Chapter 629 - Exterminating Ants in Engrio (7)
In the end, nothing more than the encounter with the Demon Race woman happened in the western hills. As for the ants, although none were discovered, we merely reported our view that since the stream dividing the north and south is narrow, there is a possibility that the ants could move by building bridges, as we had actually witnessed.
King Seldic succeeded in subjugating the Queen ant and annihilating the swarm's worker ants. At present, we couldn't go so far as to say they were extinct. Some likely escaped with eggs or pupae, and a new Queen might emerge from among them. The bees kept at the farm are like that. They create branches or undergo generations of succession. If a new Queen appears, they will likely form a new swarm, but at the very least, it was treated as if the swarm as a unit was gone for now. As a result, during dinner that evening, the success of the ant extermination was declared.
"What do you intend to do from here on?"
When Eleanor-sama asked, King Seldic replied that it was already decided.
"I have received a challenge. I have no choice but to accept."
"When will it be?"
"Tomorrow."
Tomorrow... honestly, this was a surprise. Were the preparations even ready?
"Currently, we have a hundred men at the front, a hundred garrison soldiers at the fortress, and three hundred reinforcements, totaling a force of five hundred. I intend to launch the offensive at sunrise tomorrow."
"Isn't that too few? Should you not issue a call to arms?"
"If we wait a week, we could gather five thousand, but that would be playing right into their hands. They are undoubtedly aiming to whittle down our forces. In that case, it would be better to solidify the nearby defenses and challenge them with our current strength; in the end, the damage will likely be less."
After all, the enemy resurrects even if killed. If they can kill as many humans as possible in this battle, in a sense, their objective will be achieved by that alone.
"Shall we assist you?"
"Can I count on you?"
"Yes, the contract period still remains. Until then, it falls within the scope of this operation."
Even if it remains, it's only a few days. I wondered if we could really produce results in that time. At the very least, the enemy is holed up in the forest.
"If we defeat that Demon Race member, the outcome will be decided. The remnants can be mopped up after we win. For that, a force of about five thousand, along with the hundred main combatants from this time, should be enough to settle things."
That's assuming we win. There's also the possibility of losing.
"If we clash once and lose badly, then this operation is a failure. That's all there is to it."
His words were cool, though.
Honestly, I thought it might be better to stop, but unfortunately, the battle maniacs' fires had been lit. From that point on, the topic became how to fight, on the premise that we were going to do it.
In any case, that Demon Race woman's magic control is extraordinary. At the very least, it's on par with a beastman's. The proof was that her Camouflage couldn't be detected. Furthermore, we already knew she was a user of short-range Teleport. Since she had wings, she could likely fight in the air as well. Since we couldn't exactly teach Engrio our methods of hiding our presence, a surprise attack from the sky wouldn't work.
"That Demon Race member will likely stand at the vanguard. We will launch a heavy assault there."
In the end, it's a contest of brute force. But isn't that only when your side has a larger force than the enemy?
When it comes to a battle between armies, I'm not in a position to speak. While the bigwigs were debating back and forth while looking at maps, I just sat there and listened. There are people here who are veterans of a hundred battles when it comes to war. An amateur who doesn't know the first thing about military service shouldn't butt in.
The plan was decided, and we were to set out at dawn the next morning. Three hundred cavalry who had arrived through the night from nearby and one bowl user participated and were newly added to the formation. Of the reinforcements, the cavalry stayed to guard the fortress, and a hundred garrison soldiers, including the garrison commander, swapped out to join the battle. The Engrio force invading the forest where the Orcs lurked consisted of five hundred men, including five bowl users, plus fifteen supporters. The support group's role was reconnaissance. However, Falstaff-san, Carla, Annabella, and the two priests from the monster extermination unit were formed into a squad with one of the reinforced bowl users, directly under King Seldic's command. As a result, the support group became a group of nine, all foreigners.
"Did you finally become part of the royal guard?"
"It's not that, I'm attached to Falstaff-san. And it's probably only for this time."
Carla and Annabella hugged me, saying they wanted to be together. It's quite ambitious of them to want to be with the battle maniac Eleanor-sama, but I have a vague idea why we're acting independently.
Most likely, King Seldic knows we have a way to hide our presence. He must have figured we wouldn't use it if Engrio people were with us, so he deliberately separated us. In a sense, he's removed our shackles.
"The mission assigned to us is merely to grasp the enemy's situation. There are almost no combat elements, so it won't be much of a boon for your growth."
Eleanor-sama said this, but the two of them looked as if that was exactly why they wanted to go. That terrifying Demon Race woman had told us to come and attack because she'd kill us all. A normal person wouldn't want to fight.
