“The bolt throwers have fallen silent! We will now begin the bombardment of Randel Castle! Do not, under any circumstances, allow your bombs to fall on residential blocks! By the pride of our Air Force, we cannot allow any more needless deaths!”
“““Yeahhhhh!”””
The men and officers cheered in response to Tolman’s words.
And so, a formation of wyvern cavalry began the aerial bombardment of Georg Carmine’s castle in the center of Randel.
— At the same time, outside Randel.
It was around the time that the wyvern cavalry being led by Tolman began their bombardment of Randel’s castle walls.
A wyvern carrying a gondola containing Liscia, Aisha, the captive Carla, and myself descended to the fortress where Ludwin and the others were holding out. It was dangerous to land at a fortress that was under attack, but the Army had withdrawn in surprise when the bombardment at Randel had begun. Thanks to that, we had been able to enter the fortress quite easily.
When we stepped out of the wyvern’s gondola, Ludwin, Hal, and Kaede were there to greet us. While they all showed signs of exhaustion, I was relieved to see they were completely unharmed. While they had only been defending themselves against a siege for a day and a half, I knew unexpected accidents could always occur.
I bumped fists with Hal. “I brought the Air Force, just as planned.”
“Well, we held out against the Army for you, just as planned,” he said.
We both proudly boasted about what we’d accomplished.
“It was only a day and a half,” I said. “If you hadn’t been able to hold out that long, I wouldn’t know what to do with you.”
“You idiot,” he snorted. “The enemy even brought out cannons, you know? If the dark elves hadn’t come to support us, we might have taken serious losses.”
“I see… I’ll have to reward those reinforcements after the war,” I said. “Anyway, I’m glad to see you’re doing fine.”
“You, too, Souma,” he said. “You’re weak, so don’t push yourself too hard.”
“And you, Hal, you’re strong, but you never think. I worry you’ll charge in blindly and get yourself killed.”
For some reason Hal and I went from crowing about our own achievements to pointing out each other’s faults.
Liscia, Alicia, and Kaede watched us, rolling their eyes.
“What’re those two doing?” Liscia muttered.
“Well, perhaps you could call that a kind of manly friendship?” Aisha suggested.
“It’s just Hal’s burning sense of rivalry towards His Majesty, you know,” said Kaede.
The girls just said whatever they wanted to about us. Carla was the only one who didn’t know what our relationship was like, so she just stood there blinking.
“That man… He’s a little too friendly with the king, isn’t he?” she asked.
“Officer Halbert has been given permission to treat him like a friend. Basically, he’s the same as us,” Liscia explained to her.
Then Ludwin knelt before me and gave his report. “Sire, we have successfully constructed and defended the fortress, as ordered.”
“You have served me admirably,” I said. “I will see to it that you and your troops are duly rewarded for your effort after the war.”
He addressed me in a formal tone, so I responded in kind. Seeing me suddenly shift into that self-important tone, Hal and the others grinned, but I did my best to ignore it. Time was precious right now.
“Ludwin, get the troops together and prepare to move out,” I ordered.
“Yes, sir! Then, are we attacking Randel?”
“No… The battle here is already over.”
“Huh? What do you…”
“I have a report!” The next moment, a soldier of the Forbidden Army was rushing up to us.
He looked incredibly flustered. He came at us so fast that Aisha and Ludwin both nearly drew their swords.
The soldier practically threw himself to the ground in prostration before me, then raised his voice to say, “The white flag has risen over Randel! O-Our forces are victorious!”
Slightly before that, there was an uproar in Georg Carmine’s castle over the sudden surprise attack. There were many different rumors flying back and forth in the castle.
Had Castor Vargas betrayed them?
Had the king and Castor Vargas been colluding behind the scenes?
No, wasn’t the one who had plotted all this, in fact, Excel Walter, that capable woman and veteran of many battles?
…That was how it went, with various theories bandied about, but no one guessed the truth: that Souma had pulled a trick that had let him defeat the Air Force in a single day.
The ones who made the most noise about these events were the ones who had exhausted their personal troops in the battle against the fortress yesterday and who had been removed from the front line today, the corrupt nobles who had been resting in Randel Castle. As soon as they found out that the large explosion had been due to an aerial bombardment by the Air Force, they rushed to the governmental affairs office, where Georg Carmine was doing the work of governing despite the ongoing situation.
“Duke Carmine! What are you doing, taking things so easily during this crisis?!” one of them exclaimed.
“The Air Force has betrayed us! We must come up with a plan of action at once!”
“Give us your orders, please! What are we to do?”
As the nobles worked themselves into a frenzy and shouted all manner of verbal abuse at him, Georg’s wolf-headed lieutenant, Beowulf, who was here at this very moment to report on the bombing, furrowed his brow in anger. He was about to draw the sword at his hip to respond to the affront, but…
“Beowulf,” Georg addressed him.
“Yes, sir!” He stood at attention.
Georg asked him in a calm tone, “What is the extent of the damage from the aerial bombardment just now?”
“Sir,” he said. “The bombardment on the castle only blasted away a portion of the roof and towers. Fortunately, there were few casualties. However, we’ve lost every one of the anti-air repeating bolt throwers on the castle walls. The soldiers assigned to guard the walls are in a state of panic and confusion.”
“I see…”
Georg showed no sign of a change in his expression at Beowulf’s report, but the nobles who were listening went ghastly pale. The loss of the anti-air repeating bolt throwers meant the loss of any ability to oppose the wyvern cavalry. The Army now had no means to stop the Air Force’s bombardment. In other words, even if they attempted to hold out inside the castle, they would be one-sidedly bombed to death.
Georg stroked the beard that had merged with his mane. “In short, everyone in this castle is now their hostage.”
“Yes, sir. That would appear to be the case.”
When he heard Beowulf’s response, the corners of Georg’s mouth rose as he said, “Then this battle is our loss.”
He accepted his defeat so easily that the corrupt nobles did not understand what he had said for a moment.
They had lost.
The moment they managed to process that, their faces all turned red or blue and they rounded on Georg.
“Wh-What are you saying, Duke Carmine?! We’ve not lost yet!”
“Indeed! The army is still practically unharmed! There is ample opportunity to turn things around!”
“If we have no anti-air repeating bolt throwers, we need only retreat to a city that has them! Let’s plan our comeback and face the king and the Forbidden Army there!”
“…You would have me abandon Randel?” Georg said with a tone of exasperation as he looked at the nobles who were saying they would resist to the last. “What is a ruler if he casts aside his subjects? If a lord flees and deserts his people, surely the people of another city will never accept him.”