Volume 5 Chapter 4: Decisive Battle 2

It was in the morning when the sun was still tilted to the east, that the frontline troops led by Fornelis entered the royal capital, supported by the rearguard troops led by the mages from Fonteau with magic.

Women armed with swords, spears, axes, and other weapons charged forward, followed by men.

Understanding the instincts of the slimes that would not kill women, Kara thought of that formation, and Fornelis gave her permission.

A woman could be weakened by the paralyzing poison and captured, but they were not killed.

It was because no matter how many enemies they kill, the slime's instinct to violate, impregnate, and multiply using humans made it see women as "precious mothers".

Taking advantage of the fact that they prioritize the survival of women over their own life, she left the front line to the women and arranged for the male soldiers to save the women if they were captured.

For humans, who were outnumbered, even a single soldier was a valuable asset.

They had to avoid being killed and lose, so they had no choice but to use the women as bait.

"Don't go in too far! Wait for the rest!!"

The eagerness of the female soldiers who had lost their comrades, their families, and their partners, and who had been violated, were high.

The fear of what might happen to them was outweighed by their determination to save their comrades, and the frontline troops, numbering seven hundred, moved as one through the street of the royal capital toward the central square.

The beastmen from Grabalt and the warrior priests from Lishlua, who were especially skilled in fighting, were so energetic that they were rushing into the royal capital.

Fornelis shouted instructions to the female soldiers on the front lines who were about to rush out, but it only slightly weakened their momentum.

Finally, they could kill the slimes. They could save their comrades.

From the border of Grabalt to the royal capital of Fonteau. By liberating several villages and "killing" the slimes, they were able to fight on their own...... With that determination, the energy of the soldiers turned into more fire than Fornelis had ever imagined, laying waste to the slimes.

"Fornelis-sama, our frontline troops have reached the central square of the main street!!"

"They've already advanced that far!? The mage troops and Jenna and the others have only just taken control of the east gate!?"

Being able to push forward without fear of the slime was an advantage for the troops, who were mostly new and old soldiers, but Fornelis was surprised at how fast they were moving.

It had been twenty years since the demon king had been defeated, and the number of warriors with combat experience had dwindled.

There were only a few people who could take command, and inevitably, Fornelis, who was the best at fighting, had to take that position.

Fornelis' head ached at the thought that marching into battle without waiting for instructions from Fornelis was very similar to the behavior of a new recruit who pushed through on the spur of the moment.

Imagining the state of the battlefield from the main unit, she pondered what she should do.

Fornelis was still a young woman in her mid-thirties. Although she had experience in defeating the demon king, she did not have much experience in leading large armies.

But since Fornelis had the most experience in battle, they could only guess how much experience she had with the frontline troops that she had assembled.

That was why they liberated the small villages so that they wouldn't be afraid of the monsters and killed the slimes to build up their confidence, but once the war broke out, the momentum of the battle hindered their command.

"Wait on the street, tell the frontlines to wait for the rest!"

"Why don't we keep up the momentum and advance to the castle!?"

"The slime's number is lower than expected! If we proceed without securing the surrounding areas, the frontlines will be surrounded and isolated in the central square!"

Entering through the large gate on the east side, the frontline troops had already reached the square in the middle of the royal capital.

From a bird's eye view, there was a single thin blue line extending to the center of the bright red circle.

If they were to be intercepted at this point, the front line troops and the rear line troops would easily split up... Even though she knew that and gave the order, the excitement of killing the slimes and saving their comrades did not stop the frontline troops made up of young women.

If they fought, they could win. They could kill the monsters.

It may be because of the atmosphere of the battlefield that they were thinking that there was no reason to stop and that they should keep going with this momentum.......

"I got it!"

"Hurry up!...... You, run to the rear units! Tell them to support the front lines as quickly as possible!!"

"Ha!"

While giving instructions while on her horse, Fornelis protected and secured the rescued woman with her own troops, and secured a safe place to rest by sprinkling "Valhari's Blessed Water" at the eastern gate and the central square of the royal capital.

