Lord Summoner's Freedom Philosophy: Grimoire of Love

The sound of countless footsteps and metal clattering resounded throughout the forest. Small animals and monsters flee and hid in face of the great amount of mercenaries marching.

The total number of mercenaries participating in the subjugation quest is around 4000. Considering the approximate number of the goblins, it might be overkill, but the mercenaries only have golds that they could get from the goblins in their eyes, and since the payment of the subjugation is based on the number of the killed goblins, it does not really matter how many mercenaries participating on the quest.

Since it's an army with a great number, they didn't take a shortcut through the forest since it would hinder their movement and slow down their speed on taking formations, they first travel at the main road that is connected to the Astellia Kingdom, and went east when they have gotten closer afterward.

Because of the number of people, there are no monsters that are brave enough to get closer to the army, making the march smoothly without any hindrance.

Just like in the army of any country, the units are distributed into the infantries, heavy cavalries, light cavalries, and archers. Since the captains and commanders of the army are those who are experienced in war, the chain of command are flowing very smoothly.

But as the advance is going smoothly, Lyan is having a wry smile as he once again rides the aggressive black horse and guards the supply unit.

"And what are you two doing here?" (Lyan)

"How cold~ We're helping the guild as scouts! It seems that we'll be fighting together again, Lyan!" (Raine)

"The guild requested assistance toward gramps for us to be the part of the subjugation scout and help at reconnaissance, so gramps sent us heartfully," (Ravia)

The black-haired and white-haired butler uniform-using girls replied to him. They are riding a horse given by the guild each.

"I see. But the both of you are using the same equipment you usually use, huh. Are those butler uniforms made from magic leather or something?" Lyan pointed at the butler uniform that they always use.

"Of course not. But we have chainmail under our uniform, so it's fine! Gramps said that butlers must always have chainmail under their uniform to protect ourselves, after all!" Raine gave him a thumb up.

(What kind of butler was your gramps is?) (Lyan)

"Anyway, you're supposed to be scouts, right? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be on the front?" (Lyan)

"We won't be needed until we started entering the forest. Are you chasing us away, Lyan? Even though I thought that we've become close enough," (Ravia)

"I'm not. It's just a question out of curiosity," (Lyan)

Ravia let out a chuckle as saw Lyan's troubled face.

"Well, I'm not troubled with you guys here or anything. In fact, I'm comfortable having people I'm familiar with in the subjugation team. Make sure not to die on me, okay?" (Lyan)

"Hahaha! Of course! Did you bring the potions Belle and I made? It would come rather handy, you know?" Raine shows several vials of purple-colored liquid inside her bag.

"I brought them," Lyan showed opened his small bag and showed the inside.

"That's good. We'll be checking the front for a while and return, wait for us, okay? Let's go, Raine!" Ravia give a small kick to the horse, and the horse started galloping forward.

"Later, Lyan~" (Raine)

"Yeah," (Lyan)

The approximation of them reaching the goblin king is three days. It's the worst-case scenario in case they got several times ambushed by the goblins along the way.

After advancing for about 7 hours, Lyan sensed that the atmosphere in the surrounding forest started to feel weird. His instincts alert him to have his guard up.

The supply unit is located in the middle of the whole army. Starting from the very front are 3000 infantries, 500 archers, the supply unit, 200 heavy cavalries, and 400 light cavalries. The supply unit is strictly guarded and placed at the safest position of the formation, and even got an escort from the elite group.

The reason is that if the goblins really are as smart as they feared, then the possibility of them targeting the supply unit is high since they also need rations for their survival, and if the supply unit lost the rations, it will hinder the advancement of the army.

(Hobu) (Lyan)

Lyan set out the shadow hobgoblin that he had summoned since before their advance, and command him to check and scout the forest. The shadow hobgoblin jumped from one tree to another.

!!!

A group of goblins is waiting at the front. The infantries should have already passed them, but it seems that they are waiting for the supply unit.

(Not that easy. Hobu!) (Lyan)

Following Lyan's command, the shadow hobgoblin jumped from the three and slashed the goblins to bear his landing, killing three goblins with one slash.

