[WN] Emperor's Seventh Son : 19 - 2

19-2

Steal the Wealth from the Drug Dealers

Translator : PolterGlast

Target's Right Hand

「Let's stop already.」

「Stop? And do what if we stop? It's too late to back down now, there's only ruin.」

At first, there was only my brother and me. Disgusted by our stepfather's violence, we drifted from a lonely northern farming village to the Imperial Capital. We continued doing day labor, held back from play and alcohol, and saved money by gnawing only on hard black bread. They were painful days. Even if we could endure the hunger, the unseen tomorrow became an unbearable anxiety that tormented us.

「But brother, no matter what we do, we will be ruined. Once Georg has his eyes on us, it's all over...」

「Shut up! If the Crown Prince just becomes Emperor, our positions will be reversed!」

「Isn't it because that Crown Prince has gone crazy that things have turned out like this! At least, let's stop dealing in contraband, brother!」

At the end of our hardships, we succeeded as merchants. We built a pipeline with the Crown Prince of this country, and arranged all sorts of goods for him. Alcohol, delicacies, foreign artworks. And then high-class prostitutes, slaves, poisons, illegal drugs, we began to handle dirty goods as well. We are now profiting by buying and selling slaves and drugs...

「If we stop that, the company will be crushed!」

「Brother, we've made too many people unhappy. If you won't promise to stop, I will take the evidence and make a direct appeal to General Georg. It's already time to quit, brother...」

「Stop it, you'll be executed!」

「Then just say it was on the Crown Prince's orders! That guy is no good anymore, at this rate, even we will go down with him—eh............ Bro, ther...?」

My brother stabbed me in the chest. A spray of blood spurted out and soiled my brother's face. Ah... I can't be saved anymore. Bewildered by the suddenly visiting death, I clung to my brother. Why did it turn out like this... At first, I just wanted to live in a free world without violence...

「It's your fault... I can't back down anymore, the only thing I can't endure is repeating that kind of poor life...!」

「Brother... We will, surely, fall... into the Abyss... I'll wait... for you, there...」

「The only ones who will survive in the coming era are those who can sacrifice everything... I'm not in the wrong, it's your fault for trying to betray me... Damn it, damn it, damn it, why did you have to make me!!」

God, please save my brother's soul... Before he sacrifices any more people, please stop my brother... Samael-sama, have mercy on my brother...

◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

In the study in Erin, we surrounded what was practically Puis's desk. Normally, I, the Lord, would sit on the other side, and Puis would stand on this side to give his report, but that would truly be a farce.

「Some of you already know, but once again. This time's target is a small fry. Originally, they were merchants who did business like parasites, so to speak, as part of the Crown Prince's entourage, but ever since their host started shutting himself in, they began dabbling in bad business.」

The collaborators this time are Yumil, Carral, and the chivalrous-thief-loving Sigrun. When I told Carral the plan, these two, who are close to Carral, ended up joining in a slippery-slope fashion.

「Drugs. It seems they originally smuggled them for the Crown Prince, but because that Crown Prince suddenly stopped buying goods, they started selling the drugs to the common people of the Imperial Capital.」

「Yeah, Georg-aniue was in the stage of gathering evidence, but now that the Emperor is dead, he seems to have judged that he can't rely on the judiciary for a while.」

「Yes. At this rate, until the political situation of the Empire stabilizes, these drug dealers will run rampant. It is already—」

「There is no other choice but for us to mete out divine punishment in place of the gods! That's what you mean, right!?」

If it were Puis, he would have used the ironically effective word "lynching." But Sigrun loudly rewrote it with the extreme yet less guilty-sounding word "divine punishment."

「Yeah, then let's proceed as usual. Sigrun, I leave the arrangement of the transport unit to you. Carral, the preparations for loading onto the ship. Yumil and I will do the final assessment. Any questions?」

Carral really wanted to tag along for the robbery. She apparently wants to properly know from what kind of places the goods she sells are sourced.

「Then from me. The one you're taking with you, wouldn't it be better if it's Carral-chan instead of me?」

「Eh!? Y-Yumil-sama, w-wait, what are you suddenly saying!?」

「Oh my, are you going to ask him that? How about it, Ashley-sama?」

「For loading, Carral is the best, there's no one more suited. And I want to use beastmen for the transport unit, because they're tight-lipped. Then Sigrun is the most deeply connected there. Therefore, I will have Yumil tag along with me here.」

That's strange... I intended this to be the perfectly correct answer, but it seems it was a miss again. Carral sighed, Yumil-jou directed cold eyes at me, and Sigrun laughed Gahahaha.

