Another side
“I suppose the first phase is a success.”
Dazzlo nodded with satisfaction at the result produced by the white tower that appeared, projected from the crystal.
“Our decisive action also went according to plan. Indeed, it was worth all the thorough preparations.”
Thanks to a certain collaborator, they obtained the spatial coordinates of the Demon Lord’s Castle. After verifying them, they reported it to their employer, the princess, which turned out to be their undoing.
The princess, who boasted that she would use any means necessary, even against her own parents, instructed them to change the plan. Dazzlo rushed to make the impromptu changes possible.
Considering his recent workload, Dazzlo desperately wished for a vacation.
He had dark circles under his eyes, his cheeks were sunken, and he didn’t even want to think about his average sleep time for the week. He had been working non-stop.
If the plan failed after all this, it would be unbearable.
“Now then, let’s send out the brave warriors.”
While making it known to their allies that their preparations would take time, they fed misinformation to the enemy side. They also manipulated things, telling those who were eager to take credit that they would be given the opportunity, thus assigning them the role of vanguards.
“Ah, it’s so economical and wonderful when people are motivated just by flattery. I wish our princess were that simple.”
“Oh, so it’s my fault for being such an intelligent princess?”
“I’m merely thinking about how much you must have struggled. I don’t think for a second that it would have been better if she were simple.”
“That’s a classic slip of the tongue, Dazzlo. Well, let’s chalk it up to sleep deprivation affecting your thinking.”
“I appreciate your magnanimous judgment. So, is it alright for you to be here? As the Commander, shouldn’t you be seeing off the soldiers?”
“Ah, it was all too tiresome, so I did as you suggested. I flattered them with a smile and sent them rushing to the battlefield. They seemed quite spirited, so it should serve as a good diversion.”
“Indeed, that’s a development that should be considered most fortunate by the Princess.”
Seeing the results, Dazzlo let out a sigh of relief, wanting to complain for a moment, but his superior, Princess Anri, didn’t allow him that luxury.
She recognized her own beauty as a weapon and had a readily available arsenal of honeyed words to ensnare men, hinting at marriage if they returned safely with spoils of war.
“Yes, with this, we can move on to the next step.”
“The next step? Honestly, the straightforward approach would be to commit all our forces to the Demon Lord’s Castle and defeat him now.”
“If we did that, we would lose.”
“Indeed. We don’t expect to conquer their base just by sheer numbers.”
The princess, who excelled at strategy, did not rejoice in the successful surprise attack that sealed the Demon Lord. Instead, she treated it as merely the beginning, as if the chess game had just started with the first move. She showed no complacency or arrogance.
“The vanguard, as per the plan, will initiate combat, and the main disruptive force will be deployed immediately after. They are not to engage in the main battle, but prioritize remaining hidden.”
“Yes, yes, I understand. We are preparing to infiltrate every possible location: human settlements, mountains, riverbanks. Disrupting information is crucial to winning this war.”
“Indeed. Their power is immense, but if we can prevent them from using it, we win. Prioritize gathering information on the generals who serve as the pillars of their army.”
“Yes, yes. I’ll gather information on the new generals as well.”
Princess Anri had decided that a head-on confrontation would only occur in this initial battle and the final decisive battle. By suffering an initial loss, she could eliminate the motivated but incompetent individuals who would otherwise be a hindrance.
This would make the remaining army easier to maneuver and utilize.
Most importantly, by staging a feigned retreat, they would lull the enemy into a sense of security. Princess Anri believed this would create an opening.
“Now, the question is how long the Demon Lord will remain sealed. If I recall correctly, the Princess estimated about a month?”
“It’s a divine treasure. Even with their formidable demonic race, I don’t believe they can conquer it so quickly. That’s merely the worst-case scenario. Under normal circumstances, it would take half a year.”
This opening should persist as long as the Demon Lord is sealed. They planned to use the guerrilla units sent in to cause disruption, destabilize public order, break down their coordination, and weaken the enemy army.
If the opponent is strong, one must weaken them.
While gods, their apostles, and other nations seem to aim for direct conquest, such methods are irrational. Princess Anri’s focus was on how to weaken them and defeat the weakened opponent with minimal effort, and how to enjoy the process.
As Princess Anri and Dazzlo simultaneously savored their current positions, which allowed them to fulfill their obligations while indulging in pleasure, and prepared to move to their next action.
Noise ran through the image being relayed from the tower.
“Hm? Something’s strange.”
Noise in the footage sent from the Tower of God, a divine treasure. Such a thing should not happen under normal circumstances.
Therefore, Dazzlo assumed something unusual was happening.
He reached for the crystal to check the tower’s status, intending to investigate the cause. At that moment…
“Huh?”
A shock ran through the tower.
The image flickered and became unstable.
Both Dazzlo and Princess Anri thought it impossible. Shaking the Tower of God, which humanity could not destroy no matter how hard they tried. Even the highest-ranking Seraph would require time and preparation for destruction.
The Tower of God was originally designed for battles between gods. In terms of durability, it was no exaggeration to say it was physically indestructible. In fact, the attacks from the giant dragon they had been fighting moments before had no effect.
Therefore, it was understandable for a stunned voice to escape them at the sight of the Tower of God shaking. And the being capable of this…
“Im-impossible.”
