Chapter 85: CH 79

Translator: Nisarah    Editor:Fleeting

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After I listened to their story, I sighed. Then, Neurath continues, “Well, if the enemy begins to aggressively attack the Great Temple, then our army will probably begin to take an offensive stance.”

“You meant to say that our enemy won’t be able to just turn a blind eye to our army?”

“Yes sir. After all, the nobles in the frontline aren’t cowards, so the army commanding officers have the desire to fight. There’s even an incident where a noble needed to be surpressed because he was too eager to fight.”

“As expected the entire army all thought that we cannot let Finnoi fall to the enemy’s hand,” Schunzel added.

Listening to their story makes my head hurt. Doesn’t this mean that the only common goal of our army on the frontline is to prevent our enemy from moving freely?

This army is amazingly chaotic. The fact that this army lasted this long despite the fact this army was hastily gathered together was quite something.

“It seems like the Duke’s plan is now half-complete. The problem now is just how long we can keep the situation in a stalemate.”

“Pardon?”

Neurath and Schunzel looked at me in confusion. Ah, right, I skipped too many steps. Unlike them, I’d been stuck in this place for the last 2 days so I had plenty of time to think. Or rather, I was forced to just think because I had nothing to do.

“I’ll explain it step-by-step. First, you both remember the state of Valeritz, right?”

“Yes.”

“I will never forget it.”

Yes. Every living being including the citizens of Valeritz was devoured. That means, unlike the Dreax’s men, the reptilian demons need to eat.

“The enemies need to eat but because they are currently surrounded by our army, they can’t go hunting for food.”

Coupled with that, I doubt that there are any herbivores among our enemies who can live just by eating random grasses. Technically, the enemies can also eat the soldiers of the kingdom’s army to survive but no one will let themselves be eaten without putting up a fight.

This means that our enemies also suffered the problem of not having enough food. Maybe the reason they ate all of the kingdom’s men on the frontline was simply because they were hungry.

“So that means this stalemate also hurts our enemies’ provisions.”

But the problem is Finnoi. Since it’s the Great Temple, they probably stocked some emergency provisions but how long will it last?

Moreover, since it’s a temple, there will be many priests who are not accustomed to war so there’s a possibility that if the siege lasted too long then these priests will shout something like ‘Hurry up and save us!’ and that might compel the kingdom army to do some reckless and dangerous stuff.

“The plan to drive our enemies to death with hunger is fine but as you know our army also has a lot of people.”

In the frontlines, there are many nobles who are too eager to fight. Other than having muscle brains or being motivated because they are following the Prime Minister’s emergency dispatch order, they are probably eager because our enemies’ aim is Finnoi.

The relationship between the temple and the royal family isn’t bad but that doesn’t mean that there are no conflicts at all. I’m sure that one of the reasons why the kingdom and the nobles decided to help Finnoi is to make the temple owe them a favor. After all, if there’s a plague outbreak in the future, you need to rely on the temple’s Holy Magic.

There’s actually another reason that I can think of but since it’s still just a guess, I won’t mention it here.

“Our enemies might have hunted for some food on their way to Finnoi but they have probably eaten all that food by now.”

After all, they are an army with enough appetite to leave Valeritz in that kind of state so I’ve no doubt that on their way to Finnoi they have eaten every living thing they came across.

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By the way, before I met up with the main army, I had also checked the state of Denham Village and, sure enough, I found that every living thing in that village had been eaten.

As for whether the demons might eat each other, I don’t know. In the eyes of humans, both the wandering demons and the demons of the demon army are the same but I don’t know if, in reality, they are different and have internal conflicts among themselves just like the humans have conflicts between different countries and different nobility classes even though they are all the same human.

In any case, our army is an army gathered hastily so obviously we don’t have enough time to gather enough supplies. Adding to that we can’t hunt demons for food and the closest town that normally will be able to provide additional supply, Valeritz, is already destroyed.

“It won’t be funny if our army ended up being the one that starved because of our own strategy. I bet His Majesty and His Highness are currently really busy.”

“His Highness too?”

“His Highness didn’t come to the frontline this time. That’s proof that he’s really busy right now.”

After all, usually, the King’s job is only to give orders. The ones who probably took care of the military supply, diplomacy, and confirming the safety of the territories of nobles that lost all its soldiers are probably His Highness and the ministers of the Ministry of War. I doubt they can afford to leave the capital now.

Rather, the fact that the army can last this long even with the lack of supplies is really amazing. As expected, maybe His Highness is a genius?

“Diplomacy?”

“Finnoi isn’t only ‘the Great Temple’ of our kingdom.”

Finnoi is like the Vatican in my previous life. Pilgrims from other countries also came to Finnoi. Slowly but surely the information about the current state of Finnoi will reach other countries. His Highness and the Ministry of Foreign Affair are currently probably working their butt off to keep this information from leaking.

Come to think of it, how come Alea Village remains that small, considering the number of pilgrims it receives every year? I’m suspicious about where that shitty chief spent the money that came from the pilgrims.

“Once other countries learn the current state of Finnoi, they will probably show intention to send their army to help. But as you know, the current situation of our army is pretty bad.”

In this world, most of the time, it’s customary for an army to offer food and other supplies to the reinforcements. In other words, if other countries send their army to help Finnoi, it’s our army that needs to offer our food and supplies to them. However, our army is already facing a lack of food and supplies.

Sharing the already lacking supplies and food with others might cause our army to collapse and since this is a battle involving religion, it will be impossible for His Highness to keep refusing the reinforcement offers from other countries that used ‘we also want to protect the sacred place of our religion!’ excuse.

And more than anything else, this is the chance for other countries to make the Bain Kingdom owe them a favor. Use us when they can, make us owe favor when possible, and be our enemy when it’s advantageous, that’s just how diplomacy is. In diplomacy, no matter how good or bad the personal relationship between the leaders of 2 countries is, their national interest comes first.

Even Pax Romana was only possible because at that time the stability of Rome brought the most advantage to its surrounding countries.

(T/N: Pax Romana is roughly 200 years of peace without any war that was achieved by Rome in 27 BC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pax_Romana)

“In my opinion, we have at most 20 days to end this war. If only there’s a way to settle this war within that time…”

When I said that, one of the palace guards burst out in laughter. Huh? Why?

After the two guards noticed my confused gaze, they took off their helmets and their face made Neurath and Schunzel frozen in place. They are both very familiar faces to the three of us.

“Now you understand why I said the Viscount’s view is unlike a teenager, right, Duke?”

Well, I’m not an actual teenager.

“Yes. I now understand how he was able to make our army victorious in the battle of Hildea Plain.”

Grand Duke Seyfart and Duke Grunding, why are you both here dressed as prison guards!?

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