Finally, we were left with the 40,000 in the land forces, but both the general and his troops were going to be troublesome.
While the simple number of soldiers they had was already impressive, their equipment and overall quality was like an upgraded version of what I saw in the Forbidden Army and my directly-controlled forces. In addition to infantry and cavalry, there was also a siege weapon unit, and the firepower provided by their fire mages would be on another level. This was truly an army built to play the main role in a war.
The man leading this army corps, General Georg Carmine, was a fierce commander and veteran of many battles.
While his martial prowess was no less than Castor’s, he didn’t just rely on that. He was the rare warrior who could make level-headed decisions backed up by past experience. Honestly, I didn’t want to make an enemy of him any more than I did Duchess Walter, but… It didn’t look like he had any intention of backing down. He had sheltered the nobles I was investigating for corruption, and was clearly positioning himself for a confrontation.
From what I had been told by Hal’s father, Glaive Magna, there were many nobles and knights in the army faction who had left Duke Carmine over doubts about the position he was taking, but his forces were bolstered by the personal soldiers of the corrupt nobles he was sheltering as well as Zemish mercenaries that he had hired, so there was no real change in the numbers.
40,000 in the army vs. 10,000 in the Forbidden Army.
If fought, the enemy would have four times our number.
“Four times our number… Those are numbers where Sun Tzu would say to either flee or avoid the battle,” I said.
“Sun Tzu?” Liscia asked.
“A military strategist from my old world.”
The name Sun Tzu refers to Sun Wu (He wrote The Art of War), who served the King of Wu during the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history, or to his descendent, Sun Bin (He wrote Sun Bin’s Art of War), who served King Wei of Qi during the Warring States period. They were both excellent strategists, and The Art of War and Sun Bin’s Art of War are both excellent books on military strategy.
When I explained that to her, Liscia looked at me dubiously.
“Souma, you were a student, right? Were you reading books on military strategy?”
“Yeah, because I liked history,” I said. “It was related to my interest in that.”
I had especially liked reading Records of the Grand Historian,Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and books about the Warring States Period in Japan. As an offshoot of that, I had read both The Art of War and Sun Bin’s Art of War because both Sun Tzus appear as characters in Records of the Grand Historian.
If you read them, they’re actually quite interesting. Like Machiavelli, they lived in turbulent times, and in their work they accepted that “This is just the way humans are,” and so they discussed how best to deal with the unending wars.
Both became famous through war, but that wasn’t to say that they were bellicose men. Both of them spoke against easily resorting to war. Sun Wu had said, “To break the enemy’s resistance without fighting is best” (in Sun Wu’s “Strategic Attack”) and when giving council to King Wei, Sun Bin had said, “War is not a place for merriment” (in Sun Bin’s “Meeting King Wei”).
However, in a chaotic world, such platitudes wouldn’t always be enough. If you didn’t defend, didn’t attack, the result would be that people died.
Both Sun Tzus understood that. Sun Bin said, “Even the great rulers of legend wanted to rule by morals, but they couldn’t do that. That was why they had to subjugate evil kings by means of war.”
It’s important to separate ideals from reality, and to do the things that, realistically, you ought to do.
“Even if I don’t want to do it, I have to,” I said. “Because I’m the king now.”
“Huh?! Souma…!” Liscia began to say.
There was a knock at the door.
“Come in,” I called out, and my adopted little sister-in-law, Tomoe, poked her head out from the shadow of the door.
“Big Brother Souma, Hakuya is calling for you,” she said.
It seemed that Tomoe had been sent by my prime minister, Hakuya, to come and call me.
“Hakuya is?” I asked. “Got it. Well then, Liscia, please teach me the rest next time.”
After making that request to Liscia, I left the room to go see Hakuya.
“Um… Is something wrong, Big Sister?” Tomoe asked.
As I stared vacantly at the door Souma had left through, my adopted sister spoke up, sounding concerned.
Oh, that’s no good, I thought. I can’t go worrying such a little girl…
“It’s just… There was something that bothered me…” I said.
“Something bothered you?” Tomoe tilted her head to the side quizzically. She looked adorable the way she did it, which helped to calm me down a little bit.
“…You see, Souma, he said, ‘Because I’m the king now.’”
“Big Brother Souma is the king of this country, you know?” she said.
“Well, yes, but…”
But… I didn’t think that the Souma I had known up until then would ever have said those words.
Up until just recently, he’d said things like “I’m just holding onto the crown temporarily,” or “Once I’ve finished reconstructing this kingdom, I’ll give it back to you, Liscia.” Like I’d thought, taking part in the relief effort at the God-Protected Forest might have caused Souma to have a change of heart. Of course, I wanted Souma to be the king, and if he’d gained an awareness of his position, it should have been a good thing, but…
But, I don’t know… For some reason, there’s an uneasiness in my heart.
I couldn’t put it into words very well. There was a sort of premonition creeping into my breast. It felt as if Souma was slowly turning into someone he wasn’t.
“Big Sister? Is Big Brother Souma strange?” Tomoe was looking at me worriedly again.
It seemed I’d had a gloomy look on my face again. I patted Tomoe on the head. “It’ll all be okay. Souma’s not alone. He has all of us with him, after all.”
“Yes, he does!” Tomoe’s little wolf tail was wagging about energetically.
…Yes, that’s right. No matter what future awaits…
…I will walk alongside you to the very end, Souma.
Chapter 2: The Casts of Two Nations
— 9th Month, 1,546th Year, Continental Calendar — Princely Capital Van.
The city of Van, in the princely capital of the Principality of Amidonia, was surrounded by high castle walls, and its architecture was without stylistic excess or ornamentation. Put in a flattering light, it could have been called austere and rugged. Termed less favorably, it was dull and monotonous. The unrefined scenery of this town closely resembled the people who inhabited it.
This country, which had lost land in a war with Elfrieden two reigns ago, had made revenge on that kingdom a national policy. What they valued above all else was the warrior ethos. Of their men, they demanded austerity. Of their women, they demanded servility to those men, as well as a feminine modesty. Because of that, there were no men laughing in the streets and no women promenading in fashionable outfits.
That was the nature of the “quiet city” Van, but recently there was a strange giddiness in the air. It had started when their neighboring country, the enemy Kingdom of Elfrieden, had gone through a sudden change of leadership.