"......"
Leaf had no idea where the obstacles before him had come from. There were a few things he did know, though. First, shaking off a hundred humans in pursuit and escaping was impossible. Second, wearing heavy armor made him slow. Third, his stamina was spent from the fight just moments ago. And finally, the odds of him dying were staggeringly high.
'What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?'
Leaf let his right arm go limp. The tip of his spear tapped against the ground. The muscle soreness he hadn't noticed while drunk on the adrenaline of battle now crept up on him, one ache at a time. His entire body groaned with exhaustion.
"Captain! What's going on?!"
"What the hell are those bastards over there?!"
The adventurers came running to Leaf's side. They were the ones who had hastily broken from the formation the moment they heard his shout to flee. A few even hurled a torrent of abuse at Leaf for ruining the formation with his irresponsibility.
Leaf stared blankly at his surroundings.
"......"
Eyes filled with anxiety and alarm. The formation of heavy-armored infantrymen, collapsing at a rapid pace now that some adventurers had broken free. Goblins pouring through the gaps.
Beyond the blood-spattered air, hundreds of humans were tightening the noose. The encirclement Leaf had been so desperate to avoid was complete. Behind them, a massive goblin host. On both flanks, the villagers. And directly ahead, a hundred humans who had appeared out of nowhere.
"...Phalanx."
He muttered weakly.
"Form a phalanx..."
"Form a phalanx!"
A subordinate who understood the captain's words bellowed the order. It spread through the ranks immediately. Some thirty-odd adventurers and a handful of vigilante squad members arranged themselves into a square formation around Leaf. Even the vigilante squad members who had deserted the front lines, unable to withstand the goblins' relentless onslaught, squeezed in.
"Move, move, move!"
"Holy shit, what the hell is even happening?!"
Only five squad members managed to join the phalanx in safety. The rest had all died when their comrades' cowardly flight threw the formation into chaos. Every single person in the unit — Leaf included — heard the curses those dying men hurled at the adventure party's captain in their final moments.
"Leaf, you son of a bitch!"
"Fuck— ugh! Argh!"
In the end, half the squad couldn't hold their positions or flee — they crumpled right there on the dry ground. Cockroach-like goblin swarms latched onto the corpses. Flesh was torn open, blood pooled everywhere. Someone watching the scene swallowed hard. The phalanx was complete, but morale was in tatters.
"Captain, what the hell is going on?!"
"Why aren't the villagers attacking! How long are they going to just stand there watching! Captain! Are we just going to take it lying down! At this rate we'll be wiped out — wiped out!"
"Brotherrrr!"
Leaf didn't answer.
At the center of the phalanx stood Leaf and the mage. The mage had stayed at the very back of the unit during both the armored infantry charge and the line attack, so she'd been able to retreat into the phalanx easily. Even she — who always seemed lost in thought, her mind a thousand miles away — had realized the gravity of the situation now, and was scanning everything around her with sharp eyes.
This dumbass is our last hope.
Leaf gritted his teeth. He'd saved the mage for dealing with the golem. Thanks to that, the mage wasn't exhausted. Without a doubt, she could unleash some fairly powerful magic without breaking a sweat.
Use her as the "awl." Drive her to unleash every spell she had toward the weakest point in the encirclement. Once the enemy's minds shattered from the unexpected barrage of magic, punch straight through the gap in a single thrust.
Damn it — can this even work?
Time was running short. The goblins had already crashed in. The sturdy phalanx was holding them off for now, but a formation of only thirty-five or so people couldn't hold out for long. Ready or not, they had to push through.
Leaf asked the mage.
"Hey, can you prep your biggest, nastiest spell?"
"Mmm. I've got one, but it probably won't be enough to get us out of this."
The mage spoke as though it had nothing to do with her.
"Not to brag, but one-on-one combat is my thing — I don't know any mass-targeting spells. Well, mass-targeting spells require at least the 5th Circle to be usable anyway. Just so you know."
