Hakai no Miko

The fort, built on the Plains of Sorbiant, was already sunset and a long time later, but it was wrapped in brightness like midday with a grand burning fire.

There the soldiers rush around and there are angry voices flying around.

In it, Assistant Commander Marcronis, entrusted with the fort, was desperately judging his men, who constantly rushed over for reports and instructions.

"Assistant Squadron Leader! Not enough places to put wounded soldiers to sleep!

"It doesn't matter if it's in the aisle! Even though you're losing strength, you can't expose yourself to the wind at night. Look at the state of the injury and get the seriously injured into the building as a matter of priority!

"Assistant Squadron Leader! We no longer have enough wound pills! And a bandage!

"Bring a barrel of liquor from the pantry. At least wash it with booze! There would have been spare clothes in the warehouse. Tear that up and replace it with a bandage!

This noise was due to the wounded soldiers who reached the fort by the time the sun set.

It was more than half a month ago that the battalion departed to sweep the people known as Zoan's Fang Families lurking in the Hognalea hills north of this fort. Everyone thought that Zoan's sweep, which had lost momentum in the past, was an easy task.

But it was three days after the battalion headed for the hills. The massive mountain fires that broke out around the area where the village of Zoan was located were also seen from the fort. Marcronis had a bad feeling about the big mountain fire that burned the villages of the Zoans.

It was then three days later that I found out that the hunch was in the middle.

The soldiers of the battalion who went to sweep the Zoan fled dressed unharmed. The soldiers blackened their bodies with coal and mud, so much so that at first they were mistaken for which floater group. And when they reached the fort, they were so drained that the majority fell on the spot and could no longer move.

Ask the soldiers what kind of natural mutation they were caught in, and to their surprise, they were set on fire by Zoan, and the battalion suffered a catastrophic defeat of near-destruction.

Everyone above the Squadron Commander, including the Lugniatos Battalion Commander, who was leading the battalion, became unknown in the confusion. The soldiers, who also had no choice but to take what was driven up by fire and flee for the time being, said that they had barely drank and ate and kept walking for three days, finally returning to the fort.

To this, just as Marcronis couldn't believe it at first either.

But when the wounded soldiers pushed to the fort from that day to the next, they had no choice but to accept reality.

Now it seems like hell in the fort, where the wounded returning soldiers are laid to rest and their groans are heard constantly.

After first aid for the newly arrived wounded, the fort finally regained its calm when the moon, which was close to Jomtien, was leaning so far into the western sky when the sun fell.

"Assistant Commander Marcronis Squadron. May I have a word?

At Marcronis came a soldier with a squad captain's room on his helmet.

"What, Setius?

"There's something I'd like to put in your ear"

"What, say it?

"Here, a little..."

I gaze and say reluctantly at the soldiers who have been put to sleep around me and the soldiers who are nursing them.

"Okay. Follow me."

Marcronis turned to the building.

Many wounded soldiers were also put to sleep in the aisles and stairs of the building, and it was in the room for the commander of the fort that Marcronis came, taking care not to trample them.

A large map was placed on the back wall, and Marcronis lowered his hips to fall on the desk for clerical use placed in front of him.

"Much, you seem tired, Assistant Squadron Leader"

"Totally."

Skinny that the squadron leader, who was the superior officer, was smothered with his hands on Zoan's son, and all the excess is happening in the hands of the assistant squadron leader, who is just about to retire.

"I never expected wounded soldiers to be sent every day like this. Not to mention more than forty people at once today using even their luggage."

"Now it's like Zoan's attack."

I agreed with what Setius said.

The wounded are soldiers from the same Holmeer country. You can't abandon them, but they pushed more wounded soldiers than the soldiers who were stationed at the fort, and the fatigue of the soldiers at the fort has already reached its limits, due to their allowances, nursing, etc.

"Nevertheless, don't send me to Zoan, I can't say. On the contrary, many soldiers are helped thanks to their help. Thank you. You can't resent me."

