Chapter 92 – Night attack

“Wait, wait, I’m not hostile, I won’t hurt you!”

Through the bushes, out came a man. He looked to be about forty years old. He wore leather armor and held a machete in his hand. He opened the bushes wide to show that he was not hostile toward them.

“Drop the weapon in your hand and slowly make your way down the path.”

“Very well. Here it is.”

The man did as Wynn instructed and tossed the machete into his hand.

“That’s good, isn’t it?”

“Keep your hands above your head and get on your knees.”

“All right. Hey, you’re Princess Cornelia’s Servant Wynn, right? And that girl is Lino, also from the same squadron.”

“…Who are you? How do you know our names?”

“That question has a simple answer. Because I received a sketch from you. From your captain.”

“The captain?”

“That man is an acquaintance of Captain Royce, Wynn-kun.”

“Vice-Captain Kelvin…”

When Wynn turned around, Kelvin was standing. His breathing was somewhat shaken.

“Well, I was surprised. I felt a sudden change in the air. I’m glad I came running.”

“The air?”

Without responding to Wynn’s muttering, Kelvin walked over to the man on his knees and took his hand to help him up.

“Yo, Kelvin. Long time no see.”

“This is not the time to exchange greetings. Let’s get away from here for now. You being seen can be anything but good.”

“Oh, yeah. Right.”

“Wynn-kun, come with us. And…”

“Onii-chan. The potatoes fell on the ground, so I’ll go wash them in the river again.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll see you later.”

“Sorry.”

Kelvin gave a slight bow to Leticia, who started to pick up the potatoes. Then he looked back at Wynn and the man.

“It won’t be long until people start coming in. This way.” Saying that, Kelvin walked ahead of the two and into the woods.

◇◆◇◆◇

“It’s good to see you again, Kelvin.”

“Yes, it’s good to see you too, Redwick-san.”

“Vice-captain, who is he?”

“Sorry it took me so long to introduce myself, Servant Wynn. My name is Redwick. I’m a good friend of Kelvin and Royce’s.”

When Redwick extended his hand, Wynn returned the greeting with a “It’s a pleasure”.

His atmosphere somewhat resembled the captain’s.

His age was probably approaching fifty. Unlike Royce’s beardless figure and jowls, he had a fearless face with three scars on it that looked as if they had been made by sharp claws. He was almost as tall as Wedge. He was much older than both of them, but Kelvin had the same attitude toward Redwick. So they could have been war buddies in the Continental Anti-Demon Alliance.

“Redwick is a man who fought shoulder to shoulder with me and Captain Royce in the Continental Anti-Demon Alliance.” Kelvin said, as if to answer the question forming in Wynn’s head.

“Stop it. That was a long time ago.” Redwick scratched the bridge of his nose in embarrassment at Kelvin’s words. Then he put his hand to his chin and gazed admiringly at Wynn’s face. “I thought I had kept my presence completely hidden… I haven’t been on the front lines for a long time. Even though I haven’t stopped training, I guess I’m getting old…”

“How much longer are you going to be on active duty…? Well, they’re both special. Wynn, your ability to sense the presence of others is better than mine. You were even able to detect the presence of the elves in the forest.”

“That’s an impressive feat.”

“And as for that other person, she is beyond our comprehension.”

“The other girl in your squadron, Lino, isn’t she?”

“Leticia von Mavis-sama. The Brave herself.”

“Oh…”

I see.

Redwick whistled and nodded as if he understood. It was true that the girl had reacted to Redwick’s presence more quickly than Wynn. In doing so, she certainly emitted a small amount of energy. She suppressed it just enough, so that only a warrior as skilled as Kelvin could notice it, but it was certainly something that gave the impression of great power.

If you ask me, it was a feeling I had felt a few times on the front lines when fighting demons. If that’s the case… Redwick looked at Kelvin with narrowed eyes.

“…She must have kicked the crap out of you.”

“…She didn’t use all her power.”

As Redwick had predicted, Kelvin seemed to have challenged Leticia to a fight.

I don’t want to antagonize this Kelvin….

“More importantly, Redwick-san, why would someone like you go out of your way to come here?”

“Oh, right.”

When Kelvin said that, Redwick, who had a dumbfounded expression on his face, fixed his posture.

