Chapter 360
Side Story – Memories of an Imperial Princess (76)
#96 Their Circumstances: The Circumstances of Some Mages
“What kind of crazy thing is this?”
In darkness where not even an inch ahead was visible. The mages pushing through the darkness with a few small lamps were busy cursing one person’s name.
“Damn that Ast.”
“That dog Ast.”
“Hey, what did dogs do wrong?”
“Right, dogs are good animals.”
“Damn it! I don’t have words in any language I know to curse Ast.”
“It’s not that your vocabulary is lacking, but because the word ‘Ast’ itself is the worst curse.”
“Right! Damn that bastard Ast! May you become like Ast!”
Though the mages were busy cursing Ast’s name, they soon had to close their mouths upon seeing the faintly visible black door.
“Wow, crazy…”
“It really exists.”
“I thought it was a lie, but to think it really exists…”
The black door that appeared to be about 3 meters wasn’t particularly large.
“When was this door made?”
“I heard it was right after recapturing Fort Pesra. They called dwarves to repair the damaged castle, and that crazy Ast requested the dwarves to make it.”
“…Does His Highness know about this?”
“No, not even His Majesty the Emperor knows about this.”
“Crazy…”
The mages blankly stared at the black door illuminated by the lamps.
“We all have a lot to say, but talking about it here won’t solve anything. Let’s just… Finish the job and leave quickly.”
“Understood.”
At the words of Regas, the leader of the mage unit who stood at the front, the other mages gathered their wits and began pushing the black door.
“Ugh… Why won’t this open?”
“Is there a lock? I don’t see one?”
“Is it a trap?”
Though they tried pushing and pulling, the black door showed no signs of opening.
“Ah, that…”
Seeing the mages struggling to open the door, Regas sighed deeply and made the others step back.
“You slide it sideways.”
Grrrrrung!
When Regas grabbed the handle and pushed the door sideways, it began to open with the sound of something rolling.
“Wow, crazy…”
“As expected of a door requested by Ast! It’s not normal!”
That was the mages’ impression as they watched the door slide sideways.
Even after that, the mages overreacted to every little thing and cursed Ast.
But,
“Wow…”
“Huh…”
“Ha, haha…”
After passing through several doors and reaching the final room, they could only let out empty laughs looking at its interior.
“Heaven beyond heaven. I’ve heard there’s a new sky beyond the sky but…”
Even Regas, who had led the mages until arriving here, is the same.
“I knew he was crazy, but he’s the craziest among the crazy!”
These were all professionals. They were those who had endured the Empire’s notoriously harsh mage training and proven their skills in numerous real battles. In that process, they had seen many rare occurrences that even ordinary soldiers and those who had been through thick and thin on battlefields had never experienced.
Among all military branches, they were veterans who had experienced not just words but actions in land battles, water battles, and even aerial battles! That’s what the mages of the Karan Empire were, and the mages here were among the most veteran of them all.
Even these mages were losing their minds at this sight!
“All the magic stones in this area seem to have been brought here.”
Those were the words of Regas, who was the first to regain his senses.
As he said, the room was full of magic stones. At first glance, they were embedded in all the walls as if the room itself was made of one giant magic stone.
“…Is this the core? How thick is it?”
In order to avoid detection by the enemy, they were suppressing their magical power as much as possible. Because of this, the mages looking at the wall surfaces with small lamps rather than light magic couldn’t accurately tell how thick the magic stones were.
“I’m not sure, but I know one thing.”
“What is it, Captain?”
“It’s better not to know! There’s a reason they say ignorance is bliss!”
“Y-yes, you’re right.”
“We’re dealing with Ast! If we worry about such things, our minds will only become more desolate! So let’s just move on!”
“Understood, Captain!”
Thanks to Regas’s wise(?) handling, the mages’ sanity was preserved.
“Let’s begin.”
The mages began taking various items out from their clothes.
Starting with various magical tools, magic stone powder, and reagents used for drawing magic circles, they began skillfully engraving magic circles on the surrounding magic stones with practiced movements.
