The sun slowly began to set.
Karl tried to suppress his mounting anxiety, but it was becoming difficult to bear.
“Still no word?”
“Nothing yet. It seems something must have happened at Hilpin Castle.”
At Catherine’s answer, Karl clenched his fist tightly.
It had been well past the time when the messenger sent to Hilpin Castle should have returned.
If the messenger had arrived safely and the request for reinforcements had gone through without trouble, he would have ridden back to report the news.
Yet there was still no word.
Something must have happened at Hilpin Castle.
‘Could Maldin have already left with the troops? No. If that were the case, the messenger would have returned and told us.’
Karl glared at the darkening forest, barely restraining himself from biting his lip.
‘This situation makes no sense unless he is still at Hilpin Castle and continues to wield influence there. But now that he has been caught deceiving an Imperial Prince, there is no reason for him to remain in the castle….’
No matter how much he thought about it, he could not make sense of the situation.
At times like this, he desperately missed the mobile phones from Han Changin’s memories.
“Please do not worry too much.”
Catherine spoke cautiously.
Karl understood why she was saying it.
“I know there is no point in worrying. But I cannot help feeling anxious.”
“Last night was your first battle, Lord Karl. Your first battle was fought in the field, under unfavorable circumstances, and you led it to the very end without breaking. You are already doing impossibly well.”
A faint smile appeared on Karl’s face at Catherine’s words.
He was somewhat pleased because he knew her lavish praise was sincere rather than empty flattery.
At the same time, it left a bitter taste because even such praise did little to help him now.
Karl rested a hand against the newly replaced logs of the palisade and muttered through clenched teeth.
“…If only we had arrived one day earlier. Just one day……. Or if we had been given just one more day…….”
Karl was learning the value of a single day down to his very bones.
If the extermination force had arrived only one day earlier, they would not have suffered such severe losses in last night’s battle.
And if tonight could pass without incident, they would have been able to ‘construct’ the small Barbican Catherine had initially planned beside the palisade of Axe Sound Village.
‘If even something this small makes a single day worth more than a fortune, then when pursuing a grand undertaking, one could buy the entire realm with a day!’
He was now in danger of dying because of that one missing ‘day.’
It was a lesson carved into his bones.
“Do not dwell too heavily on what has already passed. Once you have learned the lesson, it is best to cast the rest aside.”
“……Thank you, Sir Catherine.”
Karl smiled at Catherine, who had become remarkably proactive about offering him guidance.
The change in her attitude was quite significant to Karl.
At the very least, he had begun to trust, however slightly, that Catherine would neither abandon nor betray him when things became desperate.
“Light the torches!”
As the sun was swallowed by the western forest, Corbin hurried along the top of the palisade and ordered the fires lit.
Their oil reserves had been running low, but fortunately, the supplies Karl had brought included oil, allowing them to light the torches safely again tonight.
Karl had needed all his self-control not to grimace when he heard that until now, they had rendered the remaining gnoll corpses for grease.
On a battlefield this horrific, he doubted human corpses had received respectful burials either.
They had probably burned whatever could burn.
Fire spread all along the top of the palisade.
Barrels filled with water had been placed at intervals in case the wooden defenses caught fire.
Water.
Yes, water.
Obtaining water was another problem.
There was a well, but it was insufficient to sustain soldiers being worked with almost brutal intensity, leaving only a shallow pool splashing at the very bottom.
They had to venture outside and risk danger merely to fetch more.
‘No wonder Water Mages are so valuable.’
Karl now understood why nobles and entire nations went out of their way to ‘invite’ Water Mages into their service.
They were treated exceptionally well, but strictly speaking, they were also kept under close control so no one else could take them.
A single Water Mage could drastically reduce the burden of logistics and provide clean drinking water whenever necessary.
That freed soldiers from much of the threat of disease and dehydration, making armies far easier to operate.
Naturally, such people had to be treated as strategic assets.
“……”
A suffocating silence settled over the village.
The torches whipped violently in the bleak autumn night wind, and the shadows writhed like the jaws of monsters.
Karl positioned himself directly opposite the western forest with Catherine and the Imperial soldiers, the strongest force currently at his disposal.
If they held firmly here, the weaker soldiers elsewhere would have enough breathing room to fight.
“It is unfortunate that Bilford is not here.”
“By tomorrow, he should be able to move again, even if he is not back to his usual condition.”
Catherine answered Karl’s small complaint before glancing sideways at him.
The battle had been fierce enough to put even Bilford out of action.
Yet Karl seemed perfectly fine.
It was obviously suspicious.
Karl had even used his spare time to learn how to handle a spear from Catherine.
Amazingly, despite yesterday’s battle and his collapse afterward, he now seemed stronger rather than weaker.
Catherine lowered her head slightly and whispered near Karl’s ear.
“This battle will be fought from behind the palisade, so there is no need for you to participate as you did yesterday, Lord Karl. It will be enough for you to show the soldiers that you are here and remain at your post.”
