Chapter 15
Now we were wandering through the mountains, fleeing with despair at our heels.
Looking back, I saw all the soldiers trudging along with exhausted faces. More than half of them were wounded, and we had been unable to treat them properly. We had lost our horses and had little water or food left. Hunger and thirst compounded their fatigue, slowing our march, but we had to move as quickly as possible.
Anxiety and fatigue dulled my thoughts, but I remembered that it was nearly time.
"We'll take a short break. Rest for a little while."
When I halted and announced a break, the soldiers collapsed where they stood.
My own legs were at their limit, but I couldn't sit down in front of the soldiers. Hiding my fatigue, I glanced toward the rearmost soldier to see whether anyone had fallen behind.
The rearmost soldier nodded, telling me that no one had fallen behind.
"Kyle, I'm sorry to ask when you're tired, but could you climb a tree?"
Kyle, whose eye sockets were hollowed like a skeleton's, gave a small nod and climbed the tree. But fatigue had apparently taken its toll on him, because he was slower than usual.
Once he reached the top, Kyle checked in all four directions.
"They're there, two kilometers behind us."
The grim reapers pursuing us were a five-man reconnaissance unit of the Demon King's army.
When we came to this mountain, we had initially been told that a monsterized bear had been sighted in the area.
Foolishly, I had taken that information at face value.
But eyewitness reports cannot be relied upon very much. People who see monsters usually panic and are unable to remain calm, and few people have ever seen one. Fewer still have seen demonfolk.
There had even been clues, if I had taken the time to reflect.
A monsterized bear would scratch tree trunks with its claws to mark its territory, but we had not seen anything like that.
When we entered the mountain and headed toward the place where the monster had been sighted, what we found there were soldiers of the Demon King's army with lizard-like scales.
There were only five of them. But they were five seasoned and highly skilled soldiers.
The Demon King's army had waged invasion after invasion, so its soldiers were all battle-hardened veterans. Moreover, reconnaissance units that infiltrated enemy territory in small numbers and returned with information about the terrain and defenses were specially trained elites.
Compared to the soldiers who had been recruits until recently, the difference in training was simply too great.
The soldiers fought as they had been trained, but the phalanx of spears was breached with ease, and many of them were wounded.
I immediately used all our explosive magic stones and somehow escaped into the mountains, but it was a miracle that no one had died. Perhaps it was thanks to 'Grace,' but the danger had not yet passed.
The scouts kept pursuing us, maintaining a precise distance.
They stayed glued to us like shadows, never letting us out of their sight.
They meant to wipe us all out and keep us from bringing any information back. They thought five of them could kill every one of us. In reality, that was how great the difference in strength was. If they caught up to us, we had no way to resist.
At word that the Demon King's army was two kilometers behind us, the soldiers who had collapsed hurriedly got back to their feet. They probably could not forget the terror of the battle earlier. They understood that they would die if we were caught. But now was not the time to panic.
"Calm down. Take a good rest. They're deliberately showing themselves to make us panic."
A squad of reconnaissance soldiers skilled in infiltration would never position themselves where they could be seen simply by peering from a short distance uphill. We had to assume that they were deliberately revealing themselves.
"They're waiting for us to panic, break our pace, and become separated."
I took the wind-up pocket watch from my breast pocket. My father had given it to me long ago. It was a luxury item expensive enough to buy a house, though its outer case was visibly scratched. It was also a longtime companion that had accompanied me on my journey with the prince.
"Walk for an hour, then rest for five minutes. Keep to that pace. In the long run, it lets you walk the farthest."
A seasoned soldier I'd met along the way had taught me that.
He had said that a soldier's job was to keep walking without overexerting themselves.
Besides, while they're showing themselves, we're still all right. The most dangerous time will be when they disappear from sight.
And that time was not far off.
"Rest for now. If we maintain this pattern, they won't catch us immediately."
The problem would be nightfall. They would make their move once the sun went down. We had to do something.
As I wondered what we could do, my eyes met Ray's.
Ray wasn't injured, but his face was so pale that I might have thought he was already dead. He was probably blaming himself.
When our formation was breached in the earlier battle, the break in our line spread dramatically from there.
The formation broke at Ray's position. He had thrust his spear carelessly, slightly disrupting the formation, and it had collapsed from there.
It had been rash, but not a mistake serious enough to blame him for. Even if Ray had not made that mistake, the formation would have broken eventually. It was nothing more than hindsight. But despite having caused the breach, he himself had not suffered so much as a scratch, and Ray felt responsible enough to look as though he might die.
