Princess Remia saw the earnestness of her friend’s apology and quickly calmed down again. Man, royals have incredible self-restraint!
“No, it is I who should apologize,” said Princess Remia. “That was immature of me. I’ve been educated in the ways of leading an army, so I should know how you must be feeling. The fear and guilt the battlefield inspires… Some become scarred mentally, others completely lose themselves… And the only way to repel such feelings is to force a smile and find ways to laugh.
“Commanders especially cannot afford to show hesitation or weakness. It’s their job─no, their duty─to lift their subordinates’ spirits with humor no matter how much pain and sadness they harbor inside. I know firsthand how difficult it is to come down from that heightened emotional state.”
Oh yeah, Princess Remia ordered the deaths of the rebel leaders and attended their executions. I remember her saying that was her duty as the one who imposed the death sentence of her own vassals…
The princess was also currently marshaling an army outside the capital. It made sense that she wouldn’t entrust the entire war effort to some girl from a foreign country─she had to prepare for the possibility of Mitsuha’s defeat. She might’ve even been preparing to deploy soldiers along the path into the city in case the survivors of Mitsuha’s attack continued to march on. That would buy time while making the enemy bleed as much as possible, and ultimately, they’d have to take shelter in the palace for a siege defense.
The princess also planned to place an evacuation order on the citizens in the invasion path and have them gather their valuables and food. That would minimize civilian deaths and prevent the enemy from looting their homes. The imperial soldiers whose jobs were specifically to pillage the locals would’ve been furious. Either that, or terribly disappointed.
She hadn’t placed the order yet; it wasn’t hard to act faster than an army of heavily armored soldiers transporting military supplies. The civilians would’ve had plenty of time to vacate even after hearing about the Lightning Archpriestess’s loss. For now, the princess only ordered the residents to gather what possessions they could and get ready to vacate at a moment’s notice. They wouldn’t be in too much danger once they left their homes; no invading army would pass up a castle under siege to chase down some civilians.
Anyway, Princess Remia had mentally prepared herself for war, and as far as she knew, Mitsuha was a former princess─now a viscountess─who normally never would’ve been in a position to lead troops. She assumed that warfare matters in Mitsuha’s country were left entirely to the commander of the local army, and that the poor viscountess was pushing herself far outside of her comfort zone.
I’m not a genius tactician who can end a war without a single enemy or ally getting hurt. But I’m not dumb enough to show mercy and risk sacrificing my ally soldiers’ and citizens’ lives. Only a fool would do that. The lives of ten allies are worth more to me than the lives of a hundred enemies.
So no matter what happens, I won’t regret the choices I made today. I did the best I could with the information and military strength at hand. It’s silly to regret a loss caused by insufficient or faulty information or a wrong choice. That’s a time for reflection─not regret─to learn from your failures in order to do better in the future.
Many enemy soldiers were killed in this operation. However, it was much more preferable to Dalisson’s and the empire’s armies going into combat and the kingdom’s settlements getting pillaged and occupied in the process. Had the two sides fought this war without Mitsuha’s involvement, the Aldar Empire would’ve won with a significantly greater loss of their soldiers.
The best way to prevent another war and minimize the death toll was to overwhelm the imperial army with strength so outlandish that the empire would fear Dalisson had some kind of a god or devil on their side.
You’d think the empire would’ve learned their lesson after attacking Zegleus. I wonder if all the high-ranking officers who witnessed the frontline of that battle died before they could bring word back home. As I recall, the imperial army was attacked after our battle by pursuit squads and raging monsters that thought they’d been deceived.
It’s also possible the officers made it home only to be discharged as a penalty for the loss. Or they could’ve been executed because the government didn’t believe their stories and concluded that the officers deserted their posts. Or the government simply wanted a scapegoat to direct the citizens’ anger at. It’s not easy being a military leader…
Mitsuha noticed Princess Remia staring at her in silence.
Does she think I’m gonna throw myself into her arms and start bawling? Please. I was a normal Japanese high school student not that long ago, but now I’m Mitsuha von Yamano, a business owner and a viscountess. You won’t catch me crying in front of a foreign royal.
I spent days mentally preparing myself for what would happen today, and my purpose was to protect the citizens of an ally nation. Many more people would’ve died if I did nothing…and the majority of them would’ve been ordinary civilians of Dalisson.
How will the gods judge my actions? A brutal slaughter, legitimate self-defense, or a fight for justice?
I don’t actually care. Nothing I do is in service of any deity. I only acted to prevent the empire from gobbling up one Great Alliance nation after another and to protect the future of Dalisson and my own country. Without my interference, this war could’ve ended with way more deaths and injuries.
“Have you requested relief from other nearby countries?” Mitsuha changed the subject. She needed to get back to the Wolf Fang base in time for their meeting.
The princess answered, “I sent our fastest messengers as soon as it became clear the imperial army was going to invade. I don’t know how many countries will agree to send soldiers, though… What is the state of the imperial army? Were you able to incapacitate a fifth─or maybe even a third of its vanguard?”
She’d likely heard accounts of the battle in Zegleus and assumed that two helicopters weren’t much compared to that. To be fair, not many people died during that battle either. Most of the deaths among the enemy occurred when they were withdrawing.
“I think we killed a few hundred enemy soldiers,” Mitsuha said.
Princess Remia didn’t react.
“A few hundred” was a tiny fraction of the imperial army’s entire force. No army would ever withdraw over such a small loss. It had to be rare, anyway.
In addition, the imperial army was known for being highly disciplined. Their soldiers weren’t going to retreat that easily. A small-scale strike like that shouldn’t have impeded its invasion at all. Mitsuha couldn’t blame the princess for being dubious of her story.
“Anyway,” she continued the report, “We devastated the imperial army’s chain of command, and now the entire force is fleeing toward the border. If you don’t hurry and tell the nearby countries that you soundly defeated the enemy and that you don’t need aid, you’ll have to pay them extra for wasting their time and resources.”
“Huh?”
“Sending reinforcements costs money, you know. They’ll want compensation.”
“I don’t care about money right now!!” the princess screamed. “The imperial army fled?! You ‘soundly defeated’ them? How did you accomplish that with only two of those flying sky boats?!”
Princess Remia looked flabbergasted.
“Oh, that wasn’t the entire force. There were six men on land too,” Mitsuha said. I guess that doesn’t change much from her point of view.
“What?! Then…is there anything left for my soldiers to do…?”
“Nope.”
“WHAT THE HELL?! You said that you were only going to help, and that my army was going to have to do most of the work!”
“Oh, right…”
“Is that all you have to say?! This makes Dalisson look like a weak, sniveling child who had to rely on a foreign noble to chase away the bully! Other countries are never going to take us seriously now!
“I mean… I am grateful, nonetheless. I don’t know if we would’ve held out under siege until foreign reinforcements arrived, or if they were going to come at all. My father would’ve been able to weather this storm, but I’m just a girl, and our nation just recently lost international trust because of an attempted coup… And so many soldiers and civilians would’ve died if we actually fought the empire. It’s a miracle we got through this with only a few border towns ravaged and almost no victims. I should be groveling on my knees before you. And yet… And yet…”
Princess Remia was so agitated that she was letting her true self slip. Mitsuha understood where she was coming from.
I definitely messed up. She has to consider her country’s reputation. But the idea of sacrificing your own soldiers’ lives just for some participation points sickens me. That’s a hundred times worse than killing enemy soldiers.