In the middle of the road, where the houses were destroyed and the wreckage and pieces of carriages that were probably destroyed during the escape were scattered everywhere. Dozens of naked women, their entire bodies dirtied by the horrible slime's bodily fluids, were lined up under the clear sky, and the number increased the further they went into the capital.

"It's a horrible monster, it doesn't care if it's on the streets or in the middle of a fight."

"It's true. We need to annihilate them as soon as possible......"

"...That's right."

The bloodthirsty words made Fornelis choke on her words for a moment.

Women's screams could be heard all over the royal capital...... Moaning sound echoed, and Fornelis noticed that it also increased the energy and determination of the frontline troops who were charging in.

It was difficult for Fornelis herself to quell her anger when she as a woman―― the people of the country that her best friend ruled were being subjected to this kind of disgrace.

She was tempted to ride in and kick every last one of those slimes out of the way...... But she bit her lip and held back.

She was the commander, and she was in a position where she had to calmly assess the battlefield and make it her goal to "get everyone home safely".

"'I've just received word that the Priest Squad led by Jenna-sama has completely secured the front gate!"

"Well done! This is going to be difficult, but tell them to hurry up and close the distance to the frontlines."

"Many women are being attacked off the side of the road, and they want to make sure they are safe......"

"We can secure the capital if we attack the castle! Tell them that if they add more people to save the captives than planned while in the middle of the battle, it will slow down the troops!!"

It was the same for Fornelis who wanted to save the women who were being violated right away.

But if they did, the number of people who couldn't fight would increase and she would have to increase the number of warriors to protect them.

If that happened, the force they would need to fight the slimes would be weakened.

In the first place, they expected the number of women trapped in the royal capital to be close to ten thousand. It was more than twice as many as their numbers.

Fornelis also thought that Jenna should know that it was impossible to help all the people...... Whether the people around her were asking for help, or whether she saw a woman being violated and wanted to help her.

Either way―― it was impossible.

"Fornelis-sama!"

"What!?"

"There are slimes between us and the frontline troops! We've been intercepted and our troops have been isolated!!"

"That's why I told them to wait! Send the male troops for support! My team will also go!!"

Several pieces of information came rushing in like a huge wave, but she had no choice but to not get confused and calmly take care of them one by one, prioritizing what was most important.

As Fornelis instructed, the male troops went to rescue the female troops on the front line, while Fornelis' team moved to the core between the front line and the safe zone.

――As the troops were moving, they spotted a wall of flesh with several women trapped in an alleyway visible from the street.

They were stripped naked, their mouths sealed, their limbs planted against the wall so that only their heads were exposed outside.

Their eyes were filled with envy as though they were jealous of the knights who were moving around freely, and their mouths were filled with tentacle tubes that fed them.

The women who were violated day and night, rainy day and windy day, did not think about being free, and their hands were stretched out toward something far away that they could not reach, but they could not even do that, and only their fingers were stretched out in the mucus.

"Fornelis-sama."

"......It's a trap"

One of the female soldiers raised her voice even though she knew the answer, but with a slight gasp, Fornelis spoke up.

The women in the alleyways were trapped in places that they could easily see when they walk down the street, and a glance at them would make one want to help them...... It was that kind of situation.

Even the slime could only be seen as a slightly larger one with a female stuck on the wall.

But if one looked closely, one could see that the other wall that held the woman was slightly cleaner, though not unnaturally so, and the roofs of the surrounding buildings could not be seen from the ground.

In such a situation, they would be able to help immediately... would they put their precious hostage―― the mothers in such a situation?

With that in mind, she thought it was a trap using the women as bait.

In addition to that, Fornelis' wild intuition was telling her that it was dangerous.

Such traps were prepared all over the capital, and Fornelis thought that Jenna and the others following her must be in a similar situation.

Could a priest who specialized in healing, as opposed to one who specialized in fighting, see through that trap?...... She just had to trust her best friend.

"We'll help them later... We will definitely come back to help."

"Yes."

"Look closely―― if we're not careful, we'll end up like that too. And don't forget to be prepared to kill all the slime you can."

When the sun passed the middle of the clear sky and started to tilt slightly to the west...... there was not much change on the battlefield, and Fornelis and her team were sprinkling "Valhari's Blessed Water" to ensure the safety of the road from the east gate to the central square of the royal capital.

