I, reincarnate as the leader of the villainous knight order

Chapter 14: Strategy Meeting

“Please.”

I heard Orel’s response, so I plastered on a smile and opened the door.

“May I have a moment? I’d like to discuss the plans starting from tomorrow… Also, I’d like you two to listen in.”

As I started the discussion, Arnault and Simon tried to sneak out of the room. I stopped them, maintaining my smile. Thanks to speaking in a notably low voice while still smiling, the two let out small, suppressed screams.

As we began the discussion, I sat down on a chair while Arnault and Simon stood at attention, just like they would during training. With a wry smile, I informed them about what I had heard from the healers earlier.

“So, regarding Orel and those recuperating in their quarters, we’ve decided to enforce three days of rest. The five in the infirmary will be resting for a minimum of one week. Most likely… the stampede will occur during this time.”

“Eh!? Stampede…? It’s the first time I’ve encountered it,” remarked Arnault.

“Don’t worry. You won’t be going to battle against the monsters this time. You’ll be doing office work in the office. That’s why I came to discuss the reorganization of our troops,” I explained.

“Alright! Please put me in the same squad as the Commander! Obviously, I’ll be at the forefront, right!?” Simon exclaimed, raising his hand.

“My squad intends to rush into what we believe to be the source. You can let loose as much as you want,” I replied.

“Eeh?! The source?! Without a break… straight into it?” Arnault complained reluctantly, but when facing actual monsters, he would wear a fierce smile and crush them. Although not explicitly stated in the novel, I learned from my tutor that the cause of the stampede was the evil shard known as the demon stone.

Normally indistinguishable from ordinary stones, when accumulated magical energy saturates it, it attracts monsters. Once the magical energy overflows, it causes a stampede. It is only then that one can distinguish the stone as a fragment of the evil god.

Alternatively, high-ranking priests or holy maidens should have been able to identify it using their divine powers. There should have been an episode where the heroine, a holy maiden, discovered the evil shard in the ruins when she later visited the territory of Taleraan.

“I expect the cause to be in the ruins of the eastern forest. We’ll enter the ruins tomorrow and wait for the stampede to occur. If the cause is indeed the evil shard, we should be able to find and destroy it immediately, right?”

“Indeed, destroying the fragment of the evil god would minimize the damage, but… that would mean being at the epicenter of the stampede, right?” Orel looked at me with concern. There’s a danger that the monsters might all come at us at once.

“But hey, isn’t there another way to end the stampede? How have we ended it before?” Simon, being the most straightforward member of the squad due to his commoner background, hadn’t experienced a stampede before, so it’s natural for him not to know.

“There are two ways to end a stampede. One is to destroy the magic stone known as the fragment of the evil god when it activates this time. In that case, since the cause is gone, the next stampede won’t happen. And the other is to wait for the monsters to stop spawning until all the magic essence stored in the fragment of the evil god runs out. Once all the magic essence is exhausted, no more monsters will be born.”

“However, if you choose the latter, the damage caused by the monsters will be catastrophic. But it’s an extremely difficult task, as destroying the fragment of the evil god and ending the stampede has only been accomplished twice in our country’s long history of eight thousand years,” Orel added to my explanation.

“Wow, so… if we do that, we’ll be treated like heroes, right!? I’m definitely going with the Commander!” Simon exclaimed.

“Don’t worry, my squad was planning on going together from the start. I’m also thinking of bringing along another squad. Do you have any squads that can coordinate well? It should be a squad that hasn’t suffered any injuries this time,” I asked.

“In that case, how about Elliot’s squad? They’ve been getting stronger lately. What do you think, Arnault?” Simon suggested.

“Yeah, that’s true. Plus, they have Cassius, so it’s… not that, I mean, they have two squire knights, but I don’t think there’s any problem with their abilities,” Arnault responded.

“Elliot’s squad… indeed, they have the ability,” I agreed.

For a moment, I felt like Arnault was about to say something ominous, but since I had already chosen a capable squad, I had no intention of rejecting it.

“Hmm… Elliot’s squad should be able to keep up with everyone in Justin’s squad. It would have been best if my squad could move, but since it’s going to start tomorrow, we might just become a burden,” Orel lamented.

“Don’t worry, I’ll end the stampede as soon as possible so you can rest peacefully,” I said, giving Orel a confident smile.