How to Use the Lord's Future Diary

Chapter 179

In the distance, I could see the Lord's Castle.The first thing that caught my eye was Elline, beating a massive drum atop the walls.

And beneath her...

Gnolls that had climbed onto the wall only to be smashed back down by flails.

The Fire Bombs had detonated among the vanguard of the Gnoll army.

The Gnolls that reached Johnson Castle were those that had somehow forced their way through the sea of flames.

A pack of Gnolls that had been scorched until they were half-smoked had no chance of properly assaulting the walls of Johnson Castle.

Especially now...

When so many of their commander-class individuals had already been eliminated, throwing them into complete panic.

"The real problem is probably the north."

"Right."

"Let's go."

"Big Sister Yuria will be waiting."

"Hmph. That fox female..."

"Isn't Leon there too?"

"...Hmm."

"Right."

"We have to protect Leon."

If everything went according to our plan and we succeeded in killing the Gnoll Lord...

We predicted that the panicked Gnoll army would flee toward the Northern Fortress.

Without the Gnoll Lord, command would naturally pass to the Gnoll Champions.

But...

There were several Gnoll Champions within this army.

Which meant...

None of them could exercise absolute command.

With divided leadership...

There was no way they'd charge through the blazing inferno toward Johnson Castle.

Whether monster or otherwise...

Any living creature naturally wanted to avoid fire.

So...

Their only escape route was the Northern Fortress.

With every path ahead engulfed in flames...

There was nowhere else to run.

'It really was a gamble.'

'We committed every one of our elite fighters to this side.'

-But it worked, didn't it?

-The gamble paid off.

-Now it's time for heroes.

The Northern Fortress...

Where the Horse Tribe had first intercepted the Gnolls.

Back then...

Numerous warriors had been hiding beneath the fortress.

Black Lion warriors.

Ox Tribe warriors.

Even Ape Tribe Rangers responsible for maintaining the tunnels.

No matter how capable the Gnoll Lord was...

It couldn't possibly discover warriors hidden deep underground.

So it simply passed the fortress and continued marching toward Johnson Territory.

The Horse Tribe's constant harassment had another purpose as well.

To keep the Gnolls from paying attention to anything else.

The warriors who had quietly remained hidden beneath the fortress immediately emerged the moment the Gnolls left.

They occupied the fortress once again...

Establishing a defensive line to block the retreating Gnolls.

At the very front...

The heavily armored Ox Tribe warriors, renowned for their defensive prowess, were tasked with knocking every Gnoll climbing the walls back down.

'And Yuria joined them.'

Honestly...

Even I hadn't expected Yuria to volunteer.

Though she constantly called herself the Lord's Wife...

She'd always been somewhat reluctant when it came to actual combat.

Perhaps it was because she'd regained her Divine Relic.

Or maybe something had changed within her.

This time...

She insisted on taking responsibility for defending this position herself.

And I judged that her participation would greatly strengthen our forces.

Her Shamanism was practically a cheat code for surviving the most dangerous moments.

By now...

She was probably standing at the center of the northern defenses...

Holding the walls firm.

"Alright!"

"Charge!"

Irene took the lead atop her Flame Horse...

While the giant rabbit followed close behind.

If we cut through the flames and reached the Northern Fortress...

We could strike the retreating Gnolls from behind.

Anvil and hammer.

With three Masters...

We were more than capable of serving as the hammer.

Besides...

One of those Masters literally carried an enormous hammer.

Now...

All that remained...

Was smashing some Gnoll skulls.

Turning the clock back slightly...

To the Northern Fortress.

The warriors lying in ambush beneath the fortress burst out the moment the Gnoll army departed.

Ox Tribe warriors.

Lion Tribe warriors.

And even Ape Tribe Rangers.

A true multi-racial allied force.

Centered around the Ox Tribe warriors...

They formed a defensive line.

"So..."

"A whole army of Gnolls is supposed to come here."

Rioxen...

Chief of the Ox Tribe...

Had personally volunteered to take this position.

Partly because he still owed Johnson Territory for the battle against the Imperial Army.

