After sending the envoy back.
I walked toward the Demon Lord's chambers. The laughter of three or four fairies and the sound of their footsteps echoed softly through the cavern. Getting to the Demon Lord's chambers took roughly an hour, so a round trip meant two hours.
The two hours didn't feel long. Part of it was because I was deep in thought about how to counter the adventuring party, but mostly it was because I'd grown accustomed to the sluggish sense of time around here. Before I knew it, I had stepped into the Demon Lord's chambers.
"......"
The rock in the corner.
Laura was reading quietly, as always. She had spread a red blanket over the stone and sat down on it.
Each time her index finger turned a page, the paper rustled softly. With just that single red blanket and the sound of pages turning, that corner had become an entirely different space altogether. Every time she flipped a page, time stretched out languidly.
She suddenly raised her head. Our eyes met. As though she had known for a long time that I would be there, as though we had already been in the middle of a conversation and she was simply moving on to the next topic in a natural flow, she parted her lips.
"What did the humans have to say?"
Humans. As if she wasn't one herself. Laura had drawn her own line between herself and her kind. I held back a smile and gave her a detailed explanation of everything that had happened.
I spoke as though posing a riddle.
"So then. How should our Demon Lord's forces deal with seventy enemy combatants?"
"A straightforward battle."
Laura answered without hesitation.
"I hear that my Lord has the ability to summon monsters. The more powerful the monster, the more expensive the required materials, but our Demon Lord's army should still have ample financial reserves. We simply need to summon enough troops to overwhelm the enemy force. Counter a human wave tactic with a human wave tactic of our own — that is the fundamental principle of warfare."
Laura suggested that we simply reinforce our own troop numbers.
It was indeed a viable strategy. I currently had roughly fourteen thousand gold, and even after summoning thirty additional lowest-tier golems, I would still have a surplus. That would give our Demon Lord's forces a full contingent of seventy golems. Adding the fairy squad on top of that would make us a formidable army that most adventuring parties wouldn't dare approach.
However.
That wasn't the answer I had been looking for.
"Laura. That's the worst answer."
"......"
Laura didn't question it or protest with a displeased look. She immediately accepted my answer. Then she began to think about why I had said that.
This aspect of her revealed just how much she trusted me. She fully believed that I was not the kind of person to say something like that without sufficient grounds.
Laura spoke after a moment.
"......In military strategy, they say to assess heaven, earth, and man. I considered only man. I simply took the number seventy—the enemy force's size—as my basis for judgment, and from that concluded that we too needed a force of seventy. I didn't consider the terrain where the battle would take place, nor the principles involved in warfare."
"There are three kinds of people in this world."
I smiled faintly.
"People who don't know what they did wrong, people who know what they did wrong, and people who know what they did wrong and also know what they need to do going forward. Laura, your answer just now didn't quite meet the passing grade I was hoping for."
Now Laura fell into deep contemplation. She twirled the hair at her temples—a habit that emerged whenever she was truly immersed in thought.
It was only natural that she had produced what amounted to the worst possible answer. Until now, she had only ever experienced small-scale battles. She had led roughly thirty monsters and defeated adventuring parties of about twenty. The most she had ever needed to consider was which moment to send in the golem squad and which moment to order the fairy squad to unleash a volley.
That a sixteen-year-old girl had become accustomed to combat was impressive in its own right, but...
'At her current level, she's nowhere near good enough.'
I hadn't recruited a sixteen-year-old girl—I had recruited a sixteen-year-old Laura de Farnese. She needed to prove that her talents were worthy of my expectations.
I didn't think it was harsh. As much as she trusted me—no, even more than that—I trusted her. I was the person in the world who believed in Laura the most. Because I knew what kind of prodigy she was.
Show me who you truly are.
"Understood."
Laura drew a breath.
"First, I'll pinpoint exactly where I fell short, and then I'll explain what needs to be done to effectively defeat an adventuring party."
"I'm counting on it."
"First, let's discuss the first dimension of military strategy: Heaven."
Laura held up her index finger.
"Heaven is a concept that encompasses all things in the world. In the context of military strategy, it means viewing a battle from the perspective of war, and viewing war from the perspective of the nation. In other words, our Demon Lord's forces must consider not just the immediate obstacle of a seventy-strong adventuring party, but also what we may face in the future. If we hire a large number of golems right now, we can certainly overcome the current crisis. However—"
I smiled. It felt as though she was on the right track toward the correct conclusion. Perhaps my smile gave her more confidence, because Laura continued in an even more cheerful voice.
"Will only weak adventuring parties like this one continue to attack us in the future? That question naturally arises. There are plenty of adventurers out there who can handle several dozen golems without breaking a sweat. If they hire a mage to lead an intrusion, we'd be utterly helpless."
Laura had pointed this out correctly.
Our Demon Lord's Castle was in the following state.
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[Dungeon: Dantalion's Demon Lord's Castle]
Rank: Neighborhood Back Hill (F)
Technology Research: 0
Magic Research: 0
*Special Skills: None
*Monster Forces: 42
*Wealth: 13,900 gold
※No defensive facilities have been installed in the dungeon. Last night, a human who just became a thief treated your dungeon as a walking path. It could be breached at any time. Research technology and magic to install various facilities in your dungeon!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
A low-grade golem costs four hundred gold apiece. Hiring thirty more would run twelve thousand gold. That would deplete nearly all of our wealth. In the not-so-distant future, we'll be facing high-level adventuring parties, and by then, low-grade golems would be nothing more than warm-up practice for adventurers.
