“Yeah! The barrel heat is almost down. We’re not done yet!”
In the machine gun range, we await a new enemy.
The war began with a baptism of an “explosive trap,” which surprised the kingdom’s army.
It wasn’t just the kingdom’s army that was taken aback. Even we, who had been told in advance by Yoshua and had taken countermeasures, almost fainted for a moment when we experienced it up close.
If we hadn’t gotten down at the signal from the wall, covered our ears, and opened our mouths so as not to break the eardrums or something inside our ears, we would have fainted for sure.
From then on, it was all a disaster. Relying on the heavy machine gun that we had carefully maintained, we just kept firing bullets in desperation. No matter how many cavalry and infantry we killed, we kept shooting them at random.
Fortunately, the heavy machine gun did not sulk or complain at all, and steadily poured lethal arrowheads into the enemy soldiers, but there is a limit to that. In addition to one heavy machine gun on each of the two gun turrets, there was only a hand-held machine gun carried by the beastman guarding us and a spare rapid-fire rifle. The RPKs were not able to take on all of them.
“The R.P.K. doesn’t have much of a role to play. Maybe you didn’t need an escort?”
A young beastman said with a smile. Perun, a young werewolf with a strong body, was a brave man who had taken on a dangerous mission. He was forcing himself to look comfortable, but his limbs were shaking.
Well, that’s to be expected. There are no less than three hundred enemy soldiers who have come to our guns alone.
“Don’t be silly. We had a few close calls, didn’t we?”
“Oh, those hand-held mechanical bows, they’re difficult. If Myrril-Jouchan hadn’t warned us over and over again, we could have been skewered. We must take the opportunity to retrieve it.”
The short iron arrows that the light infantrymen, who had crept up on us with deadly determination, had shot out at once were still stuck in the wall of the gun emplacement, their tips dripping a dull color of poison. Probably lethal poison. A mere graze by the arrowhead would have been the end.
The simple violence of numbers is an irreplaceable and powerful weapon. If it weren’t for the multiple layers of spiked coiled iron ropes, horse fences, and land-running dragon shells, it would have only been a matter of time before we were completely overrun.
“That’s quite a feat. The heavy machine gun.”
There were no enemy soldiers in sight. It seems that those who were repeatedly charging like crazy are finally retreating and regaining their positions. If there were any wounded soldiers, they would have sent someone to collect them, but fortunately or unfortunately, no one could survive being shot by the machine gun.
It was a very different war from the one we knew. It was so fierce that the enemy did not know when to back off.
The battlefield is quiet now. This is the most nerve-wracking time in a long war.
At times like this, the enemy, who is superior in numbers, is planning something and recommending a plan, and we, on the other hand, have nowhere to run and hide and no time to plot behind the scenes.
“From the enemy’s point of view, the right thing to do is to retreat…”
“There’s no way they will retreat. The commander is a nobleman of the kingdom, you know.”
Perun brushed aside my wishful thinking.
“I know, but I don’t want to hear it. Not because of interest, but because of honor. It’s tricky.”
“You’re right. One hundred subhumans defeated thirty thousand troops, and they’ll be hanged when they return. In any case, from their point of view, they haven’t even raised a single subhuman’s head, let alone defeated us.”
“I don’t think that’s acceptable at all. On the contrary, they probably don’t understand what happened after losing half of their army.”
I handed Perun and Caretta, who had accompanied me to my death place as my ammunition handlers, a package that was stacked at the corner of the gun emplacement.
“In battle, the best time to fight is when you have the upper hand. Take this opportunity to drink some water and eat some food.”
“”Yes!””
Yoshua brought in “Emuarui,” (MRI) “Canned Food”, and “Pettobotoru” (Pet Bottle). They are strange in color, appearance, and name, but the taste is not so bad.
We remained vigilant with our guns at our side as we devoured the stew-like mixture of meat and grain with spoons made of a strange material.
“That’s a hand signal. …Oh?”
Caretta, who was looking at the wall, tilted his head and looked at us with a chuckle on his face.
“What’s the matter, old man Caretta? You look so weird.”
“The elves crashed the winged dragons, it seems?”
“Oh, they were flying over us. I could see radiant flames. I hope no one was killed. So how many did they kill?”
“Fourteen, they say.”
“”Huh?””
“Myrril-Jouchan recited it. That seems to be right. They just killed fourteen wyverns.”
“Hey, hey, they did a hell of a job…”
It’s not just that. Only those with tremendous luck, great skill, and the unbelievable nerve can pull off the miracle (and often at the cost of excruciating sacrifice) of killing a dragon once in a lifetime.
“Fourteen wyverns with seven men? What kind of a joke is that?
“I don’t know. So, I heard that there would be… wyvern karaage for dinner. She says we should look forward to it.”
“We’re going to eat a wyvern? And karaage? What’s that?”
“I don’t know. But she wants us to look forward to it, so it must be good.”
◇ ◇
The kingdom’s army, which had been retreating slightly and looking for an opening, finally retreated completely after waiting for nightfall.
However, they have only retreated to the edge of the plain, and it seems that they still have the will to fight. I wondered if the soldiers at the end of the line still had it in them.
I teleported to the canyon entrance and brought back the dwarves in the machine gun emplacement and a beastman that was guarding them. Of course, the machine guns and assault rifles, as well as the ammo, were also stored. I wouldn’t leave anything that could be stolen by the kingdom’s soldiers, but I did set a few traps so that we would know if someone broke in.
Whether or not we will send the dwarves to the machine gun range again tomorrow morning is yet to be determined. In any case, we’ll have to wait and see what happens.
“Well, good night, old man, that was a great battle. How many did you kill? Five hundred? A thousand?”
