Chapter 40 - A Song Dedicated to a Big, Beautiful Green Lump (2)

Vincent and the commanders were horrified when they saw the Orc-shaped figurine I had picked up like a toy, and they objected.

They said that if things went wrong, even the Rangers' operation could be compromised, and that it would be better to call in the Black Spear Cavalry waiting at the garrison to deal with the Orcs.

"Uncle?"

I ignored them and looked at my uncle.

"The Orcs of the Blade Mountains are different from ordinary Orcs. Some of the tougher ones can face ten soldiers alone."

I did not answer.

I simply looked at my uncle with the same expression as before.

"Vincent, report the confirmed number and strength of the Orcs."

Vincent looked at me with displeasure, then immediately listed off the Orcs' strength.

"As far as we have confirmed, there are at most twenty. The presence of Orc Warriors or Orc shamans has not been confirmed, but we cannot conclude that there are none."

"So he says."

My uncle tossed out that curt remark and stared at me.

"Are you still confident?"

"Father!"

"Your Excellency, Commander!"

After my uncle spoke at last, the commanders of Winter Castle, including Vincent, cried out as if screaming.

"Neither Orc Warriors nor Orc shamans are enemies to be taken lightly! In the worst case, we may have to face both!"

"We will call in the Black Spear Cavalry! They should be more than capable of handling even twenty Orc Warriors!"

The commanders noisily clamored.

"If the retreat route is blocked, the Rangers may not be able to return in time! No, perhaps the operation itself may not even be able to begin!"

As I listened to them treating my failure as a foregone conclusion, I somehow felt like laughing.

"About three guides?"

At my words, Vincent sprang up from his seat and was about to shout something, but my uncle raised a hand first and stopped him.

"Anything else you need?"

"Swap out my kids' equipment a bit. Their gear looks nice, but it's honestly flimsy. Just outfit them roughly like the soldiers of the castle. Oh, and if you have crossbows, lend us some."

"That is not a difficult request."

The leadership of Winter Castle gaped and looked back and forth between me and my uncle.

When they looked at me, they looked as if they were seeing a madman going in search of his own death, and when they looked at my uncle, their faces became full of confusion at a decision they could not understand at all.

"Your Excellency, Commander, no, Father!"

Vincent sprang up and requested reconsideration.

The price the Rangers would have to pay if the operation failed, the political problems House Ballorhard would face if something happened to my safety, and every possible contingency he laid out were quite logical and orderly.

Wow, he raised him smart.

If only that had not been about me, I might have applauded.

"I will trust him and leave it to him."

No sooner had my uncle spoken than groans and sighs flowed from everywhere.

I smiled in satisfaction.

Yes.

This was what made leaving the royal palace worthwhile.

* * *

"We're deploying."

At my sudden words, the royal soldiers blinked blankly.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Didn't you hear me? I said we're deploying."

Hansdeck, the officer of the thirty infantrymen dispatched by the royal family, stepped before me and asked for an explanation.

"We have received an Orc subjugation mission. The enemy number is twenty, and there may or may not be Orc Warriors or shamans."

"Your Highness, when the 3rd Legion is here, why would we... Our mission is to guard Your Highness."

"Is that so? Perfect. If you're going to protect me anyway, you'll have no choice but to follow."

Hansdeck blinked.

He seemed unable to accept the situation itself, as if he could not understand why someone who was a prince would charge in when there was a perfectly good 3rd Legion.

"Enough. The 3rd Legion will contact you sometime today. When they do, go with them, receive your equipment, then come and report to me. Of course, when you come, every last one of you is to be wearing your gear."

I clicked my tongue as I watched Hansdeck and the soldiers reluctantly answer that they understood.

If I had my way, I would have sent every last one of them back, but I could not.

Because those dull-witted fellows were, for now, the only troops I had been given.

They were my real soldiers, whose power of life and death the King had entrusted to me, and whether I liked them or not, I intended to raise them into something useful and make them my hands and feet.

Still, their condition was not all that bad.

Though they had seemed unreliable in the blizzard, they were elites handpicked by the royal family.

They were not men utterly lacking in the qualities of professional soldiers.

Taking Hansdeck as an example, he possessed C-rank Swordsmanship aptitude and had traits such as [Regulation], [Castle Defense], and [Infantry Phalanx].

He was a case of someone who had honed his skills after the fact and obtained traits specialized for group combat.

Aside from that, Hansdeck had also learned a miscellaneous assortment of Archery and various weapon skills.