Karl gave a small shake of his head.
“Since I recover quickly, it is more efficient for me to keep moving. It will help morale as well, and from a practical standpoint, having another fighter is better than having none.”
Catherine seemed to have no answer to Karl’s calm reasoning.
Karl smiled faintly and spoke to her.
“Thank you for worrying about me. But I came here to lead the extermination force and destroy the gnolls, not to be protected while I enjoy an outing.”
“……My apologies. I spoke out of turn.”
“No. Your concern is justified as well. I will take care not to place myself in excessive danger.”
If Karl were seriously wounded or killed, the soldiers’ soaring morale would turn against them, and the force could collapse in an instant.
That situation had to be avoided at all costs.
Karl and Catherine fell silent and stared toward the western forest.
The sound of Corbin rushing along the palisade with a spear in hand, encouraging the soldiers, brushed against Karl’s ears.
Then, at some point, a chill ran down Karl’s spine.
“Lord Karl.”
Catherine called to him as she stared into the darkness.
The fire illuminating the palisade had constricted their pupils, making the forest impossible to see clearly.
But Catherine could sense killing intent.
And Karl, who possessed survival instincts nearly as sharp as those of a wild beast, sensed it as well.
“Prepare for battle!”
“Yes!”
Clack! Clack!
At the thunderous shout that seemed impossible to have come from Karl’s small body, the Imperial soldiers raised their spears high and rested them against the palisade, responding with a mighty roar.
“Prepare for battle! Prepare for battle!”
Corbin echoed the command, and the tension of battle surged across the palisade.
Yesterday, they had been attacked by an unimaginable number of gnolls and nearly died to the last man.
Even so, the soldiers and conscripts of this rural territory united behind astonishing morale and tightened their grips on their weapons without retreating.
There were no muffled sobs swallowed between trembling breaths from fear of battle and death.
Instead, there was a cold, explosive intensity that almost belonged to veteran troops.
‘Setting aside knowledge and experience, this alone is truly a demonic talent.’
Catherine shuddered at Karl’s strange charisma, which could transform an undisciplined mob of conscripts into men who seemed little inferior to elite soldiers.
At this level, they could hold out impressively even against a well-trained regular army.
No.
A regular army might instead be horrified by this absurd level of morale.
The razor-sharp fervor radiating from untrained farmers resembled the madness of fanatics.
What could not be understood naturally inspired fear.
“The shields of the Hardion Empire stand here! Here, we will remain unshaken and hold back even the fiercest wave!”
As he had the previous night, Karl raised his chin proudly and shouted in a powerful voice.
His billowing Red Cloak and the red plume on his Helmet drew every eye.
“You all saw hundreds of gnolls crumble like sand before barely thirty shields of the Empire!”
THUD!
Karl slammed the haft of the spear he had first picked up today against the ground.
“Do not be afraid! Whenever fear reaches out its black hand to seize you, raise your heads and look! See that the shields of the Empire still hold their ground here!”
THUD!
Karl struck the spear against the ground once more.
The Imperial soldiers followed by stamping their feet, creating a single tremendous reverberation.
As expected of soldiers trained in drill at the Imperial Palace, they read the moment perfectly and moved in flawless unison.
Karl went one step further than he had the previous night, when he had invoked the Emperor’s authority and the cause of the Empire.
“Do not fear death! Düren, who watches over all creation, is watching over you as you shed your blood for mankind!”
Because of Han Changin’s memories, Karl knew that gods truly existed in this world, yet he himself did not rely upon them.
But today’s experience had shown him just how desperately these people clung to their faith.
By invoking the name of a god, Karl erased fear from their hearts.
And cruelly, he also gave their deaths profound meaning.
Yet he did not speak only of dying.
“Fight with everything you have! Protect yourselves, protect your comrades, and beyond that, defend the Empire and the lands of mankind! Then survive and claim your glory! The glory you live to enjoy upon this earth is the brightest future Düren has prepared for you, and the grandest road leading toward paradise!”
Nothing burned hotter than the will to survive.
It was one of humanity’s most primal forces.
And precisely because it was primal, it was also one of its strongest.
Karl gave value to their deaths while singing of life, seizing their will to live and dragging it upward with all his strength.
His voice mingled with the heat of the burning torches and soared high into the autumn sky beneath the descending darkness.
The sudden stench of rotting corpses and rank beasts.
The barking that battered their eardrums.
And countless animal eyes gleaming brilliant yellow as they caught the torchlight from within the darkness!
“We must reclaim the lands of mankind, the lands of the Empire, our lands, from those filthy and hideous monsters!”
Even so, not a single person recoiled in terror.
Karl’s voice struck through all their minds, smashing apart their fear and igniting flames inside their shrunken hearts until their chests swelled with hot breath.
“Fight for yourselves! Fight for everyone! Never forget that all of us stand shoulder to shoulder here together!”
Us!
A cry that made you and me into one!
