「HAAAAAAAH-!」

A long sword was sung with a roar.

The man facing the soldier deflected the long sword swinging towards him with his own spear before taking advantage of the opening to slam his spear down.

「I’ve got you!」

「I won’t let you!」

The solider used the momentum from his deflected long sword to forcefully spin his body around to avoid the spear that was targeting his torso, but……

The next moment, the spear that should have missed his torso stopped mid air as the soldier realised that the tip was pointed right at between his eyes.

『……』

The two of them exchanged silent glances for a few seconds……

「Gah, fine, I get it, I get it. I lose!」

「Heheheh. Good. You’re buying drinks tonight.」

The man with the spear……who was dressed more like an adventurer than a soldier, pulled his spear back with a triumphant grin.

The soldier also weakly lowered his long sword.

The blades of both weapons had been blunted for mock battles, but they could still easily kill someone in the hands of an experienced person.

Despite carrying such weapons, the soldier and adventurer carried them around with basically no fuss as they talked with each other.

「Damn it……I thought I did pretty well this time.」

「Well, I won’t deny that. That last attack was a sharp one. But, you put too much power into it. So, if you miss with an attack like that, it will leave you wide open.」

The soldier nodded in response to the adventurer’s words with a frustrated expression on his face.

「I see, I’ll be more careful about that next time.」

「That’s right. The last time, the punitive force was mostly small fry, so we didn’t take that many losses. But, next time, the enemy will probably be better. Make sure to hone your skills while you can.」

「Yeah, I’ll do that. But still, there are a lot of skilled adventurers. I’ve trained with other adventurers several times and I usually end up losing.」

The soldier muttered with a sigh.

The soldier was from a noble’s unit that had decided to side with the rebel army at Vihera’s request. However, he had come from a unit that had trained for training’s sake, so the the noble who led them feared there would be great casualties if they went into actual combat. Because of that, the noble had made a request to the person in charge of the adventurer’s in the rebel army to carry out joint training.

Of course……Rei wasn’t the one in charge of the adventurers. The person leading the adventurers was a B rank adventurer like Rei, and while they were quite skilled, they didn’t have a title. They were just an ordinary adventurer leading the rest.

……All that said, the fact that he was a B rank adventurer did make him quite notable.

「Ah……looking at it, it seems like everyone is pretty much finished.」

The adventurer looked around as he held the spear used for mock battles in his hand.

Adventurers and soldiers were all training around them.

Five days had already passed since the last battle. The rebels had returned to their base yesterday after disposing of all the bodies to prevent any plagues from spreading.

Some had suggested that since it was already autumn and winter wouldn’t be as hot as summer, it would be fine to leave the bodies where they were. But, Mercurio and the other rebel leaders rejected the idea.

To be on the safe side, they decided to dispose of all the bodies properly.

The battlefield where the rebels and punitive force had clashed wasn’t far from the Obrisin County.

If they left it as it was and an epidemic broke out, it could harm them as well.

An even bigger problem was the possibility of the corpses turning into undead. Considering the coming season, a plague might not occur, but there was a good chance that the bitterness and resentment of the fallen soldiers, knights, and nobles could result with them turning into undead.

The fact that Gurgast had sided with the rebels meant that merchants were already having a hard time. If undead started wandering around and attacking merchants, caravans, and travelers, what would happen to the Obrisin County?

With that in mind, the rebels couldn’t just leave the corpses there.

「They must have realised how powerless they were after seeing an actual battle, like me.」

The soldier recalled the battle with the punitive force with a bitter smile.

The soldiers led by Gurgast were the first to charge forward, causing extensive damage to the enemy vanguard. Tilleyle’s soldiers had provided precision support with arrows and magic to impeded the enemy’s response. Lastly……

「Her Highness Vihera……she was amazing……」

As the soldier murmured to himself, the image of Vihera charging into the the enemy cavalry unit all by herself and killing their commander left a strong impression in his mind.

The fact that he could partially glimpse her body under her thin clothes only made the impression stronger……which could only be expected for a healthy man in his twenties.

Seeing the soldier’s state and perhaps realising what he was thinking, the adventurers smiled maliciously as he spoke.

「Seriously, I wonder what was so amazing about her.」

「Ugh-!」

The soldier was at a loss for words after being hit by the truth and the adventurer laughed at his reaction.

However, even with the adventurer laughing at him, the image of Vihera in his mind, which could only be described as seductive, remained strong.

(It would be heavenly to spend a night with someone like that, but……well, it’s probably impossible.)

He thought to himself.

It was an open secret among the rebels as to who Vihera was in love with.

If that person had been a local noble, there might have been some commotion.

However, the moment that everyone found out it was Rei, also known as Crimson, no one had anymore reckless thoughts.

Vihera was certainly a very attractive person, but if making a move would cost you your life, anyone would hesitate to do anything.

The rebel army was small in numbers and most had already experienced standing in front of Rei with Overlord’s Armour active.

「Well, give up. Anyway, how about joining us tonight? There are some good prostitutes here.」

「Yeah, that’s true. It seems like they have a good reputation. Okay, I’ll come along.」

There were female soldiers, knights, and adventurers in the rebel army, but the majority were still men.

And, with so many men gathered together, it was necessary to satisfy their desires.

