How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: Volume 8

1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-1-7183-0914-2
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 318 Seiten

Reihe: How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom

My retainers are my strength. With a massive number of monsters appearing in a 'Demon Wave,' the group of small to medium-sized countries known as the Union of Eastern Nations faces a crisis. During a conference with Empress Maria of the Gran Chaos Empire, Souma is asked to dispatch reinforcements to the union. The place Souma sends those troops to is the Kingdom of Lastania. Which is where a former foe, the crown prince Souma once drove from the Principality of Amidonia, Julius, is putting up a hard fight as a visiting general...?! And so, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Julius, Souma uses his retainers' strength in an operation to save Lastania!
The revolutionary administrative fantasy series, volume eight!

Autoren/Hrsg.

Dojyomaru

Weitere Mitwirkende

Fuyuyuki

Mccann, Sean

Leseproben

To finish it off, he stabbed its other head in the throat.

The two-headed black panther fell to the ground with a thud.

Once he’d confirmed that the enemy was completely neutralized, the man tore his kukris free and rushed over to Lauren.

“Are you all right, Madam Lauren?!”

“Sir Jirukoma! You came!” Lauren’s face burst with joy at the sight of reliable backup... but her seriousness quickly returned. She kept her guard up against the zombie ogre she was holding back as she asked, “If you’re here, is the volunteer army here too?”

“Yes. However, I’ve come ahead by myself. We need to hold out for a while longer...”

While Jirukoma was still talking, the monsters on the other side suddenly began roaring.

A group of around fifty armed people had joined the fray, catching the monsters from behind.

Within that group was a young man, taking command as he rode around on horseback. This man, who had an air of nobility about him, looked at the battlefield with keen eyes and gave orders to the group of men.

“These witless monsters see only what’s in front of them. Attack from the rear and flanks to make quick work of them!”

The young man’s name was Julius Amidonia. He’d once been the crown prince of Amidonia.

The force he now led was a volunteer army composed of refugees seeking to return to their homelands, which were now part of the Demon Lord’s Domain.

Normally, the volunteer army should have been commanded by their leader, Jirukoma, but Jirukoma preferred to fight as a single warrior. In most situations, Jirukoma left command to Julius, who was a visiting general in the Kingdom of Lastania.

“Indeed. Sir Julius’s commands are as apt as ever. I can feel at ease watching him,” Lauren said, feeling impressed.

“You’re right,” Jirukoma agreed. “When it comes to commanding troops, he’s far more capable than I am. He does complain, ‘Why is it that I must always clean up after your messes?’ all the time though.”

“Sir Julius is dependable after all. I can see why you’d end up relying on him.”

While the two of them were talking, Julius and the volunteer army’s charge threw the monsters’ ranks into disarray. Not missing their opportunity now that the pressure had lessened, the shield-bearers moved up, knocking down the zombie ogre and other monsters.

The lancers swarmed around the fallen zombie ogre, stabbing it again and again. The archers loosed their arrows from a distance, and when its body was finally turned into a pincushion of spears and arrows, the zombie ogre stopped moving at last.

Having confirmed their enemy was dead, the soldiers raised their voices.

“I-It’s dead! We killed it!”

“We brought down the big one!”

“““Yeahhhhhh!”””

Having killed a powerful enemy boosted the soldiers’ morale.

Now they moved on to mopping up the remaining monsters, and Jirukoma and Lauren both breathed a sigh of relief.

While they were wiping their brows, Julius rode over to them on his horse.

“Jirukoma! You pushed the troops off on me and charged in again! You’re supposed to be the leader of this volunteer army! And you, Madam Lauren! It should be unthinkable for the captain to be out on the front lines! If anything were to happen to you, who would keep this country’s soldiers together?!”

The moment he arrived, Julius started giving them both a piece of his mind.

Jirukoma and Lauren both listened with wry smiles.

Getting chewed out by Julius had become a regular part of what happened after a battle with monsters. The two of them kept charging in no matter how much they were lectured about it, and Julius continued lecturing them, even knowing it was hopeless.

None of the three had learned their lesson.

“Besides, the problem with you people is...” Julius insisted.

Cutting him off, Lauren said, “Now then, the monsters are wiped out. Let’s head back. All right, people, we’re pulling out!” She clapped her hands.

