Hyakuren no Haou to Seiyaku no Valkyria - Volume 24 - Chapter 4.8

“Hm? That was supposed to be an honest compliment, though,” Arness replied.

“What part of that is a compliment?!” Nozomu yelled.

“In the end, it doesn’t really matter how capable a king is on his own. Try as one might, it’s impossible to rule over an entire nation by oneself. A king’s true strength lies in his ability to draw others to his side. Having a personality that makes them want to aid you, to serve you. . .that’s indispensable for a king,” Arness explained.

“Hmph, now that you mention it...” Logically, it made sense. But Nozomu still couldn’t acknowledge it—no, in truth, he simply didn’t want to admit it. He wanted to be the type of ruler that could protect everyone, not one that needed protecting. He wanted to be like his father Suoh Yuuto.

“What’s more,” Arness continued, “strong and powerful rulers tend to fail to understand the feelings of the weak. But you, my brother, are average just like them, so you’ll always be in tune with the people and understand what they want. What better quality could a leader need?”

“Arness, you should really work on choosing your words more carefully,” Rungr said with a sigh. “How do you think Big Brother feels when you call him ‘average’ and ‘weak’? You really don’t understand the nuances of the heart at all.”

Arness pouted. “I was just trying to explain my reasoning...”

“Be that as it may, you constantly overthink things just like you have now, and you fail to notice who you hurt as a result,” Rungr explained. “The reason we want to help him is much simpler. It’s because he’s a good, gentle person, and we all want to see him succeed. Wait, Big Brother? What’s that face for?”

“Because you just touched on another hang-up I have,” Nozomu said with a strained smile. People only call you a “good, gentle person” when you have no other merits worth mentioning. He could recall many times he’d seen his father curse his own generous nature, so he knew it wasn’t a desirable trait for a king to possess.

“Strength and weakness are two sides of the same coin, Brother Nozomu. You fail to recognize the talents you possess,” Wiz said with an exasperated sigh.

To Nozomu, it just sounded like she was calling him an idiot. But when he thought about it, maybe she was right. What if strength and weakness really were two sides of the same coin, and he’d avoided flipping the coin over until now because he’d hated the idea of being weak? What if he’d tried so desperately to gain something he lacked that he’d failed to realize it was right by his side all along? If so, he was hopeless. Truly beyond redemption. All that effort he’d put in... Was it for nothing?

“So, what, you’re saying my talent is... my likability?” He couldn’t imagine anything lamer. If he really did possess such a talent, he wanted to excise it as soon as possible.

“Precisely. At the very least, it’s a talent I’ll never be able to possess in my lifetime,” Arness said.

“Yeah, the rest of us are all too realistic. No one’s as unconditionally kind as you are,” Rungr added.

“Tch. You’re making fun of me after all!” Nozomu spat, clicking his tongue in irritation. Annoyed though he was by their comments, it did make him realize something. He’d always admired his younger brothers’ ability to remain calm in any situation, but because of that, he’d been blind to the truth—the reason they were so good at seeing the bigger picture was because they lacked empathy. Looking back, it was almost as if they always drew a line between themselves and others. That was likely the truth of the matter.

“Basically, you’re a lot like Liu Bang, Brother Nozomu,” Wiz said with a self-satisfied look on her face. He’d heard the name Liu Bang several times from his father’s stories, which drew on his father’s extensive knowledge of military history. Liu Bang was apparently a legend who’d founded the Han Dynasty in China. Though he was, by all accounts, nothing special as a soldier or a commander, he’d possessed impressive charisma, which gained him loyal, capable retainers who’d ended up becoming his greatest strength. He would make great use of his retainers’ skills to eventually become emperor. Honestly, Nozomu would much rather be like Liu Bang’s rival Xiang Yu, who he’d admired in his youth. However, life didn’t always turn out the way one wanted.

“All right, all right, I get it. In other words, my role is to keep my crazy brothers and sisters in line, right?” He didn’t know the first thing about managing something as large as an entire nation, but he felt he could at least manage his siblings. All of them were quite fond of him, and as long as he wasn’t outrageous with his demands, they listened to him. He’d even served as a mediator several times when things had gotten heated between them. Perhaps he wasn’t someone who drew others to him like his father, but he was good at managing relationships between people.

In that case, what he needed to do was fully acknowledge his own powerlessness, delegate his siblings and supporters to the right departments, and without feeling ashamed, lean on their support by leveraging their experiences and talents.

