Chapter 3 — The Salt Road

The Gaziel border was the southernmost territory within the Kingdom of Capua. The country boasted the most land of any of the countries in the region. Despite that, the temperature near the border wasn’t all that different from the capital.

This was not only the case in Capua; the same could be said for much of western Randlion, which meant that while the capital was currently experiencing its hottest period of the year, so too was this territory caught in the height of a murderous heat wave. A single hour spent unprotected in the sun was enough to put infants and the elderly at risk of death, and it was ill-suited for large-scale military maneuvers.

The region, thanks to an understanding between the various governors, was very unlikely to break out into civil war. However, there were most certainly troublesome enemies on the continent; enemies that paid no heed to the whims and vagaries of man.

Lizards... Creatures that became more active as the temperatures of the western lands rose. From the perspective of the areas they inhabited, such creatures were the true ruling class of the Southern Continent, far more so than humans.

Raptors.

Gaziel’s army was currently undergoing its second mobilization of the year—during the hottest period of the year, the one least-suited to such endeavors—to reconnect the broken Salt Road after those very lizards had torn it asunder.

Roughly one hundred men now marched steadily north along the road. It was still in the morning hours, and the weather was relatively cool. Even so, the searing sunlight bore down on them, lighting up the area with the vivid greenery from the sides of the road.

This road might have been Capua’s pride, the Salt Road, but it was undeniably rough by modern standards. It was barely wide enough for cars to pass each other, and the surface was merely bare dirt. The center of the road was raised, though, and shallow ditches had been dug on either side, which decreased the likelihood of it turning into a river during the rainy season.

Even so, if someone from Earth were to see this unpaved path, and were told that it was a main route through the kingdom, they would struggle to believe it. It was nothing compared to the asphalt of modern roads or the ancient cobbled roads of the Roman Empire. But regardless of the lower level of science and technology, the people of this world had magic with which they could manipulate the landscape itself, so they were arguably in a better position than Ancient Rome. That the road was so simple regardless perhaps went to show just how much stronger the power of nature was there than on Earth. Of course, there was also the possibility that Ancient Rome was simply an exception when it came to the quality and maintenance of their roads.

Regardless, the local soldiers were currently marching along the road in question. The vanguard was composed of cavalrymen atop large green dash drakes. There were five of them, each with their own squire. The other soldiers carried short spears and were following on foot. They wore thick hooded coats over their leather armor to ward off the sun, but it blazed down mercilessly all the same, stealing the hydration from their bodies.

Already, over half of the soldiers had emptied the water skins that hung from their waists. The main exception was the transportation division. They rode in carriages pulled by drakes, which were far slower than dash drakes but much stronger. The carriages contained huge amounts of necessities in the forms of weapons, food, water, firewood, and large cooking tools, and the drakes were carting along several vehicles full of such materials. Considering it needed to support roughly a hundred soldiers for the duration of their campaign, the seemingly excessive supplies made sense.

If anything, someone from Earth in the Middle Ages would have been shocked that a long-term expedition could be supplied with so few carriages and transported by a relatively small number of beasts of burden comparable to their own horses.

There were five cavalrymen, five squires to match, and ten transport corps. Fifteen troops escorted the caravan, and there were around seventy general infantrymen. It might have looked like there were far fewer cavalrymen compared to a standard formation, but that was due to the expectation that they would be facing raptors in the forests. Compared to their superlative mobility and strength on an open battlefield, the effectiveness of cavalrymen was much reduced in enclosed conditions. Even those five would dismount when the time came to fight, leaving their drakes with the squires.

“Phew...” One of the cavalrymen, a young man with dark hair and eyes sighed softly so as not to be heard.

Xavier Gaziel was his name. He was the third child of the margrave, and the only one of his siblings still alive. Upon closer inspection, he had many similar features to his sire; however, he was built quite differently. The margrave wasn’t particularly tall, but he had maintained his physique as he’d aged. Xavier, on the other hand, looked daintier and less reliable.

It was hard to tell due to his current position on the drake’s back, but he was shorter than Zenjirou, with Zenjirou being one hundred and seventy centimeters, and Gaziel being in the sixties of that bracket, maybe even as small as one-fifty. He was short, slight, and a novice. No one would ever peg him as a reliable commander.

As if aware of that fact, he had made a point of remaining utterly straight-backed to make himself appear slightly bigger. Riding in the vanguard, he thought he could feel the gazes of every one of the soldiers behind him, evaluating his every move.

Of course, that was a simple trick of his mind. While the sun was still low, the soldiers needed to push through the harsh heat and didn’t have the energy to spare for surveying their commander, so it was a pointless concern on his part.

“Sir Xavier,” muttered his squire, a fair-skinned lad walking next to him with a spear in hand. He was looking up at the commander worriedly, but the man in question couldn’t afford the attention to notice.

Xavier’s ability to maintain his posture without the slightest deviation while mounted was impressive. He might have appeared delicate, but that much was proof of his dedication to his training. That said, riding in such a fashion would undoubtedly see him soon exhausted.

“Sir, it may be somewhat early, but I recommend a break. A little farther ahead there is a clearing suitable for making camp. What do you think about setting up there?” suggested a middle-aged knight from behind him, hiding a troubled smile.

Age-wise, the knight was perhaps in his mid-forties. Xavier jolted at the dark-mustached man’s words and turned to face him.

“Lord Josep,” he replied, familiar with the name of the knight so loyal to his father.

Lord Josep was a seasoned veteran, having fought for his name in the great war. He normally worked closely with the margrave but had returned carrying the necessary permissions to the army as a proxy via Aura’s magic. If the envoy’s role had simply been to deliver the message, there would have been no need for the presence of such a skilled knight. The margrave had likely sent Josep to ease the burden of his son’s first sortie.

