Chapter 3 – Story 107: The Rational Voice of an Old King
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The flags of the Divine Son of Destructions fluttered in the wind atop the rampart of Royal Capital Holmenia. Even Daraios could see as much as he directed the construction of Romania’s army camp.
“Hoh, I heard he’s a late-bloomer when it comes to women and wars, but isn’t that Divine Son of Destruction moving much faster than expected?”
Even though he talked big, Daraios was actually astonished.
The Divine Son of Destruction has won over Holmea without a fight, or Holmea offered its surrender to him.
Those two possibilities were part of Daraios’s assumptions. But ultimately, they were nothing more than possibilities. Having judged the probability of either scenario taking place being pretty much zero, he had excluded them from his considerations.
In the first place, it’s unthinkable that Holmea, a country priding itself to be a major power of the West, would surrender to the Divine Son of Destruction whom they regarded as leader of a band of demi-humans and revolting slaves. Even if they found themselves so cornered by Romania that they saw no other choice, they shouldn’t have any connections with the Divine Son of Destruction after scorning and despising him to such an extent. But even if they had, it’d be close to impossible to wrap up negotiations over a surrender now that things have developed to this stage.
The same should apply to the Divine Son of Destruction, too.
Daraios muttered to himself, “Just who the hell interfered here…?”
The only person possessing enough clout and achievement to make the chief retainers and lords of Holmea accept a surrender to the Divine Son of Destruction would be the former Grand Prime Minister Ponpius. But, even if he might have been a Grand Prime Minister――no, exactly because he was in such a position, it’s hard to believe that he’d get the idea to surrender to the Divine Son of Destruction. In that case, someone else must have gotten involved.
Very likely an orator. Moreover, an excellent speaker who could tear a country apart with his words. In addition, he’d need to have an unconventional thinking that allows him to make a major power of the West accept a surrender to the leader of demi-humans and revolting slaves. A daredevil of a clown who would perform a silly dance while kicking common sense out of the window.
That was the sort of person Daraios imagined the mediator to be.
“Who is it? I never heard of an orator who could pull off something like this.”
Even as a military man, Daraios always kept his ears perked up to catch any information about talented people in the surrounding countries. But, so far he had not once heard rumors about the existence of such a golden-mouthed orator. He couldn’t even fathom that he would have never heard of such an excellent orator.
“Either way, things have become troublesome,” muttered Daraios.
Daraios had expected that they’d be able to take the capital in short order since Holmea had invested most of its soldiers in the previous battle and was now left with almost no strength to defend Holmenia. But, if the Divine Son of Destruction had marched into the capital, leading his own forces, it’d totally overthrow Daraios prior assumption.
The number of soldiers the Divine Son of Destruction can move is around 5,000 by even the most favorable estimate. That doesn’t even amount to half the number of our army. Moreover, most of them are zoan who are of little use in siege battles. Yet, if they fight while using the sturdy walls of the capital, it’s going to become a nuisance. Also, I heard there’s many dwarves among the demi-humans under the Divine Son of Destruction. Dwarves excel at siege battles, so we cannot underestimate them at all.
Now that it’s come to this, it’d be a bad idea to attack the capital directly with brute force over a short period of time. It’s probably much safer to encircle the city and starve them out. Adding to the several ten thousand inhabitants, the city is currently filled with the refugees and soldiers of the last battle, who fled from us, and the troops of the Divine Son of Destruction. No matter how many provisions they might have stored in their warehouses, they won’t be able to last long, Daraios estimated.
But, even then the siege of the capital will take several months――and in the worst case, more than half a year.
Daraios clicked his tongue in frustration in response to his own prediction.
Even if it turns into an unexpectedly drawn out battle, it’d be still fine, if only we take Holmenia in the end. But, if the siege battle runs into any problems, our army will immediately be at disadvantage because of our long supply lines. And that’s not all either. If we struggle with Holmenia, it’s unlikely that the northern Holmean lords such as Marquis Apius will remain pure spectators. They’ll either move their soldiers to cut our supply lines or directly attack us from behind. If that happens, it’d become a disaster.
