Retreating to the Grassland
Our battle to retreat became very slow.
We needed to escort the wagons, that’s why we had to retreat without leaving any traces behind for the pursuers.
The method of not leaving traces behind is well accustomed in the grassland.
Because if you unskillfully left behind traces, wolves would attack your village and cause damage to sheeps and horses
Our smells can’t be expected to be completely erased, but there’s no human that has that good of a nose.
When we stopped for a break at our camping location, we refilled out food supply with what we had in the wagons.
Emptying the wagons, we put fighters into the wagons by turns to let them rest, that brought enough efficiency in moving.
It’s been 5 days since we retreated, there was still room to spare even if we had all the Fighters enter the wagons.
I confirmed with Au tribe’s Warriors (16) and got permission to abandon the wagon here. (TN: Just in case, they emptied the food wagon)
It’s only natural to have them act when the escort isn’t going very efficiently.
Among the Warriors, there was one man, who was a Fire magic user, that was warming up the fire for cooking.
He’s called Borolk, he’s a magic user that can burn a bunch of people to death with his fire magic.
「Borolk」
「What is it, Jumuka-dono」
「Can you do Conditioned Invocation and Continuous Invocation over a long period of time？」
「Yes、Conditioned Invocation will be invoked at a fixed condition、and for Continuous Invocation if it’s not more than 14 days then it’s possible。 」
「Alright、if that is the case」
I picked up a stone and handed it to Borolk.
「Load Fire magical power into this」
「Yes」
Borolk began to load up magical power.
Meanwhile, I had the Earth magic users made a chest from the soil.
I used magic to gather CO2 from the surrounding of the bonfires, then crammed it into that chest.
「It’s done Jumuka-dono」
Borolk showed me a bright red stone.
With the rock being on high temperature, only the people who covered their hands with Fire magic can touch it.
I placed the chest into the abandoned wagon and put the stone inside.
Then I covered the box with a lid so that air wouldn’t escape.
「Borolk、can you make magical power released from the stone the moment the lid is moved？」
「If it’s just that simple then it’s possible、please don’t look down on me。 」
This guy is indeed a genius isn’t he. I can’t even maintain conditioned invocation for 8 days…
I will also pour oxygen from outside into the box with my conditioned invocation when the lid is moved.
Next morning, with only one wagon, we made further progress in returning to the grassland.
For the sake of not making the horses useless, we advanced while being careful.
～Three days after that （Shaomin）～
His pursuing unit arrived at the location where the wagon was abandoned.
「Brother, is this way good？」
「Eh、they hid their traces of advancing。 As expected, though they were all young boys, I can’t help but say that they’re still grassland people。 Though we had to decrease the number of people in this pursuit unit because of food problems、I’m glad we brought the pursuit dog。 」
When they built a bridge and crossed the Great river to chase, Shaomin decided to decrease the number of people in the pursuit unit by 50 and brought along the pursuit dog.
He counted the fact that those guys sweated a lot after a long time fighting on the battle field and left behind their smells.
His prediction was splendid, had they not brought the dog, they would’ve had to only give up in trying to figure out which direction the grassland people ran.
「Brother、there’s a wagon over there、probably belongs to the grassland guys」
「Eh、they probably decrease the amount of food and threw the wagon away to increase moving speed。 They’re still just boys。 If they leave it like this, the delicious smell of food will come out。 」 (TN: Right. Inb4 there’s a fucking BAKUDAN inside…)
Many people from the pursuit unit looked into the empty wagon with nothing inside.
There was a chest made from soil inside. They opened it.
That moment, the stone that was loaded with Fire magic began to generate heat, then Wind magic sent oxygen into the stone.
Suddenly sending oxygen into a heated object, a phenomenon called Back Draft occurred.
The people who opened the box was instantly burned to death, the people around was sent flying with an explosion and injured with the shattered pieces of soils, then the hell fire from the burning wagon blazed up and killed the injured people.
As Wind magic continued to gather oxygen, the people standing around the violent combustion collapsed due to lack of oxygen.
「Wha！ What is that！ Fall back、fall back right now。 Quickly distant yourself from that。 」
Shaomin’s shout was drowned out by the thunderous roar of the hell fire, but they were somehow able to distant themselves from it.
Shaomin’s pursuit unit was stopped here for 6 days.
