Chapter 13 (1/2)

THE OFFENSIVE AGAINST THE FORT

Winter was approaching1

With teeneral winter hi to launch an offensive Before one would notice, the breathed air had already become white If rain was to pour, all this rain would have already turned into snow Once there was snowfall, the shape of warfare would change As snoould accumulate, the movement of the troops would slon and transportation of food would beco of winter was a disadvantage And of course, to the demons that were restricted to the food stocked up in the castle, the long-drawn siege would be disadvantageous as well

In other words, both the deer to end this war But in both of their dictionaries, there was no such word called truce Until either side was completely destroyed, this ouldn´t end This tio for a do-or-die attack or if they were to seclude thee In case the ould change to a siege, the battle would be decided by which side gives up first

“…Well, I can´t ih”

As she was breathing out white vapor due to the cold, she sighed

Gortoberuk, ould th, was a de for a contest of endurance by holing hirace of having the fort being taken froo for and attack without doubt Either way, Riku couldn´t predict what kind of battle it would turn out to be

But, rather than knowing Gortoberuk next moves, it was more important to think on how to take the fort back It lookedstupid to do, but even so, the forty nine de her, all of the up the mountains By the way, the one that wasn´t there with the on the horse he had been riding on so far

“Ha…Ha… Just, a little bit more”

Said Roppu Nezaarand while feebly breathing after he stopped his feet With his ear and ar his hands on his knees, he was catching his breath No matter who, it was clear to anyone that would look at hi himself

“Really, you are too weak”

“Hey, ojou-chan Shouldn´t have it been better if we had left that rabbit brat at the lieutenant general´s villa?

Vrusto hispering next to Riku´s ear Different fro tired In fact, dens of exhaustion actually as very uncoeneral would ever so often have th than humans If Roppu was at his perfect condition, he would o up a mountain such as this one in one breath

” I´ hi the way”

“I see That´s why you´ve been dragging this dead weight near you I thought you were doing it just to have so us”

“Well, there is that too”

As a er, Roppu had been trained And so, he knew very well about the terrain around here This time too, he used a secret path and was able to escape froh noas one different frohtrees around Because of that, one could end up tripping without properly paying attention In fact, there were soldiers that were covered in dirt just because of this reason But even if it had all these problems, the enemy wouldn´t be aware of this path

“Ah, uh… First lieutenant Barusak, the place you had pointed in the map before is about somewhere in here”

Right at the time Riku stepped her foot onto a branch, Roppu humbly declared

Just by turning your head, through the trees, it was possible to see the stone fort One way or another, they were able to successfully go to the rear of the fort through a roundabout way2 The place that general Gortoberuk´s flag used to be set now had an unicorn and a griffon flag, both fluttering in the wind as if they were inti, she rose her right hand to signal her soldiers to stop

“Thank you, sergeant major Roppu Nezaarand For now you should wait here That, unless you want to follow me in order confirm that I´m not a traitor”

“Th-that…”

“What about if I take two or three eneh I don´t think there are any really good generals sitting in that fort”

The general that was leading all thisat Myuuz castle at the plains down the mountains

This fort capturing was only the appetizer before going for an offensive onto the plains She needed to properly savor the taste Riku lightly licked her lips

“Now then, ill be proceeding according to the plan Are you ready to take that dirty flag down?”

The forty nine demons all silently nodded There were some denored it In reality, Riku was a bit anxious about whether it would properly work or not But then, if she were to behave like that, nothing good would come out of it

“The attack will go with the five people we decided on before The rest should folloarrant officer Vrusto´s directions”

“Understood Don´t die, ojou-chan”

Seeing Vrusto indiscreetly saluting to her, Riku gathered the four people she had selected before They were demons of sility rather than strength

“Don´t worry, I will be the one facing the general Besides, not everyone are spiritualists in there They should have mixed in many normal foot soldiers in their ar your sword around to your heart´s content Once you think the situation is dangerous, you should run away from the fort”

“”Yes””

The four deorously nodded And then, Riku, who saw their confidence rise, once again n

As she did that, this tith went forward All of theh to easily crush a horse Riku herself and the four deot on these demon´s arms respectively The foothold was bad, but even so, by crouching and leaning on her right knee, it was possible to get some extent of balance

“Uh… Are you really planning on invading the fort like that?”

With a worried face, Roppu raised his eyes to the direction of the fort

“The fort was firmly build Since it didn´t fall in these two hundred years, then without siege weapons or big hammers, there is no way to invade it We don´t have this sort of things prepared, so isn´t it fine to do it this way?”

“But we thought we had taken a secret path…”4

“Which side do you think the people at the fort are being more watchful?”