Politics disgusts me! Aristocrats disgust me even more.
Kurz Schleiermacher thought earnestly. He was listening to his superior's complaints at that very moment. Kurz's superior was a noble officer — and other than having beautiful blond hair, there was not a single redeeming quality to be found, no matter how hard you looked.
"Look. The whole point of military strategy has always been to secure the victory first, then fight the enemy."
The greenhorn aristocrat blathered on.
*Has this bastard ever gone hungry for even a single day?*
Once, Kurz and his unit had been encircled by enemy forces, so pressed that they didn't even have the luxury of feeling hungry. That was what being a soldier meant. Theory and reality were worlds apart. Did the young lord before him understand even that much in his head? Kurz sighed deeply within himself.
"The monsters are desperately thrashing to seize the fortress. But against our Imperial forces—"
*Bang!* The noble superior slammed his hand on the table.
"There are still three fortresses left! These passes have been prepared since a thousand years ago. In other words, our Empire has already been winning since a thousand years ago. Her Imperial Highness the Third Princess herself praised this as the very pinnacle of military strategy."
"Indeed. I am humbled by the wisdom of Your Excellency and Her Highness."
Regardless of what he truly felt, Kurz said it anyway. There was nothing to be gained from openly complaining here. But holding back the bitter twist in his heart — that was almost enough to make him sick.
And so he said he was humbled by the Excellency's wisdom. If the decisive factors for this battle had been prepared a thousand years ago, then they had absolutely nothing to do with the superior standing before him. Those words were ridicule disguised as flattery.
"Nonsense. I too am a proud soldier of the Empire. It would be shameful to be any less."
The superior laughed. *Just as expected.* Kurz hid his sneer.
It seemed the young Excellency hadn't even realized he'd been mocked. Born into a good family, given a fine education, commanding elite troops — that was the sum total of the noble superior's life journey. He had lived a life completely opposite to Kurz, a commoner.
Kurz didn't feel jealous. He only envied. Among humans, there existed those who could live without carrying a brain inside their skulls. That fact astonished him.
Kurz thought: if a person could freely drain and refill the contents of their skull at will, then right now would be the perfect moment to drain his for a while. Accommodating the greenhorn aristocrat superior's theories on military strategy was not something any rational human being should have to do.
"An urgent dispatch, Your Excellency!"
Just then, a messenger came sprinting into the tent. Kurz wanted to cry out with joy. But decades of service as a career soldier naturally lent authority to his voice. Moreover, he scowled to give the impression that his pleasant conversation had been interrupted. He had mastered the art of staying in his superior's good graces almost on instinct.
"Keep it down. This is the Commander's tent. What's going on?"
"Y-yes! A beacon has been lit at the Blue Fortress! Three fires — Level Three!"
Here we go! Kurz's heart began to pound.
The Habsburg Empire and several other kingdoms had adopted the following beacon system.
Level One: Fewer than ten enemies appearing at the border.
Level Two: Between one hundred and five hundred enemies appearing at the border.
Level Three: Between five hundred and fewer than one thousand enemies appearing or entering the border.
Level Four: More than one thousand enemies attacking the beacon tower.
The messenger had reported three fires lit. That meant roughly five hundred enemy troops had been spotted. Just as Kurz and the commanding officers — or rather, their stand-ins — at each fortress had predicted.
The Demon Lord's army's total force numbered around one thousand. Using a mere one thousand soldiers to seize both the Green Fortress and the Blue Fortress — two strongholds — they'd even employed a feinting maneuver… The enemy's strategy was effective. The Green Fortress had indeed fallen without a fight.
'Some of the Demon Lord's lot are actually pretty clever. But from here on out, things won't go your way anymore.'
Kurz allowed himself a confident smile. It seemed the Demon Lord's army had underestimated the coordination between the fortresses.
