Episode 232: Interlude (Reidia Kingdom)
The bushes rustled, and something popped out.
(…)
It was a wolf with grey fur and a somewhat innocent face. Like a wolf cub, it looked around with wide-eyed curiosity.
The wind blew, and the branches rustled. Startled by the sound, the wolf cub retreated into the bushes.
A moment of silence passed.
This time, the wolf cub slowly emerged from the bushes.
It must have been convinced that there was nothing else around.
The wolf cub approached a yellow flower growing nearby, and sneezed with a “kachun.”
Shaking its head, it began to walk with a bit more boldness.
It was a slightly early departure from the nest for this wolf cub’s species. Despite still needing the protection of its parents, it had slipped away from the den.
Even so, if today had been like any other day, there would have been no problem.
The wolf cub’s parents had completely dominated the surrounding area. There shouldn’t have been anything that would harm their child, even outside their territory.
A faint “kashun” sound echoed.
Due to its inexperience, the wolf cub couldn’t utilize its extraordinary physical abilities.
A poisoned arrow pierced its skin, and the paralyzing poison spread throughout its body in an instant. It couldn’t even cry out as it fell to the ground.
(…)
The men who had done this jumped out of the bushes, quickly wrapped the 1.5-meter-long wolf cub in cloth, and one of them carried it on his back.
The three men immediately began to run.
One man slashed through the branches ahead, another followed behind, and the one carrying the wolf cub followed them. They continued running for a while, then switched the lead.
In this way, the three men ran through the forest at an unbelievable speed.
◇◇◇◇
It was a peaceful farming village.
The men tended the fields, and the women spun thread in the meeting hall.
And the young children quietly listened to the pastor’s sermon in a room in the church.
It was an ordinary agricultural village, located near the Demon Forest.
Its only distinguishing feature was a hut for the occasional hunter to stay in. However, since there were other villages and towns with better conditions, hunters rarely visited this village.
It had been a week since hunters had last visited such a village.
The three men stayed in the village for one night and left for the Demon Forest with hardly any interaction.
And just as the villagers were about to forget about them.
The three men burst out of the Demon Forest, ran across the grassland, and rushed into the village.
“Hey, what’s wrong? Why are you in such a hurry!”
A villager noticed them and called out, but the men were silent. Without even a glance, they ran straight through the village.
The men were running too fast.
The farmers watched them go with blank expressions.
Eventually, realizing there was nothing they could do, they returned to their work. Once today’s work was done, tomorrow would be the day of rest.
A somewhat noisy group had run through, but other than that, everything was as usual. Nothing changed, and soon sunset approached, and the day’s work ended.
It was around that time.
The ground began to shake, “don, don.” At first, it was faint, but soon it became noticeable to everyone.
The villagers stirred in confusion. The women noticed the shaking and rushed outside in a panic.
The children were led out of the church by the pastor.
Don, don, don.
The shaking was getting closer.
A large tree growing on the outskirts of the village scattered its leaves with a rustle, then cracked and bent with a snapping sound.
What appeared was a giant wolf.
It was far taller than the spire of the church being built in the center of the village.
“WoooooooOOOOOOOOOOooooooooon!!”
A powerful howl that vibrated through their bodies echoed. In fact, the leaves on the trees shook and flew off, and startled birds soared into the sky all at once.
A Magic Wolf. Or perhaps, a Divine Wolf.
It was a giant wolf monster that had been passed down in fairy tales.
After howling, the wolf attacked the village with its massive body.
Villagers fleeing in panic were swept away by the wolf’s nose. People flew through the air as if it were a joke.
The church pastor stepped in front of the children, shouting something.
Some of the men began to run towards the outside of the village.
The giant wolf, which had jumped into the center of the village where the villagers were gathered, shook its head again.
The pastor, a garrison warrior monk dispatched from the Prawa Theocracy, stood up to protect the children. He slightly deflected the wolf’s attack, diverting its trajectory.
However, he couldn’t stop its movement. The farming village was destroyed in less than half an hour.
