The Death Mage That Doesnt Want A Fourth Time 25 (2/2)

「There are carriage wheel tracks leading outside the Devil’s Nest?! Why did nobody realize this earlier?!」

Gordan shouted in rage at the subordinate who had delivered this news

「Since the wheel tracks were heading in the complete opposite direction froe, nobody paid it any attention And while Vaht that the Ghouls would be」

Monsters like Goblins and Orcs generally didn’t use carriages No, they couldn’t use thee required to build them

Monsters like Vampires who hid in human societies and lured hues, but the only cases in which Goblins and Orcs possessed carriages hen they plundered them from humans

They would use the carriages roughly without being able to perform maintenance on them and often eat the anies usually broke and were abandoned or taken apart for materials to build houses

Even though Ghouls were far ent than Goblins and Orcs, the same should have applied to them That hy even the experienced adventurers hadn’t coes for transport

The knights and soldiers who had been instructed to listen to the advice of the adventurers had thought the same as them

But they had searched the Devil’s Nest over and over without finding a single Ghoul, and the Ghouls had never attacked And there were deep wheel tracks leading outside the Devil’s Nest, as if dozens of carriages had all passed through the same place

There was only one possible conclusion

「shi+t, that Dhaes to run aith the Ghouls?! How did nobody notice, what the hell are the spies doing?!」

Riley shouted these words, but everyone knew the answer to his question, including himself

The Spies had been keeping a proper lookout Between the Devil’s Nest and the town

What Marshal Palpapek had been cautious of was the potential of the Ghoul advancing on the town from the Devil’s Nest, not the possibility that they would escape in the opposite direction towards the Boundary Mountain Range to the east

That hy all of the precious Spies had been positioned to the west, between the town and the Devil’s Nest

「To think that the Dha a pack of hundreds of Ghouls would run aithout fighting We’ve been tricked!」

High Priest Gordan let out these words with a frustrated groan, and the extermination force’s expedition came to an end

But other than him and Riley, who had missed out on a chance to add more achievements to his name, the rest of the extermination force returned to the toith expressions that were happy rather than bitter

They had also ainthe Ghouls, but they had collected quite a lot of ic Stones and body parts that served as proof of having killedthe other monsters in the Devil’s Nest And since the nation had funded the expedition’s expenses, they hadn’t lost anything

The knights and soldiers had been getting paid higher salaries for being on a dangerous expedition, and they had been eating the et to eat often, so they were very satisfied

Viscount Balchesse was dancing for joy inside when he heard the news that the Ghouls had escaped towards the Boundary Mountain Range and the extermination force hadn’t sustained any casualties If soldiers and knights had died, he would have had to pay money to their families as compensation and find replacements for the lost personnel

He was a little uneasy about the fact that the Ghouls hadn’t been exterminated and the threat hadn’t coe, there were countless Devil’s Nests so large that his entire territory could easily fit inside the inside them weren’t on the level of noble Orcs It had been told since the age of the Gods that nunated as disaster-level monsters, lived there

He had a strong feeling that there wouldn’t be much difference if a few hundred Ghouls were added to those monsters

Viscount Balchesse was more interested in the forest-like Devil’s Nest, whose ely decreased by the one-thousand-strong exterer any powerfulthere, if the rest of the es were hired to purify the tainted Mana there, there was a chance that this Devil’s Nest could be transformed into prosperous farmland

With thoughts like these running through his mind, he didn’t haveabout the Ghouls and Dhampir

「To think that they would run away」

With an expression as if he had sed dozens of bitter bugs, Marshal Palpapek dispatched Spies to check whether the Ghouls had really run away towards the e, and then turned his attention towards other things

TLN: There’s a japanese expression that translates to so” that basicallysed dozens of bitter bugs” means his expression is very bitter indeed

Now that the Ghouls had escaped, he would have to enter a political battle with the financecoet really needed?」and,「Could it be that you were si the nation’s funds to help purify the Devil’s Nest in the viscount’s territory and turn it into usable land?」

The one who had benefited the most from this incident was Viscount Balchesse, whose territory had increased and could potentially benefit greatly in an economical sense

And because the adventurer who had obtained the infor the Dhampir Vandalieu had promptly vanished and the expedition had ended in failure, none of the information that he had provided was recorded in the written reports The only place that information remained was in the memories of a few of the people involved

In the discussion on the day after the victory feast, Vandalieu told the Ghouls of the hu to ry response was,「We’ll ambush those humans!」

「We’ve beco! No matter how many hundreds of humans come, on’t be defeated!」

As Vigaro raised his fist valiantly into the air, reed with him Their levels had increased in the battle with the Orcs, and more than a few of them had increased in Rank as well

Indeed, the Ghouls’ strength in battle had grown substantially However

「Sorry, Vigaro We can’t win this battle」

Vandalieu declared that they wouldn’t be able to win against the humans

「Why not?!」

「King, we’re strong! We won’t lose to the humans!」

「With you here, we can win! Why are you saying we can’t?!」

「Let’s fight theether!」

The Ghouls’ opinion seemed to be unanimous, and Vandalieu chose his words carefully as he replied

「Yes, we’ve beco If humans attacked with equal numbers as us, ould win But unlike Orcs, the humans will make the preparations they need to defeat us, and they will come into the Devil’s Nest from outside to kill us This time, we are the ones on the defense」

