Chapter 404: Movement of the Nobles
"..." I look at Pope Lucius, who looks at me with a smile as we sit at a table with the royal family. We’ve had a huge argument since we arrived because everything is going wrong.
"Saint Rosaline, could you...provide details?" The king asks me as I look at Lucius and then at the other nobles here. Lucius explained everything, but I think he left the technical terms too complicated on purpose.
"We’re losing...the Demon King appeared at the border...and also killed almost all the heroes, there’s only one alive...and that girl over there, called Amiya." I point to Amiya in the corner. She was the only hero who survived.
"Also...he expelled the troops on the coast. Somehow, he knew we would attack from there and was waiting with an army..." I roughly explain the situation, and it’s really bad.
"Well, as Rosaline here explained, the situation has become completely chaotic. Who would have thought, huh?" Lucius speaks with irony, as if this whole thing isn’t a problem. He doesn’t even care that he’s in front of the king.
"Well, considering we’re losing, we have to change the plans. However, thanks to Rosaline here, I can already predict the Demon King’s movements. He will probably advance in a straight line to this kingdom."
"It’s only logical. The Demon King is powerful, and as such, knows that the best way to get here is to break a path in a straight line, and with his power, it’s possible." When Lucius says this, the nobles become concerned.
"M-Mr. Lucius, where is Grand Duchess Pandora?" A noble asks, considering that Pandora is brilliant at planning, while Lucius shrugs as if it doesn’t matter.
"She sent me a letter ’Thanking’ me for a few things, and said she would be busy. She also gave me some interesting information, but that’s all." He speaks without interest in her at the moment.
"What matters is that I already have a solution. The Demon King’s route is an obvious straight line, even though we don’t know where it will start."
"So the best strategy is... to blow everything up." Everyone looks at him in shock at this proposal.
"Are you proposing to blow up thousands of people together?" Evangeline speaks, and her opinion as a princess carries weight. She doesn’t seem to care, but her question creates a tense and heavy atmosphere.
’What is he thinking?’ This proposal is madness. Blowing up thousands of people together just to cause damage to the Demon King’s troops is literally genocide of civilians on a kingdom-wide scale.
"Yes, after all, the Demon King will already kill those people. It’s better if they are at least useful. The Demon King won’t even expect us to blow up his troops along with many inhabitants."
"After all, the Demon King must have a good anti-mass destruction magic barrier, but he won’t be ready for normal physical explosives. Obviously, this won’t even hurt the Demon King, but it will kill many of his troops." He leaves the idea floating in the air.
And it makes sense. The barriers that all races use in wars only prevent large-scale magic, but they do nothing against normal physical explosives, and naturally, they do nothing even if you gather enough explosives to blow up a kingdom.
"Well, you decide. I have my plans to carry out, but I warn you, the Demon King will undoubtedly arrive here, and without heroes to help, we will undoubtedly have problems against his armies."
"So I suggest gathering all the possible soldiers here in the main kingdom, and blowing up at least 1 entire kingdom with the Demon King’s troops being there." Lucius gets up from the table.
"As the Demon King’s route will soon become obvious, everyone here has enough time to rig explosives in those kingdoms."
"But I leave it to you to decide. I have to leave." Lucius starts walking towards the door, and I also get up to follow him. The nobles seem dissatisfied, but they can’t do anything against Lucius, who is the Pope of the church.
"Rosaline, I’m going to travel." Lucius suddenly says as soon as we’re far enough away.
"...?"
"Rosaline, somehow the Demon King is able to control the angels, and guess what, we have many angels in the church. What do you think will happen if the Demon King controls all of them?" As he says this, I think about the implications.
’This...’ It’s dangerous, very dangerous indeed. We’ve seen the power of an angel, and they are very powerful.
"Don’t worry too much, Rosaline. I didn’t know the Demon King could control angels. It was an unpleasant surprise, but it’s not exactly a problem, even though it’s ruined my plans." He speaks while I finally understand.
’H-He...is just going to run away?’ I bite my lips in anger. I knew this lunatic should never have been the Pope of the church. Now that things have tightened up, he’s just going to run away, even though it’s his fault we wasted time on failed routes because the Demon King already knew everything somehow.
