The subjugation of the Dark Wolf pack began at precisely 7 p.m. when the soldiers forming the encirclent hoisted up their torches in unison.
The net was spread as wide as 50 kiloters, though it was also due to the huge distance that it was impossible for them to surround and eliminate all the Dark Wolves with the people present.
Fortunately, the 6th legion had already scouted the pack’s movent, though it was a challenging task with the Dark Wolves digging their dens at different places at a specific distance away from each other, while making sure to avoid alerting them.
The scouts of the Knight Order weren’t so soft persimmons and could confront them, however the task at hand was to eliminate all of them. Alerting them would just give them a chance to run away, pouring water on their efforts so far.
Well, it was primarily the team Rosetta-san led that not only managed to grasp the Dark Wolves’ location without alerting them, and they even got the details like where they could be found, the terrain of the area, and the difference in battle power in just 2 to 3 days of exploration.
“I’m just following what I’ve been taught, there’s still a long road ahead for ,” was the reply I got from the person herself when I made an amazed ‘Woah, that’s incredible!’ remark. Her desire to improve herself is quite admirable, eh?
‘Howwwwwwl,’ the howling of Dark Wolves reverberated in the air as they ca out of the mountain at the sa ti as the encirclent group hoisted their torches.
Dante-san, while carrying a two-handed great sword on his shoulder, much like an exemplary knight, said—
“So it has begun, huh? We should also get going. Dark Wolves abhor flas and light, so they should be moving in the direction of Clover Valley instead of confronting the torches, but the intelligent specin might prove troubleso. Our task is to lure out such Wolves hiding in the pack!”
The knights were divided into three teams, with the following tasks—
The subjugation squad of Captain Suzunami who'd reap the soul of every Dark Wolf once they appeared in Clover Valley.
The hunting squad who took care of the intelligent wolves trying to escape the encirclent.
Our raid squad who acted inside the encirclent.
According to Rosetta-san, the Dark Wolves who were ranked last in the hierarchy would try to escape into Clover Valley while the smarter ones would try to cooperate and see if they could break through the siege.
So it was our 3rd legion's role to chase them into the direction of Clover Valley before they could consider fleeing, and the situation fell into a stalemate.
◆◆◆
Rosetta was panicking.
It had been 30 minutes since the start of their operation to drive the Dark Wolf pack toward Clover Valley, however they didn’t even have 10 of the Dark Wolves heading their way— less than a third of the number that she had expected.
Yet, the strange part was she also didn’t hear any whistle to call the nearby knights in case the Dark Wolves were trying to sneak out of the encirclent.
Then what had baffled her even more was the lack of presence of the Dark Wolves appearing in the valley. There was only deafening silence surrounding the valley after whatever drizzle of Dark Wolves had appeared within the starting 30 minutes.
Did they make a mistake in the area and left the majority of the Dark Wolves outside the siege? Or maybe sothing had happened inside the siege?
Just as all sorts of thoughts were running amok inside Rosetta's head as she contemplated the possibilities, Suzunami crossed her arms and called out to her.
“Well, then. Our opponent is an irregular variant, so it’s to be expected for the developnt to take a different route. What we need to focus on is how to deal with that irregularity, Rose. Hmm, should we charge in with everyone present here?”
There was clearly a lapse in their judgent. Or perhaps not? They were certainly not wrong in deploying their manpower in the valley, where they had expected for the enemies to be cornered to.
Rosetta shook her head with a vexed expression.
“I can’t apologize enough, Captain. I made a blunder in my judgent. Romambo-san and the two others should be sufficient to hold the fort here. Captain, and I should charge into the siege.”
Suzunami chuckled hearing Rosetta’s words.
“There’s nothing to apologize for, Rose. Naturally, we accept nothing less than a sort of flawless plan as we bear the safety of the kingdom and its citizens on our shoulders.
At the very least, I believe deploynt of forces was correct. Well, there was a mishap in the conclusion, but the opening act of the operation made it clear that our strategy wasn’t entirely wrong. However, what matters now is, as I said earlier, how do we deal with that irregularity? Alright, let’s go. Romambo, take care of things here.“
“Yes, Ma’am!”
Romambo, an old knight, promptly replied. He must have figured that this was bound to happen when the enemies stopped showing up following Rosetta’s lax deploynt.
“Take a slanted formation from the left in the order of Fuga, Washi and Sekumoto!” Romambo swiftly gave his orders.
Rosetta’s face warped in distress again as she heard those commands from behind.
◆◆◆
Rosetta, as a user of detection magic, took the lead in their charge.
The sun had already hidden itself in the mountain’s shadow with the surrounding area already sufficiently succumbing to the darkness.
They had just arrived near the central region of the encirclent when a faint sound of battle was heard by Rosetta.
Arriving at the location while following the sound, Rosetta witnessed the scene of the support mbers — the mbers of the 3rd legion including Dante-san whom she respected — being surrounded by a group of Dark Wolves in an open, depressed area.
The number of Dark Wolves was as much as a hundred by a rough glance, almost as if every single Dark Wolf had gathered here. However, the fact that surprised her was that a knight bearing a wound on his body was kneeling at the center, while the three other knights were standing in a triangle position to protect him.
