The Medieval-Modern Man with a Gamer Mindset

16. Division of Roles

A knight with hollow cheeks, prominent cheekbones, and a pointed beard.

Lord Topha raised his voice on purpose as he looked at the servant, John, who was looking at him with anxious eyes. It was the moment when they stopped the carriage and were about to settle down for the night. There were too many people eavesdropping in the open space.

“Enemy? An ambush is coming?”

“Th, that’s it.”

“You’re disturbing those who are setting up camp with nonsense. Follow me. I’ll give you special treatment.”

John hesitated, looking flustered, but when Lord Topha turned around and started walking away, he had no choice but to follow. John followed Lord Topha with a frown on his face, the wrinkles between his eyebrows as thick as a file.

Just before sunset, as the dim twilight shed its last light upon the world.

Lord Topa finally looked back at John after reaching the forest where the campsite was faintly visible. And before starting a conversation, he struck his cheek with the back of his hand with all his might.

There was no way a mere servant could withstand the blow of a trained knight. John could only collapse on his butt and burst into tears. Along with a scream mixed with a groan.

“Ack!”

“I held back. Stop overreacting and get up.”

It was a miracle his teeth were intact. John hurriedly got up, clutching his already swollen cheek. Lord Topa clicked his tongue at the sight.

“You have become a man. Shouldn’t you train a little?”

“…”

“So. How did you, who served the young master, come to utter such words?”

“Hi, his lordship only told me to pass on the message.”

If he hesitated, he might get hit again. John desperately explained the situation with that thought in mind. John spoke only the truth, without any exaggeration, about the experience he had.

He was practicing loading a crossbow in the carriage as the young master had instructed when he saw a flock of birds flying up from the forest. Then, he suddenly became convinced that the enemies were coming. So he ordered me to relay this to Lord Topa .

After finishing his explanation, John appealed to him about his unfair treatment in a tearful voice.

“I really didn’t do anything wrong.”

Lord Topa stroked his twitching goatee and clicked his tongue. He looked at John with eyes full of pity.

“Can’t you fathom what would happen if you said an ambush was coming in front of everyone?”

“Pardon?”

“How do you think the servants who haven’t been properly trained would react if they heard that an ambush was coming? If they run away at that critical moment when they should die in place of the young master, it would put us at a disadvantage. Even if they run away, now is not the time.”

“Oooooh.”

John was briefly impressed by Lord Topa’s logical words. John, who had been clapping his hands like a seal without thinking, suddenly felt something strange. John had an excellent intuition that had helped him overcome life-threatening crises.

John gulped as he watched Lord Topa place his hand on the hilt of his sword at his waist.

“…At that critical moment?”

Clank.

The sound of chains clanging under Lord Topa’s surcoat was particularly clear. Lord Topa’s hand, which had only been placed on the hilt, was now gripping the entire thing.

“M, my lord.”

“Listen carefully. If the young master dies, you will all die too.”

Lord Topa glared at John as if he would kill him and quietly muttered. John, who received the knight’s murderous gaze, nodded with a pale face. Only then did Lord Topa ease his momentum.

Lord Topa patted John on the shoulder, creating a warm atmosphere.

“You simply overstepped your authority because you were worried after hearing rumors that there was a group of bandits near here. If you add even a single word of your own opinion, things won’t go well for you.”

“Yes, yes.”

“Still, I will accept it because I think your opinion is valid. We will distribute more than the standard amount, so don’t take it to heart. Let’s go back.”

“Yes, my lord.”

John was barely able to hold back his tears and repeated his soulless answer, half out of his mind. When they finally returned to the campsite, his fellow servants chattered as they saw John’s swollen cheek.

“Oh my, you get what you deserve for speaking to the knight first.”

“His head must have gone crazy from serving the young master.”

John walked back to the carriage with a limping gait, lamenting to himself.

‘I only relayed the message because I was told to…’

It’s not like he could relax just because he returned to the carriage. As soon as John got into the carriage, the boy who had caused all this to happen him with an arrogant smile.

“How dare you speak before the noble has given you permission?”

Narva Orn Stregos Glerio Fowis.

Black, semi-curled hair, and obsidian-like eyes that sparkled sharply. A pale, transparent skin with visible veins, a decadent atmosphere, sharp eyes, and a boy with a slightly raised mouth seemed to be confident even when he was still.

John quietly frowned and muttered to himself as he looked at that nasty smile.

