The Final Boss Always Stood in the Hero’s Way

“Say that again?”

In the domain, with Rex and Duke away, Third Company Commander Remesis asked his subordinate again.

“Unless my ears are deceiving me, are you saying that the baron next door, without knowing his place, fired a rock spell at our domain?”

“Yes, sir. Fortunately, the rocks fell away from the city, so there were no casualties, but infrastructure, including roads and reservoirs, was destroyed.”

“What’s his justification?”

“He says our domain monopolized the upstream flow and caused a poor harvest.”

“Hmm···”

Remesis stroked his rough stubble and let out a low groan.

He remembered the warning Duke had given him before leaving the domain.

- I sense an ominous atmosphere.

“You foresaw even this?”

“Pardon?”

“I was talking to myself. Pack your things. Our company is heading out. Assemble at the south gate in ten minutes.”

“And the report to the lord···?”

“I’ll handle it while you prepare.”

“Yes, sir!”

The knight saluted and left the room.

Alone in the room, Remesis stared at the tip of his burning cigarette and muttered.

“War··· Now there’s a harsh word I never wanted to hear.”

After smoking the entire cigarette, Remesis wrote a brief report.

- A provocation has occurred along the domain border. Third Company will immediately respond in accordance with the response manual.

Remesis draped his conquest coat over his shoulders like a cloak and left the room.

***

Remesis’s report was immediately transmitted to Duke and Rex using Rex’s ability.

“How much longer until the domain capital?”

“Three days, Master.”

Ari answered while serving as the coachman.

Rex reviewed the report inside the carriage for the time being.

Hearing that the neighboring baron had provoked them as though he wanted war and that Third Company had deployed, Rex was not particularly flustered.

He had already considered the possibility of war.

This journey, which had originally begun by following rumors of the wandering swordsman Peter, had also been prompted by the increasingly fierce pressure from the surrounding domains.

Moreover, he could check the flow of supplies through the system, had received a word from his ally, Lady Sneria, and had seen more than enough other signs of war.

But now that war had actually begun, there was one thing he regretted.

“I shouldn’t have yielded him after all···”

Old Peter, whom he had sent away out of goodwill, kept coming to mind.

“No. This is right.”

But Rex quickly steeled himself.

Rex’s decision to give Peter to Hana had not been based on pure goodwill alone.

War and diplomacy were not one-on-one contests.

While he was locked in a one-on-one fight with the neighboring domain, the balance could shift dramatically depending on what another domain did.

A representative example was the country of a certain mustachioed supreme leader, whose war became difficult because an allied nation made a mess of things.

That was why Rex had sent Peter to her.

In case war broke out, it was so she could hold out until he could send her reinforcements.

Rex shook off the past, which he could no longer change, and focused on the interface.

He couldn’t understand what gave a mere baron the confidence to provoke them,

and he was also somewhat suspicious of the personal guards and Duke, who had been preparing as though they knew war would begin while he was traveling.

There was also his fear for the lives that would be lost on the battlefield the moment he declared war.

But he covered all those doubts and fears with responsibility and opened the system mode-change window for the first time in a long while.

<Will you declare war?>

Y/N

At the question in the system window, which contained neither goodwill nor malice, Rex pressed the button with trembling fingertips.

Y

At last, war had begun.

***

In the end, war had begun.

As Rex, who had been pondering in the carriage traveling alongside mine, pressed the empty air, a mass of text appeared before my eyes, like something from a war simulation game.

- What a poor, pitiful soul.

For some reason, the feeling that I could hear that voice was probably just my imagination.

Unlike me, Ari and Jane seemed to hear something in Rex’s voice.

I ignored the mass of text and pretended to listen to the declaration of war, then sank into thought for the first time in a long while.

War.

That word filled me with exhilaration again.

Of course, I knew that war was horrific.

Until I reached Tier Three as a mercenary and adventurer, I had cursed out the lords who started domain wars.

But from the standpoint of pursuing the final boss, saying that war was bad would be hypocritical.

So I simply gave up thinking about it.

I only had to play the role of the final boss.

I would leave the complicated thoughts to Rex.

