Chapter 360 – 360. Struggle, and Struggle (8)

– One –

“After all, you’re not coming back…”

“The testimony of the prisoners that there are quite a few remnants of the rebels in the north must have been true, General.”

“Whoa… My responsibility is big…”

The warden lowers his head.

“How about organizing a second team larger than the size of the regiment and resuming the search and subjugation?”

Swoop, Swoop.

The warden shakes his head weakly, but with determination.

“The situation has changed. We have to preserve our troops for the time being.”

“Why do you mean?

The warden looks at the brigadier general with a complicated expression.

Even though he is not a general in charge of the supply system, the fact that he revealed the food situation before was because he had secretly nominated him as the next deputy commander.

He feels the need to reveal his true feelings to him alone.

Woo woo woo.

The warden spreads the aura thinly and covers the entire barracks.

Block internal sound from leaking out.

Even though I did that, I was afraid that someone would hear me, so I opened my mouth in a low voice.

“Your Highness seems to have a different mind.”

“Yes? What do you mean? Please elaborate.”

The brigadier lowered his voice and pressed his face against the warden.

The brigadier general also seemed to take the situation quite seriously, and his expression hardened.

“Ever since an unknown monster attacked the other day, I would periodically spread an aura around Your Highness’s barracks to keep an eye out for dangerous people approaching. Isn’t it clear that the burden won’t be small?”

“Did you?”

The warden does not reveal that Regal had something suspicious, or that he was monitored to find a weakness in order to use him.

It’s because I judged that it wasn’t that important in the current situation.

Also, there was a wish that the brigadier general would not step into politics like he did.

“About a week ago, did you hear Your Highness’s voice even though no one was in your barracks?”

“Really? Talking to yourself, or calling the attendants outside the barracks…”

“Absolutely not. When I expanded my senses a bit more, I could confirm that he was having a conversation with someone using a small magic tool.”

“Ah…”

The brigadier said no further.

In fact, he did not object to take the side of Regal.

However, he did not want to believe such a shocking fact, so it was more of a reflexive rejection.

“In addition, Your Highness deliberately kept the attendants away from the barracks, and had them control the surroundings so that no one could approach. At that time, Your Highness was alone in the barracks.”

“Is that so…”

The warden nods his head.

Beads of sweat form on the bridge of his nose.

“Listening to the conversations Your Highness had with the other person, it is estimated that the other person’s identity is a latecomer sent by His Highness’s family.”

“If we consider our situation and the second team arrives early, maybe we can easily solve the problem of food and supply?”

“Then, when I asked if I had been able to contact the follow-up troops of the family, why did His Highness reply that he was still unable to contact me? What do you think?”

The brigadier’s face turns bright blue.

Either the Warden or the Regal, it’s a situation where one of them is lying.

Suppose the warden lies to himself.

The purpose must be to separate Regal from himself.

It is clear that he is telling lies to create a justification for enlisting all the leaders and generals, including himself, and kicking out Regal right away.

‘But why?’

In the pursuit of the motives that created the purpose, his thoughts go no further.

Forced to think of one possibility.

“Ho, by any chance, General. The plan to request troops, supplies, and military supplies from Your Highness’ family was leaked to Your Highness in advance,”

“Absolutely not. In the first place, I go to bed later than Your Highness and wake up earlier than Your Highness, and during all my waking hours I am transferring a part of my aura to the vicinity of Your Highness. During that time, none of my allies except me have been able to give it to You. I have never approached it, and Your Highness has never noticed and resented it. Of course, I have not yet disclosed it to Your Highness.”

“Isn’t someone fooling the general’s senses…?”

“Unless someone in Your Highness’s entourage has an Aura user who is overwhelmingly superior to me, I can’t fool my senses naturally. And I can say with confidence that it’s impossible even for the sword. If someone in Her Highness’s entourage can easily do that. If it was possible, why didn’t Your Highness use that means to completely hide the communication with the latter?”

“Ah…”

What you don’t want to believe becomes reality.

The brigadier had no choice but to remind himself that the person he considered an ally had a lot of potential to become an enemy from the start.

“As expected… His Highness had a different mind from the beginning…”

“There’s no need to check. He only followed the expedition to get rid of the charges against him from the beginning, and depending on the situation, making all of our imperial troops die here is the most likely to be his true purpose.”

The Warden no longer calls Regal Her Majesty.

It shows strong hostility towards Regal, and expresses refined anger.

Of course, it was a very concentrated fury.

“Perhaps the late arrivals were a means prepared to annihilate us from the beginning.”

“I mean, that’s what I mean. I’ve already noticed it, so I can’t let myself be fooled.”