“Arness, let’s go with your earlier plan. I’ll take responsibility for whatever happens.” Without a shred of hesitation or doubt, Nozomu made his decision. He’d given up on trying to shine. He didn’t have the talent to begin with. But he could at least be responsible for his own actions—on that point, he refused to waver. One could call it his final vestige of stubbornness. What he didn’t realize, however, was that the resolve to take responsibility was one of the things people desired in a leader most of all.

“Hmph. Cowards, the lot of them,” Babel muttered, glaring in the enemy encampment’s direction. The war god Suoh Yuuto possessed enigmatic technology, so he’d assumed that his son would also outfit his troops with advanced weaponry. Wary of that outcome, he’d equipped a cavalry unit with compound bows to see how the enemy would fight back. That way, even if the enemy had some ace up their sleeve, by having his troops keep their distance and fire from long range only, he could keep his casualties to a minimum.

“They didn’t try anything. They had no plan. Meaning, they don’t have access to the knowledge from the land beyond the heavens after all...?” Suoh Yuuto had declared that the war god would rain down divine punishment upon them if anyone tried to unseal the forbidden knowledge from the land beyond the heavens, and in fact, ever since the battle of Tarshish, that technology had been prohibited. In a move uncharacteristic of the normally lenient Yuuto, he’d been incredibly strict on the matter, declaring his word as absolute and even threatening to severely punish those who defied him. In that case, perhaps he’d been just as strict on his son and wouldn’t let him use the technology either.

“Well, it’s too soon to determine that, though.” Babel also couldn’t discount the possibility that this was all a trap to throw him off guard. At this point, the wisest course of action would be to observe his enemy’s movements for a while longer, using the cavalry unit to keep them at bay. If after several days they still continued to hide in their shell and endure, it’d then be safe to say they had nothing to pull, at which point Babel would use the phalanx formation to wipe them all out in one go.

At least, that had been his plan. But then...

“Report, Your Majesty! The rebel army has begun to march and is headed this way!”

“Oh?” Hearing his scout’s report, Babel was slightly astonished. “Impressive,” he thought. The cavalry unit had been active all day and was rather worn out. They wouldn’t be able to mobilize immediately. The enemy had likely realized that fact and was taking advantage of it. “What of their spears?!” he shouted.

“Their spears, Your Majesty?”

“I’m asking, are they as long as ours?!”

“Ah, no. Normal length, your average, run-of-the-mill spears.”

“Is that so?!” Babel roared. A diabolical grin crept across his face, wide enough to reveal his molars. That settled it, then. The enemy was unable to use weaponry or knowledge from the land beyond the heavens. “Then they don’t even qualify to be our enemies,” he sneered.

Babel had given Nozomu a number of introductory lessons on swordsmanship, so he knew he had absolutely no talent for swordplay. Through that acquaintance, Babel had also spoken with him on a number of occasions, and he knew Nozomu didn’t possess that particular brand of eccentricity associated with those who were unusually gifted in one particular area. Nozomu was normal—balanced, in fact. For that exact reason, he wasn’t a threat.

“Hm, I’ll bet they have units hidden in the forest, ready to ambush us from either side when we get near.” Babel saw right through Arness’s plan in an instant. He was the current reginarch of the Steel Clan, so he knew the terrain of this area well. The moment he’d heard that the enemy had made camp here, he’d figured they meant to ambush him. Arness and Sigurd might’ve had a talent for strategy, but compared to the reginarch Babel, they were still greenhorns. Babel not only had experience, but talent and wealth on his side. For him, the battlefield was like his own backyard.

“Cavalrymen, continue to recuperate, but stay on your guard for an ambush from the right side of the forest. As for my two-thousand-man phalanx, Dogos Unit, stay alert on your left side!” He fired off orders as quickly as one would fire a volley of arrows.

To initiate the phalanx formation, soldiers had to hold their shields in their left hand, which left them exposed to attacks from the right. Therefore, Babel had the strongest unit at his disposal, his cavalry regiment, guarding the right side. With that, preparations were complete. Everything was perfect.

“All right, sheltered prince, you’ve been doted on for far too long. Time for someone to show you how the world really works!” Babel proclaimed.

“The phalanx formation, huh? He really is just using forbidden knowledge willy-nilly,” Arness said.

“Seems like it,” Nozomu agreed with a sharp nod. In contrast, they’d also equipped their soldiers with spears, but theirs were of normal length, in accordance with the technology available to them in the current era. If both sides pitted their units head-to-head against each other, it was obvious who would win.

“You know, I think we have the advantage when it comes to reach,” Arness said. While it was true that the enemy’s spears were nearly double the length of their own, that made the enemy’s side overly confident—leaving an opening. “Sure, we can’t win by simply thrusting our spears forward. However, throwing them is a different thing altogether.”