This one sent in a battalion with the intention of eradicating it, so I can't complain if they kill us all. And yet, Zoan and the others gave the wounded a first aid and went out of their way to build a luggage truck for those who couldn't walk on their own.

The army teaches the Zoans as savage beasts, but now we don't know which one is savage.

"So, what is it you want to report to me?

"Actually, the soldiers who came back said they cared"

"What, what's that?

"Yes, a soldier in captivity says he saw a human child among the Zoans. Moreover, the same reports have been received from several soldiers."

"You think it's a human child? From some pioneering village, were you exposed?"

"No, it doesn't seem so. It's an incredible story that Zoan and the others seemed to follow what the child said."

Marcronis thought that was impossible.

The resentment toward humans will be thorough in the bone marrow, the Zoans, who were chased after a plain familiar to humans. I can't imagine Zoan following what such a grudging-up person would say.

But Marcronis, who tried to laugh it off, something caught him in the back of his brain.

"Forgot, Assistant Squadron Leader. About your son who disappeared with Zoan's escape from this fort."

Marcronis remembered softly.

Not long ago, there was the escape of Zoan's son, who smothered the squadron leader who was his superior officer. At that time, this unidentified son, brought by Setius from the cult sacrifice yard, is disappearing with him.

It was also conceivable that Zoan had taken him out, but it was not conceivable that Zoan, who resented humans, would take the boy until he bothered to risk it, hitchhiking him out of Zoan's jail, supposedly on his own.

A priest Mirdas, who had his unidentified son put in a dungeon with Zoan's son, made a fuss, so he even asked for the battalion's cooperation to look for the boy, but in the end he could not find him. Marcronis just thought he was dying wild somewhere completely because there's no way that a child could survive on his own in this wide plain.

"No way, is that the kid? No, wait, wait! That Zoan was following the child?! No way, this fire attack...!

Marcronis got a clue to solve the questions of the last few days.

Initially, when he received reports that the battalion was on fire, he couldn't believe it because it was too far from the way Zoan fought that he knew.

But if, as the soldiers saw, a human child could have obeyed Zoan, I can only assume that this way of fighting Zoan and the rest was the idea of that human child.

"What is it, that kid...?

He has already left the fort in an attempt to question the Mirdas priest as if he knew who that son was. On the day the search by the battalion was broken, he went back to the city angry at the accusations that were scattered.

"Is it possible to keep the soldiers quiet about this?

The soldiers would be upset to find out that the same person had betrayed Zoan.

"Many soldiers have witnessed, and rumors have spread to soldiers who come into contact with them in medical care, wondering if it is too late"

"Damn! I should have tightened up that Ibo toad and let him throw up."

not to stand in regret, is

"Anyway, now the Zoans in momentum may attack here. You'll all be tired, but increase your watch. Shorten the interval between shifts."

That is due to the consideration that the concentration of a tired soldier does not last long.

"Roger that!

As the saluted Setius walked out of the room, one of the remaining Marcronis left his body neatly behind the back of the chair.

"You think you're someone who can follow Zoan? What the hell is going on?!"

Whoever could answer the question of Marcronis was not there.

◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

On the barrier, where the cold breeze swept, the soldier, wrapped (coming) in a blanket and on the lookout, found something moving in the plain, where the eastern sky was about to become slightly brighter.

When you gaze, it is the figure of two large luggage cars and the soldiers who push it.

"Is that another wounded soldier..."

Even though as many as forty wounded soldiers have just arrived last night, this time they are outnumbered.

I just want you to forgive me for making such a fuss about it again as last night, but you can't abandon a fellow who's been running for his life. The soldier on the lookout rides himself out of the top of the fence and screams down.

"Here comes another wounded soldier! Quite a few this time!

In the wake of that voice, the vicinity of the gate becomes hasty.

"Open the gate -!

