13 (81)

Dozens of tents were burning. It was a conflagration. The sky was clear. Smoke from something burning was swirling upward. Soldiers rushed in to put out the fire. Behind them, centurions were running over in a panic. In their urgency, they pointed toward the direction from which the flames were rising. Burning soldiers crawled along the ground, and some collapsed in the pit of fire. Inside, a barrier had been spread out, and twelve mages were crouching. The one protected by the barrier at the very center was Euclid. Beside him were Orsini Spessart and the mages under Spessart.

“That was almost disastrous. Let us escape toward the front.”

Euclid nodded, and they walked to a safe area. When the flames stopped, the mages who had maintained the barrier collapsed one by one. Black soot was smeared across their faces. They looked as if they had gone in and out of a forge. Euclid, who had been coughing, looked at the traces of fire. The fire was still burning the tents, and its scale was enormous. It looked as if a shower of fire had fallen. Spessart looked at Euclid with a face that said he had nearly died absurdly and spoke.

“What… exactly is this?”

“A revolution.”

“…..Pardon?”

“Bring His Majesty Louis here.”

Louis, who had been scouting inside the city, heard the news and quickly drove his horse forward. From a distance, he saw smoke rising from somewhere. It was one corner of the encampment. Hundreds of soldiers were carrying water toward that place. A few soldiers carrying buckets full of water saw Louis and hurriedly tried to salute, dropping their buckets. The smarter soldiers quickly put the water down and saluted. It was like a wave of salutes. Like ripples. The soldiers even stopped their urgent work and shouted their slogans.

‘Good discipline.’

It was proof that he was receiving trust that could not even be compared to the previous king. Louis smiled and drove his horse even faster. Flames were rising high. It looked as if several mages had set off multiple fireworks in one place. The soldiers were pouring water over it, and the mages who knew cooling magic were pouring freezing magic onto it. It was visibly being brought under control. Around the edges, black ash had fallen thickly. When Louis stopped his horse and was admiring the hot flames, several mages hurriedly ran over from the side. Louis asked Euclid.

“What happened?”

“We have completed the task Your Majesty ordered.”

Spessart added,

“Though we almost died.”

Euclid continued.

“While experimenting to the limit during the storage process of Fireball, an accident occurred. However, what is certain is that this is the firepower Your Majesty desires. This is… a tremendous advancement.”

“You mean it can be loaded and thrown.”

Euclid swallowed.

“Magic cannot be activated unless it is at close range. The more difficult the magic, the more true that becomes. Even to cast magic powerful enough to destroy a castle gate, one must approach to a considerably close distance. However, this method is safe.”

‘The reason siege warfare is generally forced to be passive is that people try to forcibly destroy castle gates using ordinary infantry in order to conserve the card known as mages.’

The reason the Duchy of Eron and Ruderwin had not waged war for a long time was that in a national war, not a territorial war, an enormous quantity of resources had to be mobilized to pierce through the defending side’s troops. Since siege technology was not sufficiently developed, between the two countries, the defending side had an overwhelming advantage. If both sides had complicated circumstances, there was no need to do the strange thing of attacking a firmly defended castle.

‘It will be difficult with the siege technology we currently have. I need a siege weapon that can perfectly throw that object from a long distance.’

When Louis finished thinking that far, the System lit up.

A new tech tree title had been created.

‘So that was it. If I reach some conclusion according to necessity, a hidden tech tree can also appear. Well, it is not entirely new, since it is attached beneath the category of military.’

When he examined the newly appeared title, one thing caught his eye. It was the improved trebuchet. What made it different from the existing trebuchet was that, unlike the completely stationary existing one, it was mobile, and the other difference was that it could throw objects over a greater distance.

‘In the current situation, there is no need to further increase special troop types for infantry, cavalry, or archers. I have the advantage in soldiers. Only investment in siege weapons will be the clue to ending Ruderwin easily.’

It cost 100,000 points. Since he had used 120,000 points to revive the city and restore various facilities, the remaining points were 132,000. From now on, if he chose one thing, he would have to give up many things in the same tier, so his judgment had to be careful.

Several days after he intentionally gathered the army, a main quest came to Louis.

