Chapter 772: Alliance Battlefront and Resupplying

After a battle began, oftentimes it would be a competition between who made more preparations. Those who immediately fought without preparations would almost always die rather pitifully.

This alliance battle was obviously no rushed battle.

Several countries were working together, and had established a unified command center. The command center also oversaw two major battles in east and west that simultaneously kept the enemy forces busy. Auland’s fleet then acted as protection to allow the Mage Country’s main forces to land here.

The humans’ most desired final combat situation was basically a pincer attack that gradually forced back the enemy and broke through Asolivis to eliminate those damned Dimensional Doors.

Such a major undertaking involving several countries and species wouldn’t possibly be decided over a few teatime chats at Bardi. Even one month’s worth of preparation would be insufficient. I figured that they had been preparing for over a year.

Asolivis was like a cancerous tumor growing in Bardi. This place would always remain as a major threat unless it was completely eliminated.

And now, Bardi was prepared to pay any cost to completely eliminate this constantly bleeding tumor.

The beginning of the preparations for this actually started back with the previous Bardi emperor.

Back in the day, Orloss Milan had furiously expanded without regards to cost. Everyone thought that he had lost his sense of reason due to ambition, or that he had gone completely crazy.

Normally, expanding a large country should have been about conquering a new territory and absorbing it slowly, integrating the territory through immigration, cultural teachings, and religious teachings to completely eliminate traces of the old conquered country. The conquered territory would then completely become a part of the empire after just one or two generations.

However, during Orloss’s rule, he conquered other small countries every single year. After 30 years of his rule, he multiplied Bardi’s territory several times over.

Maybe this seemed incredible, but those who truly understood politics and history were all waiting for him to get into a disaster. They all knew that biting off more than one could chew was disastrous.

Actually, Orloss was already being called the “Foolish King” even back then.

But now, looking back on things, the truly foolish ones were the “wise individuals” who were the first to give him such a nickname.

“Orloss was doing it for the sake of saving Bardi rather than expansion.”

Back then, the undead had already started infesting the gigantic Bardi Empire. The undead leader was Undead Emperor Aso, who was incredibly difficult to deal with. Orloss had no power at all to directly overturn the situation, especially since Aso also had control over Orloss’s life.

Thus, Orloss secretly supported the Southern Sect, which was an enemy of the undead. Orloss also secretly obtained the Crown of Thorns, which was the Mist Kingdom’s God Equipment which bestowed immortality upon him for as long as he wore it. This helped to break him free from Aso’s threat of being able to kill him at any time. Orloss also “unwisely” expanded his border expansion warfare all the way to the Mage Country’s border.

Only by looking back now would one realize just how much thought he had put into things.

He knew that only the Truth Symposium mages would be able to directly fight against the undead and Undead Emperors. However, the mages were famed for not caring about others’ affairs.

“Okay, you all love not to get involved in others’ mundane matters? I’ll toss the trouble right at your doorstep and see if you care or not.”

Orloss’s influence was also responsible for the undead choosing Port Victoria as their home base originally. The sly old scorpion emperor pretended to be a loyal undead follower who idolized Undead Emperor Aso. He did everything that Aso told him to and acted as a “loyal” human traitor for 30 years, yet he had always been waiting for the perfect opportunity to betray the undead.

This was why Bardi back then had so unreasonably challenged the entire world. Bardi broke relations with the Holy Church (and even reported itself as a heretic country) while also declaring war against the Mage Country. If the Mage Country still tried to sit things out, then Orloss really would have started an all-out attack to force the Holy Church and Mage Country to pincer attack Bardi, which would then force the undead out into the open.

“Who cares? We can all die together.”

But now, the situation had changed significantly due to Roland’s arrival. The worst situation didn’t occur. Roland even miraculously forced Aso to commit suicide, which was just like a gift from the heavens that allowed Bardi and Orloss to swiftly break free from the undead’s control.

In the end, Orloss paid a double sacrifice of his reputation and his life. The Hell Faction owed him tremendously. With his sacrifice as the catalyst, it also formed today’s major alliance between Bardi, the Mage Country, and the Mist Alliance.

If Orloss was a fool, then 99% of the people in this world would probably be considered retarded.

Even today, his plans were still effective. The fact that Bardi now bordered the Mage Country became a difficult obstacle for dimensional invaders.

Even the mages who didn’t care about others’ affairs would be unable to ignore a threat right next to them.

The situation today was similar, just with the devils becoming the enemy instead of the undead. Just like the undead before, the devils also had to face our attacks from many directions.

In this overall strategic situation, even I wouldn’t be able to directly go against the command center’s decisions. I was no longer someone who was alone and represented only myself, after all.

“Actually, I’m an advocate of peace, honest.”

I sincerely spoke my praise of peace, but the people around me acted like always and looked at me with expressions that said they felt my joke was completely unfunny.

“Actually, I’ve always been telling the truth…”

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But sometimes, the more truthful something was, the less people would believe it.

I actually was becoming quite bored with this war. However, things couldn’t be helped. There would likely be a great deal of trouble if I ran off at this time, especially since the others wanted me to do something critically important.

