How to Survive on the Armored Front

Chapter 26

"Turn around and stand! Hurry!"

"Damn it, you humans!"

The village, now packed with Greyhound company members, had turned into a prison.

Four machine guns positioned on the high ground watched the young people gathered in the square without a gap, and Penal Corps members scattered throughout every corner to keep the others from leaving their homes.

"I am truly ashamed. To show such rudeness to our guest...."

"I understand. It was an unavoidable situation."

"Th-then what will happen to our sons..."

"That will be for the higher-ups to decide."

The village head's expression grew urgent as he spotted his son among the young people lined up facing the wall, clutching a hand bloodied by a bullet.

Even if their thoughts differed, they were still his kin.

He could not help but worry.

"Big brother!"

Rana, seated on Glaepnir's hand, waved to Yaan.

"Nill. Let her down."

Following his order, Glaepnir's arm slowly descended. Rana hopped down and leapt to cling to Yaan.

"Thanks to you, I'm still alive."

"I did great, didn't I! Cough! Hehe!"

Rana, clinging to Yaan while speaking, made him feel something odd.

'Cough? She didn't do that when we first met.'

Voices from the young people watching Rana in Yaan's arms began to reach him, one by one.

Every one of them was a chilling curse.

"That demon-possessed wench...."

"She watched her own parents get swallowed by the ruin, and now she's handing our whole village over to the humans!"

"We should've snapped her neck with her grandmother long ago!"

To the superstitious young elves, Rana-who could move the Ancient ruin-was an object of hostility and scorn.

"Everything went wrong because of you, you filthy bitch!"

One of the young elves shouted and rushed forward.

- Hostile action confirmed. Further approach will result in suppression.

At Yaan's command, Glaepnir clenched its fist before them.

"Ugh!?"

The sight made the young elves tremble at the colossus's towering presence.

"Please move aside. I have something to ask of you."

"Cough! Then I'll wait at the ruin! The thing big brother left is inside!"

Hearing Rana's words, Yaan fell into thought.

It was a remote spot far from the village, and as a fellow elf she should be in no great danger.

"Then do that. I'll follow once things are settled."

"Okay! Got it!"

Watching Rana run out of the village, Yaan noticed moisture on the uniform where she had clung. He glanced at the spot.

"This... is blood?"

One of the Penal Corps members approached Yaan.

"Company commander. That child just now...."

"Keep an eye on her. She's important."

"Understood."

Having assigned one Penal Corps member as escort, Yaan turned to question the village head.

"Any additional information? Depending on your statement, some leniency may be possible."

Prompted, the flustered village head began to spill everything he had heard.

"They say the Alfraian Army will enter the village by tomorrow."

"Yes. But I, an old man, don't know exactly how many...."

"Your son might know."

After speaking, Yaan looked toward the elf cradling his arm.

While two members watched, the elf grimaced under Yaan's gaze as he used healing magic to stop the bleeding.

"I believe I must interrogate him. May I use the storehouse?"

"P-please, I beg you! He made a mistake, but he's the one who will lead our village someday...."

"Don't worry. We won't kill him."

Yaan recalled the Penal Corps' traditional interrogation-lining them up, executing one per question, or advancing them step by step toward a pit of burning oil-but the 13th Prince's order prevented that.

'Torturing him rashly would gain us nothing....'

They were only honored as guests while he did no harm.

Torturing these villagers-who were also family to the residents-would make further cooperation impossible.

In the worst case, the entire village could become a new Alfraian Army base.

Creeak-

Lost in thought, Yaan led the village head's son into the storehouse.

One Greyhound company member stood outside the door; another entered to prepare for any sudden situation.

"For a storehouse, the building is...."

"Too shabby compared to what you humans are used to?"

"No, it looks better than our headquarters."

Yaan replied to the elf's taunt and surveyed the interior.

With all the materials removed for the festival ruse, only piled sacks remained.

"No table, I see. We'll have to do this standing."

After speaking, Yaan looked at the elf's hand.

The bleeding had stopped, but the hand was bandaged for regeneration.

