Book 10: Chapter 4

Through the Transfer Magic Formations, the elites of the Zadark Kingdom arrived in Elarc as if blending into the chaos.

It wasn’t a large-scale military intervention, it was just that when they happened to be in a friendly nation, there was a situation they couldn’t overlook──in order to prepare that sort of official stance, the most elite members that wouldn’t have a problem in terms of fighting power even if they were separate and scattered came in one after another.

「……Fumu. I suppose this is a suitable time.」

In Elarc’s town plaza, Mazenda muttered that.

It looked like Princess Narika’s army was pushing the war front at a glance.

In this fight that was a scramble for the town of Elarc, Princess Narika’s army had the advantage from the start.

It was a defensive battle for Princess Celis, but it was a suppression battle for Princess Narika.

For both Febris Castle and Elarc which were built on a flatland, they were not suited for defensive battles.

Also, the masses that were running about trying to escape were something that the Princess Celis Army absolutely needed to protect.

As long as they didn’t have the choice of 「abandoning them」 even in the worst case scenario, if they didn’t constantly move about being on the lookout to evacuate the masses, they would lose their support even if they did win the battle.

Of course, in regards to the point of needing to protect the masses, the Princess Narika Army was also the same. The masses would end up doubting Princess Narika’s legitimacy if they were to fight while ignoring the ordinary citizens’ safety, and that would do nothing but create a foundation to allow the secret maneuvers of a future rebellion organization. 

Mazenda didn’t particularly mind that, but to welcome the end of the Canal Kingdom that she had spent so much time on with something as insignificant as a rebellion of the masses, that would affect her pride a bit.

Therefore, she needed Princess Narika to somehow win this fight but……for that, as expected, the problem of handling the ordinary citizens came out.

The ones known as the ordinary citizens would not listen to their side. This could be said to already be absolute.

Even if they were to form reliable tactics, take the maximum amount of consideration in regards to the ordinary citizens, and prepare a strategy where they could say 「With this, they definitely can’t complain」, the ordinary citizens absolutely won’t follow their plans. There would be complaints without fail from somewhere, and that would become a trigger for things to flare up in a big way. No matter what plan they made, it would get shut down like that.

Be that as it may, they couldn’t just ignore the general public.

The moment someone did that, it would be the same as that person throwing away their qualifications as a leader.

That is the reason why prioritizing the safety of the ordinary citizens was the sole rule that Narika and Celis had to follow in their scramble for the Canal Kingdom.

Although Mazenda was not a Human and was completely unrelated from the life and death of the ordinary citizens, as long as she was taking the appearance of being in the 「Canal Kingdom’s Narika Army」, she needed to follow that rule.

Therefore, despite being in the overwhelmingly advantageous position called the invading side, this sort of seesawing offense and defense was unavoidable.

In addition to the fetters called the common citizen, she also understood that there were some strong people on the other side who were the cause for the invasion not advancing well. As well as the fact that they were most likely people of the Zadark Kingdom.

It seemed that they did not make a military intervention as a nation, but had chosen a bunch who looked Human, but Mazenda sneered in her heart thinking that in the end, that was the Zadark Kingdom’s limit.

If it was her……If it was her who was the Staff Demon acting as Mazenda, she would have taken a different measure.

「Genishelselgua. Do it.」

「Leave it to me.」

Nodding at Mazenda’s order, a man who was standing in wait beside her split the airspace and vanished into a richly colored different airspace.

There was no one at that place who was bothered by that.

After all, in that place……among those of the Narika Army, Narika was the only normal Human.

And that Narika, who was busy with commanding the forces, did not have the leeway to pay attention to Mazenda’s conduct.

After all, Serge was a boundless dumbass. The person himself claimed to be a great commander, but there was no way a noble obocchan who had been raised in a long time of peace would be able to have any decent tactical thoughts.

On top of that, since the person himself was the owner of a happy and optimistic brain, his commands were, generally speaking, naive.

Even with the sturdiness of the soldiers that the Alva had fused with, his stupidity was hard to bear, and it wasn’t long before Narika took the command away from him.

For Narika, she wasn’t familiar with giving commands to an army, but she excelled in that sort of commanding ability to begin with.

Although there was a need to make snap judgements in real time which was unlike politics, she coped with even that with a tremendous speed, and Narika could be said to undoubtedly have the talent of being a king of turbulent times.

Normally, the moment the decisive battle was brought into Elarc would have been the moment that Narika’s victory was decided.

Celis had the calibre for being a virtuous king, but Mazenda had judged that she did not have the talent for being a king of turbulent times.

……But, this time only, the Zadark Kingdom──Demon King Vermudol got involved. As long as he was getting involved in this decisive battle with methods that didn’t show on the surface, Narika’s victory would not happen so smoothly.

That being said, the Zadark Kingdom was unable to openly support them. It was because if they were to do that, they would definitely receive criticism from the other nations for interfering with another nation’s domestic affairs.

If they wanted to turn the Canal Kingdom into a 「nation with a friendship of equality」 from now on, it was absolutely impossible for the Zadark Kingdom to make military support as a nation.

……That’s right, no matter what happens.

For example, even when a crack runs through the sky right now──

「GIGIGIGEAAAAAA!」

「GEGIGA, GEGIIAAA!」

Even if a swarm of Alva were to come rushing out from the richly colored airspace.

「U, uwaah! The Alva! The Alva have come out!」

「Dammit, with this kind of timing!?」

In an instant, the knights on the Celis side had fallen into pandemonium, but the personnel on the Narika side weren’t disturbed at all.

And that was only natural. The personnel on the Narika side was all composed of people that the Alva had fused with, so there was no reason for them to make a fuss over members of the same kind coming out.

On the other hand, even for the masses of Elarc, due to having received attacks from the Alva over and over to the point of being obstinate up until now, their senses to it were numbed, and they had grown accustomed to the abnormal situation of the Alva attacking Elarc to a certain extent.

For the Alva to make their attack with this kind of timing, just how many people would think that it was linked to Narika’s attack?

And even supposing that there were people who were able to guess that and magnificently prove that, Narika, who was accompanied by the Alva, would be regarded as a threat throughout the world.

If that were to happen, the Canal Kingdom would become an enemy of the world at that moment……And not only that, but it would be included that the Zadark Kingdom assisted them, and the trend of needing to destroy both nations rising would be inevitable.

If chaos were to spread throughout the world like that, it would be just as the Alva Queen wished, and that was also what Mazenda desired.

Even if it didn’t turn out like that, the situation of Celis dying and Narika ascending the throne itself would surely accelerate the disorder and chaos of the world.

And even if Celis were to win, this fight was more than enough to devastate the Canal Kingdom. If Celis’ killing of her older sister were to be added to that, that alone would become a seed for the next dissension.

In other words──no matter how things turned out, it was already within Mazenda’s calculations.

The fruit of chaos had more than ripened enough, and she was just waiting for the time to harvest it.