The Bretagne army had launched an escape. When I heard the news, my first thought was: So they're finally moving.
Nine days had passed since the siege began. If they'd decided to retreat, they should have moved before the second day. They should have fled before the fear of massacre consumed Pariserum. That way, Queen Henrietta would have had an excuse.
"I didn't expect this." "I never imagined they would be so cruel as to go that far." She could make excuses like that.
She'd be criticized for carelessness, of course, but at least she'd be fairly free from charges of complicity in the massacre. The political risk would be reduced. The reign of Queen Henrietta de Bretagne would continue……
But Henrietta dithered. For nearly ten days at that. There was no way to describe it other than indecisive.
Was it that abandoning and fleeing the Imperial Capital Pariserum was too painful to bear, or did she believe the navy would succeed in resupplying……? Probably a combination of factors was at work. But either way, it was a miscalculation. I wonder if the woman herself knows. Your political life is already over, Henrietta.
"We should quickly organize a pursuit squad. Leave the Batavia army in the Imperial Capital. That should be more than enough to control public sentiment."
"The soldiers are still defending the city, aren't they?"
At Gamigin's observation, I blinked.
"Hm? What do you mean? You said the Queen of Bretagne evacuated from the city."
"Not all the soldiers went chasing after her. Roughly twenty-five thousand slipped out. About four thousand are still guarding Pariserum."
"No way……she split her army?"
Unbelievable.
I bowed my head. It was one of Henrietta's schemes.
She would sacrifice four thousand soldiers as scapegoats. The claim she wanted to make was: I did not abandon Pariserum. She would have left behind soldiers centered around the most useless ones, naturally. And a commander of sufficiently high rank would remain, to put on a good show.
The queen herself would withdraw with her elite forces intact……slipping away while we were occupied capturing Pariserum.
If we abandoned Pariserum to give chase, she would counterattack together with the army left behind and pincer us. If we didn't pursue, she could retreat at her leisure. If we did, she could engage in battle from an advantageous position. That was the plan.
How utterly……
"What an impossibly foolish scheme……!"
I bowed my head and laughed. Laughter leaked from my belly, and my body bent of its own accord.
It was a masterpiece. Oh, this was a masterpiece!
Trying to save both her forces and her legitimacy. There were limits to stupidity. Henrietta had learned nothing from my lessons. Could she possibly be looking down on me? Because she'd been burned in the Frank civil war, did she think less of me?
You chose the worst possible path, Queen.
"So what if they split the army? They're fewer in number, but if they hunker down for a siege, it'll take at least three days to dislodge them."
"Gamigin. That would certainly be the case if we launched a full assault on Pariserum. But why on earth would we need to capture Pariserum? There's no reason to dance to the queen's tune."
Gamigin raised an eyebrow.
"So you're going to chase them and leave the Imperial Capital behind? That's dangerous for our rear."
"You've misunderstood me, Gamigin. I was saying that we don't necessarily need to capture Pariserum ourselves."
I smiled.
"Right now, send wyverns to scatter pamphlets. Write something like this on them: Your queen has abandoned you and fled. Citizens of Pariserum, if you too wish to avoid being massacred, then even now, rise up and resist the oppression of the Bretagne army. To those brave enough to stand, we shall grant unconditional clemency……"
I gazed at Pariserum, spread out far in the distance.
"But if you continue to shelter the Bretagne killers to the end, there shall be no forgiveness. This is the final warning. The last mercy."
Our army immediately launched its propaganda operation.
We didn't have enough time to prepare printed pamphlets, so we made full use of voice-amplification magic instead. From outside the walls, from atop wyverns in the sky, we rained down ceaseless calls to surrender.
Nearly ten days of large-scale public executions had been carried out, and now the Bretagne queen they'd trusted had fled. She had probably scraped together most of the food supplies left in the city and taken them with her when she retreated. Fear of massacre, betrayal of trust, dread of starvation……The citizens of Pariserum had no more choices left.
That night, bright red flames shot up from within the city.
The clanging of iron and screams carried from far away.
Eighty thousand citizens lived in Pariserum. They had risen in revolt. It far exceeded what four thousand untrained soldiers could hope to contain.
Our army set up ranks at the southern gate and waited leisurely. The sight of the chaos unfolding right before their eyes must have been hard to sit still with, because Beleth nudged my shoulder.
"Hey, brother. It looks like if we hammer on the gates right now, we could take the city in one go. Why don't you mention it to the Deputy Commander lady……no, to the Deputy Commander, sir."
"Why don't you make the suggestion yourself, brother?"
Beleth waved his hands frantically. He'd clearly been chewed out by Laura. I chuckled softly.
"That could be a trap. They're making it look like chaos has erupted in the city. The moment we naively ride in, the troops lying in ambush launch a coordinated attack……The possibility is slim, but it can't be ignored. That's the Deputy Commander's assessment."
"Mm."
Beleth nodded, apparently satisfied. In truth it was my judgment, not Laura's.
Laura had proposed attacking immediately when unrest broke out in the city. But I opposed it. Because this exact situation had been recreated in Dungeon Attack.
There was a scenario involving the Habsburg Empire — in other words, one in which Elisabeth became empress and invaded Frank. The Frank-Bretagne Empire, led by Laura de Farnese, held out well. But in the end, driven by the Hero, they were pushed back as far as the capital Pariserum.