"That looks fine. Let's start the questions."

At Yaan's voice, the young elf clenched his teeth.

"Name."

"I have no name to give to human scum...!"

Thud!

Yaan's boot slammed into the taunting elf's abdomen. The elf crashed into the wall with a thud.

"Name."

"Wh-what the hell are you doing, you bastard...!"

Thud!

Yaan kicked the prone elf in the gut again and repeated the question.

"Name."

Coughing and shaking, the elf now understood Yaan's interrogation style.

His eyes paled as he watched Yaan wait for the coughing to stop.

"Ke... Kerel."

"Kerel? That's an Alfraian name. Are your parents from Alfraia?"

"I chose it myself. One day I'll become a knight and wipe out you humans!"

Expecting another kick, Kerel shut his eyes tight, but Yaan simply nodded calmly.

"Fine. Name's Kerel. You gave information to Alfraia to become a knight...."

"Y-you're not going to hit me anymore...?"

Yaan's expression remained unchanged as he looked at Kerel.

"You're answering sincerely. No need."

Kerel looked bewildered.

"Next question. Do you know the size of the elf force coming here?"

"Even if I know, why should I tell...!"

Thud!

Another kick followed.

Without even glancing at Kerel, sent flying into the wall again, Yaan dusted off his uniform.

"We're short on time. Let's keep this simple, okay?"

"Just kill me! I'd rather die than help humans...!"

"I was planning to, but the higher-ups said not to."

You were originally planning to do that? Kerel's eyes, thinking that, shifted to the shoulder board on Yaan's shoulder.

A hunting-dog emblem biting a human arm. And the instant he saw the brand engraved beneath it, Kerel's face went deathly pale.

"P-Penal Corps?"

"Hm? Ah, this?"

Seeing Yaan casually show the shoulder board on his shoulder, Kerel felt like chewing out the village head and elders who'd had no interest in humans.

'These are the guys who wiped out the next village wholesale! Why on earth did you bring monsters like that into our village!?'

Any thought of dragging out the interrogation to buy time vanished completely.

Terror-that a single misspoken word could now get the entire village massacred-swept over him.

"And one more thing. If the knights come into the village as-is, you won't get out unscathed either."

Saying that, Yaan opened one of the bundles stacked against the warehouse wall.

Rustle-clatter!

"Wh-what is this?"

"Canned food, hardtack, combat rations. Everything the Imperial Army paid this village over the past week under the name of tolls. It's military supply, so no guarantees on taste."

The wrappers of the countless military rations scattered at Yaan's feet bore the logo of Vailsar Distribution, a state-run enterprise of the Vailsar Empire.

"Alfraia treats anyone holding Imperial coin as an enemy. If they spot these supplies, which of you do you think the Alfraian knights you summoned will try to kill first?"

"So you planned to bind our village to your side with these rations!"

"Of course. Did you think the Imperial Army approached you without any guarantees? We're not fools."

Hearing that, Kerel clenched his teeth.

At this rate, the elf knights he'd summoned would end up slaughtering every villager.

"I'll ask again. The elf knights you called-tell me their numbers."

Realizing everything had already been finished without his knowledge, Kerel quietly dropped his head.

Be murdered by the Alfraian knights who saw the rations, or collude with the humans to lure them into a trap.

Neither was a good choice for the village, but now there was no alternative.

Even now, the elf army he'd summoned would be marching toward the village.

"Fine. I'll tell you. The knight order's size is-"

"Company Commander!"

Just as Kerel started to speak, the warehouse door burst open and someone entered.

It was Dandel, looking frantic.

"What is it?"

"The lookout sent a flare signal. Confirmed two Alfraian Army colossi; they'll reach the village in fifteen minutes."

"What!?"

The one shocked by those words wasn't Yaan but Kerel.

"Impossible. If they came with the main force, even at top speed they shouldn't arrive until tomorrow afternoon...."

"If they sent only the colossi without infantry escort, it's perfectly possible."

Seizing the area first had bought them a little time-that was small comfort.

