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The two looked at me, their eyes full of expectation. I had remembered something that happened during one of my past battles. Three hundred years ago, when I was known as the hero, I had fought more than just demons. There were many greedy people who would offer demons help, or attempt to use demons, trying to increase their personal wealth.

There was a time when the country I was staying in went through a similar internal conflict as now. There were way more factions than just two there, but it was similar in that it was a smaller group trying to confront a bigger army.

The bigger enemy had also consolidated its army and moved as one to crush the smaller groups. Rather than thinking of strategy, they decided to rely on their advantage in numbers. To counteract that, we devised a plan to split up the enemy into many smaller groups, which we could take out one after another. I wanted to try replicating that.

It was easy to get distracted by the big army heading our way, but we could not allow the commanders to lose sight of other things. First we had to think about what their main objective was. In our situation, it was probably Luvias’ head. Prince Magna was also with us, but he had not shown himself publicly yet, so they probably did not know about him. If we removed Luvias from the equation, it was possible they would lose their motivation and disperse on their own. Their next objective after that would be the rest of Luvias’ hero party.

They were not as popular as Luvias, but they were still Dragon Slayers, and most adventurers and common people liked them. Not to mention that each of them was incredibly powerful, so even if they were captured and trapped in an underground cage, they would cause a lot of trouble for their captors. So the enemy would likely choose to kill them instead.

Either way, we knew what the enemy was looking for, and how to lure them. It was impossible to call Diaria back from the other end of the country, but we had four people here, which meant we could split the enemy into four groups as well. It might seem a bit stupid to split our already small army into even smaller groups, but at least we would avoid getting crushed all at the same time, and we would have a higher chance of turning things around. We needed to take some risks if we wanted to win.

In short, my plan was to split up the enemy and take out smaller chunks of them. Once I finished explaining that, Magna had one question.

“That plan has a major weak point. What happens if the enemy doesn’t fall for it and remains together? What will we do if they ignore our provocation, and focus solely on burning Surfour down? If this city falls, we won’t have any base of operations left. Not to mention that if we fail to protect our own territory, all our allies will pull away.”
“I also thought about that.”

Stied was trying to kill all of us from Luvias’ party now. But that was simply one way to accomplish his goal, to secure his position as Bordaule’s king. From what I heard about him and his actions so far, I could tell he was incredibly greedy and self-centered, and always wanted to seem more powerful than others. Anyone who criticized or insulted him always met a very severe punishment. But that also meant that he had very little patience and could be taunted easily.

“No matter how excellent his commanders are, if the one at the top is an idiot, his army will collapse on itself. We need to taunt Stied directly and lure him into the battlefield, and then we attack from various angles.”
“That’s easy to say…but will it really work so well?”
“I don’t think it’ll be particularly easy, but I have thought of various methods already.”

Using the magic communication devices to send broadcasts to the entire country was just the beginning. We had to continue calling him a coward that never steps out from the safety of the palace. Considering his inflated pride, that should tick him off, but might not be enough to lure him to the battlefield yet. We had to push him just a little more by showing him the palace was not as safe as he thought.

“I’ll attack the royal palace with Ciel. He’ll obviously get desperate once we set enough things on fire.”
“That…sounds a bit dangerous though?”
“There’s no victory without a little bit of risk, but we can both fly so it’ll be harder for them to catch us. We’ll only attack at night too.”

It was basically impossible to spot a person flying in the darkness of the night. Not to mention that both Ciel and I could move quickly with Flight Magic. We were much faster than before too, so even if they realized we were at the capital and mobilized their troops towards Surfour while we were away, we could travel back faster than them.

Magna finally looked convinced when I explained all that. But he had one more question, exactly who would be in charge of taunting Stied?

“I’ll do that as well. I’m not sure how to put this into words, but both of you aren’t suited for taunting. As royalty, you were raised in a polite and proper environment, without exposure to vile language. Someone who is more versed in the vulgarities of words like me is better suited for that.”
“You seem quite confident about that…but alright, we’ll leave that to you.”

We decided we would start enacting the plan that same day. At night, just shortly after sunset, we all gathered in the same room again. Everyone watched as I held the magic device and coughed softly. My throat was completely clear now. The light lit up on the magic device showing it was activated. Right now all magic communication devices in the country, including the one in the palace, were emitting a really loud noise. I began picturing the face of whoever was on the other side, paying attention to the device.

“Ah…Hello, this is Lapis. I’m a friend of the hero Luvias, also part of her party. I’m sure you’re already aware of our goals so I won’t bore you with that. All I want to say is this, Prince Stied…err, I meant cowardly Stied, please crawl out of that palace and fight us like a man.”

Everyone who was watching me, Prince Magna, Luvias, Grom, Karin and Ciel, gulped loudly awaiting the rest. I glanced at them before taking a deep breath in preparation for my next sentence.

“Hey Stied, are you listening?! Or are you too busy exploring how much more of a coward you can be?! I’m sure you must feel really proud of yourself after backstabbing your father to get your grubby little hands on a bunch of land that should’ve never been tainted by you! I feel more sympathy for the fly I saw sitting on a piece of s̲h̲i̲t̲ by the roadside than for you! All you can do is show the country just how h̲o̲r̲n̲y you are by pretending everything belongs to you and ruining the lives of all women you lay your eyes on! But I bet you’d wet your weenie little pants the moment you see a goblin, so how about you show at least as much courage as a slime?! Your only talent is spending time inside your comfy little palace drinking to your heart’s content, why don’t you fight as royalty for once! Or are you too scared? Just thinking of it must make you shake! You were born with a turd in your head instead of a brain after all!”

I glanced around the room again. Luvias and Magna were flabbergasted, their mouths open. Karin and Ciel were grimacing, and Grom was covering his head. I had never been told about Stied’s sexual habits, but I just pictured him that way. Either way it did not matter. I did not have to stick to facts when taunting an enemy.

“I’ll tell you one last time Stied! Come out and fight like a man! You might not realize this but the palace stopped being a safe place the moment you became our enemy. You’ll see what I mean soon enough, so remember this you coward!”

After shouting that, I let go of the device. The room fell into an uncomfortable silence. After coughing a bit, I tried to smile. The three nobles were probably shocked to their core hearing such words come from a beautiful girl.

“Well, I guess that should be enough taunting for now?”
“…I see. You were right…I would’ve never been able to say anything like that.”

Magna shook his head slightly, overwhelmed by the cultural shock. I had not even insulted him, yet it had such a strong effect on him. Stied was probably going insane with anger in the palace. But this was not everything we had planned yet, I quickly went outside with Ciel and we flew towards the palace.