| Author: Starving Wind | Original Source: Joara | Word Count: 3340 characters |
| Translator: Anonymouss | English Source: Re:Library | Word Count: 1828 words |
| Editor(s): Silva | ||
It took 3 whole days after we had completely conquered Edinburgh1 to subjugate all the territories that belonged to the now-dissolved Chaos guild. It would have been different if the guild leader had surrendered, but she was declared dead instead which meant that there was confusion among the lords of the territories since all rights that each of the territories had were up for grabs.
Of course, each territory owner was unwilling to give up their land. This resulted in endless amounts of small to medium scale battles over the control of the land, but using our overwhelming numbers they had no chance at all. Most of them tried to last until the very end by barricading themselves deep within their castle, but Katalina and I usually took turns finishing them off when that happened.
And after a few territories were defeated that way, the remaining territories began to surrender or empty out their castle completely, and it reached a point where the fierce resistance they showed at the beginning completely vanished. Later on, it was as if they were simply changing their flags to join our side.
“Now then, we’ll have to move to the Western front now, right?”
As we conquered the last territory, Katalina asked as if she had been waiting for this moment.
“Yeah. The forces positioned on the Western front are barely able to hold on as is.”
The Western frontline was holding on way better than I had assumed. It seemed that it was a wise move to have the Shining guild on standby as a backup support army in cases like this.
If I hadn’t done that, there was a high chance that the frontlines would have collapsed from the start due to the enemy’s sudden attack. Even though they were an alliance of 4 different guilds, they were honestly still lower-ranked guilds among the biggest ones and they could barely afford soldiers because of how much was put in for domestic battles against each other instead. Seeing as how the low-ranked guilds with their scarce amount of soldiers were putting up a good fight, I expect the guilds under our alliance who had spared a good amount of soldiers to have a rather easy time.
Of course, several small and medium-sized territories that were difficult to defend properly had been conquered by them, but since we would easily be able to claim back the land once we gained the momentum, it didn’t really matter.
During this heated battle on the frontlines, the ex-Chaos guild soldier hinted at wanting to participate in the Western front.
“Let’s go then, shall we? We’ve finished preparation for the march, and we’re simply waiting for the lord’s order right now.”
I lightly nodded in reply. Then I turned my body around and shouted out to the allied soldiers waiting for me.
“All soldiers! We will now move to Liverpool2!”
Katalina and I went to the home office within the inner castle of Liverpool. It was obvious to me that other guild members went off to their respective accommodations or the military training grounds. Anyway, the members of the Camelot alliance, the Volcano guild in particular had a fair number of members who had selected Liverpool as their return point.
[Where are you?]As soon as I arrived at the home office, I looked for Esther. I’ve let Esther, Lucas and Terror all handle one frontline each, and it was Esther who I selected to take care of the frontlines at Liverpool.
[Ah! Did you finally finish taking care of the rest of the ex-Chaos guild territories?][Yeah. The enemies were much more resilient than I thought. Sorry for taking so long.]
[It’s fine! It’s really helpful that you came even though it took you this long. We’re currently fighting against the enemies in the ‘Blue Swamp’ field located near Liverpool, and I think they are going to launch an attack on us again soon, so please come and support our troops as soon as you can.]
Though she said it was fine, as someone who knew just how many casualties occurred during my absence, I could only be thankful to Esther for being considerate of me.
[All right, we’ll get there right away.]Soon, it was decided that our allied troops would conduct a hasty march towards the swamp. To get to ‘Blue Swamp’ from our location in Liverpool took nearly one whole hour by foot. As just a span of a single hour could spell out defeat or victory for our army, we needed to reduce the travel time as much as we could.
It would take less than a minute if we used a warp-gate, but we couldn’t consider the system-wide penalty that’s in place right now. We couldn’t set the standard field as our target for teleportation either so there was no other choice but to run there ourselves.
“It seems like it’s a dire situation, since Esther was asking for support right away.”
“Yeah, it’s probably a really dire situation right now… though I’m not sure about other places, the strength of enemy attacks on Liverpool, in particular, should definitely be much stronger than anywhere else…”
“You’re probably right.”
While the other two cities were both quite big while also being deemed key locations for the Camelot alliance, Liverpool City was still much more important than the other two.
