Chapter 3 – Story 92: Mito and Butter
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The news of King Warius having left the capital to repel Romania also reached Souma’s ears. Hearing about it, Souma first furrowed his eyebrows and then asked Eladia, “Was there some sort of contact from Holmea’s side?”
The elven chief court lady, who had not only been entrusted with the entertainment, but also the negotiations with the messengers, immediately answered, “Messengers requesting a dialogue arrived from several lords, but so far not a single messenger from Holmea has visited us.”
Souma brooded for a bit after hearing her response, and then he ordered Eladia to spread the map of Holmea on the table. He then placed a piece which signified Holmea’s army near the capital of Holmenia, and another piece for Romania’s army, located between Holmea’s eastern city Gatzen――a city that had surrendered to Romania――and the capital of Holmenia.
According to the report from Pipi who had gone on reconnaissance, King Warius had taken almost all of his available troops to fight back Romania.
Souma swiftly moved the piece for Holmea’s army so that it was facing Romania’s piece.
“In other words, the capital is mostly undefended now, huh…?”
Just as indicated by him having placed no other pieces on the map, the capital had no option to call for reinforcements from elsewhere. And no matter how you considered it, this was a clear sign of Holmea being on the verge of death.
Regardless of how hotblooded and short-tempered the king might be, usually he shouldn’t consider leading all his troops into a decisive battle against Romania’s army without first concluding a ceasefire or an alliance with us, who are threatening Holmea from the western flank. It’s almost as if they’re telling us to attack the empty capital.
After thinking up to this point, Souma suddenly realized, “Maybe it’s an Empty-Castle-Plan! When we take down the main gate and storm into the city, we’ll be greeted by pitfalls and a hail of arrows from the walls…!”
Right after quickly rattling down all that, Souma noticed Shyemul’s cold look on himself. Her eyes were silently telling him, “Soma has started to talk about something silly once again.”
Just the other day, he had failed to completely eradicate the trapped Holmean army because of unnecessary worries, and he had also lost Alexius, the crown prince, who would have become an excellent trump card for future negotiations.
Recalling all that, Souma’s face turned red from shame and after coughing once to gloss over his blunder, he said, “…is what I would usually say, but Pipi has scouted the capital from the sky and considering the number of soldiers which left the city, I can’t believe that to be true.
I guess I’ve read too much of the Annals of the Three Kingdoms, Souma reflected, pulled himself together, and reassessed their current situation.
Thereupon he found that it was legit to see this as yet another of King Warius’s reckless actions.
It looks like I can’t expect any rational thinking from King Warius any longer.
As far as Souma was concerned, he didn’t want to have anything to do with such a crazy man. If this was an unrelated, distant story, he’d have watched things unfold and laughed about how that man was destroying himself, but as this was about the neighboring country, things were different.
At any rate, he had planned to have Holmea work hard at being a buffer zone between his territory and Romania. If Holmea ceased to exist because of King Warius reckless actions, it’d result in their camp coming into direct contact with Romania. And Souma wanted to avoid that, if at all possible.
“Is there no chance of Holmea winning?”
Souma shook his head at Shyemul’s question.
“They have almost no chance for victory, seeing how their enemy has more than twice as many soldiers. Not to even mention that their army will be led by King Warius.”
Souma flicked the piece for Holmea’s army off the map. The piece fell off the table with a clattering. At this point, Holmea’s loss was already set in stone within Souma’s mind.
The problem for him now was how to deal with King Doldea after Holmea fell.
“He likely won’t be satisfied with defeating King Warius and go back home just like that.”
In that case, King Doldea’s next step should be an advance against the capital of Holmenia. Very likely he’ll split up his army in several groups and send them out to plunder the lands to solve the issue of supplies while heading for the capital. And then he’ll encircle the city with his whole army, and after taking the city or making them surrender, he’ll install a puppet government with Vulitas as new king of Holmea.
How should we deal with such a foe?
Souma folded his arms, pondering.
First off, the simplest method would be to join hands with Romania. We could grab an achievement by attacking Holmea’s army from behind while they’re heading east, or making the capital fall. Afterwards we could use that achievement as leverage to have them accept the independence of our Bolnis and Solbiant Plains.
But, Souma rejected that idea as a foolish plan.
