CH 8

Chapter 8: Declaration of War

— Evening, 1st Day, 10th Month, 1,546th Year, Continental Calendar — Near Altomura —

The Amidonian army had agreed to break their siege at the request of the lord of the castle, Weist Garreau, but when noon came, there was no sign of Altomura’s gates opening.

The sovereign prince of Amidonia, impatient with the current state of affairs, ordered that the siege be resumed. Then, once the encirclement was complete, he gave the order for an all-out attack. However, having broken the siege of the city, it took a considerable amount of time to encircle the city once again. It had grown close to evening by the time the task was complete.

“Curse you...” Gaius swore. “To think I’d be played for a fool by a petty man of no significance like Weist.”

Sitting on a stool in Amidonia’s main camp, Gaius tapped his foot impatiently. When they saw him like this, it put all of the officers and men standing at his side on edge. They knew if they did anything to set off his short temper now, it might cost them their heads. That naturally caused a heavy air to fall over the camp.

In the middle of it all, the crown prince, Julius, did his best to pacify Gaius.

“That just means a petty nuisance did as petty nuisances do,” he said. “He’s making a futile attempt to buy time. We’ll just have to ensure that we crush him this time. What is there to be so irritated about?”

“...Hmph,” Gaius said. “Yes, his struggle certainly has been in vain.”

He seemed mollified by Julius’ words, but continued:

“It’s too late for them to beg for their lives now. I’ll destroy that country town by the time the sun goes down. When that time comes, Weist, I’ll hang your head from the castle gates, but not before I torture you until you beg for death!”

“...I believe that would be appropriate,” Julius said.

Unlike Gaius, who had let the blood rise to his head, Julius wore an icy expression. Still, uncertainty was beginning to take root in his mind. He sensed a suspicious presence on the other side of those walls. Had Weist truly just been buying time with no hope of winning?

As he was contemplating that, a single Amidonian soldier rushed into the main camp. “I-I have a report! A woman has been spotted on the walls of Altomura!”

“A woman?” Julius asked.

As he listened to the soldier who bowed low as he gave his report, Gaius raised an eyebrow. “Just who is she?”

“Well... according to one commander who recognized her, she is Excel Walter, Admiral of the Elfrieden Navy,” the soldier said.

“Did you say Excel Walter?!” Gaius doubted his own ears. “You say that one of the three dukes was inside that castle?!”

It was hard to believe. The King of Elfrieden, Souma, had issued his ultimatum to the three dukes only a few days ago. Certainly, Admiral Excel Walter had sworn loyalty to him there, but by the time the spies had delivered that information to them, the armies of the Principality had already besieged Altomura.

Her base of operations was Lagoon City on the northeast edge of the Kingdom, while Altomura was close to the southwest edge. No matter how quickly she traveled, it should have taken three or four days to travel that distance. If Excel had been in Lagoon City when the ultimatum was issued, she couldn’t possibly have gotten inside Altomura.

“Why?! Why is Excel there?!” Gaius screamed.

Unlike the bewildered Gaius, Julius looked as if things suddenly made sense to him. “...Most likely, Excel was in communication with Souma prior to the ultimatum.”

The identity of that sensation which he hadn’t been able to put a name to... the one that he had been feeling from Altomura. Had it been Excel’s shadow?

The moment he realized it, Julius figured out the enemy’s ploy and turned pale. If Excel and Souma had been secretly in contact, it was possible the other two dukes had been, as well.

If that ultimatum was a farce...!

That was where Julius finally realized the enemy’s true aim.

“Father, prepare to withdraw posthaste! We’ve been lured here!” he shouted.

Julius took a knee before his father, regretfully offering that advice. Gaius blinked at the sudden suggestion of retreat. “Lured here? What do you mean?”

“Most likely, Excel was in Altomura when she took part in the meeting where that ultimatum was issued,” Julius said. “We have a Jewel Voice Broadcast jewel in our country, just like they do, and it certainly wouldn’t be impossible to transport one.”

“Why would she need to do that?” Gaius asked.

“To keep us pinned down at this city, I’m sure,” Julius said bitterly. “The enemy’s target is...”

“This is an announcement which concerns all citizens of Elfrieden.”

Cutting Julius off mid-sentence, a voice loud enough for all the Amidonian soldiers encircling Altomura to hear it echoed through the area. When they turned to look, there was a giant silhouette standing on the walls of Altomura.

It must have been around 20 meters tall. If that were the man himself, he would truly be a giant, but the scenery behind him was see-through. It had to be an illusion of some sort.

That silhouette was the provisional King of Elfrieden, Souma Kazuya.

Today, he wasn’t wearing the casual attire he usually did; he was dressed in a proper military uniform. They say the clothes make the man, and he did look much more intimidating than usual.

Gaius and Julius looked hatefully at Souma.

“I repeat. This is an announcement which concerns all citizens of Elfrieden. I am the provisional King of Elfrieden, Souma Kazuya.”

Meanwhile, up on the castle walls, Excel was looking up at the giant image of Souma in military uniform with a complicated expression on her face.

The mist this supersized image of Souma was being projected on had been produced by Excel’s magic.

