Hifumi occupied the cities and villages by the Orsongrande-Arosel border one by one.
Basically, the reason they captured Arosel the way they did was only for the soldiers to gain experience. In the other cases, he just had a small number of people infiltrating, where they either seized, or killed the representatives. The places that seemed to be able to offer some resistance were pinpointed and suppressed. The only matter where Hifumi personally moved were in regards to the guilds, where he had each of the guild masters swear allegiance to him.
After killing many of Vichy’s soldiers and adventurers, Hifumi’s side also had some casualties, but the difference in losses were overwhelming. Their raids were performed in such a way that most of the populace didn’t notice anything. But even if they did, the only thing that changed was the name of the governor.
Except the ones resisting, the rest were let live. It was also made known that the only change in the administrative body was that Hifumi was now the chief. Except that, there were no changes, so nothing really went out of hand. At the moment there simply wasn’t enough time for a complete restructure of the administrative system.
Except putting the central government’s spies and liaisons on house arrest, Hifumi didn’t really take any actions towards them. In time, they were to divulge the state of affairs within the their area of control.
In the meantime, three city states and ten of the surrounding villages were put under their control.
In each of the cities, the opposing parties were generally killed, and passage through the city gates was restricted. The soldiers left behind were the bare minimum for upholding those restrictions, so in the villages there could be as few as three of them.
“It’s about time. Pajou. According to plan, after occupying this area, we are to establish a new national border. You should send for soldiers from Orsongrande to defend it.”
Hifumi pointed his finger at the map they took from the representative of Arosel’s mansion.
The place he pointed at was just a small-scale city named Rhone, but to get to one of the major cities in Vichy, you would have to pass by here. If they could set up a blockade here, one of Vichy’s five major cities would be whittled away.
“Understood.”
Until now, when the city they were aiming for was right in front of them, Pajou had been following Hifumi’s orders.
Looking at the size conquered territory, the military gains were unprecedented in the history of Orsongrande. Furthermore, occupying these cities and villages in a relatively unscathed condition, the tax revenue would barely need to be reduced at all.
But doing it in this manner, which was a first for the knights, Pajou didn’t think the aristocrats could possibly agree to it. If the head of the campaign wasn’t Hifumi, and rather someone else, he would’ve been replaced long ago.
“Well then, I guess I’ll go have a ‘talk’ with them in Rhone.”
Seeing Hifumi straddling the horse and riding off on the highway alone, leaving the troops behind, Pajou was thinking about the future of Orsongrande.
Imeraria probably doesn’t have the notion to invade other countries herself. If that’s the case and Vichy wants to enter negotiations with us, offering Orsongrande an apology, it should all conclude there, but…
Would Hifumi agree to stopping at this point?
Would he listen to anyone’s opinion, and change the way he’s thinking?
…… In the end, would it all be over with Vichy as the only victim?
Pajou looked at the troops participating in the campaign.
They were all showing signs of fatigue. Having no experience with these methods until now, they were performing silent invasions, and engaging in one-sided slaughter. Sure, they had signs of physical exhaustion, but what had really exhausted them was the repeated killing of enemies, including many who couldn’t even resist.
They were primarily concentrating on performing night raids and surprise attacks. Although they were operations in which the masses weren’t hurt, in the end their purpose was still having others killed.
Exposing the Orsongrande knights and soldiers to this to the extent they were, what would become of them?
If they didn’t stop soon, perhaps Orsongrande would crumble from within.
Origa couldn’t understand Hifumi’s real intentions, but didn’t voice any opinions towards him. Alyssa didn’t understand him either, but decided to keep following orders.
Perhaps if Hifumi was thinking about stopping…
Pajou was observing Kasha ordering the first unit around, preparing for the next assault. Among Hifumi’s followers participating in the campaign, Kasha was the only one having shown uneasy expressions a couple of times.
“Sorry, do you have some time?”
When Kasha seemed free for a little while, Pajou quietly asked her.
Closing in on Rhone, Hifumi frowned.
The smell of blood drifted over from the wind. The town’s entrance came into sight, but there were still no presence of people.
“What’s all this about…?”
Speeding up the horse, Hifumi tightly held onto his katana fixed on his waist. The left hand was propping up the scabbard, making him able to draw at a moment’s notice.
Steadily closing in on the city, a bizarre mud wall covering the entrance came into view.
Carefully approaching, he confirmed that a mud wall that was as hard as rock was completely covering the city entrance. Making sure that no one was around, he swung his katana, destroying the wall.
A stench of blood and decay burst forth the moment the entrance was cleared.
“So they were completely annihilated.”
Looking around within the city, decomposed bodies were scattered all over the place, no living things to be found. Not even cats or dogs. Whether it be the stores, the inns, or even the regular houses, blood and dead bodies could be found everywhere.
Hifumi had an uncomfortable feeling. He judged that they had been dead from anywhere between a few hours and a day, but several patches on the corpses were extremely decomposed.
“A disease? …No, that doesn’t seem to be the case.”
There were several bodies that hadn’t decomposed yet, seemingly having died due to blood loss from the wounds on their necks and various other places. But these corpses looked suspicious as well. Their fingers and fingernails looked too clean. They should obviously have ‘been killed’, but there were no indications of resistance, and their faces were anything but warped in horror or pain. They were completely expressionless.
He didn’t understand the circumstances of the deaths of the decomposed bodies, but there were numerous cases of their throats having being clamped down upon, and clawing their own chests.
Most likely, something made them unable to breathe, and as a result, they ended up dying.
Hifumi abruptly withdrew his katana, as the stomach of one of the decomposed bodied opened. Some gas emerged, and the content gushed out with a splashing sound.
“The intestines are also extremely decomposed, but it seems that what’s inside the stomach is still fine.”
As Hifumi guessed that for some reason, they all started quickly decomposing at around the same time, he caught a quick glance of something through one of the bodies’ split clothes.
“Isn’t this the same magic tool that Gorilla-like guy was wearing?”
Wouldn’t that indicate that this incident was orchestrated on the orders of Horant?
“… For the time being, we can’t use the city unless we clean up.”
Not being able to conclude anything more than that, Hifumi let out a sigh and returned to the where the campaign’s forces were stationed.
When the soldiers first saw the city with the corpses spread all around, they were speechless.‘You took it this far?’ their gazes seemingly tried to convey, as they concentrated on Hifumi.
“In that short amount of time, he killed this many?”, someone muttered.
In order to avoid diseases from breaking out, Hifumi had them dispose of the corpses by burning them, and then burying the bones.
“What is actually going on here?”
Having surveyed the surroundings, Origa asked Hifumi.
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