Leaving the men who ran to inform the city, the village, which had long nestled beside the Demon Forest and passed down through generations, was annihilated.
◇◇◇◇
The men ran.
The Magic Wolf pair chased after them.
The men were skilled hunters and Magical Power users who could continue running at full speed for a day and night with ease, but even that was not enough against a high-ranking species from the Demon Forest.
Even if they went through a village and entered a town to mask their scent, the distance was gradually closing.
Their basic athletic ability was simply too different. The Magic Wolf covered the distance that the men ran in an hour in just fifteen minutes. While casually destroying towns along the way, it steadily closed the distance.
And finally, the men were caught within the Magic Wolf’s range.
Because they had captured the wolf cub, they had not been subjected to long-range attacks.
But at a distance where they could be seen, there was no way they could escape.
They were flanked from both sides, their escape routes blocked, and the man who still tried to struggle was easily crushed.
One man was torn to pieces while protecting the man carrying the wolf cub on his back.
The last man also failed to evade because he was carrying a load, the bag containing the wolf cub was snatched away, and he was ripped apart by claws.
And the pair, having successfully retrieved the wolf cub, confirmed that the cub had only lost consciousness and howled.
Long and loud.
The magical power wave that spread with the sound conveyed that there were no beings around that posed a threat to them.
Furthermore, it also indicated the location where many of the same kind of an(・)i(・)ma(・)l(・)s that had taken their cub lived.
The male parent recognized this as a threat and ran off to eliminate it.
And so, the trading city of Trariquin, one of the best in the frontier, was completely destroyed in just a few hours due to the sudden appearance of the Magic Wolf’s attack.
◇◇◇◇
Argasta, the Royal Capital of the Reidia Kingdom.
The elite of the Royal Army was gathered here, the last fortress city in the Reidia Kingdom that continued to resist the Prawa Theocracy.
Warrior Monks of the Prawa Theocracy were attacking day and night, trying to break through the city walls surrounding the capital. And it was a mixed unit of the Royal Guard Knights and the Royal Foreign Expeditionary Force that repelled them, and sometimes counterattacked, continuing to protect the Royal Capital.
The reality was that they had continued to fight with the Warrior Monks in various places, retreating from the front lines, and had finally been pushed back to the Royal Capital. However, gathering their homegrown forces in one place was probably a strategic mistake on the Prawa Theocracy’s side.
They had plenty of stored food and their morale was still high.
Because their fighting strength was evenly matched with the Warrior Monks, this siege warfare had completely stalled.
And therefore.
Because many Warrior Monks and Magical Power users gathered, the Magic Wolf regarded them as external enemies.
A giant wolf suddenly appeared on the battlefield.
The makeshift camps built by the Warrior Monks of the Prawa Theocracy were scattered, and a considerable number of Warrior Monks who were not in combat readiness were trampled.
The Reidia Kingdom army, which had been on alert and hastily gathered its forces on top of the city walls, was directly hit by the flames spewed by the Magic Wolf.
The flames, fueled by magical power, annihilated everything, including magical defenses.
The Warrior Monks, having reorganized, attacked the Magic Wolf.
However, none of the attacks worked on the Magic Wolf.
Slashes didn’t penetrate, and blows didn’t work. Even when bathed in flames with magic, they were deflected by its silver fur, leaving not even a scorch mark.
And it was the same for the Reidia Kingdom side.
The Magic Wolf, having scattered the Prawa Theocracy’s forces, turned its fangs towards the Royal Capital Defense Force.
The city walls collapsed from its body blows, and the Royal Castle was engulfed in flames spewed out.
In just an hour, the Royal Capital of the Reidia Kingdom was destroyed.
The Reidia Kingdom, already on its last legs due to the invasion of the Prawa Theocracy, was completely crushed by the hand of the intruding Magic Wolf.
And similarly, the Prawa Theocracy’s Reidia Kingdom Expeditionary Force, which had concentrated the majority of its forces for the complete capture of the Reidia Kingdom, ended up losing many Holy Rytsar.