But more than that...

He wanted to experience that exhilarating thrill again.

A Gnoll army was more than worthy of recreating that feeling.

"Anyway..."

"I'll leave the command to you."

However...

Rioxen was far more of a shock troop leader than a commander.

He had no intention of leading such a mixed-race army.

Based on rank alone...

The Chief of the Ox Tribe and Great Warrior Rioxen should naturally have been the commander.

But...

There was someone here who suited the role far better.

So there was no reason for him to take command himself.

"Hehe."

"Fine."

"Leave it to me."

"I have to protect our territory."

The commander of this battlefield...

Was Yuria.

Chief of the Fox Tribe.

Great Shaman of the Silver Fox.

And...

The Human Lord's wife.

The many roles she carried naturally justified her command of this battlefield.

When she volunteered...

Not a single Beastman objected.

Of course...

That was also because everyone gathered here preferred smashing enemies over dealing with command responsibilities.

"I have to admit..."

"I'm surprised."

"I never thought you'd be interested in something this rough."

"So what?"

"I'm still the Lord's Wife."

"Oh?"

"The Lord's Wife?"

"Isn't that just a title?"

When everyone accepted Yuria as commander...

Two men immediately sensed a terrible crisis.

Rimond...

Warrior of the Black Lion Tribe.

And...

The evil little brat, Leon.

The two lions serving as Leisha's right-hand men.

Both were convinced...

There had to be a special reason behind Yuria's sudden behavior.

"Hehe."

"Who says it's just a title?"

"I really."

"Am."

"The Lord's Wife."

Her answer alone confirmed their suspicions.

Actually...

It wasn't even the answer.

It was the expression on her face.

Her cheeks...

Were bright red.

"...Damn."

"She's fallen for him."

"She really has."

"When?"

"Who knows?"

"Foxes fall in love ridiculously fast."

"...Could it have been then?"

"When?"

"When the bomb exploded."

"The Lord rolled across the ground while holding the fox female."

"Ah."

"That."

"It was an incredibly dangerous moment."

"Exactly the kind of situation a fox would fall in love during."

"We're doomed."

Until now...

Yuria had always acted like the Lord's Wife.

But no one believed she truly meant it.

They assumed she was simply playing along to help her tribe adapt.

But after such an overwhelming Affection Event...

It had become genuine.

Foxes...

Were simply that kind of race.

"Leisha is going to..."

"Get destroyed by that shameless fox."

"...She probably will."

Leisha was the most dependable female warrior on the battlefield.

But as a woman...

Her charm was practically buried underground.

There wasn't a single Beastman capable of matching a fox female who specialized in seduction.

This...

Was truly a crisis.

"At this point..."

"The only answer is to just pin him down."

"But Lord Iron is absurdly strong."

"Especially physically..."

"Damn it."

"You can't exactly use Aura in bed."

As the two lion Beastmen continued their ridiculous conversation...

A tremendous explosion erupted from deep within the basin.

Then...

A violent storm of flames spread outward.

The operation had begun.

"They're coming!!!"

A short while later...

Several thousand Gnolls came charging toward the fortress.

Though they were already half out of their minds and utterly confused...

Numbers alone remained terrifying.

To safely repel them...

The Ox Tribe warriors raised their shields and maces.

And standing at the very front...

Was Rioxen himself.

"Rabbit! Rabbit! Fried Rabbit!"

"Potato! Potato!!"

The Ox Tribe warriors shouted about potatoes and rabbits while hurling Gnolls from the walls.

Behind them...

Lion Tribe warriors slipped through openings to slit the Gnolls' throats.

The Ape Tribe Rangers casually hurled Fire Bombs...

Giving the monsters a proper taste of blazing flames.

Every soldier fought desperately to hold them back.

And at the center of it all...

Stood Yuria.

Her beautiful singing empowered every Beastman present.

"Damn..."

"That Shaman..."

"She's ridiculously useful!"

Even Rimond...

Who remained wary of the seductive fox...

Couldn't deny the effectiveness of Yuria's Shamanism.

