Katahane no Riku Chapter 12

The Myuuz castle was a natural stronghold.

It was close to the territory where humans lived and the spiritualists were aware of its existence.

But even in these two hundred years, it still wasn´t broken through. One of the reasons was because it was surrounded by tall mountains. But it wasn´t only that.

The main strength of the Myuuz castle was in outside of the mountain range. Around the mountains, there was a very deep forest that would confuse one´s sense of direction. For the demons, with hidden marks throughout the paths and with their sense of smell, it was still possible to advance with some effort, but the reality was different for the humans. Even if they had enough luck to go through the forest, there was only one path to Myuuz castle. After going up the mountains, what would be lying in wait was fort Rein. Even if the enemy gathered many strong soldiers, by the time they would get there, they would all have acc.u.mulated exhaustion.

Inside the fort, with demons that were still full of energy fighting against the exhausted soldiers, the sides that would win and lose were very obvious. Without being able to take hold of the fort, many soldiers would perish.

But even so, every ten years, the s.h.i.+doru kingdom would gather up soldiers to go on an offensive against the castle.

But even so, in these two hundred years, not even once did they succeed going through the mountains.

But that was until this evening.

———————-

“How… What in the world did happen?”

In one of the rooms of the Myuuz castle, there was the figure of a demon that was angry up to his limits.

With his hand, he brushed aside all the doc.u.ments that were acc.u.mulated in his table. Just like a flood, all the doc.u.ments were spread through the polished floor. But as if it wasn´t enough to settle his anger, he threw a flower vase that . The azure vase that had been made with great effort made a impressive sound as it broke and its shards were scattered to all sides. The petals dejectedly scattered around and the water gradually drenched the doc.u.ments.

“Lieutenant general Gortoberuk, please, get hold of yourself!”

As he was saying that, the staff officer rushed over to Gortoberuk, who was losing his mind.

But right when the staff officer got close to Gortoberuk, he was glared by him. His eyes that were already becoming bloodshot produced an force that except for the staff officer, who had always been together with Gortoberuk, serving him in the good and harsh times, made everyone in the room scared.

“During the time that I had been entrusted with this fort… During these one hundred and fifty years, not once was it broken through. Not only once!! Not only once, you know!? Then, why did it end up like that!?”

“Lieutenant general, please calm down.”

“There is no way I can be calm!”

Gortoberuk drew his long sword.

With his state of mind, he was well capable of cutting someone´s head off right now. If he was handled wrong right now, then perhaps everyone reunited in his room could end up losing their heads. The staff officer shrank away, but he knew that if he backed off right now, things would end worse. Mustering his courage and giving a deep breath, he advanced forward, wondering whether he was capable of stepping his foot inside the range of Gortoberuk´s long sword.*1

“Your anger will cloud you from doing correct decisions.”

“Tch, I know that!”

While saying that, Gortoberuk sat down on his chair.

But even so, he couldn´t completely keep his anger under control. His forehead was full of popped up veins and his eyes were still bloodshot.*2

“Hey, did you send the messenger?”

“I sent one to the nearest of our garrison, and the messenger will probably pa.s.s by Barusak´s squad that are now delivering the present to you grandchild. But the chances of him getting there is extremely close to zero.”*3

“…Unfortunately, it is hard to expect any reinforcements.”

The staff office apologetically added up his comment to the other subordinate´s report.

The surviving soldiers inside the Myuuz castle were only ten thousand strong.*4 Taking away the soldiers that were necessary for protecting the castle, the amount of demons that were usable for combat were in between eight thousand and nine thousand. There was also the problem of there being demons that had given up because of how the historical Rein fort had fallen. When the lieutenant general Gortoberuk asked for advise, all that he was told was to somehow boost the morale of the troops, but at this point, to keep it from falling even lower was already the best it was possible. Once the morale had fallen down, increasing it from there was something next to impossible to do.

“When fighting against spiritualists, even against a small amount, it is necessary to prepare many more soldiers. The incoming spiritualists are about five thousand strong… This is a bit bad for us.”

“Bad? That is just perfect!”

While Gortoberuk tightly grasped his sword, he hit the floor with it, putting his hatred onto the blow. With the tremor, the broken shards in the floor were trembling. A crack opened in the floor and its tiles flipped over.*5

“Just report to Charlotte-sama that we annihilated those foolish spiritualists. There is no need for a humiliating report of defeat! …From now on, we will attack.”

“We will attack? I can´t agree with this!”

His adjutant’s face instantly turned pale.

Not only in soldier strength they had disadvantage, but the morale of the soldiers were low. The adjutant couldn´t imagine them winning no matter how.

“Fm, then, you are telling me that we should go for the siege? Doing that is what it actually is foolish.”( ふん)

Gortoberuk snorted.

“If we go for the siege, then the soldier morale will be decreasing even more. At least, they don´t have much knowledge of the terrain. Before they finish scouting through it, attacking is the best plan.”

“Indeed… But, even if we confront them, there is no way for us to win.

Even if they were to go attack, they still needed to think out a plan.

If they were to recklessly attack the spiritualists, they would only fall before their power. If their numbers were greater, it would still be possible for them to press onto them. But,

“Yes, that´s just as you say. Well then, what should we do?”

Gortoberuk next looked at the staff officer. The staff officer had his finger near his chin and started deeply thinking.

“Well… To me, the reason why the fort had fallen so easily really picks my interest. In order for us to not lose our way, we use the marks that are around the forest. But those should have been only possible for us to understand. For the spiritualists from this time, as to why they were able to get to the fort without getting lost… The only possibility I can think of is that there is a traitor between our ranks.”

