Chapter 111: Even if Preparation is Done
“Eldar, do you think he can win this war?”
The one who asked the question was Lunda, who had contacted Eldar out of the blue.
Lunda was dressed in her usual clothing that exposed her shoulders and legs. Against the backdrop of a snowy mountain in the north, she looked very cold.
Eldar noticed something unusual.
“You’re wearing glasses.”
“Huh? Oh, yes. I wanted to look more intellectual. What do you think? Do they do the trick?”
“What you just explained, can you tell that to Nebula as well?”
“...No.”
“...And you should know well why that is.”
Lunda took off the glasses and threw them behind her.
“Anyway, what do you think about the first question I asked?”
Eldar fell into a dilemma. It was hard for them to answer the question until they could confirm the situation in person, and it did sound like Lunda had been presenting things with her own opinions coloring her perspective. The same was true of Eldar, but there weren’t many cases where Lunda would talk to Eldar alone. Both of them were tied to Nebula, otherwise known as Sung-Woon.
‘Broadly speaking, we do both have a loose alliance with Nebula, but…’
Fundamentally speaking, there was a difference between them.
The reason Eldar got into a loose alliance with Sung-Woon in the first place was because Eldar had received help from Sung-Woon. Although Eldar did get looted and overpowered by Sung-Woon, Eldar had gotten to look at those past events in a positive light and considered Sung-Woon’s action a purely tactical move.
Lunda, on the other hand, had her weakness taken advantage of by Sung-Woon from the start.
‘But she does seem to cooperate quite well and is friendly toward Nebula…’
What Lunda had shown them since then seemed to be her true self rather than an act.
‘But now she wants to have a separate conversation with me. Does that mean she changed her mind?’
Eldar was not good at lying, so they decided to answer honestly.
“The situation is difficult indeed.”
“Yes,” Lunda said. “The alliance hasn’t even gathered all the troops yet, and we already have over one hundred thousand soldiers. On the other hand, Black Scale only has twenty thousand. Of course, that’s not a small number either. It might actually be enough if Black Scale plays the defense. Given Black Scale is faster and more efficient in gathering troops, though, it’s questionable whether they can gather any more.”
Eldar agreed. “But like you said, numbers aren’t the only thing that matters. There’s a high chance this will become a battle of defense. And when you look at the individual military strength, two fifths of the allied troops are built small.”
Eldar was referring to the Renards and the Kobolds. Among the two, Renards were considered small, and Kobolds were even smaller. The average height of a Renard was 140 centimeters, and 110 centimeters for Kobolds; they also had the disadvantage of being that much weaker.
Lunda shook her head.
“But one fifth is considered big, right?”
Lunda was referring to the Trolls. Their average height was 230 centimeters, and they were the representatives among the stronger species.
When looking at only physical size, Ogres were of course bigger. They were physically overwhelmingly stronger as they were close to three meters in average height and weighed hundreds of kilograms. However, they didn’t have a high enough intelligence to carry out a war, so it was common to exclude them even when they were one of the major species.
Lunda continued to say, “Though overall, I do admit that the Lizardmen of Black Scale are outstanding due to the excellent physical blessings they got. And they also occasionally get chosen ones.”
“Right?”
“But that was only an advantage until recently.”
Eldar was puzzled for a moment before realizing what she meant and reacting to it.
“With the emergence of firearms, the chosen ones are no longer at much of an advantage.”
The chosen ones. They were able to attack with Lightning through the magical power of electricity, but they couldn’t use it without limit. The power consumed mental power, and in order to restore their mental power, they had to take medicinal herbs. Therefore, Sung-Woon never overstated their value.
Eldar recalled Sung-Woon’s evaluation.
‘’They pretty much act as a running cannon, also known as a tank, so it is worth using them to temporarily break up the enemy’s cavalry or scatter the phalanx of the enemy’s infantry. However, there are only around ten tanks, and if there are tens of thousands of enemies, their operational and tactical value would be very limited. They may be useful in a few battles, but the enemies can put up with that much.’
Bemused, Eldar said, “Ah, there’s another advantage.”
“What is it?”
“His Divinity level.”
The last time Eldar checked Sung-Woon’s Divinity level, he was at level 21. On the other hand, the player with the highest level among the alliance was Wisdom, who was at level 19.
Eldat continued to say, “Because he has a high Divinity level, he could use that many more creations. And creations specialized in combat can pretty much act as siege weapons, offering greater military strength than hundreds of soldiers.”
“But there are five gods on this side.”
“No, but Lakrak the apostle…”
Mid-sentence, Eldar finally realized the source of disharmony they had been feeling since earlier.
“Oh…five gods?”
“Yes. The five gods of the alliance include Wisdom, AR, Jang-Wan, Crampus, and me.”
It was hard to tell what Lunda was thinking based on her facial expression.
Eldar cleared their throat and replied, “Well, so you’re just thinking of yourself as a part of the alliance for now, right?”
“It’s not only for now. I was an ally to them in the first place. I had an alliance with Crampus from the very start, and AR, Jang-Wan, and Wisdom have been added after the fact.”
“Then your cooperation with Nebula until now was…”
“You’re not asking because you really don’t know, right? He had my weakness!”
Lunda yelled suddenly with a teary expression before turning away. When she turned back to Eldar, she had already schooled her expression into one of calmness.
“To be honest, I’m not too sure. But you, Eldar, are mostly absorbed by Black Scale now.” Lunda said.
“...Absorbed. That sounds a little off, but basically, yes.”
The city on the northern coast, Zarin, had been somewhat maintaining their independence. But when asked whether or not it belonged to Black Scale, the majority would say yes.