Half the reason they'd managed to fight the Gnolls without losing a single warrior...

Was thanks to her.

"They're here!"

At that very moment...

Three warriors struck the Gnoll army from behind.

Leisha.

Iron.

And Irene.

Three Great Warriors utterly crushed the Gnoll rear ranks.

It was the charge...

That signaled the end of the battle.

The Beastman warriors truly were powerful.

Even if the enemy had become nothing more than a disorganized mob...

Numbers still mattered.

Maybe we'd detonated the bombs a little too early.

There still seemed to be around three thousand Gnolls heading our way.

We'd known from the beginning this would be the most dangerous battlefield.

That's why we'd concentrated our forces here.

Still...

I hadn't expected us to hold this well.

"Big Sister Yuria..."

"You really sing well."

"Hmph."

"That's the only thing that fox is worth looking at."

Yuria's Shamanism had undoubtedly played a huge role in this defensive battle.

The moment her singing reached my ears...

Power surged through my body.

Honestly...

It was strange how my body kept reacting to Beastman Shamanism.

But...

Since the effect wasn't bad...

I couldn't exactly complain.

At this point...

Maybe I really did have to admit I was half Beastman.

At this rate...

I might end up having a Bear Beastman child myself.

-At least make a child first before saying things like that.

Since Yuria had made this battle much easier...

Maybe she deserved some sort of reward afterward.

She wasn't even a warrior.

She was a non-combatant.

Someone who had no reason to personally stand on such a dangerous battlefield.

"Charge!!!"

Then...

The tunnel connecting to Rotsi burst open.

Lion Tribe warriors poured onto the battlefield.

Rudelrof...

Having successfully finished defending Rotsi...

Had brought his warriors to reinforce us.

Thanks to that...

Cleaning up the remaining Gnolls became much easier.

Three Masters were formidable.

But...

Four Masters supported by several hundred warriors attacking from behind...

Was incomparably more efficient.

The greatest virtue of this region...

Was never allowing even a single Gnoll to escape alive.

By working together...

We accomplished every objective we'd planned.

It was more than enough to call this battle a complete success.

-Lord.

-We launched a raid on the Gnoll main camp.

-We exterminated the remaining hundreds of Gnolls.

-Human Chief.

-The north has been completely cleaned up.

-We wiped out the entire nest.

-Things should stay quiet for quite some time.

-I wasn't helping the Human Chief or anything, meow.

-Gnolls are dangerous beasts for us as well, meow.

Just as the battle ended...

Reports from the other regions arrived through the Mana Communication Network.

Every front had successfully repelled the Gnoll attacks.

And...

The cleanup operation I'd requested had also been completed without issue.

There was a reason I'd only requested five hundred Ox Tribe warriors...

Even though we were holding the most dangerous position.

The goal had always been...

Destroying the Gnolls' main nest.

I had no intention of living with this threat forever.

Whenever a massive Gnoll army marched south like this...

It created the perfect opportunity to raid their homeland.

Doing so would free us from the Gnoll threat for quite some time.

Honestly...

It had been a rather unreasonable request.

Still...

The Cat Tribe and Ape Tribe had already mapped out most of the Gnolls' territory.

Even within the Monster Mountain Range...

As long as we didn't wander aimlessly and simply struck their main camp before withdrawing...

The operation was feasible.

Thankfully...

It succeeded.

That alone was a tremendous relief.

Of course...

New Gnoll packs would eventually appear somewhere.

But...

If we could avoid seeing another massive Gnoll army for even a few years...

That was more than satisfying.

Risking ourselves on the front lines...

Had been worth it.

-Johnson! Johnson! Johnson!

-Johnson! Johnson! Johnson!

And then there was our territory.

Around a thousand Gnolls had broken through the flames and reached Johnson Territory.

It was just enough for the residents to truly enjoy themselves.

Their morale soared.

At this rate...

The militia would probably continue being mobilized in future battles.

Well...

That was simply part of the local culture.

I supposed I'd have to accept it.

It might even be worth discussing a proper militia training program with Rudik.