On the next day, the Pack Dragons launched an attack for the third time.

　　The first attack came out of nowhere, so one farm was devastated, but on the second attack, the retaliation made it in the nick of time.

　　And now, on the third attack, they had learned from the past and killed more Pack Dragons than during the second attack, successfully repelling them.

　　The biggest achievement during the third attack was the fact that Xavier Guzzle and his subordinate, the bearded hunter, were able to attend the battlefield.

　　Seeing the Pack Dragons attack in flesh, they confirmed that the pack was the same as the one that had wreaked havoc on the Salt Road.

　　The bearded hunter testified that he had recognized “several dragons with the same skin pattern and colour he had seen before”. It truly was the viewpoint of an expert, but the reason why Xavier was convinced of it was even simpler.

　　They had found a dragon that had an arrow stuck in its back. Once they killed that dragon and pulled out the arrow, it turned out that this arrow was shot from a “Dragon Bow”.

　　Since the “Dragon Bow” was far superior in force and range compared to an average bow, it also used special arrows that were geared to penetration.

　　Not even a single soldier in the army of Valentia was using a “Dragon Bow”.

　　In other words, that arrow was shot by the “Dragonback Archery Knights” from General Puyol.

　　It proved that the pack attacking Valentia was the same pack that had caused a turmoil on the Salt Road.

　　Furthermore, the bearded hunter had also confirmed that nearly half of the attacking dragons had been female.

　　It seemed that all his speculations had been spot on.

　　In that case, they only had to carry on like planned.

　　In order to make the fourth attack the last one, the army of Valentia “led by Zenjirou” started working on their final move.

　　The thick forest lay east of Valentia. As the commander, Zenjirou had entrusted a part of the army of Valentia to Xavier Guzzle, who faithfully pursued the mission given to him inside the forest.

　　“Absolutely do not draw your weapons until I say so. We want to leave as little metal scent as possible in the forest.”

　　Xavier was commanding soldiers, who he had met for the first time yesterday, instead of the well-known soldiers of his own domain, so his face revealed more nervousness and fervour than necessary.

　　“Yes, Sir.”

　　“Understood.”

　　However, the soldiers of the Valentia army were obediently following the orders of their fledgling commander on their first mission with him for now, since he apparently won their favour by displaying a zest for action despite being young and inexperienced.

　　As far as Xavier could tell, the Valentia soldiers were just as disciplined as the soldier from the March of Guzzle he had led before.

　　Thus, he was “neither thrilled, nor put off” by them. Having said this, it would be foolish to face them with the same mindset as the soldiers from his domain, since their numbers were admittedly the same, but the mutual trust between them was nowhere near the same.

　　(Still, Her Majesty Aura had said she would put me in charge…)

　　Inside the dim forest, Xavier watched over the soldiers checking tree after tree, while he harboured such thoughts.

　　His current position was a frontline commander under the direct command of Zenjirou, the supreme commander of the army of Valentia.

　　All the soldiers of Valentia partic.i.p.ating in the dragon subjugation were a.s.signed to Xavier, except for one unit, so he did was in charge of the subjugation in essence.

　　But the Prince Consort Zenjirou was the supreme commander, albeit just for show, and Raffaelo Márguez held the t.i.tle of “staff officer”.

　　Raffaelo was only leading one unit consisting of the personal guards from Zenjirou, but he had an equal standing to Xavier on the paper.

　　Moreover, the soldiers from the Uppsala Kingdom of the North Continent were partic.i.p.ating, too, even if only a few of them, but Xavier had no authority over them as well.

　　(I wonder if I be able to fulfil my duty properly, when the real fight starts.)

　　It was understandable that Xavier was plagued by such a worry.

　　Still, nothing would change for the better, when he became pessimistic now.

　　He shook his head and tried to focus on the task at hand, when he suddenly heard the well-known voice of the bearded hunter.

　　“Master Xavier, we found it! There is no doubt! The Pack Dragons have ‘marked’ the tree here.”

