In a World of Reversed Chastity, I Strive to Become an Honorable Male Knight, but Lustful Women Keep Targeting My Body - 307

Chapter 307: The Kukkoro Male Knight and the New Arrival

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For a while after that, the battle had remained deadlocked. The soldiers of the Vanka faction kept fidgeting along the boundary between the forest and the riverbank. They tried to launch attacks against us somehow, but each time they were met with concentrated fire and forced to abort.

To break through this defensive line, they would have no choice but to send in a large force from multiple directions at once. However, the Vanka faction, lacking manpower, should not have been able to employ such tactics. While observing the elf soldiers in komusō garb collapsing under volleys of bullets and arrows through my telescope, I muttered something pointless.

“I wonder if they’ll just give up like this.”

“Well, that’s unlikely. The enemy side must have anticipated that things would turn out this way. And yet they still chose to attack, so they won’t give up that easily.”

“…I suppose not.”

That was a perfectly logical response. A completely serious one. Letting out a sigh, I hooked the telescope onto my belt.

“Dalaiya-dono, how do you see this situation? It looks like they’re trying to carve a path through with brute-force charges, but for that, their movements lack any real coordination. Could it be that they’re only pretending to attack in order to pin us down…?”

The person I addressed was Lady Dalaiya, who had returned to the main camp after completing a delaying mission. Her usual poncho was stained with battle grime and blood, leaving her in a rather gruesome state. It seemed the delaying action had been quite a fierce fight.

“Well, I also doubt that that Vanka would do something as foolish as grinding down her own forces for no reason… but if this is simply the troops on the ground running wild, then it’s a different story. It’s possible that even Vanka has lost control of the situation.”

Holding a steaming cup of herbal tea in both hands, Lady Dalaiya spoke. Though this was the southern land of Liseben, the season was late autumn, and the temperature had dropped considerably. When the wind hit you after you’d been moving and sweating, it was undeniably cold. Especially in this command trench, which was covered by a canopy and received little sunlight.

On top of that, the trench we were in had been dug into the riverbank, so water was seeping up slightly from the bottom. Because of that, the ground around our feet was miserably cold and unsanitary. If the battle dragged on, illness might start to spread.

The most frightening was a condition called trench foot, a disease commonly seen in trench warfare. If it became severe, the feet would begin to rot. In a world where medical care was underdeveloped, reaching that state would leave no choice but to amputate. I wanted to resolve things before it came to that, but…

“That’s not something I wanted to hear…”

If, as Lady Dalaiya suggested, the troops on the ground were simply running amok and repeating reckless attacks out of desperation, then there would be no reason for us to hole up in such well-built trenches. We could just sortie and crush them outright. In terms of strength, we had the advantage. We would likely take some losses, but victory would not be in doubt.

“Still… even so, their movements do seem strange. It’s a difficult call to make…”

So which was it, in the end? Shrugging, I ordered some herbal tea from an attendant. Because of the seeping water, even my socks were completely soaked. It was freezing. I needed to issue orders for the soldiers to dry their feet regularly and massage them.

Just a few days ago, we had been complaining about the heat, and now we were dealing with this miserable cold. It was a common story in a soldier’s life, but it was truly harsh. Of course, I didn’t say that out loud.

After enduring all this and still staying holed up in the trenches, if it all ended up being much ado about nothing, I might get beaten to death by my own soldiers. Being lynched by my allies was something I’d really rather avoid…

“Well, assuming Vanka has some sort of plan… the most likely possibility is reinforcements. Right now, Vanka has fewer than five hundred troops. On the other hand, we have nearly a thousand… No matter what scheme she comes up with, it won’t be easy to close that gap. If that’s the case… then forming alliances with the surrounding barbarian tribes to bolster her forces is a realistic option.”

“I see. So Dalaiya-dono shares the same opinion as Fezaria.”

Lady Orphan, now known as Fezaria, was currently handling frontline command in place of Lady Dalaiya. While not quite at her level, she was still a veteran commander, and her leadership was impressive. So far, no one had rushed out of the trenches to chase the fleeing enemy. Discipline was perfect. Very reliable.

“Fezaria, hm.”

Muttering that with a slight pout, Lady Dalaiya took a sip of her herbal tea.

“By the way, changing the subject, are the men and the children alright? They wouldn’t normally be this close to a battlefield. And your weapons make quite loud, explosive noises. They might be frightened, don’t you think?”

“Well…”

Accepting the herbal tea brought by the attendant, I gave a small groan. The civilians were gathered in a shelter prepared at the very rear of the position, but since the camp itself was small, they couldn’t be completely isolated from the battlefield. They must have been terrified. I just hoped it wouldn’t leave them traumatized.

“They’ll be fine.”

The one who said that so casually was Sonia. She glanced toward the rear and continued.

“That gnat… Fiorenza is in the shelter too. That woman is a scheming good-for-nothing, but she’s used to soothing the common folk. She’s probably handling things just fine…”

“That’s a terrible thing to say about an active bishop.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. It was quite harsh, but I hadn’t expected Sonia, who disliked clergy, to say something like “It’ll be fine because Fiorenza is there.” Childhood friends were still childhood friends, it seemed. Even if they didn’t get along, she trusted her where it mattered. For some reason, that made me feel a bit warm inside.

“Fiorenza… you mean that suspicious eyepatch pigeon girl? Can she really be trusted?”

“Her silver tongue is the real deal. Everything else about her is trash.”

What are those two even saying… That’s just too much…

“Great Grandma-sama! Albert-don!”

While I was feeling oddly conflicted, Uru came diving down from above in a great hurry. As she landed right in the middle of the command trench, the pooled muddy water splashed up and rained down around us. Sonia and Lady Dalaiya shouted “Wah!?” as they tried to shield their cups of herbal tea. Naturally, I was no exception, standing close to them.

“H-hey, what’s got you so panicked?”

Brushing the mud off my face, I asked. Splashing muddy water all over your superiors was extremely rude, but Uru was someone unusually level-headed for a native of Elfenia. The fact that she was this flustered meant it was only natural to assume something abnormal had happened.

“M-my deepest apologies, everyone. Actually, um… we have discovered a large number of enemies approximately three kilometers to the north. Reinforcements have arrived.”

“Reinforcements! As I thought…”

Vigorously wiping his face with a cloth, Lady Dalaiya groaned.

“What race are they? They’re not elves, are they?”

“They’re ants!”

“Ants!? Of all things, ants!?”

Lady Dalaiya’s expression changed instantly. Sonia and I exchanged glances without thinking. Having only recently come to Liseben, we had no idea what that meant.

“Ants… do you mean ant insect-people? So there are such races in Liseben… Judging from your reaction, they don’t sound like easy opponents. What kind of enemies are they?”

“Well… they’re not just ordinary ant insect-people.”

With a deeply bitter expression, Lady Dalaiya groaned. As if to calm herself, she downed her herbal tea in one go, then immediately shouted, “Hot, hot!” as her face turned bright red.

“Hot… ahem. In this land, when one says ‘ants,’ it refers to the army-ant type of insect-people. …Hundreds of years ago, they even fought with the old Elfenia for supremacy over this land. They are an extremely dangerous race…”

…What? They competed with old Elfenia? From the sound of it, that old Elfenia Empire had military strength on par with, or even greater than, the current Kingdom of Galea… Wait, seriously…?

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