Now is the time to gradually prepare for high-level adventuring parties, yet we're supposed to pour most of our funds into low-grade golems? That would be extremely foolish.
"Our Demon Lord's forces must stockpile armaments for the future. We should make the best use of the troops we currently have to defeat the enemy. Therefore—"
"Allow me to introduce them. Lord Dantalion."
Lapis spoke. Two dwarves stood behind her.
"These are master cartographers of considerable skill from the Demon Realm."
"It is our honor to lay eyes upon Your Lordship."
I extended my hand and shook theirs.
"Welcome. I'll be direct."
I decided to get straight to the point. Dwarves inherently despised pointless formalities. They were artists and artisans at their core, interested only in things worthy of their genuine passion.
"I'd like you to create maps of the area surrounding the Demon Lord's Castle."
"We are honored beyond measure. We would not have dared presume that Your Lordship had summoned us for any other reason."
The dwarf answered with delight.
"We will do our utmost to draw the maps Your Lordship requires. However, there are a few points we need Your Lordship to confirm."
"You may ask your questions."
"How large an area would you like included on the maps?"
"First, keep in mind that I'll be requesting multiple maps."
I met the dwarf's gaze with a serious expression.
"I want a total of five maps. First, I need a complete map of the continent. Second, I need a complete map of the Teuton Kingdom. Third, I need a map of the region within the Teuton Kingdom where my Demon Lord's Castle is located. Can you produce these three to begin with?"
"Of course."
The dwarf looked slightly surprised.
"There are already quite a few of each in existence."
"I want only the finest quality."
"We shall keep that firmly in mind. What are the remaining two items?"
"Fourth, draw a map that includes the villages and forts near the Demon Lord's Castle. This map must show the elevation of the terrain, wide roads and narrow roads, geographical features, and the size of each settlement."
The dwarf's eyes changed.
"...This shall become quite a comprehensive map, I believe."
"Fifth, produce a map of the interior of the Demon Lord's Castle."
"There is no question of it."
The dwarf bowed deeply at the waist.
"Since you have even demanded the elevation, I have come to appreciate that Your Majesty's eye for maps rivals the heavens. It is more than we deserve, but we are experts second to none in the Demon Realm, and we shall comply with your demands."
The artisan dwarf immediately sold off the first three types of maps. The remaining two would take time to produce, but when asked to begin with the map of the area surrounding the Demon Lord's Castle first, he promised to supply a partial map within a short time, even if it wouldn't be the completed version.
"Our Demon Lord's army must move beyond the Demon Lord's Castle to intercept the enemy. By all rights, the defending side should have a threefold advantage, but that only applies when there is a proper fortress. The Demon Lord's Castle has, despite its name, neither a proper stone wall nor even a decent wooden palisade. Moreover, the passageways are excessively wide, making it unsuitable for defense by a small force."
Laura continued in a calm tone.
"Under these conditions, the enemy enjoys a far greater advantage, as they can attack whenever and however they wish. Once inside the Demon Lord's Castle, the enemy can retreat at will, but we cannot do the same. We must never grant them that kind of freedom. We need to force them into a battlefield that favors us."
Laura looked straight at me. Her eyes were glinting.
"Our forces will deploy a strike corps. Rather than waiting, we will attack the very villages where the adventurer bands are stationed. For this purpose, we need a detailed map of the surrounding settlements. A map will remain useful for a long time to come, so it is well worth the investment."
"Wait a moment. Couldn't the adventurer bands simply abandon the villages?"
"That is absolutely impossible."
She declared with certainty.
"Why is that?"
"Because more than half of each adventurer band consists of locals from those villages. Abandoning a village would mean betraying every militia member who hailed from it. The adventurer bands cannot afford such an instantaneous collapse in strength. They have no choice but to firmly defend the villages, even if only to maintain their force of seventy fighters. The very act of absorbing village militia members to swell their ranks has ended up severely crippling their mobility."
I clapped my hands without even realizing it. It was a perfectly reasonable assessment.
"Give up the villages and their forces would plummet. Defend the villages and they can't march on the Demon Lord's Castle. In the end, the adventurer bands lose their purpose and become too busy guarding what's theirs!"
"To be precise, it wouldn't be 'theirs.' It would be the village militia's. The adventurer bands would have seen it as absorbing the militia for their own purposes — but we're engineering the exact opposite. The adventurer bands end up helping to protect the militia's villages instead."
Convert what the opponent considers a strength into a weakness.
Infantry excels in close combat. Deploy archers against them, and their strength — "they can only fight up close" — becomes a vulnerability. Knights are clad in thick armor and boast impeccable defense. No arrow or spear tip can ever pierce a knight's armor. Select a battlefield of deep mud and swamps, however, and that strength becomes "the armor is so heavy they can't move through the mire."
Troop types, armies, nations — everything has strengths and weaknesses.
For a country whose territory is mostly rugged mountain terrain, that is ordinarily nothing but a weakness. Yields are low and transportation is inconvenient. Yet in the art of war, the disadvantage of treacherous mountain terrain is leveraged in defense and turned into an advantage.
Explaining that this is the essence of military strategy, Laura said:
"However, forcing the adventurer bands onto the defensive requires a great deal of troops. If we compensate by bolstering the golem corps, we'll have put the cart before the horse. Our very strategy was built on the premise of not deploying any additional golems."
"A valid point."
"Thus concludes the dimension of terrain."
She flashed a fearless smile.
"Now it's time to discuss the dimension of people."