LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 20: A Decaying City
When I pushed aside grass which even grows thick around the lower back luxuriantly and advanced, I saw an earthly color and a green monster walking.
An earth ogre and a green goblin.
Did a few get strayed from a group of monsters?
Are they lost or already on their route to be defeated?
Either way, it is convenient.
「In this case, I can hunt alone.」
I’m holding a gun and shoot the green goblin.
I shot through the head of the goblin so that the bullet will pierce it.
Excellent head shot!
At the same time with a sudden shooting sound, the goblin collapsed, another one says “kekeke”.
「Haha, you will die on your battlefield! 」
I tossed the matchlock gun, pulled out the iron sword.
I strike the ogre with a massive iron mass that gives off a dull sparkle with the momentum of running!
The ogre attacked me without hesitation with a gigantic club.
The power of ogre is strong indeed.
This is good and I wanted this response.
「UGAAAA! 」
A fierce cry is given, and the ogre is using a club to me with full force.
The sharpness of my iron sword is the lowest, but there is also no worry of a nick instead.
I beat back with full force while mixing and receiving a blow of the ogre from the front.
Hard oak wood and an iron sword, the lightning-fast feeling of speed against which we beat each other.
We beat each other with full force and every time we hit each other, ferocious adrenaline runs through the brain.
It’s intolerable in the strength way of life. I feel like my spirit is being uplifted.
This is the delicious taste of fantasy!
「Oh, what’s up! 」
「GUGAGAGAGA! 」
While fighting with the ogre, I fairly felt that there are others around.
At the edge of my eye, watching another one of the goblins recovering its ability to fight and heading towards me, it swings its weapon towards me.
It’s slightly wasteful, but I took the “cane of a holy flame ball” out and make the goblin bite the maximum blow.
It bathes with a fireball, the green goblin collapsed. In a blink of an eye, it is charred.
It isn’t known whether it is alive or dead, but it is impossible for it to continue fighting.
「Now, let’s continue ogre! 」
Its companion was killed and now ferociously roaring. I kept my sword towards the ogre in front of me.
The following moves are the techniques of brute force. Though it is easy to read, my sword will not be able to keep up so I used swordplay. The ogre falls into confusion.
「How is it, Hokushin Itto-ryu, stance of the wagtail! 」
After fighting with the ogre, I managed to strike its shoulder with a strong blow.
Although it does not lead to a fatal injury, the blade of my sword is rough, the response into which the meat of the ogre is torn.
My sword is already dull so it was not fatally injured but I was able to torn off a piece of its meat.
「GYAGAGAGAGAGA! 」
It was hurt hard, I wish it is.
Victory or defeat will be decided by the next blow.
「The Hokushin Itto-ryu, heart and star king sword! 」
I put my heart and soul and cut the head of the ogre off with an iron sword from an angle above.
Though the opponent is an ogre, my blood is boiling because of the feeling of slaughtering a life with this hand of mine.
The body of the big monster rolled over the grass.
It is not alive anymore.
「Fuu ……」
Remaining on guard.
I look around vigilantly.
Apparently there were no other monsters, they seem to have been annihilated.
Overlooking the carcasses of the uninvited monsters, my suppressed excitement gushes up.
Even I, can become strong.
Not just my body but also my heart.
Of course, real fantasies have no visible levels or exp, but there is a certain accumulation of battle experience on the battlefield.
With my current ability, I should be able to kill ten crazy dogs easily.
「Oh! Master, what are you doing!」
Sharon, who has brought a gun, run to this place.
She is being followed by my slave girl personal guard corps.
「Did you need anything? 」
「I heard…, kyaah! 」
Sharon screams, looking at the body of the ogre rolling around me.
「Are you OK? Did you fight? Are you unhurt!」
「No, I could handle it because there are few enemies.」
I wanted to show my cool side to the slave girls when I fight if possible.
Sharon looks like she’s about to cry as she clings to my body. She is making sure of my safety by touching and embracing my greasy body.
