Chapter 20
There’s a saying that superstars drive both fans and haters crazy.
Of course, Ulysses, whose first work was now running as a newspaper serialization, hadn’t attracted fanatics that intense, nor haters with snake-like malice.
Besides.
Since only the material continuing from the already serialized newspaper chapters had been published as a novel, it was effectively a work that only existing readers could really enjoy.
But.
Ulysses and Guildford made a bold decision.
At the beginning of the so-called “Molgwijung 27-part edition,” they inserted excerpts of popular scenes along with a recap of the previous story.
As a result, even people who hadn’t seen the earlier parts in the newspaper could understand the story well enough from a single magazine volume.
Thus, people were soon able to immerse themselves in Caesar’s war story.
What drew particular attention was this.
That it was a story about ordinary human beings.
In most novels, the protagonist is an extraordinary figure such as a hero granted divine power or a mage who wields magic at will.
The same goes for the supporting cast.
Whether it’s a dragon out for amusement or a bright-eyed elf raised in the forest who knows nothing of the world.
Stories in this world were usually built by harmonizing various myths, folk tales, and real eyewitness accounts.
But….
‘A Fallen Noble House Does Politics Well’ was, at its core, different from other stories.
Not the power granted by a goddess, nor magic that came from spirits.
Not the blessing bestowed by the World Tree, nor skill forged from the earth.
Only.
A war waged by humans, for humans, unfolding in a brutal, breathless fashion.
There was no sword saint who could split a mountain in one swing.
No archmage dominated the battlefield with high-tier magic.
In the novel, there were only ordinary humans and ordinary humans.
That was precisely why the story felt more special than the others.
Rumors spread from mouth to mouth, hand to hand.
Unlike Bertus, who had shuddered at the dice, most of the existing and new readers focused on the Battle of Alesia.
In Kim Yul’s hometown, it was the battle that made Caesar’s name live on not merely as that of a reformer and dictator who founded the empire, but as a master strategist of reversals.
## ====== ##
“To besiege the fortress, we will build a fortress.”
When Caesar first laid out the plan, even his veteran aides fell silent for a moment.
“Just building the siege line alone would already be…”
Labienus spoke cautiously, but Caesar’s gaze did not waver.
“Relief forces are pouring in from all over Gaul. Commius has betrayed us and joined hands with the Arverni. Their numbers must easily exceed a hundred thousand. If they appear behind us, can we respond?”
At Caesar’s question, no one could answer readily.
They could sense it too.
If they kept going like this, it was obvious the enemy would flood in from the rear.
The wounded beast crouched in Alesia Fortress, Vercingetorix, would seize that moment and bare his fangs.
It was, as always, Caesar’s calm voice that broke the silence, which was faintly tinged with despair.
“We will turn this entire valley into one enormous Roman fortress. So the rats crouched inside cannot get out, and so the wolves outside won’t dare set their sights on us.”
.
.
.
From that day on.
All fifty thousand Roman legionaries turned into an engineering corps.
The sound of hammers echoed through the valley, and the mounds of earth torn up by shovels rose into a new rampart.
The first thing they began was the inner siege line.
They dug two rows of trenches, reinforced the earthen walls with battlements and palisades, and raised watchtowers at regular intervals.
In addition.
“Plant the lilies!”
Carved wooden flowers bloomed vividly inside the pits.
Before them, hook-shaped iron spikes were scattered, and at the very front stood a grave for the unfortunate souls who dared set foot in this deathtrap.
Of course, Vercingetorix did not simply sit by and watch.
“Enemy attack! Prepare yourselves!”
While the engineers were struggling hard at their work, the elite Gallic cavalry charged in again and again to disrupt them.
Each time, they had to fight with a shovel in one hand and a javelin in the other.
While one side bled, the other still sweated in silence, digging trenches and erecting palisades.
Like a vast ant colony, they moved with absolute faith in Caesar, without a single misstep.
At last, once the inner siege line was complete.
They immediately turned around and repeated the exact same work outward once more.
Trenches of the same scale.
Walls of the same height.
And traps imbued with the same thick, stubborn human malice.
…….
…….
And, finally.
“They’re coming! They’re coming!”
As the signal fire rose from the top of the watchtower, they faced the Gallic host blackening the horizon.
At the same time, Vercingetorix, who had been holding his breath inside Alesia Fortress, also straightened his crouched body and prepared to take a huge step forward.
“Oh, gods…. Gaul has come to swallow us whole.”
The centurion who watched that sight let out an exclamation without even realizing it.
With a tremendous roar and the blast of horns that shook heaven and earth.
Now the Roman legion had to.
Fight on two fronts: the world inside and the world outside.
## ====== ##
With only fifty thousand elite Roman legionaries.
Against the 80,000 inside Alesia Fortress, and 250,000 reinforcements advancing from the rear.
Of course, winning was only natural.
Because he was the protagonist.
But while there were readers like Estea who happily read along chanting, “He won, he won, he won!” and “It’s fun, fun, fun!”
“Hmm… does this even make sense?”
No matter how elite the legion was, could humans really build a 16-kilometer inner siege line and a 21-kilometer outer siege line in less than a month?
Even for an elite legion that doubled as an engineering corps, was that realistic?
There were readers who had such doubts.
And naturally, those readers gathered in the salons.
Ulysses──
It was the fulfillment of the world Kim Yul had longed for so much—the world where the plot hooks from his own novel were circulating.
The debate ended more anticlimactically than expected.
