I Reincarnated But Will Try To Live Without Using My Cheat Ability - CH 260

The next day, there was no movement from the demon tribe.

Prytanis came up next to me.

“Sir Rossi, I have been thinking, Valentin’s magic is powerful. He can make it rain and create water with his magic, so that might be why they’re holed up in the mountain.”

Oh, that’s one way to do it.

“I once asked my lord if magic could be used to ease the burden of logistics.”

Prytanis gave a laugh, astonished.

“So he already thought of it. Lord Alfred’s curiosity is so thorough.”

“He tried it out of curiosity a long time ago. He said he couldn’t get food, so he tried water.”

“Can you quench your thirst with it?”

A nasty smile came naturally.

“No. My lord says, “Suppose you magically create water and drink it. The sensation of drinking water remains. You have to keep imagining it until it is actually absorbed into your body, or it will disappear.” So he says.”

Prytanis opened his mouth.

“Ha…it’s amazing, but… I give up. That means, you can create water with magic, but you can’t quench thirst…”

“Yes, it means that even if you create water or food, you have to imagine the form in which it will be absorbed into the body. But he said there is one exception.”

“Is there a loophole?”

“Yeah, he said that if the apostles’ vast power could be embodied, they would be quite capable of holding their own without the need for imagery. Apparently, there was a time when the apostles produced food. Still, it’s not a complete substitute for water or food. Dehydration would definitely set in.”

Prytanis had a tense smile.

Just like my first reaction.

“Then it’s possible that Valentin knows.”

“That’s the thing… After draining the water for half a day, my lord checked for himself. You never know when the water will disappear… unless it dries up.”

Prytanis looked up.

“Who the hell is Lord Alfred…”

“Never mind. It’s useless even if you think about it.”

The next thing I knew, the clouds were gathering at the top of the mountain where the enemy camp was located.

Prytanis nodded his head.

“What if we gather the clouds and make it rain?”

The fact that he even knows the answer to this question shows how deep my lord’s curiosity is.

“It takes apostle-level magic power to bring in the clouds. Other people’s clouds are created by magic. So even if it rains, it cannot quench thirst. If it rains with magic and a landslide occurs, the landslide remains. When magic is lost, only the water disappears without a trace.”

Prytanis burst out laughing.

“Sir Rossi is starting to look like a magician.”

“I was simply stating my lord’s answer.”

I feel a little sorry for the demon tribe that is so happy to see the rain on the mountaintop.

Prytanis also chuckled when he saw the rain.

“I suppose Valentin’s plan would have worked under normal circumstances. Normally, a general would think of saving his life. As for the water, I can only say that he was careless.”

“Until my lord told me, I thought I could just magically produce water. He’s not stupid, but he’s too careless. He’s under the illusion that the goal is reached when he think of it. Such a wise man is taking brilliant steps on thin ice, though.”

Prytanis folded his arms and pondered.

“Do you think Lord Alfred knows that he’s dancing on the mountain?”

“I don’t think we’ll ever know the specifics. But if you believe yourself to be clever, you’d come up with a complicated scheme and lose your objectivity. That’s why he described it as dancing. Just as we cannot fly, the wise man cannot be objective. So… that was the best the wise man could do.”

The next day, I had the winged tribe check the enemy position from a distance, and they reported that the soldiers were slumped over.

That sounds pretty serious.

As I was thinking this, rain began to fall on the mountaintop again.

Have they not noticed?

It was hard not to laugh when it had come this far.

It is likely that they will be forced to go down the mountain soon.

I instructed them to raise the alert level.

At this point, the enemy soldiers are almost unable to fight.

In another day or two, they will be unable to move.

After the third day, it was likely that there would even be deaths.

Even if they force their way down the mountain, will they come back to take the water hole as dead soldiers?

Since they cannot move their bodies, they cannot even become a dead soldier.

It would still be impossible…

At night, several demons came down to the watering hole and surrendered.

They are completely dehydrated.

Their muscles were cramping, and some of them were even grumbling.

Let’s give them water and food and ask for more information tomorrow.

Since I’ve been serving my lord, I’ve had much less chance to actually cross swords.

The harder the commander works, the easier it is for the soldiers.

The more the lord struggles, the easier it is for the people.

The harder the boss works, the easier the subordinates work.

Rationally speaking, the lord said it was a good thing.

But if you take it seriously, it is hard to do and hard to be understood, so people don’t want to do it.

I laughed when he said that.

I agreed, but the quality of this work is quite hard.

When you think alone, you inevitably want to compromise along the way.

The next day, I interrogated the demons whose symptoms had calmed down.

As expected, the wise man, “The commander, thinking of self-preservation, will have  men run into the mountains. That way, if he fails, he can make an excuse that they were not strong enough. If he does nothing and fails, it is a blunder for which there is no excuse, and his reputation will fall to the ground. Even if it turns into a standoff, we can replenish our water supply with magic. If you do as you say, the goddess of victory will flatter you.”

He said boldly.

He said that the air in the camp was so bad that someone might kill the wise man.

The prisoner spat this out.

The Prisoners were made to look into the distance to further check the enemy camp.

Apparently, the soldiers were acting suspiciously.

He reported that they were very upset.

Was the wise man killed? If that happens, the enemy soldiers may try to escape.

We cannot let them escape.

It would be troublesome if they escaped and joined up with the troops attacking the castle.

While I was giving instructions to my men for tonight, Prytanis arrived.

“I guess Valentin is almost done for.”

“Yeah, it’s just… It would be foolish to attack carelessly and cause more damage. Poncio will still hold out. When the Wise Man’s army falls apart, the troops attacking the castle will pull back.”

Sporadically that evening, the demons began to descend the mountain.

Many of them, perhaps in a desperate attempt to escape, lost their footing and fell to their deaths on the way down the mountain.

In the end, we killed about 200 people that day and took about 60 captive.

We would ask the prisoners what happened the next day.

Perhaps some would try to escape at night.

We will follow my lord’s example and make it look like we have the mountain surrounded by a bonfire with a lot of flair.

They did not light a bonfire in one part of the mountain, but kept the soldiers lying low.

If they are dehydrated and have lost all sense of proper judgment, they will easily fall for it.

As expected, there were some demons trying to escape, but we took them all out.

It was difficult to take prisoners in the dark.

We will check the number of prisoners the next day.

A few may have escaped, but a few is not a problem.

The next day, I looked at the battlefield and found about 300 dead bodies.

A few of them were still breathing, so we treated them as prisoners of war.

I will leave the handling of the prisoners of war to my lord.

The beastmen under Dorius, for whom this battle was the first battle for Ravenna’s army, could not believe that a battle in which they were not forced to make sacrifices.

They seemed to have asked their unit commander if it was all right to have so few sacrifices.

It would be good to realize that society has changed because of this.

I’m sure my lord would look uncomfortable if I told him this story.

Then, when I interrogated the captive, Prytanis and I looked at each other and went rigid because of the shocking details.

Prytanis slapped himself in the face and asked the Prisoners again.

“Valentin fled with his close aides? Leaving all the other soldiers behind?”

As expected, even I was speechless from the wise man’s performance with all his might.