Chapter 61: A Suprised Attack [3]
Carl, exhausted from learning martial arts from Catherine, stood tall with his eyes wide open with an eerie chill.
Catherine caught Carl and led him away.
Carl, awakened by the strong hand holding his arm, took a deep breath and shouted, "Don't panic! Everything is already ready!"
When Carl shouted that, the confused and disoriented soldiers came to their senses and moved as instructed.
However, Carl, who had told them not to panic, couldn't help but feel the most panic.
Now Carl was confident.
In this forest, there was a being who commanded the gnolls.
Catherine, who was dragging Carl, was taken aback when he came to a sudden halt. Catherine didn't think Carl would be scared because there was already faith in this small, sickly prince.
However, when Catherine saw Carl's face, she was deeply disappointed without realizing it.
This was because Carl, pale and fluttering his eyelashes, clearly looked like a frightened child.
Carl stopped and looked around frantically, chewing his lips and rolling his eyes.
His eyes looked into the afternoon sun.
In the west, the sun hung over the forest. It was still bright, but as the battle continued the sun would set. And the sun was setting behind the gnolls coming from the west, so visibility was poor.
It was clearly a surprise attack carried out based on tactical judgment.
"I give up Fortress! I give up Fortress!"
Carl shouted loudly, filled with mind-boggling chills and terrifying fear.
"Master Carl!"
Catherine, shocked, called Carl, but Carl was already confident.
"I will give up Fortress and we will fight like last night! Move quickly!"
Carl shook off Catherine's hand and ran forward, climbing up the western wooden fence. Catherine followed him and climbed onto the wooden fence, but she couldn't hide her shocked face.
The elite imperial soldiers were divided into two according to the original plan.
One group decided to guard the western fence of Ax Sound Village like the first time, and the remaining group decided to guard Fortress.
However, at Carl's words, the soldiers who had headed to Fortress were returning in a hurry.
Now it was too late. Fortress had no choice but to be given up.
As soon as Carl climbed the fence, he pushed the large backs of the imperial soldiers, went between them, and looked out.
For a brief moment, Carl's eyes wandered dizzyingly. And he spoke with confidence to Catherine, who followed him.
"Lord Catherine, something is commanding the gnolls."
"…The gnoll receives instructions from the leader, but that cannot be called command."
Catherine said the right thing.
A gnoll's poor intellect cannot lead. That is common sense, and it is also a firm conclusion reached by numerous scholars after a long period of research.
Carl lacked much of the common sense of this world. However, even if he had known common sense about gnolls, Carl would have thought the same way as he did now.
It's because of Lucas's Voss memories.
'If I act with common sense in a situation like this, I am bound to die!'
Among the things that Lucas, a modern man who has lived through countless stories, has, the greatest strength to today's Carl is the knowledge of the original work, followed by the rich imagination of modern people.
Carl knows that there is no such thing as 'absolutely'.
Gnolls will 'never' attack during the day.
Gnolls will 'never' make tactical decisions.
They will 'never' continue to increase.
They can 'absolutely' starve themselves and maintain a healthy body.
It is impossible for Carl, who has the knowledge of a person in the prime of his life, to think that the play will 'absolutely' not lead here, as countless 'absolutes' have already been destroyed.
"Lady Catherine! Look clearly with your own eyes! The gnolls have already acted tactically and attacked!"
Despite Carl's stern shout, Catherine was only confused.
As a knight, Catherine studied monstrous science and also learned customized strategies and tactics to deal with monsters.
However, everything she had devoted her entire life to accumulating was declared to be 'wrong' by the sickly 4th prince Carl, who had spent his entire life in the bedroom.
Because she had no confidence in Carl, Catherine had no choice but to hesitate. To her, Carl looked like he had gone crazy from fear.
As Catherine hesitated, Carl had no choice but to make a decision after seeing the gnoll approaching right in front of her.
Carl shouted loudly, squeezing Catherine's breastplate with his small hands.
"Lady Catherine! It's an order! Move now! Are you going to move only after the soldiers are slaughtered by the gnolls?"
The 'knight' doubted the words of the 'lord' and was not moving.
Carl informed Catherine that the relationship between the two, which was like that of teacher and student, was entirely achieved through Carl's tolerance.
Carl was the 4th prince and Catherine's lord, while Catherine came from a ruined family with no power and was Carl's knight.
The 'lord' gave the order, so the 'knight' had to follow it.
Even if Carl made a mistake, there was no turning back now. And since it was the order of the lord, Catherine, as a knight, had to lead the battle under the assumption that there was a commander of the gnolls.
Catherine, who no longer had to think complicated thoughts thanks to Carl's orders, returned to being a cool-headed knight.
"You guys head to the northern fence right now!"
Catherine dispersed the imperial soldiers who had been concentrated around the western barrier.
This was to evenly increase the quality of the troops on the fence overall in preparation for a meticulous siege.
And they even organized a reserve unit on the spot in case the barrier was breached.
"What are you doing?"
Corbin frantically rushed to confront Catherine in a situation that was so different from his original plan.
"As of this moment, all command authority belongs to Carl. Sir Corbin, do your thing."
Catherine's respect for Corbin as a knight in her own right seemed like a lie, and she cut him down with a single sword. She then pushed Corbin, who was riding Earl, with such force that he couldn't even make a sound.
In fact, the issue of command had to be sorted out from the moment Carl first arrived here.
But since Carl didn't have the time to think about it and act, Catherine had to sort it out.
Catherine had put it off because she was unsure, but now she has organized it.
"Bilford! Take charge of the northern fence!"
"Yes! Lord Catherine!"
Bilford, who barely put on his armor and jumped out, heard Catherine's command and immediately climbed up the northern fence.
Corbin seemed dissatisfied, but without hesitation, he encouraged the soldiers and climbed the eastern fence.
The south was relatively relaxed. Although the fence erected today cannot be used as a fortress, it was enough to hinder the movement of gnolls.
Meanwhile, the western fence was already under attack by gnolls.
Because the imperial soldiers were evenly distributed, Hilfin's soldiers and conscripts were struggling to block the attack with their spears.
A small number of imperial soldiers were also deployed, but their numbers were so small that they could not kill the gnolls unilaterally like they did last night.
Catherine herself picked up a spear and killed the gnolls attacking the wooden fence, observing the situation.
'It's real! It may be crude, but it must be moving under command!'
Catherine trembled and bit her teeth.
After changing her mind after hearing Carl's words, everything seemed clear.
Instead of rushing towards the western fence like last time, the gnolls were spreading out widely and surrounding the village.
The siege on the opposite side, the east, was not tight, and troops were sent evenly to the south, where it was difficult to attack properly. The level of their command was clearly shoddy.
But the fact that they were under command was important.
'If we had sent troops to Fortress, we wouldn't have been able to protect the village.'
The sound of an axe. No matter how small a village is, a village is a village. It is difficult to protect all the fences with 100 men, but if you send troops to Fortress, you will be left completely defenseless.
If it weren't for the order given by Carl, who seemed frightened or possessed by something, the troops would have been dispersed and the village would have fallen faster than the Fortress could function.
'Are you seeing the future? Is there a devil inhabiting him? Otherwise, isn't Duren really watching over him?'
Catherine felt an eerie feeling about Carl's strange presence.