Oukoku e Tsuzuku Michi Chapter 500

–Third Person POV–

A Few Days Later. South of Kisatto – Along the Highway.

A crowd of people is moving on the highway.

They are not orderly like an army nor leisurely like carefree travelers.

While each person's speed and stride are different, none of them stray from the group.

That goes for individuals wearing tattered rags, bleeding peasants who are dragging their feet, merchants sweating profusely as they pull their wagons, and soldiers in armor nervously keeping an eye on their surroundings.
There are brawny men with confident steps and skinny women who look like they could collapse at any time――

They were the soldiers garrisoned in a certain South Yuguria fort and the residents of nearby villages.
Peddlers, travelers, and perhaps the lawless bandits and rebels might have been added later on.

However, nobody is concerned about that at the moment.
They were just a bunch of survivors.

「Healthy men will carry women who can't walk. Healthy women will carry children who can't walk. Soldiers, don't lend a hand. I won't tolerate it if you stop keeping watch, even if women or children fall over.」

A man dressed in the attire of a South Yuguria soldier who appears to be the leader of the group announces.

There was no complaint from the people about the seemingly heartless order.
All those advancing in line with them knew.
They knew how dangerous it was for a soldier to lend a hand in 'unnecessary matters'.

Something squeals softly and lets out a troubled groan.

「What are they doing to our wagons……ah, they're hungry?」

「Give them the meat. There's no point holding on to it……if the load doesn't lighten, we might end up dead today.」

A man releases a cart full of meat.
Wolves that are as tall as a standing adult swarm the wagon.
There are easily over 20 of them.

「Being surrounded by a pack of wolves should be a nightmare for us peddlers. But now they're like pet dogs. There are no signs that they will attack anybody.」

One of the wolves was too engrossed with eating the meat that it was left behind by the rest of the pack.
The wolf realizes its position when it raises its head and sadly runs after the group with a slab of meat in its mouth.

「There is one like that too.」

A huge bear about three meters tall walks slowly in front of the man's eyes.
Next to it, a boar that looks to be about two meters tall walks with a piglet in tow.
As expected, no one went near them, but the beasts did not attack anyone and merely walked side by side to the north.

「Even they know it's no time to assault humans. I guess it's in their instincts……to want to stay within a larger group as long as possible.」

The varied group of soldiers, farmers, peddlers, and beasts had one thing in common: they all walked fast, occasionally glancing behind them and quickening their pace.

「Captain!」

A young knight dismounts from his horse in front of the man giving out instructions.

「Oh Rinuga, how does the perimeter look?」

The man named Rinuga, who doesn't have a helmet on because of his mission to conduct scouting, is wearing plain leather armor and a hat.
That aside, he has a slim physique for a soldier and measures around 170 cm in height, making him appear rather nimble.

「We scouted ahead for approximately six hours and found no signs of monsters. Multiple villages were discovered, but they have been evacuated almost like they knew about us heading north. There are no traces of monsters. The Goldonian army has not been sighted either.」

There being no enemies where they are marching should be good news, but the captain furrows his brows and looks down when he receives the report.

「So the north is still safe after all……if not, our fates would be sealed.」

「Empty villages are optimal for camping……or so I was taught.」

The captain scoffs at Rinuga's reserved remark.

「Camping, camping, huh? Haha, get ready to set up camp――is what I'd like to order again. Presently, sleeping at night is suicidal.」

The captain surveys the group on his horse.
There are 2000 soldiers and 10 000 others, with beasts scattered here and there.

「We started heading north with 20 000 and are left with this after three days……I don't know if we played it poorly or well.」

「Captain's command has been perfect. This is not flattery. We survived three nights of hell and 60 percent of us are alive. I am certain that it was a feat more difficult than defeating an enemy army several times our size.」

Rinuga declares and adjusts his hat before hopping back on his horse.

「Is that so……I mean, that's right. I think I did well. I was undefeated in the eight battles I led against Goldonia after all. This isn't good, if the Goldonian army finds us, I'll be the only one hanged.」

“You're supposed to laugh there”, the captain jokes.

He then looks to the west horizon and narrows his eyes.

