The Game Difficulty
Is Insane
Chapter 17
The next morning.
Glen woke up early and walked around Avenue Fortress to check the condition of the troops and supplies.
Anyway, the meticulous commanders would give detailed reports at the meeting held at noon.
‘What you hear and what you see with your own eyes are completely different.’
Step, step—
Thanks to successfully finishing the preliminary battle with a victory, the atmosphere inside Avenue Fortress was quite good.
As usual, soldiers were training, knights were sparring with each other, and blacksmiths were hammering away.
If there was one thing that had changed—
“The Gray Wolf of Avenue greets the blood descendant of Wordsworth and the Saint guided by the Holy Hand of God!”
“Ohhh! Saint!”
“Look over there. The Saint has awakened.”
“Saint! Just let me touch your hand once—!”
Glen grabbed his forehead.
‘This is seriously way too much pressure.’
Out of nowhere, both Gray Wolf knights and ordinary soldiers were calling Glen a Saint.
Well, to be precise, it wasn’t completely out of nowhere.
When you looked back at the series of events they had personally witnessed, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say Glen’s actions were guided by God.
The way he crossed the army of the dead without a single scratch and pierced the enemy commander’s abdomen with his sword.
Or the way he cooperated with the knight commander Jaber to defeat the demon vanguard’s supreme commander with a bizarre single strike.
To them, Glen’s actions were nothing less than miracles guided by God.
‘Well… it really would’ve been impossible without me.’
Still, being worshiped as a Saint like this was burdensome in many ways.
As he had said before, the Pope and the Saintess were both clearly alive, so receiving this kind of treatment was bound to draw unnecessary attention.
Fame and status might be useful someday, but right now they were not helpful to Glen at all.
What Glen needed now was power—enough power to protect himself from any threat.
In any case, the atmosphere inside Avenue Fortress was filled with praise for Glen Wordsworth as a Saint and enjoyment of the victory.
‘Well, as long as morale is good.’
Lastly, Glen went to the forge inside the fortress to visit his exclusive(?) blacksmith, Felix, who was deeply immersed in his work.
After entrusting Einheria and Impeus to him for inspection, Glen headed to the commanders’ meeting.
Jaber and nine commanders had already arrived in the meeting hall.
“The Gray Wolf of Avenue, the blood descendant of Wordsworth and the Saint guided by the Holy Hand of God—”
‘Ah, seriously!’
Glen’s face twisted in irritation.
Why did he have to hear that embarrassing title even here?
Of course, since he himself had gone around saying things like he could hear God’s voice, this situation was entirely the result of his own actions.
‘It’s not like I could tell them I can see the future.’
As Glen sat down with a face like he had bitten into something unpleasant, Jaber grinned mischievously, showing his teeth.
That immature, dry laugh looked especially irritating today.
The meeting began.
The commanders’ expressions hardened.
The first agenda item was naturally the report on the previous battle.
“Thanks to the Knights and the Young Master’s achievements, we annihilated the enemy vanguard, but the Knights’ losses are also not insignificant.”
“Sir Veradin. Report the casualty status from the previous battle.”
“Yes.”
At Jaber’s words, one commander stood up.
“Out of 300 Gray Wolf Knights, 80 were killed, and around 100 suffered minor or major injuries. The wounded are currently receiving treatment.”
“What about the conscripted soldiers?”
“Out of 1,000, 300 were killed, and 150 are seriously injured.”
A deep gloom settled over the commanders’ faces.
Due to the demon vanguard’s full-scale assault, fully one-third of the troops had been lost.
And the fact that 25% of those losses were from the Gray Wolf Knights was an especially heavy blow.
Of course, considering the power gap between them and the demon vanguard they faced, the result was beyond common sense.
However, in the current situation where every single knight and soldier mattered, the report was painfully harsh.
“According to the scouts, it will take less than a week for the enemy’s main force to arrive. By then, how many troops can we deploy?”
“If we have one week, we can deploy about 180 remaining Gray Wolf Knights and up to 600 regular soldiers.”
“Then that makes 780. Adding the 100 Canary Knights and 200 recruits sent from Haven, that’s roughly 1,100 troops.”
Jaber’s expression grew darker as he calculated the available forces.
Even though reinforcements had arrived, their overall strength was significantly lower than before.
‘And the next opponent isn’t even comparable to the vanguard.’
Based on the original story, the main force led by Penelope would consist of 20,000 undead troops and 10,000 demon troops, totaling around 30,000.
Glen let out a deep sigh.
‘Wow… can we even stop that?’
Of course, they couldn’t.
Avenue Fortress was originally just a forward base.
Its role was merely to block the enemy vanguard and hold out until the main force led by the family head arrived.
Comparing a single knight order to an army corps resulted in an absurd matchup: 30,000 versus 1,100.
But that was reality.
While demon legions had already crossed the border, the Papal State had only just finished its Holy War council.
Even if the family head had returned to the territory, gathering the main army and reaching Avenue would take far too much time.
At least Triss had gone around the territory early and helped the vassals prepare troops in advance.
Even so, Glen and the Gray Wolf Knights would have to block the enemy main force’s attack at least once or twice.
And that main force was commanded by Penelope, an 8-star Witch.
‘What the hell are we supposed to do?’
With two Lunatic Trials overlapping, the situation was truly hopeless.
Of course, if Glen used every method at his disposal, he could somehow stop one or two attacks.
But if the allied main force was delayed even slightly during that time, Avenue Fortress would fall.
“……”
Silence filled the meeting room.
Jaber and the other commanders were probably thinking the same thing.