Xavier was happy for the consideration, but it also made him feel pathetic. Shaking off his rapidly declining mood, he answered. “As you said, it is too early, is it not, Lord Josep? I seem to remember our original plan called for greater progress in the morning.”

The knight brought his drake up alongside his lord’s son and replied politely, “It did, sir; however, the heat is stronger than anticipated. The men are already showing signs of exhaustion. I feel it may be a risk to continue in this way.”

“I-I see,” Xavier answered, caught off guard by his subordinate’s suggestion.

There was a saying that wisdom came with age. If Xavier had been walking under his own power, he probably would have noticed the soldiers’ exhaustion as a reflection of his own, but out of respect for his position as commander, he was riding on drakeback.

Riding for an extended period of time was tiring in and of itself, but there was no comparison when it came to walking under the searing sun. The young heir had been taught how to lead his men and gave his agreement before twisting in the saddle and calling to those behind him.

“We’re making camp in the clearing up ahead! Only a while left now—keep it up!”

Once the soldiers understood that they would soon be able to rest, their expressions gained a touch of happiness for the first time that day as their heads rose slightly. Their reactions once more drew Xavier’s attention to his own inadequacies as a commander.

Hm, everyone does look rather tired. I should have noticed it before Lord Josep had to mention it...

His personality was perhaps too serious by nature.

The margrave’s third son, Xavier, clenched his fists atop the drake’s back enough to make his slight body shake as he remonstrated himself.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

Noon several days later found the army headed by Xavier Gaziel having progressed a long way north along the Salt Road, once more making camp. The path wove through dense forest, and there were no naturally occurring spaces large enough for a hundred-strong group to rest, but the Salt Road was Capua’s greatest highway, after all. Here and there, the trees were cut back in certain areas to create spaces for large groups to set up camp.

The soldiers’ voices rang through the small artificial clearing.

“Hey, the sunshade’s not high enough! Need an earthwall user over here!”

“We’re about to get cooking! Someone come give me a hand with lighting a fire!”

“Water’s all here; someone purify it!”

The most attention-grabbing aspect of their preparations was inarguably the existence of magic. Even for commoners, it was relatively routine to learn a spell useful for day-to-day life, even if they didn’t know enough to be called mages. People with specialized magic were prized in these situations.

Conversely, when it came to combat, magic was almost never of use. After all, using a spell required the correct pronunciation, the correct amount of mana, and the correct cognizance. Regardless of pronunciation and mana, holding a certain mental image in the midst of combat was extremely difficult. Only a handful of elite royal mages could cast offensive magic from the rear lines, but casting while wielding a spear was impossible as a general rule. Therefore, the majority of magic usage by soldiers was for non-combat situations like this.

Xavier Gaziel sat in a folding wooden chair in their temporary headquarters: a white cloth pavilion over rectangular walls, created using earth magic. He rolled his neck to remove the stiffness of the hours on drakeback.

“Ughh!” he grunted in a mixture of pain and relief.

The past few days and his ongoing training meant that he had experienced such treks plenty of times, but he still seemed to end up in this state. He’d been all too aware of his subordinates’ gazes and had held himself stiffer than needed.

Currently, the only people in the pavilion were Xavier himself and his trusted squire. Without his subordinates’ eyes on him, this sense of privacy was irreplaceable. The single sheet of cloth around them could not possibly hold out the harsh light, but the magic-made wall blocked it completely.

Xavier sat in the shade created by the wall as he used the small bucket of water his squire had prepared to pour over his head.

“Phew...” he breathed. Droplets of water ran through his hair and along his neck, flowing inside his clothes.

“Sir Xavier, here,” the squire addressed him.

“Ah, thanks, Andres,” he replied, reaching from his seat and taking the offered towel, using it to wipe his face. The heat would quickly dry the water, but that didn’t change the unpleasantness of staying wet in the meantime.

Once he was done, Andres wordlessly took the used towel and offered a wooden cup of lukewarm water in exchange. Xavier accepted it mostly out of reflex, draining the contents in a single quaff.

It was at that moment that a low, carrying voice came from the other side of the pavilion.

“Sir, it’s Josep. The scouting party has returned with urgent information. May I enter?”

“Huh, Josep? Very well, enter,” he replied, simultaneously signaling to Andres to tidy the area.

Xavier Gaziel remained in his simple folding chair as he listened to the report from the recon leader and Josep in their temporary headquarters.

“What?! You found the salt traders’ corpses?” he cried out in surprise, leaning forward in his chair upon hearing the information.

“Yes, sir. A little farther up the road, we found several overturned carriages, drake corpses, and human bodies! Each bears grievous wounds and was clearly killed by raptors!” the soldier replied in a loud voice, sending the unshaven hair around his mouth fluttering.

The scouting force was made up of several agile infantrymen. If they were to come across a force of raptors strong enough to cut off the Salt Road, there was little chance of them repelling an attack on their own. That was why they had immediately returned after finding the corpses, the man explained.

It had likely been the correct decision. In this case, informing the main force that the corpses were ahead was more important than staying to collect information. Xavier’s hands had unconsciously clenched into fists in his lap as he listened. Finally, the real battle would begin, so it was hardly unfair for his nerves to show, seeing as this was his first campaign.

“I see. Then we cannot waste a moment. We should tell the men to make ready,” he instructed, straightening his slight form in the chair.

“Sir, the men are still preparing lunch,” the veteran admonished his less-experienced comrade as the latter tensed up. “If we disseminate this information now, the younger soldiers will not recover from the journey as much due to their nerves. Are you certain?”

“Hm?”

Josep’s words as a veteran caused Xavier to promptly abort his attempt to rise from the chair. He sat back and rested his chin in his hands to think. Certainly telling the soldiers that raptors might be nearby and to take care during their respite would cause discomfort and tension. What was more, a significant number of those present were young men. Older soldiers who had experienced war before were a minority.

