“Yup, you’re a stubborn one, all right,” said Mireille. “Guess we’re wasting our time. Too bad, but not a huge issue─killing you won’t pose any problems for us at all. The kiddo’s only offering you a chance to save yourself because he’s nice like that.”
“A bald-faced lie. The soldiers of Purledo may stand no chance of snatching victory away from you anymore, but they can whittle your forces down considerably. If you want to be rid of them, you’ll have to pay a price in blood to do so.”
“Hahaha! You can’t be serious,” Mireille said with a mocking smirk. “You saw the airship, didn’t you? All those soldiers you have holed up in Castle Auros are gonna meet the same fate that your troops here did. We just have to blow the castle to pieces, then sweep in and mop up what’s left during the panic. Easy as that.”
“Wh-What?!” Barth exclaimed.
“Oh, wait, that’s right─Auros is a castle, isn’t it? Not a fort like this place. There’ll be plenty of civilians in that little castle town within its walls. Too bad they’ll have to get caught up in the carnage, but eh, it happens. War’s war, and all.”
“Y-You monster,” Barth growled, a wrathful grimace on his face.
“And wiping out the troops on Klax’s Hill will be even easier. We just have to fly the airship over them and incinerate their food and water supplies. They won’t be getting any new provisions from this fort, after all! They’ll run out of rations in no time, and since there’s no source of water up on that hill, they’ll be out of it before long too. Do you know how quickly a person dies if they don’t have anything to drink? Two days in, and they’ll barely even be able to stand anymore.”
The truth of the matter was that targeting the encampment’s supplies would require pinpoint accuracy that was far from guaranteed, considering the altitude the airship would have to fly at. Barth, however, had no way of knowing that.
“If you’re that dead set on not cooperating, then every soldier in Purledo’s army is going to die like a dog, for no purpose and without ever even being able to touch us. I’m sure you’re picturing some sort of heroic last stand, but that’s out of the question. It’ll be a one-sided massacre.”
“Wha…? Ugh…”
A bead of sweat ran down Barth’s face. He believed every word that came out of Mireille’s mouth.
“You’re only getting the chance to save them because senseless slaughter doesn’t sit right with us. We know what sort of people your army’s made up of. Most of them are ordinary farmers and townsfolk when there isn’t a war on, right? We’d sooner leave folks like that alive.”
“You fiend… How very brazen of you to claim such benevolence after slaughtering Seitz’s men in droves in the last war,” Barth sarcastically jabbed. His expression, however, communicated much less composure than he tried to impart in his words.
“In the last war, you invaded us,” I replied. “We killed your men because we had no choice. This time, that isn’t the case.”
“You child… Dress up your words all you like, but I know the truth: you only want the soldiers of Seitz alive so you can use them for your own purposes. I know that. It’s plain as day…and yet…” Barth said, his conflicted feelings apparent on his face. “And yet, I cannot overlook a chance to spare my people from a senseless and cruel fate…” he finally muttered.
The count, it seemed, had believed the better part of Mireille’s story. The fact that he’d experienced the horror the airship could inflict on a fort lent a lot of credence to her words.
“May I take that to mean that you will instruct the soldiers in Castle Auros and on Klax’s Hill to stand down?”
“I will,” Barth agreed with a nod.
○
I had Barth write a letter to his troops, then sent soldiers to deliver copies of it to the forces in Castle Auros and on Klax’s Hill. It wasn’t unheard of for enemy messengers to be killed during wartime, but seeing as Barth was effectively our hostage, I didn’t anticipate we’d have any issues on that front. As expected, my messengers returned to me safe and sound.
The contents of the letter were quite simple: an appeal to surrender to the army of Canarre at once. The soldiers on Klax’s Hill capitulated to their count’s request, laying down their arms on the spot. Fort Purledo had fallen, and they’d had little hope of reclaiming it with a force of their size, so I imagined they’d already been at a loss for what to do next. Now that Barth had given them the option to surrender, it was only natural they’d jump on it without a second thought.
The soldiers in Castle Auros, on the other hand, chose not to surrender right away. There wasn’t any question about whether the letter was authentic─it seemed someone there had known what the count’s handwriting looked like─but they still chose to keep up the fight, perhaps out of pride or sheer obstinacy. We kept pressuring them to surrender, though, and as time went by word of how the battle had gone seemed to make its way to the castle. Ultimately, they decided that they had no hope of winning and chose to obey the count’s call and yield as well.
And so, Fort Purledo and Castle Auros both fell into our hands. There were other regions of Purledo County governed by local barons as well, but those baronies were rather small in scale. Their barons lived in manors rather than castles, and lacked any defensive structures to retreat to in the event of an attack from a large enemy force. For all intents and purposes, Purledo County was already ours.
The airship’s first campaign was over, and its performance had exceeded even our lofty expectations. It had earned us a total victory.
○
A few days later, I decided that we’d hold a celebratory banquet to commemorate our conquest of Purledo County.
“R-Really? Is this any time to be celebrating?” Rosell protested when he heard the news.
I could see his point─the fort had only just been taken, and it was still in terrible shape. We’d done some basic repairs already, but it was still a long way off from being fully defensible again. If the enemy launched an attack now, we’d be in pretty big trouble.
“Most of Seitz’s troops are occupied with the invasion of Missian,” Rietz explained. “They likely don’t have enough soldiers available to retake Purledo County. In other words, this is the perfect opportunity to take a day off and relax and unwind while we can. The boost to our soldiers’ morale will more than make up for any time lost.”
I was a little surprised to hear that from him. Rietz was usually all business, all the time, so I’d sort of expected him to be against the banquet plan.
“I-I mean, that’s true, but still…” Rosell weakly replied. He still seemed rather anxious.
We held the banquet in Fort Purledo. There was a town nearby, but showing up with an army’s worth of soldiers seemed like it would be a terrible imposition, so we stuck to military territory. Instead, we bought up food and alcohol for the event in town and raided our own provisions as well.