Inn Overlord: Reincarnated with Enhancement Magic, Now Worshipped as a Divine Messenger! - Chapter 38
(From the perspective of Thomas Wade, one of the Four Knights of the Empire)
Last night, the Imperial soldiers crossed the border and launched a surprise attack on Noonan Village, which is near the border.
Even though it’s called ‘near,’ it actually takes quite some time to get there after crossing the border. If the target town, Barmuller, is located roughly north of the border, then Noonan Village is in the northeast direction.
If you connect the border, Noonan Village, and Barmuller with lines, you could say they form a triangle.
Whether the operation at Noonan Village succeeded or failed didn’t really matter to us.
That village is near the Forest of Evil, and adventurers stay there. We were ordered to kill even those adventurers.
If the attack succeeded, the adventurers’ comrades would surely report them missing, and the Adventurers’ Guild would notice something strange.
Also, if we occupied Noonan Village, new adventurers would come there for quests in the Forest of Evil. It would only be a matter of time before people found out that the Empire took over Noonan Village.
If the attack failed, the information would reach Barmuller anyway. And that was fine too. That way, people in Barmuller wouldn’t notice the betrayal of Margrave Burlington to their west.
From the start, we had been secretly preparing to attack Barmuller.
The Chancellor worked hard to fool the spies of the Kingdom of Schmar who had snuck into the Empire, and to transport supplies disguised as merchant wagons.
We haven’t heard any reports from the assassins who attacked Noonan Village, but in war, things like this happen often.
That’s why we planned a strategy where we would gain something whether it succeeded or failed.
I asked again if there had been any contact about the Noonan Village attack.
“No, nothing yet!”
“Got it.”
I said that, then raised my voice to the army of twenty thousand soldiers.
“From now, we will cross the border into the Kingdom of Schmar and march toward the small city of Barmuller!!”
Each of the twenty thousand soldiers raised their weapons and responded to my words.
“Ooooooooh!!!!”
“Uwoooooooooh!!!!”
“Oooooooooooh!!!!”
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(From the perspective of Klaus Hoppe, border guard of the Kingdom of Schmar)
The same view as always spread out before me.
I felt relieved by this unchanged scenery.
Because last night, I had a dream that nearly 400 Imperial soldiers crossed this border.
But now, the scenery and my workplace are just like usual.
—Was that really a dream?
I talked to my fellow guard Grimm about the dream I had yesterday, without saying it was a dream.
I thought if Grimm had any thoughts about it, he might take me seriously.
But—
“You’re still a coward, huh? Must’ve just been a dream, right?”
“S-Shut up! I really saw it!”
He always makes fun of me, but I didn’t say it was just a dream. I insisted I saw it, hoping to push back against him at least a little.
But somehow, that dream felt so real.
Grimm said,
“Then why didn’t you report it if Imperial soldiers came? Why’d you just go to sleep?”
“T-That’s because I was really sleepy…”
“You fell asleep during a national emergency? Man, I can’t tell if you’re a coward or just got nerves of steel! Hahaha!”
He was right. Even though it could’ve been a big deal, I couldn’t stay awake.
Then, a senior guard called out from behind Grimm, who was still laughing.
“Hey, you two.”
We turned around and greeted him.
I was about to ask him about last night, but he spoke first.
“Today is the last day that Adler and I will be guarding this border.”
Adler was a senior like him, meaning both of them were ahead of us.
Grimm asked,
“Huh!? Where are you getting transferred to?”
“Not this remote place anymore. Adler and I will work as government officials in the royal capital.”
“That’s nice~ Ahh, I wanna go to the capital and visit one of those fancy places with pretty ladies~”
“Hahaha! Then work hard so you can make that happen.”
“Yes!”
“Y-Yes.”
I copied Grimm and answered.
Then I looked at the senior guard’s face, ready to ask about last night.
“Last night—”
But I stopped mid-sentence.
Because the senior’s face was twisted in fear.
“W-What’s wrong!?”
The senior guard trembled as he spoke.
“N-No way…”
Grimm asked,
“What do you mean?”
The senior pointed with a shaking finger behind us—toward the Victor Empire’s territory.
We quickly turned around.
A huge cloud of dust was rising.
And unlike the dream I had yesterday, we could clearly see a massive army coming to invade the Kingdom of Schmar.
We started to hear the rumble of the earth and the loud battle cries.
Grimm and I began to tremble.
“W-Why!?”
The senior’s voice overlapped with Grimm’s question.
“T-This isn’t what we were told…”