「Fufufu, I really like that boyish aspect of yours, Ashley-sama, it pierces right through my sexual preferences.」

「I don't really understand, but Puis, I think using the word 'sexual preferences' in front of women is a bit...」

I placed Princess Yumil on the my cart I had prepared beforehand, and dashed all the way to the Imperial Capital Bergelmir. The young lady complained that it was embarrassing, but this is the fastest way. Even if she complains, I ignored it all.

◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

「Oh my, Ashley, welcome—oh my!?」

「Is something wrong, Auntie?」

If I come to the Imperial Capital, it would be here first. I dropped by the usual cafe. She seems surprised about something, but I merely ran all the way here with the young lady riding on a cart...

「What a pretty girl... No wait, what happened to Carral-chan!?」

「Carral? If you mean Carral, she's in Erin. But we'll meet up later, so I'd like to bring her some kebab sandwiches from here as a gift.」

「I'm sorry, this person is always like this. I am Yumil, an ordinary Light Elf, as you can see.」

Getting off the cart she was complaining from, crying out 'Embarrassing, embarrassing, let me down', Yumil-jou acted primly like a beauty.

「I'm the owner of this cafe here. More importantly, Ashley, you know... have you ever thought about Carral-chan's feelings?」

「Auntie... that's why I'm saying I'll bring Carral a kebab sandwich.」

「That's not what I mean, you dunce!!」

「It's okay, Auntie. Carral is already used to this boy too...」

I was subjected to old-fashioned abuse, and on top of that, treated like a child.

「Understood, I'll add a cutlet sandwich and a BLT (Bacon. Lettuce, Tomato) too. With that, Carral should be satisfied too.」

「Ashley-kun, you still think we're talking about food, don't you...」

「I'm worried, about this boy... I'm sorry, but please don't abandon him even though he's like this...」

Just in case, today we didn't eat at the open cafe, but instead filled our stomachs inside before heading to our true destination.

◆ ◇ ◆

From here on out, it's not a very pleasant feeling. Therefore, I'll explain it simply.

Yumil-jou and I headed to the slums on the outskirts of the Imperial Capital. Puis had already made arrangements with the boss there. When we first visited that boss, a robust man who looked like nothing but a yakuza guided us through the slums. The ones we were introduced to were those who became human wrecks due to low-purity drugs. Those whose limbs necrotized and died from the same. Former nobles who lost their wealth and ended up living in the slums, and so on. Yumil-jou held a strong disgust toward this world swirling with malice, unimaginable from the peaceful Duke of Fimbul territory.

At the end, I offered the guide a cutlet sandwich as a token of gratitude.

「O-Oh... if you say you're giving it to me, well I'll take it... Ah, deli—this is delicious, isn't it? Where did you buy it?」

「It's from a certain cafe in the Imperial Capital. If you go from here through the Red Avenue to the center, there's a signboard with three little birds drawn on it...」

The conversation got a little derailed, but I parted with the guide, put Princess Yumil back on the cart, and dashed away.

「So, what do you think?」

「There's no need to ask! Of course it's embarrassing being seen by people!」

「Not that. I think they should be crushed; I can't sympathize with them at all. It's only natural for those who greedily devour wealth while scattering this much misfortune to face a lynching.」

「There's no need to ask about that either! If they won't stop unless we do it, then it's a matter of destroying that company! Let's do it!」

Well, that's how it turned out. Using a vacant house Puis bought for us as a base, we decided to tunnel into the drug dealers' warehouse from there.

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[WN] Emperor's Seventh Son : 19 - 1

19-1

State Funeral / A New Target

Translator : PolterGlast

Synopsis of the Previous Chapter

Through the efforts of the legendary blacksmith without a physical body and the noble young lady Yumil, the magic spirit silver swords were finally completed. Georg was given a magic sword that uses jewels as catalysts, and Sigrun was given a self-vibrating sword, thereby enhancing the combat power of the general and the hero.

