Side: Yuki

I returned to the ruins after scouting.

After that, I spent three days gathering information from many sides while keeping company to the princess.

The result is that I got to know something about demi-humans… It seems that people call demi-human other races that are no human. As such, there is a strong sense of despise. Well, leaving that aside, we told the information we gathered to the elders.

「It"s a matter of time. I don"t know the exact numbers, but the final figure is around 2500」

「…2500, you said?」

Only the elders opened their mouths.

Other members partic.i.p.ating on the meeting are silent, even Zett.

「The number of people who can fight in this village is at most 70, and counting you people, roughly… 100」

Goblin troops have increased since then.

It"s convenient!! In many ways!!

「Even if we count women and children, at most 200 people-ja」

「As expected, even if we add 100 mercenaries and our number reaches 300, we are at lost, aren"t we?」

Eventually, the elders admit the difference in strength, and such words escape their mouths.

Wait a moment, where did your courage go, demi-humans!?

「That reminds me, didn"t you say that you would cooperate with other demi-humans? It"s been two weeks since the soldiers were captured, what"s their reaction?」

「About that-nou. They may not want your help, maybe they disagree, or they may think they won"t be able to win, either way, the answer was not good. They are looking at the situation first-nou」

「H~m. That"s bad for us, but that reaction was a expected」

After all, no one would put their lives on the line not knowing if they can win.

In addition, the ones who would take command would be us, a mercenary group from the unreliable human race.

「Still, some people are gathering, isn"t that right?」

「Yes, though the reply is scarce, there are some who are coming」

「Then, we have no choice but to overcome this hurdle. If we manage to defeat the enemy while outnumbered, I"m sure those who are watching will change their stance」

「Certainly-nou」

「It"s not like the enemy will come soon. They need time to prepare their large number for marching. It"s different from walking normally. We"ll have at least one more month」

The important thing here is their method of transportation, the horse.

However, since this new continent is in war, horses are very valuable since they are used in war.

By the way, what I didn"t tell the elders, is that this subjugation was unexpected even for the Zilba Empire.

In fact, the raid on this village of demi-humans seems to have been planned by a military officer of the Zilba Empire to clean up a mess made in a war with another country and as such, they would either caught or wipe the demi-humans.

In this new continent, demi-humans are subject to discrimination, and of course there is a reason for this.

The cause has not been investigated, but as Luna says, the depletion of magic power has reduced the birth rate of the demi-humans and so their numbers.

So, the demi-humans became more skilled than human race in controlling magic power all in order to survive. And so Luna said.

In short, the beast folks have physical ability and elves excel in magic power.

Well, it"s not like each of them is powerful, but overall, they are.

So, before the depletion of magic power, it seems that they have coexisted with the human race, just like Weed, but when it began to decline power, the beast folk race and the elven race could not maintain their countries.

No, should I say that because their numbers decreased, they have been attacked by the country which have human race supremacy?

Since monsters who were the immediate and common threat disappeared, the next threat happened to be them, the demi-humans who possessed superior skill compared to them. That"s when the discrimination started.

That is the result I got after hearing the story from both side, Jessica from the human race, and from the elders from the demi-humans race.

In short, subduing the demi-humans is not so different from exterminating the monsters to them.

However, like them, they also use strategies and weapons. Moreover, their individual performance is higher.

If you can subdue them, you can get a reputation of it, and such was the aim of the military officer who attacked them, aiming only at the women.

If we had not appeared, everything would have gone smoothly for them.

Ahー, why did we appear at such timing you ask?

Well, thanks to that they failed to subdue the demi-humans.

And about 300 soldiers who came with the n.o.bleman were captured.

That"s when a problem came up. When humans were busy fighting among their same race, I stimulated the demi-humans in their area.

It"s said that 300 people were annihilated by a small number, so they forgave the one who caused internal trouble in country all in order to not slow down Zilba Empire"s invasion of other countries.

That"s why they sent one of the best knights of the Zilba Empire, the wind princess knight, hoping for an immediate solution.

The person in question was the leading general who was invading the niehgborin Enalia Holy Land, but feeling threatened from behind, he came back.

It"s really a cleaning after somebody mess.

That"s what happened so far.

As for detailed information, 2500 soldiers are under direct command of that wind princess knight.

Rumor has it that the quality of her soldiers is one of the best in the Zilba Empire.

Normally they would not have a chance to win. Of course, it it were a normal situation.

「One month eh…?」

At last the elders digested the words I told them.