“Josep,” he asked after a pause, “how likely would you say an attack from the raptors here is?”

The young commander’s question made the veteran’s eyebrow rise as he answered smoothly. “Well, it is impossible to say for sure, but I believe the risk is reasonably low. We do have roughly a hundred armed men here, and the raptors in the area should be fairly wary of the danger.”

“Hm, I see,” the commander returned, seeming to come to a decision in an instant.

However, almost as if to interrupt that, Josep continued. “That said, the possibility is low, not non-existent. Hungry raptors are impossible to predict.”

“Hmm...” Xavier murmured, closing his mouth again at the followup and thinking once more. If he alerted the entire army, their long-awaited break would end up with many unable to properly rest. However, if he did not, they could be taken by surprise, found defenseless by the beasts.

To alert or not to alert. Xavier suppressed the urge to ask the knight what he thought the correct course of action was and contemplated it himself instead. Josep had already provided an objective opinion; it was now up to him, as the commander, to decide what to do with that.

While he considered the situation, numbers danced through a corner of his mind, counting up from one. It was a habit his instructor had given him. In contrast to the duties of a margrave, which required careful consideration, a rough and ready decision from a commander was often better than a well-thought-out one on the battlefield. His instructor’s sour words that a decision on the battlefield must always be made within a count of ten, and within a count of three when there were signs of enemy action, had stuck with him.

Before long, Xavier let out a breath and gave an order to the subordinates before him as he sat up straight in his chair. “Very well. There is no need to order readiness. Keep the information restricted to the knights and division leaders for now, and allow the others to finish their meals and rest up. We will be heading for the site in the afternoon, and there is a high probability of battle when we arrive. Once the men have finished recuperating, disseminate the information and keep them on alert for the afternoon as we move out. That is all.”

“Very well.”

“Understood, sir!”

The knight and recon leader answered their commander’s decision respectfully.

As Xavier issued his orders, his face tensed up enough to trigger a twitch in his cheek as he did his utmost to keep the unease off his face. The moment the words had left his mouth, doubt had assailed him. Had he made the right call? If they were attacked during their break, it would be an utter failure on his part. But if he made the information public and the new recruits found their later fight more difficult as a result, that would also be a failure.

The knight and leader, apparently ignorant of their inexperienced commander’s concerns, offered bows and quickly left the pavilion.

“Phew,” Xavier sighed again once they had left, “the battle hasn’t even started yet, worthless...”

His loyal squire feigned deafness at his master’s complaints.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

The army headed by Xavier Gaziel came to a halt in the middle of the Salt Road. Roughly an hour of marching had passed since they had recommenced their journey. Spread out before them was a scene that, in a word, could only be described as “carnage.”

Carriages were on their sides, strewn across the road, and the drakes that had hauled them were corpses, still in their leather harnesses. Scattered around were broken bags of salt, and among it all were several human bodies.

This was what had befallen the salt traders. Several days seemed to have passed since they’d been attacked. The bodies were slowly rotting and were giving off a strong smell. An amateur couldn’t have determined whether the parts of the bodies missing had been eaten by the raptors or simply fallen away.

The squirming dark patches on the ruddy meat were corpse flies, and the writhing white flecks were eggs they had laid. If you strained to hear, there was a low hum that irritated the ears mixed in with the wind—the sound of countless flies’ wings buzzing.

“Agh!”

“Ugh...”

“Keep it together! Waste your energy here and you’ll be dead weight during the battle!”

“Sure, go right ahead and waste that food; I’ll beat the crap outta ya ’til your eyeballs are on the way out as well!”

Harsh cries from the veterans carried across the area to encourage the nauseated new recruits. Still, new recruits they might have been, but they lived in the borderlands—as close to nature as one could be. Human bodies aside, few of them were seeing a drake corpse for the first time.

The main reason for their nausea was likely the stench of it all. As the flesh liquified, it let out a scent of rot: a putrid, cloying reek, so thick in the air that it seemed to visibly tinge it. It was hardly surprising that those men who were unaccustomed to such smells felt like spewing the contents of their stomachs onto the ground.

Truth be told, if it hadn’t been for two particular factors—a sense of responsibility and vanity—keeping his gorge down, Xavier himself would probably have failed in that respect. Unsurprisingly, it was the veteran knight who brought the young commander’s attention back to his duties and away from the internal battle atop his mount.

“Your orders, sir?” he rebuked the other quietly but sharply, maneuvering his own mount alongside Xavier’s.

Josep’s bluntness forced the young man to recall the responsibility he’d been burdened with, and it brought him back to himself. He gave his orders after clearing his throat loudly.

“I-Indeed. Survey team, investigate the corpses, analyze, and report. Everyone else, be on your guard!”

“Roger!”

“You listening? First squad, watch the east! Second, west! Third and fourth, you’re watching the transport and our backs!”

“Clear a path; the survey team is coming through.”

The forces began moving at Xavier’s slightly flustered orders. The survey team headed at a decent pace towards the corpses, sending the flies scattering into the air, billowing up like black clouds. The title of their group made them sound like an educated bunch, but it wasn’t anything special; they were essentially skilled hunters.

However, there was no other group of people more knowledgeable about this kind of thing. The teeth marks and feces left over would allow them to determine the type of creature in question, the state of the victims would let them estimate the numbers, and the level of decay would allow them to try to determine how much time had passed.

None of this was theoretical knowledge; it was simply the accumulation of practical knowledge from personal experience, but that didn’t decrease its reliability in the slightest. Before long, the hunters carrying out the survey returned. If they had been on the estate or in the capital, there would have been a certain level of formality expected, but on the front line, some leeway was allowed.

