Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up - Volume 2 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Birth of a Battle Fiend

Experience List

B-class Strategy x2

Victory over A-class opponent as D-class x4

You are now level 21.

Defeating Elante made me gain two levels, bringing me from 19 to 21. That gave me 300 points for going from 19 to 20, and then another 300 for going from 20 to 21. Combined with the existing 100 points, I had 700 points in total. The higher your level, the more experience it took to level up. The reason my level had only gone up by two despite receiving x4 experience was that I’d reached level 20.

Well, the important thing is that it still went up.

I had 700 points, so the first order of business was to raise Martial.

Your Martial is now 65.

That left 400 points. I opened the skill purchase screen as I debated how to spend them. I’d already used some flashy skills to raise Morale in this most recent battle, so I wanted defensive skills over attack skills at the moment for practical reasons.

There seem to be a lot of high-Martial commanders. I’ll need defensive skills so I can run for my life if a plan goes awry.

The issue was that I couldn’t buy skills however I pleased. Each time I purchased one, the system generated a new available skill at random. In the case of attack skills, I could at least designate whether I wanted one that was single-target or area of effect, but defensive skills didn’t even offer that level of choice.

Still, all the skills that could be generated had equal power, so the key thing was ease of use. Also, by using a skill multiple times, a skill’s proficiency (which is basically its level), would increase and it would get stronger.

Anyway, there was no question that what I needed right now was a defensive skill, so I paid the 200 points to buy one.

You gained 30-Second Invincibility.

The skill I got was kind of iffy.

As the name suggested, it could deflect all attacks for a duration of thirty seconds. Also, it wasn’t just self-targeted—I could use it on someone nearby to make them invincible too. It was a skill with some useful applications, sure, but... Honestly, the duration felt too short.

I wish it was longer.

*

“Don’t talk nonsense!” Bautore said with a sharp glare, demanding that things be explained to him again.

“I’ve checked repeatedly, and it seems to be the truth!” the thousandman replied, trembling beneath his gaze.

“Elante got twenty thousand men wiped out and died himself? Ridiculous!”

Bautore kicked the thousandman so hard that he went flying. As soon as the man stopped rolling across the ground, he got on his knees again. Then, because he couldn’t change the facts, he just bowed his head over and over.

“I know I forbade him from fighting a siege battle. How in the world did he manage to lose twenty thousand men?!”

“Even I’m not sure of that, sire...”

Bautore swung his drawn sword. Then, after ordering the execution of every last citizen of the Ronaf Domain, which they had just captured, he returned to the castle and began murdering the maids to blow off steam.

“S-Spare me!”

“Eeeeeek!”

Screams echoed throughout the castle for some time. When the massacre was finished, Bautore grumbled, “Damn it, Elante...”

Elante had been his most loyal man, and one of the Three Swordsmen who were expected to do great things in the wars to come. He shouldn’t have died so easily.

Curse them for killing my precious servant.

“Is Elante truly dead?”

As Bautore trembled with rage, Isenbahan, who had been working to ascertain the facts of the situation, rushed forward and bowed down.

“It seems to be true, Your Majesty...”

“I want details... Tell me, exactly how did he die?!”

“W-We still don’t have a good grasp of that. But we’ll get to the bottom of it, whatever it takes!”

Bautore shook his head at Isenbahan.

“No, you’ve done enough. That won’t be necessary. We advance on the capital at once. I’ll kill them. Kill them all. I’ll wipe out the Rozernan royal family, and send them to comfort Elante’s soul!” he shouted with bloodshot eyes.

*

The first thing I did after stopping the Brijitian Army’s advance party’s incursion into the capital was to destroy all manner of provisions in the surrounding area.

A massive city like the capital was surrounded by vast farmlands. While, fortunately, it wasn’t the harvest season for wheat or rice, the same couldn’t be said for other crops. As such, I deployed thirty thousand men to harvest everything in the immediate vicinity and burn the rest. If we left the fields as they were, we risked them becoming food for our enemies, so there was no other choice.

Soon after that was done, I received word from my scouts that the Brijitians were coming from Ronaf.

This was good news, as far as I was concerned. If the enemy acted hastily out of anger, that only served to give my side the advantage. I had been praying that Elante’s death and the extermination of twenty thousand soldiers would cause their king to do something rash.

Those prayers had now been answered. The enemy forces hastily assembled themselves in formation outside the walls.

Royal Brijitian Army

Manpower: 35,500 men

Morale: 90

Training: 80

Being a well-trained force, even this sort of rapid advance hadn’t disrupted their battle lines. The first to arrive were the enemy’s iron cavalry. That said, cavalry were of no use whatsoever in a siege battle. Not until the gates were open, at least. The iron cavalry wouldn’t be doing anything until then.

Once they were fully deployed, the Royal Brijitian Army immediately began to assault the walls.

This was also good news.

