Chapter 19.2
That’s right.
Just come ‘ere like that.
Vassago thought as he savored the pleasure of the ambush, like a piece of candy in his mouth.
My hiding is perfect. Though the metallic armor had some drawbacks, he was still able to melt into the shadow of the shrubbery.
The black-haired girl was cautiously surveilling her surroundings, but her eyes merely passed through the bush that Vassago was hiding behind. 7 meters left… 5 meters…
— Good. Feels really good. I’ve missed this so much.
Approaching within 3 meters, the girl suddenly turned to her right and walked towards where Vassago had concealed the bodies.
He could have waited for her to come closer, but, well, that wouldn’t change much.
Vassago slid from the darkness in dead silence and lunged at the girl from behind, thrusting forth his left hand. Muffling her mouth and slicing cleanly across her nervously taut throat with his dagger —
His anticipation was so realistic that Vassago could not immediately react to the blade flashing right before his eyes.
“… Whoa!”
As he hurriedly backed off, the tip of the blade whistled under his cheek, where his bare skin was exposed.
The girl, who had seemed not to notice him at all, suddenly unsheathed her sword from her left waist and slashed towards him without even turning around.
That was one awesome counter. Had he stepped forward just a little more, his throat would have been cleaved in two.
Spinning around, the girl held her sword properly. He could see no surprise in her sapphire eyes, though they revealed fear and hostility. Vassago couldn’t help but admit that his hiding was seen through very quickly.
Twirling the dagger in his right hand, he opened his mouth.
“ Hey, baby. ”
He suddenly remembered that English wouldn’t work, and switched to Japanese that sounded almost native.
“How’d you know, little girl?”
The girl replied coldly while gripping her sword, fully alert.
“… My senpai told me: don’t just rely on your eyes; feel with your entire body.”
“S-senpaaai…?”
As he blinked in confusion, Vassago felt the sting of some ancient memory. I must’ve heard that somewhere…
But before he could form any substantial thought, the girl took a deep breath and let out a deafening scream.
“Enemy!! There’s an enemy — !!”
He clucked his tongue, and retracted his short knife back to the right of his waist.
Well, guess that’s the end of the game.
Vassago threw up his left arm with an exaggerated motion and shouted as well.
“Guys… Get to work!!”
This time, the girl’s eyes widened in genuine shock.
From within the shrubbery tens of meters behind Vassago, there came the scuffling of rustling branches; it was created by the thirty lightly-armored scouts selected from the main Dark Knight army rising to their feet, one after another.
A second girl jumping off the wagon, along with the ten or so Guards dashing from the north in response to the girl’s warning, were equally dumbstruck.
***
“Wh… The enemy’s at the back!? And there’s about thirty people!?”
Integrity Knight Renri repeated loudly, hardly believing the distress call from the supply team.
This is bad — This is bad!
If the wagons were assaulted and the supplies were burnt or destroyed, the entire army would grind to a halt. Not only that, there were three people over there: two trainee girls who had sworn on their lives to defend it, and also a young man.
I have to send them a rescue team of a hundred, no, two hundred men. But if I split the main army even further, they might lose to the enemies approaching from the north. By then, they would immediately lose to the enemy’s overwhelming number.
Wait, maybe our ambush plan has already been exposed? If it has, then should I have the entire army retreat further south, and wait for another chance?
Unable to come up with a proper conclusion, Renri stood still. Then, a rough voice entered his ears.
“I never thought that they would’ve predicted us going south and laid an ambush here ahead of us…”
Knight Commander Bercouli and Alice had just returned from the northern hill a kilol away.
Renri viewed them both as possessing strength that towered far into the clouds above, but no longer could he detect even a sliver of calm on their faces, and especially not for Alice. She looked as though she were ready to fly for the supply team at once.
Looking to the north over Bercouli’s shoulder, behind the hilly area, Renri could almost clearly see the giant dust cloud of the approaching army.
The Knight Commander closed his eyes for a moment, then quickly revealed his bluish-gray gaze, and boomed:
“Renri, tell the main army to back off. Lil’ miss, get to the supply team right now. I’ll hold off the enemies coming from the north.”
“But, how, exactly? … There are more than five thousand soldiers, Oji-sama! And didn’t you say that swords don’t work against them…”
“Don’t worry, I’ll find a way. Just go!! Lil’ miss… no, Alice, you were the one who decided a fight to the death until our very last warrior falls!!”
Leaving those words with her, Bercouli immediately turned to the north.
His right hand, rough as the gnarled trunk of a tree, slowly drew the Time Piercing Sword from his left waist.
By the aged blade’s fading gleam, one could clearly tell that the sword only possessed a miniscule amount of Life left.
***
Sparks were thrown three times into the darkness.
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