◈ 382. [STAGE 15] Before winter ends
… … The battle is over.
A week later, the defensive war ended.
The goblins in the southern plains were quickly cleaned up with the help of the relief army, but it took some time to clean up the goblins that had dug into the Crossroads city.
A desperate street battle unfolded in the city. It took three days to get the rough finish.
It took an additional four days to kill and eliminate every last one hiding in every nook and cranny and display the system message to end the defense battle. It was a week.
“… .”
Standing on the wall, I looked around at the ruined city.
Thousands of goblins were still strewn about inside the city. And the city facilities they destroyed couldn’t be counted.
I gnashed my teeth at the horror as I looked at the city covered in ashes and green blood.
Can this damage be repaired?
“People are tough.”
Evangeline, standing next to me, said.
“The people of Crossroads are even tenacious.”
“… .”
“I will overcome this time too. Just like it always has.”
As if the rumor that the battle was over had already spread, the citizens who had been evacuated began to return one by one.
And the people who returned began to clean up the goblin’s corpse and clean the city stained with their blood, even though I didn’t tell them to.
From one corner of the city, people started to recover while sweating in silence. I blankly looked down at it.
A broken city can be mended.
But the dead… … There is no turning back.
“Lucas.”
“Yes sir.”
Lucas, who came with Evangeline, answered. I asked quietly.
“How about writing the list of dead?”
“Anyway, it just ended. Would you like to see it?”
“… okay.”
Lucas handed over the thick file folder with a straight posture. I accepted and turned over the papers one by one, examining the names.
Above the silent castle walls, only the sound of me flipping papers rang out.
While I checked each name, my knights waited patiently.
Eventually, after checking all the names, I closed the file folder.
22 heroes.
488 soldiers.
This is the number of dead and the number of wounded is much higher. To the point where it’s quick to count those who aren’t injured.
How many of those injured will be able to return to the front?
“too… You lost a lot.”
I raised my hand and covered my eyes.
The monster is judged to have been annihilated only when the last one is killed.
Crossroads is different. Because we must continue to fight. It must be approached from a military perspective.
And from a military point of view, if 20% of the total troops are lost, the unit is considered to have lost its ability to fight and is judged to be annihilated.
Out of 2,500 men, 500 were lost. In addition, the hero character, which can be the core, had a loss rate of more than 20%.
The walls collapsed and the soldiers were exhausted. And the city was a mess from the inside.
Militarily, it is as if we were also annihilated in this battle. The damage is so great.
“If the relief army hadn’t come, it would have been really doomed.”
Because there was a relief army who did not know if it would come or not, we were able to win.
If the relief army had not come, the damage would not have ended to this extent.
In other words, this victory was close to a fluke.
The attack must be carried out in the realm of certainty. However, none of the methods I had prepared were able to inflict a critical blow on the enemy, and I almost lost in the end.
“This victory is just a matter of luck. just luck… … .”
A refreshing voice flew into my mumbling ears.
“Do you need to blame yourself like that, Commander of the Monster Front?”
When I looked up, I saw an ivory-colored girl approaching along the castle wall.
Leading the warriors of the Northern Kingdom clad in leather armor trimmed with white animal fur.
“Isn’t it you, Your Highness, Prince Ash, who called in the salvation army?”
“… .”
“Your hard work has led to this result. Isn’t the causal link you’ve built up so far too clear to simply attribute it to luck?”
I called her name
“Princess Yoon.”
“In the ecliptic he acted like a confident tiger, but now he looks like a wounded wildcat. Your Highness, Prince Ash.”
The second princess of the Aryan Kingdom – Aryan Yoon came to a stop in front of me, carrying a large ax on her shoulder with her well-muscled arms.
“This side is also attractive in its own way, but you who smiled arrogantly as if you knew everything… It was nicer.”
“You look better now than you did at the party.”
Throwing off her party dress, she was wearing leather armor that exposed her abdominal muscles.
The white skin typical of northerners is splattered with goblin green blood.