「You should stop doing dangerous things! 」
「No, there were only a few monsters, and I’m also wearing my mithrill hauberk. Look, I do not have any injuries.」
I’ll probably become overpower at some point.
If I do not fight, it will not raise the experience value.
I do not know if there is such a concept in this world though.
「You’ve got us worried. 」
「Am I being scolded? 」
Other slave girls are nodding uniformly too.
「That would be a problem. It is the general’s job to stay within sight.」
Wearing ostentatious sorcerer’s robe, Lyle-sensei came. He’s on magician strategist mode and has given me a completely candid advice.
Oh, Louise has come too.
Louise just glanced at the corpses and says nothing.
「Well, Louise is a warrior, so she can understand. I can not become strong unless I have battle experience.」
「Takeru, if you play around the battlefield, you will die.」
Louise said so coldly. She takes out a knife and started dismantling the corpse of the ogre I killed.
Even though I fought by myself, Louise’s help with dismantling is needed after all.
「Aaahh! Losgow’s volunteer corps will be Takeru’s personal guard, slave girl. Leave the personnel management to me.」
「You’re persistent, corporal! It has been decided for a while already that Master’s personal guard will be us, the slave girl corps.」
Even Sara is here. She runs with her volunteer corps and has begun an argument with the slave girls.
The atmosphere becomes obscure and because of that, I was not scolded. That’s good but, are they going to quarrel about which will be my personal guard troops forever?
Huh, it is troublesome.
If I take side, it will be more chaotic.
While that’s happening, Louise is disassembling meat silently. Glancing at the goblin which became charred, she clicks her tongue saying “TCH” (She’s angry about that one because it can no longer be dismantled beautifully.).
Louise really is Louise.
On the second thought, shouldn’t a general and a leader like me be calm like that?
—Scene Change—
A great battle with big troops of monsters.
I don’t understand how terrible that force is.
Anyway, it’s my leisure time.
The Volunteer Army Corps military action for several days; starting at Ona village, entering the former Ambazak barony, and liberating the villages along the road towards Ox, our destination.
In ruined villages, livestock and food remain even if the residents already escape. Though there are only abandoned buildings as the village becomes a gathering spot for monsters.
Using common sense, monsters should have been safer as they gathered closer together.
But modern weapons as guns and cannons have made that tactics change completely.
First, bombard with a cannon from a safe position towards a group of monsters in the village.
The group which becomes frantic and runs around to escape is seized with a salvo of a gunman corps.
Monsters who had scattered and thought they had finally escaped were also scooped down by the cavalry party hunting the remaining while scouting the vicinity.
This is no longer a battle but a unilateral massacre.
Well then there is a problem, what is my job after being raised as general of the army.
Answer: I was told to sit down where I can be seen by the whole army.
It is still day and I am only being shaken by a horse-drawn carriage while inspecting the battlefield.
Occationally, sensei will say “Please wave to the other side. ” or “They took an active part so show appreciation please. “.
Am I really a general? Or an idol? I…..
It is much better if I had gone out to peddle.
Moreover, I am being surrounded perfectly by my personal guard corps (called Sara or Sharon), no battle at all.
I want to go to scout by myself, and also want to get rid of monsters at the same time.
But I can only think of them. Aren’t I useless?
「Anyway, please be a little bit more patient. A little more and we will arrive at Ox. Theere, Takeru playing an active part will surely come..」
Lyle-sensei admonished me strongly without hesitation.
A little more, I heard that a lot for a long time now….
After all, I can’t be seen loitering around or go out without permission
Sensei even said, “what if you were hit by a stray bullet?”.
Do you even have to remind me that far?
How about I pretend to go to the restroom and secretly look for a battle outside?
「Hey, Takeru is going to escape again. Please tie him up.」
A passing-by Louise, who’s holding large amount of skins and meats of monsters, quickly saw through me and pointed out my location.
