Chapter 03: The Salt Road
The March of Guzzle in the Carpa Kingdom.
That said, it applied to the whole western part of the southern continent, not just the Carpa Kingdom alone. In other words, just as the capital was currently welcoming the season with the strongest sunrays within the year, so the March of Guzzle was undergoing the murderous heat as well.
These circumstances made it extremely unlikely that a war “amongst humans” would break out during this season according to a mutual understanding between the rulers of the South Continent.
A species that adopted the best to the hot and humid South Continent. The predominant animal on the continent, which surpassed humanity by far in the term of simple habitat.
The carnivore dragons.
The Guzzle army marched out during the second most unsuitable season for battles, in order to restore the business on the “Salt Road” that was assumed to be disrupted by these carnivore dragons.
With a troop strength of around a hundred soldiers, they slowly advanced north on the “Salt Road”.
Although the “Salt Road” was a peerless state road in the Carpa Kingdom, it was built quite plainly in the eyes of a person from the modern age.
It didn’t even compare to the gobbled state roads of the Roman Empire that have existed before the Common Era, much less the concrete highways of modern Japan.
Not to say that the flourishing road works of the Roman Empire might just have been an exceptional case in the history of Earth, considering the road conditions in Europe or Middle East after old Rome.
The vanguard was composed of knights mounting big and green “Raptorial Dragons”.
The other soldiers, all carrying short spears, were following behind them on foot.
More than half of the troops had already emptied their drinking bottles hanging from their waists.
Compared to “Raptorial Dragons”, the “Hulking Dragons” moved at a snail pace, but they were much stronger in compensation for it. They easily pulled the freight wagons, which were loaded with spare weapons, rations, water, firewood and cauldrons for cooking, and left big and deep tracks in the ground.
If anything, the capacity of transporting from the “Hulking Dragons” was abnormal when faced with the common practice during the Middle Ages on Earth, as they could carry the estimated supplies for a hundred soldiers during a long-term operation on just a few wagons.
Compared to a typical formation, the number of knights was somewhat small, but the operation this time assumed that “the carnivore dragons had to be suppressed inside the forest” after all.
In reality, the five knights would dismount from their raptorial dragons and entrust the reins to their squires when it was time to fight.
One of these five, a young knight with a small build and black hair and eyes, was repeatedly taking short, deep breaths for a while now, careful that no one nearby would notice it.
Xavier Guzzle.
That was the name of this fledging knight.
On a closer look, Xavier’s facial features closely resembled the Marquis’.
Right now, he was riding a raptorial dragon, so his height was hard to tell, but it seemed like he was even shorter than Zenjirou. Zenjirou was a hundred and seventy-two centimetre tall, so Xavier’s height must only amount to a little less than a hundred and seventy or around a hundred and sixty-five at worst.
He definitely didn’t look like a reliable commander. As he himself was aware of that, he was excessively straightening his back on top of the raptorial dragon this whole time so as to appear taller even just a bit.
Of course that was entirely his imagination. Even though the sun was only just starting to raise, the foot soldiers had to march on and on amidst the brutal heat, so they could hardly afford to pay any special attention to their spearheading commander. Thus Xavier’s effort was in vain.
The young and fair-skinned squire, walking next to him with a spear, looked worried up to Xavier on the raptorial dragon, but Xavier wasn’t composed enough to notice his look right now.
That said, it would exhaust him sooner or later when he kept up a riding position with strained shoulders over a long time, and provoke mistakes.
The one making this proposal while concealing a wry smile, was a middle-aged knight riding on a raptorial dragon at an angle behind Xavier.
“Sir Joseph…”
Knight Joseph was a veteran soldier with a long military service, who had become renowned in the previous war.
There was no reason to have a knight of his standing deliver the mere power of attorney and order.
Xavier appreciated his father’s concern, but at the same time, he felt ashamed.
“Isn’t it a bit too early for that, Sir Joseph? I think the original plan was to cover a bit more distance during the morning.”
“Indeed, Xavier-sama. That was the plan, but the temperature exceeds our presumption today. The soldiers are already starting to become tired. I believe it would be dangerous to push on any further.”
Hearing his subordinate’s suggestion, Xavier raised a voice as if he was caught off-guard.
If Xavier had been walking on his own feet, he probably would have noticed the fatigue of the soldiers through his own, but unfortunately he had to preserve his dignity as the commander, so he was riding a raptorial dragon.