　　“Really! Good, then begin as discussed!”

　　“Yes, Sir.”

　　Once Xavier gave the order, two soldiers took a wooden barrel and headed for the tree that the bearded hunter had identified as a “waymarker”.

　　“Okay, down on three. One, two, three!”

　　After setting down the barrel in the scrub, one soldier wiped the sweat from his forehead and heaved a sigh of relief. Following this brief rest, the soldiers opened the lid of the large barrel and scooped its content with a long ladle.

　　The large barrel was filled with white powder.

　　“Well then, please scatter it evenly around this tree.”

　　“Alright.”

　　“Be careful not to get any into your eyes. If you think it happened nevertheless, stand back and wash out your eyes with the water from the water barrel.”

　　“Roger!”

　　“Here I go!”

　　The soldiers scattered the white powder they had scooped with the ladle, on the tree pointed out by the bearded hunter, and its surroundings.

　　The dark brown trunk of the tree and the deep green scrub were painted white in no time.

　　“Still, will something like that really fool the noses of the Pack Dragons?”

　　“Who knows, but we might as well try.”

　　“Well, yeah. We’re just following orders anyway.”

　　The white powder the sceptical soldiers were scattering was actually “slaked lime”.

　　Once Zenjirou had found out that most dishes in Valentia made use of clams, he had grinded the seash.e.l.ls with a stone mortar after burning them at an high temperature, in order to present it to Aura for the gla.s.s manufacture.

　　The burnt lime gained from the scorched seash.e.l.ls was an hazardous substance. It would suddenly heat up several hundred degree, if it came in contact with water.

　　When you let the burnt lime react with water once, it turned into slaked lime after the reaction subsided.

　　Slaked lime was a deodorant that was often used in Modern j.a.pan as well. Since it erased smells while being relatively harmless to the human body or nature, people used it in their garden for example, to erase the smell of the excrements of their pets in order not to bother the neighbours.

　　Nonetheless, Zenjirou was an amateur in this field. It remained to be seen if the slaked lime he created would work properly. He had put it into a wooden barrel and sealed it for what it was worth, but the reaction might have continued, turning it into calcium carbonate. The slaked lime admittedly worked against the smell of excrements from dogs and cats, but it was questionable if it would work all the same against the excrements from Pack Dragons. And lastly, it was unknown whether this deodorant was strong enough to fool the nose of the Pack Dragons, since the bearded hunter had claimed that they had a “strong sense of smell”.

　　There were a lot of open question. But unfortunately, there had been no better idea to manipulate the movements of the Pack Dragons.

　　Thus, they had concluded that it was at least worth a try.

　　“Can we really affect the Pack Dragons with this?”

　　Xavier had given all the necessary orders, so he walked over to the bearded hunter and asked him that this late in the game.

　　The hunter scratched his thick beard.

　　“Hard to say. If this deodorant really works like Master Zenjirou has said, then I would say it is possible.

　　Later we just have to find a similar tree, rub some skin and urine of the Pack Dragons against it. Yes, I say it has a good prospect of success.”

　　The skin was taken from the Pack Dragons they had defeated during the third attack and the urine was secured along with the urinary bladder dissected from the same dragons.

　　They would mark different trees with them in order to deceive the Pack Dragons and lure them onto a battlefield prepared by them.

　　That was the substance of the Pack Dragon Extermination Strategy from the Valentia Army.

　　Incidentally, it had been Zenjirou as well to suggest that they use the skins and urinary bladders from the defeated dragons. Once upon a time, he had watched a TV show, where the fur and urine of a bear had been used to ward off boars and monkeys, since it made them believe that the area was the territory of a bear.

　　Anyway, it drastically raised their chance to completely annihilate the Pack Dragons, instead of just repelling them, if they managed to drag them out onto a pre-prepared battlefield.

　　“We will definitely settle the score in the next battle.”

　　Xavier muttered as if to convince himself.