「I had hoped to get captured by the Goldonian army and wanted to give an excuse……unfortunately, it looks like this came first.」

The red sun slowly sinks.
Shadows stretch and melt into the darkness.

Soldiers draw their swords and light their torches.
Women tremble and children cry.
Wolves whimper and bears restlessly stroke their heads with their paws.

「Everyone, remain alert. Stay on your toes.」

As if responding to their fear, the stage of the night begins.

「Gyaaaaaaa!!」

Suddenly, a scream echoes from the tail end of the group.
The scream changes into a cry of death for a split second, then into a muffled gurgling noise.

Nervousness and fear travels through everyone's body, but no one is surprised.
All of them knew what was happening.

「It's from the rear tonight. Fall back while throwing your torches! Spearmen, get into formation quickly afterward!!」

Nobody complains about how unreasonable the demand is.

As the soldiers line up, they focus their eyes on the small hole in the darkness illuminated by the torch on the ground.

「Don't come, don't come, don't come――aaaaaaaaah!! Ah.」
「S-stop! Don't come in! Giiiiii……guju.」

The man's yell ends abruptly and the woman's shriek turns into an unknown sticky sound.

A pale-faced soldier stares into the dark while the sound of a woman collapsing and pissing herself can be heard. The tough-looking boss wolf curls its tail around itself like a dog that was punched and hides underneath a carriage.

「If you have a sword or spear, swing them! If we get surrounded, we're fin――」

「Donny! Dammit, let go! Let go!」

「Cut it out! That guy's done……gueh!」

Metal clashing and orders start to be interspersed between the screaming and strange noises.
Soldiers in the rear are fighting.

「――captain.」

The captain turns to Rinuga and shakes his head.

Screams and deathroes surge toward them through the darkness.

Something moves in the dark and jumps out.

A crying woman fleeing for her life was first.

Next was a running man who had a hand covering his gouged eye.

After that was an expressionless soldier standing at attention――

「Loose!!」

Arrows and bolts are fired without waiting for the captain's orders, hitting soldiers and shadows behind them in rapid succession.

Something lets out a squeal that I had never heard before.

At the same time, something slipped out of the neck of the expressionless soldier, and the soldier ―― or more accurately, the bones and skin of the soldier whose contents had been sucked out ―― fell softly to the ground.

Emerging from the darkness with footsteps as light as a child's is a spider three meters in length.
It uses its legs to scrape off the arrows stabbed into its body.

「Spearmen, attack!!」

Five soldiers simultaneously thrust their spears.
The spearheads pierce into the giant spider's head and legs, causing purple fluid to squirt out.

「Did we do it!?」

The muttering of the soldier was denied.

The spider knocks away the spears with its forelegs, then sticks its rear legs into one of the soldiers.

「Gyaaaa!!」

Blood sprays out from the neck of the soldier who was slashed by the claw at the end of the spider's leg as he falls down and becomes motionless.

「Stab it until it doesn't move anymore! Keep stabbing!!」

The remaining four soldiers thrust their spears again. The spider tries to repel the weapons with its legs, but when one of its compound eyes gets poked, the spider turns away and writhes in pain.

「Now, aim for its belly――!!」

Three of them gather their courage and jump in, repeatedly stabbing the defenseless stomach.
The hair-covered abdomen was torn open, spilling purple fluid and unidentifiable organs, and eventually the spider's legs curled up and stayed that way.

「W-we did it……we did it!」
「Uoooooh――!!」

Two of the soldiers exclaim their victory, but in the next moment, claws plunge into both their eyes and drag them into the darkness faster than the cheers could transform into screams.

A second and third arachnid crawl over the dead monster's corpse.

「Archers, aim for the head! You won't hurt it much if you shoot the legs or body!」

Instructions are given by the captain.

「Spearmen, seal the enemy's movement! When they expose their belly, I want the swordsmen to charge! Cavalry, back off after striking once and maintain a safe distance, it's over if you get caught!」

Rinuga also leads nearby soldiers.

The soldiers fought hard according to instructions without going into a frenzy.
Arrows distracted the enemy's attention, spears stopped the enemy's movement, and courageous swordsmen jumped in to slaughter spiders one after the other.