I had been hoping they’d perform a forced march all the way here from Ronaf in order to seek revenge. This rapid advance was a blunder for them. Their supply train couldn’t hope to keep up. That meant they’d had to leave their provisions at Ronaf and come with only their offensive units. The infantry would have run here carrying only enough food for their immediate needs. They likely planned to receive resupply from Ronaf if this turned into a protracted battle.

That was a grave miscalculation.

*

“That is the Rozernan capital, Your Majesty.”

Bautore ground his teeth as he looked at the walls, still seething and wroth.

“However, I believe we should refrain from charging in until such time as we’ve ascertained just how the enemy were able to kill Elante.”

Advisor Isenbahan tried to convince Bautore to be cautious and not get ahead of himself. However, one of the Three Swordsmen, Ganeif the Swiftblade, glared at him and answered on his lord’s behalf.

“You insolent cur! We’ll know that well enough once we fight them!”

Bautore nodded in agreement with this outburst from Ganeif.

“He’s right. Don’t make me repeat myself, Isenbahan.”

“I’m terribly sorry, sire...!” Isenbahan hurriedly bowed in the face of Bautore’s glare.

“But we can’t afford to let our guards down. I plan to deploy Ganeif. Men, we’re going to take the Rozernan capital! Make them all bleed!”

At their king’s command, the Brijitian infantry all charged at once.

*

I met the enemy force on the castle walls.

The Royal Rozernan Army had a Morale of 92. Rinkitsu, which we had found in the treasury, raised Euracia’s Command score to 97, and that in turn had provided another +2 modifier to Morale.

Euracia led from the front again this time.

“Loose your arrows! Shower them with every bolt you have! And don’t forget the rocks too!”

In accordance with Euracia’s orders, the commanding officers all shouted her commands, and the men began firing in unison. The Runanese reinforcements did likewise. The situation was overwhelmingly in our favor.

In all honesty, the Rozernan and Runanese armies’ Training scores were pretty low, but the fact this was a siege battle was more than enough to make up for those low scores. With the walls as our shield, together with our high Morale, we had a reasonable chance of winning this.

If you grouped the Rozernan and Runanese armies together as the United Army, then at the start of the battle it looked like this:

United Army: 29,443 men

Royal Brijitian Army: 35,500 men

Our forces held the home advantage, and the enemy didn’t have the numbers necessary to overwhelm us! We greeted our foes with a hail of arrows. The screams of charging Brijitian footmen spread far and wide across the land.

Their vanguard fell beneath the rain of arrows.

United Army: 29,443 men

Royal Brijitian Army: 34,230 men

That attack had reduced the Brijitians’ numbers by eight hundred men. The enemy used their sacrifice to put ladders up against the walls. The United Army kept shooting and rained rocks down on the men attempting to climb the ladders.

United Army: 29,300 men

Royal Brijitian Army: 32,110 men

By the time the United Army ran out of arrows, the Brijitian Army’s numbers had fallen even further. However, with the archers unable to provide support, the number of enemy soldiers climbing the ladders went up.

The United Army fought desperately, throwing rocks and striking with spears and swords to keep the enemy from taking the walls.

The battle raged for over two hours.

Euracia, Jint, and I mercilessly slew enemies climbing the ladders. Obviously, the Royal Brijitian Army were taking nothing but losses. The situation was clear to see from up on the walls.

Underneath a Brijitian royal banner flapping in the wind stood the Brijitian king in his shining armor.

If I can see him, I can learn his stats!

He was too far away for me to use Crush against—if I tried, I’d just get a message telling me the skill couldn’t be used. Checking his ability scores from here was no issue, however.

Bautore Brijit

Age: 54

Martial: 93

Intelligence: 69

Command: 98

He’s got a Command score of 98 from his high charisma and absolute state authority. He’s the opposite of Euracia, who inspires the soldiers to follow her because of her charm and personal affinity with them. His Martial’s high too. But now that I’ve raised my Martial another rank, I should be more than capable of fighting him.

The man standing beside him had a rather high Martial score too.

Poholizen

Age: 29

Martial: 95

Intelligence: 4

Command: 5

He must be one of the Three Swordsmen that Euracia told me about, Poholizen the Blastblade. Given his nom de guerre is along the same lines as the other two’s, I naturally have to assume he’s got some kind of skill.

In terms of recognizable traits, he had a larger frame than Elante. He was almost more like a beast than a man.

Yeah, a beast. I should think of him like a wolf or a bear.

He had a high Martial, but a piss-poor Intelligence. With a score that awful, it really was like fighting a bear.

He’s the kind of opponent who’d be easy to outwit. That’s probably why he’s the king’s bodyguard.

Ultimately, he didn’t pose a major problem. The slender man approaching the castle was another matter. He had four swords hanging at his hip and an odd air about him.

Ganeif Katekin

Age: 45

Martial: 97

Intelligence: 40

Command: 74

His nom de guerre was the Swiftblade, and he had the abnormally high Martial score you’d expect based on that. You could say that he lived up to Euracia’s opinion of him as the strongest of the Three Swordsmen.

