Reader’S Regeneration Life [EN]: Chapter 363

363―――――

One Step Back for Victory

To cut to the chase, Nudia and Hispania decided to withdraw from the defense line.

However, with zealots watching them with fiery eyes, they planned to retreat from the defense line sequentially, as secretly as possible, and by deceiving the zealots.

And in preparation for any eventuality, they increased the number of scouts several times to watch in all directions, and the northern warriors were thoroughly scouring the area with their unique and excellent horsemanship.

“A message has arrived that His Majesty the King has left the royal castle.”

It was a conclusion that Aive came to just one day after listening to Zion.

It seemed that this woman named Aive had quite a lot of influence on King Saradin.

If viewed favorably, she was a reliable vassal, but if interpreted negatively by others, she could be seen as a woman who held the young king in her hands and swayed state affairs.

Aive herself didn’t seem to care about that part at all.

“Everything necessary in preparation for any eventuality had already left for the west.

It was a path that His Majesty the King only needed to head directly to, so he will arrive in Count Basura’s territory without any problems within a week.”

“Will there be enough escort troops?”

“Half of Nudia’s high-ranking knights are there.

Even if all of them die, they will definitely send His Majesty the King to the rear.

It goes without saying, but we have already gone through countless confirmation procedures, so there is no possibility of traitors.”

Originally, more than half of those high-ranking knights would turn their backs later on.

In the first place, Saradin couldn’t even ascend to the throne in the novel, and Aive was eliminated without a sound, so there was no way there would be a countermeasure to stop the crazy zealots.

Afterwards, Aive told Zion about the retreat order.

First, Nudia and Hispania’s wounded soldiers are transported to the rear, and at the same time, more soldiers than usual are removed under the pretext of protecting them.

The empty spaces are deliberately filled with scarecrows to make the zealots mistakenly believe that the number of soldiers is similar to usual when viewed from a distance.

After that, Hispania’s main force retreats quickly in the middle of tomorrow night, and the Nudia army is in charge of the rear, which will remain until the latest to carry out the deception operation.

“The number of people leaving is excessively large, so it could be dangerous.”

“That’s why I’m going to ask you for a favor.

I need the help of the barbarians… the northern warriors who came with Hispania.”

“You’re drawing a picture of them scouting the area while the Nudia main force retreats in the meantime.”

“That’s right.

It would be difficult to find someone in Nudia with better horsemanship than them.

No, to be honest, I can say it’s impossible.”

“The same goes for Hispania.

It’s just that the northern warriors are too great.

So you don’t have to be ashamed of that part.”

When Zion said that, Aive smiled inwardly as if she was grateful and continued.

“At first, the commanders opposed it a lot.

Although it wasn’t a victory we achieved on our own, we achieved something that could be called a great victory against the Holy Prussen, and if Hispania arrived and suddenly mentioned a retreat, they also mentioned the petty problem of what others would think.”

“So what did you do?”

“What else could I do?

I have to use both carrots and sticks at the same time.

I, Aive Gi Lestion, am the one with military power, and my order is to retreat.

Anyone who refuses an order in wartime will be subject to the death penalty without exception, so I told them to continue refusing the order if they wanted to.”

“You whipped them painfully.

Then what is the carrot?”

“I had already coordinated with His Majesty the King in advance.

If a bad situation arises, I can use His Majesty the King’s name at that time.

So I told them.

Their victory has already been reported to His Majesty the King, and he will surely worry about the enemy’s large-scale counterattack while celebrating the victory, so even considering His Majesty the King’s concerns.

And since there is intelligence that the enemy’s reinforcements are arriving one after another, let’s not ruin the good things we did today by being stubborn.”

Could it be that she was influenced by Zion?

Aive was slowly but surely resembling him.

You cannot stabilize the country and the world with only the right path.

If that were the case, how could saints and gentlemen fail and be frustrated?

Light illuminates the darkness, but at the same time, it makes the shadows darker.

Sometimes, it is necessary not only to shine light, but also to darken oneself and make those shadows meaningless.

“The first retreat will take place tonight.

The Hispania army is tomorrow night, so please prepare in advance before then.

Zion Claussen knows better than anyone else that we will be in danger if we delay.”

