CH 257

Chapter 257 – Grande’s Anger

“You’re an idiot.”

“Ouch!”

I asked Grande to escort me to the north, and she was furious. I mean, I got a low kick in the leg. It looks like it will break.

“Kosuke, what am I to you?”

“Uh… It’s embarrassing to say this face-to-face, but you’re my wife.”

“Don’t you understand it?”

“That hurt!”

I got another low kick. Please forgive me; it’s really going to break.

“Even though you are going to a dangerous place, do you think I would leave you alone knowing nothing about human conflicts? Hmm? What do you think?”

“Ouch, ouch, ouch! I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”

I apologize to Grande, who is hitting me on the buttocks with her big hands.

“Though I appreciate your concern for keeping me out of any disputes between humans, it’s now my turn to help you, isn’t it? The number one thing is to help each other, isn’t it?”

“…Yes, that’s right.”

“Alright, that’s fine. Take me with you.”

“Alright. Thank you.”

“Umu.”

Grande nodded but grabbed the hem of my clothes and wouldn’t let me go.

“Don’t you think you need to make amends to me for making me feel lonely with your nonsense?”

“Yes.”

After this, I spoiled Grande to the bone.

☆★☆

The matter of asking Grande to escort me has been resolved, and it has been decided that I will be dispatched to the north. The purpose of my dispatch is to urgently improve the defense system in the north. In short, my job is to quickly build a defense base.

However, this is where the weakness of the Liberation Army, or the Merinard Royal Army, is exposed.

“Even if you have a box, it won’t matter much if it doesn’t have anything in it.”

I pointed out this weakness in the meeting room where we had a meeting the other day. I was the only one present, along with Sylphy and Danan.

Sir Leonard is busy organizing troops for the defense of the eastern part of the country while Melty and Isla are each at work. Ellen is absent on church business, Ms. Zamir is still in the west, and Driada-san is apparently attending a tea party with a visitor today.

“I understand that.”

Danan showed a pained expression at my words. The weakness of the new Merinard Royal Army is its small number of soldiers. Due to the nature of the battle to overturn the disadvantage in numbers with highly classified and powerful weapons, we cannot increase the number of soldiers without reason.

It would be difficult to copy my gunpowder gun, but it is a different story for the magic gun created by the Research and Development Department based on the gunpowder gun I created with my ability. They are completely made with technology from this world, so if the technology leaks out, there is a risk that it will be copied by an enemy country.

The same is true for crossbows. In fact, copies of crossbows have already begun to appear in areas south of Erichburg. In terms of power and accuracy, they are still a step behind the ones I have made, but I guess it is only a matter of time.

The guys in the combat profession in this world can pull and set those hard strings with their hands… No, I can do it, too, if I use my abilities. The crossbow is reasonably powerful and can be used without specialized training compared to the bow, so I hear that it has become reasonably popular, especially among adventurers.

I wonder how easy it is for information about weapons to leak out and spread in the private sector. I think it’s a bit of a stretch to say this, but the reaction of the upper management, with the exception of me, Isla, and Melty, was one of resignation. Sir Leonard and Danan told me that it would not be difficult to control information on a small elite unit the size of the gunners’ squad, but it would be impossible to control information on a crossbow that almost the entire army has been equipped with.

It was a severe punishment to misappropriate military equipment, not only in the Merinard Royal Army but also in the days of the Liberation Army, but soldiers also spent time with their families and friends when they were off duty and drank alcohol. If there were merchants or craftsmen among their family and friends, they would become interested in what they heard about crossbows at the drinking table. Once they begin to investigate, it is not difficult to analyze the operation principle and the crossbow’s mechanism. If a bow maker and a blacksmith cooperate, they can quickly produce a copy. The merchants would be responsible for connecting them.

The core technology of quickly drawing strings using this principle, which is based on golem technology, has not been copied, and it will be difficult to copy it in the future.

“So what are you going to do about it?”

My thoughts wander, so I decide to ask Danan about concrete measures to deal with the situation.

“We will dispatch 50 elite soldiers, and then we will recruit local volunteers and give them military training.”

“Really…?”

In other words, we will build the boxes, but most of the soldiers will be trained locally from scratch. I’m here, so there’s no need to worry about supply, but… I can’t imagine the unimaginable hardships that will be expected.

“What will you do with the troops you’re going to train? Are you going to form a gunner corps or something like that?”

“…That’s what I plan to do.”

“That means I’ll be doing most of the recruiting.”

