Ch.260Chapter 260. The Second Magician (6)

* * *

And

In the royal palace where everyone had disappeared—

“Now can you explain it to me?”

At Luna’s words, Ginor nodded slowly and said.

“…Assuming what you say is correct, let me start with a discussion of how our army can win.”

Ginor closed his eyes and recalled Swen, who had boldly claimed that “our army will lose” in the battle of Hisfil Castle.

Swen’s reasoning method was extremely interesting. Especially since he had never seen anyone develop a story in such a way.

And the biggest reason Lunarian was confident of victory was—’because Swen said so.’

Finally, Swen claimed that Luna, not someone else, would be the unifying monarch.

Then.

If ‘Lunarian’s army will win’ in this battle is an absolute constant—

What exactly needs to happen to achieve the goal of victory?

Reverse calculation to a rational result.

It was a method of reasoning he had never tried in over 60 years, but all he could do now was, like Swen had done—engage in the eccentricity of ‘deriving the process from the result.’

“Explain.”

“If we win, it naturally means we’ve defeated an army of 200,000. Do you understand this much?”

Luna slowly nodded.

Indeed, even at this moment, her eyes showed no fear or worry. Rather, she was extremely calm and composed. As if she were certain she would win.

“The way to defeat 200,000 men is simple. Either clash with a force larger than 200,000, or fill it with fewer but much better trained quality soldiers. In both cases, the common point is—that the number of troops fighting on our side ‘increases.’ In other words, it would be fair to say that reinforcements will join the battle.”

“…!!”

Luna, who had maintained her composure throughout, showed a slight surprise at the word ‘increases.’

Ginor didn’t miss this and thrust in a question like a spear.

“Is there something that comes to mind, my lord?”

“…”

Something that comes to mind.

There was.

As Swen had advised long ago, the two mercenary groups that had sworn allegiance to her and to whom she had transferred all the troops that had belonged to the Lunarian army—

The Chilean Mercenaries and the Raven Mercenaries.

A lot of time had passed, and there were many pressing matters at hand, so she hadn’t particularly been thinking about them… but if reinforcements were to be added to our army, it was true that she couldn’t think of anything other than those two mercenary groups.

After all, troops wouldn’t just fall from the sky to fight for our army, would they?

Luna nodded slowly with a determined expression.

“That’s right.”

Hearing this, Ginor’s eyebrows twitched.

“If something comes to mind, then that’s obviously the decisive factor. If nothing had come to mind, it would have been a much more complicated problem…”

In fact, if it had become a more complicated problem, it would have been extremely difficult for him to even make an incomplete inference with his abilities.

Unlike Swen, who possessed game knowledge, Ginor was a character living in this world.

It was difficult to freely calculate the possibilities of natural disasters without the unique ‘sense’ of an otherworlder.

No matter how wise Ginor was, he couldn’t easily make absurd connections like “Could an earthquake happen?”

Of course, he had considered natural disasters, but—

For a natural disaster to be advantageous to our army, it would mean some event that would harm only the enemy’s 200,000 troops while leaving our army completely unscathed… While that possibility couldn’t be zero, it was infinitely close to zero, making it inefficient to think in that direction.

So, naturally, Ginor’s conclusion was that the battle would tip in our favor.

“Anyway, the former case is a condition that’s very difficult to achieve. To gain an overwhelming advantage in a battle with 200,000 troops, especially one where someone like Sard is participating, we would need at least 250,000… It’s not easy for 150,000 troops to suddenly appear.”

“Then…?”

“Probably the latter—a force that slightly exceeds 200,000, or rather, comes precariously close to it. There’s the added condition of high-quality training… but assuming they’re excellent elite soldiers, a battle of 170,000-180,000 versus 200,000 isn’t completely unwinnable. So I ask… can I know exactly what ‘comes to mind’?”

“Of course. I can explain.”

Luna explained everything about the Raven Mercenaries and Chilean Mercenaries to Ginor.

As soon as Ginor heard about these two mercenary groups, he stared at Luna in shock, his eyes wide.

“I see… So the Raven Mercenaries and Chilean Mercenaries had sworn allegiance to you, Lady Luna.”

“That’s right.”

That two mercenary groups renowned for their valor had sworn allegiance to the minor nation of Lunarian.

Even though it was the result he had reverse-calculated, he couldn’t help but be surprised at this point.

If they could each bring at least 30,000 troops—we really could win.

The enemy would be shocked by the unexpected reinforcements and lose morale, and Sard and Cecile, who thought they would win easily, would likely make momentary judgment errors.

Of course, the advisor Vanessa might maintain her composure—but still, for our army, turning a “battle that can never be won” into a “battle worth trying” was already an enormous gain.

