Chapter 159 – The Young Lady (11)
The grand duchy’s castle, expanded by selling off the countless gifts generously showered upon it by handsome men.
The artistic quality and sheer scale of the castle, further enhanced by the Young Lady’s vanity, were the greatest in the world of <The Generous Young Lady Who Receives Everything>.
“Waaaaah!”
“Waaaa!”
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom…!
The castle walls, completely surrounded by the allied forces so that not even a single slime could escape.
The outcome of the war was already decided, and inside the walls, people were fighting among themselves, split between those who wanted to surrender and those who refused.
‘Surrender? Don’t make me laugh!’
‘What’s so funny? We’ve already lost!’
‘Even so, handing our lovely Young Lady over to those barbarians?!’
‘We have to live if we want to survive!’
‘Shut your mouth! No matter that she’s my daughter, I’m truly ashamed of you!’
‘What has the Young Lady ever done for us?!’
‘…She deigned to live among lowly people like us, hasn’t she?!’
‘Such a wonderful Young Lady, huh! Ptooey!’
‘You— you bitch…!’
‘Dad, is the Young Lady more important to you than your only son who was dragged off to the battlefield?’
‘…Of course!’
Even the family that should be cherished and loved most in the world split apart in an instant.
The elderly were determined to fight to the death!
The young wanted immediate surrender!
Even in the medieval era, the concept of “elders” existed in every village, but it was nowhere near the level of respect for the elderly seen in modern society.
However, all the young men with loud voices who could have made a difference had already been sent to the battlefield, leaving only women inside the walls. And crucially, the Young Lady’s personal guard had been selected based on body rather than face—they were the elite!
They swiftly suppressed the commotion.
‘The Young Lady’s dogs…!’
‘For the crime of insulting our beloved Young Lady, you are sentenced to hanging.’
‘You and the Young Lady are both finished! How about accepting reality?’
‘Carry out the sentence!’
‘The allied hero will—’
Clank.
The young women with strong, mannish spirits who had been raising their voices were subdued by the Young Lady’s guard and hanged to death in the middle of the plaza.
‘……’
‘……’
It was pitiful that those young ladies were publicly executed just for saying the right thing, but there was nothing I, watching from outside the walls using only my perception, could do for them.
Moreover, countless pitiful humans had already fallen on the battlefield, and those who could not return to their hometowns and families were buried together with the enemy in the middle of the plain.
That is war.
The only thing I could do was to end this tragedy as quickly as possible without increasing the number of sacrifices here any further.
(Has the knighthood practical training finished too?)
Yes, it has!
“Hmm… It seems difficult to expect voluntary surrender.”
Normally, when this badly outnumbered, internal strife would erupt, the king’s head would be cut off and offered in surrender. But the world’s setting rejected that natural progression and favored the protagonist until the very, very last moment.
However—
“Count Amolang! Preparations for the siege are complete!”
“Morale is at its peak!”
“Just give the order, and we can scale the walls at any time!”
The old men steeped in the world’s setting had been removed, and the newly appointed young staff officers were overflowing with enthusiasm.
That’s good, but…
“You’re saying you’ll cross a moat as wide and deep as a river, then climb ladders up walls taller and steeper than a cliff?”
They simply lacked too much real combat experience.
“There are almost no soldiers guarding the top of the walls, so it’s possible!”
“That’s right! We can climb the walls without any interference!”
Theoretically, they weren’t wrong.
But people would fall into the moat and drown, fall from the ladders and die, get trampled by comrades, get hit by stray arrows…
Reality and theory are different.
Even without interference from the grand duchy’s forces, the poorly trained conscripts of the allied army would suffer massive accidental deaths trying to cross that terrifying moat and scale those walls.
“I will accept no objections. Starting now, we will mobilize the grand duchy soldiers we’ve taken as prisoners to fill in the moat in front of the walls.”
“Ah!”
“Ooooh!”
The staff officers, who had been thinking only of ending the war quickly, let out cries of admiration.
“Listen to the end. While they work, we won’t be idle either. Transport wood, stones, and other materials up to the edge of the moat to assist the prisoners. And fire the catapults day and night toward the castle beyond the walls. It doesn’t matter if they don’t hit the castle itself. The threat alone is enough.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Yes! Count!”
In the medieval era, moving house or traveling was extremely difficult, so human relationships were far narrower than modern people can imagine. And because they were so narrow, everyone in their village or city knew each other completely. If you checked the family tree, they were distant relatives.
The grand duchy soldiers taken as prisoners?
