“Well, son-in-law! It’s been a while! I hear you’ve been quite active! Word of your accomplishments has even reached me!”
“It has been a long time. You look well.”
“Hahaha! At my age, one must take care of their health! Besides, we’re practically family! No need for formalities. Now, how about you introduce me to my great-grandchild!”
“Yes, please come in.”
Muil Hendelberg. In my mind, he’s a rather sweet, albeit somewhat meddlesome, surrogate grandfather who, despite his age, has many connections and is incredibly doting on his great-grandchild.
Even though it had been a while since we last met, he was as youthful and energetic as ever, greeting me with a warm, grandfatherly smile. My own tension eased, and I invited him inside.
“Hoh, so son-in-law is once again recommended for a General’s position. Kaah! With this, the Hendelberg family will be even more secure!!”
He’s a good-natured man. When I ask Suella to contact him with a matter to discuss, he rushes over immediately, simply because he has the time.
After a brief chat as a customary greeting, I wanted to briefly explain things, but a full explanation would take too long, so I decided to discuss it in person.
Normally, it would be my place to visit him for a consultation…
“I want to meet my great-grandchild, so I’ll be coming over.”
That was the swift reply I received when I contacted him. Showing off his agile footwork, he came to my home today.
The selection exam for the General position is less than two months away. Currently, the Demon Lord’s Army is abuzz with who the next General will be.
For me, who is lacking in so many areas, this is a time when not a single second can be wasted. Since I was just told to rely on others, I decided to ask for help right away.
Evia and the other superiors are working overtime day and night to thoroughly investigate, to prevent another incident like what happened with Carter. Therefore, I will be the one explaining the selection of the General.
I explained everything to Muil-san, including the circumstances of my recommendation for the General position, my resolve to become a General, my interactions with Suella and the others, and my concerns about what might happen after becoming a General. Muil-san clapped his knee in joy, expressing his delight at this felicitous occasion.
Earlier, while chatting with Yukiera and Sachiera, he had been so relaxed that I worried he might melt all the facial muscles in his expression. Yet, as he drank the tea that Himik had prepared before me now…
“And so, you want me to provide that support.”
A shiver ran down my spine as he transformed into a man with such power that my cheeks involuntarily curved into a smile.
“…You can smile in this situation. It seems my granddaughter’s judgment of you is even more reliable than I thought.”
Seeing my reaction, Muil-san softly returned to his former, kindly grandfather persona.
“Thinking about it, our acquaintance has lasted quite some time.”
“Considering the lifespan of a Dark Elf, it’s only been a few years.”
“A year is a year. There’s no difference. The day you vowed to work hard to settle down with Suella. The day Suella became pregnant with your child. In just a few short years, you’ve given me irreplaceable days.”
He reminisced about the time he first met Muil-san as if it were yesterday, laughing heartily.
“…Before I tell you the conclusion, perhaps I should tell you about the history of the Hendelberg family.”
“History?”
“Ah, though I was the only one involved with our bloodline.”
At the same time, I perceived his powerful laughter as a sign of him steeling himself to reveal his past.
“You could also say it’s the reason Suella recommended me as son-in-law, no, as Jirou-kun’s Aide to the General.”
In the end, I couldn’t hear the reason why Suella and Evia wanted to assign Muil-san as my aide. Both Evia and Suella told me it would be better to hear it directly from Muil-san, without any prior knowledge.
Normally, I would have wanted to investigate beforehand and prepare my response, but even so, I trusted Suella and the others and waited.
Now, facing the fact that he was going to tell me the reason, I felt a little nervous.
“Even so, the Hendelberg family was quite a prestigious house among the Dark Elf species.”
“…And past tense, which means…”
“Yes, a fallen house.”
He began speaking after a brief pause, and it was something I had considered a possibility in my own thoughts.
“My grandfather, Carl Hendelberg, served the previous-previous Demon Lord as the right-hand man supporting the leader of the Dark Elves at the time. While the hardliners held power then, we Dark Elves, as conservatives, hid our position and maintained neutrality.”
Perhaps it was nostalgia, or perhaps it was sadness. His demeanor was unusual for his usual cheerful self, and he spoke of the past in a rather quiet tone.
“The war with Isal grew increasingly intense. In an era where we could not mourn the many young men sent to the battlefield and the few who returned, our army, falling into a disadvantage, finally decided on an all-out counteroffensive.”
This was a history of war in a world I didn’t know. Muil-san’s raw account of that era, so horrific, was stirring something within my heart.
“I was on the battlefield at the time. However, my grandfather and I were not on good terms. My grandfather and father were against letting the still-young me participate, but I was young and foolish, and I had no hesitation in burning my life for the sake of my country.”
He spoke of heading to the battlefield, wishing only to protect the place he could return to.
“The operation was successful at first. Our army, having captured a vast swathe of land in Isal, felt relieved that we had regained our footing. Gradually, our vigilance waned, and the hardliners proposed expanding the front lines further. The generals who agreed began preparing for it. I had also spent a long time on the front lines with my grandfather and the others, and by then, I was in a position to command a detachment. In those days of dwindling lives, I was so caught up that I mistakenly believed I was promoted due to my abilities.”
Muil-san spoke sadly, as if wondering what he had truly been doing, and reached for the teacup on the table, taking a sip to moisten his dry throat.