“Did you properly convey what I said?”

“Yes. Thanks to you, I got hit.”

“You should have drawn first. Even if there is a knight from a commoner’s background, most of them are the last of the nobles who have ties with the nobles. If you don’t have the etiquette of nobles, you’ll get even more annoyed.”

“My lord doesn’t read books for such things.”

“I am special. This body.”

“I understand now, now.”

John admitted that Narba could be reevaluated. John by the stream, he’s a coward, but he’s a man who admits what he admits. Even the famous scoundrel had some advantages.

Narba smiled contentedly as he looked at John, who reluctantly admitted it, and then turned his gaze out the window. At that moment, Lord Topa, who had received the order, was building defenses while urging his servants.

“There is a rumor that there are ignorant bandits nearby. Move now if you don’t want to be killed by them. Quickly!”

Suddenly, the servants who were faced with a disaster moved their eyes towards the inside of the carriage. To be exact, it was towards John, who was pulling the crossbow’s trigger. It was fortunate that John was in the carriage for the first time, and this was the moment.

“Then let’s get off too.”

“Yes?”

“Yes, what.”

When the bewildered John turned his head unconsciously, it was already too late. Narba calmly got out of the carriage and stared at John.

“Can’t you use the wheels of the carriage as a rampart?”

“Who’s going to take the wheels off?”

What came back was a silent, unspoken instruction in his sleek eyes. John breathed at the fate he had been given and followed Narba.

***

As soon as I got out of the carriage, I was met with the resistance of Lord Topa.

“My lord, it’s really dangerous. It’s much safer to stay inside!”

It would be crazy to jump up and down in a position where you have to protect me. But I thought a little differently. If Sir Topa and the soldiers were pushed back, they would die.

I decided that it would be better to have one carriage that could protect our backs. However, when persuading our knights, such rational and reasonable opinions alone would not suffice.

An emotional remark was needed to move their abundant sensibility.

“Lord Topa, from your actions, I can guess that my father told you something. However, even though I am young and weak, I cannot fight with you, but I can walk on my own two feet.”

“My lord…!”

“If I can’t trust those who protect my life, how can I be safe in a carriage? Lord Topa, I am safe when I am with you.”

In the first place, it was a matter of a child’s life. Unless King Athelstan was a madman who thought of getting rid of his naughty children on this occasion, I guessed that he would give me a proper escort.

In that sense, Lord Topa was a good fit. I didn’t know about his skills, but he was a man who was definitely loyal. Sometimes, trustworthy loyalty is more valuable than any ability.

Lord Topa seemed to like what I said, so he met my gaze with a resolute face and said.

“I will protect you with my life.”

“My father has already foreseen such a thing and has prepared support. If we focus on holding out rather than defeating the enemy, we will be able to buy time even if we are outnumbered.”

“Really…! Yes, my lord!”

After that, it was a breeze. The carriage I was riding in was instantly reduced to a piece of junk. There was no need to protect the horses as the goal was to hold out as much as possible. Human life is the most precious thing , and now is the time when soldiers are more precious than horses.

Except for one horse, all the horses were tied to stakes and became bunkers. The only one who objected to this decision and cried was the coachman.

“Oh my babies! How can I do that to those precious horses?! Tie me up instead!”

I closed my eyes tightly at the sound and looked at the coachman.

“Really?”

“…Sometimes horse thieves come in when the stables are neglected.”

This makeshift camp was half in the forest and half on the roadside with its back to the west. This was to minimize the amount of light from the campfires inside reaching the other side.

The crossbows I had brought with me on the pretext of hunting were also distributed. Three were still mine. Giving them to servants who hadn’t held a sword properly would be a waste of bolts, and giving them to soldiers would reduce the number of troops to defend the front line.

John, who had to continuously load the three crossbows, spoke frankly.

“My lord. I think we’re screwed.”

“Just practice.”

At this point, the group was largely divided into two categories. One was Lord Topa and his soldiers. They were tense with the intuition that an ambush was imminent, and they kept looking around nervously.

The other was the servants who still didn’t feel the gravity of the situation. They did as they were told, but they couldn’t shake the feeling that they were floating somewhere. It was clear that they were wondering if the ambush would really happen.

And as time passed, the latter group grew in number. As the sun set and the night sky darkened, and the people huddled around the campfire started nodding off, the soldiers also began to let out languid sighs one by one.

