If I borrowed Tomoe's power, it would be easy to accomplish. I could already
recreate Monkey Mountain.
However, Hakuya shook his head. "Van will be the city on our front line with
Amidonia. At this juncture, we cannot allow them to have too much fun with its
design."
"...I suppose not," I said. We can't count on an artistically-designed city to be
particularly defensible, after all. In that case, I guess we'll have to maintain Van's
function as a military city, while making it easier to live in.
"I guess that's how it has to be," I said. "Take things in that direction, please."
"Understood." Hakuya bowed and left the room. Next, I turned to Ludwin.
"How is progress on rolling out the transportation network?"
"Sir," he said. "The Army and your directly-controlled forces in the Forbidden
Army are making every effort to realize that goal. A highway from Van into the
kingdom's territory has been completed, and we are beginning work laying road to
the smaller nearby villages that are presently under our control. Also... we've built
eight bridges over the rivers, but..."
"But what?" I pressed. The man was sounding evasive.
Ludwin gave me a look like he didn't understand what I meant. "Sir. Right now, is
there any reason for rolling out a transportation network for Van? I understand the
importance of setting up military supply routes, yes. However, if we build roads and
bridges to the smaller cities around Van during a time when the Empire doesn't
acknowledge our sovereignty here, won't it have been pointless when we're pushed
to hand it back?"
"That's right... of course, I'm sure the Empire will request the return of Van," said
Liscia. "It's a bit galling to think that Julius and his lot will use the roads and bridges
that we build." She furrowed her brow.
"That will not be the case." Hakuya immediately rejected Liscia's opinion. "Even if
we return Van and Crown Prince Julius returns here, he will never use infrastructure
built by the kingdom. If anything, he will work to eliminate all traces of the
kingdom's influence from Van. He can't afford to keep them out of convenience, as
they might ingrain a fondness for the kingdom into the people of Van."
"Me, I'd use whatever I could, Amidonian or not," I said.
"Hee hee, I'm sure you would, sire," Juna piped in with a smile. "You used that
female commander with the husky voice as a singer, didn't you?"
"Oh, you mean Margarita Wonder," I said. "She was a good find."
I had hired Margarita as only a singer initially, but lately she'd been hosting the
amateur singing competition, too. Making full use of the grit that had let her rise to
become a commander in this patriarchal country despite being a woman, the way
she spoke frankly, even to men, was making her popular with women all over.
Oh, I got off track there. Let's forget Margarita and focus on Julius and his
followers for now.
"I know..." I said. "If that's what's going to happen, let's try messing with them a
bit."
"Messing with them?" Liscia asked.
"We'll put our names on the bridges," I said. "There were eight of them, yeah?
Well, we'll carve the names Souma Bridge, Liscia Bridge, Albert Bridge, Hakuya
Bridge, Ludwin Bridge, Poncho Ishizuka Bridge, and Aisha Bridge into their railings.
If the bridges themselves say 'This bridge was built thanks to the Elfrieden
Kingdom,' the anti-kingdom faction is sure to bust them up, don't you think?"
"...You can be a real piece of work, you know that, Souma?" Liscia said with a sigh,
half impressed, half aghast.
However, because there were no objections, this idea was carried out as
proposed. Also, so that it wouldn't matter if they were destroyed, we confirmed that
they should be built only to be sturdy, not fancy.
That was everything that needed to be sorted out for the time being. Once we had
seen Ludwin and Hakuya leave the room with the plans and policies we had just
decided on, Liscia asked me, "If the Empire demands we return Van, do you still
think it would be difficult to refuse?"
I could only nod in response to that question. "Well, yeah... I have no intention of
changing my overall plan, but I can't see us being able to strong-arm Madam Jeanne.
It would be a huge loss of face for the Empire. We don't have the power to fight it out
with them right now, So if the Empire sees us as hostile to them, that would be a
diplomatic failure."
"You were saying you met Jeanne Euphoria, right?" Liscia asked. "Is it true? That
the hero summoning was their way of showing some consideration to our country?"
I said, "Yeah, kinda."
"When did you realize that?" she asked.
"When I heard Empress Maria was called a saint," I said. "I figured anyone being
called a saint wouldn't do anything too improper. That said, from what Madam
Jeanne told me, Madam Maria isn't overly fond having that title."
"You trusted in the title?" Liscia asked.
"People adopt titles because they're convenient," I said. "And because they're
convenient, they'll try to maintain them, too."