It was the second main quest after reclaiming the throne. Since neither Nestor nor Christopher had the title of main, it could be said that he was finally entering the main track. Louis briefly imagined the world unified as one nation. The process would be arduous, but if he built a nation that had existed only once in human history, countless bloodshed would disappear.

‘At any rate, I need to carry out the attack while meeting two conditions at the same time.’

One was to reduce troop consumption, and the other was to shorten the number of months. The fact that there were twelve cities was an extra. Naturally, various rewards and points would pour in for this. Receiving as much as possible from these two things was important at the current point. Louis, who had grown rapidly through the System so far, knew that one simple principle was strongly applying to him.

‘When a war ends, whether good or bad, the country staggers. To prevent consumption in domestic administration, enormous points are needed. Second, even if I luckily prevent that consumption, those points must be focused on the tech tree for the next war. Third, if a quest is presented and I fail to achieve it, I must solve things on my own, so I must rely on the national power and scientific power generated over time by the existing country itself. And the third is not a good direction.’

If he invested heavily in scientific facilities, as five or ten years passed, he would inevitably be able to make rapid changes. However, Louis had not chosen such a method. The Monarch Traits awakened in Louis were all related to war. It was because the actions he had taken to escape the desperate situations he had been driven into had been applied to the System as they were. That was why what he had chosen after careful consideration was Treasure of the Warmonger.

When he occupied an important city, he could obtain technology according to the city’s grade. If he failed to achieve a presented quest, Louis would consume a massive amount of time each time. Since his Monarch Traits were also related to war, that time would work even more fatally against Louis. Considering that the Empire, the ultimate target Louis had to bring down, was estimated to possess more than one million troops in military strength alone, he absolutely could not afford to suffer losses if he wanted to close that gap.

‘I should call Christina.’

If he had encountered this kind of quest in the past, when he had only subordinates skilled in tactics, it would have been difficult, but now he had a strategist he could seek advice from. The final coordination would have to overlap with the advice of the representatives of each house and the armed commanders occupying the position of commander of ten thousand, but the overall picture was beginning to take shape to some extent.

Louis could use the points he had obtained after taking down Christopher, Nestor, and Ian in various ways. They could be used to strengthen infantry, archers, and cavalry, or to add additional squads of Horn Bow Archers. He could also create special squads of heavy cavalry, but what he actually prepared was siege warfare. Louis checked the existing quest again.

‘Since three houses have arrived in Roswaf, I can barely complete it while the remaining troops all arrive. Moreover.’

What Louis was desperately waiting for now were the road engineer and the engineer capable of making improved trebuchets, who would appear through random events. To be precise, it was the latter.

In any case, there was still time. The quest had occurred, but it had not yet begun. Its starting point would likely be the moment Louis set his army in motion.

‘Prepare perfectly, and end it in one strike.’

The merchant caravan led by a merchant was a mess. The wagons and carts that had been traveling in formation were crumpled. People scurrying around like tiny specks were in a confused state. Armed guards and mercenaries were surrounding or killing the orcs and goblins that had been pushed onto the defensive, while the young mercenaries inside were counting the number of survivors. A cart tilted sideways, perhaps because its wheel had been smashed, had arrows stuck all over it, two goblins lay dead on top of it, and beneath the wheel lay an orc whose head had been cut off. The man crawling out from inside it and the man already outside, smoking a cigarette while looking at the situation unfolding around him, met eyes.

“Let us introduce ourselves.”

“I am Ticomb, heading from Loernia to the Duchy of Eron.”

“You too?”

“Are you heading to the Duchy of Eron?”

He nodded.

“I am a wanted man, you see. I need another country.”

“Ah, I see. Do you have a way to make a living?”

“I have some skill. A skill the king might like.”

“I am the same.”

“Oh… How interesting. Why did you think you had to go to the Duchy of Eron?”

“I drank and passed out. But then, out of nowhere, only that thought came to mind. Isn’t it ridiculous? I am heading there even after abandoning my lover.”

“……….It is not ridiculous.”

“Don’t tell me?”

“……………”

The sound of a surviving orc’s throat being cut spread out for a long while. The two felt a strange sense of kinship.