FreeBooksOnline Chapter 556-558: Rangers
Chapter 556-558: Rangers
Chapter 556-558: Rangers
Everything started on a sunny day.
In the territory of Lustburg, the beast men had been pushing forward unimpeded. While the news about the few defeats they received worried them, this also increased the morale of the soldiers who continued to win even as Lustburg retreated.
Of course, they understand that they were lucky not to have had to face the truly dangerous one. But even so. Wouldn’t one say that luck is also a skill? This was a truth in this world.Yôur favorite stories at novelhall.com
After all denying Luck would mean denying the Blessed.
“Captain, how long before we break the last blockade?”
“They are barely hanging. In a few hours at most, we should be able to break open the castle.”
They nodded. The gate of Lustburg were opening to them in a way. After beating the nobles in the frontiers and pushing forward a little more, they would be able to infiltrate and pillage villages while gathering resources.
The moment this transformed into a guerilla, Lusburg would have a hard time spreading the resources necessary to catch all of them.
“In all history, this may be our greatest victory.”
Lustburg and Wratharis had fought many times in the long history of war. Some wins and some losses existed on either side. But most of the time, the war would simply stop after lasting a few years and start negotiations for captured soldiers, slaves and whatnot.
Lustburg had generally more wins though. It wasn’t for nothing that so many beast men and half-beast men were born and raised there.
“Captain!”
The hearty and joyous discussion in the tent was stopped as someone barged in. The captain was about to remonstrate them but knowing this soldier in particular, he knew that he was not the kind to lose his cool most of the time.
A uneasy feeling started to spread as he stood up and asked,
“What happened?”
“Lustburg received reinforcement!”
“Is it all? Isn’t it obvious? How many did they send? Hundred? Thousand?”
It was impossible for the army of Lustburg to spare more than a thousand or a few thousand at most. They even had Two Dukes present just in case. So this was not going to be too problematic.
At least....This was what he believed until he received the exact number.
“Only 10.”
“Well... Shit.”
The captain finally grasped the gravity of the situation.
“Is it perhaps a group led by a King? Did Lustburg finally go crazy and decide to break the Convention?”
In this world, there was a clear reality, when a small group of people were sent to face an army this group was composed of the elite. The fewer they were the more powerful. To the point where numbers became meaningless.
Nearly all the known Dukes of Lustburg were on the battlefront. The few who were not were either guardians or one of the actual four Duke of the Kingdom.
The captain’s mind started swimming. It didn’t matter if Lustburg broke the convention and got condemned by the world. This wouldn’t bring them back to life if they were annihilated here.
But at the same time, he could not send the retreat order. They would all be treated as deserters if they gave up on fighting without at least ascertaining the power of the enemy.
In the end, he started walking. He was one of the two Duke in place. He was not particularly strong all things considered.
But he could not simply send his soldiers to their deaths.
“My friend, are you ready for what could be a suicide mission?”
The other Duke, a middle-aged woman who was taller than most men and had cute bear ears above her head grunted and nodded with a sad smile.
Dukes in the military enjoyed many advantages. Exempt from taxes, having their own lands, receiving high pay, and being above most laws.
Even Lupus in all his madness did not diminish the right and power of the Dukes. But with all those rights and advantages came an equally high level of responsibility and punishments in case of refusing to uphold one own responsibility were even harsher than on normal soldiers.
This means in moments like this they would always advance first.
After choosing a small team of about 30 or so soldiers who all had fear etched on their faces, they detached themselves from the main groups and started advancing until they finally saw the so-called Reinforcement.
“What is this...?”
As a soldier, he had lived a long life and seen many kinds of weapons and armor but even then, this was the first time he observed something like this.
A full body armor with no gap. A sleek design that seemed to stick to the body without disturbing it. The group of ten seemed to be divided evenly in five colors.
Red/Blue/Yellow/Pink/Green.
They were all wearing faceless helmet that reflected the light.
Sweat started to tickle down the brow of the Captain of Wratharis. Not only did the armor look so foreign from the usual design that they created a dissonance in his perception. But at the same time, he was feeling a very faint oppression coming from them.
This was something he had only felt once in his life when he stood in front of the Dragon Flood queen.
Dragon Might.
Even though this was infinitely weaker than what he felt back then, the pressure was still here.
“What...”
“Under the order of his Magnanimous Highness, Sol Luxuria. Future King of Lustburg. You are thereby given an ultimate.”
A ghostly womanly voice spread through,
“You have 10 hours to leave. Should you not comply. No more pity shall be spared.”
“You...Who are you?”
