Combatants Will Be Dispatched - Volume 1 - Chapter 2.1

CHAPTER 2 

 Ravage Our Rivals 

1 

The next morning. 

“How dishonorable. The enemy only assigns the weakest demon to staff their supply caravans. There’s no glory in slaughtering errand boys.” 

Grace Kingdom’s knights assemble in the exercise yard to be briefed, while we find ourselves on the periphery, left to fend for ourselves. Evidently, the plan today will be for the army proper to take the fight to demons and monsters gathering on the outskirts of the kingdom. It’s an opportunity for honor, glory, and riches…and the kingdom’s commanding general is giving quite the speech in front of the assembled soldiers. 

As for us? Well, we’ve been told to “use our discretion,” which is a polite way of telling us to get lost. We’re now in the process of debating our own plan of attack. 

“Boss, if it’s at all possible, I’d prefer to fight strong enemies. Grandpa made me promise on his deathbed that I’d devour the flesh of every monster in the world and become the greatest Chimera.” 

Ah, I guess she really loved her grandpa. When she phrases it like that, complete with a deathbed promise, I feel the faintest twinge of guilt in the shriveled remains of my conscience. 

“Well, I’ll do what I can to help you fulfill that promise. How about getting meat from the monsters taken down by other units?” 

“If monster meat isn’t eaten fresh, it won’t be as tasty, so…” 

…Never mind. That twinge must’ve been heartburn. Damn glutton. 

“Rose is right! Enemy units with a lot of strong opponents will have important commanders. We can assault that unit and take the commander’s head. It’ll be easy. I’ll take on the strong enemies, and we can wipe out the grunts using Grimm’s curses. Rose, you’ll come with me!” 

My biggest headache right now is this glory hound. Her ambition’s blinded her to anything but her next victory. So far, Snow is refusing to even consider attacking the enemy supply lines. None of my attempts to reason with her have worked. In her pettiness, Snow is still holding the whole groping thing against me. 

Evidently feeling we had wasted enough time, Alice injects herself into the conversation. 

“Just listen, all right? You seem to be under the impression that attacking the enemy supply’s convoy won’t win you enough glory, but that’s where you’re wrong. First, you lot have done nothing but attack the enemy head-on. That means the enemy doesn’t expect you to do anything else. They won’t have any substantial defense around their supply lines. And what do you think happens to the enemy units fighting at the front when they hear their supplies have been wiped out? It’ll throw them into a panic.” 

“…Mmph.” 

Snow knits her brows together as she mulls over Alice’s explanation. 

“Second, losing your supply train in war is disastrous. A win on the battlefield is pointless if your soldiers starve. If we get rid of their supplies, the enemy goes home even if our knights lose in battle. A single squadron changes the course of the war. Is that enough glory for you?” 

“Hrm…I suppose.” 

Snow listens to Alice’s explanation without argument. I can’t help but be irritated by the change in her attitude. 

“Finally, consider this. If we take out their supplies once, the enemy will be wary of additional attacks. That means they’ll start defending their supply lines. This, in turn, means fewer soldiers on the front. And that happens even if we never attack their supplies again.” 

Alice is right, of course. Even if it’s not a large portion of the enemy, they’ll be forced to keep some of their armies back to defend their supplies, reducing their numbers on the front. 

Which I’m pretty sure is one of the points I made earlier. 

“…Well? Attacking the enemy supply lines is a pretty basic tactic, but you understand how it can have long-term effects, right? I get how important chivalry is to you, but this is war.” 

“…I understand what you’re saying, Alice. But I’m not sure it’ll be recognized as a great achievement… My demotion means a pay cut… At this rate, I won’t be able to pay back the loans I had to take out for my beloved sword collection… If I miss a payment for my burning blade Flame Zapper, it’ll get repossessed…” 

Snow’s eyes fill with tears as she hugs her sword to her chest. 

Beloved sword collection? I guess we can add “sword maniac” to Snow’s weirdo checklist. 

“Well, leave that to Six. Exaggerating the results to get maximum rewards is one of his specialties.” 

“…Now that you mention it, he does have that look about him.” 

“You two really want to get smacked, don’t you?” 

Still, it would seem we’ve gotten all the objections out of the way. 

“Oh… We’re attacking the supply convoy?” Rose lets out a wistful sigh while rubbing her stomach. “I spend most of my pay on buying monster meats I’ve never eaten before… The money doesn’t last very long…and since it’s close to payday, I haven’t been able to eat that much… I actually haven’t had anything to eat today, and if I can’t get any monsters to eat, well…” 

I let out a sigh as the tears start to well up in Rose’s eyes. 

I’m seriously starting to wonder how the hell she stays fed most of the time… 

“In that case, you can do what you want with the supplies we find. There’s a pretty good chance it’ll be mostly food anyway.” 

“Supply line attacks it is, then!”