With a Martial of 97, if he could use mana skills, then that would definitely put him above A-class. He was unquestionably the biggest problem in this siege battle. He was the mightiest man in Brijit, perhaps even the entire south.

To think that Brijit had a commander who was the equivalent of Lu Bu from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

That was the man who’d just started climbing one of the ladders.

Bautore’s plan was probably to send him in to cause chaos and make it easier for the rest of his troops to act as a result. A simple idea, but since he had someone this strong to execute it, the strategy was going to be a pain to deal with. That said, it wasn’t like I hadn’t prepared countermeasures.

“Pour the boiling oil and throw more rocks!” Fihatori commanded, seeing the look I shot at him.

“Erhin! That man there is the one they call the Swiftblade, Ganeif!” Euracia shouted, adjusting her grip on Rossade.

Ultimately, this battle hinged on whether or not we could halt Ganeif, but I wasn’t wholly convinced I could defeat him myself. His ability scores were higher than I’d anticipated. Even so, there was no avoiding it. The man was a trial I had to overcome!

In order to avoid the boiling oil, Ganeif thrust his sword into a crack in the wall, unleashing mana through the blade to create a powerful recoil that sent him spinning into the air, far above the walls. But that wasn’t enough to keep gravity from dragging him back down.

He was still too far away to land on the wall.

Or so I thought, until Ganeif started releasing mana as he swung his sword in midair. This created a blast wave that used to propel himself and land on the wall.

*

Euracia rushed at Ganeif, swinging Rossade, her attack timed to hit him the moment he touched down! Ganeif swung his sword to stop the strike. Thanks to her actions, he ended up landing on top of the parapet.

He wasn’t able to get enough propulsion. He must’ve had to change direction at the last moment to block Euracia’s attack.

“Everyone, rush him at once! Don’t give him an opening!”

The soldiers rapidly converged on Ganeif. They attacked to keep him from getting down off the parapet where he would have more space to maneuver. Jint was there, leading the charge, wielding the Nameless Sword I found in the treasury.

Ganeif was visibly surprised by the weight of Jint’s attacks as they confronted one another, but there was no overcoming the difference in Martial scores. Even with the item equipped, Jint only had a Martial of 95. It goes without saying that he began to be pushed back.

This was the moment I had been waiting for.

Now’s the time, while he’s distracted fighting Jint!

Will you use Crush?

Now that my Martial was 95 with the bonus factored in, Crush had a power of 100! I summoned Daitoren to unleash a skill, which had now reached the realm of S-class. As I did, Ganeif suddenly sheathed his sword while fighting Jint. Not one to miss such an opening, Jint swung.

I immediately triggered Crush.

At that moment, Ganeif drew his blade again, with a technique that moved faster than my eyes could follow! Was this one of his mana skills? Light erupted from the sword as he drew it!

Instantly, Ganeif’s Martial broke out to 102.

There was no doubt that this was his special ability.

I reflexively used 30 Second Invincibility on Jint. Although we were putting our lives on the line in this battle, I had zero intention of losing him in another country’s war. Once I had counteracted Ganeif’s mana skill with 30 Second Invincibility, I would impale him using Crush.

That was the plan.

However, Ganeif instantly noticed Crush and turned towards me, changing the direction of his blade of light to hit it.

What incredible combat instincts!

But because he’d had to change direction so suddenly, he wasn’t able to completely deflect Crush. As a result, Crush tore through his shoulder instead of his chest, blowing his left arm off. The skill he’d used had a power of 102.

If they had hit each other head-on, he’d have completely annihilated Crush, but fortunately I was still able to injure him.

What’s more, the force from Daitoren knocked him off the parapet!

As he plummeted, Ganeif drew the third of four swords he carried and swung it towards the ground, slowing his descent with a burst of mana. The result was that he was able to land without slamming hard into the ground, but he still collapsed. Blood spurted from the messy stump of his severed left arm like a fountain.

Brijitian soldiers rushed to his side as he fell to the ground in a puddle of his own blood, the last of his strength spent. It was visible even from a distance, so trumpets began sounding the enemy’s retreat.

It was a shame I couldn’t kill him, but I’d still blown his arm off, and judging by the amount of blood he’d lost, he wouldn’t be recovering any time soon.

United Army: 28,700 men

Royal Brijitian Army: 30,110 men

It was a massive victory that reflected the advantages of fighting as the defender in a siege battle. The enemy force took mass casualties, but ours was barely harmed.

Our forces cheered as the enemy fled.

“What was that? He’s not a monster, so how...?” Euracia forgot the joy of victory as she shook her head in disbelief at Ganeif’s survival.

“I may not have been able to kill him, but we can still call this a success,” I reassured Euracia before adding, “However, the most important part is yet to come. This is where the real battle begins,” because I didn’t want her letting her guard down just yet.