“I couldn’t count past a hundred. We just had to beat the hell out of them.”
Well, from what I could see from up there, it couldn’t have been more than a thousand. If I don’t store the corpses at least once during the night, they’ll create a barrier in front of the gun emplacements, preventing us from shooting. At the moment, I leave the traps behind the corpses to hide them, but it’s not hygienic to do so.
“Yoshua, the meat is ready.”
“Thank you very much. Now, please sprinkle this on the meat.”
The women cut up the meat and prepared it according to a recipe I had prepared.
When I heard that winged dragons tasted similar to chicken, I wanted to eat some deep-fried chicken, so I asked if anything was similar here. The subhuman culture and the culture around here are not familiar with deep-fried food, so naturally, I couldn’t get through to them, so I decided to make something up. Instead of garlic, I mixed some herbs that are said to be good for the health, seasoned them with salt, and used a mixture of flour, cornflour, and eggs as the batter.
It was impossible to fry all of the meat given the huge size of the winged dragons, so we decided to eat only the two that looked the most delicious, focusing on the parts that looked the best. Of course, I couldn’t make a choice, so I asked the beast women, who seemed to know a lot about meat selection, to do it for me.
The leftover meat is supposed to be salted or dried before it gets damaged. Either winged dragon bacon or winged dragon jerky. I’m really excited about that.
“Hey, Kemich. As an elf, I wonder if you know if winged dragons are tasty.”
“I don’t know. I have never heard of anyone who has eaten one.”
That may be true. At any rate, they are hard to defeat. As I listened to him, I heard that he had overheard the elders of the elves say that they had read about it in literature. It was just a matter of overhearing. Surprisingly, one of the dwarves had read the book itself. Or rather, it was the old man Heimann.
I thought he was a muscle brain type, but he was more intellectual than I thought.
“Among the dragon species, the winged dragons fly, so they don’t have much fat in their flesh. Some say they are dry and unpalatable, and others say that their meat smells terrible. However, I think there were many negative comments in the human literature. Perhaps they were trying to keep the dragon cavalry from losing their strength by giving them crazy ideas?
It’s absolutely disgusting, so don’t kill and eat them by mistake. Yeah, that sounds likely.
Anyway, I poured a lot of oil into two large pots (probably corn oil, which was in the food I got from Simon) and tried to make a fried winged dragon.
“”””Ooohhh…””””
The sound of it frying and the smell of it made everyone around me gasp. It looks much tastier than I expected, and it’s more like a fritter than karaage, though.
“I’ll make some fried potatoes to go with it. Myrril, can you cut them like this?”
“Fried, potatoes? That’s an interesting idea. Is this a dish from Yoshua’s homeland?”
“Yes. Well, it’s not really a dish from my country, but it was very popular in my country.”
We added more stoves and a large pot and fried away at a steady pace. A huge pile of fried food and french fries was piling up. I took pity on the beastman children who were drooling and holding back, so I started to share the food with them. I’ll have to thank the ladies in charge of cooking something else.
“Hey, Yoshua, is it okay? Can we eat now?”
“Yes, it’s hot, so be careful.”
“”””Yayy, itadakimasu.””””
“Oh, the beastman children also say itadakimasu, huh…?”
“H-hot!”
“Hey kids, you should listen to what people are saying. It’s hot, so blow it off, blow it off.”
I looked to the side and saw Myrril looking at me with tears in her eyes, probably because she had put some fried chicken in her mouth, and it was too hot. You should also blow it off. …Good grief.
In front of the frying pan, I also took a small piece of the batter. The batter was crispy and chewy, and the juices poured out of it. There was no strange taste or smell, just a rich and complex flavor similar to that of jibie cuisine and herb chicken.
“Mmm, this is delicious, Yoshua! This is amazingly delicious!”
“Yes. There’s no smell at all. Is this because it’s fresh?”
“Maybe it’s because it was bred? Even wild beasts and magical beasts, such as carcass-eaters and omnivores, can have a foul smell.
I don’t think they were bred, but they maybe ate good food, so their meat tasted better. Hmm.
The dwarves are talking about dragon meat giving them energy and magic power, but I don’t know if that’s true. But it was clear to me that it was simply delicious. The meat is juicy and chewy, not dry at all. If it’s like chicken breast, it might get dry when it gets cold.
“It’s very tasty… Yoshua not only slaughtered the enemy’s beast but also made it into such an excellent dish.”
“I am flattered that you are enjoying it, but we should thank all the elves for hunting it down for us.”
The elves are all chewing on it, but they look happy. Is it delicious? That’s good then.
I don’t know what it is, but I feel like I’ve made something for the first time since I came to this world. Ever since I was summoned, I’ve been running away, destroying, killing, and robbing, and now, finally, I think I’ve created something. It’s a strange feeling. It’s just fried chicken. But it seems so important.
“What’s the matter, Yoshua? Why aren’t you eating? If you don’t eat soon, they will eat it all up.”
“I’ll eat it, yes. It tastes really good.”
I’m so happy when people eat everything I cook. The women in charge of cooking also beckoned me with smiles as they ate. Even though we were in the middle of a hard battle, I felt a bit relieved.
“Yoshua, the winged dragon is good, but these potatoes are so delicious!”
“I think it is because they were cooked in the same pot, so the fat from the winged dragon has soaked into them. It tastes and smells so rich; it gives you a sense of power.”
“Yoshua, come here, come here.”
Invited by the children, I walked into the circle of the feast with Myrril.
Surrounded by smiling faces, a warm feeling spreads deep in my chest. I was enjoying my brief moment of happiness.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that this kind of time would not last forever.