The young son of the Marquis, properly educated in leadership, nodded with “okay”, then turned around on the back of the dragon and declared to his men following after him with a voice as loud as possible.
They would get to rest when they proceeded just a little farther.
Witnessing that, Xavier became aware of his own incompetence once again.
He must have been born with an earnest disposition.
The third son of Marquis Guzzle, Xavier clenched his fists so tightly that his delicate body shook on top of the big raptorial dragon and admonished himself like that.
Several days later at noon.
The thick forest on both sides of the “Salt Road” was growing trees in abundance and there were no natural spots to encamp with a hundred people, but the “Salt Road” was still a state road of the Carpa Kingdom in a way.
The voices of the soldier resounded all over the place on this man-made lawn.
“We want to start cooking! Someone give us a hand with ‘Ignition‘!”
The most noticeable thing for making a camp was “magic” as expected.
These kind of people were rather useful for pitching up a camp like this.
The “correct intonation” and “correct amount of magical power” aside, it was extremely difficult to sustain the “correct perception” in the middle of a battle.
Due to that, the relative importance of magic in the military mainly inclined towards matters outside the battlefield like this.
A temporary headquarter was built by putting up four walls with the “Earth Wall” magic and spanning a white tent over them. Inside of it, Xavier Guzzle sat on a wooden folding chair and was craning his neck after he finally got off the raptorial dragon.
Relieving the tension of his whole body from the long ride, Xavier grimaced in both pain and ease and a sound escaped his mouth.
As expected, he must have been too worried about the eyes of his men, straining his body more than necessary.
A mere tent couldn’t really block off the intense sunlight, but the earth walls raised with magic could perfectly shut it out.
The water drops dripped from his short, black hair down onto his neck and from there into his clothes.
“Oh, thanks, Andrés.”
A bit of water like that would dry in no time under the blazing sun, but it would still felt uncomfortable regardless.
Xavier drunk the content of the taken cup in one gulp half out of reflex. At that very moment
A low, but clear voice could be heard from beyond the cloth of the tent.
While instructing Andrés, standing at attention next to him, with a glance to tidy up the interior, he called out like that to the knight standing outside the tent.
Inside the makeshift headquarter with its earth walls and cloth ceiling, Xavier Guzzle still sat on the simple folding chair and heard the report from Knight Joseph and a soldier supposedly in his thirties, who was the captain of the reconnaissance party.
Hearing the information from the captain, Xavier leaned a bit forward on his chair and raised a surprised voice.
The soldier replied with a loud voice, so that the three-day-old beard around his mouth vibrated.
A wise decision.
Sitting on his folding chair, Xavier unconsciously clenched his fists tightly on his lap.
“I see… Then we can’t waste any time. I guess, I ought to put the entire force on the alert.”
So as to advice the fledgling knight with the tensed shoulders, the veteran knight spoke.
“Mh?”
It could indeed prove to be difficult for the young and inexperienced soldiers to execute the command, when they were told “The carnivore dragons might be near. Be careful and take a rest”.
Die-hard soldiers, who fought in the previous war, were a minority here.
The question of the youthful commandant made the long-established knight raise an eyebrow, then
he answered smoothly like that.
For a moment, Xavier was about to make some kind of decision after hearing that answer, but Knight Joseph continued and interrupted that resolve.
“Hmm…”
If they were to put the entire body of soldiers on the alert, a bunch of soldiers would be unable to make the most of the long-awaited break. But if they didn’t do it, they were at risk of being attacked off-guard by the carnivore dragons.
Xavier suppressed the impulse to ask the veteran knight in front of him what he ought to do, and pondered.
“….”
That was a habit, which was drummed into him by his teacher for military leadership.
“A decision on the battlefield should always be made within ten seconds. And at the sight of the enemy, it is required to make a decision within three seconds.”
Before long, Xavier exhaled a big breath and straightened his back on top of the chair, then gave his orders to his subordinate before him.
“Okay. No need to put the soldiers on the alert. Only pass on the information to the knights and unit leaders. Let the other soldiers finish their lunch and recharge their energy as always.
Once the lunch break’s over, we’ll disclose the report from just now to the entire body of soldiers and march along on the alert. That’s all.”
“Yes, Sir.”
The captain of the advanced reconnaissance party and Knight Joseph respectfully affirmed the decision of their commandant.
Right after he finished his sentence, a doubt towards his own decision swelled up inside of him.
Now that he had given the order, it would undoubtedly be his fault if the “carnivore dragons” were to attack them during their break.
