C74: The Road to King (14)

* * *

Soon, Narja will invade Lunan. The time has come, the game will begin here. No, rather than the real game, this was the beginning.

Originally, this game would have started with the destruction of the Lunan Kingdom. With the fall of Lunan, the surrounding nations would intervene to occupy its vast territory. It would be the catalyst for a full-scale era of war.

The beginning of the war was postponed, but the destruction of Lunan was inevitable. I’ve spent the last three months steadily preparing for what’s to come. In fact, this is the most difficult part of my strategy.

It’s a time when the information I know has been mixed with rewritten history. If Lunan is destroyed, the countries will eventually make their moves just as they did in the game’s history, but there is an unforeseen situation here, and that is my existence and the destroyed Bridget Kingdom.

There will probably be a lot of unpredictable butterfly effects. This is a time when some things move like in the history of the game, and many unpredictable things happen due to my interference, so it will be more dangerous.

As part of my first strategy in such a time, I needed to be nominally absent from Aintorian.

I immediately asked Yurasia to move Roserun. Sure enough, the King of Lunan was furious, and I was secretly ordered to go to Roserun.

I heard the news of the Narja Kingdom’s invasion through the Doro Trading Company, and this campaign was for a good cause.

How could I listen to the man who destroyed Lunan? The one who destroyed Lunan was the king, who sent me to Roserun without considering the future. Yes, my presence in Roserun is only nominal, and Narja will be coming across the border soon.

* * *

“Oh! What the hell was that?”

Lunan’s border post. A soldier standing at the sentry post was startled and fell over when he saw an enormous army advancing towards Lunan.

There were about 150,000 soldiers. The flag of Duke Valdesca could be seen in the center of the vast army. The duke’s flag fluttered along with the flag of the Narja Kingdom. In addition, the banners of the ten warlords of Narja were also fluttering everywhere. The scale of the expedition was different from the previous one.

“Waaahhh!”

Thus, the forces of the Narja Kingdom marched all over the borders of Lunan with cheers that signaled the beginning of the war. The first group, the second group, and the third group, each with its own division of troops, were advancing from all over to the borders of Lunan.

This was a signal that the continent was entering a period of chaos. It was a signal that the entire continent would be caught up in the vortex of war.

* * *

“Your Majesty! The Narja Kingdom is invading!”

The report caused an uproar in the royal palace. The nobles swept their eyes in dismay.

“At last, they’re……!”

The nobles began to make a lot of noise. It was a situation where the threat of Narja had not completely disappeared, but they were pouring their national power into trying to get their hands on Bridget.

Bridget’s land tempted them and the price was the lack of troops, but Ronen had an idea. If they occupied Bridget’s land, they could build up their forces. He hoped to use that as a basis to counter Narja.

It was unfortunate that the scouts Ronen had sent to Narja had been used by Fran to send him false information. He had believed the false information that another invasion of Narja would be a long time coming.

The King and Ronen were thoroughly beaten down. In such a situation, there was only one person who came to the mind of the king, Ronen and the other nobles. It was the king who first mentioned the name.

“Call Erhin to the capital now! Have him come to my defense!”

At the king’s words, the expressions on the faces of the nobles changed to one of bewilderment. Ronen also shook his head in dismay.

“Your Majesty, you sent Erhin to Roserun!”

“What are you talking about? What the hell is Roserun worth in this situation?”

When the nobles saw the king’s consistent attitude of ignorance, even though it was his own decision, they began to rant inwardly.

“You sent him to punish Roserun for not giving you the compensation they promised!”

“Who allowed that to happen? Send a messenger to recall him immediately! He hasn’t reached Roserun yet, has he?”

The king shouted angrily.

“Your Majesty!”

At that moment, a lone soldier slipped in and flattened himself against the main hall.

“Bern Castle has been breached. According to the reports, the number of enemies exceeds 100,000…….No, it could be as many as 200,000!”

“Cut the crap! 200,000? No way…….! Cut off that guy’s head and bring me Erhin!”

The king simply shouted Erhin’s name without taking any other action.

* * *

The first army consisted of the allied forces of the northern territories of Narja. The second army was the allied forces of the southern territories. They were commanded by ten generals, each with a lord as the commander of 10,000 troops under him.

Fran Valdesca, the general of the Narja army, crossed the border of Lunan and quickly took over the neighboring territories. In this war, he had decided to capture the royal capital of Lunan with great speed. Because he thought that the capital of Lunan was important.

He had already received the report that Erhin was on his way to Roserun. However, Fran thought that it was a trap. When he did a comprehensive analysis of what he had seen in Aintorian, there was only one thing that came to his mind.

He was sure that Erhin had his eye on Lunan too. As Fran gathered his thoughts around this assumption, he could see Erhin strategy. He would probably try to gain a name for himself. After the king’s death, he would work to avenge him. He would probably try to absorb Lunan’s forces in the name of revenge.

“The Aintorian Territorial Army will try to save the capital of Lunan no matter what. The important thing here is that they will come after the king’s death.”

“Pfft! Your Highness, that’s great!”

Kediman, the captain of the third army, started laughing as he gave Fran a coy look. The captain of the second army, Istin, who was famous for being a quiet man, was silent but gave him the same look. Even so, Fran’s desire to capture the royal capital first was to reverse Erhin’s strategy.

Lunan Castle is the most solid and highest walled castle on the continent. He was not going to refuse the chance to get Lunan Castle for free. In fact, it would have been troublesome if Erhin had adopted the strategy of protecting the king while defending Lunan Castle. But since he had other intentions, it was an opportunity.

He would take Lunan Castle without difficulty and kill the King of Lunan. Killing the king would give Erhin what he wanted, but it didn’t matter. Capturing Lunan Castle and killing the enemy king would have a huge impact on the morale of his army.

Then, after absorbing Lunan’s troops and growing his power, gaining prestige and public support, would he plan his revenge? That seemed to be Erhin’s strategy, but Fran shook his head. He wasn’t going to give Erhin that much time.

Fran gave the order pointing at the map with his command stick.

“The second army will head for Linon Castle. Once Linon Castle has fallen, we will march on Lunan Castle through the barrier in front of the royal capital.”

At Fran’s words, Istin, the captain of the second army, bowed deeply and hit his chest with his right fist.

“Once the Third Army has captured the castles, including Bern, it will join the Second Army and march towards the capital.

“Yes, General!”

“Also, the First Army will move with me. While the second and third armies are sinking the castles, we will bypass them and go to the royal capital!”

Fran divided the troops that way.

“As soon as the enemy king is killed, the Fourth Army will march to Aintorian through the western border.”

“If that happens, the troops of Aintorian who left the territory to save Lunan will be……”

Fran nodded in response to Kediman’s question.

They will have to return in order to protect Aintorian and we will follow close behind and strike them. Once we join up with the second army, encircle and destroy Aintorian, Lunan will be completely finished.”

That was Fran’s strategy against the good name and public sentiment that Erhin wanted. What if the Aintorians didn’t send reinforcements to Lunan? Then all they had to do was occupy Lunan and isolate Aintorian.

Fran rather expected that Erhin would make the worst possible choice for the sake of good reputation.

“Of course, you can’t let your guard down…….”

Fran, on the other hand, shook his head. If he hadn’t been so formidable, he wouldn’t have seen him as such a formidable enemy.