Surprise Attack

Ashid chose one hundred subordinates who had fought alongside him on the southern front and headed north without obtaining his father’s permission.

There was no need to think too deeply about logistics.

Although Woody had taken one away, House Conrad still possessed several Storage Bags.

Since they carried two of them, they had enough food stockpiled to avoid problems even if something unexpected occurred.

“However, no soldiers seem to be chasing after us. I thought the duke would surely send pursuers…”

“Father must have realized the righteousness of my actions.”

They replenished supplies in several towns along the way, but they were never questioned by the ducal knights.

Since his father’s orders must certainly have been issued, Ashid had expected that he might need to break through them at worst, so the lack of resistance almost felt anticlimactic.

His father had no intention of stopping him.

In other words, he was giving passive approval.

That was how Ashid chose to interpret the situation.

“I heard that Wenti, which Woody claims to rule, is only about two weeks away after entering the desert from the wastelands. At this rate we should encounter them soon.”

Since the Storage Bags also had room for fodder, Ashid and his men were riding horses toward Wenti.

The number of villages Woody currently ruled was only two.

The exact distance was unclear, but the two locations were said to be quite far apart.

Ashid considered splitting the troops, but if the group without him were attacked by Aira or Nadja, it would become troublesome.

So even if it took more time, he planned to crush them one by one.

“Listen well! The people of the desert are not citizens of the kingdom! Which means— the laws of the kingdom do not apply! No matter how we treat them, there will be no problem!”

At Ashid’s words, the troops erupted in excitement.

The greatest pleasure for soldiers during war was plunder.

Therefore Ashid decided to motivate them by dangling a carrot before their eyes.

The plan worked, and breathing heavily with excitement, they crossed the wastelands faster than expected and arrived at their destination, Tree Village—.

“W-What the hell is that…?”

What Ashid and his men saw when they arrived at Tree Village was a village overflowing with greenery that hardly seemed like part of a desert.

No— could that even be called a village?

Its scale was already comparable to a town of the kingdom, and since such a place stood alone in the middle of the desert, its appearance stood out dramatically from the surrounding landscape.

The village looked bizarre.

First of all, despite being in a desert region with scarce water resources, the sheer amount of greenery alone was strange.

Trees surrounded the entire village in a wide circle, and every single one of them appeared well watered with lush leaves.

And that was not all.

From the small sand hill he had climbed to observe the village, Ashid could even see fruits growing on the trees.

If they were trees that stored water inside, it might barely be understandable, but producing fruit would be impossible without extremely abundant water resources.

In the distance he could also see something resembling an Oasis, and houses could be spotted nearby.

Even further beyond that, there were what appeared to be fields.

And covering all of it was something like a barrier.

It was transparent and did not block the view— most likely some kind of magic to repel monsters.

To Ashid’s eyes, that technique, built upon principles he did not understand, seemed to be created with light magic.

‘Have they gathered a large number of magicians…? No, that can’t be…’

If they could maintain something large enough to cover the entire village, it meant they had considerable resources.

But Ashid had never heard that Woody had recruited capable magicians.

If so, the only explanation was that he had won over the local desert people… but could that carefree man really have accomplished such a thing?

Abundant water resources, rich harvests beginning with fruit.

Solid houses lined the settlement, and with a monster-repelling barrier in place, they would not have to fear monster attacks.

“So this is the village Woody created…”

Before he realized it, Ashid had clenched his fist tightly.

“‘If you can use the aptitude of Tree Planting, then go plant trees in the desert where they’ll never grow! It suits you perfectly, big brother!’”

It felt as though Woody had taken revenge on him.

It felt as if he were being told that no matter what he did, it would be pointless.

“—Tch!”

Clicking his tongue, he glared down at Tree Village, one of the villages of Wenti.

Looking closely, no villagers could be seen.

The sky was already beginning to darken.

They had probably finished their farm work and returned home.

“They might be good at building villages, but Woody himself is weak trash! Let’s go, you bastards! Follow me!”

“OOOOOOOO!!”

Charging down the sand hill, Ashid and his men rushed toward Tree Village in a single assault.

Naturally Ashid himself took the lead and prepared to activate his magic.

Standing before them were only the barrier and the trees deployed around the village.

Considering the possibility of counterattacks, Ashid decided to destroy the barrier first.

“I’ll blast through that barrier— Chaos Flare!”

The magic Ashid unleashed after gathering his mana was Chaos Flare, his specialty mixed magic combining fire and darkness.

The black and red flames struck the barrier— yet instead of hitting it, they simply slipped straight through.

“Tch, it’s just for show. I wasted my caution.”

Since attack magic could pass through, it clearly lacked any interception function.

It was probably nothing more than a simple monster-repelling effect.

Because Ashid had stopped to control his magic, his subordinates advanced ahead of him.

But the same situation had happened many times on the battlefield, so Ashid had no worries about them.

Each of them was strong enough to rival several soldiers of the kingdom’s army.

“Move out! Offer victory to Lord Ashid!”

“Victory to Lord Ashid!”

Listening to their voices, Ashid’s expression relaxed.

Yet he felt a sense of unease.

It came from his almost pathological suspicion— would that vicious and cunning Woody really allow them to invade so easily?

And judging by the result… that feeling was not mistaken.

“I’ll go first! Follow me!”

Under the command of his adjutant Karion, the village gradually drew closer.

Then, when the trees growing before the village came into view… he tilted his head.

Looking ahead with a puzzled expression, he could clearly see trees growing at spaced intervals.

“…Huh?”

Something about those trees felt strange.

Considering the position of the sun, the shadows seemed oddly swollen.

But assuming there was no problem, they continued forward— and the moment they tried to pass through the trees, the trees vanished all at once.

“W-What’s going on?!”

As Karion hurriedly tried to look around, a massive shadow fell over him.

When he looked up, he saw a towering, expressionless giant looking down at him from a height even greater than where he sat on horseback.

“A… a golem…?”

A fist came crashing down toward Karion’s head.

And the hidden Wood Golems began moving all at once, launching their attack on Ashid and his men—.