Chapter 186: Consequences of Arrogance (1) (2/2)
The officers immediately clamored
“How dare you say that it’s a failure?”
“The war is just beginning”
“And you call yourself a Master? You coward You milksop This is why you’re not a person froly criticizing Marquis Catel shut hisof the cold steel of Catel’s sword on his neck
“A coward and a milksop? Since I’ve been insulted like this, I think it’d be alright if I deht?”
“UUh…”
At the Master’s le word That hen he finally realized it - even if his opponent wasn’t from the Empire, Marquis Catel was still a Master Sith and even if Catel were to kill him in a duel, the Empire would not hold the Marquis accountable
“F… Fo… For… Forgive ive you with your death”
Marquis Catel’s eyes grew cold
“Let it go, Marquis”
When Duke Sebastian stepped in and stopped Marquis Catel, his murderous intent di, collapsed as he fainted Marquis Catel laughed when he saw the officer’s pants et
‘No o, those who are busy with politics all have guts the size of a pea’
In the past, the Strabus Kingdoreenhorns eren’t worth the effort to deal with Marquis Catel stopped paying attention to him and turned towards Duke Sebastian
“Duke, it’s time to admit our defeat and withdraw Only then e be able to save the lives of the re troops”
“What about the blockade that you mentioned before? The tactic where we retreated to the back and focused on blocking the enedom attacked thee of having more troops than the eneuard forces had been wiped out, there was no guarantee that they could withstand the ene now
‘Has the expedition failed then? But that’s…’
Duke Sebastian also didn’t want to retreat With him, it wasn’t that he wanted to evade responsibility for the failure politically; in fact, even the Emperor couldn’t recklessly bla was because of the values of the Empire that he upheld his entire life If he were to retreat now and the expedition ended in failure, then it would be recorded as the first defeat in nearly 300 years of the history of the Ened fir Duke Sebastian’s inner turmoil, Marquis Catel continued to talk
“Frohtly It was a mistake to think of the ith the Republic as a mere expedition taken in order to calm the turmoil in a border area”
Before the war had started, Marquis Ryan Catel had said that they should mobilize all the troops available in the Eainst the Republic Of course, his advice had been ignored and the size of the expedition was a h a force of 200,000 men wasn’t a small number, if you considered the total power of the E If the Eather at least 500,000 troops and if they really tried, then they could even gather up to 800,000 troops And if you forcibly gathered troops fro vassal countries, then the Empire could easily pour in a ive up on the expeditionary, sir When we come back for a second expedition in the future, we have to prepare properly and pressure the Republic froave him the best choice that could be ist Count Sabian was here, he would have said the sa They could only move on and prepare for their next move only if they honestly admitted they lost the battle There was no way they would be able to think this if they could not see the big picture of the war Masters usually were shortsighted in nearly everything else because they focused so th, that they didn’t develop anything else
But Marquis Ryan Catel was different Because of the countless wars he fought in since his days in the Strabus Kingdo a war If you disregarded Siegfried with his eneral with literary and military skills But the problem was…
“No, we cannot retreat”
No less if the military commander did not accept it
“Duke Sebastian!”
When Marquis Catel shouted out his narettable decision, Duke Sebastian spoke
“I knohat you’re saying makes sense But… this old man cannot admit defeat yet”
“”
Marquis Catel could only look at hiant man of the Eretful Marquis Catel
“I can’t say ‘instead,’ but…”
Duke Sebastian continued to speak to him softly Marquis Catel looked surprised as he listened to what Duke Sebastian was telling him secretly so the other officers would not hear hi serious, sir?”
“We should at least have an insurance plan”
“If that’s the case, then… no, no”
Marquis Catel struggled for ait, sir”
“I’ll trust you with this”
“I understand, sir”
The other officers who heard this looked like they were going to die from curiosity They were curious what the two of the, but there was no way for them to find out
Marquis Catel left first, then Duke Sebastian spoke to the rest
“The war starts now! We will no longer be fooled by the enemy’s tricks We will lead the entire army and attack the Republic!”
“Yes, sir!”
In the end, Duke Sebastian had decided to attack and the officers sighed in relief
‘It’s fine now’
‘We just have to win now We just have to…’
The officers who had participated thinking that they would definitely win the ere desperate for victory They were so desperate, they couldn’t get out of an illusion that was seriously wrong They were overlooking the fact that even if the entire aruarantee that they would win