Ch.42Chapter 42. Northern Fortress Defense Battle (1)

* * *

I returned to the door of the conference room with Irene, who had regained her composure.

Of course, there was no one near the conference room except for the soldier standing guard.

“Thank you for your hard work.”

At my greeting, the guard was startled and responded with confusion.

“Ah… y-yes! That is-“

“My name is Swen.”

“Yes, Sir Swen. Um… are you staying behind to defend the fortress?”

“Yes. Along with General Irene.”

“I see…”

The soldier fell into thought for a moment, then bowed to Irene and said:

“…General Irene. I will do my best until the end. Thank you for staying to fight with us.”

‘Thank you for staying to fight with us… huh.’

In the game, soldiers were just numerical values.

But in this world where the game had become reality, they breathed and lived.

Each of them contained their own universe.

They certainly knew they were being thrown into a death trap.

Despite orders, I wondered what they thought seeing their superiors escaping from this place.

Thinking about it that way, I could understand why this soldier was expressing gratitude.

Irene had always been a commander who stood with her soldiers.

Standing night watch, handling miscellaneous tasks during marches.

She had done everything alongside her soldiers by the same standards.

Though she might have been abandoned by Lynn Brans, she must have earned the trust of the soldiers who were the pillars supporting the Brans nation from the lowest positions.

The people of this world weren’t just data after all.

After receiving the soldier’s greeting, Irene responded in a very solemn tone.

“Yes. I will fight alongside you all until the end. And I will not let you die.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

The soldier answered with a very loud voice.

It seemed his morale had improved.

Well, high morale couldn’t hurt, so there was no need to add anything more.

We entered the conference room.

An empty room with no one in it greeted us both.

‘They left quickly.’

Well, if you want to preserve your life, moving quickly is the wise choice.

I had no intention of resenting them now.

“Um… Swen.”

“Yes?”

“What should we do now?”

Seeing her worried expression, I suddenly felt like teasing her.

“Are you asking me? General Irene, didn’t you just tell that soldier you wouldn’t let them die?”

I thought she might respond with embarrassment, saying something like, “T-that’s… hmm… are you joking at a time like this?”

But her answer was quite different from what I expected.

“I believe in you, Swen.”

“…What?”

“I believe in you.”

Irene said this with a bright smile.

The sunlight streaming through the window illuminated her cheeks.

“So I’m not worried. You said you could defend the fortress. You can save everyone. That’s what I think.”

“…”

Feeling somewhat embarrassed, I sighed briefly and sat down in an empty chair in the conference room.

“Well, as you said… we will win.”

“Do you have some kind of plan?”

A plan.

Yes. A plan.

The situation had been unfolding so rapidly that I was only now starting to think about it… but there was a plan.

[Take position where the enemy can see you and hold your ground.]

Since the prediction said “hold your ground,” this was the correct answer. So, there was a plan.

The problem was-

‘Why is holding our ground the right answer?’

I only knew the answer, but couldn’t understand why it was the answer.

Fortunately, I had poured 10,000 hours into this terrible classic game.

And my words were “absolutely correct.”

With these two premises, I should be able to find the solution somehow.

I took out the paper with the terrain around the fortress that I had drawn at Irene’s house.

I had drawn it in my spare time just in case, and sure enough, it was coming in handy.

“What’s that?”

“A map. I’m trying to figure out what we should do now. I have a vague idea… but I’m not yet certain what exactly needs to be done.”

An ordinary person might have gotten angry if someone boasted about “making achievements” but then gave such a vague answer when asked for a plan.

But Irene nodded without a word of complaint and said:

“I understand. Is there anything I can help with?”

“Nothing in particular.”

“Then I was thinking of checking on the wounded soldiers, if that’s alright?”

“Yes. That’s fine. Actually, that would be extremely helpful.”

Holding our ground wasn’t something I could do alone.

It was something to be done with all the soldiers in the fortress.

Showing that Irene, a rather prestigious general, was staying to fight instead of fleeing would boost the morale of the remaining soldiers.

In a situation where we didn’t know what would happen next, raising morale could only help, not hurt.

“Alright. Swen.”

“?”

“If anything happens… feel free to call me anytime. I’ll come running.”

She said this with a faint smile.

Her purple eyes, which had been wavering without direction until just now,

were now absolutely clear, as if she had firmly decided on her path.

As Irene slowly left the conference room,

it was now my turn to do something, given what I had told her.

