by Dojyomaru
“Yes, sir! I understand!” he said firmly.
“Liscia and Aisha, come with me,” I added. “We’ll join up with Ludwin and his group.”
“Okay,” said Liscia.
“Understood, sire,” Aisha agreed.
Good. After giving orders to the others, I turned to look at Carla.
“Carla, you come with us, too.”
“I can’t have that much value to you as a prisoner at this point,” Carla said. “Please, just throw me in a cell somewhere,”
She seemed to have no strength remaining, but I shook my head in silence.
“You should see how this ends. See just whose strings you were dancing to.”
“Huh?” She looked startled. “What are you talking about? Nobody was making us dance...”
“Oh, no, you were dancing,” I said. “After all, we were, too.”
“What?” Carla asked, giving me a dubious look, to which I responded with a sigh.
“It’s not like we have a complete grasp of the scenario. Still, if we play our roles in it out to the end, I think we’ll start to see. We’ll see just who it was that wrote the script for this battle.”
◇ ◇ ◇
—The same day, a few hours later, in the city of Randel in the Carmine Duchy.
There was a relaxed atmosphere on the castle walls surrounding Randel, the central city of the Carmine Duchy. The Army and Forbidden Army were engaged in hostilities, but that battle was being fought entirely at the fortress the Forbidden Army had built near Randel.
Because of that, there wasn’t so much as one arrow flying over the walls of Randel.
“Sure is boring...” one of the Army soldiers muttered to himself.
One of his fellow soldiers happened to overhear and looked at him with a frown. “Hey, we’re at war with the Forbidden Army right now, you know.”
“That’s what they tell us, but... all the fighting’s going on over by that fortress, isn’t it?” he complained. “Is there any point in us being on guard here?”
When he said that, another of his comrades laughed heartily and said, “What’s wrong with boring? Would you rather be on the front line against the Forbidden Army?”
“I-I never said that.”
“If anything, I’ll bet the guys on the front line wish they could trade places with us,” the other soldier continued. “If they resist the Forbidden Army, suddenly they’ll be being called rebels and part of a rebel army. On top of that, I hear there are a number of Army soldiers being led by Sir Glaive Magna, who parted ways with Duke Carmine, mixed in with the enemy. Who would want to fight against men they once ate from the same pot as?”
“You’ve got that right,” another soldier said, joining in on the grumbling. “I’ve heard talk that the Amidonians are on the move down south, too. What are the king and Duke Carmine thinking?”
“When you look at it that way, nothing beats guarding the castle walls,” the second soldier said.
“...You could be right,” the soldier who had been complaining at first said, starting to sound convinced. That was when it happened.
“Hey, look at the sky in the east! Something’s coming!” someone shouted.
Hearing that, they all turned to look at the eastern sky.
When they narrowed their eyes, it was true, they could see what looked like a swarm of mosquitoes in the sky to the east. For a moment, they thought it might be a flock of birds, but there were too many. There had to be close to a thousand of them.
As the swarm closed in, they realized it was the Air Force’s wyvern cavalry.
As soon as that became clear, a wave of relief washed over the soldiers.
“...Good. Duke Vargas is our ally.”
“The Air Force is coming to support us!”
“If they are, then the battle’s already over. That fortress of theirs will fall easily under aerial bombardment.”
Everyone nodded sagely in agreement.
...Yes, the end of this battle was most certainly near. However, that end was to be precisely the opposite of what those soldiers expected.
The Air Force passed over the fortress built outside Randel where the Forbidden Army were holed up, then dropped barrels filled with gunpowder on the anti-air repeating bolt throwers on the walls of Randel.
◇ ◇ ◇
The wyvern cavalry flew over the walls of Randel. Their leader Tolman looked down as an explosion rang out, flames flew around, and black smoke rose. Their targets, the anti-air repeating bolt throwers, had been blasted away without a trace, along with chunks of the wall where they had once been.