“Information from a secret agent. As predicted, some of Marquis Cliffdorf’s troops began to move. It seems that, in response to that movement, Petersia has also begun to move.”

“Already started?”

Kelvin’s voice became grave. This made it clear that the neighboring country of Petersia, a hostile nation, and one of the great nobles of his country, as well as head of the order of the central knights, were in communication. The marquisate Cliffdorf and the kingdom of Petersia shared a border. If the nobles bordering the two countries could communicate, it would be easy to invade the empire. It was not known how long they had been in contact, but judging by the amount of effort they had put into it, it was very likely to have been in the last year or two. Perhaps a good number of Petersian troops were already secretly stationed in the Marquis Cliffdorf’s territory.

They had heard that the reason Alfred accepted Welt’s suggestion and came all the way south, where the Marquis Cliffdorf’s influence was strong, was to unmask those who were using him as bait to quell their rebellious spirit. If they were going to rebel in any way, the side that was going to give them the opportunity to do so would be Alfred’s, keeping their actions within the range of his predictions. If Welt didn’t take the bait that Alfred threw out, the prince himself was going to go straight to the kingdom of Lyon after inspecting the noble domains and knight orders in the south, but it seemed that from the other side they wouldn’t let him do so.

“Security will be tighter once we enter Erz, so the attack will take place tonight, or perhaps tomorrow, when we enter the Elstead territory. Probably when camping?”

“Yes, probably.” Kelvin nodded in response to Wynn’s question.

The attackers could not find an opportunity to escape and were either shot down or taken prisoner. Even those hiding in the forest were captured or eliminated by the adventurers, thanks to the fact that the adventurers were good scouts.

After eliminating the attackers, Alfred immediately ordered the group to leave. The officials and nobles, who had not been informed of the attack, and the non-adventurer servants were surprised and frightened by the suddenness of the situation, but they did as they were told and hurried to complete preparations to leave. The two maids who led the attackers burst into Leticia’s rented house after giving the signal, and were seized by Lino and Wedge, who were waiting for them. No matter how much special training they had, they were no match for the two knights waiting for them.

“At last, I can be free~. I’ve been unable to sleep at night for fear of being caught.”

Lino, who had tied up the two maids, groaned as soon as she saw the faces of Wynn and the others who had joined them. It wasn’t just having to imitate Leticia that was wearing her out.

“Yeah, but it was really hard! I don’t know how you can breathe well with all this on top of you~.”

The corset of the dress was also tight.

“The corset is the only thing I can’t get used to either. Good job, Lino-san.”

“It-it was nothing! No, I was indeed able to help Leticia-sama…”

Lino became nervous after receiving Leticia’s thanks. Locke approached Wynn, who was laughing at the scene.

“I wonder what they’re going to do with the prisoners.”

“Looks like they’ll probably decide to get information from them at Erz. Since we rounded up every last one of them, the captain might be planning something.”

“There are people who seem to be good at getting information out…”

They both thought of Kelvin’s face at the same time, looked at each other and laughed.

“An interrogation maybe, but something like torture, I couldn’t do that…”

“Me neither…”

Wynn nodded at Locke’s words. Wynn didn’t like the idea of torturing prisoners of war, but the reality was that if they didn’t do it, many soldiers and knights might die. As far as Alfred was concerned, he would not hesitate to torture prisoners.

Torturing prisoners of war to get information out of them by harming them physically and mentally was rarely used, because sometimes they might get false information, the charge of torturer still existed, as it required a certain amount of knowledge and mental strength on the part of the torturer.

However, there was no torturer with this group, as expected. So, there was only one suitable person they could think of. There may have been some knights who were not afraid to perform such acts, but the only one who seemed to have the exquisite technique of keeping them alive without killing them was Kelvin. In fact, Kelvin had already left Wynn’s side and made his way to the carriage carrying the prisoners, which was surrounded by soldiers and adventurers far behind. It was possible that he had already begun questioning them in the carriage.

The reason the prisoners had been gathered in the carriage at the rear was probably to prevent the officials and other nobles walking ahead of them, who were not accustomed to harsh treatment, from hearing their cries.

Wynn looked up at the sky as he walked. It was almost dawn, and the sky was getting clearer. They planned to reach the capital of the Elstead territory, Erz, by sunrise.