Chapter 3 – Story 80: Reinforcements
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Souma’s appalled voice resounded throughout the tent that had been hurriedly set up on a hill, allowing a direct view on Luoma.
“Sheeesh…”
After having heard about the chain of events from Garam and Zurgu, even Souma found it hard to find the right words. He had entrusted Fort Garaf to Setius and Norðri after its capitulation and advanced the rest of the army up to the city of Luoma, but he had never expected that something like this would take place.
Shyemul also couldn’t help but to spit out, “『Enduring starvation or spoiling your stomach with the decaying flesh given to you』, eh?”, while looking disgusted.
This was a zoan proverb, meaning that one, who acted without thinking of the consequences because they found themselves in a difficult situation, would only succumb into an even worse situation thanks to the action they took. (T/N: in modern terms: Being stuck between a rock and a hard place)
“Anyway, let’s cordially protect the soldiers who surrendered to us.”
After Souma ordered the distribution of a warm meal and something to drink for the surrenderers, he discussed with everyone what they should do next.
“Now then, how should we proceed from here?”
If cornered, Souma would become so daring that it’d amaze even Shyemul, but usually he was a timid coward.
Still it was unclear how much damage they managed to cause to Holmea as they ended up letting the enemy, which they should have been able to annihilate, get away. And although they caused further losses to Holmea’s army through the pursuit, they failed to catch the enemy’s supreme commander.
For this reason, Souma wasn’t confident that they had damaged Holmea fatally, causing him to hesitate whether they should withdraw at this point, as previously planned, or march on in order to deliver further blows against the kingdom.
It was the human general, Marchronis, who proposed that they ought to take Luoma to Souma who sought everyone’s opinion.
“The city of Luoma can rightfully be called the cornerstone of Holmea’s western part,” he started off. “Not only is it an important trade hub located along the West’s public main road that runs all the way from Romania through Holmea to Jeboa, but it also sits in the center of Holmea’s western road network. You can easily say seizing this city equals to gaining control over Holmea’s western part.”
Just as Marchronis pointed out, roads were radially spreading out from Luoma all over Holmea’s western regions on the map depicting Holmea. As long as they managed to take Luoma, the lords situated in Holmea’s west would have no choice but to surrender and the whole region would fall into Souma’s hands, according to Marchronis.
“But, won’t we get attacked in reverse now that we’ve marched up to here without gaining control over the surrounding lords and their fiefs first?”
Marchronis denied Souma’s worry, “I think you don’t need to really worry about this,” and being asked for the reason, he instantly answered, “If the surrounding lords consider making a move in order to encircle us, they have to do so while coordinating their efforts closely. But, with Luoma’s circumference under our control, they can’t do that.”
Souma saw Marchronis’s point.
Certainly, if the various lords in the western region plan to get in contact, the shortest route would lead through Luoma, going by the map. But, as long as we have a firm grasp on the area near Luoma, the lords will be forced to make big detours in order to contact each other and that will make the coordination of a joint effort rather difficult. On the other hand, if some lords decide to move on their own, we can easily repel their few troops with our army. Knowing that, the surrounding lords don’t have many options to make a move, even if they want to.
Souma always felt irritated about the inability to communicate over long distances in this world where radios and mobile telephones didn’t exist, but this fact was currently working to his advantage.
Marchronis further added, “Besides, I doubt they would want to fight against the enemy who crushed the Black Wall. They will opt to negotiate with us rather than moving their soldiers first.
As we can think about the negotiations with the lords after they come forward to request them, it doesn’t seem like a problem to ignore them for the time being. In addition, Luoma should be in the midst of chaos right now after taking in a big number of the fleeing soldiers. Since they probably haven’t expected us to close in on them this far, I can’t imagine that they’ve prepared for a siege battle either.
The city’s interior is in turmoil, they won’t be able to rely on the surrounding lords, and they don’t know when the requested reinforcements from the capital might arrive. This should be the perfect chance for us to assault Luoma,” explained Marchronis and brought it to a finish with, “If the western part is taken after the Black Wall got destroyed, King Warius will lose his ability to rally the kingdom under his banner, no matter how much of a fuss he does. If the central and eastern lords apply pressure on him as well, Holmea will collapse without any further battles.”
Everyone nodded in understanding.
Luoma was a city as big as Bolnis. Its walls were tall and sturdy. They got an abundance of materials, too. If they decided to besiege such a city while its preparations were at their peak, they’d have to accept great losses to make the city capitulate. If one looked at it like that, now was definitely a golden chance to take down Luoma.
Once Souma looked at the faces of those present, he found faces full of motivation all around himself.
“Very well. We will take Luoma!”
As soon as Souma voiced his decision, everyone responded with a passionate cheer.
“Now then, how are we going to do that…”
Souma started off, but got interrupted by Dvalin.
“Leave it to us! We will assemble catapults in no time. Once the resupply of oil jars arrives from Michena, we’ll be able to hurl them at the city at any given moment,” he boasted proudly.
But Souma jumped off his seat, kicking his chair over, “You mustn’t!”
The place instantly fell silent due to Souma’s angry demeanor. However, the one surprised the most was actually Souma himself. He didn’t understand why he had refused Dvalin’s suggestion so vehemently.
Souma started to incoherently make excuses while everyone was staring at him, “Umm…setting the city on fire is the last resort, or rather…it’s still too early…”
The one throwing him a lifeline here was Shyemul.
“That’s only natural. Soma wants to obtain the city, not destroy it. There’s no meaning in going out of your way to capture prey alive after injuring it unnecessarily. ――Don’t you agree, 《Ferocious Fang》?”
“Yeah, I think so too,” Garam supported his sister’s claim. “We should keep the destruction to the limit, if we’re going to rule over that city in the same way as Bolnis. I think it’s a valid view to reserve fire attacks as a last resort, but what do you think?”
If not only Souma, but also the marshal, Garam, said so, no one would object. Dvalin looked disappointed, but the attacks by fire were postponed nonetheless.
As a matter of fact, Garam had heard about Souma’s trauma from Shyemul before this war council started.
Back then I couldn’t quite believe it, but going by Soma’s earlier reaction, it seems to be an illness that’s a lot more serious than I’ve expected. Just as my sister told me.
His words moments ago were rather intended as persuasion to calm Souma down than him expressing his own opinion. Thanks to that, Souma avoided getting confused and regained his composure. After clearing his throat once as if to get rid of the heavy atmosphere in the tent, Souma spoke up.
“Anyway, I think it’d be a foolish plan to attack a city with such a sturdy wall with force. We’ll try to take this place by attacking its weak spot.”
“Do you have some plan for that?” Zurgu asked in response.
Souma nodded and said, “They actually showed us an opening themselves. We’ll simply exploit that.”
With those words, Souma used his finger to draw a semicircle on the western side of Luoma shown on the map.
“First we’re going to build a strong encampment over here as preparation against surprise attacks and to pressure the enemy.”
As soon as Souma asked Dvalin with his eyes whether he could leave that part to him and his dwarves, Dvalin hit his chest, showing his consent. After making sure of that, Souma continued.
“Thinking that he’d be necessary sooner or later either way, I requested Michena to send reinforcements at the same time as I asked her to arrange for additional provisions and materials. Let’s wait for that person to arrive here shortly.”
Shyemul curiously raised her voice, “Person? You didn’t call for soldiers as reinforcement?”
Souma nodded and told Shyemul a certain name. In response, Shyemul frowned so hard that even a human like Souma could tell.
“So you called that blasted geezer, eh…?”
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