79

Something is here.

Hamel felt that certainty when he grasped the true nature of the wilders’ attack.

He thought he might finally have found a trace of David this time.

‘There is nothing here that you seek. Leave this place to your companions and it would be best to go north.’

It was exactly as the man they had met in Snowglum had said.

Hamel hardened his expression and asked.

“So you weren’t invading but fleeing here for refuge.”

“……”

“What happened in the north?”

The chieftain’s expression darkened at Hamel’s question.

He was astonished by Hamel’s insight, yet too frightened to speak.

Hamel waited a moment, then decided to manage the situation first.

“I’ll give you some time, but if you say nothing I cannot help either.”

“……”

Hamel gathered the remaining non-combatant tribespeople.

Under the chieftain’s lead, the tribespeople obediently followed behind Hamel.

Thus Hamel headed to Northwatch Castle with the scouts who had been waiting.

How far had they gone?

In the distance, a small but well-kept castle appeared.

─Pwoooooooo

The Northwatch troops, startled by the suddenly appearing large force, moved about in a flurry.

They seemed to have judged them the enemy.

It was not yet time for reinforcements to arrive.

“Riders, raise the banners.”

The riders, who had been moving stealthily and had dismounted, finally took out their banners and hung them on the poles.

The flags, caught by the north wind, thrashed and unfurled wide.

Glenval’s emblem of crossed swords.

It did not take long for the Northwatch garrison to recognize it.

Wilders do not ride horses in the first place.

The scouts and the rangers took positions at the front of the formation.

“Hey! It’s us! Third Company Ranger Caesar!”

“…Caesar? It really is Caesar?”

“That fellow’s alive.”

The Northwatch guards murmured loudly upon spotting a familiar face.

The guards relaxed their drawn bows and loosened the strings.

Some were about to open the gate at once, but others stopped them.

Behind these riders, hundreds of wilders taken as prisoners could be seen; opening the gate would be risky.

It was hard to believe that those maybe a hundred strong had taken hundreds of hostages.

At that moment the man who appeared to be the captain of the guard hesitated about what to do.

“Daniel. Please ask politely.”

“Ah, right.”

At Hamel’s words, Daniel dismounted and approached the castle gate.

But only for a moment.

─Kwakjik

He stamped his foot and sprinted toward the wall with explosive force.

Daniel, who ran with such momentum that the ground seemed to crush beneath him, ran up the wall and in an instant stood atop it.

Seeing this, the guard captain swallowed and asked.

“…Y-you are?”

“I am Daniel, a knight of the Haidern estate. I was sent as a scout to aid Northwatch by order of Lord Raikard. Here, this is a letter sealed by Lord Sturnhelm.”

Daniel leisurely took the sealed letter from his bosom.

The guard captain nodded as he received it.

If the knight who had leapt the wall had wanted, slaughtering them and opening the gate would have posed no trouble.

Their doubts were washed away.

“Open the gate!”

“Open the gate!!”

─Kugugugugung

The pulley rose and the gate began to open.

Two days passed.

Raikard arrived at Northwatch leading a large force of eight thousand infantry and five hundred knights.

They had reached the castle a day before the wilders’ main force.

At this point the outcome was decided.

The only question left was how much further damage could be mitigated.

He thought so, but…

“Heh heh. Well now. I wonder if I came here for nothing.”

Raikard was momentarily at a loss for words at the scene before him.

How should he describe it?

Many questions arose, but the one he was most curious about was this.

“How many of them are there exactly?”

They filled the square and had even set up temporary shelters outside the walls.

As a precaution, the elderly and infirm were inside the castle, and unarmed men were outside.

At a glance it was hard even to estimate their numbers.

He looked at Hamel with an incredulous gaze.

Hamel opened his mouth calmly and answered.

“All six tribes, about three thousand people in total.”

“…Three thousand.”

He had been told the main force was just over ten thousand, hadn’t he?

Yet Hamel had captured three thousand wilders with only a hundred horsemen.

“Perhaps we’ve wasted supplies unnecessarily.”

Of course, Raikard spoke in jest.

Preparation can never be excessive.

If defenses failed, many would die or be wounded.

However, Hamel, taking the remark seriously, shook his head.

“These are not part of the main force. Having moved separately, they were easier to defeat in detail.”

“…So the main force is different?”

“According to what they said, yes.”

Hamel turned his gaze to the bound wilders.

There were six of them.

They were the six chieftains of the tribes, including the leader of the Black Carrion Crow tribe, who had been captured first.

They looked at Raikard with terrified expressions.

He was a cold-blooded lord who had never spared prisoners, and an overwhelmingly powerful sword master.

To the wilders, Raikard was like a nightmare.

