Okami Wa Nemuranai

Jinga signaled to a knight behind him with his eye. That knight said 'sir', and left the room before returning with two adventurers.

"Lecan-sama. These two are Aspora adventurers. The man is Delos, while the woman is Daryra. They know this area well, they have been hired to be our guides here."

"Hou. I'm Lecan. Good to meet you. She's Eda."

"Ah, nice to meetcha. The name's Delos."

"I've heard all about you. I'm Daryra."

Delos is a small nimble-looking adventurer that looks the part as a scout.

Daryra is a big woman with well defined muscles, carrying a sword on her back. Considering her light armor, she should be quite quick on her feet as well.

"Explain to Lecan-sama the problems we face with the route."

"So y'see, we gotta go west if we wanna go around those guys. The east is a no go since we'd hafta pass some open space, woulda make us a sitting duck. Meanwhile, the west side got a small mountain, advancing without being caught is possible. But this side here's entirely composed of a cliff y'see. No way to get through 'em on horseback."

There's a small mountain to the west of Nikuya town, and to the west of that is a cliff.

However, going east will likely get them ambushed by <Whip>. Going west would be best here.

"How long's this cliff?"

"It's gonna take three whole days if you wanna reach the spot where the cliff stops."

"As you have heard, Lecan-sama. Even if the next skirmish is to be in two days time, we will not make it in time. Delaying our participation in the war even further."

"Well, what's wrong with that if that's how it's gonna be? Either way, I'm clueless about war strategy and stuff."

"Just you know though, we actually have never passed through that alternative route ourselves. And we gotta take like 200 horses with us, no telling what's it gonna be like. I can assure ya three days ain't gonna be enough, but can't say either how many days we gonna need beyond that."

Hearing that, Jinga fell into silence.

Lecan gazed at Jinga and Delos for a bit before speaking up.

"Delos. How high is this cliff?"

"Highest one got to 150 steps. But I know a spot where it's only about 30 step tall."

"Can we get down there if we don't bring horses?"

"Sure can. We're gonna tie some sturdy ropes around sturdy trees. Ya just gotta hold on to those ropes as ya climb down. Work well on luggage too. But not horses. They're gonna break them legs if they jump down."

"Where is this place?"

"Around here."

Delos pointed at a spot on the map.

"Pretty close by. Jinga."

"Yes."

"We're going down from there."

"But, the horses"

"I've got an idea. Let me show you how it's done. Let's go outside."

The group left the room.

Lecan asked Jinga to get on a horse.

The horse was blindfolded.

He asked Jinga to talk to the horse to calm it down.

"Alright. Here goes. <Float>."

The horse floated in the air, with Jinga still riding on it.

"Oooh."

"My goodness."

The knights voiced their shock.

Delos were wide eyed.

Daryra was grinning for some reason.

"<Move>."

The horse moved a bit and slowly floated down the ground.

"So yeah. One Large Blue Potion should be enough to last me 200 horses and riders."

Just dropping them down a cliff should consume much less mana than floating up a horse and its rider high up into the sky and down.

"Understood. Lecan-sama. We will be in your good hands. Come, let us have lunch for now."

Daryra spoke in whisper when she passed by Lecan.

"As expected, Bat Demon-san."

"Don't address me with that name."

<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka.com >

They received a message after lunch.

The battle today ended quickly again.

The enemy has been regularly launching their offensive every two days, on 13th, 15th, 17th and 19th.

And Zaka's side would lose 200 people every time.

"Lecan-sama. Aspora is asking for reinforcement. As the next battle will be on the 21th, they plan to leave the town and go after the enemy. They are asking Mashajain Knights to launch an assault on the enemy's flank then."

Lecan wasn't on board with them deciding that the next battle would surely be on 21th. He's not gonna complain about it but the quicker they leave for the battlefield, the better.

"Jinga. How about departing now."

"Oho."

"Or are you saying Mashajain Knights can't camp outside? We're not gonna have fires after all."

"Oh that won't do at all Lecan-sama, please do not underestimate us."

"We'd better get down that cliff asap. We might have to spend two nights in the forest, we should get as close as possible to the battlefield."

"Very well. We shall begin the preparations at once."

Thus Mashajain Knights left Nikuya town on the 19th, to the west.

Climbing down the cliff took more time than anticipated.

Though it didn't actually take that long for the knights and horses.

They simply needed to blindfold the horses and stood still until they touched the ground. Both the knights and the horses were well trained, thus Lecan's magic smoothly got them down the cliff.

Next to them, archers and spearsmen took quite some time to climb down from a slightly taller cliffside. They lowered their wrapped weapons and luggage as well as themselves with ropes, but as they had never trained in such activity, the whole thing took them quite a lot of time.

Nevertheless they managed to get everyone down before nightfall and they all camped down the cliff.

Lecan chatted about all kinds of things with Jinga.

Incidentally, in the end Lecan never spent a night in Nikuya town, which was a huge relief to a certain individual.

It was none other than Nikuya townlord, Snow Demoka.

The eldest son of Paizlan Household was dungeon exploring as an adventurer in Dungeon City Ninae when he abducted Heles Rainzats to make her his own. Lecan prevented his escapade, then later on, Head of Rainzats who heard about the incident from Heles sent a messenger to Paizlan Household, strongly condemning the action. The head of Paizlan promised to disinherit Snow while trembling in trepidation. Afterward, he shoved Snow to a relative, Demoka Household which had been wanting for an heir, to get rid of the nuisance he became.

Once his elderly foster father passed away, Snow took on the position of the small town lord, but despite his rotten attitude, the guy was still a high born noble. When Nikuya town turned into a traffic stop for many lords' knights on their way to halt Guido Imperial Army's invasion, he would still flawlessly deal with them and their needs, albeit haughtily.

Then one day, he was told that a high ranking adventurer who's also the fiance of a Wazrof Lady would be coming. He couldn't believe his ear when Lecan's name came up, but it really was the same Lecan when he peeked at him from afar.

Snow had a panic attack and locked himself up in his room, quivering behind his blanket, but then Lecan and Mashajain Knights departed right away without him seeing them off, prompting him to throw a small celebration on his lonesome.

Lecan himself had zero recollection of Snow's face or even name.