It seemed daunting at first glance, but ultimately I just needed to do what I had been doing all along.

Consider all variables and eliminate the impossible ones.

‘Let’s look at the terrain first.’

I carefully examined the terrain around the fortress.

First of all,

the chance of winning through combat was close to 0. No, it would be fair to say it was 0.

Irene was good at siege warfare but average at defensive warfare. Of course, her stats were S-class, but it would be very difficult for me with my low combat and leadership stats and Irene to defeat 30,000 troops with just 10,000 troops in a fortress with low defense.

If they brought siege weapons, we would have to go out to intercept them whether we liked it or not, which would mean not following the prediction to “hold our ground.”

So, it wasn’t about combat. If nothing happened, we would definitely lose this battle.

So let’s think about something else.

Actually, the first possibility I thought of was a landslide.

This game had countless random encounter events that could screw you over.

Locust swarms suddenly attacking wheat fields causing famine, epidemics starting without any warning signs, and various natural disasters that made you wonder if they even made sense in the game’s world.

The most likely scenario was the enemy forces being annihilated by a sudden landslide while marching.

However.

There were no mountains around the fortress where a landslide could occur.

Everywhere I looked were gentle hills or vast plains.

It would feel like driving on a highway if you rode a horse there.

‘It’s not a landslide.’

No matter how much I examined the route from Chorel Castle, where Serpina’s army had likely departed from, to this fortress, it didn’t cross any mountain ranges.

So I eliminated this possibility.

Next.

Something unexpected happens to Serpina’s army, causing the advancing soldiers to retreat.

There were many possibilities. Another rebellion could break out, or this time something might actually happen to Serpina herself.

Considering the probabilities, this actually seemed more realistic than a natural disaster.

One might think, “How could another rebellion happen after one just occurred?” but based on the prediction, something was going to happen, no matter how unbelievable.

However.

Thinking about it this way, there was a phrase that bothered me.

The answer from my intelligence 100 brain wasn’t just [Hold your ground].

It was [Take position where the enemy can see you and hold your ground].

Not a single word in the prediction result existed without purpose.

This was especially true considering that “almost close” predictions existed.

‘If the enemy retreats due to their own internal affairs, is there really a need to take position where they can see us?’

If that hypothesis were true, wouldn’t the prediction simply say “hold your ground”?

Thinking about it that way, the possibility of something happening within Serpina’s army was quickly dismissed.

And if we eliminate that too… only one possibility remains.

‘…A natural disaster will occur.’

I didn’t know exactly what kind of natural disaster would happen, but-

Something terribly unlucky from Serpina’s army’s perspective would actually occur.

No matter how low the probability, no matter how implausible it seemed – the only possibility that remained after eliminating all impossible ones was the truth.

‘A natural disaster will occur, and Serpina’s army will suffer severe damage, forcing them to withdraw.’

The most likely disaster was lightning.

If the weather turned gloomy when the enemy approached, it would be almost 99% certain.

The most frequent disaster in the game was earthquakes… but if an earthquake occurred, staying in the fortress wouldn’t be the right decision, so I put that aside for now.

Besides, to take position where the enemy could see us, we would need to be on top of the fortress walls.

But.

Thinking about it… I reached a very fundamental question.

What exactly was the necessity of “taking position where the enemy can see us”?

If a natural disaster was just going to happen anyway, couldn’t we just hide inside the fortress?

With just a little thought, this hypothesis could be refuted by almost the same logic as before.

I pushed aside the two hypotheses, “an incident occurs in Serpina’s army causing retreat” and “a natural disaster occurs,” and focused on the essence of the sentence.

Take position where the enemy can see you.

Let’s just think about this sentence for now, ignoring everything else.

‘The area around the fortress is a plain with gentle hills… if I need to be inside the fortress and take position where the enemy can see me, would that be on the fortress walls, specifically facing the northwest direction?’

What would happen if I stood there and took position where the enemy could see me?

The path from Chorel Castle to this fortress was a gentle hill, specifically a downhill slope.

This meant that if they approached close enough, they would be able to see me too.

‘Does this mean… I need to be “seen” by them…?’

The pieces of the puzzle started coming together.

A sudden natural disaster.

The necessity for me to be seen by the enemy.

‘…!!!!’

Thump!

Without realizing it, I slammed my palm on the empty conference table.

‘I… need to make it look like I summoned the natural disaster to the enemy?’

