145 In the Mountain where the Spirit of Rage lives
The Imperial Army was advancing far beyond half of Dicoquaria.
It is rare to spend too much time in one castle in particular. The enemy was not strong enough to do so.
However, it took time to track down the Cania soldiers who had deserted from the castle or work place, and to deal with the bandits that appeared everywhere one by one.
Honestly, this one is more annoying.
It wasn’t conspicuously settling down in one place, and the thief’s bottle of Cania wandered here and there like a bupyeongcho.
I heard the information where it was today, but when I go ten days later, there are many cases where it is already not there.
Fortunately, it must have been that even mice could search for people swarming around with weapons.
The snow began to melt and the mice, who thought there would be nothing to do anymore, made a big splash.
*
Rudy rode into the village entrance on horseback.
“Don’t miss a single one!”
I can hear the shouts of the imperial army commanders from all directions.
Here and there, thieves were knocked down while fleeing, and Imperial soldiers burst into the house and brandished their weapons.
Rudy rode slowly through the main road.
Suddenly, a sound came from inside the building, and several thieves ran out of the house.
His eyes were half closed as if he had been drinking.
One guy was holding his waist with one hand, as if he had taken off his pants. The other guys were equally untidy.
They saw Rudy with their weapons.
One guy was staring erratically next to Rudy.
As if I couldn’t see well, I opened my eyes and shouted with a twisted tongue.
“What kind of gnome are you!”
“Beeramug.”
“dwelling!”
‘Are these guys at the level of a captain?’
Rudy’s black horse leaped lightly and brushed past the thieves while spinning around.
When the sword was struck, the thieves collapsed helplessly to the ground.
My head rolled, and I opened my mouth from the opposite side of my body.
When you get drunk, do you slowly realize your own death?
The rotten motion-like eyes were still unable to comprehend the situation and blinked.
Rudy glanced at his hair and drove off.
It wasn’t long before I entered the village, but I heard that the arrangements were already finished here and there.
The village is large, and there are many houses between the complicated alleys.
However, the skill of the soldiers who divided the compartments and moved in perfect order was quite fast.
The bandit clean-up was over in an instant.
Rudy climbed up the hill and looked at the village that had become a bloodbath.
“…”
Looking down from the hill, it seems that dirty paint has been poured over the entire village.
Other villages that were invaded by thieves couldn’t say that the situation was very good, but this place was especially serious. It’s miserable.
This is because bandits continued to occupy the village. The village was so big that at first I thought it might be the Cania army.
However, upon closer inspection, it turned out that it was a band of bandits made up of deserters who gathered from wandering places.
As time goes by, there are more and more of these guys. My heart was in a hurry.
“I wanted to finish it by the time spring came, but it’s slower than I thought.”
As Rudy muttered, the aide who was guarding his side smiled.
“Your Majesty, even now, it’s so fast that it’s hard to find in history. It’s only a few months, it’s really rare to have conquered a foreign country this quickly.”
“But when summer begins, it’s the wheat harvest. Before that, we need to stabilize the country. If we do something wrong, the already bare country will become a real hell.”
When spring comes, ears of wheat grow on the young wheat that has been suffocating all winter.
If the war continues and the horses and soldiers destroy the field, you and I will literally starve to death this winter.
The same was true even though the number of dying men increased as the war continued.
It’s not the end just by driving out the Cania soldiers. Rather, it was the problem.
It is necessary to supply farming tools and secure men to farm. It was also a big problem to dispose of the body so that the disease would not spread and to allow the people to give birth and raise children with peace of mind.
“It should be finished by spring at the latest.”
Somehow, the war must be ended and the situation stabilized before harvest season arrives in summer.
A gust of wind blew and brushed my cheek. There was warmth in the coldness.
‘It’s spring.’
Spring is coming even on this bloody battlefield. Something felt strange.
As I narrowly opened my eyes and looked down, a group of soldiers rushed to the entrance of the village.
