CH 260

Chapter 260 – The Blue Hydrangea of Farnese(5)

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A group of generals were lined up and waiting for us at the riverside.

Our small boat landed on the shore. Servants immediately came out to receive us. They unrolled an extravagant red carpet. I got off the boat first and courteously put out my right hand.

“Madam Paimon.”

“How gentlemanly.”

Paimon smiled as she gently took my hand.

The generals all stood at attention.

“We greet the Supreme Commander!”

“For the glory of the Crescent Alliance!”

A wave of salutes followed.

The sunlight reflected off the river and made it blinding. Flags were waving in this blinding light. A camel with four mountains that represented Paimon, a goat with three horns that represented Sitri, the various banners of the many troops, and the banners of the knights the previously mentioned flags had destroyed and wiped out…….

We walked along the carpet that was laid out in the center of the military camp.

“It almost feels like we are celebrating a wedding.”

“Dear me. You will be in big trouble if you go around saying something like that to people, you know?”

“I do not say this to just anyone. I am mentioning it since it is you.”

“It is because you talk like that that you do not sound trustworthy at all, Dantalian.”

Paimon chuckled.

I shrugged back at her. As expected, someone with centuries of experience dating would never get tricked by this. Paimon was a pro that Ivar Lodbrok couldn’t possibly compare to.

“Welcome, Your Highness Paimon, Your Highness Dantalian, and…….”

Laura, who had been defending the camp as the highest advisor, came out to welcome us. Laura looked behind us and furrowed her brows.

“Why is Big Sister Sitri completely drenched?”

“Huaah. It’s all my fault. Sorry, Big Sis. Sorry, Dantalian. Uaaaah!”

Sitri was no different from a drenched dog. She was weeping, but I couldn’t tell whether it was the river water flowing down her face or her tears.

“……The envoys are waiting at the front gate. I will lead you there.”

Laura made a face for a moment before going back to a placid expression. She immediately knew that nothing good would come out of prying into this. What a clever girl.

Just as Laura told us, a group of envoys were waiting at the front gate. Their luxurious clothes made it obvious that they used to be nobles. The Habsburg Republic boasted that their revolution was successful, but status groups still clearly remained.

Formally, instead of saying nobles and commoners, they say rank 1 and rank 2 commoners. In other words, they’re burying their heads in the sand. What a splendid method. I still have a lot to learn from Elizabeth.

“We greet the Great Beings.”

“We greet the Great Beings.”

The gentlemen who represented Heidelberg bowed.

We courteously shared a greeting━they may have been our enemy, but that didn’t mean we would be rude to envoys━before immediately discussing their terms of surrender.

All rights over Heidelberg will be handed over to the Demon Lord army, they will pay 40,000 libra as war compensation, and those who refuse to accept our rule will have to immediately leave the city.

Paimon nodded.

“There seem to be no issues with the document.”

The conditions were rather generous. We didn’t even ask for the lives of the ones in charge. We didn’t slaughter or pillage their people either.

The envoys praised us endlessly for being merciful.

“How could we not be moved by your mercy?”

“The blessing of all Gods will be with you.”

Paimon signed the contract as our representative.

A middle-aged man handed a large key over to Paimon. The man was the mayor of Heidelberg and he had handed over the key to the front gate of the city. Paimon smiled within the tension and patted the mayor’s shoulder.

“You have finished your duty to protect your people as the mayor and have done your utmost as the commander to protect the city. I, Paimon, give you my respect.”

“I-I am truly grateful for this honor.”

The mayor was very obviously intimidated. He was a coward despite his fluffy beard. 

Also, what? Old man, you can only refer to yourself like that when you’re talking to your lord. Everyone heard you, so even if you return alive, you’ll probably get executed for treason. There’s no way Elizabeth wouldn’t use him as a sacrificial lamb for this loss. Tsk tsk.

“Uhm, there is something that I wish to ask…….”

“Oh? Feel free to ask anything.”

“This humble one is unintelligent and ignorant when it comes to military tactics.”

Sweat was pouring down from the mayor’s partially bald head.

“It is because of this that our night assault ended in a failure……. Furthermore, I still do not understand how our fire ships were wiped out in Heilbronn. My apologies, but what level of understanding has Your Highness reached to have been able to see through all of our strategies?”

Oh? It seems this sloppy-looking old man was also their strategist.

Hmmm. Hmm? Mm…….

This is suspicious. It’s not much, but should I take precautions? Better safe than sorry.

“I wonder. What level of understanding, is it?”

Paimon glanced at me.

Laura is my subordinate. I have the right to answer this question. I turned to look at Laura and handed the right down to the person in question.

Laura nodded before speaking up.

“I was the one who prevented your strategies in advance.”

“Pardon me……?”

The mayor looked Laura up and down in bewilderment. Once Laura furrowed her brows in discomfort, the mayor quickly lowered his head.

“I-I am sorry. You seemed so young, so……. Please forgive me for not being able to discern the age of a demon.”

“I am not a demon. I am human. I have only lived for twenty years and three months now, so there is no need for concern.”

The mayor’s expression soon fell into a crucible of confusion. The other envoys were also clearly surprised.

“You are human……? No, more importantly, how could a 20-year-old lady……?”

“I will not be discussing my personal circumstances.”

Laura cut him off sternly.

