Rumors of the destruction of the supply and reinforcement units began to circulate in the city of Teirakainen immediately after the actual destruction.
　Naturally, Patrick, the general of the garrison, immediately denied the rumor so as not to spread unrest among his troops, but later turned pale when he received word from home. The reinforcements had indeed been destroyed.

　Patrick could not help but groan when he heard about the trick.
　Moving troops were vulnerable because they had almost no access to artifact defense weapons. In addition, they would target easy-to-kill non-combatants and supplies, and use guerrilla-style one-hit wars to disable rather than defeat them.
　And then, they immediately advertised the results of the war.

　Food and fodder were being bought up in the surrounding areas.
　In addition to this, they are using information warfare to further demoralize the people by cutting off their supplies and making them immobile.

　--I can't believe they would use such a roundabout method. ...... No, no.
　　　I'm not sure what to make of it.

　I'm not sure what to make of it.

　It's not a clever plan. It's a common strategy.
　But a common strategy is, on the other hand, a strategy that has been used for a long time because it is versatile and useful.
　An ill-prepared army is fragile if it uses common strategies as a matter of course. They can be crushed like a snake swallowing an egg.

　Demons are generally simple to fight.
　They may use tactical measures such as ambush and deception, but that is their limit.
　It was common knowledge that only the Demon Lord's Army was fighting properly as an army .......
　But the "Rose Princess of Hell" was different.

　Patrick had heard the story of the fall of King's Landing from the Second Knight Commander (Bertil), and had calculated that he could defeat the "Rose of Hell" if he gathered the right forces and fought properly.
　Perhaps his calculations were correct. And "The Rose of Hell" is probably thinking the same thing. Because "The Rose Princess of Hell" is trying to avoid a head-on collision with the Noachurian army and is trying to break their footsteps.
　The ...... "Rose of Hell" is not going to let the Noahcurio army fight.

　Patrick was lost in his own mind.
　The current garrison is almost all Patrick's vassals.
　He would take all the credit, but he would also take all the losses. And if he overreaches and antagonizes his troops, he will pay the price when he returns home.

　It is a gamble to attack King's Landing without supplies or reinforcements. If you don't win quickly, you will be slowly annihilated. However, we need food to wait for the situation to improve.

　In a pinch, you can always loot.
　Noah's Curio is currently working to set up a puppet government in Ciel-Teira and take it over peacefully, which is why he's still acting like a gentleman to the people of Ciel-Teira, but he can also switch to an invasion. Then there would be no need to hold anything back.
　But if we provoke a reaction from the lords, it may exceed the capacity of the garrison army. And it would give us an opening against Gilesh Hattar.

　I want to secure the Gracelum vein at all costs. Since we were the first to enter Ciel-Teira, and we did so under the auspices of 'reinforcements', it would be a shame to retreat here.
　However, I don't think that Giresh Hattar will sit on his hands forever. Not only that, but Marks, the Crown Prince's backer, is trying to make a deal with the Holy Kingdom of Diretta.
　It was a heady situation.

　--I think I'll go back to my home country and ask for instructions.

　Shaking his heavy head, Patrick stood up.
　This is no longer a situation that I can handle on my own.
　We should leave the decision (and responsibility) to the higher-ups.

　He glances out the window. Thick snow clouds hung in the sky, just like the scenery in Patrick's mind.

　The sky was covered with thick snow clouds.

　Just outside the city of Teiracaines, the Noa Curio army has set up a garrison camp.
　The enclosure, made of wood procured from the area, could be called a simple wall. It is a magnificent structure with corridors, magically processed to increase its strength, and artifact weapons to intercept intruders. There were also artifacts to intercept intruders, and the tents were neatly lined up inside.

　It was just as the sun was setting behind the snow clouds and it was getting dim when two girls appeared at the gate of the camp.

"Stop, who are you?

　Dressed in shabby windbreak cloaks, they came with a cart full of goods pulled by a horse.
　The two girls, dressed in shabby windbreak cloaks, were pulling a cart full of their belongings on a horse. The guards were intimidating and stopped at the sound of a spear.
　One of the girls was in her mid-teens, and the other was smaller. The soldiers guessed that they were probably sisters.

We are from a nearby village. We are from a nearby village. Can you buy us some preserved food?

　The girl who looked like an older sister said what the soldiers had expected her to say.

　Food, weapons, daily necessities, entertainment: ......
　The military is a big consumer of all things. There are always people coming to the encampment looking to make a buck.

　Especially now with food.
　Rumors of the Noachurian army's food shortage seemed to have already spread.
　Perhaps that's why there are so many peddlers and farmers coming to sell foodstuffs like this.

I'll check your ...... bags.
Here you go.

　When the top of the cart was stripped off, barrels of pickled vegetables and dried meat were piled high.
　The soldier gulped down the food. He was always hungry, as his food was obviously getting worse these days.
　He thought that it would be very refreshing if he ate this dried meat all by himself. But I didn't do it.
　Anyway, if this food was bought by the troops, I should be able to eat at least a piece of it.

　He wanted to let the girls in right away, but he couldn't just check their luggage and let them in.
　The soldier looked at a strange object placed by the gate.
　It looked like a lump of crystal on a golden bonfire platform. Inside the crystal, light like starlight was flying around.



　I have no idea what this thing is. But it is said to be a magical tool that detects evil spirits emitted by demons and the undead.
　It was introduced because the enemy is undead. It should be able to detect the appearance of undead pretending to be human.
However, this is only a supplementary measure, since the targets to watch out for are not limited to the undead.

"No evil presence detected.
Good.

　The soldiers then proceeded with the physical examination.
　They touch you over your clothes to see if you are carrying any weapons.
　...... When a woman came to the house, the physical examination was a bit of fun for the soldiers.

I'm not sure what to say.　Please don't touch me so unreservedly!

　The sister protested and backed away to escape the clutches.

"Excuse me. But I can't let you bring in weapons, so I have no choice but to check.
"Yes, yes. If you don't want to look suspicious, you'll have to undergo a proper investigation.
...... I understand.

　The soldiers carefully rubbed her body, which seemed to be unacceptable.
　It took about twice as long as a normal physical examination, but it was finally over.

How did it go?
...... I think that's what they call a washboard.
I'm sorry to hear that.
The farmer's potato girl has a hard body. The farmer's potato girl has a hard body, even though she's not bad-looking. I knew I could get a businesswoman for my next off-duty. ......

　The men smiled vulgarly and whispered to each other.

　Since there were no soldiers with that kind of taste here, the sister was quickly over.
　Incidentally, she had blocked her sense of touch with magic, but that's another story.

"Okay, come on in. Once inside, go straight to the right. Don't look around too much. Follow me.
Okay.

　The makeshift gate creaked open and one of the gatekeepers led the girls.

　And when they came to the tent of the Transportation Corps, which was examining the goods to be purchased.

Is anyone there?　There's a farmer who came to sell food. ......

　Having said that, the soldier turned around when he heard the sound of a watery fall.

　The bodies were piled up.
　At the very least, there were over a hundred dead bodies piled up.
　Shiro skeletal bodies in armor and decomposing corpses were piled up like a mountain.
　There should not have been anything like this before, but there were.

"What ......?
"Create Undead.

　The younger girl chanted a spell, and the crowd of corpses took up their weapons and stood up.

"I'll give you hungry people plenty to eat. Despair.