Resolve And Aim

Now then, I had been arrogantly lecturing a general, a professional of war, about various things… but naturally, if asked whether knowledge and experience on my level would apply to real battle, I would answer that it depended on the situation.

Sometimes it would apply, and sometimes it would not… because normally, it was impossible to read every last intention of the enemy.

Experience was probably what made up for that.

And my experience was not from real battle, but from the game that the person I was based on had desperately played.

Well, experience from games was not something to be made light of either.

If it was a player-versus-player game, then beyond the monitor, the thoughts of a living human were still there.

Within fixed rules, how could one move toward victory…? Reading the opponent hundreds, thousands of times without the risk of losing one’s life. If asked whether all of that was completely useless, I could not say that it was.

That said, reality and games were still different.

Unlike games, reality allowed anything… and when it came to that “anything,” I had absolutely no experience.

And above all, a situation where lives were at stake and one where they were not… the judgments made would surely differ greatly. If the ones I commanded had not been summoned soldiers but ordinary soldiers, and if my generals had also been ordinary humans… I probably would have been defeated in the first battle against Karmos.

But I had what could be called the ultimate advantage.

Lynferia and the others, the power of individuals, and the collective power of the summoned soldiers.

On top of that, I had extraordinary abilities such as Hawk Eye and Kiriku’s support.

Because I could obtain more information than anyone else in this world, even if I lagged behind the professionals in terms of tactics, I would not be taken down so easily.

Besides, even if it was through a monitor, tricks for deceiving people and reading an opponent’s thoughts without seeing their face could be applied reasonably well. It could be called amateur strategy, but if I thought of it as a tabletop exercise, this too was a kind of experience.

They were the words of an Overlord supported by confidence born from such absolute abilities and overwhelming military strength. At the very least, they had enough persuasive power to make General Saga groan.

Besides, what we were talking about now was not a war that was about to happen, but a war that had already happened… it was easy to speak plausibly about this and that after the fact.

On the actual battlefield… Kiriku would say, “A surprise attack will come from here,” “A trap has been placed here,” “Then let us avoid the trap and aim for the enemy headquarters,” “All troops, charge!” That was all there was to it.

Summarizing it made it sound terrible….

Leaving that aside… the Overlord who was now grandly crossing words with General Saga here was a one-hundred-percent pure illusion, but the Overlord was generally always like this.

“I had thought Your Majesty fought in the royal and orthodox manner, but you also possessed a deep understanding of deception… no wonder every scheme was seen through.”

Rather than royal and orthodox… well, Saria basically crushed enemy armies head-on. If one said there had been no need to use schemes, that would be the end of it, but it was true that her way of fighting could probably be called royal and orthodox.

“Kukuku… if anything, I will do anything to win. I even consider it an honor to be cursed as cowardly by my enemies.”

“You consider being called cowardly… an honor?”

“I am a king, not a warrior. I do not think fighting fair and square is always right. No matter what scheme I use, it is enough if I win. It is precisely because one is ultimately the victor that one is king.”

“In a king’s battle, winning takes the highest priority…”

“The people who follow a weak king will surely meet a miserable fate one day. A kind king, a wise king… there are many qualities sought in a king, but amid this unstable situation, the minimum condition required of a king is to be a strong king, a king who can win wars.”

“…”

It could be said that Einheria’s existence was spreading chaos throughout this whole region, but… putting the Lumoria Kingdom aside, it was not as if we had attacked the other countries first, right?

There was a tiny possibility that it could not necessarily be said that it was entirely my fault….

Digression aside.

“In that sense, I do not dislike the way General Saga fights. As for attacking while the envoy’s flag was raised… I may have to condemn that, however.”

“That is undoubtedly true. That was a forbidden move… Your Majesty should absolutely not do it. Once such an act has been committed, I believe it would not be wrong to think negotiations with other countries would become nearly impossible.”

“I see. Then that card should only be played at the very, very end. But General, was it truly all right for you to use such a move?”

In response to my question, General Saga showed the same expression full of resolve that he had shown when this conversation began.

‘…His atmosphere had gradually softened, but now it changed abruptly at this point… did I make a mistake?’

“…Breaking a treaty is certainly a serious problem, and it greatly damages international trust. However, I am a general… so if I relinquished my own position and accepted punishment, I believe the pursuit of responsibility against my country could be kept to a minimum.”

“Hmm… something like imprisonment?”

“No, hanging. Since I broke a treaty and killed soldiers of the opposing nation, there would be no way to atone except with my life.”

That punishment was much heavier than I had expected… but now that he said it, it might be only natural.

This time, it had been an attack by stone-throwing, but if that preemptive attack had been a blow that destroyed the enemy headquarters, then that alone would have essentially decided the battle… so it was probably natural for the person responsible to hang himself.

If that hail of stones had flown into an undefended area… it would not have been strange for ordinary soldiers to suffer considerable damage.

Was this why General Saga was so stubbornly wishing for execution?

But the Kingdom of Est was already in a state where it could be called finished… was there any need for General Saga to take responsibility?

“General, why do you wish to be executed? Even if you ordered the treaty-breaking blow, the outcome has already been decided. Although you are the general of a defeated army, is there really any need for you to feel responsible over that?”

“…No, if what I had done were truly only that, then since we lost the war, I believe no one other than the people of Einheria would complain. It would be sufficient to execute me as the general of a defeated army according to Einheria’s laws. However, my treaty violations are not limited to that alone.”

Did he do something else too…?

We crushed the pitfalls, the fire attack, and the surprise attack in advance… or rather, if things around that level counted as treaty violations… I might seriously have to study treaties concerning war. At this level of civilization, I did not think there would be prohibited weapons, but….

