At present, there was only one road leading from the North to the royal capital.
But even that route took a considerable amount of time because it had to circle all the way around the mountain range.
And that was one of the main reasons the already-barren North had become even more isolated.
That was why the former Grand Duke of the North—my father—had agonized over the matter.
And the problem had persisted to this very day.
I had been no different before my regression.
More than anything, the North at that time was entering a period of active trade with the royal capital through Kolheim, mana ore, and other goods.
Though “exploitation” would have been more accurate than “trade,” I couldn’t afford to let that golden opportunity slip away either way.
‘And so I pushed forward what became known as the North Road Project.’
North Road (north road).
As the name suggested, it was a plan to establish a trade route between the North and the royal capital.
Citing the need to facilitate the distribution of the aforementioned Kolheim and mana ore, I sent an official document to the royal capital.
But there was no way the royal capital would readily accept my proposal.
I slipped some money to the merchants from the royal capital who visited the North and begged them to put in a good word for me. I even went around visiting other noble bastards, doing all the legwork myself.
‘Fucking bastards. How much did they need to squeeze out of me just to pass along a single message?’
Even now, I couldn’t think of them as anything but a pack of robbers.
Anyway, as a result, when I sent the official document for the fifth time—
I received a positive response for the first time.
Even Zhuge Liang was won over in three visits, but I had to make five.
It was truly a Five-Visit Appeal (five visits to the thatched cottage).
And what I proposed in the process was—
‘The development of the southern cliff region.’
According to old records from the North, the North had once used a road through the southern cliff region to trade with the continent.
But that was no longer possible.
The problem began when a group of wyverns made the area their home.
It might have been manageable against other monsters.
But maintaining a passage against wyverns, which were flying monsters, caused enormous casualties. As a result, the southern cliff region was unofficially sealed off.
And that had continued to this day.
But if we could make use of the southern cliff region once more—
It would fulfill one of the North’s greatest long-cherished wishes, one that had persisted since my father’s time.
And that wish was finally carried out.
After hearing my proposal, the royal capital dispatched none other than the ‘Hero’ and an army.
Thus began the wyvern subjugation campaign in the North, led by the Hero.
‘The result goes without saying.’
With the royal capital’s full support and the Hero as its strongest spear—
The North succeeded in reclaiming the North Road.
Ah, of course, it wasn’t free.
‘Fuck. I still can’t believe they charged us a usage fee in the middle of all that.’
That was when I realized it.
Ah. So this is how business is done.
‘Seriously, every time that Hero bastard comes to the North, something goes wrong.’
From Alkein’s Tomb to the North Road.
It was true that the North had at least managed to scrape together enough to survive because of him, but it was also because of him that the North had money wrung out of it from every direction.
The Hero.
To me, he was truly the embodiment of a love-hate relationship.
Anyway, back to the point.
Unlike before my regression, Northmedi and the mana ore were now entirely in my hands.
‘Sooner or later, the North Road development project was something I’d have to carry out no matter what.’
Considering the future distribution of Northmedi and mana ore, the North Road absolutely had to be opened.
No, the sooner we opened it, the sooner the North would become a better place to live.
“So the biggest problem was deciding when to do it.......”
And then such a perfect opportunity had fallen right into my lap.
I recalled what Von had said at yesterday’s banquet.
—We believe the wyverns of the southern cliff region have split into factions.
It would have been another story if the wyvern group were still firmly united.
But while they were divided into factions and in chaos, we had a chance even with the North’s current forces.
I grinned and looked at Lenin beside me.
“Lenin, you think so too, don’t you?”
“.......”
Lenin was wrapped in sheepskin.
She stared at me with eyes gone cold.
Then, as though she had already resigned herself to her fate, she sighed.
“Baa—”
I nodded in satisfaction.
Around me, not only Lenin but every last one of the other knights was sprawled across the snowfield beneath sheepskins.
Ah, of course, I was no exception.
“......Your Grace. Are you sure this is right?”
One of the knights lying prone beneath a sheepskin asked.
I secured the sheep’s head over mine and answered.
“Tell me if you have a better idea.”
“.......”
“You don’t.”
The reason the northern knight order was suddenly doing this was simple.
It was all to infiltrate the wyvern group and launch a surprise attack.
The wyverns’ favorite prey happened to be the sheep that inhabited the snowfields.
We planned to use that fact to infiltrate the wyvern nest in the southern cliff region.
It sounded like complete bullshit at first, but astonishingly, it was an effective strategy I had used before my regression as well.
A strategy that had astonished the royal capital and horrified the Hero!
It was known as Operation Little Lamb.
Or, for short, the Sheep Bastard Operation.
“Even so, this is a little.......”
“From now on, you answer with ‘baa.’ Understood?”
“......Baa.”
The knight let out a deep sigh and answered with a baa, making us look exactly like a flock of sheep.
After all the meat you bastards ate, shouldn’t you at least earn your keep?
I smirked.
“This is still much better than charging in blindly and getting wiped out.”
That was true.
But what happens if a wyvern notices us while carrying us away and drops us?
One knight couldn’t suppress his curiosity and asked.
Bastard.
Good question.
I answered firmly.
“Nothing we can do about it. You’ll die from the fall.”
“.......”
“So if you don’t want to die, act properly and don’t get caught.”
A brief silence passed across the snowfield.
Then the bastards began competing with one another.
“Baa— Baa—”
They desperately imitated sheep cries, quite literally for the sake of survival.
See?
You can do it when you try.
I smiled at the sight with satisfaction.
If we succeed, we’re sheep. If we fail, we’re corpses.
How much time had passed since the northern knight order began putting their very souls into acting like a flock of sheep?
