Evade The Hero and Flee!

Chapter 318

#34. Everyone has a plan… (1)  

“This is the amount we can offer.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much.” 

“No, not at all. The Demon King is the enemy of the world. Rather, we should apologize for not being able to fight alongside you.”

The one who kept grabbing my hand and paying endless thanks was the Count who had come from the neighboring country.  

The situation was dire with the Demon King right at our doorstep, making everyone anxious. When the dwarves personally offered to provide their latest weapons free of charge, how could he not be grateful?

“No, really, thank you.”  

Seeing a high nobility Count kneel down to the ground, I could tell how powerful the Demon King’s momentum was.  

Rather than explaining thousands of times, it’s better to show once.  

We decided to bring out a prepared magical device (failure) and demonstrate.  

“If you preload the arrows like this, it works. Think of it as loading a crossbow. It might be easier to understand.”

*click*

I directed the dwarf attendant to demonstrate the loading motion.  

“After that, just put a magic stone in the back mechanism. And when you press fire….”

Boom!

With an explosive noise, hundreds of arrows loaded in the magical device flew up into the sky.

“All loaded arrows will fire like this.”

“Oh, incredible!”  

“The important part is that you can confirm where the arrows land.”

I took the Count of the neighboring country, whose jaws had dropped in awe, to where the target of the magical device was.  

Now was not the time to be impressed yet.

“Th-this is unbelievable!”

I looked at the Count, his jaws wide open once again, with a satisfied expression.

Yes, you should be amazed when you see such innovative technology.

“What do you think?”

“A-amazing. There is the disadvantage that it takes quite some time to reload, but with this much firepower, it’s well worth taking on.” 

Where the arrows of the magical device landed was a rocky mountain nearby.  

In various parts of the rocky mountain, which was full of extremely hard rocks, arrows fired from the magical device were stuck.

“Arrows that can pierce steel…”

To further emphasize the visual impact, I had placed steel shields made of iron in various parts of the rocky mountain. 

Seeing the power of the dwarf-made magical device (failed product) that pierced even the steel shields, he shivered.

“W-with this…”

“Yes. This level of power should be enough to attack the evil god’s army.”

There is only one reason why so many kingdoms have collapsed before the evil god’s army.  

Because the evil god’s army was far too strong.  

Saying this might sound obvious.

The strong wins and the weak losses.

No matter how many excuses there may be for defeat, the reason why one loses in war is because the enemy was strong and one’s own army was weak.  

Whether it be numbers, quality of troops, ability of generals.  

Eventually, evaluating all those things becomes combat power. The strong prevails and the weak falls, that is the way of things.

However, the evil god’s army needs to be evaluated a bit differently.

Empowerment.  

All monsters tainted by evil become empowered.  

Even goblins, considered the weakest monsters, demonstrate the combat power of a single soldier once tainted by evil.

Normally, goblins are monsters that even beginning adventurers can catch. But the moment they are tainted by evil, they transform into monsters even specialized goblin slayers find difficult to deal with.

Especially orcs, usually seen as a training game, become extremely tricky once tainted by evil.  

Ordinary arrows become useless, and only personnel at the level of junior knights capable of using swordsmanship can inflict damage.

The bow. It is the basis of war.

Why give spears to soldiers rather than swords?  

Because spears are faster to learn and easier to utilize compared to swords.  

What is generally expected of soldiers is to form formations.  

It is unfair to expect combat abilities beyond that from people who normally farm the land and raise livestock for food.  

That’s why spears rather than swords are given to them.  

In battles between humans, just forming spear formations is enough to efficiently deal with enemy attacks.

The reason bows are the basis of war is the same.  

Even easier to use than spears.  

Of course, any soldier trained to an extent would know. That despite appearances, accounting for distance, direction, and wind, bows are extremely difficult weapons compared to directly swinging spears.  

Furthermore, the moment magic is used, it shows the highest difficulty among all weapons!

The fact that the number of bowmasters do not amount to even one tenth the number of swordsmasters shows this common knowledge.

Yet in war, accuracy was unneeded.  

In wars with armies numbering hundreds of thousands to millions, accuracy does not matter.  

Simply put, if you shoot, someone is bound to get hit.  

To state it accurately, whether they are hit or not, no one can tell.

Merely grab arrows and shoot in the direction the enemy is located, end of story.  

Yet that alone poses significant threat to the enemy.  

It is no coincidence many major figures in history died after catching a stray arrow in war.

Arrows shot wildly with no aim.  

The irregularity brought by that creates unexpected variables.  

That alone?  

The moment one stands on the castle walls, arrows become weapons that hit as long as you shoot.  

As the saying goes, everything on castle walls become weapons.  

Even an average pebble becomes an instant kill weapon if it hits, and hot water also becomes an area attack able to inflict wide range damage the moment it is poured.  

Even the falling enemies essentially become weapons in this world.  

There, even 10 year old children can stop enemies by pulling bowstrings, the moment they can do so.

But all this is ineffective against the evil god’s army.

In the evil god’s army, arrows only work against goblins or tainted animals.   

Commonly known as monsters – orcs, ogres, trolls – become immune to arrows the moment they become the evil god’s army.  

Well, it’s not that some actual immunity ability is granted.   

It is just that the monsters themselves become stronger so arrows inflict no damage.

In the case of orcs, which show the greatest numbers alongside goblins, arrows merely expand skin wounds. For ogres, arrows bounce off harmlessly unless magic power is used.

Therefore, ordinary people, as well as well-trained soldiers, are of no help when fighting the evil god forces.

The only way for ordinary people to damage the evil god forces was to use siege weapons such as slingshots and ballistas.  

