“Still… our new king must be terrifying if he can send you to be his errand girl,” he said.
“His Majesty does run his people ragged,” she agreed. “I know I’ve made it clear I’m at his service from the beginning, but, still, he suddenly told me, ‘Take a Jewel Voice Broadcast jewel and a simple receiver and get your butt to Altomura,’ you know?”
During Souma’s ultimatum two days prior, Excel had not been listening from the Walter Duchy, but from here in Altomura. The broadcast could only show so much of the scenery around her, so as long as she was in a room indoors, no one would be able to tell exactly where she was.
When Amidonia’s spies had reported that the ultimatum had been issued, they should have assumed Excel was in the Walter Duchy. Souma had suggested they take advantage of that to secretly bring Excel to Altomura.
Her mission was to delay the armies of the principality.
It had been anticipated that the armies of the principality would first occupy Altomura, the central city of the grain-producing region, then sweep all enemies from the surrounding area to entrench their de facto control of the territory. So, with the kingdom lacking the leeway to dispatch reinforcements, the only way to prevent losses was to hold on tenaciously at Altomura, and to do so in a way that avoided battles as much as possible. In other words, it was a job for the sly old serpent, Excel.
“Gaius would never imagine that Duchess Excel is here, of all places,” Weist said.
“It’s three days’ travel from Lagoon City to get here, after all,” Excel agreed. “I’ve been here for the last five days, though… Honestly, His Majesty and the others are working this poor old woman far too hard.”
“Please, don’t play the old woman only when it suits you,” Weist complained.
“It’s fine for me to be self-deprecating,” she said. “I won’t stand for anyone else saying it, though.”
Only Vargas would be so reckless! was what he wanted to cry out, but he tucked the words away inside his chest. He may have been over fifty, but he didn’t want to die just yet.
“By the way, Duchess Excel,” he said, “I’ve only bought time until noon. Was that good enough? Don’t I need to buy a little more time according to the plan?”
“It’s fine. If they break the siege until noon, it will take time to fully encircle us again. Even if they begin an all-out attack, that would surely take until close to evening.”
“I see,” he said. “Well, then, I think my job is done here.”
“Yes. Well done, Weist. Please, relax and leave the rest to me.” Excel gave him a motherly smile.
Weist had been run ragged by Souma, Hakuya, and Excel, but he could only laugh at himself for thinking that her smile alone made him want to forgive everything.
Elfrieden Historical Idiom Lessons: Number 1
“Lord of Altomura”
Type: Idiomatic Expression
Meaning: A person who makes promises they can’t keep.
Origin: During the One Week War, Weist Garreau, the Lord of Altomura, which was being attacked by Gaius VIII of the Principality of Amidonia, made an empty promise to Gaius that he “would have the gates opened,” in order to buy time.
Usage: That person’s a Lord of Altomura. You shouldn’t trust him.
Chapter 5: The Battle Outside Randel
The 30th stratagem in Thirty-Six Stratagems says, “Make the host and guest exchange roles.”
It is most often referred to in the context of a weaker force overcoming a stronger one, but it can also refer to making the defender (the host) trade places with the attacker (the guest). Being the defender is advantageous in war, so it is desirable for the attacker to create a situation where he can fight defensive battles even on campaign.
The battle currently taking place in the outskirts of Randel, the central city of the Carmine Duchy, could have been said to be an example of the later meaning of the 30th stratagem.
— 32nd Day, 9th Month, 1,546th Year, Continental Calendar.
In the Carmine Duchy, the Forbidden Army, which should have been the invading force, was fighting a defensive battle against the Army, which should rightly have been the defender. As he hid behind the walls of the “fortress” that was being attacked by a 40,000 strong force from the Army, Halbert Magna was grumbling.
“Damn… Don’t you think the enemy are trying a little too hard?”
“There’s no helping that, you know, Hal.” The response had come from Kaede Foxia, an earth mage attached to the Forbidden Army, who was taking cover behind the same wall as him.
Even as the arrows, fired by enemy and ally alike, flew overhead, she remained nonchalant.
“If you look at it from the enemy’s perspective, they woke up to find a fortress outside,” she said. “One with Forbidden Army troops in it, no less. It’s only natural they would be in a rush to do something about that, you know.”
“Well, yeah…” he said. “I thought it was beyond reckless taking on 40,000 troops from the Army with 10,000 of our own, but apparently the premise was that we’d be fighting in this fortress. Just how well did he prepare in advance for this?”
“There was originally a fortress facing Amidonia at this site,” she told him. “When the border moved far to the west in the time of the king before the last king, it was abandoned. The king simply brought it back to life, you know. And what’s more… this is a considerably more well-defended fortress than the one that was once here.”
It was yesterday that Souma had sent his ultimatum to Georg Carmine. With negotiations having failed, Souma had immediately dispatched a force of 10,000 troops from the Forbidden Army to the Carmine Duchy.
The Forbidden Army had advanced at a speed that overturned all common sense held by the Army. They had approached the central city of the duchy, Randel, and built a “fortress” right in front of their eyes.
That rapid advance and construction had been enabled by the rhinosaurus land train. Thanks to Souma’s honorary little sister, Tomoe, the Forbidden Army had a large number of rhinosauruses that could serve as a rapid cargo transportation system. Thanks to the ability of the rhinosaurus land train to transport massive amounts of cargo, they had been able to send in people and resources in a short amount of time.
The materials for building the fortress had already been partially assembled in the royal capital. They’d used a two-by-four wood frame construction system, so the parts just needed to be put into the designated places on site.
Souma had taken the idea from the One Night Castle that Hideyoshi (then known as Tokichiro Kinoshita) had built in Sunomata. Basically, the rhinosaurus land train had taken the place of the Kiso River.
In addition, the Forbidden Army troops who had constructed the fortress had a secret. Having been sent out under Souma’s orders to assist in the construction of the new city and roads, each and every one of the soldiers of the Forbidden Army was now a capable combat engineer.
The soldiers would dig holes or pile up earth as needed, cover the walls the mages created in Roman concrete, and assemble the materials shipped in from the capital.
The earth mages would gouge out the earth to make ditches, raise the ground’s surface to make walls, use magic to make the Roman concrete poured by the soldiers harden, and use reinforcement magic to strengthen the walls.
The common thinking when building a fortress on open land in this world was to have earth mages do all the work. However, because every non-mage member of the king’s personal forces was able to take part in construction, the work speed was markedly faster.