Free Web NovelChapter 354: Standoff at the Bridge
Twelve hundred soldiers of the subjugation force marched out of Spica Castle.
A force large enough to hold its own even in the all-out war between the human alliance and the Demon King’s Army raised their military banner to subjugate the dungeon that had appeared in the barony.
"Servants of the Goddess! I’m sorry for calling you out on this late night, when you should be home with your families and loved ones."
The Holy Knight Commander standing at the head of the subjugation force hoisted a flagpole twice his own height and shouted.
"But look! The demons know no day or night! Those wicked creatures have drawn their blades against humanity while our families lie sleeping!"
The black crow monsters, remembered with terror by some. When word spread that a hundred of them, fully armed, were marching toward Spica Castle, the people trembled in fear.
"And so we must step forward and wipe them out. Of course, some of you may be thinking: they’re only a hundred strong, so why send twelve hundred of us? Naturally, if we march out now and kill them, the immediate threat will be dealt with. But threats like these will come again and again!"
Thud!
The Knight Commander slammed his flag-lance into the ground. The banner fluttering against the night sky gleamed with the light of divine power.
"Tonight, we will tear those wicked monsters out by the roots! Servants of the Goddess, fight with me! We will liberate Zabiyaba from these vermin and subjugate the dungeon!"
"""YEAHHHHH!!"""
The crowd erupted in cheers.
It had been nearly a month since Zabiyaba was occupied, and after several failed subjugation attempts, the barony had sunk into despair. But this time, on the Saintess’s own orders, the Holy Knight Commander of the Goddess Church was personally leading the subjugation force. The people roared loud enough to shake Spica Castle itself.
"Let us all pray together: O Goddess!"
"""O Goddess!!"""
Late at night, prayers praising the Goddess began echoing from every corner of Spica Castle. The Knight Commander mounted his horse, waved the banner, and took his place at the front.
"Third subjugation force, advance!!"
***
Unlike the Knight Commander, who had gallantly raised the banner, the subjugation force trailing behind him was a different story entirely.
"Damn it, what are we even doing out here in the middle of the night...."
Rot Lircon, a B-rank adventurer who had come from the Leo Marquisate, grumbled as he marched at the rear. He could understand scrambling out the door when word came that monsters were advancing, but he’d never imagined it would turn into a full dungeon subjugation mission.
"If I’d known this was coming, I would’ve had a little more fun before leaving...."
"Fun? What kind of fun?"
"Avalon."
"Ah, so you just came from there?"
His partner, fellow B-rank adventurer Mirp Hounter, jabbed Rot in the side with a sly grin. Having worked the same region together for years, they were close enough to go buy flowers together.
"Any girls there who were your type?"
"Don’t even get me started. Tiny little thing, but the way she moved her hips, I swear I thought she was a half-dwarf."
"They don’t call them fairies for nothing. Heh heh. What’d you say to get a fairy to spread her legs for you?"
"She was going on about how she was good at it but everyone avoided her for some reason. So I said, well, let’s see how good you really are, and... oh man, just try it once. I can’t even put it into words."
"The girls at Avalon aren’t my type."
"Right, what would a pervert with a thing for married women need with that?"
"Excuse me."
A woman with a sharp expression cut into their conversation from behind.
"What do you two think you’re doing? We’re marching to subjugate enemies of humanity here."
"Lighten up, Priestess. You’re an adventurer too, so what’s with the attitude? Just because the Church’s priests are commanding us, now you want to boss us around too?"
"That’s not what I’m saying."
The female priest, Shorta Kireur, flushed red and snapped at them. freewebnσvel.cѳm
"We’re about to run into enemy forces soon, and you’re just going to keep chatting like this? I’m asking if you’re ready to fight."
"We make our living by the sword, so we’re always ready. Heh heh, Priestess, after this battle, how about you and us..."
"No thanks. You people are way too rough. Good lord, who would go along with that?"
"...The fairies at Avalon were all happy to!"
"That’s because those women are whores... well, they don’t sell themselves, so ’sluts’ is the right word."