Euracia nodded firmly. Today’s victory wasn’t a big deal. Things were about to begin in earnest.

Of course, the plan originally called for Ganeif to die here. I’d predicted the King of Brijit would send him to attack the walls. It was a shame he survived, but I’d still injured the centerpiece of the enemy force, so the plan could go ahead without issue.

If I were to hesitate now, we’d probably lose any chance of a quick resolution to this war. To that end, I left Euracia in charge of the capital as we’d discussed, while I took a thousand cavalrymen out through the northern gates, which were the opposite side from where the enemy had set up camp. Their scouts would detect the move, no doubt, but I didn’t care if they discovered us at this point.

The Brijitian Army was already a fish on the line.

*

“Damn them! How dare they cut our supply lines!” Bautore struggled to contain his seething anger when his advisor gave him the report.

A shadow had fallen over his once confident face. Of course it had. Even he, the king, had barely been able to eat today.

He ordered his men to search the fields, but there was no food to be had nearby. Yet if he sent his men any farther afield, they would be ambushed. That was why he could only clutch his head now. Eating rice or wheat when it had just begun to grow and was still green was like munching on weeds. The unfamiliar food would just upset their stomachs.

“They’ve even wiped out the soldiers we sent to protect the supply unit. Still, if we keep on sending men, it will impede our attack on the capital!” Isenbahan said with a troubled look on his face.

Just then, a new report arrived.

“What now?!” Bautore roared.

“Well, you see...” Isenbahan opened his mouth hesitantly. “We’ve...lost contact with the iron cavalry unit that we sent out to secure the supplies...”

“What?! Curse them!” Bautore shouted. It only made him hungrier.

“Why don’t we send out Poholizen?” Isenbahan suggested “Surely he could...”

“No,” Bautore rejected the idea. “If I sent him, he might eat all the rations just to sate his own appetite. Worse yet, the enemy might deceive him and then he’d never return!”

Isenbahan was quick to agree. Poholizen was a poor choice for this kind of mission because of his tendency to rush forward without thinking.

Things were bad, and getting worse.

Even as they fought against their own stomachs out here, there was no progress in their siege of the capital. The assaults continued, but all they did was bleed them of more troops. In fact, all their siege weapons had been burned today. The king had been starving for three days now, and he hadn’t been letting the rank and file eat for even longer than that.

Their failure to make progress should have been a foregone conclusion. Ganeif, who’d lost a lot of blood after his arm was blown off, still hadn’t regained consciousness.

All Bautore could do was rage.

*

We won the three-day siege battle!

Our United Army’s Morale actually rose after this battle. Due to the nature of siege battles, casualties were limited too.

United Army

Manpower: 27,300 men

Training: 20

Morale: 95

The Royal Brijitian Army, however, was greatly diminished.

Royal Brijitian Army

Manpower: 26,110 men

Training: 80

Morale: 50

They had fewer men than us now. That was thanks to the many casualties suffered from repeated defeats. In addition, their Morale declined precipitously from 90 to 50. It was obvious it would go down if they kept on losing, but this massive drop had to be primarily due to starvation.

Bautore and the soldiers who had rushed in, enraged at the death of Elante, had been unable to receive supplies.

I then made my move to chip away at their Morale even further.

Jint and I led a unit of a thousand cavalrymen, seeming to appear out of nowhere as we destroyed the enemy’s supply units. The United Army had scouts watching Ronaf Castle, and whenever they sent a report, we crushed the supply lines at once.

As a result, after five days of unbearable hunger for Bautore, he started his retreat to Ronaf Castle despite having had the Rozernan capital in sight. Of course, this was largely thanks to Euracia, who, with her Command score of 97, defended the capital without letting Morale fall.

There was only one thing the Royal Brijitian Army could do: gather their military supplies at Ronaf Castle, then march on the Rozernan capital again with all their rations.

Of course, I could have taken Ronaf Castle before the Brijitians retreated. Yes, I could have taken it and burned all their food. But I didn’t, because there was hardly any point.

If I had, they would have received reports of the castle’s fall and detoured around it to some other occupied territory. Even if the Brijitians were starving, I couldn’t beat their army with an ambush team made up of a thousand men. That meant occupying Ronaf would only cause the enemy to gather food in a different territory.

If that was what was going to happen, then I was better off settling things for good in Ronaf, the closest domain to the Rozernan capital. That’s why I watched as the enemy retreated there.

Of course, I wasn’t just watching.

My next plan was already in motion.

*

Bautore was ambushed by the United Army right before entering Ronaf Castle, but Poholizen easily swept this ambushing force aside.

“Look! See how they run!” Bautore cackled as he watched them, seeing that they were no match for his elite forces.

Bautore had been in a terrible mood during the retreat. Without food for his men, he couldn’t take the Rozernan capital as soon as he wanted, which infuriated him. He’d been left gnashing his teeth because he knew rushing ahead was his own blunder, but now that he’d fended off the ambush, he was in higher spirits.