“So you didn’t want to use up more troops, and you were planning to keep tension just in case?”

“It’s a matter of course.”

Two people burn their will.

The warden does not remove the curtain of the aura that has been spread for sound insulation.

Keeping that as it is, discuss future measures with the brigadier general.

Predict how Regal will come out and review the response from various angles.

In some cases, consider a scenario where he preemptively raids, overpowers or kills his bodyguards and attendants, and secures Regal’s recruits.

As the night progressed, their meeting did not stop.

– 2 –

Same time.

– Majesty. How did you hide from them the fact that our family convoys and follow-up troops were heading to the front with food and supplies loaded into mobile forts?

“Hmm. Since the fire broke out the other day, their eyes aren’t very nice. I can see the desire to make outrageous demands on me and my family from time to time. How can I not tame them? I just wanted to drive them to the edge of the cliff and increase their dependence on me. So, in the future, whether the expedition fails or the expedition is suspended, wouldn’t it be possible to return to the Islands with my own conclusion?”

Through the private communication network secretly operated by the family, Regal had been talking to the butler for the first time in a long time.

The relay device mounted on the mobile fortress Stras Eila, which was built by the Whisky family, was approaching the front line and was serving as a base station, so their conversation could be carried out even over the communication line.

– That… Did you have a job?

“That’s right, butler. My guys risked being burned to death by choosing stupid things, and they say I took refuge from the fire for a while, so they open their eyes and look at me with disrespect.”

– That… It’s amazing…

The head butler felt like sticking his tongue out at the imperial army’s guts.

However, I couldn’t bear to show such a reaction in front of the person concerned.

“These incompetents went north without any countermeasures due to their misjudgment, and this time they also entered the unexplored land without being able to connect with the communication unit? They brought it and put it away, did stupid things, and burned it and ate it by mistake. Do you know that’s all?”

For a while, the rebellion of Regal continues.

Regal can’t stand the divergence while bragging.

Regal has always had an extreme loathing of the incompetent.

The Imperial Army, now reflected in his eyes, was nothing more than trash in the first rank to be disposed of, beyond extreme incompetence.

“Haa… I’m really tired, now… I’ve come all the way to the northern unexplored lands, and I’ve made a lot of plans to deal with several things at the same time, but these idiots are completely unpredictable, so I can’t carry out the operation together. “

– You are really struggling, Your Highness.

“I just want to get rid of the charges of incitement to rebellion and devil worship, and I want to go back quickly. These idiots who have no sense of rationality or reason, die or not, I don’t want to care again after I turn back on the road to the system…”

In Regal’s complaint, a deep fatigue was felt.

He pretended to be indifferent throughout the expedition, but in fact, the fire inside him was burning and his longing was burning.

After properly destroying the imperial army and the experimental subjects, he planned to wipe out all the survivors of the imperial army as he called for.

As a bonus, if they could pick up the test subjects, that would be the best result.

However, due to a series of miscalculations and mistakes by the Imperial Army, and due to the clever sabotage of the experimental subjects, all plans were disrupted.

It seemed obvious that if he managed to get rid of the charges against him, that would be all he could get from this expedition.

– Why don’t you wipe out all the Imperial forces with the power of the second generation at this time?

Swoop, Swoop.

Regal shook her head resolutely.

There was not the slightest hesitation in it.

“There’s no justification. If that happens, won’t I also be able to return to the system? If I’m not going to die and stay politically incompetent, or start a civil war right away, that’s something I absolutely shouldn’t be doing right now.”

– How is that?

“If the system and communication had been connected, it would have been a problem that could have been easily solved. Even if the Imperial army was annihilated, it would have been over if the rebels were accused and only we reported that we had barely escaped. However, with the communication cut off, the Imperial army is annihilated and we are the only ones alive? No matter what they speculate, they can’t be easily excused. They will be beaten politically without evidence, justification, or anything. It can be lost.”

– Uh…

The butler groans.

After a moment of silence, he refutes Regal’s opinion.

– Still, due to the torch of the Duchess, Stras Eila has already been launched and introduced to the entire empire. In my personal judgment, there’s nothing I can’t do without going into civil war right now. No matter how incompetent the imperial faction and the imperial army are, isn’t it possible that the imperial task force or the imperial central intelligence agency will not be able to find a connection between us and Malaga?

Food.

Regal gives a small smile.

Regal realizes once again that the butler is still a timid and prudent person.

“It won’t matter much.”

– Why is that?

“Compared to the Emperor’s mobile fortress in the first place, Stras-Isla is nothing more than a toy.”

The head butler widens his eyes.

He stares at Regal’s face in disbelief.

– That… Did the emperor have anything like that?