Whether they knew of these worries of the inexperienced commander or not, Knight Joseph and the captain of the reconnaissance party bowed once, then quickly left the tent.
The tactful, young squire pretended to have not heard the unwitting grumble of his lord at all.
The hundred-strong army from the March of Guzzle, led by Xavier Guzzle, had halted in the middle of the “Salt Road” under the blazing sun.
To put the scene in front of Xavier’s party in a nutshell: “Horrific”.
The hulking dragons were dead, still hitched up to the wagons with leather straps.
And lastly, the corpses of many humans laid near the wagons.
Quite a few days must have passed since the attack. The corpses were slowly decaying and gave off a strong stench.
The black insects crawling here and there through the rotten flesh, which had dissolved into a reddish brown colour, were a swarm of flesh flies and the white spots in patches were a colony of eggs laid by the flesh flies.
“Agh…!”
“Don’t throw up! If you let this wear you out, you’ll be a drag in the battle later on!”
At the rear, the veteran soldiers were giving the fledgling soldiers, who struggled against nausea, a harsh pep talk.
Thus the reason for their nausea ought to be the stench.
In fact, even Xavier would have succumbed to the boiling urge of his stomach, if not for his “sense of duty” and “vanity”, which corded up his gullet.
“Xavier-sama, your orders please.”
Recalling the duty he had to fulfil through Knight Jospeh’s frank words, Xavier suddenly seemed to come back to his senses and took a deep breath. Then he gave his orders.
“Roger!”
“Clear the road. The inspection team is coming through.”
The men of the inspection team trotted over to the corpses, whereupon the swarm of flesh flies, which had huddled together on the corpses like a layer of mud so far, took off all at once. The vicinity turned dark as if covered by a black fog.
The term inspection team sounded rather scientific, but in reality, it wasn’t anything that fancy. Their members were actually “skilled hunters”.
They could determine the species in question from evidences like bite marks or excrements, and estimate their numbers from the state of the victims. Moreover, they could even give a rough estimate for how long the victim had been dead based on the progress of the decomposition of the corpse.
Before long, the hunters of the inspection team came up to Xavier.
A middle-aged man with a brown three-day stubble spoke as the representative of the hunters standing in front of Xavier.
Xavier’s cheeks twitched upon hearing the words from the middle-aged hunter.
Everyone here had heard of that name before. The carnivore dragon was that popular in the western part of the South Continent.
When full-grown, the dragon was a head or two taller than a human.
To match it with an animal from Earth: A “kangaroo” would probably mirror its silhouette the most.
Just like the name “Pack Dragon” implied, these dragons usually stayed together as a pack.
However, Xavier knew a bit about the nature and ecology of the “Pack Dragons”, so he inclined his head puzzled on top of his raptorial dragon in reaction to the report from the hunter.
The bearded hunter confidently agreed with the question of the commandant.
The hunters, experts on the topic, assured it with such emphasis. There could be no doubt then.
“I see. If you say so, I shall believe you. But I don’t get it. The salt merchants were all killed by mere ‘Pack Dragons’? Their escort was supposed to be quite numerous and skilled.”
The corpses were already so decayed or eaten up that it was no longer possible to distinguish between a merchant or a guard, but judging from the scattered wreckage of short spears and bows, there had been an substantial fighting force.
However, the bearded hunter shook his head with a stern expression.
The alpha leader of such a huge pack doesn’t just have to be big and strong. The important part is whether he can feed all of them or not. In most cases, the leader is abnormally smart and they hunt cunningly.”
Comprehending the situation through the explanation from the hunter, Xavier darkened his expression.
As you can see, the road is flanked by trees.
“Twenty to thirty, huh.”
However, the hunter shook his head once more while keeping an indifferent face.
“Fifty, you say!? Your reason being?”
On a closer look, even the other hunters were looking surprised upon the utterance from the bearded hunter. In other words, it was the sole opinion of the hunter with the beard.
“I’m sure you can see it from here. Please take a look at the dead hulking dragons that were pulling the freight wagons of the salt merchants. Although it’s not all of them, various of them have bite wounds on their back, right?
But they got quite a bit of humans and eight hulking dragons here. Despite that, they even mangled the backs of the hulking dragons. That means…”
“Yes, that’s what I believe.”
“That’s merely a rough estimate from me, though. But I think it needs to be at least this much, considering that the merchants, coachmen, back staff, soldiers and the tender and delicious meat from the eight hulking dragons didn’t fill their stomachs.”
