Allied Army’s Invasion

Grucel’s plan to set sail in the morning was thwarted. A report came at dawn—an army was deployed in the woods beyond the western walls.

As he hurried toward it, Grucel ordered his men to prepare large and medium-sized ships to set sail.

『Keep the number of personnel on that side to a minimum and deploy the rest to the western wall.』

For a moment Grucel was speechless as he looked out over the walls. The forest was the same as it had always been, but there were clouds of dust over a wide area. Soldiers from various countries were positioned closely in the gaps between the trees. There seemed to be thousands—no, tens of thousands of them.

『Attention, Dream Maker.』

The words came from a magic loudspeaker. Spoken in their language, they could understand everything.

『We, the Allied army, demand that you withdraw the troops from the walls, disarm yourselves, and hand over the blast cannons with their barrels unloaded. The city is to be vacated. You have by noon today to comply. If you fail to do so, if you refuse to do so, or if it is apparent that you will not comply, we will launch an attack on Dream Maker. I repeat—』

The soldiers of Dream Maker were stunned after hearing their “demands”. Then anger filled them.

『What the hell are they on about?!』

『Hand over our homeland?! Bull**!』

『They’re acting like they’re superior to us. Who do they think they are?!』

Grucel was equally shocked, and then enraged. Most of them were materialists blinded by the dragon stones, but their leaders should have some shred of intelligence. Grucel didn’t expect them to make such demands.

Weren’t you the ones who showed no interest in retaking the Dream Maker in the first place? Grucel thought. And now you’re making brazen demands from us, after we just got over the deaths of our comrades and took control of the city?

『Chief, please calm down. It’s only Quinbland, Bios, and Forestia. Not the whole allied forces.』Gin said calmly, a worried look on his face.

Grucel snapped back to his senses.

『Something’s off, Sir. Your eyes usually don’t get bloodshot like that. What’s the matter? Are you that shocked that your hometown is being threatened? Or is it the large number of bodies we found?』

『You’re right. I’m not thinking straight.』

Now that he examined closely, the top three forces, Einbeast, Vireocean, and Ponsonia were not around. They could be staying behind, but considering Einbeast’s character, that was highly unlikely.

『So we’ve avoided the worst-case scenario.』Grucel said.

『Still, they outnumber us by about five times.』Gin replied.

『Do you think they’re really going to attack us?』

『I think it’s safe to assume that. I don’t know why they’re doing this, but I find it hard to believe that they’re joking.』

『Good point.』

Immediately, Grucel assembled his commanding officers. As he watched them, extremely enraged, he felt himself calming down. He wasted no time in giving orders.

『Prepare to counter-attack. Do not place the blast cannons on the walls. We’ll use them from inside. It will decrease accuracy, but that’s fine. Move secretly. We’ll try to find out what’s going on on their side, but if worse comes to worst, we might have to retreat to the ships.』

『We’re not going to fight?! This is our homeland!』one officer protested.

He seemed to be implying that fighting back was the natural thing to do. The other officers nodded in agreement.

This is not good, Grucel thought. No one in the military had objected so strongly like this before. Not only that, others were agreeing as well.

『I’m just saying we need to keep all our options open.』

『I understand. I thought there’s not a possibility of us fighting back at all. We’ll keep it in mind.』

Grucel didn’t expect to hear such words.『Listen. You must prepare to withdraw.』he stressed.

『……….』

『Your answer?』

There was a short pause.『Yes, Sir.』

The officers left, leaving only Gin behind.

『I didn’t expect them to lose their temper like that.』Gin said, regret in his voice.

『Tell me about it. They’re no different from kids.』

This is our homeland, but do they not understand that King Doriachi abandoned this place and evacuated the entire nation? There can be no country without its people. As long as the people live on, our home can be rebuilt as many times as we want.

It made no sense to fight the enemy now and make great sacrifices.

『Gin, can you do some scouting?』

『I understand. I am to find out why they’re doing something so ridiculous.』

『Good luck.』

Gin left.

『I’m counting on you…』

What in the world is happening? Grucel felt like a piece of leaf floating in the middle of a river, at the mercy of powerful streams he couldn’t fight against.

Lands Harvest.

Gerhardt, the Beastman King, was holding a mock battle against his three guests, Claude, Ivan and Roy. However, the difference in their abilities was immediately apparent. Gerhardt defeated Ivan and Roy quickly, while Claude was barely able to keep up.

「Too sloppy! Move quicker!」

「You’re just too strong!」

「If you can talk, you can fight!」

Although it was merely a fluke, Claude managed to land a hit on the king with his sword, firing up Gerhardt. Soldiers of Einbeast watched them with pity, while members of Polar Tiger looked on with envy.

「Lord Gotthold. I wanna fight too!」

「No.」

「Come on! Only the guests are having fun!」

「No. We’ve got work to do after this.」

「We’ll do our jobs too!」

「No. You will save all your strength for work.」

Gotthold caught sight of Lawrence the Master Swordsman coming their way. Even from a distance, he could see the man, with his exceptional build, approaching.