Suddenly, the air over the snowfield began to change.
And before long.
—FLAP...!
The sound of beating wings came from above, followed by a low, guttural growl.
The wyvern group had appeared.
I immediately signaled the others.
“Baa, ba, baaaa, bah.”
First and Second Platoons, including Lenin, split to the left and right.
The rest would follow me and scatter through the center.
“Baa—”
The other knights swiftly moved beneath their sheepskins.
—WHOOSH!
The sight resembled a flock of sheep scattering in terror after being startled by the wyverns.
SCREEECH!
One by one, the wyverns changed course and swooped toward the sheep—or rather, the knight order pretending to be sheep.
“BAAAAAWOOOOOO—!”
One bastard let out a mournful cry.
It was a pitiful cattle-driving vocal style that tugged at the heartstrings.
No, in this case, would it be a sheep-driving vocal style?
At last, one wyvern snatched him up and flew away.
It was a flawless first success.
You?
You’ve got talent.
Starting with him, the knights disappeared from my sight one after another.
Soon, Lenin was snatched up, and then I too was seized in a wyvern’s claws and carried into the sky.
—WHOOOOSH...!
And so, over the northern snowfield—
A desolate wind swept across the place that had been filled with a flock of sheep only moments before.
“Baaaaa—”
Far away in the sky, the cry of a sheep that somehow sounded sorrowful echoed through the air.
***
How much time had passed?
The beating of the wyverns’ wings, which had carried us through the sky for quite a while, gradually slowed.
Then the wyverns began dropping the sheep they carried onto the ground one after another.
—WHOOSH..., THUD!
The place was none other than a kind of food storage chamber.
The strategy took advantage of the wyverns’ habit of gathering sheep in one place without killing them, since sheep usually lost consciousness while being carried away in their claws.
—FLAP, FLAP....
The sounds of the wyverns’ wings receded once more.
Only after they could no longer be heard at all—
“Uuugh....”
Bizarre groans began leaking out from among the flock of sheep.
—CRACK, CRACK! POP....
Like a horde of zombies—
The knights of the North twisted their bodies this way and that as they rose.
Then each of them grabbed the wall and rubbed his arms and waist.
“Ugh, every bone in my body aches.”
“I memorized that red wyvern bastard’s face. What kind of fucking aerobatics was that bastard doing while it flew...?!”
“My back... My back won’t straighten....”
Inside the wyverns’ food storage chamber, which resembled a small cave—
The bastards loosened their stiff bodies while complaining one after another.
Among them was one particularly large sheepskin.
—THUMP...CRASH!
I threw aside the sheepskin covering me and rose.
Then I cracked my neck and stretched broadly.
“Is everyone all right?”
I’d gone through this once before my regression, but it still wasn’t something worth doing twice.
I muttered inwardly and swung my stiff arms.
Lenin and the other knights snapped into formation.
“Yes. Everyone arrived without incident.”
Fortunately, it seemed no one had been discovered and dropped along the way.
As expected of the Sheep Bastard Operation.
Its performance was reliable, if nothing else.
I pointed toward the other sheepskins.
“What about the things we brought?”
“No problems. Shall we prepare them immediately?”
“Do it.”
The knights began pulling objects out from between the sheepskins covering them.
They were barrel bombs.
Oak barrels ordinarily used to hold liquor had been filled with gunpowder and combined with the Blue Magic Tower’s technology, turning them into special bombs made by the Magic Tower.
The Magic Tower-made bombs were placed throughout the area.
The plan after infiltrating the nest was simple.
We would install the bombs we had prepared beforehand.
Then, once the infiltration team detonated them and threw the wyverns into confusion—
The knight order waiting above the cliffs would spread iron nets and block the wyverns’ escape routes.
The other knights and I would then join the main force and subjugate the leader.
After installing the bombs, the knights gathered in one place and checked their equipment.
Lenin reported to me.
“There are twenty bombs in total. This amount should be sufficient to cause confusion.”
“Good. Then we’ll wait here until the signal comes.”
“Yes, understood.”
By now, the knight order led by Von should have been approaching the southern cliff region according to schedule.
All that remained was to wait here.
About an hour passed.
—SCREEEEEE—!
The cry echoed throughout the cliffs.
It was unmistakably the cry of Sir Von’s white falcon.
Then came another cry.
—SCREEEEEE—!
Two falcon cries in total.
It was clearly the signal that the knight order led by Von had arrived—and that the operation had begun.
I gestured toward the other knights.
—HISSS....
The fuses were lit, and the soft sound of them burning filled the chamber.
At last, just before the bombs exploded—
With every preparation complete, I shouted.
“Everyone, brace for impact!!”
At the same moment, the bombs we had planted erupted with an enormous blast.
—KABOOOOOM!
The impact caused the caves inside the cliff to collapse with a thunderous rumble.
The entire cliff shook violently, and earthquake-like tremors struck the wyvern nest.
—ROAAAAAR!!
Startled by the bombs that had suddenly struck their nest, the wyverns flew about in confusion.
But the explosions did not end there.
CRASH! KABOOM!
Amid the continuous blasts—
—STEP.
Lenin and I lowered sunglasses that no one knew we had brought and strode forward proudly.
Real men don’t look back at explosions.
The knight order, which had been bracing for the impact, finished arming themselves.
“Your Grace. Every knight is ready.”
“Good.”
I nodded, removed the sunglasses, and drew the sword at my waist.
Then I shouted.
“Everyone, charge!!”
The armed knights charged toward the wyverns blocking their path.
It was the sound that announced the true beginning of the battle to reclaim the North Road.