　　Needless to say, the ulterior motive of this strong resolve was to make a name for himself as the next Marquis of Guzzle by concluding this incident with his own hands.

　　Regardless of how, the prey had already escaped once from General Puyol. It would definitely go beyond the credit of a mere Dragon Subjugation, if he defeated them.

　　Still, he could not deny his genuine desire to help the involved victims as well as fulfilling his given duty at the same time.

　　“I will not let it drag on any longer.”

　　His small stature trembled from a sense of duty and a desire to fight.

　　* * *

　　Around the same time, the farm that had been chosen for the final clash was quickly remodelled into a battlefield.

　　The chosen farm was relatively large and located near a river.

　　It had been chosen for three reasons. Number one being its sufficient distance to the thick forest.

　　The second reason was that it was located in a relative lowland plain with small hills south and north of it.

　　And lastly, the relative recent foundation of the farm provided the third reason.

　　The first reason, namely the distance to the thick forest, made it more difficult for the Huge Pack Dragon to give out orders from within the forest. Even the cautious Huge Pack Dragon would have to come out of the forest in that case.

　　It would be somewhat problematic, if the Huge Pack Dragon insisted on staying inside the forest by all means, but they had a countermeasure for that as well, just in case.

　　The importance of the second reason, namely the lowland plain with a small hill, goes without saying. They would leave the livestock, mainly Meat Dragons, at the farm and deploy the soldiers on top of the hills. This turned the whole farm into a nice trap.

　　As for the third reason, it was linked to the second one. Since the whole farm was becoming a trap, they temporarily had to evacuate the farmers behind the stone walls of Valentia.

　　A newly established farm meant that its elder inhabitants were originally born and raised in the city of Valentia. These elders would teach the rest about the rules of the city without the officials having to, so it would cause less problems, when the refugees came in.

　　“Sir Raffaelo! We have finished setting up the stake wall at the entrance of the farm!”

　　“The foxholes on the southern hill are completed, too.”

　　“Same goes for the northern hill.”

　　While listening to the reports from the soldiers, Raffaelo Márguez issued all the orders with his usual calm smile.

　　“Understood. When you are done with your work, escort the farmers back to Valentia. Do not lower your guard until you are there.”

　　“Yes, Sir!”

　　Of course the soldiers could not do all the work by themselves, so they had rounded up the farmers, mainly young men, to help out.

　　The helpers had to be paid for their work. The livestock for the trap had to be bought up. And the seized farm itself had to be compensated for as well.

　　All this money required for the operation came from the pocket of Zenjirou. The very money Aura had given him to “buy anything he took a fancy to”.

　　Fortunately enough, Princess Freya was giving him the desired goats for free, so he still had all the money at his disposal.

　　Thanks to that, everything could be funded without problem so far, but he also had to pay for the livelihood expenses in Valentia of the farm refugees.

　　If this operation dragged on, the funds would run out. Of course the treasury of Valentia, which was said to be even greater than the one in the Capital, had enough capacities, but Zenjirou absolutely wanted to bring the incident to an end without using the money for which Aura had given no permission.

　　As a matter of fact, Raffaelo understood his inmost intention the best.

　　“He really is the person my dear stepmother described him as.”

　　As he had no more orders to give right now, Raffaelo cast a glance at the distant walls of Valentia and muttered to himself.

　　His stepmother was Lady Octavia and she was working as a private tutor for Zenjirou. Due to that, she previously had told Raffaelo all kind of things about him, but after meeting him in person, Raffaelo was once again reminded of how accurate his other mother could judge people.

　　Lady Octavia had said the following:

　　“He is extremely intelligent, down-to-earth and resolute. And above all, he harbours a genuine affection and faithfulness towards Her Majesty Aura.”

　　Well, his mother had the tendency to exaggerate the compliments more than necessary, when evaluating someone, but putting the “extremely” aside, Raffaelo had noticed during their short acquaintance that Zenjirou indeed possessed an adequate wisdom, reasoning and determination.

