Chapter 58: Second Battle [5]
Catherine lightly threw out her spear and accurately crushed the gnolls bone.
Because she killed it before it reached the wooden fence, the corpse stairs did not get any higher.
But if they keep piling up corpses like this, they'll be in trouble. It is not a place guarded by imperial soldiers, but a place guarded by conscripts.
'I guess I'll have to change my tactics next time.'
Catherine looked at that and organized her thoughts.
Meanwhile, Catherine was mechanically beating the attacking gnolls to death.
In the end, the gnolls, blocked by the huge wall of Catherine and the imperial soldiers, gave up on their meaningless pile-up and slowly began to return.
"Don't let them take the body!"
Carl saw the gnolls crawling to retrieve the body and pulling its limbs, and out of fear, he ordered them to stop.
Even after Catherine and the imperial soldiers stretched out their bodies completely outside the fence and threw out spears to kill them all, the gnolls could not easily leave after looking at the corpses.
'What on earth is happening in that forest!'
Carl was horrified by the strange behavior of the gnoll that he could not understand.
He was sure that he don't want to hold a funeral.
"No one died!"
"It's a great victory!"
"Waaaa!"
Thanks to unilaterally massacring the gnolls and stopping them without harm, the Stacked Log Village was in a completely festive mood.
"Long live Lord Carl!"
"Duren is protecting us!"
The soldiers thought that Carl was receiving Duren's protection.
Some people went into such a frenzy that they jumped up and down on the wooden fence and fell down, injuring themselves, so Corbin had to sweat profusely to control them.
"I need to check the gnoll's body."
But even in the meantime, Carl was going down the fence with a pale, tired face, protected by Catherine and the imperial soldiers.
Last night, Carl passed out without knowing what was going on right after the battle, but seeing the gnoll's obsession with the corpse in person made my hands shake with anxiety.
Open the door of the wooden fence on the east and go out. Under the wooden fence guarded by the conscripts, only blood and traces of bodies being dragged away remain.
Without a single exception, all corpses were collected from all locations except those guarded by Catherine and the imperial soldiers.
Carl reached the western fence under heavy protection, and gritted his teeth as he saw the corpses of gnolls piled up there.
All the bodies that were out of reach of the spear were collected.
"…Corbin!"
Not long after Carl's shout, Corbin runs over and sticks his head out of the fence.
"yes! Master Karl!"
Corbin also appears to be quite encouraged by the landslide victory he achieved without loss. The flushed face and raised voice are a little unfamiliar.
"Ask the soldiers to move the gnolls into the fence right now!"
After saying that to Corbin, Carl ordered the imperial soldiers to guard the area around the gnoll's body.
Everyone moves frantically at Carl's pale face and thunderous shouts of command.
The joy of victory was short-lived. The prince, Carl, is strangely wary and he was filled with fear.
"Lord Carl, do you know something?"
Catherine asks in a cautious voice.
Carl hesitated for a moment and then shook his head.
"I'll tell you later."
The body of the gnoll was quickly moved into a wooden fence.
Then, Carl ordered the hunters to dismantle the gnolls.
"You have to look closely. Don't miss a single detail."
Everyone was in a state of confusion, not knowing what was going on.
Hearing the words of Carl, whom they regard as a messenger from God, the hunters begin to dismantle the gnolls, sweating profusely.
The body, which had been stabbed and damaged by a spear, was a mess. Blood was flowing everywhere, and the internal organs were bursting, so it was like hell.
Carl suppressed nausea and carefully examined the red, shiny corpse and internal organs under the torchlight.
"Is there anything unusual?"
"It seems like an ordinary gnoll."
"It seems the same to me."
Catherine, who learned about monsterology as an imperial knight, and Corbin, who actually fought and killed monsters, found nothing special.
But hunters who dismembered numerous corpses discovered something strange.
"Lord Carl. These gnolls, their intestines are empty."
A hunter cuts open a gnoll's stomach and carefully removes the intestines.
"There intestines are empty?"
As Carl approaches and takes a look, the hunter, believing Carl to be a messenger from God, quickly spreads out gnolls intestines and dangles them out.
"Look."
The hunter slashes open the stomach and intestines with a dagger.
A strange fishy smell comes along with the smell of blood. Hot steam filled the cold autumn night air, and Carl had to endure nausea.
"There intestines were empty. There is literally nothing."
"…Have they starved for a long time?"
At the hunter's words, Carl swallows the sour mood and asks.
The hunter shook his head.
"No matter what, it can't be this clean. In particular, people like gnolls who eat just about anything have very dirty intestines. Even if these guys starve for a week, they still have feces in their intestines."
It may be too vulgar to say it to the prince, but the experience of a hunter who hunted for a living and killed countless creatures was more valuable than that of the imperial knight Catherine at this moment.
"Looking at it, They definitely didn't starve for a long time. The flesh is firm and the fur is shiny."
"… … ."
Carl's bright green eyes wandered for a moment at the hunter's words.
He looks around at the scattered corpses, glances up at the sky, and then comes back down and looks at the hunter who wants to hear praise from him.
"…Good job."
"Oh, no."
The hunter was so excited by Carl's small words that he waved his hand, covered in blood.
Carl stared at the gnoll's empty intestines with a pale, exhausted face, and slowly opened his mouth as he looked at Catherine and Corbin.
"First, let's start with post-war settlement."