Dragon’s Bloodline - Chapter 69

Siege Warfare

The operation to invade Cordova began.
According to the plan, they would first attack the fort at the southern end of the border.
Their number was truly 150,000.
Even so, it was not an attack that relied on numbers. It was a long-ranged assault left to magic and catapults, with things such as combat engineers securing sources of water. The fight began in a sober fashion.

On a nearby hill, Ria was watching the attack without particularly paying attention to it and was currently grappling with law-related documents.
The Ogress Archduchy was a union of countries. Laws that would become its constitutional model were needed.
Although Guinevere had demonstrated that she had more than enough ability for things concerning the technical and trade side of things, she also didn’t have much expertise in the creation of laws.
Therefore, while seeing that their attack on this front was one-sided, Ria went over discussions related to postwar legislation with her staff.
And for their model, Cordova would have to be overthrown. This was a vital point.

“Fio, that one next. Serge, look at this.”
With the knowledge of his previous life in Japan, Serge was helpful.
Although he didn’t come from something like a law school, as he had received the usual history lessons, he knew about transitional law reasonably well.
“Nee-chan, this here, no matter how you look at it, isn’t it too soft?”
Nowadays, Even in the army Serge’s name for Ria was fixed as [Nee-chan].
“Ah, the people of Cordova have suffered tyranny for years. If they experience even one bit of kindness, they’ll never try to revolt.”
“Hmmm, I’m sure that laws are better being severe than gentle, read that in some book…”
“That’s the Chinese tradition for raising children. What you’re thinking of is governments under a benevolent ruler should be as amicable and gentle as water, but it’s best to use strict policies for a populace used to a ruler lacking benevolence.” [1]
Since Ria liked historical novels, she read them here and there.
She didn’t notice she was being looked at by queer eyes.
“… Nee-chan… are you benevolent?”
“Nah.”
But she had dignity. She had overwhelmingly distinguished herself in fame and renown.
Even Serge, who had taken such a nonchalant attitude towards his ruler, acknowledged her superiority at some point, the person herself didn’t notice.
Vassals that could insinuate that their ruler lacked benevolence probably didn’t even exist in their opponent’s camp.

“By the way, your majesty.”
“Nn?”
“The castle wall will be destroyed soon, I think we should charge in…”
To her general’s advice, Ria simply took a glance at him before once again returning her focus on the documents.
“There’s still more to go.”
“However, if we destroy it any further, it will become impossible to be used by us.”
“That’s fine. I planned on destroying it from the start and build it anew.”
The general’s mouth opened gapingly.
“I mean, it’s such a small fort, they’d take it back immediately yeah? We even brought along 150,000 soldiers to construct it.”

The general said nothing further.
After that, the defending soldiers raised the flag of surrender from the continuous boulders launched at them.

“Aah, I’m tired.”
On a cloth spread out inside her tent, Ria lied down still holding documents.
Although her body could stay for however long was needed on horseback, her brain was tired.
To begin with, these kinds of things were probably better for scholars to have done, but currently what she needed was not a system of law with universality in mind.
Ria would have an autocracy, but this was necessary for the Millennium.
“Fio, Fiiiooo~”
“What is it?”
“Give me a lap pillow~”
“A-a lap pillow…”
Ria put her head on Fio’s knees after she’d obediently sat on the floor.
“Maal~, be my hug pillow~”
“Kay~”
As though accustomed to it, Maal snugly entered into Ria’s embrace.
“Ah, unfair~”
Irina hugged Maal from the other side.

“The heck are you doing…”
With an amazed, yet slightly envious voice, Shizuna entered the tent and looked at Ria.
“It’s to heal me… here, Shizuna, come.”
“Eeh~?”
Though she looked like she was pouting, Shizuna sat down next to Fio. It was cute that she so obviously wanted to join.
Ria, who took hold Shizuna’s waist and pulled, began to caress Shizuna’s bottom with her left hand.
“Wai—… that’s…”
“Feels so soft~”
Since Ria was speaking honestly, even though Shizuna’s face blushed, she concentrated on Ria’s fingers. Ria wasn’t just caressing her, she was absolutely looking for a reaction from her.
It was vexing. But all the same, she thoroughly experienced it.

“What are you doing?”
A cool-headed voice resounded in the tent.
Carla-sama was watching.
She didn’t particularly envy her, nor was she really angry, she just looked at Ria and the others with a curious expression.
Her eyes were pure, but rather they made Ria feel anxious.
“Ria, I don’t mind if you fawn over them, but there are the eyes of others. Someone should stand by the table.”
It was a gentle voice.
“Alright.”
“These are documents that arrived from Manesh. Even if you are tired, please look over them by tomorrow.”
Saying that, Carla sat down the documents and quickly left the scene.