Ignoring the triangle of conscience worn down to the size of a millet grain, I recalled the original story.

The fact that war broke out on the way back to the domain capital after parting with Peter was the same in the original story and now.

The difference was that the war, which had begun with an invasion in the original story, had started with a cautious provocation this time.

Apparently, with the domain that had been a countdom in the original story now having become a marquisate, directly invading it was too burdensome.

But whether invading a countdom or provoking a marquisate, the baron’s actions were far from rational in both the original story and the present.

Naturally, there were circumstances behind this irrational act.

Thinking of the masterminds behind the baron, I spoke to Rex.

“My lord. Issue the order.”

As always, as the final boss, I merely had to stop the heroes who so loudly proclaimed themselves to be justice.

***

Several weeks had passed since the baron provoked the marquisate.

The baron used a fortress as his forward base and continued carrying out military provocations.

Normally, the marquis’s army would have crushed the baron’s domain, but astonishingly, the baron had survived for weeks.

This was because, wary of the other entities behind the baron, Rex had sent only the company commander.

In other words, the baron’s military strength could be handled by a single company.

The baron had also read Rex’s intentions.

‘Damn it.’

The fact that he had been a king in his own domain but was only at the level of a company commander elsewhere wounded his pride.

‘I was happier living inside my well. Why did I ever climb out?’

But the baron had circumstances that required him to leave his well.

It was because of the detestable allied lords who would roast and eat him, well and all, if he did not come out.

‘Damn it. How can anyone call this an alliance?’

Although there was no such thing as an eternal alliance in diplomacy, it was difficult to find a word that failed to perform its proper role as badly as “alliance.”

An alliance among lords was,

‘I want to fight that bastard, but fighting him at full strength would be tiring, so you, who are weaker than me, wear him down a little.’

It was closer to a school bully’s way of making friends.

It was no coincidence that weak enemies appeared one after another before the hero in novels, fairy tales, or legends.

This was also why the baron had pretended to be insane and declared war on the marquis.

Otherwise, the other lords would kill him.

Since the baron was the weakest among the allied lords, he had been pushed forward first.

Their intention was probably to devour the domain with minimal sacrifice once their opponent’s strength had been depleted.

But the baron could not resist this unreasonable treatment.

‘Those damn royals···’

He lacked the strength, to be sure, but more importantly, the royal family stood at the very top of the alliance.

The royal family’s reason for wanting war was highly complicated.

The countdom of Karognar, the predecessor to the Providence Domain, had been a powerful domain even by the royal family’s standards.

The count himself was strong, but the real reason was an eccentric scientist who, despite being capable of becoming a lord anywhere, was content with a single city.

The count provided nobles with a people-laundering service, while the scientist sold the data obtained from those people to other lords for next to nothing,

making them an opponent who was difficult to touch, militarily or politically.

But Rex had taken over the research institute alone and gone further, ousting the count from his position.

For the royal family and nobles, who had used people laundering to dispose of political opponents and enjoyed the scientist’s data, this was quite shocking news.

It was only natural, in a sense, that they had come to be hostile toward the Providence Domain.

Some feared the records that might remain in the institute,

some nobles feared Rex’s revenge,

some were jealous of Rex for having monopolized the institute’s data,

and some coveted Rex’s realm.

In any case, countless interests that could not be summarized in one sentence had converged under the royal family’s leadership to create this alliance.

‘Well, it seems the royal family is hiding something more.’

It seemed like something a baron like him could neither know nor ought to know, so he did not investigate further.

The baron let out a deep sigh, heavy-hearted.

“Phew··· I wish I’d been next to Sneria’s domain instead.”

The royal family had given Lady Sneria that opportunity as well.

But she had rejected the alliance as though it were not worth considering.

In response, the surrounding lords mocked her as a woman with no power and no sense.

But separately from mocking her, they did not forget to punish the traitor.

Thus, the second-weakest baron among the allies had been sent to the Sneria Domain.

The baron invading the Providence Domain envied him.

At least, wouldn’t he have a much greater chance of surviving than his own?

But no matter how much he complained alone, his miserable situation did not change.

