Chapter 3 – Story 88: Betrayal

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The notification reached Darius as he was considering measures against the Divine Son of Destruction together with Ponpius. At this point, they had already heard the news about the crushing defeat at the Conte. As might be expected, even Darius couldn’t help but look mortified when that piece of information reached him.

However, as far as Darius was concerned the defeat of the subjugation force was a foregone conclusion at the point they were lured onto the battlefield at the bridgepoint. Darius had only allowed himself to release one bitter sigh before moving on to discuss the countermeasures together with Ponpius in preparation for the Divine Son of Destruction who would likely attempt to gobble up the western part of Holmea.

Darius’s dearest wish was to exhaust all of his little, remaining life span for the sake of Holmea’s protection. This was his tenacity.

However, the new message reaching him at that moment not only caused Darius to become dumbstruck, but even Ponpius couldn’t help but meaninglessly flapping his mouth open and shut, not knowing what to say. The same Ponpius who had wielded the blade of rhetoric on equal or better terms against the best diplomats of many countries in the past.

“Darius, this is…”

Ponpius finally squeezed out, but he couldn’t say anything beyond that. After all, this notification was the worst possible piece of news for Holmea――something a former prime minister like him, who devoted his life to the kingdom, couldn’t ever speak out.

For a while Darius closed his eyes as if to pray to his gods, but then his eyes suddenly flew open and he wiped away everything on the big table where Ponpius and him had put their heads together until just a few moments ago. Stacks of paper, maps, and the multiple pieces, which had been placed on the maps, went flying, before loudly falling on the floor.

And then Darius placed his hands on the now empty table and hung his head.

“Will God even allow me and that guy to have another bout…?”

Those words were spat out of Darius’s mouth like blood.

◆◇◆◇◆

The message plunging even Darius, who had been moving in the shadows to somehow right the tilting kingdom, into deepest despair, reached King Warius right after he was informed about Alexius’s disappearance.

“My son…Alexius has gone missing…?”

The soldier bearing that message curtly confirmed the king’s question, who was now looking as if his soul left his body.

“There is absolutely no doubt that His Highness Alexius took just a few of his followers with him, left the city of Luoma, and tried to return to the capital. But, we have no news about what happened to his party afterwards, nor about the whereabouts of Baron Kantbias who chased after them.”

Even among the lords present in the audience halls, hushed whispers could be heard. One of them even started to say, “Don’t tell me, he went into hiding…,” but immediately held his tongue in panic.

“Didn’t he fall into the hands of the revolting slaves?”

If the prince was captured by the slaves, the best-case-scenario would be for him to be held as prisoner, but it wouldn’t be strange even if Alexius had been killed on the spot in the worst case. But, King Warius asked the question while privately praying that this was actually the case here.

But, the messenger soldier’s reply didn’t allow his hope to come true.

“We do not know. But, if this had happened, the revolting slaves would have undoubtedly spread the information in order to deliver a blow against out morale. However, such a message has not reached us yet.”

On top of this devastating information, the messenger also informed the king that Earl Mythos, the lord of Luoma, might have surrendered to the Divine Son of Destruction, albeit labeling this as unconfirmed information at the same time. This horrified the attending lords and chief vassals.

“Your Majesty! If this proves to be true, it would be equal to most of the western area falling into the hands of the Divine Son of Destruction.”

“If all the western lords bend their knees to him after he crushed the Black Wall, his threat will become known throughout the whole kingdom! We must adopt countermeasures right away.”

With that as the beginning, the lords and vassals started a heated discussion about the serious situation of Holmea. While amidst all of that, only King Warius sat on his throne like a dead twig, stricken by the crushing defeat and disappearance of his trusted son.

At that point, another messenger soldier rushed into the audience hall.

“I bear important information! Your Majesty, it is a serious matter!”

Finally coming back to his senses due to that voice, the king yelled as if to vent all his anger, “What could be more serious than this!?”