No. Not just “worth trying.” If the two mercenary groups truly joined our army as Lunarian said, we would definitely win this battle.

Because Luna believed so. The basis for her belief—because Swen had claimed so.

“Anyway, if reinforcements join, the interception force must certainly deal with the 200,000 troops. Until we know the scale of the reinforcements, it is my opinion that we should leave only the minimum necessary troops to defend the castle, my lord.”

After hearing Ginor’s explanation, Luna slowly nodded.

“I understand. Thank you for explaining.”

Watching Luna bow, Ginor was filled with a strange emotion.

He thought about letting it go, but since she was the lord he would serve from now on, he didn’t want to just cover it up, so he deliberately asked a question.

“This… might be very rude.”

“You can ask anything comfortably.”

“At first, I thought you requested an explanation because you needed grounds to accept the opinion I presented… but looking at you, it seems like whether you accept my explanation or not is beside the point.”

“Is that so…?”

“Yes. I’m not saying it’s unpleasant or anything… but isn’t there a possibility that my opinion is wrong? However, you didn’t question that part at all…”

Hearing this, Luna closed her eyes and placed her hand on her chest.

Then, slowly opening her eyes again… she looked straight at Ginor.

It almost seemed like her ruby-colored eyes flashed for a moment.

“I do not doubt Ginor’s advice.”

“Pardon…?”

“To be precise—if I think about how you came ‘here’… I am convinced that your words will not be wrong.”

“!!!”

Only then did he understand what Luna was talking about.

The reason Ginor came here—because Swen sent him here.

And Ginor had already revealed that fact to Luna early on to gain her trust.

Seeing Ginor’s surprised expression, Luna seemed to have some idea and smiled faintly as she said.

“I… believe in you, Advisor.”

Her eyes, showing no anxiety, no tension, rather, asserting with certainty that everything would naturally happen that way, without any trembling—

* * *

“Attack!”

“Don’t miss the opening! Fire all at once!”

—At the moment when the two mercenary groups really joined, once again flashed before Ginor’s eyes.

Indeed, I was right.

No. To be precise, Ginor knew well that it wasn’t that his words were right.

The reason he could reach such a conclusion without any basis was—because he believed in the claim of Swen, the only advisor Luna trusted—the story that ‘Lunarian Ineanne is the person who will become the unifying monarch.’

‘Good!’

Ginor immediately assessed the scale of the reinforcements.

Instead of Lunarian, who was at the forefront fighting with a sword, it was Ginor’s role as the national advisor to command the troops from behind.

“Assess the exact situation and report!”

Soon, a soldier began reporting to Ginor.

And.

Something started to go strangely.

“The reinforcements that have joined are two mercenary groups! 20,000 from the Raven Mercenaries and about 25,000 from the Chilean Mercenaries!”

‘…Huh?’

At this point, Ginor’s prediction went wrong.

A total of about 45,000.

It was by no means a small number, but—with roughly 130,000 versus 200,000, it was a difference in forces that would be difficult to overcome even if the two mercenary groups had elite soldiers.

If winning was a constant—this number was clearly insufficient no matter how you looked at it.

‘Could there be additional reinforcements?’

But all the two mercenary groups Luna mentioned had already joined…?

Or is there something else I don’t know about?

* * *

While Ginor was assessing the situation like this.

Naturally, the opposing Karelia army also began to assess the situation.

“These rat bastards! I wondered where they had disappeared to, only to find they’ve gone under such a minor nation!”

Sard said this while quickly assessing the battle situation.

‘The archers number about fifteen to twenty thousand… And how many on that side?’

The enemy reinforcements assessed in this way quickly reached the ears of the advisor, Vanessa.

‘So that’s a total of about 40,000. …This is fine.’

Although she was surprised by the sudden reinforcements, this number was still one they could easily defeat.

“Everyone, refrain from panic! It’s just two mercenary groups added! Don’t forget that the battle situation is still overwhelmingly in our favor!”

Lunarian Ineanne.

The impressive number of interception troops she had organized seemed to be an attempt to catch us off guard with sudden reinforcements… but that’s as far as it goes.

Just as Vanessa made this judgment and was about to order a full-scale charge—

“Aaaaargh!”

“Run away!”

“…???”

Suddenly, several soldiers at the vanguard began to flee quickly in this direction.

“Stop! Where are you going! Don’t you know that desertion is a capital offense punishable by death under military law?!”

Despite Vanessa’s threats, an uncontrollable number of troops began to flee backward.

While she couldn’t even grasp what was happening—

—KWAAANG!!

An enormous sound drew everyone’s attention, including Vanessa’s.

And the scene that entered her vision—

‘…!!!’

Vanessa instantly realized.

This moment would forever be a nightmare for the Karelia army.