Of course, Aive nodded at the answer and disappeared into the distance, saying that she was going to check how the wounded were being transported.

Zion, who was staring blankly at her, turned around and headed to his camp.

Originally, he would have had to meet with Marquis Volko and the headquarters staff to discuss various things about the future, but now there was something more important than that.

“Master.”

“Did you tie them up well?”

“Yes.

I made sure to do it the way I learned from Kim Yoo-hyun.”

I don’t know why that guy taught Rishikida how to tie people up.

According to Rishikida, he taught her that with the words, ‘Even things that seem useless in life can be useful if you learn them,’ but no matter how much I think about it, I can’t figure out the reason.

“Where is Ekaterina?”

“She’s waiting inside the camp.”

“Does she complain a lot?”

“I can say it’s better than before.”

It seems that Kim Yoo-hyun and my training are working little by little.

Endurance!

And rest!

In other words, wait!

And go play!

That’s the education.

If I succeed in taming the most wicked beast, I could draw the most satisfying play, so Zion was a little bit 기대하게 되었다 [anticipating it].

‘Ah, no.

Let’s not expect it.

How can I forget Mr. T’s motto again?’

Zion made a promise to himself and went into the camp.

There, Ekaterina was muttering, ‘Why the hell am I here?’ and a celestial woman, still in the shape of a very sick person, was tied up.

‘···Why did you tie her up so well?’

I went over and pulled the string, but it didn’t move at all, let alone move even a little.

It was tied so tightly that even if the celestial exerted her strength, she wouldn’t be able to break free with a bang!

Zion checked Rishikida’s tying skills for a while and looked at her, who was standing quietly behind him.

“···?”

“···.”

“Master?

Do you have anything to say?”

There is a question I want to ask.

Could it be that what you learned about tying ropes is none other than restraint···.

‘No.

There’s no way Rishi would do that.

No, even if I’m surrounded by strange women, there’s no way our Rishi would ever do that!

She’s always a bright, pure, and cute puppy!’

I feel like I whispered to myself 7 seconds ago not to expect anything, but in the end, Zion was expecting it.

“Hey, Zion.

Wasn’t this supposed to be thrown away?

Why did you bother saving her?”

“You’re the one who saved her and brought her here, so you shouldn’t be saying that?”

“That’s true, but I just gave it to you to watch.

Honestly, watching celestials is a lifelong wish for humans.

Could it be that what I know is wrong?”

Perhaps that is the wish of extremely ordinary people on the continent who follow the Doctrine of Light very diligently.

And in addition, even if they see a celestial, they will expect a scene where they slowly descend from the sky with a halo and pure white wings fluttering, extend their white and beautiful hands, and give blessings with a bright smile on a face more beautiful than any other race.

Unlike the celestial woman that Ekaterina brought, one of her wings was completely plucked out, covered in blood, and after a while, thanks to Rishikida, she was soaked in water and covered in dirt, so no one would ever imagine that she was a noble descendant of light.

‘···And when I think about it, there’s an even bigger problem.’

I have to use healing magic to heal the wounds and interrogate her, but healing magic is not an easy magic like 1 plus 1 equals 2, but a rather difficult magic with quite complex formulas.

The reason why ordinary soldiers cannot enjoy most of the best medicine called healing magic and just wait for natural recovery is not because they are of low status.

The act of using that magic itself is difficult, and the caster and the receiver can enjoy the best efficiency only by calculating the area of the wound, the degree, the extent of internal damage, and the size of the external wound and using mana [magical energy].

That’s why Raido is called a genius of magic just for healing magic, and even if he is called a weirdo, a violence magician, or a physical magician, he is well-regarded by people because he handles healing very professionally.

‘If I think about it, Rishikida is not very close to magic, and this body can’t use mana itself in the first place.

Ekaterina is···.’

Just because they are dragonkins doesn’t mean they are geniuses of magic who randomly cast magic as they please, but even they cannot be said to be excellent at healing magic.

Reason?

The reason is very simple.

“Don’t expect healing magic.

We have such good recovery power that we don’t use it often.”

“I didn’t expect it.

Don’t worry.”

Then the only thing left is to call a healing magician belonging to the Hispania army or the Nudia army, but currently they are busy taking care of the injured from the previous battle.

