Northern Front (2)
Click.
The sound of a teacup being set down shattered the silence in the somber drawing room.
Dalen shifted his gaze from the window to the head of the round table.
The most ornate seat at the table, adorned with intricate designs, was occupied by an elderly man. His hands trembled slightly as he cradled a half-empty teacup, and he finally spoke.
”…I apologize for the delay. Welcome, heroes who have saved the fortress.”
It had taken a full ten minutes after being led into the drawing room by Craig, the royal special forces executor and now the fortress’s commander, to hear these words of greeting.
“It’s quite alright, my lord. No one could have predicted an invasion from the demons at the eastern edge of the front.”
“Thank you, Master of Elgaia Tower. In my younger days, I wasn’t like this, but age has taken its toll, and even minor disturbances leave me weary.”
“The demon invasion is hardly a minor disturbance. You’re handling it well enough.”
Felber’s gentle voice offered comfort to the old man, who finally exhaled a deep sigh and sank back into his chair.
His voice, weathered by time, quivered faintly. The elderly noble, with his white hair and deeply lined face, seemed ill-suited to lead a defense, let alone take to the battlefield.
That such an aged noble was appointed as the lord of the northern front suggested a dire shortage of human resources in the Tsar’s realm.
Observing the situation, the dragon spirit within Dalen’s mind inquired, puzzled.
[Though my memories are incomplete, wasn’t the Tsar’s realm considered an empire of sorts?]
‘Indeed. Its territory is even larger than the southern empire’s.’
[Then how is it that such a commander is stationed at the empire’s frontline? Isn’t the current Tsarina known to be a powerful ruler, skilled in both governance and warfare?]
‘Because she is the only such ruler to have emerged in centuries.’
[…I see.]
The dragon spirit nodded, finally understanding.
The current Tsarina was indeed a rare and exceptional ruler, one who might appear once in several centuries. Despite having ascended the throne only a decade ago, she was already being compared to Tsar Vizlov, who had led the Tsar’s realm to a golden age four hundred years prior.
Yet even a ruler as powerful as she had her limitations.
For the Tsar’s realm, the limitation was human resources.
‘You can train and recruit foot soldiers to be effective in a matter of weeks, but a commander’s role is different.’
Without exceptional innate talent and intelligence, it takes at least five to ten years of experience to forge a seasoned commander.
And due to the endless indulgence of previous Tsars over the centuries, most of the Tsar’s nobility had become steeped in decadence.
Fortunately, a few loyal families had remained steadfast in their duties throughout the chaos of those centuries.
Centered around these families, the current Tsarina was rapidly restoring the nation’s strength and cultivating capable commanders.
However, even with the many skilled commanders trained over the past decade, their numbers were barely sufficient to defend the capital, Eclahim, and the central northern front.
‘In the end, this old man is just a relic from the era of the previous Tsars, someone who exploited the people. With the northern front so short on manpower, he’s been placed here at the outskirts. At least, being old, he won’t entertain any foolish ideas.’
In short, he was an utterly incompetent commander, but one who couldn’t even afford to betray, making him a temporary stopgap in the manpower shortage.
Whether he was aware of his own standing or not, the lord continued to speak with a confused expression.
“I still don’t quite understand why Suum sent two demons here. I’ve heard that twenty demons were summoned beyond the Frost Plains, but is it really worth deploying more than a tenth of their forces to this remote defense line…?”
His sigh sent his beard fluttering.
As the lord of the fortress, his words were pitiful, yet largely accurate.
Under normal circumstances, two demons would never have attacked such a remote outpost.
This fortress was at the very end of the long northern defense line.
Moreover, the terrain behind it was so rugged that even if a large army captured it, a new defense line could be established before they could bypass it.
Why, then, had two demons attacked this seemingly worthless fortress?
The answer was already clear, as was the strategy to address it.
But instead of answering immediately, Dalen reached into the pocket of his dimensional space and retrieved the essence shard that Arvor was greedily sucking on.
‘Spit it out.’
[What?]
‘I’ll give it back, just spit it out.’
[But…! You shouldn’t take food from a dog while it’s eating… Ahh!]
With a light tap to silence the protesting demon, Dalen wiped the shard clean and placed it on the table.
Sssss…
Even as a mere shard, it was a concentrated mass of infernal energy, drawing all eyes to it with its sinister aura.
The lord’s half-closed eyes widened, and the other retainers at the table twitched slightly.
It wasn’t so much that they were entranced by the malevolent energy, but rather that they were gripped by fear.
Fear of the demon to whom the essence belonged, and fear of the one who had slain it with a single stroke.
Unlike Felber, Dalen offered no words of comfort to the lord.
Sometimes, a touch of fear was necessary for effective communication.
Once he had suppressed the infernal energy with a technique derived from Filz’s wind barrier, he spoke.
“This is a shard of Orobas’s essence. Though merely a lower demon, it’s not without a name.”
The lingering effects of the infernal energy that had swept over the round table left the lord and his retainers in silence.
Dalen added another remark.
“The five-headed lizard demon that Inquisitor Castachald dealt with was named Riplops. Another named lower demon. Two such demons were sent.”
“I know that. But… why?”
“It’s simple. It means they have plenty of forces.”