Meanwhile, Ashley took the Adventurer's Guild promotion exam. The school teacher acting as the examiner was deeply bewildered by Ashley, who glowed every time he achieved a promotion, but he was incredibly popular with the children. When Ashley reached the Granite rank, the Book of the Evil Dragon presented a new challenge: 『Complete a mission outside the Empire at the Guild.』

Georg and the knight Aureus met face-to-face. Aureus voluntarily offered to become a double agent against Prince Yord. He was still hesitating about his course of action, but upon learning the fact that his young attendant Baldur had been confined and abused, he decided to abandon Yord.

On the other hand, the royal family members had begun maneuvering in secret. As their father's death approached, the second son, Julius, spread a rumor that Uncle Morac and Aunt Dunail were poisoning the Emperor. In response, Morac contacted the third son, Olive, who was based in the north, and attempted to create a law that would transfer command of the Imperial Capital to himself in the event of a state of emergency.

Also, one day, the boy Baldur caught a fever. Learning this, Ashley acted on a whim. He went digging for wild yams in the middle of the night and delivered them grated to the boy's room. He wants to become a page, but his androphobia and battered body do not seem likely to heal anytime soon.

The next day, Carral returned to Erin Port having grown her fleet. First thing in the morning, Ashley rushed to the port and promised her to take him on the next voyage. However, that promise will likely never be fulfilled.

In the paradise where Zirant resides, a father waited for his child. He bid farewell to his child, and since they cannot be placed in the same grave, requested him to deliver his memento to his mother. The man who carried out his role to the very end, even if called ruthless, entrusted the future of the Empire to Ashley and disappeared with a satisfied look.

On this day, the Emperor of the A-Zir Empire died. The unceasing bells heralded the beginning of a new era.

・

Imperial Capital Turmoil

The death of Emperor Ferdinand, the man who had continued to protect the order of the Empire, raced across the world. The funeral was scheduled for two days after his passing, and until then, each and everyone spent their time harboring anxiety.

Part of it was because a strange rumor had been flowing that Uncle and Aunt were poisoning the Emperor. But that's impossible. The Red Dragon Palace exists to prevent assassinations, and to begin with, there's no way the old man wouldn't notice the poison. This meant that an information war had already begun, aiming for the vacant throne of the Emperor.

「Ashley-sama, you have no intention of mourning, do you...」

「Jii, are you done over there already?」

Speaking of another change, Jii has returned to my side. That was surely because he was more worried about us than Father's corpse.

「Yes, I apologize for being unable to serve by your side until today. From today onwards, I am your old man once again.」

「I see... Then please take care of Atomina-aneue rather than me. Don't make that kind of face, I will properly attend the funeral. But until then, let me do as I please.」

「You are not saddened, I see... Do you still resent him deep in your heart?」

「What's the point of resenting a dead man. I don't think the dead would be happy if I just grieved and lamented in my room. If so, I'll just do what I can do.」

Until the day the state funeral was held, I put my efforts into the development of Erin and the maintenance of its roads. I couldn't calm down unless I was doing something. Looking at Aneue with her red, swollen eyes, and Jii who looked lonely having lost his friend, it felt like even I would succumb to momentary emotions.

So, to make life even a little easier for the people, I maintained the poorly managed side roads, and after the sun began to set, I headed toward Erin Port and secretly expanded its site, which was narrow for its scale.

「Shinza...?」

「Yeah, I happened to be nearby... I figured I might as well just come see how things are.」

I was thinking of taking a look at Carral's galleon before heading home. Then, despite the late hour, Carral's figure was on the deck.

「Jeez... Everyone is worried about you, Shinza. When you get back, you should say something to Atomina-sama and Grandpa Gideon, okay?」

「I suppose I should. But if I provoke them, it seems like they'll cry, so it's hard to approach them...」

「I don't think crying is a bad thing, though.」

「That's true. But if I shed tears, I will end up stopping in my tracks. That is a difficult problem.」

I won't cry until I see it through. That is a promise with Father.

「Don't say things like that! It somehow just makes me worry about you even more, Shinza!」

She's a good person. But please don't be kind to me. If pushed right now, I feel like I'll succumb to my emotions. I can't afford to let my heart be bound by sorrow just yet.

