Reinforcements

A city that had once been the Baron's capital.

Today, I was patrolling once again in a city that had become part of the Marquisate's territory.

“Duke! It’s another fine day!”

“Hmm.”

“Lord Duke, the fish we caught today were so good that we set some aside for the knights to eat. Would it be all right if we brought them to the outpost?”

“I’ll take them.”

“Oh, no, you mustn’t. We lowly commoners will carry such a fishy-smelling box.”

Despite the fishmonger's protests, Duke put the box full of fish into subspace.

Straightening his back after bending down to stow the box, the hulking knight said,

“With the citizens’ hearts so burdened, how could I, as a knight, refuse to shoulder that burden? I’ll make sure to tell my subordinates.”

I turned my back on the owner, who was looking at me with deep emotion, and continued my patrol.

I could feel the admiring gazes on my back.

Striking a pose had definitely been worth it.

- “Aaaah! He made eye contact with me!”

- “Please show us how you swing your sword, just once!”

- “Duke! Please step on me!”

The reactions seemed even more intense than when I was in the Marquisate, but I couldn’t say I disliked this sort of thing.

On the contrary, I liked it.

What was the point of putting on a show if people didn’t react like this?

Of course, the citizens of the Baron's domain had not been this friendly toward me from the beginning.

I had no idea how the Baron had advertised me to his people, but whenever they made eye contact with me, they had been too busy shedding tears and snot while begging me to spare them.

Especially considering how they had lain face-down in the streets begging for mercy on the day I occupied the domain capital and held the victory parade, it seemed the Baron had done an excellent job of inciting them.

So I used children.

People naturally tend to think anyone kind to children is a good person.

Thus, I staged a heartwarming gap-moe moment by rescuing a child who was about to be run over by a carriage driven by a drunk and taking them home,

(I threw the driver and carriage into the river.)

I also built an orphanage for war orphans and had them looked after.

(I dumped the position of orphanage director on Remesis.)

Thanks to all my efforts, now, a month after the occupation, citizens were approaching me first just to touch the hem of my clothes.

“Gasp···! It’s sunlight from him!”

Every now and then, some strange people tried to collect(?) the light reflected from my helmet, but this was an uncivilized medieval age, so I decided it couldn’t be helped.

In any case, the Baron’s domain had been successfully conquered.

It was safe to say there would be no more nonsense about independence.

I went to the orphanage to prepare to leave the city.

The orphanage seemed to be operating well; the children were so clean and plump that it was hard to believe they were orphans.

“Wow! Sir Knight! Can I touch your cloak?”

“I’m sorry. My cloak is dirty right now.”

Since I had been patrolling and visiting the slums as well, my cloak was dirty.

It wasn’t fit for the children to touch.

Instead, I let the children tug at my sleeves and had them lead me to the warehouse where Remesis was supposed to be.

There, I found Remesis, the cleaning fairy, tidying the warehouse while putting on a tsundere act toward the children.

I still couldn’t get used to the sight of that gloomy Returnee wearing an apron and mask.

I approached Mr. Remesis, the cleaning fairy, and made my presence known.

“Remesis.”

“Ah, Captain.”

Remesis looked toward me.

He had an expression that said he had no idea why he was here and simply wanted to quit this whole thing and have a cigarette.

But he wasn’t actually holding one because he considered smoking bad for the children.

“Is it almost time?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve already found someone to serve as director, so I’ll leave the orphanage in that person’s hands and go.”

Remesis untied his apron and prepared to leave.

“Waaah! Don’t go, Director! We’ll be good from now on! We won’t complain about the side dishes anymore···”

“Sigh··· Didn’t I tell you, you brats? I’m a fixed-term temp worker.”

“This is why I hate children, Captain.”

Considering how much this man had acted like a tsundere around the children over the past month, leaving the orphanage was an ordeal.

After that tearful farewell, we were on our way back to the domain capital, where Rex was stationed.

As we traveled, I talked with Remesis about the current state of the war.

“It’s been a month since the royal family declared war. Fortunately, I hear the other fronts are being handled smoothly as well.”

After the royal family declared our domain traitors, fronts had formed in the west, south, and north.

(There had been no invasion from the east because that was the Sneria Domain.)

