Tsuyokute New Saga (LN)

Volume 10 Chapter 4

At one point, this place was known as Rimarze, the village to the far west of Zilgus and closest to the demon territory. But what was left was a fortress at the frontlines of the war against the demons. At the beginning of the war, it was just a small castle, but the more the war progressed and its importance rose as a stronghold, the more it grew. And after many human and monetary resources were used it turned into a whole fortress surrounded by walls. Or rather, it might have become something like a whole fortress city.

Since thousands of soldiers rested here, it wasn’t just a simple camp, there were also factories for the dwarves to create equipment, as well as large storage houses with rations and stalls for the horses to rest, paired with a factory to repair and adjust the Golems, plus a whole training ground. Many facilities come together to create the largest military facility in the world. Naturally, you can’t look after a town with just soldiers alone, so many residents remained here. Hence, it even had a cafeteria, a bar, and many other establishments to allow for some peace of mind. Entertainment and stage plays, anything that gave a small piece of home for the soldiers. And there were still more buildings being added, slowly turning this into the most developed town in all of humanfolk.

It gathered money and goods greater than anywhere else, but what stood out the most in the center of this military city Rimarze, which name it kept even after growing from being a regular town, was the command center surrounded by defensive measures. The furthest in the back of this command center was the meeting room, which gathered individuals from every sort of background, gender, age, race, and such. One of the many common grounds they had was their position as kings, or positions close to that, where they lead major forces within the military. And this meeting right now had started its tradition even before the war against the demons, where the members had come together to discuss the direction of humanfolk’s military forces.

But, there were plenty of reasons why they came all the way to Rimarze, the frontline of the war. Be it inspiration and emotional support for the fighting soldiers at the frontlines, to show the leaders the state of the war and to have them gain a proper perception of it, or to make them realize that this wasn’t just something unrelated to them. What made this relatively easy was the wyvern flight squad of the Galgan Empire. What would normally require a month of travel before could now be achieved within a day. Thanks to this method, the sense of danger from the demons remained at a high for all of humanfolk…but it also invited other problems as well.

The meeting today had been planned to start quite some time ago, but none of that happened. Because of the invasion that occurred in the middle of it, many of the participants were late to the arrival. Eventually, the remaining members gradually arrived, with the second youngest man of the meeting taking his seat as the chairman in a room of older people. Granted, within this meeting, everybody was seen on equal social standing, but that was just pure facade and there was a clear distribution of power visible. The only seat empty right now was the seat of honor. Reserved for Maizer, the youngest Emperor of the Galgan Empire. He was originally the third prince of the country, but after his older brother died two years ago, and the other older brother lost his life in the civil war, he rose to the position, albeit being questioned by his surroundings. But after he succeeded in bringing peace to the country after the civil war, as well as prosperity to his country, his evaluation rose to levels of the legendary Emperor and his father Benedix. Even now, the people present in the meeting room waited for his arrival in uncertainty and anticipation.

“Apologies for the delay. I got kept up on my way.”

Granted, he did apologize, but his attitude made it questionable if he did feel bad. The other participants who had gathered before him couldn’t help feeling a bit aggravated. However rotten he may be, though, he was still the leader of a country, so nobody dared to voice their complaints directly. And it was a fact that he was a busy man as the next Emperor, so he could be allowed a bit of self-indulgence. Even if his behavior and act were a bit too arrogant for the taste of many.

“Now, let us begin… According to the information I was told, the demons have retreated. The result says that we’ve emerged victorious again.”

A servant began reading a document with details of today’s quarrel. Hearing the news, relief spread through the room, but it wasn’t anything to celebrate over. It has been half a year since the war began, and this very meeting had repeated many times over.

“220 confirmed deaths, with injured around 1843… Compared to the beginning of the war, things seemed to have slowed down a lot more.”

So said King Sharidan, leader of the country of Taihon to the north of the continent. He had just risen to become king, still relatively young in age. Taihon’s relationship with Zilgus or Galgan turned rather negative, so their good name dropped. For that reason, as soon as the war against the demons started, the soldiers were more than fired up to take the front line, achieving great results. And like he stated, when the war had just begun, they would see ten times the amount of deaths and injuries compared to today. Sometimes the fighting lasted a whole day, sometimes it went on for three days without any sleep, even to the point that the ground turned crimson-red, the corpses piling up into mountains. In this war that had continued for half a year, 70% of all casualties occurred in the first month this war began. And in all of these battles, humanfolk still came out on top.

“Especially casualties caused by those half-demon half-goblins have gone down in number. I’m guessing people have grown accustomed to how this war will be fought…And cooperation must be a big plus. As you would expect from the king of a military country, Sharidan could analyze the data quickly to conclude.

“At the same time, the opposition is still trying to overwhelm us with sheer numbers and small fries, or relying on individual demons to do the heavy lifting…And as that is their strength, they aren’t being sparse, either…Hm,” the king of the dwarves, King Garadoff the 5th said with a disgruntled tone.

Although their country Gilbohl was known to be relatively small, it offered a great amount of quality minerals, and since they were close to the battlefield that was Rimarze, he was mostly handling supplies.

“We’re lucky that they don’t have as many pure demons to throw at us, but their strength is something else, still…Most of the casualties today had been caused by them, too…”

“That said, we did win today, didn’t we? The demons are strong, but we’re fighting back.”

“That is true. Should we really cower in fear more than what is necessary?”

Compared to the initial statements, the other participants seemed rather nonchalant about this battle. As one would expect, humanfolk had been on the winning side since the war began, stopping an all-out invasion from the demons. You couldn’t blame them for being confident.

