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The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road Chapter 149

The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road Chapter 149

While battles were raging in the west and east, preparations for a coup were underway in the south.

Duke Reginald, the leader of the Balas Independence faction, was secretly organizing an army by receiving troops from Bülang.

Cassius Lloyd, who had secretly defected from Bülang, was to become the army’s commander-in-chief.

Cassius took charge of most of the planning.

Cassius argued that to make the coup successful, they needed to divert the attention of the regular army, and brought in Alvard and the Western tribes.

They agreed to overthrow the Balas regime and give them certain territories. After all, Balas was a kingdom with a low population compared to its territory.

Most of the population was concentrated in the central capital and the adjacent Platon, so even if they gave away some land, they calculated that they could maintain national power by relocating the population of that land to other regions.

As for the land, they planned to take it back later when Balas lost its neutral status and allied with Svenner to target Europe or Alvard.

So for Duke Reginald, that news was unbelievable.

“W-what? Say that again.”

“Yes, soldiers presumed to be from the Western army are plundering the western territories and indiscriminately massacring our citizens, regardless of age or gender!”

“How can such a thing be happening!”

Enraged to the point of his hair standing on end, Reginald headed to where Cassius was to confirm the truth.

Prince Eldric, who had joined as an advisor, was also by Cassius’s side.

Saint Alicia was also sticking close to Cassius. Her eyes seemed to drip honey as she looked at Cassius.

They each had different expressions in response to Duke Reginald’s protest.

Alicia immediately responded, saying it was nonsense.

“Duke Reginald. That’s impossible. How could the Western army that came to help us be massacring civilians?”

“I don’t want to believe it either. But such information has clearly come in!”

“It can’t be…”

She shook her head in disbelief and looked at Cassius.

Cassius smiled reassuringly.

“Duke, there must be some misunderstanding. I suspect it’s clearly false information from that Wade.”

“False information…?”

“Remember when the West invaded Bülang several months ago?”

“Y-yes, I remember that.”

“At that time, there were also unfounded rumors that the West had massacred 200,000 Bülang civilians, but that wasn’t actually the case. It was just false information.”

“That’s news to me.”

“The Western people are currently being called barbarians by the people of the continent, and their actions are being exaggerated negatively. There are ridiculous stories spreading without question, like they have three eyes and four arms, or they eat corpses and lay eggs inside them. Wade… Crossing is trying to spread such information to shake us. We must not be shaken, Duke!”

“I-I see. So Juras Pamilion and Wade are conspiring to confuse us!”

“That’s exactly it.”

Alicia bit her lip hard at Cassius’s word.

“Indeed, Wade is vicious. Even if it’s to shake us, to spread such malicious rumors!”

“Don’t worry, Alicia. I’ll drive out Wade and Crossing completely after things are settled.”

“Cassius…. Yes, I believe in you.”

Alicia, who had fallen in love, firmly believed Cassius’s words, but Duke Reginald was different.

He was not such a naive person.

On the surface, he was agreeing, but inwardly he was thinking differently.

‘He’s hiding something. I should just go along with it for now in this situation.’

Currently, they had left the war intelligence to Cassius. As a coup force, they couldn’t operate a regular intelligence department, and what little intelligence personnel they had were concentrated in the capital, so they had no choice but to leave other aspects to Cassius and Prince Eldric.

He looked at Prince Eldric, who had been silent, as if probing.

“What do you think, Your Highness?”

“…”

“Your Highness?”

Prince Eldric was gritting his teeth.

‘Tetora Anistri…!!’

For Eldric, who abhorred sacrificing the few for the many, Tetora’s methods were absolutely unacceptable.

He despised Tetora. Furthermore, he had changed his mind about the West, with whom they had been cooperating.

He had other intentions regarding this incident as well.

However, now he had to defend Tetora and make excuses.

If it became known that Tetora’s army had massacred hundreds of thousands of civilians, it would create a division in this coup force. That had to be avoided at all costs.

Nevertheless, due to his personal beliefs, he couldn’t bring himself to make excuses.

As he trembled, Duke Reginald’s expression changed drastically.

Cassius hurriedly intervened.

“It seems the Prince is overworked. Duke, let’s discuss this matter later.”

“Ah, I suppose we have no choice. We’ll do that.”

Reginald turned and left.

His footsteps gradually quickened. Almost as if he were running away. In the end, it was almost like he was running.

Watching this, Cassius’s eyes turned cold.

He left his seat and gave instructions to his attendant.

“If Duke Reginald shows any suspicious movements, eliminate him.”

“Is that alright? Isn’t Duke Reginald necessary for the political change?”

“The Saint alone is enough for that.”

This place was already under Cassius’s control.

The army they said they received from Bülang was all Prince Eldric’s forces. In other words, they were puppets of the West.

“What will you do about Prince Eldric? He has been constantly feeling doubtful about our methods.”

“Rather than that, he probably has complaints about Tetora.”

“Shouldn’t we eliminate him too if necessary? If we leave him like this, he might oppose the Sky Mother.”

“It’s not ‘might’, it will definitely happen. Prince Eldric will try to eliminate her after this is over, or through this incident.”

“Sir…. I hate to ask, but are you thinking of siding with Prince Eldric?”

“…”

When Cassius fell silent, the attendant growled.

“You bastard, have you forgotten your role as one of the Three Pillars…!”

“I haven’t forgotten. Regarding Prince Eldric, I’ll consult with the other leaders. So for now, focus on Duke Reginald.”

The attendant sighed.

Given this situation, it was clear what would happen when Tetora and Prince Eldric faced each other after everything was over.

Above all, their perspectives on post-war handling differed.

