Ch.154Chapter 154

It is a timeless truth from ancient times to the present that problems arise when politics interferes with war.

Naturally, attempts to use war for political purposes caused just as many problems.

So the demand letter Darius received from Dencan was essentially an arrow fired from his past self to his present self.

Despite already being sufficiently revered, he had foolishly tried to insert himself into the monarch’s power base using war as a pretext—how could he not face severe punishment?

Of course, from Darius’s perspective, unaware that Dencan disliked him, his thoughts were quite different…

“My thinking was shortsighted. I should have known my political enemies wouldn’t remain idle while I carried out important clan business!”

Darius grimaced and was about to tear up the demand letter in his hand.

But realizing he couldn’t do that, Darius turned red like an angry octopus and threw the letter to the floor.

Even if it had been tainted by the cunning words of corrupt officials, it was still a letter written by Dencan himself. Tearing it up would be tantamount to expressing dissatisfaction with Dencan.

Of course, throwing the letter on the floor was already disrespectful enough.

“No matter how unpleasant the contents, it was sent by Dencan… Quickly gather the letter properly and take it away.”

At an elder’s command, servants carefully collected Dencan’s letter as if it were fragile glass.

Darius, fuming alone, watched their actions with displeasure before sitting in the seat of honor and looking around at his subordinates’ faces.

His crimson face looked ready to tear someone apart, but Darius’s mind remained ice-cold.

‘No one seems particularly disturbed even though Dencan’s letter was defiled. At least this signals that my control remains intact.’

On the battlefield, a commander’s greatest concern wasn’t the monarch’s mood but control over the army. An uncontrollable army was like a first-class seat with death guaranteed.

In that sense, it was truly fortunate for Darius that Dencan had sent a demand letter.

The immediate demand for visible military achievements forced a goal but didn’t dictate the ‘means’ to achieve it.

The fact that he could choose how to utilize his army meant the situation wasn’t the worst possible outcome.

‘Normally Dencan should shield us from such complaints… but I suppose it can’t be helped given his youth.’

Unaware of Dencan’s true feelings, Darius inwardly clicked his tongue and stared at the map, contemplating how to move his army.

Fortunately—if one could call it that—with several forward castles having fallen, Manheimr’s army’s advance routes had been narrowed down to a predictable pattern.

Darius pointed to several castles on the map and began giving instructions.

“From now on, we’ll mobilize troops from each castle and move them to the forward castles. Take all supplies except the bare minimum—”

“My friend, doesn’t Dencan want us to… destroy the enemy army?”

One of the elders, greatly confused, interrupted Darius to ask a question. Interrupting the supreme commander was impolite, but he was that bewildered.

No matter what kind of demand letter it was, without minimal results, heads would roll.

And the content of the demand letter clearly pressed for results that would appease the nobles’ anger—in other words, to bring back enemy heads.

Darius swallowed the curses that threatened to escape and began methodically explaining the problems to the foolish old man before him.

“As you say, the corrupt officials are making a fuss about us destroying the enemy army. But does that necessarily require a field battle?”

“Huh?”

“Dencan ordered us to destroy the enemy. So why not destroy them at our castles?”

When Darius spoke so calmly, the elders and some knights briefly wondered if the shock had given him dementia.

But Darius wasn’t old enough to have dementia. He pointed at the map and continued.

“The brutal, plunder-obsessed Manheimr army has captured quite a few forward castles despite the valiant resistance of our loyal castle lords.”

Technically, Darius was partly responsible for abandoning those castles, but no one pointed this out. There was no reason to bring up each other’s shortcomings when they had all tacitly approved.

Darius knocked over the pieces representing fallen castles and pointed to those still holding out.

“But not all castles have fallen. According to our scouts’ reports, these castles won’t fall at least during the time it takes us to move toward them.”

“But… even if we do as you say, we’re just changing our garrison location, aren’t we?”

