Chapter 370
Side Story – Memories of a Princess (86)
#108 Their Circumstances: The Circumstances of A General
Parian Nel Bereleta.
He was the eldest son of a Baron family in the Kingdom of Merdea, having nothing to do with the military.
The Bereleta Baron family primarily focused on commerce, and Parian, who was to inherit the family, had studied business to succeed the family trade.
However, when the great war broke out, he had to fulfill his noble duties, and he had to go to Merdea, the kingdom’s capital, to learn how to lead soldiers.
But he firmly believed that he would not participate in the war.
This was because his father, Madrian Nel Bereleta, the current lord of the Bereleta family, told Parian who was participating in the war, “We are merchants. The kingdom will not ask us to take up swords. At most, they’ll assign us to supply materials from the rear.”
Though it wasn’t as big a war, Madrian too had been conscripted to fulfill his noble duties when he was the eldest son of the family.
Therefore, he knew well that the kingdom did not demand merchant families to achieve military merits.
Parian believed those words.
It was his father’s experience, and other merchant nobles he knew said the same thing.
That’s why he didn’t worry much.
He was reassured as he learned more about material support-related fields in the kingdom’s capital.
However, the situation suddenly changed.
The Raiko Kingdom’s army and the Imperial army joined hands for a surprise attack, causing the rear defense line to collapse.
Additionally, General Raisha, who was in charge of the main front, betrayed the kingdom.
He signed a non-aggression treaty with the Imperial army he had been fighting and began invading the kingdom.
As a result, the front lines expanded, and manpower became scarce.
To the point where Parian, who was supposed to be assigned rear duties, was sent to the frontlines!
“Ah…”
Parian despaired at his sudden frontline transfer.
He received orders to stop the traitor, Religieus, but who is Religieus!
He was the kingdom’s finest general who had defeated the Imperial army several times.
To defeat such a person with just a few months of training.
It was impossible without natural talent in handling military affairs.
Please don’t come. Please don’t come here!
“General! Religieus’s army has arrived!”
However, God did not answer Parian’s desperate plea.
Among several routes, why did they have to come to the fortress Parian was defending!
Should he surrender? Or should he flee?
Though he contemplated such thoughts, the time to fight finally came.
Parian’s military knowledge was limited to what he had hastily learned in a few months.
And that was just the basics of basics from textbooks.
Could he defeat Religieus, who had repeatedly beaten even the Imperial army and who, though a traitor, had built the kingdom, with just that?
He absolutely couldn’t win.
That should have been obvious.
It should have been obvious, but…
“I won?”
He ended up winning.
“It must be luck?”
He had just followed the textbook, defending and blocking the enemy’s advance.
Such luck couldn’t happen again…
“It did?”
He won again. And it was an even greater victory than the last time.
“W-what’s going on?”
Is it a trap? Is it Religieus’s trap?!
Parian became more anxious with each continuing victory.
While others might have become arrogant with victory, Parian, who had been an ordinary noble, became increasingly anxious.
But that was only during the first few times.
“Huh? What? What’s this?”
One victory became two victories. Two victories became three victories. Three victories became four victories!
Starting from small guerrilla and minor battles to facing enemies several times larger, Parian continued to achieve victories.
“Could it be that I was a genius?!”
Having discovered his unexpected talent(?), Parian used bold strategies and tactics with overflowing confidence.
Of course, they were all typical strategies and tactics that didn’t deviate from the textbook.
But even those worked.
As victories accumulated, confidence built up, fame grew, and before he knew it, military achievements piled up.
Eventually, Parian, who had temporarily been in charge of a small fortress, became its lord, and furthermore, was promised to become the lord of an even larger fortress in the Kingdom of Merdea.
It was truly the emergence of a new genius born from war!
With Parian’s start, several such individuals began to emerge in the fight against the Kingdom of Raisha.
“Follow me!”
One commander achieved success by cutting off the enemy’s supply line with a bold charge.
“I will guard with my life.”
A commander, judging that the enemy couldn’t be stopped at the fortress, ambushed a ravine with five hundred soldiers received from the kingdom.
They ended up stopping over ten thousand soldiers.
“Kuhak! Curse upon the traitors…”
“How could this be…!”
Of course, due to the overwhelming difference in military strength, casualties began to mount.
However, many noble youth remained in the kingdom, and using their blood, sweat, and tears as sacrifice, they gradually succeeded in pushing back the Raisha Kingdom.
