Before crossing the mountain range, the expedition discovered an orc settlement ahead.
“It’s an orc village under the Demon King’s army.”
“With a scale like this, it should be visible. We’ll take it down in one sweep.”
Once we cross the mountains, it’ll all be over, right?
“Eh? What are you thinking?”
“If we get caught before entering the mountains, itāll be dangerous. Letās use the nun squad. Casey, Eri, Mari.”
We decided to exterminate them in advance.
Thereās no need to divert the entire expedition force to take them out.
Thatās what the nuns we prepared for this are for.
‘Understood.’
“You will lead the nun squad and attack the orc settlement at once. Spare no one, not even the childrenākill them all.”
“Yes.”
***
Intelligent creatures like orcs and goblins must be eradicated, including their young.
Once, a foolish Mari spared a young orc and goblin, and it resulted in village women being assaulted.
Monsters are entirely different from humans in nature.
“The nuns will fight? Miss, isnāt it dangerous?”
The knights tried to stop them, but it was too late.
The nuns charged in without hesitation.
The orcs, caught off guard by the sudden attack, were unprepared.
They likely never imagined their village in the Demon King’s territory would be attacked.
Crack! Crunch!
The sound of an orcās skull shattering marked the start of what was essentially a massacre.
“Are those really nuns?”
The duke made a rude remark.
‘Obviously, theyāre nuns. What else could they be?’
“Yes, clearly, theyāre nuns.”
Itās obvious theyāre nuns.
Theyāre bringing justice to evil.
Theyāre different from the clergy of the Holy Kingdom who only stand in the back casting healing spells.
“Can they perform miracles?”
“They can do a little healing.”
Not as well as the Holy Kingdom, but they can manage.
“Attack… Requesting support from Lady Berna.”
“Itās the Saintessā commandādie!”
Crack!
The orcs couldnāt hold out long against the nunsā surprise attack.
A few tried to flee, but Syriaās bear blocked their retreat.
“Oh, itās surprisingly clever.”
“P-please… Spare me…”
A few orcs begged for their lives.
Of course, they wouldnāt be spared.
Everyone knew their pleading was a pretense.
‘If they escaped, they would surely inform the third legion or another demon army.’
The fight would have become much harder.
“Did the humans you killed beg for their lives too?”
With Syria’s words, the bearās punch crushed an orcās skull.
Crunch.
Iāve seen this often before, but that bear is really strong.
If we had hundreds of those bears, the demon army would be wiped out.
“War is no joke.”
“Soldiers of Ashtar! Cross the mountain range! Show the demon scum Ashtarās wrath!”
***
After wiping out the orc settlement, we crossed the mountains.
“Kyahhhhhh!”
This time, monsters attacked from the sky.
“Gargoyles.”
“They attacked the moment we started climbing the mountains?”
It seemed there were quite a few flying monsters in the mountains.
The moment we ascended, hostility surrounded us from all sides.
“Archers, move forward!”
“Yes!”
Arrows rained down on the gargoyles.
“Keaaak!”
“Graaaah!”
The gargoyles, struck by magic-imbued arrows, plummeted from the sky.
“Mages, fire your spells!”
The magesā elemental magic brought down harpies.
“There are quite a few monsters in the mountains.”
“Well, this is the Demon King’s territory. Itās not like the mountains in the empire.”
This mountain range is in the demon realm.
Naturally, there would be flying species like harpies here.
But there were quite a lot of them.
“Kyahhh!”
“The numbers are considerable, arenāt they?”
“Indeed, there are far too many.”
“This might be a serious problem.”
“Flying monsters in the demon realm were under Setoās jurisdiction.”
“Itās possible Seto had prepared for this.”
“That guy might have learned something after being beaten before.”
“Maybe heās here right now.”
“If thatās the case, itās not just the third legion weāre up against.”
“Weāll need to fight seriously.’
“The only relief is that the numbers are less than initially estimated.”
“The duke had originally planned to gather 30,000 troops.”
“But deploying 30,000 would leave Ashtar undefended, so only 20,000 were brought.”
“I canāt be sure Seto is here.”
“But the larger the expedition, the greater the risk.’
“Arenāt flying monsters Setoās responsibility?”
“Then are these Setoās direct forces?”
Syria and Kise, walking alongside, asked.
“Itās unlikely. These are wild harpies and gargoyles.”
“If they werenāt, they wouldnāt be attacking so recklessly.”
“No, theyāre not.”
“But weāre wasting too many arrows and too much magic.”
“Thatās certainly not ideal.”
“Even with many archers, fighting both the third legion and the flying monsters would be problematic if we suffered too much damage here.”
“Weāre taking down harpies with magic bullets, but itād be bad if the vanguard got caught up in a battle with flying monsters.”
“It seems there are far more of them than expected. We canāt afford to waste arrows and magesā energy here.”
One of Ashtarās knights pointed to the sky.
“Then use the magic stone rifles.”
The Ashtar firearms unit stepped forward.
Come to think of it, they had only ever hunted flying monsters native to Ashtar territory.
‘Could they manage this?’
There was nothing to lose by trying.
‘If they couldnāt bring down the harpies here, those rifles would prove useless, and without the rifle unit, our combat force would drop below ten thousand.’
