Chapter 9: The Final Battle (part 1)

It seems that in later years, many dramatizations of this era have depicted Souma

Kazuya as a wise and courageous ruler. They depict him as a ruler who took to the

battlefield, as slaying many powerful opponents in single combat, as having

confounded enemy armies with his ingenuity, and as having brought happiness to

the people with his excellent policies.

However, the historians dispute that appraisal of him.

To begin with, in all his life, Souma only fought enough foreign wars to be

counted on one hand. He had very few opportunities to show that sort of military

prowess. Nearly all of the achievements he is remembered for were actually

accomplished by those who served under him.

As for the ingenuity that let him toy with his enemies, there is no proof that he

came up with any of those ideas himself. In the era in which he lived, there were

many people, foremost among them being the prime minister, Hakuya, who were

masters of such ingenuity, so Souma may only have been implementing the best

plans offered by such people.

Certainly, he had many excellent policies, but it is questionable whether he led all

of his people to happiness.

From time to time, there were signs that Souma's position caused him suffering.

If all of his policies had been having their intended effects, he likely wouldn't have

suffered so. Thus, Souma's abilities were not so great as the dramatizations depict.

That was the consensus reached by historians.

...However.

Even with that said, there are few who claim Souma was not a great ruler.

Another point of consensus among historians is that "Souma was good at

gathering people and using them well." Souma had no great abilities himself, but he

was a genius in how he placed capable people where they were needed, and could

deploy the necessary number of troops to where they were required.

The event that first spread Souma's name across the continent, his victory in the

war with the Principality of Amidonia, was largely a result of this gift. He had a firm

grasp of what he was and was not capable of, and was able to delegate the things he

couldn't do himself to others.

It could be that this is the most important quality for a ruler.

◇ ◇ ◇

"They're more stubborn than I expected..."

As I watched the battle develop from the main camp of the Elfrieden Kingdom's

army, I was surprised by how good a fight the forces of the principality of Amidonia

were putting up.

It was 55,000 kingdom soldiers in high spirits vs. 25,000 exhausted principality

soldiers. The outcome should have been apparent to anyone, but the forces of the

principality were holding out well. No, maybe it was that our forces weren't fully

able to attack.

First, the kingdom's and principality's wyverns were dogfighting in the skies

above. Because they hadn't been hit by the ambush at Goldoa Valley, the Principality

of Amidonia's wyvern unit was the most energetic unit in the principality's army.

There were fewer than 500 knights, but if they stayed on the defensive, even the

Elfrieden Wyvern Cavalry, who boasted twice their numbers, would struggle to

attack them. If we could seize air supremacy, that would decide the outcome of the

battle, but it didn't look like that would happen for a while.

In the end, the battle had been left for the forces on the ground to decide.

The kingdom's army had deployed in the crane wing formation. In the center was

the Royal Guard led by Ludwin, plus a total of 20,000 troops, including 10,000 from

the troops that reported directly to me in the Forbidden Army and 10,000 from the

Army. In the left wing there were roughly 15,000 Army troops led by Glaive (Halbert

and Kaede were in this unit as well). Lastly, in the right wing there was a force of

roughly 15,000 troops led by Liscia which consisted of Army troops and auxiliaries

from the dark elf village.

I wanted Liscia to stay in the main camp, but she said, "This is the final battle. Let

me do what I can, too," and forced me to let her have her way.

Partly because she was currently the only person who could still keep the

confused forces of the Army together, I hesitantly accepted it.

She had been something like an idol during her time with the Army, after all.

Thanks to Georg's training, there was also no issue with her ability to command

troops. I made the decision figuring that she would meet little resistance.

I did, at least, send Aisha with her as a bodyguard, though. She was a princess,

after all, and I didn't want her being too reckless.

Anyway, since I was in the main camp, to the rear of the central force led by

Ludwin, the only person I had to talk to was Carla, who I was keeping close at hand

as a hostage.

