The Main Family Is About to Die Out, so I, from a Branch Family, Am a Seed Provider (WN): Chapter 41

 

Episode 41: Difficulty after Difficulty

 Late last night we broke through the enemy head-on and ran through the night, finally escaping back from Gruve City to Kraha City.

"It went well."

"Well, it's a strategy that only works if the enemy is half-witted."

 Sieging half-heartedly, guide the enemy's escape route in one place and annihilate them. I had already grasped that strategy from the military history book I had brought with me. Or rather, we had fought with all our might to dare to choose that strategy. That is why we were able to fight well in all of the initial battles.

 We did not fight seriously until the first round. The rest of the time, I watched the situation and responded as we ran away. That was the strategy I had planned in advance.

 There was no need for us to go out of our way to fight head-on against an opponent we would lose to if we went head-to-head. Our efforts during the daytime were just to buy time for the young lady to escape to Kraha City.

 At night, we could make a breakthrough concentrated on a single point, pretending to run into the enemy's main camp, which had the greatest defense and then run off to the side to escape. If the main army panics even a little, it will propagate throughout the whole area, and their movements will slow down. That's what got us into trouble in the first place.

"So, it's good that we've escaped, but....... What is this?"

 The city of Kraha, which was developed by drawing water from a nearby stream and utilizing the water transportation system that runs throughout the city, now looks like something else.

 The streets are full of wounded soldiers and commanders of the kingdom who have fled back, and it is a bleak place.

 And there are so many of them. There are also a few kingdom soldiers here and there, other than the ones who escaped before us last night, wherever I looked.

 The biggest problem is that there is no one to unite them. Seeing them behaving in a sort of free manner, the citizens who originally lived here are frightened and stay at home.

"Nii-san!"

 As soon as Armes, who was dressed for battle, spotted me and Elfie, she rushed toward us through the crowd.

"Armes, what is this?"

 When I asked her what had happened, she replied that the Kingdom soldiers, who had entered Kraha City with Lady Ritia's group, had apparently found the carriage carrying Lady Ritia and followed it on their own when they realized that the carriage was headed for Kraha City.

 Belonging to a group will save you, or at least make you feel like you're safe, is something that people who are cornered often think about.

 The number of people gradually swelled as they were drawn to the line created by Lady Ritia's carriage, and eventually, thinking that they would be saved if they followed her group, the Kingdom soldiers who had fled while hiding in the surrounding areas gathered here.

 A rough tally puts the number at about 10,000.

"...This is bad."

 What's bad is that these were all soldiers who had left their commanders and were scattered and on the run.

 If the chain of command was functioning to some extent, this number of soldiers could fight another battle against the pursuing imperial troops, but it was obvious that even if we gathered all the defeated soldiers, we would not be able to form an army.

 On the contrary, the problems with food and sleeping quarters have ballooned. Even considering the number of people that can be accommodated here in Kraha City, it is just barely enough.

 Moreover, the biggest problem is that some of the soldiers on the Kingdom side, with whom we had to ask for cooperation, have been looting the city. That's why the citizens' disgust, which I didn't feel when we occupied it once, and the atmosphere of trying to get rid of the foreigners, made my skin prickle.

"So, where are those idiots?"

"We have already captured them and are now housing them in an empty house here in the central square."

"Show me the way."

"Y-yes."

 Having Armes led me to the location of the stupid soldiers who committed the act that caused it.

 A short walk away is the central plaza, and there are a good number of injured people there, probably because it is used as a place for medical treatment.

 With them by my side, I get into an empty house on the side of the plaza.

 The room is covered with dust, and the four corners of the windowless room are painted with sludgy darkness.

 There are about eight soldiers in this room alone who have looted the residents. All of them were sitting upright in the center of the room with their hands tied with ropes.

 All of them had gaunt faces, sunken eyes, and bodies filled with a sickening liveliness.

 When we stepped into the room, they all looked at me at once, and then at Armes and Elfie behind me, and gave me a sneering smile.

"What's your affiliation?"

"Hmph, I'm afraid I don't need to answer that question."

 One of them replies to my question. Apparently, he is their leader. Or rather, upon closer inspection, the man is probably a junior officer in the service of the knight. The tattered patch on his left shoulder is proof of that.

