Chapter 16
Having declared that we had a chance of victory, I was watched by Al, Ray, and the other soldiers with pleading eyes. The weight of responsibility bore down on me, but I couldn't afford to lose my nerve. If I showed even the slightest sign of anxiety, it would spread to the others. I drew a deep breath and steeled myself.
"First, we have two advantages. One is our familiarity with the terrain."
The mountain we're on now is the same route we took on our way here. I have a rough grasp of the terrain ahead. That alone is a major advantage.
"And our numbers. There are twenty-one of us in all. The key to victory is how well we can use our numerical advantage."
The five of them could take on twenty people, but there were still only five of them.
"First, we'll divide the unit into three groups and have each one take a different path."
"Wha...?"
Al, his speech slurred, stared at me in disbelief. I understood what he wanted to say. Although I had just said that our numbers were important, dispersing our forces seemed like a foolish strategy.
In reality, dividing our strength was a bad idea. But even so, there was a reason to do it.
"First, we need to retain the initiative. If they seize it, they'll overwhelm us and we'll lose. Once they realize we're splitting up, they won't make the foolish mistake of dividing their small force. They'll move quickly to pick us off one by one. Naturally, their first target will be the main force. We'll strike them there."
I clenched my fist and spoke forcefully.
"If we continue ahead, we'll pass between steep mountain walls, and beyond a narrow path there will be a small clearing. We'll lie in wait there."
I remembered the place well because we had passed through it and rested there on our way here. There was a sheer mountain wall above and a cliff below, with narrow paths in front and behind. It was an ideal place for a small force to fight a larger one.
"But can we win with that?"
Kyle, his eyes hollow, asked anxiously. He was right: merely taking up a position in a narrow place would not be enough to defeat them. The Demon King's army was made up of elite soldiers, and they would certainly find a way to outmaneuver us.
"They'll probably see us waiting in the narrow path and split their forces in half to circle around us."
I drew the clearing on the ground with a branch, then picked up five pebbles and placed them on either side of the path. A battle-hardened unit of the Demon King's army would avoid trying to overpower us from the front and would instead try to outflank us.
"We'll be attacked from the front and rear, but that's exactly what we want. We'll pincer the Demon King's army while they're trying to pincer us."
I picked up several more pebbles and placed them behind the Demon King's soldiers who would be attempting to surround us.
"The true purpose of splitting up is to deceive them about our numbers. We'll create another detachment and position them as ambushers at the front and rear of the path. When the enemy attacks, the main force will focus on defense and buy time, while the ambushers attack from behind and trap them between us."
Hearing that we would trap the enemy between us, the soldiers nodded, seeming to think that this might actually work.
Of course, there was no guarantee that this plan would defeat them. But this was the best we could do. If we had archers or mages, we could have devised a very different strategy, but this was all we had.
"First, let's form the initial detachment. I intend to assign the wounded soldiers to it. As for the detachment that will surround the enemy, I'd like to leave that to Gran and Lagun, along with Otto and Kyle. Can you do it?"
The four men stiffened under the weight of the responsibility when I named them, but eventually nodded.
"I'll stay with the main force."
Al declared in his slurred speech that he would remain with the main force.
"Al. No one doubts your courage or bravery. And to be honest, you're a liability right now."
"Th-that's why. To make them lower their guard, it'd be better to have an injured man."
I couldn't understand what he was saying at all, but I grasped his meaning.
The main force's role was to serve as bait. We needed to draw the enemy's attention away from the detachments and make them lower their guard. Even a battle-hardened unit of the Demon King's army might let its guard down if it saw a badly wounded Al.
"But you could die."
Since Al would be fighting off the enemy's attack while wounded, his chances of survival would be extremely low.
"If that's where it ends, so be it. More importantly, you should run."
He seemed to be telling me to flee, but that was out of the question. If I ran, the ambush would certainly fail.
They had already seen me giving orders.
If I disappeared from view, they would suspect the existence of another detachment. For the ambush to succeed completely, I had to remain directly in front of the enemy.
Besides, considering the effects of my command and 'Grace,' I couldn't leave the main force.
"Then let's begin."
I sent two groups made up of wounded soldiers, excluding Al, down separate paths while the main force continued straight ahead. Along the way, I left Kyle and Otto behind as ambushers. We continued onward, stopped the main force in the clearing on the mountainside, and sent Gran and Lagun ahead to serve as another ambush.
"We'll take a break here. Everyone, sit down and rest. I'll do the same."
This was an act meant to make it look as though we were exhausted and had finally lost our pace. I really was tired, so when I sat down, the fatigue hit me all at once.
Most of the soldiers, as exhausted as I was, slumped to the ground. But one person remained standing motionless.
"Ray, you sit down too."
I called out to Ray, who was standing stiffly beside me like a pole.
Ray was pale and rigid, clutching his spear as though his life depended on it. His face was twisted with such terror that he looked pitiful, and his body trembled as if it were frozen.
"Ray, calm down. It's all right."
I spoke to him, but his trembling did not lessen at all.
Honestly, Ray was our biggest problem.
With Al and me serving as bait and the effect of 'Grace,' we should be able to lure the enemy here. But none of that would matter if we couldn't withstand their attack.
For that reason, we needed to place soldiers who weren't badly wounded at the center of the main force. Yet Ray, who was uninjured, was in this state. He was too tense, desperate to make up for his previous failure. If things continued like this, failure was certain.
I considered taking Ray out of the formation, but decided not to change it. Instead, I would make a slight adjustment.
"Ray, come here."