“Even without Ganeif, we can force the gates of their capital open once we have our supplies. We saw just how gutless the Royal Rozernan Army was when we fought them. How stupid too. If they’d taken Ronaf instead of only targeting our supply units, we would have had to retreat much farther!”

“You have a point there,” Isenbahan agreed. “We only left a force of a thousand men at Ronaf.”

“They were so intent on cutting our supply lines that it never occurred to them to dispose of the stockpile at Ronaf. Imbeciles.”

Hoping to wipe away his own failure somehow, Bautore pointed out the enemy’s strategic blunder and laughed all the louder.

“This is all because we let our guard down. We’ll prepare our forces and return to the Rozernan capital as soon as possible. No more underestimating them. We’re going to destroy Rozern!”

There was no way out. Having already had his self-confidence damaged by being forced to retreat, taking the capital was the only thing he could think about now. The enemy were stronger than anticipated, so his advisor Isenbahan would have liked him to consider his strategy more carefully, but it was impossible to broach the issue. To do so would wound Bautore’s pride. Isenbahan didn’t have the courage to risk his life to offer that advice.

With no one to stop him, Bautore kept muttering, “I’ll destroy them,” like some kind of curse.

*

The reason I ambushed the Royal Brijitian Army in front of Ronaf Castle was incredibly simple: to infiltrate the enemy in the chaos. Jint and I put on stolen uniforms and joined the crowd of enemy soldiers to get inside occupied Ronaf Castle.

I temporarily delegated command of the United Army to Euracia and Fihatori with orders to wait a short time, then advance and surround the castle. No one inside Ronaf Castle took any note of us.

Soldiers in the Royal Brijitian Army only recognized the other people in their ten-man unit, or maybe their hundred-man unit at best. They had no idea what anyone in the other hundred-man units looked like. That was because the Royal Army were a collection of soldiers gathered from every region of their country.

“The provisions are stored in the warehouse beside the barracks. We can finally eat, everyone!”

Overwhelming hunger drove the soldiers to rush to the warehouse the moment they were inside the castle. It was total chaos. An army lives or dies by its discipline.

Obviously, Bautore couldn’t just stand by and watch this.

At the king’s order, a commanding officer shouted, “This is a royal command! Restrain yourselves a little. Food will be distributed soon enough. You are to stand by at the positions designated for your respective units. I am issuing strict orders to behead any man who causes disorder. If you are not in the supply unit, move away from the warehouse immediately!”

The soldiers grumbled, but obeyed and backed away from the warehouse.

Now I had a chance to check out the warehouse for myself. The soldiers in the designated supply unit were carrying out the provisions. The warehouse was a rather large building.

“Hurry it up! Our orders are to set out for the capital again tomorrow!”

It sounded like Bautore was planning to take all the supplies and move again immediately the next day.

But I’m not going to let him.

“Hey! Go back to your unit! Are you looking to get killed?” the commanding officer shouted at me and Jint, who had been staring at the warehouse this whole time.

I signaled to Jint with my eyes. He nodded and ran towards that officer. In an instant, he’d cut him down. At the same time, I used Earthquake on the piles of provisions and the soldiers of the supply unit. My skill set the front of the warehouse on fire, burning the men too.

“Jint, protect the door to the warehouse!”

Once I saw Jint nod, I left him there, and headed into the castle.

My objective, of course, was to burn all their provisions!

*

When flames rose from the warehouse, Isenbahan rushed out of the castle in shock.

“What is happening?!”

“We believe it’s the work of spies wearing our uniforms. They’ve infiltrated the provisions warehouse!”

“What?! Why didn’t you kill them immediately?!”

“Well...”

Obviously, the officer he had asked was wondering the same thing.

His soldiers had, in fact, stormed the warehouse. But the one at the door was none other than Jint. The men who came at him only succeeded in getting themselves decapitated. They tried flanking him, and they tried surrounding him on all sides—but the starving soldiers couldn’t kill Jint.

“What’s with him?”

An angry Bautore soon appeared on the scene, Poholizen at his side.

“How have you let just two men burn our provisions?! Damn it! Everyone, pull back! Poholizen, you go. I want that man there torn limb from limb!”

The men made way at Bautore’s command.

“I’m hungry! Hungry! Hungry!” Poholizen shouted, shaking his head.

“If you just kill him, you can eat all the food you want. Now kill him. Okay?”

“Him? I just have to kill him, and then you’ll let me eat? Really?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“I’ll kill him!”

Poholizen raced towards Jint at the sound of the word “food.” A loud grating sound echoed throughout the surrounding area as their blades crossed.

“Hurghhh! Die! I’m hungry! So, die!” Poholizen roared as he swung his sword.

Jint’s actual Martial score was 93, but using the Nameless Sword boosted it by +2 for a total of 95. With such stats, Jint was more than a match for his enemy.