Because she was prominent among the relief forces and had the highest status among the relief forces, she took on the role of representative of the relief forces.
Maybe that’s why you came here now.
“What business do you have?”
“Since the battle is over, the relief army has to be disbanded soon.”
Yes. The relief army has only been united for a cause for a while and must return to their original position.
The 1,800 relief army eventually killed about 100 people. The number of injured reached 200 people.
It is necessary to express gratitude for coming again after dealing with this casualty.
“Everyone is waiting. You’re not thinking of cheating on me again, are you?”
“… .”
I woke up in silence. Yoon smiled and took the lead, and I followed her. Lucas and Evangeline followed behind me.
I thanked Yun repeatedly.
“I don’t know how much I can thank you, the Salvation Army. Thanks to that, Crossroads survived.”
“Well, to be honest, not everyone has purely pursued a cause. You don’t have to be so grateful.”
Yoongi shrugged his shoulders. I looked at her curiously.
“So you’re saying that everyone came here for a different purpose?”
“There are several reasons for the purpose.”
Yun spoke fluently.
“First of all, greenskins are a threatening disaster for everyone.”
“… .”
“It is different from other monsters. It is not a specter of the past, but a disaster that remains even today. If there were tens of thousands of them, the entire southern part of the continent would be devastated when the Crossroads fell.”
That’s why people from the south, southwest and southeast came to actively help.
If the crossroads collapsed, it would be their turn soon.
“Next is the aggressive lobby at the top of Wintersilver.”
“yes? Did you lobby at the top of Wintersilver?”
“Did they say so? It seems that he asked me to participate in the war if possible while requesting military supplies through the crossroads. From the point of view of small city-states or borderline noble territories, it is difficult to refuse the lobby of the Imperial First Corps.”
I opened my mouth slightly.
serenade… You’ve worked hard to get there… … .
“And last… In fact, this is the most crucial thing.”
Yoon, who walked ahead with footsteps, made eye contact with me in front of me, then walked back. Her bright yellow eyes narrowed.
“Because of the succession to the throne.”
I shut my mouth and twisted my eyebrows. Yun continued.
“The Everblack Empire is a superpower that holds the hegemony of the world. From the point of view of the small countries around us, we have no choice but to try our best to look good to the next emperor.”
“… .”
“But now that the 1st and 2nd princes are fighting a civil war, it is difficult to stand in line. I can’t even guess which one will be the emperor.”
Yoon put out his index finger and stabbed me in the chest.
“But what if I help you, the 3rd prince who is stepping back from the war of succession? You can only earn points for the imperial family without risk.”
“… .”
“Especially from the point of view of small countries on the outskirts, you are closer than the 1st and 2nd princes who have no way to contact each other. So everyone got off their feet and ran.”
After all, is it a move based on political calculation?
Did everyone decide that there would be more gains than losses and led the military to come here?
“… What do I think? Among them, really! In a pure sense! There must be people who have come to help Crossroads!”
Yoongi tapped his head with his index finger.
“But there must be many people who have seen the abacus bounce in their heads! His Highness the Prince should keep that in mind, right?”
“… Is that why you came too, Yun?”
“I won’t deny anything.”
After descending the wall, we headed to the barracks. Yoon spoke softly.
“At that time, none of the agreements between our kingdom and the empire have been kept. With the 1st and 2nd princes fighting like that, the administration of the empire has come to a standstill, I understand… … .”
“… .”
“So I came here to urge the implementation of the agreement, but I couldn’t even get close to the imperial capital, so I came all the way here to see your face… … I came to know about the situation and participated in the war.”
We stopped in front of the barracks conference room.
Yoon erased his smile and looked at me with a serious face.
“The whole world is watching Everblack. And as the civil war between the 1st and 2nd princes doesn’t have a clear winner, and the battle gets more sluggish, everyone is secretly looking away.”
Her fingertips pressed lightly against my chest again.
“To you.”
“… .”
I removed her finger and said curtly.
“I don’t care who takes the throne. I just want to hold the wire here.”