Fundamentally, the Green, Blue, Yellow, and Red fortresses each operated independently. The purpose of these fortresses was less about repelling the Demon Lord's army outright and more about slowing the pace of their advance. If all you needed was to delay the enemy's march, forcing them to deal with multiple obstacles was far better than concentrating your forces in one place.
'But now that we've figured out the enemy's objective isn't an inland invasion, there's no need to cling to the fortress itself.'
This Demon Lord's army was only a thousand strong. In terms of sheer numbers, it was hard to believe they were aiming for an inland invasion. On top of that, their advance was remarkably slow. The enemy had captured the Green Fortress and then dithered for a full three days.
If the Demon Lord's army's goal had been an inland invasion, speed would have been everything. Seizing the fortresses before the Empire's border margraves could send reinforcements — that had been the strategy Demon Lords employed for the past thousand years. But this time, they hadn't done that… What did that mean? Kurz agonized over it before reaching his conclusion.
The enemy's objective was to capture the Green Fortress and the Blue Fortress.
If that was the case, Kurz decided, then he would annihilate them before they could take the Blue Fortress. As it happened, the enemy had split their thousand-strong force in two to carry out their feint. This was the chance to defeat them in detail. While the Blue Fortress held off one of the enemy's forces, the Yellow and Red garrisons would unite and crush the other force in one decisive blow.
"Your Excellency. I believe the time has come to sortie."
"Mm. Issue the order to deploy the full force."
"Yes. The Red Fortress garrison will proceed with a rapid advance as planned."
The noble officer was a greenhorn who had never experienced war, but he wasn't a complete fool. If someone explained things to him thoroughly, he could grasp the essence of a strategy.
"But, Adjutant."
The noble officer asked in an uneasy voice.
"Wouldn't it be better to face the enemy from inside the fortress? We don't have to march outside the fortress to clash with the monster army. I can't help but feel anxious."
"...Your Excellency."
There it was again. Kurz wanted to tear his hair out. Even though the operation had already been decided, this greenhorn kept spitting out the same objections. What an idiot! Kurz felt like screaming at the top of his lungs.
"I understand your fear of the monster army. But what happens if we simply leave the enemy force alone out there?"
"Hmm."
"The enemy will seize the fortress and plant themselves there. A fortress in the Black Mountains will have fallen to the enemy. Our imperial forces would then have to move to retake it."
In other words, this time it would be the imperial army that had to lay siege to the Demon Lord's forces. Normally, a besieging army needed at least three times the strength of the defenders. And the defenders here weren't humans—they were monsters. That meant they would need to pour in at least five times the numbers. The scale of casualties was almost unimaginable.
The same situation had occurred twenty years ago. Back then, the Green Fortress had been captured and left in enemy hands. In the end, the fortress garrison had to band together with the border counts to retake it. Even though they succeeded in driving out the monsters, they had needed the border counts' help to do it.
"But still. Wouldn't that be fine? The border counts' job is to support us to begin with. Allies helping allies—I don't see what the problem is."
Kurz ultimately furrowed his brows. The noble officer was far too naive. Allies helping allies—it sounded reasonable on the surface, but military affairs weren't that simple.
Moving troops alone cost money. And preparing for a siege required enormous resources and supplies. The fortress garrison was not granted any territory. They were poor. In the end, the ones footing the bill would be the border counts.
And if only the border counts were spending money, what would happen? The fortress garrison would end up owing them. In every future battle, the garrison would have no choice but to cede initiative to the border counts. Their military command authority would be severely threatened. Did that greenhorn even realize that...? Kurz spoke while agonizing internally.
"If we lose the fortress, it will be counted as a failure on the garrison's part. On the other hand, retaking the fortress would become a meritorious achievement for the border counts. Your Excellency, I am afraid. How would the high command of the imperial army view the fortress garrison's commanders?"
"Oh."
The noble officer let out a gasp. Kurz sneered inwardly. So he's finally caught on.
"Forgive my bluntness, but to put it plainly—the fortress garrison's commanders will have their promotions blocked. In fact, the commanders who lost the Green Fortress twenty years ago never received a single promotion until they retired."