"Shut the fuck up with the useless chatter. Just get it ready."
"Already done. I started casting the moment you stopped running like a dog with its tail between your legs."
Rif stared at the woman in disbelief.
"First bit of good news I've heard since this goddamn battle started."
"Yaaawn. Looking several moves ahead is basic common sense, you ignorant adventurer. Unlike the likes of you, mages are at least a little bit smart. And among those, I'm particularly on the smart side. In conclusion, I'm much, much smarter than you. This is important, so underline it three times."
"Damn it."
Rif furrowed his brow, wondering if the mage had always been this talkative. But there was no time to spare on such thoughts.
His eyes darted back and forth, searching for the weakest point in the encirclement — somewhere a mere thirty-something squad members could break through. Beside him, the mage kept chattering away as if humming a tune.
"Even so, I think I'm still a touch behind whoever's commanding these monsters. He's exploiting human psychology at the most fundamental level. Deliberately refusing to let two of the villages join the adventurer party — that was a scheme to focus suspicion on them. Making everyone believe they defected, which is why they wouldn't join."
She had finally found something entertaining in her unbearably dull life, and her excitement showed. Behind her long lashes, her eyes sparkled.
"Though if you think about it, it's actually the opposite. If they were traitors, they'd be even more eager to join in order to orchestrate collapse from within. If all four villages had responded to the party, people might have grown suspicious. But cleverly, he let two villages join and kept two behind… heh. It's psychological. Extremely psychological."
"Shut up, you're annoying!"
"*You* shut up. Your breath reeks. It's so bad I honestly can't tell whether you're a human or a garbage disposal. Anyway, why aren't they deploying golems? That's what I'm curious about. Human heavy infantry is certainly powerful, but golems should be more than enough to handle it. Hmmmm."
Rif gave up trying to shut the female mage's mouth.
He simply could not find a gap in the encirclement. No matter which direction he looked, an overwhelmingly larger force was positioned there. Roughly two hundred humans… and well over three hundred goblins.
Even so, adventurers were dying one by one. Some squad members had their skulls cracked open by stones hurled by goblin slingers.
"Captain! We can't hold on any longer!"
"C-Captain!"
At last, they too sensed instinctively that the villagers approaching from both flanks were not allies. Allies would never look that murderous. Not a single person, however, put that feeling into words. The moment someone spat it out aloud, it felt like everything would come to an end.
In the end, Rif pointed in one direction as if throwing caution to the wind.
"Listen up, you lot! The second that spell goes off, charge in that direction! Don't stop for anything — don't give a damn if someone dies, just keep running! Got it?!"
"Yes, Captain!"
"Fire!"
Rif shouted at the woman. Before he had even finished speaking, she was already preparing her magic. From the tip of the staff she drove into the ground, a beam of black light leaked out. A small magic circle spread across the floor, then expanded in an instant until it covered the entire defensive perimeter.
"I shall wash curse with curse."
It took her only a single verse to activate the spell. Twelve fireballs materialized in midair. When she raised her staff and pointed, the fireballs shot out like rocks launched from a catapult. The goblins and humans in that direction never had time to react.
"Huh?"
While they froze, fireballs the size of a grown man swallowed them whole. Trails of flame accelerated outward, stretching across the field. Thirty goblins and ten humans were incinerated. In an instant, one section of the encirclement had thinned.
It was far more powerful than expected. Goblins, who instinctively feared fire, screamed and scattered in every direction. The humans living in the mountains, who had never seen magic in their lives, were also thrown into panic. To them, magic was no different from a natural disaster.
Rif roared.
"Aaaaaah!"
He issued no further orders. He simply charged forward. There was no problem with that, because his troops didn't wait for orders either. Now reduced to twenty-five, the warriors screamed in unison and sprinted in a single direction.
"Rraaargh!"