With the magical power Excel held as a descendant of sea serpents, it was easy for her to imitate one of the mist-dispersing receivers used for the Jewel Voice Broadcast. Right now, Excel was using that power to show the Amidonian army Souma’s Jewel Voice Broadcast.

Souma began by giving a straightforward explanation of the sequence of events that had led to the current situation.

How the General of the Army, Georg, had been sheltering corrupt nobles, and so the Forbidden Army and the Army had come into conflict.

How the General of the Air Force, Castor, had rebelled against him, ready to martyr himself for his friendship with Georg.

And how, of the three dukes, only the Admiral of the Navy, Excel, had expressed her intention to serve him loyally from the beginning.

Of course, he was just laying out the facts one after another, not delving into the details, but details mattered little to these people. What they wanted to hear was whether they were going to be caught up in the fighting or not.

“A lot has happened to bring us to this point, but at present the Forbidden Army, Army, Navy, and Air Force are all under my command,” Souma announced. “As such, I hereby proclaim the civil war to be at an end.”

The conflict between the king and the three dukes was over.

For the citizens, just knowing that was enough. However, Excel wore a pained look on her face.

It had been only two days since the ultimatum. This announcement meant that, in that time, Souma had defeated both Castor Vargas’s Air Force and Georg Carmine’s Army.

She could understand Castor. He had only rebelled with his personal troops, and Excel had shared her knowledge of routes that could be used to invade Red Dragon City in order to aid in his capture.

However, she sensed something contrived in the way that Georg had surrendered so easily.

The amount of time I was asked to buy was so short, I thought there might be something up, but... I never expected they were working together from the very beginning, she thought. It looks like Castor, myself, and even His Majesty may have all been dancing in the palm of Georg Carmine’s hand.

Despite her youthful appearance, Excel wondered if this was what it was like to grow old. As she began to comprehend Georg’s plan, she gazed off into the distance with a sigh.

If this was how it was going to be, I should have pressed harder to make Castor stop. ...If I risk this old neck of mine, is there some way I can save their two lives?

That was what Excel thought as she looked up at the image of Souma.

Souma’s speech was rising towards its climax.

“The civil war has come to an end. Yet it is too soon for us to sheathe our blades! The armies of the Principality of Amidonia have crossed the border and invaded our country! At this very moment, Amidonian forces have besieged the southwestern city of Altomura!”

When the king suddenly revealed the Amidonian invasion, roughly half of the population grew tense, while half reacted with shock. The ones who grew tense were those in the west who had already received information of the Amidonian incursion, while the ones who were shocked were those in the east of the country where the news had yet to spread.

Not many days had passed since the Principality of Amidonia had launched their invasion, so the information hadn’t fully spread yet.

The people of the east reacted to this sudden news with panic. However...

“But fear not,” Souma declared. “I had anticipated this might happen, and so I sent Duchess Excel to Altomura. Thus far, the enemy has been unable to capture Altomura.”

When the people heard these words from Souma, it helped calm them a little. He continued.

“I already have the Forbidden Army, Army, Navy, and Air Force under my command. The invading force from the principality numbers 30,000. With the Forbidden Army, Army, and Air Force combined, we can mobilize roughly 55,000 troops. If we marched on Altomura now, it would be a simple task to drive these barbaric invaders back.”

When they heard those words, an air of relief fell over the people. However, the next moment...

“But, my people. Is that alone enough?!” Souma shouted.

That air of relief was blown away as the king raised his voice.

“The Principality of Amidonia has always been targeting this country’s lands,” Souma continued. “For generations, their princes have called for the return of their lost lands, expanded their military, and kept the border in a constant state of tension. The current prince, Gaius VIII, is no different. He fanned the flames of conflict between the three dukes and myself, acting behind the scenes to further his own aims! Then, when the clash between myself and Georg became a thing of certainty, he raised his armies and trampled lands belonging to our country underfoot!”

Yes, Souma had done some maneuvering behind the scenes, issuing a quest to the adventurers’ guild in order to have them evacuate the towns and villages in the path of the armies of the Principality. However, that didn’t mean there had been no losses. There had been villages deliberately put to the torch. There had likely been plundering, too. If any people had had the misfortune of running into enemy scouts as they’d fled, there may have been lives lost, as well.

Putting his anger at all of that into his words, Souma continued.

“I ask you once more! Are you satisfied to merely chase them off?! In this era, when all mankind is trying to unite under the Gran Chaos Empire against the armies of the Demon Lord, can such backwards and barbaric behavior be tolerated?! Nay! It most certainly can not! As such, while it is unnecessary for our country to say this, having already been subject to a surprise attack, I will say it nonetheless.”

Here Souma paused for a moment, taking a deep breath, then made a clear proclamation.

“The Elfrieden Kingdom hereby declares war on the Principality of Amidonia!”

It was a declaration of war. The people tensed when they heard those words.

These were words they had never heard in the time of the former king, Albert.

The men were engulfed in a strange sense of elation, while the women were frightened, and the elders who had experienced the days of war and chaos during the reign of the king before Albert, the one called the Conqueror, worried that those days might return.

However, Souma continued without wavering in the slightest.

