Red Storm

Across the turbulent quicksand river to the other side~

Where the clear sand is great and the wind is cool, to the field of war~

Thriger’s song that had the lyrics changed as he pleased lit the fire in everyone’s hearts.

It was finally the day to get their revenge.

The enemy boats were so small that it was possible to hide them on land, but they were bound to find it as long as they continued to thoroughly comb the quicksand river like this.

Thriger had already been searching the quicksand river for an entire week, but they did not manage to find even the tip of the enemy’s nose. His only complaint that the strong determination from the beginning was getting a bit weaker.

He still had the desire to destroy the enemy instantly if he met them, but this boring voyage just made him angry.

‘I guess I would hide away if I saw a brigade like this coming for me too. I need some type of plan.’

If the enemy was not stupid, there was no way they would try to attack with those tiny ships again. Thriger had overlooked that.

‘I’m sure they are focused on finding an opening to launch an ambush. I need a method to draw them out...... what to do.’

Thriger was thinking about how to lure the enemy out. The chances of them coming out were much higher if the brigade was divided up, but that might really make it easy for the enemy to sink them.

‘A method to defeat them with a small amount of ships. I need to figure that out. That is the only way to eat them all up even if they all attack a small group.’

Thriger took the map of the quicksand river out of his chest area and opened it up on the table. He must have been documenting things thoroughly, as the map showed even the slightly change in the sand’s flow, as well as the location of all of the different monsters.

‘Their base should be around here, so it will be difficult to launch an ambush.’

At first, he had planned on using one or two ships as bait before hiding the rest of them around to area to launch an ambush. However, the enemy’s main forces were land troops.

Even if they sent ten squads of patrol warriors, they would be able to find the ships waiting to launch the ambush.

‘Should we just block this area off and proceed with the war as planned? Wouldn’t there be no problems if our warriors landed in this area at the scheduled time?’

Thriger shook his head. He had forgotten about the fact that the enemy boats could be moved on land.

‘This is complicated. Even a barricade will be useless. I guess small boats have that kind of advantage. But what to do? If we just leave them be, it will be quite the problem when we are transporting warriors.’

If the enemy launched a kamikaze style of attack to take down at least one ship, that would be a significant hit to the number of Pareia’s warriors. They could not launch the ships full of warriors right now.

‘Small boats... really annoying. If this was the ocean, they would have been destroyed by the wild waves.’

Thinking about the fact that they were very small boats, Thriger determined that the scenario he jokingly came up with could really end up being the reality. The problem was that they needed the numbers to make that happen.

‘Those bastards do not move as a flock.’

Thriger contemplated for a moment before starting to smile at a new thought in his head and shouted loudly to the helmsman.

“Immediately turn the ship toward land! I have a message to send to the large oasis.”

The brigade slowly started to turn toward land at Thriger’s command.

“Aigo, this is hard..”

Grace’s expression as she was saying it was hard to even walk was extremely bright, which was completely opposite of what she was saying. This pain was something she had been looking forward to for a very long time.

She received Yulian’s support as she grabbed her stomach and waddled around before sitting down. She was counting down the days as she started to speak.

“The expected date is only about 10 days away. Greatest Warrior Thriger needs to succeed.”

“He will not lose to anybody on the quicksand river. Do not worry too much. In fact, I am worried about this stomach more.” [1]

Yulian cautiously drew a circle on Grace’s round stomach as he started to caress it. Grace started to blush as she pinched the hand that was on top of her stomach before starting to speak.

“Do not look so relaxed right before a war. The warriors will laugh at you.”

“Everyone likes it. In fact, there are many people who are saying it is a good sign that I am leaving after seeing the birth of two children.”

“Stop talking nonsense. Why are you not nervous at all?”

“What can I do? I’m just very happy. I can’t even sleep these days, knowing that my children are coming into this world.”

Yulian was still smiling as he said that. It made sense though; he had been waiting to have a child for quite a long time.

“Seeing you like this makes me feel like something is off.”

He really did seem to have a loose screw somewhere. As Grace asked with concern, Yulian tapped his head and chest before responding.

“War is war, reality is reality. Keep the head cooled while the heart hot. Do not worry too much as I will make sure to do well on both sides. Right now, I am just enjoying the joy I should feel as the father of a family.”

Grace just shook her head as if to say there was nothing she could do about this crazy man.

“Did you go see Violet?”

“Not yet. Now that I have stopped by to see you, I will go see her.”

“Please pay attention to her. She seems to be having a hard time these days paying attention to a couple different things.”

“Take care of yourself first.”

Grace pushed Yulian away as she answered.

“Please go see Violet now. I’ve had a long time with you already, but after leaving her hometown, you are the only person she has left.”

Yulian was thankful about Grace caring so much about Violet and kissed her on the cheek before starting to walk over to Violet’s paoe.

Violet did not even realize Yulian had walked in, as she was extremely focused on a book.

Yulian was worried Violet would be scared and let out a fake cough. That made Violet finally realize that Yulian was there and start to smile.

“When did you get here?”

“Right now.”

“Have you eaten?”

“Yes. I ate combat food with the warriors. Anyways, what are you looking at that you didn’t even realize someone came in?”

Violet lightly lifted up the book with red writing before answering.

“This is my incantation book. I felt like I needed to review it in order to follow you.”

“Follow me? Review?”

Yulian responded in confusion at Violet’s response.

“This war. I need to go with you.”

“Are you saying that you are thinking about going on the campaign with me?”

“The reason you came to the Shire was to use the strength of our Shire’s incantations as a method to achieve your dream. Wasn’t it?”

“Yes.”

Violet gave him a look of ‘I told you’ at Yulian’s answer.

“I am the one who followed you from the Shire. I am the strongest shaman in both the Shire and this desert.”

“I’m sure that is the case, but what will you do on the campaign?”

Violet sat Yulian down before having an expression that seemed to say ‘isn’t it obvious?’

“What do you mean what will I do. I will follow you to protect our warriors and fight against the enemy.”

“Snort. What do you mean? This is a warrior’s battle.”

“OF course it is. Warriors will fight the warriors battle and the shamans will fight the shamans battle.”

Yulian vigorously shook his head at Violet’s answer.

“What will the warriors say if my wife, and a woman, came to war with us? In addition, you are currently pregnant.”

“The shamans of the Shire do not care whether you are male or female. I also deducted the date and the baby should be born in the next few days. I should be fine about three days after that so you will not need to worry.”

“..., I am quite flabbergasted at hearing something I did not even expect to hear.”

Seeing Yulian’s surprised expression, Violet responded back in the same way.

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[1] This play on word does not work in English. In Korean, ship and stomach are both “bae” so he is saying this “bae” (stomach) is more concerning than the ship “bae”