“Why couldn’t they? Dwarves could finish that in a day.”
“A day? That’s impossible, even for dwarves!”
“Want to bet? A month’s worth of beer?”
A dwarf with beer on the line was invincible under heaven.
The controversy ended when Bolin Blackrock, a dwarf working as a construction laborer in the capital, recreated what had been described in the novel in a single day and erected a 200-meter-long rampart on the outskirts.
In theory, that meant that if you had only a hundred dwarves, they could build a 20-kilometer palisade in a single day.
Although humans couldn’t match dwarves in their ability to handle earth and soil, the conclusion was that if humans also performed well as engineers, they could barely replicate it within a month.
And a photo of Dwarf Bolin smiling brightly, along with the “Caesar Rampart” he painstakingly recreated.
“Now, take a look here!”
“Grrh, this beer tastes damn good!”
It was also published in the newspaper through the sharp-eyed reporting of Truth Daily, greatly contributing to his fame.
Through that process.
The pen name Ulysses, which had until then been known only in whispers among Truth Daily subscribers and political-novel enthusiasts, began to spread widely throughout the imperial capital.
And amid that fervent response.
“Yes, I understand perfectly.”
Duke Bertus once again performed his self-justification routine.
“The highlight of a novel is that no matter how tense the situation, the protagonist ultimately snatches victory at the final moment. It may be hinting at civil war, but… Caesar will purge the corruption lurking in Rome and become a true hero. That must be what it’s implying.”
If Kim Yul had heard that, he would have immediately whispered, “Wield it, it’s already within you,” because it was the perfect interpretation.
Of course….
“…That’s right, isn’t it? We can’t afford to fall out with the Holy Kingdom here. Hoo… I’d like to strip away the political rhetoric and speak candidly.”
He still couldn’t completely erase the unease buried in his heart.
* * *
“Heh-heh-heh, hihihik.”
“Don’t make that disgusting grin, Kim Yul. Have you gone mad?”
No matter what Histoire muttered, I decided to savor this moment of happiness to the fullest.
Perfect grand strategy.
Perfect success.
I am a god, and the twenty-seven-installment run is invincible……!
There were two main reasons I committed this outrageous act, which would normally be considered a blatant overreach in the daily-serialization market.
The first was.
[Title: A Fallen Noble House Does Politics Well] [Currently serializing chapter 68]
[Historical accuracy: Matches] [Quality assessment: Fine work]
[Public reception: Very positive] [Daily readership: 2,714]
[To obtain the next skill, daily readership remaining: 1,286]
[Must be maintained for at least 1 month. (Currently 0 days)]
[Expected skill: [A-rank] Ki■ro’s Roa■]
Looking at the example of Greco-Roman mythology, the number of skills that can be obtained from a single story theme was probably four.
Even if I didn’t bother filling all of them, I still needed to keep writing Caesar’s story so I could at least obtain unnecessary skills for synthesis.
But the current readership was far below the required number, so I needed to draw more attention, even if it meant straining my wrist a little.
That was also why I compiled the serialized installments into a separate novel volume.
[Title: A Fallen Noble House Does Politics Well: The Gallic Chronicle]
[Historical accuracy: Matches] [Quality assessment: Average]
[Public reception: Very positive] [Sales: 1,067 copies]
[(55 days remaining) To obtain the next skill, 933 more copies need to be sold]
[Expected skill : [C-rank] Ver■kinge■■■'s Wi■]
If I quietly bundled a published novel in this sort of format.
I could absorb the popularity of the main story wholesale, and although I’d take a loss financially, I could still move in a direction that made the best use of the system.
As for the financial side….
“Why are you borrowing someone else’s copy instead of buying your own and reading it…!”
“If it were you and you didn’t know the earlier story in full, would you really buy it? Don’t act rashly, Kim Yul.”
“Well, that’s true too…”
It was definitely a big disappointment.
Still, since it let me pump up the daily readership so much in the short term, it should be enough to make up for it in the long run.
“I’m off to submit the manuscript.”
“Buy some chocolate bread on your way back.”
Feeling lighthearted, I left home carrying the manuscript I’d written overnight with overflowing enthusiasm.
.
.
.
“Did you hear the news?”
“So a rift finally opened up in the capital too…”
“Looks like those elf bastards have started causing trouble again.”
“They should just go hug their precious World Tree and die.”
The streets, which should have been lively, felt oddly unsettling today.
As I mentally filed away the things I was hearing, the moment I reached the eastern square of the capital where the publisher was located.
“Wow.”
I couldn’t help but exclaim.
In one corner of the square.
Where the bakery that had been filling the air with the smell of fresh bread until yesterday used to stand.
“You can’t come any closer!”
“Please be careful when passing through! Even if you can’t see it, you may still be eroded by miasma!”
In midair, a gray rift that clearly gave off an ominous aura had been carved in as if it had torn through space and burst out.
So that was the passage connecting to the so-called demon realm I’d only heard about.
What a grim world this is.
“Please rest assured and go about your business! It’s fine!”
Still.
Seeing Roseline controlling the area nearby put me a little at ease.
Seeing her like that, she really was a saintess after all.
After watching her silver-white hair glint in the sunlight from afar for a moment, I turned my steps toward the publishing house.
But.
“Stop destroying the environment!”
“Scorched-earth tactics are a crime!”
“Truth Daily, wake up!”
“Dwarves, stop damaging nature right this second!”
“……What’s going on here now?”
In front of our publishing house as well, several elves were holding signs and causing a huge commotion.