“I can tell a few people present here seem to be taking this lightly, but demons aren’t the type of opponent that’ll be easily suppressed,” said the leader of the elves of the Evenro forest, representing his race for this meeting—Rifuaro.

Although they weren’t as secluded as the dark elves, the elves of the forest tended to stay away from any affairs going on in the world, limiting their contact with other races. However, things were different if the demons were involved, which is why they participated in this war from the beginning, participating in every meeting.

“I can agree, we might be experiencing an advantage right now. However, in the war many decades ago, the same happened. When humanfolk became arrogant and let down their guard, they suffered severe retaliation.”

Many of the oldest elves as part of the forest community participated in the previous war, with Rifuaro being one of them, and they just barely made it back from the war.

“…A single demon managed to hunt down my father and many of my brethren. It would do you well to remember that they possess strength you cannot possibly fathom.”

Everyone swallowed their words when they were met with Rifuaro’s chilling comment.

“That’s true. We’ve seen a significant drop in casualties, but in return, so have the numbers of the demons. Rather than us returning victorious, it’s more accurate to say that we reached a time limit, no?”

So argued one of the youngest participants of this meeting, the princess of Zilgus Milena. Known as the Treasure of Zilgus, she possessed incredible popularity thanks to her beauty, but she was also skilled when it came to her work or foreign affairs, bringing Zilgus to new heights despite its old history. The previous king Remonas had already died three years ago, but since she had not yet risen to be the queen and instead remained a princess, there didn’t seem to be an issue, and more like she was holding off for some reason.

“It would be wise not to think too naively about this. You couldn’t possibly have forgotten about the state of the war when it just erupted, no?”

“W-We don’t intend to let down our guard. However, it’s also a fact that we have the advantage, so we shouldn’t let it slip past us.”

Pressured by Rifuaro and Milena, the other more relaxed party seemed to try and argue back still.

“That said, more and more battles as of late had turned out like the one day. I cannot understand what the demons are doing. It’s foolish to just throw away your soldiers like this.”

“Could they be plotting something?”

“I wouldn’t go that far, and the prisoners we have taken aren’t being exactly cooperative, either. The lowest of the low don’t even know anything, and defeating the pure demons is a gamble, too…”

“So we’re in desperate need of information…That said, I would rather not drag this on for too long…”

“We must think of something, and quick.”

More opinions arrived and mixed in, paired with groans. They might be winning, but there was no major development to speak of. In a way, this was nothing more than an agonizing standstill.

“Maybe we should go on the offensive ourselves?”

The prince of a small country reluctantly voiced his opinion. Granted, he didn’t have much talking right in this room, but he felt like he had to say this no matter what. And facing that idea, many had their hopes in regard to that, but everyone waited for Maizer to state his opinion.

“I’ve been saying this before, but we excel at a defensive war like this. We can come out on top in our bouts because we’re prepared for these attacks, and if we change that system, our form will crumble,” Maizer said with a bitter tone, still emphasizing the initial strategy.

Even in the war going on, they built fences for defenses, firing down arrows from high up, or having their soldiers attack from behind to fight back the waves. This strategy worked because the opponent would constantly press on them, but if humanfolk took that first step, it would all crumble down.

“They don’t have unlimited numbers in their field. If they continue to attack with such waves, they will eventually run dry. That’s one way to win a war.”

“We keep our advantageous position to have them exhaust their forces…It’s a battle of attrition, but we have enough forces, so we should wait and see,” Garadoff also argued that the current situation wasn’t all that bad, supporting Maizer’s strategy of letting the opponent run dry.

“I understand what you’re saying, but…” The prince still didn’t seem all too convinced.

A few others around also agreed with him. Of course, humanfolk would be able to stand their ground for the foreseeable future. However, who said they had to be happy with just that? The ones who seemed bothered by the current way things went were all those representatives with relatively low influence. Many countries offered crucial resources for this war, and the smaller countries would soon be running out of those, as well as money. In their eyes, finishing this war quickly would be better. Although, of course, they couldn’t openly say that, because it would crush their credibility.

The bigger countries like Galgan or Zilgus still seemed to be doing good in that regard, so they were fine continuing this stalling war. However, if you ignore them, then most countries would wish for the same thing. If their cooperation broke apart now, it would greatly harm humanfolk as a whole.

“Actually, I have to agree that we strike first,” said, surprisingly enough, Rifuaro.

Since they were secluded, they didn’t have to worry about resources or other forces, so the argument came without any ulterior thinking.

“That’s different from what you said earlier. Didn’t you warn us about their threat?” Garadoff asked, but Rifuaro just looked at him like he was making fun of him.

“Of course, and I’m not making light of that. The demons created this situation. There must be something they are planning. That is why, going for a victory in one fell swoop is plenty of a possibility.”

Because the demons are dangerous, you should try to finish them off while you can afford to do so. That is what Rifuaro was saying, and it made sense.

“And if things continue, I’m worried about the soldiers’ morale.”

Sharidan argued for the same cause, except using a different reason. Of course, their goal was to protect humanfolk, which was a noble cause, and you couldn’t forget about all the establishments available here for them to boost their morale. That said, that would eventually reach its limit.

“Trying to scrape off the enemy’s forces by defending is a good strategy. However, dragging on a battle that seems sheerly endless…it leaves them unstable. We need a winning condition.”

“A winning condition?” asked Milena.

Sheridan nodded and was about to open his mouth, when someone knocked on the door.