But the number of enemies keeps increasing.
When one goes down, three more appear, and when three goes down, ten more show up quietly in their place.

In comparison, when soldiers are killed or injured and require help from allies, the number steadily decreases.

Their ranks thin, gradually become disorganized, and eventually collapse.

Those spiders that could not be held back not only attacked other soldiers, they attacked the defenseless.

「Is it impossible to contain them any longer……it can't be helped. Abandon the line formation and defend in a box formation. We can't reach the people around us……but if we move as a single mass, perhaps half of us can…… nn, what's that?」

Rinuga was about to agree with the heartless order, but there was a sound like a stone being scraped before he could open his mouth.

It came from where the captain just gave his order.

「Cap――tain?」

Rinuga looked over and saw a long, thick tube of flesh covering the captain's shoulder.

There was another scraping sound and the tube slowly released the captain.
He was missing his head.

「Shit! There are worms!!」

A blackish pink tube wiggles creepily in front of where Rinuga's sword pointed.
It is over 8 meters long and skinny relative to its length, but still large enough to swallow a human head.

「It got the captain! W-what should we do now!?」

「Command goes to the vice――Rinugdono, what should we do!? Do we defeat the worms? Are we staying in box formation? Is it better to run away?」

Some of the soldiers attempted to attack the worm, however they found it difficult to hit the slender body with arrows and cut through the thick skin with swords or spears.

Instead, the soldiers lost their heads to the worm's mouth or were struck by the long whipping body, causing them to roll on the ground and cough out blood.

Rinuga stares blankly at the scene unfolding before his eyes.

「Wait……first get into box formation like the captain――no, clumping together against a worm isn't――」

The captain died at the worst timing when the formation was transitioning, resulting in the soldiers who were barely hanging on panicking.
Their unease quickly spread to the citizens, who began to flee in all directions.

The giant spiders swarmed around the people like they were tiny insects.

A man who begs for his life flops to the ground after the top of his head gets pushed in and the contents sucked out.

A cowering woman's mouth is invaded by a small worm that wiggles down her throat and then bursts out of her stomach.

Wolves trying to escape are torn apart by spider claws, while the worm wraps around the large bear and quickly strangles it to death.

It was not a battle. It was not even a massacre. It was simply a case of the strong preying on the weak.

Grotesque forms feed on human and animal without distinction.
It was a scene that one would associate with the end of the world.

「Retreat……defend……drive the enemy back……captain……」

Rinuga's self-mumblings fade with every word as he falls to his knees.

「Haha, the stars are pretty today too……」

When he raised his eyes to the night sky with a face of resignation, the stars filling the sky seemed to multiply by a dozen times.

Red stars grow bigger――then whiz through the air and fall around Rinuga.

Countless soaring arrows decorate the sky with red dots.

The number of arrows his entire body receives far surpasses what his own troops are capable of, and with the arrows being flaming arrows, even the giant spiders could not help but roll over to put out the fire and writhe to pull out the arrows.

The worm uses its thick skin to block the arrows, but one well-angled flaming arrow breaks through, going into the worm's mouth which happens to be open, causing the long body to squirm in pain.

Other monsters cry eerily into the sky and their predation eases.

「Flaming arrows――from where……」

As the spirit returned to Rinuga's eyes, the same number of stars were shot.

Realizing the significance of the arrows flying from the hills to the north, Rinuga sprang up, sword in hand, and gave the order.

–Aegir POV–

「The first volley has landed in the vicinity of the enemy. There is not enough light to find out more details……」

The captain of the eastern army ―― who I believe is named Dingus ―― glances at me.

「I don't mind. Continue shooting.」

The enemy was an incomprehensible mess of a group, but as a group reported to be 17 000 strong, they couldn't be ignored.
In order to deal with the unknown group, we ran from Rafen.

Accompanying us is the 15 000 from the recently arrived eastern army.
My personal forces are being reorganized and not included in the calculation.

「Things are making less sense now that I'm here though. Are they killing each other?」

「Scouts were added in the evening. We don't have much information on the enemy.」

The numbers were considerably fewer than initially reported, but that is not uncommon on the battlefield and nothing to be overly concerned about.
We decided to set up on a hill where we can take advantage of the elevation to stop the enemy.