His Martial was on par with Poholizen’s, but Jint had the advantage against an opponent who charged in heedlessly. Jint’s style was to instinctively calculate his enemy’s moves. Not only did he refuse to die, he stopped all of Poholizen’s attacks, enraging the enemy commander.

“Argh! Why won’t you die?! You’re such a pain. Die! You can’t stop this one. Blast Wave!”

After saying this, he swung down his sword with both hands. When it touched the ground, there was an incredible explosion around Jint.

Kaboom!

Bautore nodded with satisfaction as the skill landed a direct hit on Jint.

“Surely, he can’t withstand Poholizen’s Blast Wave. Get to work putting out the fires in the warehouse immediately!”

Those were Bautore’s orders, but the men who rushed through the smoke left behind by the Blast Wave came back out screaming. When the smoke cleared, Jint appeared. He’d used his sword to unleash all the mana he could in order to endure the Blast Wave, leaving him only mildly singed.

Of course, Jint couldn’t help but be surprised that he’d released so much mana—much more than he’d thought possible. He gave the Nameless Sword a sideward glance. He’d been thinking there was something mystical about it, but this wasn’t the time to investigate.

He adjusted his grip and took aim at Poholizen.

*

There were a lot of provisions, so it ended up taking longer than I had planned to burn them all.

When I left the warehouse, Jint was in awful shape—apparently he’d been pushed to the brink. His clothes and hair were all burned, but his skin was comparatively unscathed. He was up against Poholizen though. Of course it’d be a tough fight. His opponent was one of the Three Swordsmen.

“Jint! Are you okay?!”

Jint immediately nodded.

“Okay, we’ll use a flanking attack. Let’s kill him and get out of here!”

We’ve done what we needed to. Escaping has priority now.

Jint and I jumped Poholizen together. Poholizen swung his sword around, trying to kill us, but I had a Martial score of 95 with Daitoren equipped. He didn’t stand a ghost of a chance against me.

Crush would end this, but I didn’t even have to use it, because I had Jint with me. While I used the Attack command to cross blades with Poholizen, it freed Jint up to circle around behind him.

He’s fast!

He might not have been on the same level as Ganeif the Swiftblade, but Jint was still pretty fast.

“What? What’s happening? When did you get there?!”

Obviously, Poholizen got distracted by Jint and turned to face him. In other words, he’d turned his back to me.

I’d expect nothing less from a commander with under 10 Intelligence.

I laughed mockingly at his ineptitude as I stabbed him in the neck using the Attack command. As blood spurted, Jint proceeded to impale him through the chest. Run through from both sides, Poholizen fell, never to rise again.

“Hurry and kill them! I’ll bestow a title on whoever does it! Kill them no matter what it takes!” I heard an enraged Bautore shout as he commanded his men from a distance.

I didn’t expect him to be handing out titles.

That brought soldiers swarming at us from all directions. Giving noble ranks to commoners was almost unheard of. Conversely, that just showed how desperate our enemy was. If anything, this was an opportunity for us. I had Bautore completely within my field of view.

If I can kill their king here, that would be the ultimate way to distinguish myself on the battlefield.

Yes, it certainly would be.

“But I need him to live for now.”

The Brijitian king can’t die here. If he does, Brijit will install his son or some other blood relation as their new king and go on the defensive.

Obviously, that would throw their country into disarray, but if I was going to occupy them, then I needed to kill the king on his home turf.

I’ll let him escape, but I’ll crush as many of his soldiers as I can to prevent them from regrouping.

With that decided, I didn’t hesitate.

Will you use Crush?

I activated Crush and threw Daitoren—with the effect set to incapacitate! The soldiers between me and Bautore were all blown away by Daitoren, wrapped in white light.

“Urgh...!” Bautore hurriedly drew his sword.

But he can’t stop it. Bautore has a Martial of 93.

He’s a powerful foe, no doubt, but my Martial score is 100 when using Crush!

I put on a smirk, assured of my victory... Until, at the last possible moment, a blade of light appeared and collided with Daitoren. My sword was knocked skyward, spinning through the air before it stabbed into the ground.

“You’re kidding me!” I shouted angrily.

Deflecting Crush would take an overwhelmingly powerful foe with a Martial score of over 100. There’s only one of those in this war.

I looked in the direction the blade of light had come from. Of course, there stood Ganeif, wrapped in bandages, with his left arm obviously still missing. Leaning on some other soldiers for support, he glared at me. He must have been on standby inside the carriage because of how weakened he was by his wounds.

I respect his pure martial prowess and terrifying loyalty, but I don’t need any subordinate who could just follow orders and massacre innocent, unarmed people without remorse.

Capable or not, this man was strictly my enemy. And he was already badly injured.

I expect he used up the rest of his mana with that skill. No matter how high his Martial score is, the guy isn’t any threat to me right now.

That didn’t stop him from talking a big game, though.

“Defend His Majesty. We don’t need to protect the walls. If we kill these guys, we win! Form a layered encirclement around them right now!”

