I drove the armored car while the two trucks formed a single file behind me. We drove through the wasteland at night, sending up clouds of sand and dust.
Eventually, we arrived at the “second” human village that was used as a supply point by the army of the Kingdom of Sandra in the south.
Regarding the village, we’d already heard the whole story from those we caught during the defense battle of the town. In order to attack the town, they sent those peasants to build a number of villages in a single line.
By the way, the first village has already been razed. At that time, no harm was done to the villagers. After the villagers were woken up with the car’s horn, we explained the defeat of Sandra’s army, made them prepare for travel quickly, and let them leave the village.
Although it was a one-sided demand, with three magnificent large vehicles before them, the villagers also could not help but escape fearfully.
Now, the second village was right in front of me. There were a lot of tents lined up, and the whole village was surrounded by wooden fences.
First, I pressed the car horn with all of my strength instead of greeting them normally. This is a quiet place, so I don’t think there would anyone who won’t wake up after this racket.
When I opened the upper hatch of the driver’s seat and listened carefully, I heard people starting to stir.
Then, the next thing I took out was the [Loudspeaker].
“The army of the Kingdom of Sandra has been defeated! Come out, chief of this village!” My voice echoed in the silent night.
After a while, the villagers appeared carrying some weapons and agricultural tools that would not be called weapons anywhere else.
The oldest man leading them was probably the chief of the village.
“Are you the chief if this village?” Even if they’re close to us, I can’t stop using [Loudspeaker]. It’s to intimidate the opponent with the volume of the voice after all.
The man nodded timidly.
[The army of the Kingdom of Sandra has been defeated by us! This is a fact! I will have you leave this village!]
“No way!” The village chief yelled, shock clear on his face while the villagers also became noisy.
“There are two choices for you right now! Stay in this place and be massacred, or escape to the north together with all your belongings! The village south of you has already been razed to the ground! Now then, what will you do?” I demanded.
Of course, I don’t intend to kill them. They are only peasants. They received aid from the country, and came to this place as settlers. In other words, they are not at fault at all.
Although they are humans of the enemy country, it’s still impossible for me to bring myself to kill the remaining people. Even if they can’t accept my words, they will be forced to leave anyway when we burn down the village.
The villagers and the village chief held a hasty discussion on the spot, and said that they’ll leave immediately before going back to prepare. Before long, after confirming that all the villagers had left, the beastmen set fire to various places with torches.
Because the air was dry, the village burnt well. The village was wrapped in bright red flames and illuminated the whole vicinity, as if it was daytime.
“Good job.” When the beastmen return, I gave words my of appreciation.
It was already just before dawn. In the pitch black sky, white light started to creep along the sky from the edge of horizon, pushing away the darkness of the night.
“Now, we will return to the town at once. Shall we take a break here before setting out?” After I said that, I took out the [Bento] from the back seat of the armored car, and handed them to the beastmen.
Of course, they were not prepared since the beginning. I [bought] them just a few minutes ago.
[Hamburger Bento] [X63] 50,000 yen (list price 500 yen) x 63 = 3,150,000 yen ( list price 31,500)
These beastmen bothered to participate in the night attack. So, I guess I could give them this little bit of luxury. Well, even though I called it luxury, it was actually at most a 500 yen convenience store bento.
Still, when everyone ate the hamburger cooked with sauce, their eyes widened and they began eating with great relish.
After the meal, the vehicles turned their course towards the town. Although the distance to the town was only 80 km or so, we went in the opposite direction of the east of the river, and went west instead because I don’t want to be found by enemy soldiers yet. After taking such a long route, we finally returned back to town.
After giving the beastmen a break of half a day, we sortied again.
◆
Mireille, leading the surviving soldiers, was walking north alongside the river. Their group numbered over 1000. There was no formation at all. It was just a flock of people without order, like an unorganised mob.
And then, there was no more food left. To increase the speed of march even a little bit, both the knights and militiamen took off their armor and walked. But, in addition to the mental and physical fatigue from fighting, marching while starving was not easy, especially for the knights. They were not used to hunger.