The gunpowder barrels used by the Air Force were similar in design to the fire arrows pirates had used during the Sengoku Period to sink enemy ships. To explain it quickly, they were like firework shells.
The time it took for them to explode could be adjusted with the length of the oil-soaked rope used as a fuse. Once the fuse was lit and the bomb dropped, it would go off after the set amount of time. They weren’t like incendiary bombs, which explode with the force of the impact, but the Air Force could adjust their fuse length based on the altitude they would be dropped from, so they could be used in a similar manner.
Incidentally, because the gunpowder from those barrels that failed and impacted the ground would scatter, then be set off by the gunpowder barrels that succeeded, the extent of the damage inevitably grew.
How many Army soldiers have died in that blast now... No! Tolman shook his head, forcing down the depressing feelings that were welling up inside him. I will not ask for forgiveness. This is for my master and the princess.
In order to lighten the situation Castor and Carla would both surely find themselves in after the war, he needed the Air Force to achieve as much as possible here. As if trying to raise his own morale, Tolman shouted orders to the rest of the Air Force.
“The bolt throwers have fallen silent! We will now begin the bombardment of Randel Castle! Do not, under any circumstances, allow your bombs to fall on residential blocks! By the pride of our Air Force, we cannot allow any more needless deaths!”
“““Yeahhhhh!”””
The men and officers cheered in response to Tolman’s words.
And so, a formation of wyvern cavalry began the aerial bombardment of Georg Carmine’s castle in the center of Randel.
◇ ◇ ◇
—At the same time, outside Randel.
It was around the time that the wyvern cavalry being led by Tolman began their bombardment of Randel’s castle walls.
A wyvern carrying a gondola containing Liscia, Aisha, the captive Carla, and myself descended to the fortress where Ludwin and the others were holding out. It was dangerous to land at a fortress that was under attack, but the Army had withdrawn in surprise when the bombardment at Randel had begun. Thanks to that, we had been able to enter the fortress quite easily.
When we stepped out of the wyvern’s gondola, Ludwin, Hal, and Kaede were there to greet us. While they all showed signs of exhaustion, I was relieved to see they were completely unharmed. While they had only been defending themselves against a siege for a day and a half, I knew unexpected accidents could always occur.
I bumped fists with Hal. “I brought the Air Force, just as planned.”
“Well, we held out against the Army for you, just as planned,” he said.
We both proudly boasted about what we’d accomplished.
“It was only a day and a half,” I said. “If you hadn’t been able to hold out that long, I wouldn’t know what to do with you.”
“You idiot,” he snorted. “The enemy even brought out cannons, you know? If the dark elves hadn’t come to support us, we might have taken serious losses.”
“I see... I’ll have to reward those reinforcements after the war,” I said. “Anyway, I’m glad to see you’re doing fine.”
“You, too, Souma,” he said. “You’re weak, so don’t push yourself too hard.”
“And you, Hal, you’re strong, but y
ou never think. I worry you’ll charge in blindly and get yourself killed.”
For some reason Hal and I went from crowing about our own achievements to pointing out each other’s faults.
Liscia, Alicia, and Kaede watched us, rolling their eyes.
“What’re those two doing?” Liscia muttered.
“Well, perhaps you could call that a kind of manly friendship?” Aisha suggested.
“It’s just Hal’s burning sense of rivalry towards His Majesty, you know,” said Kaede.
The girls just said whatever they wanted to about us. Carla was the only one who didn’t know what our relationship was like, so she just stood there blinking.
“That man... He’s a little too friendly with the king, isn’t he?” she asked.
“Officer Halbert has been given permission to treat him like a friend. Basically, he’s the same as us,” Liscia explained to her.
Then Ludwin knelt before me and gave his report. “Sire, we have successfully constructed and defended the fortress, as ordered.”
“You have served me admirably,” I said. “I will see to it that you and your troops are duly rewarded for your effort after the war.”