　　Despite that, Zenjirou never took action by himself, neither in the Royal Palace, nor here in Valentia. That was because he was well aware of the fact that any rash a.s.sertive moves from him might sabotage Queen Aura instead.

　　Although he voluntarily discredited himself as “incompetent” and “effeminate”, he always did everything in his might to make things convenient for the Queen, so it was undeniable that his affection and faithfulness towards her were anything but normal.

　　“Then the current situation must be rather unpleasant for him.”

　　Even if it was in name only, Zenjirou did get involved with the Dragon Subjugation as the “supreme commander”. Raffaelo accurately reasoned about that worry of his as well.

　　The current situation obviously deviated from his usual policy to stay in the background and appear incompetent without taking credit for himself as much as possible.

　　Originally, Raffaelo had been put in charge, but Xavier Guzzle had barged in from the side as he was sent from the Capital.

　　As a result, the roles had been rea.s.signed. In name only, Zenjirou himself was in charge, whereas Raffaelo and Xavier were practically equals working under him, but Xavier was leading eighty percent of the troops.

　　Raffaelo was the “staff officer” and granted just as much authority in the planning of the operation as Xavier, but he would have almost no chance to fight a real battle.

　　This complex ranking was literally crying out for a desperate attempt to right some kind of grave discrepancy between Aura in the Capital and Zenjirou in Valentia.

　　“It might prove to be an interesting ‘story’ to report to my father later on.”

　　Mumbling that, Raffaelo showed the usual calm smile on his face.

　　* * *

　　At around the same time in the residence of the Duke of Valentia in the centre of Valentia, Zenjirou confronted the pa.s.sionate persuasion from Governor Damian, with a stern face.

　　“Master Zenjirou, would you please reconsider?”

　　The middle-aged man appealed almost pleading, but Zenjirou answered brusque while giving him an indifferent look.

　　“No.”

　　“Master Zenjirou…”

　　Sir Damian was choking back his tears and while this would have worked coming from a beautiful maiden, it was nothing but annoying, when an middle-aged man did it.

　　“Frankly speaking, it is utterly insane that you want to go out on the battlefield yourself, Master Zenjirou. If something were to happen to you, I would not be able to face Her Majesty Aura in the Capital again.”

　　Nonetheless, Sir Damian still tried to persuade Zenjirou with these words.

　　The matter that plagued him was the fact that Zenjirou was going to lead the soldiers onto the battlefield himself.

　　“You’re exaggerating it. I’ll be nowhere near the actual frontline.”

　　Zenjirou intended to deploy himself and the soldiers far away from the trap village, where Xavier lay in ambush.

　　They were supposed to be on stand-by just in case the guidance of the Pack Dragons went wrong and they would have to protect the other nearby farms that had not been evacuated.

　　Of course Zenjirou had no idea how to lead an army, so Raffaelo Márguez would actually give out the orders as the “staff officer”. In other words, Zenjirou would be a mere figurehead there as well.

　　Because of that, Sir Damian claimed that there was no need for Zenjirou to leave the walls of Valentia and should just stay in the residence of the Duke of Valentia while leaving everything else to Raffaelo.

　　As a matter of fact, his opinion was completely warranted, if you only took the efficiency at the scene into account.

　　Even Zenjirou himself had not the slightest desire to expose himself to danger and was well aware of the fact that he would be nothing but a hindrance on the battlefield.

　　(I hope he would stop trying to persuade me so pa.s.sionately. To be honest, I’m already starting to doubt my decision.)

　　Oblivious to Zenjirou feeling weak at the knees, Sir Damian continued to reason with him.

　　“A battlefield is unpredictable. Permit me to remark that your safety is far more important than the safety of Valentia.”

　　At the present time, Zenjirou was one of only three royalty in the Kingdom that inherited a “bloodline magic”. Furthermore, he was the only grown-up male from them.

　　From the point of view of simply increasing the pract.i.tioners of the “bloodline magic”, it would be no exaggeration to say that he was even more important than Queen Aura or the infant Prince Carlos.