“Hmm.”

Raikard scanned them with cold eyes, keeping his voice flat.

That was all.

But at that small gesture the chieftains froze like frogs before a snake.

“Can we trust them?”

“They did not seem to be lying.”

Hamel interrogated each of the six chieftains separately when they were captured.

Their words and actions were uniformly consistent.

“Giants and wolves the size of wild dogs tamed as spiders, and cavalry riding wolves…”

Raikard could not help but let out a hollow laugh.

Wasn’t it the sort of tale one might hear in a fairy story?

These were things he had never once seen during his time as the guardian of the north.

“There’s the possibility they conspired to fabricate the story.”

“These tribes lived in different places and arrived at different times, so they would not have had time to coordinate tales.”

“And there was testimony that bothered me.”

“What testimony bothered you?”

“…That is…”

Hamel thought for a moment before speaking.

“What they truly feared was not the leader of the wild men’s main force.”

“Then they feared what?”

Raikard tilted his head in puzzlement.

Then, as if something had come to mind, he asked.

“Perhaps me?”

“Of course that’s possible too, but…”

Hamel trailed off as he looked at the chieftains who were so frightened they could not meet his eyes.

But what he wanted to say was something else.

“There was a reaction they showed as consistently as their reports of the main force’s size and composition.”

“What was that?”

Raikard unconsciously leaned toward Hamel.

“That is this assault, no, the cause of this flight procession.”

“……”

The chieftains flinched at Hamel’s words.

“The cause…”

Raikard had considered it as well.

Why would they launch such a large-scale attack in this springtime?

The wilders had long since learned one thing thoroughly.

That heading south meant nothing but death.

‘If so…’

Did that mean there was something in the north they feared more than death?

Hamel called them a flight procession.

If they came down fleeing from something, the account made sense.

Only then did Raikard feel the pieces of the situation fall into place.

“What on earth is that cause…?”

Hamel looked at Raikard, who had asked the question, for a moment and then spoke.

“The dead.”

“…?”

“The dead are attacking the living.”

Hamel answered with a troubled expression.

Undead.

Contrary to the name meaning ‘those who are not dead,’ they are clearly the dead.

They simply chose to attack the living rather than lie in coffins.

Hamel, too, as a priest of the order, had encountered countless undead.

Those revived by necromancy in the southern desert of the Empire.

Immortal mages contracted with demons.

And even followers worshipping heretical gods.

Hamel had reduced them all to ash.

This time would be no different.

“I will go.”

Hamel said calmly.

Raikard asked back with an uneasy expression.

“The battle with the wild men’s main force is at hand. Is it really that urgent?”

“War is not my duty. And according to the chieftains’ words, this cannot be ignored.”

Undead.

That is, the dead are attacking the living and increasing their numbers.

There was also testimony that evil monsters constantly rose from a temple once worshipped by the wilders.

This was precisely the matter for Exorcist priest Hamel to take on.

“…If you truly think so, then it cannot be helped.”

Raikard nodded with a reluctant expression.

Then he gestured to someone behind him.

“Rupert.”

“Yes.”

“Follow Lord Hamel and assist him. Do not make a mistake this time.”

“…I will lay down my life.”

Rupert thumped his steel armor with a clang.

Raikard nodded and said.

“We will provide any support you need.”

“Thank you.”

Hamel bowed his head and turned away.

From now on it would be a race against time.

“Sir Rupert.”

“Command me.”

“There are things I need you to procure.”

Hamel handed Rupert a sheet of paper densely filled with items.

Rupert took it and checked it quickly.

Then he murmured without meaning to.

“Catnip, ammonia, sulfur…?”

Rupert could only be stunned at what was written on the note Hamel had given him.

For it listed nothing but strange, unrecognizable items.

“Obtain them as quickly as possible.”

Hamel answered briefly and hurried on.

Rupert urgently reached out and asked.

“W-wait a moment. How will you prepare supplies?”

“Supplies?”

“Aren’t you taking knights with you?”

“…?”

Hamel looked back at the question as if he had heard something odd.

Then he pointed between Rupert and himself and said.

“No knights will go.”

“Yes?”

“Only my party and you, Rupert, will go.”

Hamel answered calmly and then vanished.

“…?”

Was he really hearing correctly?

Rupert stood there like a soulless man.

Ono appeared from somewhere with a look of understanding and patted his shoulder.

“If you’re going with that fellow, it’s ten to one that it means this.”

“…Is he always like this?”

“Yes. If you survive this time, I’m curious which god you’ll offer thanks to.”

Ono left with a wry, resigned smile.

Far off, Daniel and Rena were already packing and preparing.

Only then did Rupert realize.

That he might truly have to lay down his life.