“I am sure that the armies of Amidonia are watching this broadcast, as well. And so, I will declare this. I am sending the forces gathered in the Carmine Duchy westward. Their goal will be to capture the capital of the Principality, Van. While you, the forces of the Principality, are wasting their time near Altomura, we will no doubt be burning your houses to the ground.”

And then Souma closed his speech with these words, which would no doubt be used to represent this whole scene when it would be dramatized in later years.

“Hear me, Gaius! Now that you have laid a hand on my house, I will see that you pay for it!”

The Forbidden Army’s palanquin-carrying wyverns for royal trips abroad (also known as the “sitting room wyverns”) were four wyverns that carried a gondola that was as luxurious as a limousine. They served a role similar to that of an airship.

It had been one of these four wyverns that I’d loaned to Poncho when he’d gone around gathering ingredients.

The inside of the gondola was spacious and luxuriously appointed. When money had been tight at the beginning, I’d considered stripping out all the decorations and selling them, but Marx, who had been Prime Minister at the time, had begged me, “These serve as the face of our kingdom to the outside world. Please don’t sell them!” So I’d given up on the idea.

I was inside that gondola, having just finished with the declaration of war against the Principality of Amidonia.

The jewel for the Jewel Voice Broadcast was sitting there right in front of me. As spacious as the gondola was, we’d still had considerable trouble loading the jewel into it. Because the jewel was just large enough that it would poke through the roof, we had been forced to cut an opening in the top and lower it in through there.

Because of that, now that we were flying, the wind blew inside the gondola and made it very cold. I just hoped my shivering legs didn’t make it into the broadcast during the declaration of war...

“You did a good job, Souma,” Liscia said. “Come on, get in here.”

Now that I had finished withstanding the cold long enough to declare war, Liscia opened up the blanket she had curled around herself and let me in.

Two people wrapped in one blanket. Oh, how warm. I finally felt like I could rest a little. I’d never been so grateful for the warmth of another person before.

“Ahh, that was so cold,” I moaned. “If I’d known it was going to be so cold, I think I’d have preferred to go by land.”

“If you were going to load the jewel into some other vehicle, a horse-drawn carriage wouldn’t cut it,” Liscia said. “And if you’d transported it by rhinosaurus, wouldn’t you have gotten motion sickness instead?”

“...They’re both equally bad, huh,” I muttered.

I had ridden with the rhinosauruses when we had gone to provide aid to the dark elf village. It had been anything but a smooth ride.

Hal and the others are probably moving around with them, I thought. I need to find a way to improve the experience, quick. They might go on strike if I don’t.

As I was sitting there, wearily thinking about such things...

“H-Hmph... A little chill like this... is nothing...” Carla said, sitting across from us and trying to put up a strong front even as she shivered.

This girl I had brought with us as a hostage against the Air Force may have been wearing armor, but she didn’t have a blanket to protect her from the cold. I had offered to lend her one, but she had refused it, trying to act tough.

I thought she’d be fine, being a dragonewt, but... now that I think about it, they’re reptilian, aren’t they?

“Do dragonewts have trouble adapting to the cold, like lizards?” I asked.

“Don’t lump us together with lizards!” she cried. “Yes, it’s true, we do have trouble with the cold, but...”

“But you must fly at rather high altitudes in the Air Force, right?” I asked. “Isn’t it cold when you do that?”

“...We take the proper measures to protect against the cold,” she said.

“Ah, yeah, I suppose you’d have to.”

This sort of chill had to be an everyday occurrence for the Air Force, so they had to have means of dealing with it.

When I put a spare blanket over her, Carla gave an awkward “...Hmph,” and wrapped it around herself as she sniffled.

Then...

“Honestly... How can you say ‘You have laid a hand on my house, and I will see that you pay for it’?” she burst out. “You were the ones who tempted the forces of Amidonia to attack in the first place, weren’t you, you bast... I mean, Your Majesty.” Carla turned and looked away.

“...You noticed that, huh.”

“Now that I know the full picture, it wasn’t hard,” she said. “You used the unrest inside the country to lure in the Amidonians, and now you’re going to strike them, right? Was Duke Carmine in on it, too?”

“...I guess you could say that you’re half-right,” I said. “What Georg did, he did entirely on his own initiative. The target of the subjugation Hakuya and I had been planning was the Principality of Amidonia from the very beginning.”

While investigating the nobles’ corruption, I had learned there was no small number of nobles inside the kingdom who were working for the Principality of Amidonia. Whether it was family ties, bribery, or the illegal diversion of supplies, their connections took many forms, but the existence of those nobles was extremely dangerous to this country. For instance, if Amidonia were to invade as it now was, and if they were to stage a revolt all across the country, that could have proved to be a fatal blow.

Because of that, Hakuya and I had thought of ways to solve the root of that problem. And by “the root,” of course, I meant the Principality of Amidonia itself.

“The Principality of Amidonia has been a constant threat to this country,” I said. “If we had left them to their own devices, I had little doubt that they would continue to foment rebellion. If that had happened, many more people would have been hurt. That’s why Hakuya and I planned to use this opportunity to deal them a crushing defeat and strip them of their influence. In order to do that, we used forged letters, among other methods, to try to lure them into a trap, but...”

There, I stopped for a moment, scratching the back of my head.