The miller’s son, the blacksmith’s son, the grandson of the neighboring farmer, a friend’s son-in-law, a cousin’s brother, a friend of a friend, the older brother of someone they had a crush on…
They were all connected in one way or another!
“Move faster!”
“You want to starve?”
“No chatting!”
The order I gave as the self-appointed supreme commander holding all command authority over the allied forces was immediately transmitted throughout the entire army.
Chaos erupted atop the walls!
No matter how much the world’s setting made them adore and love the Young Lady, could they really attack and kill their own family with their own hands?
For ordinary people, it was impossible.
“Shoot your arrows!”
“Throw stones!”
No matter how much the personal guard shouted and threatened,
“I—I can’t do it…”
“Just kill me instead…!”
The citizens, unable to choose between the Young Lady and their families, resorted to the extreme escape of suicide.
“Mother!”
“Sister…!”
The grand duchy soldiers who witnessed their family members throw themselves off the walls and fall to their deaths were left in utter shock and despair.
And that fury was directed toward the personal guard who had driven their families into such an extreme situation, and toward the Young Lady who still refused to surrender even now.
“Come out, Young Lady!”
“Surrender right now!”
“Open the gates…!”
But there was no response from the Young Lady. At this distance, I had thought I would be able to tell what she was doing, but I couldn’t even pinpoint which part of the palace she was in.
(Perhaps the witch spirited her away like she did with the count’s young lady.)
Don’t say such horrible things!
“…Quietly gather the bravest among the soldiers cutting down the forest. I will bestow great rewards upon whoever opens the gates and lowers the drawbridge.”
“What do you mean by that, sir?”
“While their attention is focused here, we will attack another gate.”
I could do it myself, but from now on, I decided to focus entirely on my perception. That way, if the witch Ranuvela interfered, I could respond immediately!
If she tries to get in my way again this time…
(And if she does?)
“……”
I’ll fight. Even if it means dying and negatively affecting reality, I will fight.
Just as the witch considers me “interfering” when I treat patients, I also consider her “interfering”!
Someday, we will have to settle this once and for all.
“We’ll recruit them immediately!”
“Hm.”
I closed my eyes and concentrated my mind.
Witch Ranuvela.
Finding her, who protects her body in her “own world” the same way I do, wouldn’t be easy, but she wouldn’t be able to hide the Young Lady as well.
“Come if you’re coming.”
I won’t let her simply snatch away a patient so easily like last time.
***
…Was I being too sensitive?
The witch never appeared, and the brave soldiers climbed the completely empty walls, lowered the drawbridge, and flung the gates wide open.
Clop clop clop clop!
Clop clop!
The allied forces’ hastily assembled cavalry, gathered from riderless warhorses, swiftly charged inside the walls.
“You filthy…!”
The personal guard who belatedly noticed the breach rushed over, but what could a single squad member—let alone an entire unit—do alone?
“Gah?!”
“Aaack?!”
Stab! Slash! Thud!
True to his reputation as one of the Young Lady’s elite guard, his martial prowess was outstanding. He managed to kill eighteen soldiers, including cavalrymen, before dying a heroic death.
This was reality.
If the allied soldiers hadn’t let their guard down, he wouldn’t have been able to take even eight lives, let alone eighteen.
“Charge.”
Even so, just eighteen people. The allied forces pouring through the open gates easily exceeded 180,000. This was beyond the realm that any individual—without fantasy elements like magicians—could possibly stop.
“Capture the Young Lady!”
“Waaaaah!”
“The gates are open!”
“Uoooooh!”
The allied forces that scaled the walls turned the mansion where the Young Lady had once lived—now used as a villa—into a complete wreck, then pushed straight through to the front of the inner castle.
“Wow?”
Another wall?
It was fortunate that the grand duchy had declared war first and come out beyond the walls. If they had chosen to hunker down like a turtle behind the walls and hold a siege?
Just imagining it was horrifying.
If the walls we had crossed were the egg white of a fried egg, then the majestic inner castle before us was the rich, delicious yolk… the Young Lady’s paradise.
“But since we’ve made it this far, it’s over!”
Unlike the outer walls, the inner castle had no moat, and the walls weren’t even that high.
Rather than for defense, weren’t they built mainly to prevent lowly commoners from peeking in on the protagonist’s embarrassingly lovey-dovey romance…?
“Young Lady~!”
“Young Lady…!”
The personal guard who had forced the citizens to attack the prisoners from the outer walls.
Realizing the allied forces had pushed all the way to the inner castle, they hurriedly rushed back, only to be crushed by the overwhelming allied army.
