When I finished, there was silence in the room. They must have been examining what I was saying in their brains. First, Frensen, the most sensible person in the room, opens his mouth.
Mr. Werner, what did you say?
We’re going to invade the Triots.
I repeat again. I want to drink tea or coffee. Is it an escape from reality that I wonder where I can find coffee beans? I probably couldn’t make coffee even if I had coffee beans. In my previous life, I only drank instant coffee or canned coffee. I don’t know how to brew coffee from beans.
As I was thinking about this nonsense, Sir Behnke turned to me with a determined look on his face. Maybe he felt he had to say it himself.
“Impossible. Such a…”
“Don’t panic. I said I’m invading. I’m not going to occupy.”
I respond by lightly raising my hand to control what they say. I know I’m going to say something rather complicated, so I have to explain it first, but I’m not sure in what order I should explain it.
For now, let’s summarize the common understanding.
“First of all, I would like to make sure that the old Triots were a nation, though not as big as the Kingdom of Vine. I, on the other hand, am not a nobleman, but a government official. I am two orders of magnitude short of the strength needed to maintain control of the Triots. We can’t even maintain our supply lines.
At the moment, with all the demons roaming around, we may be short by three digits, not two. Anyway, it is certain that there are not enough. Therefore, I am not thinking of suppressing the situation from the beginning. I will open my mouth after thinking about the order of explanation.
“It’s not because it’s an extinct country, but at any rate, there is no one to complain if we invade them. We are not going to occupy the country, so we can use that as an excuse to go after the culprits.”
“Killer?”
“On paper.”
It was Sir Goecke who gave a wry smile. You have good instincts.
“I see. That’s why you were there right after you arrived in Anheim.”
“That’s not all, though.”
The town czar who had been assaulting the woman was beaten to death on the spot, but his cronies were simply banished to the Triots. After that, we investigated the case, only to find that we needed to arrest them for something else. That’s what the paperwork says. It’s possible that they may have had a run-in with demons on their way to search the Triots they banished, yes?
“One more thing I want to make sure of… our ultimate goal here. We’re going to draw out the generals and beat them to death.”
The sorcerer…
Sir Eichstädt said in surprise. We will have to exchange information about that later. For now, let’s proceed.
“But here the topography becomes a problem. The city of Anheim was originally built to guard the border with the Triots. A river runs through it to the south.”
Take out the figure and point to Anheim on the north riverbank.
“If the opponent is a human army, this is fine. The river to the south can be used as a defensive moat. But we are up against an army of demons with far superior physical capabilities than humans.
“It doesn’t make sense, huh?”
“I don’t think it’s completely meaningless, but I don’t expect much. It would be easy to cross. But what is more problematic is if the other side is always attacking from the other side of the river.”
That is the answer to Sir Behnke’s question. He does not seem to know much about the military. Frensen is not familiar with actual battles either, so I will explain in detail.
Even if we try to beat them up, if the enemy is on the other side of the river, the kingdom’s army will be allowed to attack them when they cross the river. In other words, the river, which was originally intended to protect the town, would become available to the enemy. In fact, it could even be said that the Royal Army is at a disadvantage in terms of physical ability.
Even if the Knights manage to cross the river, the Demon Army may temporarily retreat and disappear somewhere in the Triots before they can encircle the Demon General.
“The Royal Army can’t go deep into the Triots. We can’t do anything until the enemy attacks us again, and then we’ll be the ones who will be the poorer for it. Demons will come out of nowhere.
Yes, that’s true.
The tone of voice was unintentionally broken, but no one seemed to mind, including Sir Holtzdeppe who responded to the question. I guess they are trying to understand the situation.
“Therefore, I want to lead the enemy to this side of the river, preferably to the north, in front of the city gate. That way, it will be easier to surround them with reinforcements from the capital.”
“I understand that much, but I don’t understand the invasion of the Triots.