(The slime's resistance is less than I expected...)

Fornelis, who was leading the vanguard, had never imagined that they would be able to advance through the royal capital so easily.

In the past, she had underestimated the slime as the weakest monster, but that perception was erased by the battle in the ruins when they went to retrieve the hero's sword.

They use magic, attacked with overwhelming mass, and were smart.

Moreover, the magic they use was very basic but very powerful.

She was aware that each one of them was a powerful enemy, which was why it was suspicious that they had made it this far with almost no casualties―― she thought.

(I'd like to discuss it with Jenna or Kara......)

Jenna was busy leading the priests to treat the wounded―― the soldiers who had been poisoned in the battle with the slime, and the women who had been rescued when clearing a path to the central square, while Kara went separately with Mariabelle and the others through an underground passage known only to the royal family.

If that was the case, Fornelis would rely on her intuition, which was cultivated during her journey to defeat the Demon King, but her intuition was feeling suspicious about the situation.

What was suspicious was...... there was not much resistance from the slimes, there was a little sacrifice on their part, and things have been going well.

(It's not like the slimes are concentrating on Mariabelle and the others......)

She wondered if Valhari's Blessed Water was having more of an effect on the slimes than they thought and they were afraid of it and wouldn't attack, but she couldn't imagine that things would go that well.

There was an absolute difference in strength.

It was strange that they didn't attack the male soldiers who had the poison that could destroy them, let alone the female soldiers who they couldn't kill.

That intuition was right.

The slimes weren't afraid of the effects of Valhari's Blessed Water, but it certainly seemed odd and eerie that they wouldn't attack a unit made up entirely of men.

At the same time, everything was going so well that the troops were beginning to call for retaking the castle as well.

――For the slimes, the trap had been laid from the moment the troops had invaded Fonteau.

By letting them liberate the village, they instill confidence in them, make them think that they were strong, and give them the illusion that they could win.

A thought because the slimes didn't care about their own life. A trap.

A seasoned warrior like Fornelis could notice the unnaturalness of the situation, but a young knight, warrior, or inexperienced recruit could not.

The fact that they have won more than once made them believe that they could win again.

Who would have thought that such a mentality had been induced in them a month ago?

Even Kara, who was ignorant of the subtleties of human emotions, overlooked the fact that the trap of the slime that understood human instincts was certainly beginning to produce results that exceeded what Fornelis and the others had thought, and was beginning to appear in the entire unit.

"Fornelis-sama. The frontline troops are suggesting to march further."

"Keep them waiting."

"......This is the fifth time. There are more and more people who are complaining to Fornelis-sama and Jenna-sama about the fact that they can win if we fight......"

"Don't worry about it. The battle has only just begun, so tell them to work with the mages that were following them."

"...Ha!"

Fornelis had no idea what would happen to the new recruits who had never been in battle, once they got a taste of confidence and victory, and had little experience in leading troops, even though she had individual combat experience.

A hero who traveled with the hero.

Those who had gathered that admired her title may have been slightly disappointed that she did not challenge the slimes when they could win.

(...But it's true that I can't just stop the troops like this. For Mariabelle's sake, we must get the attention of the slimes to us.)

The time to make a decision was approaching.

Should they attack safely and destroy the slimes?

Or should she be prepared to make some sacrifices and push forward even if they didn't have to?

......It was obvious which one would stand out more. Still, Fornelis didn't want to choose the latter until the last minute.

If they were caught, men would be killed and women would be violated.

Even though fighting monsters was always accompanied by death, it was too much of an end.

Especially for women, it was worse than just being killed.

"...No, wait."

"Yes?"

As the messenger turned on his back to return to the frontlines, Fornelis stopped him.

She bit her lip but did not show it so as not to reveal the anxiety in her heart.

"All right. If they insist, I will allow them to march further."

"...Are you sure?"

"As planned, work with the male troops and tell them not to make an unreasonable assault, as the slimes resistance should increase as we get closer to the royal castle."

"I understand."

Was this the right thing to do?

Fornelis asked herself if it was a good idea, and looked up at the royal castle of Fonteau, which she could see from the central square.

