69. Your War, My War (5)

When he regained his consciousness, his body had been moved from the wagon to the tent.

Maxim could not properly control his disturbed mind with medicine. It was impossible to use mana to drive away the weak energy that remained in the body. The only thing that woke Maxim from his deep slumber was the fact that the drug had worn off.

“why…”

Maxim fell to the floor of the tent. The hands and arms on the floor were trembling. My shoulders trembled at the same time, and soon the trembling was transmitted to my whole body.

“Damn it…!”

Maxim forced his stumbling body to his knees. He knelt on one side and stood on the other. Knees standing up and knees bent on the floor trembled. Maxim lowered his hand and placed it on his raised knee. I tried to send the straw over my hand, but I couldn’t get it to stand up properly. Maxim shuddered and got up, then fell forward with a great uproar.

Quadang!

In the midst of the commotion in the tent, someone broke through the tent and appeared. Maxim kept his chin on the floor and looked at the scenery outside the tent. The sky was hazy and stained red. Maxim struggled, dragging himself and stretching his hands forward.

“Okay… wake up…”

“this! Don’t move!”

Clothing, armor. A soldier wearing armor with many marks of wear and tear came running and supported Maxim. Maxim’s arm stretched as the soldier lifted it.

The soldier lifted Maxim half off the ground and moved it to a cot in the tent. The soldier who sat Maxim on the bed asked while checking Maxim’s condition.

“When did you wake up?”

“Just now…but, right now, here…”

Maxim’s words cut off in the middle. Maxim was breathing hard. His head was spinning and he was confused.

“This is the last unit to escape Murat. We are on our way to the royal road now.”

“what?”

Maxim coughed and asked. Every time I shook my body and coughed, I felt pain as if my lungs had been stabbed with a sharp knife. Maxim swallowed dry saliva and cleared his throat before asking.

“You got out of Murat, what do you mean?”

“You are very kind. You should have gotten out of Murat in a hurry before the battle started.”

“battle? But why am I here?”

The younger soldier stepped back in fright when Maxim pressed on, explaining.

“The… Captain Theodora Benning ordered the knight to be transferred because he was injured… and unable to participate in the battle.”

Maxim dazed, holding the soldier’s arm.

“Because he had been sleeping without waking up for a long time… His complexion wasn’t very good, and we couldn’t check what kind of injuries he had, but he seemed unwell or seriously injured.”

Maxim shook his head and tried to accept reality. However, the remaining medicine energy was still interfering with Maxim’s thinking. Maxim grabbed his head.

“How long… how long has it been since you left Murat?”

The soldier glanced out.

“About two days… passed.”

It was as if a lump of iron had fallen on Maxim’s heart.

“Two days.”

Has the battle begun? If the battle was still going on, how far would it have progressed? Maxim tried to step forward.

“Knight, if you overdo it…”

“Come see me.”

Maxim shook off the soldiers and stood up. Maxim limped through the tent and stepped outside. There was a boundary line where trees began to grow densely. The place the withdrawing troops passed was a field near the beginning of the forest. Maxim met the face of the figure who turned his head to him at the sound of rustling.

“You’re awake.”

Count Agon was perched on a rock with an easy-going look. It seemed familiar to him sticking firewood through the blazing fire. There was a canteen hanging over the campfire, and from the smoke rising it seemed that something was being boiled.

Maxim approached the count with a frown on his face. My steps were very slow.

“I don’t look very good, but I’ll take a little more rest.”

said the Count in an even voice. The sun was still setting, but due to the nature of the highlands, it would get dark in an instant if you woke up. Maxim thought he could not delay any longer. The battle against the waves of monsters was a short-lived decisive battle. In four days at the most, a settlement would come.

“Can I borrow a horse?”

Maxim went to the main point without lengthy introduction. Count Agon didn’t even pretend to hear Maxim’s words.

“Or would you like to eat out? The bugs may bother you a bit, but eating on the street is special.”

Count Agon asked while prodding Banhap with a stick. When Count Agon spoke to Maxim, he just looked at him without answering. When Maxim did not answer, Count Agon sighed.

“I can lend you a horse.”

Contrary to the words, those eyes were staring at Maxim with a serious expression.

“But what can you do by going back?”

It was natural. There was no way that Maxim would be of any dramatic help to the force by going back. I don’t know if it’s to deal with a few more monsters. It’s probably the most likely that you’ll collapse with all your might. If you use an aura, it might be quite helpful. I didn’t want to think about the afterthought.

“Maybe the battle may have already ended.”

As Count Agon said, Murat’s troops may have already killed the Behemoth. If it was Theodora’s sword, it might be possible if the other knights supported it. The kingdom’s reinforcements might have arrived and helped.

Or, conversely, the Behemoth might have trampled underfoot all the knights and soldiers, including the reinforcements sent by the kingdom, and were advancing towards the capital. The probability of this is much higher.

Either way, there was no rational reason for Maxim to go back.

“So, please stay calm. It’s not like I don’t want to go back like you.”

Count Agon asked if he seemed to be heading to the royal capital with a comfortable mind after driving the soldiers to death.

“The Benning family’s eldest daughter also asked me to take good care of you until you leave. From what I’ve heard, it sounds like he really values you. Wouldn’t it be better to just retreat for that child’s sake?”

