Chapter 22 Revolt of Hadrianus (I)

Lemurian people regarded Emperor Hercule as a national hero and a great military general, but King Sasan VIII and King Ludwig I who reigned contemporarily were also the subjects of many tales.

In war chronicles where Hercule was the main character, and even in the ones centered around the famous generals who served him—Darios Leopard the "Black Panther" for instance—Hercule was described as a reliable lord.

In romances about Emperor Hercule and the women in his life—Hercule was portrayed as a gentle, yet philandering man.

In stories about the artists and scholars who received the backing of the Emperor, Hercule was seen as a liberal and progressive patron.

In picture books and sermons of clergymen, Hercule was depicted as a deeply pious believer in the Messiah.

And in tales centered around Sasan VIII and Ludwig I, he was a villain that couldn't be made light of.

There were even stories of future people going back in time to teach Emperor Hercule future knowledge, as well as stories where he was gender-swapped.

However, there emerged two patterns in the character of Emperor Hercule in those stories.

Either he was a righteous ruler—kind-hearted, always looking out for the people, deeply pious, someone who would shed tears for fallen soldiers.

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Or he was a tyrant—cruel, indifferent towards others, had no faith in God and would stop at nothing to achieve his goals—but even then, he was still a wise ruler who brought glory to the Empire.

The character of Emperor Hercule differed from writer to writer, but by and large, these were the two mainstream views of him.

With all that said, the following historical event was what caused the opinions of writers to become divided.

The "Revolt of Hadrianus".

One historian claimed that Hadrianus's rebellion was in fact orchestrated by Emperor Hercule himself. Another historian asserted that the rebellion caught him off guard.

So, which was the truth?

Only one thing could be said with certainty.

Hercule was someone who would never let facts inconvenient to himself remain in historical records.

"Poor His Highness Hadrianus. He raised his troops thinking Your Imperial Majesty's army was annihilated, but our forces are in fact totally unharmed," a dandy, mustached man laughed as he spoke to Hercule.

His hair and eyes were light brown. A long and narrow pair of ears protruded from under his hair. His skin was well tanned from sunlight, and his gel-hardened hairstyle was quite modern-looking. From his clothing and accessories, one could tell that he was someone who was fussy about his appearance.

His name was Edmond Erdomort. He was a half-elven military nobleman. And—he was Hercule's brother born of a different mother.

Edmond Erdomort was born to a human concubine of the previous Emperor Hadrianus III.

Garphis was very good at commanding the clibanarii cavalry—he could do other tasks too, of course, but there was no one better than Garphis at leading the clibanarii. On the other hand, Edmond was a jack of all trades who could command all branches of the army, even though he wasn't particularly good with any of them. His best troops were archers, but it was really nothing exceptional.

When Hercule went to fight Darios, he entrusted the imperial capital's defense to Edmond because no one else was available. This time around Garphis was in charge of house-sitting. It didn't matter much though since Hercule intended to return to Nova Lemuria immediately anyway.

"Even though you and Titus are both my brothers, I wonder why you guys are so different from each other."

"I am humbled by Your Majesty's assessment."

Hercule's brother of a different mother, Titus, suddenly appeared. Unlike Edmond, Titus was a pure-blooded high elf like Hercule.

Though Titus had exceptional artistic talents, he was hopeless at political and military matters. He was nothing but excess baggage in this campaign… but if Hercule left Titus at Nova Lemuria, Hadrianus might go after his life. So just this once, Hercule brought Titus with him for safety reasons.

Indeed, this Trabizos campaign was a trap to lure in Hadrianus. By feeding Hadrianus the false information that Hercule's forces met a storm en route and were annihilated, Hercule baited Hadrianus and the nobles who backed him into rebelling so that he could root out all opposition.

That was Hercule's plan, in short.

Rather than making a political purge first, it's better to show them that they were no match for him by beating them into submission through warfare. The purge would come after that. Then the political situation would finally be secure, Hercule reckoned.

A rebellion would happen one way or another. The sooner it happened, the easier it was to deal with.

"Still, to think he actually took the bait… Is His Highness Hadrianus an idiot?"

"Exactly, normally one wouldn't get fooled so easily, right?"

At Carolina's question, Hercule smiled wryly. He thought back upon the beautiful, black-haired female demon. It was thanks to Asmodeus's masterful trickery that the first step was such a resounding success.

"Your Majesty! Nova Lemuria has come into sight!!"

Christos shouted.

Hercule's army was currently on the sea. He turned around after Hadrianus fell for the false information and raised his host and declared himself as Emperor.

"Alright, let's defeat Hadrianus and be done with it."

"Haha, I can hardly wait. Finally, it's my turn to shine," Edmond laughed delightfully.

Meanwhile, Hadrianus and his jolly comrades weren't exactly in the best mood. Which was hardly surprising—he had done everything exactly as God commanded, yet the moment he raised his host, Hercule came back.

"How many men have been assembled?"

"We have 18,000 infantry; 2,000 crossbowmen; as well as 2,000 cavalry. In addition are 8,000 cavalry sent by Bulgaron as reinforcement. We have 30,000 men in total."

"…Hm."

