Oukoku e Tsuzuku Michi

y from just having woken up.

――Two Weeks Later.
City State Area: Within Meldorapolis.

「Oh Celia, you were here?」

「Yes Aegir-sama! I’m glad…… having you here calms me.」

I rest my hand on Celia’s head as she clings to my waist.
Both of us make a relieved expression.

I’m not flirting.
The situation is really dire.

The Aless soldiers, led by Gildress, are disgustingly hot and sweaty.
I won’t say these guys are unpleasant, but being with them for 24 hours a day is unbearable.

And right now, there are only Aless soldiers here.
Instead of bringing my troops, the Aless soldiers are accompanying me as allies.

「Uuu……it stinks.
It’s hot.」

「I was the one who had to spar with him, you know.
The training itself wasn’t stressful, but there was sweat and spit flying everywhere.」

Merely four others could come along with me.
Of course, the cute Celia was one, Mack as the shield was another, and Tristan rounded out the group from my camp.
The last one was Agor, who was granted permission by Erich.

With this expedition likely to become an adventure, and therefore risky, I wanted to take as few girls with me as possible.
Agor, being someone I’ve been acquainted with for a while, would be easier to work with than a random unknown soldier.

Although it’s truly been a long time since I talked with Agor, the conversation we had during the journey up to this point was able to ease some of the tension between us created by our mutual change in standings.

In reality, Myla and Yakov also wanted to come, but they had their respective squads to command.
The 105 army especially tends to cause trouble without me and Yakov around to restrain them.

「If he was healthy, I would have taken Gido too, but――」

「I’m sure he’s doing fine―― or not, he lost his thing after all.」

I was going to return Gido to Rafen once his condition improved, but in the meantime, I’m relying on Lucino to care for him.

Since she’s a traitor, she’s hated by the soldiers.
She would be fine if I’m around, but when I’m acting separately like now, I get concerned.
My thinking was that if she did her best nursing the injured Gido, her treatment might improve.

I recall the small dispute that occurred when I said that to her.

『Constantly attending to the man…… are you referring to this inferior one? I will do it if you’re ordering me……but I thought I was Hardlett-sama’s……mmglmml.』

Lucino hesitated like that.
So I responded like this.

『You don’t need to think of this as taking care of a man.
He won’t attack you even when his injury heals, so relax.
Gido’s thing has torn off after all.』

『He’s too young……to have it ripped out……plus he’s good looking, how sad.』

That time, Gido was crying throughout the conversation, probably because his wound hurt.
Anyways, I did all I could.

Agor’s voice snaps me out of the memory.

「Lord Hardlett, it appears the scout has returned.
Please head back to the headquarters immediately.」

Sponsored Content

This guy hasn’t changed, he’s as serious as before.
It’s like if Yakov became more earnest and was taught how to be orderly.

「I don’t see how he’s serious.」

Celia’s sharp eyes shift from Agor to his attendant next to him, a small uniform-wearing boy.

「Fufufu, you’re right.
He isn’t serious at all…… kukuku, he has a wife and a mistress too.」

Agor awkwardly casts his eyes downward while the young attendant turns red.
Of course, he is now a captain of a hundred-man squad and it isn’t unnatural for him to have a follower or two.

However, this attendant has a secret.

「Fufufu, this attendant looks to cute to be a boy, Agor.
Look, there’s even a thin line of lipstick on his lips.」

「Kuh, please overlook this!」

Right, this attendant is actually a female.
Agor brought her to the battlefield under the pretense of wanting an attendant.
His goal is quite clear.

「Did you have fun after you slipped away again in the middle of drinking yesterday? I see some marks on your neck that look like insect bites.」

I grin, teasing Agor with my question.
I’m sure he made a vulgar face.

「Auu.」

When I see the cute blushing attendant, I feel like poking fun at him even more.

「It’s inexcusable of you to make your lover your follower and take her along to battle!」

「I don’t want to hear that from you, Miss Celia…… ahem.
Anyways, we better go back to headquarters quickly.」

No, I don’t believe we have to.

「Oh, a new enemy has appeared!? They’re in formation across the river!? Gimakipolis soldiers, you say!?」

「They want to challenge us to a fight after surrendering to Meldora!? My King, they challenged us!!」

「Nuuun!! We accept!! It’s already evening, but that doesn’t matter.
One hour is more than enough to dispatch weak Gimaki soldiers who would yield to the likes of Meldora! No need to mess around with tactics, trample them head on!! Men of Aless, to battle!」

「See? We’re going to launch a full-scale attack now.」

「……that’s quite different from how Goldonia does things.」

Everything from the scout’s report to the reaction to that report and even the orders of General Gildress can be heard all the way here, far from where the headquarters is.