“As expected, the legal wife is different…”
“She didn’t feel jealous at all.”
Shizuna and Fio whispered as though they felt admiration for her. Envious feelings and the like could be thought of as unrelated to Carla.
Ria felt lonely because of that.

The fort was repaired, and despite being fortified it didn’t take long at all.
Materials were prepared, they had enough manpower, and even though Cordova’s engineers were their enemies just recently, it was all supervised.
They were first-class as engineers, but it’s not as though they were coerced by their countries, they took the initiative to work themselves. They quickly completed the simple rampart.
Although Cordova had sent army corps several days later, at any rate, their numbers were overwhelmingly different. Although they were welcome to attack, they were dejected from seeing the walls and left to return home.

Leaving the fortress to the nearby nobles, Ria’s original army changed its objective to capturing.
With practically identical developments, two more forts surrendered. And, again in an identical way, it was fortified.
Although Cordova prepared a second time and sent out a considerably strong force, due to the catapults used in the siege battle being used for defense, they suffered a good deal of damage and retreated.
They sent a considerable amount of soldiers from the start the third time, but still they were powerless in front of the might of the massive amount of catapults prepared ahead of time.

Still, the Guinevere-sponsored golem soldiers finally swaggered onto the battlefield.
The golem soldiers that had received infantry accompaniment displayed even more forceful offensive and charging capabilities than the ogres.
There was nothing in these plains to prevent their charge, so even their encampment that was definitely made to be strong and its fortifications were, in a single blow of their fists, destroyed as they surged into the residential areas.
The infantry entered through the opening cleared by the golem soldiers and widened their charge.
This evolved power was something that cavalrymen, let alone infantrymen, could possibly handle.

“Even so, their faults have been found as well, huh.”
Serge spoke to Ria while putting away the broken golems.
“Well, yeah. It’s not like new weapons ever show their true might on their first demonstration after all.”
Ria was calm to the last. Even Guinevere was sure to have prepared for this.

The golem soldiers’ first problem was their impact resistance. In addition to that was when enemies charged from unexpected sides, rather than from head on.
They could stumble from a small difference in elevation, the person inside hitting their head. It wouldn’t be a funny story even if they died from it.
“Well, they’re like SpeOnka huh.” [2]
“You know a lot of old jokes…”

Moreover, before strong men who deviate from the usual, the golems’ movements were only average.
A strong soldier could easily tear apart armor reinforced by magical power, but there are few of them among their many enemies.

And then there’s the worst weakness, they depended on maintenance.
Destroyed due to the above-mentioned reasons, each of the golems that awaited repair had nowhere to be maintained, nor the materials for it. Nobody could even maintain them.
The technology invented by the genius named Guinevere had not been popularized among the battlefield engineers after all.

“Still though, we definitely can’t use these in battle. Please take them home for repair.”
“Understood.”
For those inside the golems, they should get helmets and seat belts. Rather, why hadn’t they noticed sooner?
In truth, even in her previous life, even the robot animes that had people get into robots completely forgot about developing that as well.
“When we return to Manesh, I’m seriously going to tackle improving those golems.”
At any rate, for actual combat, Serge couldn’t say that he was well-versed in magic theory.
When this war reached the point where there would be a pause, he thought he should study abroad at the actual magic city. [3]

With three forts defeated, the Ogress army turned itself towards the fortress that was its ultimate goal.
It was different from the other three forts. Its moat was deep, its walls high and thick. The amount of soldiers currently residing in it numbered 30,000, it was a strategic location for Cordova that was on complete lock down.
Mardass Fortress. Previously, Ria gave up on capturing this fortress and withdrew. Although it was the logical judgement at the time, now that she’d seen it so reinforced, she didn’t think it would be like this.
Although Reyas didn’t say anything in particular, there were probably other people who also harbored doubts about Ria’s judgement at the time.
“Now then, breaking through head-on would be a bad idea. On the other hand, taking a detour to block its supply lines would disturb it. We didn’t prepare enough to provoke betrayals, is there some way to bait them out…?”
More or less, Ria had a plan to easily capture this fortress. Even so, it was something that couldn’t truly be called a plan.
If Ria and several of her comrades raided the front gate, the capture would be done with that. It would be even better if they took the opportunity to assassinate their leading commanders.
However, politically, what should she do?
If she went in first, her generals would circle her indignantly.

As for soldiers dying on the battlefield, Ria thought it was natural.
However, having one’s soldiers die on the battlefield for no reason was a commander’s negligence.
Most likely, no one thought about keeping their soldiers alive in warfare like Ria did. Even so, Ria wanted to value her soldiers’ lives.
Capturing Cordova could be called the the semifinals. The real thing would be the all-out war against the mysterious demon tribe.
(Will I have to kill Rei and Asuka…?)
Despite having such a depressing thought, Ria couldn’t afford to stop thinking about it.