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Chapter 223 - The Beginning (5)

“Jusagang, I’ve heard that Deucekain has recently declared independence. Is that right?”

“Y-yes.”

“And Deucekain is still ruled by the Chowan tribe?”

"Yes.”

“And as far as I know, Deucekain is run by whoever takes over the ruling tribe... Am I correct?”

“Yes, that’s correct...”

“Then, since you surrendered, I assume we’re the ones ruling Deucekain from now on, right?”

“Wha...?!”

Henry’s logic was flawless because he was simply going along with the tradition that had been passed down on Deucekain. Of course, that tradition only applied to the people of this nation, but things like that didn’t matter in the face of overwhelming strength.

Rather than peaceful appeasement like with the other Central Powers, ruling with force and terror was a better approach for Deucekain.

Seeing that Jusagang looked aggrieved, Henry smiled slyly and followed up with another question.

“What’s with that face? Oh! Is it because we didn’t do the Winner of Three?”

The Winner of Three was a unique tradition that the Deucekains had created to challenge for rematches because of their tendency to not easily accept an outcome.

Jusagang glanced at Henry when he heard him mention the Winner of Three. He could clearly tell that Henry was smiling, but on the other hand, Balak, who was looking at him from behind Henry, had a straight face.

“Alright... I’ll follow your words.”

“There we go. You should’ve said that from the beginning. But unfortunately, I’m not a political person.”

“Wh-what? What’s that supposed to...”

“I mean it literally. Politics is just a small tool for me to achieve my goals. Because of that, I’m thinking of appointing this fellow as the new king of Deucekain.”

“Wait a second now! What do you mean by that?”

“There’s nothing to be surprised about. Strength is the most important thing in Deucekain, so Balak will be the best possible king.”

The King of Deucekain.

Henry had no intention of assuming that bothersome position himself, so he would make Balak the new king to command Deucekain on his behalf.

“Balak, how do you feel about this?”

"I don’t mind.”

“Good.”

Henry would need a new king who could easily control the natural-born fighters of Deucekain. By appointing Balak as the new king of this country, Henry would obtain an extraordinary army without going through the hassle of recruiting mercenaries.

However, hearing all of this, the nearby Deucekains, including Jusagang, looked downcast. Balak wasn’t from their kingdom; he was just an outsider whom they had never seen before, and he had just become their king out of the blue.

On top of that, this outsider king was merely a puppet who would follow orders from another outsider.

Thinking of how the situation was for the people of Deucekain, Henry burst into laughter. He thought this was enough punishment for them. He was now going to give them the carrots he had prepared. Since ancient times, a fine balance between the carrots and the sticks was the way to go.

Henry asked Jusagang, “What, do you feel like you’re being treated unfairly?”

“N-no...”

“I know you’re lying. Your face suggests that you have something else on your mind. If you think you’re being treated unfairly, do you want me to give you another chance?”

The word ‘chance’ got Jusagang’s attention. Given his current situation, he wanted to make Henry go back on his decision no matter what, even if he had to beg on his knees for that.

"Please! Please give me another chance! I’ll do anything if you give me one more chance! I swear!” Jusagang pleaded with an earnest expression.

"Is that so? If you say so, of course, I’ll give you another chance.”

If there was something Jusagang wanted so badly, it was only right to listen to what he had to say. Of course, that didn’t mean Henry would just let him have it his way.

Instead of letting Jusagang talk again, Henry continued from where he left off, “Jusagang, do you know what the continent is going through right now?”

“Yes, I heard that the empire has begun a conquest of the entire continent...”

"You’re right. That’s why we need to mobilize and fight the empire before they conquer us.”

“Fight the empire...?”

“What, are you too scared to do it?”

"Not at all. Ever since we declared independence, we’ve already been thinking about fighting the empire.”

“Is that so? I like your attitude. Then there’s really not much more to discuss. Jusagang, let’s take down the empire together. The day the empire collapses and Arthus loses his head, I will guarantee Deucekain complete independence.”