Once they reached Xavier, a middle-aged man with brown stubble spoke as their representative. “We have our report. It would seem that the merchants were attacked by swarm raptors.”

The man’s words sent Xavier’s cheek twitching again. “Swarm raptors.” There was no one in the region who didn’t know the term; that was how common they were to the western part of Randlion.

There were several exceptions, but as a general rule, herbivores, like the pompo drakes they used for hauling, and dash drakes, were quadrupeds. Carnivores like raptors were mainly bipeds. These swarm raptors were no exception.

Generally, the adults were about one or two heads taller than a human. They stood on two thick legs and possessed explosive strength. Their long tails maintained their balance as they hunted with sharp-clawed forelegs and jagged fangs. If you were to compare them to an Earth animal, a kangaroo would probably be closest in terms of silhouette.

Amongst raptors, swarm raptors were a smaller variant, but that by no means meant they were harmless. As the name implied, they worked in packs. They were actually a common cause of the loss of livestock, and they were said to attack villagers who ventured into the forest.

However, Xavier had a working knowledge of their range and habits, so he looked questioningly at the hunters. “Swarm raptors... Are you certain?”

The unshaven man nodded confidently. “We are. The human corpses are difficult to judge from because of the decay, but the drake hides haven’t rotted as much. We could identify the tooth and fang marks. This attack was without a doubt made by swarm raptors.”

When a specialist like these hunters made such a firm declaration, there was normally little room for doubt. However, Xavier’s doubts were still present.

“I see. If you are so certain, it must be so. Still, I don’t know. Could swarm raptors really take out the whole convoy? I heard that their escorts were both skilled and numerous.”

As he spoke, his gaze found its way to the merchants’ corpses. Considering the bodies’ states of decay and how much had been eaten, it was impossible to tell who was part of the escort and who was a merchant, but the shattered spears and bows allowed him to surmise that there were indeed combatants present.

Xavier himself had exterminated swarm raptors as part of his training, but the experience meant that he couldn’t see how this much combat power could fail to counter the whole swarm.

The hunter shook his head with a grave expression. “Sir, depending on their master, the exact size of a swarm can increase indefinitely. Most can only command a pack of ten, but as they grow with age, they can grow in number to twenty or thirty members. The largest swarms have large and strong masters because they have to feed their subordinates. Those examples are abnormally intelligent and cunning.”

“So, the swarm that attacked the merchants...” Xavier trailed off, his face hardening as he understood the situation.

“Yes, it’s likely a large swarm with a bigger master. Even the merchants’ escorts would have suffered defeat in the face of twenty or thirty of them. As you can see, the trees around the road are extremely dense, so they could well have had no means to fight back against an ambush.”

“Twenty or thirty, huh?” Xavier murmured with a frown at the explanation.

The hunter’s expression remained tense as he shook his head again. “No, sir. Twenty or thirty is the minimum. I would estimate this swarm to be more than fifty beasts strong.”

“Fifty?! Why do you think that?” the young man demanded in surprise at the number, which was far beyond what he had been expecting.

A closer look revealed that even the other hunters wore expressions of surprise, so it must have been the unshaven hunter’s personal opinion. He seemed to have been waiting for Xavier’s question as he issued his explanation.

“You should be able to see it from here. Look at the drakes pulling the carriages. While it’s not the case for all of them, several have had their backs eaten, do you see? The meat there is tough and unappetizing. When prey is plentiful, most raptors wouldn’t touch it. There were many people here and eight drakes. Yet even the backs of the drakes were eaten, so...”

“So there were enough swarm raptors that the number of people and the softer regions of the drakes was still not enough to sate them.”

“Yes, that’s my thought.”

“And over fifty of them?”

“That much is my own rough estimation. When you consider that the merchants, the coachmen, the people for loading and unloading, the escorts, and even the softer meat from the drakes weren’t enough to satisfy them, I think that such a number is likely.”

A rough estimate it may have been, but the hunter was persuasive, and Xavier chewed at his lower lip as he considered the situation. Fifty swarm raptors. If that guess was correct, the pack would not be an easy mark, even for his hundred-strong army. They would likely not fail, but Capua’s young soldiers were valuable after only recently coming through the war. They couldn’t afford many losses.

This whole affair was something that the margrave had pushed to have him assigned to in hopes of giving his son some sense of legitimacy, but depending on how things played out, he could be faced with a dilemma: prioritize his own ends and allow his precious men to die or abandon the goal to protect his soldiers’ lives and call for reinforcements first.

Not an easy choice...

Emotionally, he wanted to prioritize the lives of his men, but he was also well aware that this was no time for sentimental decision-making. In the near future, he would be taking up the mantle of margrave, and his reputation would be directly linked to his ability to protect his territory’s interests.

His reputation or his men’s lives...

Of course, the ideal outcome would have been to gain renown while making sure that his men didn’t die, but with the hunter’s estimation of fifty swarm raptors, it was unlikely that they could complete the extermination with no casualties.

Xavier felt his swirling thoughts go down a dead end. He concentrated on solving the issue in front of him, then he maneuvered his reins skillfully, turned his drake on the spot, and addressed the men assembled behind him loudly.

“Got it. We’ll need to deal with the bodies and carriages first. We can’t keep marching at this rate.”

With the order given, Josep filled in the details. “You heard the man, didn’t you? Axemen, clear the trees and make a space for a pyre! Anyone who can use desiccate or wind blade, fashion the wood into chips for it. After that, get the corpses into position and ignite it. Don’t forget your masks and gloves when you move the bodies. Don’t even think about touching them with your bare hands; you don’t want to get done in by the carrion. Burn the salt too; it could be contaminated. Take care to ensure the fire can’t spread, and make sure we’ve got men with water manipulation on hand just in case. Everyone else, stay on your guard. Got it? Right, you’ve got it... Is that satisfactory, Sir Xavier?”