“At pretty much exactly the same time, Georg was coming up with a completely separate plan of his own,” I said. “By deliberately taking a rebellious stance against me, he gathered the corrupt nobles around himself. Then he planned to launch a rebellion and lose, so that they’d all be captured along with him. That was his plan, you see.”

“You... weren’t informed about it, either, were you?” Carla asked, her eyes widening as she did.

I nodded quietly in response.

Liscia looked downwards, looking pained by this.

“We were told of Georg’s plan much later,” I said. “Once things had progressed to the point that no one could pull back. He must have thought we’d stop him if he revealed the plan to us. As a matter of fact, if I had been told from the beginning, I think I would have. This sort of... self-sacrificing plan... I wouldn’t have wanted to accept it.”

“I see. In a way, what my father said was right,” Carla murmured, her shoulders slumping.

“What Castor said?” I asked.

“The day before you issued your ultimatum, my father said something. ‘I just can’t imagine that Duke Carmine would be driven mad by ambition.’”

Come to think of it... Castor had said something like that when I’d issued my ultimatum, too. He’d said, “I can’t imagine Duke Carmine would oppose you without good reason.”

...He’d been right. There had been nothing wrong about what he’d said. Castor was prone to hasty decisions, but perhaps he had instinctively grasped the true nature of the situation.

“Why...?” Carla asked regretfully after a moment’s silence, still averting her eyes. “Why didn’t he tell my father in advance? If he had just done that...”

“...The more people who knew the secret, the greater the risk of the plan leaking out,” I explained. “He couldn’t afford that. That and, if Castor had known, he absolutely would have tried to stop him, wouldn’t he?”

“That’s...” Carla fell silent.

I clenched my fists tightly under the blanket. “We’ve already spent a lot, including Georg’s life, in order to make this plan happen,” I said. “Now that we can’t turn back, we need to ensure it succeeds. If we don’t, we’ll have spent all of that in vain. That was why I had hoped Castor would choose to side with us of his own free will. Excel and I both kept trying to persuade him to. And yet... Castor said he would die for his friendship, then sided with Georg.”

I ground my teeth in frustration. Why had things gone so poorly?

Everyone had just done as they’d pleased for their own arbitrary reasons. By the time I’d realized it, I was dancing along to a script I didn’t even know the author of. I no longer knew whether my role on the stage of this world was that of a king, or of a jester.

Carla hung her head, unable to say anything. Liscia seemed to want to say something to her, but held herself back.

As I watched the two of them, I let out a small sigh. It really is... an unpleasant role. Having to be king.

“Their goal will be to capture the capital of the Principality, Van.”

When they’d heard Souma declare this, the 30,000 Amidonian soldiers laying siege to Altomura beat a hasty retreat.

From on top of the wall, Admiral of the Navy Excel Walter and Lord of Altomura Weist Garreau looked out as the setting sun shone down on the fences and banners that had once surrounded the camps they had left behind.

When Weist turned to the side, there he saw Excel’s face in profile, the setting sun lending it a bewitching beauty.

“...Is it okay not to attack them?” Weist asked, as if trying to cover up the fact he had nearly been entranced by her beauty.

A pursuit battle would be a chance to inflict considerable damage on the enemy.

However, Excel silently shook her head. “There were wyvern cavalry in their rear guard. If a force without wyvern cavalry like ours were to leave the castle and give pursuit, we would suffer a punishing counterattack. Gaius VIII... As you would expect from the man who’s been sharpening his fangs and preparing to strike our country for so long, he gives sound commands. Though I doubt that will be enough to let him escape from the palm of His Majesty’s hand.”

When Excel said that and closed her eyes, Weist opened his eyes wide. For Excel, who treated everyone she met like children, had there ever been a person she’d held in such high esteem before?

“Is His Majesty that resourceful?” Weist asked.

“I think when it comes to plain resourcefulness, he’s not that impressive,” said Excel. “It is rather that, for every scenario he encounters, he comes up with a plan that seems like a prepared answer. Almost like he already knows a similar battle.”

“Hm? What do you mean?” Weist asked.

“...Just maybe, His Majesty comes from a world far worse than this one. A vortex of scheming and trickery.”

Weist shuddered at Excel’s words.

He had heard that Souma was a hero summoned from another world. What if he assumed that this other world had seen the fall of many more countries, and experienced turbulent times that had brought the deaths of many more people?

If, by some chance, that world were to connect with this one, could the people of this world possibly fight back against the people of that one?

From the image he had seen, that young man didn’t look especially suited to fighting, yet he could still come up with such well-developed plans.

Of course, it was probably about as likely to happen as the sky falling...

“That... is dreadful to think of, yes,” said Weist.

“Yes, it really is. ...Now then,” Excel said, clapping her hands as if to signify a change of mood. “Do you suppose our work is done here?”

“...I know it’s a little late to ask now, Duchess Excel, but rather than just buy time, couldn’t you have easily run off the forces of the principality with your magic?”

When Weist pointed that out, Excel chuckled. “Oh, my. You can’t rely on this old woman forever, you know. I think it’s an elder’s duty to watch over the young ones when they’re trying so hard.”

“Indeed...”

Weist wasn’t quite sure what to say to that, but contrary to Excel’s cheerful expression, she was feeling irritated inside.