And when they came to their senses.
“Now all that remains for the enemy is Fort Mebelis!”
“No matter if it’s Fort Mebelis, only ten thousand enemies remain!”
“We who have created several miracles can surely overcome this!”
In not much time, they were able to recover all the fortresses taken by Religieus.
Of course, this was accompanied by several strokes of heavenly luck.
One factor was that Religieus, emboldened by several successes, divided his army into smaller units for faster advance.
Also, Religieus’s attempt at direct confrontation without deceiving his soldiers anymore, believing he had gained the upper hand, played an important role in their victory.
However, the most important factor was something else.
It was due to Religieus Lu Raisha’s incompetence and his undeserved reputation.
A reputation that made his subordinate generals and soldiers think âThere must be a bigger picture we can’t see!â even when he gave nonsensical commands!
Though his command truly lacked basics, those receiving the orders didn’t realize it, and ended up adding their names to the netherworld’s roster.
The problem was that not all of it failed.
Due to the overwhelming difference in military strength, some units achieved victory even with commands that should have led to defeat.
Therefore, even when there were several defeats, the blame wasn’t placed on Religieus but often fell on the unit commanders’ mistakes, and thanks to this, before they knew it, they lost several occupied fortresses and were facing destruction less than a month after declaring the Kingdom of Raisha.
“You incompetent fools!”
The remarkable thing about Religieus was not just his incompetence, but his confidence and pride that didn’t match his incompetence.
Even when the country was on the brink of destruction, his confidence and pride that his orders weren’t wrong!
Even though they were about to fall so quickly, Duke Raisha thought he had done nothing wrong and rather believed he could soar even higher by using this crisis as an opportunity.
And that had a positive effect.
“Am I really a genius?”
It gave tremendous confidence to Parian, one of the commanders who conquered Fort Mebelis, Merdea Kingdom’s proud natural fortress, in just three days.
“General! We have captured Religieus who was fleeing.”
Parian, who had naturally come to be called general, barely managed to suppress the rising corners of his mouth at the soldier’s words.
“You caught that traitor?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Is that so? I should go see.”
This was Parian’s effort to always show a composed appearance since being called general.
“Traitor, Religieus!”
“How dare a mere Baron like you!”
“Heh, haven’t you heard the news? I have already received the title of Count.”
“While you became a Count, I became king!”
“Yes, you became king of an already fallen country.”
“You…!”
Originally, he was someone whose face was hard to see even from afar.
Even before becoming a war hero, he was the kingdom’s highest nobleman, and Parian, who was just an heir to an ordinary Baron’s family, could only look at him from afar.
He finally caught up with such a difference in status.
No, now the head of the ducal family who seemed as high as the sky was kneeling before him!
“Put a gag on the criminal and throw him in the underground prison! I will personally return to the kingdom with this one.”
“Ah, no!”
Perhaps realizing his future, Religieus screamed with a face turned pale white as soldiers gagged him and began dragging him to the underground prison in Fort Mebelis.
“It’s over.”
The short yet long war had ended.
Parian closed his eyes and fell into thought.
Until just a week ago, he was merely trembling in fear, but some unknown ability had awakened in him, making him one of the kingdom’s most renowned generals.
“Is this my destiny?”
If someone from the enemy empire had seen this, they would have tilted their head saying âWhat? Is this Novice?â, but Parian muttered this while looking at the sky as if it was completely natural.
“General! Enemy forces are coming!”
“What do you mean? Are there remaining forces left?”
A soldier came running urgently to him.
“It’s not the Raisha army! Imperial army! The Imperial army is invading!”
“What…”
Parian frowned for a moment but soon understood.
“Damn. Is the non-aggression over?”
There was only one reason they hadn’t attacked during the war.
It was because they had a non-aggression treaty with Religieus.
However, the moment Duke Raisha was defeated and the Kingdom of Raisha fell, there was no need to keep that treaty.
Because the party who made it had disappeared.
“Damn, prepare for defense!”
Though Parian momentarily pondered what to do, he quickly began to take action.
‘Yes, I am the one who defeated even the rebel who defeated the Imperial Army several times. Even if I’m not fully prepared, I should be able to hold out in this fortress!’
If Religieus could do it, what’s there that I can’t do!
With such confidence, Parian decided to defend Fort Mebelis to the best of his ability and prepared to meet the Imperial Army with the resolve to sacrifice his life.
