Chapter 216 (1/2)

Chapter 216

Aegir POV–

I open up the letter brought to us by the express messenger and spread it out on the table in front of us as we hold a midnight conference .

Those in attendance are Leopolt, Myla, Irijina, Luna, and Celia as individuals a.s.sociated with the military .

「Is that idiot Tristan not here yet!? Celia, go kick his a.s.s . 」

「……Tristan is in the middle of constructing a fort at the national borders . 」

I knew that .

Of course I did .

「I have already made contact and gave instructions to take precautions . 」

Leopolt informs me in his usual emotionless voice .

By the tone of his voice, he makes it sound like it was a job I forgot to do .

「You completely forgot, didn’t you?」

「The chief’s capacity and d.i.c.k are both big after all . 」

「Wahahaha! I completely forgot too!」

Myla, Luna…… and even the foolish Irijina is laughing at me .

「Let’s start the meeting!!」

I slam the table to cut short their heckling .

Looks like I was able to dodge that bullet .

「Vandolea is also intimidating the Malt Kingdom similar to how they tried intimidating us . 」

I thought they would be complaining about how the water in the river is being used or something but in the end they are just using the same words we heard, demanding territory be handed to them .

「Not only that, it looks like they are demanding a larger portion of territory than they did with us . 」

「Hmm, it looks like that talk about mutual protection didn’t have any effect . 」

Juno’s plan doesn’t seem to be working .

「No, they’re probably attacking Malt precisely because they’re curious about it . This way, they can find out who can actually respond and who is pretending . 」

Vandolea is unexpectedly attacking with more a.s.sertiveness than I thought .

It seems they aren’t an opponent to stop because there is something which worries us .

「If Malt doesn’t accept their demands, they will probably start invading soon . Malt’s military inferiority is obvious . This situation is different from if we were to face off against Vandolea ourselves . 」

I agree with Leopolt .

n.o.body would hold back against a weak nation .

「That’s the difficult part . 」

I once again open up the letter which I received from Erich just the other day .

「It is completely unnecessary to compromise in conflicts on the border . If talks devolve into military combat, the Royal Army will come running to support you…… this is good, right?」

If Goldonia’s main army sorties, we won’t lose .

There is no way Vandolea can fight a war with us while having to worry about another enemy .

The problem is with the next sentence .

「The Kingdom will not partic.i.p.ate in the conflict between the three nations: Libatis, Malt and Vandolea . So he’s basically telling me not to offer unnecessary help……?」

That ultimately means the Goldonian army will not act unless my own territory gets invaded, not caring at all about Malt .

「It is to be expected that Goldonia has no reason to shed blood for Malt . The Kingdom has not much interest in extending to the south after all . 」

In Goldonia eyes, Vandolea as well as Altair, Malt, and Libatis are all equally one nation .

If they’re going to fight amongst one another, it’s better to leave them alone .

「The Kingdom might not have a reason, but I do . 」

I have to protect the cute Celestina and her country .

「But we can’t just boldly express that Malt is under our protection . 」

「That’s another problem . 」

They defended against the invasion when Celestina’s stupid brother attacked and got the permission from the Kingdom during the time with Orthodox Magrado .

But this time the Kingdom clearly states they want nothing to do with Malt .

I can’t send my army to save Malt either .

During these troubled times, I’ll rely on Leopolt .

「Think of a way to deploy troops which won’t upset Erich . 」

「If we provoke Vandolea into invading us, we can counterattack along with the Kingdom’s army, however that would completely ruin Libatis’s plan . In addition, the Kingdom will find out Malt is under our protection . 」

If we battle fiercely with Vandolea, Altair will get stronger .

The best outcome would be if we can just harshly repel the enemies invading Malt and make them give up attacking any further .

「It will be an unorthodox method . 」

Let’s hear it if you have a good idea, anything is fine .

「The distance as well as the relations.h.i.+p between Malt and our territory are relatively close . There is traffic going in and out of both nations from people like merchants and those working abroad, right?」

I’m sure there is .

The prost.i.tute I made cry yesterday said she was from Malt .

She was a cute woman who squealed every time I thrusted my d.i.c.k into her .

「Then it is possible those who left family in Malt will take up weapons and fight, right?」

Men with guts will likely do so .

「Lord Hardlett doesn’t have control over their individual actions . In other words, they’re volunteer soldiers . 」

「Fumu……」

「But how many people would we find even if we looked…… if we think about Malt’s military force, won’t that be just a drop in the bucket?」

Just as Myla says, Malt possesses about 3000 soldiers who are thought to only eliminate monsters and bandits, so the army is rather poorly equipped .

「Not only that, their soldiers are weak . 」

「Yes…… that is their nature . You can’t change that with training or discipline . 」

Malt’s soldiers are all generally weak .

I have seen plenty of supposedly well-trained squads fall apart in mock battles .

There is no other way of putting it than saying the citizens don’t have a disposition geared towards combat .

If you think this way, conducting a field battle with the same numbers as the enemy is impossible, and you are left wondering how many days they can hold out against a siege in a walled city .

You start having more doubts when looking at Vandolea, whose forces are in the tens of thousands .

「Do you think people actually check the backgrounds of each and every volunteer soldier?」

Myla stares back sharply at Leopolt when he speaks in a tired tone .

Don’t provoke her, Myla’s quite hot-tempered .

「We just have to dispatch trained soldiers and have them pretend to be volunteers . Malt is weak, that’s why Vandolea will also be underestimating them . If we send our elite troops there, it should give them a decent shock . 」

「That sounds good, let’s do it . 」

It’s a wonderful plan to save Malt without Erich complaining .

「Alright, then I’ll be selecting the commander and squads to dispatch……」

Leopolt, what are you talking about?

「Isn’t it already decided that I’ll be directly leading the troops?」

This is a huge incident regarding the important Celestina, I won’t be able to calm down unless I go myself .

「「「……」」」

「What’s wrong?」

「We can somehow make it seem natural with volunteer soldiers, but if you go so far and do something as blatant as that, they’re going to protest . 」

「Play it off by feigning ignorance . I am in bed because of a sickness . 」

Leopolt sighs and proceeds to select the troops to be left in the territory .

A certain amount of soldiers should be left to Tristan just in case Vandolea decides to invade .

After that, we’ll figure something out .

「Contact the mountain nation as well, tell them it’s time for war again . 」

「Got it! The chief fights all the time and it’s never boring!」

Soon after, Vandolea would be enraged at Malt’s response in regards to the national border and would advance their army to deal with the people trying to free citizens from their dictatorial rulers .

–Third Person POV–

A While Later

Within Malt Kingdom Territory, Vandolea Invasion Army Vanguard

「They are weaker than what we expected, commander . 」