Chapter 284 – Farce
After assembling my leaders in the conference room, I started a strategy meeting.
“Kaede, you are to constantly monitor the pig ― Demon King Motoki.”
“OK.”
Next up is the search for the enemy. I guess I’ll assign Saburou…no, just to be safe, I’ll go with the elf Sarah.
“Sarah, take your corps and investigate this area,” I ordered her while pointing at a part of the map spread out in front of us.
“Ay! What should I do if we run into enemies?”
“Make sure to kill them all. …In case of a huge group, I permit you to pull back.”
“Count on me.”
Sarah does a playful army salute.
“Hah? Why ya sendin’ Sarah to such a place? Have ya given up on that fortress?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“So yar goin’ to pull Sarah off the invasion then?”
Takaharu speaks up against my baffling instruction.
“That’s what it means, yes.”
“Hah? No, it ain’t no particular problem even if someone like Sarah isn’t ’round, but…her magic ain’t half bad, right? Though she’s far below me in ability, o’ course.”
Apparently hating the idea of praising Sarah quite a bit, Takaharu talks in a very roundabout way.
“Hihihi…Taka-chi, you’re totally feeling anxious about me not being around, aren’t you?”
“Hah? Don’t be stupid. I haven’t said anythin’ like that!”
Takaharu roughly denies Sarah’s teasing.
“There’s no doubt about Sarah being a valuable combat asset.”
“――!? Shion-chi, did you, like, praise me just now!? Am I gonna die tomorrow or something?”
“Hmm? Do you want to die? I mean, it’d be a waste to let you vanish just like that, so want to have a try at dying socially?” I threaten Sarah while looking in Saburou’s direction.
“N-No, I was just kidding! Shion-chi, you’re always kind! S-So please…stop riling up that thing!”
“Hmm? It’s said that marriage is a graveyard, but I do have confidence in my ability to build a happy family! ――Ohh! Shion-sama! Polygamy is allowed in the Aster Empire, right?”
Saburou starts to blather about something that’s manifold crueler than my original punishment.
“Returning to the main topic, we’ll attack Nanto Fortress tomorrow and the days after as well, but…we won’t go at it seriously.”
“What do ya mean by that?”
“I guess you could describe it as faking an invasion. I plan to limit the battles to small skirmishes.”
“Hah? Why!?”
The muscle-brain Takaharu apparently dislikes this strategy.
“It’s because it’d be tough to take the fortress with a frontal attack.”
“So what’s the idea then?”
“I’ll use a scheme.”
I explained the strategy we’d use from now on.
“Shion.”
“What’s up?”
“Am I needed for yar plan?”
“I’ll need you for the finishing touches.”
“When are those goin’ to take place?”
“In two to three weeks.”
“Would it be alright for me to do somethin’ else in the meantime?”
Takaharu, belligerent as he is, tends to hate passive strategies. I considered his request for a little while, and realized that he wouldn’t get any turn during the first part of the strategy.
“I don’t particularly mind, but what are you planning to do?”
“I’m gonna retrain my men.”
“Where?”
“Some random Domain ’round here would be bad?”
“Where’s that around here of yours? Oh well, whatever…go and play at some random Gifu Domain.”
“Sure! It ain’t gonna be playin’ round but trainin’, though!”
“Does anyone else have questions or requests?”
I survey my leaders, but there’s no other selfish leader like Takaharu.
“Okay, please proceed according to plan, starting with tomorrow!”
I finished the meeting and told my leaders to go back to their previous pastime.
◆
5 p.m. on the next day. I departed towards Nanto Fortress in order to uphold my promise with the pig.
5:50 p.m. Just like the other day, the pig starts his invasion before the appointed time. I observe the pig’s invasion through Kaede.
“Fuhahaha! Tonight we are going to attack your fortress together with our sworn friend Shion, one of the 『Thirteen Evil Stars』, at the same time again!”
I forbade the pig to announce our attack on the Internet, but he has apparently interpreted it as it being no problem to tell the enemy directly…exposing our invasion in the same way as last time.
“We shall attack the Tateyama Fortress while our sworn friend Shion will handle the Nanto Fortress! We shall bring your defense line to fall!”
The pig is even as kind as telling the humans the target of our attack. Although it’s just through my smartphone, it physically pains me to listen to pig’s voice and watch the pig’s face, so I close my phone.
“The pig has started his invasion. We’re going to start as well.”
Together with my subordinates, I begin to advance on Nanto Fortress. Just like the other day, a phalanx unit has taken up position in front of the fortress.
“Proceed up to a range where our arrows will hit!”
With Iron’s corps in the lead, we march far enough for our ranged attacks to hit.
“――Fire!”
In accordance with my order, countless arrows and spells rain down on the phalanx unit. The arrows shot at us from the fortress are being repelled by the shields of Iron’s corps while the phalanx unit blocks out attacks with their shields.
We perform this farce of a skirmish for around three hours, and then retreat after the pig pulls out and reinforcements come our way from Toyama City, just like yesterday.
On the next day, we repeat the same farce. Two days later I threw goblins and ghouls – the units with the best cost performance – at the enemy since it’d only invite suspicions if I overdid it with the farce. Three days later I repeated the farce again.
Just like this we continued this way of skirmishing over a period of three weeks.
Translation Notes:
