Chapter 65 : Leaving the Forest of Truth (2)

"sigh... I miss my girl so much..." A soldier in leather armor grumbled, while drawing circles in the ground with the tip of his spear.

"For fuck's sake Bren, can't you stop for a minute ? My ears have gone deaf from hearing you talk about your goddam whore all day long." The man next to him sighed, visibly exhausted from his friend's constant ranting.

He had a long bow in hand, and two short daggers strapped on his tighs. He looked more like a hunter or a ranger than a foot soldier.

"I already told you, she's not a whore ! Not since we've got together, at least..."

"Yeah, sure. And me I'm telling you, while you're making me deaf here, I bet she's getting a train ran on her by the entire garrison."

"You fucker...!"

The spearman and the archer quarreled for a while, before stopping out of exhaustion.

"Anyway, aren't you bored to death here Gus ? Why do you think the higher-ups sent us to this remote village ?" The first soldier asked.

"As if I knew. At least, we are far from the front line. You should be grateful instead of grumbling all day long about how you miss your hoe."

"Yeah, I guess you're right... W-Wait, I already told you that she's not-"

"Yes, yes, she's a virgin angel who fell down from the sky. I understood already, so stop it now."

"..."

The two soldiers, sitting on a tree trunk in front of the village entrance, sighed in unison.

"Anyway, it's your turn. Don't forget to wake me up before the old geezer arrives."

"Alright, alright..."

The hunter crouched on the floor and was about to take a nap, when he noticed a tall shadow covering him from behind.

"Who's an old geezer exactly ?"

He didn't need to turn around to know what was coming.

*bang* *bang*

"You guys are slacking off again ?!"

In an instant, both guards got their heads smashed with a thick wooden stick. Despite wearing an iron helmet, the impact almost knocked them out.

"Ouch... S-Sorry, Commissar !"

The person who hit the soldiers from behind was a bulky 2m tall knight. He wore a worn but heavy plate armor made of steel. It was so used that the silver cross-sword emblem of his Order was hardly visible under the numerous battle marks.

"If I see you two sleeping in front of the gate again, I'll send you straight to the dog's pit for six month !" The knight shouted, the wooden stick still in hand.

"Y-yes, Commissar !" Both soldiers bowed, holding their heads still in pain from the sneaky blow they received.

When the knight was about to leave, the spearman suddenly asked.

"Commissar, if I may ask..."

The hunter next to him sent a deadly look at his idiot friend, urging him to shut up, but the spearman ignored it and continued when he saw the knight stop.

"What is so special about this village for an entire squad of knights from the Acier Order to guard it ?"

The knight thought for a moment, before answering.

"To be honest, we also don't like being stuck here doing nothing but monitoring a sleeping forest while our brothers are risking their lives on the frontline... But no matter our feelings, we just follow our Lord's orders." The tall man shrugged, before leaving the two soldiers behind and entering the village.

From the tone of his voice, it seemed that even he, a battle-hardened knight, was dissatisfied with the dispatch location of his squad.

The reason why he remained so calm even though he and his men were forced to stay there was because he received his orders directly from his Lord. Although he was frustrated, he knew the importance of this mission.

"Since these guys are here, can't ordinary soldiers like us just go back home... It's not as if we are needed to watch a dead forest anyway..."

The spearman lowered his head and started sighing again, when his friend suddenly slapped the back of his helmet.

*bang*

"You dumbass !! Are you crazy to ask this to the Commissar ?! What if he really send us to the dog's pit ?!"

"Ah, come on !! I would rather starve to death in the dog's pit than spend one more week here ! I feel like I'll soon turn into a tree if I keep standing in front of this gate..."

The two soldiers continued to loudly bite at each other's neck for a while, before the commissar returned to the gate, the vein on his forefront on the verge of exploding.

This time, he hit them so hard that the wooden stick he used bent into the shape of their helmet.

___

These two foot soldiers weren't the only ones frustrated about the situation. In fact, everyone in the village was anxious and stressed.

The entire kingdom has been under continual tension since Aliomeri invaded the southern borders and war has been officially declared.