While Carla was a hostage, her hands and feet weren't bound with chains. She

was wearing a slave collar, so it would strangle her the moment she attempted to

flee or harm her master. It was supposedly safe leaving her like this. It seemed to me

that if she just seized a sword from one of the guards or stabbed me with those

sharp claws of hers, she could kill me pretty easily, but... I guess that was just how

the collar worked. Then again, Carla didn't seem to have any intention of harming

me anymore.

I tried talking to her. "So, what do you think? I thought they'd break more easily."

"...No one goes to war wanting to lose," she said. "They'll desperately try to avoid

defeat."

"Yeah, I guess they would."

Maybe Carla had gotten bored just standing by my side, because she responded

surprisingly easily. As a former commander of the Air Force, she must have had a

better grasp of the situation than I did.

They're being stubborn because of their inferior numbers, huh. That could be a little

troublesome, I thought.

"Our left and right wings, which is to say the units under Liscia and Glaive, don't

look like they're moving that much," I said. "If they were a bit more proactive about

encircling them, don't you think they could wipe them out?"

"...If you think that, why not send a messenger on a fast horse with that order?"

asked Carla.

With the tone she used, it was like she was asking "Is that your final answer?" It

made me stop to think about it a little. However, I couldn't come to any conclusions.

"...I don't know," I said. "My knowledge of war is purely theoretical, so Liscia

should know far more about commanding troops than I do. Rather than open my

mouth when I shouldn't, I'd better leave the decision-making to those in the field."

Carla laughed a little. "Ha ha ha. That's probably a good idea."

It looked like that was the right answer.

"Carla, do you know the reason?" I asked. "Care to fill me in?"

"It's the number of troops the enemy has," she said.

"The number of troops?"

Carla pointed towards the battlefield. "I only know what I've heard from listening

in, but those are the 30,000 troops that laid siege to Altomura, right? They were

ambushed while they were withdrawing, too."

"Yeah, that's right."

"It doesn't look like their numbers have decreased that much, considering all

that's happened."

"Hm? Now that you mention it..."

With such a large force, it was hard to tell anything at a glance, but they looked to

be about half the size of our own force, which had 55,000 troops. I guessed they had

around 25,000 troops.

It was true that, considering that they'd been ambushed by Juna's marines in

Goldoa Valley, it didn't look like they had taken many losses.

"Did the ambush not achieve anything?" I wondered.

"No, from what I see on the battlefield, there are varying levels of morale in the

different units of the principality's army. They likely made up the troops they lost to

the ambush by taking in conscripts from cities along their route here. That would be

why some of them appear to have low morale."

"I see..."

Countries in this world generally had standing armies.

In a world where there are giant animals that, from a person back on Earth's

perspective, might as well be monsters running rampant, it was necessary to have

troops that could be mobilized at any time. In Elfrieden, the Army, Navy, Air Force

and the troops that were under my direct control in the Forbidden Army were

standing troops. Of course, in times of need, levies could be raised from the common

people. In our case, most of the personal armies of nobles other than the three dukes

were made up of levied troops.

After the war, I planned to create a unified army which would incorporate the

various nobles' forces as well, but I intended to release the people from military

service and have them return to their towns. Right now, raising productivity was a

more urgent concern than a decline in military power.

Naturally, the army the principality used to invade us would also be made up of a

combination of standing troops and levied troops. They must have raised all the

levies they could by now.

So, after the ambush, the levies they'd raised must have come from those they

couldn't have conscripted before.

For instance, they might be the elderly, the feeble, or even adventurers who had

happened to be in their domain. (The adventurers' guild offered a contract that

allowed countries to conscript all adventurers who were in their territory in a time

of crisis. In return, the country needed to pay a fixed sum to the guild every month,

so I had already terminated that contract.)

Carla was pointing out that they couldn't have high morale if that was the case.

"If you leave people like that alone, they'll eventually break on their own," she

said. "On the other hand, if you encircled them, it would risk causing them to unite as

one. That's why both Liscia and Glaive are waiting for them to break ranks and flee."

"I see," I said. "So I was right to let my field commanders make the decision."

