Chapter 124

Then… “Chancellor Advisor, all of us are ready to evacuate.” “All right, let’s hit the bricks! Everyone, into the forest!” …Masato shot the briefest of glances at the Elm army, whose members stared in horror at the angel’s betrayal, before beating a hasty retreat into the forest with his troops. They fled so quickly that it was like watching a herd of wildcats. Naturally, Elch hurried to give chase… “Hey! G-get back here, you son of a bitch!” “Elch, no!” …but Zest pinioned him the moment he tried to head for the woods. “Commander, why’d you stop me?!” Elch protested. Deep furrows stretched across Zest’s brow as he gave his answer. “I knew those soldiers looked familiar. That was the Qinglong Gang, the foremost mercenary outfit in all of Lakan. And to make matters worse, more than half the archipelago is woodland. Guerilla warfare in the forest is their bread and butter! I don’t even want to think about how many we’d lose charging in after them!” “Grrr!” Zest’s explanation was enough to get Elch to yield. Now that he thought about it, the massive Qinglong Gang force had surely been traveling right along their flank, and Elch had been none the wiser. The leadership skills it took to facilitate such a maneuver were terrifying to consider. A messy fight in the forest threatened the entire Elm force. All Elch could do was stare silently at the trees Masato and his forces vanished into. Rage colored his expression, but it was outweighed by sorrow. “Looks like they’re not chasing us.” “Well, that’s boring. I was all excited to mow them down when they came bumbling after us like fools.” “Old man Zest is no dumbass. He’s not gonna chase us when we’ve got advantageous terrain. Still, make sure you keep up your guards.” As Masato and his soldiers hurried away from the Elm army, the mercenary outfit’s captain shot Masato a question. “Chancellor Advisor, all we did was burn their supplies. Are you sure it’s all right for us to leave? The Blue Grandmaster told us to stop them in their tracks. Your betrayal broke their morale. Wouldn’t it have been better for us to draw them into the forest and fight them here?” “No way,” Masato replied. “There’s a time for taking risks, and this ain’t it. Besides, that stunt might not have stopped imperial troops, but against Elm, it’ll put ’em right out of commission.” “Why’s that?” “Because they can’t pillage,” Masato explained. Freyjagard’s and Elm’s respective national policies of survival of the fittest and equality for all respectively meant that the two nations went about war in completely different ways. For Freyjagard, warfare was a way of bolstering their economy by pillaging their foes and placing them under colonial rule. Wars cost money, but Freyjagard made up for that with the wealth it plundered. In contrast, Elm espoused the philosophy of equality for all, and that meant it couldn’t ransack, not even from enemies. Doing so would go against the national creed, which applied both on a macro level in respect to Elm’s national economy and on a micro level regarding their ability to procure supplies locally during the war itself. Slowing down an army that believed in equality was simple—all it took was burning its provisions. “Elch and Zest knew that, so they put their supplies right next to their main force and made sure they were guarded well.” “But they let you stroll right past their defenses.” Masato nodded. “Trying to run a long-distance military campaign without supplies spells death. Plus, the imperial army they’re up against is a hundred thousand strong. Even with Yamato, the fight will drag on for ages. The only thing the Elm army can do now is sit on its ass and wait for more supplies to show up.” “Is there any danger they’ll consolidate what little food they’ve got left among small companies and send them on ahead?” “And break their army into tiny, useless chunks? If the empire lost to a plan that stupid, it wouldn’t deserve our help,” Masato replied with a shrug. The mercenaries snickered in agreement. “Besides, even if they did do something that stupid, it would be too little too late. We’re about to turn right around to back up Neuro.” Masato’s words caused the mercenaries to quicken their march. More than half of the Lakan Archipelago’s territory was covered in tropical forests, and as the nation’s finest mercenary outfit, the Qinglong Gang was able to trek through the forested mountains without so much as breaking a sweat. They moved through the trees as fast as others might run down a well-maintained highway. Not even mounted cavalry could have kept pace with them. Yamato was just as forested as Lakan, so this advantage would only grow when they crossed the border. Even if Elch and Zest forced their army onward, Masato and his mercenaries were still bound to reach the battlefield first. The Qinglong Gang, comprised of three thousand troops, would help drive the final nail into the exhausted Yamato army’s coffin. For my dream—my avarice. A memory surfaced in Masato’s mind. It was a recollection of the day his friend and enemy, prodigy politician Tsukasa Mikogami, barred the way on his road to conquest. “As the stats above show, the levels of wealth inequality brought about by our capitalist economy have already exceeded acceptable bounds. This needs to be remedied as soon as possible, and as a government body with jurisdiction over wealth redistribution, the duty to do so lies with us. As such, we propose introducing a system of universal basic income wherein every citizen is allotted a fixed sum each month as a way to lessen inequality.” Universal basic income, or UBI, was exactly what it sounded like. It was a program whereby every citizen was unconditionally allotted the minimum amount of money they needed to function. Financing for that system came from two places—a consolidation of miscellaneous social safety nets and a progressive tax on the rich. In other words, it was a policy that used state power to shave away at the fortunes of wealthy people like Masato. Tsukasa was trying to steal from the Sanada Group. He was trying to rob them of their riches, just like the Mikasa Group once had. And that meant they were going to fight. Masato had no choice, not as long as the image of his father’s body remained seared into the backs of his eyelids. He refused to lose his family again. “I don’t show my foes a shred of mercy. But you know that already, don’t you—Tsukasa?” The cold wind was a harbinger of the winter to come, but Masato’s words carried a greater chill. Meanwhile, in a maximum-security cell in Drachen… “So that’s the intruder, huh?” “Yeah. They say the fallen angel who betrayed the Seven Luminaries caught her.” “Seems like a whole lot of restraints for a single chick. How many padlocks are even on that door?” “The fallen angel says she’d slip out with anything less.” “I dunno, looks like overkill. You could at least let me in there. I mean, how am I supposed to enjoy myself out here?” “Not a chance. The grandmaster sent us a message from the front as a reminder. He says not to loosen her restraints, no matter what. She might not appear like much, but she’s still an angel. Who knows what she’d do to us if she got free.” “Tch. This job sucks.” “…”