Auland’s fleet was still maintaining occasional cover fire from the sea district west of the Forest of Dreams. This was to remind the devils and undead of their presence while protecting the mages’ forces and allowing them to successfully land.

Still, the Auland fleet’s rate of cannon fire had decreased significantly. Just yesterday, they had truly been the rulers of the battlefield, but today they were only trying to remind the enemy of their existence.

The enemy still had their doubts, and didn’t dare to approach the shoreline. Most people on our side believed that this was a sign of easy victory, but only a few Auland ship captains knew that the real reason for slowing down the cannon fire… was because they were out of ammunition.

In this generation, mana was a type of resource that could be regenerated. Professionals would also keep track of arrow consumption and production. However, the magic cannons used by Auland’s ships would not only use up a tremendous amount of magic resources, they would also require specialized ammunition and all sorts of magic metals as part of their daily upkeep.

Yesterday’s ambush had been quite fun, but in order to overwhelm the enemy, especially since the devils and undead were enemies usually only seen in stories and legends, the magic cannon ship captains who had only recently been captains of ordinary military ships all ordered their subordinates to attack with everything. In fact, the ship captains even kept shouting…

“Increase the rate of fire on the left! Get off that cannon and let me personally fire!”

“More cannon fire is better! More cannon fire is justice! Show the entire world the truth of the cannon church!”

“Ahahahaha, blow up their mothers! You’re so slow, did none of you eat breakfast today? Whoever the **** slows me down, I’m going to shoot him out of a cannon!”

Fine, I was only making those words up, but it was true that the Auland ships went all out on the first day. What would be more fun than operating a cannon? Probably the fact that you could shoot at your target with no fear of retaliation at all. However, a mysterious sense of emptiness started bothering these ships after a testosterone-filled day of excitement.

“…We’ve already used up more than half of our ammunition after just half a day.”

“I thought that we could fire our cannons for three days straight, yet the cannons are almost useless already after just one day. So useless.”

It wasn’t only weapons themselves that needed time to be improved on the battlefield. How to operate the weapon, how to create an effective manual on using the weapon, and so on would also require time and experience to accumulate.

The ship captains of the past had never enjoyed the ability to fire several hundred cannons like this. Just the issue of reloading ammunition and rate of fire with older cannons meant that the ship captains never had to worry about using up all their ammunition in a short battle that only lasted one afternoon before.

New problems would easily arise since the captains were relying on old experience.

The Auland fleet now had approximately 40% of its ammunition remaining. They could still fight a normal battle, but if they needed to provide a large amount of covering fire for the mages to land, that would likely cause the Auland fleet to use up all their remaining ammunition after just half a day and be reduced to nothing but spectators.

Luckily, this problem didn’t occur in the midst of battle, so there wasn’t a heavy price to pay. This problem could still be fixed.

“…The prerequisite is that resupplying happens fast enough.”

If Auland sent supplies via the sea route, that would take more than a month. However, flying here directly on an airship would only take about two and a half days.

However, the shortest air route here would pass right next to Asolivis, which would be suicide.

While it was possible to take a slightly longer air route, that would miss the planned date three days later when the Mage Country’s forces would make their major landing, and set back the entire combat plan.

The eastern battlefront had already began their attack in order to occupy the undead’s forces on both sides. If the western battlefront failed to live up to their promise, the pincer attack would become suicide, which was an unacceptable result.

The command center thus decided that the ammunition resupplying had to be forcibly completed, no matter the cost.

Unfortunately, this unlucky mission was given right to me.

“You want me to go with the supply airship and protect it? Are you certain?”

“…I think that you guys should reconsider. Having this jinxing man of misfortune go with any airship will probably cause that airship to go straight to Hell.”

Although Harloys’ words were rather unnecessary, I didn’t say anything at all, which was a tacit admittance of my own luck.

Yet, the command center kept insisting, while I kept refusing since I was the Mist Alliance’s highest-ranking leader in name. Finally, the command center’s messenger told me the truth.

“Actually, there’s two airships that are rushing over. One’s taking a really direct route, but has very few personnel and supplies. Meanwhile, the other airship will arrive slightly later as it goes around the mountains…”

“Paha, you’re basically just bait!”

I really missed Harloys’ cat form right now. It would have been quite fun to pick her up by the neck and viciously shake her before throwing her away.

Anyways, everyone knew what this plan really was. I was going to be bait by going to receive the airship on the direct route, which would attract the enemies’ firepower and attention, so that the real supply airship could come through unimpeded.

“Who came up with such a strategy? This is really making the best of what we have. A jinxer can even be used in such a way? What a great idea!”

I really wanted even more to throw away Harloys, who was giving a big thumbs up. Still, I also wanted to hear the answer. Yep, I definitely wasn’t going to record that person on my list of grudges. I was simply curious who understood me so well. I also wanted to toss that person into the ocean so that they could practice some swimming. As for revenge? Would I really be so petty?

[Yes.]

I ignored my System who was doing her best to make her presence known. I then heard the answer that I wanted.

“…Actually, the person who came up with this strategy is Her Highness Reyne from your Mist Alliance.”

Fine, that little brat was making trouble for her father again… or maybe I should say grandfather?