Ch.651Reasons Why I Had to Kill

The Empire had successfully repelled the enemy, but suffered massive damage.

The deaths of William and Karim. Two of Landenburg’s swords had been broken, and the 2nd Legion proved their inexperience by losing three-tenths of their forces.

It was impossible to estimate how much time and resources would be needed to repair the collapsed wall.

Of course, the gains were as substantial as the losses. Nearly ten thousand Ka’har, including several Champions, were rotting on the wall.

Particularly, eliminating War Commander Glarl was truly an encouraging achievement.

Even before reaching the realm of Heroes, Glarl had been a notorious warrior as Orhan’s closest aide. After becoming a Hero, he was an opponent that no one in Landenburg except myself could defeat.

Especially considering the danger of his heroic tale—Reversal Strike—being able to burn him to death here was nearly divine providence.

Reversal Strike, a heroic tale that returns damage from weapons back to the attacker.

I could have somehow defeated him using the fire seal, but if I had let him escape, that method might not have worked the next time we met.

Now that he knew Reversal Strike was powerless against area magic, he wouldn’t have left that weakness unaddressed. He would have tried to improve it somehow.

Heroic tales grow stronger with mastery.

No, perhaps “evolve” is the better word.

Like my heroic tale, Defying Fate, heroic tales naturally transform into more advanced techniques as their masters grow stronger and experience more battles.

If by some chance his Reversal Strike had evolved to the point of reflecting even area magic, he would have become an invincible warrior rivaling Orhan.

So I could only be glad that I was able to eliminate him in this battle. I had pulled out a sprout that would have become a terrible problem in the future.

At least, that’s what I thought.

“…This battle was a failure.”

But Ludwig didn’t seem to think so.

—-

While the soldiers who had taken a brief rest were collecting the corpses, I had returned to the command room and was talking with Ludwig.

With my legs propped up on the armrest of the sofa, I was leaning sideways and puffing heavily on a cigarette.

“A failure… Well, we couldn’t take Orhan’s head, but didn’t we do a pretty decent job of fending them off? Now that we’ve cut off his arm, Orhan won’t be as formidable as before.”

“I’m not blaming you. Breaking the Unyielding Flesh was certainly an encouraging achievement.”

Ludwig exhaled deeply with a gloomy face and placed a thick Mana Herb on the ashtray. With his head bowed, he pressed between his furrowed brows with two fingers.

“However, the fact that we let Orhan escape despite resorting to such an extreme method as collapsing the wall… is truly a fatal failure. We should have captured Orhan somehow, even at the cost of losing an entire legion.”

“If you regret it that much, why didn’t you send a pursuit team? I couldn’t chase after him because of my leg.”

I lightly tapped my bandaged leg with the splint, shrugging my shoulders, but Ludwig shook his head.

“It would be meaningless now that he’s gained distance. They would only be annihilated in an ambush. The cavalry that had been attacking along the entire wall has disappeared—where do you think they’ve gathered?”

Well, they would have gathered to counterattack any pursuit team, probably.

“This is serious…”

Ludwig’s expression showed no sign of brightening.

While the imperial citizens outside were elated with the victory atmosphere, only Ludwig seemed even more depressed than before the battle began.

“Why so serious? If you’re worried about Orhan, you can trust me. He won’t fall for the same trap twice, but next time I can break the Unyielding Flesh head-on without any tricks.”

Though I would need to prepare a weapon comparable to Caliburn, or repair the broken Caliburn.

Layered Slash. To successfully execute the slash that had cut through the Unyielding Flesh head-on again, I would need a weapon with strength surpassing even black iron.

“That’s not what I’m worried about… Didn’t I tell you? The reason why we absolutely had to eliminate Orhan in this battle.”

“You never told me.”

You only said he needed to be killed, not why he had to be killed.

Killing Orhan was such an obvious thing for me to do that I didn’t bother asking why.

“…My mistake.”

Ludwig took a deep drag of his Mana Herb and continued.

“Orhan had to die in this battle. If that had happened, the Ka’har, having lost their leader, would have started fighting among themselves over the empty throne. That was the first strategy.”

Well, that would have happened. Targiyan and Sahakal didn’t seem like such friendly brothers. They seemed to get along even worse than Leopold and Ernst.

