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I first sensed the Rolmund Army’s movements while I was giving the Garne brothers a good head-nogging.
These guys do something stupid the moment I take my eyes off them.
Today, they were once again trying to make smoked chicken on their own and had lit a bonfire in the Old Town.

“Why the hell do I have to get scolded for a bonfire!?”

As I locked the older Garne brother in a headlock, I yelled back.

“I told you bonfires are banned in the Old Town!”

Then the younger Garne brother, who was pinned under my butt, tilted his head in confusion.

“Huh? Didn’t they just allow bonfires again?”
“That’s only in the New Town!”

In the New Town, thanks to the cooperation of the Dragonfire Engineer Corps, firefighting water supplies and firebreaks have been put in place. The streets are also wide, so fires are less likely to spread.

Just as I hurled older Garne across the ground with a magic-enhanced German suplex, Monsa showed up.

“Haha, that looks fun. Can I join in too?”
“Sure, but didn’t you come here for a reason?”

Then, while dragging older Garne along, Monsa muttered as if she’d just remembered something.

“Oh, right. Aylia’s calling for you. Something about Rolmund.”
“Why didn’t you say that sooner!”

“It appears that Rolmund’s army has begun moving south from the fortress city of Worngang and has split into four units.”

At an emergency executive meeting, Kait pointed to a map hanging on the wall.
Aylia immediately raised an objection.

“The foundation of military strategy is keeping your troops united. I don’t understand why they’d split them up.”

Laying siege to a walled city requires a considerable number of troops. It would be different if they had enough forces to split into four groups, but she shouldn’t have even 200 direct subordinates.
I asked Kait.

“What’s the size of the force?”

“The garrisons in Schwelm and Worngang are a combined total of 7,000. They consist of knights and mercenaries. This represents the total combat strength on the northern side.”

It’s enough force to crush a small southern city by brute force, but I don’t see the point of splitting it into four parts.

Kait continued his explanation.

“Also, according to unconfirmed reports, there are believed to be about five hundred members of the Magiarms Battalion.”
“Five hundred, huh? They’ve grown quite a bit without me noticing.”

Does this mean the military tunnels have been completed and reinforcements have arrived?

The Magiarms Battalion, capable of destroying castle gates, is a threat. Even split into four groups, each would still have over a hundred members—are they planning to capture all four cities at once?
Even if seven thousand soldiers are divided into four groups, each group will still have nearly two thousand troops. For the southern cities, with populations of only a few thousand, this is quite frightening.

However, the four frontline cities—the ancient capital of Bernheinen, the industrial city of Tübahn, the labyrinth city of Zaria, and the artisan city of Viera—each have three thousand skeleton soldiers.
With the addition of each city’s garrison, the Demon Lord’s Army, and the citizen militias, I don’t think we’ll be outnumbered. We also have city walls on our side.
Princess Eleora must know this too, so normally she’d attack a single city with a force of 7,500 soldiers.

Perhaps thinking the same thing, my master tilts her head while resting her chin on her hand.

“I don’t quite understand it, but it seems like a reckless strategy to me… Veit, can you read the enemy’s intentions?”
“It seems reckless to me, too. But it might be a strategy designed to make us think that.”

No enemy would go out of their way to come here just to lose.
That means they have some surefire plan.

Baltze, commander of the Blue Scale Knights, stares at the map with his arms crossed.

“As long as we don’t know the capabilities of the enemy’s new weapon, we can’t underestimate them, no matter how outnumbered they are. Each city will need to prepare for defense.”

Kait flips through the report.

“The information has already been relayed to the four cities. I hear that in Bernheinen, the vampire unit; in Tübahn, the centaur unit; and in Viera, the honor guard are already on high alert.”
“Sir Kait, is Zaria all right?”
“Ah, yes. A guard unit has been dispatched from Schaldir, just to the south.”

That’s good coordination.

Parker, with a rare look of seriousness on his face, offered me some advice.