A few people open the gate and welcome the wounded soldiers.

The wounded soldiers who came in through the gate were in the worst condition ever.

Everyone has bandages all over his body, as if he were a bunch of mummies mourned by a burial method passed down to the desert of the far south where rumors are heard.

The soldiers who welcomed them also intended to get used to seeing the wounded soldiers in the last few days, but they make a painful face to too much misery.

"It's okay now. Don't worry."

The soldier, who ran over with that voice, felt a strange discomfort that the words could not explain.

The soldiers who have pushed their luggage cars are all covered with bandages all the way to their bodies or their faces. With so much burn, the body feels overwhelmed with vitality.

In the meantime, another soldier was slightly peeling (peeling) her eyes as she rushed over to her luggage and tried to hold the wounded soldier lying there for treatment.

The skin peeking through the slightest gap in the bandage is weird. Instead of looking burned, it's slightly hairy. No, it's beyond degrees, even hairy. It was as if he was even wearing fur under the bandage.

At that time, I heard the sound of the beast honking its throat all the time.

When I turn to you in awe, I see wounded soldiers bandaged up to my face. If you look closely, I feel strange about the pupils in those eyes. Its large, round pupils are like the eyes of a cat in the dark.

Plus the dog teeth peeking from the slightly open mouth were unusually sharp and long. Isn't that like a fang?

The face of the soldier who noticed it bursts with cold sweat.

"Zo, it's Zoan!!"

A screaming soldier's throat is torn apart with a swinging mountain knife.

Using that as a signal, the Zoans, who were disguised as wounded soldiers, take off one armor after another, pull off the bandages, and reveal their identities.

"I have one Zoan XII family, Garguz's son, Garam! You can't kill him if you don't resist! If you're facing a blade, we'll answer with a blade!

With a mountain knife in both hands, Garam, who became Jen-royal on top of the luggage car, shouted away. And when you breathe in all over your chest, you shook up the atmosphere and roared.

In response, the sound of a fierce drum from outside the fort and countless roars rose one after the other.

"Zoan's surprise attack!

"We're surrounded by forts!!"

There was no longer mayhem in the fort.

"We are proud Zoan warriors! Don't forgive those who resist! But don't ever hurt anyone who surrenders!

In proclaiming so, Gallam ran out for his enemies.

Furthermore, the warriors of the Fang Clan continue after them as they raise their chants.

"" Those who resist will not forgive! Do not lay your hands on those who surrender!

In the whereabouts of the Gallums, the soldiers raised their hands one after the other to show their surrender.

The Ethereal Horse had made the warriors of the Fang Clan promise that those who surrendered would never be hurt as they attacked the fort.

That's partly because the Ethereal Horse still remembered to resist killing people. By the battle of Hognalea Hill, he intended to put a foothold on it, but still has a strong sense of resistance to murder for the Ethereal Horse who has lived in peaceful Japan. If I can do it, I really want to do it without killing people.

This time, however, the aim was more than that to shatter the will of the soldiers of the fort.

The number of soldiers who were in the fort at this time was approximately three hundred, with the exception of the negatively wounded, who could not fight because of serious injuries. Looking only at the number of soldiers, I would have fought enough against 63 warriors of the Fang Clan who had attacked me.

However, the breakdown of these three hundred people was less than one hundred who had been garrisoned in the fort since the beginning and two hundred who had survived from the Hognalea hills.

These two hundred men did not suffer enough wounds to be able to fight, but many of them were already crushed by fire.

Moreover, many of those soldiers were once imprisoned by Zoan and later freed. With their own hands, they were those who knew that Zoan had kept his promise not to abuse the humans he had captured, but to liberate them later.

Would any of them be told by Zoan that if he surrendered, he would not be hurt, and still be able to inspire war?

If this had been the case, if he had told us to kill them all, the soldiers would have rallied slight warfare and desperately resisted.