If they neglected that, it wouldn’t be surprising for some of the men to go to nearby towns and villages to attack women, some might even attack the women in the rebel army.

If that were to happen, it would undoubtedly lead to a bloody riot, so to avoid that, the presence of prostitutes was essential.

As someone who prioritised the ability to fight, Gurgast was aware of this issue and naturally took care of it by calling in prostitutes from nearby towns.

This was also something the prostitutes were grateful for.

After all, it meant that they wouldn’t be in a situation where they would have trouble attracting customers.

In fact, some even said that they had so many customers that their stamina couldn’t keep up with the demand.

If this continued on, it would be a hellish task, but Gurgast and the brothels who dispatched the prostitutes had thought carefully about it, so they were all on a 2-3 day rotation.

That said, this was only possible because a sufficient number of prostitutes had gathered to avoid a shortage.

In addition, with the camp, there were simple taverns and shops, the rebel camp had already grown to the size of a small village.

Gurgast, seeing that, was already thinking about building a new village here once the civil war was over……but that is a story for another time.

While the rebel army was training outside, a meeting was taking place in the magic tent at the center of the camp to determine their next course of action.

「Now then, as for what we should do next……Theorem.」

「Yes!」

Theorem stood up in response to Mercurio’s words.

The people present were the leaders of the rebel army, including Mercurio, Theorem, and Vihera.

And, for some reason, Rei was also there, among the nobles cooperating with the rebel army.

As he had been told before, Rei’s position in the rebel army was leader of the guerrilla force.

Naturally, as his unit was meant to travel around on Set, his unit comprised of just him and Set.

Because of that, he was allowed to participate in the meeting as a unit leader……or rather, he was half forced to participate.

(Why me? ……I guess it would be arrogant to say that.)

There would surely be many others who would want to be here. That was what Rei thought as he considered the people he had potentially pushed aside.

Theorem placed a map of the area around the camp on the table in front of Rei.

Needless to say, the map had been provided by Gurgast, the lord of this territory.

「We have now demonstrated a crushing victory against the first punitive force. ……Well, since this was the expected outcome even for them, Prince Shurus doesn’t seem particularly concerned about it, but that only applies to those who know Prince Shurus and his intentions.」

「In other words, everyone else thinks that the punitive force suffered a major defeat in the opening battle.」

Theorem nodded at Tilleyle’s words as he continued.

「And, considering they were barely able to expose any of our cards, I think we can say overall that the last battle was a victory for us.」

Some nobles smiled with delight at his words while some others looked frustrated.

The nobles, with opposing expressions on their faces, noticed each other’s expressions……

「How can you look so happy?」

「That’s only natural since we won.」

「……We certainly won that battle. But, when you think about the strength of our two forces, it doesn’t change the fact that we are at a huge disadvantage. From their point of view, it’s true that they must have sustained some losses. But, it’s only the pain of a thin layer of skin being cut by a blade. In comparison, we, who have just won by a massive margin, have suffered the pain of hitting our pinky toe hard against the corner of a dresser.」

At the noble’s words, some people involuntarily winced.

They seemed to have imagined the pain.

「……I’m sorry, but I don’t really understand what you’re saying. Could you explain it a little more simply?」

「Simply put, it’s the difference in stamina. Even if we inflict a lot of damage on them, their ability to keep fighting in the long run is overwhelming greater than ours, so we’ve barely hurt them……in fact, since we didn’t come out of the battle unscathed ourselves, overall we have taken more damage than them.」

「That is……」

After hearing the explanation, the noble seemed to understand. His previously happy expression was now somewhat more tense while the noble who had given the explanation sighed in a melancholy manner.

It seemed to have given everyone a better understanding of their current situation.

Silence filled the tent for several seconds before Gurgast broke it.

「Well, I think everyone understands the current state of the rebel army. The problem is how to move forward from here. Personally, I’d like to continue marching towards the Imperial Capital.」

「Gurgast……that’s impossible. Our troops won’t last. Well, if we can put Rei at the front, we might manage to a certain extent.」

Tilleyle muttered as he looked at Rei after hearing Gurgast’s words.

The other people in the tent were unanimous in their opinions that it would be impossible to continue marching towards the Imperial Capital, at least at this point.

Gurgast had been half joking and hadn’t thought that his opinion would be adopted.

……Although half joking meant that he was also half serious.

For Gurgast, who genuinely enjoyed fighting, it was a viable option that would let him fight many strong enemies.

Of course, he didn’t think he’d be able to defeat the whole punitive force, but he would still enjoy a fierce battle.

In fact, Gurgast’s forces basically hadn’t suffered any losses in the previous battle. And, that was despite the fact that they had been the first to attack the enemy camp.

The nobles who had been in charge of the enemy vanguard had been fatally slow to react because they hadn’t thought that the outnumbered rebel army would launch a full offensive against them. It was also because Gurgast’s men were simply too strong.

The result had been many injuries but no deaths.

Of course, one could say it was only possible because the enemy was too weak.

Even Gurgast didn’t think that he could fight against a powerful lord in the same way as the last battle had gone.

「You’re right, in the current situation, there are several paths we could take……what do you think, Theorem?」

Mercurio murmured as he turned his gaze to Theorem and urged him to continue.

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