As if on cue, Babel’s forces came into view.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Spears from Nozomu’s army flew like projectiles toward Babel’s men, one after another. No matter how long the enemy’s spears were, they couldn’t reach as far as the thrown spears could. Furthermore, because the enemy’s spears were that much longer, they were unable to throw them at Nozomu’s army in retaliation. That difference had been taken into account when formulating this plan.

“Guh!”

“Ugh!”

“Sh-Shields! Raise your shields!” Shouts of confusion and panic began to arise from Babel’s men. Yuuto had never needed to utilize throwing spears since he’d already used modern technology to improve arrows to a level far beyond anything known to the people of this time, but in this current era, throwing spears were an incredibly powerful weapon, and quite advanced in their own right.

Spears were distinctly heavier than arrows, so, in turn, that meant they had all the more force behind them. The average arrow could be blocked by a shield, but a throwing spear could easily penetrate a shield’s defenses.

One after another, the spears pierced through the enemy’s shields. While they didn’t go on to pierce through the enemy soldiers’ abdomens, each weighed several kilograms, and the added weight of the long spears made the shields markedly heavier and harder to raise. It wasn’t difficult to imagine the terror a soldier would feel if they were suddenly hit with a weight that effectively rendered them immobile the moment they engaged their enemy on the battlefield. In no time at all, the phalanx fell into a panic.

“All units, draw your swords and charge!” As if waiting for this exact moment, Nozomu’s voice rang out. Hearing his orders, Nozomu’s soldiers bellowed with renewed vigor. Just moments ago, they’d been subjected to an endless rainstorm of arrows. It was now time to pay the enemy back for that disgrace in full as they charged forward.

“Gyaaah!”

“Ugahhh!”

“Guhhh!”

Screams arose from Babel’s camp. No clashing of steel could be heard—it was a one-sided sweep. That was just how frazzled Babel’s soldiers had become.

“Looks like your plan went off without a hitch, Arness!” With a big grin, Nozomu turned to face his younger brother. First, they’d schemed to render the enemy’s shields useless with the spears, then rush in with swords when the enemy started to panic.

When he’d first heard the plan Arness had proposed, Nozomu was honestly doubtful. Spears were the predominant weapon on the battlefield, so deliberately throwing them away and forfeiting that advantage was something only a madman would suggest. However, if they were going to lose to longer spears anyway, it didn’t matter, so Nozomu decided to adopt the plan in the end...and it had paid off in spades.

“Out of all of us, you’ve definitely inherited the most from dad. No doubt about that,” Nozomu said. He wasn’t cracking a joke—he truly did think that. And it was true: if Yuuto had been here to see it, he likely would’ve been beside himself with surprise. This particular tactic was the very same that the Roman Empire had used against the Grecian Army’s phalanx formation. Without realizing it, Arness had managed to formulate a strategy that wouldn’t see its first use for another thousand years.

“The front lines are crumbling! At this rate...”

“I am well aware!” Babel snapped at his scout before he could finish his report. He’d never expected in a million years that the enemy would discard their spears, nor had he ever dreamed such a thing would actually be an effective counter against the phalanx.

“Damn it! They pulled one over on me this time,” Babel spat hatefully. He was sure Nozomu had learned the tactic from his father Suoh Yuuto.

The front lines were already in complete disarray, overrun with ally and enemy alike. Their spears would be useless here, now merely a nuisance due to their ridiculous length. The enemy’s swords had the advantage in a close-range battle. If nothing changed, the confusion and chaos could spread to the entire army. If that happened, this battle would be over.

“Guess it’s up to me to finish this, then. You there! Bring me my steed!” Once his lackey had done as he commanded, Babel mounted his personal horse and headed for the front lines himself. He was an Einherjar who’d overcome countless battles, undisputably the legendary warrior of this era. Naturally, he was well-versed in the flow of battle. He knew that if he didn’t act now, he would lose—but at the same time, he was supremely confident he could turn the tide of this war.

“Hyah!”

“Gaah?!”

No sooner than he had arrived at the front lines, he’d already cut down his first enemy.

“Men! Your reginarch has arrived!” His roar was like thunder. One of the most important qualities for a commander to have was a voice that carried, and Babel’s was clear even amid the tumult of the battlefield-just like Yuuto before him.

“Oh, King Babel, you’re here!”

“His Majesty has arrived!”

The soldiers began to rejoice. The people may not have been too fond of him, but he was well-loved by his own troops. That was because he had strength, both as an individual and as a commander. The troops knew that if they trusted in him, they would make it back home safely to their families. Babel possessed the charisma to make them believe that under him, they’d be invincible.