“There’s no need to hurry. Slowly, accurately. All we need to do is connect the magic circles engraved on the magic stones with the ones we’re drawing.”
“Understood!”
Their job was to connect the fuses.
Their mission was to finish working on the pre-prepared magic stones and the incomplete explosion magic circles engraved on them, and to do additional work so that magic could be activated from afar.
After about 10 minutes had passed,
“Team 1, work completed!”
“Team 2, work completed!”
“Team 3, startup magic circle in progress!”
Mages who finished their work started coming out one by one.
“Everything is well-prepared.”
Regas had done similar work several times before.
It was a task that often came up in mage training exams – infiltrating enemy territory to use explosive magic tools or draw explosion magic circles to blow up key enemy strongholds.
Although they were small-scale bombing operations, Regas, who had experienced actual combat a couple of times, could tell how thoroughly prepared this operation was.
“Engraving magic circles on magic stones is difficult work. Especially when using them in enemy territory.”
It took quite a lot of time and was classified as a task of the highest difficulty level.
Therefore,
“This is insane.”
Regas shuddered slightly, feeling goosebumps all over his body.
This was a very thoroughly planned operation.
After recapturing Fort Pesra, they proceeded naturally without anyone knowing. In the process, they made Duke Raisha the Grand General by handing over Fort Pesra, and made the Kingdom of Merdea trust Duke Raisha by continuously giving small victories.
After that, they annihilated Duke Raisha’s forces, and when the desperate Kingdom of Merdea handed over forces that could be considered the kingdom’s military power to Duke Raisha.
And after that, they naturally pretended to leave the path open for the operation, deceiving the enemy and making them able to retreat. To Fort Pesra containing this massive bomb!
“Insane. Completely insane.”
Who would think of abandoning a castle that guards the border? Not just simply giving it to the enemy, but thinking of destroying the castle itself!
“It’s not like Ast going crazy is anything new, Commander.”
A veteran mage who finished his work started grumbling excessively to change the atmosphere.
“He really makes us do crazy things like this. Ever since Ast came, it feels like we’re doing all sorts of things.”
“That’s right.”
“He’s completely lost it.”
“Her Highness shouldn’t be influenced by Ast.”
Thanks to that, the atmosphere among the other mages started to lighten up a bit.
But,
“Zirhart.”
“Yes, Commander. Do you have something for me to do?”
He spoke while looking at the mage, Zirhart, who was busy grumbling to change the atmosphere.
“He’s not just crazy.”
Regas was also someone who had risen from a novice mage to the commander of the mage corps. He wasn’t unaware of why the mage called Zirhart was trying to change the atmosphere. He had volunteered for such a role several times himself.
Therefore, he knew he had to speak clearly this time.
“I know that, but…”
“He is thoroughly insane.”
“What do you mean by that…”
The atmosphere that had started to lighten up thanks to Zirhart’s efforts began to freeze again at Regas’s serious voice.
“What do you think I said after I directly heard this operation from Lord Ast?”
It was Regas who added the title ‘Lord’ to the name Ast that he had been calling until now. It was a word indicating that this was an official matter rather than a personal one.
Noticing this, Zirhart swallowed dry and began to think carefully.
‘Are you crazy? No, that was something we often said normally. Then, can you take responsibility? If not that then…’
All sorts of assumptions started floating around in his head.
If I had directly heard such a crazy operation, what would I have said?
Zirhart, asking himself like this, came up with numerous answers, but none of them resonated.
“I don’t know.”
Looking at Zirhart who finally gave an honest answer saying he didn’t know, Regas responded in a calm voice.
“It was ‘Are you crazy?’ And I argued about the importance of Fort Pesra and how to defend the border afterwards.”
“I see.”
It was the answer Zirhart had thought of first. Therefore, he could understand. Regas hadn’t set the mood to say these words, but rather what would follow was the core of what Regas wanted to say!
Zirhart’s thoughts were correct.
“Then Lord Ast answered me.”
“What did he say?”
Gulp!
