Chapter 83 – Gap.
Donnar rode the Hilddisbini he had originally driven and was speeding along the road to the place where the beacon fire was rising with other knights and companions. The widest open road should have been full of people, but from the moment the beacon went up, people already hid in their homes. It’s not a particularly special sight. Monsters everywhere have attacked, hunted, and attacked humans without getting tired of it, and it is normal to be prepared when a beacon or emergency bell rings.
The reason it felt special was probably because the people of Paciphenia were so bold. Perhaps because the dragons had attacked so many times, the citizens of Pacifenia ended up with a feeling that even if a beacon or an emergency bell went off, a loud alarm would go off. That’s because the knights desperately stopped the dragons from entering the city. If there were any citizens who lost their property or life to the dragon, the knights in charge of that area would have to face a lot of rebuke.
For the knights, what was more fearful than death was the rebuke of the citizens and the loss of honor. As a habit, they prepared for battle as soon as the beacon went up. I didn’t know that even the knights who originally stayed here would look at me with a surprised expression, but now they were running together as colleagues to stop the monsters.
“Of course, they invade during lunchtime and it’s a mess! Don’t they even eat?!”
“They must have come in because it’s mealtime!”
“Looking at it like this, it’s close to the innermost part of the barrier, but it’s well done!”
A considerable number of knights here agreed to Git’s screaming complaint, as if they were no different. Those with good affiliation even agree with his words.
“If you have time to talk, keep running! You’re the flying type!”
As the knight who was running ahead had said, Donnar could see figures approaching from the sky in the distance. I thought it was a dragon for a moment, but soon denied it. Due to the nature of the region, Pasifenia and the Holy Land were not attacked by dragons, but they rarely invaded other regions. And just looking at the shape of the wings and the way they flapped their wings, it didn’t look like a dragon. As soon as they reached the wall, they climbed the stairs behind the wall and went up to the top of the wall.
“Uh, what kind of knights do you belong to?”
An unknown soldier on top of the wall was taken aback when he saw them. Perhaps it was because their armor was different from Lantua’s.
“These are the newly hired people. Remember it.”
It was awkward for them to say anything because it was their first time here, but one of the knights who followed them gave a rough explanation and asked.
“What about the situation?”
“Yes! It’s a flying type, so I was able to spot it early, but it seems that some villages on the outside have already been attacked.”
As the soldier said, the two villages that could not be seen when inside were covered with something white, though faintly visible in the distance. The white villages among the green meadows are a very unnatural sight.
“Tsk, I have something to do. Looking at the village covered in white, is it silk moss?”
“Silk Moss? What is that monster doing?”
Donnar asked him the name of a monster he had never heard of.
“This must be your first monster. I’ll explain the other guys later, but for now, I’ll briefly explain those guys.”
He walked along the walls with Donnar, gave instructions to the soldiers and knights who stayed on the walls, and explained them to Donnar.
“They fly through the sky, spewing threads and kidnapping people with them.”
Up to that point, compared to the dragon, it was really cute. But his explanation wasn’t over yet, so he listened.
“Are you wearing a gas mask?”
“Yes, I am equipped.”
There are also dragons that occasionally spew poison, so such equipment was basically equipped. If their venom gets into your respiratory tract, you feel the pain you’d rather die. Fortunately, he never ingested poison. If you get hit directly, the gas mask will be meaningless.
“It’s fortunate. Their wings are so weak that even an arrow or a stone can easily knock them off, but their bodies are full of poisonous fur. Even the servings of their wings.”
That was another matter. It was enough to kill the dragon once, but even if you kill or drop the silk moss, if it falls into a private house.
“I’ll have to keep it as far away as possible.”
“As they say. Everyone ready to shoot!”
Everyone took their bows and arrows and aimed them at the silk moss that were flying this way. And when it came into range.
“Launch!”
At the ensuing shout, the arrows all at once escaped the bowstring. The arrows soaring high like the rain that goes back to the sky are also the arrows that curve and descend due to gravity for a while. When the Silk Moss saw the arrows flying, they fluttered their wings and tried to evade it, but it was not easy to avoid the dense rain of arrows fired by many knights and soldiers with their huge bodies and wings. Hit and started to fall.
The remaining Silk Moss turned around as if they were frightened by the sight, but the problem started after that. It seemed as if the arrows had torn off their wings or the wounded fell down, but they moved their wings and body in an awkward direction and started flying toward them quickly.
“Is it self-destruction!?”
“Everyone prepare for shock!”
While Donnar was surprised, the knight next to him shouted as if he was used to it. It seems like this wasn’t the first time they did something like that. Considering that the crayfish I saw in the cloud area also rushed at it without sparing their lives, I wonder if the monsters here are characterized by such self-destruct attacks rather than direct attack abilities. If nothing else, it was a pretty effective method. It was to the point where I could feel the determination to give the humans some damage even if they died.
As if he harbors hatred for humans, even taking his own life lightly and trying to harm them doesn’t feel like an animal. When everyone raises their shields and prepares for the impact. Odur ran to Donar.
“What’s the matter?!”
“A few of them are too high in altitude! At this rate, they will fall not on the wall, but on the private house!”
The knight who raised his head at his words also found them.
