“All right, one more round. I’ll try fiddling with the troop types a bit.”
“I wonder if there’s a way to sense vibrations or something...”
“The construction was poor. I’ll try a different shape.”
“We should try coordinating a little better.”
Even later generations, those not directly involved in fighting the Great Demon King, had learned to recognize his forces and prepare for them to some extent. The scars left by the great war would probably never heal.
“But seriously, this game board is incredible. It’s impressive that they could combine golem tech and magic in this way.” As Franz waited for the game board to be arranged, he stretched and admired its craftsmanship.
“I agree. Oh, come to think of it, I heard a rumor that a dwarven-made golem knight was brought into the academy,” said Emmeline.
“A golem knight, huh? I’ve heard a rumor that the early prototypes were of quite poor quality,” Hagen chimed in.
“Is that true, Hagen?” Franz asked.
“Yes. Apparently, when they were given the order to eliminate all intruders, they were on the verge of indiscriminately attacking the craftsmen too.”
“Man, that’s scary...” Franz looked shocked.
These rumors were in fact true. The dwarves, who were well-versed in matters such as the earth, smithing, and mineral resources, had succeeded in constructing golems for combat. They resembled armored humanoids, and they were capable of using weapons such as swords or spears along with shields. Although they’d possessed physical abilities that outpaced any human’s—tremendous physical strength and endless stamina, among others—they’d also come with a giant drawback. Golems were fundamentally unable to comprehend complicated instructions, and that had been even more true for the first models. As a result, there had been an accident where, right after being activated, the golems almost attacked the group of dwarven engineers in front of them, in accordance with their orders to kill all enemies.
“I also heard that the way they used their weapons was unrefined. Like they only swung their swords in perfect vertical and horizontal lines.” Hagen placed a finger on his head as he dug through his memories to retrieve this information.
“That’s also an issue...” Connie imagined the golem knights’ clunky movements.
“And since they’re golems, they don’t gain any experience or grow, right?” Franz pointed out the golem knights’ biggest weakness.
“Probably. But the newer models might have been improved since then.”
Naturally, since golems were unable to learn from experience, they couldn’t grow either. As a result, once someone determined a method to defeat them, they could be unilaterally disposed of, unable to innovate any counterattacks.
“But even if they don’t gain any experience or grow, they can still be a threat in great numbers,” Emmeline said, turning her attention back to the game board.
“Right. Even though the Great Demon King’s vanguard is only advancing in a straight line here, we’re getting pushed back,” Connie agreed with her.
The grotesque vanguard created by the Great Demon King had solved the problem of its inability to improve tactically with sheer numbers. His vanguard troops had been unable to grow, as they’d possessed neither souls nor free will, but they had still been able to overcome their foes’ more strategic planning. Or rather, as if to show that everything would work out as long as there were enough of them, they had been deployed in massive numbers during the early stages of the great war. There were places where the battlefield was so bogged down by their mass onslaught that they had actually managed to break through the front lines.
“But it seems that during the middle of the great war, the Great Demon King’s commanders had trouble because the vanguard troops couldn’t understand complicated orders.”
Connie had had the opportunity to hear about the great war from his great-great-grandparents, so he knew a bit of the inside story. When the Hero’s party had started turning the war situation around, the Great Demon King’s forces had suddenly needed to diversify their tactics. However, from the commanders’ perspective, it had been a burden to try and command a vanguard that could only take specific actions anyway.
“Yeah, having a soul and the ability to grow are pretty important elements for an individual,” Franz concluded.
“Indeed,” Emmeline agreed.
After that, Connie and his friends populated their game board with allied forces of various races. This included humans, who were average at everything, elves, who excelled at using bows and nature magic, dwarves, who could wear heavy armor despite their small stature, and the savage, mighty orcs, all clashing with the army of monsters.
“This really is difficult. We’ve somehow managed to squeak our way through the beginning, but things get tough when the enhanced individuals start showing up.”
“We can’t handle any dragons that appear either.”
Franz and Emmeline frowned as they looked at the clay soldiers defending a large city that was comparable in size to the royal capital. Although they’d somehow managed to stop the monsters by synergizing the strengths of each race, things got harder on the next difficulty setting, as soon as more powerful monsters started showing up. And of course the difficulty after that had proven fully impossible when they were annihilated by a single dragon that suddenly appeared.