Applause for their loyalty, at least—the fact that they shouted for the Young Lady until the very moment they died, refusing to surrender or flee!
And also,
“Take those brave citizens down.”
“Yes, Count!”
The grand duchy young ladies who had been hanged in the plaza as a warning example even after their execution.
Now decomposing, losing their beauty, and beginning to be swarmed by insects, we gathered them and gave them a simple cremation.
Whoosh—!
If their souls exist, may they be reborn in a reality free from such absurd settings…
“Aaack?!”
“S-save me!”
“Kyaaa?!”
At that moment, pained screams from the servants and maids working inside the inner castle rang out.
That meant…
“This count hasn’t even given the attack signal yet. Who did this?”
“Huh?”
“Count?”
The staff officers, who had been watching the cremation together, looked bewildered at my sudden question.
…Not us?
If the allied forces hadn’t moved, there was only one possible answer.
“Finally, an internal revolt has broken out.”
It felt a bit too late, but it seemed someone had decided to subdue the Young Lady, who refused to surrender, and offer her to the allied forces.
People who want to live have to live.
“Count! Over there!”
“Gasp! The inner castle is on fire!”
The staff officers, who noticed it a beat later than I did while scouting the inner castle with my perception, all shouted at once about the anomaly.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Just to be safe… relay the message that no one is to kill or seriously injure the Young Lady. She must remain unharmed until she stands trial in the sacred court watched by every nation that cooperated with the allied forces.”
…That’s just an excuse. If the patient dies or her mind is broken from torture, it would be a bit troublesome for me in reality.
“Understood!”
“It’s almost over now. Don’t get careless at the very end and ruin everything.”
“Yes! Count!”
“Hm.”
As Senior had guessed, it seemed my voice carried real weight. Whatever I ordered, they followed without question.
It was convenient, but it also felt strange—like giving commands to an emotionless machine.
(…Junior.)
Yes?
(Weren’t you already a lustful demon fantasizing about Princess Aronia’s slender legs hidden under her skirt? Now it seems you’ve added a perverted trait that complains even when things are convenient.)
“N-no, it’s a misunderstanding.”
I wasn’t imagining Princess Aronia’s legs—I was imagining Song Sun-young’s.
(Yes. You were comparing the two.)
No, I wasn’t?!
“Count! Count!”
“Why the fuss… Ah, the inner gate is opening on its own.”
Rumble—
The inner castle’s gate opened.
Now, the neatly packaged Young Lady—ready for us to take—and the leader of this rebellion would appear…
“Uwaaaah!”
“S-save me!”
“It’s a monster!”
Servants and maids covered head to toe in bright red blood came rushing out of the gate.
“…Monster?”
A bad feeling crept over me.
“Calm down and tell us what happened!”
One of the staff officers questioned a maid who had fled from the inner castle in my place.
“Ughhh…”
“Hurry!”
“A monster came out of the Young Lady’s room! And… and then… urk!”
The maid, her face dyed bright red with someone’s blood, vomited.
“What…”
“Everyone’s dead! Even Levin of the Gale, who secretly loved me without the Young Lady knowing…!”
“C-calm down.”
“Waaah! Levin! Levin~!”
“……”
Since the maid was in no state to talk, a servant whose rough breathing had calmed a little answered the staff officer’s question instead.
“Realizing the gravity of the situation too late, the terrified Young Lady began searching for poison.”
“Ah…!”
A sigh escaped me involuntarily.
From the moment the word “monster” came out of their mouths, I had already guessed…
(The Sword Demon has awakened.)
Yeah.
It seemed the patient, whose mental strength was too weak, had taken poison in an attempt to commit suicide.
‘Why on earth…?’
I admit I pushed her hard. But I didn’t worry because, like with Ranuvel’s patient, when the dream world became too difficult, she would simply wake up.
Song Sun-young had been an exception, but even she returned to reality before it became unbearable enough to drive her to suicide!
That was the rule I thought applied.
I reflected deeply on my complacent judgment and calculations.
“It’s here!”
“It’s the monster!”
“Gasp! What the hell is that?!”
Creak—
The blood-soaked Sword Demon appeared from inside the gate.
“…Everyone, fall back. This count will handle it personally.”
Srrrng—
I drew the sword at my waist, then sliced my palm and let the blood drip onto the blade.
(What are you planning to do?)
“That’s…”
I’ll cut off all the unnecessary limbs from the patient first, then take my time thinking about it!
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TL Note:
The novel is fully completed (231 chapters)
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