Instead of targeting the well-defended central front, they aimed to seize the distant edge of the defense line, hoping to find a breakthrough with the meager gains from this seemingly worthless fortress. This was more in line with Enaxagus’s tactics.
Suum wasn’t a god of cunning strategies. He wasn’t the type to orchestrate grand plans on the battlefield.
A war-crazed deity like him would be more inclined to throw his forces at the central front, where the Tsarina had concentrated her power.
The fact that two demons had been dispatched to such a remote area suggested that their overall strength far exceeded previous estimates.
“Suum hasn’t summoned just around twenty demons. It’s at least double that, probably more. A major battle will soon erupt at the central front.”
His words were almost prophetic, yet they weren’t baseless.
In every cycle where the Tsar’s realm fell to Suum’s forces, except those destroyed by internal strife, the pattern was always the same.
Suum’s assaults always concentrated on the thickest part of the defense line.
No matter how mighty the Tsar’s realm was, it was no easy feat to withstand a massive offensive involving dozens of demons.
Even after the defense line crumbled, they managed to hold out for a while, but nine times out of ten, they eventually fell.
“The priority now isn’t the safety of this remote fortress. Leave only the minimum garrison here and send reinforcements to the central front immediately.”
“Hold on. Do you think you can dictate the defense line with just your words? No matter how renowned you are, you’re still just a mercenary. Don’t forget that.”
Perhaps it was the suggestion to withdraw troops from the fortress.
One of the previously silent retainers snapped.
“Fifty demons summoned? That’s absurd! Our Tsar’s realm has fought northern demons for centuries! Even without being a dark sorcerer, we know the basics. Summoning demons requires sacrifices.”
“Tsk, tsk. Such ignorance. The evil lurking in the shadows of the continent is far greater than you imagine.”
It was Felber, not Dalen, who responded to the retainer. The old man spoke slowly, his golden eyes gleaming.
“The basics, you say… Let’s see how well you know demons. From what I can tell, your only experience with demons is secretly disposing of a dark magic tome left by your grandmother.”
“W-what are you talking about…!”
“Resisting a demon’s temptation is commendable, but there are limits to what one can experience in a narrow well.”
Felber chuckled, stroking his brown beard. The retainer, having his family’s secret exposed, turned pale and hung his head.
Felber shifted his gaze from the retainer to the rest of the table. One by one, the retainers averted their eyes.
No one dared to meet the old man’s piercing golden gaze. Felber nodded in satisfaction and spoke to the lord.
“My lord, you must know that the evil gods have always been at odds with each other. However, in the distant past, during the ancient wars erased from history, that wasn’t the case.”
”······.”
“The Southern Paladins have been attacked by Raphilem, and Enaksagus is targeting the entire continent, including the labyrinth city. You are well aware that Temomron has long had its eyes on the human territories in the east of the empire.”
His eyes glinted with an even deeper shade of gold. His voice remained gentle, at least towards the lord.
Yet beneath the wizard’s soft words lay a strange, almost imperceptible resonance.
A golden resonance that dominated the air around the round table.
The transcendent power that shook the hearts and minds of men.
“Domain Unleashed: The Hand of the Rewinding Earth.”
A power that discreetly opened, allowing him to peer into and manipulate the timelines of others, fixing them at their most vulnerable moments.
While it might not work on those with heightened senses, those who were ordinary, save for the power they were born into, wouldn’t even notice, let alone resist.
In what was more akin to mass hypnosis than persuasion, Dalen leaned back slightly, arms crossed.
“Not long ago, in the labyrinth city, Enaksagus and Raphilem collaborated. There’s no reason they won’t do so again. The fact that Suum has projected this level of force in the north suggests an alliance of the evil gods is forming.”
“Then… what should we… do?”
“By the time a request for reinforcements comes from the front lines, it will be too late. We must dispatch support troops immediately.”
“Understood…”
The lord nodded heavily.
The vassals seated around the table were no different.
As if entranced, they nodded in agreement, repeating words of consent.
Though they seemed dazed now, once freed from the power, they would return to their normal selves without any awkwardness.
Of course, they wouldn’t harbor a shred of doubt about the decisions they were ‘persuaded’ to make.
”······.”
Watching Felber wipe the cold sweat from his brow, Dalen was lost in thought.
It wasn’t about the responsibility of moving the army without the lord’s command or the guilt of swaying the commanders’ decisions through near-brainwashing.
It was a much simpler, fleeting thought.
“Why couldn’t my spell-casting characters do that?”
It was a lament for the times in previous cycles when he had to fight the lord’s guards every time he attempted something similar.
Damn it. What an unfair world.
The preparations for departure were swift. Within half a day, the soldiers packed their gear and marched out of the castle gates.
Just because the commanders were incompetent didn’t mean the soldiers were.
The soldiers, recruited and trained under Charina’s reformed iron-blooded army system, were superior in skill and discipline to any other nation’s forces.
Leaving only the minimum number of troops necessary to operate and guard the fortress, a thousand-strong force marched in rows and columns through the narrow valley path.
“I’m not sure if we have enough time.”
In the middle of the formation, on a sled pulled by trained hunting dogs, Lucia, seated next to Dalen, suddenly spoke.