Final Chapter: Victory and Its Price
Thirty thousand men were all that remained of Naruya’s once massive army. It may have cost me my domain, but I was ready to call this a big win. Repeated notifications that I’d leveled up appeared before my eyes.
My level rose all the way from 25 to 35, and I’d gained 4,000 points!
However, my bigger concern was Euracia’s finger. We couldn’t get that back.
“Euracia, are you okay?”
“I’m all right. Were we able to drive off Naruya?”
“Yeah. I think so, but... You idiot! There had to be another way...”
I had no words. Euracia just seemed indifferent. Something she’d said once before came back to me.
That time I said I’d like her to lend me the ring, she was about to cut her finger off, wasn’t she?
“I swear I’ll repay you for this. Even if it costs me my life.”
“Don’t be silly. You’ve already saved Rozern, and you saved me. There’s no need to feel so bad over one little finger.”
“Euracia...”
All I could do was clutch the hand that was now missing a finger.
*
With the enemy scattered, the iron cavalry which had pulled back earlier returned to attack them. The Naruyans still had a total of thirty thousand troops, but they had just suffered a massive blow to the psyche.
Royal Naruyan Army
Third Army
Manpower: 9,200 men
Morale: 20
Training: 92
The Third Army had fallen to ninety-two hundred men, and their morale had dropped precipitously. Meanwhile, the iron cavalry were my best troops. My infantry and archers had taken heavy losses in the battle against the Fourth Army, but the iron cavalry which had gone on a detour with Erheet to ambush the enemy still had eighty-four hundred men.
The Third Army, composed primarily of infantry, was no match for them.
Eintorian Iron Cavalry
8,400 men
Morale: 100
Training: 97
The unit had a hundred points of Morale, and an overwhelming troop-type advantage on top of that.
Royal Naruyan Army, Third Army: 9,200 men
Eintorian Iron Cavalry: 8,400 men
Troop-Type Advantage: +50% Attack
Morale Advantage: +100% Attack
The oversized gap in morale gave us a massive attack bonus, and the Third Army, which had begun retreating before fully entering the castle, was soon being pushed back.
Royal Naruyan Army, Third Army: 2,300 men
Eintorian Iron Cavalry: 7,900 men
It was a one-sided rout.
The death of Rump, the member of the Ten Commanders who led the Third Army, was probably responsible for their morale falling that far.
The Third Army was broken.
That only left the retreating Naruyan Army with less than twenty thousand men.
*
“This is a mana circle of the Ancient Kingdom. It’s hard to believe, even after seeing it with my own eyes.”
Erheet had a look of disbelief on his face even now that the battle was over. The tremors had already subsided, but there were places where the ground had swelled or subsided, and magma had flowed forth, leaving clear traces of what had happened here. Normally, this kind of disaster would have killed tens of thousands.
Naturally, my allies began talking about the power of the mana circle among themselves, and also how the present-day Eintorian, which was established by those ancestors from the Ancient Kingdom, had such a facility, and we had been able to use it.
Erheet had trouble believing it at first, but he had to accept what he’d seen with his own eyes.
“I’m glad it worked properly. The Naruyan Army won’t be able to move for some time now. Not until they join up with their king on the Herald front, at least.”
That’s right. Impressive as Naruya is, they won’t be able to exert their power much after losing an army of a hundred and sixty thousand men. Well, with the exception of the hundred thousand men who the Naruyan King took with him, that is. Now that they’ve taken such massive losses, I’ll definitely have time and opportunities. But not here in Eintorian. It’s a stone’s throw from Naruya, and exposed on all sides.
There’s no telling where an enemy might attack from in this situation.
For that reason, I had moved everything to Bertaquin. I’d already relocated the people of the domain and the riches beneath the castle there over the past three months. The only reason no one found out about it was because of the secret passage. I couldn’t have executed this sort of plan without it. The secret passage in that ruin that the mountainfolk of Bertaquin were protecting was connected to Runan.
Bertaquin doesn’t just have iron, it’s also a land of natural bounty, what with being surrounded by mountains on one side and the sea on the other!
