In a World of Reversed Chastity, I Strive to Become an Honorable Male Knight, but Lustful Women Keep Targeting My Body - 260

Chapter 260: The Kukkoro Male Knight and His Doubt

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Our main gun had been rendered unusable, and on top of that, the marines were already completely battered by seasickness before the fighting even began. On the other side, the elf soldiers were binding us with arrows that had no arrowheads, turning the whole thing into a restraint play scenario. Under these circumstances, there was no way the battle wasn’t going to turn into a complete mess.

Before long, our rowers and wind mages collapsed from exhaustion, and the Michael Collins could no longer move against the river’s current. After that, all we could do was let ourselves be carried along.

The desultory exchange of fire continued for a while, but just as the enemy appeared to be shifting to a boarding attack, our side’s elf escort soldiers finally lost patience. They shoved the marines aside and entered the fight themselves. The elf soldiers on our side had been in just as miserable a state from seasickness, but the difference in their fundamental capabilities was simply too great. With masterful bow handling, they drove off the enemy elf soldiers.

“Good grief… That was a truly pathetic battle. Looks like there are plenty of points that need improvement.”

In a corner of the Michael Collins, which had regained its usual calm now that we were out of combat, I said that while eating breakfast. The ship was extremely small, and there was no dedicated mess hall. You either had to eat packed in like sardines inside a tiny cabin, or eat on the upper deck while soaking up the sun. I chose the latter.

The time was already late enough that calling it morning felt a bit awkward, and the unapologetic tropical sunlight beat down on me mercilessly. It was supposed to be late autumn, but it felt oddly hot.

“We need to review the training regimen. The sailors performed flawlessly. There’s nothing to complain about there, but the combat division was far too sloppy.”

Sonia said this while stirring the army stew in her wooden bowl with a spoon. The personnel operating this ship could be broadly divided into two groups: those involved in navigation, and those involved in combat. The former were people recruited from the civilian sector, while the latter were members of the Liseben military—in other words, essentially army soldiers.

Just as Sonia had said, the navigation personnel (even if it was a river rather than the sea) demonstrated excellent proficiency. But the combat personnel were truly awful. The only ones who deserved praise were the artillery unit and even they had been rendered combat-ineffective by mechanical trouble.

Of course, this had been unfamiliar waterborne combat. The marines had been forced into real battle without any proper training, so blaming the soldiers themselves would be misguided. Those who deserved blame were us senior officers, who had failed to prepare appropriate training and battle plans.

“In Liseben, where highways are poorly developed, there’s no choice but to build the distribution network around the Elfen River. We skipped it for the sake of accelerated training, but from now on we should properly train for waterborne combat as well.”

Near the upper reaches of the Elfen River—or rather, close to its source—there was a precious mithril mine. A small settlement was currently forming around the mine, where mining engineers and female miners were gathering. However, extending a highway from Carrera City all the way to that location deep in the mountain range would take considerable time and money. No matter how you looked at it, constructing a transportation network centered on the river would be faster and cheaper. On top of that, it could carry much larger volumes of cargo at once.

“Our haste to build combat power backfired, didn’t it…”

Sonia said that with a sigh. After all, the reason we had dragged out negotiations with Elfenia for so long had been to buy time until the Liseben military could at least function at a minimal combat level. Our army had only just been reorganized, and the proportion of new recruits was extremely high. In this state, it was questionable whether we could function even as a deterrent, let alone fight an actual battle. It had been an urgent problem.

Thanks to that, basic training for the new recruits was finally nearing completion but judging from the results of this battle, there was still plenty of room for improvement. We managed only because the enemy had been engaging in restraint tactics, but if we had fought unrestricted elf soldiers… Just imagining it was terrifying.

“When we return to Carrera City, we’ll revise the soldiers’ training plan. But right now, there’s something else that concerns me more.”

“…Why the elves did something like this… Right?”