"B-But, I..."
"Just come here."
I beckoned him over. Though still stiff with terror, Ray knelt before me. He looked as though he were waiting to be executed.
"I was thinking about the formation. Ray, I want you to take the enemy's front."
I deliberately chose to place Ray at the front.
"The f-front?"
"Hey, that's..."
Al had finally regained the ability to speak clearly and looked at me reproachfully.
The front was where we expected the enemy's fiercest attack. For Ray in his current state, it might sound like I was telling him to die. But that wasn't what I meant.
"Let me make one thing clear: no commander puts a subordinate they don't trust in front of the enemy."
If the front was breached, there was no way we could win. It was only natural for a commander to want to place a subordinate they could trust, even if only slightly, there.
"Ray, I trust you."
I lightly patted him on the shoulder.
"Y-Yes."
I had meant to ease his tension, but Ray only tightened his grip on his spear.
"Just as I trust you, trust those around you as well. All you have to do is fulfill your role."
No matter how capable a soldier was, there were limits to what they could do alone. He didn't need to do everything himself. He had to entrust matters to his comrades and believe that they would do what needed to be done.
And he, too, needed to understand that his comrades trusted him, then focus on the task before him.
Only then was Ray finally able to look around him.
The companions nearby gave him faint smiles when their eyes met his.
"That's right. Trust us. No one's expecting anything from you anyway."
Even as he lay dying, Al's foul mouth hadn't improved, and he deliberately made a spiteful remark.
Seeing the faces of those around him, Ray's expression softened slightly.
He managed to relax a little, but immediately afterward, the cry of a bird echoing through the ravine froze the atmosphere that had just begun to ease.
That birdcall was the signal from Kyle, who had been stationed with the detachment. It was telling us that the enemy was coming. They were almost upon us.
The soldiers began to rise, but I stopped them with a gesture.
"Calm down. Wait for them to come. Sit down."
I soothed the soldiers and made them sit back down.
A nerve-racking stretch of time passed.
Every soldier was trembling, their faces pale as they breathed heavily. A few looked ready to have their hearts burst from their chests.
They no longer even knew whether they wanted the enemy to come or not.
I myself was growing increasingly impatient even as I told everyone to remain calm.
In my mind, I wondered whether the enemy had taken some unexpected action. An intangible anxiety swelled inside me until I felt like clawing at my chest.
I tried to think of something else so that I could calm down somehow.
Suddenly, notes and a melody began playing in my head. It was some kind of song. Come to think of it, someone had often sung it during our journey. What song had it been?
No matter how hard I tried to remember the beginning, I couldn't. I could recall a melody from the middle, but not the opening.
As I tried to remember the song, the soldiers stared at me with surprised expressions. Perhaps I had unconsciously begun humming.
It was an inappropriate thing to do. When I smiled, for some reason, smiles spread among the soldiers, and I felt the tension ease.
"E-Enemy attack!"
A warning cry instantly tightened the atmosphere that had just begun to relax.
Everyone moved like released springs, standing up and readying their spears.
Looking around, I saw two demonfolk charging straight toward us from each direction, like black dogs.
The soldiers panicked when they saw the Demon King's army, but they still did not flee.
They had nowhere to run and were probably clinging to my plan as their only hope. But if they followed our arrangements, our chance, however slim, remained.
"Stay calm. Form a circle and hold them off."
I drew strength from my stomach and shouted. I was encouraging the soldiers while also drawing the Demon King's army's attention, so they would not notice the detachment positioned behind them.
Perhaps encouraged by my voice, the soldiers aligned their spears and thrust them outward.
If we held our formation and focused entirely on defense, we could buy time.
Ray, whom I had been worried about, was now calm and matching his breathing to those around him.
The soldiers mustered their voices and courage, thrusting their spears and holding back the Demon King's army's assault. Forced into the narrow passage, even the Demon King's soldiers could not break through. Everything was going according to plan. Once Otto and the others launched their assault from the rear, we would have a real chance of victory.
The situation unfolded exactly as I had expected, and I began to glimpse the light of victory. But then I sensed something wrong. Something was off.
"There aren't enough of them! There aren't enough!"
There were two demonfolk in front and two behind, for a total of four. But when we had first encountered them, there had been five. One was missing.
Moreover, the pressure from those attacking us from the front and rear was much weaker than it had been during our first encounter. Was that because we were fighting hard? No—were they deliberately holding back?
As I continued watching them, I noticed that they occasionally glanced upward and said something to one another.
The demonfolk spoke a language called Enolk, which was different from ours.
To someone unfamiliar with it, the language sounded no different from birdsong. But I had desperately learned it during my journey with the prince, and after returning, I had continued deciphering and studying it with the help of books and documents once owned by the Demon King.
I was still far from fluent, and without a textbook or teacher, I wasn't even certain of the grammar. But I could understand fragments of conversation.
Wait? The captain? From above?
The noise made it difficult to hear, but I somehow pieced together fragments of their words.
When I connected them, I found myself shouting.
"Above! They're coming from above!"
Immediately after I shouted the warning, a black shadow slid down from overhead amid a sound like a landslide, landing in the middle of our circle.
It was the last soldier of the Demon King's army. He had climbed the sheer mountainside and slid down without regard for the danger of falling.
"Shaaah!"
The Demon King's soldier landed in the middle of the circle and hissed like a snake to intimidate us.
To make himself lighter, he had discarded all his armor. The only weapons he carried were two broad barbarian swords, one in each hand.
He spread the blades in his hands like wings and attacked as if dancing.