80

“Open the gate!”

At the guard’s shout, the pulley briskly began to wind upward.

With a heavy roar, the firmly shut gate of Northwatch Castle opened.

─Clack

Five steeds and the five expedition members mounted on them rode through the opened gate onto the road.

The soldiers on the battlements fixed their gazes downward.

Worry, and bewilderment.

Hamel and his party calmly met all those stares and tightened their reins.

They were the only ones moving on the lands north of Northwatch.

Soon this place would become a battlefield covered in blood and flesh.

The wild men’s main force was not far off.

According to the scouts’ reports, they had set up camp at a place reachable within half a day.

Perhaps at the earliest, the war would begin later today or in the early morning tomorrow.

‘I hope there won’t be much unrest.’

If Hamel had not already demonstrated his prowess, the northern soldiers would have considered them madmen or traitors.

No.

“Do they still see us as crazy even now?”

Hamel murmured softly as he urged his horse onward.

The surroundings were quiet.

The phrase ‘the calm before the storm’ came to mind unbidden.

The northern forests and fields seemed empty of signs of life, so birdcalls and the sound of snow falling from branches sounded unusually loud.

How long had they ridden like that?

They emerged from a small wood into an open plain.

Tents filled the horizon and countless people bustled into view.

It was the wild men’s main force.

“…We’ve arrived.”

Rupert said in a slightly trembling voice.

Hamel asked in reply.

“Are you afraid?”

“No.”

Rupert shook his head firmly and looked down at his severed hand.

It was a mark of his past mistake and the direction he would take forward.

Though he had become a one-armed knight, Rupert had cast off his inferiority and arrogance along with the hand.

At least, that was how he thought of himself.

Rupert had nothing left to fear.

“Very well.”

Hamel watched Rupert and nodded with satisfaction.

Then, just as he was about to ride forward,

Ono muttered with a look of disgust.

“Isn’t it strange not to be afraid? We’re only five, charging into the enemy camp.”

“….”

“What now? Not going?”

Ono shrugged and moved ahead first.

Only then did the group let out small laughs and rode on with visibly relaxed faces.

─Clatter-clatter

The wild men did not ride horses.

They did not know how to domesticate horses or tend livestock.

Which meant that the horses were.

“…What is that?”

“Horses? Then… could they be the Empire men?”

They were simply too conspicuous.

The wild men’s gazes fixed on them.

They looked at the expedition with strange expressions.

Five was too few for an ambush, and they seemed at ease.

The resolve of attackers,

The fear of those about to go to war,

Nor could the abasement of the surrendered be felt.

That must have been why.

The wild men had not stopped Hamel’s party before they reached the camp’s edge.

“Who is the commander here?”

A wild man with a stunned expression answered Hamel’s question.

“…Commander?”

“The highest-ranking person.”

“Ah, you mean Black Wind. But… who are you?”

Even as he spoke, the wild man looked puzzled at himself.

Why was he politely answering the stranger’s question?

The reason was simple.

“We are the ones who will resolve this situation.”

“I… see. Wait here for now.”

He felt overwhelmed.

That was all there was to it.

The wild man who had sent someone inside nodded at the returnee’s report.

Then he personally led Hamel’s group into the camp.

“Bone Collectors! Take formation on the eastern hill! Rock Eaters! Food has arrived at the rear; move everything to the granary!”

The interior of the camp was surprisingly organized.

It would have been stranger if there were no order among ten thousand people.

Hamel thought it might be easier than he had expected.

Soon they were guided to a tent roughly four times larger than the others.

At the entrance, the wild man warned them, as if to frighten them.

“You’d do well to watch your words. Black Wind is cautious, but sometimes cruel.”

“Understood. We’ll be mindful.”

Hamel nodded and then opened the tent flap.

At once, a beastly scent rushed out.

Only faint light spilled inside the tent.

Faint silhouettes and the shape of a huge beast.

A masked figure stroked the enormous creature and spoke.

“So it’s you. Those who came to see the cargo.”

The voice boomed, perhaps because of the mask.

It was a voice that made it hard to tell if it belonged to a man or a woman.

Hamel nodded calmly.

“Yes. I am Hamel Gilmore, Exorcist priest of the order.”

“An Exorcist priest… I’ve never heard of that. But I do know priests.”

Suddenly Black Wind’s voice turned sharp.

“Fools who come out of nowhere to insult our god.”

An unexpected hostility.

The group looked flustered, as if in trouble, but Hamel remained composed.

It was not their first time facing such things.

“I have no intention of insulting your god, nor of proselytizing my faith.”

“…Is that so? Then why are you here?”

The other’s voice softened noticeably at Hamel’s calmness.

Was it his imagination, or had the arrogance leaked away a bit?

“Actually, our destination is not here. It’s north of here.”

“…North?”

Black Wind muttered as if having heard something strange.

Hamel nodded in response and answered.

“Yes. We have business at a temple located to the north.”

“What? Why there?”

“To eliminate the evil that resides there.”

Hamel looked at Black Wind with an unwavering gaze.

The conversation halted, and a calm silence flowed through the tent.

Then, the next moment.

“Pah-hah!”

Laughter burst forth.

Black Wind sneered in disbelief.

The chuckle grew until it became outright guffawing.

