Chapter 84: Siege Battle

Let me reveal the trick.

Gunfire rang out. Screams rang out. Death throes rang out.

That was true. But there were those who lost arms. Those who lost legs. Those who lost their lives.

That was a lie.

We were mercenaries. Hired mercenaries. Mercenaries in a weak position.

As mercenaries, we had no choice but to obey our esteemed employer, but we still valued our own lives. They were our tools of the trade, so of course we did.

Which meant the screams His Excellency heard were nothing more than people shouting at the Monoz serving as communicators.

Everyone was fine.

To be honest, we had been planning to abandon His Excellency.

If we deserted in the face of the enemy, it would cause problems for our future work. In the worst case, the company we belonged to would dispose of us. If we killed our employer, we would be killed even without needing the worst case.

So if I failed to persuade him, His Excellency, the Operations Staff Officer, and Sergeant were going to have an accident.

What an unfortunate incident that was…

That was the idea.

We would fight, technically. But we would not try very hard. We would prioritize our own defense and let most of them through. Then, goodbye, once the surging swarm attacked. Since the employer with command authority would be dead, everyone would withdraw at their own discretion. That was the rough plan.

There would be casualties on our side before His Excellency and the others died, but at least we would have the excuse that we had done our jobs.

Incidentally, if that plan had been adopted, my own death rate would probably have been over eighty percent. Having lost one leg, that was just how it was.

But His Excellency had somehow reconsidered, so we could take a plan with a higher survival rate.

A siege battle, as they called it.

We only had to hold out until support arrived from the main force.

Just looking at the words, it sounded easy.

…Unfortunately, only the words did.

The mercenaries were returning while conducting delaying actions.

We had mobilized every Monoz to fortify the place, but progress was still questionable.

Barricades, fences, walls. We were also preparing the familiar trenches. Monoz were incredible. The place was being fortified at a speed impossible for humans.

Even so, there was no time.

“…What to do?”

Scratch, scratch. I scratched my head. This was troubling.

“How is progress?”

An old man’s voice spoke to me. When I looked, Sergeant was there.

“…I managed to dig out a pretty big booger earlier.”

I answered him in a somewhat low voice.

The look I gave him was not a very pleasant one either.

Of course it wasn’t.

At the moment, my opinion of him was low. Naturally. He had threatened us and used us.

Until now, I had trusted him because he had been the most reasonable person on the employer’s side.

But he had betrayed that trust.

The Operations Staff Officer, who had driven us into a deadly situation out of ignorance, and Sergeant, who had understood the situation and still driven us into a deadly situation. The result was the same either way. Therefore, the feelings I directed at them were the same.

“You seem to be in a rather bad mood.”

“I was already having trouble because the work isn’t keeping up, and then someone I hate came over to talk to me…”

So please go over there, Uncle Tom.

As I said that, I pointed toward the enemy lines. Please die. Those were the words I left unsaid.

“There are building materials and sandbags in the warehouse. This place is on high ground. Use them to make a fort.”

Map data was sent to me. The Horse Unit was nearby. I had it checked. They were really there.

“…You are awfully well prepared.”

“I am.”

“…Almost as if you knew this would happen.”

“Hardly.”

“…Having everyone on the employer’s side be incompetent is the worst thing for a mercenary, you know?”

“Indeed.”

“…Having everyone on the employer’s side be untrustworthy is also the worst thing, you know?”

“Quite true.”

The scar-faced old man grinned.

“…”

I looked at him in silence.

“…”

He looked back at me in silence.

Three minutes.

“I received information that the bugs, who had been quiet for the past several decades, were becoming active.”

He was the one who broke.

“The young master’s family produces excellent commanders, you see. This was for the future.”

“…Talent doesn’t live in the blood.”

“True. Talent is made through education.”

“…So you threw His Excellency onto the battlefield?”

“That is why I made preparations and gathered skilled mercenaries for his safety.”

Ah, I see. So that was why I was here, why Shinzo was here, and why even Yuri had been brought in.

“Shit.”

Having been selected as teaching material for His Excellency’s growth, I cursed loudly enough for him to hear.

***

Having been chosen as teaching material, there was nothing I could do about it.

I was being paid, so there was nothing I could do about it.

I would work. And I would make it out alive.

“So that’s how it is, Shinzo. You’re the key. If you have any last words, I’ll hear them.”

“There’s daifuku in the tent.”

“Understood. I’ll eat them for you. By the way, are they smooth red bean paste?”

“Obviously they’re chunky red bean paste, right?”

“What a shame. I’m a smooth red bean paste man.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. So make it back alive and eat them yourself.”

End communication. I shoved the terminal into my pocket and turned toward headquarters, where Shinzo was heading alone.

The fort was complete.

Because it was improvised, the walls were breached often, but with so many Monoz who were first-rate engineers, repairing the fort was easy enough. We had building materials. We had food. We could hold out for a while. But only for a while.

That was why, today, Shinzo would break through the encirclement alone and call for reinforcements.

A breakthrough at a single point. The Sheepherd puppy would run across the battlefield.

“Now then.”

My job as a hound was to make a path for him.

I moved. My left leg had been repaired in an extremely simple way. It was just a rod attached to me. Hard to walk on. The Horse Unit came over, so I climbed onto its back and used it to move.

I approached one of the watchtowers we had built, the one assigned to me.

There was a ladder. Of course, I could not use it.

“Sheep Unit, prepare to launch.”

The Ox Unit and Dragon Unit, two large units, spun with a keening whine. The Sheep Unit leaped between them. It was shot upward. Boing. It landed directly on the watchtower. Since preparations seemed to be complete, I grabbed the rope hanging down. Not by human power, but by Monoz power, I was hauled up.

“…Now then.”

I took the Type Five from my back. The view was good from up high. We were surrounded, so everything around us was enemy and target.

If I could see them, that meant they could see me.

If I could see them, I could hit them. So I should assume the enemy could hit me too.

My back tingled. A premonition of death. Something like that, perhaps.

I just had to shoot before I was shot.

The dead had no mouths and no killing intent. Once I killed them, they could not shoot me.

“…”

I took a deep breath. The air atop the watchtower felt a little colder.

It felt good to fill my lungs with cold air.