Book 1: Chapter 20-1: Post War Processing
After the fighting finished we began the cleanup.
All the villagers had survived the fighting and were return home without a scratch.
The other villagers would probably be preparing the celebratory banquet by now.
Originally our food storage didnt have enough leeway for such a thing, but wed just gotten some incidental income. It was the alcohol and foodstuff that the soldiers had brought with them. The quality and amount of it was quite incredible.
It seems like the high and mighty nobles had come out to earn easy merits and intended to sight see while they were out. That must have been the reason that such a small force had 6 different people with crests inscribed on their armor.
I gotta deal with these corpses
I sighed and looked over the paved path towards the Empire.
There was a mountain of dead and injured.
Their corpses will rot and become carriers for disease.
If I didnt deal with these corpses properly things would turn for the worse.
Stray dogs and wild birds would come to eat the corpses which would then scatter leftovers all around. That would in turn spread the smell of rot as well as disease which would cause great harm.
It was such a serious issue that during a siege there was a tactic that involved throwing corpses into the city to cause hygiene to drop and diseases to thrive.
This time I should probably deal with it personally.
However, if I remained as Cyril to do this work I wouldnt be able to finish even if I worked all night.
I decided to use Samsara Recursion to speed up the process.
Just in case I checked my surroundings using Perception Expansion to see if there were any elves or enemy soldiers that could see me.
Liberate me my soul. Let a miracle beyond time descend upon me here
The magic in my body flowed. My soul trembled.
I desire the Noble and Virtuous Knight from a Vainglorious World, His name is.
A name I had once before. A nostalgic name I clearly recalled.
Deet! Samsara Recursion!
Light enveloped my body.
Then my body became that of a platinum clad knight.
I seelevel 24my equipment ranked up too. As expected after devouring more than 60 people.
The effects of devouring their souls and increasing my magic power was shown in the greatly increased strength of Deet.
I should be able to get this done faster than I thought.
I let out a sigh of relief as I approached the corpses.
Item Box
I activated Deets inherent magic Item Box.
I separated the armor from the corpses and stored them away.
I repeated this for each corpse I came across.
Item Box could now hold up to 4000 kg of non-living things.
This guys still alive.
I cut off one soldiers head who was still writhing around in pain.
As soon as his head separated from his neck he turned into a corpse and I could store him away.
At the same time I activated Soul Eater and a bluish light was absorbed into my body.
This was a reproduction of my ability in that game world. I was able to activated it to eat an opponents soul to increase my magic power.
Based on my observations the dead soldiers and soldiers who were writhing on the ground in pain from poison were at a 1:1 ratio.
Well, that was reasonable. Unless the arrow struck a vital point it was hard to kill them. Realistically there should have been more living soldiers, but many appear to have killed themselves to escape the incredible pain.
It may be cruel, but unless we made them suffer this much it wouldnt make them unable to fight.
I continued killing soldiers to release them from their torment.
We could not ransom ordinary soldiers but we could sell them off as slaves. The only issue with that was the nearest country that could buy them was unreasonably far away.
It wasnt worth it so instead I turned them into a source for my growth.
My box is gonna be full soon.
A 4000kg Item Box really only had room for 40 corpses along with their equipment.
There were over 500 soldiers so there was no way I could finish all in one go.
I should empty out.
I sighed and entered the forest.
I walked to a giant pit 20 meters deep and 20 meters wide covered with a huge lid.
This was something I had made while in dwarf form. It wasnt a simple soil pit, I had reinforced the walls with bricks. I took out the corpses one after another and dropped them in.
I ignored the horrible sounds the bodies made when they hit the ground.
Now Ill go store this equipment.
The equipment was precious for the metal it would provide. Since we didnt have any mines nearby we could either buy it or steal it. The Empire had advanced metal manufacturing technology so I had to make sure to store these things carefully.
I thought as I lined up the equipment in my workshop. In anticipation of this I had made my workshop even bigger.
I quietly made round trips between the battlefield, the morgue, and my workshop. Along the way I drove away wild animals and dogs, experienced some troubles, and around the 10th trip I was practically finished. There was still blood splattered over the ground but the rain would wash that away.
Still, I did end up eating a lot.
By the end I had used Soul Eater at least 200 hundred times.
There usually wasnt much opportunity to get so many. This was quite lucky. However, I still didnt have enough magic power. If I could get a bit more then I could call a more powerful self out.
Oh no, cant get overeager.
I spoke out loud to calm myself.
It was a good thing that the elves were able to win today.
The most certain way to deal with all this would have been for me to make a surprise attack alone and wipe them out. I was able to do that when there were only this amount.
I didnt do that this time on purpose.
There would surely be a time when I would not be in the village. If they were attacked during that period they needed the power to defend themselves. If they didnt have that then there was no meaning.
Thats why this sort of moderate battle was the perfect training ground for them.
Ive cleaned up the trash so whats left is negotiations.
I dispelled Samsara Recursion and returned to Cyril form. I ran over to the nobles I had sniped at the start of battle.
Different from normal soldiers these nobles could provide information and ransom money.
Im just hoping they havent committed suicide.
Hii, hiii, hiiiii
A ahh ahhhh ah
When I arrived I saw the most important one who had stepped forward to name himself, on the ground with a broken arm. He was still alive.
The adjutant seems alright as well.
Unfortunately it appears that 2 of the 4 other nobles had committed suicide due to the pain.
I pulled the arrow out of the commander and blood started to flow out.
A single arrow wouldnt cause too much bleeding but when you first pull it out it would flow quickly.
Hed die if I let him bleed out so I cast Healing and sealed the wound.
Id like to remove the poison too, but that would be dangerous so forgive me for not doing so.
It would take a lot of his physical strength to increase the rate that the poison dispelled from his system. It was similar to how you would get a fever to combat a cold because your body was fighting off the virus.
If I accelerated the process with magic right now, the pain and side effects would multiply. In normal times they may survive, but in such a weakened state these nobles were likely to die.
I took out the antidote and painkillers and shoved them into the commanders mouth.
Since the poison I used on the arrows was also used in torture so I had several antidotes for it.
When I stuffed the medicine into his mouth his eyes widened before looking more relaxed.
After drinking this the poison would disappear in half a day.
I should make him sleep.
As I final mercy I shook his brain and made him unconscious.
I did the same for the remaining three. Once they awaken the poison would be gone.
Oops, I screwed up. I didnt deal with these guys with Deet.
I sighed heavily and started dealing with the corpses of the two nobles who killed themselves.
I conscientiously stripped their armor and buried them in the pit.
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