“May I hear it? General, what did you do in that battle?”

“What I did was… the use of forbidden magic. If this matter became known to other countries, it would not end as a problem limited to the responsible party alone. The country itself would be made to take responsibility.”

“Forbidden magic…? Come to think of it, during that battle, I had wondered why no magical attacks came flying at us… were the magic soldiers positioned farther back than the headquarters attempting to use that?”

“That is correct. The forbidden magic I attempted to activate was ‘large-scale necromancy.’ It would revive the corpses throughout the entire area that had become the battlefield as undead and make them obey simple commands.”

“Ho… so such magic existed.”

Magic that created undead, huh… I had never heard from the magic soldiers of the former Lumoria Kingdom that such magic existed… but he had called it forbidden magic. I wanted to know a little more in detail.

Or rather, magic that affected an entire battlefield…?

That was absurdly wide… its range was not even comparable to our area-type magic, was it?

“I believe you now understand why I aimed for a war of endurance.”

…Ah, I see.

He would whittle down as many soldiers from both sides as possible, then turn them into zombies and command them through ritual magic.

Then he would attack our camp with a huge number of zombies… perhaps a night raid or an early-morning attack?

Well, since summoned soldiers did not leave corpses behind, only the soldiers of the Kingdom of Est would become zombies.

“I robbed the dignity of the soldiers who fought for their own country. As someone who fell into wickedness not as a general, but as a human being, I am not permitted an honorable death. I have become the enemy of all living things… Though I think it presumptuous for someone like me to voice a wish… would you please settle this matter with only my head?”

General Saga said that and bowed his head deeply.

I see… General Saga was asking for execution in order to prevent responsibility for the use of forbidden magic from spreading?

Most likely, judging from the fact that he had been pleading for the king’s and his subordinates’ lives, if the army used forbidden magic, at minimum, people around that level would also be implicated.

“The forbidden magic did not actually activate, did it? Then is there not no need to be so sensitive about it?”

“No… there is no doubt that I attempted to use it, and no small number of people were involved in this matter. It is only a matter of time before this leaks to other countries. Moreover, this may not remain a problem limited to the Kingdom of Est alone. The Kingdom of Est has already lost the decisive battle and is in a state that could fairly be called almost annexed by Einheria. It is not impossible that the accusation of having performed ritual magic could be directed at Einheria.”

“Ho…?”

There was a possibility they would make such a ridiculous accusation…?

Well, it would not be strange for a country to view Einheria, which was expanding its power at tremendous speed, as a threat and start saying such things… but that accusation might actually be worth accepting.

No matter what, the next time, even if I lured them in with the same method, they probably would not take the bait so easily, and I had been thinking I needed a different approach… but if there was a country that would make such an outrageous accusation… all right, let us place General Saga under our protection.

As for the king of the Kingdom of Est too… there seemed to be a better use for him than making him an outlet for the Duchy of Yuran’s side.

“I was deeply impressed by Your Majesty, who broke through every scheme and achieved a victory so brilliant that nothing more could be asked for. I cannot commit an act that would smear the disgrace I created onto that glorious war record. Therefore, before the matter spreads, I want you to carry out my execution and proclaim to all nations that Einheria executed the criminal who used forbidden magic.”

“…There is something I want to ask. General, why do you wish to spare the king of Est? A king is the holder of supreme authority, and in times of emergency, he stands in a position where he must bear the greatest blame. Why do you go so far to protect your king? I have no intention of damaging his honor, but it seems the current king of Est cannot exactly be called a king with a good reputation…?”

When I indirectly asked whether there was any need to throw away his life to offer loyalty to him, General Saga answered with a gentle smile.

“…His Majesty is my friend of several decades. I come from a branch family of a duke’s house, and although my house has now been granted the rank of marquis, before I became a general, I was a viscount. Even though I was from a viscount house, as someone connected to a duke’s house, I had opportunities to interact with His Majesty from childhood, and since we were the same age, His Majesty called me his friend. I will serve His Majesty for my entire life… even before becoming a knight, I swore that to His Majesty. Since then, though my power was meager, I continued to wield my sword for the sake of the country and His Majesty, and that has brought me to the present. To me, His Majesty is someone I must protect even in exchange for my own body. Even if he said that he would bear the guilt of using forbidden magic with me… no, precisely because he said that, I wish to atone with my body alone. He is a person with many flaws, but to me, my king is the one and only king to whom I have offered all my loyalty.”

Looking at General Saga’s cloudless expression, I judged that persuading him in his current state was impossible.

However, I could see the path.

If I were to recruit General Saga, the person I needed to settle things with was not him, but the king of Est.

Based on General Saga’s story, I considered the rough path forward… yes, it depended on the king of Est, but it would probably work out somehow.

At the very least, the king of Est did not seem to be such a noble person, and bringing him in should not be that difficult.

While secretly grinning to myself, I stood up while keeping my expression still so he would not notice.

“I understand the situation, General Saga. The treaty violation and the matter of forbidden magic… I shall allow our side to handle them. I also promise that I will not treat the matters concerning the king of Est and your subordinates poorly.”

Of course, that included General Saga too. I would not tell him that now, though.

“! Thank you very much!”

“I will issue my decision to you later. Until then, you may continue staying in this room. I will not make you wait long. Calm your heart and spend some time at ease. If there is anything you need, tell Ilmitt.”

“…I am grateful.”

Leaving General Saga behind as he bowed his head with tears in his eyes, I began walking toward the outside of the room.

It might not turn into the kind of recruitment Ilmitt had wanted, but it seemed the matter Ilmitt had entrusted to me would be settled at the very least.

As I stepped out into the corridor through the door Lynferia opened, I quietly breathed a sigh of relief.