　　Zenjirou was able to relate to that, so he started to question his own decision, when he was told all that.

　　But he shook off the thought.

　　“No. It’s a great chance to win fame with barely any risk. Why should I pa.s.s on it?”

　　Zenjirou spoke like a short-sighted person obsessed with fame to get rid of the protest from Sir Damian.

　　Needless to say, he had not the slightest intention to win fame for himself. If anything, he planned to lay the groundwork as much as possible in order to declare that he had been nothing but a figurehead, when this incident was resolved safely.

　　Then why did he insist on leaving the safe stone walls, although he knew that he would be a hindrance? Because this incident was a “subjugation” of the dragons.

　　For a defensive mission with the purpose to “protect”, it was acceptable that the commander stayed behind the walls and gave orders, but that was not the case for an offensive mission.

　　In such a case, the person giving orders on the frontline was acknowledged as the highest ranking person for the mission, automatically a.s.suming that the superior officer behind the walls had “entrusted all authority” to the commander on the frontline.

　　And like the “subjugation“ part implied in the current Pack Dragon Subjugation, it was a full-fledged offensive mission. Technically, it could also be seen as a defensive mission to protect the city of Valentia from the threat of the Pack Dragons, but in the Capital, Aura had acknowledged the mission as a resumption from the subjugation on the Salt Road, so it was officially recorded as an offensive mission.

　　(If Xavier ends up as the highest ranking person, they’ll believe that I, the fully authorized representative for the Duke of Valentia, have accepted the intervention from Queen Aura and changed the personnel.)

　　It would mean that Queen Aura had meddled with the self-governance of the domain, when Xavier was appointed as the highest ranking person. Likewise, it would mean that the Prince Consort had ignored the orders from the Queen, when Xavier was not appointed as the highest ranking person.

　　Either decision would cause problems. After wracking his brain over it, Zenjirou had come up with this desperate workaround.

　　He himself would be the highest ranking person in name only. In the field, though, Xavier was obviously the highest ranking person. And Raffaelo, whom he had initially put in charge, would be an equal to Xavier on paper as the “staff officer” and command his bodyguards, giving him at least the necessary authority in the field.

　　Xavier would have to put up with being the “highest ranking person in the field”, although he was promised to be put in charge by Queen Aura. Raffaelo would have to put up with being the “highest ranking person for strategic planning”, although he had been put in charge once before. And Zenjirou would reluctantly act as the “highest ranking person in name only”, although he originally had intended to do nothing.

　　This compromise in staffing slightly differentiated from the respective expectations all three of them have had.

　　(Rather than compromising, I get the feeling we’re walking a really fine line here.)

　　Zenjirou inwardly suffered from a stomach.

　　Still, a following political scandal could not be avoided wholewise, so this was the tamest solution Zenjirou had been able to come up with.

　　The problem was that others would think that the “Prince Consort showed signs of ambition”, but he had no choice but to deal with that later on by discussing it in length with Aura.

　　“B- But what are we going to do about Princess Freya? If you take your guards with you, she will be all alone here with her own guards.”

　　Damian still refused to back down, whereupon Zenjirou evaluated the middle-aged governor at heart as someone, who was really pa.s.sionate about his duty, even if part of it was due to self-preservation.

　　“No need to worry about that. I have already discussed it with Princess Freya. She readily agreed to accompany me. Needless to say, that goes for her guards, too.”

　　Although he spoke about it so casually, the matter was hardly to be taken lightly.

　　“Sh- She will… No way…”

　　Damian was finally at a loss for words.

　　No surprise. After all, not only Zenjirou, one of the three most important people of the country, was going out on the battlefield, but also Princess Freya, an acknowledged royalty from overseas. Any sane person would only take that for a joke.

　　As a matter of fact however, there was no way that they could leave Prince Freya behind all alone in the residence of the Duke of Valentia, when Zenjirou left with all his guards.

