Awakening the Great Chapter 76

Chapter 76: Dilemma

As the group pushed deeper into the western mountain range, the ridgelines grew rougher and more treacherous. Yet once you grew accustod to it, there was no terrain better suited for their purposes. Snow-capped ridges, fractured trails, valleys devoid of any human presence, and narrow gorges where the wind scread.

Imdiately after incinerating the rear supply base, the Antelopes had lured the Imperial forces into this harsh terrain. Moving as though born and raised among these peaks, they led nearly two thousand pursuers on a chase through every corner of the mountain range.

Hadiya would misdirect the enemy, and when Calix sensed danger, they would use the warhorses' mobility to strike and withdraw.

Elusive as ghosts was an expression that truly fit.

"So this is why a single horse costs more than three or four n."

Dwarf Basim muttered quietly atop his saddle. His lower half was still lashed down with rope, yet he had clearly ward to the horse considerably—he patted the animal's neck with his palm.

"It's not an ordinary horse, that's why. It handles mountain terrain well and doesn't fall ill. Breeds like this aren't common."

"Right. Long live Elvra, then, you little—"

"……Good grief."

Zahira let out a sigh at his blunt sarcasm, but Calix inwardly agreed with his words. Not a single thing he said was wrong.

"The horses have beco more important than the people."

"Our cook comrade speaks true. n can starve, but beasts must be fed. Setting priorities and distributing unequally—that is war."

"Yes."

And so it truly was.

When the rcenaries made do with two als of dried rations a day, the horses chewed through hay several tis over. Saddles soaked with sweat were stripped and aired out every dawn, and the state of the horses' hooves was checked before anyone else's. Thanks to this, everyone had learned the ways of caring for a warhorse, and that naturally led to an improvent in riding skill.

‘Mobility is the flower that blooms beneath the hoof.’

Through relentless combat, the Antelopes had reached that understanding one by one without anyone having to say it first, and with that, they beca a group that moved with the horse at its center.

Of course, the cleaning up of the battlefield was still not their burden to bear.

"Smoke is rising."

At Hadiya's remark, the mbers turned their heads toward the rear. From a hollow midway up the mountainside, black vapor was billowing upward in thick plus.

"……Draug."

"That thing is genuinely tenacious. It's still following us?"

Reactions drenched in exasperation shot back.

The number of tis Draug had pulled them back from the brink was substantial. In particular, just a few days prior, thunderous sounds had echoed through the night. It had surely co into conflict with the knight order. The Antelopes were using it as they saw fit, and yet there was sothing that unsettled them all the sa.

"How long will it keep moving the way we want it to."

"……Calix said it would follow to the very end, didn't he."

Even so, they showed none of it outwardly. On the contrary, the veteran rcenaries dissolved their ntal fatigue through crude jokes.

"At this point, isn't it in love? It must be completely smitten with us."

"Love, you say. I'd say it's far more convincing that Calix did sothing truly foul to it."

"Sothing foul?"

"Mm, like torching the creature's backside with a torch while it was in the outhouse."

"Oh, you!"

While everyone chuckled, Gregor laughed the loudest of all. The veteran rcenary had a particular fondness for the word dung.

The road leading to the Viale Mountain Alliance.

There was no trace of fear, and the journey appeared to be going smoothly.

* * *

Two days later.

Having left both Draug and the Imperial forces behind, the Antelopes set foot across the boundary into the northwest region. The mountain ridges gradually lowered, and here and there, the buds of spring had blood. Beyond the rough rocky terrain, green ridgelines erged, and the wind drifted softly as though carrying pollen.

It was ti to rest.

Royce and Hadiya surveyed the approaches to the forest together. There was a small clearing ringed by pine trees standing like folding screens. It looked as though the spot had been left waiting just for them.

"We'll camp here. We move out again at dawn tomorrow."

They tied the reins and unpacked their personal gear. Hadiya disappeared once more to scout the surroundings, and the dwarf Basim was the first to check the state of the horses' hooves. It was ti to replace the worn horseshoes.

Thud, thud.

anwhile, Zahira kneaded mud and applied it to the horses' legs. The intent was to cool their muscles and reduce whatever fatigue had accumulated.

Calix, on the other hand, lit a fire and prepared the al. His duty was to look after the old man who had lost his mories. And shortly after, the dwarf Basim dropped down heavily beside him.

"It happened again?"

There was no subject, but he understood imdiately. Calix extended the half-drawn sword with a sheepish expression.

The core was warped, and the tip of the blade had yellowed and fused shut.

"I tried to be careful, but in the end it lted."

