High School Soldier
77. Distrusting
15 September 2321, 10:09 WIB/1914 Luan Empire, morning.
**
(Illustration of this chapter, image source pinterest)
Nio drove a tactical vehicle on the dirt road at medium speed on this sunny morning. Borrowing one vehicle complete with supplies will make Nio have to make a report again, even though it sucks for him.
Although at medium speed, the dust created by the wheels of the vehicle looks quite large. It even made some animals immediately run away from where they were before because of the tactical vehicles that passed by. To this day, Nio had not seen any monster creatures during the journey.
There were no bodyguards that Nio brought, because when he returned to the fort later, Sigiz guaranteed Nio's safety. That is, Nio will be with the Arevelk Kingdom troops who want to cross the area around the Gate.
That was why there was only one tactical vehicle and two passengers on the empty road in this stone pillar forest. Nio thought if too rarely there are vehicles commonly used by people of this world to pass on the streets.
People of this world more often use horse carriages as vehicles, or just riding horses without carts. In addition, some groups of people can use dragons or wyverns as vehicles, of course, the type of fantasy animals must be tamed first before it can be used as a mount.
To pay a person who can tame a dragon or wyvern, the cost incurred is very expensive. That's why only nobles or the military can use dragons or wyverns.
“No way, last night I actually did that while she was asleep, what did I do wrong? I don't think so, 'cause it's her fault that she fell asleep in my room! But, he seemed to be very surprised when I told him my age,” Sigiz said in his heart with a tone of the one who regretted something he did, unfortunately he did not regret his actions and wanted to do so again with Nio.
However, Sigiz's face looks out the window and sees a boring scene, even though the feeling is not careless. Even when Nio plays music from his smartphone and is connected to a speaker, he does not understand the language of the singer and just enjoys the music.
After all, Nio was actually still very shocked after hearing the true age of Sigiz. But he slightly glanced at Sigiz who seemed to have gotten used to this type of armored car.
“His face looks the same age as big brother, but is it true that he is already 60 years old? Are most otherworldly people long-lived and youthful?” in his heart, Nio continued to argue with himself about that very shocking thing.
Then he found a temporary answer that he found out suddenly, “This is a fantasy world, so it's only natural that his people have a long life.”
Since the few hours of travel, Nio and Sigiz have not had a conversation at all and only heard the sound of music from Nio's smartphone as entertainment. This vehicle is equipped with a charger for devices, including smart phones. So Nio will not worry if his smartphone and other electronic devices run out of power.
The two of them left the fort while the clock was still showing at 04:30. To be able to determine the time in accordance with this world, the TNI brought time-sharing experts to other worlds.
The estimated time of arrival at the border between the Luan Empire and the Kingdom of Arevelk is 2 days of travel if the vehicle is driven at high speed, 3 days if at moderate speed and accompanied by rest, and, 2 Months if riding on a horse and accompanied by rest.
Amidst his beautiful daydreams regarding his first kiss with Nio, Sigiz gasped as Nio began a conversation.
“Queen Sigiz, how can that Gate open?” sigiz's face suddenly turned moody, or it could be said that way.
It was the question of everyone in the origin world, and had not been discovered until the appearance of the perfect Gate in Karanganyar City. Although it looks like a gate in general, but the power of the Gate is very unreasonable. Even a missile launched into the Gate could not destroy it.
Since the difficulty of destroying the Gate was at a very high level, the TNI stopped it. Although the Gate can be destroyed, it does not mean good news, because it could be that another Gate appears elsewhere in Indonesia, even the world.
The gate opened is divided into two types, namely the Gate is not perfect, this is the type of Gate that appears in several locations in the world of origin, to open this type of Gate only requires a large amount of magic energy. The second is the Gate that opens perfectly, this is the Gate that appears in Karanganyar City. To open this type of Gate besides requiring a large amount of magic energy, it also takes a large number of human casualties.
The Holy Land was the region that had the greatest flow of magic energy in this world, which was why it was the location of opening the perfect Gate. Unfortunately, the five-nation joint force side linked the Gate to the wrong place.
Sigiz's heart became aching after the question Nio had received, it was a very difficult question to say even though the answer was very easy. If he answered Nio's question honestly, it would probably make Nio very surprised.
“Tumbal...”.
“Tumbals? What do you mean?”
“To open the perfect Gate, it takes a large human impact.”
Nio's face became flat and focused on the street before him, his jakun moving up and down after hearing the reply from Sigiz. Nio was aware of something, if otherworldly people would do everything to do something, even if it had to sacrifice many lives.
Nio could not imagine if this would be written in his report later, he could imagine the face of his superior if he read one of his report paragraphs discussing the opening of the Gate.
“Biadap,” Sigiz turned to look at Nio, and felt that the aura that Nio exuded was very cold, not as warm as before, even though it was just an ordinary ramble that Nio threw out.
He had already felt this way before, when Ivy mentioned about Nio's older sister, Arunika.
“Then, why is your country not at war with our world?”
“Because this war will only bring destruction to my country if it joins this war. Your country's military is too strong, I can't imagine having to deal with one world,”
Nio did not look happy when Indonesia was said to have a too strong military, because Sigiz did not know the military of countries outside Indonesia. Indeed the TNI is the strongest army in the world of origin, but it is only according to the writing on white paper which is referred to as ‘ secret documents’.
Parties or organizations within the auspices of the United Nations that specialize in measuring military power in the world of origin place the TNI in 4th place as the strongest forces. But some private organizations that have the same goal actually put the TNI as the strongest army in the world at the top position. That is why some countries feel unacceptable with the assessment of the private organization, and assess if the TNI does not deserve to be in the top 10 strongest military forces in the world.