Fortunately—or perhaps I should say thankfully—the other company commanders dispatched to the other fronts continued to make good progress even against the barons.

This was partly because the other company commanders were strong, but Rex’s command was by far the greater factor.

‘Even in the original story, he maintained three fronts by himself despite having no company commanders, so that tells you everything.’

Rex’s true worth was bound to shine in large-scale wars, not one-on-one fights.

In this world, which had not even developed proper means of communication, the mere fact that he could command in real time gave him an overwhelming strategic advantage,

and on top of that, the one directing the army was a strategy expert from a civilization more than a thousand years ahead.

In battles between knight and knight, perhaps not, but in battles between army and army, Rex could not help but have an overwhelming advantage.

If that was how things were in the original story, what about now, when we had even better knights and soldiers than in the original?

“Somehow, a defensive war has turned into a war of conquest.”

Remesis also admired the enlarged map.

We had definitely devised our strategy on the premise of surviving a defensive war, but before we knew it, our side was the one pushing forward.

- “War! Never again!”

- “My life for the Providence Dynasty!”

For some reason, as news of victories arrived along with reports of few friendly casualties, military support from all over the domain was increasing exponentially.

They were winning so overwhelmingly that people said anyone who died while following Rex’s orders was an idiot.

What was used most in this propaganda, in particular, was my fighting.

“Sigh··· Tens of thousands of people want to ride a wooden horse with you. Do they think war is some children’s game? And realistically, do they really think the enemy will fall for the same strategy twice···”

Remesis sighed in a voice that sagged just from hearing it.

The wooden horse he mentioned referred to the strategy we had used to capture the Baron’s fortress.

The Trojan Horse—the one that came to mind when you heard “wooden horse.”

Originally, I could have simply carved through the fortress and attacked it.

But Rex wanted to capture the fortress as intact as possible.

- “You said it was a fortress built with technology lost since the imperial era? Its research value must be tremendous.”

This was because of the indicator <Fortress Research Success Rate> displayed among Rex’s abilities.

So we carried out an otherworldly version of the Trojan Horse.

If we pretended to be defeated, retreated, and left behind a gigantic statue, the Baron, blinded by vanity, would haul the wooden horse inside.

Then, at night, when everyone was asleep, the knights hiding their presence inside the wooden horse would emerge and ambush them.

In the original story, the operation had proceeded smoothly, and a high-ranking knight at roughly Tier Three had succeeded in slitting the Baron’s throat.

No matter how strong someone was at Tier Five, they were helpless if a stake was driven into their heart while they slept and they had to begin fighting immediately afterward.

But the Baron’s reaction in this world was a little different.

- “You want us to take it? That thing?”

Since he suspected that we were retreating because we had been defeated, I simply forced the wooden horse on him because I couldn’t be bothered to think up another plan.

- “This is a symbol of peace. While this wooden horse remains in your domain, you must never invade this land again. In return, we will not invade you either for as long as the horse remains.”

Pressuring him to take the wooden horse by crushing him with killing intent, I made the Baron drag it into the fortress in tears.

And that evening, Remesis, who had been hiding inside the wooden horse, emerged and slit the Baron’s throat.

Hadn’t we said we wouldn’t invade while the horse remained?

That was why Remesis broke the horse and came out.

Since the symbol of peace had been broken, we had grounds to invade.

‘If you don’t like it, become the victor.’

History, after all, is written by the victor.

For reference, the historian followed Rex around rather than me, so he had no choice but to believe whatever I told him.

So I adapted the story according to the original plot and told it like this···

- “When Lord Rex’s wisdom and Lord Duke’s martial might come together, no one has to die, and everyone can bask in the glory of victory!”

That was how it was passed around the domain.

Since the total number of knights and soldiers killed during the occupation of the Baron’s domain was only fifteen, it was inevitable that the rate of military enlistment would be high.

Some propaganda went like this.

- <The Invincible Personal Guard That Defeated an Army of 250 with 50 Knights.>

This was also true.

It happened during the campaign to mop up the Baron’s remaining forces after we captured the fortress.

It wasn’t that Rex’s command had been incredible; I had misjudged my strength and cut the remnant army’s commander in half, sword and all, causing enemy morale to hit rock bottom and producing such a one-sided result.

