After hearing Corbin’s detailed explanation, Karl felt as though he had run into a wall.
Even including Karl’s extermination force, their remaining strength barely exceeded one hundred.
Half of them were woodcutters and farmers, which meant there were only about fifty actual soldiers. Of those, roughly twenty were Hilpin soldiers who had not even been properly trained.
The number of gnolls was completely unknown.
According to Corbin, they had killed close to a thousand gnolls so far.
Even accounting for exaggeration, it could not have been a small number. After all, nearly two hundred were said to have died in yesterday’s battle alone.
“What did you do with all those corpses?”
“Hardly any bodies remain. The gnolls carry away every corpse they can get their hands on.”
“……”
Upon hearing that the people he had conscripted from Stacked Logs Village had not even left corpses behind, Karl needed a moment to compose himself.
But it did not last long.
“They take the gnoll corpses as well as the human ones?”
“Yes.”
“They cannot be doing it to eat them, can they?”
“I do not know.”
The entire situation made no sense to begin with.
More importantly, the autumn forest was overflowing with food.
It did not seem to be about sustenance.
Then why?
“Lord Karl, Sir Catherine has returned.”
At that moment, one of the Imperial soldiers cautiously spoke during a lull in the conversation.
“Bring her here.”
Karl immediately summoned Catherine.
He wanted to let her rest, considering that she had handled the aftermath of the battle last night and gone out again early that morning.
But they did not have that luxury.
“Lord Karl.”
Catherine entered at once and stopped before Karl, bowing with crisp precision.
She stood as firmly as though she were some superhuman being incapable of feeling fatigue, and the sight alone reassured Karl.
“Sir Catherine, you have worked hard.”
“I have merely done my duty.”
“That alone is worth an army to me. Had you not been here, I would already be dead.”
“……We achieved victory because you fought so fiercely, Lord Karl.”
Catherine’s stone-like face twitched awkwardly, as though the praise made her deeply uncomfortable.
Unable to think of anything else to say, she shifted the credit back to Karl and firmly closed her mouth.
From a short distance away, Corbin watched the exchange with narrowed eyes, as though the sight were dazzling.
It resembled the relationship between a magnificent lord and his knight from the chivalric tales of old.
Corbin, who had been thrown into a death trap like a disposable piece, could hardly raise his head before such a sight.
“What is the situation?”
“Poor. If they attack in numbers comparable to yesterday, we will not be able to stop them this time.”
Catherine answered Karl’s question immediately.
“The gnolls are breaking down the palisades with their axes. The western palisade was completely destroyed to the point that its logs had to be replaced, and the accumulated damage elsewhere also requires repairs.”
“…We finished repairing the western palisade this morning. This is a village of woodcutters. It was not particularly difficult.”
Corbin interjected.
“But you could not have repaired all the others. Sir Corbin, if every palisade cannot be repaired by this evening, then it is little different from having repaired none of them.”
“……”
Corbin could not refute Catherine’s sound argument.
There was a limit to what manpower alone could accomplish.
It was impossible to repair every palisade in a single day when each one had to be tall and sturdy enough to stop gnolls.
“Sir Catherine, is there still no support from Hilpin?”
“We have found neither word nor sign of any.”
“Send someone to Hilpin Castle. …No, I will write a letter myself.”
“My apologies. I have already dispatched a messenger in your name, Lord Karl.”
“Ah. Well done.”
As expected of Catherine.
She seemed to have taken care of everything already.
However, Catherine apparently felt uneasy about having sent a messenger in Karl’s name without his orders while he was unconscious.
Karl simply praised her and moved past the matter without concern.
“……Then what can we do now?”
After a brief moment of thought, Karl asked Catherine that question.
With Catherine, a commander without any obvious flaws, standing before him, Karl had already stopped paying attention to a rural knight like Corbin.
“We can either abandon Hilpin and retreat, or hold our position while waiting for reinforcements.”
“……”
Karl slowly rubbed his forehead.
There was no good answer.
Under normal circumstances, retreating would have been correct.
“If Axe Sound Village falls, the gnolls will leave the forest and rampage throughout the entire territory!”
Corbin urgently raised his voice and stepped toward Karl.
However, Catherine strode forward and glared at him, forcing Corbin to stop.
Corbin stood nearly two spans taller than Catherine, but before an Imperial Knight chosen solely for her ability, a rural knight incapable of using Mana was little different from an ordinary soldier.
“Enough. I have no intention of retreating.”
