Chapter 94.2

And so, the battle begins.

I ran to not get left behind.

In the middle, the cavalry was already colliding. Finally the war had started.

A battle of this size is unprecedented on the kingdom’s history. The biggest one had around 30000 troops on the kingdom’s side, and 50000 if you combined both sides’ forces. The number of deaths was over 20000. This one has more than double that much, so it will likely be marked in history.

Sounds of weapons and armors colliding are spread throughout the battlefield. One can also constantly hear screams, of both anger, sorrow and death. Even now, just looking at the enemy’s soldier, one can see a constant spill of blood.

 

Gyin!

 

I watched the scene as if I was not involved, but a sound suddenly resounded near me.

「Oi, Jou-chan1! If you aren’t in the right mind for fighting, retreat! You’ll only get in the way otherwise!」

A soldier wearing the armor of Soutinsu and an adventurer I saw several times on the guild, clashed swords. It seems like the adventurer protected me from an enemy’s attack.

…… Of course, this is a battlefield. I need to focus, I’ll die if I get distracted.

「I’m sorry, but I’m alright!」2

I swung my sword out of the sheath, cutting the enemy in half. A katana isn’t suitable for cutting armors, but being a sacred treasure actually made the job easy, I’m surprised. Thinking on it though, it could even cut a dragon’s scales, so a normal armor should be easy work.

「Huh? Guess I don’t need to take you out, but don’t overdo it, alright?. 」

The adventurer that protected me said it with a wide grin on their faces.

「Of course, survival is my top priority. Please take care of yourself as well.」

I told them in a light mood. That was the first time I cut a person down, even if I include my previous life. It’s not that different from cutting an orc of goblin though, I think my morals already adapted to this world’s…… Maybe I’ll feel guilty about it later.

Anyway, for now, I should try surviving on this hectic battlefield. And to do that, the best method is to defeat as many enemies as possible. The sooner they run out of troops, the sooner this ends.

「Ha-!」

I closed in to the enemies while laying low, and slashed them with a swift strike. I avoided using Qi, because it wears me out too quickly, so it’s not suited for prolonged battles. Of course, I used it when necessary.

The battle just begun, I fixed my posture and ran to the next enemy.

 

How many have I knocked out…?

The battle is too large, we quickly lost the chain of command things changed to a brawl.

I was counting on the beginning, but I quickly gave up on that and am now swinging my weapon mindlessly.

I wonder how much time already pa.s.sed. 2 hours? Maybe 3, considering my fatigue.

Find an enemy soldier, slash, kill, repeat. I kept on repeating this pattern.

I was bathed in other people’s blood, and also bleeding here and there. I don’t mind the smell of blood though, my nose has already gotten used to it.

On my hands there is definitely a sacred treasure, even after this many clashes, the blade still has no blemishes and the sharpness is as good as ever. Without this, I would have already retreated.

I noticed that the area around me was full of dead enemies, but allies were still fighting a bit far from here.

I ran away towards it, as there was no enemy near me.

 

At dusk, we received the withdrawal order, the enemy seemed to be retreating as well. Today’s battle had ended.

To fight all day long is truly taxing, both physically and men

tally.

Returning to the camp, I was exhausted, so I just sat down to rest. Some people are groaning in pain, others are moaning the loss of their friends. And others, like me, are just resting.

After a while, I moved to my tent with a towel and a change of clothes, I don’t have a hobby of being bathed in blood after all.

Everyone else is giving priority to rest. But I used this time to bathe and remove the blood from my skin and hair, and then was.h.i.+ng out the dirt out of my clothes and armor.

When I got back from the tent, I heard some people talking about today’s battle, as well as sharing some information.

「It seems like Soutinsu is holding back on using their mages, apparently, almost none of them appeared on today’s battle. I heard it directly from the knights, so it must be true!」

「You sure it’s true? What reason would there be to hold back in the first place? Today was an all-out battle, as far as I heard, the biggest amount of deaths in a single battle was around 20000? And in today only, 5000 already died, not to count the injured ones. To hold back in this kind of situation, isn’t it the same as saying you wish to lose? 」

「Oi oi, I’m just saying what I heard, I don’t know what that means, if I did, I’d quit being an adventurer and become a strategist.」

「You becoming a strategist? You need to join the military beforehand, and then you’d compete with other knights, you’d never get there.」

「I have no plans of becoming a strategist. That’s why I said I have no idea what meaning there is behind it.」

I see…. In other words, Soutinsu only has around 40000 troops, while our kingdom has more than 60 thousand. If things continue like this, the battle might end tomorrow, or in 3 days in the worst case scenario.3

It is weird that Soutinsu sent no mage though, there is definitely something iffy about it…

I have a bad feeling about this… I should be careful tomorrow…