The captain who led the soldiers hurried up the hill.
It’s a familiar face. It was a soldier who had been left behind in the occupied city during the height of the cold.
As the captain climbed up the hill, a smile spread across his exhausted face.
“Your Majesty! Officials from the Empire and soldiers to defend the city have arrived.”
“Ah, you’re finally here.”
A smile appeared on Rudy’s face.
From nob le mt l dot com
Dicoquaria has not yet been completely occupied.
However, in order to rebuild this country as quickly as possible, it is necessary to manage the city properly. It is also very urgent.
There is no one like that in this country right now.
Even in empires, competent officials are always in short supply. I couldn’t get rid of the current official.
So, Rudi called two types of officials to Decoquaria.
There are people who have a lot of experience but are old enough to retire, and newcomers who are young and have good ideas but have no experience yet.
Through interviews in the Empire, the people who would work together with the appropriate combination of their inclinations and abilities were determined.
In the future, an appropriate mix of those with and without experience will work in each city.
They are also allowed to operate somewhat experimentally. If successful here, the system was planned to be used in the Empire as well.
The soldiers who came with the new officials are well-paid soldiers, unlike the slave soldiers led by Rudy.
They were just about to retire.
For the first year or so, the Empire pays for their salary, but after that, it’s covered by what comes out of this city.
‘I hope they do well.’
The captains, who had been dealing with bandits hiding throughout the village, came up the hill one after another. Most of the bandits seem to have been sorted out now.
According to the report of the captains, it seems that many of the village men have died. If the imperial army leaves, it may be invaded by bandits again.
Rudy went to the soldiers hiding his melancholy.
“Good work everyone.”
After congratulating the soldiers one by one for their hard work, Rudi led the Imperial army and left the village again.
Towards the end of the war, to the east, to the east, the soldiers trudge through their stinking shoes.
The foul smell mixed with the scent of spring seemed to be telling us to hurry up and end the war.
***
After William left the kingdom army, he hurriedly headed to the place where he had an appointment with the surprise army.
It is a point on the border of Watoringu and Crete.
There, the border is biased toward the inner part of Watoringu. If you climb the mountain, you can get to Watoringu’s main castle in a fairly short amount of time.
Of course, no one was at the meeting place.
Before coming here, William heard from the dispatcher that there was a village at the bottom of the mountain.
This is a village where a hunter who is supposed to guide the raiders lives.
I went there and asked if there was anyone to guide me up the mountain, but everyone shook their heads. Unless you are a hunter, snowy mountains are difficult.
An old man shook his head and said.
“The mountain isn’t very high, but the snow doesn’t melt even in spring. It’s where the spirit of wrath lives, so if bad people enter, they will be punished. Sometimes, the spirit of rage will tell you about sins that no one knows about. should not be.”
“But aren’t hunters frequenting that mountain?”
The old man lowered his eyes in fear.
“The hunter’s family is allowed. However, the father had an affair with a woman from another house without anyone knowing a few years ago. The spirit found out about it and punished him and died. He was a healthy man.”
The old man shook his head again and said.
“No one knew about it, so the man suddenly died, and the village headman searched and questioned the villagers like rats. So we finally found out about the man’s crime. “
There was a strange sense of reality in the old man’s words. When the spirits are angry, the mountains resonate. He said that sometimes the ground shakes as if there was an earthquake.
And it is said that the spirit of anger bestows fruits on good people, or on those who repent or do great things in the future.
It was said that a fruit that is hard to find in the civilian world, only grown deep in the mountains, is a gift from the spirits if it is placed nearby unbeknownst to them.
In reality, the bandit who received the fruit changed his mind and lived in this village.
It got a little awkward.
I can’t go back like this though.
William put up a fair amount of money, but none of the villagers were willing to guide him up the mountain.
Reluctantly, William paid for the equipment and went up the mountain alone.
It’s not a big deal when it comes to equipment.
