Ishura - Volume 6 - Chapter 5

Chapter 5 - Central Assembly Hall Second Communications Room (Provisional Self-Proclaimed Demon King Response Headquarters)

After he’d announced the alert for Alus the Star Runner’s attack, Hidow’s feet carried him toward the Central Assembly Hall’s second communications room, and he immediately established it as the headquarters for their response.

The radzios installed in this room could connect to the government buildings throughout Aureatia’s domain. He had already decided on the ones he needed to reach out to first for this emergency radzio conference.

The head of the military. Twenty-Seventh General, Haade the Flashpoint.

The keystone of domestic affairs. Third Minister, Jelky the Swift Ink.

After he had finished sharing several of the known facts of the situation, Hidow brought out the topic they needed to decide on first in order to confront this disaster. In short, their defensive priorities.

“The reports from the observation station say that Alus the Star Runner is approaching from the southeast. If we let him in close from that direction, there’ll be damage at the great bridge and in the commercial quarter. Personally, I want to avoid that. What do you think, Jel?”

<Agreed. If we intercepted Alus the Star Runner in the commercial quarter, even assuming no civilian casualties, it’ll cause considerable economic loss. In addition to necessitating the cancellation of the rest of the Sixways Exhibition, it will be impossible to support our population with reduced production capabilities.>

<Hmph! Well, what then? Intercepting an enemy that fast and powerful before he gets to Aureatia will be impossible. If fighting on Aureatia soil is inevitable…then the question is which one of the city’s sections are we fine with getting torn apart.>

“This is an emergency; it’s unavoidable. You have any requests, Haade?”

<Nope. That said, for military action against an enemy like Alus, I can’t let my troops fight nice and clean, either. Once we’ve gotten the go-ahead to destroy the city itself if we want, we’ll be able to fight without holding anything back. You’re the one who’s better at making the decisions here, right?>

“…I feel bad for the people living there, but our only choice’ll be to have Alus attack the Eastern Outer Ward, somewhere in between the third and sixth boroughs. The only cultural asset there is the Summit Sword Spire from the time of King Rekut. Haade, tell me how feasible that sounds.”

<If that’s the course we’re taking, then a squad deployed around the Thirty-Eighth Fortress can try launching an all-out cannon barrage at him to make him go off course. Even if we can’t kill him, it’ll be enough to make it divert him. As long as we can get him to move east, there’s nothing there but the Eastern Outer Ward anyway. The buildings aren’t tall and definitely weren’t built to protect from an aerial attack, but that might make it all the easier.>

The sound of him puffing out smoke mixed into the radzio’s static.

<Thinking from Alus’s perspective, if we block his path forward, he should want to head to where there’s less stuff in the way of his flight path. Records show that there have been forty percent more wyvern raids coming from the Eastern Outer Ward side, as well. Also, it’s easier to aim at targets from the ground when you’re on terrain that gives you a good view of the sky. I definitely would’ve opposed the idea if my troops were going to be the only ones handling it, but this time the main fighting force’ll be the hero candidates anyway.>

“All right, Eastern Outer Ward it is, then. Deploy your troops immediately. I’d like to know how many candidates we’ve been able to get together. How many of them can fight, Jel?”

<Two are absent. Psianop the Inexhaustible Stagnation and Toroa the Awful. We have witnesses saying they departed for the Mali Wastes early this morning. We have confirmed locations for two of them. Mele the Horizon’s Roar, Shalk the Sound Slicer. However, Mele is wounded from the seventh match. There are three we still don’t have definitive locations for. Ozonezma the Capricious, Kuze the Passing Disaster, and Zeljirga the Abyss Web. These three are definitely still inside the city. After they’ve been summoned by the alert, we’ll instruct them to act. Kia and Mestelexil the Box of Desperate Knowledge are still on the run. Zigita Zogi the Thousandth and Uhak the Silent are in the middle of their match. Meanwhile, Flinsuda has said she wishes to negotiate with us regarding the use of Tu the Magic. I’ll scrape together the funds for this on my end. Tu should absolutely be added to our defense forces.>

“What the hell is that hag going off about while Aureatia’s on the brink of destruction?! She planning on dying with fists full of cash or something? Jel, listen, if that woman is gonna be difficult, then I’ll—”

<It’s not your job to get angry. The most guaranteed way to get her to act is money, and I can swiftly arrange that for her. Do you have a problem with that, Hidow?>

“That’s not what I was getting at! What about Soujirou, Haade?!”

<Ah, well…honestly, I don’t really want to send him out there in that state, but he can definitely move. He’ll do it if he wants to either way, in any case. Still, though, a one-legged swordsman ain’t going to be able to kill Alus from down on the ground.>

“Dammit… So basically, Mele and Kuze are the only ones up to it? Given Mele’s wounds, the best idea is to get Alus to target Kuze and attack him for us. Not really someone I want to owe anything to, but with Kuze, I can act as the go-between for the negotiations. We’re acquainted at least.”