“...”

It wasn’t a mindblowing proposal; it merely sounded pretentious, but the essence of it was that Henry would give back Deucekain their sovereignty if they helped him fight the empire.

However, given that Jusagang currently had no other options, Henry’s proposal felt like hope he had to cling to even though he didn’t want to.

Eventually, Jusagang, the king of the Chowan tribe and the former leader of the Deucekain, responded, “Yes... We will fight... with you.”

“Alright. Then the deal is done.”

Along with Deucekain and Jusagang, Henry got the fierce dark-skinned warriors, whose numbers were in the tens of thousands, on his side. In other words, he had effortlessly recruited a couple of corps and an excellent commander.

“Then, we’re going to have a leadership meeting right now, so summon the staff of each military branch.”

Henry had just gained more tricks up his sleeve. If the ongoing war was a chessboard, Henry had just gained a bunch of new pieces to use against Arthus.

* * *

The two corps that the imperial second sword and third sword were in charge of were on the move to eliminate the Sore Empire. In other words, the Second and Third Corps were advancing to attack.

The reason behind sending two corps to a small country like Sore Empire was rather simple: Usa, who had received a new rank and a mission from Arthus, was still in the Sore Empire. Arthus figured that he could attack one of Allied Powers, the one that seemed the easiest to conquer, and award Usa at the same time.

Before the actual conquest had begun, Arthus had received a letter from Usa regarding the recent movements of the Allied Powers, so he was confident that he’d be able to take down Sore Empire.

The second sword, Batz Yoran, and the third sword, Kinless Sel, finally reached the Sore Empire with a total of thirty thousand soldiers.

As soon as the royal guards who were on duty noticed the sea of soldiers, they quickly reported this to the Taejae.

“So they’re here...”

At this, Hongwol gulped anxiously as she tried to brace herself for what was coming. She then tore up the caller scroll Henry had given her. With that, the leaders of each alliance took out their own caller scrolls they had received from Henry and nodded.

“Hmm, so they\'re going after the Sore Empire first, huh?”

Then, the leaders of Amaris, Shahatra, and Zipan, respectively, quickly warped through the teleportation gates in their respective countries.

With that, Hela, Herarion, and Doyle appeared in front of the Taejae.

Hongwol, all frightened, exclaimed in a quavering voice, “E-everyone! The imperial army is here!”

“We know. That’s why we’re here.”

“W-what about Sir Henry?”

“Seems like he’s running a bit late. He’ll be here sooner or later. You don’t have to be that worried. It’s not like the Sore Empire is going to collapse right away just because he’s a bit late, right?”

“Yes, that’s true, but...”

There was a stark contrast between the only two female leaders: Hela displayed a relaxed and confident attitude, whereas Hongwol was terribly anxious, not knowing what to do.

Doyle continued, “How many of them are there?”

“We’re estimating around thirty thousand,” replied the left minister on behalf of the Taejae.

“Thirty thousand... Seems like they have about three corps out there.”

“So far, we have identified two commanding generals.”

“The corps commanders, right?”

"Yes. The two corps commanders we have identified are the former Imperial Royal Guard Commander Bartz and Imperial First Guard Master Kinless.”

“Batz and Kinless, huh?”

The left minister quickly summarized the information they had received earlier and passed it on to the Allies on behalf of the Taejae.

“Their numbers are surely on a different scale,” said Herarion. “As expected from an imperial army. However, I can’t believe they have about thirty thousand troops and only two corps. Isn’t a single corps supposed to have ten thousand soldiers?”

"Well... That depends on how the one in charge wants to organize his army. They’re the imperial army, so it makes sense that they have these numbers.”

“Hmm. How many soldiers can the Sore Kingdom deploy?”

“Even if we conscript as many people as possible, roughly twenty thousand is our limit.”

“Then how about the elite forces?”

