299 – Outbreak of War

Once the meeting is over, Bella comes towards me and calls out with [Telepathy].

『My apologies, but… dragon-god-sama, could you perhaps search the area around the village for enemies?』

Bella requests, and I nod unhesitantly.
That was what I intended to do from the start.

Would you mind giving me a brief summary of what was decided in the meeting?

『Currently, we know neither their numbers, their ultimate objective, nor when they will attack.
But it would not be strange for an attack to come any moment.
However, we also cannot commit all our capable fighters to defense.
It is likely that an attack will come in the night, but… If not, we will have pointlessly fatigued our fighting power.』

…I see, if we foolishly commit everyone now, they’ll have succeeded in exhausting us just by having revealed their existence.
If you look at the situation properly, the longer until they attack, the more time for the damage from the cursed water to soften, so in that sense it helps us… The problem is that we have to assume the worst.

『The number of combatants gathered here… If you combine the two villages, we have about two hundred and fifty.』

…From what Bella told me on the way here, about two of every three people in the dragon-god village should be able to fight.
When I went around healing, there were about three hundred people in total, so the number of combatants from the dragon-god village should number around two hundred, but… There are fifty less than expected.
There must still be quite a few that haven’t fully recovered from the cursed water.
Even if their HP is restored and their status conditions are cleared, a lot of them can’t escape from the fatigue caused by the curse.
Within the two hundred and fifty, a few will be dragging their bodies through sheer willpower.
I’ll have to check every now and again with [Status Inspection] to make sure none of them are overdoing it.

『We’ll have one hundred stay awake while the rest sleep.
Seventy of that hundred will split into groups of five and be on guard outside the village, and the remaining thirty will be on standby in the village, ready to respond to a crisis.』

If the enemy reaches the village… In other words, if those defending outside aren’t able to stop them, those thirty are here to wake the rest up.
It’d be great if it didn’t come to that, though.

『I think it is likely that the enemy is waiting downstream, by the river.
Since there are no traces of them coming near the village, I don’t think they have a good grasp of the terrain on this side of the river.
So… I would like to deploy dragon-god-sama with those seventy to be alert for the enemy on the sides facing downriver.』

I see.
How far is it okay for me to go?

『As far as twice the distance that a truga can be heard.』

Hmm? A truga? Twice the distance?

『U-umm… It’s a whistle made of grafant bones… You blow into it like this, and sound comes out…』

Thinking I don’t understand the concept of a whistle, she frantically waves her arms while miming blowing a whistle.

…Seeing her flustered like this makes me feel she doesn’t have the same refinement as Hibi.
Hibi was always composed…or rather, she came off as a bit detached.
But she was never coldhearted.
Even when Derek was hurling abuse at her while on the verge of death, she kept responding to him in good faith.

Thinking back, I become sad.
I shake my head to clear it.
I need to think about the enemies coming from outside.

…But a truga… That reminds me, one of the guards had a whistle.
That’s what it was, no doubt.

『By putting magic power into it, a truga can be heard from far away.
With a pair in the middle acting as a relay, you can reach twice the distance.』

I don’t know how far that distance is, but I guess I can leave it to the other Lithovars.

If I was searching in broad daylight, then it’d be fastest for me to look from the air, but… The geography here is just too bad.
The trees would hide them.
I might try if it were midday, but it’s impossible in the middle of the night.

Finally, I had the sick collected for my partner to cast [High Rest] on them.
To be safe… I’d like to leave about half our MP remaining.
With this much gone, [Automatic MP Recovery] will restore some, and I shouldn’t have to worry about running out in battle.

After that, the seventy Lithovars split into three groups of twenty and a group of ten.
Together with the group of ten, I head out of the village and down the river.
So that we can understand each other quickly, Bella comes with us.

As we walk, Bella occasionally closes her eyes and holds out her staff, then chants a spell.
She’s probably using the [Presence Perception] skill.
Of course, I’m also focusing hard on the surrounding area with [Presence Perception] too.
There hasn’t been anything suspicious so far.

After walking for a while, I notice a strange presence a short distance away.
I know I’m the one saying this, but… The presence feels like it’s exuding an evil magic power.
There’s no way it could possibly be a human.

I strain my eyes towards dark gaps between the trees… Aro and an araenie stare back at me.
Realising I’ve seen them, they quickly hide… It looks like they got anxious and came looking for me.

Perhaps having also sensed Aro’s magic power, Bella swings her staff left and right hurriedly.
Then she lowers her staff, muttering “Was it my imagination…?”.
To be honest, I that’s what I hope she thinks.
I understand Aro’s worried for hometown, but… For now, I just hope she stays put quietly.
She can just leave this to me and I’ll handle it.

That reminds me, will she be outed by the miko’s [Presence Perception]…? I was thinking that she had some reason for wanting to return to the humans, but… I have to hope Bella’s not in the way of that.
I wonder if I can somehow persuade her to overlook Aro.

“…There’s none.”
“It looks like there’s no one down this route.
Should we head now back in case of the worst?”

As I continue to walk with the Lithovar warriors, their exhaustion starts to become apparent, and I hear voices like that.
It’s not just the tension of the situation wearing away at them, but they’re out searching during the dead of night.
They’re reaching their bodies’ limits.

My eyes meet Bella’s in agreement.
She turns to face the warriors at the back.

“We have dragon-god sama with us.
Even if we’re isolated, we have the best chances in a confrontation… In the worst case, dragon-god-sama can return to the village alone.”

Bella explains apologetically to the warriors.

“Right… But there’s no sign of them, so…”

I was continuing to walk while watching the exchange, but suddenly I notice human presences.
And It’s not just one or two.
Just ahead of us, there’s a huge crowd of people.
I’d expected twenty at most, but there’s far more.
There’s around fifty of them.

“Guu…”

I groan softly to alert Bella and the others.

“…Eh?”

Flustered, Bella closes her eyes and prepares for [Presence Perception].
As she does, the crowd of enemies picks up their speed.
It seems they also have a way of sensing us.

…It doesn’t look like there’s any way out of this battle.
From the viciousness of their methods so far… It’s clear they’ve come to destroy the Lithovars.
Since they killed the miko and laid a curse on the river, the Lithovars’ feelings also won’t settle until it’s all over.

Probably… I’m going to have to kill a lot of humans.
I think about Hibi as I steel my resolve, staring forwards.