The princess, whom others called mad and said couldn’t be left unsupervised for fear of what she might do, had never imagined such a display of madness.
“Is it… slicing up the Tower of God?”
Though they couldn’t discern it on the shaking tower, by switching to the imagery of other towers and adjusting the visible scene, they quickly understood what was happening.
The culprit was positioned in front of the tower stationed at the Demon Lord’s Castle’s main entrance. A figure, tearing through the barrier and at arm’s length from the tower itself, was rapidly swinging something.
Neither the battle-inexperienced Princess Anri nor even the battle-hardened Court Mage Dazzlo could immediately comprehend what was happening.
But as they watched the surface of the Tower of God being scraped and gradually gouged, they understood what was occurring.
“Uh, Princess, didn’t you say it would take a month to conquer?”
However, understanding and accepting are two different things. Dazzlo was also checking the durability of the Tower of God himself. Therefore, his brain communicated that the reality before him was a landscape he could not accept.
“It-it’s alright. The Tower of God has a regeneration function. And there’s also a dimensional barrier. Once the attack stops, it will be fixed in no time.”
“…Will it stop?”
Princess Anri, who was usually calm and never showed distress, was shaken. Dazzlo interjected, unheard by her as she insisted it was alright.
The crystal displayed a human attacking the tower with a sword speed that was inherently impossible for humans, scraping its surface.
“It will stop. Besides, the range that can be cut by a single sword is limited. The parts that cannot be cut will be repaired immediately.”
Even seeing this, Princess Anri insisted it would be alright. Dazzlo, based on logical reasoning, could agree. However, having experienced the battlefield, he knew that things didn’t always proceed based on logic alone. He had a premonition that this was one of those times.
“Furthermore, even if one tower is destroyed, there will be no problem. In this deployment, we have arranged for mutual repair of the towers. At this pace, we can repair the first tower destroyed even after starting on the next.”
However, the princess, lacking battlefield experience, was still unable to abandon her logical thinking. Dazzlo saw her weakness at this moment, despite her unparalleled strength in areas like scheming and preparation.
Princess Anri was undoubtedly excellent in on-site judgment and command. However, it was all based on her knowledge and experience, within the scope of her imagination. She couldn’t cope with things that deviated from her established domain of thought.
An elf girl, who started with mischief, made information gathering her hobby, and excelled at reading others’ thoughts. She possessed the qualities of a ruler, able to move people, unite them, and deceive opponents. She had been proceeding smoothly, experiencing no major failures and understanding the importance of failure. She had intended to eliminate all possibilities of defeat.
But alas, this world contains irregulars who are not bound by common sense. Dazzlo knew that irregulars were beings who couldn’t be dealt with within the framework of common sense. Princess Anri had thought that even if there were irregulars, she could somehow manage. Who could say that this difference led to this result? All it was was a simple, unfortunate coincidence.
The image on the crystal did not show the outcome Princess Anri had envisioned. The white tower, which she was told could not be cut, was more than half-severed by a sword whose blade had extended from midway.
“Stop here,” a wish mixed with a hope began to form in the Princess’s mind. It wasn’t logic, nor was it based on any evidence; it was a simple rejection, no, an aversion. “What is impossible is impossible.” Though these words might be spoken by someone else, Princess Anri had heard them as if they concerned someone other than herself. *Others might be like that, but I am different.* Yet, for the first time in her life, she was witnessing an act of utter irrationality.
“A lie.”
“Whoa, do we have to fight that?”
In twenty minutes, the Tower of God was felled by a single individual. The tower collapsed from the middle, and tears appeared in the barrier. However, only one of the six towers had fallen, so there was no problem with the Demon Lord’s seal. It only increased the burden on the other towers, but the barrier itself was unaffected. *It’s still alright.* This was what sustained Princess Anri’s heart.
This might have been correct if the man who cut through the tower was alone. If he had tried to do something by himself, the result would undoubtedly have fallen within Princess Anri’s imaginative scope. Ultimately, it would have been a matter of realizing that there were entities to be wary of.
But alas, reality is cruel. A gray dragon, jumping into the hole dug by the efforts of a single individual, instantly dyed itself black and caused a massive explosion in the space that was trying to repair itself. At first glance, it appeared to be a suicide attack, but for the dragon, it was merely releasing its internal magic power with explosive force.
For a few seconds, it surpassed the tower’s repair capabilities, widening the opened hole. *Mere defiance.* It looked like nothing more. At this moment, Dazzlo was certain of their failure, and Princess Anri was about to sneer at their futile struggle. Dazzlo, who did not believe in absolutes, and Princess Anri, who believed she could create absolutes. That difference determined the impact of the shock they felt at the sight of all the Towers of God being toppled by the black light emanating from the Demon Lord’s Castle, which pierced through that small gap. It was the moment they witnessed reality overturned immediately after being certain of their initial success.
Today’s word: There are no absolutes.
Thank you for your continued feedback and reports of typos. If you found this interesting, please leave a review, rating, bookmark, etc. I am also currently serializing another work, “Pandora Pandemic Panic.” The Pandora’s Box has been opened again, but we are fighting back with secret bases and various other means!! Please check it out as well!!
