Peasant Arc

Chapter 67 - The War Begins

　

　Now, what should I do?

　

　I've come forward, but will I be able to inspire my allies and discourage the enemy with what I say?

　

　It might be difficult.

　

　If that's the case, let's change our thinking.

　

　This kind of thing is rather influenced by the atmosphere of the place, isn't it?

　

　In other words, rather than the content of my speech, I should outdo my opponent in something else.

　

　When I was listening to the other side's speech, I felt that his voice was very clear. (TLN: author uses He in this chapter.)

　

　It was a voice that could be heard far and wide, and it sounded so convincing that I may have followed its orders without question.

　

　So I should try to make my voice sound better than that.

　

　But it's not enough to speak normally.

　

　Even shouting out loud is not enough.

　

　Then the only thing I could rely on was my magic.

　

　While I'm riding and moving, I start to build up my mana.

　

　Then, I concentrated the mana on one point of my body.

　

　My vocal cords.

　

　As a mechanism of the human body, making a sound means that the vocal cords in the back of your throat are vibrating.

　

　The vocal cords at the back of the throat emit the vibrations in the air as sound, as a meaningful language.

　

　I imagine putting magic power into it.

　

　The vibrations of the vocal cords in my throat, along with the air and the mana, go out through my mouth.

　

　Then, I'll hit the listener with that mana.

"The Fontana family has granted me possession of their land in Barca, and even left a deed to officially recognize that fact. But when they saw that Barca had begun to grow, they wanted to take our land away. They want to take our land, they want to take what is on our land, and they want to take the people who live on that land in Barca. The proof of this is a recent injury. My younger brother was injured by a soldier, even though he was innocent. How can this be allowed to happen? We have to protect our land, our valuables, and ourselves. Now is the time to show the power of those who live in Barca. Fight, warriors!"

　

　The words came out surprisingly easily.

　

　I didn't know what to say at first, but once I started talking, I couldn't stop.

　

　Maybe I was more upset about the whole thing than I originally thought I was.

　

　I went on and on about how the other party was atrocious, lacking in common sense, and unreasonable.

　

　I also seemed to have succeeded in concentrating my mana on his vocal cords.

　

　Both friend and foe continued to listen to my words without moving a muscle.

　

　No, the person who was speaking first tried to interrupt me, but he was too overwhelmed by my voice to be able to speak.

　

　I wondered if it was because I had been speaking with the phrase "fight" everywhere, along with my denunciation of the Fontana family.

　

　The morale of the other side was beginning to decline, and our side was so elated that we were almost ready to attack.

　

　I glanced back and was surprised myself.

　

　I saw something that could be compared to a ferocious dog trying to bite the target in front of it while pulling on the rope connected to its collar to the very limit.

　

　All the people in my camp were waiting to be unleashed.

　

　It's about time.

"Charge, all of you!　　Annihilate the enemy!"

　

　And so we went into battle.

　

　"Get out of the way!

"Out of the way, out of the way!"

　

　I gave the order and ran to the front.

　

　In a mounted position, I charged into the middle of the group of over 500 people.

　

　The guy who was talking in front of the Fontana army saw my charge and ran back into the army, and I followed him.

　

　I wonder if I'm intoxicated by the situation.

　

　Or perhaps it's more correct to say that I was raising my 'voltage' as I spoke my previous words.

　

　Without any hesitation, I chose to make a rush attack, which I would normally have hesitated to do.

　

　However, it was not a failure.

　

　I had been talking to the opponents as if I was slamming my mana into them, but suddenly I ordered an all-out assault and charged at them.

　

　The other side had no mental grace to deal with it.

　

　Perhaps they had originally planned to gather their numbers together and take a defensive stance called "Phalanx" by combining shields and spears.

　

　Maybe they were planning to rain arrows down on us using their bows.

　

　However, the leading group of opponents were unprepared for our attack and were caught in the crossfire of my mounted assault.

　

　I swung the weapon in my hand left and right.

　

　Right now, I'm holding a stick.

　

　I had brought my Hard Fang Sword with me, but I felt that its reach was too short to be used in a mounted position.

　

　So I had prepared something else instead.

　

　I had created something with magic.

　

　It was made of a hard material called Hardened Bricks, in a length and thickness that was easy to use.

　

　Unlike a sword, it had no blade, but even so, if you were hit with a stick that was as hard as metal, it would naturally cause tremendous damage.

　

　However, I was surprised at my own power.

　

　I have a spell called [Body Strengthening].

　

　Just by casting the spell, I can strengthen my body, but it is set to a moderate strengthening factor so that it is easy to use.

　

　However, the spell I was using now was one that did not require a spell, but instead sent formulated mana to my entire body to strengthen it to the maximum extent possible.

　

　I strengthened my own body even more than I could with the spell, and wielded a stick made of VERY hard bricks.

　

　This had a greater effect than expected.

　

　A peasant soldier of Fontana's* army was struck by the Hardened Brick Stick.

TLN*: Peasant soldier of the Fontanas' refers to some soldiers that were conscripted by the nobles from a peasant origin, and not normal soldiers that protect the aforementioned nobles.

　

　They were blown away.

　

　It wasn't like they were hit with a stick and fell backwards.

　

　They were literally blown backwards as if they had been hit by a truck, and then the peasant soldiers behind them crashed into the ground.

"What the heck is this? I can't believe I am able to strengthen myself this much."

　

　I was laughing as I watched the scene.

　

　An overwhelming force knocking down the opponent.

　

　If you think about it calmly, it's a terribly barbaric act.

　

　However, on this battlefield, it was only an action to lift my spirit and blow out the exhilaration in my brain.

　

　I continued to raise my morale and pushed forward towards the center of Fontana's army, blowing away the enemies one by one.

TLN: I'll explain something that might have been confusing.

Ars used mana and put it into his vocal cords, so that along with the air that comes from the vocal cords' vibrations which turns into speech when us humans talk, mana would go too. Basically, Ars talked using both air and Mana. The enemies were literally hit by his voice, aka his mana-infused speech. That's why they were a bit oppressed and couldn't react to the quick assault Ars ordered upon them.