This time, my role required me to stay in the background. When I consider what will happen to Carla and Castor after the war, I’d like to accomplish as much as I can... but if I stand out too much, it will only harm His Majesty’s impression of me.

She sighed internally, but Excel wasn’t the sort to let it show. “Now then, let’s leave the rest to our young king and his friends while we head south as planned.”

As she said that, Excel’s thoughts turned to the other young one.

In the twilight, with the moon hidden behind the clouds, the forces of the principality were running with torches in hand.

The horde of 30,000 men carrying torches moved like a snake slithering across the ground. From a distance, it must have seemed like a fantastical sight. However, for the men themselves, they were just being forced to run while covered in sweat and dirt.

Towards the front of that line of troops, the Prince of Amidonia, Gaius VIII, was in the center of the cavalry unit that was leading the way. Surrounded by five bodyguards who each carried a torch, he was driving his horse onward like a man possessed.

His expression was grim. All of this was the fault of that young king.

That king had baited Gaius and his men by using the lands they’d lost, the fertile grain-producing region. That had exposed the capital Van, their soft flank which would normally have been protected by hard armor. Elfrieden had then taken their chance to stab at it.

Georg Carmine had been blocking the route to the capital, but he had capitulated a mere two days after the ultimatum. Now Gaius had heard that Souma’s forces, the Forbidden Army and Army, were advancing on Van with a force 55,000 men strong.

Van had been built to block incursions from the Kingdom and to give them a foothold to serve as a front-line base in any invasion of Elfrieden. Because of that, there were no fortresses between the Elfrieden Kingdom’s army and Van.

Due to how passive the former king, Albert, had been, Gaius had let his guard down. He had grown prideful, taking the Elfrieden Kingdom lightly in the belief that they lacked the courage to invade another country.

Now that it had come this far, Gaius realized he’d been tricked by Souma and Georg.

Too much scheming can spell the end of a schemer. All too often, a schemer forgets that he, too, may fall victim to the schemes of another. That was what had happened to Gaius.

This is terrible! To think that that nation of weaklings, Elfrieden, could make me taste such hardship! Gaius thought bitterly.

As he made his horse race along, he cursed his own carelessness.

When they’d found themselves on the receiving end of the Elfrieden’s expansionism two generations ago, the King of Amidonia had lost half of his lands and died in despair. To ensure they never forgot that mortifying defeat, Gaius’s father had renamed the country from the Kingdom of Amidonia to the Principality of Amidonia. It had been a show of determination, as the man had felt that they couldn’t call themselves a kingdom with half of their lands stolen from them.

He’d named himself the Sovereign Prince, and from then on, Amidonia had made the restoration of its lost lands a national policy, always watching closely for any chance to realize that goal.

When the King of Elfrieden from two generations ago had died, Albert had taken the throne. (Or, more accurately, he had married the former king’s daughter, who had inherited the right of succession.) When he did, Amidonia had taken advantage of his passiveness to extend a scheming hand to Elfrieden’s nobles and support the growth of dissident groups within the kingdom.

That had continued even after Gaius’s father had died and Gaius had taken the throne as Gaius VIII.

The majority of those nobles had been crushed by Georg and Excel, but the remaining nobles who had been in on the scheme had gone underground, slowly exhausting the kingdom. That was good.

Albert hadn’t had much potential as a king, but the difference in strength between the kingdom and principality had still been great.

Being the less powerful nation, Amidonia had only been able to wait patiently for their opportunity to come.

And then, at last, the chance they had long waited for had arrived. The Demon Realm had appeared, and the food crisis and financial crisis it had caused had exhausted the kingdom. Then, with the sudden change of rulers, the three dukes who were supposed to protect the kingdom had rebelled against the new king.

The principality had gathered their strength for a renewed attack. Right now, they knew, the kingdom wouldn’t be able to move freely. The time had come at last for the Principality of Amidonia to realize her dream... Yes, that was what Gaius had been convinced of.

However, on closer inspection, had that really been the case? Was it not the Principality of Amidonia that was being driven into a corner now?

If we lose Van now, Amidonia will never recover, Gaius thought frantically. I couldn’t face the ghosts of my ancestors if I let that happen!

Gaius VIII’s face was distorted with frustration.

However, that hasn’t happened yet! We’re not finished yet! Van is a solid fortress. I’ve left it in the hands of 5,000 elite troops. Even if the enemy come in great numbers, they should be able to hold out for two or three days. If we can reach Van in that time, then catch the kingdom’s forces in a surprise pincer attack with the troops inside the castle, we’ll have a chance of victory!

That was what Gaius thought to try to encourage himself. But, as he was thinking that...

“Father!” Julius brought his horse up alongside Gaius. “We’re advancing too quickly! At this rate we won’t only leave the wagons behind, we’ll start to see our infantry dropping off, as well! I suggest that we lessen the pace slightly, and...”

“Silence!” Gaius bellowed. He completely disregarded Julius’s advice by shouting his son down. “If Van falls, we will never rise again! No matter what, we must arrive at Van before it falls! Then we will catch the kingdom’s forces in a pincer attack with the soldiers in the castle!”