“This isn’t intended to be winnable, is it?” Franz said, wondering how they could possibly win.
“It’s a mock battle, after all,” Hagen cut in.
“That’s true, but still... Seriously, how did we win back then?” Franz wondered again.
“Thanks to the Hero’s party. Many documents state that the Hero’s party just charged blindly ahead and eliminated the enemy,” Emmeline replied.
“Is that true?”
“I mean, probably...” Even she was not convinced by these records of the past.
It’s apparently true, though... Connie commented silently; he’d heard the absurd details from Sazaki and Lara, two of the people directly involved.
“How did we win? I charged straight ahead and cut through everything in my way, and before I knew it we’d won, Right, Lara?”
“That’s right.”
Monsters with enhancements, dark dragons—an apex species—and the Great Demon King’s retainers had undoubtedly imposed unreasonable force upon the living during the war. But they had been crushed by the even more excessive power and overly simplistic strategies of the Hero’s party. In an absurd turn of events, these destructive forces, which should have been the personification of ultimate violence, kept getting pushed back by the Hero’s party’s head-on assault. Ultimately, even the Great Demon King himself was defeated. Of course, the Hero’s party had also possessed intelligence and quick wit, but one could go as far as to say that the great war had been won thanks to brute force.
Meanwhile, speaking of those people actually involved in the war...
“Hey, Lara, can’t you make the soldiers wield katanas?” Sazaki requested.
“Give it up. They haven’t gone as far as to include soldiers from the eastern countries,” she replied.
“They need to revise this. I know that the monks of the Boiling Mountain are an exception, but these monks are still too weak.” Stein frowned.
“Come to think of it, I suppose priests are in charge of supporting from the rear...” Elrica had carelessly forgotten that she was an anomaly and tried to push the rear supporting units to the front.
“What’s going on here? I remember briefly hearing about this during this war, but it’s turned into this whole thing now?” Ferd stared at the board, unable to make heads or tails of anything.
The old friends were making a racket as they used the other game board in Agnes’s home.
“I’ve never had the chance to play, but this is surprisingly fun.” Max was the only exception among the group. Thanks to his highly prestigious education, and perhaps because he was born into royalty, he could skillfully manage his units and make sport of the monsters. However... “But couldn’t we just charge in and win?”
As Max suggested, the strategy of the Hero’s party during the great war had been to charge straight ahead and obliterate all who stood in their path: the countless demon foot soldiers, the dragons controlling the skies, the mobile fortress that shook the earth as it marched, the Great Demon King’s retainers, and even the Great Demon King.
“I had no idea there were such amazing things out there.” Ferd was impressed by the current magical technology, but this man was in fact at the heart of the group who’d accomplished the most amazing thing in history—even if, by now, they were just a group of old people.
“How about we go for a short walk, dearest?” Ferd, who’d been staring at the same game board, cracked his neck and invited Elrica.
“All right, honey.”
Ah, the springtime of youth. As Ferd stepped out of the mansion with Elrica, he saw young couples intimately holding hands, and he thought of a notion that he had never been personally privy to.
During an era where people couldn’t know whether they would live or die, the idea of “adolescence” had been practically nonexistent. Two days ago, you would have lost the friend you were just talking to, yesterday, the person you had shared words of love with. And today, you would lose your own life. That had been the great war, where there had been no time to leisurely nurture romance.
“If we were just a decade younger, we would have the time to attend the academy,” Ferd joked.
“That’s right, honey.” Elrica nodded.
“But I doubt I could keep up with the youngsters’ energy.”
“Oho ho ho. Didn’t you claim before that you weren’t that withered?”
“I certainly said that, but young people’s vigor is on another level.” These words were quite persuasive coming from a former young person, who’d once relied on his youth to charge right into the heart of darkness. “However, assuming there had been no war, if I’d been told to study when I was young, I’d probably just frown. ‘Who’d bother doing something that pointless?’ I’d say.” Ferd imagined his younger self with an expression that clearly said, “What the hell is this guy talking about?”
“Oho ho ho.” Elrica pictured it clearly and could only laugh.
“As for Sazaki...if there was some research laboratory focusing on booze, he might hang around and be a model student... No, he’d just sneak there to drink and be no help at all.” Ferd tried to imagine what Sazaki would be like as a student, but the whole idea seemed hopeless.