In a nation like the Empire which covered a vast swathe of territory and
incorporated many people of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds, a title like
"saint" must have been useful for accumulating power. Because it let her hoist the
flag of a united human resistance in response to the threat from the Demon Lord's
Domain. That was why Maria had chosen to act like a saint, continuing to carry a title
she didn't care for.
"Interpreting the Empire's request in a positive light, and taking all of that into
account, it would probably be something like that... I figured," I said.
Not that I could have been sure until I'd talked to Jeanne. But after talking to
Jeanne, I was certain.
The Gran Chaos Empire wasn't an evil empire, like the ones that show up in
stories, or even a prideful superpower. They were just another powerful country,
desperately trying to maintain themselves.
"That's why we can't let our guards down," I said. "When facing an earnest
opponent, there's no room for carelessness or pride."
"True," said Liscia. "We need to face this with resolution."
Liscia and I both nodded, grave looks on our faces.
I would be tomorrow that Jeanne Euphoria would come, accompanying Julius,
Crown Prince of Amidonia, as an envoy to negotiate the return of their territory.
◇ ◇ ◇
21st day, 10th month, 1,546th year, Continental Calendar — The Walls of Van
"Oh, what a view! What a view!" I cried.
Looking down from the castle walls, there were a little over 50,000 troops from
the Elfrieden Army in formation around Van. Opposite them were, at a rough
estimate, over 50,000 troops of the Imperial Army in formation, with roughly 5,000
more from the Amidonian army next to them, for a combined total of somewhere
around 60,000. There were an even greater number of troops here than during the
last engagement.
"Is this the time to be impressed? What if that army attacks us?" Liscia asked
exasperatedly. She was standing beside me.
"There's pretty much no question that we would lose," I said, then looked over at
Hakuya, who was also standing beside me. "Yeah?"
"Indeed, that is correct," he said with a nod. "In number of troops, number of
commanders, equipment, training, morale... no matter which of those you choose to
look at, our country is behind the Empire in all of them. If it comes to war, our forces
stand no chance of winning."
The flow of war is said to be decided by the heavens, earth, and people. That is to
say, the temporal advantage of heaven, the territorial advantage of the earth, and the
harmonious unity between people.
The temporal advantage lay with the Empire, lead proponent of the Mankind
Declaration, while the territorial advantage lay with the forces of the principality. If I
were asked whether the kingdom had a harmonious unity that could stand against
those two, I would have had to say no. It had not been long since the Army and Air
Force had pledged allegiance to me, so while they might be motivated to fight the
Amidonian invaders, it would be difficult to maintain their morale against the far
superior Imperial forces.
In short, we were not superior to the combined forces of the Empire and
Amidonia in any of those three categories.
"I wish we could have at least had the equipment advantage..." I said.
One type of troop the Imperial force had that I could see from here was
rhinosauruses carrying cannons. I had heard of rhinosauruses being used as siege
weapons, but it seemed the Empire was using them as mobile artillery platforms.
In fact, I'd had the same idea, but before we could load cannons onto the
rhinosauruses, they needed to be trained not to startle when they heard the sound
of them firing. Our rhinosauruses had been gathered with Tomoe's negotiation skills,
so with no timetable for when the training could be done, that plan had been
shelved.
It was frustrating to see that a type of troop I'd come up with was already being
used by the Empire, but, well, it was something a military amateur would be able to
come up with a little thinking. If there was a demand for them, most ideas like that
would have been put to practical use already.
Well, anyway, with things as they were, we couldn't fight.
I'd never intended to fight to begin with, but if we'd been in a position where we
could, it would have been one more card on the negotiating table. Put the other way
around, the force spread out before my eyes which could easily defeat us was a card
in the other side's hand.
While I'd known this would happen, it was still a tough situation to be in.
"Sire, there is a type of troop I am unfamiliar with," Aisha, who was surveying the
enemy forces from a distance, said.
"A troop type you're unfamiliar with?" I asked.
"There is a group clad all in black full-plate armor!" she declared.
"All in black?" I asked. "...Wait, wow, I'm amazed you can see that." The people
looked as small as grains of rice from this distance.
"Dark elves have good eyes!" Aisha puffed up her chest with pride. "That black
armored group are carrying rather long weapons of some sort."
"That is most likely the 'Magic Armor Corps,' I believe," Hakuya explained.
Now there was an unfamiliar word.
"Magic Armor Corps?" I asked.
"You could call them the anti-magic version of the heavy pikeman, I suppose,"
said Hakuya. "That black armor endlessly produces a barrier that blocks any and
every type of magic. When they form ranks and advance, it's said that every step
they take is another step that the Empire's territory expands. They are the treasure
of the Empire, which is fiercely proud of them."