<Bwah! If we really don’t have any chance against anyone else, you want to head to Igania right now and call Lucnoca the Winter back for help?>

“Uh, Haade? That’s a terrible joke. You already deploy your troops?”

<You underestimating my staff? By the time this conversation’s over, all the cannons at the Thirty-Eighth Fortress’ll be fully locked and loaded. Don’t talk about changing the plan now, ’cause it’s too late.>

<…Haade, let me say one thing. You shouldn’t preemptively fire at Alus the Star Runner.>

“Yeah. I was going to say the same thing. One of the comms towers got knocked out on his way here, but if we can avoid engaging him entirely, obviously that’ll be the best possible outcome. I want to check to see if Star Runner has any intention of attacking us or not. I’m working out the details on how.”

Currently preparing for hostilities, Aureatia was deploying most of its fighting force.

However, if it all proved to be nothing to worry about, and Alus disappeared off somewhere without heading toward Aureatia, that would still be the best development of all. Even if he did make for Aureatia, there was the possibility that he didn’t have any will to fight.

If they took Alus’s attack without any resistance, the troops at the fortress would inevitably die; however, if Aureatia’s side was the first to open fire, avoiding conflict would instantly become impossible.

It was necessary for them to obtain conclusive proof that Alus the Star Runner was a self-proclaimed demon king, intending to attack Aureatia, without anyone falling victim to him. It was a quandary they needed to solve as soon as possible.

Haade needed only a short time to come up with an idea.

<If I remember correctly, there’s an abandoned district south of the Thirty-Eighth Stronghold. The place that had the textile mills. They’re officially ruins and not a part of Aureatia city, but we can make it Aureatia. Mobilize two or three squads of sappers, leave some carriages behind, light the lamps, and we can make it look like people are living there. If that gets destroyed, we can consider him intent on bringing harm to civilian facilities. In that case, we immediately intercept ’im. If he approaches without attacking the abandoned district, the Thirty-Eighth Stronghold can try to hide their plans to intercept him as much as possible and warn him to stop. Prepare for his preemptive attack.>

“So the plan is to have the story say that we counterattacked due to his attack on the abandoned district?”

<Afterward, I can rewrite the records to say some number of the soldiers killed in all of this were assigned on patrol duty through the abandoned area. While we’re at it, there was the clinic that burned to nothing yesterday morning. We could make that into Alus the Star Runner’s handiwork, too. No matter how much proof we get that shows Alus is out of control, if we don’t make sure to have it look like he picked this fight first, the guys below will make a real big stink about it.>

“Sacrifice some number of carriages, and we can see what Alus is up to. Not bad. What do you say, Jel?”

<I support it. I’ll work as best I can on controlling the flow of information. However, I’m thinking that if we concentrate all of Haade’s soldiers on opposing Alus, that will in turn delay the evacuation of citizens from the Eastern Outer Ward. As a contingency, I’d like some personnel that we can deploy as specialists to lead the evacuation. Dant is mid-match, but could we adjust things according to when we expect his support to arrive?>

<Why don’t I take care of that?>

A cool voice interrupted the meeting through the wireless radzio.

Hidow immediately knew who the voice belonged to, as well. The Second General, Rosclay the Absolute.

“Rosclay! Do you know the situation?!”

<I only just connected to this call, but please tell me if I’m mistaken. Alus the Star Runner is being guided to the Eastern Outer Ward. This is just my guess, but the area will cover the fourth to the sixth borough, given the negligible economic losses. General Haade’s troops will have to spare some of their numbers to lure him there, and the current conversation topic is how to compensate for that loss to guide the residents’ evacuation.>

“That’s right. Heh-heh…! Saw through it all, huh? Impressive.”

<I’ll appeal to the citizens myself. I’ll negotiate with Yaniegiz and secure as many personnel as I can who can be deployed as needed. Is there any problem with that plan, including my forces and having Haade act as support?>

<Heh…! I’m grateful, believe me, but is that leg of yours all right after it got trashed in your match? Work too hard and it’ll work against ya in the next round.>

If the Sixways Exhibition was to continue, Rosclay the Absolute, in the second round, was already set to battle against Haade’s hero candidate, Soujirou the Willow-Sword.

<I appreciate your concern. That said, you don’t need to worry.>

“Sorry, but we don’t have any time for this. I’ll go over the whole operation with Rosclay myself, but Haade, command your troops, Jel, internal coordination. Time to move. Any other things to worry about?”

