Chapter 60 – Second Solution (2/2)
“Ah, that’s right.” (Hifumi)
While basking in the warm sunlight, Hifumi, who sat down with a flump on the wagon, dozes off while returning a suitable answer.
The surface of the wagon has a size to the degree of a K-car. The others of Hifumi’s group are sympathizing with the two soldiers on driving duty. The other wagons are also manned by two soldiers each. The two wagons are basically vacant except for the weapons and food. Their purpose is to be loaded with magic tools.
The wagons, which aren’t heavy yet as there is only little baggage, make clattering sounds while nimbly advancing on the highway.
They have already passed through the village close to the border too. It is estimated that they will arrive at the border fortress soon.
“Once we get close to the border, lower the speed. I will get off to clear the path.” (Hifumi)
“Ha! By your command!” (Soldier)
The soldier, who somehow managed to catch Hifumi voice that was swallowed by the wind, answered in a loud voice.
Before long, there are dozens of soldiers standing close to Orsongrande’s side’s fortress that became visible in front of them. The once completely defeated border patrol has already been changed. A part of the soldiers, that have been dispatched as substitutes for the defense, were commanded by the Second Knight Order temporarily.
On the other side of the fortress there are Horant’s guards, I guess. A tingling air is adrift, but I can also see this with my far-sightedness.
Hifumi, who jumped off the moving wagon, advances towards the position of the two soldiers standing at the border.
“Thanks for your work. Let me pass for a minute. Ah, the lot in the rear as well.” (Hifumi)
“Ah, yes. Please go ahead.” (Guard)
The soldier, who apparently knew Hifumi’s face, opened the path with a nervous face.
“It’s fine if you aren’t this tense. I will dispose of the guys over there right away.” (Hifumi)
He smiled while drawing his katana.
When he looks at the end of the pathway of the fortress, he can see three soldiers from Horant preparing their swords.
“Ohh, as expected, the dolls won’t be deployed as border security, huh?” (Hifumi)
While murmuring without speaking to anyone specific, he lowers the katana in his right hand. As he swings it with a slow swaying, the soldier’s from Horant also showed an increasingly tense face due to Hifumi crossing the border.
“I’m Hifumi, an Earl of Orsongrande. I have some business or something like that with your king. Since I will force my way through, it’s fine to be a hindrance if you want to die.” (Hifumi)
Hifumi is slowly stepping forward as if giving them the time to choose. The soldiers of Horant were bewildered, but none of them tried to run away.
“Well done.” (Hifumi)
The second the distance to his opponents decreased to 5 meters, Hifumi broke into a run as if bursting open. The heads of the three soldiers were cleaved off in a flash. Without touching their bones at all, he cleanly severed only the soft flesh of the throat.
Waiting for Hifumi, who calmly went out from within the fountain of blood he had created, on Horant’s side, were the figures of roughly around 50 soldiers from Horant.
“Aye, thanks for the trouble to come meet me. Besides, it’s nice that you aren’t puppets. Now, decide. Run away or die, it’s one of those two.” (Hifumi)
Once the person in charge on site, thought to be a soldier of around 50 years, raises a roar due to Hifumi’s provocation, the soldiers came rushing all at once without order, ranks or plan.
“That’s a bad move, you know~?” (Hifumi)
“It’s better for me if enemies and allies are jumbled together. If you rush in disorder because there is only one enemy, you will probably hinder your allies”, Hifumi smiled bitterly. But he seems to be pleased with their will-power to plunge into it without hesitation though they are soldiers on the verge of death He is in a good mood.
Lowering his body, he slips in between the soldiers, deviating from the center where the enemies are concentrated.
With only this much the majority of the soldiers ended up losing sight of him.
Hifumi, easily slipping through the enemy group, approached the man in charge and soundlessly beheaded him.
At the time the soldier at the edge of the group turned his head around being doubtful as the voice of his superior couldn’t be heard anymore, the corpse of his superior, no longer having his head, fell to the ground. In front of him was the figure of the enemy who shouldn’t be there.
“Uhii…” (Soldier)
Even as he screamed, Hifumi’s left hand grabbed his face, pulled it down as if tearing it off and stabbed him to death.
In that manner he killed the soldiers from the back of the enemy group by cutting them up roughly. When all of them noticed and inquired into the abnormality of the situation, around 10 had died by Hifumi’s hands and further 5 were accidentally killed by their own colleagues.
Although they once again surrounded Hifumi, he sheathed the katana and clapped his hands towards the soldiers, who now kept their distance without closing in.
“Yo yo! It was quite a sweltering fighting style. So, how do you feel about killing your friends after going crazy earlier? For the fellows in the center of your group there were probably some who felt the feedback of their own weapons, right?” (Hifumi)
Some of them reflexively cast down their eyes due to Hifumi’s fully ridiculing words.
“Good, in that case…” (Hifumi)
Hifumi took out a simple metal staff from within his darkness storage.
“Shall we continue then?” (Hifumi)
In fact it is only the staff part of the chigiriki he took out. It ended up broken when he hit a tree during his own practice. Thus he decided to use it as staff.
Among the soldiers, who fixed their stance in panic, the soldier, who reacted the slowest, became the first victim.
The staff knocked into his temporal region with the force of Hifumi rotating it overhead. Including the simple helmet, his skull was smashed and the enemy died instantly.
Pulling back the swung staff, he uses the force of withdrawing it to attack a different soldier and kills him.
“Look, if you don’t counter-attack quickly, you will only be killed one-sidedly.” (Hifumi)
Circling around to the back of a soldier, Hifumi locks his neck with the staff and, standing back to back, he throws him over his shoulders.
The soldier, who was lifted up in a state of having his throat crushed, broke his neck and died.
Just using a stick without even a blade, he kills his opponents one after the other while even being only one person. It is already making the surviving soldiers getting ready to flee.
“Uu…” (Soldier)
However, escaping from the battlefield will definitely lead to the death penalty in Horant.
Running away or not, the result is the same. Dying now or dying after being caught and tortured, that’s the only difference.
There were people who were viewing from a distance as the soldiers from Horant were killed one by one like that.
It was Origa and the Fokalore territorial soldiers who had crossed the border following Hifumi.
“… Is it alright to not help him?” (Soldier)
Due to the situation of being outnumbered albeit not having a single injury, a single soldier ended up unintentionally expressing this, but regretted it right away.
Origa’s eyes went below freezing point in an instant as they turned towards the soldier.
“Do you want to interrupt Hifumi-sama’s amusement? And, do you want me to receive a scolding once again because I couldn’t hold you back from that?” (Origa)
“N-No… I’m very sorry…” (Soldier)
“Shut up and watch. And, if you are able, learn Hifumi-sama’s techniques. That gentleman wishes for there to be more fighters among the inhabitants of this world. Not to fight together as allies, but to fight as opponents of that gentleman.” (Origa)
All of the Fokalore territorial soldiers being there are people who saw Hifumi’s battle in Rhone. As there is currently an one-sided massacre unfolding in front of their eyes, it’s probably impossible to fight that as opponent, everyone judged.
Ceasing to watch such soldiers, Origa ecstatically turned her gaze ahead where Hifumi was joyfully wielding his staff and striking his enemies dead.