Karl cut off the pointless dispute in a firm voice.
“An extermination force dispatched under His Majesty the Emperor’s command does not retreat. We will exterminate the gnolls here and protect the subjects of the Empire.”
“Yes, Lord Karl.”
Catherine answered calmly and stepped back.
Corbin was dumbfounded.
Even though he himself had insisted that they could not retreat, Corbin knew that retreat was the correct decision.
And he had never imagined that the small, sickly-looking Fourth Prince would speak so proudly of fighting on.
……No.
Last night, Fourth Prince Karl had wielded a sword with that frail body, encouraged his soldiers, and killed gnolls.
Corbin’s doubts had been unjustified.
Karl had already demonstrated his resolve.
“Let us devise a more specific strategy. Ah, before that.”
Karl spoke as though he had only just remembered something.
“What were our casualties?”
“Minor injuries and exhaustion only. There were no deaths.”
Catherine reported it without any particular emotion.
She did not even count the conscripts as soldiers.
Karl did not object to her wording either.
He merely nodded once.
“How is Bilford?”
Even though he knew Bilford had been included in the casualty report, Karl could not help asking separately.
That terrifying moment flashed before his eyes again—the sight of Bilford screaming while surrounded by gnolls, with Karl unable to do anything to help him.
“All of his wounds have been treated. However, he lost a great deal of blood and is severely exhausted, so he needs rest.”
Healing wounds did not restore blood that had already been lost.
Nearly every joint in Bilford’s body had been pierced and torn by gnoll claws.
There was no possibility of him simply jumping back to his feet and fighting.
“I understand.”
Karl slowly inhaled and held the breath carefully inside so that it would not escape as a sigh.
There was no time to remain like this.
They had to prepare for battle again.
***
Karl walked throughout Axe Sound Village, encouraging the soldiers.
Neither his short stature nor his slight frame could be hidden even beneath his cloak.
Yet to those who had been losing hope, the presence of Fourth Prince Karl—the commander of the extermination force who had performed so astonishingly the night before—gave them far more strength than he had expected.
“Your Highness! Please grant us your blessing!”
“……”
A blessing?
Karl was no priest.
He hesitated before placing a hand atop the head of a man who looked around thirty and had knelt before him on both knees.
Then Karl quietly murmured.
“Düren, who watches over all creation, loves those who strive. Remember that even within the darkness where no path can be seen, Düren has already prepared the road ahead of you.”
Karl had merely improvised something based on his memories of Cecile praying fervently when he had still been ill.
Yet the man, with Karl’s small hand resting on his head, burst into tears as though he had truly received salvation and began endlessly murmuring prayers to Düren.
To commoners, nobles were beings from another world.
That idea had been relentlessly ingrained into them to make ruling them easier.
And royalty—an Imperial Prince, no less—was practically equal to a god in the eyes of a commoner.
Yet the noble Karl had placed his hand upon the head of a filthy woodcutter and blessed him in the name of a god.
To that man, it must truly have felt as though a god had personally extended a hand of salvation.
Ignorant and simple rural villagers soon crowded before Karl, hoping to receive his blessing as well.
Karl could not bring himself to ignore people far taller and stronger than he was as they gazed at him with the desperate eyes of sons begging their father for help.
He also felt guilty for having thought that he needed to complete his mission even if it meant driving every one of them to their deaths.
More than anything else, however, he judged that if a few simple words could make them fight more bravely, then of course he ought to say them.
Karl placed his hand upon the head of each person who knelt before him and offered them words of blessing.
Paradoxically, the people clung to Karl with even greater fervor precisely because this tiny, frail boy had fought with unbelievable ferocity and achieved such great accomplishments.
The person who had fought so desperately and saved them last night was this small child?
Then he truly had to be a messenger sent by the gods for their salvation.
Thanks to that, the battered soldiers of this miserable village, which did not have so much as a single priest, were able to build an unyielding wall from the strength of their faith.
As long as Karl remained with them, they would never retreat and would fight bravely.
However, one unexpected thing happened.
Even the Imperial soldiers began quietly edging closer, waiting for Karl to bless them as well.
They guarded the Imperial Palace and knew perfectly well that members of the Imperial Family were not gods.
Even so, what Karl had shown them the previous night had been extraordinary.
No.
Perhaps the Imperial soldiers clung to Karl even more strongly precisely because they knew what Fourth Prince Karl had once been like.
Karl, who had entered his very first battle the night before and commanded with a booming voice like a brass trumpet, had been hot as fire, cold as ice, and hard as steel.
