by Hyougetsu
“We thought we could take it since it was just a castle of snow, but he started blasting us with this strange magic. It was like one of North Rolmund’s extreme blizzards, but ten times worse!”
“Yeah! Those Blast Canes or whatever that Princess Eleora developed are crazy strong. One of the shots hit my captain and blew his upper body straight off!”
That battle had truly been a nightmare. I knew it was only thanks to Sonnenlicht’s grace that I’d survived that hell. The young man chewed over our words for a few seconds, then nodded gravely.
“It sounds like you guys had it rough. Here, I have some booze. Let’s drink to celebrate your guys’ survival.”
The merchant pulled out a bottle of beet wine, an East Rolmund delicacy. Everything that came from East Rolmund was sweet, so there was no doubt this beet wine was sweet too. And right now, I could use a little sweet in my life.
“Hehe, thanks friend.”
The merchant’s snow hut was situated in an open spot near the road. While the hut kept the elements out, it couldn’t really be called warm. A bit of booze sounded wonderful right now. I gulped down the glass the merchant poured me, eating strips of bacon in between each swig. Now that I was far from the battlefield, I could feel my humanity returning to me. It only now hit me how homesick I was. The kind young man poured me another cup of wine and asked, “Are there a lot of deserters like you guys?”
“Yeah. The enemy doesn’t have enough soldiers to encircle the lake. So if we wanna run, now’s the only time.”
“Why’s that?”
“Cause Prince Ashley’s gotten serious. I heard he raised an army of seventy thousand elites. They’re probably marching on us as we speak. Once they get here, the whole castle’s gonna be surrounded.”
If Prince Ivan won everything would be fine and dandy, but if he lost we’d be branded traitors. There was no telling what’d happen to us if we were captured. Or if Prince Ashley would even bother capturing us instead of slaughtering us. The only smart choice was to return home and pretend I’d never participated in the war. I was sure my fellow villagers would back up my lie. I said as much to the young merchant, and he nodded to himself.
“I see. That certainly is true. What does it matter to peasants like us who sits on the throne. The most important thing is keeping ourselves out of trouble.”
“You said it. Besides, we’ve had enough of fighting.”
My buddy nodded in agreement.
“We barely survived that hellish battle at Crimson Snow Keep. I’ve done enough already.”
“I heard the guy in command is one hell of a crazy bastard. Apparently they call him the Astral Fencer over in the capital. Supposedly no one’s ever been able to beat him in a duel.”
“Rumor is he’s not even human.”
“Yeah. People are saying Princess Eleora signed a contract with some kind of war god from across the Slave Peaks.”
“Apparently all the people who live way south of the mountains are demons. I hear the escaped slaves are suffering under their rule too.”
The young merchant’s face went through a kaleidoscope of emotions as we told him our tale. Once we were done, he asked, “What’s this general’s name?”
“Uhh what was it again? Vai...Vaich? No, it sounded Meraldian...Veight?”
“Yeah, that was it. The Astral Fencer, Veight!”
“The bloodthirsty lord of Crimson Snow Keep, Veight!”
The merchant continued plying us with food and drink, making us feel welcome. But we couldn’t stay forever. This wasn’t our hut after all.
“We should probably get going.”
“Yeah. We need to make it to town before the sun rises.”
“Thanks for the meat and wine. That was your merchandise, wasn’t it? It’s not much, but here’s a token of our appreciation.”
We held out a few silver coins, but the merchant didn’t take them.
“It’s fine, I don’t need any money. It’s only natural to help those in need.”
“You’re...a real nice fellow, you know that? Oh yeah, what’s your name? I forgot to ask.”
The man smiled and walked out of the hut. Guess he’s gonna see us off? But then he spoke, and I realized how wrong I’d been.
“My name’s Veight.”
All of us fell silent and exchanged glances.
“Veight?”
“What...”
This is a joke, right? A second later, my arms were yanked behind my back and I was pinned to the ground. One of the man’s companions had grabbed me. Weren’t his friends all sleeping!? When did they wake up!?
“Huh!? Wh-What’s going on!?”
“What’s the meaning of this!?”
I was still having a hard time believing this was real, but the man pinning me down didn’t seem to be joking around. Furthermore, he was clearly well trained. The man who’d called himself Veight smiled innocently.
“As repayment for the meat and wine, I’m gonna have you answer a few more of this Astral Fencer’s questions.”
You’ve gotta be kidding me!
* * * *
I did my best to calm the terrified deserters down.
“Now, now, no need to worry. If I was planning to kill you, I wouldn’t have given you my food and wine. I would have just killed you.”
Originally I’d been planning on letting them go without revealing my true identity at all, but it looked like these guys knew more than they’d been willing to divulge. I needed to get as much information out of them as I could. After a tense Q&A session, I discovered that the men were overseers working for the Bolshevik family, one of North Rolmund’s most influential noble families. Bingo.
“Aren’t the Bolsheviks close to the Doneiks family? Are you sure you should be running away while Prince Woroy is still fighting?”
The soldiers exchanged glances. One of them said in a small voice, “Lord Bolshevik was against this war from the start...but some of his relatives married into the Doneiks family, so he sent us to fight for them.”