There were even humans who, undaunted by the magic, bravely stood in the adventurers' path. There was no time to deal with such people. Rif instinctively pulled a hand axe from his belt and hurled it at the human blocking the way. The axe spun through the air and sank deep into the other's forehead. The man's neck snapped as he toppled backward. The twenty-five remaining troops trampled over the corpse in a rush.
"You think dying once means you won't die again?!"
"Drop dead! Just die already!"
There was no formation. It was pure chaos. Only experience and instinct drove them. They swung their spears wherever their arms reached, cooperated with their comrades, and cut down every monster and human in front of them. The mage also conjured fireballs of her own accord and launched them at the most threatening obstacles.
They pressed forward, forcing their way through by sheer will. As time passed, one soldier after another fell. The magic had indeed sown terror, but they were vastly outnumbered. A rock thrown by a goblin stone-thrower shattered a man's spine. Five goblins rushing in at once knocked another off his feet. A human spear tore through someone's forearm. Countless different reasons brought the soldiers down. The conclusion was always the same: they died.
Yet some did tread over their fallen comrades to break through the encirclement. When they pierced the wall of enemies and emerged, only three survivors remained: Rif, the mage, and an officer named Sainai. Even after escaping the encirclement, they kept running for a long time. They knew that the monsters and humans behind them could give chase at any moment.
"I'm impressed. To think you'd hired a mage."
I was genuinely amazed.
I knew exactly how precious mages were in this world. Typically, a mage accumulated their family's secret techniques within their body over many generations, which allowed them to wield powerful magic. It took the effort and devotion of several generations before a single competent mage could be born.
"Punish me, Your Majesty."
Laura knelt on the ground.
"The failure to annihilate the enemy forces was entirely my own oversight."
"How would I, your lord, have known about the existence of a mage? The opponent simply had an unexpected card hidden up their sleeve. Do not blame yourself so harshly. Look."
I pointed to the plains below the village.
"Even those who fled amount to no more than three. No, now it's down to two."
In the distance, one of the three had just collapsed. It appeared he'd been struck by a stone projectile fired by a goblin. The remaining two hastily dove into a nearby forest. The woods would give them an advantage in escaping.
"A village fortified by four layers of wooden palisades—conquered. Three hundred humans—slaughtered. Every last heavy infantryman except two—wiped out entirely. If this isn't a decisive victory, then what is!"
"……."
On the plains, monsters and humans alike roared with cheers. It was the cry of victory. The earth was stained as red as the evening sky, and those standing upon it were not the enemy, but us. Not a single one of my direct-subordinate golems had fallen.
"Laura. I am proud to have you as my subordinate."
I personally helped her to her feet.
It was sincere.
Who could believe that this staggering record of battle had been accomplished by a mere sixteen-year-old girl? Through this battle, she had proven that she was indeed Laura de Farnese, and had earned my absolute trust.
Even after rising to her feet, Laura kept her head lowered. Only then did I notice her slender shoulders trembling faintly—very faintly. That was right. Even if she was destined to become the Iron-Blooded Chancellor ten years from now, right now she was a fallen noble-born young lady, a woman who had been treated as a sex slave until just recently, a girl who had never led an army in her entire life.
She must have felt the crushing weight.
She must have endured it all to repay my faith in her.
She must have buried it in a corner of her heart, never letting it show.
Now that everything was over and the tension had finally broken, perhaps all that accumulated stress had come rushing in at once. Perhaps that was why, despite having missed only two enemies, she had knelt—convinced she had failed to live up to my expectations.
I reached out and gently stroked her golden hair.
You did well, Laura. Truly, you did.
With those words in my heart, I stroked her hair as gently as I could.
"From now on, there will never be a reason for you to kneel again."
Laura looked up.
"...Yes, my Lord."
She was smiling. Tears glistening at the corners of her eyes.
The invasion of a Class E adventure party, composed of five united villages and seventy citizen-militia adventurers, had ended in an overwhelming victory for our Demon Lord's army.