He was no match for Jint or me, but he was trying to move the men to action by keeping up the appearance of Brijit’s strongest warrior. It must have reassured the men, because they recovered a little from the Morale hit I’d dealt them when killing Poholizen, and started moving around more proactively.

First order of business is to kill Ganeif, then.

“Jint, the enemy’s numbers are basically inexhaustible. We’re going to kill that guy and then pull out in the confusion!”

If we kill Ganeif, the enemy will have no one left to rely on. If we can just escape after that, we’re in the clear.

“I’ll carve you a path out of here. No matter what it takes!” Jint nodded in agreement and charged at Ganeif.

Uh, wait, hold up. We were supposed to go together.

In a troubling development, Jint was quickly surrounded by enemies, and I lost sight of him.

*

Jint didn’t even see Ganeif appear or notice the soldiers gathering one after another. He would make a path out of here even if it killed him. He was entirely focused on risking his life to carry out the mission he’d tasked himself with.

If Erhin could withdraw safely, then he didn’t mind dying himself.

“Jint, is it okay for us to be this happy? I still can’t believe it.”

Mirinae said that to him every single day as she studied for the first time in her life. She told him that reading books was interesting. That learning was fun.

It was the same for him.

He’d been the lowest of the low, but now the other soldiers looked at him with respect. No one in Eintorian ever looked down on Jint.

They could live like human beings. Live as humans ought to. Even if he were to die here, Erhin would look out for Mirinae. His faith in that allowed him to offer up his life without the slightest hesitation.

Jint kept on running.

“Loose your arrows!”

Even as arrows began raining down on him at the order of the thousandman commanding the archers, Jint charged on undeterred.

“Jint!”

Erhin had been planning to issue more orders, but Jint went and ran off before he could. Erhin tried shouting again, but Jint had already turned into a battle fiend, so Erhin’s voice didn’t reach him. The hail of arrows couldn’t stop Jint. He swatted them aside, closing in on Ganeif.

“Damn you!” Ganeif bellowed, drawing his sword.

The mightiest man in all of Brijit, known as the Swiftblade—versus a battle fiend who had earned no such name, but had distinguished himself in war. The collision of these two powerful men ended so quickly it was somewhat disappointing.

Ganeif didn’t have enough mana left to stop Jint. It was only his pure indomitable spirit that kept him standing on the battlefield at all.

“Step aside!”

As their blades were about to cross, Jint suddenly changed the angle of his and lopped Ganeif’s head off. Weakened as he was by not having had time to recover his mana, Ganeif’s blade was no match for Jint’s.

“Damn you! How dare you kill Ganeif! Damn youuuuu!” Bautore shouted in impotent rage. From a distance, of course. My Crush attack had forced him back a ways.

In addition to my go-to skill, Crush, I actually had two more things I could rely on while Jint and I carried out this operation to destroy the enemy’s provisions.

The first was 30 Second Invincibility. This newly acquired skill would be seriously useful for retreating at a key moment. And since I still had Daitoren available, I could use the sword to get close to Jint, then used 30 Second Invincibility to give us time to get on horses, we could probably make it a good distance away.

But that’s not going to be enough on its own. Thirty seconds is short.

That’s why what I needed right now was the second tool that I’d received from Euracia.

I should be able to use the powerful explosion from this tool as an effective means of escape.

Of course, I couldn’t use it now, with Jint isolated and surrounded.

First, I need to join up with Jint. No matter how far their Morale’s fallen, I need to be careful when there’s this many enemies around. Daitoren has a clear time limit on how long I’m able to use it. I’ll use the tool to clear a path, then we’ll run to the wall, using 30 Second Invincibility to protect us from arrows!

That was my plan as I ran over to Jint, who was caught in an infinite loop of fighting and killing.

“Why are you here?! It’s dangerous! Hurry up and retreat!” Jint, who had kept on fighting without losing any of his vigor since killing Ganeif, shouted when he spotted me.

The soldiers had started attacking me too, so I used Daitoren to fend them off, but I was quickly fenced in on all sides.

Their numbers seemed endless.

“I wasn’t ordering you to charge in alone before. We were supposed to go together,” I explained, preparing to use the tool here. Of course, the enemy kept attacking the whole time, so Daitoren never rested.

That might’ve been why Jint shouted, “Urgh...! I’ll carve a path for you no matter what!” and swung the Nameless Sword with a pained look on his face.

That’s when it happened!

Jint’s Nameless Sword released a white light, and the land began to shake like there was an earthquake. The ground turned brown—the same color as Jint’s Nameless Sword. Earthen swords shot out of it, catching me off guard. Its area of effect wasn’t large, but all of the soldiers caught in range of this bizarre skill fell and had their feet and legs skewered, leaving them to topple over. Even the soldiers who fled were chased down by the earthen blades like guided missiles.

