Inn Overlord: Reincarnated with Enhancement Magic, Now Worshipped as a Divine Messenger! - Chapter 34

(From the perspective of the Imperial soldiers positioned south of the village)
Albert of the Assassins Guild is a well-known guy in these parts. Back when I wasn’t an Imperial soldier yet and was part of the Adventurers Guild, I had at least heard rumors about the dark guild that made a living through assassinations.

That same Albert is now involved in invading the territory of the Kingdom of Schmar. For that purpose, we have 400 soldiers waiting behind us, having already crossed the border.

But what bothers me is why we and the 400 Imperial soldiers behind us were able to cross the border and enter the kingdom’s territory so easily.

I’m just a soldier. I haven’t been told any details. But I can tell there’s some kind of conspiracy going on, favoring the Empire.

We could let all 400 of our southern soldiers attack that village in one go, but the cautious Albert came to the conclusion—after much investigation—that it was enough to just place 20 Imperial soldiers to the south of the village and 30 to the east. If all 400 soldiers moved at once, the villagers might notice.

A night attack would make it easy to take over the village, but some villagers might escape in the dark and survive. This operation allows no survivors. If even one escapes, the mission fails. That’s why we won’t attack recklessly. Our role is to surround the village, break the villagers’ will to fight, and kill anyone who tries to flee.

If someone escapes into the Demon Forest to the east of the village, it would be hard to follow. That’s why more Imperial soldiers were sent east than south.

It was already known that David the strongman and some skilled fighters were in the village. First, those skilled ones will be killed in the night raid. After that, the rest of the villagers will be dealt with.

Albert and his group will take care of that from the north and west.

Our job is to take down any escaping villagers. As soon as the signal fires go up, the 400 soldiers positioned even further south of us will surround the village and finish the job.

We, 20 to the south and 30 to the east, took our positions separate from the 400-man unit, but here we encountered an unexpected monster.

“V-Vircasis!?”

Vircasis is a monster with a subjugation difficulty of E, but this one is unusually big. I used to hunt Vircasis many times back when I was an adventurer, but this Vircasis fills me with fear I’ve never felt before.

Its gray fur bristled, and it growled at us with a sound that echoed deep in our guts.

“It’s huge!?”

“Why is it here!?”

Vircasis bent its two hind legs and stretched out its front legs. It was ready to jump at us anytime.

“This is bad!!?”

I shouted.

“Get reinforcements now! Call back the soldiers who went east!!”

I looked in the direction of the soldiers we split from to go east. It was dark, and I couldn’t see far. We hadn’t lit any torches to avoid alerting the village—that decision backfired.

─Will we make it in time?

The moment I thought that, I heard the sound of my fellow soldiers gasping.

I turned my head forward to look at Vircasis, but it was already right in front of me, its jaws wide open as it bit into my head and crushed it.

I could hear the screams of my comrades coming from outside Vircasis’s mouth.

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(From the perspective of the Imperial soldiers positioned east of the village)
We heard screams. We thought the invasion had already begun and quickened our pace. This operation can only be called a success if all the villagers are wiped out.

But the direction of the screams seemed to be from the 20 soldiers we had split from earlier, the ones to the south.

I asked the other soldiers to confirm.

“Hey, didn’t you hear screams over there?”

The other soldiers nodded with puzzled looks.

“Did something happen?”

“I don’t know.”

“What should we do?”

Someone spoke up.

“Even if a monster showed up on the southern side, there are 400 soldiers behind them. They’ll handle it. We should focus on completing our own mission.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

“Our mission is to surround the village and take down any villagers trying to escape. The attack from the west or north should start soon. Let’s get into formation now.”

We all came together and tried to line up in a row. But then we noticed something—there were fewer people.

“Hm? Isn’t it kinda empty?”

“What is?”

“The number of people.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

“Hey, where’d they go? Bathroom?”

We looked around. Then we noticed big blue shapes floating in the dark.

“What’s that?”

There weren’t just one or two—there were three, four, and more. They started surrounding us.

It was still too early to light any torches. We were supposed to wait until the others attacking from the north and west lit signal fires. But we couldn’t ignore these strange blue shapes.

I used a magic tool marked with a fire element seal. I poured in magic and lit a fire. The area lit up—and we saw what the blue shapes were.

A swarm of Army Ants. Right now, one of them was biting a fellow soldier in half with its sharp jaws.

“U-Uwaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!”