The one who followed up on my words was Bishop Fiorenza. Apparently her seasickness still hadn’t subsided even after a night had passed (which was only natural, since seasickness doesn’t heal that easily), and her complexion was still terrible. She didn’t seem able to stomach food, and instead was drinking hot wine with ginger mixed in. Of course, getting drunk would only make things worse, so the alcohol had been heavily diluted with water.

As a non-combatant, she had stayed hidden in the cabin throughout the battle, but it seemed she had secretly peeked at the fighting. Like us, she appeared to harbor doubts about the elves’ behavior.

“The use of arrows without arrowheads matches the attack we suffered the other day. It is certainly quite perplexing behavior.”

“Right. If it were just a small skirmish, I could understand it as an operation meant as a warning, designed to minimize casualties. But in both the previous incident and this one, the elf soldiers have taken no small amount of damage. Holding back in a battle where lives are on the line is, frankly, strange.”

Nodding to the bishop, I pondered the matter. Only a handful of elf soldiers had survived the previous attack. The rest had been wiped out. In this battle as well, a considerable number of elves must have died.

“Elves sometimes act in ways that make it seem like they want to die… But even so, they’ve never done anything like deliberately coming to be killed. The elf soldiers in this incident and the previous one seem to have followed somewhat different behavior patterns than before.”

Sonia said this while glaring at Bishop Fiorenza with an expression that practically screamed, “Why is an outsider here?”

“But what kind of intent did the enemy commander have in pulling a stunt like this? Of course, they probably want to prevent peace with the ‘legitimate’ faction, but… It feels like there’s something more to it.”

If they simply wanted to interfere with our peace mediation, I could think of much better methods. For example, they could infiltrate small commando units into our sphere of influence and launch guerrilla attacks on rural villages. That would inflame anti-elf sentiment among the populace and tie our hands. The elf soldiers certainly possessed enough capability to carry out such special operations, and elves—who were notoriously sharp-minded when it came to warfare—wouldn’t fail to think up strategies like that.

And yet, why would they plan and execute an operation like this, which caused heavy losses despite having little effect? Honestly, I had no idea. Of course, it was much easier than having to face an enemy who constantly chose the optimal option, but it was unsettling nonetheless. Sure, there was a nonzero chance that the opposing commander was just genuinely stupid, or that young elves were rampaging around without thinking—but still… I had a bad feeling about this.

“Yes… They do say that things that happen twice will happen a third time. There’s a very real possibility that this kind of attack will continue. However, simply repelling them in a perfunctory manner might be something we should avoid. Repeating half-hearted attacks could be a strategy to lull us into complacency.”

“Agreed. …Hmmm, but looking at the elves’ behavior so far, it feels like that alone doesn’t fully explain it.”

Groaning softly, I put a piece of bread soaked in army-stew broth into my mouth. It was hardtack meant for storage. Unless you softened it with liquid, it was so hard it might as well have been a brick, completely inedible.

Chewing, I continued to think. The enemies in the previous and current engagements really were strange. The opposing commander had deliberately issued weak weapons to the soldiers before launching the attack. That was like throwing raw eggs at a brick wall. There was no chance of victory. It was a completely barren strategy that only resulted in soldiers dying needlessly… almost like a penal unit.

“When an opponent’s actions seem inexplicable, it usually means we lack information. Perhaps we should focus all our efforts on gathering intelligence for now.”

“Yes, since we’re going all the way into the elves’ home territory…”

Sonia said this while turning her gaze downstream. We were scheduled to arrive at our destination, the elf settlement of Runga City, around midday today. As she suggested, it would be wise to take advantage of this opportunity to investigate various things.

“If it’s intelligence gathering, that happens to be my area of expertise. I believe I can be of some help, so please look forward to it, Albert-san.”

“Oh, that’s reassuring. With Bishop Fiorenza-sama’s assistance, it’s like having the strength of a hundred men.”

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