King Doldea is obviously brimming with the ambition to conquer all of the West. He’ll definitely demand allegiance from us. And it’d still be fine if we could keep our independence by me bowing my head, but there would be no way for King Doldea to give up on Bolnis, a city that continues to develop remarkably, and the breadbasket called Solbiant Plains. Even if he were to recognize our independence for some time, he’d exaggerate any tiny problem each time something were to happen, trying to steal concessions from us. And if we opposed this sort of tyranny, he’d suppress us with military force. However, even if we assume that we wouldn’t oppose him, King Doldea would just continue to escalate his demands, eventually leading us to a state where you could call us independent in name only.
Sooner or later, we won’t have much of a choice but to confront King Doldea.
“In that case, the timing as to when we interfere in the battle between Holmea and Romania becomes crucial, huh?”
Souma pondered while playing around with the piece, indicating themselves, located at Luoma on the map.
At this rate, Romania will conquer most of Holmea, becoming the largest country in the West. So, just watching how the enemy, whom we’re obviously going to face sooner or later, keeps growing bigger and bigger would be like digging your own grave.
Now is the time where we should either get in Romania’s way or cut off a bigger chunk of Holmea while using the current chaos to our advantage. If we go with the latter option, we should turn our attention to Holmenia, the capital of Holmea.
Given its status as capital, Holmenia is the central hub, connecting many major roads and waterways. As long as we can take that city, we’ll be able to project our power across all of Holmea.
Moreover, right now most of the defending soldiers have left the capital. Thus we should probably take Holmenia while King Warius and King Doldea are duking it out.
Those were Souma’s thoughts, but he immediately dismissed them.
First off, the number of soldiers we can currently move is too low.
Although they had absorbed the soldiers of the former subjugation army who had surrendered, and deprived Holmea’s western lords of their soldiers after making the submit, Souma’s army fell short of 10,000 men. Yet, Souma wanted to avoid inviting more unnecessary chaos and dissatisfaction by extracting even more soldiers from Holmea’s west to fill their ranks. On the contrary, currently he had route some of his own forces to maintain the public order in the unstable western regions.
The number of soldiers he could move under these circumstances were limited to 5,000 – 6,000 soldiers, mostly centered around zoan warriors who were unsuited for maintaining the public order as they were feared by humans.
And even if King Warius left with the whole army, it didn’t mean that the capital hadn’t a single soldier remaining inside its walls. There should be a small contingent of soldiers left to protect the royal family and keep the order in the city. If those soldiers and the capital’s residents staged a desperate resistance, it’d take a lot of time for the zoan, who weren’t good at siege battles, to take the capital with its firm defenses.
If King Doldea defeated King Warius and arrived at the capital in the meantime, Souma’s forces would end up pincered instead. And even if they managed to quickly take the city, they’d need to rely on the broken defense structures, which they destroyed themselves, to fend off Romania’s army while having Holmenia’s residents in their back. This too would be too much of a stretch to handle.
“In that case, the most profitable plan would be to get Holmea to owe us one?”
If we consider preventing the growth of Romania as the biggest priority, it’d be best to cooperate with Holmea and drive away Romania’s forces. We could make Holmea win by endangering the rear of Romania, just when both countries are embroiled in a fierce battle.
However, Souma couldn’t imagine that King Warius would willingly recognize their independence out of gratitude. On top of that, he felt that it was possible for King Warius to start yapping about it being a disgrace that they were rescued by Souma’s forces, ordering his men to attack Souma’s troops while they would be exhausted and wounded after driving away Romania.
Guessing by the many words and actions of King Warius he knew, Souma believed that it’d be impossible to coexist with Holmea as long as King Warius was still around.
“In the end, the best option would be to have Holmea and Romania perish together, I suppose.”
But, I cannot expect King Warius and Holmea’s army to achieve a draw against Romania. Hence, we have no choice but to do it ourselves. We’ll fight against the exhausted and wounded army of Romania after its victory against Holmea.
Souma flicked the piece of Romania’s army off the map.
“The best timing for that would be the instant when Holmenia falls.”
Holmenia used to be the capital city of the old major country which later split into Holmea and Romania. Its defenses are tight and even Romania’s big army will likely struggle to take that city. But even Holmenia will eventually fall as they can’t hope for any reinforcements from the surrounding lords.
And that would be the perfect time for us to strike. We’d enter the scene as reinforcements just as the capital’s residents would be suffering from the looting and violence by Romania’s army. Routing the cruel Romanian army will likely make the city’s residents welcome us with open arms as they wouldn’t know our aim.
At the same time, we would let Romania’s army wipe out Holmea’s ruling class, which would become a hindrance to the rule of our country. Depending on the circumstances, it’d also be clever to dress up as Romanian soldiers and kill the surviving nobles.
