Shinwa Densetsu no Eiyuu no Isekaitan (LN)

Vol 13 Chapter 4 Part 3

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ED: LonelyMatter

Part 3

With an angry voice, a life is scattered. Arrows fly, blood flies, heads fly.

Without even exchanging blades, their heads were smashed by blunt weapons, and before they could shout victory, they were pierced from behind by spears. On the front lines, where friend and foe mingled, if you were caught off guard, you would die. If you looked only to the ground, you would be pierced by countless arrows flying from above.

Even if you were lucky enough to climb a ladder over the walls, oil would rain down on you, and your body would be consumed by fire.

Even if you made it to the top with your mind exhausted and your strength drained, you would be greeted by dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of blades emitting a dull glow.

This was the siege.

The armies of the Six Kingdoms surrounding the Holy City of the Vanir Three Kingdoms have launched an attack.

The white walls were now stained red from the constant waves of attack.

It was a sight that broke the heart. But inside those walls were their families. So the army of the Vanir Three Kingdoms put up a desperate fight, saying they could not let them in.

Lucia looked up at her own army with her iron fan as she watched the arrows rain down on them.

She was surrounded by cloth, except for the entrance, as if to block out the sunlight. In the artificial shadows, Lucia lay down on a leather couch and picked up a piece of fruit placed in front of her.

“Even such a beautiful white wall turns red after such a long time.

The beautiful walls that had never seen a stain were becoming dirty. It was also a sign of those who had been overrun.

“It is a shame to see it stained with blood. I had hoped to get it intact.”

“They wouldn’t accept the surrender, so we had no choice.”

“So, how is the war going?”

Lucia ignored the words of her second-in-command, Seleucus, and continued to ask her own questions. Seleucus, who did not seem offended, perhaps because he was familiar with the situation, was handed a sheet of parchment by the staff.

“The eastern wall seems to be resisting us. The same goes for the western wall. The South has requested reinforcements, so I have sent three brigades on my own initiative. The north gate, where the main gate is located, seems to be weakening.”

“I see the operation… seems to have been successful.”

Lucia bit into an apple, narrowing her eyes as she made a small chewing sound.

Before attacking the Holy City, Lucia decided to disperse the enemy to the four walls. She deliberately left the north side of the city thin and launched a simultaneous attack on the remaining walls.

Perhaps taken by surprise, the enemy immediately assigned troops to the northern wall and directed them toward each wall.

The commanders of the Vanir Three Kingdoms, now in a difficult situation, called for reinforcements from each wall while slowing their attack on the northern wall. This was repeated several times.

As expected, it was no longer possible to break through, but there would be no problem if they could gain the upper hand in the initial attack. If they could only get over one wall, it would be theirs.

“Do you think we can get over the wall today?”

“The walls are high because it is the Holy City, and there seems to be a large number of soldiers in the breastworks, so even if we break through, we will be out of time by nightfall.”

“Well, then it would be unforgivable to destroy the historical gate, but it can’t be helped, can it?”

“We have sent the battering rams, but the gate is also very strong, so we should not expect much today.”

“All right, even if we break through the walls and break down the gate, the long-eared race will not surrender.”

“They have a lot of self-respect, don’t they? What would you do in that case?”

“Tell my dear soldiers. I will allow them some plunder. Taking their families hostage will break their hearts.”

Lucia was looking up at the battlefield from her fan when a soldier stood at the entrance, interrupting the spectacular view.

“Her Majesty Queen Lucia, may I have a moment of your time?”

“What is it? Is it good news?”

“An envoy from the Great Grantz Empire has come to see you.”

The room fell silent as if time had stopped.

Lucia’s cheeks twitched, and Seleucus closed his eyes as if giving up on something. The staff around them stopped what they were doing and stared at the soldiers standing at the entrance.

Lucia, who had regained her composure faster than anyone else, closed her iron fan and pointed it at the soldier.

“Call him. Let’s hear what he has to say.”

As the soldier walked away, Seleucus approached.

“Are you sure?”

“We can’t turn him away, can we?”

The soldier returned with the Grantz messenger, who was on one knee on the ground.

Lucia immediately pointed her iron fan at the messenger, who dropped to one knee on the ground.