"Your hatred is... palpable, Rosaline, but what can you do?" He turns to me, giving me that irritating and disgusting look as if I’m nothing.
"But don’t worry, Rosaline, I’m not exactly ’Fleeing’ as you deduce. Well, not that I expect you to understand...but to a certain extent, yes, I am abandoning this kingdom."
"Honestly, I don’t see much success in the future...well, things would change if Mikael Calamitas were here to fight the Demon King. I doubt the Demon King is 100% recovered after facing the heroes."
"But he just disappeared and didn’t show up in the war, so I doubt he’ll show up at the last minute to save this kingdom, not to mention we’ve lost many important relics that we gave to the heroes." He talks about the enormous loss we’ve suffered.
The heroes took 60% of the relics we had, and the captain of the royal guard even took an extremely important relic, but she ended up losing even that relic. The church has only suffered losses after losses.
"..."
"I can’t go..." In the end, I’m a saint. I can’t go with him, even if I die staying here. Besides, without him around, I’ll be the most influential figure in the church and gain all the power that comes with the position.
"I imagine so. It’s a shame...you know, Pandora didn’t show up in the war as she should have. I think trusting her was a miscalculation on my part. I got too excited about her help with the angels." He speaks, admitting what I’ve always hoped to hear.
"Especially that stupid letter she sent me. Honestly, she practically mocked me between the lines. By the way...do you know, I think Pandora isn’t human?" He speaks out of nowhere.
"Well, that’s obvious. She’s half-dragon and..." I try to speak, but he interrupts me.
"Only idiots believe that. Pandora has no scales, and her wings are more fluid than something made of flesh and bone. Her trick of staying in a smaller and larger form is good and similar to what some dragons do, as it seems similar to that complete transformation into a dragon form."
"...But in the end, Pandora has never shown horns, a tail, or the scales on her body that a dragon should have. She only showed wings, and those wings don’t even seem like a dragon’s, even though she’s a ’hybrid’. She should have more draconic traits throughout her body."
"She just used rumors and let the lie become the truth by neither denying nor confirming anything. Tell me, Rosaline, have you ever heard Pandora announcing for real that she’s a dragon? Affirming that with conviction? No, right?"
"S-So she is..."
"No, she’s not a demon. If she were a demon, I would know when she entered the church. Anyway, I don’t know what she is, but I have some hypotheses...but now that doesn’t matter." He speaks as we reach the outside.
"Ah, and Rosaline, don’t think things are as bad as they seem. The Demon King is not invincible. I don’t see success, but that doesn’t mean we can’t win. The biggest proof of this is that the Demon King didn’t come to attack our kingdom directly, but is moving his army."
"In other words, he doesn’t have the power necessary to invade and destroy this kingdom alone, although the heroes have failed, they still weakened him." He speaks with a big smile as he opens the carriage door.
"I bet the Demon King is weaker than he seems. Remember, fear is a barrier that makes everyone overestimate the danger too much." He closes the carriage door and starts to leave.
’He...is right.’ If the Demon King had his full powers intact, he could invade the kingdom alone, break the crystal barrier, and annihilate the kingdom in a single attack. But he doesn’t do that and has decided to just move his army.
’Hmmm, I think we can win.’ I decide to go back inside and calm the nobles. We can win through attrition. If we gather all the army here in the main kingdom, we can start an entire front against the Demon King and exhaust him.
We have adventurers, and we still have Amiya, who is a living hero. If we weaken the Demon King enough, we can kill him with a powerful blow from Amiya.
’The war only ends when the Demon King manages to invade the castle and conquer it...’ With me here providing healing and barrier magic support, we can succeed.
Before, I was helping the troops on the border, but Lucius sent me back, and I returned. Probably Lucius realized that the Demon King was heading for the border.
"I need to convince the nobles..." I prepare to negotiate. We need to unite all the troops here and wait for the Demon King to arrive.
’If we can drive the Demon King away, we can try to reactivate the hero summoning circle.’ It’s not impossible, but we need time, and the Demon King is already marching towards the kingdom.