The Count was right. Even Maxim could not refute what he said.

“I am…”

“Just sit here and have a meal. If you’re tired, you can go in and rest more. It sounds like you’re going to start moving early tomorrow morning, so you’d better get some rest.”

Maxim hardened his expression.

“I have to go back.”

The Count raised his eyebrows at Maxim.

“You are such a funny person.”

Then he carefully picked up the fully boiling canteen and set it down on the floor.

“Okay, let’s assume you have to go back. Then will you try to convince me why I ought to hand over to you one precious horse of this retreating corps?”

Maxim could not say that there were people he wanted to protect.

“Do you know how important the presence of a knight who can use an aura is in a battle?”

When Maxim said, Count Agon frowned.

“I don’t know if seeing your current condition will help.”

“There is no time.”

Maxim said impatiently, as if he could not afford such an argument. Those golden eyes glared at the Count, wet with cold anger.

Count Agon shook his head. Maxim was determined to walk away if he refused to speak up. The Count realized that he could not break that compulsion. Maxim will steal one and run away if you really don’t give him a horse. There was no one in the party who could stop the determined and acting knight.

Count Agon sighed.

“It’s not something I can just give up. However, how could I close my eyes and just let go of something that was obvious to walk into the limbs.”

“Anyway, I don’t have much time left.”

Maxim coughed again and said: Count Agon looked at Maxim as if he was talking about that again. Then, looking into those desperate eyes, he realized what Maxim was trying to say. There was a little pity in his voice.

“…so that boy from the Benning family didn’t want to send you back either. I cannot let you go, nameless knight. At least I can’t choose to give up my words.”

Maxim shook his head. My body and mind were still unstable, but the energy of the medicine was disappearing and I was able to properly control my body.

“Then, I can’t help it.”

The sudden change in Maxim’s demeanor made Count Agon more wary than reassured.

“If you’re not going to lend it to me, I’ll just have to ride it.”

Seeing Maxim’s attitude, Count Agon raised both hands as if he had given up.

“Are you trying to use that method anyway?”

“Because what matters to me is not how it works now.”

Maxim was tough. Count Agon was facing Maxim head-on.

“Even if I bring soldiers to stop you?”

“…”

As Count Agon raised his hand further, soldiers surrounded Maxim from side to side. Maxim could identify some familiar faces. They were soldiers who were injured in the no-man’s-land and could not remain in Agon. Soldiers without arms or legs blocked Maxim, showing bandaged faces. There were also a few faces Maxim saved on the battlefield.

“Sir Maxim, I know your heart, but I can’t let you go.”

A soldier stepped forward and said.

“Do you think I can’t go because of that?”

Maxim pursed his lips.

“I heard that your body can’t even fight…”

Maxim snorted.

“You can fight. My limbs are still intact.”

“You like jokes too, Sir Maxim.”

After hesitating, a soldier opened his mouth.

“Neither Vice-Captain Christine nor Captain Theodora will want it.”

yes. But losing them out of sight was a thousand times worse than living their hatred. Maxim looked up at the sky with an empty, bitter voice and spoke in a chant.

“If I lose them all, I’ll regret to the death that I didn’t go when they didn’t want to.”

When Maxim said that, silence broke out in the confrontation between the soldiers and Maxim. It was a very long silence.

The person at the head of the group of soldiers opened his mouth after a long snowball fight with Maxim.

“…Go ahead.”

He was the most senior among the soldiers. The other soldiers looked at the veteran as if wondering what they were talking about. Earl Agon listened to the conversation without getting involved, as if he would leave it to the soldier’s judgment from behind.

“How am I going to hold on to that step from the position where I received help?”

A soldier paved the way. Maxim met eyes with the soldier who opened the way.

“…Just to be honest, I don’t think I’ll be able to catch it, so I’m sending it.”

Another soldier said so and moved out of the way. Opinions were divided among the soldiers. But in the end, they gave way to Maxim, who was walking away.

“…one horse left. This is the horse that Sir Maxim has been dragging to ride when he wakes up.”

As Maxim took the horse’s reins, a soldier added from behind.

“So, just feel free to come and go.”

Maxim nodded heavily and climbed onto the horse. The horse purred and purred, but did not resist. Maxim took the reins loose and kicked the horse with his heel, and the horse began to run away.

Maxim feels the wind blowing and gazes in front of his eyes.

Maxim ran madly into the whirlpool, not knowing where it would take him.

—

First day.

The air attack of the monsters was able to be blocked after the knights fought hard. There was considerable loss of life, but considering that it ended in a short-term decisive battle, the damage was understandable.

Theodora always fought on the front lines.

When that platinum aura bloomed, the monsters were swept away, and they ran to the place where the most dangerous monsters were. It was thanks to Theodora and the knights who worked together to create an aura by her side that she was able to sustain the unreasonably advanced front line.

Wizards, including Christine, continued to cast magic. Thousands of monsters were swept away by magic and died.

It also seemed that the number of monsters pressing on the front line had noticeably decreased.

and the next morning,

A third of the remaining troops were killed in the Behemoth’s attack, which finally appeared on the front lines.

The reinforcements that left the capital have not yet arrived.