　　Once his guards left the city, the only troops remaining in Valentia would be the coast guards and the city patrols.

　　That fighting force was a bit too unreliable to stop Princess Freya, if she were to act malicious in an unlikely event. Thus it was better for their peace of mind to remove that very anxious altogether by taking Princess Freya complete with guards along with them.

　　“The decision is set in stone.”

　　“…Very well.”

　　When Zenjirou spoke resolutely like that, Damian abandoned the persuasion at last and hung his head disappointed.

　　* * *

　　Two days later then.

　　The Pack Dragons launched their fourth attack.

　　Their target was the farm near the river, where Xavier was waiting with his troops after laying a snare. With one attack alone, it could not be said whether the idea from Zenjirou had success or if it was a mere coincidence, but either way, the important fact right now was that this outcome was playing right into their hands.

　　“The Pack Dragons are coming!”

　　“Good. All hands, take your position! All orders from now on will be given by hand signals until the battle commences. Do not make a single sound in the meantime!”

　　Xavier gave the last order like that and also laid down p.r.o.ne in the shallow hole they had dug on the hill.

　　His whole body from head to toe was rubbed with plant sap and mud in order to erase the body odour, which in all honesty, was not really a fascinating sight.

　　The wet mud stuck to his scalp and made it itchy. Apparently some of the mud also had gotten into his ears, when he applied it, so the inside of his ears felt sandy. Every time he licked his lips, he tasted a bitter and acrid flavour, since there was plant sap around his mouth.

　　The whole situation was just disgusting, but even so, Xavier suppressed that instinctual disgust and simply waited for the right time.

　　(So far, everything is going as planned. We will definitely put an end to them here.)

　　He persuaded himself like that and strongly crunched with his back teeth from the bitter plant sap taste in his mouth.

　　More than anyone else, Xavier knew how lucky he actually was.

　　The original mission had been prepared by his father Marquis Guzzle for him in order to ease his worry about succeeding the t.i.tle of Marquis. Because of a lack of forces, he had given up the leading role once, though. And even though he had called General Puyol for reinforcements, he was now, at the end of the road, entrusted with the full command over the decisive battle.

　　If he were to fail here now, he would never be able to face his father, General Puyol and Queen Aura again after they had such a high opinion of him. Eager or quasi zealous at heart, Xavier clenched his fists and then the Pack Dragons finally appeared.

　　“GII GII!”

　　“GII!”

　　There was an enormous number of them. They definitely amounted to almost a hundred. The first rough estimate from Xavier counted around ninety-four, which seemed a bit too few. During the second and third attack, some dragons had been defeated, so that might be the reason they no longer filled up the hundred.

　　The attacking dragons stopped at the entrance of the farm for now.

　　A fence of trees with sharpened tops blockaded the entrance. Its height only extended to around the shoulder of a human at best, though.

　　“GII GII!”

　　That height was no challenge for the Pack Dragons to skip over. The bunch of Pack Dragons leaped over the fence one after another. Instead of skipping over it, some well-built dragons even dared to jump against the fence, destroying it in the progress.

　　The fence was not slowing down the Pack Dragons in the slightest, but that did not affect the strategy of the battle.

　　To begin with, it had been built to prevent the “Meat Dragons”, which were left inside the farm as bait to lure in the Pack Dragons, from escaping, instead of defending against the Pack Dragons.

　　The height of the fence was a piece of cake for the two-legged Pack Dragons with their superior jumping power, but for the four-legged Meat Dragons with their short legs and plump bodies, it proved to be an insurmountable obstacle.

　　“PIGI!”

　　“PII PII!”

　　The Meat Dragons screamed and scattered in all direction, when the carnivores suddenly appeared.

　　Speaking of, where was the Huge Pack Dragon?

　　That thought suddenly crossed Xavier’s mind and he took a small peek out of the hole on the hill, observing the entrance of the farm. But its silhouette was nowhere to be seen.