Someone even made a very optimistic observation. Some of the servants were making useless assertions in this quiet night. They seemed to have completely forgotten that it was so quiet that everything could be heard.

“Even if it’s rude, who would dare to touch a member of the Povis County’s royal family?”

“Shhh. Just pretend to agree with whatever the knights say.”

“Haaah… Why are we even doing guard duty?”

On the other hand, John, the human alarm, was definitely different. He suddenly started chattering his teeth and pulling and releasing the crossbow string faster than anyone else. Although it wasn’t with bolts, the desperate determination in his gestures was definitely loaded evident.

“Pull and load, pull and load, pull and load.”

It was a quiet but not as quiet as expected time in the camp. I couldn’t help but laugh as I sat with my back to the carriage and looked at the distant campfire. I could hear the sound of leaves rustling on the ground.

No matter how quietly one walked, there were sounds that a human could not help but make. It was because of the unnatural silence that the presence of people inevitably created.

“They’re here.”

“Pull and…”

“I said they’re here.”

I snatched the crossbow from John, who had reached a state of absent-mindedness, and immediately aimed it forward. At that moment, the sound of something cutting through the wind resounded throughout the camp. The result appeared immediately.

One of the servants huddled around the campfire suddenly dived into it. The other servants, who had not yet grasped the situation, thought he had just fallen asleep and collapsed, and they panicked.

“Hey, hey! What if he’s really asleep!”

“F… First, get him out!”

“What? What’s going on?”

The sleeping people also started to get up at the sound of the commotion. However, John, who saw the arrowhead stuck in the fallen servant’s head, reacted a little differently.

“My lord?!”

“I didn’t shoot. Can’t you see it’s not loaded yet?”

“Th, then who…”

They realized the situation after a few more arrows flew. This time, the shots weren’t as precise as before. Most of them missed and hit completely random places, and even when they hit a person, they hit relatively less fatal areas like the arm or leg.

However, the servants didn’t see it that way.

“Ambush! Ambush!!!”

“R, run away!”

Their lives were in danger. It was typical of an average person to run away without thinking about the consequences. I wanted to save them, but… I looked up and met the gaze staring intently at me.

Lord Topa.

The knight, who had deliberately hidden himself in the shadows where the light didn’t reach, was nodding his head slightly. And soon after, exactly what I had predicted happened. The voices of the servants who had abandoned me and ran away began to cut off one by one.

They either collapsed with a gurgle or crawled around while grabbing their necks and wheezing. A few with tenacious vitality crawled on the ground and approached the other side of the carriage, looking at me with desperate eyes.

“M… My lord…”

“…”

Unfortunately, they had already been cut too deeply. I couldn’t save them even if I wanted to. Instead, their deaths weren’t completely in vain. While the servants were being killed as they ran away, Lord Topa and his soldiers hadn’t ‘t been idle either.

Among the death throes that began to spread through the forest were those of the ones who had ambushed us. However, there was a clear limit. The attack that had taken advantage of the ambush was soon cut off by the sound of swords clashing.

The sound of metal scraping against flesh intensified the pungent smell of blood. When I felt the human breath behind me, I turned around immediately.

“Do you think I wouldn’t notice you glaring at me?”

“!”

The bolt pierced the opponent’s glabella without hesitation. The opponent was dressed in a shabby robe over a gambeson. Just by looking at his attire, one would have thought he was a real bandit. However, the black sword that he did not let go of even as he fell was not something a mere bandit would possess.

I raised my body and crushed the wrist of the fallen man under my foot. When I forcibly picked up the sword in his hand, I knew right away that it was not of poor quality.

It had an excellent weight balance that even a child would find only slightly heavy. It was of a moderate length that would allow for close combat in narrow spaces. I could feel the surface of the steel even as I lightly caressed it with my hand.

It wasn’t a famous sword, but it was durable. I threw the crossbow back to John and gripped the sword tightly with both hands.

“John, you’re the ranged damage dealer from now on.”

“Yes, sir?”

“I’ll tank, and you’ll deal ranged damage… with the crossbow.”

“But I’ve never used a crossbow before? Ah, no! More importantly, do you know how to use a sword!?”

Originally, ranged damage dealers should be fed by the team. Even if they only land killing blows, or even just provide check fire, they earn their keep.

And one more thing.

It’s not baseless confidence.

“I wasn’t too bad when I used it last time.”

I think I handled a sword decently in the first dungeon.