A tsk, tsk of a tongue-click ca back, as though he had known it would co to this.

"This is unusable. Unless you lt it down entirely and reforge it."

"……Is there really no way? Constantly swapping out blades has its limits."

"I'm a blacksmith, not a mage."

"……"

"It's not just that the edge is gone—it's shattered into pieces. Your mana has grown strong enough to scatter tal across the ground. If this is how it's going to be, next ti just carry an iron ingot with you."

His words were rough, but his actions were the opposite. The dwarf stuck out his lip and extended a spare sword. He had thought ahead and taken one from the Imperial forces, knowing it might co to this.

"I found one myself as well. If you'd rather I use that—"

"Impertinent little— Is your eye the sa as my eye? A human male, and how many years have you lived, raising your voice like that? Stop talking and just take it!"

"……Thank you."

Basim left without a word in reply. In the spot where he had been sitting, only a faint warmth and a few parting words remained.

"Honestly, they don't co to their senses until the blade shatters like glass. Too many who don't even know their weapon is their life. Just trusting in their own strength and……. Oi, you foolish—!"

"Ow! Why are you hitting !"

"I told you to sharpen the edge evenly! You've gone and bent the whole sword—are you trying to make a curved blade out of it?!"

At the end of that exchange, Volga's shriek rang out, and just then, the Vice-captain caught Calix's eye with a glance. The Antelopes' captain had called a eting of the key mbers.

First, Hadiya's report was delivered.

"The ridgeline has dropped in elevation. We've now entered the western foothills of the mountain range."

"So we've crossed roughly two-thirds of Imperial territory……"

"Yes. But the terrain ahead is a mix of plains and lowlands, which makes it far more dangerous. We've been causing chaos for a month now, so the Imperial forces will have positioned troops accordingly. The mont we let our guard down, there's a high probability we'll be encircled."

"We'll need to push through quickly. Where is the point where we can fully shake off the pursuit?"

He pointed a finger at the map received from the Elvra Holy Empire.

"Here—there's a river flowing out of the mountains. Once we pass through this point, Sasingya lies ahead. It's called the 'Staircase Leading to the Clouds'—one of the largest mountains on the entire continent. Beyond that is the Mountain Alliance's territory."

"What's the distance from the river to this place called Sasingya?"

"If we move at full pace, we should be able to reach it within a day."

Royce gave a nod.

"Marik, what's the condition of the horses?"

"Half a day's rest and they'll recover considerably. They've lost so muscle, but they're stable."

"Good."

He followed that with a composed reply and looked down at the map. The plan itself had little that needed adjusting.

"If we ride at full pace, we should reach the Mountain Alliance's boundary within a fortnight. As long as there are no variables, there shouldn't be a problem."

But Calix found himself frowning at this expression, no problem.

A plan running smoothly, a flawless route of movent that had shaken off Draug and the Imperial forces, a destination they had a high probability of reaching safely. Despite everything going well, sothing in a corner of his mind was uneasy.

'Going along like this isn't bad. But even so……We haven't broken out of the rcenary company's mold.'

He turned over the recent journey in his mind.

The victory against Blutspheer. Setting fire to the enemy's supply depot, paralyzing the entire supply route. In the ti since, a great many accomplishnts had accumulated. Yet all of these things had only increased the likelihood of their nas passing from mouth to mouth—they had not changed the fundantal structure.

'At best, we'll end up beholden to the Elvra Holy Empire.'

He was aware that the Commander Royce intended to use the order as a foothold to rise one step higher.

But was that enough?

Calix wanted more than that.

'We need to rise higher than this. The potential has been demonstrated clearly enough. To do that, we must choose a new value for ourselves.'

Sothing beyond the value of survival was necessary. Rather than fa itself, they needed to beco sothing that outpaced fa.

For whom do we move, and for what do we draw the blade?

This was the ti to find the question about 'what to move toward'—not rely a fight to stay alive.

"Are there any other opinions?"

In the midst of that, the eting rushed swiftly toward its conclusion. Royce swept his gaze across the key mbers and finally fixed it on one person.

"Calix?"

Just as before, he asked for his opinion last—yet those gathered at the eting felt that sothing had continued to change. At so point, the Antelopes had taken on a shape that felt as though Royce and Calix were carrying it forward together.

"……Yes. I agree as well."

No particular answer ca right away. Calix had only sensed the direction they needed to go; he was not yet able to offer a clear thod.

However, the weight that settled at the end of his words had changed.

"Now we need to shed both Draug and the Imperial forces."

A single look was enough to understand each other, and no further discussion was needed.

