Chapter 56

The warriors of the Reir tribe paid dearly for underestimating the forest.

The unfamiliar forest environment and the warriors who were not at all inferior in quality were problems, but the appearance of the warrior with the bone helmet and the wolf riders was a variable they had not anticipated at all.

“How can wolves be that big!”

“Think of them as monsters and deal with them. Aim for the eyes or feet to restrict their movement… Ack!?”

“Damn it. More arrows!”

“You despicable bastards. Show yourselves and fight like true warriors!”

From the front, the forest warriors pushed forward with the grotesque figure wearing a deer skull helmet leading the charge. From the left and right, wolf riders tore into them, inflicting wounds, while arrows rained down from all directions.

At least the warriors of the Reir tribe were brave, befitting their innate temperament, but bravery alone was not enough to win a battle.

Todel looked at a warrior who had become a beehive of arrows and quickly made his judgment.

‘There’s no chance of winning this!’

The strength of a shaman lies in being able to create powerful variables in battle, but that’s only useful if there’s a chance of victory.

Half the warriors were already dead – how much could the odds improve with just a shaman fighting alone?

Todel tapped the owl bone amulet around his neck. The shamanism imbued in the amulet made his body lighter.

With a sorrowful expression, Todel encouraged the warriors:

“Descendants of great warriors! Proud warriors and raiders of Reir! Though we may breathe our last due to the enemy’s cowardly tricks, we shall die with honor!”

“Todel-nim!!!”

“Fight! We may die, but we will never show our backs. We would rather die standing with our swords piercing the enemy’s heart. I will proudly tell our ancestors that we fought honorably!”

The ancestors of the northerners were raiders who had crossed the sea, worshippers of the god of warriors.

They may have forgotten the names of their gods, but they had not lost their faith. They still believed that an honorable death would qualify them for the hall of the gods.

To them, Todel’s encouragement was a powerful catalyst. Their reason was swept away by a raging murderous intent, and their survival instinct lost strength to the venom of defying death.

The warriors charged at the enemies before them with fierce cries. The forest warriors were taken aback by their ferocity, ignoring an arrow or two or shallow wounds.

“These madmen. They don’t even remember the names of their gods, yet they’re determined to throw away their lives so cheaply!”

“Stop them! There’s no more futile death than losing your life to such fools!”

However, being prepared to die doesn’t turn the tide of battle.

For the forest people who lived through terrible hunger and flesh-tearing cold, and the nomads for whom war was life itself, being prepared to die was not uncommon.

Todel had anticipated this situation to some extent. He never expected the warriors to defeat the enemies in the first place.

As soon as all the warriors threw themselves into the fray, Todel turned his back without a shred of lingering attachment.

‘This is not running away. I’m retreating because I can’t let the enemy’s strength and the warriors’ final moments go to waste!’

The very fact that he had such thoughts was tantamount to admitting he had misgivings, but Todel was truly dejected.

If the warriors’ deaths were not revealed, who would swear vengeance and downplay the dangers to the alliance?

Todel swallowed his humiliation and retreated swiftly like a hawk…

“Is that supposed to be a shaman? Compared to the shaman-nims who follow the spirit-nim… it’s too ugly.”

The forest warriors marveled at his ugly yet nimble retreat. How shocking it must have been for even the wolf riders to not think of pursuing Todel.

Of course, the forest warriors weren’t the only ones to witness this. Some warriors who still had their wits about them saw Todel’s bizarre action and roared:

“Todel. Todeeel!!! You coward. Come back and fight honorably!!!”

But despite the warriors’ cries, Todel didn’t look back even once. He vanished in an instant as if riding the wind.

The warriors of Reir breathed their last, resentfully calling out to Todel who had disappeared in the blink of an eye.

---

“It’s an emergency!”

“… Indeed. For you to come during my meal, it must be an emergency.”

Wendigo was in the middle of enjoying his meal when Geron rushed in with an urgent expression. He dejectedly put down the piping hot whole chicken he was eating.

Geron hastily called people to clear away the food. Wendigo watched the food being carried away in people’s hands with eyes full of lingering attachment.

“Spirit-nim. I apologize for interrupting your meal, but it truly is an emergency and couldn’t be helped.”

“I know. You wouldn’t go this far if it wasn’t really urgent.”

Wendigo sighed and tapped the armrest of his throne with his claws. His head understood, but his heart was pounding with hot anger.

Just what kind of bastards caused trouble to ruin one of his few pleasures!

“Tell me. What cursed bastards are making a mess of my meal- I mean, in the forest?”

“There’s a report that unfamiliar people have set up a military camp on the outskirts of the forest. The main force, presumed to be their base camp, is moving slowly, and multiple separate units have entered the forest.”

“What about the damage?”

“That…”

When Geron trailed off with a troubled expression, Wendigo let go of his lingering attachment to food and took the situation more seriously.

Just how severe must the damage be for Geron to hesitate and withhold information?

“Is the damage worse than expected? I suppose if we were caught off guard, it wouldn’t be strange for the damage to be significant.”