Bertaquin was small by itself, but I was in a position to claim the neighboring domains too. My first goal was to expand my country into a state that was about the size of three domains of the former Brijit Kingdom. It was made possible by the fact that the land I wanted was guarded by the mountains, making it a natural fortress.
In a way, my position was similar to that of Liu Bei of Shu. Shu was also in a mountainous region, so he’d declared the foundation of his country in a natural fortress that was hard to approach.
Of course, Shu fell in the end. If I’m going to beat this game, I’ll have to make sure that I don’t follow the same path as they did.
I had twenty thousand troops left.
Erheet was with me, of course, and so was Lican. I hadn’t particularly wanted the latter of the two, but he’d ended up sticking with me through everything that happened. It wasn’t just Lican who stuck with me. There were also hundreds of thousands of refugees behind me who saw me as their shield against Naruya.
I opened up the secret passage for them.
It would take too long to make them cross the mountains, so there wasn’t really any other option. Besides, my own people had already all learned about the secret passage when they’d agreed to the relocation. I planned to move the refugees through it, then destroy the entrance so that no one else could use it.
It’d be a problem if Naruya came through to attack us.
It’s a shame to give it up, but I’d better hurry up and let it go.
*
“We’ve already come a long way, and the Naruya Kingdom’s taken our homes, so we’ve gotta go check it out. If we stick with the Lord of Eintorian, he’ll give us farmland, and he won’t even charge us taxes for a while!”
“Is there really a land like that?”
“They were saying it’s on the coast, you know?”
“The seaside, huh... I’ve never seen the sea.”
The refugees were receptive to Erhin’s suggestion that, rather than stay in Runan which was going to be right in the middle of a war zone, they should come with him to another region where their safety would be assured. He told them that soon Naruya would be fighting against many other nations for control of Runan’s territory.
Just the thought of it was hell.
No one wanted to find themselves caught on the battlefield. Giving up their homeland was better than losing their lives. If there was someone saying that he’d protect them, and a place where he was offering to do so, then it was only natural they would be swayed.
To capitalize on this, Erhin went around giving speeches to the refugees.
“If you come with me now, there may be a lot of uncertainty, but I guarantee you that your lives will not be at risk! I will give you farmland, and exempt you from taxation for the time being. You can settle there permanently! But I’ll be taking back the lands of Runan eventually, so you can return home then too! If you’ll believe in me, I’ll do it all! I will serve as your shield!”
Word spread, and the refugees’ Opinion of Erhin rose to over 90.
*
It wasn’t just the refugees who were thrilled by my victory. The lords of the southwestern territories of Runan and their troops started coming to me too. Even if they stayed in Runan, they’d have to surrender to Naruya. Cassia wasn’t known for being a merciful king, so the lords of the southwest decided to side with me instead.
Of course, since, unlike Lican, they had only come to me after the battle where I broke the Naruyan Army, they had clearly taken their time to read the situation.
Anyway, for all of his faults, Lican had stuck with me to the end, without running away.
Although, it seemed that was at least in part because he was too indecisive to choose whether he wanted to fight with me or flee. Regardless, I intended to treat him better than these new fair-weather friends. Ultimately, relocating this many people to a new domain was a huge undertaking, and things were going to be hectic for a while.
Things wouldn’t all get sorted out until the migration was complete.
After the large-scale migration, I took my key retainers through the secret passage, and we emerged just a stone’s throw from Bertaquin.
And when we arrived in Bertaquin proper...
There was an army of thirty thousand men waiting there for me. Unlike my own exhausted troops, these thirty thousand were fresh and full of vigor. Everyone tensed up for a moment, but... This unit wasn’t wearing the black uniforms of Naruya.
They wore the Runanese blue.
“I want to speak with you, Your Excellency! I’ve done as you said, organizing all of the domains. And now I have come here to greet you!”
The commander of the great army got down from his horse and bowed before me.
His troops bowed too.
The leader of this massive force was Fihatori.
Fihatori Delhina
Age: 24
Martial: 81
Intelligence: 85
Command: 89
The commander who’d saved Rozern with me—a young genius with the talent to command over a hundred thousand troops.
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