“That’s right. I haven’t seen the real one either, but I heard that somewhere on this continent there is a flying type mobile fortress owned by the imperial family. It’s like the culmination of magical engineering, so it’s the ultimate all-weather weapon equipped with bombardment, aerial interception, and absolute defense. I heard that this is an invincible fortress. It could be under a lake or underground in a mountain, or perhaps it could be swimming in the sky in the same orbit as the satellites.”

– … Whether it’s just rumors or the bragging rights of the emperor faction…

Regal shakes her head resolutely.

“It’s not like that. The reality is certain.”

– Why are you so sure?

“Why do you think I gave up on assassinating the emperor long ago?”

– Yes… ?

At Regal’s rather unexpected question, the head butler blinked his eyes.

When he was suddenly asked something he had never thought of before, the butler seemed to lose his senses for a moment.

“I don’t even know its name, but I do know one thing for sure: the identity of the key that activates the flying mobile fortress.”

– That is… May I ask what it is?

“There’s nothing I can’t tell you. It’s the emperor’s body. Whenever an emperor transfers the throne, it is transplanted to the crown prince, that is, the next great emperor. If the emperor is attacked or assassinated by someone, The order for the flying mobile fortress to turn the entire empire into a sea of ​​fire has been pre-injected into the key.”

– Huh, huh… Such a thing…

“The reason why this fact is passed on secretly among the high-ranking nobles of the empire is that the imperial family deliberately leaks such information. “

– …

The butler is silent.

He finally found out why Regal was frustrated and insisted on political strife.

It was clear that the reason why the system was not pushed away by force at once was also in the same context.

“When allegiance is compelled by such physical threats, how can all the nobles of the empire not be indebted to the imperial family as dogs on a leash?”

– Poetry, indeed.

Whoa…

Regal let out a long sigh.

I shake my head.

“Right after I ascended to this position as the only duke of the Empire, of course I didn’t know that. Of course, I thought that if I just captured Lord Malaga and built a mobile fortress, I would be able to deal with the Empire as well. I’m putting spurs on, isn’t the imperial family secretly announcing the identity of the flying mobile fortress and putting pressure on me? Perhaps one of the imperial dogs at that time smelled the Strassilla drying gun and came out. It must have been the background investigation of Lord Malaga.”

– Then, why didn’t you stop the project until now… ?

At the butler’s question, Regal shrugged.

He raises a glass of wine from the table, not hiding his delight.

“A flying mobile fort is not all-purpose. It is clear that it will become a monster that eats money just by maneuvering. Compared to that, Stras Eila is a very efficient mobile fort. It has more uses. Besides, if it’s not used only to threaten the imperial family, can’t it be useful like this time?”

– Ah…

The butler nodded.

When he suddenly learned of the secrets of the empire and family, which he had not been aware of even in his position, the head butler seemed dumbfounded.

“Besides, it was necessary to have the longitude of Malaga.”

– What else do you mean by that? Are you saying that you tried to stop the project, and Lord Malaga rebelled?

Regal smiles wryly and nods his head.

“The documents were fabricated to make him a dead man, and his identity was washed and he was recruited as a vassal. Enticed by the words of only unlimited research support, Lord Malaga abandoned all honors guaranteed to him and became my vassal. Lord Malaga A frighteningly clever woman, she must have noticed that I had instructed Stras-Ayla to be built for the purpose of striking down the Empire, but none of that had anything to do with her. Since I was a woman living a life, I had no choice but to be seduced by my wealth.”

– But… Isn’t her field of research itself, a giant vehicle, a field that cannot even be developed without the huge support of capitalists?

“That’s right.”

The bitter smile on Regal’s face grew thicker.

“Therefore, we must safely return Strath Eila to Lord Malaga’s arms. As it is still an unfinished work, she must have many regrets. If it is destroyed and even scrap metal cannot be retrieved, she will surely be It’s obvious he’s going to go wild with a .”

– … Even so, she was tormented by Lord Málaga the whole time she was preparing for her campaign. She continued to follow me and threaten me nonstop, saying that if I did not return ‘my baby’ in its entirety, she would turn Her Highness’s territory into a sea of ​​fire…

“… It’s been a lot of trouble.”

Both of them shake their heads.

After an important conversation, they continue a casual conversation.

Ask about the current status of Chiba and other people around him, and discuss the internal situation of the empire, including the system, at a light level.

Leeway overflows

It was clear that supplies and follow-up troops would arrive soon, so it was because they thought that all dangerous moments had passed.

Whether or not the Imperial forces suffer, the Regal will not only be able to rest comfortably within its comfortable mobile fortress, but will also have a plethora of troops to safely escort it to the Isles.

Everything went smoothly

Regal only.