The Loner Who Conquers the Other World
chapter-254

Day 63 – Morning, Murimuri Castle.

A plenary meeting. With each faction leader in attendance, everyone raised policy suggestions, reconciled them, and decided on the future course of actions.

This time alone, a certain problem person, who has no intentions of reconciling anything, and more inclined to pulverize everything into dust, was also taking part, but since letting him speak would destroy the conference, Angelica-san is covering his mouth from behind. I mean, no matter the time and place he is always thoroughly and utterly the same meeting crusher, discussion destroyer, and participant genocider, so he gets a seal on his mouth!

As ideas are proposed, arguments begin, the assembly heats up, and Haruka-kun is sleeping! Well, if he has no intention of listening, then sealing his mouth destroys any meaning of his participation, let’s let him sleep.

A) Frontier Army crushes the First Prince and proceeds to the Capital. This is Omui-sama’s idea, meanwhile, we garrison Murimuri Castle. Beating an army of 30,000 with 3,000 soldiers and then sieging 20,000 at the capital, it’s hopeless.

B) The Royal Prince’s forces negotiate with the First Prince, proceed to the capital. This is the Royal Prince’s idea. Reconcile with the First Prince by handing over Haruka-kun, and then head to rescue the King. The probability of reaching a compromise is too low, and the person that will be handed over has not a splinter of reconciliation ability. That’s just an annihilation strategy of throwing three destroyers into the enemy camp.

C) The Royal Prince’s forces and the Frontier Army head to the capital for negotiations with the Second Prince, if it doesn’t work, crush him, then negotiate with the First Prince. This is also the Royal Prince’s idea. Why doesn’t he get that handing this person over would lead not to reconciliation but to obliteration!? That’s like going to talks while carrying a nuclear warhead, which definitely has nothing to do with negotiating.

D) Barricade in Murimuri Castle, defeat incoming forces. Our proposal, safe and certain. But… It also means abandoning people of the kingdom. We know only the frontier and the people that live here. But for the others… Especially the people of the Royal Army, who might have families, friends, and lovers left at the capital.

E) Everyone goes to liberate the Capital, the defenses are… Haruka-kun alone. Naturally, this wildly protested suggestion came from Haruka-kun. Moreover, it even includes him tagging along all the way to the capital, and turning back to strike at the enemy, a completely absurd idea. But Angelica-san is nodding. Slime-san is going jiggle-jiggle too.

F) Is the instantly rejected Shariceres-sama’s idea. The point is, she would hold back the First Prince’s army, meanwhile, everyone would retake the capital while defending the frontier. She is very eager, but attempting that with just two people is too reckless. Absolutely no! If she is going, then we absolutely aren’t letting her leave alone.

No one can agree, and no one can persuade the others. Option A is too reckless and has no prospects of victory, but if we go with them it might not be impossible to pull it off. But in that case, the frontier will be left completely defenseless.

Option F, she doesn’t seem like she is trying to die, but that usually would kill you, so it’s out of the question. But if Haruka-kun goes with her they should have an easy time slowing and delaying them with guerilla warfare. Slowing down might include complete annihilation and extermination.

B and C are… crazy in their own way, that is something that shouldn’t be handed over. That is a Present-san that will bring a wretched end to the unfortunate receiver.

And we can’t convince them to use D, it’s an absolutely foolproof failsafe plan, but its safety extends only to the frontier. There is no way to persuade people that have loved ones left in the capital. We wouldn’t agree to this if we were in the same position either!

Then… It’s E.

「No, I mean, like, it’s that, you know? You get it? Even if left alone, the first one is coming here anyway, it’s not like he has any other choice so we can just wait for him? Kind of? And since he is so slow we can just go to the capital first, off them, and go back, there is still more anyway? Ah, but this might not be the real one, so maybe it’s better to send Slime-san on an errand with the Geeks and Idiots? So this should be it I think? Sort of?」

As expected, no one understood a thing, but apparently the army of the First Prince 『Is coming here anyway』since 『It’s not like he has any other choice』, and even if the Capital is retaken and the army of the First Prince is intercepted, 『There is still more?』it seems, and 『This might not be the real one』, so something else is waiting.

All that we apparently have to do is put pressure on the capital, deal with whatever tricks that might come, and just wait. If we feign a siege they should fall on their own with protracted fighting.

