Sougen no Okite ~Shii Yatsu ga Moteru, Ii Buzoku ni Umarekawatta zo~ Chapter 26

Retreating to the Grassland

Our battle to retreat became very slow.

The method of not leaving traces behind is well accustomed in the grassland.

Our smells can’t be expected to be completely erased, but there’s no human that has that good of a nose.

Emptying the wagons, we put fighters into the wagons by turns to let them rest, that brought enough efficiency in moving.

I confirmed with Au tribe’s Warriors (16) and got permission to abandon the wagon here. (TN: Just in case, they emptied the food wagon)

Among the Warriors, there was one man, who was a Fire magic user, that was warming up the fire for cooking.
He’s called Borolk, he’s a magic user that can burn a bunch of people to death with his fire magic.

「Borolk」

「What is it, Jumuka-dono」

「Can you do Conditioned Invocation and Continuous Invocation over a long period of time？」

「Yes、 Conditioned Invocation will be invoked at a fixed condition、and for Continuous Invocation if it’s not more than 14 days then it’s possible。 」

「Alright、if that is the case」

I picked up a stone and handed it to Borolk.

「Load Fire magical power into this」

「Yes」

Borolk began to load up magical power.

I used magic to gather CO2 from the surrounding of the bonfires, then crammed it into that chest.

「It’s done Jumuka-dono」

Borolk showed me a bright red stone.

I placed the chest into the abandoned wagon and put the stone inside.
Then I covered the box with a lid so that air wouldn’t escape.

「Borolk、can you make magical power released from the stone the moment the lid is moved？」

「If it’s just that simple then it’s possible、please don’t look down on me。 」

This guy is indeed a genius isn’t he. I can’t even maintain conditioned invocation for 8 days…
I will also pour oxygen from outside into the box with my conditioned invocation when the lid is moved.

Next morning, with only one wagon, we made further progress in returning to the grassland.
For the sake of not making the horses useless, we advanced while being careful.

～Three days after that （Shaomin）～

His pursuing unit arrived at the location where the wagon was abandoned.

「Brother, is this way good？」

「Eh、 they hid their traces of advancing。 As expected, though they were all young boys, I can’t help but say that they’re still grassland people。 Though we had to decrease the number of people in this pursuit unit because of food problems、I’m glad we brought the pursuit dog。 」

When they built a bridge and crossed the Great river to chase, Shaomin decided to decrease the number of people in the pursuit unit by 50 and brought along the pursuit dog.

His prediction was splendid, had they not brought the dog, they would’ve had to only give up in trying to figure out which direction the grassland people ran.

「Brother、there’s a wagon over there、probably belongs to the grassland guys」

「Eh、 they probably decrease the amount of food and threw the wagon away to increase moving speed。 They’re still just boys。 If they leave it like this, the delicious smell of food will come out。 」 (TN: Right. Inb4 there’s a fucking BAKUDAN inside…)

Many people from the pursuit unit looked into the empty wagon with nothing inside.

That moment, the stone that was loaded with Fire magic began to generate heat, then Wind magic sent oxygen into the stone.

The people who opened the box was instantly burned to death, the people around was sent flying with an explosion and injured with the shattered pieces of soils, then the hell fire from the burning wagon blazed up and killed the injured people.
As Wind magic continued to gather oxygen, the people standing around the violent combustion collapsed due to lack of oxygen.

「Wha！ What is that！ Fall back、fall back right now。 Quickly distant yourself from that。 」

Shaomin’s shout was drowned out by the thunderous roar of the hell fire, but they were somehow able to distant themselves from it.
Shaomin’s pursuit unit was stopped here for 6 days.

Shaomin’s pursuit unit resumed their pursuit.

However, it’s already too late because the horses and dogs became frightened the moment they saw a wagon.

21 days from the retreat of Grassland people
The dog suddenly let out a loud noise.

「Are we close？」

The dog barked when it heard so.

「Everyone、 for some reasons the Grassland boys are near。 We’ll set up a camp here today。 The Scout unit form one group of 5。 Please investigate the surrounding。 Please make sure to come back even if you found something。 」

The people from the Scout unit nodded at Shaomin’s instructions.

～Jumuka～

However, the opponents are still chasing aren’t they.

Everyone regained liveliness in their eyes as they talked to each other about the Grassland being close.

Because I’m standing watch tonight, I left my horse to someone else and went to sleep in the wagon.
My body already became able to sleep anytime, despite how much the wagon shakes.

I stood watch at night when the camp was spread out.

The sounds of metal being rubbed, the breaths of running horses

Those are enemies.

I mobilized my magical power, and felt the wind.

I practiced this countless time.

Sensing the wind with magic, I used my eyes to confirmed if those information was correct many times.

The distance is 180 steps, number of people, five, horses, six
I told myself many times that it was correct  and fired my arrow.

「Gue」

「What」

「How」

「Uwaa」

The wind carried voices.

170 steps away　4 people left

165 steps away　3 people left

175 steps away　2 people left

190 steps away　1 person left

The wind came and told me that all 5 of them stopped moving. The horses ran to somewhere.
I was satisfied but kept up my vigilance.

2 days later

What’s left is us returning to our villages
The season is already spring.

～Shaomin～

「The whole scout unit didn’t come back？」

「Yeah、Brother」

Shaomin pondered a little

「Perhaps they found the grassland people and assaulted them for revenge。 We’ll go towards the direction they went。 」

The pursuit unit turned back towards south-southwest to where the scouts went, they found naked horses.

Shaomin listened to what that man had to say.

The young man’s story is that, they advanced even at night, they saw lights from fire on their way back to the camp, so they seemed to have tried to make one last confirmation.

They became dreadful that one person after another got shot down in the dark. When he was about to run, a friend next to him was shot down, then lastly he himself got shot.

The young man’s body is still trembling right now.

「I don’t know who that was but、he’s a monster、no more、I’m scared、I’m not going I’m not goiiiiiing」

The young man became frightened of something and burst into blaming the people around him.

Hearing the young man’s story, the whole unit’s morale dropped.
They also had insufficient food remaining.

「Not being able to cut down a single person is a disgrace。 Everyone, let’s return。 Everyone will be hailed as heroes at the imperial capital right?。 Now then let’s go。 」

Shaomin’s pursuit unit gave up and returned to the imperial capital.

Future historians spoke in unision.

Henceforth、the ghosts of five people would become the existence that would be passed down to the Great Warriors、Moderate Warriors and Grassland children as bedtime story。 」
…or so they said

Chapter end