“I-It is,” Xavier answered when prompted, despite being a little overwhelmed by the detailed orders. Then he took in a breath before giving the go-ahead in a loud voice. “Commence the operation, men!”

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

As the harsh sun fell westward, black smoke hung in the air over the remnants of the traders at the side of the Salt Road.

“Heave-ho!”

The young soldiers were using trees they had chopped down and adjusted to work as rollers for the corpses, hauling them with ropes that were wrapped around the bodies. Everything stank of death, and the soldiers sweated profusely. They leaned forward, almost with their chests to their knees as they gritted their teeth and strained against the ropes, which bit into their shoulders. The sweat rolled along their cheeks and dripped from their chins, turning the dry soil dark with moisture, but the marks left behind evaporated in an instant.

The scorching sun was not the only reason for that. It was due also to their incinerating the bodies and carriage ruins. The impromptu clearing at the roadside was like a forge, and the environment was sweltering. Plumes of smoke rose as red flames made the air ripple.

“Well, it appears we’ll get the road unblocked without a problem,” Xavier said to himself as he wiped his brow with a dry towel.

The corpses had been tossed onto the fire. At first, the sheer stench of it had made his eyes water, but it didn’t bother him as much at this point. The smell had certainly abated by now, but the main reason was that his nose had simply become numb to it.

Regardless of personal discomfort, the functionality of the road had been restored. With one of the goals of his expedition accomplished, Xavier was feeling slightly more mentally relaxed and allowed his gaze to wander from the flames. It was at that point that he noticed something.

“Hmm?” he muttered, seeing that the unshaven hunter who had given the earlier analysis now had a frown creasing his forehead.

The hunter seemed to sense Xavier’s gaze on him as he jogged over before the latter could even call out.

“Sir, I have something I want to report,” he said. The man’s expression made it clear that it would not be pleasant information, which meant that Xavier most certainly needed to hear it due to his position.

“Speak,” he bade the hunter without preamble, his face giving the impression that he had swallowed a bitter pill.

The man began speaking quickly, with a slight bow of his head. “Sir, there is something strange about this. I originally thought it was a coincidence, but all three carriages have broken axles and couldn’t have moved.”

“What of it?” Xavier asked, already aware of that much. His troop had originally intended to use the carriages to transport the corpses, but none of the vehicles had been in any state to do so. He’d merely considered it bad luck, but the hunter clearly had a different opinion.

“They were involved in a large-scale attack, so it isn’t impossible that they’d all be damaged beyond use through sheer chance. From what I’ve seen, though, the raptors used their claws and fangs to intentionally shred everything, even the wheels, apart.”

So, it wasn’t a mistake on the part of the drivers that had resulted in damage to the wheels—the raptors had purposefully aimed to disable them. There was only one conclusion.

“They specifically removed their ability to flee? Are they that intelligent?”

“They are. I can hardly believe it myself, but it would be safer to assume so. There are other things that lend more credence to that assumption as well.”

“Such as?”

The hunter’s frown deepened as he continued heavily at Xavier’s urging. “Well, they were attacked by swarm raptors, but do you see a single one of the creatures’ corpses here? The traders seem to have been entirely overrun without managing to take down a single enemy.”

“And that should be impossible?”

The hunter considered for a moment before shaking his head. “I wouldn’t go that far. The area is enclosed, and the trees are rather dense. Under such circumstances, if a swarm ambushed them in a pincer attack, it is entirely plausible for their pack to have sustained no casualties. But that outcome relies on all of the escort being caught off guard.”

Once the man stopped speaking, he looked doubtful, as if he himself wasn’t entirely convinced. It was indeed an unnatural idea. A convoy trekking along a peaceful path for a good length of time would inevitably drop their guard a bit, but to such an extent being suggested, the men that the merchants had hired would have been effectively worthless. And while that wasn’t impossible, it certainly raised doubts, which in turn meant that any other explanation for the situation became significantly more credible.

“I think the lack of raptor bodies is an indication not of the soldiers’ negligence but rather something that was caused by the raptors themselves.”

“Caused by—” Xavier started, about to ask exactly what the hunter meant, but he was interrupted.

“Airborne wyvern, north-northeast!” came a shout from one of the soldiers on watch, his voice sounding out clearly through the area.

Reflexively, Xavier turned to look in the direction indicated, and then he saw it. Against a dazzling blue backdrop, there was a stain on the scorching skies. At first, it only looked like a dark spot, but it grew rapidly in size, its contours and details rapidly growing clearer: a long neck, a long tail, and a large pair of wings that made up perhaps more than eighty percent of its size. It was, without a doubt, a wyvern. And not a tiny, tame one that humans had domesticated but a full wyvern in all respects.

“Ready yourselves to defend against an aerial attack, everyone! Bowmen, nock your arrows and be ready to fire!” Xavier instructed smoothly, surprising even himself.

The orders were standard practice for an army encountering a wyvern, and the speed of the troop’s response was perfectly acceptable for soldiers on their first campaign.

“A...a wyvern?!”

“Why is it here?”

“Damn, did the smoke draw it in?!”

Even amid the chaos, the soldiers carried out their orders, and each squad formed defensive rings, their spears pointing outward like hedgehogs.

“This way, sir!” Xavier’s squire called, pulling him by the hand once he had leaped from his mount.

“Got it, Andres! You too!” the commander replied as they slipped behind the line of spears carried by his squad. “Phew...” he breathed, taking his short bow from Andres, glaring up at the sky as he murmured to himself. “I never expected a wyvern. What’s it doing in the forest?”

He wasn’t merely complaining. Wyverns normally hunted in the plains, where they had good visibility, and were rarely seen in forests like this. With its huge membranous wings, it was almost incapable of landing in such a cluttered environment. For that reason, Xavier’s troop had been put together without any thought of facing such a beast, focusing on short spears and bows instead. To fight a wyvern, the long versions of both weapons would have been more appropriate.