“Hey, I wasn’t done...”

“Now, now, Julius,” said Jirukoma. “We can listen to you tell us off on the way back, so let’s get going for now. There are people eagerly awaiting our return, you know?”

“...Hmph.”

Having been mollified by Jirukoma, Julius looked away, unamused.

He didn’t say any more, though, so he must have accepted it.

Seeing the way Julius was acting, Jirukoma and Lauren looked at each other, then burst out laughing.

“Jirukoma,” Julius said. “What do you make of the recent monster attacks?”

On the way back to the castle with the soldiers, Jirukoma was walking beside Julius as he rode on horseback. Jirukoma could ride a horse too, but he preferred to walk because his style was more suited to fighting on foot, and it served as training.

Hearing the question, Jirukoma cocked his head to the side.

“Has there been something about them that’s caught your attention?”

“There has been an increase in both the number of monsters and frequency of attacks of late. If the numbers increase any further, the soldiers will not be able to handle them alone.”

“If you’re right...” Lauren said seriously, “the people will have to take up arms.”

Though it was called a kingdom, Lastania was no bigger than a mid-range noble’s domain in Elfrieden or Amidonia. The population was around 20,000, and that naturally included non-combatants like women, children, and the elderly. Even if they enforced conscription, only 5,000 of them could fight, at best.

Julius held his chin with a pensive look on his face.

“Even if we could get the numbers, a haphazardly assembled force won’t be much use in battle. Even with the volunteer soldiers added to their numbers, this country has fewer than 600 soldiers. If the monsters come in greater numbers than that, it’s inevitable that we’ll struggle. If their number exceeds 1,000...it will be the end of this country.”

Julius had a serious look on his face. He probably wasn’t exaggerating.

To wipe away the oppressively serious atmosphere, Jirukoma deliberately chose to be optimistic.

“The Union of Eastern Nations was formed to prevent that, right? So that they can coordinate their response when a situation a small or medium-sized country can’t handle alone arises. Besides, if it comes to it, won’t the United Forces come to help?”

The United Forces that Jirukoma was speaking of was shorthand for the United Forces of the Eastern Nations, a battalion created with troops levied from each of the members of the Union of Eastern Nations. (In the case of small countries, this was ten percent of their army, and in the case of medium-sized countries, it was thirty percent.)

If a member of the union was threatened by the Demon Lord’s Domain or another country, the United Forces would be dispatched.

However, Julius shook his head.

“It’s true, if this country were the only one being invaded, we could count on the United Forces to come to our aid. However, based on the information I’ve gathered from the traveling merchants, this country is not the only one seeing a rise in monster attacks.”

“You’re a visiting general, aren’t you?” Jirukoma asked. “Do they even have you handling intelligence?”

“There’s no one else to do it, so what choice do I have? I’ve experienced firsthand the terror of what can happen when you are negligent about gathering intelligence,” Julius said, frowning.

His knowledge of the importance of intelligence gathering had come from his experience of misreading the political situation inside the Elfrieden Kingdom, dispatching troops too easily, then suffering a major defeat.

Julius shook his head and tried moving on. “From what the merchants tell me, monster attacks have risen in every country bordering the Demon Lord’s Domain. If there’s a major monster offensive across a wide area of the border, even the United Forces will be unable to handle it. Besides, the United Forces will head out to help the countries that contribute the greatest numbers of troops first, I’m sure.”

Because it was a force composed of troops contributed by each country, it was, in some ways, inevitable that the countries most of those troops belonged to would be a higher priority. If the countries with the greatest numbers of troops were in trouble, the United Forces may wholly collapse, and assisting other countries wouldn’t boost morale.

That was why a small country like the Kingdom of Lastania may be at the bottom of the list.

“Urgh...” Jirukoma groaned. “Then what about asking the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom to provide reinforcements? Lastania has an alliance with them, right?”

The Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom, which had many powerful dragon knights in its service, was said to be theoretically capable of fighting the Gran Chaos Empire on even footing in a defensive war. The kingdom had been allied with the Kingdom of Lastania for a long time, since before the founding of the Union of Eastern Nations.

The alliance had remained in place even after the Kingdom of Lastania’s accession to the Union of Eastern Nations, and now...