Hrm... if I recall, pikemen are a unit with long spears meant to be used against
cavalry, right? I thought. My knowledge comes from playing war simulation games,
but they're a troop type that forms up a phalanx against charging cavalry, sticks out
their spears, and counters the charge. If I recall, they can stop cavalry, whose mobility
is their life. Depending on the situation, I think they can be a powerful type of troop,
but because theirs is primarily a waiting tactic, they can be hard to use well.
"Even if they can negate magic, are they really a treasure?" I asked.
Hakuya looked at me with dismay, then in turn asked me, "Do you remember the
reason why gunpowder weapons never developed on this continent?"
"Since magic is more powerful and has better range, they weren't necessary,
right?" I said. "That's why the only cannons developed were for use at sea, where
magic is weaker, or for during a siege, where they can still do good work."
"Yes," said Hakuya. "There is also the fact that the skins of creatures living on this
continent are hard and tough, so an ordinary gunpowder weapon couldn't even hurt
them."
In other words, the fact that they couldn't use them for hunting was another
reason gunpowder weapons had never developed.
If people here had developed the rifle, which increased the penetrating power of
the bullet by spinning it, things might have been different. However, that was an
invention that had come about because the musket (Japan's hinawaju matchlock was
equivalent to the early musket), which simply fired a bullet, had already spread.
They didn't have the basis for that research to happen.
Just as I was thinking that maybe I should develop the rifle for them, Hakuya said,
"On top of that, we have attachable spells in this world. Some defensive items are
better than others, but they have a spell that reduces damage attached to them. The
reverse is also true, and a weapon will normally have a spell attached that increases
its damage to break through that defense."
"What the heck?" I said. "It sounds like a game of whack-a-mole..."
"With all due respect, I believe that is the way technology advances," said
Hakuya. "And for the spells attached to weapons and armor, the greater the item's
mass, the more powerful they can be. In other words, in this world, the bullet is
weaker than the arrow and the arrow is weaker than the spear."
Does that mean that even if I develop the rifle, the tiny bullets won't have much
power behind them? I thought. A unit of riflemen is sounding less and less practical.
Well, I don't want to turn this country into a gun society, so I don't really mind.
Hakuya continued, "In a world like this, there is a group on which magic and
bombing by wyverns does not work, cavalry charges cannot get past, and because
they are human-sized, they cannot be targeted with cannons. This group in black
armor slowly advances forward. From their enemies' perspective..."
"...that'd be mildly horrifying, yeah," I said. "They'd look like the armies of Hell."
In an open field battle, they're probably invincible, I thought. If I could fight in
somewhere like a hill or swamp with bad footing, or if I could lure them somewhere
with loads of traps and break their formation then surround them...
But these ideas all relied on me fighting a defensive battle. It was difficult for the
attacker to choose where to fight. In that sense, I could see why they talked about
their every step expanding the territory of the Empire.
"Besides, the Empire has other powerful units in addition to the Magic Armor
Corps," Liscia said, glaring out towards the enemy. "They have the griffon knights,
which rival not just wyvern cavalry, but dragon knights in power. They have a unit
of mages that overwhelmingly outnumbers and outclasses ours. They have a
combat-trained unit of rhinosauruses. If we're fighting the Imperial Army, it means
taking all of those on at once."
Why, yes... yes, it would, I realized. The enemy had more than just the Magic
Armor Corps.
It was the shallow thinking of an amateur that had let me believe that if I could
pick the location of the battle, I could win.
"...We really are no match for the Empire, huh?" I said.
"Souma..." Liscia looked concerned, so I gave her a smile.
"It's not going to happen yet," I told her. "Eventually, I'll build this into a country
that can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them."
I clapped my hands, giving the signal.
"Now then, how about we go and welcome Madam Jeanne?"
They were in the audience hall in Van.
In this space, with colors and decorations much more ostentatious than those in
Parnam, the younger sister of Empress Maria of the Gran Chaos Empire, Jeanne
Euphoria, and the eldest son of Sovereign Prince of Amidonia Gaius VIII, Julius, stood
on a carpet several steps below where I sat on the throne.
So this young man was Julius. He looked to be in his mid-twenties—a beautiful
man with calculating genius, like Hakuya, but Julius came off as even colder. He
seemed to be suppressing his emotions, but in his eyes I could see his enmity
towards me flickering like a pale blue flame.
In contrast, Jeanne was truly magnificent. This was enemy territory for her, so
the courage she had shown in coming here with no bodyguards, only Julius in tow,
deeply impressed me.