“Considering its movements,” the hunter said tensely, having taken a knee at Xavier’s side without him noticing, his eyes focused on the approaching creature, “it doesn’t seem to be hunting here. I think it is on its way to a nearby plain.”

“It’s not targeting us?” Xavier asked.

The hunter gave a slight nod, not averting his gaze from the sky as he answered. “Probably not. Of course, we can’t afford to let our guard down. But hunting humans in a forest like this is dangerous even for them.”

There was a general misunderstanding about the matter, but wyverns were usually no great threat to an army. Of course, humans were unable to easily counterattack when their foe was in the air, so a diving wyvern was a difficult opponent to face, but the losses an army would take from such an encounter were extremely limited.

A brief amount of thought made the reason for that clear: wyverns were drakes that flew through the skies, which meant there was a limit to the weight of the prey they could grab with their claws and take off with. That meant that even if a group of people were attacked, there would normally only be one or two direct casualties, potentially three at most. When merchants couldn’t afford sufficient protection while crossing the plains, they would often bring one or two cattle drakes as sacrifices.

So, from a somewhat selfish perspective, even if the animal did attack, the army as a whole would take minimal losses. As long as the victims in question weren’t irreplaceable members of the group, like Xavier or Josep, their forces would not suffer excessive harm.

That said, it would be of little comfort to the individual soldiers affected. There was a one-in-a-hundred—maybe two-hundred—chance that any of them might become food. That fear was shared between all of the spearmen and archers, and they kept their sights fixed on the creature as it flew past.

The only sound breaking the painful silence was the mighty beating of the wyvern’s wings as it soared overhead. Several of the archers had their bows aimed from such an angle that it almost seemed like they’d fall over. The area directly above them was a blindspot, and it took real skill to shoot directly upwards.

However, all of their vigilance was, thankfully, in vain. Considering the wyvern’s visual acuity, it was impossible that their group had gone unnoticed, so the hunter must have been correct in his suggestion that the beast itself didn’t want to risk a fight in the close quarters of the tree-enclosed road. It continued smoothly by.

Once it eventually faded from view, Xavier let out a sigh of relief, and he wasn’t the only one. The unexpected encounter, and then the fact that it had been resolved without issue, caused the entire army to relax slightly.

“Hssss!”

It was at precisely that moment that several large figures descended upon them from the sides of the road. Their thick legs allowed them to leap overhead from the shadows and land directly on top of the unprepared soldiers, crushing them.

“What?!”

“Ahhhhh?!”

“Gah!”

The enemy trampled the soldiers, coming into clear view on the road. They were bipedal, covered entirely in emerald scales. Carnivorous drakes about a head taller than an average human, and of middling size for their kind.

Swarm raptors.

There were three on the right, four on the left, seven in all, and they had knocked down just as many soldiers as thick ropes of drool bubbled around their fangs.

How long had they been lurking there? Had they used the time the men had been focused on the sky to close in through the trees? If so, the master raptor had used the wyvern’s movements to its own ends, despite the other creature being something its pack would ordinarily fear.

“How?!”

Whatever the case, it took Xavier, still a green commander, several seconds to adapt to the abrupt change in their circumstances. The swarm had ambushed them while they were busy watching the wyvern overhead—an unimaginable strategy for lizards who were known to act on instinct. They had succeeded in taking down several soldiers with a single wave.

I can understand the escort being unable to fight back if these beasts can manage an ambush like this, the young commander thought bemusedly in a corner of his otherwise blank mind.

But regardless of the escort’s skill, it wouldn’t have compared to that of knights, nor would their numbers. A surprise attack, even one that had wiped out the merchants and their guard, would never be able to take out the hundred-strong force that Xavier was leading.

“To arms, men!” he yelled hoarsely, recovering his wits. “Shielders, focus on the trees! Spearmen, attack from behind them! Archers, fire from the rear! Don’t let them near the wagons!”

“Understood!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Got it! Transport! Keep up a supply of arrows!”

Having received their orders, the men seemed to finally remember their roles and gradually got back on track. The battle, which had been initiated by the raptors, now shifted bit by bit. Xavier was leading a force built for exactly this purpose. Once they regained their footing, they would not be defeated so easily.

“Shielders, form a wall!”

“Spearmen, hold fast! Focus on corralling them, not attacking!”

“Archers, fire! Target anything going after our downed comrades! Don’t worry about friendly fire! If you end up in the trees, we can’t help you!”

After composing themselves, the army transitioned to an organized counterattack and pushed the battle into a stalemate. The men holding short spears and wooden great shields were lined up on either side of the clearing. The raptors had quickly retreated into the trees and were poking their long necks out and screeching in a cacophony of shrieks.

The archers in the rear lines loosed their arrows whenever they saw an opening, but the tree branches and dense foliage interfered, and only a few of them reached their targets. A shot occasionally hit one of the beasts through their defensive line, but the troops were using short bows, so they didn’t have a lot of force behind their shots. Medium-sized they might have been, but the animals had thick hides and sturdy bones, so the bows lacked the punch to take them down in a single hit.

“Gyaaah!”

Red blood flowed from the wound that one of the raptors was unlucky enough to take, and it screeched, but it was far from fatally injured.

Xavier glared at the border between the trees and the road and spoke to the knight at his side, still looking at both the raptors and his subordinates.

“Josep, how many did we lose?”

“Only one for sure so far. He was dragged into the trees a little while ago. Other than that, five were wounded in the initial ambush. They aren’t capable of fighting, but they aren’t at immediate risk either. They are currently sheltering in the carriages,” the other reported calmly, his sharp gaze and arrow still pointed towards the trees.