Yaan stepped out of the warehouse and surveyed the village once.

'Right now they're under control, but the moment the Elf Kingdom colossi appear they'll turn hostile.'

Even if they tried to dispose of the weapons hidden in the other buildings, time was the issue.

Once battle started, the villagers would side with their young fighters regardless of the sides.

If he rashly deployed Glaepnir, the other elves might sense something amiss and resist.

'Even if we can suppress them, the instant there's a casualty among the villagers or my men, cooperation with this village ends.'

If this village-mediator for the surrounding elf villages-turned against them, they'd have to fight a guerrilla war all the way to the ruin and bleed forces.

"Second Lieutenant Dandel."

"Yes, sir."

Having finished his thoughts, Yaan called Dandel, and his answer came immediately.

"Lock the elves gathered in the square in this warehouse, and position the rest of the troops in ambush."

"Understood."

Receiving Yaan's order, Dandel hurried off, and Yaan turned his steps toward Glaepnir.

"You're turning the village... into a battlefield!?"

War.

When that word, once so distant, brushed against his skin, the young elf shuddered.

"Yes. Probably the kind of situation your father would've done anything to avoid."

Kerel clenched his teeth, recalling the face of his father-the village head who had tried to stop him.

In wartime, resources dried up and skirmishes between villages were common; taking the Empire's scraps had been the best choice available.

The grain they procured from the city could not support the entire village.

"The Imperial Army took every possible measure to keep the village off Alfraia's radar."

"If you people hadn't come, none of this would've happened!"

"Tell that to the half-elf named Rael who introduced us to this village. We came on his recommendation."

Hearing that, Kerel fell silent for a moment.

"...What? Rael?"

Kerel's face turned ashen as he answered belatedly. Seeing it, Yaan wondered if he'd said something strange, when Kerel's voice, now deathly pale, reached him.

"Alfraia's intelligence unit brought the Imperial Army into our village-what are you talking about?"

"...Intelligence unit?"

At that moment, the voice of a smirking green-haired elf brushed through Yaan's mind.

'Alfraian elves think I'm something beneath goblins.'

'I've never once considered them my kin.'

Right.

Something had been off.

How could Randel, dispatched to the front barely a week ago, collude with the elf army to set him up?

Why had information about this village surfaced right when the war ended, as if tailored for the moment?

And why had he tried so hard to bring Yaan and his men into the village unarmed?

"Hey."

"Yes, Company Commander."

Yaan called the guard posted outside the warehouse and asked,

"The elf called Rael who came with us-where is he now?"

After a moment's thought, the guard spoke as if recalling something.

"While we were securing the village, he said he'd check if anyone had gone toward the ruin and vanished."

The ruin.

The place Rana had gone to moments ago.

Hearing where Rael was headed, Yaan clenched his fist tight.

***

"Wh-what do you think you're doing, you pointy-eared bastard...!"

"Humans really are better than elves after all. Always calling us pointy-ears, elves. Still, at least they treat us like elves."

At the entrance to the ruin.

Rael answered the Penal Corps member whose chest had been brutally slashed open, then looked at the girl watching him.

"You don't seem very surprised?"

"I've seen plenty. In dreams."

"Oh? Even if your blood's diluted, it seems you still have some shamanic ability."

As he spoke, Rael approached Rana, a thick syringe with a trigger and handle in his hand.

"It'll hurt less than what the villagers did to you. So stay still."

"Cough, cough! Planning to enter the inner sanctum?"

Inner sanctum. Hearing that, Rael's mouth curved into a smile.

"Yes. There's something I've searched for my whole life."

"You can't open it with Rana's blood. She can only open the door."

"I know. But a guest's blood should work, shouldn't it?"

Saying that, Rael's smile deepened as he drew closer.

"What are you planning to do to my brother?"

Rana asked, unease on her face. Gradually the smile on his lips widened, the corners of his mouth stretching toward his ears.

A chilling visage that no one could imagine belonged to an elf.

"If you don't obey me, I'll kill you."