Chapter 317: An Unexpected Betrayal (Patreon)

On Gaderia's city wall, Schräg sat cross-legged atop the battlements, his man-wide greatsword planted steadily beside him. One hand on the hilt, he stared fixedly into the distance.

As long as he was there, Gaderia's walls would never fall.

Guards were rotating on the wall one after another. Gaderia had been on a war footing since last night.

The Demon Race could go without rest, but humans couldn't go without sleep.

Standing on the wall all day? Maybe only a dwarf could manage that. Even Frieren would melt into a puddle and doze off on the spot.

"Lord Schräg, I'll leave the rest to you."

"Mm."

Schräg didn't turn around. An elderly guard behind him called out the greeting, then walked slowly away.

The man who took over from the old guard was middle-aged.

Beneath the iron helm, the man's eyes reflected Schräg's broad back. He shouldered his spear and settled slowly into position not far from Schräg.

At the same moment, another relief guard arrived on the other side.

"Haaah... so sleepy. I wanted to sleep a little longer. Why'd they drag me out for the shift this early? Is there no justice?"

A young guard staggered up onto the wall, his lazy drawl echoing along the stones. His careless attitude carried none of the tension of wartime.

"Rookie brat! Be glad we didn't put you on the night shift, and now you're whining!"

"Gaderia's survival is at stake right now. Pull yourself together, we're the last line of defense!"

"Look at this kid. Where's the soldier in him?"

"All right, everyone. At that age, weren't we all reckless? We just copied the seniors from back then."

The guards, wearing a variety of expressions, ribbed the newcomer with a few jabs, while others spoke up to head off the brawl brewing.

"Oh no, I think I forgot my weapon. Brother going off shift, don't leave yet, let me run back and get one."

"Take mine."

The guard going off shift shoved his weapon into the talkative rookie and ran off like the wind, afraid of being roped into a few more "chats."

The youngster's antics lightened the heavy mood a little.

Schräg shifted slightly, but he didn't look back.

He knew this new guard: an orphan whose parents had died young, conscripted when Gaderia recruited a while back.

Some time had passed since Lord Nanoda and the others set out, and they had probably already been drawn into battle. Schräg put his duty first and didn't dwell on it.

"Schräg, something's happened in the north."

Draht's arrival broke the quiet that had just settled over the wall again. He flung out a thread of Mana and slid straight up along it.

"Aren't you at the inner city?"

"Allied reinforcements have arrived. They're at the north wall now. Whether to open the gates and send them to support Lord Nanoda is up to you. See for yourself, then decide."

At Draht's words, Schräg rose and leapt down from the battlements. "I'll go take a look. Hold this post for me until I'm back."

Then he picked the two guards beside him to come along.

"Hehe, Boss Schräg, I want to see how grand the reinforcements are too."

The young guard chased after Schräg, running so fast that the two escorting guards looked astonished.

They circled along the wall, past guards garrisoned at every stretch, and when they reached the north wall, Schräg saw a dense army ranked below the city.

The force numbered a full ten thousand, and it was well equipped.

At its head were several nobles, looking up at the wall and shouting.

"Compatriots of Gaderia! Open the gates quickly! The Central Nations are coming in force, and Gaderia is being wiped out. Sooner or later the Empire will settle accounts with us too. We've come to support you!"

Schräg fell into thought. Among the nobles of the Triangle Alliance with Gaderia, quite a few had indeed promised to raise a ten-thousand-strong army to support Gaderia.

It was just that they'd come rather late. Gaderia's main army had already marched out.

"That's Lord Schräg the Thunderbolt up on the wall! We're the reinforcements!"

"Yes, speed is of the essence in war. Open the gates, quickly!"

The lead noble's manner was earnest, even eager.

"No."

Schräg said it loudly, his face expressionless.

The reinforcements were elite, but they were too late. Gaderia's city stood empty now, and there was no telling what might happen if he let them in.

If they had been lesser Demons, Schräg might have trusted them. The Demon Race were cunning toward humans, but among their own kind they let strength do the talking, and their pride kept them, in a sense, always forthright.

"Lord Schräg, these are extraordinary times. It took great effort to scrape together an elite force like this. Shut out here, with hardly any supplies, do you mean for us to turn back the way we came?"

An old noble put on a woebegone face, every word ringing with sincerity.

"No!"

Even after all that, Schräg still wouldn't agree.

Just as Schräg focused his attention on the army below...

The two guards who had followed him exchanged a quiet glance. The guards originally stationed there made small movements of their own.

By the time Schräg felt his limbs seized by several people at once and tried to struggle, it was already too late.

Two spears, aimed at places the armor didn't cover, drove hard into his body.

Agony swept through him. The greatsword in his hand slipped, then he gripped it tight again.

Schräg never imagined that guards he'd lived beside day and night would betray him. Would betray Gaderia.

"You... what are you doing?"

Enduring the pain, he raised his arm and flung off the soldier clinging to it. He twisted and threw off the one who had struck from behind, but the pain from his two wounds made him cough up a mouthful of blood, which quickly turned to Mana and dissipated.

Schräg could feel it: his body felt as if a hole had been punched through it, and his Mana was draining away fast.

As a general of the Demon Race, he had taken wounds large and small, but never one this humiliating. If he didn't act at once, he might truly die here.

Yet the guards' spears had already closed into a ring, all pointed at his head.

"You don't think this is enough to kill me, do you?"

With two spears still in him, Schräg staggered, then straightened. He raised his greatsword, and under the surge of his Mana, lightning faintly crawled along the blade.

"Hahahahahahaha!"

The sudden turn on the wall set the "reinforcements" below roaring with laughter.

The old noble, who had so recently begged with a woebegone face for the gates to be opened, now wore a sly smile. "A general of the Demon Race, and not so clever after all, is he?"

Schräg admitted it to himself: he had been careless.

"You... why did you betray us?"