Tsuyokute New Saga (LN)

Volume 6 Chapter 17

Explosions could be heard everywhere, even through the pouring rain.

“This works wonders to burn up the food of 50,000 people.”

Minagi threw a magic stone with [Explosion] engraved into it at a large number of supplies. She was specifically looking to destroy any rations, armor, weapons, or other useful items during an impending war like this.

“Still, blowing up all the goods he specifically bought for them…What a shame,” Minagi grumbled to herself, as she threw another magic stone to blow up the supplies aimed at several hundreds of soldiers.

After this one throw, she had used up most of her magic stones, but the effect was undeniable. Planning the war with a lack of rations like this would only bring about more casualties. Her surroundings were full of chaos and disarray, as the soldiers desperately tried to get back in formation. With barely any light sources around, Minagi had free reign everywhere.

“It is a bit dull to have nobody stand above you. Maybe I should go for lords or generals instead?”

Since everything was going far too smoothly, Minagi started thinking about what to do after this, when she realized something. She didn’t know if it was just her imagination, but something felt off to her.

“Is there…something? Someone?”

An eerie premonition crept up her back, but she could only return to her work.

A group of five people rushed through the darkness during the pouring rain. The only light provided to them was a small light carried by the leader. Their goal was to report the casualties to the main army, and it would only need one person back. But the reason was simple—They thought they’d be safer if they were going in a group. Just a little moment ago, they were in a large group of five hundred people, celebrating their victory and getting drunk. But suddenly, they were receiving reports of being under attack, gathering in the center of the plains. There, mysterious attacks of magic hit them, almost like they had been waiting there for them.

Explosions, pillars of fire, even what looked like poisonous smoke, it completely broke apart their squadron. At the same time, all the light around them disappeared, as they heard screams from the darkness. A scene like that would instill fear into the soldiers, no matter how trained they may be. They took a circular formation, grasped their swords with quivering hands, and glared back at the darkness. As a blessing in disguise, the screams had subsided whereas nothing had happened to them yet.

From then on, they started looking around to confirm their surroundings, only to find a field of corpses and soldiers groaning in pain. Even so, the amount of casualties must be running up to barely 10% of their main corps, but the group of five soldiers could not hope to fully confirm the situation because of the pouring rain and darkness. And a few hundred meters away at another noble’s guarded area, similar chaos ensued. Staying here would equal risking their lives. And because the higher-ranking officials were the ones targeted first, there was nobody to bring the place under control, as fear got the better of the soldiers who started running for their lives.

Compared to all those other soldiers, the current five were much more composed. Rather than running away aimlessly, it was a lot safer to stay at the main army base. At the same time, if you were found abandoning your position, you’d be given the death penalty either way, so they headed back to the main base to report on the situation. And as they were running as fast as they could, that something that chased after them from the darkness remained unnoticed. The human shadow reached the last two soldiers in the line, swinging their sword, slicing through their legs. The two raised screams of pain and terror as they collapsed to the ground, as the shadow—Seran—continued with his next action.

He rammed his hilt into the third soldier’s stomach, bending his body as he was blown off while vomiting the few remains in his stomach. The fourth soldier finally turned around and stopped, but Seran’s blunt swing of his sword sliced his belly open. That said, the wound wasn’t as deep, so he held his stomach in pain as he collapsed. The leader running at the front returned to fight back, but Seran swiftly swung his head to ram the back of the sword into his head, giving him a concussion. Having knocked out five people in the blink of an eye, Seran immediately moved on to the next place.

After going around slaughtering people, throwing magic stones to blow up rations, and causing destruction wherever he went, he decided to stop focusing on actively killing other people. And this wasn’t because of the goodness of his heart, and rather that this was a lot more convenient. Having allies that won’t be able to fight but are still alive is a lot better than creating meaningless death. Even the five soldiers just now suffered severe injuries, but they were not in any critical state.

That way, their allies would have to take care of them, carrying them to safety and giving them treatment, which will slow down the army as a whole. That is why Seran decided to keep them alive but in a critical state.

“What a pain…But, it’s not as bad as I thought.”

It was a lot harder than just killing them outright, making him pay attention to his swings a lot more. Of course, someone with Seran’s skill didn’t have that much trouble, but it helped to let out some of the built-up stress, and it forced him to focus. He judged it would be sufficient for him to continue like this when he suddenly felt a shiver run up his spine, as his entire body started tensing up.

“No way…right?”

What exactly did he feel? All he knew was that it came from the direction of the main camp.

Kyle finished cutting down another group of soldiers, coughing up some of the mud that entered his throat, as he was gasping for air. His one and only job was to slice down opponents in the most gruesome way. He had already mowed down a hundred soldiers. He didn’t know the exact numbers, but using magic and magic stones, it should be somewhere close to that. In this large field, he only had two allies, far away from here, so he just attacked any person he saw.

He cut down another soldier. He must have gotten separated from the main group amidst all this chaos, looking to be around the same age as Kyle who still kept some of his innocence. Right now, Kyle was close to the area Dargof’s army was resting. These were all soldiers who chose to fight, who chose to stand here and participate in this war. It was an odd feeling for Kyle, forced to cut down innocent people for the greater good. Even if he believed that this was the method most beneficial for everyone, he still kept wondering…if there hadn’t been a better method.

The rain did a great deal of washing it away, but the stench and appearance of blood on Kyle’s sword made him wonder what he was doing, even if shouldn’t be thinking that.

(I still feel hesitant…is it because I don’t see a definitive success from this?)