Prince Ivan’s mother was from the Bolshevik family. The Bolsheviks were the second strongest family in North Rolmund after the Doneiks, and they were also the Doneiks’ staunchest allies. It was no coincidence that the late Lord Doneiks had taken a wife from the Bolshevik family.
“Besides...” muttered one of the other soldiers, as he looked up at me with a sorrowful expression. “I heard Princess Eleora started marching north. I’m worried she might have attacked my village.”
“Ahh, I get you...”
I gave the soldier a sympathetic look. Their families and livelihoods were back in their villages, not here. Nodding in understanding, I added, “Even if you win this war there’s no point if your village gets destroyed, right?”
The soldiers nodded vigorously. But well, Eleora’s the one in charge of that army. She won’t harm civilians unless there’s a vital strategic reason to. I gave the deserters a reassuring smile.
“Her Highness Princess Eleora is a wise ruler. I can say for certain that she won’t allow anyone in her army to loot or pillage. So long as you surrender to her when her army comes, you’ll be safe.”
I asked the soldiers a few more miscellaneous questions. The most useful thing I managed to glean was what they thought of our magical guns. The concept of infantry equipped with Blast Canes had only just begun permeating throughout Rolmund. Because producing the weapons was difficult, and it took a long time to train skilled shooters, they were considered inferior to crossbows. Those were the two main reasons why most of Rolmund’s armies hadn’t opted to start using them—and the main reason the soldiers had been unprepared for the power of Blast Canes. They’d charged the walls expecting to face something similar to crossbow bolts, but instead were hit with a barrage of machine gun fire.
During that battle, I’d discovered the gatling gun was a far more dangerous weapon than even I’d anticipated. It drained copious quantities of mana, but demons like me or Parker—who possessed quite a b
it of mana—could use it to devastating effect. Chances were, in a few decades, war in this world would evolve into trench warfare. Battlefields would become dangerous killing fields where poking your head out of a trench would mean instant death. From there, tanks would be developed to overcome the defensive fortifications of trenches, and history would follow a similar trajectory to the two world wars back on earth.
At any rate, what this meant was that Prince Woroy’s soldiers were now terrified of our firepower and their morale was plummeting. War hinged on the emotional stability of its soldiers, so their fear would have a huge effect on the battles to come. Prince Woroy was probably tearing his hair out right now.
“Once you get back to your villages, lay down your weapons and do as Princess Eleora asks. I’ll be sure to tell her to treat Lord Bolshevik with mercy.”
I made sure to drive that point home, then released the soldiers. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t even need to say anything to Eleora. Knowing her, she was already working on winning Lord Bolshevik over. As we watched the soldiers vanish to the north, Hamaam muttered, “Are you sure you should have let them go, Vice-Commander? We wouldn’t have lost anything by killing them.”
“True. If anything, it might have been more efficient to kill them.”
Corpses couldn’t stab you in the back, after all. But still, I shook my head.
“They might be useful to us alive. More importantly though, I don’t want to foment any unnecessary resentment.”
“You might end up having to deal with even worse grudges because you left them alive.”
“Are you speaking from experience?”
“Yeah.” Hamaam smiled bitterly. “You’ve probably figured out that I used to be a former bandit, right?”
“Yeah, it’d be hard not to.”
Hamaam didn’t talk much about his past, but I had more than enough circumstantial evidence to know the truth.
“It was my policy not to kill any more than strictly necessary either, but because of that, I became a wanted man and had to flee my old home.”
“So that’s how you ended up with us.”
I’d been wondering what had caused Hamaam to come to our village. I examined Hamaam’s expression, then grinned.
“But you don’t regret your choices, do you?”
Smiling, Hamaam nodded.
“Yeah, I don’t. If I started killing women and children, I wouldn’t be a bandit or a werewolf—I’d just be a monster. Besides, it’s because I ran away that I got to meet you.”
Aww, you’re making me blush. I patted Hamaam on the shoulder, then turned to the rest of his squad.
“Those deserters will start spreading stories of what’s happening at Creech Castle. They’ll tell the people in their village that Prince Woroy’s on the brink of defeat, and that they need to run.”
Now that they’d become deserters, they had no choice but to justify their desertion somehow.
“As those stories spread, the people will begin to believe that Prince Woroy’s army is in much worse shape than it really is. Once that happens, they’ll stop resisting.”
My werewolves nodded in understanding.
“I see. You really are a scoundrel, boss.”
“Yeah, you really know everything about those cowardly humans.”
I couldn’t help but give them a rueful smile.
“That’s because I’ve learned a lot from that cowardice of theirs...”
I was a coward, both in my past life and in this one. However, the members of Hamaam’s squad misinterpreted my words as scholarly learning and just thought me wise for learning from the Great Sage. Feeling embarrassed, I quickly changed the topic.
“Keep wringing information out of any deserters you find. A single report can’t be trusted, but if they’re all saying the same things then we know there’s a kernel of truth to their confessions. I’m counting on you guys.”
“Yes, sir!”