“Do you have a harpoon tied to a rope?!”
“Yes! There is something prepared for those guys.”
Odur accepted the harpoon, and those who were good at spears came forward and ran with the harpoon. Soon, silk moss start bumping their bodies from the bottom of the castle wall. Puck from the bottom! Puck! White powder spread out with an unpleasant sound like flesh being crushed, but I didn’t have time to pay attention to it.
“Raise your shield!”
Soon there were silk moss falling towards them. I felt it was quite huge from afar, but the ones I saw up close were bigger than I thought. Being bigger than most dragons was quite intimidating, but the weight was lighter than expected, so it seemed like it could be handled by supporting two or three tower shields. Rather, they were toxic powders that fell at high speed and spread like a smoke screen as they crashed into walls and shields, but those with harpoons were worried because they even obstructed their vision.
“I hit it! Pull it so it doesn’t fall toward the private house!”
Fortunately, they did their job well. The silk moss hit by the harpoon were pulled by the rope at the end of the harpoon, and fell to the wall in a wrong direction or were thrown over the wall. They looked like dolls full of pure white fur that would be soft to the touch. It is surprisingly cute because it is pure white.
-Kiririririk!
However, I tried to breathe when I saw another knight sticking a sword into the body of the one who was still not dead and was about to crawl, but there was no time to do so.
“Come again!”
Silk Moss, who wanted to run away, were turning and coming back towards them. Every time they did, they fired arrows and shot them down, but they didn’t get tired of it and repeatedly attacked and retreated until there were no more left. After repeating this several times, all the silk moss was removed.
“I’ll take a while to clean this up.”
Because of this, the walls of the castle, which had been slightly yellowish, had turned white with the corpses of those who had exploded. It was all their toxic powder.
“You just have to tell the soldiers to do that. The real problem is…”
“Hey! Khan! What’s wrong!?”
He tried to speak, but was interrupted by a voice coming from somewhere. I went to the song where people had gathered to see what was going on, and there was a soldier lying on the floor.
“Kuk! Kkeuk!”
“Everyone is fine, but what’s wrong with you alone!”
If you look at the shape of your body shaking and having a seizure.
“Are you poisoned?”
“Nonsense! We all wear gas masks…!”
The man who was holding the soldier named Khan shut his mouth as if he realized what the problem was while talking. The knight next to him immediately approached and took off the soldier’s helmet. As expected, the mask that was supposed to cover his nose and mouth was not visible on his face.
“What about the gas mask you gave out as a supply?”
But there was no way that the person who had a seizure could answer that question.
“…It’s too late now that you’re poisoned. I’ll let you go in peace.”
Then, a knight drew a dagger from his waistband and stabbed him in the heart. He had no intention of stopping it, but it was a quick and clean workmanship that had no time to do so. Then he opened his eyes and stopped moving, and soon he slumped and silence lingered.
“I don’t know if you forgot the gas mask or sold it, but I’ll warn you again. Keep in mind that if you don’t take care of the supplies, you will die.”
Then he asked the man next to him.
“Do you know each other?”
“Yes, yes!”
He answered in a weeping voice.
“Collect the body. We’ll hear the circumstances later.”
They then summoned the knights separately. Of course, so did Donnar.
“First of all, a messenger has been sent to report to Aeolus, but we have to go investigate the small village they may have attacked.”
The events of the past seemed to be quickly forgotten.
“We have to divide into those who will protect this place and those who will investigate, so if you are willing, please raise your hand.”
Donar wanted to go back quickly and see Sif, but he decided to join the investigation team because he would have to defend this place even if he stayed anyway. After dividing them like that, by chance, Donar’s party and the knights here are half and half mixed.
“Then the investigation team, please follow me.”
Donar followed him and rode Hildisbini out of the city wall with other knights. It was nice to see the expansive grassland again, but it was not a very focused sight now, perhaps because of the recent incident.
“So how about it? The feeling of dealing with monsters here for the first time.”
When they were running side by side, he was the first to speak.
“It’s not that different from how people live.”
“I’ve heard rumors, but I don’t think Pacifenia was a good place to live either.”
“Why do you think so?”
“Because I’m used to this.”
Donnar shut his mouth. Yes, as he said, it was a familiar thing. To end the breath of a suffering colleague.
“My name is Gerardus. It’s undeserved, but I’m in charge of the 2nd Knights.”
“Call me Donar. This will be the 4th Knights.”
Aiolus united them from Paciphenia and incorporated them into the 4th Knights. Hearing his words, he nodded.
“There was a vacancy just in time, so I thought it would be there.”
Somehow, if there were too many articles, it would be rather difficult to handle, but I wondered if the seats were prepared just right as if they had waited, but there seemed to be vacancies.
“Then what about the existing knights…?”
“Disbanded due to insufficient number of people. It’s good to see it as annihilation.”
After that, we rode the Hilldis Beanie and talked occasionally. It was a useful time because they mainly talked about the circumstances of the place and the monsters. However, the closer the village was attacked, the less talkative they were. That’s because the closer we got, the more detailed we could see the white things that covered the village. A place that could have been called a village, though small, was so thickly covered with white thread that I would not have recognized it if I hadn’t known in advance that it was a village.