It was around the time I was debating whether to conduct a night raid with incomplete information or wait until the next morning when the enemy's position is clearly visible that this happened.

Many torches flickered, swords were swung, and shouts and death throes intersected.
They were in battle by the looks of things, but we couldn't figure out what they were fighting with.

Whatever it was, they were struggling, so I decided to shoot flaming arrows.

The second volley was released. There are no signs of counterattack from the enemy.

「……are they unarmed citizens?」

I shake my head at Myla.

「I don't think so. Moonlight is being reflected. With that many blades drawn, no innocent citizen can pass through.」

Those guys are definitely armed and fighting with something.

「I heard the rebel army made it to Vandolea……oops.」

A pillar of fire erupts in the enemy camp. The flaming arrows must have coincidentally shot through a pot or barrel of oil.
The enemy camp which could not be seen purely by the scattered torches was illuminated.

「Alright, let's ascertain the enemy of the enemy……」

The joking voice that I let out as I groped Myla's ass was scared.

「O-ow! Lord Hardlett, you're hurting me!」

A silhouette of a creature with eight legs was revealed.
It isn't a rare shape in the mansion or outdoors, what is unnatural about it is the size.
And it's reminiscent of something I remember seeing one day.

「Hey, hey……you're kidding, right?」

As my brain registers what my eyes are seeing, I click my tongue.
Myla grumbles as she rubs the part where I unintentionally squeezed too hard.

The enemy's movement visibly changed.
Yelling indescribably, they ran in a straight line towards us.

There is only one thing to do.

「Everyone, stand in front. Loose consecutive volleys of flaming arrows, not at the enemies rushing forward. Aim for the ones behind them.」

Dingus stares at me with a startled expression.

「The enemy is charging to attack us! We should be utilizing our height advantage to unleash a storm of arrows on the vanguard――」

I shake my head and hug Celia, who scouted the nearby area, close to my chest.

「That's not an attack. They're running in our direction. The real threat is coming from the back.」

When I squinted my eyes, my surroundings instantly became brighter.
In the slightly greenish vision, I could see a swarm of spiders several times the size of the enemy behind the enemy army running towards me, and there is even a disgusting creature that I can't quite describe.

「Nn?」
「Hmp.」

Brynhildr snorts and my vision turns dark.
What was that? Oh well.

「I'll take responsibility for everything. Just do what I say. 'That' is way worse than any human enemy.」

When I insist strongly with my eyes, Dingus grudgingly agrees after glaring at me.

「Celia and Myla, send word to Leopolt and Tristan.」

「Understood.」
「I thought my ass would split……」

Tell them only what they need to know.

The enemy group climbs up the hill.
Archers aimed in the direction as instructed, but a few either misfired or deliberately shot the enemy soldiers.

Yet the enemy troops don't counter nor curse at us, they just run as fast as they can.
It's like they're saying nothing done to them matters compared to what's behind them.

Dingus and the other allied soldiers looked unhappy, but they understood the orders given to them once they discovered the identity of what's chasing the enemy.

「What are those, spiders? They must be at least two meters.」

「They're everywhere. What's with their numbers!?」

「Hey, seriously? Are these supposed to be the monsters to the south!?」

「No way! Follow orders and shoot to the back!」

“Why are those things outside?” “How many of them escaped?”

I have a bunch of other questions like that, but they're already in front of us.
Turning our backs to them is suicidal, meaning we have to defeat them.

The enemies are……no, they are fugitives now.
The fugitives are close enough that their faces can be seen.

「H-heeeeellllpp!!」

A mother running with a child in her arms is swept off her feet by a spider and trips.
Consecutive arrows stab into the spider trying to hold down the woman, which only causes the creature to falter slightly.

「Damn bug!」

That was when a female knight dressed in a South Yuguria uniform rushed in.
She cuts the spider's claw along with a part of its leg, and kicks its head to free the mother.

「Run and pray you don't get hit by arrows!」

Not long after the mother expresses her gratitude, she resumes running as fast as she can with her child.