However, except for the great powers, there was no country with many siege weapons.

So ordinary people had no choice but to suck their fingers and watch the kingdom’s destruction or flee to another country.

“I will definitely repay this grace…”

But the moment you use these dwarf weapons, everything changes.

Not only ordinary soldiers, but even ordinary soldiers can be used as combat power!

That alone gave the neighboring country great power.

“Would you like to check the other weapons as well?”

“I’m grateful for your favor. But in a situation where we don’t know when the Demon King will attack, I want to show these weapons to His Majesty as soon as possible.”

I was about to shed tears of emotion at the touch.

At times like this, you have to send it quickly.

“Dharman.”

“Yes, honorary elder.”

Dharman, who had been quietly following me, handed a scroll to the Count.

“I wrote down the average power and usage of the weapons, as well as precautions. Since the commanders on your side are more professional in military affairs than us, please show it to them.”

“Thank you for your consideration.”

“No. Now, other than running away, there’s nothing we can do…”

Having to abandon my hometown and flee.  

He stares into the distance with a bitter expression.

“It can’t be helped.”

Only humans and elves could risk their lives to defend their homeland or country.

The moment the evil god forces approached, the other races had to abandon everything and flee.

The moment they are tainted by evil, they become complicit in destroying the world by betraying the will of God.

“I hope… You keep a place for us to return to.”

“Our Kingdom of Baresseryl will not abandon its territory.”

“May the blessing of the gods be with everyone until the heroes come.”

“May the blessing of the gods be with the sons of the earth.”

We prayed for each other’s future blessings in the name of the gods we each believed in.

“Oh, please wait a moment.”  

“What’s the matter?”

I stopped the people of the neighboring country who were about to leave.

Since I was already bestowing favors, I had to provide some service as well.

“These are weapons that generate special power among the weapons we have developed.”

It would be too mean to only provide the failures that did not produce satisfactory power during development, so I decided to take care of some successful ones as well.

“This one has 10 times the power of the magical artillery you fired earlier. However, special arrows, not ordinary arrows, are required… As it was recently developed, there are not many arrows yet.”

The number of arrows was a little over ten thousand.

“And this is an enchanted ballista arrow. Please use it only when there are no allies nearby and a very powerful enemy, as it has tremendous power.”

What I handed over next was a specially made ballistic arrow that exploded and splintered like a grenade the moment it hit the enemy, creating a tremendous explosion at the same time.

“And these are magic stones, necessary for using magical weapons.”  

The rest were some magic stones collected bit by bit so far.

“Thank you very much.”

Seeing the Count shedding tears for real, I patted his shoulder as if it were nothing.

“Until the kingdom collapses, we will reinforce this castle and make weapons. If the kingdom is in danger by any chance… Please use this castle.”

“I will tell His Majesty.”

As I watched the people from the neighboring country leaving after the final farewell, I smiled benevolently.  

And,

“Dharman.”

“Yes, honorary elder.”

“Have all the dwarves fled according to plan?”

“That’s right.”

“Destination?”

“In the direction the imperial forces are moving.”  

“Fools.”

After hearing all of Dharman’s reports, I scoffed.

“The enemy’s enemy is not an ally.”  

“That’s right.”

If they were ordinary imperial soldiers, they would cooperate when they saw dwarves.

But which unit do the imperial forces coming now belong to?  

It was the Princess’ unit.

Most of the Princess’ unit were those who got hit by the wooden bat, and a few were those that I and the metal bat had beaten up.

To them, dwarves were the most dangerous beings in the world, and the Black Anvil clan were more evil than the followers of the evil god.

“There’s no such suicidal act like that.”  

“They are foolish people who do not see the grand plan of the honorary elder, Hectare.”  

Seeing Dharman, who played the role of double spy perfectly, bow his head, I smiled satisfactorily.  

“You’ve worked hard all this time.”

“No, not at all.”

“I don’t lie. As promised, I will free you, and as long as you do not betray me, you will not be attacked by the metal bat”

“Thank you, honorary elder!”

Seeing Dharman shedding even more emotional tears than the Count, I gave him my last advice.  

“The empire means hell. Your souls will be exploited and you will have to fight the metal bat. So you guys should take refuge in another race.”  

“I understand!”

A few days later, Dharman and the dwarves who followed me all left.

Only I, a human, and the evil god, metal bat, were left in the village of the Black Anvil clan.

“So what do we do now? No matter how perfect this place is, you can’t stop it alone, can you?”

It was the metal bat, kicking the floor in boredom.

“No matter how good the weapons you lent, they were all failures. Such things cannot possibly stop the evil god forces!”

No matter how good a weapon it was, a failure was a failure.  

While good ones had about 50 percent of the power of successful models, most had less than 10 percent power.

Of course, even that alone makes it a revolutionary weapon, but it cannot be compared to successful models containing state-of-the-art dwarf technology.  

“It’s going to fail and bounce away anyway. This way.”  

I subtly showed the bait.

The best castle walls on the continent.  

I hinted that I would make the latest weapons until I was pushed back to it.

From the weapons given as a service, they will know how powerful the latest weapons are!

“This castle was never meant for dwarves in the first place.”

Humans and elves are the only ones who can fight the evil god forces.

No matter how sturdy the castle walls, the moment dwarves make contact near the evil god forces, they become the enemy.  

Would I want a situation where enemies arise naturally inside the castle walls?!

“The Kingdom of Baresseryl will fall, and some of its people will come here!”

I will stay here as long as possible until then, create a scene, and escape.  

The plan was perfect.  

However,  

“Huh?”

The failures were too powerful beyond my expectations.

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