Jint’s Martial increased by +1

At the same time, his Martial rose from 93 to 94. My retainer was growing! Although he was an A-class commander, Jint couldn’t use mana skills. When Erheet faced Jint, he’d asked why he didn’t use them.

It seemed that the question had been bothering Jint ever since, but in the end, he hadn’t been able to do it. Now, one had just triggered for him.

Was it because of the Nameless Sword, or his resolve in the face of death? Or was it his incredibly selfless desire to save me? I didn’t know, but what I did know was this: it had just created a far better situation for our escape than the tool would have.

I pushed through the confused enemies to mount a horse that had belonged to a now dead officer.

“Jint, get on! Hurry!”

I rode the horse over to Jint who stood there, surprised by the fact he had just used a skill. The soldiers, who were in turn shocked by the power of it, were unable to do anything as we made our way to the front of the gates.

Bautore had been out of range of the skill, but in fear of its peril he pulled back even further, so he failed to order anyone to pursue us.

We’d put some distance between us and the enemy. Discarding the horse, we climbed up onto the walls. This was faster than trying to open the closed gates.

Once we got up top, I shouted, “Jint! Get on my back!”

“Huh?”

“There’s no time to explain! Just ride!”

Once Jint climbed onto my back without having any clue as to why, I jumped down from the wall. Then I triggered 30 Second Invincibility.

I happened to have just 100 skill points left.

This is my trump card!

Normally, my legs would’ve shattered when I hit the ground, but thanks to 30 Second Invincibility I was completely invulnerable. That let me land without issue. The soldiers who’d chased us onto the walls were so shocked that they didn’t even try to pursue us any further.

Not that they would have, even if they weren’t so shocked. For just ahead were our forces, who had completely surrounded Ronaf Castle. As an aside, I’d leveled up for killing Poholizen, which earned me more points. I put off spending them for now as I met up with Fihatori who was rushing over to us.

*

Rejoining our army after jumping from the castle walls, I sent Jint off to see the doctor, then gave orders to my forces which had encircled Ronaf Castle.

“Keep the entirety of Ronaf Castle fully surrounded! Once the area is completely sealed off, don’t approach under any circumstances. Hold your positions even once the enemy comes out. We’ll use the line formation!”

The enemy couldn’t hold out inside the castle. They had no provisions, so they’d starve to death. As such, they had no choice but to come out, having already been starving for five days. If they’d had provisions, the enemy would have waited to recover before sallying out to meet us, so there would have been no point in just surrounding them like this. In such a scenario we would want to rush in right away, since the enemy’s morale would recover as time passed.

But them having no provisions turned things around. The enemy needed to hurry. The lack of food alone was enough to make them panic. Especially when they’d seen it burned with their own eyes.

Royal Brijitian Army

Morale: 10

The result was that their Morale fell to 10. Of course, the enemy would come out to break through our encirclement and flee. Once they did, we’d have the advantage. No matter how big the difference was between our Training levels, with this big a gap in Morale, we could win a field battle.

The tables had turned.

In short, we were now in a situation where we could aim to wipe out the enemy when they emerged from Ronaf Castle. Morale aside, they had been starving for over five days.

They had no strength left to fight.

Naturally, the Royal Brijitian Army understood that the longer they stayed inside the castle, the worse their disadvantage.

That’s why they made their decision fast.

The enemy eventually came out of the southern gates. This was surely because they recognized the futility of attacking the Rozernan capital to the north without provisions. They’d want to try withdrawing to another occupied territory and secure a supply of food there instead.

“Maintain the line formation at the southern gates. And form a second line behind the first one on each side!”

The line formation was not complicated. They’d be able to maintain it even with their low level of training. Fortunately, we were in a situation where we only needed to use the most basic of formations.

“Loose your arrows at the enemy as they attack!”

If they had higher morale, the enemy front line might have been able to hold formation, but with only 10 it was just impossible. The enemy’s numbers fell precipitously as arrows rained down on them before they could assume defensive positions.

Royal Brijitian Army

Manpower: 19,231

Training: 80

Morale: 5

Only 19,231 enemies remained.

“Wipe them out! The enemy is starving! You have nothing to fear from them! But don’t kill their king, Bautore. Let him go.”

Once all our arrows had been loosed, I gave the order to attack. My forces collided with the enemy.

It was truly intense, witnessing the Royal Rozernan Army grit their teeth and follow Euracia as they fought to avenge their fallen comrades. After about three hours of head-on conflict, the result was already clear to see.

United Army: 24,931 men

Royal Brijitian Army: 4,311 men

A major difference had emerged in the size of the two opposing forces. The enemy fled, demotivated, and the gap widened as a one-sided pursuit began.

It was a truly overwhelming victory.

My strategy this time had been to trap the enemy in Ronaf Castle and wipe out everyone but Bautore. Obviously, it put my own life at risk. This was when I realized I needed to act a little more carefully. For now, though, the crisis had passed, and victory was electrifying.

Of course, I had no intention of letting it end here.