It was even more true for the commoners living in the countryside. Compared to the brave soldiers and knights defending the country, the citizens weren't well informed about the situation on the front.

The little information they could get came from the injured men who had been discharged from service owing to significant injuries, and the rumors weren't reassuring at all.

All those who survived the first offensive of Aliomeri and came back home crippled shared the same opinion about the front : only a miracle could save Lyssandra from the brutal legions of elves rampaging in the south.

The elves slaughtered civilians and soldiers alike without mercy, and with extreme cruelty. The rare people who witnessed the atrocities the elves committed in conquered lands now called them flesh-eaters, rather than seed-eaters.

Mothers, wives, and children prayed to Zenon day and night to protect their beloved men struggling against the elves.

Every time the residents of a major city saw regiments of fatigued soldiers and knights walk through the main gate, they knew that yet another city had fallen and that their home would soon become the new front line.

Civilians fled en masse toward the north, leading to famine, violence, and epidemic spreading from the groups of refugees to the entire kingdom.

The situation was dire, and the morale was low, but the people living in Lyssandra didn't lose hope yet.

The Kingdom of Lyssandra has always emerged victorious.

During the last war waged by the King to repel the northern tribes who raided deep inside the kingdom's territory, the military has been able to stabilize the front and deal crucial blows to the enemies.

Throughout the fifty-year war against the Sun Empire, the kingdom of Lyssandra and all its inhabitants resisted with all their might until finally driving back an enemy that outnumbered them by a two-to-one ratio.

Those were great achievements that instilled a sense of security in the kingdom, but most importantly, they made the citizens believe in their monarch and the might of His army.

'No matter what, we will survive.'

Such was what everyone thought every time the kingdom went going through a crisis.

However, this conflict was different. The citizens were put to the test, and for the first time in a long time, their faith was gradually weakening.

Aliomeri's Queen was definitely a strategic genius.

She knew it would be difficult to conquer and dominate Lyssandra through military power alone. Therefore, she employed terror tactics solely to break down the humans' morale.

She frequently ordered her men to raid far beyond the enemy lines to spread death and chaos to the innocents.

Those elite squads razed countless cities and villages to the ground, and they always did so at lightning speed. By the time Lyssandra reacted and sent reinforcements, only ashes and bones remained.

This vicious strategy, which was meant to break down the resolve of Lyssandra's troops and populace, bore its fruits quicker than she expected.

When reinforcements arrived at the raided cities and villages, many became crazy, suicided themselves, or even deserted their regiment after having witnessed the remnants of the atrocities performed by the elves.

Children of all ages were mercilessly butchered, and their skulls and bones were traded as spoils of war when the elite squads returned to their regiment. The smaller the skulls and bones, the more valuable they were for the evil elves.

The older women were cruelly raped, and the most wicked elves took great pleasure in testing a variety of sharp tools on them to satisfy their excentric desires. The younger women were brought back as slaves for the elves' pleasure, condemned to suffer horrendous abuse till their death.

The elves made sure to always kill the men after forcing them to witness the countless horrors committed on their relatives. They were dismembered alive, and their heads were placed on pikes at the village's entrances so the human soldiers who arrive later might see the dread and suffering plastered on the villagers' heads.

Such were the Queen's orders, and they were being carried out with extreme violence by her elite squads.

The Queen made sure to let everyone know what was the cost of resisting her, and it was very effective. In a very short period of time, she plunged the entire kingdom of Lyssandra into chaos.

What would happen if their hometown was the next target of these raids ? Isn't it better to flee and leave the kingdom with their family ? Such was the kind of thought that haunted the soldiers' minds from dawn to dusk.

The talent of the Queen of Aliomeri to break the mental of her enemies was unrivaled. She instilled so much fear in the people's hearts that entire cities were completely deserted just at the mention of her name.

This was how she conquered the south plains with ease and reached the central region in just a month's time. Such a brutal invasion was unprecedented in Lyssandra's history, and the morale of all citizens was at its lowest.

