Player Who Became A Constellation [EN]: Chapter 96

As the Ronia army marched across the frozen lake, a regular soldier, sensing something was amiss, turned back and frowned.

“…Doesn’t it feel like we’re getting smaller?”

At his comrade’s words, other soldiers also turned around.

The harsh blizzard and fog made it nearly impossible to discern the surrounding landscape.

However, they could vaguely make out figures, assuring them that their comrades were following.

“How would I know? In this fog and blizzard, there are bound to be deserters. I wish I could run away too.”

In such conditions, it was natural for stragglers and deserters to appear. It wasn’t even a situation where they could afford to punish deserters.

If this was the case even for the regular army, who had been provided with warm furs, what about the peasant soldiers?

It was practically impossible to control them.

“Damn it. I should have left the country before the war started…! Ugh…! My mouth is frozen, and I can’t even speak properly.”

At that moment, the soldiers felt a squishy sensation under their feet.

“……?”

Looking down, they saw the corpse of a Ronia soldier, seemingly ambushed.

“…A, ambush-!”

The panicked soldier shouted urgently.

“What?!”

The soldiers quickly turned their heads this way and that.

But all they could see were swirling blizzards and bewildered figures.

The enemy was nowhere to be seen.

“Nonsense! Don’t incite chaos!”

The commanding officer, trying to maintain order, yelled at the top of his lungs, but his voice was swallowed by the blizzard.

There were those who watched the soldiers’ chaotic 모습 [Korean: state/appearance] from afar.

Those who had been lying prone in the snow slowly rose and raised their longbows.

They numbered about a hundred.

Silently, they drew arrows and aimed at the Ronia army.

The unique turquoise eyes of the Nord peered through the white mist at the shadows.

The bowstrings tightened, and fingers were released.

The arrows pierced through the blizzard and fog, striking the soldiers.

“Ugh!”

“A, arrows!”

“Where?! Where are they?!”

“Catch them!”

The Ronia army began to scatter and fragment.

The formation collapsed, and they each moved to search for the enemy.

Since they couldn’t tell where the enemy was, their only option was to scatter and find them.

The Nord showered them with arrows and gestured, drawing their swords.

The opponents were mostly peasant soldiers.

Even if there were regular soldiers, they were nothing more than wandering beasts since the formation had collapsed.

Now… it was time to hunt the scattered, weak beasts.

***

Screams echoed throughout the Ronia army.

“Aaaagh-!”

“What? What’s going on?”

The supply unit at the rear was confused by the commotion in front.

The screams pierced through the rough wind and blizzard.

The supply unit hastily armed themselves but didn’t know how to respond.

Then, a Ronia soldier emerged from the blizzard.

Blood flowed from his head, and his arm was severed.

His face was filled with despair, but strangely, the corners of his mouth were raised.

“Wh, what is it?”

As the supply unit shouted at the Ronia soldier, his head separated from his body and fell to the ground.

Startled, they saw a group leisurely walking out of the mist.

“Are you the supply unit?”

A female knight with a blood-stained sword smiled brightly.

Her expression was as warm as a sunflower, but her sword was covered in blood.

It was a truly eerie smile.

“Wow~! Is this all food?”

“Ooh! So much fur too!”

They were clad in white masks, helmets, and armor. It was the Nord army.

The Ronia army was startled and aimed their swords and spears, but the opponents didn’t take any hostile actions.

Rather, they seemed to ignore the supply unit in front of them, merely scanning the supply wagons.

Feeling a sense of unease from their actions, the Ronia army slowly retreated.

“…D, die-!”

A courageous soldier charged forward, thrusting his spear.

But his courage was in vain as the soldier’s head was mercilessly split in two.

“……!”

“Huh? What? Still here? I was going to spare you if you just left the supplies… What do we do, Lady Priestess?”

At the Nord soldier’s words, the female knight, Cancun, looked at the Ronia soldiers and said.

“I’m sorry. We need to take your supplies! So….”

As she swung her sword, the bodies of three Ronia soldiers split apart vertically.

“…These supplies are mine now.”

As she snapped her fingers, the massacre began.

Necks were cut, bodies were pierced, and they died, scattering blood.

“I, I surrender!”

Eventually, some Ronia soldiers surrendered, throwing away their weapons.

The Nord soldiers bound them and dragged them away.

The remaining Nord soldiers looked at the five supply wagons and clicked their tongues.

Cancun nodded, seemingly satisfied.

“Let’s be satisfied with this for today. It seems physically difficult to aim for other supplies. We can take it easy.”

She shouted.

“Move the supplies now! And move the corpses too!”

The Nord soldiers looked at each other, tilting their heads.

“The corpses too?”

Cancun also said, puzzled.

“I don’t know, it’s a direct order from Loki.”

The Nord soldiers nodded and dragged away the corpses of the Ronia soldiers.

“Alright, let’s move quickly.”

“Wait a moment.”

As the Nord soldiers looked at the supplies, Cancun intervened.

She stared blankly at the supplies loaded on the wagon.

Soon, she drew her sword and aimed it.

“Who are you? Reveal yourself.”

The Nord soldiers looked at the supplies, each wondering.

Soon, they also sensed something and drew their swords.

Perhaps it was because of the killing intent.

The supplies stirred, and hands appeared from within.

“W, wait! Don’t attack!”

And a man walked out.

Cancun looked at the man, released her sword hilt, and showed a surprised expression.

“A, it’s an ally! An ally! Ah!!! Y, you’ve seen me before! It’s me! Me!”

For some reason, it was a familiar middle-aged man.