I probably should have said something, but anything I said to him now might have the opposite effect. Besides, this was no time to devote myself to one person.
I shifted my gaze and saw Al leaning against a tree trunk, breathing heavily.
The cloth pressed to his body was soaked with dark red blood, and his face was as white as paper. Al was the most seriously wounded among us. It was almost surprising that he was still alive.
"Are you all right? Let me take a look at the wound."
I removed the cloth applied to stop the bleeding, but the wound was terrible. The bleeding had stopped somehow, but he had lost too much blood. If we continued marching like this, the wound could reopen.
Using medicinal herbs we had found along the way, I managed to administer first aid.
"Is that medicine?"
Seeing the herbs I had taken out, Al asked what they were. Perhaps he needed to keep talking to remain conscious.
"Yes. I learned it while traveling long ago. As you put it, I learned this skill to save the prince who abandoned me."
When I said that, Al grimaced. I decided to assume it was because his wound hurt.
At the beginning of our journey, I had been desperate too. Since I could not fight, I did anything I could. High-quality medicinal herbs, in particular, were not sold in the markets. I had to either buy them directly or gather them myself. I had desperately learned everything I could in order to save the prince. It was knowledge and skill I had no occasion to use after the saint joined us.
"Hey, leave me behind. I'm a burden. If you take me along like this, everyone will die."
At Al's words, the soldiers lowered their heads. It was something they all vaguely understood. Moving at the pace of the most seriously wounded man would slow our march and increase the danger of total annihilation.
Abandoning him was optimal from an efficiency standpoint. But what was efficient was not always right.
"I won't do that. I don't abandon comrades I've fought alongside. I have been abandoned, but I won't abandon anyone."
Al looked surprised, and some of the soldiers had tears in their eyes.
Of course, it was a lie. I wasn't so noble.
If necessary, I'd cut people loose and choose whichever option brought the greater benefit. Those words were meant for Al and for the soldiers around us to hear.
To win the soldiers' hearts, this sort of performance was necessary. I was making them risk their lives. I had to make them believe that I was someone worth risking their lives for.
"B-but... if we keep this up..."
Al tried to continue speaking, but I interrupted him.
"Enough. Be quiet and eat this."
I shoved the herbs into his mouth.
"Ugh, what is this? It's bitter!"
"They're medicinal herbs. They have painkilling properties, so swallow them and don't spit them out."
The painkilling effect was not particularly strong. The only bonus was that the extreme bitterness numbed the inside of his mouth. If only it would cure his foul mouth, too.
Once Al had somehow swallowed the bitter leaves and I had dressed his wound, I stood and looked at the soldiers.
Thanks to my lie, the light returned to the soldiers' eyes. For now, at least, no one was trying to run. We might just barely make it.
"Everyone, listen. As you already understand, the scouts pursuing us are formidable enemies. But we must defeat them, no matter what."
Their eyes seemed to plead that we did not even stand a chance of winning, let alone defeating them, but I continued.
"They are scouts tasked with infiltrating enemy territory and bringing information back. Their purpose in gathering information about a remote place like Kashu is presumably to determine the route of the main force."
My words stirred unease among the soldiers.
The Demon King's main force is coming.
Twenty of us were fleeing helplessly from just five scouts. What would happen when the main force came? It wasn't hard to imagine our homeland stained in blood and flame.
"Of course, that doesn't mean the main force will definitely come here. But without information, they won't relocate the main force. At least, I wouldn't send the main force to a place where the scouts never returned. If we defeat those scouts, the Demon King's main force might not come here."
It was all speculation. They might come, or they might not. The answer was always unknowable.
Only twenty of us. From the perspective of the whole, what we did and how we fought amounted to almost nothing. We were nothing more than grains of sand.
No matter how resolutely we steeled ourselves, summoned every ounce of our courage, and fought bravely, perhaps no one would even notice us. Perhaps no one would ever know, and we would simply be buried without a trace.
But the opposite was also possible.
Our grain of sand might become the one thing that changed everything.
An enemy commander struggling to decide where to advance might notice the reconnaissance unit that had failed to return and use it to make a decision.
No one knew what the future held. That was why we could only make our best effort and give it our all.
The soldiers gripped their weapons tightly.
Morale was high.
"B-but... h-how are we supposed to do that?"
Al was the one who had made the strange sound.
His tongue was numb, so he could not speak clearly. But I understood what he wanted to say.
The enemy consisted of five elite soldiers who had effortlessly scattered our twenty. They were not opponents we could defeat in a straightforward fight.
"I have a plan."
I assured them.