The messenger instinctively flinched away from the king’s sudden reprimand, but being still urged by the importance of the message he was bearing, he spoke up nonetheless.

“It is a very serious matter!”

The lords and vassals stopped their arguing due to his declaration and focused their attention on the messenger. King Warius stood up from his throne, thrust the scepter in his hand at the messenger, and asked, “Gaah! Whatever! Out with it! What is that serious matter you’re talking about!?”

“It is Romania!”

In front of the king who furrowed his eyebrows due to that reply, the messenger too a single, deep breath and said the following:

“Romania’s army has succeeded in crossing the Labian and is currently invading our land!”

The scepter fell out of King Warius’s hand, loudly crashing on the floor. That marked the overture to the destruction of Holmea, a major power of the West.

◆◇◆◇◆

The story goes back several days.

After hearing the report about the punitive force led by Alexius having marched towards the bridgepoint, King Cesar announced, “The time is ripe.” He then led King Doldea and Romania’s army to a place where the Labian divided Romania from a Holmean region called Lapplate.

The king of Romania from four generations ago had succeeded in crossing the Labian here. As such coming back to this region should be a commemorative moment for Romania while it should be a repeat of history for Holmea. Naturally, Holmea had learned from its past mistakes and plastered this area, which was a delta where many smaller branches merged into what would become the Big River Labian, with many small forts on the various sandbanks.

“Now then, King Cesar, what are we going to do now?”

The one asking was King Doldea. Although he had been told by King Cesar that a chance had opened up, he hadn’t been informed about the detailed plan how they would invade Holmea.

“Allow me to show you how I span a bridge across the river for your sake, oh Great King Doldea.”

King Doldea and his generals were surprised by that pompous speech. He had announced that he’d span a bridge across a big river out of thin air. Some of the generals even got angry at King Cesar for talking such carefree nonsense.

But, without minding their critical gazes, King Cesar quickly raised his right hand.

Thereupon, one of Buljeboa’s soldiers shot a fire arrow towards the sky which was still indigo blue as dawn hadn’t broken yet. The arrow flew like a rising meteorite towards heavens while leaving a trail of light in its wake.

Alongside that, the remaining soldiers ran up to a tree growing along the river and pulled a rope, which had been tied to it, with all their strength. In response, a rope was slowly pulled up from inside the river. And that rope stretched across the waving river surface, just to end at a similar tree at the opposite shore. A sturdy net was suspended from the rope, making the whole look like a huge curtain was being spanned across the Labian.

“King Doldea, take a good look at this.”

Beginning with the king, all people of Romania intently watched with bated breaths, wondering what was going to happen next. While illuminated by the light of dawn slowly creeping up from upstream, several rafts appeared. Those rafts quickly grew in number, before the whole width of the river was finally buried by rafts.

Those rafts got caught in the net spread out by the rope. The men riding those rafts used thick chains to connect to their neighboring rafts. Moreover, they drove long, wooden stakes into the riverbed and tightly affixed their rafts to those stakes.

Just like this, a very long, floating bridge was completed atop the big river while the Romanian people were all gazing at this in shock. King Cesar couldn’t help himself but grin at King Doldea and his retinue.

“Let me first make sure that it’s safe to cross. Please forgive my transgression, but would Your Majesty be so kind as to lend me a thousand of your soldiers?”

“Y-Yeah. ――Those believing themselves to be up to the task, cross the river together with King Cesar.”

King Doldea lent a general to King Cesar alongside the thousand soldiers.

“Very well, let us go then.”

King Cesar called out to the general carefreely as if they were going on a stroll and then started to cross the bridge while leading the soldiers of Buljeboa. The general of Romania timidly followed them.

Although it was slightly shaky, the floating bridge remained unperturbed even as a thousand soldiers stepped on it since the rafts were connected by thick chains and securely affixed to the stakes.

However, just because they managed to cross the river, that still didn’t mean they had already won. A fort stood on the other side, awaiting Romania’s river crossing. They didn’t know when Holmean soldiers would start to counter attack them from there. If they got attacked while crossing the river, it’d have a devastating impact. Especially if the bridge was burned down during the crossing, all of the soldiers would fall into the big river.