But Cancun didn’t remember anyone with such a slender continental appearance.

‘Where have I seen him before?’

Cancun put her finger on her chin and pondered.

Thanks to that, a long silence came, and just as the impatient Nord soldiers were about to approach him-.

Cancun looked at the ‘noble man’ and remembered someone.

“Ah!”

A plump body and a well-groomed mustache.

The person who betrayed Ash and started a rebellion under Loki’s orders!

“…Marquis Hallo?”

“H, Marquis Hallum! You ignorant-!”

“…….”

“Ahem-!”

Hallum glanced at the Nord soldiers and changed his tone.

“Th, that is… Ah! Priestess! Yes! I think that’s what I was called!”

Hallum, with a gaunt face, raised both hands to Cancun, indicating his surrender.

“Take me, take me to the Devil!”

***

Loki tilted his head.

“…It’s been a while, Hallum.”

Marquis Hallum, no, Baron.

He was kneeling before Loki, his head buried on the floor.

“A, I see the Devil!”

“Call me Loki.”

…Why is this guy here?

I told Cancun to pick up supplies, and she picked up this guy.

Loki glanced at Cancun, and she scratched her cheek, avoiding Loki’s gaze.

Loki looked at Baron Hallum.

Was it because of his gaze?

The quick-witted Hallum quickly opened his mouth.

“A, as a result of taking responsibility for the rebellion, King Ash assigned me to the military unit. H, however, I never intended to point my sword at Loki!”

“I see.”

“Th…therefore, I hope Loki will spare my life….”

King Ash assigning Hallum to the military.

That was a decision made to eliminate Hallum’s influence and find a justification to kill him.

As it was a conflict zone, the distance from the capital would naturally increase, reducing Hallum’s influence, and if an accident occurred in the military, he could be punished for it.

Or, he could be killed in a staged accident.

It was Ash’s intention to cleanly dispose of Hallum without the backlash from the nobles and the Holy Order.

Hallum, knowing this fact, sought help from Loki to survive.

“…Why should I?”

“Yes?”

Hallum raised his head to look at Loki, but when he saw his blazing eyes, his face turned pale, and he immediately buried his head on the floor.

“You failed to complete the mission I gave you. I told you to catch Ash….”

He ended up catching an innocent wizard boy.

Hallum sensed that Loki was displeased.

“P, please give me another chance!”

“Chance?”

“Yes, yes! If you give me a miracle once again… th, then… I will punish Ash again!”

“Hmm….”

At Loki’s dry response, Hallum sweated profusely and opened his mouth again.

“My loyalty…. no, I will prove my faith!”

“How?”

“I, I know the strength, strategy, troop movement routes, and supply routes of this Ronia expeditionary force. And its weaknesses! All of it-!”

Hallum pressed his head further into the ground, and the blood from his forehead soaked the floor.

“I will tell you!”

At those words, Loki smiled.

***

The command of the 10,000-strong vanguard of the Ronia army was 맡은 [Korean: entrusted] by a noble from the Timon barony.

“About 100 soldiers were killed in the ambush, about 40 were slightly injured, and…. Baron Hallum, the commander of the supply unit, has gone missing.”

It had only been four days since they entered the frozen lake.

Timon could only groan at the damage to his troops.

“And…. there are no corpses that appear to be from the enemy. The opponent either collected them or….”

Timon pinched the bridge of his nose as he looked at the reporting commander.

“It seems that we haven’t killed a single enemy soldier.”

In the world, even if they were ambushed, they couldn’t kill a single one?

This was an absurdly unbelievable result.

‘…The enemy’s movements were systematic. They moved as fluidly as if they had lived on the lake their whole lives.’

He knew how strong the Nord were. But he didn’t expect this kind of result.

Even though the main force was made up of unskilled peasant soldiers, how could they be so helpless!

‘…What’s more dangerous is this environment.’

There were about 200 stragglers since entering the frozen lake.

Even at this moment, soldiers were continuing to freeze to death.

It would take several more days to reach the frozen land.

How many would die by then?

‘This is crazy!’

Timon gritted his teeth.

‘They didn’t even provide proper supplies because we’re the vanguard. Most of it is concentrated in the main force.’

They probably don’t care if the peasant soldiers freeze to death.

At this rate, they won’t last long.

‘Should I wait and join the central army?’

That was the best option for now.

If they marched further, he didn’t know how many more soldiers they would lose.

But they couldn’t retreat either.

“For now, we will conserve our forces as much as possible. Tell the soldiers to rest as much as possible….”

Thud!

Shriek-!

As Timon was speaking, an arrow pierced through the tent.

The tent tore, and the blizzard came straight in.

“What’s going on?!”

Another ambush?!

At the same time as that thought, Timon could see.

The sight visible through the torn tent was….

“Ambush-!”

A campsite engulfed in flames.

“……!”

Fire arrows rained down from the mist.

The fire arrows quickly went out on the snow, but the torn and burning tents couldn’t be stopped by the blizzard.

“What…?”

The fire arrows weren’t targeting the soldiers.

The tents where they could rest.

They were attacking that.

“Could it be…?”

The Nord were… eliminating the means to rest.

“……!”

“Take down the tents!”

“Protect the lodgings!”

The muscles around Timon’s eyes twitched.

The soldiers desperately tried to protect the tents.

The enemy only shot fire arrows and didn’t approach.

The barracks are disappearing?

It would take two days for the central army to arrive.

While waiting for their arrival, the soldiers would freeze to death in the cold without even meeting the enemy.

This was truly the worst situation.