What was good was good, so I decided to enjoy the propaganda.

‘Heehee. At this rate, surely I can dare to call myself 0.5 Yi Sun-sin, right?’

Of course, he was in a league of his own, but still, perhaps 0.5···

No. I won’t. How dare I.

In any case, thanks to that, military enlistment was extremely high.

To begin with, a macho atmosphere had started spreading throughout the domain, where any man with something between his legs who did not enlist was treated like a eunuch.

Even after occupying an enemy domain, bestowing Rex’s grace there, and injecting them with knightly hype a few times···

- “The battlefield awaits us!”

Somehow, the longer we continued our conquests, the more a bug occurred where soldiers kept duplicating.

Of course, Rex, who disliked the macho atmosphere and hero worship, tried to rein it in, but there was no stopping it.

As a result, we ended up creating a berserker corps even less afraid of death than the one in the original story.

Thus, our domain was sailing smoothly despite being at war with the royal family.

But it wasn’t all good news.

“All three fronts are proceeding smoothly. According to Lord Rex, it looks like we’ll enter a brief truce in about fifteen days.”

No matter how much the enemy wanted to annihilate us, wars between domains generally paused when winter came.

Everyone was doing this to make a living, after all, and fighting a war in winter was too difficult.

Since the other side couldn’t see any way to win easily against us either, talk of a truce had begun, with both sides wanting a chance to rest.

Thanks to that, we could catch our breath for a while that winter.

But···

“That may be true for our domain, but I don’t think it applies to the Sneria Domain.”

It was a story that did not apply to a domain already on the verge of being occupied.

They were so close to reaching the sweet fruit; would they really give up just because it was winter?

If anything, they would intensify their offensive so the defenders could not reorganize during the winter.

That was why the situation in the Sneria Domain was bleak beyond measure, unlike ours.

Unable to keep from worrying, I asked Remesis, who was diligently briefing me inside the carriage, about the state of the war.

“What about Peter and Lady Sneria?”

“The swordsman named Peter is famous throughout the north for many reasons. Apparently, he cut down ten thousand people in the valley this time.”

The old man was blocking the northern front alone, eating and sleeping in the valley.

True to the name of former imperial duke, he was facing a huge army without a single soldier.

With three northern lords alone being held back by the old man, it would not be an exaggeration to call it a one-man power show.

But war was not something one person could handle.

More precisely, a defensive war was not something one person could handle.

The importance of individual superhumans in war only applied when victory depended on that individual superhuman.

If the goal was to protect the domain’s people, prevent the domain from being laid waste, and even shelter the innocent citizens of occupied domains, the power of one superhuman clearly had limits.

From that point on, what mattered was not only the quality of a single superhuman, but also the numbers and command ability needed to maintain the front.

The same was true of the Sneria Domain.

While the old man guarded the north, the east and south were left empty.

(The west was our domain.)

If Hana had been an ordinary—meaning typical in this world—lord, she would have abandoned the east and south.

Lords did not care about their citizens’ deaths or the resulting decline in their domain’s productivity.

With the attitude that they could always take territory elsewhere and make up for it, they would sacrifice their flanks and advance north.

But Hana couldn’t do that.

She was a woman who had taken the seat of lord to protect her people.

That was why she had to defend the other two directions with her own strength.

Knowing that perfectly well, the royal family and the surrounding lords had invaded her while treating Peter as though he did not exist.

What did it matter if the old man was strong?

The lord called Sneria had too many people to protect.

All they had to do was send an army north and invade from the east and south.

Honestly, I liked Hana too, but there was no way to describe this other than saying she had been too naïve.

Of course, that did not mean I could blame her.

With enemies hostile on all sides and destruction marching steadily toward her, she couldn’t remain sane without at least indulging in some wishful thinking.

It was impossible to say the circumstances had nothing to do with her narrowed perspective.

‘That was how it led to such a tragedy in the original story too.’

Even in the original story, Peter had been by her side.

There too, while the old man guarded the north, Hana and her vassals had to defend the east and south.

But they lacked the strength···

‘She had to break the taboo.’

Remembering that left me feeling somewhat gloomy.