<If there is, I’m handling it how I want. Leave it to me.>

<I also can’t afford to waste time. I’ll get started right away.>

“We’re counting on you.”

With their decision, Aureatia was plunged into a state of high alert.

The alert declaring the state of emergency was first rung to guide the residents of the Eastern Outer Ward in their evacuation… Owing to the attack of self-proclaimed demon king Alus on the abandoned district, it would reverberate throughout the entire city.

They all began to act as if they were one single organism.

Aureatia’s Twenty-Nine Officials were a wartime regime organized specifically to fight against demon kings of the past.

Along the spacious avenue, large carriages stopped one after another and filled with citizens before driving off.

Following the resolution reached by the emergency response meeting Hidow called, the evacuation had begun within the residential district of Aureatia’s Eastern Outer Ward ahead of the emergency alert.

Haade had mobilized two of the Twenty-Nine Officials under his command and charged them with supervising the area.

Eighteenth Minister, Quewai the Moon Fragment. As well as Twenty-First General, Tuturi the Blue Violet Foam.

“All right, all right now, first ones to board should be the children, the elderly, as well as the injured and infirmed, okay now? We’ll split you all up, so no huddling together with your families! As long as you remember your carriage number, you’ll be able to meet up again at the evacuation point, no problem.”

Tuturi the Blue Violet Foam was a woman with graying hair tied behind her head. Even within this pressing situation, her casual disposition didn’t waver in the slightest, and she eloquently called out to the citizens while directing her subordinates.

Conversely, the gloomy young man lingering being her, as if trying to hide himself, didn’t look to be doing any such work at all. Standing upright like a machine, he merely controlled the calcurite in his hand.

“Tuturi, this isn’t going to be enough carriages, is it?”

“Oh, fell down, did you, miss? It’s fine, it’s fine, just remain calm, okay? Did you say something, Quewai?”

“I apologize if you couldn’t hear me. I said that I think that the transportation capabilities of the carriages you’ve arranged for may not be adequate.”

“…Pfft, I know all that. I sorta need you to be shouting with me, Quewai. I’m the only one working here.”

“I avoid doing things inefficiently like you do, Tuturi.”

Eighteenth Minister, Quewai the Moon Fragment, spoke in a fast mumble, without ever looking Tuturi in the eye.

“I used the civilian statistical survey from Enu to estimate the ratio of old, young, and infirm. To get straight to the point, in order to transport everyone while preserving a twenty percent margin to spare, before Alus the Star Runner’s estimated time of arrival, it would require the support of thirty-six or more ten-person carriages. Perhaps it would be best to petition Master Haade to spare us some military tanks to use for the evacuation.”

“Thirty-six carriages, ten passengers each, is…how many people? Hmmm, what’re we gonna do then?”

“Why can’t you manage such a simple calculation, Tuturi?”

Tuturi leaned up against a nearby iron fence and stretched out her back like a cat.

“I mean, even if we work our butts off and protect all these citizens, don’t you think Rosclay’s just going to end up with all the credit anyway? If that’s the case, it might be a lot more interesting to have this whole area go kaboom.”

“Master Haade is the person responsible here, so I don’t believe that will deal Rosclay a serious blow.”

“Tee-hee! Just kidding, c’mon. There’s gotta be some that think like that, right? Even right as Aureatia’s on the brink of ruin like this, it’s still money and power struggles… Actually, wait, maybe that’s all the more reason, huh? If everyone’s all focused on the threat, then that means they can outwit all the others and make their move.”

“Am I safe to assume that in regard to the citizens unable to escape in time, your policy is to not rescue them?”

Quewai looked idly at Tuturi, without showing any noticeable emotion.

“Well, I didn’t say that.”

There were the sounds of a new group of carriages. They were giving off the locomotive sounds of a steam-powered vehicle.

However, these weren’t automobiles or carriages.

Unmanned machines with iron plating and wheels, constructed from abnormal technology. They had neither horse nor driver.

“There they are! An extra forty-three transports. What d’ya think?”

“What are these things?”

“Golems. We requisitioned them from Kaete.”

It was a variety of golem created by Kiyazuna the Axle called a Chariot Golem. During the Particle Storm interception operation, they had identified a weapon believed to be a prototype of this golem variety.

Autonomous vehicles combining armor and mobility—if they had been introduced in the large-scale political upheaval that Kaete’s camp had planned, they would’ve certainly become a menace that upturned this world’s current practical war wisdom.

“They can only comprehend simple commands, but we’re able to control them to go back and forth between here and the set evacuation point. No way they’ll be useful in combat against someone like Alus anyway, so way better to use them for the evacuation, right?”

“You’re always astute when it comes to things like that, Tuturi.”

“Well, usually I’m so inefficient and all, right? Anyway, think we’ll make it in time?”