It was at that mont.

Cutting through the sound of the wind, a strange sign of human presence stirred at the edge of the forest. Shortly after, a mid-ranking rcenary who had been patrolling the outer periter, Wheatley, returned to camp with his face set hard.

"Enemy spotted! Forty paces out!"

"Forty paces? The Imperial forces have gotten that close?"

The area around the campfire erupted into commotion. The horses stamped their hooves and reared up, while the rcenaries leapt up swiftly to grab their weapons.

There was no ti to don armor.

Beyond the undergrowth, a mass of humans was pressing in. Hundreds of silhouettes. Uneven outlines, sothing gripped in their hands. And yet their footsteps were far from disciplined. Were they a scouting party, or a skirmisher unit? The ambiguous shapes seized the Antelopes' hearts and squeezed.

"Leave the armor—just grab your weapons!"

"Get on your horses!"

Just as the rcenaries were about to charge out—

"Wait!"

A single shout froze all movent. Where the chaos had stilled, only questions lingered.

Calix felt the gazes converging on him, and quietly stepped forward. He crossed the campsite, pushed through the dense undergrowth, and advanced.

'The color is faint. These are not ard individuals.'

A dim, washed-out hue on the verge of going out entirely. At the end of it stood a wretched collection of figures.

"Urgh!"

"Who—who's there!"

Discolored and torn clothing, legs caked with filth, eyes sunken with starvation and fear. Their identities could be read from appearance alone.

"……Wanderers."

"Th-that's right. Every one of us used to live in the north. But, um……Who might you be?"

From within words that could not conceal their fear, the distinctive dialect of the northern Astria Kingdom made itself known. There was nothing suspicious to be found.

The rcenaries who had followed behind furrowed their brows.

Fleas and ticks clung to the elders' bodies at every point, and the thin calves of the children were mottled with burst capillaries.

The Antelopes lowered their blades. So turned their heads and pretended not to see; others wore grim expressions and moved to cut off any approach beforehand.

But before that could happen, the wanderers recognized who stood before them. They had glimpsed an emblem that no one from the Astria Kingdom could fail to know.

"That banner……. Th-the Antelopes! Are you truly the Antelopes?"

"Horses! There are horses! It really is the Antelopes!"

"They say you've been tearing through the north!"

"Please save us! Good sirs, we beg you, please help us!"

Calix, unsure how to respond, turned his head and t Royce's eyes. The captain gave no answer.

And so, naturally, he looked over them one by one—these people who had lost their holand and wandered ever since.

They fell to their knees. Hands clasped together, faces pressed to the ground. They endured the humiliation, crying out only that the children might be spared.

Reason and emotion clashed once more.

Though his eyes did not close, his mind conjured a village in the northeastern Astria Kingdom.

'……Big brother.'

A small child with a resolute gaze had spoken, without faltering.

'The soldiers will co back.'

'Those people were the sa before. They co like this, kill people, run away, and co back again.'

'So you be careful too, big brother.'

Had the child survived?

Calix knew the answer. If the pursuit of the knight order had been attached to him because of the Centurion he had killed at the ti—the village, too, could not have been left unscathed.

And in this mont, the sa dilemma had been placed before him.

'This is a variable that wasn't in the plan.'

If he abandoned them and left, the Imperial forces were closing in from behind. These people were powerless, and they would inevitably beco easy targets for venting rage.

Yet he could not take them along either. A drop in speed was a certainty. To protect the sound of the children's crying, the Antelopes themselves could be driven to annihilation.

'But that plan, too, cannot continue repeating itself indefinitely.'

Calix realized it with sudden clarity.

If they stayed where they were, nothing would change. Instead of the Astria Kingdom, they would be pushed around by the Elvra Holy Empire. Instead of Duke Saitz, they would beco entangled with high-ranking figures of the order.

A life tossed about in every direction, like a buoy floating on the sea.

'Perhaps this is an opportunity. This could be the first beginning—of being able to choose sothing new, rather than being a presence that rely carries out its orders.'

The answer he had been waiting for stood right before him. By lending an ear to the appeals of the powerless, he could make known to the world that they had conviction. The world would co to understand that the Antelopes were not a mindless blade, but a group that possessed purpose and will.

Of course, this was a brutally difficult path.

'All of us might die because of a child's cry.'

Before deciding, he would have to carefully weigh whether it was even executable. He would have to persuade the Commander Royce, the Vice-captain Marik, and every other mber as well.

So then—what would he do?

Calix fell silent, and after deliberating for a very long ti—

He gave his answer.