Ch.555The Imperial Army Wants You!

After barely bringing Leopold back to his senses when he was trying to escape reality due to excessive stress, we began a more constructive conversation.

Or should I say a more destructive one? We were discussing ways to smash the threats that would eventually come crashing down on us.

“Expanding our forces, improving their quality, developing countermeasures… none of these will be easy tasks.”

Leopold sighed as he massaged the back of his neck. Though his senses had returned, the overwhelming nature of our situation clearly remained.

“What about expanding conscription? Separate from the standing army, we could impose military service on all adult males above a certain age. They could continue their regular occupations during peacetime, but be immediately mobilized as combat forces when needed. With several months of military training each year, they might not reach the level of regular troops, but they could at least defend their homeland.”

In short, I was suggesting turning all the Empire’s young men into a reserve force.

Until now, the Empire had operated under a strict volunteer system with clear separation between soldiers and civilians. Whether Imperial troops under direct command of the Emperor or private soldiers of lords, only those who volunteered for military service could be recruited. Conscripting ordinary farmers or city dwellers as soldiers had been morally condemned.

If a lord tried to conscript non-military domain residents to win territory disputes, they’d likely lose their head—not to their opponent, but to Imperial troops dispatched upon hearing the news.

The problem was that such a system couldn’t possibly handle the coming crisis. Above all, we lacked numbers. While the volunteer system ensured good treatment for individual soldiers, the military was still the military—recruitment rates weren’t particularly high.

Why hadn’t the 1st and 2nd Legions been restored yet? Because there weren’t enough volunteers.

In peaceful times, when risking one’s life in battle was rare, many chose to join the military. But after seeing two Imperial legions melt away in a single war against the Werebeasts, few men were brave enough to volunteer. Yet simply grabbing random people and assigning them to the Imperial army wouldn’t produce effective combat power either.

So the idea was to transform all the Empire’s men into combat-ready personnel.

“Of course we should do that… but as I said, it won’t be easy. Conscription, training, compensation for losses—it requires enormous expenditure that the Imperial treasury simply cannot afford.”

Leopold didn’t completely reject my opinion, but shook his head, pointing out the practical limitations. The limitation of not having enough money.

“And if we impose an obligation on local lords to train their domain residents at their own expense, they’ll demand the right to mobilize those trained residents as private soldiers. If nobles end up with private armies ten times their current size, will they really follow central control? It could potentially cause even greater chaos.”

So the already weakened imperial authority would become even weaker.

If the world crisis became fully apparent, the nobles probably wouldn’t have the capacity to harbor other intentions, but the problem was what happened until then.

In an age where dragons flew through the sky, no one would be crazy enough to start internal strife or rebellion, but no one knew when those dragons would appear.

If the collapse of Heaven’s Wall was delayed beyond my expectations, in the worst case, the Empire might face monsters in a state devastated by civil war and rebellion, just as the Holy State’s forces had been cut in half.

“We simply make them follow. I have an idea, Your Majesty.”

“You do, Elmaine? Let’s hear it.”

Lacy smiled brightly as she began explaining her plan.

“If you’re concerned about the lords becoming too powerful, why not strengthen the Church’s forces to suppress them? Remove the restrictions on the military scale of the churches that make up the Imperial Diocese. Expand the Holy Corps to solve the Empire’s problems and suppress any rash actions by the lords.”

She was suggesting creating Holy Corps numbering in the tens of thousands, separate from the Imperial army, to solve the problem.

Until now, the Imperial dioceses were fundamentally part of the Holy State and couldn’t recruit Imperial citizens as troops, but now that the Imperial Diocese had become independent from the Holy State, there was no problem with organizing their own Holy Corps.

“You could say that the churches of the Holy State demanded this as a condition for recognizing the Diocese while maintaining diplomatic cooperation with the Empire. Even if they belong to the Diocese, they’re still brothers and sisters worshipping the same gods—saying that the Holy State demanded their safety be guaranteed in the Empire would be a natural justification for lifting the military restrictions.”

“Hmm…”

Leopold stroked his chin, considering Lacy’s proposal. If things went as Lacy suggested, the nobles would have no grounds for objection. Moreover, the church would bear all costs for expanding and maintaining the Holy Corps. From Leopold’s perspective, it was like gaining a new legion without spending a penny.

And one specialized in slaughtering monsters and evildoers, at that.

The problem was that if the Holy Corps organized this way refused imperial intervention and became an independent force, it wouldn’t be much different from expanding the nobles’ private armies.