“We’re just shy of ten thousand.”

“So there are about ten thousand troops that can actually be sent to battle.”

Herarion quickly grasped the fighting power of the Sore Empire. He knew someone had to grasp their situation so that all the leaders could make a decision on how much military support they would provide.

However, Herarion was a bit surprised by the answer of the left minister. He couldn’t believe that they had less than ten thousand personnel for their elite forces. This made him realize once again why the Sore Empire was considered a small nation.

“I do want to add this. Assuming that they came from the Highlander region, I’d be lying if I said I’m not surprised that they made it here to the Sore Empire faster than us,” added Hela.

“They must think that the Sore Empire would be a good first target since it’s objectively inferior to Amaris in many ways,” explained the left minister.

“Umm, there’s no need to belittle your country like that...” replied Hela with a hint of embarrassment. “Anyway, what are we going to do now? If they’re sending two corps to the Sore Empire alone, that probably means that they’ll send at least three or four corps to the other countries. If that’s truly the case, we may be able to help the Sore Empire right now, but it’ll be difficult to support it until the end.”

Hela was being realistic and pointed out the limitations of the Allied Powers. Even if they warped the troops through the teleportation gates, it wouldn’t be possible to move thousands or tens of thousands of soldiers whenever and wherever they needed to.

At that moment, another voice was heard.

“You don’t have to worry about that, Queen,” said Henry after finally arriving at the scene.

"Henry!" exclaimed Hela, giving him a warm welcome.

With a forced smile, Henry continued, “It was my intention to make two corps come here. It would have been enough for one corps to take down Sore Empire, but I deliberately requested two corps in order to praise the traitorous Usa.”

“Well then, does that mean the Sore Empire can handle up to two corps?” asked the left minister.

“From what I’ve heard, the capital has deployed a total of ten corps. One of them is in Vivaldi Town and two of them are here in the Sore Empire, so there’s a total of seven corps remaining.”

“So the rest of their army will be split between Amaris, Shahatra, and Zipan?”

"No, no.”

“Then?”

“I did take care of this a while ago, but when I went to Deucekain to propose an alliance, I was lucky enough to plant a spy.”

“So?”

“Well, thanks to our spy, Deucekain, even though they’re Arthus’ allies on paper, is on our side. I essentially conquered Deucekain on my way here.”

“Conquer? Are you saying you took control of those Chowan bastards?”

"Precisely. And sure enough, Arthus had ordered Deucekain to take care of Amaris, but since I’ve just taken control of them, Amaris is currently safe.”

“Then the remaining targets are Shahatra and Zipan.”

“Yes. However, if you think about it from a different perspective, rather than pushing all seven corps through the narrow Shahatra mountains, it’d be much better for them to take out Zipan first, then coordinate with Deucekain in Amaris and pressure Shahatra psychologically. After all, Shahatra has the topographical advantage.”

“That’s the beauty of deserts,” boasted Herarion.

“Then what should we do now?” continued Hela.

“Since Amaris and Shahatra are safe for now, I believe the wisest decision we can make at the moment is to focus on defending the Sore Empire as much as possible and concentrate the remaining troops to Zipan.”

“Then how many soldiers should we support the Sore Empire with?”

“There’s no need to bring in more soldiers. The Sore Empire can stop the imperial army with the ten thousand troops it has.”

"What? Sir Henry, war is a battle of numbers at the end of the day. To start a war with such a significant disadvantage of having about a third of what they have? Who would do such a foolish thing?”

“Depending on the strategy, advantages like that can mean less than what you think. And besides, I have a decent plan that should make up for the difference in numbers.”

“A decent plan?”

"Yes, and while we’re at it, let me explain it to everyone here. This is my new chess piece that will play a significant role in this upcoming battle.”

After finishing his introduction, Henry snapped his fingers. Then, a vivid white circle appeared out of thin air, and soon after, a figure emerged from it.

It was none other than Alfred Etherwether.