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Vol 01 Chapter 31-2: The First Battle III

By the time Iarl arrived, King Rosais had already awakened. It was thanks to the collective efforts of the magicians who took care of him. Normally, he should be resting, but due to the emergency, he pushed himself to be awake.

「I’m sorry, Iarl, but I cannot send reinforcements.」

「Why not!!」

Iarl involuntarily leaned forward and shouted.

「Wait, listen to the whole story. You see, there’s no need to send reinforcements now. After all, King Ferme’s forces have already retreated.」

「Is that so!?」

Iarl exclaimed loudly, purely surprised both by the news of King Ferme’s retreat and by King Rosais’ awareness of this fact.

King Rosais grinned.

「Passing through Romalia’s forest to launch a surprise assault on the capital to capture it… sounds like the kind of gamble that brat Ferme would fancy. I already expected he would do something like that. The problem was that my collapse delayed our response, but… we had already sent out hawks. And a little while ago, one of them came back with news of Ferme’s retreat. There are three reasons for his retreat: Bartolo defeating King Ferme’s army and starting an invasion in return, a rebellion occurring within their own country, and their defeat in the forest by you all. If any of these hadn’t happened, that brat might have made it this far. It would have been dangerous but… Anyway, this marks the end for that brat Ferme.」

King Rosais spoke happily, feeling that one of the worries that kept him from dying was finally resolved.

「…Then I shall now head to Almus-sama’s side.」

「May I ask you one thing?」

「What is it?」

「Why do you swear loyalty to that man? You seem to have quite the negotiation skills. Why don’t you serve me instead?」

Iarl answered immediately.

「No, thank you. I owe Almus-sama a great debt. I intend to spend my life repaying it.」

With those words, Iarl left. King Rosais watched Iarl’s back with interest as he departed.

◇

We are in a village deep into King Ferme’s Country. It took us about a day to reach here.

「Is the capital of King Ferme’s Country about an hour from here?」

「Yeah.」

Tetra nodded.

By the way, this village is in a terrible state, is this normal in this country?

I looked at the village spread out before my eyes.

The eyes of the residents were lifeless. Even when a group of fifty armed individuals appeared, they didn’t make a fuss.

Either they are used to it, or they think it’s futile to make noise…

「May I ask you something?」

I stopped a woman passing by.

「What is it?」

「It seems like there are only women in this village. What happened?」

The woman answered my question.

「…King Ferme said he needed soldiers, so they were taken away… My father was drafted to fight against King Rosais five years ago and died. My husband was drafted two years ago to never return. Of my five sons, three died in the war a year ago, and the remaining two were taken by King Ferme just a few hours ago…」

The woman broke down crying.

「Have you come to defeat King Ferme? If so, I beg you. Kill that king and avenge my father, husband, and sons!!」

Saying so, the woman clung to me, weeping. Looking around, the other women also bowed their heads around us.

「…I understand. That man will be killed.」

When I answered, the women started looking at us as if we were heroes or something.

Sigh, the reasons to kill King Ferme have just increased.

「I have a question.」

Tetra looked around at the women and asked.

「Do you regret rebelling against and killing your former lord, Ragou Aris?」

The women answered in turn while talking between themselves.

「The former lord was better…」

「But the taxes during the former lord’s time were…」

「The taxes are even worse now!」

「There were no wars during the former lord’s time!」

「We were deceived by that Ferme!!」

Tetra looked at the women with a cold gaze.

「Almus. This is how base humans are.」

「Even so, I’ll help them.」

As I responded like that, Tetra, looking fed up but also a bit pleased, hugged me.

◇

After leaving the village and walking for a few dozen minutes, we began to see a group of soldiers from afar.

Is it King Ferme’s army? Have we finally caught up?

「All hands, prepare for battle―」

「Wait.」

Tetra stopped me with her hand. Then, Tetra squinted her eyes to look at the flag.

「That’s the flag of King Rosais’ army.」

「Seriously? That was close.」

This means that Tetra and my hypothesis were correct… King Rosais’ army defeated King Ferme’s army and launched an invasion in return.

「Then I’ll go to talk to them first. Nii-san.」

Roswald said this and kicked his horse’s sides, riding towards King Rosais’s army.

It’d be good if it’s a general who knows about us. If it’s someone who doesn’t know, the explanation will be lengthy.

A few minutes later, Roswald came back.

「They ask for you to join their commander so you can plan a joint attack. Their commander is Bartolo-san.」

Bartolo? …Ah, that person. I remember. The guy that reeks of alcohol.

「Hey, Almus… was it? Funny, we defeated the enemy two days ago and rushed here… but how come you, who started marching just yesterday, ended up running into us?」

「Our pace is just faster.」

It’s thanks to a cheat we have! Also called a blessing. You shouldn’t mind it too much.

「Ah, I see… Well, it’s good we have been able to join forces. By the way, are you the one behind the current rebellion?」

「You make me sound like a bad person… I did nothing of the sort. I merely gifted them weapons and a banner.」

「A banner, huh…」

Bartolo looked at Tetra up and down, who was standing next to me.

「If you are the banner, shouldn’t you be with the rebels?」

「That would be dangerous. Do you think I would allow my wife to be in such a dangerous situation?」

The rebellion it’s nothing sort of a gamble, who knows if it will be successful or not. Right now, Tetra and the rest of my companions are the most important to me.

I incited and helped the rebellion because it was convenient to take down King Ferme, who was a dangerous existence to the village and my companions. It would be putting the cart before the horse to hand Tetra over to the rebels and put her in even more danger to eliminate that said danger.

「By the way, you know, if we win this war, you’ll probably become a patrician and a lord. You’ll probably be put in charge of the Aris Family and most of the territory that King Ferme ruled over. Lucky you.」

「Is that so? But isn’t King Rosais’ Country more a coalition of lords than a centralized kingdom? Wouldn’t the other lords want part of the new territories gained?」

「You’d be normally right, but here’s the thing. The army I’m leading right now consists of King Rosais’ personal forces and my private soldiers. The other lords didn’t contribute any of their soldiers, either because they were too afraid of King Ferme or because they wanted to profit from King Rosais’ weakened position.  If we consider the rebel forces that are now attacking King Ferme’s capital and you guys as part of the same group, that amounts to about two hundred fifty soldiers. With those paltry numbers, look at what you have done, your achievements are big. Even bigger than ours, and we are four hundred. Plus, you guys have legitimacy on your side, you have the blood of the legitimate lord after all.」

Hmm, should I be happy about that? It’s not that I don’t want it. I have some ambitions, too. I also want to get the most out of this I can. But I’ve never managed a territory before.

「Nice. If Leader becomes a lord… We will also become patricians part of his Family! Hey, Leader, I want a land with a lake.」

「Do you know the saying ‘Don’t count your chickens before they hatch’? Talking too much about what you’re going to do after the battle might get you killed.」

Please stop; it’s not funny.

「Seriously? I’m about to have a kid.」

Bartolo asked me while pointing at his own face.

These guys are raising too many death flags.

「When this war ends, I’m going to marry Almus.」

「Hey, don’t say that at this timing!」

Do you want me to die, too?