“For starters, you asked about the required level of enlightenment one must possess to have seen through your plans, but this question in itself is wrong. The reason you lost in this battle wasn’t because of something like clairvoyance or fate. There are battles that are determined by luck; however, this was not one of those cases.”

Laura fiddled with her hair with one hand.

“I knew full well that you were an extremely competent general. The leader of Habsburg is a strategist with unparalleled skill, so it would only be natural for the military command that supports this leader to also be capable individuals. Heidelberg is an important key location. There is no possibility that the leader of Habsburg would leave this place to an incompetent general.”

“What are you trying to say……?”

“It means I had a rough grasp of your personality.”

She swept her blonde hair back. This was her way of showing that the thoughts in her were organized.

“I know exactly when a competent soldier must be daring and cautious. I can imagine what the leader of Habsburg must have said to you as she left Heidelberg in your care. Protect the fortress at all costs.”

“…….”

“But we lack manpower, so do not hope for reinforcements from the capital and do your utmost to carry out battles while incurring as little losses as possible……. Something along these lines. You were in a situation where you had to utilize your troops as efficiently as possible.”

The mayor’s complexion gradually became pale. Laura paid him no mind as she continued.

“The fortress was surrounded. How did you assess the situation? Did you think you had to simply make a hole in the encirclement? Absolutely not. You are competent. You must have immediately realized that ‘everything will be resolved if the bridge is destroyed’. Am I wrong?”

“……T-That is correct.”

“See? This makes matters simple.”

Laura smiled widely.

“What is a tactic that can destroy a single point with minimal losses?”

“……A surprise attack.”

“Mm. To be more exact, a night attack. However, night attacks must be carried out by aptly trained troops or they will fail. Elite troops are required in order to assure your success. In other words, you had to mobilize your knights.”

Laura kindly explained like she was describing the secret behind a magic trick to a friend.

“You most likely ordered your knights to keep charging over and over again until they succeeded even if we were somehow prepared for your attack. Be happy. As you ordered, your knights charged more than 16 times. Until they were completely wiped out, that is.”

The mayor’s shoulders shook.

“I knew where you would attack, what you would attack with, and how you would attack. Do you need to know more?”

The mayor lowered his head and went silent. The envoys gave him worried looks. The mayor wiped his sweat off his forehead before barely managing to open his mouth again.

“Then the fire ships……how did you……?”

“The same thing. You were low on knights, but it was very likely that you would continue trying to destroy the bridge while incurring as few losses as possible. You lost the ability to attack on land, so what other method did you have left? The answer is on water. It was a simple choice between one and the other.”

“Simple…….”

The mayor raised his head. The veins in his eyes were clear.

“But, the fire ships were destroyed before they could even reach the bridge. I do not understand how this could have happened.”

“Hm? Is it not obvious?”

Laura asked him back with a confused look.

“You most likely estimated the time it would take for the ships to arrive at the bridge when the east wind was strong. Calculating that in reverse reveals when the ships would arrive at Heilbronn. This is also simple logic. Now then, as I explained, there is no clairovoyance or luck behind this.”

“…….”

There was a moment of silence.

A short moment later, the mayor let out a pained groan.

“You……You scoundrel, how dare you play with our land!”

Oh dear.

The mayor reached his arms out and charged at Laura. His fists were emanating a faint aura. The mayor was also a knight.

Screams erupted from here and there. The envoys let out gasps, Paimon’s eyes opened wide, and Sitri stepped forward with haste. However, there was nothing for them to actually worry about.

“Hua━kuaaagh!”

The mayor was already impaled by several broadswords that had come out from the shadows.

It was the death knights. I had made them prepare beforehand because I had a strange feeling since earlier.

It roused my suspicion after listening to him for a bit. This old man was the mayor, commander, and also the strategist. In other words, he was someone that was put in charge of the well-being of the people, the military, and also military strategies. He was an overwhelmingly competent individual.

A competent person like this was somehow failing to control his tone and facial expressions?

It was suspicious. He probably wanted to lower our guards by deliberately acting weak. Sorry, but shitty acting like that wouldn’t even fool an infant.

“Lord.”

Laura turned to look at me. She didn’t seem particularly surprised. How could a 20-year-old girl have such a steel heart?

I couldn’t help but find it humorous so I laughed.

“It’s a gift, Laura. You can take this pig’s head as a part of your collection.”

Laura opened her eyes wide a bit before smiling.

“I couldn’t possibly refuse a gift from Your Lordship.”

Laura unsheathed the long sword on her waist. She then decapitated the mayor, who was still alive despite being impaled, with a single clean swipe of her sword. The head flew in the air for a very brief moment before falling on the ground with a thud.

A curtain of silence fell over everyone.

“Did the invitation go out to the wrong people? It seems like these people are assassins and not envoys. How could the postman mistake the assassin guild for the government office?”

I spoke casually to Paimon.

The envoys became pale. Seeing their reactions, it seems the mayor attempted the assassination of his own volition. A single criminal while the rest are innocent. Showing his last bit of pride as a human while the rest survive. Was that his intention……?

All right. I will show you the price for taking matters lightly.

“I would rather not have unruly guests ruin our banquet. We have no other choice but to return you all back to where you must go. Isn’t that so?”

Let’s slaughter them all.