Elf Tensei Kara no Cheat Kenkoku-ki

Vol 5 Chapter 17-2：Castle Siege Destruction Archery《Ballista》

「Roleau, calm down. You’re frightening Yukino.」

「Uh！？ S-Sorry.」

As he looked at Yukino clinging to me, rolled up like a ball, Roleau made an awkward face.

Yukino had plenty of courage for her age, but even she probably found it scary to be in the vicinity of a big man like Roleau yelling angrily.

「Roleau, it’s a little later than planned, but we’re almost there. We’ll be able to attack very soon. Wait for the ripe moment. One little mistake and we’re all done for.」

「I can trust you on that, right Chief?」

「Ha, of course. You can look forward to it tomorrow.

「Okay. Sorry. Got a little on edge there.」

「Can’t be helped. We’re in the middle of war…the tea that Yukino poured isn’t just tasty, it also has calming effects. Let’s drink it leisurely as we relax.」

「R-Right.」

I smiled as I thought about tomorrow onward.

Up ahead, there are numerous land mines buried. Along with the members of Nettle, I made sure that this detour had heaps and heaps of land mines all the way along the road from Belle Erucy to Erucy.

I’m beside myself with excitement to see just how tragic of a sight will unfold before me.

◇

The imperial army began its march in the early morning. They get an early move on and set up camp in the evening.

The forest at night is dangerous. That must be why they planned everything so carefully.

「Okay guys, everything past this point is a land mine field. Every location of every land mine is in my head. Make sure you stay behind me at all times.」

「Okay, Cyril.」

Lucy answered, and the other two nodded.

Generally we had set up land mines along the shoddily paved road that the imperial soldiers would be walking on, but we also set up a few land mines along the side paths.

Stepping on them ourselves would be no laughing matter.

「Chief, are these land mines you speak of really all that dangerous? I mean, I didn’t think that flat lump of iron looked anything like a weapon.」

Come to think of it, I never demonstrated in front of Roleau and the others.

I doubt they’d understand how fearsome land mines are just by me talking about them.

「They are dangerous, Roleau. I would rather not use these sorts of weapons, if possible. Seriously. I hesitated until the very last moment on whether to use these or not.」

「These must be crazy weapons if even you’re talking about them that way, Cyril.」

「They sure are. They’re weapons of devilish proportion.」

I focused on the vanguard of the imperial army with the binoculars.

I searched my memory for the points where I buried the landmines.

A soldier stepped on a land mine. There was a clinking sound that emerged in my head.

And the moment that the soldier moved their foot from the land mine…

There was a rumbling sound. The land mine had violently exploded.

A shock wave, blowing up dust in its wake, trampled down the area. The soldier who had stepped on the land mine held down their thigh in agony as they let out a scream. Everything below the knees had been blown away.

In addition, the surrounding soldiers had sustained burns and had many metallic fragments piercing their bodies all over.

The soldiers began making noise as they saw the sudden casualties emerge in the dozens.

「This is how vicious land mines are. I lessened the firepower on purpose so that no one would die. The soldiers who lost their legs will make for the most spectacular of crutches for the army. The remaining soldiers will need to carry more of a load than before. There will need to be healers and caretakers for everyone who has sustained these deep wounds, making it a two-man operation. And there’s no way that anyone within the vicinity of the blasts would get off scott-free either.」

Adding to this, the soldiers who had stepped on the land mines would have to live with one foot for the rest of their lives. Death would be preferable to such misery.

「And to top it off, we don’t need to risk any danger. We’ll get the greatest results with the lowest of effort, and from a safe distance. This weapon is indeed the weapon of devils.」

Roleau and the others held their breath.

As they were doing this, the imperial soldiers finished tending to the wounded and resumed their march.

And then came the next round of explosions.

Of course, the amount of mines planted wouldn’t have any effect if there were only ten or twenty.

Land mines are exceedingly cheap weapons. They didn’t consume much iron or gunpowder, nor did they have much complexity in their structure. Erucy already had plenty of materials stocked to make tons of these.

After about five explosions in, the soldiers became careful. They began marching with their sheathed swords in hand, striking the ground as they progressed. The speed of their march screeched to a horrifyingly slow pace.

I get their feelings. I’m sure they saw the state of their comrades who had their legs blasted off and decided they didn’t want to suffer the same fate.

But it would still be completely and utterly futile.

Yet another explosion. Despite having struck the ground with their sheathes, the land mines still activated mercilessly only when the soldiers stepped on them, bringing forth another round of victims.

「Cyril, what’s going on with those things? Aren’t they supposed to explode when you step on them?」

「No, actually. To put it more precisely, the mines explode once a certain threshold is reached in terms of weight. They won’t explode just from lightly tapping them.」

Those mines have devices set up in them. A certain threshold of weight is reached, which causes the sticky metallic part to be warped, thus detonating it. I’ve set the necessary weight needed for detonation to be that of an adult male. A weak impact would not activate the explosion. A small weight or a momentary weight would also not activate it.