episode_0065

“Forty hours of marching without sleep, let alone food or rest! What in the world do you mean by that!”

It wasn’t enough that they had received the absurd order to occupy the Holy Kingdom’s capital; the command from the ‘Special Commander’ dispatched by the Führer to execute that order was even more outrageous.

“No, if we eat what we need to eat and sleep what we need to sleep, when will we ever reach our destination? We have ten thousand miles to go.”

Silan, the man with terrifyingly slit eyes like a snake, known as Saan, shrugged his shoulders. At that, a wolf-headed Beastman snorted as if in agreement.

“Hah! It seems armies are all nothing but weaklings.”

Sandalphon the Wolf-King.

“You lot, no matter how special an envoy you are sent by the Führer, such an absurd command is─.”

“Ah, this is why I detest commanding people.”

As the commander continued his protest, Silan scratched his head and continued speaking.

“By the way, I’m quite disappointed.”

His terrifying, reptilian pupils gleaming.

“I heard this country’s army consists of warriors who move without eating or resting.”

“What do you─.”

It was at that very moment.

“Oh-ho-ho, that’s exactly right!”

A very amiable-sounding voice echoed.

“Because a true man of the Germania Principality fights without ever eating or resting!”

“Oh, you’ve finally arrived.”

“You, you are……!”

The head of the Principality Guard, National Security Department, Fourth Bureau, also known as the Vultures.

“Are you the man ‘that person’ spoke of, the one called Hydra or something?”

At his appearance, Silan replied in a voice that showed no surprise.

‘That person’. The moment that vague designation came up, the man’s expression briefly stiffened coldly, but it was only for a moment.

“Th-that’s right! I’m Uncle Hydra!”

“Colonel Hydra Waltz! What brings you here…….”

“Nein, Nein!”

In response to the commander’s question, the amiable-looking man waggled his finger and shook his head.

“Unfortunately, I am no longer a mere Colonel.”

“What do you mean?”

“’That person’ has bestowed upon me a special status as part of an extraordinary measure for the homeland.”

“’That person’, you say…….”

“The Lieutenant General probably can’t even imagine.”

He no longer served the Führer.

Because what he served was not a madman with just a mustache and an inflated ego, but someone far stronger and more deserving of fear.

“How special ‘that person’ I serve truly is.”

It wasn’t necessarily only members of the 《Black Serpent》 who served ‘that person’.

Because if one knew and feared the man’s existence, anyone would be forced to bow their head before his will.

This was even more true for Hydra Waltz, who had his neck severed multiple times.

“How wide, vast, and dark the shadow of ‘that person’ cast over this continent is─.”

Immediately after, black and ominous, pitch-dark magical power wrapped around the man called Lieutenant General Georg.

“So, you said you’d create an army that neither eats nor rests?”

Leaving behind the Lieutenant General, whose flesh, blood, and bones were rapidly decaying, Silan asked nonchalantly, as if it were none of his concern.

“Of course! If it’s ‘that person”s command, I can make everyone in this entire army group reborn as ‘true warriors of the Principality’!”

“Ah, that’s indeed welcome news.”

“However…….”

But then, Lieutenant General Hydra replied in a somewhat hesitant tone.

“The work that needs to be done to create an army of the dead is─.”

“Ah, don’t worry. That’s our specialty.”

Silan shrugged as if there was nothing to worry about. The wolf-headed man, dressed in a neat suit over his bulging muscles, laughed.

“We just have to kill everyone we encounter, right!”

*

As the queen of a nation, abandoning all semblance of dignity or pride, Charlotte miserably knelt and cast aside her entire being.

Watching her, I finally broke my silence.

“……I will give you a chance.”

My mind had not changed.

“!”

Nevertheless, upon hearing my reply, a light of hope finally dawned in Charlotte’s eyes.

“Really, is that really true……?!”

Regardless of the immediate chaos it would bring to this nation, I had no intention of abandoning Charlotte, who would eventually rule as the kingdom’s sovereign.

After all, if a war of a scale that would eventually engulf the entire continent were to rage, there would be no harm in using the leader of one of the continent’s strongest nations as a puppet.

“─If you promise me one thing.”