Just as worrying as the southern invasion, Lyssandra's intelligence department also detected suspicious troop movements from the Sun Empire, and numerous beastmen tribes used the war with Aliomeri as an opportunity to raid far behind the kingdom's defense line and run rampant all across the country.

The kingdom's cavalry already had trouble dealing with these sudden raids, so if the powerful Sun Empire decided to side with Aliomeri and invade from the west...

Then the centuries-old Lyssandra kingdom would truly be at the twilight of its history.

___

A hunter was camouflaged in thick foliage, patiently waiting for a rabbit to emerge from its burrow so he can take his shot, when he suddenly felt the ground vibrate under his feet.

"Hm...?"

After a short moment, a plump boar came out of the forest edge at full speed.

"Haha, this is my lucky day !" cried the hunter.

He drew an arrow, swung his bow, and calmly aimed at the boar running in his direction.

"Why do I have a bad feeling, though...?"

Following his gut instinct, the hunter did not directly shoot and decided to watch the boar for a little longer.

The hunter was experienced, yet it was his first time seeing a boar so agitated. It seemed as though it was fleeing from something terrifying.

The hunter squinted and quickly noticed the thick, dark red bloodstains that covered the boar's hooves.

"What the-"

He didn't have time to finish his sentence before the whistle of an arrow cut him short.

In less time to blink, the game fell sharply, lifeless.

The hunter rubbed his single eye in disbelief.

"Did I just hallucinate ?"

He couldn't believe the arrow was drawn from the forest.

Everyone in the region knew that it was forbidden to cross the land where the Protector Spirit resided, whom even the cruel elves of Aliomeri feared.

When he came back to his sense and realized what just happened, fear started to rise and his heartbeat accelerated.

"Don't tell me the elves have found a way to get through the forest ?!"

He wanted to run away as fast as possible, but his sense of duty prevented him from doing so.

This hunter was a middle-aged man in his forties. He had a rough face, thick hands, and tanned skin. He was quite healthy for his age, but with a wooden leg in place of his left leg and one of his eye sockets empty, his crippled body was beyond salvation.

This man was a former soldier. If he has not been drafted to join the front, it was because of the injuries he suffered during the northern war against the beastmen decades ago.

Although he was scared of what lied in the forest and his body was weak, he still decided to stay.

If the elves truly found a way to pass through the Forest of Truth, then he had to get as much information as he could before going back to his village.

Fortunately, a squad of knights have been dispatched to his village a few days ago. If he could give a detailed report to their leader, it may give them enough time to prepare for the village's evacuation and prevent the death of many people.

A few minutes after the arrow has been shot from the forest, the man saw a tall and slender person wearing a ragged hood leaving the forest. This mysterious person ran swiftly through the grass and quickly grabbed the game he killed by the neck, before rushing back inside the forest in a flash.

"Who the hell is that guy ?"

Even though his remaining eye was sharp, the hunter was too far away to see the man's face under his hood. He couldn't identify him.

He was about to stand up and get closer to the forest to investigate when he suddenly realized something that froze his blood.

"The vibrations... they didn't stop ?!"

He first thought that the boar was the culprit, but not only did the vibrations not stop, they even became stronger.

They seemed to follow a certain rythm, as if an entire battalion was marching in sync.

Sweat ran down his back when he realized the situation he was in.

As the ground continued to shake, the hunter first saw a flock of birds flying as high as they could, and then a wave of rodents and other small animals swarming out in the open.

It felt as if a huge disaster was approaching from the depths of the forest.

At that moment, the hunter finally stood up and fled as fast as possible with his wooden leg.

He didn't know what was happening inside the forest, but he had to inform the knights as soon as possible.

If the elves were truly coming from the Forest of Truth, then not only his village, but the entire region would be soon plunged into chaos.

___

Another day passed since I woke up from the healing pod.

I told the King of Lyssandra that we would be ready to help in three days, but in the end, we departed a day earlier.

To my surprise, the support drones finished their job sooner than expected. When I woke up from the healing pod, there was nothing left around the crash site except for the drones and the reapers from the second group.

We departed the moment everyone from the squad woke up.

I wanted to let Douglas rest another day, but he insisted on coming with us.