Then a rebellion erupted in Pariserum. The Hero eagerly advanced into the city, but it was all a ruse. They allowed a massive ambush and were sent fleeing in disarray. From there, depending on whether you escaped through the northern gate or the eastern gate, the heroine route diverged……hmm. Anyway, it was suspicious.
In the end, I was right. The arson committed in the dead of night had been deliberately carried out by the Bretagne army.
The problem was that the citizens truly believed a revolt had broken out.
When the flames surged upward, the fear and anxiety they had suppressed for so long exploded, and citizens poured out into the nighttime streets.
Tens of thousands of rioters were a terrifying force. In an instant, the armories were looted. Every watchtower, guard tower, lookout, and fortification where Bretagne soldiers had been standing guard was stormed, and indiscriminate slaughter was carried out regardless of whether people surrendered or resisted.
If we had entered the city carelessly from the start, we would have been pummeled by enemy forces concealed between buildings. But we did not move.
The Bretagne army had been scattered in various positions for the purpose of ambushing. That ended up making them excellent prey for the citizens. The Bretagne forces could not rally and were picked off one by one, annihilated in horrific fashion.
Six o'clock at dawn.
The city gates opened of their own accord.
Citizen soldiers emerged, dragging Bretagne prisoners behind them. The number was roughly two hundred. In other words, every last one of the four thousand Bretagne soldiers who had remained in the city, save those two hundred, was dead.
"……."
Surprisingly, among the prisoners was a familiar figure.
A spotless white priest's robe. Orange curls. The Saint of the Great Temple of Athens — Jacqueline Longwy. She was glaring at this way with eyes full of venom. I never imagined the queen would leave the Saint behind as a sacrifice……
The representatives of the citizen army knelt as one.
"Your Majesty. Sovereign and occupier of the Habsburg."
The common citizens had climbed up onto the city walls. Just those who had mounted the walls numbered well over ten thousand. They held their breath and stared over at us.
"Because Your Imperial Majesty pledged mercy, we of Pariserum have crushed the rebels and brought them before you. We humbly petition that you honor the promised clemency."
"You have committed sins in the past."
Rudolf spoke. For reference, since we were nominally the army of humanity, Emperor Rudolf von Habsburg received the surrender delegation. The Demon Lords stood behind the emperor.
"But the gods have granted us the grace of atonement, and so you too must follow the will of the gods."
A flat, toneless voice escaped Rudolf's lips.
The man had no will of his own. He merely recited whatever Barbatos fed him. And the one who had written out the lines and handed them to Barbatos was me. Rudolf was nothing more than a puppet.
"If anyone shows you mercy, it is not my mercy but solely the mercy of the gods. Citizens of Pariserum. Rise."
Rudolf personally gripped one of the representatives by the shoulder and lifted him to his feet.
"Frank, ruled by Bretagne — Pariserum, which groaned under Bretagne — has now, from this moment, vanished into the pages of history. I swear upon my oath as Frank's and Pariserum's eternal ally and friend. My army shall never occupy Pariserum!"
"Oh, the illustrious Emperor……"
The representatives gazed at Rudolf with moved expressions.
Rudolf gently patted the representative's shoulder — and heavens, Barbatos's puppeteering skills were unquestionably the best in the world! — and turned around.
"Great citizens of Pariserum! I am no invader, and certainly no ruler of yours. You need not hand over the keys to the gates."
The puppet emperor shouted toward Pariserum's walls. Naturally, with voice-amplification magic still active.
"My army will never ransack your comfortable homes. Soldiers will never roam your streets, which you hold so dear, and women and the elderly need never tremble in fear. I swear by the gods! Pariserum is granted complete independence and autonomy!"
At that moment, the citizens on the walls erupted in cheers.
They had surely expected us to occupy the city. But we had declared that we would not garrison even for a single moment. It was a clemency that not even the citizens themselves had anticipated.
"Long live His Imperial Majesty!"
"Long live the Frank Empire! Long live the Habsburg Empire!"
"Long live the Batavia Republic!"
The humans roared in unison. They truly believed the fires of war had ended.
The city of Pariserum, ruled by Bretagne for four years, was finally free. Of course, it was 'too' free — but at this point, I was the only one who knew that.
"……."
While everyone cheered, only those two hundred prisoners hung their heads.
We left even the treatment of prisoners to the citizen army.
"The ones who suffered under Bretagne were the citizens of Pariserum. Therefore, the right to exact revenge for those suffering belongs entirely to Pariserum."
Those were Rudolf's words. The citizens went wild once more at this understanding remark. On the spot, at the hands of the citizens, hundreds of prisoners were executed. The citizen army, grateful for the emperor's magnanimous offer, returned custody of only the highest-ranking officers to us. The Saint was among them.
Did you expect the Imperial Capital to hold for at least three days, Henrietta?
I'm sorry to say, Pariserum fell in a single day. And by internal revolt at that……
I had clearly advised choosing one or the other. But you tried to keep both your army and your legitimacy. That was your fatal flaw.
In this respect, you are one step behind Elisabeth. When the threat of annihilation loomed, Elisabeth abandoned the Imperial Capital Windbona without hesitation. Thanks to that, the Crescent Alliance Army fractured.
Give flesh to take bone. Whether a ruler can do that or not is what ultimately determines their worth as a sovereign. Elisabeth could, and that was why the Habsburg Empire was able to stage its comeback. Henrietta, on the other hand, could not bring herself to sacrifice anything…….
Elisabeth's reconquest of the continent in Dungeon Attack was no accident. It was inevitable. Blame your own ineptitude, Henrietta.