They were using healing magic in an emergency treatment style for seriously injured soldiers who could not recover on their own, which was quite difficult and time-consuming.

There are hundreds of seriously injured soldiers right now, and if you take out personnel to treat one celestial woman, it would be obvious that the situation would look very strange.

‘A small gap can widen greatly in this situation.

You must never do anything strange.’

Even when I took the celestial woman to interrogate her directly, a strange gaze was cast on Zion, albeit briefly.

It was a situation where he could be seen as taking the huge spoils of war called the celestial, so it was inevitable that Zion would pay close attention.

“Master.

Still, quite a few minor wounds have healed.

Your words that she has good recovery power, not as much as Ekaterina, were true.”

“Why else would they be called the two strongest races along with the demons?

There’s a good reason why the zealots are crazy and shouting for joy.”

“Huh.

Humans who say that the tails, horns, and scales of our dragonkins are ugly, but like those wings?

What are they so obsessed with wings, like horny puppies?”

There has always been a tendency for wing fetishists, humans who have not yet conquered the sky, to be strangely obsessed with wings, which are the privilege of those who can fly in the sky.

In addition, the feeling given by wings made of pure white feathers without any blemishes certainly gives a strong something that only those who know it believe in and follow more, I heard from somewhere.

‘Of course, the image work of the celestials shines the most here.’

When this war is over, and if things go well as Zion thinks and everyone survives, the way they think about the existence of celestials will be completely different from then on.

“···Cough, cough!

Cough!

Huh, heueueuk···.”

At that time, the celestial woman, who had been sitting as if dead, finally moved.

From the sight of her desperately trying to come to her senses while constantly spitting out dark red dead blood, I could see that even the so-called noble descendants of light instinctively wanted to live rather than die.

“W-where is this···.”

Why do they always say the same things?

I wondered to myself, ‘Isn’t there something else novel besides the line, ‘Where is this?” and Zion moved his steps towards the celestial woman who had just come to her senses.

Then, Rishikida, who was standing behind him, quickly picked up a chair and brought it right in front of him, and Zion sat down on the chair and opened his mouth.

“I’ll explain it once, just once.

Listen carefully, Your Highness, the descendant of light.”

“U-uhh?”

“I saved you from almost dying.

Don’t get me wrong.

It’s not the people who follow the Doctrine of Light, but the sinners who are trying to break that doctrine.

So what did our great light forces do?

They said you were alive and told them to take you, but they said they didn’t need you and just told you to die.”

When Zion reached out his hand behind him, Rishikida quickly placed an arrow on his palm.

Zion brought it to the celestial woman’s eyes, shook it lightly, and continued.

“Whether you believe it or not, it’s up to you, but this is the arrow that flew at your neck.

As you can see, it’s not human, but an arrow made directly by the fairies cutting down trees in the forest with their own hands.”

“W-what···.”

“Don’t open your mouth, just listen.

Don’t say you didn’t hear it and ask me to explain it again.

Anyway, you were abandoned, and our ‘sinners’ took care of you and came here.

That’s the summary of your situation so far, and the next is our requirements.

Listen carefully, because it’s very important.”

Thud―.

Zion leaned deeply into the chair, crossed his legs elegantly, and opened his mouth while looking at the woman who was so shabby and miserable that she couldn’t be believed to be a noble descendant of light.

“Whatever it is, say it right now, or don’t say it at all.

Because I’m not going to listen to anything you say after now.

If you tell me all the facts you know right now, I’ll still treat you like a prisoner.

But if you try to hold out, a hell beyond your imagination will be waiting for you.

So let’s go easy, easy.”

“···.”

“Speak.

Everything you know.

The future movements of the celestials, the future operations of the Holy Prussen, where and how many fairies are ambushing, and what orders the zealots are waiting for.

If you show me that you’re saying something, I’ll treat you like a prisoner for now.”

“···.”

“You’re only going to regret it if you exercise your right to remain silent.”

Zion lifted his body slightly from the chair and approached the celestial woman.

Then, he spread his right hand wide and wiggled his five fingers and said.

“Five.

If you don’t open your mouth within that, I won’t listen to anything you say after that.

You better be prepared for what will happen after these five.

One.”

“···.”

“Two.”

I counted three, passed four, and finally reached just before five.