13 (42)

Hazdar, who had spent a time of patience atop the cliff, let out a hollow laugh. The river was still sending its current onward, and the rain showed no sign of stopping, but the humans who had tightly surrounded its vicinity had been drastically reduced.

To be precise, Louis’s army had crushed the Boarne army. Two of the bridges that had been used as crossings had just collapsed, and only two remained. The support soldiers left in the rear were loading supplies onto transport ships, and the priests were crossing the bridge piers to begin treatment.

When the cheers of victory spread, Hazdar realized that Boarne Gregory’s head had been cut off. Victory belonged completely to Duke Louis.

“He became king.”

“Oh dear……. We didn’t receive all the gold yet. The client died.”

“That’s right. In exchange, we avoided punishment.”

“That’s true. Anyway, it really was ingenious. I knew he would attack someday, but for it to be that night, of all times, when a downpour was raging. Even Grand Duke Apsen wouldn’t do it that way. It was nothing but reckless. But it worked. Well, I suppose that’s what matters.”

Hazdar looked beside him. The scrawny man was rubbing his nose. Perhaps because he had been lying in ambush here for so long, his nose was red, he had grown thin from not eating, and his eyes were bloodshot. However, his expression was not that of someone annoyed at all. He was excited, and he was smiling as if he had seen a rare sight.

“The tactic was ingenious too, but do you know what was different from Marquis Boarne Gregory?”

“I’m not sure.”

“It was the cavalry. Duke Louis had cavalry that defied common sense. Even considering the size of his territory, 2,000 cavalry is beyond common sense. If every house in the duchy gathered their cavalry in one place, that number would be possible. But Duke Louis gathered that many from only his own house.”

“That’s true…. Strange. Well, it’s not like there are only one or two strange things about that man. He was also the first person against whom the Venomous Spider failed in assassination. For her first failure to be death…. Poor Rin.”

“He won’t be satisfied with this small country. He’ll increase his cavalry by thousands more. Now……. That aside, let’s go back. We’ve seen everything there is to see.”

“And we have more to report. More excuses too. It’s good that we’ll avoid punishment.”

Hazdar nodded. What he had seen that day had not been an illusion. If he had been even a little greedier that day, nine times out of ten, his head would have been cut off and hung side by side in the square. When he rose from his spot, cracking sounds came from his arms and legs.

After roughly loosening his body and shaking off the rainwater, he followed the comrade who had gone in first and slipped into the forest. It was time to return to his hot homeland, where being drenched in rain was now considered a blessing.

Borenus opened his eyelids, which had been pressed down heavily. Perhaps because the temporarily pitched tent had done its job, the blanket was not soaked today. When he raised his body, his bones made a loud fuss. Perhaps because various parts were still knotted up, he still felt stiff.

His memories of crossing the river at that time were still clear. Between the crossing of death and life, he had survived. His throat was a little dry. There was a lot to do today. The air was cold, and the surroundings were quiet. The drops of rain falling one by one were dew. The light had not yet raised its head into the sky, so it was dark, but the rainwater that had been slowly falling just yesterday was no longer there.

At long last, the suffocating situation had come to an end. As he prepared a few clothes, a rough bell rang out with a clang. It was the beginning of morning. At the rough sound, each soldier who had been dozing like a frog was forced awake. It would have been nice if they were familiar faces, but among those nearby, the squad he had trained with was no longer there.

The only ones who had survived that chaotic battle were himself and one centurion. He had barely seen the centurion’s face yesterday. He looked to be in poor condition, but he burst into a hearty laugh, saying that having all four limbs intact was something.

“Yo. Borenus. You woke up early.”

“You too.”

“I couldn’t help but wake up. I’m excited.”

“I’m the same.”

“We are in a moment of history. The old and corrupt will be smashed apart, and a new world will arrive. The king will change, the country will change, and everything will become abundant.”

Borenus knew that what this drunken mage was saying was not nonsense. Many had died, but when looking at the overall picture, it was not as though that many had died. The reason was simple. If a civil war dragged on, it could become a terrible wound lasting up to ten years.

During that time, wounds that had festered would fester again, and it was obvious that the citizens would suffer. In Borenus’s opinion, Duke Louis had made House Boarne fall so overwhelmingly that he left not even the slightest room for civil war to break out again.

Anyway, the surroundings had become noisy in every direction. Personnel were being checked here and there, and Borenus moved amid that. Just the title of being one of the very few survivors of the 13th Squad was drawing enough attention.

Louis stayed here for a few more days. It was to provide sufficient rest, treatment, and supplies until the rain stopped. The points gained from this battle totaled 100,000. If the points he had originally possessed were added to that, it was 115,000, and once he carried out the usurpation, points would again be awarded for that achievement. It was a larger amount than any points he had gained so far.

That must mean it had been a battle containing that many dangers. The map had advanced one layer further. The hostile forces that had been red lights were all returning to normal colors. The king was not the main axis. The king was a puppet, and House Boarne was the center, so the moment that house had been completely defeated by Louis, it was only natural that those with neutral, or worse, relationships would try to recover them favorably.

