Chapter 59 (1/2)

Chapter 59

Countermeasure Meeting.

We’re in a room in the lord’s mansion. After changing out of my bloodstained clothes, I headed right here as informed, and now we’re about to conduct a meeting to discuss countermeasures against the raid that the succubus announced.

I entered the room and took a seat several minutes ago. At present, the meeting is just starting.

「Well then, let us begin.」

The one chairing the meeting is the saint. After a straightforward recap of the archbishop’s revival of the succubus, she gets to the main topic.

「…Accordingly, the succubus most likely intends to spend a few days roaming the areas surrounding this city before returning to attack, accompanied by every last monster that lives in the vicinity. We must formulate urgent countermeasures.」

「Mmm.」

The lord nods at the saint’s words. It seems like she’s already discussed the general situation with him.

By the way, the moment I entered this conference room, the lord said something about “I knew my eyes didn’t deceive me” while slapping my shoulders merrily. He was referring to my healing magic ability, and the fact that I was most likely the perpetrator of the city-wide Area Heal, which he had already heard about from the saint. I thought I had concealed it, but apparently the saint was already aware.

Well, that’s the reason why I’m seated here at this meeting as if I’m some VIP, though.

「There is one thing I want to ask; is it true that the succubus’ ability is to manipulate the desires of the creatures around her?」

The attendees are the middle-aged leader of the knights (who just spoke), the saint, the lord, and me. Also Ruruka, for some reason. The five of us are seated around a table in the conference room.  Ruruka must be nervous being around so many big names, though; she keeps glancing over at me like she can’t calm down.

In addition, there are others in the room such as the saint’s escorts, some subordinates of the leader of the knights, Fran, and Yuel, but they’re standing back behind their respective partic.i.p.ants. I didn’t think the number of critical partic.i.p.ants would be this small, but perhaps they’re against making the meeting chaotic by raising the number of partic.i.p.ants.

「Yes, exactly right. In addition to that, according to materials from the Holy Demon War period, targeted creatures are less susceptible to the effect in proportion to their reason and intellect. Considering that the succubus used magic of some sort on the dragon yet it manifested little effect, this is most likely true.」

I wonder if the Holy Demon War is referring to the past war with the evil G.o.d that was written about in the Bible?

…Hold on, that’s when the succubus made her eyes glow red. Was she controlling the dragon’s s.e.xual desires? It was mentioned in the Bible that the succubus uses her ability to manipulate s.e.xual desires to create an army of monsters, but when the dragon received that, all that happened was that its movements became slightly dull. That must mean her ability is ineffective on those monsters with reason and high intellect.

「Therefore, there should be no problem with considering humans or highly-intelligent creatures such as dragons to be excluded from the enemy’s war potential.」

The saint continues, making a declaration. Hearing that is a relief. Looks like the succubus won’t be forcing any knight brigade members to betray us or spearheading a legion of dragons. If she could turn friends into foes or create an army of dragons, we’d have no chance of winning no matter how much healing magic I fired off.

「What would you say is your approximation of the enemy’s war potential?」

「From past accounts, the succubus has the power to

manipulate tens of thousands of monsters, but…」

The saint responds to the lord’s inquiry.

…Tens of thousands. I can’t picture it from the words, but in the worst case, that’s more than a hundred times the number of knights in this city. A hundredfold difference in war potential means that in the worst case, each knight will be thrown into a swarm of a hundred monsters and be defeated with no hope of coming back alive. It seems like there’s nothing that Yuel-san can’t handle when she tries, but demanding that from every member of the knights would be cruel. Ordinarily, that would mean death.

「Tens of thousands, huh…」

The lord groans. I can feel the air in the conference room grow tense from those words. However, in order to quash that atmosphere, the leader of the knights rebuts.

「…That could vary widely depending on how far away the succubus goes to gather monsters, but at the very least, she shouldn’t be able to a.s.semble an army of tens of thousands of monsters right away. You can’t find that number of monsters in this area in the first place.」

…That reminds me, one of the jobs of the knight brigade is to clean up the monsters outside the city. Perhaps they have a general understanding of how many monsters there are in this region.

「But, if she really does have the ability to control tens of thousands of monsters, she should be able to a.s.semble a host of monsters in a few days that would easily exceed the number of knights in this city. With the flying speed she showed at the church… we ought to account for somewhere around 6000 monsters within four days, or 9000 within a week.」

The leader of the knights continues, amending his statement. So that means that in this region, there are enough monsters that the succubus would be able to a.s.semble 6000 over 4 days of roaming around and 9000 over 6 days? That’s considerably lower compared to tens of thousands.

「Mm, mmm…」

The lord groans again at the knight leader’s estimates.

…Well, it may be lower, but even so that’s a tenfold difference in war potential. Something tells me that even with my Area Heal, there’s still the possibility that we’ll be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. My magic is purely healing magic, not resurrection magic. If there’s such a difference in numbers that the knights are likely to be killed immediately, no matter how much I continuously cast Area Heal on the knight brigade, there will be casualties. Depending on the strength of the enemy monsters, it’s possible that the knight brigade will gradually be whittled down and face defeat.

「In the end, if it comes to a tenfold difference in war potential, the knight brigade will inevitably be dealt a blow to the degree of annihilation. The first thing I’d like to do is request reinforcements from the surrounding cities… Lord-sama, would that be acceptable?」

The leader of the knights makes a proposal to the lord.

Reinforcements. Well, I guess that’s the conclusion he’d reach. If we increase our number of allies, the difference in war potential will be lower. The knights are few in number, but they’re elite. If it’s reduced from 1 vs. 10 monsters to 1 vs. 3, I don’t think they’ll die that quickly. And there’s my healing magic too, so I get the feeling we can repel them with that level of disparity in war potential.

「Reinforcements, huh…」

However, when the lord hears the word ‘reinforcements’, he sighs.

「Lord-sama, is there a problem with that?」

The leader of the knights raises a questioning voice.

「…The succubus, who has destroyed countless cities in the past, comes leading an army of monsters. In a war where victory is not a.s.sured, it would be great if there were lords with the courage to lend out their precious knight brigades, but…」

「…Precisely because there is a risk, they may be reluctant to send out reinforcements, is that what you mean?」

The lord nods with a bitter expression in response to the knight leader’s query.

…I’ve heard that lately, there’s hardly any war between fellow humans. I wonder if part of it is that they’re hesitant about that possibility?

「The royal capital, at least, would a.s.suredly send out reinforcements. But as for the regional cities, they ordinarily don’t maintain much of a surplus in war potential. If the reinforcements they sent out were to be eliminated, it would pose a huge impediment to the future operation of the city. It is difficult to say this, but precisely because this is such a crisis-level situation, the lords governing the regional cities would be motivated to harden their own defenses and wait for relief from the royal capital.」

Meaning that in a war where you don’t know if you’ll win or lose, there’s no way you’ll dispatch your important knight brigade? Well, unable to oppose the threat of monsters without the knight brigade, public order in the city would take a turn for the worse as well. Looking at it from the perspective of a lord, the knights are certainly an existence that they absolutely cannot afford to lose.

「In other words… the prospects of reinforcements from anywhere but the royal capital are slim.」

「Frankly, that is the case. Which is not to say that none will come at all, but we cannot expect much.」

The leader of the knights and the lord both make a grim expression.

「I wonder if we might offer conciliations to the other lords? The current matter is our blunder as the church. In terms of money, I would like to offer as much a.s.sistance as I can.」