「Sorry... About the promise to go to the Coastal Provinces together, please let me take a rain check on that... Right now I'm worried about Aneue and Aniue, so I can't leave here.」

「Yeah, I'll help too. I'll protect you, Shinza, so don't strain yourself so much. Shinza, it's just right when you're a little irresponsible!」

Carral smiled slightly sorrowfully, stretched up on her tiptoes, and stroked the hair on the side of my head. Maybe it's because I don't have a mother; I might be weak to this kind of thing...

「Please stop...」

「You're so stubborn... It's okay to cry like a child, you know? Rely on me more!」

「I'm already relying on you more than enough. Rather than that, we should secure that cargo soon.」

However, this kind of vibe isn't like us. Returning to the usual Shinza, I replied to Carral with an audacious smile.

「Oh, by that, you mean that, right? What kind of bad guys are we targeting this time?」

「Drug dealers.」

I told Carral about the next plan. While Carral's fleet is staying here, let's steal the stolen goods.

◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

Returning to the palace for the first time in a while, we attended the Emperor's funeral. Father's coffin was carried out of the palace, and a mourning parade was held all the way to the state church's grand cathedral. It's a farce. But Emperor Ferdinand's existence was immense. This ceremony was likely necessary so that each and everyone in the Empire could shift their feelings.

Eventually, the royal family, nobles, influential figures, and ambassadors from all over the world gathered at the grand cathedral. Having bad rumors spread about them, Uncle Morac and Aunt Dunail were directing their hostility towards those around them with considerable irritation. No, it's just that those two were prominent; it could be said that every faction was gauging each other's complexions to distinguish friend from foe.

It's no wonder they harbored anxiety. This was abnormal. Because even though the Emperor of the country had died, the figure of the Crown Prince was not among the attendees. The exaggerated funeral continued endlessly. Until Father's coffin was carried out to the cemetery owned by the Imperial Family.

「I am returning to Erin. What will you two do...?」

「Yeah... I won't be able to leave the Imperial Capital for a while. Atomina, do not leave the mansion in Erin; we don't know when you might be attacked.」

「Oh, you're not telling Ashley that?」

「Ashley has things that only Ashley can do. But be careful; Father is no longer here, so you are in a state where you could be assassinated at any moment.」

If I hadn't encountered the Book of the Evil Dragon, I probably wouldn't have been able to take such a relaxed stance. It was the right choice to show the book to Aniue.

「That's right, I won't forgive you if you die! Because, if even you died, I... I wouldn't be able to bear it...」

「That goes for Aniue and Aneue as well. Please avoid careless actions, both of you.」

When I said that, the two of them glared at me with deep dissatisfaction, narrowing their eyes and knitting their brows.

「Ashley, have you ever thought about how worried we get every time you disappear...?」

「Yeah... You're the last person I want to hear that from. You are a block of carelessness...」

Both of them were enraged. Thus, as if to distract herself from her loneliness, Aneue dedicated her efforts to the development of Erin, while Aniue took on the surveillance of the lords as the guardian of the Empire. The remaining me will go exterminate villains. No matter how much the Empire changes, I will protect my own way of doing things.

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[WN] Jitsuwa 3-Domedatta : Chapter 385

Chapter 385

(Kyle Calendar Year 515: Age 22)

Northern Front ㉒ – The Dawn of Collapse

Translator : PolterGlast

Around the time when the sun broke the horizon and the morning light began to dye the earth red, a sprawling column of people and horses—including heavy logistics wagons laden with severely mangled, bandaged combatants—officially initiated a macro-extraction from the coordinate that had been designated as the central command node until a little while ago, driving a direct route straight toward Kusanagi. Prior to that movement, deep within the pitch-black of the pre-dawn darkness, a specialized detachment of cavalry quietly departed and cleared the perimeter along the highway with an identical squadron of horsemen who had exited Kusanagi under a local guide late at night. By the fraction of a second the sky initiated its pale bleed and began to lighten, that unified force violently altered its trajectory straight toward the south, seamlessly vanishing into the unmapped folds of the geography. Within the former main encampment, only Alexis alongside troops of the primary command and communication staff remained stationary; the absolute totality of the active tactical divisions had completed their strategic relocations entirely during the dark hours of the prior night.

A brief interval after the sun fully cleared the horizon, the operational triggers governing this day's engagement were officially pressed, and the first strike was aggressively delivered by the defensive forces. The exact fraction of a second the signaling Z Flag violently unfurled across the high air, the first to move and push his boots forward was Commander Schulz, deploying the 5,000 riders anchoring the Royal Knights' Third Division who had pre-configured their formations a little south from where the main headquarters was.