Düren truly had to be watching over this once-sickly prince.
As a result, Karl exhausted himself blessing nearly a hundred soldiers one by one until the noon sun had descended and hung in the western sky.
Even so, he had restored their crumbling morale completely.
It was not a bad result.
“Strengthen the defenses before the sun sets. Move quickly.”
“Yes!”
Countless people sprang into action at a single word from Karl.
Together with Catherine, Karl walked throughout Axe Sound Village, encouraging the soldiers while also learning defensive tactics from her.
The soldiers gritted their teeth and gave everything they had, desperate to hear even a single word of praise from Karl.
They could not repair every palisade, but they managed to finish repairing every section in immediate danger.
They also quickly repaired weapons, including spears, and everyone ate hearty meals from the supplies Karl had brought the previous night.
The soldiers were particularly pleased with the food.
When Karl had conscripted the villagers from Stacked Logs Village, he had indiscriminately taken every kind of provision he could find. As a result, they had plenty of modest luxuries to enjoy, including cheap beer, wine, and dried fruit.
Karl knew very well how greatly varied and delicious meals could affect the morale of soldiers.
After all, Han Changin had completed his mandatory military service as an army sergeant and still remembered cursing viciously during training while eating something he called “Jjayo Jjayo”—dog food…
No, bibimbap squeezed into a plastic bag and eaten straight from it.
Thanks to those memories, Karl understood the hardships of ordinary soldiers remarkably well despite being a member of the Imperial Family commanding troops for the first time.
Karl would never know just how astonished Catherine was to see him carefully attend to matters that even experienced field commanders could easily overlook.
He even inspected the filthy latrines one by one and ordered new drainage ditches to be dug!
‘Neglecting drainage just because the weather looks good is asking for disaster.’
From a soldier’s perspective, digging drainage ditches was a truly miserable task.
Han Changin had felt the same way.
However, because he remembered rain falling during training and causing tents to collapse and wash away, Karl understood the importance of proper drainage very well.
Naturally, the village already had drainage ditches.
But autumn had been dry and rainfall scarce, while the continuous fighting had caused maintenance to be neglected. Many of the ditches had become blocked.
If rain fell now, the entire village could end up flooded.
Only after preparing for battle with such meticulous care did Karl finally go to see Bilford.
“L-Lord Karl….”
“……”
Bilford, who had been lying in bed, abruptly tried to rise and immediately staggered.
Even so, he forced himself upright and lowered his head.
Bilford’s face was deathly pale from excessive blood loss. His eyes were bloodshot, while the damp skin around them was swollen.
He must have been crying.
“Bilford, how are you feeling?”
“I am fine.”
“You do not look particularly fine.”
“I truly am. I could fight again immediately…….”
Despite answering Karl confidently at first, Bilford’s voice gradually faded toward the end.
Karl took hold of Bilford’s shoulders and made him sit on the bed.
Bilford was a man whom even ten Karls working together could never have knocked over, yet he collapsed weakly onto the bed, hanging his head as he panted.
Because he had risen so suddenly after losing so much blood, his blood pressure had plummeted and he had nearly fainted.
“Bilford, we overcame a great crisis because you fought so hard. For now, devote yourself to recovering. Once you are fully healed, fight for me again.”
“L-Lord Karl…….”
Bilford’s vision had gone completely white from anemia, and he could barely breathe, much less form a proper answer.
Karl left before he could say anything.
“……Damn it….”
Once his condition finally stabilized, Bilford remained alone in the room, curled in on himself as he cursed.
The frustration was so overwhelming that tears kept spilling from his eyes.
He was too ashamed to lift his head.
He had driven the lord he was supposed to protect into mortal danger and had barely survived himself.
‘If only I had been a little stronger…!’
Bilford had always done his best.
But there were some things that could not be accomplished merely by doing one’s best.
So from now on, Bilford would push himself beyond the limits of what he believed he could do and drive himself even harder.
First, he would eat well, rest properly, and recover his body.
But he could not simply remain idle during that time.
He would devote himself to accumulating within his body the Mana he had only just begun to sense with Catherine’s help.
Bilford lay back down on the bed and gritted his teeth against the countless thoughts tormenting him.
‘If only I had Mana!’
Even that bitter thought lasted only briefly.
Bilford sank into meditation and focused entirely on Mana.
The sun would soon set.
And the darkness did not belong to humans.
The gnolls would come again.
Tonight, too, would surely be another dreadful night.