“The time has come!”
On the terrace of a majestic temple, a solemn voice rang out, carried by amplification magic.
“The glory of our Prava’s Law-God Bork shall henceforth shine upon all the earth!”
An old man, clad in black-based vestments embroidered with lavish ornamentation, raised his voice.
“We endured. —Again and again. —Year after year!”
Around the towering sanctuary of the temple, countless people had gathered.
A human mass—tens of thousands, easily.
“We endured, and we spoke to them with words. We kept speaking! But—BUT! To the very end, they did not accept our salvation! They continued to ignore the words of our God Bork!”
The assembled faithful kept their mouths shut, listening—yet with a strange, feverish heat.
“Even our magnanimous Prava’s Law-God Bork has at last made His decision! I hereby—declare a Holy War!”
The air trembled with a low boom.
The faithful began chanting prayer all at once.
Tens of thousands of voices became a great swell, echoing through Holy Capital Staritsa.
“Cleric-mages, advance!”
Even within that prayer, the pope’s voice rose with the same unbroken resonance.
“Strike down our enemies of God, liberate the people, and make known the holy name of Prava’s Law-God Bork!”
“Amen!!”
The response blew through like an explosion.
The cleric-mages, God’s soldiers, were all mages. Every one of them used amplification magic, and it became their reply to the pope.
“Exterminate Them!!”
“Exterminate Them!!”
“Grant Salvation!”
“Amen!!”
The great doors of the temple opened slowly, and the ranked lines of cleric-mages and fully armed Holy Knights began to march.
Thus began the Prava Divine Kingdom’s holy war—an expedition of conquest against every surrounding nation.
*****
“Is it that dire?”
“Yes. They do not accept surrender. The royal family and nobility are all killed. Surrendered soldiers and civilians alike are all reduced to slavery. All property is confiscated, and most are taken away as serfs.”
“Anyone who does not serve their so-called god is equally an enemy of God, and they claim people are ‘saved’ by spending their lives as slaves under God’s name. Was that the gist?”
“Yes. It seems they have issued that proclamation to the surrounding countries for about ten years now. An envoy came to our country as well. Well, no normal country would accept that. They came almost every year, but this time was a final ultimatum, and that is why...”
“Beyond saving.”
At the diplomatic bureau’s report, the hereditary duke, Amajio Silverhead, let out a sigh.
“But we can’t ignore it. Right?”
“Yes, sir. If their expedition continues like this, eventually it will reach our country as well. With a massive number of serfs in hand, that country will greatly increase its national power. Also, unlike an empire, it is a country ruled by clerics. We cannot expect much in the way of weakening from expansion or internal corruption. Fifty years, one hundred years from now is another matter, but at least for around ten years, it won’t be shaken.”
“Right.”
Religion was troublesome.
Worse, it was an exclusive monotheism that blindly believed in its own justice.
“If we had just five more years, we would have been ready.”
The Kingdom of Lepuitari’s army was currently undergoing a sweeping purge, and was weakened overall.
The navy was elite, but the opponent was a continental power. It had cities facing the sea, but all its main functions were far beyond the mountains. Naval gunfire didn’t have the range, so it was useless.
“The army’s modernization won’t make it in time. Even if we support them, would they last a year?”
“Not in the northern state cluster. Their troop numbers are on a different order of magnitude to begin with.”
“Clerics marching east, devouring food as they go. They’re like locusts.”
“Yes. Exactly...”
But even so, they couldn’t just sit and do ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) nothing.
They had to act quickly and slow the advance.
If they could hold them back even a little, they should dry up instantly from supply shortages.
Even so—
“Still, it’s too far, and we don’t have enough troops. Even if we target the rear, it’s not very effective because they don’t have logistics in the first place. Do we have no choice but to crush them by pinching from front and rear...?”
Amajio Silverhead ran a finger across the map, stroking his chin.
“Either way, we don’t have enough forces. We have to buy time somehow...”
And so, the west of the northern continent would be drawn into a quagmire of war.