A Gaius ranted, Julius felt slightly uneasy. It seemed to him that, right now, Gaius was too fixated on the capital, and he was getting a little too worked up.

“Father, even if we did lose Van, our army would still be intact,” Julius said. “Could we not enter another secure city and seek help from the Empire? Unlike the Elfrieden Kingdom, we’ve signed the Mankind Declaration, after all.”

The Declaration of Mankind’s Common Front Against the Demon Race (also known as the Mankind Declaration) was a policy that had been proposed by the largest, most powerful empire on the continent, the Gran Chaos Empire, in order to resist the advance of the demons.

First, the acquisition of territory by force between the nations of mankind would be deemed inadmissible.

Second, the right of all peoples to equality and self-determination would be respected.

Third, countries that were distant from the Demon Lord’s Domain would provide support to those nations which were adjacent to it and were acting as a defensive wall.

These were the three main articles of the Mankind Declaration.

Amidonia had signed the Mankind Declaration, but even after Souma had taken the throne, Elfrieden had not. Because of that, if Amidonia approached the Empire saying their land had been seized, as the leading power behind the Mankind Declaration and therefore Amidonia’s ally, the Empire would likely push Elfrieden to return the seized lands. (Though the territory lost before the Mankind Declaration wouldn’t be affected.)

First they invaded a country, then they complained when the same happened to them. It would be a specious argument, just like the Minister of Finance, Colbert, had said before they left for the front, but that was Elfrieden’s own fault for not signing the Mankind Declaration. Julius thought it was a good idea. However...

“You fool! The Empire isn’t the soft-hearted country you take them for!” Gaius mercilessly shot it down. “This invasion took advantage of a loophole in the declaration. Yes, if we send the request, the Empire will have to act, but after we’ve gone against the grain like this, they can’t have a positive opinion of us. They would like to use what’s happened here as a pretext to remove both of us, then turn our country into a puppet state.”

Julius fell silent.

Once he was told that, Julius could say no more.

Gaius looked at him, snorting, then raised his voice and ordered loudly, “If you understand that, then make haste! We must arrive before Van falls!”

However, their forced march ran into an obstacle.

It was in the Ursula Mountains which separate the Elfrieden Kingdom and Principality of Amidonia along the south of their border. When they came close to Goldoa Valley, which was the path through those mountains, men and horses got caught in the muddy ground one after another.

“Wh-What?! Where did this mud come from?!” a soldier shouted.

“Damn! My horse is stuck in the mire! Someone, pull him out for me!” another one howled.

“Oh, come on! There wasn’t any place like this on our way here, was there?!” yelled a third.

There were horses stuck in the mud everywhere, with people struggling with their feet stuck in the mud, too.

When Gaius saw this fiasco, he was astonished.

They had come through the Goldoa Valley on their way here. The ground hadn’t been muddy then like it was now, and no one had gotten their feet stuck like this.

“Why...?” he muttered. “It can’t have rained. Why is the road so bad?”

As if in response to Gaius’ mutterings, a single soldier called out:

“E-Enemy attack!”

The next moment, there was the sound of arrows swishing through the darkness, then the sound of something violently smashing. Each time that sound rang out, the Amidonian soldiers fell, one by one. When one of the soldiers carrying a torch near him fell from his horse with a muffled scream, Gaius felt an unease stirring inside him.

“What?! What is happening?!” he shouted.

A soldier rushed over to give him his report. “It’s an enemy ambush! It seems the kingdom had troops lying in wait for us in this valley! The enemy are hidden in among the trees, shooting arrows and ice at us!”

“Ice, you say?” Gaius blustered.

“We suspect there are ice mages mixed in with the enemy!”

“Mages... Of course! Curse them, this bad footing must be their work, too!” Gaius burst out.

Seeing that Gaius’s face was now a mask of rage, Julius desperately tried to get his father to stop. “Please, calm yourself, Father! The main force of the Kingdom’s army is headed towards Van. There can’t be many soldiers lying in wait. Also, it’s impossible to maneuver a large force on this narrow path. Right now, our best course of action is to get through the valley as quickly as possible.”

“Urgh, but with the road this bad...” Gaius muttered.

“...Let’s send the soldiers through first,” said Julius. “Our path will be wherever they don’t get stuck in the mud.”

Gaius’ eyes widened at the heartless suggestion. “You would have me throw away my soldiers like sacrificial pawns?”

“...There is little choice,” said Julius. “If the worst were to happen, if you were to be cut down, Father, the armies of the principality would break. Then we would no longer be able to fight the kingdom at all. Please, make the decision.”

“...I suppose there is no choice,” Gaius said.

Sacrificing his soldiers to find an escape route. If their positions had been reversed, it would have distressed Souma greatly to choose such an option, yet Gaius made the choice instantly.

For the Principality of Amidonia, their desire for revenge against the Elfrieden Kingdom had become a part of their identity by this point. It was fair to say that, even though they were surrounded by powerful nations and they had fallen into a food crisis and financial crisis, Amidonia had been able to continue on with an unbroken will thanks to their desire for revenge against Elfrieden. They didn’t care if they suffered, so long as Elfrieden suffered more.

In fact, even the suffering citizens blamed their woes not on the overzealous elites who had spent too much on the military, but on the kingdom which had robbed them of their prosperity long ago.