Lunda then replied, “But I’m not. To be honest, I had thought this was better until now. I had thought it didn’t matter if I benefited from either the alliance or Nebula. But if a war breaks out?”
“I see.”
Eldar realized Lunda’s concern.
“You have to choose a side, don’t you?”
“...Yes.”
Eldar looked at their palm as if they hoped for an answer to be written there.
“What if I stick with Nebula, but Nebula loses? Would Crampus and the others forgive me, who continued to give Nebula information behind their backs?”
Eldar replied, “But if you stay with the alliance, uh…wouldn’t your weakness be exposed? I don’t think Nebula would sit still and watch.”
“No. I was planning to pin the blame on Crampus and stick to Wisdom in that case, but the plan is now obsolete. Of course, I might have to pay a price. Still, he’ll probably forgive me.”
“Haha… I see.”
“Even though Nebula has my weakness, I’ve been in constant contact with him until now, so I might know some information that could be of help to the alliance. Nebula did tell me his plans without hesitation, so that should be enough leverage for me to survive.”
Eldar awkwardly smiled and realized Lunda looked at her interpersonal relationships in a very calculated way. Beyond calculating which side would be a benefit or a loss to her, she had also taken into consideration the other person’s feelings for her.
‘...Isn’t that also a talent?’
But unlike interpersonal relationships, it seemed Lunda had a hard time calculating the outcome of the war.
Lunda said, “To be honest, as of now, it seems like me sticking with the alliance to make it a 5:1 fight has a higher chance of victory than if I side with Nebula and make it 4:2. I want to stick to the side that will win.”
“Well, that’s a bit…”
“Dirty? I know. The way to victory is normally dirty.”
Eldar wondered if that was something to say with such determination, but didn’t comment on it.
“Thank you for telling me all this, but why?”
“Aren’t we in the same shoes?”
“What?”
It sounded like she was questioning how Eldar would not know.
“The Elves have dominated the northern coast, so it wouldn’t be strange to demand independence.”
“But they’re under the control of Black Scale.”
“Is that what you really think? If a war breaks out, they’re bound to lose control. It’s a golden opportunity. And even if you’ve cooperated with Nebula until now, you aren’t real allies. As long as you can cause even a little bit of harm to Nebula, the alliance will regard you positively and accept you as an ally.”
Eldar thought it was a valid point. It was a time where the power balance among the gods could be reversed on the third continent.
‘But I’m not going to betray Nebula.’
Eldar thought Sung-Woon was a bit of a weird person. When Eldar tried to make small talk, Sung-Woon would always change the subject to game play. And the only other conversations they had had up to this point was aout Go, Janggi, Chess, or other similar games. Sung-Woon never talked about himself, so Eldar never got the chance to do so either. Sung-Woon acted like he had no life outside of the Lost World until he suddenly fell into this world.
‘But I don’t think that is true.’
Regardless, Sung-Woon had a charming side to him. One wouldn’t be able to tell just by looking at him. And Eldar only got to know this side of Sung-Woon through his gameplay. Everything Sung-Woon did could be interpreted as an act to achieve victory, but Eldar sensed that there was something more, something that they couldn’t explain.
‘Though I don’t know what that is yet…’
Eldar wanted to find out what it was.
‘Then this is how I should answer.’
Eldar said, “I need time to think about it.”
“...Really?”
“I won’t take too long, so could you give me some time?”
“Okay.”
Eldar ended the video chat with Lunda and immediately requested another whisper conversation.
And soon, a familiar face appeared in the video chat window.
“Eldar, what is it?”
It was Sung-Woon.
Eldar cleared his throat and said, “Lunda seems to have a concern.”
***
“A concern? That’s not a concern. She was just telling you to join her side. To play a 6:1 game.”
As Sung-Woon concluded Eldar’s summary of what Lunda told him, Eldar said, “Wouldn’t there still be room to persuade her?”
“There probably is. But I have no intention to do that.”
“What? Why not?”
Sung-Woon waved his hand instead of answering right away.
“Lunda is misjudging the current game in the first place. You said she believed a game of defense would be more advantageous for me, right?”
“Yes. What about that?”
“Why would I only defend? I don’t wanna lose.”
“What?”
Sung-Woon explained, “I will need to defend because the enemies will attack through all possible means. But if we do nothing and let them do so, they would take over all those points of attack. We need to advance as well in order to prevent that from happening.”
“Ah.”
“And it’s an all-out war. We can’t just defend and wait for the enemy to lose all their supplies because they would be growing crops in bigger lands as well as doing trades in the meantime. Things would only get harder for the side being isolated.”
Eldar understood what Sung-Woon meant.
“So what about Lunda?”
“Persuading her is useless. Lunda thinks simply.”
“Not complicatedly?”
“No, her thought process is simple. She doesn’t know the answer, so things are complicated for her because she’s trying to calculate everything to get the answer. I don’t care if we just leave her be. It’s actually better that she’s simple-minded as I don’t need to put in so much effort to persuade her.”
“What if she joins the alliance then?”
Sung-Woon shook his head.
“She won’t be able to decide until the very last minute.”
“Then what should I say to her?”
“Um, let’s do this,” Sung-Woon said. “Tell her you’ll decide after seeing the result of the first battle. That way, she won’t do anything until then. That’s more than enough.”
“What? Then what if you lose…”
Sung-Woon shook his head again.
“Eldar, war is a simple thing. Calculating things may seem important, but that’s not enough. No matter how much one side is at an advantage and has prepared a lot…”
“Prepared a lot…?”
Sung-Woon smiled.
“The side that fights better will win.”
***
One month later.
Black Scale’s ten thousand troops went to battle in the wilderness and crushed Danyum’s thirty thousand troops.
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