Kyle was definitely changing the story from before, but he had no way of knowing if this would actually end up saving humanfolk. It made him wonder if everything he did so far was pointless after all.

“…Night’s gonna end soon, huh.”

The heavy downpour still made it impossible to see even a step ahead of you, but the sky toward the east was turning more white the longer it continued. Once the sun would rise, this plan would be over. Kyle intended to get in contact with his two allies and took out the card to call their names, when—

“Something’s not adding up.”

“This feels weird.”

The two answered at the same time to report on this.

“We can’t get in contact with Count Dakkai!”

“Reporting several casualties at the Loybo squadron!”

More and more news of casualties and deaths left Konrad utterly bewildered, as Dargof’s face had changed from beet-red to pale. Only a few more hours and their victory would have been granted. This sudden turn of events was like Konrad just woke up in a nightmare. He rushed to gather his lords, which turned out to be only a third of what Konrad assumed he had. Connecting the bits and pieces of information he received, he understood the scope of the damage they received, and that it was difficult to even organize their troops. Damages to the numbers of troops were far greater than you would think, attacked by magic stones of all things, ranking the number of casualties up to the hundreds.

“This is bad…At this rate, we will…!” Dargof was painfully aware of what will happen from now on.

Because it was only higher-ranking officials and lords that were killed in secret, it was definitely a targeted assassination. However, even with regular soldier casualties in the hundreds, the enemy should have arrived and attacked in a massive group, and yet there were absolutely no signs of that. Nobody could have anticipated that it was only three individuals who wreaked this much havoc. And what Dargof was most terrified of was the soldiers waking up to utter defeat. They celebrated a certain victory with a banquet, sure that they would be able to win. But having witnessed mindless death like that will hurt their morale. With their lords murdered in their sleep, it will take days to set up their army properly again. And as early as the day after tomorrow, Maizer’s army will arrive. It’ll be dubious if they manage to claim victory during that possibility. Dargof was painfully aware they had no means of winning in that scenario.

“Now that it has come to this…We can only move for the Imperial Capital!”

Dargof still had 15,000 soldiers under his force, so he chose to close in on the Imperial Capital to secure Benedix and Nord. Of course, using these forces to storm the capital was foolish, but he had to bet on the slim chance.

“That is utterly foolish! The citizens of the capital will get wrapped up in all the fighting!” Konrad immediately obstructed this idea.

“We just have to win! And then, we simply have to create false information that Prince Maizer didn’t agree to our terms!”

The dead tell no tales is what Dargof was trying to use here.

“Do you intend to let innocent citizens die so that you can make history paint you the winner?!” However, Konrad was not as easily swayed.

“But if we lose, it will all be over regardless!”

Both of their standpoints were correct, and arguing who was right or wrong was a waste of time. That said, they didn’t reach any conclusion. Because it was already decided before any choice could have been made. The worst possible scenario arrived for Konrad.

“What…did you say…?”

A voice riddled with despair escaped Dargof’s mouth, as Konrad accepted the letter from his close aide, who had the look of a dead fish. There, it stated that Emperor Benedix had chosen Maizer as his successor. And Minister Korodes was the one who signed off on it, too. And this letter was being spread throughout the Empire as quickly as possible.

“Impossible! His Grace should not be awake! And I believed Korodes-sama would support our cause?!” Dargof screamed, making it look like he had finally gone mad.

“…So they set us up.”

Watching Dargof like that, Konrad cooled down drastically and muttered as he looked at the letter.

“I-I have new information! Prince Maizer is currently heading our way! His forces amass around 30,000 troops!”

Hearing that report, Konrad and the others quickly rushed out of the tent, right as the pouring rain came to a calm end.

“I swear, you’re forcing this old lady to do some strange things…”

The one who said that was court mage Beadola, who arrived together with Maizer. She looked like she’d collapse any second, but that was all because of a certain magic spell—[Control Weather], with Beadolla being one of the few individuals in the world able to use supreme-tier magic like that. It was a type of creation magic allowing you to control the laws of nature. Naturally, the burden for that was immense, especially so considering Beadola’s age, but this time around, she just stopped the rain, so it wasn’t anything too threatening.

Of course, it left her exhausted by the end of it, but it was necessary. The pouring rain abruptly stopped, as sunlight shone down on the plain between the grey clouds, illuminating the main actor of the day—Maizer. He wore the armor of the imperial family, riding on a horse as he had his personal flag, only allowed to be used by the crown prince, swaying in the wind right behind him. Adding to that, he had the other four generals behind him, showing his proof of right more than anything else. With such an awe-inspiring sight in front of them, Konrad’s soldiers couldn’t even move. Showered by everyone’s gazes, Maizer slowly pulled his sword, directing it at the sky, and then moved it down to point the tip of the blade at Konrad’s army.

“By the order of the Emperor, we will now strike down the army of the traitors Konrad and Dargof!”

The moment Maizer declared such with a dignified voice, everyone understood that this was far from a far…It was just a suppressive attack.

“What’s going on here?!”

Watching this unfold, even Kyle was at a loss. He understood that support had arrived earlier than estimated, but even bringing the remaining four generals like this was utterly outside of what he expected.

“However…It’s a favorable development.” Kyle muttered, appreciating this surprising arrival.

This should be enough to completely crush Konrad’s morale to keep on fighting.

“But who even…No, that’s not top priority right now!”

Now that the situation has changed, Kyle had to proceed with another important job. He quickly contacted Minagi and Seran, as this war was only a matter of time before it was over in their victory.