　　(That means he is not coming out of the forest, not even at this point.)

　　It was a bit disappointing, but not really a problem in itself. They did choose this farm, because there was enough distance between it and the thick forest.

　　When the boss did not come out of the forest despite that distance, it meant that they had succeeded in separating the commander from its troops.

　　The Pack Dragons had always been so annoyingly quick to retreat, because their boss, namely the Huge Pack Dragon, had made all the calls. The Huge Pack Dragon had developed an abnormal intelligence, but all the other Pack Dragons were not even smart enough to go against their wild instincts.

　　The chance of success for the battle had gone up drastically with this.

　　Xavier licked his lips, which had gotten dry from nervousness, while the cruel game of hide and seek between the Meat Dragons and Pack Dragons in the uninhabited farm entered its final phase.

　　“GII GII!”

　　“PII!”

　　“GROWL!”

　　Normally, the Meat Dragons would have no chance of escaping from the Pack Dragons, but that would have been inconvenient to Xavier and the others, so they had set up round logs vertically between the buildings like clothes poles to stop the Pack Dragons.

　　With their four short legs, the Meat Dragons could easily slip through under the logs at the heights of a human chest, but the two-legged Pack Dragons were taller than a human, so it was the perfect height for a blockade, forcing them to jump over it.

　　As a result, the majority of the Meat Dragons managed to escape death and fled to the open square of the farm. Chasing after them, the Pack Dragons reached the square a bit later.

　　Having said this, the open squared belonged to a small farm. It was not wide enough to acc.u.mulate all of the almost one hundred Pack Dragons at once. Nonetheless, Xavier wanted to kill as much of them as possible on their first strike, so he suppressed his urge to give the order to attack right away and waited for the right timing.

　　All of the Pack Dragons had already entered the farm without exception and around forty percent of them had gathered in the open square so far.

　　Needless to say, not all of the Meat Dragons could escape, so some Pack Dragons could be seen here and there how they happily feasted on the unlucky Meat Dragons that had been caught, but it was still on a tolerable level.

　　(Okay, now is the time!)

　　The time was ripe. Sensing it, Xavier simply raised the staff of command in his right hand while still lying p.r.o.ne on the hill. The nearby soldiers could be heard swallowing hard from the tension.

　　The soldiers on the other hill across were supposed to see it, too. At this point, there was no way to tell, if they really had, though.

　　Xavier took courage and quickly swung down the staff of command in his right hand.

　　In the next moment, all the soldiers around him sprang to their feet, drew the longbows in their hands and shot the arrows.

　　Several hundred arrows shot through the air with a whing and hailed down on the Pack Dragons chasing their prey in the farm below.

　　Three hundred archers had hidden on the hill and another three hundred on the other side. That made a volley of six hundred arrows in total.

　　“GYA!?”

　　The Pack Dragons that could scream were still better off. Most of dragons were hit by the rain shower of arrows from above and died without knowing what was going on.

　　The physique of a dragon was usually beyond the imagination of man. An arrow or two would not kill them and depending on the impact point, they would not even notice that they had been hit. However, it was a different matter, when six hundred arrows rained down on less than one hundred Pack Dragons.

　　Moreover, the bows from the soldiers of the Valentia army were longbows. Its range and penetration power was on a completely different level from the short bows, which the soldiers from the March of Guzzle led by Xavier had handled.

　　Of course they were still no match for the “Dragon Bows” used by the “Dragonback Archery Knights”, but the terrain made up for it. The archers were shooting from a hill down on the gathered Pack Dragons below.

　　Under these favourable conditions, the longbow demonstrated the same penetration power as the “Dragon Bow” on a plain.

　　As a matter of course, it would be a miracle, if they could only aim at the Pack Dragon and spare the Meat Dragons at this distance. Since that was not the case, the Meat Dragons were caught in the crossfire and wiped out after they had splendidly fulfilled their role as bait.

　　A sad, but necessary sacrifice.