“You should think about something like that later! The traitor is obviously the dog that Adlar raised anyway. There is no traitor inside the castle now, so we should only focus in thinking about our plans of attacking.”

Gortoberuk rejected his staff officer´s thoughts on that. But even so, the staff officer still felt some kind of bad feeling lingering at the corner of his mind. Deciding it was only his imagination, he shook his head. Rather than that, he knew that it was important for them to go attack the enemy as soon as possible. If they weren´t fast, the spiritualists would besiege the castle and cut them from receiving supplies. As the time would pa.s.s, the food stocks would diminish and they would lose any chance they had of winning.

“Let´s see… Let´s split our army into two. Then, attack the enemy from two sides.”

“A pincer attack? Can we even do something like that?”

A question mark floated above the adjutant´s head. If they still had the fort, they could do a pincer attack coming from there and from the castle. But right now, it was impossible. Being asked about that, the staff officer nodded while making a serious face.

“Let´s say, if general Gortoberuk were to take part of his army and go on an offensive outside the castle himself, how would the enemy react?

“Well, the general went out… The spiritualist would send their soldiers after him.”

“Right? That´s where we will be aiming for. We would only wait for the spiritualists turn their back from the castle, and with the soldiers that would be on standby at the castle, we would attack them from behind.”

“I see now.”

As he brushed his prided moustache, Gortoberuk nodded.

“And on other hand, if they go after the castle, then I´m can simply go attack behind them. In doing so, we would be able to cause them irrecoverable losses. Would that be your plan?”

“Yes, that is exactly it.”

The staff officer slowly . Gortoberuk smiled with confidence. For this plan to work, it was needed for the garrisoned troops and the troops outside to cooperate perfectly. But While making a sound, Gortoberuk stood up from his chair and held his long sword towards the ceiling.

“Immediately ready the preparations for battle!! Soon, we will be attacking those filthy fellows!!”

———————

Meanwhile, the spiritualists also were having their own discussions about the war.

Inside the headquarters pavilion, there were four spiritualists discussing. Among those, there was the Bistolru household´s young family head, Selenstinna Bistolru. A girl with short hair and eyes with visible white between the iris and the lower eyelid*6. Because of that, she could be said to have a very peculiar appearance. But even so, the chestnut-colored hairpin that was keeping her front hair place gave her a certain girlish appeal. Because Selestinna was partic.i.p.ating of her first war since she became the head of her family, she was tense, but she was even more tense because of her childhood friend that was in front of her lost in thoughts.

Her childhood friend, the next head of the Barusak household, Rook Barusak, was now looking at the map, and with a serious face, thinking about something. While his usual face was of someone that lacked interest in everything, she was also charmed by his serious face.

“…Seles, is there something on my face?”

Because of how she was intensely looking at his face, thinking of how weird it was, Rook raised his head to look at her. In panic, she shook her head.

“The-there is nothing on it. More importantly, what are you being so self-conscious for? Are you stupid, Rook?”

“Self-conscious? Well, it doesn´t matter. I´ve seen through the enemy strategy. They will split into two armies and look forward to attack us from two sides.”*7

As if it was nothing, Rook just said what strategy the enemy was going to do. Since he started to think, only a few minutes pa.s.sed. Selestinna put her hands to her mouth.

“Well, that was very fast. On what basis are you saying that?”

“You see, I´ve just got new information. It says about their strategy. It is from that Kurumi girl that is infiltrated within the Demon Lord army.”

“Rook is really amazing. Just with these informations, you are really making a name yourself.”

Selestinna remembered about the time when they attacked the fort.

She thought that it would end up with them getting lost like always, but it was different this time. With Rook guiding the army, by relying on the stones that were on the roadside, they were able to easily find the way that led to the fort. He himself said it was a secret and didn´t tell anyone about how he guided them there, but this too was probably information he got from that demon called Kurumi.

She was impressed of Rook because he was able to get allies even from demons. But while there was that, because he had been only relying on that demon and not relying on herself, that had been fighting alongside him, was a sad reality.

“…Did something happen to you?”

By saying that, he must have noticed her lonesome face. Rook was now looking at Selestinna´s face. Because of how sudden he looked at him, she didn´t have time to prepare her heart. With even her ears red, she shook her head in a incredible speed while blus.h.i.+ng.

“N-nothing happened, such a thing!!”

“Is that so? Then it´s fine, but, actually I have a request for you.”

“A-a request, you say?”

Selestinna had never been asked for anything from Rook.

With her heart jumping, she was waiting for Rook´s next words.

“Actually, from now on, I need to go back to home.”

“Eh?”

“I´m intending to leave the Barusak army that will be remaining here to general Toudo. Ah, general Toudo is a spiritualist that had been serving the Barusak household for a long time, so he is someone you can rely on. But… This time´s enemy… Is Gortoberuk. He is a strong opponent, and I´m a bit anxious on whether Toudo can win or not. That´s why I am asking you Seles.”

Rook took her hands, with their fingers entwining each other. Her white hands became slightly reddish.*8

“Please Seles! Win the battle!”

Seles heart had decided.

Rook is relying on her. She must use up all of her strength in order to be . Then, at dawn after the won battle, she would magnificently arrange the Myuuz castle, and in there finally, she would confess to him. As she was being submerged by her sweet delusions, Rook left the pavilion.

But Seles didn´t notice what happened after that. Rather, n.o.body had noticed.

“Alright! Seles confession event GET!”*

With a fist pump, the next Barusak head cheered in joy.