Chapter 116 - Marching to Battle
10 min read ·
“Are you insane?”
“Such harsh language.”
“You must be insane to spout that shit about me going into the Empire to help an imperial prince.”
“You are a hero. If dark mages and a Demon King are involved, it is only natural for you to come running, regardless of the country.”
“Spare me that clichéd bullshit.”
“I will give you mana.”
“That goes without saying. You already signed a contract with the Fifth Prince, remember?”
“I will give you priority over the kingdom.”
“And?”
“And?”
“Even if it goes to the kingdom, getting my hands on it is child's play. It's a little inconvenient, and some disgruntled people will grumble, but that's nothing new. Surely you aren't going to give me what you already owe me and call that fucking payment? Or are you really that much of a scumbag?”
On the other side of the communication orb, Roselle Charnt licked her lips.
“What do you want?”
“Well, if I'm going to run all the way to an Empire I don't even like and work for an imperial prince, something ordinary won't do.”
“Do not make me ask twice.”
“Something more concentrated than mana. Something closer to its source.”
Madness filled Roselle's eye.
“Your blood. Your hair. Your mana pathways. And your mana reservoir and your heart... Was that going too far?”
“I concede the point. You are definitely a crazy bitch.”
Berge rubbed his goose-pimpled skin. This was the first time anything had given him such chills since he became a Demon King.
And a mere human, at that.
Anger rose in him as well. How dare some insolent human hero covet a Demon King's body?
“Just fuck off.”
“What?”
“And the contract is terminated. I will simply pay the penalty. The reason for termination is Roselle Fucking Crazy Charnt. Understood?”
Berge realized something.
This was not a question of his ties to Akan. The madness Roselle Charnt displayed was anything but normal, and people like her always brought trouble in their wake. If Berge himself was her target, the more deeply he became involved with her, the more certain she was to become a ticking bomb.
Cutting her off was the right choice.
The penalty? He hated wasting the money, but it was cheap by comparison. And he could maintain some connection to the Kingdom of Akan through the elves.
Of course, cutting her off would not be easy. Roselle Charnt's obsession was not something she would readily abandon.
But he at least had to draw a firm line. One she could not cross, and that would make her restrain herself, unable even to contemplate crossing it except as an absolute last resort.
“No, wait.”
“Why are you so surprised? Did you think I would tolerate that sort of talk? I am not the one who needs this.”
“No, no. It was a joke, wasn't it?”
“I am quite serious.”
And you were serious from the start too, bitch.
“That won't work. The king and the Mage Tower Master will raise all kinds of hell. So will every mage in the tower.”
“That is your problem to deal with. Surely a mage would not speak without thinking?”
“... So that's how you're going to play it?”
“What if it is?”
“Fine. I'll take just the mana, as you originally offered. How about it?”
“You cannot put spilled water back in its vessel.”
“Bullshit! What can't you do with magic?”
... She had a point.
“Fine. I'll give in. For free. I'll work for free as an apology. I'll do the job, so stop canceling the contract!”
“... Hmm.”
“This isn't an opportunity you get every day. You're a fucking idiot if you don't take it.”
“... If you want to help me that badly.”
Berge's lips curved into a smile. Only then did Roselle realize she had been tricked, and her expression went blank with dismay.
“... Fuck?”
“You son of a—!”
“Come over immediately with the Crimson Hellfire raiding party and find Hillen Cargill. Surely a great hero and mage would not go back on her word. Farewell.”
Berge ended the call.
Roselle's last words vanished into thin air.
* * *
The emperor of Jespine was a man who understood the importance of a righteous cause and a public display.
The Empire's imperial family was practicing noblesse oblige by personally setting out to destroy dark mages, the minions of evil.
Was there any need to hide that fact and proceed in secret? For the Empire, the strongest power on the continent?
Absurd.
Better to proclaim it proudly, spread the word, and make a spectacle of the undertaking.
That way, the people would know.
That way, their loyalty would grow.
That way, everyone could see.
The imperial family could be tested before the nobility and the common people. Only those who proved their worth under that scrutiny could ascend to the throne.
SHING
The emperor drew his sword—the treasured dragon sword that symbolized the Jespine imperial family and the Empire itself.
He raised it high into the sky. Its brilliant blade reflected the sunlight.
“Destroy those lawless dark mages who have dared to trample and sully the Empire's name.”
“March forth!”
His voice was quiet but powerful. Amplified by a magical loudspeaker, it struck the ears of every citizen in the imperial capital.
ROOOOAR
As if answering the crowd's fervent cheers, the four imperial family members knelt and bowed their heads.
“We shall obey!”
“We shall obey!”
BOOM BOOM BOOM
Drums beat and trumpets sounded. The swelling cheers were so passionate that anyone could have mistaken the occasion for a festival rather than a war.
Naturally. This was a war no one thought the Empire could lose.
Thus began the campaign against the dark mages of Habstrain Gorge.
* * *
The four imperial family members, accompanied by the imperial relatives and leading nobles who supported them, received the emperor's command before the people.
Hillen and Berge, along with Roselle Charnt, who had joined them, watched from among the crowd.
“I swear, I can't stand those imperial bastards. They want to use heroes, but they don't want anyone stealing the spotlight at an official ceremony?”
“We are in the Empire. Insulting the Empire is not a wise choice.”
“Shut up, you Demon King thief.”
“You are the louder one.”
“Shut your mouth, you con artist.”
Tricked into working for free, Roselle Charnt had been in a foul mood ever since she arrived in the Empire. Its shabby treatment of heroes only fueled that feeling.