「That"s right, one month. If you wish to escape you will be caught if you don"t start with at least a half month of time, so if you keep thinking for a long time, you won"t even be able to take anything with you」

「If we told that we"ll escape, what would you all do-ja?」

「I"ve said from the beginning, didn"t I? We came from the ruins, so we don"t have choice but to protect it. We don"t have plans to move from here」

Come on, run away quickly.

That way I won"t have to worry about being dragged on.

Reinforcements are coming from elsewhere, and I"m worried if they will obey our orders or not.

「Really, are you all still saying that you all have come from those ruins?」

「Not from those ruins but from another land. The world is wide. There are many things about the world that you don"t know」

「…You all will confront those 2500 soldiers without retreating?」

「Yes」

Not quite true, I"ve already contacted my friends, and have asked Steve to rebuild the defenses.

It will be completed in about another week, I suppose?

Rather than 2500, I"m building a place that can stop ten times those numbers.

What I asked Steve is to build a defense capable of stopping 2,500 enemies and not defenses in the ruins.

As for the ruin… the defensive construction of the dungeon has already been completed. The chances of this place falling against the tactics of this new continent are almost zero, it would be fair to call this place against the rules.

My strong point is inside of the dungeon, and until they get closer to the dungeon, they"ll be exposed to the fire of modern weapons, rather than losing, they"ll run away.

「I now understand your intentions well. Do you want to have a meeting for the time being?」

「I don"t mind. Rather, you don"t even have to report anything even the results as long you don"t disturbs us」

「What do you mean by disturbing?」

「There will not be a particular change in daily life as until now, but I don"t plan to take command from the start from the battles that will occur from now on with the enemy forces. I don"t want to leave my back to those people who are suspicious of me, and I don"t want to be dragged down by them. We can both sides move separately from the beginning」

「Fumu, certainly… I can"t keep up with your movements. If we were to work poorly, we could become a hindrance to each other」

「Besides training during the whole month, I"m sure you"d have a bunch of hot-blooded people coming from different villages. You"ll be busy dealing with them」

「…I understand your point… In that case, we"ll leaving the front line to you all and we will take care of the defense of the village. I"ll be observing the situation then. If we see that you are winning, we will join on our own. Of course if we see that you are losing, we may escape, you know?」

Alright, all according to my plan.

「That"s why I told you, you do what you want. Just don"t get in my way. The time to escape is now. I"m telling you despite you let the prisoners escape and blocking our way out」

Leaving the silent elders, me and Ria left the meeting place.

「Was that okay?」

Ria seems concerned about the conversation.

「Does Ria think we will lose?」

「No, it"s not that, it"s about the cooperative system, wouldn"t it have been better to have let them save their face? It doesn"t matter the result… Once we get involved, it won"t be victory for those people, right?」

「That"s why I said that. If they run away, we can capture soldiers and negotiate freely with the Zilba Empire. Conversely, if they were to leave the defense of the village to us, on the contrary, we wouldn"t be able to lift even our heads. Including all the disrespect so far. This way, they will come to us if they have a proper reason to disturb us and we will be the ones dealing with it」

「Aah, that"s what you mean by telling them to stay behind to defend」

「What"s important is that they are freely to stay behind. That side, like the men of village, even the outsiders haven"t seen our work. That"s why, it"s important that us, the mercenaries, to show off to the army of villagers, in the front」

Yes, the purpose of this is not only to make our strength known to the enemy, but also to show our ability to villagers and strangers who are still distrustful.

Now, if they were to run away, the reputation for having abandoned us will expand, and all the area around the dungeon will fall unto our hands.

On the other hand, if they kept watching from behind, it won"t be as far as changing their minds, but they won"t be able face us when they see our abilities. Because we know the vital point in a fight.

What worries me is that when we see us fight, they would leave aside the defense of the village to come out and try to steal the fruits of the war.

But I have already predicted such a thing and made the battlefield for it. Besides, If the villagers had been able to overcome from the beginning, demi-humans wouldn"t suffering from such treatment.

「But it"s a month until they arrive… What should we in the meantime?」

「Don"t worry, Ria and the others will be also busy. After all I have to experiment with the magic power」

Just because no enemy is coming doesn"t mean that I"m free.

Of course, research of magic power.

I need to go to the Fail town to keep collecting information. I have a car, so it only takes about a day to get around.

「For the time being, time is finite. Let"s do what we can. There is also Weed, so I"m grateful that we have a month」

「Now that you said it, yes. There is also Rust country, the former Demon castle city, so I"m grateful that I have the time to pay attention to the Rumel invasion forces」

Well, I wonder how far you can go princess of the windー?

Well, Steve and the others have been fighting battles on a large scale for a long time, so do your best.