Zirhart’s gaze fixed on Regas’s mouth as he swallowed. The other mages around him naturally looked at Regas and held their breath.
“He said, ‘I know Fort Pesra is important. But isn’t that because it’s crucial for defending the border?’ So I answered, ‘Yes, Fort Pesra is essential for protecting the border.'”
Regas paused and took out a small canteen from his pocket to wet his throat.
“Then Lord Ast replied, ‘Then it doesn’t matter, does it? Because Fort Pesra won’t be the empire’s border anymore.'”
Regas continued sipping water from his canteen, despite being trained to stay functional for at least two days with just one sip of water.
“Ah, that’s…”
Zirhart, who hadn’t understood the meaning of the words, could only gape when he finally comprehended Regas’s words.
“Is it… Occupation?”
“Yes.”
Wars could largely be divided into two types.
One was inflicting severe damage on the enemy and gaining benefits through diplomacy.
The other was occupying enemy territory and taking their land.
Though they seemed similar, they were completely different approaches.
In the former case, the victor could demand all sorts of spoils from the loser. Starting from land near the border or mines, to compensation, tributes, and even taking the defeated nation’s prince or princess as hostage.
In the latter case, more could be gained since the land itself was being taken. Territory, mines within it, fields, people, and numerous other things. After taking all that, they could even send envoys to the defeated nation to demand various spoils included in the former method, or if refused, it was possible to occupy the entire kingdom and destroy the nation.
Compared to the former, the latter method had a much higher difficulty.
Knowing they would lose everything, the enemy doesn’t surrender. Since they’re dying anyway, they fight to the death with their lives. Nobles, knights, soldiers, and even all citizens!
An enemy fighting thoroughly to avoid being taken is troublesome.
Not only that, they would all fight behind locked castle gates. It meant dozens of siege battles. That’s why most wars took the approach of breaking the enemy army’s will to fight and gaining benefits through negotiation.
“This is crazy…”
But Ast had declared he would take the entire Kingdom of Merdea. He was saying that blowing up Fort Pesra wasn’t expensive for that purpose!
“The word ‘crazy’ seems cute at this level.”
“Indeed. That’s why we must succeed.”
“I understand.”
The mages began moving busily one by one. They checked the magic stones around them, and checked their magic circles again and again.
“It’s done!”
The shout of the mage who was working until the end rang out.
“It’s finished.”
Hearing those words, Regas closed his eyes.
It was over.
In many ways, so many things had come to an end.
“It can’t be helped.”
Sighing softly as he opened his eyes, Regas used the prepared tools to connect the magic circles in the room with the magic tools that would serve as fuses, then slowly began climbing up from the underground to the surface.
“We’ll begin.”
“Alright.”
The mages who escaped to the surface drew magic circles again and connected the fuses to them.
“Here we go!”
Ten mages infused magic into the magic circles connected to the fuses, while other mages began guarding the surroundings.
“Now the enemy can detect us too! Don’t let your guard down!”
They were freely releasing the magic they had been suppressing. Being quite close to the castle, enemy mages might rush out at any moment!
Boom!
“Huh?”
But as Regas expected, no enemy mages came rushing out.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
-Aaaaargh!
Along with explosion sounds and collapsing sounds, screams began to be heard.
“What…”
“Commander! The castle walls are collapsing!”
They could see the walls of Fort Pesra, which had blocked countless enemy forces, crumbling down. At the same time, massive explosions began occurring at the highest tower of the castle.
“This, this crazy bastard…”
Regas had already heard that the room of magic stones was the core part of the bombs installed in Fort Pesra. He had also heard that the core was connected to the castle interior, walls, and civilian houses within the castle.
He knew the plan was to assassinate key figures in the castle through explosions, destroy important facilities, and simultaneously create confusion to bring down the enemy. That was the craziest thing Regas could imagine!
“Was he planning to blow up the entire castle!”
But what he saw before his eyes was a massive explosion big enough to blow away Fort Pesra itself!
Bombs had been installed not only in the castle walls but also in the moat area, and watching the huge explosions extending even beyond the castle walls, Regas was left speechless.