"They say a woman’s worst enemy is another woman, and that’s terrifying. Priestess, be honest."
Mirp lowered his voice, leaning in to whisper near Shorta’s ear.
"You’re just salty there aren’t any guys among the fairies, aren’t you? I can tell. Heh heh."
"Shut up. If you keep teasing me, I won’t heal you when you get hurt."
"You heal people for money anyway."
The three adventurers kept trading banter as they marched on. The priests didn’t bother trying to control the chatter among the adventurers, who made up the bulk of the subjugation force.
"Tch, I came all the way out here hoping to search for the Holy Sword, and now it’s a dungeon subjugation. Maybe I shouldn’t have volunteered for this."
"After the Saintess visited, everyone quietly gave up on searching for the Holy Sword. If even the Saintess couldn’t find it, what are the odds it’s actually here?"
"True, right? Well... Holy Sword aside, I got plenty of R&R, so I can’t complain. Heh heh."
"That again.... You two should take a page from those people over there."
Where Shorta pointed, there were soldiers walking with murder in their eyes, muttering to themselves. Their formation was sloppier than the adventurers’ and their gear was shabby, but their morale burned fiercer than any other unit in the subjugation force.
"What’s up with them? Why are they so fired up?"
"People whose families are being held hostage?"
"Bullshit. Since when does the Demon King’s Army take prisoners? Snatching people up to use as food, maybe."
"Actually, that’s not quite the case."
Rot lowered his voice so others wouldn’t hear.
"There are rumors that the demons who’ve set up shop here... have been violating humans."
"Ugh."
Shorta went pale and shuddered. Mirp patted her on the back with a hearty laugh.
"Haha, scared?"
"Apparently they do it to men too. Female monsters."
"...Come on, that’s just a rumor to scare guys. What, do the harpies dance on dicks like the fairies do?"
"Yeah. Some of the guys who made it back alive from the 2nd subjugation force said they saw it with their own eyes. One man tied to a post while a bunch of harpies took turns on him like a gang rape."
"Goddess above...."
Shorta made the sign of the cross and prayed. Even if it was just a rumor, the content was too shocking.
"...So what, those things are actually taking humans as prisoners? To violate them?"
"That’s right. That’s why the people who believe their families are still alive signed up for the subjugation force like that."
"Hoping they’re alive even if it means being violated by monsters.... That’s heartbreaking." fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
The three prayed for the grim-faced soldiers. Hoping that the people they were searching for were still out there, the group fell back into formation and continued marching.
"Halt!!"
Suddenly, the priest leading their adventurer unit stopped in his tracks. A runner from the Knight Commander’s vanguard had rushed over and was urgently relaying something.
"What’s going on?"
"I think the reason’s right over there."
Rot, who had sharp night vision, pointed to the bridge crossing the river. There, crow-headed monsters draped in steel feather robes stood waiting for them.
"They say crows are smart, and I guess they weren’t kidding...."
The subjugation force had come face to face with the monsters that had been advancing toward Spica Castle. The adventurers stared at the Andras unit, whose defenses looked surprisingly solid, with puzzled expressions.
"Why are they just standing there?"
"Maybe they’re scared?"
"You think...?"
With a single, fairly wide bridge between them, the Andras unit and the subjugation force entered a standoff.
***
"This thing is really uncomfortable."
Andras fiddled with the Andras mask she’d pulled over her head. She’d cut the head off one from the sub-dungeon and had it stuffed into a mask, but it kept wobbling with every step on her tiny human-sized head.
"Boss, are we just gonna keep standing here like this?"
"Yep. All we have to do is stall for time."
"I wanna grab some humans and have some fun."
"You. If we charge in there, we’re all dead. You all have to make it back to Ras Vegas no matter what. You know those feather robes you’re wearing cost more than your lives, right?"
At Andras’s scolding, the Andras troops shed big, fat tears. It was a painful truth, but it was the reality.
"Master spent good money on expensive armor to keep you alive, so you should be thinking about getting home in one piece, not picking a fight with the enemy."
