BXBX NOVEL Chapter 256: What could be their problem?
So, some sort of protest was given… But I expected it to appear as soon as the two humans I decided to spare were brought away, not after we had already moved on, finished all the wounded in the area before moving on to keep up the chase.
"What seems to be the problem?" I asked, turning my face to a slightly oversized dear with a crown of horns so big, that he had to actively use his aura just to keep himself stable.
What was the point of assuming his animalistic form in the middle of a thick forest where every tree would be an obstacle hard to move past with horns of that size, I couldn\'t fathom.
But thankfully, figuring out the answer to that wasn\'t an issue at hand.
"I would like to know why you decided to spare those two humans," the celestial spoke, only to weird me out with how the movements of its snout translated to actual words that had no physical right to come out of a deer\'s throat.
Still, instead of answering, I simply gave the celestial a long, exasperated look.
"Do you want the short or long answer?" I asked, making sure to keep up the pace of a slightly hurried walk.
Contrary to what one could expect, this relatively peaceful stroll was more than just enough to keep up with the rate at which the humans were retreating from the forest. As long as we kept this pace steady and ignored all the obstacles on the way, the stumbling and chaos-stricken units of the invaders could never outmatch… or even match our speed.
"I would like both," the celestial spoke again, only to throw its massive, horny head to the side when the far, right flank of our loose line encountered a small number of humans.
Not stopping even for a second, I continued to lead the group ahead.
Given the disproportionate strength of humans, celestials, and divines, as long as the number of combatants was more or less the same, there was no need for me to worry about even the slightest losses. .net
"The short answer is, just because," I gave the response locals were sure to hate. "I\'m the one leading this unit and I\'m the one behind the general plan for the defense of this forest. And in no army in the whole world do commanders have any need to explain their actions and decisions to mere foot soldiers."
Antagonizing my own allies wasn\'t the best of my ideas. But it was something I had to do to establish one, very simple fact.
I wasn\'t just their slave, helper, or convenient ally. I was someone with my own agenda that I was securing while helping them on the side. As such, there was absolutely no reason for me to care what the locals would think in the short term, for in the long term, I had no plans to stay in this damned forest for any longer than necessary.
"And the long answer?" the celestial inquired, so obviously dissatisfied with my answer I could see it even through on its deer\'s face.
"Sooner or later, this war will come to an end and I will establish a buffer state between the forest and the rest of the empire," I revealed what wasn\'t a secret ever since I freely babbled about it to the two humans I spared. "And with the interest of said state focused mostly within the rest of the continent over your forest, we will need a proper source of information."
If the first part of my answer aimed to antagonize locals a bit and showcase how I wasn\'t just some convenient helper, then the second part was proof what I did wasn\'t just an action of a kid stumbling in the dark and claiming his erratic doings were all part of some grandiose plan.
"And lastly, they appeared to be pretty practical, so I might have some use for them, again, once this war is over."
For me, that was the end of the topic. But with the look of dissatisfaction lingering in the deer\'s deep, green eyes…
"Still, they are our enemies!" the deer protested, although its voice grew weaker than when it first spoke up. "They came here to kill us… I\'m sorry, but I can\'t just let them go like that!"
"Then it\'s a good thing you will die if you try to harm them," Fay barked from my side, giving her fellow celestial a furious stare. "Peter decided they get to live. That means such is Madam\'s will. And if you dare to lift your fucking hove against them…"
"Fay, there\'s no need for that," I whispered, reaching out with my left to caress the fingers she wrapped around my right arm. Only once I could feel Fay\'s breathing slow and calm down, I turned my eyes back to the celestial deer. "And you seem to miss what is pretty damn obvious to me."
Rather than explaining myself right away, I sped up the pace of my steps, slowing them down only a moment later, after forcing the celestial to hurry to match my pace again.
"I can tell that pretty much none of the soldiers that attacked the forest had any desire to be here," I revealed the obvious that only someone who never had any contact with how humans operated on a larger scale could miss.
"So tell me, if I kidnapped your kids and mate and claimed I would take their lives if you didn\'t go and attack a nearby settlement of innocent humans," I leaned my head to the side and even stopped in my tracks to give the celestial deer an inquisitive glance.
"Would you dare not to attack those innocent humans then? Would you value the lives of some strangers over the lives of your family?"
I stared at the celestial for a second. Yet, the very moment I pushed my legs to start walking again, a devastating cry shook the air within the forest… And judging by its intensity, it likely affected quite the area outside of it as well.
\'So it begins,\' both me and Fay thought at the same time, only for our bond to make this realization resonate between the two of us.
But we weren\'t alone in this feeling. For one, single moment, our entire unit came to an abrupt stop, all charmed by the intensity of the cry… and the meaning hidden behind it.
"It started," a random divine who just happened to be walking by our side commented under his nose.
As a distant echo of machine gun fire reached my ears, I simply took a breath before pulling Fay one step ahead. And then another.
Then, following my example, our allies picked up the slack and started their march yet again, heading straight for the source of the cry and ever louder noise of gunfire.
Yet, the closer we got to the edge of the forest, the slower our march became. Bit by bit, more and more of my troops had to engage with stragglers and deserters of the human army, quickly grinding our advance to a nearly complete halt.
\'Well, it\'s not like there\'s any need for me to be there,\' I thought, stifling the annoyance that continued to grow in my soul the slower our unit marched ahead. \'Makary should be more than capable of dealing with it by his…\'
"Mister Peter!" Once again, a celestial rushed to my side. This time, however, rather than a deer, it was one hell of a massive crane.
\'Just how in all hells did it get through all the trees? Or, assuming it flew above, how did it spot where we are?\'
I shook my head, leaving this puzzling topic aside as I watched the massive, white crane turn into a cloud of mist, only for a handsome, young man dressed in just a simple, knee-long tunic to walk out of it.
"Your friends at the forest\'s edge," the young celestial lowered himself down and rested his hands on his knees, taking a second to regain his breath. "They urge you to come and see them. There\'s some sort of problem they underestimated and they seek your advice."
This was weird.
\'What sort of problem a modern army could have when they sit in well-entrenched positions with damn firearms with nothing but a crowd of defenseless soldiers running away from them?\'
I took a deep breath, using the time this lone breath bought me to analyze the situation.
"And how were things looking when you left to pass the message?" I asked, raising my eyes and squinting them a bit as I looked at the celestial.
"Okayish, I guess?" the young celestial\'s eyebrows moved to the center of his head, meeting right above the two wrinkles that emerged. "They were running, your friends were killing them en masse," he explained with a shake of his shoulders.
"I will have to go and see what problem they have myself, I guess," I muttered before shaking my head. "Thanks for the message. If you have the strength to come back, could you go and tell them I\'m coming?"
The celestial simply nodded his head before turning around, exploding into a cloud of dense aura, and then emerging from it back in his crane\'s form.
"What problem could they have, I wonder," I muttered to myself before taking a breath and picking up the pace once again. "I guess we will have to go there and find out!"