While Prince Woroy’s soldiers’ morale continued to drop, our soldiers’ morale started skyrocketing.
“The next time they attack, I’m gonna shoot down twice as many enemies!”
“Oh, so two soldiers? They’ve got like three times as many troops as we do, so you better kill at least three next time, man!”
“Hahahaha!”
The mage corps joked around with each other as they performed maintenance on their weapons. Jerrick, who was working on his own Blast Cane, turned to me and cocked his head.
“Hey, boss.”
“Yeah?”
“Why’re they all in such high spirits?”
I smiled at Jerrick and replied, “When Eleora first developed her magic weapons, the empire’s generals were reluctant to let mages join the army.”
“Uh-huh.”
“So they put rules in place saying the only equipment mages could use were staves, grimoires, and daggers for self-defense.”
Rolmund’s generals had wanted to use Eleora’s powerful magic weapons, but they hadn’t wanted to let mages touch them. They were stubbornly set in their old ways.
“So Eleora redesigned her Blast Lances into Blast Canes. She insisted they were a kind of staff, so mages would be allowed to use them. But while her plan worked, it ostracized mages within the army.”
“Damn, that sucks. These are such good weapons, too.”
Jerrick furrowed his brows. As a blacksmith, he was unhappy to see such inspired designs go to waste.
“That’s why all the mage corps are so happy they were able to win an overwhelming victory over a massive regular army.”
The mages were aware of their own strength, and now they’d finally been able to show that strength to the world.
“They now know that as long as they serve under Eleora, their talents won’t be squandered. They’ll be able to win honor and prestige, and they won’t end up dying a dog’s death. On top of that, they’ll even get proper equipment.”
“Oh yeah, I saw some of the Blast Canes they’re using in Woroy’s army. They look like shit. You’re better off using those things as clubs than as guns.”
A lot of the deserters had started selling their weapons and armor in nearby villages, and we’d managed to secure a good chunk of them. However, as Jerrick had said, their Blast Canes were all inferior, barely functional versions of our own. Both their range and their power paled in comparison to the ones Eleora’s army used.
“Yeah, the magic circles drawn on the barrels are sloppy, and they’re made with low-quality magesteel. I guess North Rolmund just doesn’t have as good a production line as East Rolmund.”
Since Eleora was the one who invented magic weaponry, it made sense that her homeland would have the most efficient and advanced production line for them. She’d been cautious enough to keep her own production process secret as well, so only she knew how to make the best-quality weapons. The fact that only she could mass-produce high-quality modern weaponry would be an important factor in this political struggle.
Now then, what’s Prince Woroy’s next move going to be? His closest allies were still loyal to him, and his core of elite soldiers hadn’t deserted. I couldn’t afford to let my guard down. Unfortunately, he was in such a precarious position that I couldn’t actually predict his next move.
“Prince Woroy should be backed into a corner right now.”
Today, like every other day, I was keeping watch on Creech Castle from the ramparts. Kite, who was by my side, leaned tiredly against the ice wall.
“They did only manage to get one attack on us so far.”
“Well, they’ll suffer heavy casualties if they storm the castle in earnest, and with how much time has passed, there’s not even much strategic value in taking the castle down anymore.”
Kite leaned down and started building a miniature snowman.
“So how do we beat Prince Woroy then, Veight?”
“No clue.”
“Even you don’t know?”
More like because it’s me, I don’t know. I had n
o doubt someone smarter than me could easily figure it out. However, I still gave Kite a smile and said, “But I do have an idea of what the prince is currently thinking.”
“Really?”
“His strength as a strategist is being able to figure out the one thing his opponent least wants him to do.”
Prince Woroy used not logic, but his own intuition to read the thoughts of his enemies. It was a skill he’d inherited from his father.
“So chances are the next thing he’ll do is the one thing we don’t want him to do. In that respect, he’s easy to read.”
So long as we prepared for the worst-case scenario, we’d be fine.
Fortunately for us, Prince Woroy moved exactly as I’d hoped.
“Prince Woroy has marched out of the castle with twenty thousand men! He’s heading north!”
One of the werewolf squads out on patrol came back to me with that report. The prince had left a few thousand men to defend the castle, and taken the rest of his forces north. Don’t you think you’re being a bit too obvious, leaving in the middle of the day like this?
“Why would he retreat now of all times?” asked Kite, as he gave me a confused look.
“Right now the most dangerous move Prince Woroy can make isn’t holing up in his castle or trying to invade the capital, but rather, to try to pincer Eleora’s army.” Which was of course why Prince Woroy had chosen to do just that. “There’s one other reason though.”
“What’s that?”
“During our last battle, we showed his army how overwhelming our weapons are. But at the same time, we made it obvious that they’re only this devastating when protected by walls and trenches.”
In truth, I had basically no cavalry. Even if I’d sent infantry to chase the routed enemies, they would have had time to regroup before the infantry caught up. Furthermore, the mage corps that made up the core of my army were unsuited to battles in open plains. The only units I could send in pursuit of a marching army were my 200 cavalry, 5,000 spearmen, and 1,000 crossbowmen. The 800 or so mage corps that I had were effectively useless.