Even if it was a rough estimate, the words of the bearded hunter were convincing, so Xavier bit his bottom lip and pondered with a serious expression.
If that forecast turned out to be true, then it was a formidable enemy even for the hundred-strong army led by Xavier.
The acceptable loss of human resources was slim.
There were basically two choices: Prioritize his achievement and let valuable soldiers of his domain die. Or throw away his achievement and request the help from the royal army to protect the lives of his soldiers.
At heart, Xavier put the lives of his soldiers over his own achievement, but he was aware that he was in no position to make such a decision based on emotion.
His reputation or the lives of his soldiers?
Xavier realized that his train of thought was hitting a dead-end, so he concentrated on comprehending the situation before his eyes for now.
He skilfully turned around the dragon he was riding on the spot and declared that in a loud voice to his subordinates standing in the back.
“You heard the man. Those with an axe, clear an area big enough for cremation.
After that, carry the corpses and wagon wreckages over there and use ‘Ignition’ on them. Don’t forget to wear masks and gloves when you move the corpses. Don’t you dare to touch them with your bare hands, unless you want to die from the poison in the corpses.
And be careful that none of the fires spreads to the surroundings. Have someone with ‘Spring of Water’ be on standby just in case.
Got it? Good.
“N- No.”
“Commence!”
he declared the execution with a loud voice.
By the time the intense sun of the hot season started to decline in the west, black smoke was trailing over the decayed corpses and wrecked wagons on the side of the “Salt Road”.
The young soldiers were sweating all over as they pulled the ropes tied around the stinking corpses over “rollers” made from felled trees cut into the right length.
The sweat streamed down their cheeks and dripped from their chins onto the dry soil, soaking it black here and there.
And the scorching sun wasn’t the only reason for that. The decayed corpses and wrecked freight wagons were burned together in one big fire.
Smoke was raising and the air was flickering from the red flames.
Xavier said that while he wiped the sweat from his forehead with a dry towel.
The stench from the rotten flesh had certainly become weaker, but more likely, his nose had quit the service and he just couldn’t smell the stench anymore.
As the criteria for one task were met, Xavier regained a bit of his composure and averted his gaze from the blazing flame.
“Mh?”
He must have felt Xavier’s look on him. Without even being called, he came trotting to in front of Xavier.
Judging by the sour face he made, it surely were unpleasant news again, but in his position, Xavier had to listen to it regardless.
“Speak.”
He immediately urged him to speak up with an expression as if he had swallowed a bitter medicine.
“Something is weird, Xavier-sama. At first I thought it was just a coincidence, but the wheels or axles of all three freight wagons were broken, so that they couldn’t move anymore.”
Xavier gave a short affirmative reply to the words of the bearded hunter.
However, there wasn’t a single wagon left that was functioning properly.
“Sure, it isn’t all that strange that all wagons get damaged beyond functionality by chance, since it was a large-scale assault. But as far as I can see, it seems that the ‘Pack Dragons’ destroyed the wheels of each wagon by trusting their ‘claws’ and ‘fangs’ into it.”
There was only one reason why they would do that.
“Yes. I find it hard to believe, too, but it would be better when we assume so. There are actually a few more points that confirm their high intelligence.”
In reaction to Xavier’s enquiry, the bearded hunter deepened the wrinkle between his eyebrows and continued with a grim tone.
“And that’s something impossible?”
“No, I wouldn’t go as far as calling it impossible. As you can see, the road is small and flanked by densely growing trees. If an coordinated pack of Pack Dragons attacked from both sides at the same time, it’s conceivable that the escorts were wiped out without getting to retaliate.
After finishing his sentence, the bearded hunter inclined his head as if he himself wasn’t quite convinced by what he had said.
Something was clearly fishy about that, even if it wasn’t impossible.
“With this in mind, I believe that the reason why we didn’t find any dead Pack Dragons, lies with the dragons, too, not the ‘off-guard escort’.”
Xavier was about to ask “what reason specifically?”, when it happened.
“A flying dragon in the sky from north-north-east!”
The loud voice from the outlook soldier resounded through the vicinity.
Xavier’s look reflexively turned to the north-north-eastern sky. There it was.
The silhouette only looked like a black dot at first, but it gradually grew bigger and its finer outline became noticeable.
It was without a doubt a winged dragon. And one in a different league than the “Small Flying Dragon” that humans used for communication: A genuine Flying Dragon.
