I Became the Commander in a Trash Game Who Copies Skills-Chapter 122 : Chapter 122

Chapter 122. Wasteland and Mountain (1)
‘The corpse knows the answer.’
It was a sentence I saw in a novel where the protagonist was a forensic scientist.
It sounded plausible enough even to me, who had majored in neither law nor medicine.
Back when the Imperial civil war was in full swing.
Even when investigating a massacred village, I had searched through the corpses to find clues about the culprit.
Although this wasn't a murder case, I believed the current situation could be interpreted in a similar context.
Therefore….
"Ugh."
[Deploying [Lord’s Unyielding Mind].]
[Deploying [Selective Loss of Taste].]
…I was in the middle of scooping out the corpse pool.
The corpses that had lost their life force after being struck by Alina's high-level miracle, [Divine Punishment].
If I had to rummage through a lump of corpses the size of six or seven city buses combined all by myself, I would have given up long ago.
Fortunately, I had ten thousand soldiers with me.
"Uweeegh! Kuock!"
"Cough. Cough......"
Though they couldn't last a minute upon entering before dropping out.
The retired personnel were sent to rest after the waiting priests cast purification and healing miracles on them.
To add a note so there's no misunderstanding, this was by no means forced labor.
This was all voluntary work.
At the news that they would receive a bonus just for hauling a few corpses, not only the mercenaries but also the Imperial and Viscount's armies rushed in like a pack of wolves.
Even now, as soon as someone retired, new personnel were coming in to fill the empty spot.
As for me, well, I had been setting an example from the very beginning.
"Amazing, truly. If I didn't know you, Viscount, I would have thought your nose had lost its function."
"......"
"Oh, is it perhaps true? Did I misspeak again? I-I absolutely didn't mean it...!"
Old man Brol, who was leading the soldiers, waved his hands in a fluster.
I smiled inwardly and loaded a corpse onto the cart.
We were gradually clearing it all out.
We worked for almost half a day.
I thought the number of troops at Tubon Fortress was less than what I had discussed with the Vampire Duke, but it seemed they had all been absorbed into this.
A battle must have broken out in the underground cavern while trying to stop the Ratmen's infiltration, and the mountain of corpses reacted to the necromantic mana and became a corpse pool.
The Ratmen corpses mixed among the entrails of zombies, the skulls of skeletons, and the tattered rags of banshees attested to this.
Anyway, the important thing was the fact that the Ratmen had infiltrated.
This was a fortress that would become my territory.
I had no intention of standing by idly and watching Ratmen scurry under my feet.
This was why I was scooping out this corpse pool.
"Ugh... Oh, Viscount!"
A soldier raised his hand.
"There's a hole here. It seems to be a tunnel!"
I had finally found what I was looking for.
As we cleared away more of the corpses covering the area, its exact shape was revealed.
A large hole was bored into the center of the cavern.
A hole slightly larger than a sewer manhole cover, big enough for a person to slip through.
The inside was filled with corpses, but, it was a Ratman tunnel.
* * *
It took a little more time to make the tunnel accessible.
Clearing out the corpses packed inside, burning them with fire, cleaning with water, and then sprinkling a purification miracle.
The work was not fully completed until nightfall.
The next day, I summoned the commanders and selected troops to the cavern.
"It's a Ratman tunnel, alright."
The Dwarf Balkan nodded his head.
"These bastards have poked their heads into the underground of our Hold as well."
"You must have had a hard time. Did you exterminate them well?"
"...Ah, of course. Of course, we exterminated them well. Completely wiped them out."
Hmm.
His answer was a bit slow.
I would bet a gold coin on the side that they didn't exterminate them well.
Anyway, that would be a problem to think about again around the time we retake the Hold.
For now, let's focus on the Ratmen.
"Ucha, can a person even fit in here? It's too narrow."
"Mister, it's a passage for Ratmen, not people."
"Huh? Ah, right?"
The tunnel entrance was narrow.
The entrance was a vertically bored hole, with the slope gradually becoming gentler before leading into a horizontal passage.
One could slide down the vertical hole like a slide, but after that, one had to walk, and it was barely wide enough for a grown man to pass through while stooping.
It was a suitable size for a Ratman, especially a small-statured slave soldier, to come and go.
"Randal. Come with me."
"Understood, Viscount."
First, I went on a reconnaissance mission with Randal.
He, who had been grumbling about the narrow entrance, gave a few heaves and widened the entrance to twice its size.
"Now that's more like it."
"......"
I thought it was going to collapse.
After having supports installed to prevent the widened passage from collapsing, we proceeded deeper into the tunnel.
The width and height of the passage gradually increased the further we went in.
Soon, it became wide enough for two or three grown men to walk side by side.
There were no Ratmen to be seen.
Dried excrement, clumps of fur, and half-skeletonized corpses were the only traces.
For reference, the skeletonized corpses were alive and moving.
[Deploying [Warrior’s Binding].]
[Bound the defeated enemy.]
[Ratman Zombie (1)]
After a rough tour, I brought in additional personnel.
In addition to the original Randal, there were Alina, Karen, and Bart.
[Deploying [Miracle: Halo of Light].]
We moved while surveying our surroundings with holy light and Karen's senses.
After exploring for almost the entire day, we roughly grasped the topography of the tunnel network spread beneath the fortress.
We gathered the commanders and checked the map that Bart had whipped up.
"It was just a travel route. It seems they didn't have any particular business here."
Balkan was right.
The passages overlapped and tangled in places, but they didn't branch out in all directions like a spiderweb.
If they had, we would have had to prepare for an invasion from underground right away, expedition or not.