"We'll be near the main camp. You all are infiltrating the forest. I wonder which is more dangerous."
They looked down at Falstaff-san's words, but I hope they'll do their best to land some magic on the monsters if they get the chance.
"Well then, we're off."
"I'm counting on you. I hope you don't push yourselves too hard, if possible."
Seen off by King Seldic, we set out in Wilson-san's medium-sized bowl. We ascended high into the sky and flew southwest. Once we had completely crossed the Demon Realm, we descended once, remodeled it into Eleanor-sama's bowl, and vanished. After disappearing, we made a large detour and invaded the forest region of the central-west, where humanoid monsters were, from the west.
We all crouched down and looked into the forest, but there were no monsters. They weren't by the pond we saw yesterday either. Just in case, Beatrix fired a Wind Cutter toward an open space, but it only neatly mowed the grass. In other words, it wasn't Camouflage.
"They've already moved. They must have anticipated that humans would attack today."
Their movements are faster than expected.
"Wilhelmina, how do you think the enemy moved?"
"Several routes can be assumed, but it would be a foolish move to hide troops in the wetlands. There aren't even places to hide. They have likely moved to the edge of the forest and are waiting to ambush the human side."
Ambushing from within the forest would be the basic strategy, but it's hard to imagine humans invading the forest. They'll either create a stalemate, or if the Demon Race actively deploys troops, it would be at the border with the wetlands.
One possibility is the basic tactic of intercepting humans as they try to cross the wetlands by boat at the water's edge at the forest's edge. If they're using undetectable Camouflage, there's a risk that landing could be blocked by makeshift earthworks that can't be seen until the last second. If the march is stalled by a de facto surprise attack, they will take heavy damage from long-range attacks like the monsters' arrows and magic.
Another possibility is that they split their units. They could run east along the inner wall—that is, the long east-west hill range—and ambush the humans after they've deployed in front of the forest. In this case, they would need a decoy force to draw the humans close to the forest, and the decoy should be easy to spot. The attack by the main force would likely be after the sun goes down.
Furthermore, if I were to suggest one more, it's possible the entire army could emerge from the forest and attack nearby villages. In that case, the attack would be after sunset. However, considering the human side's support system, they wouldn't be able to hold out if a village was attacked, and there's a possibility of total annihilation.
Will laid out three assumed plans like that. For humans, the third one is the worst, but King Seldic had said he would predict this in advance and take measures. Apparently, he has stationed cavalry so they can respond quickly near the Demon Realm even if no battle occurs. The two hundred cavalry who came to the fortress are likely only a part of that, and in total, more cavalry should have arrived at nearby villages... to the west, north, and south, excluding the east where the fortress is. In other words, what we need to consider are measures against the first and second plans.
"If it were you, Wilhelmina, which plan would you adopt?"
"The second plan. Moving through the wetlands would be difficult even for monsters. There seem to be snakes as well. Conversely, if they can stall only the humans in the wetlands, the monster side should be able to fight at an advantage. If they occupy the fortress and cut off the retreat, it might even be possible to annihilate the humans."
Actually, these three plans were being considered at the meeting where the bigwigs gathered. Will wasn't there. Despite that, the fact that she answered so smoothly must be the fruit of her daily education. Both Henry-sama and Eleanor-sama were listening with satisfied expressions.
In any case, between the ants in Medioland, the ants here, and the Demon Race woman, this is more of a war than a monster extermination.
"Indeed. You could call it a battle between units."
"Even the ants?"
Beatrix interjected at Eleanor-sama's words. Come to think of it, Eleanor-sama's way of talking about the ant extermination operation sounded like an attack on a human army. She sometimes expressed the swarm as a unit or an army rather than just a swarm.
"A swarm of ants is more disciplined than the Demon Lord's army or a human army. You could call it a superior army."
"Superior to humans?"
"Yes."
I wondered what you would call an army superior to a human army.
"But with ants, the Queen is certainly strong, but the others are weak as long as you watch out for their spit, right? Well, sure, there are a lot of them, though."
"The issue is not the superiority or inferiority of individuals. It's that the individual ants understand the destructive power of numbers. Tens of thousands of individuals move as if they were a single living creature. That is more dangerous than facing a powerful magical beast or something."
Even though she can subjugate the Queen now, the woman called Eleanor of Tactics couldn't even manage to raid a nest for a long time, let alone do anything but flee.