Kuu… a sharp fellow.
「Master you can’t go! Come here and make paper cartridge with me.」
I’ve even been scolded by Sharon.
By the way, they’re making paper cartridge while being jolted on the horse-drawn carriage.
「Well, this is kind of task is plain even though I came here to go to war …」
「Master, logistics is important task. There is time for everything.」
If you say that, do you mean that until my role has come, I have no choice but to comply?
Certainly, there are many times that the importance of logistics was demonstrated.
My motherland lost a war because of that before.
If you fail to do so, you will only be there for a trauma rather than taking battle experience.
Indeed, given our current situation, no matter how many bullets we have, it is not enough.
It can’t be helped, should I participate in making paper cartridges?
I am not allowed to participate in a battle.
It is a job to kill time. I do not feel like being in battle at all.
It’s somewhat different from the general I imagined…….
—Scene Change—
Finally, I came to the city of Ox of the late Ambazak barony.
I lay down on the hill that overlooks the valley and look down upon the city.
Ox is a small city, but its surface is properly laid with stone pavement.
There is a quarry nearby, and lumber can also be collected, so the whole city is like a fortress.
Originally it might have been a rigid town, but it had been captured by a battalion of monster already so the thick stone wall was deformed. The small old castle which seems strong was partially destroyed and looks like would fall with a snap.
「Isn’t that a person sensei? 」
When I say so, sensei made a stern expression.
It seems that people are living in the city which should have fallen already.
I can not see good because of the distance, but I can tell the difference between a humanoid monster and a person.
「Is it so or does Takeru see that so? I’m using magic of zooming, those are all zombies.」
「Well, do you mean people in the town are zombified? 」
That magic is convenient since you can see far even if there is no telescope.
I wonder if they are sold somewhere, if possible, I would like a binocular.
「There are hundreds in the city just by looking and they are a very troublesome enemy for us. Well, seeing is believing. Let’s just shoot a cannon for the time being.」
In this case, Lyle-sensei took out a short cane and signaled artilleryman corps shoot the cannons.
A big roaring sound rings at this place near the mountain.
It is a bombardment consisting of four bronze artillery cannons and two large cannons. Although it is in a town, it should fall like the usual party of monsters we met on the way.
「Even if they are under fire, they are not moving, sensei…..」
「That’s right, I was worried about a while ago, but guns and cannons are not effective on undead monsters.」
Sensei ‘s awesome to anticipate this already. The strength of guns and cannons are not only in artillery power but also in their sound and impact.
However, the enemies are dull zombies. Even if their allies were blown to pieces, they won’t react since they have no intelligence.
「You can say that it is an incompatible enemy. Even if you shoot a gun, it’s already dead, so it will take quite some time to disable it.」
Lyle-sensei sighs because our bullets are limited.
「Does a sensei have any strategies to deal with them? 」
「The city wall is already partially destroyed and there are about one hundred zombies. If I am a normal strategist, I’ll have the soldiers surround them and charge for a battle of attrition,」
Battle of attrition, a lot of people from Ona village will die.
Perhaps even Sharon or Sarah-chan.
「That is kinda …」
Sensei saw my complexion. He seemed serious first then laughed.
「Because you are General Choro so it is normal for you to think like that.」
「Sensei …」
「It will be okay. It will take some time, but we will use a strategy that won’t burden them so much.」
「Please.」
「Then it’ll be a long-drawn-out war. Let’s begin to rebuild our base first.」
He looks at a map of the town which is expanded into a folding stool. Lyle-sensei is issuing directives.
In accordance with the instructions, everyone began to move hastily.
「Sensei, what should I do? 」
「Please remember what the general’s job was.」
Sitting and watching …
Should I help making paper cartridge?
They seem to have run out of bullets.
In the end, we encircled the city from the outside and shoot from all directions.
Zombies in the city did not move at all against the bombardment. There was no noticeable counterattack and the war situation entered a stalemate.