He should have been angry. Receiving such an order from the enemy was humiliating. But all he could do was think about what kind of people those guys were.
“Are you even humans?”
He wondered if he was being faced with some new races.
Even though he could not see their face, he could not help but feel that one of them was smiling
“Remember our name. Remember this day. We are the new Ranger unit and we will sweep the battlefield. Send those words to your higherup less they say they were not forewarned.”
The fact that this war was, in fact, caused by the prince himself to bring Setsuna to the throne.
He was sacrificing the soldiers of his country to please his future wife.
All of this was done with the goal of vilifying Sol as much as possible and discrediting him in the eyes of the population.
—
While this was going on, in the Depths of the Tower of Babel, Sol was discussing with Khali about a very important issue.
“Rangers? Seriously? You couldn’t find a better name? Why even change the name to Mecha. Mecha Units or Mecha soldiers sound good and simple, I think.”
Khali made herself quite small in the seat. She had chosen this name in a moment of pure madness, and she knew that it was pretty stupid.
But she couldn't give up now, could she?
She hesitated a moment before speaking,
“Look. Those things are power armor, right?”
Sol could already see that Khali was about to bring some mighty bullshit.
“Yes.”
“And Rangers are a special commando unit, right?”
Sol hesitated before sighing, defeated, “Yes. So you took Power and Ranger together. This is what you are going to say?”
“Hehehe...”
Khali gave a sheepish laugh at the glare Sol was throwing at her. She knew this name was pretty tacky, but she could not let the occasion slip from her hands.
This kind of thing might never happen again, after all, and it was definitely very funny.
“Look, don’t be mad. Whatever their name might be, the most important thing is...They work, right?”
Sol shook his head and smoothed his creased brow. In the end, Khali was one of the three creators, so even if she wanted to give a weird name to the special power armor, then it didn’t matter.
In the end, only other reincarnated people like him would even understand the joke.
“Honestly, space marine would have been a better term, at least for the Black and White superior version.”
While the lower versions were human-sized armor, the more powerful ones were closer to small Mecha or very bulky power armor.
“Meh... Not as funny.”
“Whatever, do as you like. As you said, their names don’t really matter as long as they are working. A little too well, I must say. I guess I did well in heeding Clara’s warning.”
Sol gazed at the paperwork that was different from the usual ones he received. After all, this time those were documents and letters with the sigils of different Kingdoms.
“Threats, negotiation, small inquiries, proposals, etc. I have been receiving more than ten letters every day since the mecha —”
“The Rangers.”
“....Sigh~ Since the rangers made their grand entrance on the battlefield. I think the dwarves are already prepared to sue me for theft of important historical knowledge.”
“Heh... How ridiculous. I thought the dwarves would be silent since our fight at their border between me, Freya, and Medea.”
Sol gave a soft smile, remembering a time that seemed so far away when in reality it was still extremely close, all things considered.
Back then, the fight between the three witches ended up wiping out a few mountains in the surroundings.
Though said mountains were immediately recovered by Ambrosia. Back then the Dwarves were indeed angry, and this ended up with some minor sanctions when it came to Dwarven steel importation.
Internationally speaking, Lustburg was really in a geographically bad position. They were surrounded by land, so no products from the sea. They did not have the rare beasts present in the Demon kingdom that were necessary for the contract of talented humans.
They did not have special mines like the dwarves nor special woods like the elves.
Their technology was not as developed as Slothein, and their understanding of biology was not as developed as Chimera.
Jack of all trades and master of none, this made them too dependent on foreign help.
‘Well, this won't be the case anymore.’
Thanks to the witches, he had direct access to the Astral realm market.
Feeling his head heating up because of everything he had to think about, Sol shook his head and continued the conversation thread.
“They were. But they are dwarves. In a way, the most attuned to their sins. Greed is their motto, and they would die for it if necessary.”
“How stupid.”
“This stupidity is helping me in this situation. Though of course, this is also thanks to Theresa fanning the flame from behind.”
Khali nodded. She had come to know Theresa closely, and she respected the diminutive woman.
She might be the weakest, but Khali knew that not even witches specialized in metallurgy could beat her.
This was proven recently during an internal contest, and Theresa literally steamrolled the competition.
“By the way, I have been hearing pretty bad things about you. It seems like your reputation is in the gutter.”
Even though she was asking, Khali treaded carefully. She did not want to upset him, after all.
“Oh, those...”
Sol looked up and chuckled,
“I am the one spreading the bad rumors.”
Khali looked at Sol, eyes filled with incomprehension.
“Are you a closed masochist?”
Sol had to fight the urge to smack down the impish Crimson Witch.