“I heard that our king isn’t actually very strong. Apparently, the nobles and he are locked in a power struggle. So maybe they’re coming to Carne because we’re a part of the king’s domain and they want to attack it?”
Enri could practically hear the blood draining from her face—because their village might once again be subjected to the horrors of invasion.
But we’re not the same as we used to be.
Enri faced the issue head-on.
“Let’s have at least some of the people escape into the forest before the troops arrive!”
“…Sorry, Lady Enri, we noticed them too late, so if we ran now, we’d have to leave everything behind. It’s also winter, and when there’s a good chance monsters will come out of the forest, we would have our hands full just guarding against that.”
Enri shuddered at Jugemu’s pained expression.
If the army burned down their village during this cold season, they would have no chance of survival.
“Then… Then yes! If we can’t take the food and things with us, let’s prepare to fight while we hide as much as we can!”
“Yeah, that’s a brilliant plan, Enri! The cellar we used to hide the ogres, Jugemu, and everyone when the tax collector came shouldn’t be full yet. Let’s put everything in there!”
Ready to leap into action, Enri realized she hadn’t asked a critical question.
How many. How many villagers they would need depended on how many soldiers there were.
“How many are there? A hundred or so?”
“No…”
The way Jugemu trailed off, Enri was seized with the urge to plug her ears.
“More than that… A few thousand.”
Enri blinked. Nfirea next to her did the same.
“It seemed like at least four thousand.”
“What the…? Why so many…?”
“I can’t imagine what they’re thinking. What reason could there possibly be to send that many soldiers to this village…? Enri, is there any possibility that word about the goblins got out?”
“No, definitely not,” Enri answered immediately.
She could think all she wanted, but there was no reason that information would have leaked out. There were the new transplants, but they were mainly the sort of people who trusted the goblins more than humans. And ever since the troll attack, the transplants and the locals had really come together as a community.
The only other people were the adventurers who visited from the city—they were gone by now, but Nfirea was confident that Momon and Nabe wouldn’t have leaked the info.
“Then… We should prepare to escape and ask them why they’ve come. Fighting should be…our last resort.”
Trying to fight four thousand soldiers was utter suicide.
“As ya say, Master Nfi, that’s our only option… Going up against that many would be impossible.”
“Yeah. So we’ll buy time with the idea of escaping in mind. Okay, let’s go!”
They had the villagers who had been preparing to defend near the gate go and hide food with the ogres. Enri, Jugemu, and the goblin troop, plus Brita and a few members of the self-defense squad were the only ones who remained. Brita had arrived ahead of the others, and Enri had questions for her. The first one, naturally, was who was coming—which nobles’ flags they were—but unfortunately, Brita didn’t have the answer.
She said she had left staying on top of that sort of information to someone else. It was a moment that made the value of knowledge sink in for Enri, so she waited for Nfirea to come back with his report from the watchtower.
From over the wall came the sound of multiple horses’ hooves, then a raised voice.
“I have come as a messenger for the eldest prince, His Highness Barbro Andréan Yeld Ryle Vaiself of the Re-Estize Kingdom. Open this gate and let us in!”
Enri could hardly believe her ears.
She had heard a lot of surprising things in the past ten minutes, but this one may have taken the cake.
“Th-the eldest prince?!”
Why is such a lofty person here?
It was so puzzling she wondered if she was dreaming.
But Nfirea nearly tripped over himself racing back from the watchtower and confirmed that what the messenger said was true.
“The king’s flag is in there with the others. Only someone directly related to the royal family can use it!”
“Huh? So what does that mean?”
“It means a member of the royal family came here leading an army!”
With no idea what was going on, Enri suddenly shouted, “Wh-why would he bring an army to a tiny frontier village like this?!”
“How would the villagers know? We’re in the king’s domain, so doing what the prince says is the right way to handle this. Or would you rather disobey and revolt?!”
Enri shivered.
Opening the gate was the right thing to do as a subject of the kingdom. But…
She exchanged glances with Jugemu, who was standing next to her.
She couldn’t open the gate. She had to let the goblins and ogres hide first.
“Ah, m’lady. We’ll hole up in the hideout as fast as we can. Please buy time for us till then.”
Enri nodded. She regretted giving the instructions to hide the food there, but it was too late now.
“I repeat. Open the gate!”
“M-my apologies! Right now, we’re preparing to receive the prince! Please wait a little longer!”
“We’ll just go back and forth again, woman! Are you the one in charge of this village? Open the gate this instant!”
“…Why are you in such a hurry?!” Enri shouted in anxiety. She understood quite well that it was impolite, but she thought it might be another country’s army only pretending to be the kingdom’s.
Carne had beefed up its defenses to the point that the tax collector was taken aback.
Would it be so strange if another country wanted to use the village as a fortress? After all, the trolls tried to make it their lair.
For the first time, the response was silence. There was hesitation in the air.