"I see. Then it can't be helped. We'll have to settle this in the rotation. We can't hand over the credit to the frontier lords... they're part of the prince's faction."
The noble officer nodded several times.
Kurz intuited that the officer had been persuaded. He only found the man more contemptible. When Kurz tried to convince him using strategic arguments, the officer had stubbornly resisted—but the moment he brought up political liabilities, the man readily accepted. All that talk about military tactics and whatnot, and in the end the greenhorn in front of him was just another typical noble blinded by ambition.
Kurz was familiar with this kind of person. The Habsburg Empire always dispatched its highest-tier elite soldiers to the mountain fortresses of the Black Mountains. In the fortresses, fierce battles against monsters broke out roughly once a year. Naturally, the commanders accumulated military merit. Merit led to promotion...
The mountain fortresses of the Black Mountains had become nothing more than tools for elite noble soldiers to climb the ranks. When had this started? Kurz asked himself.
Ten years ago, it hadn't been this way. The most promising talents had been assigned to command the mountain fortresses. Those who guarded humanity's front line. Individuals befitting that sense of mission had been selected. But at some point, things changed. The prince and the princess threw themselves into the power struggle, frantically trying to squeeze their own factions into the military by any means necessary.
'The Imperial Army is still strong. But lately it's become far too politicized. Tch, tch.'
Kurz stopped thinking about it. A soldier shouldn't be too well-versed in politics. A soldier's duty was to protect His Majesty the Emperor and the citizens of the Empire, and to annihilate the evil known as the Demon Lord. That was the entirety of his mission. Kurz, as a proud soldier of the Imperial Army, wanted to remain faithful to the calling laid upon him.
'Then I'll have to coax this greenhorn first.'
Kurz gave a wry smile. He spoke.
"Your Excellency, there is no need to worry. The enemy numbers a mere thousand, while our forces reach twenty-five hundred. Moreover, the enemy is split into two groups. There is absolutely no element that could lead to our Imperial Army's defeat."
"Mm. I think so too. It's just... I feel strangely uneasy."
Really? Kurz sneered inwardly. Wasn't his voice trembling?
It seemed the greenhorn in front of him lacked the military composure to find reassurance in strategic factors alone. In times like these, one had to dangle something other than strategy as bait.
"We engage the enemy in rotation and defeat them in detail. We will annihilate an entire force of a thousand monsters. Your Excellency's reputation will shake the entire Empire."
"The adjutant speaks truly."
The noble officer's face lit up. That the promise of fame had ignited a fire in the young greenhorn's chest—Kurz was certain of it. The noble officer was only nineteen years old. Soldiers of that age hungered for nothing more than fame and honor.
Kurz shook his head.
'To think I have to babysit greenhorns all the way up to this age... good grief.'
Incompetent nobles were always a headache. The only saving grace was that the noble officer knew his own limitations and relied on Kurz's tactical acumen. At present, Kurz was the one truly leading the Red-Yellow garrison.
Kurz felt a measure of sympathy for the unnamed enemy staff officer. The feint had been executed rather brilliantly. But assuming the mountain fortress garrison would do nothing but hold the walls—that prejudice was the officer's fatal flaw, he thought.
'At least I'm not that foolish. ——Now get yourselves crushed by two thousand five hundred elite imperial soldiers, you Demon Lord scum.'
Kurz issued the order for the entire garrison to advance.
"Your Grace. We've received a report that the imperial army has mobilized."
I informed Zepar. Zepar nodded.
"They've taken the bait. Dantalion, light the signal fire."
"Understood. I'll relay the advance order to the rear unit."
I passed the order along to Laura. She rendered a military salute and moved swiftly.
I turned my gaze toward the blue mountain fortress. A siege was already well underway. The human forces were successfully repelling our assault...or so it appeared. In truth, the reality was quite different. We were only attacking passively.