Most of the others were similar to Hansdeck.

They were men who could truly be called mature professional soldiers.

Except for just one.

I looked at the soldier in the back.

He was the one who had leaned on my shoulder in the blizzard.

Only he possessed none of the traits the other soldiers had.

Instead, he had the traits [Interrogation] and [Disguise].

A secret agent, or a spy.

He was undoubtedly a watcher the King had attached to me.

[Joseph]

Taking his name in with my eyes, I rose from my seat.

* * *

I looked at Hansdeck and the soldiers, who had discarded the chain armor unique to royal infantrymen and armed themselves in leather armor.

Wrapped in unidentified furs and cloaks, armed with swords, small shields, and short bows, they resembled the infantrymen of the 3rd Legion.

I handed them all over to an instructor of the 3rd Legion.

Arwen went with them as well.

There was one week left until deployment, and I asked that during that time, they be made to learn at minimum the combat doctrine against Orcs, mountain marching, and various other necessary matters.

Of course, I did not think they would reach the level of the Rangers of the 3rd Legion in that short time.

It would be enough if they simply did not fall behind.

After all, they would learn the parts they lacked through real combat.

When I turned my head, Adelia was looking at me.

Seeing her face full of anxiety, it seemed her [Timidity] trait had activated once again.

"Tsk."

I lightly stroked her frightened head.

"Not you, so don't worry."

Adelia was excluded from this mission.

Her level was already looking toward Sword Expert, but her traits were the problem.

In general, the killing intent of monsters is far denser and more savage than that of humans.

I guessed that there was a high probability Adelia would react to an Orc's killing intent.

I could not know which would bloom first between the [Butcher] and [Warmonger] traits, but whichever bloomed first, it was not very welcome right now.

She was not yet mentally mature enough to distinguish friend from foe while her traits were open.

Even if she was lucky enough to endure the killing intent, the moment the first casualty appeared, the smell of blood would send her eyes spinning.

It would be a problem if allies got caught up in it, and it would also be a problem if she ran wild and slipped deep into the mountains.

If something went wrong and I lost a genius with S-rank talent in the mountains, it would become a lifelong regret.

"What about Nicolo?"

"Lord Marchiadell went out with a commander of the 3rd Legion in the morning."

Tsk.

He had said he was writing a book, so it seemed he had gone to gather materials.

That hateful old man, who had stubbornly followed along saying he would be of help and then never showed so much as the tip of his nose, was truly hateful.

"Your Highness."

While I was watching Arwen and the soldiers receive various training from the instructor of the 3rd Legion, Vincent came to find me.

"Yeah, what?"

Since it had been obvious from the moment we first met that he found me displeasing, my voice naturally became blunt as well.

"Will Your Highness not be joining them?"

The soldiers were busting their asses, so why were you playing around here like this?

Vincent seemed to be asking exactly that.

"I don't need to."

Because I climbed mountains until I was sick of it when we went to catch the Mad Dragon.

Of course, it was not on my own feet.

At my words, Vincent gave me a look of contempt.

Of course, I cleanly ignored it.

After that, Vincent came to find me from time to time.

It did not seem as if he had anything particular to say, and it seemed he had simply come to keep watch on me.

And each time he came, he went back with a face full of pent-up anger.

To him, I must have looked like I was lazing around completely.

Of course, that was not true.

Like an elegant swan on the surface of the water paddling furiously beneath it, I was the same.

Right now, I was raising my body and mind to the extreme for the battle soon to come.

So that the blade I had erected in my heart would have no shortage in cutting down the Orcs.

* * *

The short week of training ended, and finally, it was the day before deployment.

"What? You're the guide?"

At the gathering to review the operation, Vincent and four men came and revealed that they would be accompanying us.

"Your Highness may not know this, but if this operation fails, more disruptions than you imagine will occur."

"Then we just have to not fail."

"You are thinking too lightly of this."

I looked at Vincent as he spoke sarcastically.

I could not see his status window.

It was something I had confirmed several times immediately after arriving at the castle.

That meant Vincent was at minimum a Triple Chain knight.

I saw the men standing behind Vincent.

I had asked for three guides, but a total of five, including Vincent, had come.

I examined them.

They were dressed in the same shabby clothing as the Rangers of the 3rd Legion, but I knew they were not ordinary Rangers.

One, like Vincent, had no visible status window, and two had the Double Chain trait plainly attached to their status windows.

