We ended up parting with the Murdock troupe at Mostail. We couldn’t very well keep traveling leisurely on a performance tour. I was going to miss all of them after spending all day every day with them for the past month, but it couldn’t be helped.
“We part alive. We shall meet again, if luck be on our side.”
Mister Murdock extended his right hand, and I firmly took it.
“Yes, we shall.”
We were both grown men, so neither of us cried. I held back the heat welling in my eyes. From the corner of them, I could see Eily and Hieronymus saying their goodbyes. She was embracing him with tears falling down her cheeks. Woah. Lord Hieronymus?
You didn’t cross the line, did you?
When we met up again, it wasn’t going to be funny if Eily was holding a baby in her arms, much less one with cat ears and a tail.
“And so our paths have parted. When will the sun rise to the day we meet again?” the elder narrated. Good.
Mister Storyteller, I hope you never change. Take care, old man.
Now we didn’t have much time to waste. We departed Mostail when it was still early in the morning. We were already a night behind. Even though we were traveling lighter than them, it was possible that there was already an unrecoverable distance between us. However, we had already traveled here, so we didn’t need to pack anything new. And Ruey was a warrior before he was the earl’s sun, so he only packed the essentials. Once we said our farewells, our steps were light.
“Can you track them, Lord Baze?”
“No probs. With this many tracks, I don’t even need to sniff.”
What a reassuring Fenrir. We estimated that there were one or two thousand surviving monsters. If such a large group traveled together, they would naturally leave a trail. Not just tracks, but traces of food and feces, too. There were more than a few members in their party, and it was impossible to completely cover their tracks.
“The thing is, they’re in a pretty big rush.”
“You can tell that much?”
“Their strides. Humans have longer strides when they run too, don’t they?”
“Oh, I see.”
I understood, looking at the tracks Baze was pointing at that most likely belonged to goblins. They were shorter than humans, and naturally had shorter strides than us. However, the tracks left behind were paced like a human jogging.
“They were sprinting, most likely,” said Tiamat.
“They wouldn’t last long, then,” Hieronymus answered.
I agreed. Goblins, humans, or any other bipedal species aren’t really made for running, due to air resistance. Actually, quadrupeds keep their body as low to the ground as possible when they run in order to prevent as much resistance as possible. Which was also why bullet trains are bullet-shaped. Higher resistance means more energy expended. That’s why humans can’t sprint for long. Same with monsters, I assumed.
“Suppose they fled the battleground as fast as they could,” said Tiamat.
“Seems plausible.”
Come to think of it, it didn’t seem feasible for them to travel all the way from their home base to attack Mostail. They should have some sort of base nearby, whether they set it up or conquered an existing settlement. The monsters had a general that came up with attacking Noura’s main port of trade. They would certainly have employed basic strategies like that.
“Why are my good ideas always tardy?”
I sighed. Pretty pathetic, if I do say so myself.
“That’s because you’re neither a military man nor a warrior, Eiji. You’ve lived your whole life without interacting with political or military strategy. It wouldn’t make any sense at all if you were suddenly a strategic genius after coming to this world.”
Tiamat consoled me. She was absolutely right. I was just a little bureaucrat, with no experience in politics or war. I had lived a peaceful life, without so much as being called in during a natural disaster. On the other hand, we were in a predicament where we couldn’t get away with ‘I never learned that, sorry.’
“It could be an ambush.”
“Mm. Seems plausible.”
The obvious retreat, the obvious track, and most likely a base ahead of us. A trap? Set up to lure in and decimate Earl Agamemnon’s army following their tracks. By numbers alone, there were more than a thousand left of the monster army, and less than five hundred of the earl’s men. It was no contest. It wasn’t too far-fetched to think that the monsters would try to pull us into their home field, rather than fight us out in the open where they had a disadvantage.
“It could be dangerous to pursue any further,” Ruey said, carefully.
“Yep,” I agreed.
One’s thoughtlessness and the preference for flashiness is usually proportional. Ruey was the only one in our party with an expertise in military strategy. If I wasn’t going to honor his opinion, there would have been no point in bringing him along.
“Shall I advance alone and scout it out?” Hieronymus suggested.
After a moment, I shook my head. If our enemy was a gang of bandits or something, one Cait Sith could take care of them. This time, though, they were a vicious monster army. They could spot him even if he tried to conceal his presence. If they did, he could be captured and even killed. I couldn’t take that risk.
“Let’s be careful. Lord Hieronymus, this time, we should look before we jump.”
There could come a time where we would have to gamble. No, there definitely would be such a time, but that wasn’t now. There was nothing to gain from taking a risk here.
“Our plan isn’t to attack them, anyway. We just need to follow them slowly and carefully so as to not lose their tracks,” Tiamat concluded.
There was no need to catch up to them and finish them off. There was no need to fight at all, in fact. The monsters were undoubtedly headed back to their home base. It would have been stupid to jump right into the traps they set to protect against follow-up attacks. So we continued following them.
Two days had passed when we came upon the abandoned base of the monster army, where we had expected them to ambush us.
“No trap, and not a soul to be found. What’s going on?” said Baze, after doing a lap through the place.
In the sudden clearing in the forest, a poorly constructed fort (most likely by goblins and orcs) stood on its lonesome.
“I... get it... That’s what happened...”
Ruey stood still, defeated.
“What’s wrong?”
“Sir Eiji. I am so sorry. They got us good.”
Of course, I had no idea what he was talking about. Was it that bad for us that there were no monsters here?
“It’s that bad, Eiji. Hieronymus and I took a little walk just now.”
“Their tracks can be found in every direction, making it difficult for us to tell which directions they retreated in. Isn’t that so, Lady Tiamat?”
Ruey finished Tiamat’s thought, as she returned with an exasperated expression. He was only double checking.
“Mm. Wool over our eyes.”
“What? What do you mean, Tia?”
“My father once told me... just making the enemy consider a trap can disrupt their decision making.”
Ruey was the one who answered me. Expecting an ambush, we followed the trail slowly. That was the monsters’ trap all along. In that time, they set up the place to conceal the direction they took, making for a successful escape. Our carefulness gave the enemy enough time to do it. If I had at least taken Hieronymus’ suggestion for him to scout out ahead, we could have avoided this situation. It was all too late, though.
“We leaned too far over the edge to look before we jumped, and fell right in. They won this round of mind games, Eiji. Hands down,” Tiamat said.
“What a mess...”