The real offensive would commence once the rear unit arrived. With a combined force of fifteen hundred monsters, we would push through in a single decisive surge. The enemy would feel relieved thinking there were no Ogres on this side. They would believe we only had five Ogres total and had deployed every last one to the front units. How pitiful.
We actually had a full ten Ogres. The remaining five were part of the rear unit. Just like the green mountain fortress, the blue one would fall just as easily.
The outcome of this operation hinged entirely on whether the hidden rear unit was discovered. I had succeeded in keeping them hidden. No—I had ensured the enemy wouldn't even think to send out scouts. From the human army's perspective, they would want to station as large a force as possible at the blue mountain fortress to repel our assault. So they had reassigned every last scouting unit to defense.
They were doing their utmost to achieve victory, but...how pitiful. The enemy had completely misread our intentions.
"You're a ruthless one, aren't you."
"I'm afraid I don't quite understand what you mean."
"Heh heh."
Zepar chuckled softly. He was almost always the stoic type, but since the last meeting, he had taken to smiling more often. He seemed to smile especially frequently around me. His Affinity had also crossed twenty. When I read his psychological state, it was clear Zepar was quite fond of me.
"When Commander Barbatos first assigned you to me, I thought it would be a bother. I'm a warrior by nature—tutoring a schemer in tactics sounded tedious enough...but I never expected the 'schemer' to turn out like this. You're not merely a schemer. You deserve to be called a strategist-general."
"You flatter me."
Zepar shook his head.
It's no flattery. Now I understand why Commander Barbatos favors you. Those humans won't even realize what went wrong until the moment they die. I'm genuinely curious what battles you'll go on to record in the annals of history.
I didn't know what to say, so I just smiled awkwardly. Zepar dropped the small talk and issued his commands—calm, yet never sluggish. Thanks to his command, the siege was progressing without heavy casualties. It was solid command. There was much to learn.
In any case, I was surprised to learn that Kurz Schleiermacher was among the enemy's high command. We extracted the information from a captured human during interrogation. Kurz Schleiermacher—a fairly familiar name to Dungeon Attack players.
The man was a veteran general who would later go on to serve as a military figure sympathetic to the Hero's party. A soldier who rose from commoner roots all the way to general. He would develop a favorable impression of the Hero, who shared his commoner background.
A figure who would distinguish himself ten years from now. Currently, he was serving as a deputy commander at the Red Fortress. Call it the whims of fate—he had ended up facing the very vanguard unit I was attached to.
Kurz Schleiermacher had to die. This man would play a role in weakening the class conflicts of the future Habsburg Empire. The image of a commoner rising to the rank of general—that was what would be exploited. Princess Elisabeth would use him to further bolster the commoner faction's support.
Did they really think I'd let things play out like that?
Princess Elisabeth was extremely dangerous. She had been the strongest ally in Dungeon Attack. It was the Hero who slew the Demon Lords, but it was the Princess who backed the Hero from behind the scenes. Without her, the Hero would have long since been entangled in political strife and executed. From the Demon Lord's perspective, the Princess was the worst kind of enemy... I had to chip away at her influence however I could. Killing Kurz Schleiermacher was the first step.
I suddenly felt a pang of sympathy for him. To think he happened to be stationed at the Red Fortress—his luck was truly abysmal.
'I'm sorry, Kurz, but you have to die.'
A soldier who would one day make a name for himself as a legendary general—here he would die before his flower could ever bloom. I held no personal grudge against him. If anything, during my days as a game player, I had liked Kurz. He was a great character.
But now I was neither a hero nor anything of the sort. I was a Demon Lord who had resolved to walk the path of hell. Laura had helped me firm that resolve...
General Kurz Schleiermacher. Sacrifice yourself for my survival and prosperity. You used to say it all the time in the game—that you were a proud soldier of the Habsburg Empire.
You fell in battle against the Demon Lord's army. There is no greater honor for a soldier. I'll arrange a glorious death for you soon enough.