Hadrianus fell into deep thought. Hercule's standing army was composed of ~20,000 infantry; ~10,000 cavalry; ~10,000 longbowmen; in total it was ~40,000 men strong. Hercule shouldn't have time to call mercenaries or draft commoners into service. Meaning…

"We do have a winning chance!! There's no choice but to win anyway!!"

Hadrianus was fired up—being outnumbered made he feel even more determined. If he could defeat Hercule, he would leave his name in the annals of history as a great commander capable of winning against the odds. Then everyone would acknowledge him the worthy Emperor.

…People normally only go to war against a numerically superior enemy if they were sure of their own superiority in quality. Going up against a superior enemy means you already lost strategically… But Hadrianus wasn't aware of that.

It was true that Hercule had a smaller force when he won against Darios—but he always held the initiative in that war. He was able to gain victory because he picked the fight in a way that wrote off the gap in numbers.

In this case, the initiative was with Hercule from the beginning. Hercule himself had incited Hadrianus to rebel.

It was plain as day that Hadrianus had zero military talent. But nobody present pointed that out. Many nobles had already abandoned Hadrianus, most of the ones that still stayed with him were either too stupid to realize what kind of situation they were stuck in, or simply couldn't back out now that they were in too deep.

"Let's go all in and engage them on an open field with our full strength."

"Please wait!!"

A voice rang out asking Hadrianus to hold his decision. It belonged to a swarthy man.

Large build, dark skin and curly hair. He was from an indigenous noble family who held sway over the southernmost part of Lemuria's southern province, the Misr province. He was the second son of a branch family of the Almon Clan—Oscar Almon.

Since very long ago, the Almon Clan had controlled a great amount of land in the southern part of Misr, giving them great economic strength. They had frequently come into conflict with elven noble families because of that, however.

Elves envied the Almons' enormous fortune, and on the other hand, the Almons were jealous of the blood of elves.

The current head of the main family of the Almon Clan was not the sharpest tool in the shed. Oskar Almon who had the misfortune of being the second son of a branch family was dragged along into this mess.

"What? A mere nameless noble who is not a main family's head, a branch family's head, or even heir to his house dares speak to me. Depending on what you say, I may have your head cut off. Are you prepared to talk?"

"Yes… I suggest we avoid fighting on an open field. The Emperor's army has numerical superiority, and to challenge the enemy clibanarii is far too dangerous. Most importantly, our army only consists of mercenaries of poor quality. Therefore…"

"You want me to shut myself in a fortress!? To hide like a rat!!? You think I would fight like a coward!!?"

"…My apologies."

Ah, this is hopeless. Oskar sighed inside.

Fortunately, Hadrianus wasn't angry enough to slay Oskar right then and there… Or rather, Hadrianus didn't have the guts to kill Oskar himself so he just prohibited Oskar from talking back from now on.

And so, senseless as it was, Hadrianus made preparations to confront Hercule on an open field.

Hercule's and Hadrianus's forces met in a place three days away from the imperial capital Nova Lemuria.

Hercule's total forces were approximately:

Two infantry regiments, 19,200 men strong.

One cavalry regiments, 9,600 men strong.

One archer regiment, 9,600 men strong.

38,000 troops in total.

On the opposing side, Hadrianus had 18,000 mercenary infantry; 2,000 crossbowmen; as well as 8,000 Bulgaroni troops as reinforcement. In addition, there was a small force of 2,000 cavalry that were his personal troops.

30,000 troops in total.

In terms of numbers, Hercule had the upper hand.

"30,000… They managed to cobble up quite an army, huh."

"Those guys are probably just the rotten imperial nobles."

Darios was surprised at the enemy's numbers, but Hercule was calm.

In the first place, the Emperor wasn't the only one with an armed force in the Lemurian Empire. Nobles maintained a certain number of private troops.

Public order in this world was very different from Japan. There was no police force dedicated to maintaining public order, it was up to soldiers—knights for example—to catch criminals. But the main role of soldiers was to fight foreign enemies, not to keep an eye out for criminals.

Thief bands and such things were eliminated as soon as they were discovered, but… there was no way to root them out completely.

Therefore people who owned valuables would carry weapons to protect themselves. The nobility, of course, could employ mercenaries for self-defense.

And unlike a mercenary who did not have a power base like Darios, the nobility had built up their foothold in various place in the Empire since ancient times.

Head family and its vassals.

Branch family and its vassals.

Branch family of a branch family and its vassals. Vassals of vassals in turn had their own vassals…

When you muster all that strength, it wasn't too difficult to rally up a considerable fighting force.

That was what made the nobility such a nuisance.

Simply because of blood relationship, they could inherit power accumulated from time immemorial.

Bloodline was power. Just like talent, effort, connections, wealth, education, it was a kind of power that a human being could have. To say bloodline wasn't a "real" power was as stupid as saying talent wasn't real power. It's turning away from reality.

And as it happens, Hercule was the one person blessed with this world's greatest bloodline.

"That said, rare bloodlines are nothing more than red liquid when they are rotten… Noble blue blood is too good for those guys. Let's empty their blood upon this land to return it to the Lord."

Shall we?

Hercule said as he turned around to face his own vassals.

Garphis, Edmond, Darios, Carolina answered with smiles on their faces.

"It's time, my friends… Let's eliminate the troublesome cavalry to start with."