 In other words, there is a knight or a nobleman who they follow. Behind them, a nobleman of such a high rank that he has no problem rejecting my question.

"To be honest, this kind of thing is not my job."

"What? Well, that's okay. You're a nobleman, right? Hurry up and untie me, who do you think I am...... ah?"

 He was still coming strong, but when I pulled out my sword and decapitated one of the other soldiers next to him, he froze in place.

"So, what's your affiliation?"

"Uwaaaa!?"

 A storm of blood spurts toward the ceiling like a fountain. The man screams out as soon as his body rolls to the floor, dead and weak.

 The man is drenched in a rain of blood, and is in a state of intense dismay, a complete change from his previous attitude. It would have been better if he had remained disrespectful to the end.

"W-w-what are you!?"

"No, it's because you didn't answer my question properly, right?"

"Who do you think..."

"It's because you're asking me that. Tell me quickly, or else......"

 Gently pointing the tip of my sword at the others, they all rattle and shake in unison. The fact that they have surprisingly little courage suggests that they may be soldiers from a noble family with a fiefdom close to the royal capital.

"Young master, it seems that this man is a soldier of the Bajirian family."

 Elfie revealed their affiliation, wondering when she looked it up.

 The man spits at us in an even more aggressive tone now that the name has been mentioned.

"T-that's right! I'm a proud Bajirian family......"

"Ah-, yes, yes."

 I have never heard of such a nobleman, and to be honest, the name doesn't ring a bell.

 Well, if I don't know him, at least he was not a soldier who belonged to a supply unit. It was probably one of the units that were on the front line.

"If you understand, let me go as soon as possible. If anything happens to me, not only the people at home, but even the Bamingham family won't keep quiet."

"The Bamingham's, ahh...... those lowly rootless nobleman?"

"What!?"

 The man's eyes widen in surprise at my words.

 The Bamingham family is a noble family that is a rootless noble that the young lady told me about before, but has risen to become one of the five greatest noble families in the kingdom.

 The Bamingham family is probably the most powerful family in the kingdom, they have been doing whatever they wanted with the name of their family as a shield, and they probably threatened the person who resisted them with the name of their family to cover it up.

 However, it seems that this is the first time he encountered someone without changing their attitude after hearing the name.

 Well, if you are going to mention the Bamingham family, we have the Fregrance family behind us, which is called the sword of the kingdom.

 But I have to be careful not to use the name because the young lady will get angry if I use it without permission, and the head of the family is likely to get angry with me after I return home.

 Besides, once I know who he belongs to, I have no more use for him.

"W-wait, what are you going to do with that.......?"

 Staring at the blood dripping from my sword, the man is violently dismayed. The head of his colleague had just been cut off in front of him. He must have guessed what I was going to do.

 Where did his initial drive go?

 He was talking about the proud Bajirian family, but it didn't even last five minutes before he showed his pathetic face again.

"They need a head."

"Huh?"

 I told him in a perfectly normal tone of voice.

"If we don't get the cooperation of the city of Kraha right now, we'll have to fight off the enemy that was coming here without a decent meal. We haven't even secured a place to sleep, so at worst, we'll all be sleeping outside. The nights are still cold, so there will probably be people who are not feeling well, or worse, would freeze to death."

 I went on to describe as many worst-case scenarios as I could think of.

 In fact, these are all things that could happen in the future due to the rampageous behavior of these guys.

 And with their current situation turned in such a way, there is no way these soldiers will be able to fight properly when the time comes.

 The importance of morale is something that those who participated in yesterday's battle in Gruve City should be acutely aware of.

 Moreover, the most important and indispensable card, the cooperation of the citizens, is no longer available because of these guys.

"That's why it's necessary. Someone who had no use, or rather the head of the perpetrator......."

 However, the guy in front of me didn't experience it, he just ran away and hid. He's been doing barbarism, he was caught and is still thrashing around without a trace of remorse.

"I-I'm from the Bajirian family..."

"Elfie."

 The man who, in fear, again mentioned the name of his family.

 I was about to order the old knight who was waiting behind me to cut off his head, but.

"What are you doing?"

 Suddenly, the door to the room is pushed open and light shines into the dimly lit room. An old man suddenly entered the room and looked over at me, Elfie, and the soldiers bound by ropes.

"Lower your swords."

 The old man...... or rather the head of the Fregrance family, told us so.