Youjo Senki - Volume 12 - Chapter 3.4

THE SAME DAY, THE ILDOAN GENERAL STAFF OFFICE

The moment the man walked through the door of the Ildoan Army General Staff Office, he realized an undeniable difference between the current state of affairs and what the office once was.

“Look what this has done to the world…”

After stepping into what was once his office, Colonel Calandro lamented to himself.

“The insanity that is total world war…”

The Ildoan Army used to laugh at the Imperial Army. They thought the Empire must’ve been insane to ever engage in total war. It was what the soldiers used to talk about at the salon, with a glass of wine in hand. It was hard for any of the soldiers to imagine their nation engaging in something so idiotic, given its raison d’état. To them, war was just an extension of politics, and to fight a war for the sake of fighting a war was completely out of the question. If they had to fight, then it should be in the interest of their nation. The opposite—a nation becoming a slave to war—was a sick and twisted concept.

That was what the colonel always thought, at least.

“The world looks different when you’re the one at war.”

So what happened to their army in an actual war? Ildoa, which had once ridiculed the Empire, was now being burned by the flames of its war… The office’s aloof outlook, which had been like an elegant fragrance that lingered in the old General Staff Office, was completely gone. The expressions of the civilians and soldiers who came and went through the office doors were as grim as could be. They were the expressions of people forced into oblivion roaming aimlessly through the world.

From an observer’s perspective, their looks garnered unbearable pity. The Ildoa of plenty was no more.

“But…it’s understandable.”

Calandro muttered to himself about the dreadfulness of their inescapable reality.

The core of their military had been devastated, and they lost the equipment needed to arm their reserves before they could be mobilized. It was difficult to reckon with what was happening, but there was no fooling himself about it. This wretched reality was Ildoa’s.

As a result of the vicious Imperial attack, the Ildoan Army was on the verge of collapse. The colonel didn’t even want to imagine what things would’ve looked like without the weeklong cease-fire.

Given that most of the immediately deployable divisions had already been lost, they used their very limited time to scrounge up enough troops for some twenty-odd divisions. The sad truth was…that these divisions were hardly battle-ready. Whatever they had was a shell of what it should’ve been.

The oft-ridiculed, warmongering Imperial Army that fought on for no reason was continuously proving that it was indeed good at one thing—war. What was happening to Ildoa was the result of its silent ridicule.

The colonel didn’t even want to think about that monster Zettour. The fact that he spoke with the general only a short while ago was still mortifying. That man and his army were going to do what they did to the Federation to Ildoa.

“I thought I’d built up an immunity to him in the Empire’s eastern front, but I guess not.”

It was clear to Calandro that he’d lose this battle before it started if he let his enemy get to him. He also knew that it was more than just his problem at this point. The situation was grave. The Empire was rampaging down their peninsula with the momentum of a victorious army, and the Ildoan Army was stuck fighting with less than half their regular numbers.

The only reason their collapse hadn’t already happened was thanks to their largest hope at the moment—their alliance with the Unified States. The presence of the expeditionary force that had quickly reached Ildoa was cause for relief for the Ildoa officials. They simply needed to bide their time while they waited for the rest of the Unified forces. Which would be their strategy from the moment the cease-fire ended on out.

Colonel Calandro shook his head.

“We’re going to need confidence in our forces if we’re going to bide our time.”

Calandro had seen the devil known as Zettour in action before… He doubted whether his countrymen had the fortitude to endure that devil’s viciousness.

“Do the higher-ups know what it means to go up against the devil himself…?”

Needless to say, Calandro told his superiors this as soon as he returned from meeting the general. He warned them in every way he could.

Sadly, however, he was always met with the same answer: “We understand your concerns.”

In actuality, under the leadership of General Gassman, the commanding officers charged with defending the capital did manage to heed one of the colonel’s strategic warnings in their own way. When they noticed the Empire’s advance slowing, they committed to stopping it by setting up fortified defensive positions. Using what was left of the shattered divisions, they set up bases along the defensive line. This was arguably the correct decision. The planners had a solid grasp of what their current army was capable of and did what they could.

The soundness of the decision was what left Colonel Calandro alone in arguing against the idea. His reasoning was that it was far too dangerous to defend territory. Calandro even made his case to General Gassman himself.

“We don’t have the strength to fight back if it comes down to a pitched battle. Putting down roots is essentially giving the Imperial Army free time they need…”

Colonel Calandro’s appeal was shot down by conventional military logic. Holding the line took priority over all else. The Ildoan Army chose to defend what it thought needed defending, and both military and political reasoning supported this plan of action.

Thus, Colonel Calandro was left to become Ildoa’s Cassandra. He was the prophet of tragedy. No matter how prescient his warnings, they would not be heeded by his peers.