「 Listen up! To march onto a battlefield of this magnitude only to register our steel as a useless, non-functional waste is a disgrace our pride cannot humanly endure! Our missions aren't just a mere reconnaissance to test the waters; ; if there's an opening, our lances shall ruthlessly puncture straight through their vanguard's teeth! 」

Under Schulz's absolute command, the massive cavalry unit initiated a thunderous forward gallop, fluidly dividing their mass into highly synchronized, independent cohorts of 500 riders each. They executed a sweeping lateral pass directly across the front of the enemy encampments, locking the distance separating the two forces at a rigid margin of approximately 600 meters.

「 All riders, load your crossbows with full steel bolts! Initiate preparations for a fast charge, and do not dare neglect your primary safety mechanisms! 」

Answering Schulz's sharp directive, every single knight across the line rhythmically cranked their heavy bowstrings back until the metal seared into the catch, seated the specialized piercing bolts onto the guidance tracks, and clicked the locking tabs home to guarantee zero accidental misfires or loose bolts could slip from the channels amidst the vibration of the march. Within the framework of the Royal Knights, the Royal Knights' Third Division stood as a highly specialized anomaly: a cavalry unit that effectively utilized crossbows to flawlessly implement high-speed volleys while navigating a battlefield at a full gallop. They had absorbed years of brutal, non-stop rigorous physical training to perfect this exact, multi-layered tactical doctrine. And now, the results of that grueling labor had finally cleared the threshold to be tested upon the world.

「 Maintain a hyper-vigilant watch against the enemy's first ballista volley! If we execute the exact split-second to clear their initial trajectory, the advantage lies entirely with the absolute velocity of our chargers granting our forces a crushing advantage! Entire army, execute the charge upon the unyielding pride of the Royal Knights! 」

The precise instant Schulz's signal blade sliced the air, the ten individual cavalry groups simultaneously kicked the earth and erupted into a full, thundering sprint. They were fundamentally not just executing a reckless, suicidal charge into a fortified position. One of their primary objective was to forcefully trigger and map out the exact placement of General Golpa's hidden artillery batteries; but even in the worst-case scenario where the old veteran had pre-positioned his war-engines across the northern quadrant where they charged, identical to the prior day's script, Schulz possessed a high statistical probability of securing a victory. Ballistas possess no capacity to implement rapid, continuous sequence-firing. This was a well-known fact even to them who operated crossbows with the same mechanism. Once fired, the reload and recranking interval required leaves a massive opening where it is possible for a fast warhorse to dash through 500 meters or more of open ground while the next round is being loaded. And one more thing. Although they were divided into 10 units of 500 cavalry each, they further divided into small groups of 50 cavalry each as they charged. Therefore, the enemy's ballistae were forced to manually aim at highly fragmented, erratic sprinting cavalry, and furthermore, because the groups were small, the total number of personnel caught up in a single explosive volley was drastically limited.

「 Here they comeーー!! 」

Balancing his weight flawlessly on the sprinting horseback, Schulz felt as if his ears caught what sounded like a frantic shout echoing from the lieutenant running parallel to his flank. In reality, the deafening roar of ten thousand iron horse hooves pulverizing the earth completely drowned out the human voice…… Along with that shout, slamming out from the fortified trenches of the enemy ridge, a coordinated salvo of massive ballista bolts violently ripped through the air simultaneously.

「 Hmph! Clearly too few! It is exactly as we calculated! 」

As Schulz roared with savage triumph, he hoisted his gauntlet straight up toward the sky. Concurrently, his sub-officers aggressively struck their signal bells, unleashing a sharp, metallic rhythm across the wind. The exact second their hooves crossed the 100-meter threshold, a deafening, mechanical roar erupted as they fired their crossbows simultaneously, before the entire forces executed a seamless, high-speed lateral pivot and withdrew to disengage from the kill-zone.

「 The location of the enemy's ballistae has been revealed! Avoid their line of fire and charge again! 」

Schulz smoothly reorganized his charging columns just beyond the maximum range of the enemy's artillery, avoiding the line of fire revealed just now, and relentlessly iterating his masterclass hit-and-run tactics exactly as before. With each subsequent pass, his archers systematically isolated the guessed locations where the ballistae were set up, pouring a devastating stream of precision suppression fire straight into their nests to keep them completely paralyzed.