“It's over. Let us head to the east gate.”
“I wonder how many troops and heroes the other imperial brats have gathered.”
Berge and Hillen headed toward the capital's east gate, with Roselle Charnt following behind.
An enormous crowd had already gathered at the east gate of the outer walls.
The expeditionary force was visible in the distance: four knightly orders, four mage corps, and eight hundred soldiers.
They were inferior to the five knightly orders that symbolized the Empire, but they could hardly be called inadequate.
When the imperial family members emerged, the troops formed ranks and bowed their heads.
Curiously, those were the only troops present.
“A game of waiting each other out.”
“Yes. I suspect most of the others will join along the way.”
The competition had begun the moment it was decided that the campaign would be conducted by the imperial family.
Concealing what one possessed and exaggerating what one lacked was the most basic of strategies. Newspapers had been reporting daily on which heroes had been hired by which imperial family members, yet only a handful of them stood here today.
They were being deliberately kept out of sight.
“We were supposed to remain hidden too, but...”
“Want me to gouge your eyes out?”
Hillen shot Roselle a sidelong glance, and she growled at him.
The Third Prince had wanted to conceal Roselle's presence for as long as possible and have her join them near Habstrain, but Roselle had refused. She had sent the Crimson Hellfire raiding party ahead and hurried over alone, whining that Berge should fill just one storage orb for her.
Of course, he had not obliged, and now the day had arrived.
The only saving grace was that she had concealed her face as much as possible beneath her robe rather than openly revealing herself.
“Where is the Third Prince's group?”
“Over there.”
Just then, a knight bearing the dragon crest of the imperial family rode up and dismounted before Hillen.
“Are you the famous Lord Hillen?”
“I greet Your Highness, the Sixth Prince.”
“To see with my own eyes the hero who defeated two Demon Kings! A pleasure! I've been most eager to meet you!”
With that small encounter concluded, the four forces led by the imperial family set out for Habstrain Gorge.
* * *
Habstrain was not a single gorge. Its paths split into dozens of branches stretching in every direction, and the Empire had built fortresses to block the largest and most important routes.
There were four fortresses in total, surrounding the gorge to the east, west, north, and south, and four imperial family members leading this campaign.
The four groups had agreed to split up among the fortresses, encircle the gorge, and advance toward its center.
“So this is Dortin Fortress.”
In the distance stood a vast castle blocking the entrance to the gorge.
The expeditionary force, which had started with fifty knights, thirty mages, and one hundred soldiers, had swelled to roughly three times its original size with the addition of five hundred troops from House Aincheil, twenty-one members of the Red Hawk raiding party, and fifty members of the Crimson Hellfire raiding party.
“Aren't the White Hawk Knights Aincheil's strongest knightly order?”
“We're hawks too.”
“How can you compare us to them?”
“You are the Red Hawk raiding party. What makes you inferior to the White Hawks?”
“Of course, Deputy Leader. We're not the same as when we were mercenaries.”
“Still, the White Hawk Knights are a bit...”
“True, it's not as though we've gotten all that much stronger since then, is it?”
“Will you stop?”
The members of the Red Hawk raiding party murmured among themselves at the sight of the knights in gleaming platinum armor.
Hillen clicked his tongue without a word at how readily they ground their own pride into the dirt.
“As I thought, forming a raiding party out of mercenaries was a mistake. I should have recruited suitable people and built it from the ground up...”
“That would have taken ages. And it sounds as though you are blaming me for assigning those mercenaries to you.”
“Of course not, but if that is how it sounded...”
“Shut up.”
“Yes.”
The elite troops of House Aincheil, one of the Empire's foremost houses. Objectively speaking, the Third Prince's forces were not weak.
Yet the Third Prince could not rest easy.
Everything was relative. The forces gathered here were strong, but they felt inadequate compared to those of the other imperial family members.
'My older brothers and sister will have received more support.'
The First Prince and First Princess would be leading the ducal house's elite troops. By any measure, those forces surpassed House Aincheil's.
The Second Prince, meanwhile, would have used House Bolderbof's vast wealth to hire an enormous number of mercenaries, with the house's knightly order thrown in for good measure.
'I expected that much.'
Everyone had assumed they would receive support from their respective houses. Even so, they had concealed their troops and arranged for them to join midway in order to hide their heroes.
'In the end, the heroes are what matter.'
In Habstrain, which was saturated with demonic energy, it was the heroes who could achieve the most against undead and dark mages.
'Who could they be?'
They had very likely recruited Stars. Whatever the Empire's dislike of the Heroes' Guild, the heroes themselves would know that forging ties with the imperial family was a path to immense wealth and power.
'We should have concealed as much as possible too.'
All his forces had been exposed. Hillen's involvement had been public knowledge in the capital from the outset, and Roselle Charnt, whom he had meant to keep hidden, had insisted on coming to the capital despite his attempts to dissuade her.
They had tried to hide her, but who knew how well that had worked.
'Still...'
His gaze turned toward the Red Hawk raiding party, toward the hero leading it at the front.
'I've made every necessary preparation. My brothers and sister don't know about this.'
That was thanks to Hillen. His advice had allowed Martin to prepare a trump card.
“We enter the fortress.”
“Yes!”
The fortress gates opened. Looking at the fortress commander and the entourage that had come out to welcome him, Martin made a solemn vow.
'I will kill those dark mages with my own hands. And I will help Hillen attack the Tower of Hellfire.'
He would become emperor, save his younger sister, and ensure that she never became entangled in the bloody succession struggle and died.
Grim resolve flickered in his eyes.