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Vol 06 Chapter 184: The Alva Kingdom

The season had turned to April, and in the southern part of the Adernian Peninsula, the trees and grass had begun to sprout. It’s a season where some days get as hot as summer. As creatures started to peek out of their burrows and begin their activities…

Mutzio Sulpicius Equus also started to move.

「I am Roswald Fabius, I have come with five hundred soldiers by order of His Majesty, Almus. Pleased to meet you.」

Roswald lightly bowed to Mutzio. Mutzio approached Roswald.

「Pleased to meet you as well. I expect great things from you.」

The two exchanged a handshake. After that, Roswald took his seat.

In this place, the high-ranking chiefs and magicians of the Equus Tribe, Roswald, the general dispatched from Gehenna, and the plenipotentiary representative of the Aries Tribe were reunited by Mutzio to discuss the upcoming war.

「Well then, let’s start the war council. The strategic objective is the annihilation of the Lupus Tribe. We will settle this within a month.」

If the war dragged on for a long time, the number of casualties on both sides would increase. This was something Mutzio wanted to avoid as much as possible.

The reason was the neighboring country… the growing power of King Rosais’ Country. Mutzio did not intend to fight King Rosais’ Country, nor did he have any dissatisfaction with his tribe’s current semi-vassal status.

There was no way the Alvans, with their small population, could compete against the numerous Adernians.

Rather, he was happy that he was able to join the winning side early on.

However, the widening gap in national power was a slight problem. He had a personal friendship with Almus. At least as long as both were alive, the relationship between the two countries would be stable.

But after either one of them dies, their relationship will soon become precarious. After his death, whether the Sulpicius Equus family could maintain their status as royalty of a vassal state or if they would relinquish control of the country and become nobles…

In any case, the more and stronger the cards, the better.

Mutzio’s goal was to absorb the Lupus and Aries Tribes as intact as possible and achieve the unification of the Alvans.

「First, we’ll have Gehenna attack the Lupus Tribe. While the Lupus Tribe’s forces are concentrated in the south, we will swiftly advance southwards. This will signal the Aries Tribe to start a rebellion. We will take advantage of the ensuing chaos to attack, and then we will behead the Lupus Tribe chieftain and his heir!」

The Alva region was small. And the Alvans were horse-riding nomads, so if they used their horses for transportation, military movements would be very fast.

Unless it became a stalemate, the war would end as quickly as a blink of an eye.

「Well then, I wish you all success!」

◇

April 5th

The Gehenna army advanced to a fortress built between the territory controlled by the Lupus Tribe and Gehenna. They stockpiled provisions and showed readiness to advance northward.

April 7th

With lightning speed, the Lupus Tribe’s cavalry attacked the fortress. The battle began.

Out of the Lupus Tribe’s total mobilizable force of ten thousand, about four thousand besieged the fortress. Meanwhile, the Gehenna army held out within the fortress with two thousand soldiers.

The Lupus Tribe’s main force was cavalry. They were ineffective in a siege battle.

On the other hand, the Gehenna army had no intention of fighting from the start, and they bunkered down, consuming the provisions gathered in the fortress.

The situation reached a stalemate, with neither side able to gain an advantage.

April 14th

Mutzio led seven thousand Equus cavalry northward. At the same time, the oppressed Aries Tribe rebelled against the Lupus Tribe.

◇

「Fire the catapults!」

The five hundred soldiers led by Roswald used catapults to hurl small ceramic jars filled with black powder. More than five hundred bombs rained down on the Lupus Tribe.

In an instant, the battlefield was dominated by the smoke and sound of gunpowder. The sudden explosions startled the Lupus Tribe’s horses, causing them to panic and go wild.

Some riders were thrown off, some were kicked to death, and others were trampled.

As the Lupus Tribe fell into chaos, the Equus and Aries cavalry, who had been positioned at a distance, charged.

「Release the arrows!」

Arrows were shot at the confused Lupus Tribe, and once the distance was closed, they switched to swords and began to cut down their enemies. The grassland was dyed red with the blood of the Lupus Tribe.

「Retreat! Retreat!」

A man of the Lupus Tribe’s chieftain lineage, the one who had been entrusted with the control of the Aries Tribe, shouted to initiate a retreat. However…

「That’s not going to happen.」

Mutzio drew his bow and wrapped the arrow with wind. The wind-clad arrow spun and pierced the man’s temple.

「The enemy general has been slain by me, Mutzio Sulpicius Equus!」

Mutzio shouted, and the Equus and Aries Tribes cheered.

The Lupus Tribe, having lost their morale, surrendered.

In this battle, two thousand warriors of the Lupus Tribe were killed, and one thousand surrendered. In one battle the Lupus Tribe lost ten percent of their total population of thirty thousand.

「Ah, things are going great! Are you drinking, Roswald-kun?」

A drunk Mutzio leaned on Roswald, refilling his empty cup with alcohol.

「Come on, drink up. This victory is thanks to the ‘secret medicine of fire’ that you riders from King Rosais’ Country brought with you.」

「Hahaha…」

Roswald laughed ambiguously. He was used to dealing with drunkards like Bartolo, so he handled Mutzio in the same way.

Inwardly grimacing, Roswald drank the strong-smelling alcohol made from mare milk. His tongue and nose, accustomed to the wine of King Rosais’ Country, protested.