As a veteran, Josep’s weapon was a well-used wyvern bow. It was not very different in size from the short bows the archers were using, but it was a work of art, with a strength and range more akin to that of a longbow. If it hit its target at a favorable angle, it wasn’t impossible for it to bring one of the raptors down with a single shot. In fact, one of the bodies on the ground was one that Josep himself had killed.

Xavier wanted to ready his own bow but resisted the urge with logic and directed his attention to surveying the area. Launching a direct attack would mean placing all of his focus, at least for the moment, on a single target. For an inexperienced commander like him, that narrowing of his attention could lead to his forces suffering fatal losses.

Xavier could only keep track of the overall situation. We’ve lost six fighters, including the fatality and those who are no longer fit to fight. We can continue fighting—our defenses are already up. And after that, it’s...a stalemate.

They couldn’t inflict any meaningful damage now that the raptors had retreated into the trees, but their opponents were likewise struggling to do much harm to them.

“We are equipped to venture into the trees if the situation calls for it...” Xavier muttered unconsciously, irritated by the situation.

“I can’t recommend that. We never expected such well-organized resistance. And while I don’t believe we would lose the battle if we fought them in their own territory, we would doubtless lose far more men than we can afford,” the veteran stated, cutting through his mumbled words.

The commander seemed to have realized the folly of his suggestion as well. His only reply was a short agreement as he withdrew the idea. “In that case,” he asked, “what should we do? We can’t break the deadlock like this, and our supplies are limited.”

“We should maintain our position for a while. While there may be an abnormally large number of the beasts, they have their limits. If the stalemate continues, the underlings will rush—”

“Gyahh!”

He had likely been planning to finish the sentence with “ahead,” but one of the raptors had broken from its cover, almost as if waiting for Josep’s words.

“Hah!” the knight exclaimed, not overlooking the opportunity as he quickly loosed an arrow into the creature’s head.

“Guh?!”

The arrow flashed through the air, flying parallel to the ground as it broke through both the skin and bone of the raptor’s face, sticking deeply in along the shaft. The drakes had much smaller brains than humans, relatively speaking, so even a piercing wound to the head wouldn’t necessarily kill them. But it looked like the knight’s luck had held. The raptor collapsed limply to the ground, only halfway out of the shadows.

“Whoa!”

“Nicely done, Sir Josep!”

Finally earning a small victory significantly improved the men’s morale.

“Good job, Josep. They might seem rather cunning, but I guess some of them are careless too.”

Josep flashed a grin as he fluidly fetched another arrow from the quiver on his back and answered his young superior’s mix of praise and curiosity. “They’re just drakes when it comes down to it. However smart their master may be, the rank and file are slaves to their instincts. Their orders may come from a terrifying leader, but they won’t wait forever.”

“I see. So, if the stalemate continues, they’ll break first?”

The frown on Xavier’s face softened slightly at that first bit of good news since the battle had begun. Now that he looked at the scene with a slightly calmer mindset, the raptors were indeed shifting closer to the road than they had been doing earlier.

Just then, another raptor reached the limit of its patience and leaped out at them, teeth bared and drool flying from its wide-open mouth.

“Gyaaah!”

A single raptor was nothing more than a sitting duck for the waiting soldiers, though.

“Now!”

“Take this!”

“And that!”

The archers unleashed a veritable rain of arrows onto their assailant, and as a coup de grace, the closest spearman flung his spear at it.

“Hurk...”

The careless raptor looked like a hedgehog with so many arrows protruding from its body before the spear was buried deep in its flank, killing it.

“Right, keep it up!” Xavier couldn’t help but yell. If the pattern held and the raptors came at them a few at a time this way, they would easily crush them all.

As that optimistic thought passed through his mind, there came a roar from the forest, almost as if to extinguish his hopes.

“Guuuuooohh!!”

It wasn’t just loud; the sound was clearly distinct from a mere wild animal’s roar. It had a concrete purpose and meaning.

“Sir, to the right!” Andres called from his side, prompting Xavier to turn and look.

He saw a figure through the trees and gulped unconsciously. “It’s...huge.”

“It is.”

The trees and the shade they provided prevented a clear look at their foe, but even its silhouette made it apparent that this was no ordinary raptor. Despite presumably being much farther back than the swarm around the roadside, it looked about the same size as the others at a glance, maybe even slightly bigger.

Ordinarily, the swarm’s leader would be about a head taller than the rest, but this was another two heads taller than even that. Swarm raptors were normally categorized as medium-sized carnivores, but their leader was too big for such a classification. Calling it “a smaller large-sized carnivore” would have been more appropriate.

“Grrrrrghaa!!” the beast growled again while they had their attention fixed on it. At the sound of that growl, the raptors at the edge of the road abruptly turned and moved away.

The soldiers relaxed a bit, thinking that they had retreated, and Xavier half-reflexively admonished them. “Don’t let your guard down! Be on the alert, men!”

His call was most certainly the correct one. If anything, instantly noticing the change in his men and cracking the whip without delay was a credit to him, considering how green he was. Fortunately, his vigilance was unneeded. The rustling sounds from the undergrowth grew gradually more distant.

Once the sounds had faded completely, Xavier counted slowly to ten, then questioned Josep and the hunter next to him.

“Have they truly retreated?”

Both men nodded.

“Indeed. All signs of their presence have grown distant,” the knight replied.

“That howl was their retreat signal, and swarm raptors will not readily attack prey they have given up on once,” the hunter added.

With those assurances from a professional combatant and a drake specialist, Xavier finally felt himself calm a bit.

“I see. At ease, men. Once you’ve treated the wounded, I want a damage report,” he ordered, allowing the slightly diminished troop to finally relax.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

The sun had listed far to the west, and the red-tinged rays bathed the army as they dealt with the aftermath. Treating the wounded was particularly difficult.

