Oukoku e Tsuzuku Michi

rd.

「Let’s go full speed Schwartz.
I don’t care if you have to kick away those in front of you.」

To be honest, there is only a small chance we will be able to outrun the smoke considering how fast it moves.
But abandoning Celia was never a choice.
I’ll do as much as I can.

Schwartz neighs softly and runs like a black wind.
It feels like the Vandolea infantry and cavalry running in front are standing still.
There are no horses who can match this guy’s speed.
At this speed, we could probably reach the Federation in a single day.

Even so…….

「It’s catching up……」

The gray colored smoke is even faster.
I don’t have the effort to turn backwards, but I’m sure the smoke would be right in front of my eyes if I did.
I can already start hearing the screams of the Vandolea soldiers behind me.

The pond which passed before my eyes for an instant crosses my mind, but I reject the idea.
My instinct tells me it wouldn’t work.
I can only trust in Schwartz that he would be able to outrun the smoke.

Schwartz turns toward me while maintaining his speed.
His face looks horrible and foam is coming out from his mouth as he tries to tell me something with his eyes.

It felt like he was saying “heavy”.

「Celia, lend me a knife.」

Without waiting for a reply, I forcefully take the knife from her hip, cut the leather string tying the horse armor together with his mane and throw it away.
I remove my own armor and toss it away as well.
Seeing what I was doing, Celia follows suit and takes off her own armor as well as her clothes, leaving just her underwear on.

Several kilograms worth of armor lessen the weight on Schwartz’s back and he raises his speed one more level higher.
It felt like time stopped for all the surrounding soldiers as we zoomed past them.

「Still no good!?」

The flood of smoke doesn’t seem to recede.
It seems even faster than the accelerating Schwartz and there is almost no gap between us.
I can feel the hot air surrounding us.

Schwartz turns his head at me again.
Is it still too heavy?

「Throw me off! It’s because of me that Aegir-sama will die!」

Celia tries to jump off but I hold her down and rub her ass while I think.

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The Dual Crater is light so that’s not the problem.

「Oh, it’s this……」

The dwarven spear easily weighs more than 30 kilograms.
I like it quite a bit and it’s also the proof of friendship between me and the dwarves…….

「It won’t mean anything if I become charcoal while hanging onto it.」

I throw the spear backwards.
Now I just have to leave everything to Schwartz.

I pat his black head lightly before hugging Celia and bringing our bodies low.
It feels like we got a little faster.

I continue to hear death throes around me and the heat gets stronger, then I feel fine sands hitting my body.
I don’t know if it caught up, but smoke wraps around in front of me and my field of vision goes black.

I don’t want to die before I get to meet Lucy.
Celia has finally grown up into a beautiful lady too, it’s such a waste for her to burn.

When I gently hug Celia, who clings to me in tears, the view in front of me suddenly clears up.
I turn back and see the flood of smoke stop moving, eventually breaking apart slowly.

「It looks like I still have a chance to meet Lucy.」

I let the sobbing Celia know we’re safe.

「Waah…… ueeeaaaah! I’m sorry…… for tripping…… and putting Aegir-sama in danger!!」

Celia obviously cries and hugs me.
Myla and Irijina also rush over in tears.

It doesn’t look like any of the soldiers behind me survived.

「Just in case, go a little further north before confirming the amount of losses.」

Leopolt doesn’t overreact to what happened.
You could at least show you care.

「The general should have been the first to escape.
Please be careful next time.」

Don’t be like that, you’re making Celia cry more.
I survived, so it’s all good now.

Leopolt turns around after that brief comment and Tristan speaks to him.

「You breathed a big sigh of relief just now, didn’t you.
You were actually worried, weren’t you.」
「The army will collapse if the general is defeated.
It is a natural thing to worry about.」

「You wanted to go back for a second, didn’t you.
It didn’t seem like your usual calm self.」
「……」

They’re talking with each other about something.
Ah, Leopolt just tripped Tristan.
Guys, don’t fight amongst yourselves.