「By the way, isn’t it time for peace talks? The Lupus Tribe has already lost ten percent of their population, right?」

「Hmm? What are you talking about? They’ve only lost ten percent.」

Roswald couldn’t believe his ears. Mutzio drank more alcohol.

「The Lupus will try to recover from their loss. There will be another big battle.」

Unlike societies focused on agriculture, the loss of population was not as damaging for nomadic horse-riding Tribes. If a society focused on agriculture loses a big percentage of its labor force, its food production drops sharply, but for nomadic Tribes, losing people can actually improve their food situation.

Moreover, it wasn’t uncommon in the Alvan society for a portion of the population to completely switch sides to the enemy. This was because, even though they were called the Equus Tribe or the Lupus Tribe, not all members belonged to the Equus or Lupus main tribe.

In essence, the country known as the Equus Tribe was composed of smaller tribes gathered around the powerful Equus tribe, much like grapes on a vine. In reality, only about ten thousand of the Equus Tribe belonged to the Equus main tribe.

The remaining twenty thousand were from smaller clans.

This was true for the Lupus Tribe as well.

Thus, it was common for subjugated tribes to switch allegiance from the ruling tribe to another tribe, resulting in a sudden decrease in population.

「This will be the end of the war. By tomorrow, it will all be over.」

Mutzio smiled wickedly.

◇

April 15th

Numerous tribes that had been subjugated by the Lupus Tribe surrendered one after another to the Equus tribe, swearing allegiance. Out of approximately thirty thousand, twenty thousand from smaller tribes pledged their loyalty to the Equus tribe.

Only three thousand of the Lupus Tribe’s main force remained out of their original ten thousand.

「I’ll ask you first. Do you have any intention of surrendering? Chieftain of the Lupus Tribe. If you surrender, I swear by the gods that I will not treat you harshly.」

「Do you think I would believe such sweet talk!!」

The chieftain of the Lupus Tribe shouted. The other men of the Lupus Tribe echoed his sentiment.

…However, Mutzio did not miss the fact that about half of the men had lost their spirit.

「Then let’s do this. Chieftain of the Lupus Tribe, will you duel with me? If I win, you will all follow me. If you win, I will withdraw peacefully.」

「Are you serious?」

「I’m serious.」

From Mutzio’s expression, the chieftain realized that Mutzio was indeed serious. Both swore to the god of war to fight honorably and began the duel under the watchful eyes of both armies.

「Let me say this first. I will not use my blessing for this duel.」

「…I’ll make you regret that arrogance.」

Both combatants stood thirty meters apart, glaring at each other. They moved simultaneously, kicking their horses’ flanks to close the distance.

「Die!」

「Haaaa!!!」

Their swords clashed, sparks flying as the blades met. A sword flew high into the sky, and blood stained the ground.

「It’s my victory!!」

Mutzio declared triumphantly. Thus, the war for the unification of the Alvans concluded in ten days.

◇

「How about that!! Isn’t it amazing?」

After the war ended, I visited Mutzio. As soon as we met, he boasted with a smug look on his face. There were three women standing beside him.

I know one of them. Mutzio legitimate wife, Rakela. …But who are the other two?

「Haha, can’t you guess?」

Mutzio grabbed the butts of the two women who appeared to be his new wives.

Rakela-san is glaring at you, you know…?

One of them is probably the daughter of the Aries tribe chief. He told me before he was planning to steal her from her fiancée, the Lupus Tribe’s heir.

But who is the other one?

She is probably a girl from the Lupus Tribe… Don’t tell me she is the former wife of the Lupus clan’s chieftain. …That’s possible.

The marriage customs of the Alvans are a little scary…

「Let’s talk about the future instead.」

Mutzio ushered me into a small tent.

「As you’ve seen, I’ve succeeded in unifying the Alvans. With no worries about the rear, we can lend troops to you more proactively.」

「That’s very helpful.」

But… isn’t the difficult part not unifying them, but maintaining that unity? Especially with the nomadic horse-riding Alvans.

「Well, about that… I’ve always thought about why the Alvans have struggled to unify and even when unified, quickly reverted to chaotic times. I have concluded that there are two reasons for this.」

Mutzio held up two fingers in front of me.

「One, all activities are organized at the family or individual tribe level. Two, the ruling tribes enforce despotic control.」

「So you’re going to implement a different kind of governance than before?」

「Exactly. I’ll govern using a system of ‘thousand households.’」

Mutzio began to outline his plan. First, he would divide the men from the existing tribes into groups as close to one hundred as possible.

He would then group ten of these ‘hundred households’ to form a unit of a ‘thousand households.’ This unit would be the political and military unit.

Moreover, a leader would be elected from within each ‘thousand households’ unit roughly every five years. This leader, the ‘thousand household head,’ would act as the political and military leader of the unit and would have the right to attend the tribal council.

While this system would not immediately dismantle the tribe system since it serves as a political and military unit, it would significantly change the meaning and function of the tribes.

The king would be chosen from the main Sulpicius Equus family. However, the selection method would be an election by the tribal council.

The king’s term would be for life.

「Won’t that face significant opposition?」

「It’ll face less opposition than what you’re doing in your country. The first ‘thousand households’ will be formed based on the already existing tribes. Despite the name, some ‘thousand households’ will be as large as two thousand or as small as five hundred. We’ll start with a bit of trickery to ease the transition.」

I see… Well, that sounds reasonable enough.

「Let me know if there’s anything I can help with.」

「Could you teach us agriculture? I want to increase our population.」

「If you give us horses.」