“Battle after battle. The soldiers’ fatigue was reaching its limit. What was needed was not the expansion of the front lines, but a stalemate. To be more precise, a temporary retreat with a reduction of the front lines would have been ideal. The army at the time couldn’t comprehend this and continued to expand the front lines based on momentum. And the result that awaited them was…”
Then came a story with no salvation. Muil-san, simply recounting the facts, looked at me as if asking what the outcome was. I abandoned my hopes and said the words I had imagined.
“…Ruin, I presume?”
“That’s right.”
It’s an outcome spoken of often in the history of this world too. A great power, confident because they were winning, creates enemies on all sides, eventually reaches its limit, and perishes. It’s a common tale in the history of war. It verbatim demonstrated the saying that excessive power brings about one’s downfall.
“What followed was hell. The collapse of the front lines. The death of generals. We received one dire report after another. Morale plummeted, and deserters became commonplace. Less than thirty percent of the soldiers sent to the front lines managed to escape to the last remaining fortress, the Dungeon.”
A casualty rate exceeding seventy percent. That effectively meant the annihilation of the army.
“And I was leading the rear guard to save the remaining thirty percent who were allowed to live.”
It was then that the story connected, explaining what Muil-san had been doing in such a situation.
“With the enemy pushing forward, the Fourth Division, led by the then leader of the Dark Elves, sensed the collapse of the front lines and decided to retreat rather than reinforce. They gradually withdrew the lines while supporting other units.”
Some even charged to their deaths, and the battlefield was in utter chaos.
“There were those who saw this as betrayal. Yes, the previous-previous Demon Lord.”
And it was those who couldn’t accept defeat who deepened the chaos. It’s natural for things to become more confused when the one at the top behaves that way.
“We were forbidden from retreating, yet we couldn’t advance. Gradually, our kin were scattered across the land of Isal, and the scythe of death drew closer to my neck. ‘I survived today. Will I survive tomorrow?’ Such thoughts chilled the complacency I had felt.”
Muil-san recounted how he simply continued to fight desperately, not knowing what else to do. Fortunately, by lowering the front lines, we Dark Elves succeeded in defending the Dungeon. Although the number of Dark Elves who participated had significantly decreased compared to the beginning, the army still maintained its form.
Battle after battle. The person who was beside you yesterday was gone today. I couldn’t fathom how sad that must have been.
“It was during this time that my grandfather and father perished on the battlefield.”
And then, a decisive turning point arrived for Muil-san.
“My grandfather became a substitute to protect our leader, and my father was killed fighting the enemy on the front lines. There was no time to mourn. There was no room for resentment. If I were to be consumed by such emotions, I wouldn’t survive, and if I died, those who waited for my return would grieve, and my subordinates would die. Perhaps those thoughts kept me alive. While desperately fighting with the desire to return home, I found myself in the same role as my grandfather.”
He supported the leader and fought on the battlefield. And.
“But the real nightmare was yet to come.”
That day had arrived. Sensing what it was, I listened silently to his story, as if foreseeing it.
“The previous-previous Demon Lord was slain by the Hero. It was a spiritual pillar to have the Demon Lord still existing. Without that support, the army could no longer maintain its form. The disorganized army quickly collapsed, and the remnants invading Isal were exterminated one after another. Then, the Hero’s blade reached us.”
The demise of the supreme ruler. That was a matter that shook the nation.
“We narrowly managed to inflict serious injuries on the Hero and repel him from the continent, but it brought no salvation.”
And so, while the enemy’s supreme fighting force remained, our nation’s supreme fighting force was gone. The gap was, sadly, immense.
“We couldn’t enthrone a new Demon Lord before the Hero recovered, nor could our army recover, nor could we even agree to retreat. What awaited us was the Isal army, with its morale soaring, crushing our army piecemeal. As dungeons collapsed one after another, and as our means of crossing to the continent were cut off, the leader and I desperately resisted, determined to save even a few friendly forces if possible. Sometimes, cooperating with other tribes, we defended the Dark Elf dungeons as our last retreat route. But our limits were quickly reached.”
And the supreme force that defeated that ruler certainly wouldn’t leave such a resistance force unchecked.
“We received word that the Hero was coming to our side.”
“I thought it was over then,” Muil-san said.
“When I heard the news, I thought that was where I would die. Many wounded and sick soldiers were sent back to the continent, but there were still many friendly forces left in Isal at the time. Understanding that this was our last hope, I was determined not to retreat, no matter what.”
He made a joke, as if to lighten the somber atmosphere, saying that he, who had initially fought only for glory, had finally become a splendid warrior by then. However, Muil-san’s expression did not brighten.
“I wanted to send as many friendly forces as possible back to the continent where our families awaited. In the continent invaded by the Hero, they were busy selecting a new Demon Lord, and the power they could provide us with was minimal. We were completely abandoned at that time.”
Muil-san did not lament the unchangeable past, wishing only that the Hero hadn’t existed. It would have been an insult to his fallen comrades and fellow soldiers, and he understood better than anyone that speaking of it would offer no solace.
“But none of that mattered. I was simply throwing myself into it. My only wish was to send as many comrades as possible back to the continent before the Hero arrived. We joked amongst ourselves, saying we could return soon and that we’d buy a drink or two once we were back, as we sent them off.”
Then, Muil-san said, that day had come.
“The night before that day was strangely quiet. That is, the sky was covered with thick, dark clouds, and it was only slightly darker compared to the continent. The main army of Isal, which could be called a large contingent, arrived right in front of the fort we Dark Elves had built in Isal, with no beasts or minor spirits in sight.”
And among them, of course.
“The vanguard was the Hero.”
The most terrifying and worst existence for Muil-san and his companions stood before them.
Today’s word:
Explaining the reason is necessary.
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