Perhaps noticing my mood, Remesis spoke cautiously.

“That’s why Lord Rex says he wants to send reinforcements in the winter, but···”

Only then did I return to reality.

Right. This world was different.

The Rex of the original story had been too overwhelmed by his own problems to send her reinforcements.

But now, we had long since had more than enough room to spare; our defensive war had already turned into a war of conquest.

In such circumstances, surely we could send even a single unit of reinforcements to aid an ally.

I pulled myself together, raised my head, and spoke.

“How many troops are we sending?”

.

.

.

Meanwhile, on the eastern front of the Sneria Domain.

There, soldiers and knights were wearing themselves out to maintain the front.

The lord herself was fighting in the south, but there were not enough superhumans to send east, so they had no choice but to throw people into the meat grinder.

Yet, astonishingly, the front was holding.

It was thanks to citizens voluntarily sacrificing themselves to protect their families and land.

- “It has to be here. It has to be our Lady.”

- “Even if I die, our Lady will look after my family.”

Normally, citizens of a domain did not particularly care if their lord changed.

After all, it was merely a matter of one bastard replacing another.

But the citizens of the Sneria Domain, who knew the conditions in other domains, were different.

The moment their lord changed, this happy domain would turn into hell.

That was why they took up arms.

Instead of surrendering meekly, they ran toward death.

Even if they could not take up arms, they did not hesitate to commit all sorts of vicious acts out of a determination to spite the enemy.

Thanks to that, the momentum of the invaders advancing from the east was forced to falter as well.

- “They say demons live in that domain.”

- “Don’t even say it. I heard some whore poisoned the officers’ drinks and died along with them.”

Thanks to that, the front was holding.

It was slowly being pushed back, but it was not being overrun as swiftly as the disparity in forces would suggest.

When winter arrived at that eastern front, the atmosphere in the Sneria camp grew even heavier.

Food was scarce, there was barely enough to feed the soldiers, and the outlook offered nothing but despair, let alone hope.

When this bitterly cold winter arrived, they would have to face an even more hellish battlefield.

But they took up their weapons today as well.

To hold back those lawless invaders.

Then a letter arrived for the high-ranking knight in command of the eastern front.

“Reinforcements! Providence has sent reinforcements!”

At the commander’s shout, the officers sprang to their feet with brightened faces.

“When?”

“No, before that, how many?”

The commander told them to wait a moment and read the letter to the end.

Then his expression darkened as though he had bitten into something unpleasant.

“Commander?”

“···One.”

“What?”

The mood plummeted.

One.

What that meant was obvious.

“Damn it, we should never have trusted the alliance.”

“Yeah. Let them eat well and live well by themselves.”

The officers slumped into their seats, declaring that it was over.

The commander, dejected, crumpled the blameless letter.

Then he remembered a fact he had overlooked.

“Maybe···”

But before the commander could finish speaking, the sentry on the wall rang the alarm bell noisily.

“Enemy attack!”

“Everyone to your positions!”

Before he could even finish his thought, the commander shouted instinctively.

How strong could one reinforcement possibly be?

No matter how strong the reinforcement was, it would mean nothing if they failed to hold this place until it arrived.

The commander climbed onto the wall and surveyed the invaders.

At a glance, there seemed to be about a thousand of them.

The commander quickly prepared for a siege.

Then he spotted a giant figure in a hooded robe climbing onto the wall.

Since he had never seen the person before, he wondered if it was a newly recruited mercenary, but the giant man approached the commander.

“Stop! State your affiliation···”

Ignoring the soldiers who aimed their spears while protecting the commander, the giant figure removed his robe.

Beneath it were a helmet and uniform.

The commander’s eyes widened.

“You’re···!”

“What is it?”

No one else knew this man.

But the commander, as one of Sneria’s close aides, had met him once before.

Not only had he met him, he had also been put through the wringer trying to survive his sword.

That was why the commander could not contain his joy.

He remembered all too clearly how strong this one-man reinforcement was.

“Sir Knight!”

“I came to end this war.”

“Understood. I’ll summon the knights at once···”

“No.”

The giant man, Duke, turned away from the commander and approached the edge of the wall.

“I alone will suffice.”

And with those words, he jumped down from the wall.