#109 Their Circumstances: The Circumstances of a Villain
“Kuheck!”
I thrust my sword into the heart of the enemy commander Par-something – Parian? Pablo? Well, I don’t remember clearly.
“Easy.”
“How… Could this…”
“It’s always hard to believe your own death until the moment you die.”
“Kuheck!”
“This is maximum mercy. Don’t feel unnecessary pain, just die quickly.”
I cleanly cut the throat of Par-something who was looking up at me with disbelieving eyes.
I know because I’ve died once too – it’s natural to think ‘Am I really dying like this? Is this real?’ at the moment of death.
Of course, it wasn’t natural death, but a sudden one.
“Is it over?”
“Yes.”
Although blood was gushing from the cleanly cut neck, the Imperial Princess approached and spoke to me as if nothing was wrong.
“Does wiping it like that actually help?”
“It’s better than sheathing it without wiping.”
I wipe the blood off using the enemy commander’s cloak that isn’t yet bloodied and sheath the sword.
Well, I’ll need to get a new sword since this one’s gotten dull from cutting down several people, but I decided to at least pretend to maintain it since the weapon maintenance staff would criticize me if I sent it back covered in blood.
Since I can’t use magic and can’t create sword energy, I should avoid the trouble of getting defective equipment by putting on appearances.
“To think Fort Mebelis would fall in less than half a day…”
“No matter how good a fortress is, it can’t be helped with commanders like that.”
“And who made such commanders in charge of this fortress?”
The Imperial Princess glared with narrowed eyes, but I wasn’t bothered.
“That would be our Lord Raisha’s doing.”
“Right.”
These were the ones who became commanders after taking down Duke Raisha, who had great fame but no real ability.
Should I say they were newbies who should still be in the beginner’s village but got lucky, landing the final hit on a boss mob with 1 HP left and leveling up, getting overconfident and coming to a high-level hunting ground?
No, rather than a boss mob with 1 HP left, Duke Raisha was more like a mob with incorrectly set experience points due to an administrator’s mistake.
Anyway, they were just rookies who hadn’t even served in the army for a year, let alone a month, who just got lucky and became generals.
Their command was terrible, and they couldn’t even make proper judgments when faced with minor variables.
With such people as commanders, and soldiers who weren’t even trained elites.
No matter how good Fort Mebelis was as a fortress, there were limits with such people.
They should rather be praised for holding out for nearly half a day.
“Lord Ast.”
“What is it?”
One of the commanders who was occupying the fortress rushed over.
Then, upon discovering the Imperial Princess who had been hidden behind me, he completely ignored me.
He began reporting earnestly to the Imperial Princess.
“…That’s how it turned out. Also, we were able to find Duke Raisha in the fortress’s underground prison.”
“Hmm…”
At the mention of Duke Raisha’s name, the Imperial Princess began to ponder.
Probably contemplating how to deal with him.
“What should I do, Ast?”
The Imperial Princess began questioning me, who had been acting as a screen behind her until the report was finished.
“Should I hand him over to my angry brother? Or give him as a gift to my younger brother waiting in the rear? Or perhaps…”
“How about just letting him live?”
“Why?”
“At this point, isn’t he an Honorary Grand General of the Karan Empire?”
I turned my head and looked around Fort Mebelis.
Except for the dead soldiers of the Merdea Kingdom, there were no traces of war.
Usually, with fortresses like this, they would be battered with numerous siege weapons and magic for days, leaving heavy traces of destruction after the war, but there were no such traces here.
Well, it probably had a lot to do with the fact that the fortress walls were breached within an hour of the siege beginning.
“By the way, the commanders of the following fortresses will likely be similar. Since they’re the fortresses that Duke, no, King Raisha had conquered.”
“You’re saying we can take nearly ten fortresses without effort?”
“That’s right.”
Duke Raisha, no, His Majesty the King, who brought down the troublesome Merdea Kingdom to this state, has achieved accomplishments worthy of being called an Honorary Grand General of the Karan Empire.
So we should let him live.
“Besides, shouldn’t we get revenge for Sir Ria?”
“How?”
The Imperial Princess looked up at me as if asking what I meant, and I gave her a very sweet smile.
“…What’s with that evil expression.”
“Lord Ast…”
The Imperial Princess and the commander who had remained for the report wore somewhat uncomfortable expressions, but!