Considering the future government, this would be the smartest move.
But, Souma wasn’t fully satisfied with this plan. Creating a place where those, who followed him while believing in his ideals, could live in peace and stability was the top priority for Souma. He had long ago made up his mind to slay or abandon other people for that sake.
However, this wasn’t simply abandonment. Rather, this was the foul act of watching the tragedy of others while knowing of it in advance, and then trying to save them while acting as allies of justice who had simply arrived a bit late to the scene.
If I’m going to do something like that, it’d be better to abandon them from the very start.
You could call this his naivety as a human, but this was Souma’s nature. And because he was such a naive person who couldn’t be heartless to no end, Shyemul had recognized Souma as her Navel Master.
“Sheesh, this is so typical for you, Soma.”
Despite the accusatory words, a proud timbre swung in Shyemul’s voice.
“But, can’t you think of a good method as my Navel Master?”
Souma smiled bitterly at Shyemul’s remark. Even though she said she was serving him with her body, heart, and soul, Shyemul always demanded of him to act in a manner befitting of being her Navel Master. For Souma this was a heavy burden, but at the same time, also a matter of pride.
“It’s not that I can’t come up with some methods, but…”
As a matter of fact, he thought of one more method. But, rather than being a plan, it was very plain negotiations. But, when it came to their chance of success, it was questionable at best.
If I just consider the benefits and losses, I don’t think it’s a bad idea. But, that doesn’t tell me anything about how the other party will think about it. People often prioritize emotions over reason. If I take our discord with Holmea thus far into account, it seems very unlikely to succeed.
“But, I think it’s probably impossible…,” Souma said with a sigh.
In response, Shyemul also sighed.
“I see. In that case, many Holmean people will be hurt or killed, I guess.”
A gloomily silent atmosphere spread within the tent for a while. But then, a gentle voice contradicted that mood.
“You won’t get any good ideas on an empty stomach. It’s about time, so won’t you have your lunch now?”
It was Marco.
Shyemul was appalled by his brazen indifference, but now that he had said it, she had to admit that it was a good moment to eat lunch. Souma also saw the reasonable argument in Marco’s statement and decided to take his lunch while also using it to get a break.
“Lord Soma, I have brought the meal.”
A little while later, Marco returned while carrying two trays. He placed one each in front of Souma and Shyemul, and then encouraged them to dig in.
And just as Souma was about to eat the food in front of him, he knitted his eyebrows. Instead of the usual boiled barley and rice, bread was placed on the tray. Moreover, a mix of mito and butter was smeared on the bread, something which Souma described as heresy.
“Marco, this is a bit…”
Souma expressed his disapproval, but for some reason Marco recommended it persistently.
“Since I made the effort to bake the bread, please eat it while it’s still fresh.”
Marco was well aware of Souma’s dislikes, so it was unusual for him to push like this. In addition, usually Marco was a kind boy with a gentle atmosphere around him, but only when it came to leaving food behind, he would become very strict. Previously, when Souma had left some food behind as he didn’t have much of an appetite by chance, Marco began with a sermon about the farmers’ hardship to grow the crops, went on to the feelings of the pigs and fish which were eaten, and ended with fervent speech about the importance of food which lasted several hours.
As might be expected, Souma didn’t want to experience that again, and so he reluctantly ate what was given to him.
But, the bread was unexpectedly good. The umami of mito, which stemmed from the beans’ vegetal proteins disassembling, and the butter’s oily, animal umami blended surprisingly well with each other.
Perceiving as much from Souma’s expression, Marko proudly asked, “See, it’s surprisingly delicious, isn’t it?”
Even Souma had no choice but to admit as much. As he chewed his bread, Marco acted all smug, and explained, “Even though I thought this wouldn’t ever work, it turned out to actually be quite good.”
Souma was taken aback by those words. Marco wasn’t talking about the bread alone. He was also referring to the capture of Holmenia which caused Souma to worry so much.
Come to think of it, Marco is a former Holmean. It only makes sense that he has his own opinion and view, if he hears about his motherland being overrun by cruel invaders.
Souma motionlessly brooded over something. And then, after a while, he suddenly tossed the rest of his bread into his mouth and washed it down with the mito broth which was a fixed part of his meal he never missed out on.
“Alright, I decided!”
As soon as he declared so, Souma jumped up to shift into action at once. But, just as he was about to storm out of the tent, Shyemul stopped him.
“Soma, where are you going?”
Souma came to a halt and turned around.”
“Of course――,” he revealed a broad grin, “――to receive Holmea.”
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