Emperor of Steel - Chapter 66
Chapter 66: The Outbreak of War 3
From Lamer to Rakan, there were three possible routes.
The first was to move by using a boat from the Nair River. However, the problem was that they were going through a drought famine, so heavy ships couldn’t be moved in that path.
Also, if there was a situation like an overturned accident in the water, they might drown, and their expensive weapons couldn’t be put to use later on.
The second way was to use the highway along the river.
That wasn’t the path that Cain had chosen. The highway was under good maintenance, so there was no problem should they chose to march there. However, the disadvantage was that they had to go around; it was the long way.
Wanting to demonstrate his strength and agility in capturing the Lord of Rakan, he chose the third way, which moved straight and fast.
Goth did fear that the enemy might be waiting for an ambush in advance. However, Cain decided to ignore it.
He was confident that tricks like ambushing wouldn’t work against him.
Their march had been going very smoothly. There were very few monsters in the region, so all they had to do was walk.
“Let’s rest in here for today.”
When the sun came down, Cain ordered the camp.
Right away, the soldiers made camps and scattered all over the place. Some of them were gathering firewood, fetching drinking water and making dinner.
“Hmm, meat stew? It smells good.”
After a while, his subordinate bought a stew full of meat, potato, vegetable with bread and honey.
Since they wanted to finish marching as soon as possible, their pace was fast and that made Cain hungry, so he immediately dug into the stew and bread.
‘It has been so long since I ate in a field.’
It was a short time. This was his first time after 5 years of being in the border with the Volga Republic.
It was indeed a while, but it wasn’t that bad.
‘Would we be able to reach the Rakan lordship region by the end of the week?’
If he was riding a horse, he would have arrived there faster.
But he had to haul 5,000 troops, trailers with Gigants and the carts filled with supplies.
‘I think this can also be training for the war that we might have with Marquis Mayers.’
Someday, there was bound to be a war between the Emperors and the Nobles.
At that time, Count Monarch was likely to face Marquis Mayers.
It was because the two estates were close in distance, and their powers were equal.
After deciding that the current war was going to be like a military training for the future, Cain swept the stew clean with his last piece of bread.
After a while…
Grrrr!
‘Uh?’
Grrrr?!
Suddenly, Cain’s face went confused at the urgent and loud sound of his stomach.
“Soldier!”
“Huh?”
“Soldier give me a piece of cloth!”
Cain ripped off the cloth, which was near him, and ran into the forest.
However, there was a problem. There were many soldiers who had gone into the forest first to assign their places for the night.
Everybody had a place they wanted to be at.
Sitting behind a large tree and finishing his business, Cain later pulled up his pants.
“Phew, I will live now.”
Cooling down his stomach, he went back to the camp to get some rest to calm his anxious stomach.
Grrrr!
“Oops!”
With the strange feeling in his stomach coming back, Cain went back to his spot in the forest to finish his business.
Cain had to do it three times. He called for his lieutenant when he reached the camp.
However, the lieutenant took some time too.
He too had struggles and was trying to resolve his anxiety.
“What has happened? What were the ingredients that were used for our dinner? Did anything went wrong?”
It was summer, so the ingredients might have gone bad. Or the water that they fetched for drinking could have been contaminated.
“It was strange even as we checked. However, the wizards have stated that the ingredient that we used for the stew had an ingredient that causes diarrhea.”
The wizards were the Iron mages who supported the trailer and the Gigant.
They had basic medical knowledge, so they were able to find the cause.
“Is there a mole from the Rakan within the caterers?”
At that thought, Cain looked at the lieutenant, who just shook his head.
“I interrogated a while back while we were looking for the cause but that isn’t the cause. Nevertheless, no suspicious guys came or went out of the cooking place.”
“I don’t know what kind of person did this, but if I catch that guy, I will smash his head. Deploy credible men to watch over the cooks.”
“Understood.”
But despite such actions, the next morning, Cain and the soldiers suffered from severe diarrhea.
“Pa, paper please…!”
“None, I used up mine!”
“Sh*t! Even if that paper was cheap, you should have left some!”
The cries of embarrassment and the anger of the 5,000 soldiers were huge.
The remaining strong ones in there all went down.
After two successive attacks of diarrhea, they picked some credible knights and cooked for themselves.
The wizards took their sides and monitored the entire process from the inspection of the ingredients to the cooking.
However, the result was the same.
The wizards clearly stated that nothing was wrong even with the silver cutlery they used for eating. However, everyone was down to the trees and bushes.
They continued to feast on the frustrating truth. Their butts were sore, and they were afraid to even sit down, and that wasn’t the end of their problems.
For a war, one had to eat and rest well.
“Kaaak! Who the hell is doing all this stuff? Ah!”
If they found out who the perpetrator was, everyone wanted to tear him to pieces.
But no matter how many times and how thoroughly they checked, they couldn’t find the culprit, and that made their misery continue.
‘Kyayaya, stupid humans! No matter how many times you hit your heads, you won’t be able to detect my art!’
From a tree, someone was overlooking the miserable army of the Count Monarch.
It was a cat that was hanging from a branch.
The cat was looking down at the worried group of humans.
He was the lower-ranked demon Sebastian, who just became Luke’s slave.
Sebastian, who boasted himself as the best monster in the Devildom, had extraordinary transformation power and stealth.
And he had one more specialty; it was the mixing of herbs and poisons to make bizarre drugs.
He mainly used it for hunting dangerous monsters in the Devildom, and since he was so clever, he made the poison so that it would be hard to notice its smell and taste.
Sebastian went on harassing the Monarch’s army under the directions of Luke.
Rather than fighting them, Luke decided to de-energize the army instead.
At the same time, they sneak up and spray the drugs.
The drug was made using several mixtures of toxic poisons that were available only in the Devildom, and the drug would only activate once it reached a living being’s stomach and would react with one’s digestive enzymes.
Moreover, there was a miscalculation in Cain and Count Monarch’s part.
They thought that the drug had gone into the food preparation process, but it was actually sprayed after the food had been prepared.
It was sprayed through the wind, like the pollen in the time of breeding.
In other words, it was sprayed at their mealtime, and the food that they were eating was what made their gates to open up!
As a result, the army had suffered three more days of stormy diarrhea, and now they were all walking while limping wide-legged.
‘However, I don’t understand why the master still doesn’t want to kill them.’
Among the drugs that Sebastian had, there was a poison that could kill even an Ogre right away.
However, his master had told him not to use that poison.
If the damage to the army was serious, they might decide to retreat and the come back to fight another time.
‘Kyaaa, whatever! It is always fun to see human beings suffer!’
The demons were spiritual races like the elves.
Therefore, they reacted to emotional waves, unlike other creatures. However, unlike the elves, the demons’ way of feeling pleasure was twisted.
That was the same for Sebastian too.
He continued to roam around the army of the Count Monarch and sprayed his drug and enjoyed the outcome of it.