“Haha… you’re not like your old self. The enemy is actively engaged in plundering. One might think they wage war solely for plunder, given how enthusiastically they’re doing it.”

Darius, who had blocked the path to the holy land, hadn’t just been drinking wine and consuming food in the castle.

He had been working to understand the enemy’s habits by synthesizing the continuous flow of information. And effort never betrays.

The enemy’s movements were remarkably… straightforward. They targeted only castles and fortresses, as if they were conducting plunder rather than war.

Northerners plundering on the battlefield was as natural as beasts following their instincts, and when hunting beasts, luring them with bait was the easiest and most effective method.

“They seem to attack castles and fortresses but leave commoners like serfs and merchants untouched. So I plan to use serfs and merchants to pass false information to them.”

Creating information that would appeal to plunder-crazed enemies was easy. They had done it dozens of times themselves, after all.

When they heard rumors of abundant supplies or treasures, those hungry dogs would predictably do one thing.

They would rush headlong to capture the castle to satisfy their endless greed.

“Once our mages neutralize their Djin, the enemy’s siege capabilities will drastically decrease. When they’re forced to attempt scaling the walls with ladders…”

“Our forces waiting outside will attack their rear. Even one successful strike could inflict significant damage.”

While Manheimr’s army wasn’t weak, its capabilities relied too heavily on their king.

In other words, if they could somehow suppress the king’s power, they could strike at their weak point.

If they could damage just two of their armies, they would have achievements to show Dencan and the clan…

‘Afterward, we can retreat our garrison due to reduced forces, and it will be perfect.’

What an impeccable improvisation!

Darius prided himself that this time, all problems would be solved.

* * *

Manheimr’s army, guardians of peace in the North, was busy capturing the castles of treacherous rebels.

So it wasn’t strange that when a serf fleeing the war northward “coincidentally” brought news of a castle where supplies were being gathered, they immediately made it their next target.

Any northerner who knew the pain of hunger understood how agonizing it would be for the enemy to have their supplies cut off.

The soldiers marching with Wendigo’s avatar skillfully adjusted its posture.

“Hey, move more smoothly! What if His Majesty becomes uncomfortable and stops moving!”

“Hmm… I think we should lower the shoulders a bit.”

“His Majesty throws the spear perfectly when he hears the bell sound, so do we need to worry about such details?”

“How disrespectful… Manfred throws his spear quite impressively. Let’s see you demonstrate the posture, and we’ll try to follow and improve.”

The warriors, now accustomed to using the avatar, were so relaxed they were contemplating “which posture looks more impressive when throwing a javelin.”

As Wendigo raised his spear in a gallant posture, the noble responsible for the precious bell cleared his throat and lifted the bell in a reverent manner, praying:

“Bestow upon us gold and silver treasures today as well!”

“No matter how I look at it, the chieftain—I mean, the noble lord—has worse speaking skills than a child.”

“But he’s not wrong. They say the king only listens to truth, so being honest is better.”

Unaware of the warriors whispering behind him, the noble rang the bell twice with a solemn expression. Then came the clear bell sound followed by the sound of air being torn…?

“What’s going on… wait, why isn’t His Majesty moving?”

“Hey! Those who were making a fuss about posture correction, come out! What did you do to His Majesty?”

“We didn’t do anything!”

Despite continued ringing, Wendigo’s avatar showed no signs of movement. The warriors, who had forgotten its importance due to familiarity, felt their hearts sink.

Not being able to plunder was painful, but if rumors spread that they failed to protect the king safely, they wouldn’t be able to walk with their heads held high in the North.

“H-hey! Is there anyone who can resolve this situation?”

The noble in charge of the bell looked at other nobles, pleading for help.

But the world is cold.

The other nobles avoided eye contact and pretended not to notice. They had no desire to get involved in something that might result in punishment.

The bell-keeper, suddenly a criminal, frantically rang the bell with a pale face.

The bell sound echoed loudly, but Wendigo’s avatar just stood there maintaining its posture…

Pssssst.