The goblins are hiding within the bushes, slightly deeper into the forest, preventing the army from noticing them. But because of the shadow hobgoblin's attack, the other goblins that got startled by the sudden attack let out a big shriek.

"Goblins! Prepare for battle!!"

All of the mercenaries immediately enter their battle stance. Knowing that their position had been blown, the goblins started to attack frenziedly from both sides.

There are about 400 of them. 200 of them attacked the infantries from the both sides, while the rest 200 attacked the archers.

Under Alice's swift command, 400 infantries immediately cover the sides of the archers, guarding them against the ambush. What attacked them this time is not red goblins, but normal green goblins, making them easily wipe out the goblins in a few minutes.

The advance continued without another attack until afternoon, and this time, they got greeted by the red goblins.

"Archers! Loose!" (Alice)

Hundreds of arrows got loosed towards the red goblins. Different from before, 500 red goblins suddenly attacked them from the front frenziedly. But with the archers raining arrows on them, their number easily got halved, and they got completely annihilated by the infantries. Together with the elite group members leading in the front, the red goblins got killed rather easily.

"Looks like it's going to be a smooth one," (Jean)

"..." (Alice)

"Alice. What do you think of their attacks?" Surena asked the silent Alice.

"If my suspicion is right. Then the real deal is just about to come. They're going to attack us with several waves of attacks, trying to wear us down. If that happens, then it means that our plan will go even smoothly since their attention will get completely drawn by our main army," (Alice)

"I see... Then it's not the time to let our guard down yet. You hear the commander's words, Jean," (Surena)

"Yeah, yeah. I understand. No one here doesn't believe the Small General's words, after all," (Jean)

After finished harvesting the ears of the goblins, the army continue to advance. It won't be surprising if there are some mercenaries fighting for the goblins' ears, but with the supervision of the Mythril-ranked mercenaries, they got obedient easily.

Along the way, they encountered other four waves of red goblin attacks, and all of them attacked them from the front, rather than ambushing from the sides. Since Lyan is at the Supply unit, he didn't get the chance to fight the red goblins since they got quickly dealt with by the archers and the infantries.

When the night came, they stopped the march and started placing the tents and campfires. They've met about 1600 red goblins and 400 normal goblins, for the mercenaries, this is a great sign of fortune for them. The more the goblins, the more the rewards they will get from the guild.

"And? What are you two doing?" Lyan asked the two butler girls before him with folded arms. They are already placing their bags and taking sleeping positions inside his tent.

"Eh? Is there any problem, Lyan?" (Raine)

"There are lots of problems! Didn't you two get your respective tents already? Go to your own tent, would you!" (Lyan)

"Isn't it fine, Lyan? You're going to sleep together with two beauties this night, isn't it a good thing? But if you touched us, I might slit your throat in reflex, though. So be careful, okay?" (Ravia)

The tent Lyan gets as a member of the elite mercenary group is the big and comfortable one. Since Raine and Ravia only got the ordinary one, they decided to invade Lyan's comfortable tent instead.

"I won't touch you. You two can sleep first then, I'm going to be outside for a while," (Lyan)

Letting out a helpless sigh, Lyan went out of his tent and sit on a big rock. The mercenaries had already started to take some rest, while those assigned to the night watch, guard the perimeter of the campsite.

Since they stopped their advance, Lyan had been feeling a gaze getting fixed on him. The feeling felt real, but he can't locate where the gaze came from. Even when he ordered the Shadow Hobgoblin to search the perimeter, he didn't find anything.

(This gaze. Whose gaze is it, I wonder?) (Lyan)

____________________________________________________________________________

Name: Lyan Arkanium Evocatore

Occupation: Gold-ranked Mercenary

Money: 49,722,400 Elnes

Weapon: None

Equipment: Black leather cloak, Leather Armor, 1 (Decent) One-handed Sword, 2 (Good-Quality) One-handed swords, 2 Health potions, 2 Poison Vials

Grimoire's Companions: 8 High Spirits, Shadow Hobgoblin, Papilio Slime, Galewing Butterfly, Rock Golem, Deadlight, Moonlight Butterfly, Ice Golem