Chapter 191 – The Knight and the Self-Propelled Artillery (1)

We heard the news that the southern section of the empire’s barrier, which bordered the northern mountain range, had fallen while we were holding off the undead on the barrier.

“They just keep coming endlessly.”

As Yerim said, looking down at the undead below the barrier with a tired expression, even though we had been killing them since that day, the number of undead below the barrier seemed to have increased instead.

More undead were being replenished than the number we had destroyed.

Still, the dangerous situation we had seen on the day we first arrived at the barrier hadn’t happened again since we came.

It was because of us.

Well, actually, it was Zahina who had done all the fighting.

Moreover, she hadn’t even shown her full magical power.

She had simply taken out the sniper rifle from my spatial expansion pouch and kept firing beyond the barrier.

Bang! Bang!

The mana-infused bullets flew over a kilometer, shattering the skeletons armed with guns among the zombies.

Without the gun-wielding skeletons, even the ordinary skeleton soldiers were destroyed, so a dangerous situation like that day couldn’t happen again.

Unfortunately, we hadn’t found any elite undead commanding the horde.

If we had, we would have rushed to deal with them immediately, but since they weren’t visible, there was nothing we could do.

Thanks to that, everyone except Zahina could rest a bit inside the barrier.

The same was true for the other soldiers and knights on the barrier.

The battle continued, but the tension was much lower than before.

The Marquis, who had some free time, seemed to be pondering ways to resolve the current stalemate.

Unfortunately, the Demon King’s army solved that problem for him.

The news from other regions, delivered by a mage, shocked the command staff.

“The Marquis is looking for you. He wants you to come immediately.”

I nodded at the messenger who had rushed over while I was watching Zahina’s sniping from the barrier.

I had a feeling I knew what it was about.

The Marquis and the other officers had been skeptical about what I had said that day, but I was certain.

The Demon King, who had brought guns, wouldn’t have come without cannons and self-propelled artillery.

When I rushed to the meeting room, the Marquis and the officers greeted me with grim faces.

“You were right. Dozens of exploding shells fell, and the southern barrier has collapsed.”

Just a few days ago, the Marquis and the noble officers had been confident that the barrier would hold, despite my warnings.

Because they had been so confident, this news was even more shocking.

In truth, from their perspective, it wasn’t an unreasonable belief.

The barrier had protected the empire for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

Moreover, it was covered in layers of magic, making it capable of blocking most spells.

Given that, it wasn’t strange for them to believe that the barrier would hold no matter what.

They just hadn’t seen the weapons from another world—shells and missiles.

The barrier could withstand the magic of grand mages and the sword techniques of knights, but it struggled against powerful physical attacks.

Just as medieval walls on Earth couldn’t withstand cannon fire, now that the undead had brought artillery, the barrier’s time was up.

As everyone was at a loss, the grand mage spoke up.

“Since the barrier has been breached, there’s no reason to hold this place. We need to retreat.”

Indeed, he was right.

With a hole in the barrier, the undead would now pour into the empire, so there was no reason to keep defending this place, which only had a wall on one side.

“You’re right. But how far should we retreat? My territory is behind this barrier. Are you saying we should abandon it?”

Of course, there was a portal here connected to the capital.

The Marquis and the knights could use the portal to go to the capital, but others couldn’t.

“There’s only one spatial mage here to maintain the portal. It would be difficult to evacuate all the knights with that.”

Even if it were possible, the Marquis didn’t seem inclined to leave.

The knights felt the same way.

Though he seemed like an odd swordmaster, he and the knights apparently loved their territory and its people more than I had thought.

“The garrison will retreat immediately. We’ll take the remaining soldiers and refugees and return to the territory. We’ll gather the people in the castle and hold out there until the empire counterattacks.”

At the Marquis’s words, the knights he had brought placed their hands on their chests.

The noble officers of the garrison had nothing to say to the Marquis, who was choosing to stay.

They would return to the capital via the portal, so they had no reason to argue with the Marquis.

However, someone did speak up.

“But the castle in the territory doesn’t have a portal. If something happens, it will be difficult to escape.”

“You can come with your forces to rescue us. I’m counting on you to hold out.”

The mage sighed at the Marquis’s words.

“You know I only brought that up to stop you from staying. But now you’re putting the burden on me. This is why people complain about you, Marquis.”

“Hahaha.”

The Marquis laughed heartily at the mage’s grumbling.

After a good laugh, the Marquis suddenly apologized to me.

“I’m sorry. Actually, when I heard you had arrived, I had summoned you from the capital.”

Indeed, with the portal here, it was unlikely that the expeditionary command in the capital hadn’t heard of our arrival and summoned us.

“I was the one who blocked that. I couldn’t just let three swordmaster-level individuals walk away on their own.

Besides, the capital didn’t seem to be in a hurry to call you, probably because they didn’t know your strength.”

Good grief.

The Marquis really wasn’t normal.

He had been intercepting communications from the capital on a whim.

