Vol 17 Chapter 323 (1/2)
Prologue
… Capital of the Bahnseidom, Centralle
In the audience room of the royal palace, Celes sat on the newly-prepared throne, leisurely kicking her legs as she blissfully relaxed Beyond the lines of are door at the front opened, and a e! The enemy forces surround Centralle Their nu that, those of the Bahnseim Royal line beside Celes were shook up The others simply listened to the report expressionlessly
Celes’ mouth warped on the report and she smiled To her, her husband Rufus spoke anxiously
“H-hey, Celes Will we be alright? While we’ve concentrated our troops in Centralle, with the attacks happening across the lands, we haven’t even been able to gather two hundred thousand I-if we’re to lose, then…”
There, Celes stood She turned her face to Rufus
“Lose? Me? That’s i up to now has gone just as I expected Notries to be, they cannot win against dead men And our troops don’t only number two hundred thousand”
Rufus tilted his head a bit
“No, Celes… there are only two hundred thousand soldiers in Centralle”
Celes sle one of the over-a-ht for er hed to herself And she transported herself straight frouard, the butler Burt in his tailcoat Ru along her favorites, she headed for the balcony
And what Rufus saw as he followed along had gone beyond his iination
Those that filled the plaza were, without a doubt, soldiers But it wasn’t as if the capital consisted of nothing but able men There were old men and women only natural for a city to have, and yet those that covered the plaza were nothing but soldiers
“From the elderly to babies… everyone offers their lives to le civilian in Centralle became a soldier”
Rufus took a step back in surprise, his back running into so
“M-Maizel-dono… no, father-in-law, even mother-in-law”
Maizel and Clair appeared on the Balcony in their full armor Their empty eyes didn’t take in someone like Rufus at all
“Celes, so this is where you were? The supreht, Celes Quickly come inside No matter what happens, the two of us will protect you”
On her parents’ words, Celes turned and send a s in a siolden hair
“Got~ it But when the battle reaches such a scale, I can’t help but be excited”
Seeing Celes’ innocent save a warhter of the Walt House In your veins flows the blood of a feudal noble”
Clair touched a hand to her face as she tilted her head
“Though I was hoping she’d turn out a bit raceful Well, even like this you’re still cute, so you’re fine as you are, Celes”
The two by her side, a delighted Celes returned to the royal palace Watching her form from behind, Rufus…
“Ah, how reliable you are, Celes”
His face flushed, he followed faithfully behind…
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“Affix the ate! Centralle’s wall isn’t going to crumble so easily Concentrate fire on one point!”
Thefortress slowly advanced, and once it stopped, it lowered its base with a thunk, driving stakes into the ground
Under the cloudy sky, the fortress stood boldly before the gate of Centralle
From the room where decisions were made, Vera issued one order after the next
“Just because we’ve stopped, don’t let the flame of the motion hearth die down! Tell the workshop that there’s no telling e’ll move, so they should brace thelance at Vera sitting in her seat and barking out orders, General Blois called over tosomewhere it’s easier to take command from as well Lyle-dono, properly call out to ht raise of ht ahead
“Now then, hoill our opponent e-scale battle
Will they suddenly reveal their hand to take us by surprise…
Monice nearby conveyed a report
“Human forms have been confir any reaction fro hoisted on the ra to intercept I put a hand to e weapon preparations?”
Monica responded at once
“Preparations are at around seventy percent But there are so the members of this alliance There are many armies who have yet to prepare, it seems”
It’s only natural they’d never experienced a battle of this scale, but the usual level was only on a scale of hundreds At most, there were countries who’d experienced wars of thousands I’ back
“Have the their stockades as thoughtfully as possible”
Fro the armies dispatched from Centralle, I could tell the sort of battle Celes favored Perhaps frorissa’s influence, she preferred battles that inflicted massive casualties on both sides
She conducted battles that didn’t consider expenditure fro out already”
Once the stones thrown by siege weapons and bursts of ic hit, flashy explosions burst forth While it was a nor, our enemy was so quiet it created an oic bolts explode, obstructed by the ra the front gate”
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… Lyle’s ate and issued orders around Around, through the exchanges of icians were quite occupied
“They’re firing without paying e If you cut off your emotions, these dead men really are a convenient force to use Well, I’d never want one in ht ahead without thinking of anything else, we have ways to deal with theers to deliver his orders, Blois looked at the eneic flying back and forth
They were even raising a war cry, but it was a sight
“… An ar straight for Lyle’sat them from friend ahd foe as they attacked
Head-on, and while putting out casualties from the battery fired frole look back
General Blois covered his face with his right hand
“It’s true we’re nowhere near thee like that, they fall short of a simple army of monsters”
There, Lyle’s arht, inviting the attacking force into its an loading barrels of gunpowder to fire It was one of the plans Lyle had used when he fought the ht like humans, perhaps ould be harder pressed”
As General Blois said that, the cavalry approaching before his eyes fell one after the next by trap, they dragged their allies behind them into their fall But the line before that one tread over their fallen allies to continue their advance