While Tetora and other Western leaders wanted to swallow Balas whole and use it as a territory for the West’s advance into the continent, Prince Eldric wanted to either maintain Balas or establish a new independent kingdom with Cassius as king.

So internal strife was inevitable after everything was over.

However, fortunately or unfortunately, they didn’t need to think about that.

They were assuming Tetora would be victorious. Or even if not victorious, they thought she wouldn’t be defeated.

That’s why they couldn’t help but widen their eyes at the subsequent intelligence.

News of Tetora’s major defeat by Wade.

As a result, the coup forces had no choice but to declare an emergency.

* * *

After defeating the enemy in the Sadban Mountains, I quickly began organizing a guerrilla force.

Now that we had annihilated the enemy’s main force, we could hunt down external detachments as well.

“We’ll deploy all troops! Don’t forgive those heinous bastards!”

The officers nodded with determination at my words.

There might not be good and evil in war, but this was too much.

The enemy had chosen to massacre civilians despite having other ways to win the war. So it could be seen as the karma of individuals and that army.

I divided the forces into four units of 10,000 each and began the task of hunting down enemy detachments.

Whether they had heard about the annihilation of the main force from escaped troops, the enemy detachments were also hastily retreating and fleeing to Svenner’s territory.

As that operation was nearing completion, Sophia came to me and said, “Elaine. We’ve driven out most of the enemy forces. All operations will be completed by noon tomorrow.”

“Indeed, having many capable officers makes the work quick and efficient.”

Thanks to that, I wasn’t tired either.

Sophia seemed to agree on this point and nodded.

I jokingly said, “Now that it’s come to this, I’d like Sophia to continue being my adjutant. I’ll treat you well, so why don’t you come under my command?”

Sophia frowned, realizing there was some seriousness mixed in my words.

“Don’t talk nonsense. More importantly, what are you going to do now? Our great victory must have affected the coup forces as well.”

This war was bait for the coup forces.

That applied to both sides.

If our role was to tie down the West so they couldn’t approach the capital, the same was true for the enemy. They were playing the role of keeping Balas’s regular army from guarding the capital.

That situation changed as the Western army suffered too great a defeat.

If I were to march back to the capital, the coup would be off the table.

Knowing this, the royal family was requesting my return.

“What are you going to do?”

“For now, taking care of the civilians who suffered from the looting comes first.”

“But we still have troops left even while doing that, right?”

That was true. In the current situation, sending back just 10,000 troops would be fatal for the enemy.

That’s why the enemy coup forces in the south had urgently started marching north.

Sophia expressed doubt as to why I wasn’t doing that. Everything would be over if I just sent 10,000 troops.

I was hesitating.

That was because this was part of the play Juras had set up.

I was hesitant about whether to proceed with things according to Juras’ intentions.

‘Well, I agreed to do this as he thought.’

I’m in a mutually cooperative relationship with him. No matter how much I dislike him, I shouldn’t act uncooperatively.

I made a decision and began the process of sending 20,000 troops back.

These forces were joined halfway through the return point by Marquis Federin, one of Balas’s senior officials, who took command.

And this Marquis Federin was someone who had been bought by Crossing.

If Duke Reginald and the Saint were bought by the West and Svenner, there would naturally be opposing forces as well. Marquis Federin was one of them.

Marquis Federin moved the troops he received from me to the capital.

As the coup army in the south was marching north, the attention of the soldiers guarding the capital was inevitably focused on the south, so the guard was inevitably weak for the forces returning from the west.

The royal family sent a letter telling them to go immediately to the south where the enemy was advancing, but Marquis Federin replied, ‘The soldiers are tired, so we’ll rest for a day before going’.

After entering the capital like this, Marquis Federin quickly occupied the royal palace.

This was the purpose from the beginning.

To send troops back from the west and occupy the royal palace while the coup forces were moving.

It was a strategy to take advantage of the situation and reversely make the coup successful.

So it didn’t matter if the western army didn’t win. They just had to hold their position and return at the right time.

Rather, because of my great victory, the royal family became even more off guard.

They didn’t think that I, who had fought so hard, would plot a coup.

It became a kind of method acting.

Most of the 20,000 troops I sent back were private soldiers of nobles bought by Crossing, so there was no noise during the coup process.

With this, Balas comes under Crossing’s management.

Neither Svenner nor the West can do anything but watch, sucking their thumbs.

That’s because Crossing and Calliper are already attacking the eastern part of Alvard.

If Svenner and the West become angry about this and declare war on Crossing, it will lead to a great war.

But Svenner is already at war with Tunkai & Europe.

The Western army has also suffered great damage by me.

In such a situation, if they turn Crossing and Calliper into enemies, Svenner will be cornered.

The situation was not favorable to escalate the war in Balas into a continental war.

So there’s no choice but to watch.

‘Checkmate.’

It wasn’t Bülang, Svenner, or the West who swallowed Balas, but Crossing.

It was Juras.

Everything was a play orchestrated by him.

The ending should have been according to that scenario as well.

However.

“Lord Ars!”

Anton urgently appeared, pushing aside the tent.

His expression was filled with bewilderment.

“What’s the matter? Why so urgent?”

“It’s…!”

Anton quickly relayed to me the situation of the coup he had just received.

“The king was not in the royal palace! He had already fled somewhere!”

“What…!?”

The king of Balas, who had suddenly disappeared.

It was news announcing that the play that had been proceeding according to the scenario had changed to an improvisation.


TL NOTE:

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The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road

The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road

Score 9.2
Status: Completed Type: Author: Released: 2022 Native Language: Korean
I ended up possessing Ars Elaine, a supporting character in the game. Struggling to prevent my death, I pave my way.

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