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“SO, what happened with all the townspeople and the villagers ?”
A few days had passed, and those who had been aiding the towns and villages suffering from starvation had returned to the army. The chief members of the group had been Ogma, Maria, Chrom, and Warren, as well as other top-ranking members of the Hundred.
I was still leading the army on a slow advance through Eylish territory, so it hadn’t been all that difficult for the group to rejoin us. I couldn’t do anything about the scorched-earth policy myself, so I’d left our response to it completely up to them, but I was too afraid to hear what they had been doing, so I hadn’t yet asked. That didn’t mean I was receiving absolutely no reports about it, though, which was why I had braced myself and asked outright how things had gone.
“It went well, exactly as you planned, sir!” Ogma replied, his face lighting up.
Exactly as I planned? What did I plan?
“At first, I couldn’t comprehend why we didn’t hurry to pursue the Eylish army, but now I see that it was part of a vast, visionary strategy!” Maria said next, showering me with ardent praise.
“Huh? Um, uh-huh.” I didn’t really get what they meant, but nothing they were saying seemed bad, so I found myself nodding along unconsciously.
“Rejoice, Your Majesty. Your Eyland Purification Project is proceeding smoothly,” Chrom added, a bold smile on his face.
What’s the Eyland Purification Project? This is the first I’m hearing of it.
“I never would have thought Your Majesty planned to take advantage of Eyland’s scorched-earth policy to spread the monster meat diet,” Warren said. “Yes, a leisurely advance is certainly necessary to carry out this project.” He crossed his arms and nodded several times.
Just hold on a minute. What the hell have you guys done?
“Yeah, about that ‘Eyland Purification Project,’ what exactly—”
Before I could finish speaking, Chrom hurriedly continued.
“Yes, my sincere apologies. Your Majesty’s grand plan was so magnificent that we took the liberty of naming it ourselves.”
Not that I remember planning anything, but okay.
“And, this plan…?”
“I understand what you’re asking,” Chrom said. He probably didn’t understand anything at all. “The first phase of the strategy—to make Kiel and Vulcan leave the front by targeting their countries directly—was brilliant.”
That had just been Frau, Keely, and Sheila getting out of control.
“As part of the second phase, Your Majesty acted through Lady Maria to make the Holy Knights desert and throw the enemy into chaos, forcing the Eylish army to withdraw.”
“That was just Maria going off and—”
“Yes, I simply did everything Your Majesty commanded me to,” Maria said, cutting me off as I tried to deny it and forcing all the responsibility onto me.
This conniving…is she really planning to keep up her pure saint act?
“As part of the third phase,” Chrom continued, “Your Majesty anticipated that the king of Eyland would panic and adopt a scorched-earth policy, so the plan was to take advantage of that and spread monster meat to the starving people. Come to think of it, many of the citizens of Eyland are devout followers of Mauve, so they would never have accepted Farunian rule just because we occupied the country. By getting them to eat monsters, we changed them into Farunian citizens in both body and soul. I would expect nothing less from Your Majesty. What a formidable strategy.”
What’s up with that evil plan? Don’t make it out like I’m the guy who came up with it!
“Mwahaha,” Ogma actually cackled, a nasty expression on his face. “You should have seen those pious fools with tears streaming down their faces as they ate monster meat. It was a riot.”
Are you a demon or something?!
“After the starving rabble eat monster meat once, their aversion to it disappears, and from then on they will eat it without hesitation. Humans are so easily corrupted. How disheartening,” Maria said, turning her face downward. However, her expression was not one of sadness; she was faintly smiling.
You’re talking about food, right? Not some weird drug or something? You know, maybe I’m just worried over nothing, but I get the feeling that Farune is going to go down in history as an insanely evil country.
“That reminds me, what about the water issue?” I asked. “I heard that their wells were poisoned, too.” Food aside, potable water was a vital concern for the entire army.
Ogma scoffed. “No one in Farune’s army is affected by such weak poison.”
Wait, really? You mean that everyone in the army has acquired a resistance to poison because of monster meat?
“If anything,” he continued, “showing off to the people that we can drink the water from poisoned wells was a good advertisement for monster meat. That acted as one last push for many. Truly, every single thing the Eylish army did has been to our army’s advantage. It makes me laugh.” Then, Ogma actually broke into laughter, and the others followed suit.
I felt nothing but sympathy for the king of Eyland. As king, it must have taken a great deal of resolve on his part to implement a scorched-earth strategy, and it was unbearably sad to see it being absolutely ineffective.
Finally, still laughing, Maria spoke. “By now, the Eylish probably won’t be able to live without monster meat anymore,” she said. “This must be what it means when they say the way to someone’s heart is through their stomach.”
This is definitely not what it means.