Chapter 1147: Future Plans

Chapter 1147: Future Plans

After the army’s continued strategy discussions, it’s looking more and more like we will advance further into Raydoss.

That’s only natural. Pulling out completely would mean abandoning all the progress they’ve made during the hard-fought invasion.

The original plan had us using Fort Swaise as a bridgehead to gradually take over all of southern Raydoss.

With that fort out of the picture, we have no choice but to capture Rajhil instead. This is a city near our current location.

The other two divisions have temporarily paused their advance, since the heads of each division went our way to gather for an additional strategy meeting.

Among the people arriving will be current and former Rank A adventurers.

That said, none of the divisions had a surplus of forces, so it’s unlikely that the discussion will reach a quick consensus. Even so, our division intended to gather as many reinforcements as possible.

After all, they had just seen how the Red Knights vastly exceeded their expectations. Kranzel had underestimated the Red Knights, since the country’s adventurers were often said to be superior to knights.

Even from our point of view, only knights at the captain level have ever been notably strong.

The assumption that high-ranking adventurers could easily overcome any foe proved to be their downfall. The fact that all the earlier battles were easily won didn’t help either.

However, they could not help but get worried upon seeing the Carmine Flame Knights’ true strength, as well as their captain’s overwhelming power. They finally realized what they were up against: a mighty foe that they lacked any knowledge of.

As a result, Kranzel intended to ease these worries by integrating additional forces. I hope they realize that being too careful can also cause mistakes in judgment.

Meanwhile, we’ve been flying around to scout the surrounding region for the past few days, though Raydoss’s army was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps they’ve given up on taking back their land and focused on a different strategy?

They’re capable of mass summoning undead hordes, so I can easily imagine a bunch of nasty plots they might pull. Worst-case scenario, they might even sacrifice the inhabitants of Rajhil to get back at us.

The southern mountainous region below where our division is camped seems to be under control for the time being. Reinforcements and supplies flowed in from Alessa at a steady rate, as Kranzel maintained order over the various villages and forts in the area.

At first, there was some concern among sensible people such as Donadrond and the Knight Commander regarding this. They suspected that the newly arrived nobles and adventurers might abuse their power by looting and pillaging enemy villages. Of course, such idiotic acts are forbidden by law, but that doesn’t mean it never happens. Some superior officers offer to look the other way to gain support with their men.

But it turned out that there was very little looting.

This was thanks to Esmeralda, the former Rank A adventurer who was a master of dust magic. She sent several sand rats to accompany each unit and mercilessly slaughtered anyone who violated orders, especially those guilty of looting or assault.

I hear she made an example of everyone she caught, killing them as painfully as possible.

Basically, anyone caught in the act got their four limbs bitten off. Not to mention how any superior officers were subject to the same punishment if they purposely ignored the behavior of their men.

She even enforced the same military discipline on nobles. Very impressive.

At the same time, the citizens of Raydoss quieted down as well. They knew the sand rats were their saviors, but those fangs could always turn to bite them instead. Realizing that fact made them very cooperative.

I’m sure not all of the credit goes to Esmeralda, but she definitely played a major role.

After a long wait, knights and adventurers from the other divisions began arriving at our camp. Among them was a familiar face.

「Jean!」

「Woof!」

「Fuahahaha! Fran and Urushi, it has truly been a long time! I’m glad to see Urushi’s body is still great material!」

「Nn!」

「Kuhn!」

The necromancer, Jean Duvie. It seems he was among the Rank A adventurers said to be in the other divisions.

「Oh Fran, I see you have finally realized the joys of necromancy! Wonderful! Fuhahaha!」

Jean roared with laughter after seeing the Genocide Ghouls at Fran’s side.

About that, it seems a few of the Genocide Ghouls remained alive even after Avenger himself fell. A couple of them died acting as Fran’s shield and during the battle of the Dullahans, but we still had five ghouls left.

I had no clue what to do with them, so we just kinda left them with one of the understanding nobles who wanted to talk to them. They were technically heroes who played an important role in the battle, I guess.

「Hah hah hah!」

「Fuhahaha!」

「Hah hah hah hah hah!」

「Fuhahahahahahaha!」

Shit, the ghouls started mimicking Jean’s laughter, and now they’re resonating with each other outside of our control.

Come on, you guys! Everyone’s staring at us!

Actually, this might be the perfect solution if they like Jean so much.

These ghouls only have the bare minimum intelligence and can’t talk as well as Avenger. That said, they can still answer basic questions and listen to orders. Considering how strong they are, they’re pretty high performance undead.

Even so, we would have difficulty taking them with us. I managed to summon Avenger with the Evil God Fragment’s assistance, but I couldn’t even form a contract with the remaining ghouls.

Must be because Urushi and Avenger have completely filled up my summoning capacity.

Fran also failed to make a contract with the ghouls. That makes sense considering how she has Marle. Spirit contracts probably take up a huge amount of capacity too.

However, we can’t just make them pass on without avenging themselves, since we know the story behind their grudges. The ghouls themselves still wanted to fight too.

They also required someone to supply them with mana, so that’s why I suggested entrusting them to Jean. Fran joined the persuasion effort, and the ghouls eventually agreed to join Jean.

Well the argument got pretty noisy with them shouting stuff like “Y-You don’t want me!?” and “My priestess!”

「Jean, can you take care of these ghouls?」

「Hoh?」

Now all that’s left is to get Jean’s approval.