I was Underestimated by the Enemy

Watching from the top of the city walls, most of us were dismayed.

First of all, they had not even been able to check inside the town, yet they bypassed it and appeared in front of the village.

Did they not think that if there were soldiers hiding inside the town, they would be pinched?

“Here, here they come!  Get the ballista ready!”

The villagers were impatient to hear that the knights were marching in, but the king, the prime minister, the viscount, Dee, and other experienced warriors were too stunned to say anything.”

“Hey, they’re all walking towards us!”

The king muttered, and Panamera let out a sigh.

“Should I burn them, or boil them? Or burn enough not to die?”

Panamera said something outrageous, her shoulders slumped, but those around her didn’t object.

However, I still don’t know if I’m dealing with the right kind of person. The fact that they invaded our territory without our permission is definitely a hostile action, but it might be that they are just extremely stupid and are actually just messengers from the Kingdom of Jiernetta.

“Anyway, let’s just ask them what they want. I’m also curious as to why they crossed the border in such half-assed numbers.”

When I said this, the people around me kept their mouths shut. Apparently, they respect my opinion as a lord.

“Okay, then, Till, Camsin, get the anti-air weapons ready!”

“Van-sama, are you sure you want to use that ballista type?”

“Yes. After all, catapult types aren’t very stable. Let’s get all the ballista types ready for now. Prepare them for launch.”

“Yes, sir!”

I gave the order, and the two of them quickly ran to get ready.

The wyvern was not planning to attack yet. However, those knights drew their weapons and advanced with their shields at the ready.

“It’s hard to judge, isn’t it? If it’s four elemental magic, are we within range to attack already?  Viscount Panamera.”

I asked, and Panamera groaned.

“It can reach us, but it takes a certain amount of time from chanting and activation to impact. If it’s human to human, that much time would be enough to deal with them. The number of times it can be used over a long distance is also limited. Well, it would be more effective in actual warfare within a hundred meters at most.”

“Yes. In the case of warfare, it is also assumed that the enemy also should have a four-elemental magician. The question is how to use magic in order to avoid wasting magic power.”

The king adds a supplementary explanation to Panamera’s words.

Oh-ho. So that stupid advance was nothing but a reckless act, then? 

As I was thinking this, Aperta let out a deep sigh of relief.

“Well, this was nothing but a stupid thing to do.”

“Mm.”

“It makes me want to kill their commander.”

To Aperta’s one word, the other two gave me not much of an answer.

Well, I suppose it was logical.

“And while we’re talking about that, they’re getting pretty close, aren’t they?”

I said and took a big sigh.

“This is Seat Village, Baron Van’s estate!  Please identify yourself!”

I said, trying to make a test. Panamera blurts out beside me.

“As usual, there is no tension…look, even they are laughing.”

She says this with a chuckle, and I look down at the knights of the enemy who are laughing at us. Mm, definitely my enemies. Rude bastards. They’ll be executed.

As I was thinking this, I received a reply from the other party.

“We have come to investigate this village!  This village should not have been fortified like this, but why is it turned into such a fortified city?”

Hmmm…you’re getting a little confused. We were the ones asking where they belonged.

“Well, it is most likely some noble order of knights from the Kingdom of Jiernetta. I’m curious about the wyvern crossing the border with them, but if they’re that stupid, maybe they just don’t think anything through.”

The King assumed.

I answered appropriately with that as a reference, and when I tried to play a trick on them, they readily confessed that they were from the Kingdom of Jiernetta.

I was glad that he was an easy person to deal with.

When I got carried away, the other party became angry. However, the content of the accusation was very crude.

“Fools! There’s an idiot here!  Ha-ha-ha!  If only they were like this, warfare would be so much easier!”

“You’re absolutely right.”

Even the kings started pointing fingers at them and laughing. I understand your feelings, but please don’t provoke them too much.

I thought so and exchanged some words with them, but they were only getting angrier and angrier.

“Wyvern, attack from the sky!”

I even heard such a yell.

Wyverns do not spit breath attacks. But they can be a threat if they charge at us.

“Are the preparations ready?”

Till and Camsin were getting their anti-air ballistas ready when I called out to them.

The ballista is large and has a special shape with a barrel-like tube in the center. There are long, narrow holes on either side, through which the strings pass like rails.

And the projectile is a barrel. The bottom part that is in contact with a string is made of hard wood block, but the rest of the barrel is intentionally made fragile.

The barrel would break as it was launched, sending it’s contents which were small shuriken flying with inertia of the barrel. The shuriken are then scattered at high speed through the air.

This should be difficult to avoid even for a magical beast that can move freely in the sky.

With this in mind, we gave it a try.

I adjusted the angle towards the approaching wyvern.

“Okay, Camsin! Fire!”

“Ha!”

One shot first. I give Camsin the order.

Camsin triggered the ballista, and the barrel was launched, then breaking as planned.

A large number of black shuriken are scattered in the sky at once. The ballista was originally designed for one-shot-only use, so it is extremely powerful.

A wyvern, also flying at high speed, approached and collided with the rain of shuriken launched at high speed.

The result was as planned. The wyvern crashed in a spectacular fashion.

At that moment, I realized that I had not taken a certain thing into consideration.

“Oh, I didn’t think about where it was going to crash.”

Just as I muttered that, the wyvern disappeared from my sight as it lost altitude and crashed into a section of the ramparts a short distance away below us. There was a rumbling noise, and at the same time, my feet wobbled from the impact, which created tremors like an earthquake.

“…Did it break?  That was close. A dragon bigger than a wyvern could have broken the walls.”

The King and the others blinked as they looked at the wyvern that had crashed.

“…That wyvern’s body, with all those holes…”

“…It was ridiculously powerful. If that thing was taken out for anything other than defense, it would be a threat comparable to the four elemental magic. Depending on how long it takes to create this…”

The two men are talking about the anti-air ballista with serious looks on their faces, but the ground is far from it.

Shurikens with the power to pierce even wyverns at certain angles really did rain down on the ground.

Outside the village, it became a hellscape of screaming.

“Okay, let’s have a direct conversation.”

I said and looked at the enemy knights, who looked virtually destroyed.

“Better disarm them first, eh?”

“Don’t worry, Your Majesty. I have excellent men with me.”

I replied to the worried king, and Dee, Espada, and the others stood in front of me.

I climb down from the ramparts, lower the bridge, and have them open the gate.

My men quickly got into position, ready to move at any moment. However, I was somewhat embarrassed to leave while being so heavily guarded, so I asked them to split up to the left and right.

“Now, let’s go with the questioning. I hope they’ll be honest and confess everything.”

Laughing, I muttered to myself and looked at the man who was holding the scattered shurikens with a stunned look on his face.