Now Sir Eichstädt asked me. Oh, a little light is coming back to your eyes. Maybe it’s the fact that we are dealing with a demon army that gives him a sense of purpose or motivation.
“I have been thinking about the ecology of the demon army, which is a strange expression. First of all, they are basically not afraid of humans.
The brave Mazel seems to be different, but I guess Mazel is an exception. Especially after the demon king’s resurrection, they come at us even if we have more than 100 people. I felt this when I was patrolling the aqueduct at the time of Fort Velisa.
“Also, demons basically don’t come out from a certain area. Perhaps they have a territory or something. The exception is when they are led by a commander, such as a demon general.
“Sure.”
In fact, in a game, just by crossing a single bridge, the number of enemies that appear can change drastically. In the case of games, it is a system thing. I called it a territory because I couldn’t think of any other word to describe it.
If demons are natural disasters, I am beginning to think that the monsters and beasts that usually appear in the area are more like small earthquakes in the area. To put it the other way around, it is quite understandable for human beings to build large cities in areas where natural disasters are rare.
That’s why strong demons don’t appear around King’s Landing, and the most formidable enemies near the Demon King’s Castle are the personification of an area where the natural environment is too harsh for human habitation…. I guess you could call it pseudo-demonization, or something like that. It is possible that the weak enemy at the starting point is not a lickspittle but a semi-inevitability.
When I think back, even in field maps, there are usually impassable mountains around the castle of the Demon King where the enemies are strong. In this world, there is a volcano right next to the castle. Even if there were no demons, I certainly wouldn’t want to live in a maze of mountains like that. Well, let’s put aside the demon king’s castle for the moment.
And if natural disasters and demons play the same role, then in polytheistic countries including Japan in the past, natural disasters were sometimes under the jurisdiction of the gods. The wind god and thunder god in Japan are symbols of natural disasters.
I honestly don’t understand how catfish became a symbol of earthquakes, but still, it is a different form of disaster. I hypothesize that the concept of natural disasters has materialized in some form, but that it has been somehow influenced by living organisms.
If it were a natural disaster, it would be strange for the environment to change so drastically with a single river, but it makes sense to think that they have become drawn to the idea of territory and the like because they have acquired the senses and thoughts of a living creature through mimicry.
But in this world, the word “natural disasters” is not even mentioned. And since we are monotheistic, we do not have the concept of anthropomorphizing nature. It would be doubly complicated if I tried to explain both. It would be faster to explain them by comparing them to animals, such as territory.
In that sense, the “demon generals” and the “four heavenly kings” may be a mimicry of a wide-area disaster that causes damage over a wide area. Let’s put that aside for the moment. The first priority is to defeat the Demon General Gesarius.
“Actually, what I was afraid of was if the enemy had done to me what I was about to do. In other words, a small number of troops would raid the enemy’s territory in reverse. And in rapid succession.”
A few werewolf werewolf class monsters can wipe out a whole village. If it had been repeated, the damage would have been negligible. But they have not done so. They may have underestimated our ability to defeat them at any time.
The biggest fear, however, was that we would be infiltrated once more into King’s Landing. That is why almost all of the potions to ward off evil have been used in the capital. The royal city does not say anything to me, and I have to trust His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and the people around him on this point.
Is the beastman lycanthrope counted as a person instead of a body, or is it an animal?
“More or less, a leader has his position. Even generals.”
The sorcerer…
“It would be a great shame if, in a demon army where strength is all that matters, you find yourself under attack in your own territory by people you underestimated.”
He responds to Lord Holtzdeppe’s question. In fact, the exchange with the lizard-magician Lizard Magician, who had been willing to make a deal with him in the village of Aarea, left a strong impression on us. In terms of his disrespect for human beings and his tendency to play games, even if it is poor.
Therefore, we came to the conclusion that we should be able to pull out the enemy.
“First, we must attack the other side’s territory to humiliate them. To provoke the general.”