Because a spiderweb-like Ratman tunnel would surely imply an underground city beneath it.
Fortunately, this tunnel had a specific direction.
East and south.
It would be one of the two.
They either came from the east and went south, or came from the south and went east.
To the east lay the wasteland inhabited by orcs and the dwarf hold.
To the south were the Vampire Archduchy, the Great Desert, Indika, and the Lumer Legion.
"...A large number passed through. We could probably say almost all of them have escaped."
Balkan certainly seemed to know something.
I would have to set a day soon and have a talk with him.
After finishing the reconnaissance, we moved on to the follow-up measures.
The follow-up measure here meant dealing with the tunnel.
"William, how many spare explosives are left? If we add the amount that came with the supplies."
"With what we have now, there's enough to last even if the expedition continues for nearly a year."
"Is it enough to blow up the fortress?"
"Yes...?"
The number and extent of the tunnels spread out here were far larger and more vast than those of Duntown Fortress, where the entire garrison had gone missing during the civil war.
Considering it was just a passage, it would be safe to assume that a large-scale Ratman legion had moved through.
Having such a tunnel brazenly existing within the territory of the fortress was no different from welcoming the enemy with the bedroom door wide open.
Unfortunately, the number of fortresses gained in this expedition was three, not four.
"Set explosives in the passage. So that the ground completely collapses. Calculate the weight of the fortress as well, then install and detonate."
A few days later.
Tubon Fortress disappeared from the map.
* * *
A fortnight passed.
The expeditionary force recaptured the last targeted base in the Vampire Archduchy.
Kalisto.
According to the lore, it was one of the most prosperous cities in the southeast until a few hundred years ago.
"Why is everything so magnificent here?"
"Because it was a city that traded with the dwarves until three hundred years ago."
"Huh? Really? Weren't those dwarf fellas only coming to the Empire by sea routes?"
"Back then, there weren't this many orcs in the wasteland. They traded by land routes too."
While old man Brol scratched his head, Bart briefly explained the history of exchange between the two races.
Roughly, the only civilizations the dwarves maintained positive relations with were the Empire and the far-off Eastern Empire.
And that they had grudges against most other powers like the elves, orcs, the Theocracy, and Indika.
"How did they make grudges all over the place? Do they have anger management issues?"
"Ahaha, that, well. I'm not sure myself...."
Bart trailed off, glancing at his companion.
For reference, the party consisted of old man Brol and a few guards, Bart, William, and the Dwarf Balkan.
Today was the fourth day since we captured the city.
We were on our way to inspect the newly started supply base, now that things were roughly in order.
Kalisto was certainly different from the fortresses or cities we had captured so far.
Despite being abandoned for hundreds of years, the city retained its streets and grandeur.
During the period when the Empire continued its land trade with the dwarves, most of the holds in the south-central wasteland, including the Everlasting Mountains Hold, traded through this city.
The structure was that dwarf-made goods that came through Kalisto went into the Empire via Wolfskrig.
If the expedition finished successfully, this city would become a bridgehead for the resumption of land trade.
"It's old, but it's dwarven architecture."
"You recognize all of that? I can understand gunpowder or runic formulas, but how did you learn stonemasonry and fortification?"
"My uncle wrote a few books himself. He said they were books containing the history the dwarf race carved out from under the ground with their bare hands."
"Hoho... Duke Meister. Truly just like him. We dwarves missed out on a gem."
The Dwarf Balkan, laughing heartily beside William, could be said to be a key player in that trade.
Though illegitimate, he was the son of Ungol, the ruler of the Everlasting Hold, the King of Dwarf Kings.
As I understood it, the King of Kings had no other children, so if there were no issues, he would become king.
Kkumteuli had confirmed that in other parallel worlds, he became the next King of Kings with a high probability.
[Ah. Viscount Ash, can you hear me? It's Pewin. I'm heading towards the Everlasting Mountains Hold. How about we join up and move together?]
That evening, I also got in touch with Viscount Pewin.
The distance was not as far as I thought.
It would be better to move together if need be.
Since we were in the middle of setting up a supply base and had plenty of supplies here, the Viscount decided to come down to Kalisto and join us.
Until then, I had not expected it.
"Huh? No way, back then..."
The red-haired mage.
The witch of mad fire.
A member of the Secret Knight Order, that Ella Siollus would be standing next to the Viscount.
"Ah, no. Ni-nice to meet you for the first time?"
The witch greeted me hastily.
Come to think of it, I had seen her in my identity as Ash as well.
It was around the time Wolfskrig had just developed its iron mine.
I wasn't sure if she had infiltrated under the Emperor's orders, but she was participating in some cooking competition, grilling a steak.
Since she was the type of person who wouldn't find it strange to think an infiltration was successful if there were no witnesses, I had maintained a pretense of ignorance throughout and avoided having my territory burn to a crisp.
It would be right to pretend not to know her here as well.
"...Yes, it's a pleasure to meet you for the first time."
"Ahaha, please introduce us. Viscount Pewin, this gentleman here is...?"
"It's been a while, Viscount."
If Karok, another member of the Secret Knight Order and a giant half-blood, hadn't interjected, we could have just moved on.
"Uh, is this not right? Ah......"
"Karok, you idiot!"
Come to think of it, that giant-blood was clueless in the game too.
I wasn't just saying that.
He really had a [Clueless] trait.
It might seem like nothing, but if used as a diplomat or an envoy, it was a trait that could easily ruin a country.
"So the three of you know each other, do you?"
Viscount Pewin looked us over with interest.
Where should I even begin to untangle this knot?