The fallen castle without its luster was a lonely place, and it made her sad to think that it was the symbol of the country that Leticia loved...... the country of the hero.

"Leticia, are you there?"

Fornelis muttered while on her horse.

Her voice was weak and sad, not like her normal voice.

......She was sad.

The journey with the hero. That memory that still shone brightly now seemed to have been tainted.

(Jenna may be thinking the same thing when she saw the castle.)

She was sure of it.

Sad and regret, the royal castle of Fonteau, which was just beyond her gaze, seemed a very distant place.

That feeling of helplessness was the same as what Fornelis felt when she was young, who could only make a small resistance in a world overrun by the army of the demon king before the hero from another world was summoned.

"I think I'm stronger than I was then."

In fact, in terms of swordsmanship and experience, Fornelis had grown into one of the best warriors on the continent.

But still, there was an inescapable presence, an enemy. Sensing that presence, Fornelis dismounted from her horse.

Originally, she was good at fighting on the ground. It was hard for her to wield even her beloved oversized sword while on her horse.

"We're going to the front lines too!!"

At the sound of her voice, people that had surrounded Fornelis tightened their expression. The elite troops consisting of three hundred people who were used to fighting, all of them looked up.

There was no hesitation in their eyes, and when they were ordered to fight, they would fight.

Fornelis's team followed the instructions and moved to the front lines...... While on the way, an explosion sounded from the street leading to the royal castle, the front line.

"Magic―― that power, the slimes!?"

"Fornelis-sama, it's dangerous! Get behind!"

"No, we're going to keep moving forward!! It's our job to stall the slime for the hero!!"

Not only this unit but also the people from the army consisting of three thousand people thought that the hero was moving in a different unit.

They didn't know where they were, but they were sure they were fighting somewhere...... One of the factors was that Fornelis didn't leak accurate information as though they thought so.

The reason why no one mentioned it was so that the slime would not notice them.

If Kara's research was correct, the slime would also absorb the knowledge of the people it took in.

If any of the male soldiers in the unit were absorbed and knew Mariabelle's location, the whole operation would fall apart―― so the only ones who knew where Mariabelle was Fornelis and Jenna, the two women with the most combat experience.

For the first time since they started attacking the royal capital of Fonteau, Fornelis mentioned the word "hero".

As a result, everyone's thoughts changed from fighting to "for the sake of the hero".

"Gather the enemy's forces to us as much as possible! Perhaps it's not a safe path as it used o be, but for the sake of the hero, for the sake of the world! I want everyone to entrust their lives in my hands!"

"Oooooooooohh!!"

As soon as Fornelis finished her declaration, a roar went up.

Three hundred troops raised a voice that rivaled three thousand, and the enthusiasm reached the frontlines where the explosion occurred.

It was not the front lines that were attacked, but the male troops that were following them who had kept their distance to help the front lines when they were in danger.

Naturally, the troops that didn't need to be kept alive were hit by multiple magic used by the slimes in a row, with a blast and a storm blowing away about 500 men.

The scorching hot flames were so powerful that even the impact of the explosion became a fatal blow, and the storm winds that had usually destroyed the houses became a storm that cut up the men in its area of effect.

But even if they had been relaxed by the successive victories, they were still men who had been in the middle of a battlefield.

There were dozens of men who were too badly injured to fight, and if they count the dead, there were about a hundred who were unable to fight.

The sight of them did not diminish their will to fight, and with weapons coated with Valhari's Blessed Water in their hands, they charged to the slimes, hoping to strike back.

Perhaps anticipating the assault, the slimes took the shape of an anti-cavalry fence with a pointed tip and extended their tips to attack using the momentum of the men's assault.

Until now, that attack―― or even just the touch of the mucus would have neutralized the enemy.

But this time, the priests had blessed their equipment in advance to prevent the monster's poison, and the sword was coated with blessed water that disable the slime's mucus.

If they cut through the outstretched tentacles with their swords, they would not regenerate and would fall apart, and they would only feel a slight irritation when the mucus spray hit their skin.

And so, as they rushed to the slime fence, the men sliced through those mucus blobs again and again.

"Over there!!"

"I know!!"

When the slime's weak point, the nucleus, was exposed, they prioritized destroying it.