*****
“So in the end, what kind of situation is this?”
“A large-scale war of invasion by the Prava Divine Kingdom in the western part of the continent. The surrounding small nations are being swallowed one after another. The Kingdom of Lepuitari is also close by, but fortunately it’s separated by the sea. Their naval power appears to be nearly nonexistent, so there should be no impact for the time being.”
A massive military invasion on the northern continent, confirmed through analysis of satellite images.
The Prava Divine Kingdom was subjugating neighboring countries at considerable speed, and it seemed the nations had no way to respond at all to that lightning advance.
“Big Sis, shouldn’t we push forward an undersea base for intelligence gathering?”
“Mmm... yeah...”
The undersea base for the Kingdom of Lepuitari was already in operation, and they had plenty of know-how stored up.
Over Lepuitari airspace, they could keep drones loitering without worrying about appearances, so communications range would likely not be a problem either.
However, the opponent was a land-based country.
Approaching from the sea was a bit inefficient.
“<Ringo>, do you have a plan?”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. It would be best to establish underground bases on mountain peaks and the like. In remote mountains far from settlements, there is virtually no chance of discovery.”
Rather than saying underground, even building a normal base probably wouldn’t be discovered.
If they could find an ore vein, it would be perfect, but it wouldn’t work out that conveniently.
“Mmm. Yeah. Let’s go with that for now.”
Build underground bases in secret, and construct an intelligence network centered on them.
If they could gather information, they could also expand by adding more underground bases.
“There are several candidate locations, but first, an undersea base. If we can establish it as a foothold, we will push into the coastal region from there.”
“Hey, hey, Big Sis. Wouldn’t it be good to build a base in the Kingdom of Lepuitari?”
“Since they’re an allied country, I think it’s totally on the table—”
At Utsugi and Erika’s suggestion, Commander Eve fell silent in thought.
Honestly, she hadn’t not considered it.
“Still... it feels too early. Making that kind of demand of a sovereign state is a bit much.”
The Kingdom of Lepuitari was a country ruled by that former player, Amajio Salmon.
No—he was only one of the nobles, so it wasn’t as if he governed it, but—
Even so, building a military base that would threaten that country’s sovereignty felt hard to justify. That was her honest impression.
“Going by national power, if we built a single forward base, we could basically conquer the whole country...”
In a Kingdom of Lepuitari with little unreasonable fantasy nonsense, <Ringo>’s simulation could predict things with high accuracy.
If they built a standard <The Tree> forward base in that country, the prediction result was that they could easily seize control of the entire territory.
“And besides, do we even need to stick our necks into this war in the first place?”
“Not only the Kingdom of Lepuitari, but an imbalance of power among the surrounding nations will worsen the overall economy. If possible, we want to maintain a tense situation where they check each other with roughly even pressure.”
At Akane’s opinion, Eve nodded, impressed.
They were still trading with the Kingdom of Lepuitari.
At the very least, she didn’t want the situation to become one that threatened the securing of those imported items.
“Mmm. Direct intervention is... yeah. I wonder if there’s a way to intervene a little more peacefully.”
“Providing aid to the Kingdom of Lepuitari is the least disruptive way to participate.”
For example, if they fired ballistic missiles and injected wide-area extermination weapons, the expedition would collapse from that alone.
But for <The Tree>, there was no particular reason to go that far. It would be simple slaughter.
This was an exchange between states. An outsider shouldn’t meddle, acting clever. They weren’t aiming for world conquest.
“I kind of understand how a time traveler feels when they agonize over whether to interfere with history.”
“...Big Sis, I think that’s probably totally different.”
“Is it?”
Even so.
They could probably aid the Kingdom of Lepuitari, given their connection.
It would likely become a national crisis of enormous magnitude.
And how would that country respond?
If they could straightforwardly ask for help, Eve—and <The Tree>—would extend a hand.
But that was the same as accepting rule by a super-AI.
Could that Amajio Salmon tolerate it?