This is not good, Gotthold thought. If he came, His Majesty would get more and more absorbed in the mock battle and say something like, “Damn it! Bring us real swords!” I can clearly see it happening.

Gotthold left the scene in a hurry, made contact with Lawrence, and took him to a tent away from Gerhardt’s eyes.

「I’ll entertain whatever business you may have.」he said.

「Sorry for the sudden visit.」Lawrence replied.

「It’s fine. This is the front lines. It would be foolish to send a messenger for every visit. Please, have some tea.」

「Thank you.」

Lawrence took the tea that Gotthold offered and drank it in one gulp. Gotthold noted the man’s fatigue. If I recall correctly, Gotthold thought, most of the Roots that Ponsonia destroyed were guarded by vicious monsters. It seems their troops are exhausted. Gerhardt thought Ponsonia hit the jackpots, though.

「Sir Gotthold. I want to talk about the plan to take control of Dream Maker.」

Ponsonia had not dispatched its troops because of exhaustion. They probably wanted to give them as much rest as possible in Lands Harvest. Also partly because they had obtained a huge dragon stone, so they didn’t feel as pressured.

「May I ask what King Gerhardt thinks about this?」

「What do you mean by that?」

「Einbeast did not join the assault. Isn’t that what he wanted?」

Gotthold nodded.「He said “I don’t feel like it.”」

Lawrence’s eyes widened at the King’s straightforward remark, then laughed.「I see. He doesn’t feel like it, huh? So be it.」

This is the Master Swordsman’s power.

Gotthold sighed inwardly. It was the first time he had ever seen the Master Swordsman up close. Not to overestimate himself, but he thought he was just as strong as Lawrence.

Now he realized he was mistaken. The moment he laid eyes upon the real deal, Gotthold immediately thought he could not win. Rather, he felt that Lawrence was on the same level as Gerhardt himself.

Gotthold always believed that there was no one in this world who could possibly beat Gerhardt. It was the reason for his blind devotion to his king. Of course, even in the presence of the Master Swordsman, his loyalty didn’t waver. Still, it was a shocking realization.

Perhaps that’s why the king wanted to have a serious fight with the Master Swordsman so badly that it almost drove him mad. Gerhardt’s desire only grew stronger ever since they arrived in this continent.

The Master Swordsman doesn’t care if Dream Maker betrayed us or not. He firmly believes that Lands Harvest will hold until the second batch arrives.

Ponsonia and Einbeast’s leaders decided not to make a move. Vireocean remained to maintain and strengthen Lands Harvest. The rest of the allied forces marched toward Dream Maker, believing they could win a fight on land.

「So, did he say why he didn’t feel like it?」Lawrence asked.

「I didn’t ask. When His Majesty says he’s not up to it, he’s not up to it. Nothing you say can convince him otherwise.」

「I see. That would be all. Thanks for the tea.」

Lawrence stood up. Gotthold wondered, was that enough for an answer?

「The Beastman King is very perceptive.」Lawrence said.「There’s a reason why he didn’t join the assault. Now I’m certain that us not joining was the right decision.」

The Master Swordsman left.

Gin reduced the size of the scouting team to only four members who specialized in covert abilities. Dolan was not included, but Zuzun was. Possessing the special skill of walking without making a sound, his silent friend was very well suited for this mission.

They passed through a section of the wall that had crumbled. The overgrown grass outside concealed them from the enemy. Ten minutes after entering the forest, they spotted the enemy army’s lookout.

『Stop.』Gin ordered.

His companions stopped with Gin in the lead.

『His armor suggests he’s from Quinbland.』

『Should we split up in two groups?』

『No… We’ll all split up. That way the intel we gather has a greater chance of reaching Lord Grucel. I’m sure he’ll make good use of it.』

Zuzun’s eyes widened. Gin was implying that three out of four of them could die out here.

Zuzun paused for a bit.『I understand.』

『Cheer up, man.』Gin said.『We’ve lived a rather idle life. Then we were selected to join the journey to the other continent, had a little skirmish over there, returned and successfully cured King Doriachi. After that we were driven away from our home, and now that we’re back, we might actually have a war in our hands. I’m sure you never expected to lead such a busy life.』

『I didn’t think I’d get worked this hard.』

『Damn right.』

Gin and the two others laughed.

『Something’s not right about the enemy’s behavior. Let’s get intel as quick as possible. Move out—』

A loud boom that seemed to rip the earth apart rang out. The lookout gave a start and ran back to his camp.

『Oh, **. That sound and the lookout’s reaction…』

The sound was no doubt produced by a blast cannon. The enemy possessed a few of them, but the lookout’s reaction pointed to only one conclusion.

『One of our officers pulled the trigger without thinking!』

One of them couldn’t accept the possibility of a retreat. It was clear from the other party’s demands that if Dream Maker launched an attack, a battle would definitely break out. That’s why they fired the blast cannons. With this, there was only one response the enemy could take.

The sound of a high-pitched whistle echoed somewhere. Gongs boomed in the distance.

『No time to be gathering intel! We’re heading back. The enemy’s launching an all-out attack!』