Naturally, the fronts that had been facing off against each other were collapsing one by one. It was happening because Louis had clearly resolved what was effectively the heaviest problem. Thus, right now, all regions of the Duchy of Eron except the capital were open to Louis. Excluding certain regions where the influence of specific houses was strong, they were already marked as Louis’s territory.

Louis opened the liquor stopper. It was ale beer commonly drunk by soldiers, and its color was that of fresh barley. After looking at the beer for a moment and pouring it into his stomach, a slightly sour taste lingered on his tongue.

“Surely you are not saying that what I am doing is not right. My ancestors. Watch and see how far I, myself, will go from now on. The house will become great.”

There was no need to distribute points right now. At the very least, it was something to do after recapturing the capital, Lebledna. He would likely have to focus on domestic affairs, but he would only know what direction that would take when the time came. The Golden Age buff would soon end, so food might soon become unstable.

Thanks to the synergy of the unique buildings invested in Pontina territory, an enormous amount of food was being produced, but if he became king, what he had to manage would be the entire country. Naturally, there was a possibility of shortage. Grand Duke Orpendius had been a puppet, but Louis was not. He had power, justification, and confidence that he could control everything.

Louis was young, and he had tools, justification, and connections he could use in a way befitting that youth. The country would change. To a frightening degree. Even as he thought this, Louis was organizing in his head the nobles he had to deal with. The true culprits who had ridden on the king’s authority beside him and corrupted the country—Louis intended to kill them all.

At the very least, an example was necessary. He needed to deliver enough of a shock that no one would rebel against his will. And he would replace the incompetent as much as possible. Louis rose from his seat and walked outside. The rain had completely cleared. It was clean. There were still black clouds in the sky, but their color had faded to some degree.

He would have to roughly sort this place out. Louis planned to spend a few days cleaning up the riverside. Though they had died because they belonged to different forces, they were now lives he had to take responsibility for.

He rode his horse back to the riverside. Louis’s troops were already moving busily. Armor, shields, and swords were piled high on one side, and the corpses had been gathered and set aflame. In front of them, a priest murmured a short prayer to God as black smoke rose thickly. When Louis appeared on horseback, people who had been working here and there stopped and saluted.

One man, who had been dragging a corpse away, stopped, struck his chest with his fist, and briefly pointed forward with his fist still clenched. Louis nodded and looked at the riverside.

The current had swollen, and it looked rough at a glance. The bridges that had been improvised at that time had already all collapsed, leaving no trace behind. The transport ships had come up onto land. Since they had crossed the Rhine River, the transport ships had fulfilled their role and had no use in advancing on the capital.

Before he knew it, Gaion had followed and come beside Louis. He had a happier expression than ever before. Louis saw this expression on him for the first time. It was a face he had never made even when he was beside Louis’s father. When asked whether he had eaten lunch, Louis answered briefly.

“Even after thinking about it for several days, I had no choice but to marvel again and again at Your Grace’s brilliant tactical sense at the time. I believe the course of events should be recorded in detail and taught for posterity. If you permit it, I would like to leave Your Grace’s deeds in the writings I am recording.”

“That is fine.”

“Thank you. And according to the results of our investigation throughout this morning, among the 15 armed warriors House Boarne boasted of, all except two have died.”

“Two?”

“Since the two are missing, it seems they either jumped into the river or escaped in some manner like that. We have released rangers, so they will soon bring back information.”

“Hmm…. If they are found, advise them to surrender to me.”

“Ah…. You intend to accept them as you did Mark Jay.”

Mark Jay was an insolent warrior whose life Louis had spared at that time. He was an outstanding archer, enough to snipe at Louis and briefly put him in a difficult position.

“That’s right.”

“Those who have changed sides cannot be trusted.”

“It may be altered loyalty, but that word will not apply to me. And tomorrow morning would be good for advancing on Lebledna.”

He saluted Louis with discipline. When Louis nodded, he continued by saying he would carry out the order.

The next day, Louis’s army began moving again. Compared to when he had first raised troops, he had lost one-fifth, but he still perfectly retained every type of troop. Moreover, the cavalry still approached nearly 1,000 riders. With a scale of this level, even if other houses harbored different intentions, it was enough cavalry to immediately suppress them.

On the other hand, the troops remaining in the capital amounted to only about 500 infantry. Since securing food was important if the civil war dragged on, Boarne Gregory had led all his troops and set up camp to prevent Louis from crossing the river.

According to the original intention, the civil war would have dragged on with the Rhine River as the line, and after winter passed in this state, only when spring came would they have looked for variables or a point of compromise. Whether the country was split in two or a variable occurred on another front, Marquis Boarne Gregory was annihilated in one blow by the full-army crossing that provoked his complacency.

However, Louis did not think this operation had been a perfect choice. It had contained danger, so it had more than a little recklessness to it. There were many reasons he had carried out this operation, but Louis was not the type to become arrogant enough to do the same thing next time.

‘I need a strategist.’

He needed a talented person who could give more opinions and tactical advice. In order to expand the country even further in the future, he would run into difficult problems and enemies that could not even be compared to now.

Anyway, while Louis was fighting this war of usurpation, the world was changing once. The Magitech of the Great Mage Euclid, which had been rejected, was being accepted by the Empire and other great nations.