「 As expected of the most elite unit across the country, the Royal Knights' Third Division navigates the field with the peerless, fluid movement of elite bow cavalry. And yet…… the enemy's defensive response returned fire with barely 100 active platforms; so, they did indeed migrate the absolute core of their artillery deployment entirely during the night as well. However, it's also a fact that ballistae is fundamentally not a highly convenient weapon one can effortlessly re-align across a shifting field on a whim, 」 Alexis murmured.

Perched atop an elevated ridge located a safe distance toward the north, the young commander-in-chief kept his binoculars locked onto the high-speed rotation of the Royal Knights' Third Division's hit-and-run tactics. Satisfied, he smoothly moved on to executing his primary new strategic plan.

「 Send the second phase signal to the balloon for Lord Darek this exact instant! Broadcast it and hoist the Yellow Flag parallel to the main banner! 」

That order was carried out immediately, and a massive signaling balloon soared rapidly into the open sky, unfurling the Z Flag and a triangular Yellow Flag urging absolute caution against ballistae, directly below the Royal Knights' grand banner that bore the design of a roaring firebird.

Around the time the first Z Flag was raised, Darek, who had secretly slipped through the main highways and made a large detour to advance his army, successfully emerged at a location positioned even further northwest of the King of Ville's isolated direct army, which was standing by in the rear at a safe distance behind the active battlefields where the armies of the two nations were encamped.

「 Hmph. The absolute level of arrogant complacency rotting those bastards' brains is truly quite a sight to behold. Invading deep into the heart of enemy territory, and yet completely neglect to deploy even a decent reconnaissance or patrol network? 」

「 Well…… the expert local guides Alexis-dono meticulously attached to us probably performed their duties flawlessly good, my Lord, 」 Erol responded. 「 Furthermore, to begin with, the battlefield operate heavily in our favor: we haven't existed on the battlefield until now; to their command staff, our entire legion is a completely unknown, invisible variable. 」

The words exchanged between Darek and Erol were simultaneously correct and incorrect. General Golpa's troops had deliberately lured the enemy forces to the southern side, and in order to make them think a surprise attack would succeed, they had dared to purposefully pull back their patrol lines close to the immediate perimeter of their own fortified camp. However, shifting the lens to the isolated royal army in the rear led by the King of Ville, the arrogant king truly believed in their overwhelming numerical advantage from the start, and their vigilance toward their own rear was entirely half-hearted and bare.

「 Then, wielding our prior concerns and noting that the Z Flag has officially been raised in the sky. I am thinking we should execute a parallel pursuit to systematically compress those 2,000 men standing by in the rear, while concurrently driving our absolute top speed to press closely upon the throat of the enemy's central headquarters. What say you, Erol? 」

「 As Darek-sama commands. Let our divisions initiate a rapid sweep running our cavalry toward the southeast once, and after that execute a quick left wheel to chase them locking our units into an ironclad Oblique Order formation. By utilizing this, we should systematically herd their entire mass to flee straight into the forces deployed to the north. 」

「 Magnificent. Indeed, systematically shave down their numbers while relentlessly chasing them, ensuring our vanguard restrains its steel holding back just enough so as not to prematurely annihilate the enemy! 」

With Darek's instructions, the elite units selected from the First and Second Armies of the Royal Knights simultaneously moved their reins, hastening their mounts to move in accordance with his instructions.

Deep within the luxurious confines of his rearguard encampment, the King of Ville was completely bewildered upon receiving the sudden notice that battles had officially started across his front lines. His personal encampment was anchored several kilometers behind the active trenches, and he had absolutely no way of knowing the true progression and outcome of the battle situation. This was because General Golpa deliberately dared not waste a single horseman sending out messengers to report the routine battle situation every single time. However... a messenger who was not supposed to come arrived abruptly. Bearing a message the King of Ville hadn't even expected……

『 Our vanguard will earnestly move toward the rear while dealing a sequence of devastating, crushing blows against the enemy army; therefore, Your Majesty is hereby commanded to instantaneously make preparations to execute a swift retreat. 』

Processing the spoken message stated by the messenger, the King of Ville’s face violently flushed with pure rage as he flew into an unbridled fury, shouting at the absolute top of his lungs.

