Night of the Soulless Heathens – 12



#12. The Tooth’s Clan 3

“That’s our emergency fund. Please return it! Where can you find such an outrage? Didn’t you say you were looking for the New King’s Book?”

“No! The grimoire can take any shape or appear in any way! Do you know this too? Could it be a grimoire in the shape of a jewel?”

“They said they would return it to us after we take it and examine it closely and find out that it is not the Book of the New King.”

They said that but there was no way the mercenaries would return the items they took.

‘They’re even taking off my underwear. Will I get caught?’

Azadin clicked his tongue as he realized that the copy of the New King’s Book he had was bound to fall into their hands.

What should I do? Should I reveal my identity here and now and kill them?

But even without that if we harm Prince Kozel then the path will be too obvious if we harm them this time.

While Azadin was hesitating Ismail and Midiam approached him.

“What should we do?”

“Shall we fight?”

“Just a moment. Wait a minute.”

Azadin stopped the two boys and girls for he saw a messenger coming among the mercenaries and talking among themselves.

The mercenaries were greatly embarrassed and began to gather their weapons and loot.

“Oh that’s it for today.”

They allowed only those whose belongings they had searched to pass through and made those who had not to stay in accommodations outside the gate before going inside.

“What’s going on?”

The merchants furrowed their brows in confusion.

“They say an ogre was spotted nearby.”

Azadin spoke to the merchants.

“Huh? What does that mean?”

“I have good ears so I heard them clearly.”

“what?”

The merchants and travelers who had to stay outside the gate were terrified by those words.

“No what is that….”

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“uh?”

When Azadin mentioned the ogres the mercenaries clicked their tongues and walked into the gate. The merchants and travelers watched the scene intently.

“for a moment!”

“Let’s talk!”

The merchants pounded on the small gate of the gatehouse and the soldiers did not pay any attention to them.

“What the heck…..”

“I guess it’s true!”

Judging by the mercenaries’ reactions it was clear that an ogre had indeed appeared in the area. The merchants and travelers were all lost in thought.

*********

In the eastern inland there was a highland basin adjacent to the Anukia Desert which was relatively fertile thanks to the sandstorms blowing in from the desert and it also received plenty of rain during the rainy season.

However the people were forced out when the ogres who came down from the Black Tooth Mountains took control of the highland basin and settled there.

Ogres are muscular giants twice as tall as a man and more than ten times as heavy. They possess incredible strength that is incomparable to that of humans and they are a race of bad-headed ferocious cannibalistic people.

One of the main duties of Count Kazel the Margrave of Salasma was to act as a breakwater to keep the ogres from entering human territory.

Fortunately the monsters do not have the unified organization to undertake long-distance marches. Also the ogres of the highland basin area do not invade humans but rather attack and eat each other fighting among themselves in endless infighting.

So taking advantage of the gap the successive Salasma Counts gradually built pioneer villages beyond the gate to the east. However as the drought continued recently the ogres also began to suffer.

Although the ogres are too unintelligent to undertake long-distance expeditions the lack of water has motivated the tribes driven by internal strife to look beyond the eastern hinterlands.

*********

“Ogres? How many are there?”

Tarki the illegitimate son of Count Casel the Margrave of Salasma asked the scout who had come to see him.

“Only one has been confirmed. However there are hobgoblins and goblin troop under his command. The number is unknown but according to what the scouts have found there are at least ten goblins…”

“This is a big deal. If there are more than ten of them doesn’t that mean they’re a single squad?”

Proper ogres have goblins and hobgoblins as their subordinates. This means that the one discovered this time is not a fugitive from cannibalism by his clan but a scout or raider who came with a proper army.

Ogres alone are a formidable opponent but leading an army of goblins on top of them is already a number that is difficult for humans to handle.

Of course since this is a gateway fortress there is nothing that cannot be stopped if you utilize the fortress’s walls and terrain.

However there was no reason for Tarki to fight them here by wasting his private soldiers. It wouldn’t make any money and the reward he had to pay to his mercenaries for the battle would only increase. The rule was to pay double the normal wages for actual combat.

“There’s no choice. Let’s withdraw with the loot.”

Tarki decided to quickly empty the place with the looted goods.

At that moment a man entered the village hall. It was a hunter who was acting as the village chief.

“Sir Tarki this is a big problem.”

“What’s the big deal? What’s the big deal? The ogre has arrived already?”

“No the people outside the gate are causing a commotion. They seem to have sensed the ogre’s approach.”

“What? What are you talking about? What idiot told you that?”