I realized that, in a situation like this, rather than pretending to know what I was

doing and making pronouncements from on high, it was better to trust the people in

the field and leave it to them. I had capable people out there, after all.

"I'm just a figurehead, so I should stay back in the main camp, twiddling my

thumbs," I said.

"I think that's a problem in its own way..." said Carla. "You are the king, aren't

you?"

"There's only work for a king before and after the war," I said. "Other than that,

well... If it comes to it, maybe I can offer up my own head and beg them to spare the

lives of my troops and commanders."

When I said that, Carla's eyes went wide. She looked at me as if she was seeing

something completely unbelievable.

Huh? Why was she looking at me like that?

"Did I say something strange?" I asked.

"You... Aren't you afraid to die?" Carla demanded.

What was she talking about?

"Of course I'm scared to die. I'm not suicidal."

"Still, just now, you said you'd offer your head up if it came to that, didn't you?"

she asked. "Have you already accepted that?"

"Huh? Ah... I guess I did. That's weird..."

Carla was right. Now that she mentioned it... it was weird.

Why had I said I'd offer my head up like it was completely natural?

I knew it was something expected of a king. Power was concentrated in my hands

as the representative of this country, so I had to bear just as much responsibility.

That was what it meant to be king.

But why did it feel "natural" for me to do it?

I mean, I'd always been... a bit of a coward, hadn't I? I valued my life, didn't I? I'd

taken the throne and worked so hard at internal affairs in order to avoid being

handed over to the Empire, hadn't I?

—When had I stopped holding my life dear?

Carla looked at me anxiously. "A-Are you all right? Are you feeling unwell?"

I was silent.

Unwell... that's not quite right. Broken...

There was something broken about me as a person.

Yeah. That made a strange amount of sense.

Only now that it had been pointed out did I notice that my current mental state

was messed up.

I felt that I had been taking life too lightly. My own life, and the lives of others.

That was how I was able to do simple arithmetic with people's lives. I had been

subtracting the lives saved from the lives lost, and choosing any option where the

sum was a positive number.

As if I were a system that handled that sort of computation.

That was when the words I'd once said to Liscia crossed my mind.

"Even if I don't want to do it, I have to. Because I'm the king now."

Oh... I see. So that's how it is...

"At some point, I became a king..." I murmured.

"What's this all of a sudden? You've been a king all this time."

Carla didn't seem to understand what I was saying, but it made sense to me now.

"I was just going along with events as they happened," I said. "At some point...

without noticing it myself, I began to act as a system of the state which we call a

'king.' ...By telling myself it was part of my programming, I became able to always

choose the 'best' option."

"System? Programming? Hey, what are you even talking about?!" Carla shouted.

All I could do was give a self-deprecating laugh. "Carla, I may be a 'fake.'"

"Wha?!"

"After all... If I can't get into the role of king, I can't send soldiers off to the

battlefield," I said.

I was a coward. I didn't want to be hurt or killed myself. I didn't want to see

others hurt or killed, either.

For someone like me to go to war as a king, I had to fully embrace my role as a

system of the state.

By telling myself this was what a king did, I had been able to suppress my own

will and do what needed to be done. If I hadn't... I felt like I'd have been crushed

under the weight of all the lives that might be lost because of my decisions. When I

saw how far I had taken that, I could only laugh scornfully at myself.

"Man... I can't laugh at the former king now, huh," I said. "If I had a viable

replacement, I'd want to give up right now."

"...What good can come from letting me hear you in a moment of weakness like

this?" she asked incredulously.

"You've got it backwards," I said. "Do you think I could let Liscia and the others

hear me talk like this?"

For Liscia, who'd told me she wanted me to be king; for Aisha, who served me as

king; and for Juna, Hakuya, Poncho, Tomoe, and all the rest, I could never let them

hear me like this. Especially since Liscia, being the serious person she was, seemed

to feel responsible for the fact that her father had pushed the throne onto me.

"Because you've fought against me, I'm able to let you hear," I said.

"...That doesn't make me happy at all."

Then it happened. It happened as we were talking. I noticed there had been a

change on the battlefield.