By “like a gunner corps,” I mean something like a mechanized company equipped with explosive firearms and technical air boards that I will create. Certainly, the gunners are a rare force that can annihilate large armies in small numbers, but it is a very bad situation for them to become the standard for the national defense force. The gunners are powerful, but there is the problem of supply. Without me by their side to supply them with ammunition and maintain their firearms, they will lose their ability to fight in a short period.

“It is difficult to create and maintain another unit of the same size as the gunners. There is the problem of supply. Can’t we just deploy the gunners to the north and hope for the best?”

“The gunners need to be kept in the east for countermeasures against the Holy Kingdom.”

“No, no, you know that the enemy will attack from the north in the spring, so you should deploy them in the north. What do you think air boards are for? If we put them in the north, they can be deployed to the eastern front in two days. Protecting the border is important, but it would be folly to kill the mobility of the technical air boards in the process.”

“But…”

“If you want to defend a stronghold, a harpy bombardier is better suited to it than a gunner corps. It would be better to increase the stockpile of air bombs in the fortified eastern defense bases and deploy more Harpy bomb squads.”

Harpy’s air bombardment is more powerful the closer the bases that serve as supply bases are. Air bombing attacks are very effective against large armies and work very well against the Holy Kingdom’s army.

“I, too, think that Kosuke has the edge when it comes to operating the gunners, but I’m sorry, could you please give in this time?”

“Sylphy?”

I involuntarily look at her when Sylphy says this.

“I’m not going to allow the Holy Kingdom to invade again, even if by any chance. The gunners are now the heroes who crushed the Holy Kingdom’s army of ten thousand with a small number of men. Placing them in the eastern defenses will be a strong check against the Holy Kingdom.”

“Nnh…”

I know that the gunners are regarded as heroes in the kingdom of Merinard.

The gunners and the Harpy Bombardment Squadron, in small numbers, blitzed the military bases north of Erichburg, recaptured the royal capital of Merinesburg, which was defended by the Holy Kingdom’s army, rescued the royal family from captivity, and defeated the Holy Kingdom’s army that tried to invade Merinard once again with overwhelming force.

Their strength and fame are said to be well known not only in the country but in other countries as well. The leopard beastwoman Jagira, who serves as the captain, once complained that she had become so famous that it was hard for her to live her daily life.

“…At least put the Harpy bombing squadron in the north. Just having air power would make a huge difference in the range of operations we could take.”

“I understand. I won’t go with the whole squadron, but I’ll send a platoon over.”

“Just one platoon?”

“There are several members of the squadron who have been sidelined due to medical reasons… and there are only three platoons in effect right now.”

“Kuh…”

Even though there was no room for resistance, as the cause of numerous vacancies, I can’t say anything back to what Sylphy said.

“I heard that there are several harpy settlements in the north, so you can fill the vacancies there.”

“Wait a minute. I’m afraid that filling the vacancies would cause many problems, don’t you think?”

Mainly in terms of my lower-body situation.

I have heard a lot about how the community of harpies works from them. Basically, they tend to form harems around a single male member of another race.

Even the harpies who live in a town with other races have a strong tendency to do so, and it is not unusual for a harem to swell once formed, with additional free harpies from outside the harem joining in.

“I believe Kosuke will be fine.”

“What do you mean by that? Do you believe they won’t touch me? Or do you mean that you believe I will be safe even if they touch me?”

“Hahaha.”

“That’s not something to laugh at, is it?”

Sylphy’s dry laugh obviously refers to the latter.

“As for the harpy, I’d say it’s a separate category, or rather, I’ve given up on it.”

“Don’t just give up.”

In fact, in Erichburg and Merinesburg, there are always more new faces before you know it… and even I can’t keep track of them at the earliest or until the harpies themselves don’t care.

“That girl over there and that girl over there are joining for the first time today, and I’m sure there will be many, many more next time.”

When everything is over, and they are relaxing, they sometimes tell me such a shocking fact. They are getting increasingly sophisticated, and they secretly increase the number of participants along the way, so before long, there are girls whom I don’t recognize! It happens often. There are so many.

“As for the harpies, they are sworn allegiance to Kosuke personally, not to me… I would like to leave it up to Kosuke to replenish or increase the number of harpy bombers.”

“The harpies who have been with us since we were in the Black Forest will listen to me and Her Majesty’s instructions, but other than that…”

Danan also makes a bitter face. Oh, yes. I understand. I am in charge of the harpies, right? Yes, sir, yes, sir. I have to take responsibility for a lot of things. Hahaha…

“By the way, we’ve digressed from the topic, but let’s talk about the troops we’ll be organizing over there…”

I decided to divert the conversation away from the harpies. I’m trying to keep my mental health in check.