However, to Charlotte, this plan of mine would feel like a result she had seized with her own hands through her submission.

That after desperately kneeling, obeying, and bowing her head, she had willingly succeeded in changing my mind─.

“I’ll do anything! Just tell me whatever you command!”

Thus, Charlotte would willingly accept any outrageous condition I put forth.

Because either way, there was no room left for her or this nation to make a choice.

*

Not far from Lutetia, the capital of the Holy Kingdom, where I had been staying until just before.

It was the promised meeting place with the Serpent members leading the Principality’s army.

Moreover, there, an army that neither ate nor rested was advancing.

It was an immortal army, endlessly marching, having resurrected every single organization a nation could possess at its largest scale into the undead.

Their blood had already soaked the earth.

But still, on their path, there was the blood of innocent civilians who would be trampled by their boots and slaughtered.

A sea of blood unfolded.

“…….”

Having joined the Principality’s forces advancing towards the Holy Kingdom, I watched their path forward.

“We’ve been waiting, Commander.”

The two members leading them, Silan and Sandalphon, greeted me as if they had been waiting.

“─We’ve finished advancing right up to the capital of the kingdom, as per your orders, Commander. Hey, aren’t I really impressive?”

Silan, who possessed snake eyes and the name Saan, laughed in a nonchalant voice.

“How about it? Shall I give the order to advance directly into the capital?”

“…….”

I didn’t answer immediately.

The face of the queen, who had desperately thrown everything away and begged for her country’s sake, or perhaps her own, came to mind.

「I’ll do anything!」

She had said so.

「Arm the populace.」

And that was my condition.

「Gather all the men, women, and children of the capital, regardless of age—even the elderly and children who lack the strength to fight—and arm them as soldiers.」

A unit gathered solely for their numbers, regardless of any conditions, even those who didn’t know how to wield a sword, or were too old to wield one.

「When the Germania Principality’s invading army advances on the capital, put them on the very front lines to face them.」

To pit the weakest and most worthless rabble unit against an immortal army that never stops.

Anyone would know what fate such a unit would meet against an undying immortal army.

It would be a pointless, dog’s death.

At the same time, such a dog’s death was precisely the form of sacrifice I desired.

“Begin the advance immediately.”

I replied after a moment of silence.

“Hahah, I was waiting for those words!”

Silan burst into laughter at my reply.

“Commander! Is there anything I can help with?! If it’s something that requires strength, just leave it to me!”

Likewise, Sandalphon the Wolf-King warmed his itching body as if he couldn’t control himself, and shouted.

“……We have nothing to do right now.”

But I calmly shook my head at him.

“We merely wait until enough blood flows.”

“……Ah, they’ll surely appear.”

Silan shrugged as if he wasn’t surprised. It was at that very moment.

“─Leave it to me, Commander!”

Sandalphon raised his voice again, unable to control his fighting spirit.

“This time, let me face them!”

‘Them’. Sandalphon was speaking of the heroes that not everyone present was sure would appear.

“I joined the Serpent for this very moment. You promised me too, didn’t you, Commander? Huh?”

As if it was finally the turn of the hero who would appear this time, the turn for himself to show his true form and act.

It had always been that way until now.

Whenever a hero appeared, for some reason, the 《Black Serpent》 always fairly sent out one of their lowest-ranking members or someone equivalent.

That’s why in every work, a Serpent member of an appropriate level would appear, be killed, and that chain would repeat.

Like a cliché of a Demon King facing a hero.

Not using their full strength, but slowly sending out the lowest-ranking members available to become nourishment and the soil buried beneath the hero’s achievements.

Is there a secret I don’t know? Is there a reason I don’t know? I can’t tell.

But from now on, it will be different.

“……The plan has changed.”

At the same time, as the Commander of the Serpent, the decisions I make never require anyone’s agreement or understanding.

“Changed, you say─.”

I don’t care how “un-Rain Grey-like” that decision might be.

Because the decision I make here is precisely Rain Grey’s decision, and the Serpent must only be loyal and blindly obey Rain Grey’s decisions.

“─Because I will face them directly.”

When the hero appeared, the Demon King’s method of sending out the lowest-ranking of the Four Heavenly Kings first was rejected.