Read Novel Full Chapter 213
Here’s the chapter. Enjoy~
Chapter 213 – Win-Win
I went outside the city walls and set the Griffon 2000TD down on the snowfield. The guards, seeing the huge body of the hovercraft for the first time, stared in surprise, but Ecla-san just smiled wryly and showed no particular reaction.
“Your Majesty the Demon King, Your Majesty the Queen. Please take good care of Ivan and the others.”
Perhaps through some kind of magic technique, the witch’s words reached my ears despite the roar of the giant fan.
“Leave it to me, Guildmaster.”
“Then let’s go.”
“Woof!”
As on the way back from Lafan, I took only Myrril and Moff with me. This time, the visibility was poor due to the rough weather, and the Griffon’s huge body tended to be swept downwind, so I had to be careful to control the Griffon’s position. Even though it was daylight, it was dark and snowy, and visibility was poor. I turned on the light, but only for comfort.
“What do you mean, win-win situation, Myrril?”
“I don’t know; I got it from Yoshua. But I don’t really understand it.”
Eh. Please don’t just throw it at me after declaring it so confidently.
“From what you told me, I interpreted it to mean that it depends on the relationship between the two parties. If the witch is unwilling to do business with the demon king for a few coins, and if the focus is only on immediate profit or loss, neither party will be happy. Isn’t that what you’re saying?”
Is it? Maybe so. I don’t have much business acumen, and I’m not very conscious of my actions, but the Republic is the only country with which I have a (potential) common interest. I’ve made some close friends, and I have a favorite place to stay. That’s why…
“I don’t want to see the friendship we’ve just built destroyed by some silly side issue. Even if we have to take some money out of the equation, we should make a beneficial choice in the end. It’s called ‘taking what you can get for your losses.'”
“Myrril, aren’t you becoming more like a merchant than me these days?”
After passing the point where we had left Ivan and the others, we continued on what seemed to be the road they had taken at the time. The road skirted the mountain range and continued north until it came to a large clearing. The area was strangely flat and devoid of trees, suggesting that beneath the snow was the surface of a river or lake, like Witch Lake.
“The next direction is… that way. I see what looks like a road in the forest.”
A little further on, there were two pillar-like things about five meters apart. When I turned around, I saw something similar about 20 meters behind me.
“What is that?”
“Could they be the pillars holding up the bridge? That means there must be a river underneath.”
“Is that the horse the Sarz guards had?”
“No, I don’t think so. They are thin and badly groomed. The bush next to it is probably the remains of a campfire. Perhaps it was destroyed by the defeated soldiers to get some food?”
With that, Myrril climbed into the turret and assumed a combat stance, pulling the bolt on her MAG general-purpose machine gun and pumping ammunition into the chamber.
“There they are, Sarz’s people.”
I send the Griffon in the direction Myrril is pointing, but I can’t see anything with all the snow blowing in the wind. For me, everything is just a gradient of white and gray.
“The enemy… Not even a hundred. About forty or so.”
MAG 7.62mm rounds were sent across the snowy landscape, and although I could occasionally see something like sparks or blood splatter, they were soon hidden by a white curtain and disappeared from view. So this is what it means to be in the middle of five miles of fog. Everything was at the level of my imagination.
“We go straight ahead to support the attack. Ivan and his men are about a quarter of a mile away.”
After an open fire, she fires a series of M79 grenade launchers. After a few bursts of flame, Myrril stops the attack. In the light of the headlights, I could see the guards cowering in the shadow of a fallen tree.
“…Takifu? Mir?”
Ivan-san stood up and tilted his head at Myrril, who had come down.
“We were bored, so we came down to play with you.”
“That’s good. We were on the verge of death.”
“I was joking. Are any of you seriously injured?”
“One broke his leg, and two had their arms cut off. The rest are just scrapes.”
We took the wounded to the Griffon and gave them blankets, water, and clean cloths. I also brought them a small barrel of distilled alcohol to disinfect them and keep them warm. After that, I go back out and check on the enemy corpses.
Most of the bodies covered in blood were Northern Territory soldiers in red coats. There were about forty of them. Only two of them were Imperial Army soldiers in black cloaks. I stowed the corpses and their equipment and released the horses.
When I returned to Ivan-san and the others, Myrril was in the Griffon tending to the guards’ wounds.
“What happened to your horse?”
“They were killed. They were killed on first contact by the red cloak pretending to surrender. They probably thought they could easily torture us to death by crushing our legs.”
A furious aura of anger rose from Myrril. Even I was looked at with reproach when I killed a horse for nothing.
“There must have been twenty horses. You mean all of them?”
“No. Some of them were safe, but I let them go before the battle. The horses were free, and there was a chance they might return to Sarz.”
It seemed that the horses were ready to live even after their master was dead. Myrril made eye contact with me, let out a breath, and relaxed her shoulders.
“Woof.”
Moff poked Myrril with his nose as if to comfort her.
“I understand. I know that when it comes to war, there are no choices. You know it is wrong to blame the enemy for the situation.”
As for the absurdity of it all, I can’t say that I’m the one who was actively involved in the battle with the Kingdom’s army. Attacking them under the guise of surrender is a no-no, as you might expect. Unfair or not, it will be unacceptable if they want to surrender in a serious manner, but I realize that there’s no next time for them since they’ve already been sentenced to death by… foreign interference. They won’t choose any means to an end, and if they’re not careful, they won’t even choose an end.
“Ivan-san, don’t you have any codes of war, international laws, or other rules for waging war here?”
“I’ve never heard of them. There is no one to protect. At best, they negotiate terms for the exchange of hostages captured by the enemy.”
“I see. Then let’s get this over with.”
I laughed. Myrril looked at me with a slightly worried expression. I remembered my principles. Distinguish between friend and foe. Show no mercy to the enemy in a situation where an ally might be harmed. And.
“Even if it hurts, you must cut off the pathogens.”