If I were to compare it to the human body, I guess it would be like the heart of Camelot. Of course, even if we were to lose Liverpool it wasn’t like we would definitely end up losing the war, but we had invested heavily into Liverpool over a long period of time, so to lose all of the guild funds we have as well as return all the territory that we own around Liverpool to its initial state would make us lose a lot.
Since the enemy forces would have realized this fact as well, they must have put in a huge effort in conquering Liverpool. But considering that they were having the battles outside the castle in a field rather than having a defensive siege battle right now was indicative of Sapphire’s excellent strategic planning as well as the effort that the Sapphire guild members were putting into defending Liverpool.
After rounding up the troops again in formation, Katalina and I ordered all the troops for a hasty march towards Esther. Though it would have been understandable if they were to complain about being forced to march again right away, thankfully they weren’t since they were certain of victory.
However, I wasn’t completely sure if they weren’t inwardly cursing at me.
“Anyway, Ellie, what kind of contract did you make with Tiara?”
Remembering what she wanted to ask, Katalina turned towards me. It seemed like she was very curious about the contract that I had set up with Tiara back then.
“Ah! Well, the contract was for an assassination of the head leader of the enemy forces. Ten thousand gold for each assassination she completes.”
“And she accepted that contract?”
“Yeah. Their contract with Tiara had been canceled anyway, and she owed me after all. Not a bad thing for her at all.”
“So why didn’t you kill Tiara?”
It was just my assumption but I think she was more curious about the answer to the latter question rather than the first one.
“Well, we’re still in the middle of a war, and I felt that we needed at least one skilled assassin on our side. I mean, you also had a tough time fighting against Tiara as well, right?”
“That’s…”
Of course, it wasn’t a fair 1 versus 1 fight since the user named Wine was on Tiara’s side back then, but considering that mage users are disadvantaged against assassin class users, I judged that she would have still had a hard time against Tiara.
“And for an assassin like that to die would be a loss in many ways, right?”
And aside from that, the experience of me cutting down Wine didn’t feel quite good to me. So if I were to be honest, I simply didn’t want to kill Tiara as well back then due to that sensation.
“I guess there’s no helping it if you think that way, Ellie.”
Katalina didn’t ask me any more questions about that. Whatever my intention was, we were able to take in a user called Sharon due to my actions as well as have the assassin as our ally temporarily, which was certainly a good result.
“Want to go on a trip after this war?”
I felt that the mood was a bit too dark at this moment, so I changed the topic hoping that I would improve Katalina’s mood as well.
“A trip?”
It seemed to be efficient since Katalina replied with sparkling light in her eyes.
“Yeah.”
“Can I choose where to go?”
Oh dear, I didn’t think she would be this enthusiastic about going on a trip. But then again, she had been stuck at home for a long time unable to go on a shopping trip at all this whole time, so it was understandable for the average person to want to go out for some fresh air.
“Of course.”
Since all I’ve thought of was wanting to go on a trip and not any actual plan, I decided to leave where we would go to Katalina.
“And it would just be the two of us going, right?”
“That’s… well.”
Even if just the two of us were going, we would still have bodyguards following us, but I think Katalina already knew of that as well so I didn’t really correct her.
“All right! Let’s finish off this war quickly!”
And now Katalina was enthusiastic about finishing the war. I was worried that at this rate she would start firing lasers from her eyes.
I felt the curious gazes coming from platoon commanders who were coming up to us wondering what we were talking about, but they all immediately looked away and feigned innocence once I shot them a glare, warning them not to involve themselves in our business.
[Where are you all now?][We’re nearly there. Is there a problem?]
I quickly questioned her, surprised by the sudden whisper coming from Esther.
[Ah, the battle had just begun actually. The enemies must have realized that the remnants of the Chaos guild have almost been defeated so they’re attacking as hard as they can to try and secure victory.][Hmm, does that mean that they still don’t know that the Chaos guild is practically finished already?]
[Well I’m not sure about that. At the very least, they don’t know about how you and the Volcano guild’s army are coming here. They wouldn’t have attacked us head-on like this if they knew after all.]
After thinking for a moment, I remembered what I needed to ask Esther.
