Chapter 8: Rogue Lords (8)

Ethan Randall, one of the ten Narja warlords, continued his march with a bored look on his face. His second-in-command, Getan, also looked bored.

“It’s not right to put a warlord in charge of a decoy unit instead of the main army.”

Randall did not respond to Getan’s words. On the contrary, he did not even stop him from speaking.

“More importantly, I heard the Lord of Aintorian is a deplorable fellow.”

“Yes, commander. According to our intelligence, the local army is nothing but trash.”

“Kkkkkkkkk. I wonder if the lord is having a little fun with his women right now, not knowing what’s going on?”

“I’m sure that’s what he’s doing.”

“I can’t stand the thought of my spear being stained with the blood of such scum. It’s the king’s order, so it can’t be helped…….I’m going to destroy Aintorian as soon as possible. That should prove my greatness!”

***

[Narja] Kingdom Army: 12,241]

[Aintorian Territorial Army: 4914]

I scanned the troop strength through [Check Info].

If only they had followed my orders, they wouldn’t have suffered so much damage. And yet, the number of my troops had suddenly begun to decrease.

[Aintorian Territorial Army: 4,414 men]

Huh. It was as I had feared. There was no way that these people, who were nothing more than a bunch of idiots, would be able to follow my orders perfectly. There was no way I could train them in just one day. However, we were steadily inflicting damage. The enemy’s strength of over 15,000 men had decreased, that was for sure.

So, so far, so good.

I had planned for this to happen. In fact, there was more to this ambush than reducing the enemy’s numbers. I don’t know if it will work, but I had put the victory or defeat of the battle on that plan.

The moment the enemy’s lead troops were stuck in a pit as they emerged from the mountains onto the plains, I would use a smoke signal and have all the soldiers to attack all at once. This way, arrows would rain down on them and create a situation where the enemy soldiers could not easily escape the mountainous area.

In any case, it would be meaningless if we couldn’t get a victory here. There is no way you can fight in a siege when the enemy’s entire army is completely assembled. It’s a fact that an untrained army with 20 morale can’t hold up very well in a siege. The best strategy, then, was to kill the enemy commander in a situation where the enemy’s forces were dispersed.

I showed up in front of the pit with a squad of about 1,000 people, not including the 4,000 ambush soldiers. Of course, I didn’t intend to fight here. Even though they had been caught in an ambush, the number of enemy troops was far too large to fight here.

What if the enemy commander appears away from the main force in this situation? That would be the best thing to do. The possibility of exterminating the enemy army and killing the commander would be greatly increased.

There is a difference in the degree of difficulty between killing a commander with 1,000 troops and killing a commander with 10,000 troops.

So I needed to lure the enemy commander. As far as I knew, the one leading the decoy unit was one of the famous warlords in the Narja Kingdom. The point is that he was famous. The more famous a warlord is, the more proud he is.

He might be dissatisfied with the fact that he had been assigned to the decoy unit instead of the main unit. It would be even more unforgivable for him to fail in such a situation. In such a situation, being ambushed by an enemy force that he underestimated? Normally, he would not be able to hide his indignation.

Rage can make you lose your reason. This is especially true in battle. Is there anyone who doesn’t feel indignant after being ambushed?

Troops directly led by kings and dukes are an exception because of their large size, but for small units, the commander takes the lead, which is common sense in military law. It was the enemy’s cavalry that had fallen into the trap and I was sure that the commander was among them. So I shouted out to the enemy troops who were positioning themselves in the pit.

“How dare you invade my land? Listen up, Narja’s Army. You will be punished for your stupidity!”

After shouting this from a short distance away, I looked for the commander’s flag. Underneath the flag, a lone man armed with unmistakable armor caught my eye.

[Ethan Randall]

[Age: 37]

[Martial Force: 85]

[Intelligence: 59]

[Command: 70]

[Affiliation: Spearhead commander of the 2nd Army of the Narja Kingdom]

[People’s Spirit: 62]

“Kuh-ha-ha-ha! How dare you underestimate me? You will be destroyed. Any cavalry that can move follow me!”

The man who was probably the enemy’s commander took my challenge well. The problem was that the enemy commander had a martial force of 85. He was a famous warlord. I had expected this to some extent, but I was a little surprised to see 85. However, there was no time for hesitation. The first thing to do now is to proceed with the mission.