We must urgently send messengers to the northern lords to restrain them.
After considering all that, Daraios sighed once more since everything has become so troublesome.
But it’s not all just bad things, he pulled himself together.
The one worrying Daraios the most in regards to the capture of Holmenia actually was the Divine Son of Destruction.
After all, he’s an extraordinary tactician who even led my archenemy Darius around by the nose. We wouldn’t have known when and where he’d strike. And even then it’d have been still better if he attacked us while we were frantically trying to take Holmenia in an attempt to steal it from us. It’d be much worse if he directly attacked our homeland, which is currently undermanned. He’s that much of an unreadable guy. Him making his location known in such a blatant way is the sole saving grace here.
“Call the lords and commanding officers together. We must rework our moves to take Holmenia while in the presence of His Majesty.”
Daraios sent out a messenger to have the lords and commanders convene. However, as if passing each other, a messenger arrived at Daraios’s place from the frontline.
“Your Excellency! I have orders from His Majesty! He is telling you to take Holmenia swiftly while using all of our army.”
“What was that…!?”
Daraios eyes flew wide open. Romania’s army had arrived in this area just a little while ago. The soldiers didn’t realize it because they were elated by the unforeseen steady advance, but the long march and series of battles until coming here made them accumulate a lot of fatigue. They were in no state to carry out a siege battle.
If the soldiers run into even the slightest problems while attacking, the exhaustion, which they forgot about, will come swooping down on them, making it impossible for them to move any further. In order for that to not happen, we have to first build an encampment and then let the soldiers rest for a few days. Also, we should have decided during an earlier war council that we’re going to demand the city’s capitulation by sending a messenger while preparing siege weapons in the meantime. Of course, His Majesty should know all of this since he acknowledged it.
“Just what happened to His Majesty?”
Daraios couldn’t help but feel confused by the reckless order, which was so unlike King Doldea.
In any case, it’s impossible for our men to start a siege battle right away.
Daraios got on his horse and galloped to the frontline in order to warn King Doldea. Arriving there, he found King Doldea outside his palanquin, shrilly screaming at the top of his lung while waving his sword around.
“Attack Holmenia! You slackers! Hurry!”
One could wonder where the cautiousness, which had earned him the title of Cunning Wolf, had gone. With a bright red face, King Doldea was blaming everyone around him while glaring as if he was trying to kill with his eyes.
But, because of that sudden, unplanned order to attack the city, many of the soldiers were confused, only making the chaos even worse.
“Your Majesty! What is going on!?”
Daraios deliberately raised his voice to make his arrival known. Due to that, the confused soldiers revealed obvious relief on their faces. In contrast to them, only King Doldea shouted back with his fury unchanged, “Aurelius!”
Seeing Daraios blink his eyes in surprise, King Doldea continued while letting his saliva fly, “That blasted Aurelius betrayed me and sided with the Divine Son of Destruction! On top of that, that bastard dared to slander me!”
“How could he…!”
Daraios was an acquaintance of Aurelius, who used to be an influential noble in Romania and King Doldea’s close friend. Because of that alone, a part of him couldn’t quite believe that Aurelius would have sided with the Divine Son of Destruction, an enemy of Romania, but in the end he agreed with an “I see.”
Aurelius is an orator who was hailed for his eloquence being as fiery as a raging fire and as fluent as a mountain stream. He’s a wise man whose insight surpasses a hundred scrolls (a hundred books). But, above all, he’s a man known for his out-of-the-box thinking.
Back when King Doldea’s father was still going strong, a vein that would yield copper of good quality was discovered on the border between two nobles who had been at odds with each other for generations. Naturally, both nobles claimed ownership over the copper vein, unwilling to yield it to the other. In the end, it reached a state where they were about to settle this issue through battle. At that point, the former king, who couldn’t watch the situation any longer, ordered Aurelius to mediate between the two parties. However, hearing the king’s order, Aurelius suddenly dispatched his own troops, burning down the mining site after chasing away all the miners. And then, he nonchalantly reported the following to the king while in front of the two fuming nobles:
“I exterminated the evil which was about to harm our country’s treasure.”