Tarki was confused. The ogres were coming from the north and the settlement beyond the gate was spread out to the southeast. In other words the refugees and merchants outside the gate had come from the southeast and would have no way of knowing the ogres were approaching?

“Nobody told me.”

“It looks like someone overheard the messenger.”

“Ugh these idiots…..”

“What should I do?”

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“What are you going to do? What are you going to do? Lock the gate! You are such insolent bastards.”

“yes?”

The hunter blankly questioned the words to lock the gate. When the ogres approached those outside the gate would be the first to be exposed defenselessly.

That’s basically saying we’re going to wear them out.

“We have confirmed that there are no copies of the New King’s Book in this village so we will withdraw. The vigilantes are to block the approaching ogres and monsters.”

“What is that…..”

The hunter man was embarrassed. He knew from the time he started plundering that the young man in front of him was not a knight from an old tale but he did not know that he would so shamelessly abandon the people.

“Didn’t you draft the young men who were useful?”

“Of course I will leave them behind. Well I have trained them as soldiers so they will be of good use.”

“….”

He only conscripted me as a soldier for a day and then bragged about training me. It was shameless but as a hunter I couldn’t dare resist this guy.

“Then at the very least let the people outside come in. I will take command of the defense here.”

When the hunter said that Tarki snorted.

“What are you going to do when you’re not even a knight?”

Isn’t that something you a knight shouldn’t say while running away?

The hunter thought so but did not say it out loud.

“Okay. I’ll leave the defense here to you!”

Tarki said this and called his mercenaries. They began to commandeer horses and ox carts from the village and load them with their plunder.

*********

Travelers and merchants outside the gates were horrified by the rumors of the ogres’ arrival.

“Oh my we’re all dead.”

“What should I do? Should I just get off the road and run away right now?”

“But the sun is setting soon…”

Walking along a mountain path at sunset is like risking your life. You never know where wild beasts and monsters might come from along the road and even stepping on a rock can cause serious injury or death.

Walking at night is only possible if you have a well-paved imperial highway or if you have amazing night vision like the dwarves or elves.

But then in front of these people who were so embarrassed the gate suddenly began to open.

The ones who opened the gate were the village’s vigilantes mostly older middle-aged men and there were not many young people to be seen.

“Oh what happened?”

“The knights?”

“The knights and mercenaries have left.”

“what?”

“So please come inside.”

A man who appeared to be a hunter allowed entry to people outside the village.

Azadin still pretending to be blind entered the village with a cane and a goat in tow. There was an ominous atmosphere in the village.

It seemed that the young men had been drafted and the village’s treasures had all been plundered. The remaining people who had been plundered of their property and stripped of their members gathered a small group of men and prepared for defense.

“As you can see we are in a desperate situation. So would you like to help defend the village?”

The hunter asked politely. But there were menacing-looking vigilantes with spears around him.

“What kind of help would you like?”

“Those who can fight fight. Those who cannot support.”

“Eek?!”

The merchants were perplexed when they heard that.

“No that’s….”

“Usually when someone says they’re helping it’s a merchant not a warlord…”

When merchants are drafted into war they usually become battlefield merchants. They follow the battlefield and act as merchants who buy and sell necessary supplies but do not go out and fight themselves.

It is also more advantageous for those who are fighting in battles to do so. In other words the merchants become the supply men and take charge of transportation themselves.

However that is the case in a long-term war and in a single battle where you have to defend the gate from a dangerous enemy like now the battlefield merchants are of little help.

“What should we do?”

Then a blind man asked. It was a young man with a long horizontal scar on his face.

Behind him were a boy and a girl in cloaks covered in dust. Both were young boys and girls in their early teens. In the South where early marriages are common they would be considered adults but here they were still children.

“The blind and the children…. Take refuge with the elderly.”

The hunter said so and began to devise a defensive strategy.

*********

An ogre was coming down the mountain path carrying a flag bearing the Broken Tooth Clan’s emblem on his back.

The road through the ‘Spine of the Desert’ mountain range which forms the border between the eastern hinterland and the Kingdom of Korasarr is extremely rugged and if you take a detour to avoid the impassable peaks you will eventually arrive at the gateway village.

As the ogres made their way down the many paths they happened to catch some humans with their eyes gouged out and their feet broken.

“Your portable rations. They belong to me Goldu.”

They caught the fleeing humans and put them into large meat boxes that they carried on their backs. Those who fell into the huge boxes filled with the corpses of humans goblins and various wild beasts screamed.

“Save me!”

“Damn it! That damn messenger clan!”

“Ughhhhh… God Kings! Please save me!”

Those sucked into the piles of corpses screamed and called for help.