“Hahahaha! What? You’re going to eliminate that? This is hilarious.”

Composing the laugh into a mutter, Black Wind glared at Hamel and said,

“One of two things: you’re either idiots who have no grasp of the situation, or suicide seekers.”

“Neither.”

When Hamel shook his head, Black Wind spoke with displeasure.

“You say not? Then do you truly believe you can destroy them, bringing a one-armed knight and a girl?”

“….”

Rupert and Rena’s expressions twitched at Black Wind’s remark.

‘How should I persuade them?’

Hamel’s goal was not simply to head to the northern temple.

If possible, he sought something larger and had come to this wild man host.

Just as Hamel’s thoughts deepened,

“Over there!”

“Summon the chieftain!”

The outside grew noisy, and someone dashed into the tent in a hurry.

─Flap

“…Who goes there?”

Annoyed that their conversation had been interrupted, Black Wind growled the question.

The wild man hurriedly bowed his head and said,

“Forgive me. They’ve launched another attack.”

At that, Black Wind’s demeanor changed instantly.

He sprang to his feet, mounted the beast in an instant, and said,

“Lead the way.”

The creature rose and headed for the tent’s entrance.

As light poured in, its form finally came into clear view.

A black wolf.

It was far larger than an ordinary warhorse.

And the chieftain riding atop it, Black Wind, was….

…A woman?

Hamel saw red hair flowing beneath the mask.

Though clad in leather larger than her frame, her body made it clear she was female.

Then Black Wind brushed past Hamel and said,

“Follow. The cargo will show you directly the things you claim you’ll face.”

“…Very well.”

“Summon the cavalry!”

Black Wind shouted and then began to follow the guide.

Soon they reached the center of the commotion.

The northern outskirts of the camp.

There, wild men fleeing and those fighting were tangled in chaos.

With sharp eyes, Hamel could easily make out who they were fighting.

Motionless-faced creatures tore and bit the wild men.

They were Biters, the lowest undead and classified as low-tier demons.

Named for their habit of biting humans, they were not particularly difficult foes.

But the problem was not those creatures.

“A necromancer.”

Hamel fixed his gaze on someone behind the Biters, repeatedly chanting something.

An advanced demon, an undead mage who has gained immortality through a pact with demons.

Because of him, the fallen wild men rose on the spot as Biters.

No matter how many they killed, more Biters kept rising.

They had already formed a horde of hundreds of corpses.

Then.

─Whoosh

Black Wind started running while whistling.

Then something swarmed in from all directions.

A single force cut through the wild men and gathered.

It was cavalry, hundreds strong, riding wolves.

“The rumors were true.”

Rupert muttered under his breath, and Hamel nodded.

These must be the wolf cavalry they’d heard rumors about.

They were smaller than warhorses but extremely agile.

Their maneuvering among crowded people without causing huge casualties was proof of that.

The wolf cavalry formed a single unit in an instant, with Black Wind at the front, forming a wedge.

“A point breakthrough, is it?”

Hamel easily discerned their tactic.

The wolf cavalry intended to pierce the Biter horde and strike the necromancer’s neck.

Black Wind seemed to know that catching the necromancer would end the fight.

‘They’ve probably done this several times before.’

Their skillful response suggested they’d faced such situations multiple times.

However…

Hamel frowned.

Something nagged at him.

And a short while later.

─Crack

The cavalry collided with the Biters.

Contrary to Hamel’s worries, the Biters began to be crushed.

They rapidly closed the distance to the necromancer, breaking through in an instant.

Just as Black Wind’s spear was aimed under the necromancer’s neck,

─Kraang!

the unexpected happened.

“Aaaaargh!”

A massive mass of flesh suddenly burst up from the ground and overwhelmed the cavalry.

Black Wind barely evaded it, but several riders running shoulder to shoulder were caught by its hand and lifted.

Then.

─Rend

With a scream, bodies were torn apart in midair.

Hamel’s face contorted.

“…That is…”

A flesh golem.

It was a gigantic mass of flesh stitched together from many corpses.

When cut, it spewed powerful acidic fluid and regenerated constantly, making it terribly matched against knights.

The cavalry could not confront it and even lost the mobility needed for their point breakthrough.

As they tried to flank it, the necromancer, as if expecting this, used magic.

─Rumble

Walls of bone and skeletons rose from the earth.

The ambushing skeletons hurled the spears they held.

One by one, the riders fell to the ground.

A look of dismay appeared on Black Wind’s face.

They had been careless.

They’d faced this before and believed they could win easily this time too.

But they were wrong.

Just as they had learned, those monsters had learned as well.

And today they had laid a trap and waited.

Black Wind herself believed she would survive this place.

However, the wolf cavalry would be annihilated without exception.

‘I lost.’

Her hands trembled at the realization that her pride had driven her subordinates to death.

Just as she squeezed her eyes shut in despair,

─Whoooosh

blue flames swept across the battlefield.

Warm as an east wind, the flames surged like a wave and devoured everything.

Everything surrounding the riders turned to ash and vanished.

The wall of bone too.

The skeletons too.

Even the hundreds of Biters.

“Ah.”

Black Wind blinked in a daze.

At the source of the flames stood a single person.

He was the very man they had treated as a fool.