Even though 50 years had now passed.

With even the common citizens that far gone, the elites had begun to think it was okay to sacrifice anything in order to fight against the kingdom. In this country, those like Roroa and Colbert, who thought about trying to get by the best that they could with what they had, were outliers.

For Gaius, he was less concerned about the loss of his soldiers than he was about losing the ability to fight the kingdom. He was able to give the order without hesitation. “Advance the troops! We must hurry through to the other side of the Goldoa Valley!”

With this heartless order given, in a reversal of what they had done up to this point, the infantry began advancing first, with the cavalry advancing after them, ignoring the foot soldiers trapped in the mud as they advanced along the safe routes.

It was an awful scene.

It wouldn’t have been so bad if they had only been stuck in the mud. However, with tens of thousands of troops being ambushed, there was no way they would stay in orderly ranks. They were scattered around, so of course some tried to walk over the top of soldiers trapped in the swamp. These soldiers were stepped on and crushed by horses, dying in a way that was terrible to behold.

There was a group watching that portrait of hell unfold from up among the trees on the mountain slope. That group were all clad in black painted armor, carried bows and magic wands, and had black cloth wrapped around their faces.

This group was a commando unit from the kingdom Amidonia had just attacked. There were perhaps 2,000 of them. The central figure of that black-clad group was of slight build, but her proportions made it clear she was a woman, even through that outfit.

She was the leader of the commando unit.

The people down below were making no attempt to help their comrades who had sunken into the bog. If anything, the Amidonian forces were stepping on them as they retreated.

When she thought that humans could become this cruel in order to survive, it made her shudder a little.

There are times when a king must give cruel orders, she thought. However, when he shows so little hesitation, I find myself disliking him as a person rather than as a king.

As she was thinking that, one of her subordinates came to her with a report.

“Lady Canaria, the lead group of the principality’s forces has made it through the valley. Should we give pursuit?”

In response, the leader shook her head. “Not necessary. Our mission is to disrupt and stall the enemy. Besides, we’re only 2,000 strong. Even if we pursue them, we can’t expect better results than we’ve already achieved. We’ve done plenty. Prepare to withdraw.”

“Yes, ma’am!” he called.

Once the subordinate who had brought her the report left, she removed the cloth wrapped around her face.

At just that moment, the clouds covering the moon drew back, the moonlight shining down on her beautiful blue hair.

Beautiful even in the simple act of brushing her hair back, this was the kingdom’s lorelei, Juna Doma.

When she’d appeared before Souma, she’d been the lorelei Juna who worked at a singing cafe, but in the Navy she had become Canaria, the leader of 2,000 marines, the sole unit intended to fight in amphibious operations.

Yes, the true identity of this commando unit was the Marine Corps, which reported to Excel Walter.

Juna was relieved to have successfully accomplished her task.

Grandmother handled her part well, she thought. I can’t be the one to screw this up.

By “Grandmother,” she meant the Admiral of the Navy, Excel Walter. In addition to being a lorelei and Canaria, Juna also had her face as Excel’s granddaughter. Of course, with Excel’s long life and many loves, she had birthed many children, and if she were to count all her grandchildren and great-grandchildren... well, she had enough relatives to populate a small village.

With a family that big, it would be possible to overthrow the kingdom using only her own blood relatives. That was why, to avoid needless suspicion, Excel had kept the “Walter” name to herself. When her children reached maturity, she would disown them and send them off to marry into other houses. Juna was the child of one of Excel’s sons who had married into the Doma family of merchants.

Juna, who had inherited Excel’s beautiful face, looked at the cruelly abandoned corpses of the Amidonian soldiers and frowned. “...If we leave them be, the local beasts might develop a taste for human flesh. That would be a problem. Let’s rescue the survivors and take them prisoner and bury the rest.”

“You’re going to help Amidonian soldiers?” her subordinate asked.

“After being abandoned by their own king, His Majesty King Souma, the king of an enemy state, will save them,” she said. “It could improve His Majesty’s reputation, and it can’t possibly hurt it.”

“I see.”

Like the aura she exuded, Juna’s thought process was mature, as well. After giving the orders to her subordinates, Juna looked towards the north-northwest. That was the direction she expected Souma and the others were heading in right now. After this, Souma and the others would be entering the final battle with the Principality of Amidonia.

Juna placed a hand on her ample bosom, closing her eyes in meditation. Your Majesty... Please, stay safe.

That she prayed for his safety, not his victory, was due to her feelings as Juna Doma, Souma’s lorelei, peeking through.

The ambush in the Goldoa Valley largely killed the Amidonian forces’ marching speed. When they tried to reorganize themselves into ranks after leaving the valley, the 30,000 troops had been reduced to 15,000. This indicated that, in addition to those that had been lost to the ambush and those that had been trampled when they’d sunk into the swamp, there had been a considerable number of soldiers who had fled, too.

Furthermore, because the wagons had had no choice but to drop their supplies and run in the chaos, the forces of the principality were now stricken with both exhaustion and hunger.

The soldiers’ stress had reached its peak and they were ready to blow at any moment. Even if they made it to Van with 15,000 troops, and then managed to launch a pincer attack with the defenders, it would be difficult to win against the Elfrieden Kingdom’s force of 55,000.