“Why aren’t you answering?! You must not actually be kingdom soldiers!” she shouted, her voice hoarse from panic and irritation. That finally got a reply.
“…A caster called Ainz Ooal Gown once came to this town, correct?”
The image of the village’s savior came to Enri’s mind.
“That caster has antagonized the kingdom. So since you’ve had contact with him, we want to make some inquiries.”
Enri was so shocked she couldn’t say anything.
But one of the self-defense squad members spoke in a low voice only their side could hear. “If that great man antagonized the kingdom, then the kingdom must be in the wrong.”
All the villagers’ eyes said they agreed.
Especially marked was the reaction of the transplants, the ones whose villages had been burned. Their hatred of the kingdom for not protecting them had been channeled into the trust they had for the passerby caster who saved the village.
That he gave them items that summoned goblins, offered golems to help them build thick walls, and sent a maid to rescue them when a troll attacked only made them trust him more.
“Is opening the gate the right thing to do?”
“…It’s quite an army. If we don’t open it…”
“We couldn’t possibly betray him, after all he’s done for us…”
“Wait! They only said they want to make inquiries. Responding to them won’t necessarily be a betrayal, you know.”
“Oh? But if it ended up that way, we would be utter ingrates…”
All eyes gathered on Enri.
She understood everyone’s feelings extremely well. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place. As she was fretting, another shout came over the wall.
“Do you understand? If so, open this gate at once! If you resist any longer, we’ll assume you’re rebelling against the kingdom!”
After a brief silence, the messenger seemed to have gotten himself together. “Ah, hmm. I see. Then let’s do this: We won’t have the prince enter. Let me in! The rest we can decide afterward.”
She didn’t have any more excuses.
Enri shouted the words that popped into her blank head as they came. “S-sorry! I got some cow poop on my hand! It’s everywhere! I need to go wash it off!”
“H-hey!”
Enri watched Jugemu and the others running away as fast as their legs would carry them. She wondered anxiously how long she would be able to stall.
Barbro was already aggravated to the breaking point. He glared at the knight who returned not as his ally but as a hated enemy.
“Say that again! What?!” Fury hissed between Barbro’s clenched teeth, and he practically spat the words one by one.
The knight repeated himself coolly. “Sir. There is still no sign of Carne’s gate opening.”
Barbro wanted to take a fist to the man’s calm profile.
But that would be foolish. He desperately tried to will the anger pooling in his hand to disperse.
None of these people, including the knight, were loyal to Barbro personally. He didn’t have his own soldiers. These soldiers were with him because their masters ordered them to be or because their masters were also accompanying him. As such, he couldn’t very well hit a knight while several others were watching.
“…Why not? Why don’t those peasants open their gate? This land is in the royal family’s domain, so they should be obligated to obey me. And I am ordering them to open the gate!” As his irritation mounted, his speech grew sloppy. “I don’t understand! Are they making fun of me?! What are they thinking?”
To the eldest prince, Barbro, the people of this village were beings far below him.
Even they’re slighting me.
The moment he thought that, months of pent-up anger flooded out as if it had found a place to go. The root of the complex sentiments was the demon disturbance—so unpleasant for Barbro.
The dam broke quickly.
“This is treason! I say this village is treasonous!”
A ripple of commotion went through everyone within earshot.
“Wait! That’s a bit—!”
Barbro glared at the bewildered knight in displeasure.
If an entire village was declared treasonous, eliminating all the residents was standard practice. After that, the village would be burned down to completely erase it.
But was that really all right in this case?
Barbro didn’t understand why his subordinates weren’t obeying his order. Did the marquis’s soldiers also make light of him? Was that why they weren’t complying?
“What do you mean by that?! Leaving these people alive when they don’t follow the royal family’s orders is surely worse!”
If Barbro forgave people who rebelled against the royal family, he would be seen as weak. Letting them live would lead to a loss in his authority.
If peasants openly rebelled in the territory ruled by a noble, that noble would undoubtedly destroy them. The knights who served the marquis knew that.
“Wait! The war with the empire is about to begin! If you kill people on the king’s land now, it will affect the entire army’s morale! And look how well defended this place is! It can’t be a mere village. There can’t be that many residents, but I’m sure we would be in for a struggle if we attempted to open the gate by force. The best course of action would be to calmly ask why they aren’t opening it.”
“…We’ll go in friendly and then hang a bunch of them later.”
“…Well, I’m sure that can’t be helped. Your Highness ordered them to open the gate, and they refused.”
“Yes, I’ll hang them from the gate. As an example.”
“Very good, Your Highness.”
Barbro scowled at Carne.
As the knight said, it even had a fine wall in addition to the gate. Perhaps those defenses were a matter of course, so close to the Tove Woodlands, but with the watchtower, it looked more like a fortress than a frontier village.
Certainly, bringing it down would take time.