“Well, they say there’s not much damage. The separate units didn’t cooperate with each other, so they were defeated one by one…”

“……”

Wendigo prided himself on having seen quite a few greedy and foolish people in this world, but he was dumbfounded every time a new idiot like this appeared.

Normally, one would be glad if the enemy was incompetent, but… isn’t this a bit too much?

“If there are multiple separate units, not just one, doesn’t that mean they have quite a lot of warriors?”

“It seems so. According to the report, quite a lot of smoke was rising from the military camp.”

“No, to lead that many warriors, there must be commanders. What the hell did they do to result in such a miserable battle?”

“Hmm… This is just my personal opinion, but perhaps they are not a single force.”

Wendigo thought Geron’s speculation was quite plausible. Even incompetent fools would at least pretend to cooperate if ordered to join forces from above.

But if they were a ragtag army of multiple forces banded together, it wouldn’t be strange for them not to cooperate.

The commanders the warriors follow, as well as their objectives, could be different.

“Then it seems shamans or tribes have formed an alliance… I think I know the reason.”

“It must be the work of those exiled shamans, right?”

“It seems so. Unable to do anything with their individual power, they probably promised spoils and joined forces.”

If that was the case, it was highly likely that the separate units were acting on orders from shamans or chieftains, not from the alliance’s commander.

It wasn’t that they didn’t cooperate because they didn’t trust each other, but more likely that they couldn’t even attempt to cooperate because they were unaware of each other’s existence.

‘If I intervene directly and kill them as usual… it won’t solve the fundamental problem.’

The ones who could move the tribes were the chieftains, and the ones who could move such chieftains were the shamans.

At the very least, the chieftains and shamans would need to be dealt with to prevent such incidents from happening again.

“Tell the warriors not to attack the enemies, but to drive them deeper into the forest.”

“Will that be alright? When we fought against the Blue Mane tribe, it was at the level of facing a single tribe, but this time it’s an alliance of multiple tribes.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve thought of a way to sow discord among them that should work quite well.”

“Discord, you say?”

In response to Geron’s question, Wendigo created an ice crystal and placed it on his palm as he spoke.

“I have what they want, don’t I? I plan to make them fight among themselves with this.”

---

Todel, who had led a separate unit and returned with only his life, was not alone in his tragedy.

As they say, birds of a feather flock together – at least five others, excluding Todel, had secretly taken action to gain some merit.

Gelmir seized this opportunity to criticize the tribes that had acted independently.

“I didn’t know there would be so many who wouldn’t follow my command from the start. Didn’t you all agree to follow my leadership!”

“Ahem. It was just a reconnaissance team to scout the surroundings. Gelmir, even if you’re the overall commander of the alliance, you don’t have the authority to question such matters.”

“Haha, reconnaissance team? Who in the world moves a third of their warriors just for reconnaissance!”

Gelmir mocked them with a look of disdain, but those who had secretly moved separate units could only swallow their anger without rebutting.

If the separate units had achieved something, it might have been different, but most of them had suffered near annihilation.

Gelmir glared at the chieftains and imposed punishment on them.

“There’s no choice. Everyone, move your camps to the rear.”

“Gelmir!”

“Be quiet. I’m giving you a light punishment out of consideration for the face of the chieftains and shamans. If not for that, I wouldn’t have let it slide with just this much.”

As Gelmir’s cold gaze swept over the chieftains, they bit their lips and lowered their heads.

Watching this scene, Todel organized his thoughts. No matter how he thought about it, it was strange.

Would a shaman of Gelmir’s caliber not have anticipated that other tribes would act independently?

‘… That can’t be. He must have known all of this and allowed it to happen.’

Looking at the immediate results, Gelmir had benefited the most.

He now had justification to control the unruly alliance, and without suffering any losses himself, he had weakened other factions and inflicted damage on the enemies.

If Gelmir had a good reputation, Todel might have thought all of this was just paranoia, but Gelmir’s infamy was second to none in the north.

“We’ll end today’s meeting here. I hope we can get through tomorrow morning without any such unpleasant incidents.”

“Don’t worry. As long as those fools don’t cause trouble, what unpleasant incidents could there be?”

“Tsk tsk, if you lack ability, you should at least know how to act humbly.”

It seemed some tribes had already joined hands with Gelmir, as they left the tent in a group centered around him.

Realizing he had been played by Gelmir’s schemes, Todel trembled with anger and shame. He wanted to unleash his fury on Gelmir right away, but…

“Sigh… Don’t act rashly for now.”

“Chieftain. But in this state, there’s no way to achieve merit!”

“That’s enough, go rest. I’m tired too, so I’ll rest today.”

Even the chieftain who had revered him like a sage now cast suspicious glances and ordered him to withdraw. Todel shook with humiliation he had never felt before.

Perhaps because of this?

Todel couldn’t fall asleep even when night came. He wandered around the camp with the moon in the night sky as his companion.

He left the camp and walked deeper into the forest, venting his anger.

“If only I had power like Gelmir… If only I had the authority of a chieftain!”

In the forest where no watching eyes could be found, Todel gritted his teeth and poured out his inner thoughts, and…

[ Do you desire power? ]

“!”

From beyond the deep darkness of the forest… someone spoke to him.