In response to this situation, Gaius VIII first had the captain of the wagon teams take responsibility for the loss of their provisions. He decapitated the man in order to pacify the other soldiers.

Next he gathered provisions from the nearby villages and towns, drafting their people into service to bring his total troops up to 25,000. Of course, this caused some resentment, but with the very existence of his country on the line, Gaius didn’t care.

While this had let him secure the number of troops he would need, his forces were gathering provisions and soldiers as they advanced, so they moved slowly. It had been some days since the retreat had begun, but they still had no idea when they would arrive at Van.

After spending yet another day, the Amidonian forces finally came close enough that they would likely reach Van within the day. However, the Amidonian forces had been making a fatal mistake all this time.

They’d rushed their advance too much.

You may question what’s wrong with that, or you may even think that Sun Tzu himself said that “Soldiers value haste.”

However, when Sun Tzu speaks of a “soldier,” he means “war.” In the original text, it says, “Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.”

What he means by that is: “War (because it’s a thing that exhausts countries) is most beneficial when resolved quickly, and there is no country that has benefited from a lengthy war.”

That was why the principality’s armies should have paid heed to the following words in The Art of War’s chapter “Maneuvering”:

“Maneuvering with an army is advantageous; with an undisciplined multitude, most dangerous. If you set a fully-equipped army in march in order to snatch an advantage, the chances are that you will be too late. On the other hand, to detach a flying column for the purpose involves the sacrifice of its baggage and stores.”

“Maneuvering” is the competition between two forces over which will claim strategically important locations first.

In the case of the Battle of Yamazaki between Hideyoshi Hashiba and Mitsuhide Akechi, that had been Mount Tennouzan, while in the Russo-Japanese War, it had been 203 Hill.

Certainly, if you can secure those important points before your opponent, the battle will be to your advantage.

However, Sun Tzu says developing a fixation on those points and competing with your opponent over them is dangerous. If you send your entire army, you’ll likely arrive too late, but if you send a fast unit ahead to do the job, they’ll end up leaving the team that carries their supplies behind.

If that happens, even if you do capture the point in question, it’s pointless.

Furthermore, Sun Tzu says that if you march one hundred li while maneuvering, only one-tenth of your army will reach their destination, and the leaders of all three of your divisions will fall into the enemy’s hands. If you march fifty li, only half of your army will reach the destination, and the leader of your first division will be struck down.

In other words, if you exhaust your soldiers trying to seize strategically important points, and you lose your supplies in the process, there’s no point.

If you look at what the armies of the principality had done, you’ll see that they had grown overly fixated on the strategically important capital city, Van, abandoned their supply wagons, and needlessly exhausted their soldiers.

In other words, they’d done exactly what Sun Tzu cautions against.

What the army of the principality found when they reached the open plain ten kilometers south of Van was a fresh army from the kingdom waiting for them.

When Gaius saw the forces arrayed before him, all of the power left his body and he nearly fell from his horse. “This is absurd... You can’t mean to tell me Van has already fallen...?”

There was no one who could respond to his mutterings.

To jump straight to the conclusion, no, Van had not yet fallen at this point.

When the forces of Elfrieden under Souma arrived a day before the Amidonian forces, they didn’t do anything stupid like try to attack the 5,000 elite soldiers holed up in Van. They split off 10,000 troops to monitor those soldiers, while the main force moved to the open field ten kilometers south of Van, waiting for the main force of the principality’s army which would no doubt be coming.

Souma’s target had been the main force of the Amidonian army from the very beginning. This was why he had told Gaius the target of their attack, something that should normally be kept secret.

By first saying he would attack Van, he would lie in wait for the principality’s forces to rush there, and then he would destroy them.

It was a plan that fell under Thirty-Six Stratagems’s sixth stratagem, “Make a sound in the east, then strike in the west,” but he was also reenacting the Battle of Maling, from which the words of the second stratagem, “Besiege Wei to rescue Zhao,” came.

This was the strategy that the second Sun Tzu, Sun Bin, had used to defeat his rival Pang Juan. Gaius had never stood a chance of seeing through it.

While he did have 25,000 troops at his command, in comparison to those exhausted troops which had lost most of their supply wagons, the kingdom’s forces had enough rations from Poncho to feed the whole army, and had spent the day resting on the field and waiting, so they were eager to fight.

55,000 kingdom soldiers in top condition vs. 25,000 exhausted principality soldiers.

The battle had been decided before it even began.

In the main camp in the center of the Elfrieden Kingdom’s forces which had taken the crane wing formation, Souma rose from his camp stool, raised his right arm high, then swung it down towards the forces of the principality.

“““Yeahhhhhhh!””” A victory cry rose up from the forces of the kingdom.

With that as the signal, the final battle between the Elfrieden Kingdom and the Principality of Amidonia began.

Elfrieden Historical Idiom Lessons: Number 4

“Let them attack the countryside to take the capital.”

Type: Proverb

Meaning: To accomplish something with minimal effort.

Origin: During the One Week War, Souma used the country town of Altomura as bait, then used the opening that created to enable an attack on the capital of the Principality of Amidonia.

Synonyms: “Lose the battle to win the war.”