“Duke Carmine! What was that supposed to be?! How can the Army be so unmotivated?!” a corrupt noble demanded.
“Indeed,” another said angrily. “This is not like you, the one once feared as a fierce god of the battlefield.”
“We were the only ones out there taking the fight seriously!” another noble exclaimed.
All of these men had fled as soon as Souma had accused them of corruption. They had gathered, like moths to the flame, under the banner of Georg, who had made his opposition to the king clear.
Having embezzled more than they could ever repay, and now even rebelling against the king, they had nowhere left to go. If they lost the war with Souma, it would be the end of them. That was why they had spent their personal fortunes on Zemish mercenaries and challenged the Forbidden Army.
However, they were not satisfied with the way Georg had fought.
The Army had been too passive in today’s battle. They understood that the soldiers’ morale would be low from fighting the king’s forces, but Georg had shown no intention of even trying to encourage the troops. This attitude was unlike the Georg Carmine known for his relentless offenses, and it angered the nobles.
“The Army is full of spineless cowards!” one of the nobles spat. “The battle with the king has already begun, you realize!”
“Show us the power that made the name of Georg Carmine famous throughout the kingdom!”
“Surely you don’t mean to tell us you’re scared now!” another one shouted.
“Oh…?” Georg glared at the nobles. That alone was enough to knock the fight out of them, making them fall silent and take a step back away from him. “Who are you suggesting I am afraid of?”
There was silence.
With those words alone, Georg took control of the room.
As he looked to each of the nobles, who were speechless in the face of the fierce general’s intensity, Georg spoke in a calm, composed tone.
“Do any of you understand the situation? The enemy has only ten, maybe twenty thousand troops. It was a surprise that they built that fortress overnight, but if we slowly close in on them, they are the ones that will be pushed into a corner. Where is the need to recklessly attack?”
“I–If that is the case… if they are only ten thousand, shouldn’t we push the attack and defeat them in one fell swoop?” One of the nobles worked up his courage to speak, but Georg only snorted derisively.
“You tried that and were driven off, were you not?” he asked. “What’s more, you even pulled three cannons out of the armory, and then, in your blundering, managed to have them destroyed.”
“Urgh… I can’t apologize enough for that.” The noble who had spoken shrank under Georg’s glare.
In fact, deploying the cannons had been a decision the corrupt nobles had made themselves, frustrated that they couldn’t take the fortress. They had used their titles to intimidate the person in charge of the armory, forcing him to lend them the weapons. As a result, they had needlessly lost three cannons. Now, the Army looked at the nobles’ forces with contempt.
Georg continued, “There was one other thing I found concerning. I couldn’t sense Souma in that fortress.”
“Hasn’t he left the war to his vassals, while he stays trembling back in the royal capital?” one of the corrupt nobles asked.
“Do you think that that king could do that?” Georg asked. “Even if we can’t see him, he’s definitely out there doing something. That is why we need to lure him out.”
“In other words, you want to use the soldiers in that fortress as bait?” a noble asked.
Georg nodded at the noble’s suggestion. “Right now, there is no way to know where Souma is or what he is plotting, but if he leaves the troops he’s dispatched to die, both the soldiers and the people will abandon him. Eventually, he has no choice but to appear on this battlefield. When he does, we simply need to crush him along with the soldiers of the fortress.” He grinned.
Georg was a lion-headed beastman. When he grinned, it exposed his fangs.
When the nobles saw those, it sent a chill down their spines. They knew, if nothing else, they must never make this man their enemy.
Georg rose from his seat. “However, you must all be tired from today’s attack. This is not a battle that will be ending tomorrow or the day after. We of the Army will handle the attack alone, so all of you will take the day tomorrow to rest.”
“““Y-Yes, sir!”””
Having received those words of appreciation from Georg, the nobles bowed their heads and departed from the meeting room.
Once they did, a single man came in, as if trading places with them. “Pardon me, Duke Carmine.”
“…Beowulf,” Georg said.
The man’s name was Beowulf Gardner. He was a wolf-faced beastman who wore a black military uniform. In the Army, he and Glaive Magna, who had now parted ways with them, were the two closest to Georg Carmine. He was the second-in-command of the army now.
Using few words, Georg asked Beowulf, “The preparations are complete, I presume?”
“Yes, sir! Everything is flawless.”
“Good.”
As Beowulf saluted him, Georg nodded in satisfaction, grinning broadly.
Meanwhile, around that time, Halbert and Kaede were sitting side by side, eating together.
They were eating Souma’s invention, “instant gelin udon.”
The gelin udon was first boiled, then it was spiced heavily and dried out. When they wanted to eat it, they would pour boiling water on it and wait for one minute. (It absorbed water faster than instant ramen.) So long as they had a cup and boiling water, it could be eaten anywhere. Because of that convenience, it was well regarded by the Forbidden Army soldiers who received it as part of their rations.
“Being able to eat this stuff even in the field…slurp… it’s nice, isn’t it?” Halbert commented.
“His Majesty was complaining… slurp… ‘I wanted to fry them, but they melted when I put them in oil! Even though I prefer the savory taste of fried noodles to non-fried ones!’ you know,” Kaede said.
“I don’t really get… slurp… why he’d be so particular about that,” Halbert said.
Once they finished their meal over that sort of conversation, Kaede leaned against Halbert’s shoulder. The scent of Kaede’s hair so close to him made Halbert blink rapidly in confusion.
“H-Hey, Kaede. What’re you doing?”
“Hee hee. Hal, I’m happy, you know.”
“Huh?! About what?!” he exclaimed.
“Having you at my side, like this,” Kaede said with a little laugh. “I’m glad you came to the Forbidden Army. If you were still in the Army, we might have been enemies, you know. We might not be here.”
“Yeah, but thanks to that, I’m surrounded by 40,000 soldiers from the Army,” he said.
Kaede smiled to see Halbert rub the bridge of his nose bashfully as he said that.
“It will all be decided today and tomorrow, you know,” she said. “If we can just last that long…”
“Then what?” he asked.
“If we just get past this, I hope the rest will work out.”
“Don’t end it with what you’re hoping for!” he exclaimed. “If you’re going to say that much, then tell me the rest, too!”
“So make sure you protect me, okay? Hal.”
With his childhood friend asking him so cutely, Halbert scratched his head vigorously. “Ugh, fine, I get it! I’ll protect you and everything else!”
“I’m counting on you, you know, Hal,” she said.
In a fortress in the middle of the battlefield, the two nestled close and smiled together.