He hasn't completely recovered from his injuries yet so he was not fully operational, but at least, his life wasn't in danger anymore.

I knew I couldn't change his mind since he was determined to follow us, so I just gave him instructions to not overdo himself as well as not use too much of the little Singularity energy he had left in reserve.

Jerome, however, was in even better shape than me. I didn't know what transpired between him and Kat when he came back to the ship alone, but Kat's treatment scared him to death.

At least, it would make him act more carefully during the next battles. Since he was the only one of us that relied entirely on close-quarter combat, his role within the squad was difficult.

He didn't have Douglas' long-range capabilities as a marksman, nor did he have Kat's destructive force field, Alice's stealth and invisibility, or the ability to manipulate Void energy like me.

His fighting style forced him to always stay close to the enemy, and as a result, he was more likely to suffer injuries than us. If he wasn't so tough, I'm sure he would have died multiple times already.

As we followed the trails left behind by the second princess as we made our way out of the forest, we didn't come across a single living soul.

The forest was strangely quiet. It felt like every animal and beast on our path had mysteriously disappeared.

I had to admit that despite not being our match at all, the half-blood soldiers following the Second Princess were at least skilled enough to live in the forest.

I always believed that, even though they were pacifist, the elves from the Ravaleth clan were more skilled than those from Aliomeri.

Today, my opinion changed.

Based on the different traces of combat we noticed on our way, Gladia reckoned that ten of these half-bloods would probably be enough to deal with one of the human knights escorting the Dukes. This wasn't so bad, considering how strong were those knights.

After walking in silence for several hours, we finally met with the Second Princess. Her troops were hiding high atop the tall tree branches.

"Welcome, S-Sir Jun..."

The princess came in front of us and bowed.

When I saw her brother trembling in fear behind her, I guessed that something went wrong.

"What happened ? Speak freely."

"As per your order, we scouted the area and cleared the path toward the human kingdom, but... One of my men did a mistake while chasing after a boar, and a hunter inadvertently noticed our presence."

The princess gulped down, her head still lowered, before adding.

"T-The hunter in question fled and informed a squad of human knights stationed in a nearby village..."

After understanding the situation, I activated my sensors to scan the area.

'Gladia.'

[She... is right. A dozen of knights are hiding in the tall grass at the edge of the forest, sword in hand. The said village is too far for me to scan it with your sensors, but if I had to guess, I would say that they planned to get time to evacuate the villagers by ambushing us.]

'Did they recognize the half-bloods and thought we were hostile forces from Aliomeri ?'

[It's the most probable, yes.]

'Sigh... Even if it was the case, in what world a dozen of knights would stall for time against a freaking army ? I thought the King would have informed his men of our arrival, yet the first people we meet are a bunch of idiots... It's not a surprise these guys are loosing to Aliomeri.'

[Don't be too harsh on them, willing to sacrifice themselves in such a manner is a righteous act.]

'Righteous, maybe, but definitely not smart. It's not beneficial for the people they want to protect to die in vain, only when the consequences outweigh the sacrifice is it noble to be willing to die.''

[...]

The princess also started to shake in fear, like her brother.

I didn't say anything after her report since I was conversing with Gladia in my mind, so she probably thought that I would punish her or something.

Before she left the lake, I specifically instructed her to wear her troops with hoods and camouflage made of leaves to avoid this situation happening, after all.

"It's alright, don't worry. We came here to help them anyway, so it saves me the time to look for them."

Both the princess and her brother sighed in relief.

I almost felt bad for them when I saw how far they went to clear the forest of its beasts and how terrified they were of me.

Maybe I went too far with the reaper show... These poor guys are traumatized.

[Did you just realize it ?]

'Yes, but at least it proves that my method works. I doubt they would try anything funny. Anyway, let's deal with these idiots first.'

I walked toward the forest edge and called for my squad through our synaptic link.

'Jerome and Kat, on me. Code 2 for everyone until we identify these knights. Douglas, you cover us.'

'Roger.'

They all answered at the same time as we stepped foot outside of the forest, for the very first time since we arrived in this world.