This was less like the behavior of an imperial noble and swordmaster and more like that of a reckless warlord.

As I stared at him with my mouth agape, a sigh came from beside the Marquis.

“I have nothing more to say. I’m truly sorry. The higher-ups have given up on the Marquis, so just let it go. More importantly, you should come with me to the capital. Since they’ve summoned you, we should hurry.”

“Can the apprentice knights and priests who came with us also come? They were all part of the expeditionary force.”

The mage nodded at my question.

“Since the Marquis is staying, that should be possible.”

“Haha, don’t forget you owe me for this.”

As I listened to our conversation and watched the Marquis boast, I couldn’t help but smile wryly.

Whoosh!

A sound of air being sliced came from above.

A sound I had heard many times before. And one I never expected to hear here.

The shock that followed.

Boom!

The ground shook, and dust rained down from above.

“What’s this? Is it a magical attack? Did a lich come?”

At the Marquis’s surprised words, I immediately told him the truth.

“It’s artillery fire. The cannons have arrived here too.”

At my words, everyone turned to look at the Marquis with stiff expressions.

“What are you all doing? Move now! Evacuate the people and position the troops behind the barrier! No, first get the soldiers on the barrier down!”

“Understood!”

At the Marquis’s command, the frozen people began to move again.

The knights and officers rushed out, and the Marquis also grabbed his sword and headed out.

“I’m sorry, but you should go to the capital first. I think I need to help the Marquis.”

The mage also apologized to me and tried to follow the Marquis.

I shook my head at the apologetic mage.

“It seems we’ll be repaying the Marquis’s favor right now.”

The Marquis, who was leaving the meeting room, turned his head at my words.

“We’ll go a bit later. We’ll handle this attack. While we destroy the cannons, you two quickly move the soldiers and civilians to the rear.”

“Is that even possible? We were hit without even knowing where it came from.”

“Yes, it’s possible. We’ve dealt with it before.”

In truth, we hadn’t directly faced artillery fire from the undead before.

But I knew all about that artillery fire.

I knew that the shell that had just landed was the initial ranging shot, how far the artillery’s range was, and where the observers adjusting the fire would likely be.

Having served in the military in my past life, I knew all too well.

“If you stop this attack, I won’t forget it. I’ll recommend you as the next swordmaster.”

“That’s alright. Count Sponheim already said he’d recommend me first if I proved myself.”

Of course, I had no intention of becoming a swordmaster even if recommended.

“What? That noble brat got ahead of me?”

The Marquis seemed to take it completely differently.

As he looked like he was about to go challenge Count Sponheim to a duel, the mage sighed, and I left the raging Marquis behind, leaping toward the barrier.

Whoosh! Boom! Crash!

I ran as fast as I could, but by the time I reached the barrier, a second shell had already slammed down.

This one was closer to the barrier than the initial ranging shot, though still some distance away.

Of course, it didn’t match the precision of the artillery units I had seen in my past life, but it seemed they could still measure distance.

This time, the shell was aimed at the barracks beyond the barrier, but it landed in front of the barrier, where the undead were gathered.

Zahina had created a shield in midair to deflect the shell, then used wind magic to push it beyond the barrier.

Creating a shield where the shell would land, preventing it from exploding even after hitting the shield, and redirecting it beyond the barrier—each step was something only a grand mage could do.

But it was clearly not easy for Zahina either.

After dealing with just one shell, her face was pale.

As I climbed onto the barrier, Zahina shouted at me.

“It’s a shell!”

In another situation, I would have praised her for blocking it, but there was no time for that now.

“Can you block more?”

“One, maybe, but if multiple fall, I can’t stop them.”

At Zahina’s answer, I immediately scanned the undead below the barrier.

There had to be some undead behaving differently from the rest.

Fortunately, I found them quickly.

Among the swarming undead, there were skeletons in military uniforms setting up observation equipment and aiming at the barrier.

The equipment was slightly different from what I knew, but there was no way the skeletons would be carrying something like a camera if it wasn’t for observation.

“Do you see those three? They’re the observers. If we take them out, the artillery won’t be able to adjust their fire for a while.”

Zahina immediately spotted the skeletons I pointed out and used her sniper rifle to destroy them.

“Zahina, stay here and block the artillery. Yerim and Hoffman, help the soldiers.”

As the artillery fire began, the undead’s attacks intensified.

Moreover, with the soldiers on the barrier retreating, we needed all the help we could get.

The apprentice knights and priests were already on the barrier, fighting.

At my words, Hoffman nodded, but Yerim asked me instead.

“What about you, knight?”

“I’m going to destroy those cannons.”

At my words, Yerim sighed.

“A knight charging into artillery fire from skeletons to destroy cannons. This isn’t the kind of siege battle I imagined in a fantasy world.”

I chuckled at her words and immediately jumped off the barrier.

Countless undead reached up toward me as I fell.

I stepped on their heads and sprinted eastward.

The cannons were at least 10 kilometers away, so I had to hurry.