Chapter 258 – 258. Demonic Front (1)
“Keah!”
Under the rain of hundreds or thousands of arrows flying in the sky, people’s screams echoed endlessly.
There are soldiers whose bones and flesh are crushed by a giant foot and die without even screaming, and soldiers who end their lives with their limbs eaten by being surrounded by monsters, and the forms of death are diverse and brutal. No mate
The battle with the magic beasts soon reached 15 days, but there was no end in sight.
If the corps of monsters are dealt with, the corps of demons attack again the next day, and the corps of demons attack again the next day, and the endless repetition continues with no end in sight.
As the day passed, the exhaustion of Mograf’s soldiers protecting the iron wall accelerated, and the number of deaths per day continued to increase.
On the first day with no fatalities, the damage was considered minor and worth trying until the first week.
However, the endless monster corps continued to invade at intervals of 3 to 4 days to break through the gate of the iron wall, and as time passed, the fatigue of the soldiers accumulated and the consumption accelerated.
Not only that, weapons continue to run out of durability, and the consumption of food is also gloomy because you can’t find a way to do it.
‘Did I send the support request too late?’
On the 11th day after the invasion of the Demon Beasts, Count Mograf sent a request for support to the royal and ducal families, feeling strange and thinking that it would not work like this.
He didn’t think it was too late.
But even so, if the change is broken through before his support arrives, it will be that your judgment is wrong.
If the situation had been anticipated earlier and a request for assistance had been sent sooner, the damage to the soldiers might have been less than now.
Today, after a fierce day’s siege, I saw countless soldiers lying in hospital beds and continuing their lives in misery.
‘Is this how it ends…’
Count Mograf sighed inwardly.
The ‘iron wall of Mo Graf’, which had never been penetrated since the founding of his country, was finally reaching its limit.
Although they had sent messengers requesting salvation to the family of Duke Armitas and the royal family of Fernias, who had been related for a long time, the current situation was so disastrous that they did not even know whether they could survive until salvation came.
He quietly closed his eyes and remembered the words of a soldier who had questioned him, ignoring rank and system.
-Can we survive?
One arm was severed and one eye was lost.
The state of the soldier, who had already lost his vitality and was stained with despair, was not at a level that could be expressed as ‘alive’ just because he had a lifeline attached.
The question ‘Can we survive?’ Asked by a soldier who was sentenced to the end of his life as a soldier and a human being and did not know when he would die could be that he was earnestly praying for his survival in the village with his comrades-in-arms. It was a question that worried about the life or death of his family.
The one who is slowly walking towards the end of defeat is not only himself, Count Mograf, the commander in charge of the Mograf frontier.
Soldiers fighting fiercely burning their lives under their command.
Families in the village worrying about the lives and deaths of the soldiers.
The people of the frontier territories.
Everyone was slowly slipping into the abyss of defeat.
In that situation, Count Mograf was unable to answer the fundamental soldier’s question.
Even though the soldier, who was only a lowly soldier, committed the rudeness of talking directly to the highest commander, ignoring the rank system of the army, no one criticized the soldier.
The soldiers who asked, the soldiers who listened to the question, and the commanders, even without asking or answering, the result could have been expected.
-…
Count Mograf was unable to answer the question of a lowly soldier with a miserable appearance.
He didn’t have the grimness to tell him that it was impossible, the reality.
He did not even have the audacity to instill false hope that hope would come if he endured as much as he could, burning his life until the requested aid came.
Is he a competent commander?
I have a question.
Or should he console himself with pride for having kept the changes going as the month-long draws to a close?
What is the meaning of the frontier that was saved by burning the lives of many soldiers?
Everything is in vain
Nothing can replace the sorrow of the people who lost their families.
When you lose, everything is over before you even feel the sadness.
“The long-standing honor of the iron wall… Will it break in my stand…”
It is so deplorable.
“Lord!”
“…”
“Lord!”
It was the cry of a vassal that awakened the spirit of Count Mograf, who was locked in remorse.
“… What happened?”
“Support is here!”
“… What?”
“The family of Duke Armitas has sent support!”
Count Mograf looked at his vassal and asked again with an expression of disbelief, as if sweet rain was falling from a gloomy dry sky.
“That is… Really!?”
“Yes. Alex, who was inaugurated as the new minor duke in the ducal family, personally led the soldiers to visit the castle!”
“I can’t…”
Graf, who was about to accept death in grief at any moment, found a ray of hope in the darkness, and his face began to liven up little by little.
“… God has not abandoned us yet.”
He is certainly not a competent commander himself.
However, he thought of the soldiers who had died until now, and thought that he should be a commander who could confidently answer ‘yes’ to a soldier’s question, ‘Can we survive?’.
Even if it is something he expected from help beyond his ability, his heart tells him not to let go of this hope.
Count Mo Graf moved on, engraving the thought in his heart that he could not give up yet.
◆ ◆ ◆
As soon as they arrived at the Mograf Frontier, Erin and the group of adventurers headed straight for the castle gate following the guide of the frontier guide.
