All My Summons Become Divine Girls

Chapter 249: The Commander Who Counts Bodies

Commander Dreth reached the eastern pass before noon, bringing the Flint vanguard to the Crown marker outside Hajin’s territory.

The column stopped without crowding the road, leaving every supply cart inside the line before the tents came off.

Kenny rode near the command group with his empty sleeve pinned beneath his cloak, watching the Sixth’s ridges instead of the soldiers.

Dreth dismounted beside a field table while his quartermaster reported one hundred eighty-four fighters ready to cross.

"How many reach the salt bridge today?" he asked, opening the latest survey map without looking toward the formed ranks.

The quartermaster checked another page, subtracting cart crews and riders with strained horses.

"One hundred fifty-six," he said, adjusting the first figure, "another fourteen can follow after the remounts arrive tonight."

"Keep the fourteen here," Dreth said, moving their marker behind the Crown line, "I want the bridge group moving at one pace."

The twelve survey riders returned from Hajin’s northern ridge while the camp crews marked drainage around every tent.

Their captain brought one broken peg and a route sheet correcting the original scout report.

"The northern post moved above the drain," he said, placing the correction beside the old position, "their patrol found us before the second rise."

"Who found you?" Dreth asked, comparing the rider spacing with the time written near the salt marker.

"The wolfkin first, then two women on the lower road," the captain said, keeping his hand near the changed route, "none followed beyond their boundary."

Kenny looked at the broken peg, recognizing Juna from the palace rumors without needing another description.

"Hajin changed the scout rule," he said, keeping his distance from the map, "the last men he released cost him something."

"The captured watcher has not returned," Dreth said, drawing a line through the northern grate, "so we assume every route he knew is closed."

No officer argued for using the old map after that, leaving the command group to rebuild its approach from the survey corrections.

The mine road remained protected by Loccy’s choke point, though Dreth ignored it after reading the raid captain’s losses.

"We can bring shields around the southern wall," a Flint officer said, indicating the wider road, "the mine stays east while we enter behind the market."

"You would put riders between two shelter routes," Dreth said, moving his marker off the wall, "then Hajin closes both ends before the carts reach you."

The officer withdrew his hand as Dreth turned the map toward the outer villages beyond the northern belt.

One road connected the furthest stockade to the town clinic, crossing the old salt bridge before joining Hajin’s new patrol route.

The survey captain had marked one hundred forty-three villagers behind that stockade, with thirty-one adults carrying hunting weapons.

"Their bells move people before defenders," Dreth said, checking the times from the mine raid, "the clinic road fills after the second ring."

"Those times are old now," Kenny said, looking toward the camp crews working around them, "the hunter they recruited will change every drill after one failure."

Dreth moved the evacuation time into the margin instead of using it as a fixed number.

"Then we measure it again," he said, returning the chalk, "nobody attacks the wall until the new response is recorded."

A rider came through the eastern picket before the quartermaster finished, carrying a blue fragment from the northern survey route.

The fragment had formed along the edge of a Gate marker, then broken free after the portal began pushing mana beyond its registered boundary.

"The Gate sits above the outer stockade," the rider said, spreading another route page across the table, "animals are leaving every hollow below it."

Three guild posts around the approach stood empty after the blockade stopped supply caravans from maintaining the checkpoint.

The Gate had been registered at three Shards the previous winter, though every team had turned back before examining its core. Purple lines now moved beneath the blue surface whenever the portal pressed outward against its anchoring frame.

Kenny reached for the fragment before stopping his remaining hand above the mana leaking from it.

"That Gate is changing," he said, pulling his hand back, "the one I entered started bleeding the same color before it ate my squad."

Dreth ordered the command group away from the fragment, leaving only the survey rider within reach of its pressure.

"How long between pulses?" he asked, marking the Gate above the village without touching the fragment.

"Nine minutes when we left," the rider said, looking toward the northern ridge, "the last one came after seven."

The portal was accelerating toward a break, but its first spill would follow the ravine directly into the outer stockade.

"Send a warning," Kenny said, looking toward the village road, "those people have no guild team between them and the Gate."

"Do not warn them," Dreth said, marking the salt bridge instead, "I need Hajin’s first response before he knows we are part of it."

Kenny stared at the bridge marker while the officers around him continued copying the revised route.

"You are leaving a village under it," he said, keeping his voice below the survey riders, "the monsters reach houses before the town clinic reaches them."

"The village has bells," Dreth said, checking the response sheet, "Hajin gave them a system, so we see whether it works."

He assigned twenty riders to the salt bridge, keeping the remaining vanguard behind the legal boundary until the territory notice arrived.

Their job was to occupy the crossing after the second bell, forcing clinic carts toward the longer field route without entering the village.

"If Hajin comes himself, we withdraw from the bridge," Dreth said, looking toward the assigned captain, "count who replaces him on the village road."

"And if the summons come?" the captain asked, having read what one Wing did to the mercenary cart.

"Keep distance," Dreth said, returning to the Gate timing, "I need their positions, not a fight we have not prepared."

The Crown courier passed the eastern camp an hour later with the formal territory notice sealed inside his case.

He refused Flint escort, continuing alone toward Hajin’s town while Dreth recorded the expected delivery before sunset.

No vanguard soldier crossed the marker while the courier remained visible along the Sixth’s road.

Kenny watched the man disappear between the ridges, then looked north where another blue pulse rose above the outer village.

"You hired me because I survived Hajin’s Gate," he said, moving closer to the table, "he will notice the bridge before your riders settle."

"I hired you because you warn me before I waste them," Dreth said, placing the bridge group behind the nearest ridge, "so they move after the bell."

The answer gave Kenny nothing to argue without repeating himself, leaving him beside the map as the pulse faded.

Dreth sent two observers toward the field route with orders to remain outside weapon range and record every clinic cart.

Another pair took the southern rise where they could see which defenders left the town after the outer bells began.

He kept the main vanguard at the pass, refusing the Flint officers who wanted troops visible before the notice arrived. The next Gate pulse came after six minutes, carrying a pressure that made the picket horses pull against their lines.

A distant bell rang once beyond the northern ridge, followed by a second strike from the outer stockade.

Dreth closed the timing book, then signaled the twenty bridge riders toward the territorial marker.

"Wait for the courier’s return flag," he said, watching the road below them, "then cross and hold the bridge without drawing a sword."

Above the outer village, the Gate surface pushed past its frame as another bell began ringing.