If Sigiz gets a chance to go to another world again, and surround some of Indonesia's allied countries, Nio could confirm if the queen would open her mouth wide because she saw a strong military force other than Indonesia.
“I hope our countries don't fight each other.”
“In your world there are also nobles?”
Nio's face suddenly turned into confusion, because he had to explain about the existence of the ‘noble’ group in Indonesia.
Perhaps what Nio thought was not confusion to explain, because his own heart felt fed up with the ‘nobles’ in the name of the 5th Pancasila please. Though they themselves only think about the stomach of their families, without thinking about the condition of the citizens who are in the untouched territory, even the people who live in the suburbs such as Nio and Arunika.
“I also don't know whether to call them nobles or anything like that, because I think some of them are just thinking about themselves. Although not everyone in the group has such traits.”
Nio put on a wry smile and said in his heart, “Why even vent ‘njir?”
“Then, do they declare war with other countries as they please?”
“I don't think so, and it looks like it's one of the good sides of those nobles. The definition of war in my world is very broad, not only limited to armed conflict and invasion.”
“Either why do I feel sorry for the soldiers in your world, it also includes you lord Nio.”
“After all, no human being is truly free.”
“You seem to have fought hard to protect your country, even risking your life to protect people you do not know and do not know you. But it seems like the nobles in your country are also troubled, without knowing what you are doing on the battlefield, in the end there is no commensurate appreciation for the strong knights like you from them. It must be very difficult to be a soldier in your country.”
It seemed that Sigiz's words had completely silenced Nio, but Nio only smiled and shrugged.
Nio looked at Sigiz seriously and said, “I became a soldier not to protect my country, because my country only provides a place for me to be born. They didn't feed me and so on. I became a soldier to protect the only family I have.”
Nio again smiled wryly and said inwardly, “Why even vent again ‘njir?”
Sigiz showed a proud smile to Nio, as it was rare to meet a soldier who put family before country. This was the type of knight Sigiz was looking for, because they had a thing to bet with life, and it was not a homeland. Because of that importance, the knights would fight harder than the soldiers who had the aim to protect the country.
After all, family is number one, even for soldiers. If while on duty of course the country is number one, but if it is off the uniform where may the country be number one.
A soldier can be judged by which side he is more dominant, whether he numbers the country rather than his family. If that warrior were to bring the family together, then he was truly a great warrior. Because the family taught him the meaning of struggle, while the state only provided for him to grow.
**
In the courtyard of the headquarters of the Luan Empire's military magician army, the troops that would be sent to the battlefield and would fight the forces of the Arevelk Kingdom had lined up neatly according to their respective units.
A total of 40,000 cavalry troops, 50,000 foot troops, and 10,000 military magicians troops were the power of the Luan Empire to fight with the Arevelk Kingdom. Do not forget some combat equipment, such as dozens of balistas, giant catapults and cannons to be the additional strength of this army.
Cannon is a ‘mahal’ weapon whose existence is very little, some countries only have this weapon at most in units of tens. Because the material is made of iron and other reinforcing metals are quite difficult to find, except in neighboring continents. Not that the Luan Empire was not a country that was poor in natural resources, at least only iron and other metal-making materials had to be shipped from allied countries.
Metal balls and gunpowder used as ammunition require good skill to make. Not just any craftsman is able to make gunpowder with good quality, and make metal balls of the same shape in the amount of tens to hundreds.
While balistas and giant catapults can be produced at a cost that is much cheaper than cannons, because the materials used are mostly made of wood. While the ammunition for the giant catapult is only stone, it causes a great damage effect. For balista, this weapon ammunition is enough to use a large spear, in a desperate situation can use a spear belonging to a soldier who has a smaller size.
Rantz and some of the army's generals flashed across the thousands of men with their horses. As the supreme commander of the forces that were going to fight the forces of the Arevelk Kingdom, Rantz had to say a few words that were encouraging to the soldiers.
Because what this army will face is the strongest army in the Andzrev Continent, although the Aarevelk Kingdom itself is very rarely fought. Even so, judging from a few things, the Kingdom of Arevelk had the most vast territory of the country on the continent, it caused the country to have a large population and resources.
However, the Holy Land was in the territory of the Luan Empire, and that was where the greatest magic energy of this world was located. Rantz intended to do battle in the region, as he relied heavily on his army of military magicians.
Rantz is the strongest military magician in the Empire, with a body that can store large amounts of magic energy, he can use magic that requires a large amount of energy to expel it.
However, the problem was that the territory of the Holy Land had now been controlled by the otherworldly forces, and they had built a fortress there with the Gate that had been taken over.
“Teams, we will raid that otherworldly army first...!!!” Rantz loudly and confidently shouted like that in front of his troops.
Sheyn and Kambana who were looking from behind a room in this place, could only shake their heads with puzzled expressions. Because Rantz will confidently attack the forces that control the Gate.
“Hopefully he came home alive after fighting that monster army.”
“Monster? Are they very strong kak?”
Sheyn recalled her first battle with an otherworldly army that she and her troops had encountered. It was enough to make him show a sour expression.
“Yes, I don't know what weapons they use, the army just seems to be filled with very powerful witches.”
Kambana immediately shuddered after listening to the experience of her brother, she could not imagine what happened to Rantz and his army if they were to actually attack the otherworldly forces.
After he finished making a speech that made his troops excited, he declared setting out to head for the Holy Land and storm the fortress of the otherworldly army.
With his large army of military magicians, Rantz was confident he could take control of the Gate again. After that he will attack the forces of the Kingdom of Arevelk.