“Right, I’m going to rinse it. Bear with it.”

“Agh!”

Lacerations were exposed by ripping open the victims’ clothes. They were subsequently washed with large amounts of water, then wrapped in clean cloths. Those with broken bones were held down by several others while the bones were set and splinted with strips of cloth wrapped around a brace. It was the extent of the treatment they could provide in the field like this. However, even that much could be the difference between life and death depending on the circumstances.

Having finally dealt with the wounded, the leader of the transport division came to Xavier to deliver his report.

“Sir, we’ve completed our assessment and treated the wounded. None of them are in imminent danger of losing their lives. The rest will depend on how things progress.”

Xavier replied with a brief acknowledgment, his face clearly showing relief. Whatever else, the lack of fatal wounds was good news. Of course, as the man had said, they couldn’t assume anything. People injured by drake fang or claw often developed a fever later, which could very well spell their demise.

While the commander wanted to check on each of them personally, he remembered the duties that he was required to prioritize and continued their conversation. “What of the carriages? Can they be repaired?”

“Fortunately, yes. We only lost one of the wheels to the raptors’ claws, so we can get it moving with a spare. We’ll need to change it out when we get to town, though,” the other answered, scratching his head.

The transport corps were not just people who ferried supplies; they were specialists with members that could effect makeshift repairs to broken carriages, weapons, and armor. From one perspective, they contributed the most to whatever battle they had just finished. They had kept their drakes under control even while surrounded by the swarm so that their own animals didn’t run amok.

The squires had done similarly well with soothing the dash drakes, but there was no comparison. Dash drakes were trained under the assumption that they would be in combat, as opposed to the cart drakes, which were only trained for menial labor, so the former would naturally deal with the battlefield much better.

Xavier made a mental note to come up with some sort of suitable recompense for their efforts as he questioned the man. “Understood. We’ll depart when the carriage is repaired. I apologize, but get it done quickly. I dread to think what’ll happen if other drakes catch the scent of the blood. Oh, I’d also like the wounded to be placed in the carriages for our return. Is that an issue?”

The man thought silently for a moment before assenting. “That should be fine. The drakes have a surplus of strength, and while I can’t call it a good thing, we’ve used up a lot of our water, so for better or worse, we’re carrying much less now.”

“Right. Water will be a problem as well, then. Very well, I’ll entrust the repairs and wounded to you. Do what you can.”

“Yes, sir!” the man answered loudly before rushing back to the carriages.

Xavier stared after him for a while before returning his gaze to the front. “Josep.”

“Yes?”

“Hunting them through the mountains would be reckless, wouldn’t it?”

He was more seeking agreement with his own opinion than actually asking the knight, and the veteran nodded.

“It would. We have some idea of our enemy now, so with sufficient preparation we could achieve a degree of success, but not while keeping the losses to an acceptable level.”

The forest was the raptors’ territory, and entering that territory to exterminate fifty coordinated enemies with just under a hundred men would be difficult. Therefore, despite chewing at his lip unhappily, Xavier made his decision.

“Very well,” he said after a pause. “My mission is a failure. We will request aid from the royal army.”

“Understood, sir.” Josep would have added that it was a wise decision, but he swallowed the comment. The young commander had barely overcome his own chagrin to make a rational decision, so it might have sounded sarcastic to his ears. Even with honest praise, if it was likely to be taken poorly, it was better to say nothing at all.

While the older knight remained silent, Xavier stared fixedly at the road before speaking. “Once the carriage has been repaired, we’ll resume our march. Have the men ready to move.”

“Yes, sir. Will we be turning back to our own lands?”

The commander shook his head, his expression hard. “The opposite. We will continue on to the royal lands. We can get the wounded treated by a doctor more quickly that way.”

“I see,” the veteran said in admiration, keeping his thoughts from his face.

There was nothing incorrect about what the young man had said. To reach the closest settlement, a U-turn would have been the quickest option, but for the closest doctor, continuing on to the royal territories would be ideal. The border had a relatively large garrison, and all garrisons over a certain size had at least one doctor attached to them. Concern for his wounded was probably making up the majority of Xavier’s thoughts.

But, at the same time, Josep felt the commander had an ulterior motive. I imagine he will want to join the reinforcements and sortie again, he thought.

Considering Xavier’s position as the next margrave, depending on the reinforcement commander’s disposition, Xavier himself might be able to stand at its head. He had yet to give up on using the incident to improve his reputation.

To a knight like Josep, the youth’s actions seemed somewhat rash, but it could also have been said to show an intimate understanding of what Xavier’s father and fief wanted from him.

“The wounded are a concern. I want to hurry as much as we can without exacerbating their conditions. Josep, I want to have those unable to walk riding on our dash drakes. Is that a problem?”

Seeing the new commander floundering, the knight was assailed by a desire to support him. “It shouldn’t be. Strictly speaking, military law dictates that infantry should not ride on dash drakes, but we are still deployed, and there is a tacit understanding that flexible decisions on the spot take precedence over military law,” he answered, approving the thought with a slight nod.

The dash drakes that knights like the two of them rode were bigger than even the largest horses and close to twice as strong. Physically, carrying two fully armed people even for a long time would be no problem for them. If their riders refrained from cantering and paid attention to the feeding schedule and rest stops, the drakes could even carry three.

“Understood. Then we will continue along the Salt Road as quickly as we can without worsening the state of the wounded. We’ll rework the watch rotations, water gathering, and camp plans. Given my failure here, I have a duty to report the results as quickly as possible and to request reinforcements,” Xavier declared, glaring out at the road and into the red light of the setting sun in the west.

“Understood, sir,” Josep replied, noting that the young commander sounded like he was putting on a show of courage. His words were few but supportive.