From what I can see, my army hasn’t lost anybody.
Everybody managed to get away.

「I’m so sorry…… I’m so sorry…… hic.」

Now, I just have to comfort the crying Celia.
I sigh lightly and lament as I look at the land to the south which has become completely gray.

The Vandolea army and I head north for a while to confirm the current situation together.
Bejček agrees that it would be stupid if we fought each other using sticks and stones with our faces covered in ash after losing our armor and weapons.

「How was it?」

「Our troops suffered very few casualties.
Only a few dozen tripped and were swallowed up.
The vassal lords’ armies are pretty much unharmed too.」

That’s fortunate.
It was probably a good idea that we made preparations to retreat even if it was barely too late.

I pull Schwartz’s charred tail as I listen to Leopolt’s report.

「On the other hand, Vandolea cannot distinguish who was killed in battle…… a third of their army is missing.」

「I see…… but they were further south than we were.
They should be happy that 10,000 survived.」

Ah! His tail was pulled off.
…… oh, nevermind.
Just the burnt hairs fell off.
That scared me for a second there.
Ow, don’t bite my head Schwartz, that hurts.

「A scout was deployed to confirm the areas further away.」

It probably isn’t a very pleasant report.

「The smoke…… it’s probably better to call it a heated up mass of ash.
That stuff was apparently leaking to all sides around the mountain.
The damage it caused was massive, no it’s better to say it was a catastrophe.」

I nod as I listen to the report Leopolt gathered from the findings of all the scouts.
I’m reminded of the village that burned down.

「The towns and villages within range got burned down without exception and buried in ash.
The Dard mountain is still spewing ash from the top as we speak.
Large red flames can be seen near the peak as well.」

Leopolt and I can listen calmly but the same can’t be said for the Vandolea army.
It’s no wonder because the report was about how their own farming villages were completely wiped out.

「The areas near the mountain has thick ash and residual heat so investigations can’t be done yet, but there should not be any need.」

If the outer ring was as bad as what we saw, then there would be no point going further inside.
There are probably no survivors.

「……what a mess.
How could something like this happen……」

Bejček slumps his shoulders in exhaustion.
His soldiers also threw away their weapons and armor to make it easier to run away.
The appearance of him sitting down with ash plastered to one side of his face makes him look more like a ghost than a defeated soldier.

「The ash is being spread in a circular fashion around the mountain.
It hasn’t been confirmed but it probably flowed not only to the Vandolea side but also to the Altair side.」

If so, then this would be an unprecedented catastrophe.

「Yes.
There will be major fluctuations which will affect the existence of the southern nations.」

All the strategies we came up with might have become useless now.

「I guess we’ll go back.」

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There was no need for lengthy discussion.
It doesn’t look like ceasefire negotiations or continuation of war will be possible with Vandolea.

The soldiers probably want to return north as soon as possible.
If I say to them that we’ll be crossing over the mountain of ash and resuming the invasion, some of them may want to run away.

「What are you guys going to do?」

I call out to Bejček.

「Vandola is far enough from the mountain…… the ash shouldn’t have covered it so we have to make our report.
However……」

As I thought, this expedition is not an ordinary one.

「It might be unnecessary concern, but-」

Leopolt steps in front of Bejček.

「Vandolea as compared to Goldonia views your army as a group of deserters and our nation has told us they would not be intervening.」

Bejček was not shocked when he was told of this news.

「Deserters……huh? I thought it was something like that.
We could never just return alive from the start.」

Bejček and the soldiers around him hang their heads and stare at the ground sadly.
You can’t blame then since they had no home to return to the moment they departed.

「Come to my territory.
You won’t be free to do anything, however you will definitely be treated more favorably there than if you returned to your fatherland.」

Some of the soldiers lift their heads up.
Bejček’s head remains down though.

「The dishonor of betraying our fatherland…… hahaha, I guess it doesn’t matter now.」

He looks at the land buried in ash.

「My birthplace as well…… is located at the base of the Dard mountain.
I tried my hardest not to disgrace my family but it’s all over now.」

Bejček turns around.