“Bente! We’re retreating!”

I escaped with Bente in response to the commander’s assault, I wanted to lure him away.

[Narja Army: 1,221 men]

As I fled, I checked the information and found that about 1,221 cavalrymen were following me, with over 10,000 troops being driven back in the mountains. There was no better opportunity than this. If the enemy commander’s strength had been a little lower, I would have been shouting in victory right now.

“Activate the trap!”

Since my army’s white troops were completely unreliable, I had also set traps in advance at the places where they would be lured. I shouted to the ambushers as I ran away, and the traps I had set went off against the cavalry. The area quickly became a scene of chaos, as the horses of the cavalry running behind us were stabbed by bamboo spears while squealing, or fell down when they tried to avoid the traps.

“All right, now! Let’s get some arrows in them at once!”

Bente shouted as he rushed the soldiers. He then took a bow in his own hand and shot a few cavalrymen who were coming towards him, but he was not satisfied with that, so he drew his sword and ran, cutting down one soldier after another.

The effects of the bamboo spears and the rain of arrows began to rapidly reduce the number of cavalry charging at us. In no time at all, the morale of my troops was boosted.

[Aintorian Territorial Army: 902 men]

The number of enemy soldiers was greatly reduced, but the problem was still the enemy commander. He rushed at us, swinging his spear blindly. The arrows and bamboo spears were all destroyed by his spears. Then, with his brilliant horsemanship, he came over the bamboo spear traps and cut down our soldiers one after another.

[Aintorian Territorial Army: 700 men]

Furthermore, thanks to the struggles of the enemy troops around that enemy general, the number of my troops began to decrease rapidly.

He is strong and if he is such a strong warlord, he must have some unique skills. However, at my current level, such unique skills are not displayed in the system.

I have to defeat him, it’s the only way to win this battle, however he is a monster with 85 martial force.

“Are you the lord? Die!”

The spear he threw flew at me, spinning at high speed as if he had used some kind of skill.

Indeed, the difference in martial force, which is 27 in this case, is absolute. To defeat a warlord with such a huge difference in martial force I need to have enough troops to overwhelm the enemy’s army.

If the current enemy has about 700 soldiers, I need at least five times that number to gain the upper hand. That’s how important a strong general is in this game.

But we can do it, I’ve prepared a way. Unfortunately, at the moment I thought that it was Bente who blocked Randall’s spear.

“Take cover, Bente! That’s an order! Trust me!”

Protecting the lord at all costs, it is a loyalty worthy of respect. However, in the current situation, he was clearly a hindrance.

My current martial force was terrible but there was a way to fight Randall. I quickly scanned the item. In a way, it was thanks to this that I was able to recklessly leap into this battle.

[Do you want to use the bonus item Daitouren?]

The message sparkled in front of me, and just as I nodded, the item was activated.

***

The day before, at the lord’s castle.

After ordering the soldiers to set up pitfalls and ambushes, I came back to the lord’s castle. There was one thing I remembered. One important thing ran through my mind.

The system said it would give me a chance to Challenge the Glory. And then I woke up from my sleep and found myself in this world.

In other words, the situation I’m in now is an opportunity to challenge the glory. I don’t know what that glory is. Anyway, the important thing now is that the message about the perks is true.

The night before I was transferred, I played the game until just before I fell asleep, misled by the word “privilege”. In the end, no matter how hard I searched, I couldn’t find the perk. However, if the perk was something that could be obtained after transferring to this world, it was only natural that I couldn’t find it in the game.

As I recall, the message said that the perks should be earned through exploration from the beginning MAP. That means it’s not automatically provided. If that’s the case, the perk must be hidden somewhere.

So where the hell is the beginning MAP? Is it the place where I first opened my eyes? The bedroom of the lord’s castle, of all places?

I entered the bedroom and looked around the room. I searched everywhere, but there didn’t seem to be any space in the bedroom where I could hide anything. Since it’s called a map, doesn’t that mean the entire lord’s castle, not just the bedroom?

Immediately, I searched every corner of the lord’s castle. I searched the bedrooms, the study, the servants’ and maids’ quarters, even the kitchen. But I couldn’t find anything that could be called “privilege” anywhere.