Badlands Saga: Reincarnation in a Different World with Extreme Charisma

Chapter 13 Emerald Sword 7

Two months had passed since the war began.

It had been several days since the news spread that reinforcements from the Kingdom of Folk were not coming, yet not a single person left on the merchant ship that brought this information.

The castle’s forces, even with reinforcements exceeding the number of war casualties, remained just over a hundred. Meanwhile, the enemy’s numbers continued to grow, surpassing five hundred.

Although there was a brief respite with the arrival of medical supplies, food provisions, and a small number of reinforcements, anyone could see that impending doom was inevitable.

However, unlike the old men who clearly sought a place to die, even the young men who stayed in the castle somehow remained in high spirits.

Could they see some chance of victory that I couldn’t see?

Or was I the only one doubting my father’s victory?

Thinking such thoughts, I busied myself with alchemy, mass-producing medicines in my spare time.

And next to me, there was an elderly woman from the Makiano tribe, sipping tea in a relaxed manner.

“Fusha-sama, was it really okay to bring this person here?”

“With someone nearby who can teach us, we should take advantage of their cooperation. Besides, that prison is too cold for an old person.”

While Isara and I were talking, the old woman pointed between us and moved her wrinkled mouth.

“Fusha-sama, what are you talking about?”

To my surprise, just as I was learning the language of the Makiano tribe, they, too, had begun to learn our language.

In fact, they might even be picking it up faster than we were. This old woman would eagerly ask me What? and it felt as if the three of us were sharing words together.

Well, there isn’t much to do in a prison cell, so maybe it had become a sort of pastime.

“On, logos, tito.”

These three words conveyed “Old Lady Logos, cold” to them.

In the past few days, I had been chatting whenever I had a spare moment, so I was starting to pick up quite a few words myself.

“Logos pirlum juta.”

“Pirlum, dea?”

“Ah, pirlum… yustos, grap.”

The old woman hesitated for a moment, then raised both of her hands to the sides, flexing her muscles as if to show her strength.

“Is Pirlum doing well? Logos, Fusha pirlum juta.”

“Kyani pas, hesa, hesa.”

This was Old Lady Logos’s catchphrase. It seemed to mean something like, “That’s good, that’s great.”

“Instead of this, let’s just make that long-eared one clearly reveal their intentions.”

“People like that just run away when you try to make them do something they don’t want to. If it were that simple, old man Gul would’ve made them do it long ago.”

“Where could they run without a ship?”

“Obviously, to the enemy’s side. She understands their language, after all.”

Indeed, understanding the language is crucial, once again.

“Well, I did at least get a general idea of their intentions, didn’t I?”

“It’s so vague that it’s as if we’ve learned nothing at all. I mean, ‘treasure hunting’…?”

Surprisingly, when asked, the captives immediately revealed the army’s objective.

The Makiano tribe’s objective was treasure hunting.

They were looking for something in this wasteland, and attacking our castle was part of that process.

Old Lady Logos, who seemed completely out of place on the battlefield, was apparently like a fortune-teller who had come to search for that treasure.

“Pilgrim, wit tala ken Fusha.”

“Naraka, naraka.”

Old Lady Logos said, “The treasure might be you,” and I replied, “Yeah, yeah.”

The Makiano tribe seemed to be surprisingly straightforward when it came to flattery.

Well, if I were in captivity, I might throw in a bit of flattery myself…

“What did she say?”

“She said I’m the treasure.”

“I see…”

Isara glared fiercely at the old woman, biting her lower lip as she spoke.

She’s serious at her core, so she might have been offended by a prisoner making light of the lord’s family.

Maybe I should refrain from translating such light remarks.

In the midst of those days, I was finally summoned to a war council.

Inside the large room, there was Father, my older brother and his subordinates, high-ranking knights, and a bunch of elderly men who seemed to be battle-hardened veterans. It was quite crowded.

“As you all know, reinforcements are not coming. So, we’ve decided to capture that fort.”

Father said this matter-of-factly, looking around at everyone, and only my brother’s soldiers murmured in surprise.

The others must have been informed beforehand.

Of course, I hadn’t been told anything, but my only subordinates were Isara and Kintman, and they remained unfazed by the news.

“Are you serious, Dad? We’ve been holed up here because we can’t win in an open field.”

“Regarding that, we have gathered experts here. The number of troops is probably at its highest, and so is their morale. Even if no reinforcements come after a victory, a successful battle might spur some of the kingdom’s nobles to action. We have no choice but to bet on that now.”

“But even if you say we’ll win, how are we supposed to defeat such a large army? Don’t tell me we just need each person to take down five enemies.”

“Concerning that, I’ll let Tsukies take over.”

An elderly bald man, with a small pair of glasses perched on his nose, raised his pencil-holding hand sharply.

“There are two ways to defeat a large army, as has been known since ancient times: either crush the head or whittle them down little by little.”

