CH 27

Chapter 27 – Target Insight

Have you noticed any changes since Milka joined the Casemaian?

At my question, Conell’s face changed.

“Can you tell me why you’re asking me that?”

“Oh… well, I have appraisal skills. It’s an ancillary ability. It’s not that I know exactly what it is; it’s just that I kind of do. According to this, Milka harbors ill will towards me… or us.”

“When it comes to appraisals, “vaguely know” is a more advanced ability. Because the use is undetectable. …Well, Yoshua is human, and I didn’t know so much about them, after all.”

Conell looked in the direction of the slope where Milka and Myrril ran off.

“Are ‘us’ you were referring to is you and Myrril-dono? Or is it…”

“Ah. I don’t like to think about it, but it could be all the people from Casemaian who are here.”

“How did you know she wasn’t one of the original brethren? I didn’t tell you that.”

“It’s also… something that I just know, I guess. There is a lot of distance between Milka and the other elves.”

This is not because of any skill or magic, but because of the Japanese businessman’s “ability to read the air”. They have been physically distancing themselves from Milka for quite some time now.

“It was about half a season ago that Milka was picked up from the forest where she had collapsed.”

I think there are four seasons of three months each, so a half-season is a month and a half, or about 45 days. The calendar is almost the same as in the original world, but only the elves use these old expressions. It’s a pain in the ass.

“I’ve been thinking about it for a while now, and I’m starting to wonder if the kingdom is reading the Casemaian Liberation Army’s operational plans and actions.”

“You didn’t think it was by scouts? Or maybe it was a mage snooping around.”

“Some of the information that was exposed was not something that an outsider could understand just by looking and listening. Of course, there was some trial and error, such as tightening the control of information and mixing falsehoods in operation, but the conclusion was…”

“You think there are informants among the returned Casemaians?”

“I didn’t want to believe it. But it was the only thing I could think of. Now we have to figure out how to find out who the traitor is and how to deal with them… But before we could come to an agreement, the kingdom moved.”

I tilt my head slightly. If Milka was a spy, it seemed like too much of a cop-out.

I thought she was a pawn to be discarded as soon as she was exposed, but if she were as blatantly malicious, hostile, and antagonistic as she was, she would never be able to fulfill her role.

Is it overthinking or just a diversion?

“The northern elves were destroyed by humans. And that’s just hearsay. The few survivors of the Northern Elves seem to think that the reason they were destroyed was because the Southern Elves and Beastman abandoned them.”

“Is that a misconception or a deliberate lie?”

“…No, there is no such thing as a misunderstanding. We were aware of the human invasion of the northern elf village, but we did not warn them or send reinforcements. Our first priority was to protect ourselves, and no matter what we did, they would have been destroyed, but the fact is that we abandoned them.”

…Hmm. I understand that, but isn’t there something spiky about his words?

When I tilted my head, Conell shrugged his shoulders as if he had given up. No, It’s not that I want to hear about it that much.

“Originally, those Northern Elves were selective. They pride themselves on being superior to everyone else and have refused to interact with other tribes and races. Many of them did not even try to hide their blatant contempt and ridicule. No one would risk their lives for them. To put it simply, they had to perish.”

They abandoned them, but they died because they deserved it, and there’s no need for them to bear a grudge.

Even though I don’t understand the subtleties of the mindset between elves, I do understand the situation somewhat. It may seem unreasonable to hold a grudge against your subhuman brethren for not helping you instead of the people who destroyed you, but such things happen all the time.

Defeated people often blame their weaker allies, not their stronger enemies.

“It seems like a weak motive for Milka to betray us. It’s also strange that the person with whom she betrays is a kingdom. I think it’s more likely that she’s been on the side of the kingdom since she was picked up.”

“Yeah, that’s what the kingdom keeps us on…”

Conell then looked up.

“It’s a gunshot. Dark Forest… no way.”

I was running without hearing the end of it. I didn’t hear it, but the only person I can think of who would be firing outside of Casemaian right now is Myrril.

A gunshot. This time I heard it too.

I took a short transfer to the top of the slope and looked down at the dark forest. There was a place where a flock of birds that seemed to have taken off from the treetops was circling. I flew towards it with my teleportation.

It seemed that I hadn’t grasped the position well enough, and I flew to the middle of a tree. I hit the trunk as hard as I could and fell down.

Fortunately, there was soft soil underneath, but I fell on my back and suffocated. My body tingled with cuts and scrapes, but I couldn’t care less.

I lost my bearings in the fall and looked through the gaps in the tree trunks to see where the birds were flying. It was probably over there where I had seen it on the hill.

After a while, a part of the dense forest breaks off, and I suddenly come to an open area. One hundred meters ahead of me, I see soldiers in armor lying motionless. Behind them, Myrril was lying on the ground with a UZI in his hand. She seems to be reloading, so she is still alive.

Her hand is waved, and a short gunshot sounds intermittent, and an enemy soldier who seems to have been hiding screams. Even though she had just touched a gun, Myrril’s shooting ability was surprisingly high.

However, that was not a cause for relief. In front of her, a huge man in armor holding a shield stood in her way.

I struggled to run in the meantime, but the distance was still at least 50 meters. The .45 caliber bullets fired by Myrril seemed to have hit the shield and been bounced off.

“Uoooooo…!”

With quiet enthusiasm, I moved to a short distance, simultaneously pulling out the sawed-off shotgun from my storage, thrusting it at the back of the giant man’s head, who was now within arm’s reach, and pulling the two triggers simultaneously.

If this didn’t kill him, I was going to hit him with as many AKM and IED as I could find, but the enemy fell and stopped moving surprisingly easily.

Myrril was safe. As soon as I realized that, I felt a sudden surge of fatigue and pain. No, no, no, I have to be cool here, though.

“I… can’t… just… wait… for… you… Myr…! Are you okay?”

I’m out of breath, and I’m wavering.

“O-of course, Yoshua. Who do you think I am?”

But Myrril smiled kindly at me. As if to confirm her words, a dozen or so corpses were lying around that she had shot and killed.

Oh, noja loli, you’re shining so bright right now.

◇ ◇

We brought Milka back to the front of the church and handed her over to the elves. We told them what had happened and asked them to take care of the situation, but we didn’t want to interfere any further.

I didn’t have the time or inclination to go around taking care of them. While we were running around in the forest, more and more reports from the scouts were coming in one after another.

“A small number of advance troops and scouts are entering the dark forest.”

“The frontal forces are starting to set up camp with the Transportation Corps arriving.”

This is it. The war with the kingdom is about to begin.

Myrril and I took care of about 10 of the enemies in the rear, but I’m sure there are still some left, and it looks like there are more to come.

So we set up a simple gun emplacement on the ramp leading up to the city, and I put a young beastman boy on the watch to snipe at anything suspicious he sees, as well as train him to fire his M1903 rifle.

It was unlikely that a large enemy army would be able to get around the dark forest where large monsters roamed. For that reason, our interdiction lines and warnings were only simple. That was our mistake…

When I was thinking that the sound of gunfire was echoing for a while and that they were practicing hard, I heard a report from the Beastman Girl Squad (tentative name), which was acting as a watchdog.

“We have taken out two scouts, two heavy infantry, nine mages, 25 archers, 41 light infantry, and one horse.”

“…Eh?”

We haven’t even started the war yet, but what a great result!

I had no choice but to praise them, pat them and give them a pile of silver coins. They’re shiny and beautiful, and also cute.

Ah, Myrril is looking at me enviously. Do you want some?

“I don’t want it!”

Why is she pouting? I don’t understand the female mind.