Not only that, they’re not forming any kind of organized ranks, they’re simply spreading out and charging separately with their swords.

It’s the total opposite of the Goldonian army’s standard based on the Federation.

Now then, the enemy has shown up on the other side of the river.
They were prepared for us and had cut the bridge, laid wooden stakes on the sand bar, and lined up spearmen and archers along the riverside.

Their strategy, by removing the bridge and setting up obstacles, is to force us to wade through the river and then finish us off with arrows and spears.
If I can see what they’re trying to do, then it’s a pretty ordinary plan.

「Will they be alright?」

Agor turns to be with a worried look on his face.

Obviously, that’s because the Aless soldiers are charging at the waiting enemies in a horizontal line formation.
To him, they most likely appear to be recklessly running to their deaths.

「I think it’s better if we take out the archers on the opposite coast as we advance while at the same time having the cavalry detour around either through the upper or lower part of the river.」

Celia steps forward after Agor’s comment.

「In addition, we are upwind, so if we set damp wood on fire, we can use smoke to obstruct vision.
We’ll be advancing in the water so we can just wrap our faces with wet towels.」

Celia puffs out her chest as if to say her suggestion was more clever.

「The thing is, they can’t do it.
Aless doesn’t have archers or cavalry.
They’re all infantry.」

「Only……infantry? This is going to be a tough fight then.」

Agor visibly gets more nervous.
The female attendant also trembles.

「Hm, I wonder about that.」

Sponsored Content

My eyes focus on the heart of the Aless army.

Gildress, somehow noticing my gaze, shouts out loudly at me.

「Why don’t you watch our fight from over there!? Men of Aless! Don’t show my friend an embarrassing sight!!」

「「「Nuuoooooh!!」」」

A collective roar answered back loud enough to send vibrations through the ground.

「I expect this to be a one-sided stomp.」

The enemy army numbers roughly 10 000 and have constructed a decent encampment.
As for Aless――

「Here we go, all 30 000 of you!! Follow me!!」

The Aless soldiers who came as reinforcements combined with the “civilian” army of Aless soldiers who were already with me seamlessly to form one powerful army totalling 30 000 and that huge group started charging straight at the enemy.

I internally press my hands together in prayer for the enemy army.

「「「Uooooh!!」」」

Aless runs through the bad footing of the river and directly at the enemy’s encampment.
Normally, that would be a foolish move.

「T-they’re fast!」

Agor’s eyes open wide.
I’m already accustomed to their speed.

They run as fast as horses in short distances.

Without a shred of hesitation, they rush into the river.

「They’re not slowing down!?」

The shallow water reaches waist level, however, the Aless soldiers keep moving forward, their vigorous actions causing huge splashes of water.

Further ahead of them are the fences planted in the ground by the enemy as defense.
If they are stalled here, they will be showered by endless arrows.

「Nuun!!」
「This hollow log won’t even train my body!」

Agor’s jaw drops.

「He…… pulled it out?」
「I’m used to that kind of thing.」

The Aless soldier yanked out the entire stake fixed to the bottom of the river and tossed it aside.

Flustered by what they’re seeing, the enemy archers fire at the Aless soldiers.

「Futile! Weak arrows won’t hurt!!」
「Uhahaha! Ooh, that hurt, that hurt! The arrow popped the pimple on my arm!!」

I don’t see a single person falling down.

「Arrows are ineffective……?」

The Aless soldiers flood the riverbank in the blink of an eye.
They quickly come face to face with a fence that looks to be the last line of defense……

「Nuun!!」

The Aless soldier builds up speed and rams his body into the fence.
That was enough to greatly shake the fence and was followed up by a second and third tackle, which caused the fence to creak.
By the fifth tackle, the fence finally broke apart.

「It’s over.」

As soon as the enemy spearmen gathered together, the Aless soldiers surged forward.

There was no way for them to put up any resistance at this point.
One Aless soldier can easily defeat three average men so the enemy is helpless if the monsters are the three.

「I guess my common sense doesn’t work on them.」

While Agor laments his lack of understanding, the Aless soldiers massacre all who stand against them, ignore those fleeing, and quickly strip and take custody of the small number of girls there who were probably part of the transport corps or lovers of high-ranking officials.

Five minutes after the order to charge was given, the battle was finished.

「At this rate, things might go smoothly until we reach Meldora.」
Please go to https://www.novelupdates.cc/Oukoku-e-Tsuzuku-Michi/ to read the latest chapters for free