presumed to be the magic user, mounted on it.

So while the Baron frowned at the composition and number of this formidable force, the culprit finally revealed himself from beyond.

※ ※ ※

“…So you’ve finally arrived.”

Having rushed to the front of the enemy’s main camp in one step, I briefly looked at Baron Lefante and his soldiers who had come up on the wall… then through shared vision, I looked at the forces I had brought.

The total number was 400. Those I had brought to achieve at least the minimum number to give the impression of war were divided into two main categories.

First, there were 100 ‘elemental soldiers’ that I had brought after informing my mother of Baron Lefante’s atrocities and asking for her help.

These soldiers, whom my mother had entrusted to me with explicit instructions to grind them up—so angry that her old personality momentarily surfaced—were Spirits of the Forest placed into shells created by my mother’s magic.

Their combat level was… above low-grade, below mid-grade.

They were slightly inferior to the bone golems that Chompantlus had created before, but nonetheless, they could establish complete superiority against poorly trained low-grade soldiers.

Physically, they possessed the brute strength befitting their 3-meter stature, easily able to throw humans around, and as spirits, they could repair their bodies by drawing in surrounding soil or natural materials.

Meanwhile, the remaining 300 troops were… beast soldiers formed based on the mysteries I had obtained through my contract with Squeaky.

This power, judged as an ability obtained through contract like ‘Fear’ or ‘Ignition ability,’ could be summarized in one word as ‘Division.’

This power, obtained through contract along with the defense-ignoring ability of Squeaky’s teeth, adds a non-negligible bonus to my ability to summon large numbers of magical beasts.

And by adding the principles of animal transformation magic to this, the result of overlaying Lobo’s mystery onto a colony of 300 shadow rats was these 300 rat-wolf humans.

They were soldiers optimized for climbing walls by digging their claws into them, and more than capable of simply killing ordinary conscripts.

As I appeared with an army of hundreds, intimidating them with an imposing presence, Baron Lefante on the wall looked directly at me and then…

[I ask you! Who are you to trample our territory with muddy feet?!]

“…Hmph. The nerve.”

His words, accusing me of trampling with muddy feet when he was the one who had tried to do the same to our forest, were more than enough to make me very angry.