“No need for a formal greeting. You can tell us what you need to do right away.”

“Then this is from the Sixth Princess Celia Estrella.”

The formality-conscious Grantz looked slightly puzzled, but as might be expected of a messenger from a great power, he stepped forward without a sound and held out a letter in both hands.

“…..”

Lucia silently took the letter, removed the seal, and immediately unfolded the sheet of paper that had been tucked away. Her eyes darted quickly from page to page. As she read the letter, Lucia’s shoulders shook, and she raised her fist vigorously but then slumped down.

“Messenger of Grantz, I will have a tent prepared for you, and you may wait there while I write my reply.”

“Understood.”

As soon as the Grantz messenger left, Lucia crushed Celia Estrella’s letter in her fist.

Her fists trembled with rage, her eyes were colored with hatred, and her lips were chapped with regret.

The staff trembled with fear as Lucia reacted abnormally, and Seleucus sighed as if he had guessed what was in the letter even without seeing it.

“What did it say?”

One of the staff members stepped forward. Frightened by Lucia’s hateful gaze, she immediately backed away and leaned her back against the chair.

“I was told to withdraw my hand from the Vanir Three Kingdoms. There is no need for further conflict.”

“Will you accept such a request?”

“I have no choice. If they say they are prepared to invade our country, well…”

“Does the Grantz have that much leeway?”

Seleucus tilted his head with a skeptical look on his face.

Lucia replied with a chuckle, shrugging her shoulders and quivering her lips.

“The Vanir Three Kingdoms must have suffered a crushing defeat. They are a useless lot.”

“Why don’t we decide whether to retreat after the fall of the Holy City? Even if the Grantz were to invade our land, it wouldn’t be today or tomorrow, would it?”

“That is impossible. It seems that the Republic of Steichen is on its way.”

Even if they retreat after the fall of the Holy City, the Steichens who would come later would take it over with a look of their own.

If they tried to resist, their homeland would be overrun by the Grantz in an instant.

Above all, they could not fight without a place to return to.

The morale of the soldiers would not hold, and the entire army would bury its bones in that land.

Then, they considered looting the area and then retreating, but that would arouse the resentment of the neighboring countries, and the Six Kingdoms would be forced to fight until they perished.

“Especially if they say that we are being watched by the clairvoyant eye, one of the three most secret eyes in the world, we will be in over our heads.”

The fact that they sent her such a strong letter or rather a letter that sounded like a threat, showed that the armies of the Vanir Three Kingdoms must have been completely defeated.

If this was the case, then there was a strong possibility that the Vanir army would come to the Holy City via the Grand Duchy of Drall.

Against the Steichen Republic and the Great Grantz, two great powers, they would not have the strength to withstand a confrontation. If defeated, Lucia would lose all her territory.

After enduring and enduring and enduring, she had finally become the unified king she had longed for and was able to move everything according to her own wishes, but to have these things taken away from her was almost like being sentenced to death.

Lucia laughed effortlessly and dropped Celia Estrella’s letter to the ground,

“…..We are withdrawing.”

She turned her face down, distorted with grief, and pressed her clasped hands to her forehead, her shoulders shaking.

＊＊＊＊＊

As a light breeze blew, the stench of decay spread everywhere.

There were people immersed in their work, vomiting from the stench.

They were working in pairs or even in groups of three, carrying out the corpses that were sinking into the ground.

There were bodies that had been devoured by something, bodies that were severely damaged, and bodies of friends, family members, and various others. There was only sadness in the air, along with a strange smell, and everyone was wrapped in cloth and gasping for air.

This was the plain where the Vanir and Grantz armies clashed.

Remnants of the battlefield could still be seen.

Rosa, the Grantz Prime Minister in charge of cleaning up after the war, frowned as well.

The smell of blood was something you never got used to. But that did not mean they could leave the bodies unattended. If the corpses continued to decompose, a plague could break out.

The Vanir soldiers were from another land, so if there were an endemic disease, that would be the worst-case scenario.

Therefore, they had to dispose of the bodies quickly.

Since there was no place to bury them, they had to be gathered in one place and cremated.

It was not just the fear of disease outbreaks.