“Commander, please take this.” As Mireille walked ahead, a militiaman with red hair came to her side and spoke while holding a rather big mouse.
(Did they catch it during their retreat?)
Mireille was surprised. She also thought that they were strong despite not being knights.
“That’s right, let’s take a break for a while. I am fine. You can share it with your comrades and eat it. Everyone, take a break! Drink your water properly! Don’t be beaten by the heat!” Mireille shouted, and the mass of people stopped.
Some of them went to the river, others just sat down on the spot, while the rest just started doing their own things.
Mireille thought that she was tired. It was troublesome just to speak. As she sat down, she felt that the fatigue of both her mind and body was to the extent that couldn’t stand up anymore. But, as the one responsible for leading the army, she needed to somehow be able to move her body.
*Growwll*
Her stomach rumbled. The gastric juices rose up to her throat because of hunger. But, there was nothing to eat. She just declined the mouse a while ago.
Mireille went to the waterside reluctantly, and drank as much water as she could to gloss over the hunger.
Then, a fragrant smell of burning flesh drifted there. When she looked to see if it was from that militiaman from before or not, she saw a situation occurring.
“Oi, peasant! Give me that!” At the place where the militiamen were roasting the meat around a fire, several of the knights were trying to rob them of the meat.
“What are you doing?!” Of course, Mireille went to stop them.
But, the knights merely glanced at her and ignored her. Then, one of the knights quickly took the meat stuck on the skewer, and left the group behind. The militiamen were cursing as they watched it happen.
Mireille thought about what she should do. It would be easy to simply kill those knights. But, that might cause the knights to rebel. Eventually what Mireille could only do was to apologize for the knights’ misconducts.
“I’m sorry.” She bowed her head low.
“No...” Even though Mireille apologized, their reply was not good. They did not seem to be convinced of her sincerity at all.
Mireille left the spot and asked herself if this was really alright? She must do her best to avoid an internal dispute, but she ended up making trouble for the militiamen instead.
There were many knights that refuse to listen to her orders anymore. However, there were many people seeking refuge joining this group.
Mireille sighed. She thought that she could become a commander if she was strong. But, when she fell and became weak, she knew that she didn’t have any value anymore.
The break was over, and the group began marching again. Although their bodies become lighter, their legs were heavy, so they did not advance as much as before.
It was unlikely for them to reach the next village within a day. Eventually, night fell, and they decided to set up camp early. This was because everyone was hardly able to sleep yesterday because of the night attack.
A night passed, and it was the afternoon of the next day. As Mireille’s group plodded heavily across the wasteland, they could finally see the shadow of the next village.
But, there were only ashes floating gently around in the village.
Then, Mireille lost all the strength in her legs. One of her knees and both of her arms were on the ground. There was only dry land before her eyes. Then, it became soaked little by little, as if rain was falling.
It was Mireille’s tears.
She does not even has strength to grieve anymore. Mireille thought that this was impossible. She felt like the pillar in her heart finally shattered. The stain on the ground made by her tears were exposed to the dry winds and quickly disappeared.
At that moment...
“...It ...It’s the enemy! It... It’s a monster!” A voice shouted from within the group.
Mireille raised her face weakly.
What she saw were giant rectangular object that were moving without horses. There were three of them.
“What is that..?” She gasped.
Mireille was not just walking while encouraging everyone on their march till here. On the way, she had heard the story from the soldier who was at the watchtower at the time of the enemy’s night attack
What the soldiers saw were three large carriages glowing with light magic.
(Is that a big carriage? Wrong. There are no horses pulling that.)
It was a gigantic box which ran automatically. What was surprising was that despite its size, it was much faster than a horse. It could kill you easily if you got ran over by it. There was no way to fight against it.
[TL: well duh one is armored vehicles, while another two is truck that can sent you to different worlds. What did you expect?]
[ED: One does not simply fight back against the all-powerful truck-kun]
“So, only up until here, huh..?” Mireille stood up and murmured in despair.
There was no one escaping. Everyone was too exhausted both mentally and physically.
Then, the three boxes stopped at a certain distance without them running over.
And then, one man came out from the box.