Xavier gave the whole team orders so smoothly that it even surprised him inwardly.
“A flying dragon!?”
“Damnit, was it lured here by the smoke!?”
“Xavier-sama! Over here!”
Xavier jumped off his raptorial dragon and pulled on the hand by his squire Andrès, he slipped into the phalanx formation of the commandant’s personal squad.
Surrounding by his subordinates with readied spears, Xavier got his favoured short bow from his squire Andrès and took a deep breath. Then he mumbled to himself while keeping his eyes on the Flying Dragon in the sky.
He wasn’t whimpering or anything.
Because it was nearly impossible for them to land in the dense forest with their enormous, membranous wings.
If they were going to fight against a Flying Dragon, they ought to have long spears instead of short spears and longbows instead of short bows.
The bearded hunter had appeared next to Xavier at some point with a short bow in hand. He was taking a knee and said that to Xavier with a tensed voice while watching the Flying Dragon in the sky.
Xavier asked him, whereupon the hunter nodded shortly while cautiously keeping the dragon in sight.
It normally tended to be misunderstood, but in reality, the large Flying Dragons weren’t all that much of a threat to an army.
Think about it. The Flying Dragon was a dragon that flew through the sky. Its prey was limited to ones with a weight that the dragon could lift up with its claws after all.
In fact, travelling merchants, who couldn’t hire enough escorts, normally brought one or two old “Hulking Dragons” along as a “sacrifice” to the Flying Dragon when they crossed over a plain.
Nevertheless, it was hardly a comfort for the individual soldier.
“…..”
A few archers were readjusting their aim in a posture that looked like they would fall flat onto the ground of the road at any moment. The point “right above the head” was a blind spot for an archer. An exceptional skill was required to shoot straight upwards while standing.
Considering the eyesight of the Flying Dragon, it was impossible that it didn’t notice them. Just like the hunter had said, the Flying Dragon must not have wanted to dive into the narrow road with trees densely growing on both sides, either.
“…..Fuh.”
And he wasn’t the only one.
The tension from the encounter with an unexpected difficulty eased in the entire body of soldiers when they got out of that difficulty without any problems. At that very moment.
“HISS!”
A couple of large silhouettes attacked Xavier’s party from both side of the road.
“UWAH!?”
“GAH….!”
Crushing the soldiers underfoot, “they” revealed their appearance on the road.
The whole body was covered by green scales and it was one head taller than a human: A two-legged carnivore dragon.
The Pack Dragon.
Seven Pack Dragons in total, three from the right and four from the left, flattened seven soldiers under their thick legs and drooled from their mouths that were showing off their sharp fangs.
In that case, the alpha leader of these Pack Dragons even used the movement pattern of the Flying Dragon, which was actually supposed to be their feared enemy as well, to their advantage.
Whatever the real circumstances were, it still took a few more moments until the novice commandant aka Xavier adopted to the sudden development.
The Pack Dragons had made a surprise attack while everyone was focussed on the Flying Dragon in the sky.
Now it made sense. If they could perform such a perfect surprise attack, it was understandable that the guards of the salt merchants ended up dead without resistance, too.
However, even if the escorts of the salt merchants had been quite skilled, they neither were as good as the proficient knights, nor as numerous.
“…All hands, engage! The shield soldiers take position towards the forest, the spearmen attack from behind them! The archers shoot from within the formation! Don’t let the Pack Dragons near the wagons!”
“Roger!”
“Understood. Supplier! Make sure to replenish the arrows!”
The battle had started with the surprise attack by the Pack Dragons, but the tide was slowly changing.
Xavier was leading a pure military party with the mission to subjugate dragons. Once they recovered from the surprise attack, they were not beaten so easily.
“Spearmen, fall back! Focus on keeping them in check rather than attacking them!”
As soon as Xavier and the others changed over to an organized counterattack after coming back to their senses, the battle was locked in stalemate.
The archers with their short bows at the rear were sometimes sending arrows when they saw an opening, but the branches or the leafage of the trees were in the way and barely any arrows hit the Pack Dragons.
Its draw weight lacked the power to kill the dragon, who had a thick skin and a sturdy skeletal structure despite his medium size, with one shot.
An unlucky Pack Dragon was hit by an arrow and red blood shed from the wound as it shrieked, but it was far from being a lethal injury.
“Joseph, how many did we lose?”