“Targiyan and Sahakal, and even the khans of other tribes forcibly integrated—they would have been too busy pointing swords at each other to turn their attention to the Empire.”

“That’s unfortunate…”

If that had happened, I could have returned to the mainland.

If the Ka’har were divided and engaged in civil war, the existing forces would have been sufficient for defending the wall.

“Although there will be internal confusion since he lost an arm and was defeated… compared to if he had died, it will be nothing more than a tiny disturbance.”

There might be some rebellion, but it won’t reach the level of civil war, is that what he means?

Well, even if Orhan lost an arm, he doesn’t seem like he would lose to anyone other than me. Only fools would rebel, and such fools wouldn’t last long before being suppressed.

“It’s regrettable, but… since we missed him, what can we do? Let’s look for the next opportunity. We might not be able to bury him under the wall like this time, but all we need to do is kill him somehow, right?”

Unless Orhan retreats all the way back to Ordos, there will be many opportunities to kill him. Even if we failed this time, we could just kill him in the next battle.

However, Ludwig shook his head and chewed on the Mana Herb in his mouth.

“Don’t you understand? From now on, we won’t even have the chance to fight near the wall, let alone bury Orhan. He must have noticed it by now too.”

“Noticed what?”

“That the current imperial army no longer has the same strength as before.”

Ludwig sighed, looking at the soldiers beyond the window. Dense smoke flowed out like a lament.

—-

Afterward, Ludwig explained to me about the great war between the Empire and the Ka’har nine years ago.

Why the Aishan legion that had attacked imperial territory via the Dane border had to retreat.

“At that time, Orhan was blocked by Valenstein. However, the Ghost Sword couldn’t defeat Orhan; he could barely hold him back.”

The Ghost Sword, huh? Has that man ever actually defeated anyone?

“What made Orhan retreat wasn’t Valenstein but four imperial legions. The Empire was peaceful then, so they could mobilize all their legions.”

Four legions. Adding the Landenburg regular army, the total force would have been over seventy thousand. Even Orhan’s grandfather would have had no choice but to flee from such numbers.

“Even in a plains battle, the difference in forces would have meant certain annihilation. Even the great Orhan had no choice but to retreat. Since there hasn’t been a major war since then… Orhan would have expected the current Empire to still possess that level of strength.”

Ludwig finished speaking and half-closed his eyes, catching his breath.

“And now he knows.”

I realized what Ludwig was trying to say and trembled at my fingertips with a chill. The cigarette smoke that escaped my lips dispersed hazily.

“That the current Empire lacks the military capacity to the point of having to deploy inexperienced weaklings for wall defense. That the large-scale encirclement of before is no longer possible. How do you think Orhan will act now that he knows this?”

I swallowed dryly and answered.

“You’re saying he’ll cross the Dane border and invade the Empire’s mainland?”

“That’s what I would do. Attacking the wall again would be the worst strategy. Retreating to Ordos to consolidate internally and biding time would be a mediocre strategy, but deploying all forces to the Dane border would be the best strategy.”

Ludwig declared in a solemn voice as he tapped the ash from his Mana Herb.

“Do you understand now? Having let Orhan escape, we are now forced to deal with their specialty—field battles on the plains. And with forces that aren’t even comparable to a single legion from the past.”

“……”

“That’s why I tried to kill Orhan even at the cost of collapsing the wall.”

I couldn’t find words to respond.

======[ Orhan ]======

Around the time Haschal was conversing with Ludwig, Orhan, having finished emergency treatment on his left arm, had gathered his Champions for a military council.

More precisely, he was listening to damage reports.

“…Eight thousand. For a defeat, the losses are less than expected.”

“The imperial bastards were weaker than anticipated. Many of them were like farmers given spears, not soldiers.”

“Was it that bad…? Strange. Did they think such men were sufficient, or were those all they could mobilize…?”

Orhan’s concern deepened. If it was the former, Ludwig had simply misjudged, but if it was the latter…

‘…I heard there have been frequent conflicts recently. Civil war, monsters, even war with the Werebeasts. Have they exhausted their main forces in those battles?’

If so, he still had a chance of victory.

If the imperial legions had weakened to the point of needing to deploy farmers in war, their total mobilizable forces must be incomparably fewer than before.

Orhan pondered deeply, stroking his beard with his remaining arm. Whether to retreat now or gamble on this newly acquired information.