「Your opponent is me……wh!?」

The female knight turns around and sees two more spiders appear beside the one she kicked away.
Deciding to retreat now that she's outnumbered, she meets another three spiders behind her.

「Ah……aah……」

The spiders extend the tube in their mouth and close the distance between them and the knight.

Seeing no way to escape, the female knight points her sword at her own throat, but the spiders move faster than she could act and knock away her weapon with a claw.

「N-noo……I don't want to be eaten alive……someone save meeee!!」

The heroic woman crumbles to her knees in tears.
Her cry triggers the spiders to simultaneously pounce.

「Very well.」

Schwartz's large body jumps between the female knight and the spiders.

Three spiders are sent flying from the impact.
For how big they are, they're quite light.

I hop off of Schwartz and cut down another spider with my Dual Crater.
It wasn't completely cut in two, however, the spider that had its head cleanly split down the center of its mouth stopped moving instantly.

Another one grabs at me with four of its legs from the side.

「Hup!」

Rather than dodging, I charge at the incoming enemy and slash its legs.
I then stick out an elbow and repel the spider that isn't able to respond after losing its forelegs.

I lean backwards as soon as a bad feeling creeps over me and I narrowly escape the pointed tube that grazes my head.

「It's fine that they're light, but I hate that they don't make any sound. I have to rely on my instincts.」

I grab the tube that missed its target and exert force into my hand to snap it.
As the spider squeals in anguish, I plunge my Dual Crater into its head.

The dumbfounded female knight smiles, but a suspicious shadow reflects in her eyes.

I immediately turn around to see a six meter long flesh-colored tube.

「What's this indecent-looking thing?」

I retrieve the female knight's dropped sword with my left hand and swipe at the worm's body with all my might.

However, the strike I put everything into didn't seem to affect the worm that proceeds to wrap around my body.
It doesn't have a hard shell preventing my blade from cutting through, it feels like I'm being pushed back by elasticity.

After wrapping several times around me, the worm opens its mouth and targets my head.
With a diameter of about 20 cm and considering the overall length of its body, this thing is oddly thin.

The strange worm uses its circular mouth, which is more than twice its diameter when opened, and its fangs that fill up all 360 degrees inside the cavity to try and tear my head off.

I struggle clumsily to move my head out of the way.
The worm tightly constricts my body from the waist down in response.

Right before the ferocious mouth bites down, I relax the lower part of my body and use my upper body like a spring to unleash a headbutt. The worm, focused only on restricting my legs, loosened its grip on my upper body.

I feel my head make solid contact as the worm's entire body vibrates.
It may be resistant to slash attacks, but blunt strikes seem to be effective.

「I'm not into earthworms.」

I cross my arms in front of my chest and push outward to try and release myself from the worm's significantly loosened hold.

Although somewhat stunned, the worm still tries to tighten around me, but it's too late.

Now free, I step on the worm's body.

「If you were a little shorter, you might have looked cool.」

I grab the worm by the mouth and pull as hard as I can.
Despite how durable its skin is, I still yank it with a grunt.

Finally, I feel something separating and, along with a ripping sound, the worm's body tears in half.

「There, now you look――kind of cool.」

I raise the upper end of the worm and slam it against a rock.
I don't know where it's weak point is, but destroying its mouth should be enough.

「Ah, aaaah……」

The female knight crawls toward me.
More spiders pounce from behind her.

「In addition to being cool, you can be used as a weapon. Aren't you glad?」

I lower my hips and swing the partially destroyed worm.

The worm's body bends like a giant whip and flings or crushes the spiders.
Some try to use their claws, but they can't get through the worm's thick skin that even I can't cut.

After defeating about five of them, the spiders stopped coming.

It's not the end though.
Ten times the amount of spiders surround us and let out a screech unique to insects.

「Um, who might you be?」

「It's dangerous. Stay down.」

A javelin happens to fall from the night sky.

Dealing fatal damage with arrows to something as large as these spiders is hard.
But it's a different story for a spear that is many times heavier than an arrow.

Stabbing the body with a few will stop its movements, and then stabbing two in its head should kill it.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed it wasn't a javelin, but a regular short spear.