"But we’re tired of doing it with the humans in the ranch...."
Sensing an opening, the Andras troops began airing their complaints.
"Every single human in the ranch is better at it than us. We want some fresh humans to come in and go, ’Kyaaah, stop! A, a monster’s cock is going inside me...! Save me, Goddess! sob,’ you know?"
"Why is that so specific...?"
"Because that’s what my first time with a human was like."
"Fair enough. ...Hah, I want to do it with Master again too."
Andras clutched her head in frustration. Unable to resist the urge for multiple men, she’d acquired a male named Gray, but unfortunately, the Legion Commander hadn’t called for Andras nearly as much as before after taking both Gray and Andras together.
"Too many women around him now."
"Boss, you just can’t compete. Shax outranks you."
"You want to die? I’ll strip your feather robe off and throw you into enemy lines."
"You get this mad when someone tells the truth, and that’s exactly why Master dropped you."
"I, I wasn’t dropped!"
Andras shrieked in protest against her subordinates’ accusations.
"Do you know who I am? I’m the most senior harpy in our entire Legion...! The only harpy who’s given Master a daughter...!"
"We’ll give you that. But you’ve also been with the most men. Counting the other harpies who were synthesized and the Andras included, you’ve been with well over a dozen men."
"Master likes them pure, so he won’t even look at a woman who’s been touched by other men."
"Shut up!"
Andras shrieked with tears brimming in her eyes. She wanted to devote herself to one person like the other women, but she couldn’t fight the instincts stirred by the curses inherited from the harpy species, the Andras species, and Halphas.
Reproduction.
A species trait that set her body ablaze if she went even a single day without laying an egg; because of it, Andras had to hold back in more ways than one.
"This is all because Master is too busy.... He just doesn’t have the time to take me too...!"
Andras scowled fiercely and extended her claws.
"Hey! All of you were born from me, so listen up! This mission has to succeed no matter what! That’s the only way I get taken by Master again!"
"You’ll just get pushed to the back of the line behind the elves and forgotten anyway, but you’re so pitiful we’ll help."
"It’s not ’helping,’ it’s your duty! Don’t you all want to shed those bird brains!!"
At Andras’s shout, the Andras troops’ expressions turned serious.
For Andras personally, this mission was a golden opportunity to get back into the bedroom. But for the Andras species as a whole, this mission was a golden opportunity for evolution.
"You evolve to 3-star and shed those bird brains, and I get Master’s love! Got it? Focus up starting now!"
Andras raised her sharpened claws and shouted.
"What is the mission we’ve been given?!"
"""Hold the line!!"""
The Andras unit.
Their first mission was to hold the line.
***
"What are those things babbling about over there?"
"...They appear to be shouting ’hold the line,’ sir."
"Is that their war cry? Pathetic. I thought they were staging a night raid, but it turns out they’re just mindless vermin who can’t tell day from night."
"So it would seem."
Gray smiled bitterly, hiding his true thoughts. He knew exactly why the Andras troops were blocking the bridge and holding their ground, and all he wanted was for time to pass quickly.
’The scouts need to arrive before we can move to the next phase.’
The scouts who were supposed to deliver the message were running too late. Gray held his breath and waited for them to come.
"Should we ram them? If we charge with the cavalry, we could trample them."
"Commander, don’t you think a mere hundred-odd monsters standing their ground like that must have something up their sleeve? They’re clearly harboring some malicious intent."
"Really...? I don’t know. My gut is telling me to push through them right now...."
Gray inwardly flinched. If he hadn’t been standing right beside him, the Knight Commander almost certainly would have charged straight at the Andras unit.
"...Let’s observe their movements a bit longer. The night is dark. We should check whether the enemy has laid traps in the surrounding area..."
"Report!!"
Finally. One of the scouts came sprinting in and dropped to his knees. Having run from a great distance, he was completely soaked, apparently having crossed the river under cover of darkness.
"Orcs are leading human prisoners southward!!"
"!!!"
They took the bait.