No, it could potentially become an even more dangerous force than the nobles. After all, they would possess the largest military power of any single entity except the Imperial army.

In short, the key was how much Leopold could trust Lacy.

“…Very well. The nobles must have heard about the Holy State’s situation too. If you, Elmaine, attend tomorrow’s court meeting and emphasize the necessity of the Holy Corps, they won’t be able to oppose it completely.”

It seemed Leopold had decided to trust Lacy rather than Lord Wien. Or perhaps he had decided to trust me, who stayed close to Lacy.

—-

Qualitative reinforcement of troops couldn’t happen overnight, nor was there an obvious solution. While squires could be produced through training, anything beyond that depended on individual talent and experience.

What we could do was increase the number of squires as much as possible, deploy them in battles against monsters to temper them, while minimizing casualties.

This wasn’t something that could be accomplished in a day or two.

“…We’ll need to expand the knight training facilities. Remnant Academy alone won’t be nearly enough.”

In the era when the human limit was considered the level of Master, knights were treated as the Empire’s elite forces, so producing about a hundred knights a year through Remnant Academy was sufficient.

But as Leopold said, that was far from enough now. Before the mighty monsters that heroes had to face, or the heterogeneous races that had regained their ancient power, there wasn’t much difference between knights and ordinary soldiers.

So we needed to secure at least ten thousand knights, if not twenty thousand. With ten thousand knights, we might get about two hundred Masters. Probably.

—-

The final topic was developing means to respond when transcendent monsters that heroes should face appeared. Even if defeating them was impossible, we needed to at least hold out until hero-level forces arrived.

Better yet if we could actually help in the hero’s battle rather than just holding out.

“But do means to counter dragons even exist…?”

“Well, I’m not sure how effective it would be, but I think we need to start by bringing them down from the sky. So—”

I explained to Leopold the anti-dragon measures that had appeared in the original work, as if I’d thought of them myself.

Dragon scales might be too tough, but we could tear the membranes of their wings. We should cover the walls with large crossbows that could inflict meaningful damage even on large monsters. We should intensively train archers who had been neglected in favor of knights to increase human siege weapons like Millia. And we should develop vessels that could fly for smooth transport of forces and aerial combat.

“Is that even possible?”

Leopold seemed to think the large crossbows and Master-level training made sense, but was skeptical about flying ships.

Ships flying through the sky—was that common sense?

Of course it made sense.

I’d definitely seen it! Though it would only be possible a few years later, I’d seen aerial battleships flying over the Empire’s skies.

“Well, I’ve heard rumors that the Dwarves possess similar weapons. We can’t steal them, but if the Dwarves could do it, we should be able to create at least an inferior version by using magic or other means. Or… somehow negotiate with the Dwarves to gain their cooperation.”

To be honest, if the Dwarves fully cooperated with the Empire, many problems would be solved. Their technology could raise the Empire’s military technology level by several steps.

The problem was that the Dwarves were well aware that their technological superiority was fundamental to maintaining their status as a proper nation, so they strictly managed against the leakage of any technology except simple cold weapons.

Even if we tried to analyze captured machines through reverse engineering, it was impossible because they would explode or their internal components would self-destruct when disassembly was attempted.

Unless the entire race faced extinction without the Empire’s cooperation, sharing Dwarven technology was out of the question. At least as far as I knew.

Though perhaps Leopold might think of some method.

“Hmm… I’ll order Tower Master Floheta to design a ‘flying ship’ for now. Though I’m not sure if she’ll succeed.”

“Floheta? That woman became Tower Master?”

The name was familiar. A high-ranking mage who had participated in the Ainfeld battle to earn research funds. A woman who grumbled about participating unnecessarily but fought reasonably well.

“Yes. There were five high-ranking mages at the Imperial Tower, but the other four were imprisoned in the underground dungeon for selling state secrets to the Church of Grimnir. It’s a serious crime that should warrant execution… but given the situation, it wouldn’t be bad to use them in exchange for reduced sentences. If we offer to release them unharmed based on their contributions, they won’t refuse.”

So that’s why the Church of Grimnir had accumulated magic stones. I’d wondered how the Empire’s secrets had flowed there.

“…Is it really okay to release them? If they’re involved with the Church of Grimnir, there’s no telling what they might do after being released.”

“It’s not a problem. Their mana circuits will all be destroyed, and they’ll live under surveillance for the rest of their lives after release.”

…He said they’d be released unharmed, but apparently mana was separate from the body. That was Leopold’s typical insidiousness.