I have acquired strong soldiers in the wraiths and werewolves .
I have also acquired a reliable commander named Hijikata Toshizou .
I feel like the Ashtaroth army is finally an actual army .
That was how important having Hijikata Toshizou was .
There are many famous sayings about the importance of a commander .
An army of sheep, led by a lion, is better than an army of lions, led by a sheep .
There are no cowardly soldiers under a superior general .
The quality of your troops was important, but the quality of their commander was even more important .
As if to prove this, the monsters almost immediately started to behave differently when Toshizou was put in charge of them .
They moved more quickly and procrastinated less .
The demon commander had intimidating eyes, but he worked harder than any of them, and he trained harder than any of them . And perhaps that was inspiring to see .
Even the orcs, who were known to be lazy, began to swing their spears of their own accord .
Maybe this man would be able to make these useless orcs into fine soldiers in a matter of weeks .
I said this to Eve, and she agreed .
But added a 'however' at the end .
“Who knows if there even will be another week for us . ”
I did not have to ask her what she meant .
We all knew that Sabnac would be attacking us soon .
"You have dealt Sabnac a humiliating blow . He will have to attack you in order to save face . "
"I know . "
I agreed and continued .
"I have attacked his base and taken his treasures . Even if he is weak after his fight with the count of Ismalia, he will still attack . His pride will not allow him to do anything else . "
"Yes . "
"He was manipulated, and so he will have to attack me now . Nail-biting until he can build a larger army will make his subordinates look down upon him . "
"Such men are often like that . "
“It may sound stupid, but Sabnac is a Demon King who relies heavily on his personal reputation as a warrior . Perhaps he really has no choice . Still, it will be easy to make use of it . ”
"Yes . Will you stay in the castle and fight him off?"
"Indeed . We went and dug a moat, we might as well use it . "
A siege then .
"However, holing up in the castle would be boring . We will lure him in, and when he is even weaker, we attack . "
"That sounds good . "
And so I called Hijikata Toshizou .
I needed to tell him about our plans .
Toshizou listened to me with a cool and calm expression .
"Very impressive . " He said with a hand on his chin, once I had finished .
"There is little doubt that victory will be ours now . However, there is one weakness in this plan . "
"A weakness?"
"Splitting the army into two . You will require two commanders if you are to do that . "
"I happen to have two commanders . Me and you . "
"You do seem to trust me, but I might just betray you on the battlefield . "
"And then I will lose . "
"It means little to me, but do you have any means of dealing with such a betrayal?"
"No . "
I say flatly .
"I've thought about it, but nothing comes to mind . Toshizou, if you betray me, I am lost . "
"Oh? This plan depends entirely on me then?"
"You could say that . "
"You cannot be serious . "
"Perhaps I am just mad . I am but a newborn Demon King . Normally, I should be kissing Sabnac's a . s . s and groveling at his feet . And yet here I am, attacking him and declaring war . This defies any normal idea of strategy . That is why I will ignore any orthodox methods . "
"…Indeed . It is not so much that you trust me, but that you have no choice . "
"You could say that . "
"At least you are honest . Let me ask you again, will you really prepare the best possible place for me to die?"
"Toshizou, you said that you died under a barrage of bullets in some place called Hakodate?"
"Aye . "
“And this army did not even have ten thousand troops, correct? Oh, I shall provide you a much more grand and glorious battlefield . It will be a war so great, that it will split this world into two . A battle that will live forever in this world's history . And you will be commanding it . You will not face ten thousand bullets, but one hundred thousand arrows . ”
“…One hundred thousand arrows, huh? Well, you certainly put Enomoto and Kondo to shame in terms of scale . You will either become the Great Demon King or a swindler, that is for sure . ”
"I would definitely prefer the former . "
"Very well . I like that . I am the type who will cut down a general that I do not like . From the back no less . But if you will have me, I will lead your troops . At least on this occasion, I will believe your lofty words . "
"You will not regret it .
And with that, Toshizou stepped back .
He was going to go and organize the troops .
He spoke with eloquence but was also quick to act .
I thought then, that any Demon King would be lucky to have him as a subordinate .
Well, lucky, but also in danger . They would always be close to death . This Hero was probably one of the hardest out there to handle .
I didn't know any of the other Heroes, but somehow, I was certain of it .
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