A surprise attack like when they had attacked Bugogan’s village would be impossible

The huh-quality individuals a their army as well

「And they will keep co at us until we are defeated If we defeat their first extermination force, they’ll send another, and if we defeat that one, another after that There will be no end to it」

Even if the first extermination force was successfully repelled, the shi+eld-nation of Mirg would certainly not leave such a dangerous pack of monsters alone; they would definitely send in a second extermination force

If this were a conflict between huround and suppress the conflict at this point, but Ghouls were monsters to humans And the Devil’s Nest was only three days’ travel from the town There would be no compromise

Unless the Ghouls did so, they wouldn’t stop No, the A came to ruin There was simply no end to this for Vandalieu and the Ghouls

「It is as the boy says Since the huathered their forces to exterminate the noble Orcs, there will be nuh to have defeated that noble Orc boss」

「Muh」

As Zadiris voiced her opinion, Vigaro said no rowl

But even as Zadiris spoke against Vigaro’s advocacy for war, she had a bitter expression on her face They had just e from the noble Orcs; it was only natural for her to feel this way

The Ghouls weren’t even thinking of attacking the human town They would be satisfied if they could just continue living in the Devil’s Nest as they had been up until now

Despite that, the hu an extermination force to kill them For the Ghouls, it was absurdly unreasonable

And though Vandalieu didn’t show it in his expression, he felt asharant the wishes of the Ghouls he thought of as his family, the Ghouls who loved him so dearly

If he could build dozens of sturdy fortresses, erect a stone wall surrounding the whole Devil’s Nest and make an army of thousands of Golems, he would be able to protect this Devil’s Nest

「And we have people that we need to protect」

Most of the wonant; they were in no state to fight

Of course, there were also Bilde and the other Ghoul wonant with Ghoul children

nobody wanted to expose theer

「Yes What ant is the survival of the species We should choose a defeat where we save as many people as possible over a victory where we sacrifice many and only a few survive」(Tarea)

As Tarea spoke with a sigh, the Ghouls’ desire for war subsided completely

There were still aro was silent and Tarea was convinced

In this situation, the Ghouls whose society was founded upon respecting the powerful couldn’t voice their objections and siree

「But e do fro would be impossible, and even if ere to run」

Ghouls needed a Devil’s Nest to live in The Ghouls’ reproductive capabilities declined even further outside Devil’s Nests and there wouldn’t be enough prey to feed this population

It would also likely be impossible for thericulture for food

「I have an idea of where we can escape to, though it’s a bit far away」

However, as Vandalieu explained about the Devil’s Nest found by the Undead bugs that he had released in case the Ghouls were unable to defeat the noble Orcs, the problem of where they would escape to was solved

Their destination was a Devil’s Nest ruin, past the western edge of the Boundary Mountain Range

Best of all, he had discovered that there were Undead in that Devil’s Nest Because of Vandalieu’s【Death-Attribute Charm】skill, they would instantly become allies

With that being solved, discussions were over quickly and the Ghouls i move

「UOOOOOOOOOH!」

The first step was to deforest the Devil’s Nest to the point of athered lues, one after another

『It seems that I have many kouhais now』

TLN: For those who don’t know, kouhaisenior

The spirits used for these carriages were those of the Orcs and other o, so they didn’t possess skills like【Precise Driving】But as long as they were sturdy carriages that h

And then the female adventurers coet a chance to get accustonant woes to leave the Devil’s Nest

Vandalieu had confirmed that there were no Spies in the direction of the s, so it was not a particularly hurried departure

And then it was April Over a month had passed since the Ghouls had left the Devil’s Nest forest

As part of the leading group of the Ghouls, Vandalieu was sitting in Sae

The road was steep, but the journey was going well apart from three problems

「Surprisingly, thespecial」

「It’s funny to say that while completely wrapped in furs」

Cold-weather clothing for crossing the tall e had been made from the furs of animals that they had hunted in the Devil’s Nest forest

Ghouls were far sturdier than humans, so they were mostly unaffected by altitude sickness

The Ghouls’ energy had decreased a little fro left the Devil’s Nest, but that was cothen Followers】skill The mountain climbers of earth would question whether their current equiph, but they could proudly say that it was

The one thing that was more likely to be a problem than their equipment or materials was the road Steep paths and cliffs that even mountain climbers would have to risk their lives to climb were frequent

「Boy, I’ll leave the road to you」

「Okay~」

However, as long as Vandalieu’s Mana didn’t run out, it wasn’t a problem after all

After turning the mountain surface into Golems, he could just use【Golees could pass through If the roads were narrow, he wouldtunnels through them

At first, Vandalieu had thought of using【Goleh theto cross over it But a tunnel large enough to fit carriages going through could potentially cave in, and there would be huge probleround water reserve, so he decided against it

And not long after the Ghouls passed through, the roads would turn back into narrow paths and steep cliffs Worried that the shi+eld-nation of Mirg’s Spies ht discover them, Vandalieu had made it so that they couldn’t be followed and this turned out to be a great success

In fact, several days later, the Spies dispatched by Marshal Palpapek around a month behind Vandalieu and the Ghouls were at the foot of the e They decided that further chase would be impossible and returned to the town

So if there were any proble the weakened Ghouls and the rush of babies