CH 134

Translator:Nisarah.  Editor:Fleeting

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The demon army was powerful. They were superior both in terms of numbers and the quality of the soldiers. Only the hero, Mazell, and his party would be able to win while fighting them head-on.

That was why I wanted to bring the battlefield to the front of the town, so I could make use of the town wall to fight the demon army. For me to be able to do that, there were many things that I needed to prepare.

“The first stage of this plan is to provoke the demons and the second stage of this plan is to lure them to Anheim town, so we could make use of the town’s wall to fight them in a defensive battle.”

I pointed at the map using my finger and everyone’s attention gathered at the place I pointed.

“First here.”

I marked a place near the riverbank.

“We will build a fort here. Of course, it won’t be a fort with stone walls as that will take a long time to construct. We will build it with wood with minimal requirements. With the whole town’s support and all materials ready, we will be able to build it fairly fast. All the mobile forces will stay in this fort. We’re going to lure the enemy to attack this fort.”

“Lure the enemies to attack?” (Neurath)

“Yeah. Like I said before, we’re going to provoke the demon general. This fort on the riverbank will be built to prevent the angry demon general from attacking the southern gate.”

“All the mobile forces, you say?” (Schunzel)

“Yes, including me. I will also stay in that fort.”

After I answered Neurath and Schunzel’s question, everyone became perplexed. I mean, their target would be me, so of course, I had to stay in the fort.

“But Viscount…” (Behnke)

“Don’t worry. I have no intention of staying in a hastily built fort forever.”

After I cut off Sir Behnke’s words, I marked 2 other places on the map. I then connected the 3 marks with arrows and it created a half circle that led to the northern part of Anheim.

(Illustration by: Mitemin)

By the way, the second fort was the base created by the bandits’ group Sir Eickstedt was part of.

“We will build forts in these three places, then we will lure the enemy to attack these forts in the above mentioned order to finally bring the enemy to the northern gate.”

“Will everything be that easy?” (Kesten)

“As long as we can make the enemy attack the first fort, I have confidence that this plan will succeed.” (Welner)

In terms of the ability to piss off others, I had confidence that not even Mazell could defeat me. Well, I guess this sort of thing was not something I should be proud of…

Demons fundamentally underestimated humans. The pissed off demons would definitely think that they would be able to kill me in the hastily built riverbank fort. They also wouldn’t know the existence of the other two forts since they would not bother to investigate the entire Anheim region.

But even the powerful demons would have trouble destroying the town walls. That was why I needed to lure them out.

“I need the enemy to follow me while I move between the three forts. That is why I need to provoke the enemy as much as possible.”

As I answered Sir Kesten’s question, Sir Kesten frowned. He must have realized that he would be responsible for defending Anheim town. No, I didn’t do this to throw my responsibility to Sir Kesten!

The support troop that I had Sir Kesten train would be responsible for defending Anheim town from outside and inside’s threats when I would be going out to provoke the demon army. So yeah, I had already made preparations.

Sir Eickstedt turned to me and asked, “Will not the third fort be dangerous? The first fort has a river that can slow down the enemy, and the second fort is located on top of a hill, so it has a terrain advantage, but this third fort will be located on a grass plain. Demons can appear from anywhere. If they appear between the third fort and the town, you will be isolated.”

“I’ve already thought about countermeasures for that, so don’t worry.”

Thank you for pointing that out, Sir Eickstedt. It seemed like Sir Holzdeppe and Sir Kesten had also noticed that. I needed to lure the enemy to the third fort because if I didn’t, there was a risk that the enemy would attack Anheim town’s east gate. If I lured the enemy to the north gate, the Anheim town itself would become a wall that traps the enemy while their rear was attacked by the reinforcement from the capital.

We wouldn’t be able to chase down the demon general if he decided to hole up in Triot, so I didn’t have any choice but to definitely defeat him here.

“The first thing we need to do to piss off the enemy is to attack them in Triot, their territory. We will go to Triot with a troop of 20-30 people, kill some demons, then immediately return to the first fort. Don’t engage in a reckless battle.”

