Glenn or whatever seemed to be saying he couldn’t accept the proposal for ethical reasons. Most of the others seemed bothered by that as well. I could understand why, but as far as I was concerned, eliminating curions was more important than ethics. Well, maybe the inability to be pragmatic is just part of human nature. After all, I wound up dying because I couldn’t bring myself to kill my adoptive father, despite it being my duty as a holy knight.
“Anyway, I don’t think that idea would be too effective. Well, maybe for a bit, but it wouldn’t last,” said Campsis. I found myself inclined to agree. Rather, it was what I had expected someone to say.
“Yeah, that’s true. It might work at first, but once the giant gets backed into a corner without being able to fight back, it’ll realize that all its citizens are gonna end up dead too if it dies.”
“Exactly. It probably won’t like it, but I think it’ll eventually decide that it needs to kill the enemy, even if that means killing the hostages too.”
Honestly, I think it would be worth it even if the giant hesitated just a bit, but... I felt like I was painting myself as a villain here. “Then how about we split into a few groups and attack from different directions. The giant can’t be in two places at once, so it’ll have to make a choice. The group it chooses to go after will buy time while the others head for the city center. Once they arrive, they fire off some kind of signal and the diversion group retreats. Then we figure things out from there.”
Glenn scowled once again. “Are you suggesting that we escape the giant’s attacks by hiding among the citizens it’s trying to protect?”
“You got it. If it tries to attack us, it’ll end up killing its own people. That’ll make things difficult for it.” It wouldn’t be able to finish us off unless it was prepared to slaughter the very people it was fighting to protect. What would it do then?
“But, Albert, that will also exhaust our divine protection extremely quickly.” I nodded in response to the princess. That was the natural result of diving into a crowd of curions. The blue-haired asshole and I would be fine, but the others would be forced to fight a war of attrition against the hordes of curions closing in on us.
“True.” No matter how strong the enemy, you couldn’t constantly go all out. A contest of strength was different, but if you wanted to win, it was best to have options. I didn’t mind if my suggestion was rejected. However, if the beautiful women and girls present got into trouble fighting the giant, they might be able to use it to survive. It could buy them time for backup to arrive. I’d just wanted them to have another option to keep in mind—in that sense, the conversation had been a success.
“You’re an interesting one, Al! We have these conferences every once in a while, but I’ve never heard an idea like that before!” Campsis exclaimed. That made sense. I didn’t really expect such ethically dubious strategies to be suggested by a group that wanted to bring salvation to the dead.
“Well, it was just a suggestion at the end of the day. Fighting the giant head-on is obviously best if we can manage to kill it that way.”
“Ya really do get it, Albert!” Serrulata had looked conflicted throughout the conversation, but her face finally lit up. Given her personality, simple plans were probably more her speed.
The logical process for combating the One-Armed Giant would be to take its remaining arm, then go for its head. Cutting off a giant’s head, huh? Maybe if I make a huge sword with Bone Sword Generation...
“Glenn’s probably gonna have to be the one to deal the finishing blow,” Campsis said. Scorching Sun’s Heavenly Sword, Radiance, supposedly had the ability to produce a glimmering blade of heat. Campsis seemed to be implying that it could even scorch and cut through a giant’s neck.
I looked over at Nemophila. If what she had said before was true, I wanted to be the one to finish off the giant myself. If one of the Twelve Corpses was defeated by someone else, its power would disappear. That said, if the Grave Keeper of the Golden City defeated it, he would gain a third ability, while I would still only have two. Nobody privy to the full situation wanted the already unstable grave keeper to get any stronger. I was certain that me, the princess, Orlaya, Myra, and Nemophila were all in agreement on that.
“While that’s fine as a basic plan, the battlefield is constantly changing,” Orlaya replied nonchalantly. “Be it support or a finishing blow, whoever is capable should do what they can.”
“Oh, nice one, Laya. I agree; if someone’s in the position to finish it off, they should go for it. Given who’s here, I think that’s probably optimal.”
Now it wouldn’t be an issue if I killed the giant. I wasn’t planning on letting someone else do it anyway, but it was nice knowing that it wouldn’t cause any trouble.
After that, we took a few days to refine our plan, then finally set foot inside the Forbidden City of Trislimigante in order to kill the one who had been protecting its undying citizens for three centuries straight—the One-Armed Giant.