But even the slimes were not going to be beaten without a fight. They deployed a magic circle woven with mana at close range and burned several of the warriors with the flaming bullets they created.

"Uaaahh!?"

"Don't mind me!! Attaaaack!!

Amidst the screams, they still shouted to defeat the slime.

The unharmed men, pushed back by the voice, passed through the fence and swung their blessed water-soaked swords at the slimes that were conjuring magic.

There were many of them. It was overwhelming.

If they killed one, three more slimes would activate their magic.

They flex their tentacles like whips, thrust them out like spears, and turn them into hammers to try to crush them.

The fiercest resistance they had seen from the slimes was to split them.

Just as Fornelis pushed the frontlines out for Mariabelle, the slimes also attacked the male troops to isolate the frontline troops organized only by women.

The reason why they hadn't attacked hard before was to get a better idea of the full extent of their forces and to see how well the humans could fight.

The slimes, unable to take in the male soldiers in advance, lacked information and sacrificed their own kind to gain some understanding of the troops' objectives.

In other words, to break through the center of the royal capital and save their comrades in the royal castle―― that was what the slimes thought.

The seemingly endless hordes of slimes began to move in accordance with that strategy.

The slime attack that began in that way quickly drove back all the troops that had invaded the royal capital.

They broke up the formation that had been deployed as a line, making it impossible for them to coordinate, which was their greatest strength, and then destroyed them individually.

The deployment of the slimes based on a simple difference in quantity was human-like, and it was probably influenced by the thoughts of the knights, warriors, and adventurers who had been taken in.

Although there were countless slimes, their movements were perfectly executed at the same time, with no deviation.

It was as though their thoughts were connected as though they were a single entity divided into countless pieces, and in an instant, their unconventional attacks struck Fornelis and Jenna who was following from behind.

"Kuh―― sprinkle the Valhari water!!"

"Yes."

But what the slimes didn't anticipate was Kara's special slime-killing poison, Valhari's Blessed Water.

The only slimes that gained that knowledge were the slimes that absorbed the priests at Lishlua, the humanoid slime and the slimes born from it, and the Black Ooze did not possess that knowledge.

Kara hadn't expected that, but the fact that there were differences in the knowledge possessed by different individuals even within the same slime species―― this time it was working in a positive direction.

When they tried to take in a man to gain that knowledge, the poison got in the way. The men had taken precautions against absorption by drinking the blessed water and soaking their undergarments beforehand.

Even so, the magic and tentacle attacks were fatal, but they were able to prevent themselves from being taken in and preventing them to absorb the knowledge.

It made the battlefield between the slimes and Fornelis and the others even more competitive than they had imagined.

"They can't touch Valhari's Blessed Water! Form a circle and keep sprinkling it!! Once the situation is confirmed, we'll head out to rescue each unit!!"

Fornelis gave instructions to the soldiers who were confused by the sudden attack.

Since they were the largest force in the army, she had to do exactly what she had to do.

Where should they prioritize helping and how should they proceed? They were lost for only a few moments.

"Konelia!"

"Ha!"

"You lead this unit to support the rearguard troops! Bring the mages to the front lines as soon as possible!!"

"Copy that!"

The fox-eared woman who was called by name drew her sword at her waist and took over command, stepping out in front of the three hundred men present without argument.

"Coria, Follis!"

"Ha!"

"Yes!"

The red-haired female knight and the brown-haired cat-eared beastman were called by name and stepped in front of Fornelis.

"You guys weren't too shaken up by the attack earlier. Accompany me to the frontlines and take command of those amateurs!"

"Copy that."

"I understand."

"――We'll survive! All of us! ――Can you do it, brave warriors who only know how to fight!?"

"Yes!!"

Fornelis parted ways with her own team and led the two knights and warriors to the frontlines.

Although she didn't show it on her face, her heart was racing with tension and fear, and her limbs were trembling slightly.

To fight. To die.

They were not afraid of those―― but being violated and disgraced in the middle of a battlefield was something they couldn't help but fear as a warrior and a woman.......

It was natural that it was a kind of fear that had never been possible in previous battles.