And the one declaring it was none other than Karl, an Imperial Prince, the son of the Emperor, one of the noblest members of the Imperial Family!
An unbearable blaze erupted from the deepest part of their hearts.
“Fight! For everyone!”
“WAAAAAAAH!”
Their roar erupted like a volcano and crashed like thunder.
The soldiers stamped their feet and beat their shields, answering Karl’s cry.
Their momentum was so immense and their fervor so fierce that the gnolls barking as they charged toward the palisade recoiled in shock and stopped in their tracks.
“Prepare the Fire Arrows!”
As the gnolls’ momentum abruptly faltered, Corbin seized the opportunity and issued his command.
Originally, they had planned to use the Fire Arrows to threaten and drive away gnolls hacking at the palisade with axes.
But they could not let this opportunity pass.
The archers hurriedly brought arrows wrapped in oil-soaked cloth to the torches and set them alight.
Once Corbin saw that the archers were ready, he shouted.
“Loose!”
THRUM!
There were not many archers.
Barely ten at most, and even those ten could not launch a proper sustained attack because they were running short of arrows.
Since the gnolls carried away the corpses, the soldiers could not recover the arrows afterward.
But to gnolls already hesitating before the soldiers’ sky-high fervor, even ten flaming arrows rising together seemed threatening.
THUD THUD THUD!
YELP!
Gnolls struck by the Fire Arrows collapsed.
The flames did not extinguish easily because the arrows had been coated not only with oil, but with dried and hardened waste taken from the latrines.
The result was a horrific stench mixed with the smell of burning gnoll fur and flesh.
When thick black smoke began billowing from the stubborn flames, the surrounding gnolls hurriedly backed away.
Normally, the gnolls had scarcely cared no matter how many Fire Arrows were fired at them.
Being struck did not kill them immediately.
Out of ten arrows, perhaps three gnolls would die.
And with so few arrows available that they would have to stop after perhaps thirty shots, the weapon had hardly seemed worth laughing at.
But Karl’s explosive display had already shaken the gnolls.
Now their attention was fixed upon the Fire Arrows, allowing them to see clearly as their wounded kin writhed in horrific pain while spewing smoke and foul odors.
“Prepare another volley of Fire Arrows! Quickly!”
Seeing this, Catherine gave the order in a powerful voice.
Although Karl was the commander of the extermination force dispatched under the Emperor’s orders, they had never formally discussed command authority, meaning Catherine technically had authority only over the Imperial soldiers.
But there was no time to concern themselves with such things now.
At Catherine’s command, the archers prepared another set of Fire Arrows and nocked them to their bowstrings.
“Loose!”
THRUM!
Once again, flaming arrows crossed the sky and plunged toward the gnolls.
YELP! YELP!
Not all of them struck.
Three buried themselves in the ground.
Even so, the gnolls panicked and milled about, unable to approach the palisade easily.
“WAAAAAAAH!”
At the sight, the soldiers’ morale soared even higher, and they unleashed a roar as hot as flame.
Some began wildly waving the torches mounted along the palisade, forcing Corbin to rush around shouting for them to be careful lest they set the defenses on fire.
Fear appeared in the eyes of the gnolls staring up at the violently swaying flames.
The gnolls might have learned to handle fire crudely enough to forge axes, but by nature they remained monsters closer to beasts, and their instinctive fear of flame ran deep.
Until now, their repeated victories against humans had made them forget that fear.
But they had suffered tremendous losses and a crushing defeat the day before, and now their momentum had been broken by soldiers whose morale soared into the heavens because of Karl.
Fear was beginning to creep back into the gnolls’ hearts.
“Sir Catherine, do you think they will retreat?”
Karl steadied his breathing, slightly ragged from his speech, and asked Catherine.
Looking at the situation now, it seemed possible that the creatures might withdraw…….
“I do not believe they will. If they intended to retreat, they would have done so already. Something we do not understand must be driving them to continue fighting.”
Catherine answered coldly.
If the gnolls were creatures that would retreat from something like this, they would never have attacked human villages in the first place.
More importantly, despite the enormous numbers killed, they had somehow replenished their forces to this absurd extent in a single day.
Something was clearly happening inside the forest.
And just as Catherine had predicted, even while frightened, the gnolls were beginning to creep toward the palisade again.
Karl tightened his grip on his spear and thrust one arm high into the air with a forceful motion, making certain that everyone could clearly see his Red Cloak fluttering behind him.
“Show those pathetic beasts the strength of mankind! Kill every last one of them!”
“WAAAAAAAH!”
Even as the gnolls advanced instead of retreating, the soldiers’ morale showed no sign of breaking.
Yet Karl could not rejoice.
Now that close combat was beginning, losses could no longer be avoided.
Tonight, too, would become another hellish ordeal.
Karl remembered the scene from his dream.
A mountain of corpses.
A sea of blood.
Even if he had to pile up corpses beneath his feet, he would climb atop them and survive.