　　Anyway, one volley was certainly not enough to completely wipe out the almost one hundred Pack Dragons. Some dragons were even unhurt, since they had taken cover behind the buildings.

　　“GIIII!”

　　A dozen of the surviving Pack Dragons chose to attack the humans on the hill instead of running away.

　　The little slope was nothing for the powerful legs of the Pack Dragons. Utilizing their two thick hind legs and even thicker tail, they rushed up the hill, where the archers stood, with a speed no human could ever hope to achieve.

　　However, Xavier and his men had antic.i.p.ated this development as well.

　　“Archers, fall back. Spearmen, forward!”

　　Upon the order from Xavier, the archers stood back and in exchange, the soldiers with long spears stood atop the hill.

　　Their spears were almost twice as long as the wearer himself was tall. Needless to say, an average soldier could not wield such a long weapon at will.

　　But they only had to point the tip of the long spear towards the Pack Dragons running up the hill.

　　“GII!”

　　“GI!?”

　　No matter how strong the legs of the Pack Dragons were, they definitely could not make a jump on a steep hill. The Pack Dragons ran straight into the risen spears and did not advance any further.

　　Under normal circ.u.mstances, it would be impossible for humans to stop the charge of a Pack Dragon, but the advantage of the terrain bore fruit here as well.

　　The soldiers pointed the spears down from atop the hill and the Pack Dragons were running up the hill from below. It usually was difficult to upset the collision between these two, but the higher ground made their momentums barely equal, if not inverting their initial situation.

　　“GUGI!”

　　A few Pack Dragons slipped and fell down the hill, whereas the reorganised archers shot the dragons that were still barely standing, with arrows through the gaps between the spearmen.

　　“GI!”

　　Before long, the few attacking Pack Dragons had kicked the bucket without achieving anything.

　　Although Xavier was the commander, he observed the battle unfold from a distant point of view as though it did not concern him.

　　“Wow… Is this what General Puyol meant?”

　　He recalled the words of the general in the back of his mind.

　　According to General Puyol, the strength of humans lay in technique, weapons and cooperation.

　　Back then, the general himself had pushed a Pack Dragon to the ground head-on right after saying this, so Xavier had laughed it off, but the claim of the general certainly felt vindicated, when he saw it in action now.

　　The army from the March of Guzzle had been pressed for a though fight on the Salt Road, because of its limited s.p.a.ce. During the following hunt in the forest, even the “Dragonback Archery Knights” led by General Puyol had to put forth an effort to finish off a couple of Pack Dragons.

　　The difference in the battles was overwhelming, now that they outnumbered them and had the advantage of the terrain.

　　They had exchanged the short spears meant for the thick forest and the short bows meant for even terrain, with long spears and long bows and instead of leaping into enemy territory, they had drawn the enemy onto a battlefield prepared by them, attacking at the same time with the whole force.

　　Just by doing that, the result was outstanding.

　　Somehow calming his excitement, Xavier now watched over the battlefield below him.

　　The battle was practically over, but they still had to finish off the remaining dragons. Xavier suddenly felt a temptation, when he saw the scene below.

　　At this point, it would be alright for him to partic.i.p.ate in the battle himself, would it not? He did not want to brag, but Xavier was confident that his skills with the bow were at least as good as the skills of the soldiers around here.

　　With that in mind, he readied his hands, but noticed that he was holding a certain “something” in his hands instead and turned red with anger.

　　His hands were holding the “staff of command”. It was not his favourite bow or spear, but rather a small wooden stick that had literally no offensive power.

　　(Oh right. My duty is not to slay Pack Dragons with my own hands. I have to give the right orders, so that the soldiers finish off as many Pack Dragons as possible while as few of my subordinates as possible die.)

　　Reminded of his given role again, the young commander overviewed the whole battlefield and then gave an order.

　　“Near the river on the north side. Four dragons on the run. Stop them before they can jump into the river!”

　　In the end, only very few Pack Dragons had been able to escape from the trap under Xavier’s command.