“Ugh!? The, the bell!!!”

The bell, which had been emitting a soft blue light, lost its glow with a strange sound. Naturally, the light also disappeared from the face of the noble ringing it.

The noble, his legs giving way, collapsed to the ground.

At that moment, an arrow whizzed past above the noble’s head. The surrounding warriors blinked and looked up at the sky, following the arrow’s trajectory.

“Huh?”

“Hey, hey, hey, hey!!! Everyone, raise your shields!”

“B-but His Majesty’s body—”

“His Majesty is harder than any shield—will arrows hurt him? Shut up and protect yourself first!”

Dozens of arrows, boasting a range that defied common sense, darkened the sky as they flew from the castle. The warriors hastily raised their shields to withstand the arrow shower.

After the barrage passed, the warriors quickly checked Wendigo’s avatar. As one warrior had said, no arrows had penetrated the avatar.

Terrified by the unexpectedly long range, the warriors grabbed Wendigo’s body and hastily retreated. An elder of the clan, observing this from a distance, smiled with satisfaction.

“Haha, so it was closer to a puppet than an avatar. To think it could be subdued with just a Level 1 barrier.”

“Our knights have committed many sins through their incompetence. If we had realized earlier that it could be suppressed with mere barriers, we could have protected more castles.”

“Don’t blame yourself too much. The castle lords also dedicated themselves fully to the clan, so they would have died without regrets.”

The castle lords, being dead, couldn’t speak, but if the mages had heard this complacent conversation, they would have cursed in anger.

The “Level 1” barrier the elder mentioned consumed a significant amount of mystical energy, requiring the use of many mystical treasures.

Moreover, while the ignorant knights might have thought they easily subdued the enemy, severing the connection between Wendigo and his avatar was so difficult that three of the mages who deployed the barrier collapsed from exhaustion.

But neither the elder nor the knights cared about such details. The knights were concerned about something else…

“But… I understood that shooting arrows wasn’t part of Darius’s plan. Is this alright?”

“Haha… if the enemies reach the walls, battle will naturally ensue, and the soldiers will become fatigued. We don’t know how much more fighting lies ahead, so there’s no need to drain our strength so early.”

“But…”

“Hmph, I can claim to have spent years with Darius like brothers—longer than your entire lifetime. If he had heard my reasoning, he would have approved, so say no more.”

The elder’s words weren’t entirely unreasonable. In a siege, the defenders’ priority is to use resources efficiently.

When battle breaks out, weapons, arrows, and food are rapidly consumed, and without supplies, a castle becomes a grave rather than a defensive structure.

So it wasn’t strange for defenders to avoid battle, but…

‘I believe Darius intended to strike the enemy hard.’

Darius’s plan wasn’t designed for a siege scenario.

If surrounded, Manheimr’s army would pour in like waves—what use would there be in merely driving the enemy back?

Originally, Darius had planned for nobles who mistakenly believed themselves strong after consecutive victories to recklessly attempt a siege, only to be crushed by the strike force under his direct command.

He calculated that if he could destroy each enemy force except their main army once, the enemy would be forced to spend time regrouping.

The knights vaguely understood this intention. Even with limited experience, understanding a superior’s intentions wasn’t difficult if one had the ability.

However, when an elder was making a fuss about shooting arrows, a mere knight couldn’t object. They fired arrows following the elder’s orders, knowing it was wrong.

Thus, the arrows shot by the elder’s unilateral order gifted a quick retreat to the enemy and a nasty surprise to Darius, who was making a wide detour with his cavalry, unaware of these events.

Placing his own people in key positions for political reasons had been Darius’s fatal mistake.

* * *

Feeling the connection to his avatar severed, Wendigo raised his ice sword emitting an eerie chill and commanded his soldiers.

“They took the bait. All forces advance and annihilate the enemy.”

The king’s army followed the royal command without question. They had only one purpose.

To mount the heads of those foolish enough to oppose the king on pikes.

They needed no other purpose.