He had over a thousand soldiers in position before the gate and was shouting to open up.
If he listened, he could hear a similar voice from a distance. It was coming from the rear gate.
As if struck with a flint, Barbro’s emotions burst into muddy flames again. Reason went out the window.
“Hey! Flaming arrows—now!”
“F-flaming arrows, Your Highness?!”
“Yes. Who knows how long this will take if we keep waiting? Look, we don’t have time to bother with this village. If you can open the gate in a few minutes, that’s fine, but that’s impossible, right?!”
The knights bit their lips and nodded.
“Threaten them with flaming arrows. No more shouting back and forth over the wall like children. Let’s show them how adults do things!”
The knights were lost for words, and a man slipped past them to come to the front.
“If you won’t follow His Highness’s orders…can you even say you’re loyal to the marquis? Your Highness, if it pleases you, my men are at your service.”
It was Baron Nosmartz with his crew of brownnosers.
Barbro was genuinely impressed that even this idiot could come in handy. Well, they were nobles, too, and would surely do something like this if there was a village in their domain that went against them; maybe they understood how Barbro felt very well.
“…Oh? Then I order you, Baron. Fire flaming arrows on the village—no, hmm. On the watchtower. No one will die if we do that, right?”
“Ohh, how considerate, Your Highness! I would expect nothing less. Please observe as we carry out your will.”
“M’lady! We’re all ready! Everyone’s hidden. All that’s left is for me to— What’s wrong?” Sensing the unusual atmosphere, Jugemu wasn’t sure how to continue.
The members of the self-defense squad who had remained were in complete opposition. Some were passively accepting of opening the gate and receiving the army, while others were aggressively against it. The root of the disagreement was whether or not it would constitute a betrayal of the village’s hero, Ainz Ooal Gown. That’s why it was such a difficult call.
“Actually…”
Just as Enri was about to explain to Jugemu, a voice sounded from the other side of the wall.
“People of Carne. It is very suspicious of you as subjects of the kingdom to refuse to open the gate. We will take representatives to the battlefield, where they must petition Ainz Ooal Gown to surrender. Prove that your loyalty lies with the kingdom and that you are the king’s subjects.”
The mood changed: Hatred seemed to rock the atmosphere.
Enri was no exception.
They were subjects of the kingdom, and they were loyal. But the weight of those facts, compared to their gratitude to the person who had saved their village expecting nothing in return, was so light. The one who had rescued them when their families, friends, and loved ones were being murdered was that great caster.
“I have no interest in being taken to the battlefield only to get in his way!”
“Why don’t we just escape into the forest and worry about the rest later?”
The villagers were in an uproar.
But they agreed that they would choose a plan that didn’t hamper their hero.
Just then came the sound of several things being smashed. Next was the whistling of arrows slicing through the air. Trailing red, they rained down on the watchtower. Enri could hear the dry thunking as they stuck into the wood.
“No…”
Enri gasped at the realization that the kingdom had introduced into this argument weapons that could kill people.
Luckily, there w
asn’t anyone in the watchtower at the moment. Is that why they attacked it? Or…
…would they have done it even if there were people inside?
“L-lady Enri! They don’t seem to be aiming over here, but it’s probably better for ya to stay out of range. Come this way! Hurry!”
Enri had been standing stock-still taking in the scene, but Jugemu pulled her arm. With no will to resist, she followed him, but she didn’t turn away from the watchtower.
As the self-defense squad members withdrew, the watchtower burst into flames.
The roof was made mostly of straw, so it burned up immediately. As she watched, the ceiling collapsed into giant flames.
The destruction could be seen from anywhere in the village. Heartrending cries went up here and there, but one was louder than all the rest. Breathing in short, rapid breaths due to the shock, Enri looked at the one who had emitted the most sorrowful scream.
It was a man who had moved to the village.
His face was equal parts hatred and despair. Looking at those around him who shared his expression, she realized they were all transplants.
Enri remembered—that their villages had been burned down.
“It’s an enemy!” the man yelled. “They’re our enemy! If they weren’t, they wouldn’t do something like that! I’m going to fight!”
“The kingdom? Ha. Those good-for-nothings never helped us! Are you going to burn this village down, too?” shouted a plump woman.
“Are we going to let them get away with this? If they’re gonna kill us, let them! We’ll take as many of them with us as we can! This will be our revenge!” a young man spat.
With the loosing of the flaming arrows, a nearly insane hatred took over the crowd.
“…Lady Enri, ya should call for a vote.” Jugemu made the levelheaded suggestion with the steely face of a warrior.
“Huh…? Those people aren’t in their right minds. We should vote once everyone calms down a bit…”
“There’s no time. And there’s nothing that says our opponents won’t go on a rampage. The village should decide what to do.”
He was right. They had already shot flaming arrows at the watchtower. Their next attack would surely be worse. They didn’t have a second to lose.
The Caster of Destruction Page 19