They wore large shoes made of bent wood with strings tied under their feet, and they took a bag with water and some food and a vest made of animal hair.
After climbing the mountain, I followed the route I heard from the villagers.
It’s cold even though I’m wearing a thick animal fur vest. It seemed that the bones were frozen and making a rattling sound.
It was much more comfortable to keep walking and moving my body than to rest. I thought that if I stopped, I might fall down and not be able to get up.
It was on the third day after entering the mountain that the first traces of the raiding force were discovered.
I thought the place right next to it was a tree, but when I stepped on it, it was only slightly covered with snow. The snow was covering the air.
I barely grabbed the root of the tree and crawled out of there.
Then I saw an object buried in the snow.
It was a short sword that many soldiers carried.
He himself was struggling to climb up, so he didn’t know if there was anything else. I only confirmed that there was a knife.
After that, I looked more carefully.
The next day, I found a frozen body curled up among the trees.
It was a Crete soldier.
And then one more, then three more.
I didn’t know if it was because I was falling behind and lost my way, or if it was because I was running away from the main unit.
William went deeper.
The next day, I noticed that one side of the road covered with snow was strangely low.
Carefully stepping on my eyes, I saw that this place was also a cliff. The snow is piled up on top of the cliff and it looks like a road.
However, there were soldiers’ belongings nearby.
My heart raced ominously.
After several hours of plowing through the snow, I was able to see very little under the precipice.
can’t see the bottom But even that was enough. There were corpses all over the slope that went so deep that I didn’t even have to check down there.
Even with a guide, the raiders seem to have taken a strange path.
‘But no way, they all died.’
Still, someone will survive. I guess they all died…
Thinking, William remembered the corpse he had seen on the way here.
They were going in opposite directions from here one by one or three or four. Right on the way William came up.
‘Survivor.’
My heart was terrified.
They were the surviving soldiers.
For some reason, the main force was almost wiped out, and the surviving soldiers tried to descend the mountain.
‘Maybe the fallen soldiers were also on the run.’
However, the food may have run out after a long hike. It could have been that he had frostbite or that his stamina was so bad that he couldn’t walk anymore.
‘I just need to walk for a few more days. Then I would have been able to go down the mountain.’
William turned around.
The quiet mountain suddenly became afraid.
I walk hurriedly and slip. My heart was in a hurry, so my feet didn’t engage and I wandered around.
It’s night in a little while now.
The villagers told us not to move at night and to make sure to light a fire.
Remembering those words, I looked up at the sky, and it was already starting to get dark.
William hurriedly unloaded the load on his back. You need to get the flint out.
‘I have to hurry.’
A wolf howl was heard somewhere. I was flustered and touched the load with my elbow. Things spilled out as Jim fell.
“this.”
There is no flint in the bag. There must have been a flint in the spilled object. The thick snow made it difficult to find the flint.
As I groped the floor, it became dark in an instant.
If you think about the sun setting in the mountains, it immediately becomes a dark night. There was no time for sunset. There is only day and night.
The wolf howl got closer.
No matter how well-trained a person is, he cannot overcome a wolf in the darkness where he cannot see an inch ahead.
As if trying to tell how far he had come, a wolf howl came from right behind him.
not one ten? twenty? many.
The cries quickly turned into growls.
Oh, dying here like this. If only I knew I would die so easily.
William turned to the invisible wolf.
Maybe he loved witches. I don’t know if that’s what you might call love, but at least there was some crush.
If so, I should have conveyed that feeling to her at least in a word.
As he prepared to fight, the wolf’s growl came right in front of him.
The next moment, a large beast attacked from a different direction than the sound was coming from.
William fell to the floor, torn apart by sharp teeth.
Soon, ferocious beasts attacked from the front and from the back.
A man’s scream echoed in the darkness. It sounded so frail that it was hard to believe it was his own voice.
As expected, I picked the wrong place to be born.