Knight Joseph replied like that with a plain tone while he kept the arrowhead and his sharp eyes aimed at the Pack Dragon in the shadows of the trees.
It wasn’t any bigger than the short bow from the other soldiers, but its draw weight and range was even higher than a longbow, not to mention the short bow. Truly a masterpiece.
As a matter of fact, one of the dead Pack Dragons lying on the road right now was slain by Joseph’s arrow.
When an inexperienced commander like Xavier narrowed his field of vision like that, it could cause fatal troubles for the force.
(Counting the dead and wounded, we lost six men in total. Not a number that leaves us unable to fight. We already set up a perimeter defence. After that… it became a stalemate.)
“We do have prepared the suitable equipment to get into the forest when the situation calls for it…”
“I can’t say I agree. These Pack Dragons are better organized than we thought. I’m not saying we would lose when we fight in their territory, the forest, but it would undoubtedly cost us dearly.”
Xavier himself must have realized how dangerous his idea was, too.
“But what do we do then? At this rate, the stalemate won’t break. And our supply of arrows is limited.”
their side, was what he was going to say when one Pack Dragon stuck out its long neck from the forest to snap at a short spear and exposed its head on the edge of the road, as if to meet Joseph’s anticipation.
Knight Joseph didn’t let this opportunity slide. He quickly let an arrow loose from his dragon bow, which went into the head of the Pack Dragon.
Pretty much like a horizontal flash of light, the arrow perfectly pierced the Pack Dragon’s skin on its head and dug deeply into the skull. In contrast to the human brain, the brain of a Pack Dragon was incomparable small, so even a headshot was often not lethal, but luck seemed to be on his side this time.
“Ohh!”
The soldiers morale went up remarkably when there was finally a triumph after the long stalemate.
While praising him, the young commandant spoke out his doubt with an inclined head, whereupon Knight Joseph quickly drew another arrow from the quiver on his back and showed an audacious grin.
“I see. So they cracked under the pressure of the stalemate first.”
He observed the forest with a bit calmer look and it certainly felt like the silhouettes of the Pack Dragons, hiding between the trees, had moved somewhat closer to the road than before.
“GRAAH!”
“Now!”
“Take this!”
The archers let it rain arrows from their drawn bows and the closest spearman threw the short spear in his right hand with all his might at close range in order to finish it off.
The careless Pack Dragon looked like a hedgehog with all the arrows stuck in its entire body and breathed its last when the thrown spear deeply pierced his torso in the end.
These encouraging words unwittingly left Xavier’s mouth.
Such an optimistic hope took shape in his mind. However, a loud roar resounded over the road from the forest, nipping that hope in the bud.
That roar was more than just loud. It had a clear intent and order embedded in it, which distinguished it from the simple howling of a beast.
In reaction to the words of the young squire Andrés, Xavier reflexively turned his eyes to the forest on his right, where he saw a silhouette deep inside the forest.
Xavier unconsciously swallowed his saliva.
“Yes.
It ought to be standing far behind the other Pack Dragons, which had come as close to the road as possible, but on a glance, it looked like it had the same size like the other dragons or was even a bit bigger at worst.
The Pack Dragon was usually classified as a “medium-sized carnivore dragon”, but this alpha leader was a bit too big to be called medium-sized. With its size, it was more fit to be called a “large-sized carnivore dragon on the small side”.
While Xavier and the others were captivated by its huge silhouette, the alpha leader let another loud howl resound through the area.
They were retreating? The soldiers instinctively started to relax, so Xavier reflexively called out to them.
His instructions were by no means wrong. If anything, it was praiseworthy that he, as a fledgling commander, immediately felt the tension of the troops plummeting and decided to reprimand them at once.
RUSTLE. The noise of swaying branches and undergrowth gradually faded into the distance.
“…..”
“…Did they… really retreat?”
“Yes, all their presences have vanished.”
With the certification from the knight, a professional soldier, and the hunter, an expert for dragons, Xavier finally relaxed his shoulders, too.
As soon as Xavier uttered these words, the soldiers, now a little less than a hundred, relaxed as they sunk down to the floor.
The sun was sinking to the west and its reddish rays shone upon Xavier’s party while they were dealing with the aftermath of the operation.
“Okay, I’m going to rinse it. Clench your teeth.”
The clothes of the wounded soldiers were ripped, the laid open wounds were rinsed with a lot of water and the bleedings were stopped by wrapping a clean cloth around it.
Right now, only this kind of treatment was possible here. But depending on the time and pla