“Skeleton soldiers are powerful, but we mustn’t be overconfident. If our opponent is skilled in magic, there might be a way to neutralize them.”
“Specifically?”
“In necromancy, there’s a spell that forcibly sends summoned dead back to the underworld. Though sending three thousand of them back would be quite a task.”

I’d suspected as much, but as expected, a strategy reliant on magic isn’t very stable…

Aylia is deep in thought.

“Should we send reinforcements from Lüenheit as well? We have a ground unit on loan from Belrüsa.”
“That’s true. I’d like to send reinforcements to Bernheinen, where the city walls are weak, and to Zaria, which has few troops…”

I stare intently at the map.
Something’s really bothering me.

Princess Eleora is a cautious military strategist. Even when she could win through brute force, she’d surround the enemy and urge them to surrender. It’s to avoid depleting her forces and make governing easier later on.
In that sense, she might be similar to me.
If that’s the case, this operation is clearly off.
Could it be that Princess Eleora isn’t here, and someone else is in command? I don’t know.

Once I started thinking about it, there was no end to the possibilities, so I assumed the most dangerous scenario.
Princess Eleora is alive and well, and she has a surefire plan.
For that plan to work, she needed to divide her troops into four parts.
Let’s just go with that.

“What impact are we facing as a result of the enemy’s actions…?”

In response to my mutter, Baltze pointed at the map as if he’d realized something.

“Since the four cities are under simultaneous attack, they’re unable to send reinforcements to one another. And if the goal is to create this situation…”
“Is this a ploy to pin us down, Lord Baltze?”
“Yes, that makes sense. One of the four might be the main target, where they’ve concentrated their elite forces.”

Even if Princess Eleora has 7,500 troops, they’re just a motley crew. Their morale and training levels vary considerably.
Baltze explained that in such cases, it’s easier for a commander to use the less effective troops for diversionary tactics or to tie up the enemy, while deploying only the elite forces.
That’s certainly true of the Demon Lord’s Army as well. Since there’s such a wide disparity in ability, we deploy troops by race.

As for the subsequent movements of the Rolmund Army that set out from Worngang, we’ve received intelligence from the observation forts we’ve stationed in the Conflicting Wasteland.
It seems that soldiers from the Magiarms Battalion are present in each of the four army corps.
At this rate, even if one of them is the main force, there’s no way to tell.
Sending reinforcements to a city other than the main target would be a waste of troops. It’s a real dilemma.
Is making it difficult to send reinforcements from cities in the rear also part of Princess Eleora’s strategy?

I suppose we have no choice. Let’s use Her Majesty the Demon Lord for reconnaissance.

“Master, could you teleport to Bernheinen for now?”

“Hmm, I suppose I’ll do that. After assessing the enemy’s movements, if I determine that’s not the main target, I’ll head to Tübahn. Next will be Zaria, and finally Viera.”

Master isn’t an expert in teleportation magic, so she can’t cast it repeatedly. It’ll probably take quite a while to visit them all. Even so, she’s a reliable liaison right now.
Still, it’s not good for a key figure to be darting back and forth along the front lines…

Just as we decided to check on the situation at the front lines, Aylia spoke up.

“Let’s ask Belrüsa and Lotzo in the rear to prepare reinforcements. As soon as we identify the main target, we’ll have them send reinforcements there.”

I nodded at her reassuring offer.

“Understood, I’ll leave it to you. Let’s also make sure the Demon Lord’s Army in Lüenheit is ready to move. For now, they’ll stand by in a state of combat readiness. I’d like to ask you to make the arrangements, Lord Baltze.”
“Leave it to me.”

“At this point, I guess all we can do is wait for more information…”

No, maybe I could use magic to enhance my werewolf speed and scout all four cities at once.

The moment that thought crossed my mind, everyone grabbed both my shoulders.

“Sir Veit, please wait.”
“You can’t do that, Veit!”
“Nope, you’re supposed to stay right here!”
“That’s a bad habit of yours, lad…”

Why are they all so wary of me?

Then Aylia smiled and said,

“If you don’t rein yourself in a little more, we’ll have to make this an agenda item at the Council soon, Sir Veit?”
“Ah… yes…”

I’d better stay put.