Shaomin’s pursuit unit resumed their pursuit.
The ignored everything about that wagon they found mid-way.
However, it’s already too late because the horses and dogs became frightened the moment they saw a wagon.
21 days from the retreat of Grassland people
The dog suddenly let out a loud noise.
「Are we close？」
The dog barked when it heard so.
「Everyone、for some reasons the Grassland boys are near。 We’ll set up a camp here today。 The Scout unit form one group of 5。 Please investigate the surrounding。 Please make sure to come back even if you found something。 」
The people from the Scout unit nodded at Shaomin’s instructions.
～Jumuka～
The Grassland is already right before our eyes.
However, the opponents are still chasing aren’t they.
They probably brought a dog with them. It can’t be helped since there’s no method to conceal our smells in the Grassland.
Everyone regained liveliness in their eyes as they talked to each other about the Grassland being close.
However, this next few days would be the days when we have to be careful the most.
Because I’m standing watch tonight, I left my horse to someone else and went to sleep in the wagon.
My body already became able to sleep anytime, despite how much the wagon shakes.
I stood watch at night when the camp was spread out.
I could hear the sounds of the winds.
The sounds of metal being rubbed, the breaths of running horses
That’s no wild animal.
Those are enemies.
I put out the fire I used to stand watch.
I mobilized my magical power, and felt the wind.
The movements of the wind, temperature, then ascertained the condition of the surrounding.
I practiced this countless time.
Sensing the wind, men and horses, number of wolves, distance, I was perfectly aware of all that.
Sensing the wind with magic, I used my eyes to confirmed if those information was correct many times.
Without any prior rehearsal, I prepared arrows onto my bow.
The distance is 180 steps, number of people, five, horses, six
I told myself many times that it was correct and fired my arrow.
「Gue」
「What」
「How」
「Uwaa」
The wind carried voices.
The enemies at the front got an arrow into his forehead and fell off the horse. The wind told me that.
170 steps away 4 people left
I prepared my arrow、fire・・・it was a hit (TN: Jumuka uses Arrow. It was super effective. Opponent has fainted)
165 steps away 3 people left
I prepared my arrow、fire・・・it was a hit
175 steps away 2 people left
I prepared my arrow、fire・・・it was a hit
190 steps away 1 person left
I prepared my arrow、fire・・・it was a hit
The wind came and told me that all 5 of them stopped moving. The horses ran to somewhere.
I was satisfied but kept up my vigilance.
2 days later
We finally returned to the grassland.
What’s left is us returning to our villages
The season is already spring.
～Shaomin～
「The whole scout unit didn’t come back？」
「Yeah、Brother」
Shaomin pondered a little
「Perhaps they found the grassland people and assaulted them for revenge。 We’ll go towards the direction they went。 」
The pursuit unit turned back towards south-southwest to where the scouts went, they found naked horses.
They advanced further ahead and found 4 corpses of death by being pieced with arrows, there was a young man with an arrow piercing his shoulder.
Shaomin listened to what that man had to say.
The young man’s story is that, they advanced even at night, they saw lights from fire on their way back to the camp, so they seemed to have tried to make one last confirmation.
However, suddenly the light was put out, then there were sharp arrows soaring towards them, it pierced their captain at the foremost front.
They became dreadful that one person after another got shot down in the dark. When he was about to run, a friend next to him was shot down, then lastly he himself got shot.
Luckily he was the only one got it in the shoulder, he escaped death but he thought that he’d be killed the moment he moved just a little, so he played dead all day.
The young man’s body is still trembling right now.
「I don’t know who that was but、he’s a monster、no more、I’m scared、I’m not going I’m not goiiiiiing」
The young man became frightened of something and burst into blaming the people around him.
Gyukou made him faint to stop him.
Hearing the young man’s story, the whole unit’s morale dropped.
They also had insufficient food remaining.
「Not being able to cut down a single person is a disgrace。 Everyone, let’s return。 Everyone will be hailed as heroes at the imperial capital right?。 Now then let’s go。 」
Shaomin’s pursuit unit gave up and returned to the imperial capital.
Future historians spoke in unision.
「If Shaomin didn’t try to exterminate the tribes、but only chased them away
Henceforth、the ghosts of five people would become the existence that would be passed down to the Great Warriors、Moderate Warriors and Grassland children as bedtime story。 」
…or so they said