「Those who want to return to our country may go.
With that said, it won’t be easy to return now…… you will have to make a huge detour to the east……」

「You will get a few days worth of food.」

Bejček adds at the end.

「Those who want to follow me to Goldonia can stay here.
Lord Hardlett will probably not treat us poorly.」

The Vandolea soldiers murmur amongst themselves before 10% of the soldiers take food and head east while the other 90% remain.

It isn’t normal to run together with the enemy from fire spewing from the mountain after a deathmatch with them.
What a strange twist of fate.

「I’ll think about your treatment after we get back.
Your heads will be lopped off if you commit any wrongdoings, but you should be fine if you’re obedient.」

Something suddenly falls on my shoulder.

「Snow…… it’s still autumn though.」

This falling white stuff…… it should not be possible during autumn even when we’re so far south of the central plains.
When I try grabbing some of it and squeezing my hand, it gives off a foul smell without melting.

「Oh, it’s ash…… it doesn’t feel hot though.」

「It’s piling up more and more.」

As Myla said, the ash like snow is falling and accumulating on the ground, the river, and the fields.
We advance north despite the unceasing fall of ash.

The forest and river quickly become covered with the gray material.
I occasionally brush the pile of ash off my head as we march north to get out of this colorless world.

It was an incomplete war but it’s over.
The southern region is now permanently changed

「Oh yeah, Celia put on some clothes.」

「An idiot like me deserves to stay naked……」

Celia clings to me in her underwear.
It seems she’s still bothered about putting me in a near-death situation.

「You don’t have to worry about it so much since we got saved in the end.
Hey, Christoph is going to see you at this rate.」

I pull her underwear to the side to tease her.
He’ll see your pretty white ass, you know.

「A fool like me deserves to be seen naked by Christoph and used as masturbation material.」

Celia keeps sulking while clinging to me.
I kick Christoph away when he tried to take a peek and cover Celia with a blanket.

She’s become so miserable.
What am I going to do with her.

Protagonist: Aegir Hardlett.
23 years old.
Autumn.
Status: Goldonia Kingdom Margrave.
Great Feudal Lord of Eastern Area.
King of the Mountains.
Friend of the Dwarves.
Friend of the King of Aless.
Citizens: 163,000.
Major Cities – Rafen: 24,000.
Lintbloom: 4500.

Family: Nonna (the pretty Nonna), Carla (concubine), Mel (concubine), Miti (concubine), Maria (concubine)
Catherine (concubine, sexually frustrated ++), Kuu (lover), Ruu (lover), Mireille (lover), Leah (lover)
Casie (Suspect K), Rita (head maid), Yoguri (playwright), Pipi (lover), Alice (magical girl)
Marceline (lover), Daughters – Stephanie (lover), Bridget (sexually frustrated +++), Felicie (lover)
Sebastian (butler), Dorothea (lover, in the capital), Melissa (lover, left for the capital), Alma (left for the capital)

Children: Sue, Miu, Ekaterina, Amata, Anastasia (daughters); Antonio, Claude, Gilbard, Reiner, Bartolome (sons); Rose (foster daughter)

Non-humans: Lammy (snake lover), Mirumi (mermaid), ??? (strange plant)

Subordinates: Celia (depressed), Gido (escort unit), Kroll (mendicant monk), Irijina (commander), Luna (commander), Ruby
Myla (security officer), Polte (training supervisor), Gretel (domestic affairs trainee)
Leopolt (staff officer), Adolph (domestic affairs official), Tristan (staff officer B)
Claire & Laurie (official merchant), Schwartz (horse, burnt ), Lilian (actress)

Army: 14,200 men
Infantry: 7150 , Cavalry: 800, Archers: 950, Bow Cavalry: 3900 (Vassal lords army: 1400)
Cannons: 10, Large Cannons: 10 (abandoned cannons on the frontlines)
Vandolea Army?: 9000

Assets: 470 gold
Sexual Partners: 233, children who have been born: 48 + 555 fish