But when I heard they wouldn't hurt me if I surrendered, they chose to surrender lightly.

Moreover, such their actions also affected the soldiers who had been stationed in the fort since the beginning.

You know, Zoan's surprise raid inspired him to pull out his sword, but if you look around, they're all deciding to surrender early. In this way around, the wars that aroused me because of it also squeeze quickly.

The soldiers who were supposed to be able to fight also lost their will and surrendered one after the other without ever matching their weapons.

Thus the warriors of the Garams, the Fang Clan, took control of the soldiers of the fort one after the other, merely in words.

◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

Marcronis, who was taking a nap, awoke to the hustle and bustle and drum sounds that woke up inside the fort. A soldier jumps in where he was wearing the armor he was taking off.

"My God, Assistant Squadron Leader! It's a Zoan ambush!

"Report the status quo!

"The Zoans are breaking in through the gate and the fort is going to be controlled by them!

"He said it was a break-in through the gate! Was the watch asleep?!"

From the experience of being guided out of your son by the infiltrated few Zoan, the fort's watch has been strengthened since then. Especially near the gate, a temporary sleeping cabin is set up, not just to increase the watch, so that it is always packed by more than ten soldiers. Just in case you allow the enemy to break in, don't let them open the gates easily.

"That's... the Zoans were wearing bandages and pretending to be wounded soldiers, so they opened the gates from here"

"Idiot! You opened the gate without confirmation?!"

"Shh, excuse me. With…"

Trying to yell even more, Marcronis stuck around.

In the last few days, the wounded soldiers who come like every day have been able to become soldiers at some point.

Not to mention, it's the fellows who have suffered major injuries that come. Humanity will want to put him inside the fort and treat him as soon as possible.

Blaming it is cruel.

After I thought about it that much, it flashed.

"Damn, they did it! It's all a piece of cloth for this!

Not everyone put together, but the wounded soldiers who were sent one by one, to make the fort human and alarm them about it.

I sent too many forty people at once the day before to induce fatigue and blunt their judgment.

The wounded soldiers were carefully treated and returned in order to create a situation where it was not unnatural to wear bandages so that they could not be Zoan in the long run.

"Whoever thought of this has rotten sexual roots!

Marcronis, who in his chest cursed for nothing and then took his sword in his hand and popped out of the room, ran into the Zoans as he left the building.

A black-haired Zoan, who was at the head of the Zoans, pokes a mountain sword at us.

"That helmet room! I saw him as the commander of this fort!

Marcronis also guessed that this guy was Zoan's leader in the nearly black-haired Zoan body in front of him.

Marcronis releases a sharp thrust with a sword in his hand, all without question. Gallum steps straight in, poking with the left mountain knife held backwards, and protrudes the right mountain knife toward the flank of Marcronis. And when Marcronis let his left hand slip away from the sword pattern, he put his left elbow on Garam's right wrist and stopped the mountain knife.

But Gallum stepped further where he had opened his body defenselessly because of it, devouring a strong head poke at Marcronis' nose. In an unexpected attack, Marcronis, who falls behind the curtain, is slapped from his back to the ground at the next moment by eating a foot payment.

"Surrender! Or I'll scratch and slash your throat!

Marcronis, horseback ridden and stabbed with two mountain swords on his throat, had eaten his teeth regrettably for a while, but when his men's soldiers were also seized by other Zoans, he threw the sword in his right hand far away, pulling out the strength of his body.

"It's my loss. Let's surrender..."

"Unfortunately, let's accept"

As the words put it, Marcronis asked surprised at the grumpy looking galam.

"What do you mean, sorry?

"Because they tell me never to hurt those who surrender"

Originally, Marcronis, who commanded the fort, is an abominable enemy who has killed many Zoans who have attacked him so far. To tell you the truth, I just want to keep killing you.

"Right. It made me drink a little less."

Gallum's facial stiffness only slightly soothed Marcronis's grip.