He addressed me in a formal tone, so I responded in kind. Seeing me suddenly shift into that self-important tone, Hal and the others grinned, but I did my best to ignore it. Time was precious right now.
“Ludwin, get the troops together and prepare to move out,” I ordered.
“Yes, sir! Then, are we attacking Randel?”
“No... The battle here is already over.”
“Huh? What do you...”
“I have a report!” The next moment, a soldier of the Forbidden Army was rushing up to us.
He looked incredibly flustered. He came at us so fast that Aisha and Ludwin both nearly drew their swords.
The soldier practically threw himself to the ground in prostration before me, then raised his voice to say, “The white flag has risen over Randel! O-Our forces are victorious!”
◇ ◇ ◇
Slightly before that, there was an uproar in Georg Carmine’s castle over the sudden surprise attack. There were many different rumors flying back and forth in the castle.
Had Castor Vargas betrayed them?
Had the king and Castor Vargas been colluding behind the scenes?
No, wasn’t the one who had plotted all this, in fact, Excel Walter, that capable woman and veteran of many battles?
...That was how it went, with various theories bandied about, but no one guessed the truth: that Souma had pulled a trick that had let him defeat the Air Force in a single day.
The ones who made the most noise about these events were the ones who had exhausted their personal troops in the battle against the fortress yesterday and who had been removed from the front line today, the corrupt nobles who had been resting in Randel Castle. As soon as they found out that the large explosion had been due to an aerial bombardment by the Air Force, they rushed to the governmental affairs office, where Georg Carmine was doing the work of governing despite the ongoing situation.
“Duke Carmine! What are you doing, taking things so easily during this crisis?!” one of them exclaimed.
“The Air Force has betrayed us! We must come up with a plan of action at once!”
“Give us your orders, please! What are we to do?”
As the nobles worked themselves into a frenzy and shouted all manner of verbal abuse at him, Georg’s wolf-headed lieutenant, Beowulf, who was here at this very moment to report on the bombing, furrowed his brow in anger. He was about to draw the sword at his hip to respond to the affront, but...
“Beowulf,” Georg addressed him.
“Yes, sir!” He stood at attention.
Georg asked him in a calm tone, “What is the extent of the damage from the aerial bombardment just now?”
“Sir,” he said. “The bombardment on the castle only blasted away a portion of the roof and towers. Fortunately, there were few casualties. However, we’ve lost every one of the anti-air repeating bolt throwers on the castle walls. The soldiers assigned to guard the walls are in a state of panic and confusion.”
“I see...”
Georg showed no sign of a change in his expression at Beowulf’s report, but the nobles who were listening went ghastly pale. The loss of the anti-air repeating bolt throwers meant the loss of any ability to oppose the wyvern cavalry. The Army now had no means to stop the Air Force’s bombardment. In other words, even if they attempted to hold out inside the castle, they would be one-sidedly bombed to death.
Georg stroked the beard that had merged with his mane. “In short, everyone in this castle is now their hostage.”
“Yes, sir. That would appear to be the case.”
When he heard Beowulf’s response, the corners of Georg’s mouth rose as he said, “Then this battle is our loss.”
He accepted his defeat so easily that the corrupt nobles did not understand what he had said for a moment.
They had lost.
The moment they managed to process that, their faces all turned red or blue and they rounded on Georg.
“Wh-What are you saying, Duke Carmine?! We’ve not lost yet!”
“Indeed! The army is still practically unharmed! There is ample opportunity to turn things around!”
“If we have no anti-air repeating bolt throwers, we need only retreat to a city that has them! Let’s plan our comeback and face the king and the Forbidden Army there!”
“...You would have me abandon Randel?” Georg said with a tone of exasperation as he looked at the nobles who were saying they would resist to the last. “What is a ruler if he casts aside his subjects? If a lord flees and deserts his people, surely the people of another city will never accept him.”