“It’d be nice if we could just crush the head.”

“However, regarding the Makiano tribe’s army, they all look the same, and there doesn’t seem to be anyone in particular giving orders on the front lines, so we can’t identify who their leader is.”

Old man Tsukies adjusted his glasses and continued, “Therefore…”

“We’ll scatter a mix of large and small strategies, bait the enemy while whittling them down, and determine their leader by who makes the biggest move, then eliminate them.”

“That sounds almost like making it up as we go along…”

“Don’t worry! All the plans are designed to wipe out the enemy. If we’re not careful, we might end up killing them all before we even find their leader!”

Wintor, an old man who was once a captain of a thousand for the kingdom, laughed loudly from the side as he spoke.

“Koutasma, you continue to guard the port as before. If the plan fails, load as many as you can onto the ship and leave immediately.”

“Got it.”

“Fushanklan, you guard the castle. If I do not return, take your mother and sister to the port.”

“Understood.”

“As for the detailed plan…”

At that moment, with a bang, a map was spread out on the table.

“I’ve been waiting for this! Now, listen up to my brilliant plan! Got it? First, we’ll send cavalry equipped as if they’re ready for a raid to graze past the enemy’s fort and head north! That way, those who have their towns in that direction will come after us with their blood boiling!”

“Quiet down, Wintor! Can’t you speak a bit more quietly?”

“I’m raising my voice on purpose so even old ears can hear it! Usually, I’m a quiet man!”

“Like hell you are.”

Ignoring the retorts from those around him, the old man swiftly ran his finger over the map.

“And then! We’ll lure the enemies who chase us all the way to the valley, where we have soldiers lying in wait to create a kill zone and wipe them out!”

“Will it really go that smoothly? I have a feeling the enemy might not even enter the valley…”

Well, there’s nothing we can do about it, but with the disparity in numbers between us and the enemy, whatever we try will always be a gamble.

Among those gathered, there were a few who seemed to have uneasy expressions.

“In that case, if it comes to it, we can just keep going and burn their towns! Then they’ll definitely bite next time! But, if only I had a thousand men under my command, I could come up with even more harassment tactics to guarantee our victory! The Margrave of the Borderlands wasted an opportunity!”

“If we had a thousand men, the Makiano wouldn’t be attacking in the first place!”

It might be a good plan, but even if this strategy works perfectly, we’d only be able to kill about fifty or so of them.

In other words, we’d have to succeed with the same tactic ten times to eliminate the enemy.

On top of that, with our small force, even one failure would mean losing most of our troops. It feels like our chances of winning are less than one in ten thousand…

And yet, even up until the very end of the meeting, no one uttered the words “let’s abandon the castle.”

◆◆◆

Perhaps due to their reckless attacks in the first month, the enemy’s assaults from the fort opposite the castle had noticeably decreased.

More than that, it seemed that they were ignoring both the town and the castle, wandering aimlessly through the wilderness.

Every day, groups of about ten soldiers would leave the fort, but they neither attacked the castle nor the town and would return before nightfall.

What on earth were they doing in such a barren wasteland? What were they searching for?

Even among the knights, these questions began to spread…

Then, suddenly, those who weren’t on watch were rudely awakened by the Knight Commander and summoned to the training grounds.

There, startling news was delivered by Isara, the knight serving the third son of this castle’s lord.

“The enemy is targeting Fushanklan-sama.”

“Impossible!”

“Where did this information come from?”

As everyone pressed Isara for answers, she responded, her face full of anger, the fairy wings hidden in her hair flickering.

“Lord Fusha learned it from the captives after he started to understand their language… The enemy is here to search for treasure in the wilderness.”

“What…?”

“The words of those people…? How on earth…?”

The treasure in this barren wilderness was the castle that the Tanukan family had protected for generations.

And the most precious gem hidden within it was none other than Lord Fushanklan himself.

“In that case, we must somehow get Lord Fusha to escape!”

“As long as Lord Fushanklan reunites with his elder brother, the future of the Tanukan family will be bright! We can then rest assured and die a noble death defending this castle!”

“Lord Fusha is not someone who would abandon the castle and flee… He already said before that he would escape only after the people were safe.”

Isara spoke with a pained expression, as if wringing out each word.

She was closest to Lord Fushanklan and, if she could, would probably want to whisk him away and put him on a ship immediately.

“No way…”

“Then, what should we do?!”

“I feel the same way as Lord Fushanklan! I was born here! So, I’m going to die here!”

A young knight shouted this through his tears, and everyone around him nodded in agreement.

They are not afraid to die, but that child is different from someone like them. One day, he will surely accomplish something great.

No matter what, They wanted to ensure that his life continued.

“Should we attack the fort? If we wipe them out, that child won’t have to die.”

“How? There are over five hundred of them.”

“I hear that wise men are gathering at Lord Guldura’s place. How about we ask them to come up with a plan?”