“Your Highness, Prince Ash, if you want to protect your small front. You have to accept the eyes of the world even more sweetly. and… .”
Opening the door to the meeting room, Yoon grinned.
“In fact, you didn’t even count that it would turn out like this, did you?”
“… .”
I didn’t answer and followed her inside.
In the meeting room, the heads of each group who came as relief forces were sitting.
When Yun and I entered, they all rose to their feet.
I breathed in lightly and smiled.
“Thank you so much for coming as a relief force this time, everyone!”
It doesn’t matter what purpose each of them came to this city.
“Your sacrifice and dedication will be clearly remembered by Everblack’s 3rd prince, Ash ‘Bonehater’ Everblack.”
What is the difference between giving money and hiring mercenaries? If each of us wants something, we are willing to pay for it.
As long as we can sustain the wires here… … !
“We would like to reward you appropriately at Crossroads for the courage you showed before disbanding… .”
***
Appropriate rewards were promised to the leaders of each salvation army, and the Goblin Magic Stones extracted this time were generously distributed according to each achievement.
In addition, in the name of the 3rd prince, he issued a lot of blank checks, saying that he would not forget the favor they had given them.
Those whose main purpose was this side smiled brightly and shook hands with me repeatedly.
It was decided to bury the bodies of the dead among the relief forces here. The injured also decided to return after being treated here.
Well, after such boring and formal conversations and meetings, I was able to leave the conference room only near the end of the night.
‘Politics is boring.’
I let out a weary sigh.
But no matter how terrible politics is, it is better than war.
“… .”
I came out west of town.
In the western grave site, the bodies of the deceased are still being buried in coffins.
Since there was no time yet for a funeral, the corpses were collected first, and each had to pay his respects.
On the hills dyed by the red sunset, the living silently put the dead under the ground.
And there was someone else besides me watching this scene.
“… .”
It was Lily.
Sitting in her wheelchair, wrapped in blankets, Lily watched the new graves with empty eyes.
My footsteps did not fall. I didn’t even have the courage to open my mouth.
But I am the commander.
And also her colleague.
So I slowly moved to Lily’s side.
Even though I deliberately approached with footsteps, Lily continued to look at the grave site without looking this way.
We watched the multiplying grave together in silence.
After a while, Lily opened her mouth.
“Please don’t make God Hand’s grave.”
“… what?”
“Please treat me as missing.”
Lily’s bony hand gripped the blanket over her shoulder.
“He couldn’t identify the body.”
“… .”
“No matter how much we searched the outpost, we couldn’t find the body. therefore.”
It was as she said.
Troops were dispatched to find the bodies of those who died at the outpost, but God Hand could not find the bodies even though they found the bodies of other heroes.
“I mean, I promised.”
Lily muttered in a dry, hoarse voice.
“I’ll be back before the winter is over.”
“… .”
“It is still winter. So the promise is valid.”
The snow has already stopped.
After this dry cold is over, spring will come.
But Lily didn’t seem to want to let go of this winter just yet. She buried herself deep in the wheelchair and muttered indistinctly.
“Until this winter is over… I’ll wait… … .”
“… .”
I didn’t comfort her.
I couldn’t even do that.
After answering that I understand, I turned around in silence. Until I got back into the city, Lily continued to sit still on the hill to the west.
Until the sunset fades and the dead wind stops.
Continue… .
***
[STAGE 15 – CLEAR!]
[STAGE MVP – Ash (EX)]
[Level Up Character]
– Ash (EX) and 45 others < Expand the list >
[Dead Character]
– Marherita (R) and 20 others < Expand list >
[Missing character]
– God Hand (SR)
[Injured character]
– Ash (EX) and 45 others < Expand list >
[Acquisition item]
– Goblin Legion Manastone: 8270
– Goblin God King Magic Core (SSR): 1
[Stage clear reward has been paid. Please check your inventory.]
– SR grade reward box: 3
– SSR grade reward box: 1
> > Get Ready For The Next STAGE
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