If the corpses were left for days, the smell of blood would attract “monsters” and battlefield robbers. When this happens, public order would deteriorate, and even bandits and thieves would appear and begin to threaten the surrounding villages.

If the situation was not handled properly, they could not leave this place.

“Did you get the cooperation of the neighbors?”

Rosa asked, and one of the workers following behind her answered.

“Yes, we already have about a hundred people working on the site, but word has spread, and we have received a petition to hire another three hundred people.”

“You can hire them all.”

“But the cost of hiring…”

“Don’t worry about that. Of course, I will not try to extort money from the nobles here.”

“Excuse me?”

Rosa stopped and waved the tip of her chin at the questioning staff, inviting them to look at her.

As they all looked at each other, they saw a soldier of the Vanir Three Kingdoms being held as a prisoner of war.

His arms were tied behind his back, his wrists bound with ropes. She was connected to the one next to her by the waist. The ropes on their legs, bound to prevent them from escaping, are also connected like pearls to the next person. They were the ones who chose to be prisoners of war instead of fleeing to the Grand Duchy of Drall.

According to the report, those who chose to flee were captured by the Grand Duchy of Drall, and those who resisted were killed.

“Those of high rank have been ransomed. The others will be turned over to the Grand Duchy of Drall. They will pay us a certain amount in return.”

Their end was certain. Many of the long-eared race are good-looking.

After their surrender, they would go to the Principality of Lichtine, where the slave trade still exists and where they would be sold at a high price.

It was not known whether it was good for them to surrender or not.

But Rosa had no intention of sympathizing with them.

If they had lost, the situation would have been reversed.

“Then are you sure that the ransom money will be used to pay for the recruitment?”

“Until then, the Kelheit family would cover the costs.”

Rosa was about to start walking again, but her gaze wandered as if she had suddenly noticed something.

“I wonder how they would react to Liz’s letter… if they had received it by now.”

If she were in Lucia’s place, she would probably be red in the face with anger.

Everyone felt better when things went according to plan.

But if they were suddenly stopped from the side, they would be in a bad mood.

It would have been fine to let them off the hook since they had used the Six Kingdoms’ advance to their advantage.

But now that the Vanir Three Kingdoms had been defeated, it would not be good for Grantz if they fell.

In short, it was a matter of balance.

Grantz could not allow the Vanir Three Kingdoms to fall and a new powerful nation to emerge.

“But what if Her Majesty Queen Lucia does not obey?”

“We will go to the Vanir Three Kingdoms through the Grand Duchy of Drall. We will have no choice but to contact the Republic of Steichen and pincer the Six Kingdoms.”

Because of this concern, they hired people from the surrounding villages to clean up the battlefield.

They must be prepared and ready to deal with any situation that may arise.

“Other allied forces from the south and east have begun to move north. We could ask them to change course and let them handle the situation here while we attack the Six Kingdoms.

All possible measures were taken. Even before the war began, they had meticulously carried out operations based on various possibilities.

“The Six Kingdoms must have faced resistance from more than a few of the Vanir Three Kingdoms. Taking these factors into consideration, we have no choice but to follow them. If they were to attack the Holy City with such force, they would be strangling themselves.”

After all, Lucia had achieved her dream of becoming a unified king. She would not make a foolish decision to perish.

All that remained was for Liz to rescue Hiro and it would all be over. After that, the coronation awaited her.

The first female emperor in the history of the Grantz would be born.

As the hero who ended this great upheaval, her story of heroism will be told forever. After her death, she must be added to the gods.

She will take the thirteenth throne that her father, Emperor Greyheit, wanted.

And that’s what the Grantz…

No―and Rosa shook her head and stopped imagining.

The future is not what it will be. That’s why it’s so much more fun to live.

There was no guarantee of spectacular results. There will be hardships ahead. That is why they are desperately living in the present.

“Let’s leave the worries of the future to the next generation.”

Because of the upheaval that had engulfed the entire central continent, talented people were beginning to sprout up in various places.

If they can be discovered and nurtured, the Grantz will still be able to reign as champions.

“For that to happen, I need Hiro to survive, and I need him to fulfill his promise.”

Praying for Hiro’s safety, Rosa looked up at the endless sky.