It was no different for Fornelis, one of the heroes who defeated the demon king, and the two who she chose to go to the front lines.

The three of them ran quickly down the street and soon arrived at the battlefield where the vanguard was.

"We're here to join you! Don't give up!!"

The female troops were completely surrounded in the short time it took them to get there, making them look like pathetic captives bound in a cage of pitch-black mucus.

"Coria, I believe you can use magic!?"

"Well, if it's a simple wind..."

"Prepare for battle!!"

Forneris shouted without hearing their reply.

Normally, she would not have raised her voice and would have attacked from a blind spot, but she raises her voice in order to be noticed immediately.

The slimes noticed the three of them.

A part of the prison was distorted, and the tentacles that had been targeting the female warriors turned towards Fornelis.

Fornelis took out two bottles of "Valhari's Blessed Water" from her pocket.

She dropped her favorite oversized sword, waited for her two companions to do the same, and then threw the other bottle at the slime.

"Destroy it!!"

As commanded, Coria used wind magic to destroy the bottle, and the droplets rained down.

The entire body of several slimes that were coming towards them distorted as though they were boiling in an instant and collapsed, unable to keep their shape.

"Let's start the counterattack! Anyone who can move, rampage with all your might!!"

Fornelis shouted as she crushed the exposed nucleus of the collapsed slime.

All but a few of the women, who were surrounded and infused with a large amount of paralyzing poison that exceeded the limit of the miracle given by the priests, reacted to the voice.

They were not regular knights or warriors and wore simple equipment that focused on covering their skin.

However, they were also carrying Valhari's water and were desperately resisting.

But――

"No, help me!!"

"This―― this slime is strong!?"

The new slime that appeared moved differently.

It deflected attacks by striking the hilt or the back of their hand instead of the blessed water-soaked blade, and responded by examining the amount of paralyzing poison it would use that wouldn't kill them―― its movements seem more sophisticated than the other slimes, and in fact, its tentacles move completely differently.

"Are these guys different from the slimes we've seen before!?"

They look the same, but their movements were completely different―― they were not just slimes, they were slimes born from Fiana, the strongest knight in Fonteau.

She could immediately tell that their fighting skills, experience, and the amount of mana they could release at once were far different from the other slimes.

While skillfully using her oversized sword to fend off the tentacles, Fornelis was stopped in her tracks.

There were two of them attacking her, with over a dozen tentacles.

She defended them off with Valhari's blessed water, neutralizing them and reducing their number, surprised at how differently strong they were from the others.

The slimes attacked the other two as well, but their concentration was hindered by a weapon unknown to the Black Ooze: poison, and they were unable to take advantage of the overwhelming power on their attacks.

But that was all the slime could do.

Magic, paralyzing poison, and tentacles.

――As a creature, no matter how much knowledge it had, it had no other weapons. Because it was enough, they didn't want to evolve any further and concentrated on using women to increase their numbers.

Mankind―― Kara and the people who not only believed in the goddess, but also wanted to understand and use her power to change the world for the better, created weapons that were beyond the understanding of the Black Ooze, and hunted down the slimes.

The slime born from Fiana, though its fighting skills were indeed excellent, could not seriously go for the kill against a woman, and it did not take long for it to be defeated by Fornelis and the others.

No matter how strong they were, if they couldn't give it their all, it was just a waste of talent.

"That's!?"

The moment Fornelis shouted out as they had surpassed the first wave, a massive wind bullet like an artillery barrage was released to them.

The invisible wind magic was, however, blocked by Fornelis, who sensed the danger by intuition.

But the red-haired female knight, Coria, who could not react, was blown away and hit her back hard against the debris of the house, knocking her out.

"――Is it a new one!?"

The slime that appeared that had used magic was more powerful than the previous slimes.

These were the slimes spawned by a mage of Fonteau, some of which were large and massive.

They give off a more overwhelming presence than others, and she could tell at a glance that they have powerful magic in them―― they were slimes born from Leticia.

"This is a crucial moment, everyone brace yourselves!!"

Fornelis dared to charge head-on into the slime.

It was to stand out.

Even if they were caught, the more attention they could draw from the powerful slimes, the less burden Mariabelle and her team get.

That was what she was thinking.