Today as well, the baron donned his cloak and headed toward the familiar battlefield for a duel.

The battlefield the baron headed for was frozen out of season.

In the midst of the vassals who had now become beautiful statues, a pale, middle-aged man stood.

“Tsk.”

The middle-aged man irritably threw away his frozen cigarette.

The baron shouted at the middle-aged man.

“Remesis! Today, I’ll definitely···”

“Let’s skip the introductions and get to work. I’m a civil servant, so unlike you, I have no honor to boast about.”

“Tsk.”

The baron clicked his tongue, for what might have been the umpteenth time.

It was humiliating enough to be ignored even by his allies, but being treated this way by a company commander—not even a marquis—made his blood boil.

The baron vented that indignation in the duel.

When the baron fired sharp rocky projectiles, Remesis blocked them with ice walls and counterattacked with cold, trading blows in that manner.

The battle leaned subtly in Remesis’s favor.

Here, “subtly” meant that he always lacked the decisive blow needed to finish off the baron.

“Please··· Surely I can’t keep repeating this nonsense for the rest of my life···”

Remesis sighed as he watched the baron flee whenever he gained a slight disadvantage.

He ran hard in pursuit, but it was impossible to catch the baron as he flew away while Remesis limped along.

“Damn this body··· I really ought to quit smoking···”

Even as he said this, Remesis lit a cigarette to soothe his irritation.

This was Remesis’s weakness.

His ice power was excellent for both attack and defense, but in exchange, he had lost mobility.

His nerves had died, making broad movements difficult.

As a result, once the baron went around behind the fortress walls, there was nothing Remesis could do.

“Sigh··· I’m sorry, my lord. I’m so inadequate.”

Remesis stared self-deprecatingly at the wall behind which the baron had vanished, like a dog that had chased a chicken.

He had no ability to cut through fortress walls like some knight from who-knows-where.

Fortresses in this world were, naturally, structures designed to withstand attacks from lord-level superhumans.

Their seemingly ordinary stone walls contained various barriers, enchantments, sorcery, and the like.

Anyone capable of cutting through such walls had to be at least of royal blood or at the level of someone directly under the royal family.

Even that fortress had been built using technology lost since the imperial era.

It was laughable that a mere baron possessed a fortress that ought to be classified as an artifact, but he had acquired it by chance because of where it happened to be located.

As far as Remesis knew, only about thirteen people in the world could cut through such structures or vault over them as easily as crossing a low wall.

And Remesis was not one of them.

“I’ll be clocking out for today, my lord.”

Remesis gazed regretfully at the fortress, then limped back to his tent.

When he entered the tent, Remesis’s adjutant greeted him.

“You’re back.”

“I’m off the clock. Don’t wake me unless there’s a night raid.”

Remesis lay down on the cot and closed his eyes.

He thought back to the first day of the war.

On the first day, Remesis had insisted they should conduct a siege despite accepting casualties, but Rex rejected it.

- “If we wear ourselves down that much against the baron, how are we supposed to fight the other lords?”

A battle between superhumans was simply a display of strength, but to Rex, who considered the domain, war was a matter of cost-effectiveness.

Even if they won the war, if the domain was devastated or casualties were high, it was no different from losing, so unlike other lords, he effectively had an additional handicap.

In that sense, they could not wage a siege against the baron.

From a long-term perspective, throwing domain citizens into the meat grinder to stop military provocations was selling the future.

Thus, Rex ordered Remesis only to keep confronting the baron along the domain border.

Remesis did not like Rex’s kindness.

“There’s no such thing as a war without sacrifices, my lord.”

His adjutant, who overheard the mutter, snickered from beside him.

“And yet, Commander, don’t you always lead the way into duels because you don’t want your subordinates sacrificed?”

“You misunderstand. I only did the work I was paid to do.”

“Yeees, yeees. Of course you did.”

Remesis fired an icicle at his adjutant.

The adjutant blocked it with an ice fan, then snickered and left the tent.

“Tsk.”

Left alone in the tent, Remesis clicked his tongue and tried to sleep.

He reassured himself that even an undead deprived of eternal sleep deserved a little downtime.