Makai Hongi

○ Farneze’s Army – Main Camp – Farneze

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“…How did this happen?”
Farneze had a headache.

In fact, even listening to the explanation did little to make her understand.

“…Could you repeat the report from the beginning?”

It was very rare for Farneze to have to hear a subordinates report multiple times.
But she could not make sense of the contents.

“…Yes.
Certainly, General.”
During the report, Farneze recalled the plan that Felicia had devised.

A pretend battle with Lesser Demon King Kyuka’s army…to buy time.
In other words, she was using her army as bait.
In the meantime, Farneze would lead a small group of elite and annihilate Kyuka’s strongest men.

Once they were gone, there would be little unity in the army.
And with the strongest out of the way, it would be much easier to surround Kyuka and kill her.

That’s what she had told her army.
They just needed to buy time.
They did not need to actively go out and be on the offensive.
Minimize losses and just defend so that the army didn’t collapse.

But what was this report then?
“Our army has destroyed the enemy’s right wing.
And then they chased after the fleeing soldiers.”

Who would believe such a thing?

First of all…
What about her order for them to focus on defense?

Well, nevermind that.
Let’s say that they did go out and attack the enemy.

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How were they able to defeat the enemy so easily, when they were clearly outnumbered?

It wasn’t as if there hadn’t been violations of orders before.
And there were times when orders were forgotten in the heat of battle.

The routing out of the enemy was likely just a matter of her men being stronger.
Perhaps Kyuka’s soldiers were much weaker than she had expected.

And so she could let that pass.

“However, why would they chase after the enemy all the way to the main camp?”
That was the one thing that she couldn’t understand.
You could say that it was beyond her imagination.

The enemy fled.
And so we chased after them all the way to the main camp in order to mete out a good beating.

Only a General who was mad would reply with a ‘well done.’

“Just to confirm, the group that were chasing the enemy were mainly Ogres?”
“Yes.
I am certain of it.”
“…”

In the battlefield, Ogres were often referred to as walls of meat.
The reason was obvious.

They could not understand more complex orders.
If you said anything other than ‘advance’ and ‘retreat,’ they would likely be confused.

About half of them might understand, and the other half wouldn’t.
And so the corps would be split into two.

So perhaps ‘buying time’ was too difficult an order for them to follow.

Still, could a group of mere Ogres have destroyed the enemy like that?
They weren’t called walls of meat for nothing.

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Ogres couldn’t use magic on top of being incredibly weak to it.
All of their mana was used to strengthen their bodies.

And so they were a bad fit for magic users.
If you were going to fight them, all you had to do was unleash magic attacks from far away.

“Perhaps by some coincidence, the enemy army didn’t have any magic users?”
She could think of another reason as to how the Ogres had been so unstoppable.

And the report continued.

Farneze and her men succeeded in killing Kyuka’s finest, and they retreated.
After that, the group led by the Ogres attacked Kyuka’s main camp.

And somehow, this had ended with Kyuka’s men abandoning their camp and fleeing.

She could not understand.
Farneze didn’t know how many soldiers had remained at the camp, but from what she had seen from the sky, there were at least five times as many as the right wing of her army.

Of course, some of them would have been non-combatants.
Still, Kyuka and some of her attendants were still there.

There was no doubt that there were many present who could still fight.

“So how had the Ogres forced them to flee?”

The mystery only deepened.
However, Kyuka’s soldiers had already abandoned the camp, and were now far away.

Farneze’s army had won the day completely.
The enemy had been so frantic, that they left their supplies.
They had taken almost nothing with them.

She could only guess at how panicked the soldiers who were fighting against her army were.
They had been left behind as they fought.

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Due to this, several of the corps had surrendered.

While she had left the matter of the surrendered enemy soldiers to her subordinates, since both sides had not expected something like this to happen, it would take time for things to be settled.

And then there was the biggest surprise.

“Truly… Lesser Demon King Kyuka is dead?”
“Yes…I’ve seen the body.
There is no mistake.”

“I see.
Thank you… You may go.”
“Yes.
Excuse me.”
Her subordinate bowed and left.

(So had Golan really done it then?)

Golan was to challenge Kyuka to a fight…well, pretend to.
And then run away.
Wasn’t that the plan?

So why had Golan fought Kyuka in the main camp?
And how had he won?

It didn’t make sense.
Surely the rank of Lesser Demon King meant more than that.

You had to be able to attack and defend.
You had to be tough.

Even if one of the high-ranking races fought a Lesser Demon King, they would have trouble making their attacks land.
The difference in mana level meant they could only inflict the most shallow wounds.

And if he couldn’t even attack her effectively, how would he deal a fatal blow?
If it was possible, she would have done it herself.

This was why Felicia had agonized so long over a plan to overcome this.

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“Golan… When will he wake up?”
She wanted to question him, but he was sleeping.

One of the Ogres named Saifo had been questioned, but there wasn’t much to learn.
No matter how many times he was asked, he just said, ‘we chased after them because they ran,’ and ‘we bashed them because they were there.’

Of course, that was just how Ogres usually talked, so it was no surprise.
Golan was special, and had acted like some General from the very beginning.

(Oh, well.
I suppose the details will have to wait until Golan wakes up.)

A report would have to be written.
But could it really contain the whole truth?
What if the report was not believed?

“It cannot be helped… But it can wait.”

Now that Kyuka was dead, the enemy army could not rebuild itself.
And while a successor would likely arise, a power struggle among candidates would come first.

Other countries might target them in the meantime.
They would be torn apart and weakened.

Even if they tried to unite, the countries that had recently been defeated by Kyuka were sure to choose a new leader and declare independence.
They would have no time to invade Melvis’s country again.

“Prepare to withdraw.
We’ll be leaving this place soon.”
“Understood.”

She had accomplished the order that Melvis had given her.
Farneze now had to return and tell him about it.

Two days later.
Farneze left a small group of soldiers to keep watch, while the others started to make their return march.

Golan did not wake up before they reached Melvis’s castle, and so the report remained unwritten.