For a moment the king was dumbfounded by that reply, but then he broke out in laughter and answered, “I see. No matter how outstanding the copper vein, it can’t replace superior retainers. It’s only natural to slay something that threatens to harm those two, who are this country’s treasure. You made a very fair point.”
The two nobles couldn’t even hush a groan in response. With them being honored greatly as Romania’s treasure which cannot be lost to the likes of a copper vein, it became impossible for them to insist on the mine. Moreover, even if one side tried to force their hand and mine the copper, Aurelius would just burn down everything again. Considering that, they had no other choice but to share the copper mine.
This resolute action by Aurelius received a lot of applause by many of the military commanders, who would usually look down upon civil officials as weaklings. And Daraios had been one of those commanders.
If it’s that genius Aurelius, it’s not strange for the Divine Son of Destruction and Ponpius to have reached an agreement. Moreover, if I consider that he fled Romania on top of insulting King Doldea, it’s only natural to assume that he hid or changed his name, given that I didn’t hear anything about him up until now.
After thinking up to that point, Daraios shuddered.
Aurelius was cooperating with the Divine Son of Destruction; that fact let a shiver run down Daraios’s spine, even though he was a man known to not feel any fear on the battlefield.
“Your Majesty! Please calm down!”
As someone who was even called his best friend, Aurelius should be very familiar with His Majesty. Hence, it’s only logical to assume that His Majesty being in such a state of intense anger was well within Aurelius’s expectations.
If we enter a siege battle in this state, we won’t know what retaliation might await us.
Daraios desperately warned King Doldea, “You mustn’t fall for the enemy’s provocation! I beg you, please calm yours――”
Daraios’s plea was interrupted by the sound of flesh being smacked.
“Silence, Daraios! Have you not heard what I ordered you to do!?”
Not only Daraios but even the soldiers, who had been watching their exchange with bated breaths, widened their eyes in shock, freezing on the spot. King Doldea had slapped Daraios’s cheek with the flat side of his sword. That was a clear warning that he’d use the blade instead of the flat part the next time, if Daraios dared to protest again.
Even if Daraios was the commander-in-chief, he had no choice but to back down.
“…It shall happen in accordance with your will, Your Majesty.”
While showing his allegiance by bowing his head, Daraios felt shocked after noticing a certain truth. Only the king’s closest attendants and Daraios knew that the king would occasionally mutter, “If only Aurelius was here…,” whenever he wavered on how to decide.
Very likely His Majesty is able to push aside his personal feelings for decisions by remembering his old friend, who had criticized him harshly, and ascertaining things objectively by voicing them out. In other words, Aurelius’s phantom has become the rational voice which suppresses His Majesty’s emotions. However, that very Aurelius has now joined up with the Divine Son of Destruction and furthermore insulted His Majesty severely. Because of this, that rational voice has now turned into something that instigates his anger even further. It regards His Majesty’s current fury as justified and acceptable.
Daraios left the place in order to order the attack with a very sour expression.
Even if we attack the capital, it’ll be impossible to take it with our preparations being so poor in addition to our soldiers’ level of exhaustion. It’s more realistic to consider how to lower the casualties instead of thinking about how to take the city. If I fail at that, resulting in big losses, the momentum from the previous great victory, which has been pushing the soldiers, will be lost. In exchange, the Divine Son of Destruction and the remaining forces of Holmea will gain motivation instead. And it’s extremely difficult to make an enemy, who saw his chance once, surrender afterwards. No matter how bad their predicament might be, they’ll keep resisting to the bitter end, always hoping for a repeat of that one victory they obtained.
“This is going to cast us into a swamp…”
This is going to become a siege battle which will take a lot of time, something which I’d want to avoid even under normal circumstances. Yet, it’s going to become a sluggish mud fight on top of that, Daraios felt depressed.
However, he wasn’t aware of the words, which Souma would say as he looked down on Romania’s army closing in on the city’s wall.
“Now then, it’s time to settle this in one go.”
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