Re;Blade

Chapter 19 - The plan

From the bits of conversation she heard from the soldiers, Tetsuko had found out about the place where the bandits hid at the moment.

Even inside the Kingdom's land, the Stone Hills was a strange place.

Surrounded by plains, swamp and the mountains, the land was a strange rock and earth formation that created many small hills here and there, forming a labyrinth made by nature.

Despite the earth being rich in that area, the difficulty of working on those hills had pushed away anyone who tried to claim ownership. The land became a burden to the humans and so the Stone Hills remained with the nature as its only owner.

Trees grew, grass covered the earth between the rocks, and the animals took over.

And the soul in the sword couldn't believe what she saw when the army arrived at the Stone Hill.

The lord had ordered his soldiers to start marching before the sun rose.

By the time they arrived, the first sunrays shone on the Stone Hill Labyrinth.

Amazing... I never heard of such place back in my world...

The forest followed the hills, going up and down. It's like waves... waves of leaves...

But Tetsuko had no time to observe the scene.

"They probably already know we're here, my Lord," Enrique said in a low voice.

"Yes... I think so too," Alonso said, his eyes searching the dark threes for any signs of movement.

Then he glanced at the men and women around him.

Do you really think there's a traitor here as well, my wielder?

The lord and the advisor discussed after lord Dale left. And they reached the conclusion that it wasn't possible for one person, no matter how high in the military, could have all the information that the bandits had.

There's no way anyone other than a soldier here could've known when you'd leave...

But in the end, neither men could find out the traitor. All they could do was give the orders without giving time for the information to get out.

Tetsuko tried to find something on her own.

But even with her heightened senses, she couldn't find anything.

Even this body has limitation...

But I didn't try stirring the energy inside me...

"Are the plants and the fire ready?" Alonso asked.

Despite his initial unwillingness to use the anything provided by the man known as Lucky Chaos, Enrique had help organizing the plan. With the more updates maps, they had managed to find the best point to set the plants.

Five places around the Stone Hill. If they set fire and fan the smoke at the right time, it foul smell would fill the Labyrinth and it would be impossible to breathe.

Tetsuko winced in her mind as she remembered the stench.

Even without a nose, I could smell that smoke... even before becoming a sword I had little sense of smell thanks to a life close to the forge...

If the bandits are forced to breathe that for long, they won't last...

The problem is timing the smoke so they won't run to the other side.

A woman came to the advisor and whispered something to him.

Despite her low voice, Tetsuko could sense her suppressed feelings.