The leader explained that he was not in a situation where he could welcome the adventurers who came to support their territory, and made a very sorry expression.
As much as that, the situation of change was running towards the worst as time passed.
“Bandages and medicine!”
“I can’t use this leg anymore! It needs to be amputated right now!”
Moving straight to the fortress wall, Erin frowned at the horrific scene unfolding inside the fortress.
“… Eww.”
Horrible.
The faces of the soldiers who forcibly stop the bleeding from the blood flowing from the severed limbs and barely hold their breath.
It is only breathing, but it is too unreasonable to define it as ‘alive’.
The inside of the fortress, filled with the scent of countless deaths, was a terrifying sight that was difficult for a 19-year-old girl to bear.
“Ouch… !”
It’s not the first time I’ve seen people die.
However, seeing this horrific scene with both eyes, the terrible stench mixed with the smell of blood and corpses vibrated, and the screams of soldiers writhing in pain.
Everything is transmitted through the skin, causing chills throughout the body and causing vomiting by regurgitating gastric juice in the stomach.
But Erin desperately held back the vomit that was trying to climb up her throat, and she walked slowly forward.
Jis, who had been gazing at the misery together, looked at her Erin and asked.
“… Miss?”
“I want to help.”
With that said, Erin approached a doctor who was tending to the wounds of her bedridden soldier.
“Anesthesia! Bring the anesthetic!”
“Ah!”
To calm the patient who was writhing in pain, the doctor had to struggle to forcefully immobilize him.
The situation inside the fortress is so crowded that there is no one who hears the doctor’s cry and brings an anesthetic, and there is a shortage of workers.
“Wait a minute.”
Erin approached her soldiers and used her own magical powers to conjure her nine-tailed fox.
[Hujok magic (狐族姚術)]
[Daze]
“Eww… Uh… !”
As soon as Erin’s touch touched the soldier’s body, which had been burning like crazy, his strength gradually loosened and he began to calm down little by little.
Forcibly manipulating a person’s emotions and bodily sensations seemed like an entirely demonic ability, but Erin was able to reproduce part of it through the magic of a nine-tailed fox.
The range of effects that this effect is also varied according to the resistance of the target, but it is easy for Erin to take control of the soldier’s mind, which is in a state of miserable appearance.
“Uh, uh… !?”
Surprised by the soldier’s sudden state, the doctor turned his head back to see Erin’s figure.
“Is that what you did?”
“Yes.”
Erin gave a small nod and continued.
“I blocked my senses and forced myself to fall asleep. It can’t last long, so please act quickly.”
“Ah, I see!”
After hearing Erinn’s explanation, there were parts that the doctor did not understand, such as how the soldier was put to rest, but it was not the time to discuss that.
“I will help you.”
Erin picked up some sticks of wood that were rolling around her and brushed off the dirt.
She took a stick to the broken leg and used it as a splint, tying it with her string to hold the fracture firmly in place.
There was no blockage more than she thought, and the doctor looked at Erin with her eyes slightly widened at the correct response.
“… Are you a doctor?”
“No. I am an adventurer. I came here to apply today.”
“Support… Ah!”
The doctor’s eyes flashed, and he turned his head to check the adventurers who had entered the fort.
Soon, he looked away again and moved his hand to give the soldier first aid.
Since then, Erin has been busy chasing after the doctor, assisting in the doctor’s treatment, and taking care of the seriously injured soldiers.
And a few hours later, after all the soldiers had been treated, she sighed heavily as she sat her exhausted body on the floor.
“Whoa…”
“Great job.”
“Huh?”
She heard the familiar voice of a woman handing her a bottle of mineral water to her, and Erin looked up at her, confirming the owner of her voice.
“Eyra sister!”
When Erin saw her happy face, she was delighted, and she hugged Eira’s body and smiled, expressing her delight with her whole body.
“By the way, did you also participate in this support expedition?”
“So maybe it’s in front of you right now?”
Erin, who tidied up Erin’s hair, which was wet with sweat, smiled as she replied.
“Did the Marquis give permission?”
Even though she made a clear distinction between public and private affairs and allowed her daughter, Eira, to join his knights, her father could not simply allow her to send her daughter into a dangerous battlefield.
“I had a really hard time convincing you. This time, not only my father, but also my mother strongly opposed it…”
“Of course it is.”
“Still, if I’m not here, I’ll really only join the knights through my father’s connections as a ‘daughter of a marquess’. I want to show my father as a knight of Artia.”
“It doesn’t matter if my sister is okay, but…”
“And Erin, haven’t you heard of that?”
“Yes?”
“This is a story I heard from my father. He heard about the current situation in the Mograf region and said he was planning to come here?”
Who?
I didn’t even have to ask the question.
Hearing Eira’s words, only one person came to Erin’s mind.
Her heart pounding did not stop as she untied her hug with Eira, who had been holding her tight, and filled her with anticipation in her sparkling eyes.
“Hyun is coming!?”