"Each individual is faithful to the Queen's instructions... or perhaps it should be called the behavioral rules of the swarm... and they have no fear of death, acting without hesitation as if it were perfectly natural for them to become a sacrifice."
Not fearing death means they won't break even when at a disadvantage. I've often heard that there's nothing scarier than an enemy like that. I experienced firsthand when fighting Goblins before how much fear allies feel when they know the enemy will fight until the last man is dead. At that time, we won, but no one was happy.
"That's not all. We subjugated six Queens, but we didn't annihilate the swarm. In other words, there's a possibility that a new Queen will appear and regenerate a new swarm. There are too many of them to kill them all."
"Hmm. Like rats."
I think it's a bad habit of ours to immediately bring up rats, but it's probably accurate. When we did the rat extermination in Engrio, we struggled greatly against rats that charged at us with reckless abandon. It was also our fault for being careless, but at that time, we managed because the numbers were small. I wonder what would have happened if the enemy was in the hundreds.
"This battle is against Orcs. They're much easier to deal with than ants."
"Orcs are like humans; they break when they're at a disadvantage."
"You understood that well. That's exactly right. What we must be careful of is that that Demon Race member is not like that."
"I see."
The conversation between the two ended there for now.
Still, it's like that. Whether it's rats or whatever, the fact that they just keep springing up is truly troublesome.
Come to think of it, the Vice Demon Lord said something like that about humans...
If humans are to the Demon Race what ants are to humans, then maybe coexistence and co-prosperity can't be realized... Humans exterminate rats, ants, and bees. If they don't, their food will be stolen, and it's not like they get any profit just because they exterminated them.
Then, what about humans to the Demon Race? Even though they should just live quietly in the plains along the river, they cut down the forest to make fields and destroy the monsters' habitats. They're treated as troublesome pests. Moreover, despite being weak, they increase without limit. I've never heard of the Demon Race eating humans, and according to stories from various sources, human meat is supposedly unpalatable. In other words, they don't even become targets for hunting or livestock. They're just like rats or ants. They use their own ingenuity to devise various technologies and steadily expand their living space. Thinking about it that way, they must be a troublesome existence.
Wait? Hold on a second.
I wonder what ants are to the Demon Race? There shouldn't be anything useful about taming ants. Insects and their ilk just spring up, and they're unnecessary existences even for Keira, Violet, or the spirits. If they have some role, I wonder what on earth it is.
"Um, Eleanor-sama."
"Yes, what is it, Jeanne? Did you think of something?"
"No, it's not that, but I suddenly had a question about the ants."
"What is it?"
I asked her what the role of the ants in this Demon Realm was.
"Even for the Demon Race, they shouldn't be able to communicate with insects. Even if they control them with Subordination, I don't think they can maintain communication until the end."
"According to Keira, that's true. Renata, who was with the Demon Race living in the Northeastern Forest, didn't mention anything like that either."
"Assuming humans couldn't invade this Demon Realm because there were spiders, ants, and bees, the monsters couldn't move either, right?"
"Most likely."
"But if that Demon Race member got serious, she could have defeated something like an ant Queen, couldn't she? In other words, maybe she didn't have any intention of going out of the Demon Realm in the first place?"
The Queen's charm doesn't work. Both the Queen and the Demon Race member are female. The males approached by flying through the air, but they didn't use it. They probably can't. The same goes for Dolls. If that's the case, it feels like the Queen has no chance of winning.
"Isn't that Demon Race woman's mission to not let this Demon Realm fall into human hands?"
The Dullahan had received a similar instruction from the Demon Lord. He wasn't told to go out and attack villages or towns. That's why no battle occurred with humans. The place to protect was the forest, and since Northern Gram treasures the forest, they didn't even enter unnecessarily, let alone clear the land. Aren't the ants, so to speak, a living barrier to refuse human intrusion, corresponding to the boundary line at the mountain stream in Northern Nakanohara?
"I think so too. And King Seldic as well. That's why I think King Seldic offered to negotiate with that Demon Race member."
"Th-Then..."
"Yes. King Seldic's proposal was rejected by the Demon Race. She desires battle."
"Then, if we defeat that Demon Race member and negotiate again, maybe..."
Hmm, Eleanor-sama crossed her arms. We'll likely have no choice but to kill the Demon Race member. She'll resurrect anyway. However, coexistence and co-prosperity with the remaining monsters might be manageable. Dealing with Ogres is troublesome, but if we make them hornless...
"Negotiating with the remaining monsters?"
"Yes."
Setting aside the insects, I have a few ideas for those who can be negotiated with. If things go well, this Demon Realm might be able to achieve coexistence and co-prosperity.