“What are you saying?!” one of the nobles exclaimed. “Subjects are those who have no choice but to obey the victor! Even if they’re discontented for a time, so long as you win in the end, they will yield to you on their own!”
“Indeed! Platitudes are only worth something if we live! First, we must think of a way to survive!” another cried.
As he listened to the nobles who, even now, were only concerned with their own well-being, Georg let out a sigh.
“In the end, the only ones you fear for are yourselves. Ah, but now I recall, you people were like that from the beginning. Honestly... in the short time since we last fought a foreign enemy, I never would have expected our roots to rot so badly. As I thought, in order for the new buds to flourish, first the rotting leaves and branches must be cleared away.”
“Duke Carmine? What are you saying...?”
The nobles were bewildered by the sudden change in Georg’s demeanor.
Georg paid them no heed, ordering his lieutenant, “Beowulf. Do it as we planned.”
“...Yes, sir,” Beowulf said.
When Beowulf raised his right hand, suddenly soldiers rushed into the room, swords drawn, and surrounded the nobles. With twenty to thirty soldiers holding them at sword point, the nobles who were unable to move finally realized they’d been deceived by Georg. They were stripped of their weapons and forced into slave collars one after another.
“What is the meaning of this, Duke Carmine?!” one of them exclaimed.
“You wouldn’t, Duke Carmine! Do you mean to turn over our heads to beg the king to spare your own?!” another one screamed.
“Th-This isn’t fair!” a third one shouted.
“Curse you! This is dirty, Georg Carmine!”
When he heard the nobles still talking like that, Georg sighed once more in disappointment. “I take offense at the suggestion that I am anything like you people. ...Take them away.”
The bound nobles were led out of the room by the soldiers.
Some tried to resist, but having already been forced into slave collars, their master Beowulf merely willed for the collars to constrict, knocking them unconscious.
Even once the door was closed and they were out of sight, they could
still be heard cursing Georg foully from the corridor. After a little while, those voices faded and at last Georg returned to his seat. Then, exhaling deeply, he asked Beowulf a question.
“What has become of their personal troops and the Zemish mercenaries?”
“Sir, they are being detained by our forces as we speak.”
Hearing Beowulf’s response, Georg nodded in satisfaction. Then, as if casting off the stern mask he had worn all this time, a gentle smile came to his face.
“I have done as I sought to. Now, I have no regrets in this world.”
In contrast to Georg, who looked bright and cheerful, Beowulf bore a look of agony.
When he thought of what he had to do now, it must have weighed on him heavily. Georg understood how Beowulf felt, so he gave the order as calmly as he could.
“Now then, Beowulf. Could I ask that you do the same for me?”
“...Yes, sir.” He showed a moment’s hesitation, but Beowulf wrapped a slave collar around Georg’s neck, as well.
Even though he was receiving a death collar that would force him into absolute subservience to his new master, Georg wore a calm expression, like he might when asking his wife to adjust the fancy bow-tie he intended to wear to a wedding reception. With the slave collar wrapped around his neck, Georg now gave his final order as General of the Army.
“Dispatch a messenger to deliver our surrender to the Forbidden Army and place yourself at His Majesty’s command. All of the men and officers, with the exception of the corrupt nobles and their troops, acted only under my orders. I bear responsibility for all their crimes. From here on... I leave things to you and Glaive. Do I make myself understood?”
“...Yes, sir. I will do so at once.” Beowulf saluted him and left the room.
After watching him go, Georg opened the bottom drawer of the office desk.
Inside was a bottle of wine from the year Princess Liscia had been born. It had been given to him by the former king, Albert, with the request, “No matter what should happen, I want you to protect my daughter.” He had held onto it dearly ever since that day.
After Liscia’s graduation from the officers’ academy, during the time when he had kept her at his side, he had often told her, “On the day of your wedding, I intend to drink myself into a stupor with this wine” with a laugh.