However, for some reason the fort remained completely silent despite them boldly crossing the river like this.

Opposite to the general who was fearfully crossing the bridge as he was still worried that Holmean soldiers might jump out from somewhere, King Cesar advanced on his horse towards the fort while looking so relaxed that you’d expect him to start humming some cheerful tune any moment.

At last, they arrived in front of the fort without suffering a single attack by Holmean soldiers.

Albeit being small, the fort possessed thick walls and obviously fortified defenses as this place would become the front line in case of an attack by Romania.

While believing that it wouldn’t be able to take this place, the Romanian general asked King Cesar, “King Cesar, what are we going to do next?”

“We’ll do this.”

King Cesar created a circle out of index finger and thumb, put it between his lips, and loudly whistled.

In response, the tightly shut gate began to open with a deep creaking.

◆◇◆◇◆

The military forces of Romania had crossed over to the other shore.

Rudophus, an officer of the regular army who had been demoted and sent to Lapplate after his blunder at Marven Copper Mine, was informed of that during his patrol.

In addition to sending a messenger to the capital in order to warn the royal court, he took the few troops under his command and galloped towards the Romania’s army, which had just landed, to try and defeat them.

The enemy has likely brought a big army, but if we attack the vanguard right after they crossed the river, we should be able to buy some time even without destroying the bridge. We must arrive there before the enemy main force lands, now matter what it takes.

While feeling such an impatience gnawing at him, Rudophus hurried his soldiers and horse along, but soldiers blocking his path soon appeared in front of them. Rudophus was shocked that the enemy had already come this far, but once he took a closer look, he realized that the soldiers in front of him were wearing Holmean uniforms. Moreover, he noticed a flag, which he knew, being raised amidst those soldiers.

“What are you doing, Kuffner!? We must hurry and drive back Romania’s army!”

It was the flag of his comrade Kuffner who had been demoted to this place together with him. Kuffner appeared from within the soldiers in response to Rudophus addressing him.

“I’m sorry, but I cannot allow you to do that, Rudophus.”

For an instant, Rudophus didn’t understand what he had been told just now. But, as soon as he did, his face stiffened up.

“Don’t tell me, you bastard…!?”

Kuffner answered with a smile, “Indeed! I abandoned Holmea and joined Romania’s side!”

However, his smile was forced. His face was just as stiff as Kuffner’s. His upward-curved lips were distorted and one could see his eye twitching abnormally. It was a smile that somehow looked more like a tear-stained face.

“You must be kidding! Despite being a knight who swore fealty to Holmea, you betrayed our kingdom, and of all things, you switched sides to Romania!?”

Kuffner got angry at Rudophus’s blame.

“Who betrayed who first!?” Kuffner widened his bloodshot eyes, screaming as if he was spitting darkish mud, “We devoted all our strength to the kingdom! Isn’t that right, Rudophus!? Any yet, that fucking Warius reprimanded us alone for everything. Not only did he disgrace us in front of the lords, but he even evicted us to a remote shithole like this! That quick-tempered fucker rested his laurel’s on top of our loyalty just because he was born into the royal family, and on top of that, he immediately insulted us and blamed us for a tiny failure! You think I’d be able to endure such bullshit!?”

Rudophus was lost for words due to Kuffners wrathful rant.

“Rudophus! You too surrender to Romania! They definitely won’t treat you badly!”

Kuffner’s words swayed Rudophus. It wasn’t as though he didn’t feel dissatisfied with King Warius’s punishment. It’d be a lie, if he were to claim that he didn’t hate King Warius.

But, Rudophus still held his ground.

“I’m a knight of Holmea! I won’t surrender to our archenemy Romania!”

Both shared a fairly long friendship and thus Kuffner was able to predict that Rudophus would answer like that. And because of that, he asked, “Okay, so how about a place other than Romania then?”

“What do you mean…?”