Each troop would stay in Triot for 2-3 days at most and in some cases, they would go to Triot and return to the fort in just one day. In short, we would beat up some demons to harass the demon general and then immediately escape. Doing this should provoke the demon general’s anger.

If the demons were creatures with some animalistic instinct, they would first try to kill us in their own territory, and after they failed repeatedly, they would snap and chase us.

I didn’t know how long it would take for the enemy to snap, so I should build the (makeshift) forts while the taunt force was attracting the enemies’ attention. For me to do that…

“Sir Eicksted… I want Sir to create the plan for the continuous attack on Triot.”

“Me?

“Yeah. It will be quite satisfying to see the demons become a victim of your plan, right?”

Some people wanted to interject, but I stopped them with my gazes. Actually, I had already drafted the basic plan for attacking Triot after gathering information from the refugee nobles, merchants and diplomats from Triot that came to the Bain Kingdom.

Therefore, the information I had of Triot should be pretty close to the latest situation there. If Sir Eickstedt made some mistake in his plan, I could just reject the plan.

Despite my preparation, the reason I still asked Sir Eickstedt to make a plan was to give him, a person who had lost all his loved ones, a reason to keep living. If possible, I wanted him to get back on his feet. It was for my self-satisfaction.

“There are several conditions for the plan. First, the planned attack will be a series of minor attacks. Second, all troops must only stay in Triot for a short period. Third, prepare several ways to cross the river. As for the rest, Sir can decide it yourself.”

“Why do I need to prepare several ways to cross the river?”

“The easiest way for the enemy to attack us is to set up an ambush on the other side of the river, so we may need to change the place or the way we cross the river to prevent such a scenario.”

In fact, once I had reached a certain degree of perfection, I planned to use it in my plan.

There must be some peculiar tendency in every one of my plans that I was unaware of. If the enemy noticed that tendency and used it to lure us into an ambush, the attacking troop would suffer significant damage.

The plan that was made by another person wouldn’t have my peculiar tendency, so if the enemies were to make a plan based on my peculiar tendency, that plan would fail. This alone would be enough to play around with the enemies and provoke them.

That was why I wanted another person, who had a completely different way of thinking than me and who also wasn’t familiar with any of my plans, to create the plan for the attack. Sir Eickstedt fit those criteria and he was even familiar with the geography of Triot which was a bonus.

“I’ll leave the planning to Sir Eickstedt, but the troop will be led by Sir Holzdeppe, Sir Gekke, Neurath, and Schunzel.”

“Us too?”

“Yeah. I’ll be counting on you all.”

Both Neurath and Schunzel weren’t the type of commanders who would command a reckless attack, so they were a perfect fit. In addition, we simply lacked human resources. I mean, I, Sir Holzdeppe, Sir Gekke alone wouldn’t be able to lead the entire attacking troop in doing a series of attacks. Not to mention, I also had the mission of provoking the enemies. I have tons to do. Argh… My stomach hurts.

“Remember that our enemies also have brains. As such, it might be impossible for everything to go exactly like the plan.”

“Our aim in this plan is to kill the demon general. In the actual battle, we may need to adjust our plans based on the changes in various variables like the situation of the Triot, enemy’s movements, and situation on our side. Therefore, if there are any changes any of you want to make in plan, don’t hesitate to tell me.”

I couldn’t forget the fact that the situation would always be changing during a war. I never thought my plan would be perfect.

“Don’t be too obsessed with the actual war situation, but don’t just stick to the original plan. Don’t forget our aim. Choose the options you judge to be the best to reach our aim, which is to kill the demon general.”

“Yes, sir!”

That was an excellent answer. I confirmed everyone had nodded in understanding, then threw out the finishing line.

“There might be some changes to the details, but the general plan will be like I have explained before. I’ll look forward to Sirs’ works.”

The first move was more terrifying than any big or small move. Gezarius, I would definitely drag you out.

(T/N: The first move was more terrifying than any big or small move is a shogi proverb)