「 Retreating while dealing a heavy blow?! What on earth is that senile old bastard (Golpa) thinking! The agreement among the nations was to explicitly go on the offensive and advance. To dare go back on his previous statement before the roots of his tongue have even dried from what he said yesterday morning! 」

Completely blind and unable to understand Golpa's true intent, after ruthlessly taking his fury out on the trembling messenger who conveyed those words, the King of Ville not only sought to ascertain the true intent of the retreat but immediately dispatched an interrogating messenger bearing a Decree of Demotion and Arrest to strip the old veteran of his rank.

Immediately after that…… one of his closest noble aides violently tumbled into the camp curtain in a state of absolute panic.

「 E-Enemy! Enemy forces have appeared! 」

「 Wh-What did your worthless tongue just blurt out…… Cease this flustered sniveling! On which front lines did you say they appeared?! 」

Although a sudden jolt of alarm punctured his chest for a moment, the King of Ville replied as if to desperately keep up his supreme royal dignity. The King himself had taken the precaution to send out scouts spanning the northeast to the northwest just in case—the exact direction of the active front lines from his perspective—and was wary of enemy attacks, but there had been absolutely no reports whatsoever from there until now.

「 To our direct rear! Here is already the absolute tip of the front line as well! Please give us the order to intercept quickly! 」

「 W-Whaaaaaaaatーー?!! 」

At the absolute horror of the messenger's words, the King of Ville hurriedly rushed out past the heavy drapes of the camp curtain himself and looked out toward the rear. His eyes were instantly consumed by an absolute nightmare: seeing a massive enemy force suddenly slamming out from the southwest, deploying their cavalry to the southeast exactly as if spreading a pair of titanic wings, and closing the distance with his own encampment while forming a flawlessly large Oblique Order formation.

「 R-R-Retreat! Initiate a full-scale breakthrough through the enemy and execute a controlled retreat to a safe rear while prioritizing the protection of my Royal Person and the carriage! 」

The King of Ville hastily shrieked the orders at the top of his lungs, but driven by pure, suffocating astonishment and terror, his orders were highly fractured, incomplete, and lacked structural thoroughness. The unyielding reality surrounding his soldiers was an iron wall of 10,000 cavalry, a fivefold numerical superiority over their own thinned-out forces. Even if they somehow managed to puncture and break through the sweeping enemy formation that had laid a wide siege, attempting a frantic foot-retreat while pursued by a numerically superior elite cavalry legion meant the absolute annihilation of the infantry. Nested within the 2,000 personnel attending the royal compound, a staggering 1,500 of them consisted of that exact infantry. The precise fraction of a second they faced the sheer mass of the cavalry descending before their eyes, their basic survival instincts violently overrode their fealty, and many of them started stampeding and running toward the heavily fortified encampment of their own allied countryman forces toward the north, which their minds classified as the only "safe rear."

「 Wh-Where do you think your pathetic feet are carrying you, you wretched cowards! The enemy's encirclement net is visibly thin, it can be easily broken through with a synchronized push! I am explicitly commanding you to protect my sacred person and break through the enemy ranks! Those who dare execute a desertion and flee before the face of the enemy shall be executed for High Treason this exact instant! 」

Ironically, these furious words of the King became the absolute final blow. Because the individual who was attempting to commit "desertion under fire" by abandoning the core of the allied forces fighting on the front lines just to save his own skin was none other than the King himself…… Answering the utter hypocrisy of those words, a massive wave of disgust rippled through the ranks, and even more people turned on their heels to desert the royal carriage, fleeing and scattering straight toward the "safe rear" where the allied forces were encamped.

「 Unforgivable! Unforgivable! You shameless, treacherous cowards who do not follow my orders, I will condemn and execute you all in absolute disgrace the exact split-second we return to the country, alongside that insubordinate old bastard Golpa who dares slight me! 」

With eyes burning full of pure rage, the King of Ville hurled his venomous glares at them, desperately initiating a frantic charge to break through the sweeping encirclement laid out by Darek in order to evade the immediate crisis. Yet, evaluating the absolute manpower remaining parallel to his royal carriage…… the total volume of soldiers who followed him was already a pathetic, thinned-out pool of less than 500 men at this definitive point.

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