The subhumans weren’t feeding the humans very well, and they had a system of transporting food over from a small nearby city on a regular basis, which meant very little was stored locally.
The group of subhumans delivering food from this city were surely functioning as a sort of lookout to check if anything abnormal was happening at the camps. Even if they killed all of them and stole their food, when that group didn’t return to the city, word would get around that something had happened at that camp.
Naturally, Jaldabaoth would find out right away. And there was a good chance that if that happened, he would come at Neia and the paladins with an army too huge for them to defeat.
At the end of the post-raid meeting, where she stood behind the King of Darkness and listened without saying a word, waiting through such a long period of disarray that her feet hurt, two plans had been suggested.
One was to take the achievement of liberating a single camp, evacuate south, and let the army that was supposed to be down there decide what to do next.
The second was to be more assertive and head to the small city to capture it.
Both of these conflicting opinions had their issues, but Remedios shouted enough that they went with the latter.
She had a top secret reason for choosing to storm the city.
According to a subhuman they had interrogated—and then killed, of course—someone who was perhaps a member of the royal family was possibly being held prisoner there.
If they really did find some royalty, things could take a turn for the better. Even if the person wasn’t royal, someone with high standing and connections would be plenty good news. They would be able to leverage the debt of their rescue to get the person to put pressure on the Southern Army and request support.
But there was one question Neia couldn’t get out of her mind.
“Your Majesty, do you think there’s really a member of the royal family or an influential noble in this city?” she asked as they rode side by side.
Neia was allowed to ride in order to match the King of Darkness’s pace. Otherwise, her horse would have been taken and put to work carrying luggage.
“You know, I think it’s a trap. Even if it’s not, there’ll be a proportionally large force guarding the place; there could even be demons. It seems like Commander Custodio and the others understand that. They’re willing to fight the battle anyway. Sometimes you just have to gamble.”
It was clear that if they didn’t ask for help from the south soon, people would start to die of starvation. Even Neia could see that they wouldn’t be able to maintain the liberation army.
Eventually the little city came into view up ahead.
Riding at the tail end of the party, she watched the people walking in front of her.
They were subjects of the Sacred Kingdom they had rescued from the prison camp. The reason they were armed and marching even though they really needed a rest was that estimates said there were more subhumans in this city than at the previous camp.
Many of the people were weaker than anticipated, so it was impossible to expect much of them as soldiers, but every little bit helped, so they were mobilized.
Since it was difficult with Neia’s abilities to keep this many troops safe from the subhuman scouting patrols, they prioritized time and hurried onward.
But as a result, the army’s exhaustion mounted, and as more time went by, more adults ended up riding uncovered wagons. They were nodding off on that wagon that was bumping around enough to make regular passengers sick, so they must have been unspeakably tired. Meanwhile anyone with the energy to walk was made to do so, including children.
Priests weren’t accustomed to this much walking and sometimes eyed the wagon enviously.
Even if we make it there, we’ll have to go straight into combat. Can we really pull it off in this condition?
In their strategy meeting on the road, it had been decided that they would launch the fight to take the city immediately. There was neither time nor food to lose.
While it was still bright out, it was too dangerous to attack inside the walls the enemies were manning.
It was better to approach the enemy at night, but humans were at a disadvantage since they couldn’t see in the dark. Especially for citizen draftees who had only received basic combat training, night fights were very dangerous.
Considering that and other factors, the plan was to attack while it was still daylight.
Up ahead, ranks began to form. The forward-most line was composed of the paladins, and behind them came regular subjects carrying a wooden barrier they’d built from broken-up prison camp houses. Last were the priests.
The operation was the same as the previous raid: Angels would keep the soldiers on the wall busy while the paladins brute forced their way through the gate. The role of the common people was to add numbers and mass, mainly to show the enemy how many they were as a show of force. They were instructed to avoid combat, but that if necessary, they were to fight in teams to outnumber their opponents.
“Now then, let’s see what they can do…,” the King of Darkness murmured idly.
He would be observing, not participating.
Really, they wanted his help taking the city, but no one had been able to bring it up in the meeting. He must have felt their imploring eyes and ignored them. Now he was at the farthest point in the rear.
The battle began just like the previous one.
Though the city was small, it was still the biggest one in the area, so the gate had a grate reinforced with iron that could come down, as well as a brattice. Not only that, but the walls were made of stone instead of wood, which meant its gate and walls were sturdier than the previous village had