「Even though we don't have a squad with javelins, this guy's flexible. I expect nothing less from the subordinate of a resourceful general like me.」

I hear the order to charge and the eastern army transition to close combat.

Keeping watch of my surroundings, I extend a hand to the female knight ―― who ignores it and sticks to my back. She is so scared that she is sobbing and not willing to let go.

「There, there. It was scary, huh? Everything's going to be fine now.」

I use as kind of a voice as possible to comfort her, but my eyes and face remain stoic.
That's just how grave our situation is. We can't let our guards down for a second.

Protagonist: Aegir Hardlett. 25 years old. Autumn.
Status: Goldonia Kingdom Margrave. Great Feudal Lord of Eastern Area. Mountain Legend.
Friend of the Dwarves. Friend of the King of Aless. Dragon Slayer Hero.
Elf Mediator. Sex King of White City. Mad Demon God. Golden Macho.

Family:
Nonna (preparing for journey), Carla (preparing for journey), Mel (troubled), Leah (on a trip), Pipi (persuading Pochi), Miti (troubled), Maria (troubled), Catherine (cheating wife), Gretel (outing), Melissa (concubine), Kuu (troubled), Ruu (troubled), Mireille (preparing for journey), Casie (4, 5 head figure), Rita (expedition maid), Yoguri (playwright), Alice (preparing for journey), Mother: Marceline (consultation), Daughters: Eldest – Stephanie (denied), Second – Bridget (agreed), Youngest – Felicie (either)
Sofia (departing first), Dorothea (in trouble), Claudia (naked), Clara (given up), Adela (lover, departing first)
Celestina (reigning queen), Monica (mama attendant), Benel (coma)

Subordinates:
Celia (shuddering), Myla (terrified), Irijina (scared), Luna (free)
Leopolt (staff officer), Tristan (staff officer, wants to go home), Yakov (emergency sortie), Gido (recuperating), Mack (emergency sortie), Christoph (independent from mother), Guigue (good and evil existing together), Dingus (eastern army commander)
Adolph (stressing about debt), Sebastian (thrift ordinance), Marta (preparing for journey), Sally (cool attendant), Maruru (gentle attendant)
Jim (penniless), Suzy (additional consolation money), Solana (persuading), Altair (founder), Remia (victim)

Others:
Sekrit (terrified), Ivanna (practising on her own), T-99 (frontlines), Brynhildr (assistant), Natia (on an excursion), Felteris (orgy detour), Ijaris (disturbance sensed), Yularen (disturbance sensed)
Annette (free), Piris (insane, house arrest), Baroness Rukino Escaote (tie with Nonna), Seika (lost to Carla)
Busco (promoted), Gildress (feels something), Visitacion (confined home with child)

Non-humans:
Lammy (hunch), Alraune (repropagating), Mirumi (hunch), Pochi (hunch, hiding), Messerschmitt​ (sleeping)
Tropical Smooth-scaled Monitor Lizard (chance), Schwartz (battle)
————————————————————————————————
Army – Southern Goldonia (replenishing, emergency establishment)

Escort Unit: 40 ⇒ 43
Infantry: 2800 ⇒ 3000
Cavalry: 360 ⇒ 400
Archers: 360 ⇒ 400
Cannoneers: 370 ⇒ 400
Bow Cavalry: 1000
105 Army Corps: 3700 (reorganization, break)
(war time, weapons are produced as necessary, being deployed)
Cannons: 40 ⇒ 45, Large Cannons: 21 ⇒ 23, Dwarven Cannons: 15, Field Artillery: 15 ⇒ 18, Chariots: 35 ⇒ 38

Reinforcements / Allied Forces:
Elves: Black: 200, White: 200 (on an excursion)
God Altair's Army: 1000 ⇒ 1800 (charity work)

Teries Fleet: Battleship Suvorov, Battleship Leviathan IV (temporary), Large Combat Ships: 3, Medium Combat Ships: 7 (in repair)
————————————————————————————————
Assets: -75 000 gold (cost of garrisoning eastern army paid out of pocket -7000)
Sexual Partners: 804
Children who have been born: 70 + 567
Current Location: South of Kisatto, Hill Region

Chapter end