It was an unbelievable scene for Rosetta. She hadn’t expected a mber of the Knight Order to lag behind the Dark Wolves when Dante-san was with them… and the thing that startled her even more was that they weren’t showing signs of running away.
Rosetta’s mind stopped working for a mont as if she was struck by a deluge at encountering a situation so wild she hadn’t expected to see it even in her dreams, and right at that mont, that ridiculously-masked young man suddenly nocked an arrow with srizing movents and fired in her direction.
The arrow was aid slightly to her left and seeing that, Rosetta bent her body in the opposite direction to avoid it. But if that wasn’t enough, she was further left bewildered by what happened next.
Suzunami suddenly released her bloodlust and charged in the direction of Rosetta, closing the distance between them as swiftly as possible, while performing a stabbing motion with her spear.
“Gaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrg!”
Though her exact aim was at the spot slightly above Rosetta’s right shoulder. Suzunami’s spear slipped past Rosetta’s side and stabbed the variant called ‘Black Lightning,’ the boss of the Dark Wolves, who was about to attack Rosetta from her blind spot.
The sharp sound of its howl — its death throes — echoed in the darkness of the night.
“It’s our chance!!”
Dante-san shouted without any hesitation as he jumped out and swung his great sword which hacked apart the surrounding Dark Wolves like paper.
In the heat of the mont, Suzunami also moved behind the Dark Wolf pack and skewered any Dark Wolf that tried to escape the depression.
Though that masked young man, however, didn’t budge even a bit as his hands languidly hung down.
‘A-Ack, I can’t catch up with all that's happening! What should I do!?’
Rosetta was frozen stiff when Suzunami gave her instruction.
“Rose, take the spot of the injured Manon and support Allen in searching for the enemy! Rangra, you focus on eliminating the small fries! And Allen, do you know how many are left!?”
“There’s one more female wolf, seemingly that boss’s mate! Most likely, that's all of them!"
Rosetta took a hold of herself following Suzunami’s order and ran down toward Manon, who had been kneeling beside Allen, and concentrated on her spirit and ear.
Rosetta knew of Allen’s exceptional detection magic, as he was trained by the «Efficient Operator» Dew Owiel — the commander of the 3rd legion and soone who was touted as a freak when it ca to detection magic. However, she also had her pride as one of the top 5 in the 6th legion’s list of detection magic users.
She got bested earlier due to an unexpected situation but as long as she could concentrate— Rosetta was just thinking that when Allen suddenly drew his dagger from his belt and flung it behind him.
Cluck
His dagger was stopped by a Dark Wolf’s fang.
Impossible!? I didn’t even notice it……
“Rose-san!”
Just as Rosetta yelped inside her heart from astonishnt, she heard Allen’s voice. Her body acted on its own in response to his voice as she slashed the forefoot of the female wolf with her long sword, followed by another swing of her second sword, a short-sword, that lopped off its head.
As soon as Suzunami confird that, she shouted—
“Don’t let a single one escape. Keep driving them toward the hunting ground! Allen, keep your focus on searching for the enemy just in case! Rose, guard Manon in the anwhile and call the others in with the flute. Then co after us once you’re done! Let’s go!“
Everyone had just started chasing the Dark Wolves following Suzunami’s instructions when Rosetta called out to Allen.
“Wait! How did you notice the attack of that Dark Wolf? I want to use it as a reference for my mission!”
Allen montarily stopped and turned around to answer.
“……The wind whispered to .”
Wind whispered?! Is this boy sane?……
Rosetta was stupefied on hearing the answer of the kid wearing a laughing codger mask.
The operation might not end at a flawless note, but she didn’t expect even a student would tease her like this.
Rosetta, having her pride shattered to a million pieces, glared at the back of Allen with a vexed expression as he left.
◆◆◆
“Wait! How did you notice the attack of that Dark Wolf? I want to use it as a reference for my mission!”
Here it cos!
“……The wind whispered to .”
Turning my head 30 degrees — the best angle I had discovered where my plain face shined the most — I replied.
It was the fruit of the research I had done with Dan and Dol on a certain day in the dressing room of the dorm’s bathroom. The three of us stood before a mirror stark naked and seriously studied our poses. Though it had taken as much as 30 minutes to co back to my senses, it was excusable. If I could have a girlfriend, any amount of ti was worth it!
My angle was perfect 30 degrees as I turned to glance at her — though I completely forgot I was wearing a mask at that ti — with an almost nihilistic expression while answering. And then, like the graceful wind, I briskly walked away from that place quietly.
I nailed it!
I could confidently say that that was my best shot!
I faintly chuckled to myself while feeling the fervent gaze of Rosetta-san. I think the surrounding wind had just opened up to the clichéd lovey-dovey route.
T/N - Rip, poor MC. I almost didn’t laugh out like a maniac reading the last part. And on another note, the author finally learned to drop in so foreshadowing.
E/N - That was too good. Well, if he really wanted a girlfriend, all he has to do is to look at his classmates. Unfortunately, the girls who're into him aren't exactly right in the head and he's also too dense to notice.
E/N 2 - edited the past few chapters so the wolves are consistently called "Dark Wolves". Sorry for the confusion. 4/22/24
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