Kuffner mentioned a certain name in response to Rudophus’s question. Rudophus’s eyes flew wide open.

“No way…that man is rebelling against His Majesty…!?

“How about it, Rudophus!? Are you going to surrender as well?”

Rudophus quickly came to his senses thanks to Kuffner’s question.

“N-No! Either way, it won’t change the fact of this being a rebellion against His Majesty! I won’t become a traitor!”

“In that case, I shall show you the minimum of mercy as your friend and take your head personally!”

With those words, Kuffner got off his horse and drew his sword, stepping out in front by himself. Responding to that, Rudophus also dismounted, drew his sword and stepped forward.

“You damn dog of Warius!”

“Traitor!”

After insulting each other, both started to exchange sword blows. The duel between Rudophus, who excelled in sword technique, and Kuffner, who won in power and youth, looked like a fierce struggle for supremacy. But, their respective positions in this duel quickly became clear.

Rudophus had suffered an injury to his leg while protecting Kuffner from Zurgu’s attack during their pursuit of the dwarves from the copper mine. That injury hadn’t healed yet. Each time he put weight on that leg, Rudophus’s swordsmanship waned as the wound hurt. And then, Kuffner finally knocked down Rudophus’s sword during such a moment of weakness.

“I’ll offer this to you just one more time. Surrender together with me, Rudophus!”

However, Rudophus only spat at Kuffner.

“A pig that doesn’t know loyalty shouldn’t speak the human language! It’s only natural for me to have been demoted as well. After all, I ended up saving such a pig without even knowing this much!”

“I have no other choice then,” muttered Kuffner and lopped off Rudophus’s head with a single side swing of his word.

The head flew through the air, leaving a trail of blood in its wake, before falling to the ground. Kuffner picked it up and held it up high.

“I took down Warius’s dog!”

Declaring his victory like that, Kuffner thrust his bloodstained sword at Rudophus’s remaining soldiers.

“You people surrender obediently! Otherwise, you’ll be all slaughtered!”

Rudophus’s soldiers looked at each other for a while But, now that their own captain was dead, they couldn’t do anything. At first one of them tossed away his weapons. But taking that as trigger, one soldier after the other followed suit, surrendering to Kuffner.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Finally I’m able to step on Holmean ground,” murmured King Doldea full of emotions after having crossed the floating bridge, following King Cesar and his general.

It took him 30 years to come all the way here. During that time, he had lost several ten thousands of soldiers, many generals, and a precious friend. Thinking about it now, he couldn’t describe his current feelings as anything but deeply touched.

The ones greeting King Doldea after he got on his own palanquin and headed to the fort were King Cesar and the general. Moreover, a fat man was prostrating at their feet.

King Doldea first thanked the general for his great work.

“No, not at all. Everything has been orchestrated by King Cesar.”

As a matter of fact, the fort opened its gate without a single sword being swung and Holmea’s soldiers, who had been inside, discarded their weapons and surrendered. The only thing left for the general to do was to check whether any ambush troops were hiding inside the fort.

“Lord Cesar, I don’t know how to thank you.”

King Cesar lightly shook his head, as if saying that it wasn’t anything worth mentioning.

“This too is the outcome of your virtue and authority, King Doldea. ――Besides, I merely acted as an intermediary. All of it is based on the efforts of this person here,” said King Cesar and pointed at the fat man groveling on the ground like a bug.

As soon as King Doldea saw that man, a smile full of scorn and contempt formed on King Doldea’s lips. But, he immediately erased it, and called out to the man with a gentle voice.

“Lift your face, friend who is going to form an alliance with me from now on. There is no need for you to prostrate yourself in front of me.”

The fat man timidly lifted his face due to King Doldea’s words. His fat cheeks shook flabbily and he revealed a flattering smile.

King Doldea addressed the man by name, “Isn’t that right, Lord Vulitas?”

The fat man was Vulitas Sadoma Holmeanis, the younger brother of King Warius and former lord of Bolnis.

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