I needed to make it appear to many enemy soldiers that I had summoned the natural disaster.

Otherwise, there would be no need to “take position where the enemy can see me.”

Having thought this far, I had to consider one more thing.

If I applied the concept of “needing to be seen” to the previously discarded hypothesis of “something happens in the enemy camp causing them to retreat”?

The two situations of me standing on the wall and the enemy retreating didn’t form a coherent narrative like “needing to appear as if I summoned a natural disaster.”

No matter what I did there, if there was a clear reason for the enemy’s retreat, it wouldn’t look like I had forced them to retreat with my own power.

So being seen would have no meaning in this case.

If it had no meaning, it wouldn’t have appeared in the prediction.

So – a natural disaster will simply occur here, not something happening within Serpina’s army. That seemed right.

No matter how I thought about it, that was the answer.

However.

Not all problems were solved yet.

This was probably the last question.

Why did I need to make it appear to people that I had directly summoned a natural disaster?

Why was that the most efficient action we could take at this point?

After organizing my thoughts this far, the answer came surprisingly simply.

‘If the invading enemy thinks that I caused the natural disaster… they’ll flee.’

For example, if lightning strikes.

They would certainly suffer damage, but they wouldn’t stop advancing.

In the game, when lightning struck, thousands or even ten thousand soldiers could die instantly, and if the same rules applied in this world, they would suffer casualties but still have soldiers left.

Even if they lost up to 10,000 men, they would still try to attack this fortress with the remaining soldiers.

They would still have siege weapons too.

But.

If this wasn’t perceived as a natural disaster… but as some kind of sorcery I had performed?

And if they thought they might be struck by lightning again and again?

Would they fight against this unforeseen, mysterious power, or would they flee?

Thinking this far, my complicated thoughts suddenly became clear.

‘That’s it.’

I slapped my knee.

Yes.

So that’s why we would win.

I could be certain that this was the meaning behind “taking position where they can see you and holding your ground.”

But.

Somehow, I didn’t feel like this was the complete picture.

This time, I simulated how this situation would spread from our army’s perspective.

A newcomer in the Brans army used magical powers to defeat the enemy.

It’s too many eyewitnesses to be an exaggerated rumor. The soldiers in the fortress, including Irene, would be vivid witnesses.

So what would I, a third party belonging to the Brans army, think upon hearing this rumor?

What an amazing person, unbelievable, a newcomer achieved tremendous merit…

‘Achieved merit…?’

Only then did I recall a fact I had temporarily set aside while thinking about Irene.

I, or “Swen,” whether for Irene’s sake or, as others might see it, to curry favor with Kalintz-

Had disobeyed the return order from my lord, Lynn Brans.

No matter how good my intentions were, I had defied my lord’s command and acted on my own.

But.

What if generals whom even the ruler herself had discarded as pawns achieved an overwhelming victory with seemingly impossible abilities?

And what if many generals seemed to think my actions were “for Kalintz’s sake”?

Unlike Irene, Kalintz was different. He was a man with blood ties to Lynn Brans, the ruler.

Actions taken for him, who fundamentally had no rebellious feelings toward Lynn, were essentially no different from actions taken for the Brans army.

So, if rumors spread that I had achieved merit, and on the surface it was entirely for the Brans army.

No matter how willful she was, could she harm me just for violating an order?

And.

Having thought that far, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“…Pfft!”

I see.

So that’s why my intelligence 100 brain, which only speaks the absolute truth, predicted [Take position where the enemy can see you and hold your ground].

I laughed like a madman in the empty conference room.

It didn’t matter.

Compared to the truly crazy thing I was about to do, this was nothing.

I stood up and took three deep breaths.

“…Let’s go then.”

It was time to go create a miracle.

* * *

Finding Irene tending to the wounded soldiers wasn’t difficult.

I approached her.

“Lady Irene.”

“Swen. Have you organized your thoughts?”

“Yes, I have. I also have a task that requires your help, if that’s alright?”

Irene nodded and said:

“Of course. At this moment, Swen, you are my superior. What can I help you with?”

“That’s good news.”

Because I was about to ask for something absurd.

“Please bring as many bricks as you can find.”

“Huh? Bricks? I’m sure there are leftover bricks from building the fortress… but why suddenly?”

I spoke to her in a very confident tone.

With an expression that seemed to see through everything.

“The energy of the sky is unusual. I’m going to build an altar to communicate with the heavens.”