Only one was a real Ranger.

Two Double Chains, two knights presumed to be Triple Chain, and one Ranger.

It likely meant that if push came to shove, they would set me aside and deal with the Orcs themselves.

I pretended not to know and accepted it.

If they wanted to put insurance against danger in place, there was no need to stop them.

The meeting, if it could even be called a meeting, ended with confirming the route and simple roles.

Vincent and his group left, and only Arwen and my soldiers remained.

"Hmm..."

Hansdeck's expression was not good.

The expressions of the other soldiers were similar.

They seemed quite tense ahead of a battle against savage monsters.

I did not comfort them.

A first real battle is frightening no matter what anyone says, and a few light words could not dispel their fundamental fear.

I told them to go back and get plenty of rest.

* * *

When I met Hansdeck and the soldiers again the next day, their eyes were hollow.

At a glance, it was obvious they had slept poorly.

"Tsk."

Looking at them, I wondered if they would even be able to cross the mountains properly.

"I wish you good fortune in battle."

Leaving behind my uncle's words, which I could not tell were addressed to me or to Vincent, we left the castle.

"Please, come back safely. Please."

Adelia, who had followed us all the way to the castle gate and prayed for our safe return, was no longer visible.

Before we knew it, we were standing on a pure white snowfield.

"You must walk while conserving your stamina as much as possible."

The Ranger wearing snowshoes looked back at us and reminded us.

Arwen, Hansdeck, and the soldiers nodded with determined faces.

The Ranger named Pilsen was indeed capable enough to have been chosen as a guide.

He led us toward the foothills of the mountains with truly great speed.

We walked for a day, then walked another half day.

As we pressed on like that, before we knew it, we had arrived at the foothills of the mountains.

GULP.

I heard someone swallow.

When I turned my head, I saw the faces of those who had gone stiff.

I could not tell who had swallowed.

Because all of them were equally frozen with excessive tension.

I quietly looked at them, then let out a long breath.

"When you get nervous, your hands and feet stiffen, and your edge dulls."

Vincent suddenly cut in and offered me advice.

"So please calm your mind."

It was absurd advice.

Because I was not nervous in the slightest.

If anything, I was in a better mood now than I had been at any other time.

If I did not hold back, I felt as if I might even start humming.

The presence of the monsters within the mountains was driving me mad.

Suppressing my excited heart, I jerked my chin at Ranger Pilsen.

After briefly looking over the formation behind him, Pilsen began moving forward.

SNIFF, SNIFF.

My nostrils flared.

A faint stench dug into my nose.

Filthy and loathsome, yet at the same time nostalgic and welcome.

It was the body odor unique to Orcs.

I drew Twilight.

Arwen drew her sword after me.

Hansdeck and the soldiers, not knowing what was going on, took out their crossbows and bows.

The Ranger who had been examining the area below the ridge ahead gestured to us.

We muffled our footsteps and lay down beside the Ranger, then looked below.

Ones with their heads buried in the carcass of a giant reindeer, wolfing it down.

Ones straining to shove them away.

Ones each holding one end of crimson intestines and howling.

Ones hurriedly picking up and eating pieces of reindeer flesh that had fallen to the ground.

Below the ridge, the Orcs that had just finished hunting were brawling over the spoils.

THUMP.

Vincent tapped my shoulder.

With his eyes and the shape of his mouth, he asked what we should do.

Instead of answering him, I quietly raised my hand.

Those who had received crossbows set bolts to their crossbows, and those holding bows each nocked an arrow.

CREAK.

An alien noise slipped out.

At that moment, the Orcs' brawl stopped as if it had been a lie.

GRRRR.

Letting out unpleasant sounds, the Orcs looked around.

One of them suddenly raised its head toward the ridge.

Red blood smeared its jaw, and with eyes as red as that blood, it glared this way.

A killing intent qualitatively different from that of an ordinary Orc.

It was an Orc Warrior.

The Orc Warrior glared at me.

A vicious gaze that would have made most humans lose consciousness just from meeting its eyes.

I grinned.

Hello, long time no see.

A blazing glare burst explosively from the Orc Warrior's eyes.

"ROOOOOOAR!"

The Orc Warrior roared.

"Shoot."

Thirty bowstrings drawn to their limit were released with a twang.

Listening to that sweet song, I sprang to my feet.

I adjusted my grip on Twilight.

The longing I had suppressed the entire time since entering the mountains was released in that moment.