The firearms unit moved forward, aiming their barrels at the sky.
To be precise, they targeted the harpies swarming down like rain.
Kyahhhhhh!
Bang! Bang, bang, bang!
With the cries of monsters, gunfire echoed.
Hundreds of magic bullets simultaneously struck the harpies, bringing them down.
The harpies, which had initially resisted a few shots, gradually lost their strength and fell from the sky.
Those with only torn wings or those who survived were executed on the spot by the Ashtar forces.
“Filthy monsters.”
“We should take this opportunity to wipe them all out.”
The commanders spoke with voices filled with disdain.
The expedition had been launched under the pretext of avenging Eldacrad, and the soldiersā hatred for the monsters ran deep.
Ironically, this hatred seemed to fuel the strength of this campaign.
After a long hunt of harpies and gargoyles, the soldiers collected a large number of magic stones.
“Miss, what should we do with the magic stones?”
A soldier from the firearms unit asked me.
“Why are you asking me?”
“The duke is far ahead. The narrow path makes it hard to get his permission, so weāll follow your command as the Saintess.”
‘Is that even allowed?’
“Whoever kills the monsters keeps the stones.”
“The Saintess says, āWhoever kills the monsters keeps the stones!ā”
Waaaaaah!
“What the…?”
Suddenly, the soldiers began fighting with renewed vigor.
Harpies and gargoyles in the sky fell like sparrows, struck down.
The soldiers suffered no casualties.
“I hope their mana reserves are holding up. Iām genuinely concerned.”
“If Lady Olivia told them to die, theyād probably act like they were dying.”
“Why is that?”
“Lady Olivia has solidified her position in Ashtar. After it was revealed that the prince was a bastard, she led the effort to expel the succubus mother and daughter. Add to that her title as Saintess and the Ashtar citizensā loyalty to the territory.”
“In other words, their loyalty to me stems from a mix of sympathy, my status as the Saintess, and their dedication to Ashtar?”
“That feelsā¦ off.”
“Even though Iām not the first Saintess, Iām being treated like one.”
“Youāre popular.”
“Why?”
“With looks like yours, itād be stranger if you werenāt.”
“True, during the first Saintessā time, she didnāt get along well with her family and had little connection with the Ashtar forces.”
“To them, Iām practically the Saintess of Ashtar.”
“Itās weird to have strangers pledge loyalty to me.”
Itās exhausting.
Seeing my discomfort, Syria leaned in and whispered in my ear.
“Didnāt the royal army also follow Noah during her time?”
“That was just because we fought together a few times and grew close.”
“Most of them originally followed the princess, not me.”
“I was merely the second-in-command at best.”
Bang! Bang, bang!
The harpies and gargoyles were completely annihilated.
Cleaning up the corpses was an even bigger task.
The power of the magic stone rifles was stronger than expected.
Crossing the mountains wasnāt as difficult as anticipated.
The problem was the destruction we found in the middle of the mountain range.
It seemed to be caused by magic, but we were still some distance from the third legionās territory.
The destruction exposed us to potential attacks from monsters.
“This is strange. Was the mountain range always like this?”
The dukeās murmurs reached my ears as I inspected the scene at the front.
“Thatāsā¦ wellā¦”
“What is it, Olivia? Do you know why itās like this?”
“I know all too well.”
“It was Noah. Noah did this.”
“If it hindered the expedition, itād be a problem. Itās better to gloss over it.”
“Thatās Noahās doing. Noah caused this with a meteor strike.”
“Noah did?”
“Thatāsā¦ what Noelle told me.”
I passed the blame to Noelle.
Somewhere back in the supply unit, Noelle, likely managing the hero, suddenly felt a pang of misfortune.
“Letās hope we donāt get discovered.”
The only demon army capable of opposing this large force in the vicinity would be the third legion.
Since I wiped them out a few months ago, there wouldnāt have been enough time for a new army to form here.
“By the way, whereās the second sonā¦ no, the younger brother?”
The second son of Ashtar, who had significant combat experience from his time in the military, couldāve been helpful on this expedition.
“Heās been left as bait to deceive them with joint training.”
“Oh, so weāll need to defend the territory in case something happens?”
“Thatās right. Leaving only Rokton is a bit risky, but heās always been capable enough to handle it.”
It seemed I wouldnāt get to see the second son this time.
‘Could another of the Four Heavenly Kings target Ashtar?’
The dice had already been cast.
Even if it was risky, focusing on the expedition was the priority.
***
“From here on, weāre officially in the demon realm.”
We were almost across the mountain range.
Fortunately, we hadnāt faced many battles so farājust harpies and a few goblins in the forest.
As we continued, something came into view in the distance.
A fortress made of wood and a massive army of demons.
“Is that the third legion?”
“Judging by the fortress, itās not human.”
Of course.
Itās where Bernaās army resides.
It likely only has basic facilities.
“Letās fire the magic stone cannons right away.”
“Set up the cannons here.”
“Now that I think about it, how did they bring the cannons?”
“Carrying them over the mountains mustāve been exhausting.”
“Sure enough, I saw soldiers moving parts of the cannons.”
The Ashtar forces really are insane.
“Itās enormous. How did you manage to bring this over?”
“Theyāre assembled here.”
“They carried the parts over the mountains?”