And Haruka-kun seems to have no problem with defending Murimuri Castle alone. With Angelica-san going with Stalker Girl-chan’s group and even Slime-san leaving with Oda-kun, truly alone, without anyone to guard him. He is going to fight in this castle by himself.

The Royal Prince keeps screaming『Escaping, are you!』or『Seize him』, but everyone else is silent. No matter how one thinks about it, E is absurd. But that’s the only suggestion that reads into the underlinings of the war and what is to come after it. And even the extremely overprotective Angelica-san who absolutely doesn’t want to separate is nodding. Even Slime-san is bouncing in agreement.

「Like, alone, but it’s, like, sort of easier by myself? I mean, they seem to have an ace up their sleeve, but not really? So to prevent them from hiding it we have them pull it out and when they do crush them, I mean, they are going down if they don’t pull it out anyway. And since I’m going to crush them, having lots of people around would be a problem? Like, it will sprout so they’ll be in the way? Kind of?」

He seems to have a plan, but as usual, we can’t understand what he is saying. It sounds nothing but reckless. The only thing I can tell is that he isn’t cautious of the First Prince’s 30,000 strong army, rather, he is talking as if it’s already over for them. Then he must be speaking of what is to come after that.

We can’t find an agreement. We can’t settle on anything, and the conclusion can’t be reached..

Haruka-kun is discussing something with Oda-kun and others? Kakizaki-kun’s group is also with them, but they aren’t listening. Could it be about the『Errand』that he mentioned? Oda-kun and others look unusually serious.

「President~. How about we agree on something at least in a girls-only gathering? It is precisely because developments are so sudden that we need to have some sort of direction settled in advance.」

「「「Agreed, everyone is probably going to scatter?」」」

Everyone moving on their own is the worst. The frontier’s side is the fewest in number to begin with, if they end up splitting it wouldn’t be possible to even make it into a fight.

Omui-sama is persuading the Royal Prince, meanwhile, we will stop the princess. She has the highest risk of going amok. Her and the royal army.

「Shariceres-sama, we are going to hold a summit (Girls-Only Gathering), would you like to join us? We have tea and sweets prepared?」

We surely got the princess with this. Her expression turned from valiantly tragic to a smile at one mention of sweets. Previously, Haruka-kun seems to have told her『You can’t eat sweets if you are dead』, in a way incredibly wise words. His mouth usually mass-produces nonsense that can’t be considered even falsely profound and is closer to psychedelic, without even a shred of truth to it, but among all of the ridiculous stuff that he says, there are sometimes, seldom, very rarely, words that no one can retort to.

「Stalker Girl-chan, pay close attention to Haruka-kun. Reward is ten sweets.」

「Leave it to me! Get me something Sweetylicious.」

I got a bell on Haruka-kun’s neck. This time even Angelica-san and Slime-san approve of his idea. We can’t read his movements, in other words, we have to act before he makes a move, or it will be too late to react.

Moving to a large room we begin a Girls-only meeting with tea and sweets.

「If Haruka-kun says he is fine alone then he must have some sort of a plan. Wouldn’t nonchalantly strolling into Haruka-kun’s well prepared welcome normally get one totally destroyed?」

「I’m a bit uneasy about leaving Haruka-kun alone, but the welcome includes Fake Dungeon and Murimuri Castle’s traps~, and the person who is awaiting them at the end is Haruka-kun himself…」

「「「Like, Welcome to Hell?」」」

But there seems to be something after that. Rather, suppose he comes with us to the capital, then going back and welcoming the first prince is fine, but can we return in time for what is coming after that? Can we take the Capital in such a short time period? And he seems to have some idea about that too, claiming that it will fall on its own if we just wait.

「The real fight seems to be coming after that, and Oda-kun’s errand seems to be important too?」

「What worries me is Angelica-san going on a separate mission with the Stalker Girl, for him to have no one around…」

「Want to leave someone behind for protection? Like Shield Pres or Gymnastics Girl…」

Having someone guarding him would be reassuring. Shield Girl-chan can handle unavoidable attacks, and Gymnastics Girl can take care of assassins. However, it’s not like our formation has that much leeway, and even if Haruka-kun is fine on his own, it might be too dangerous to leave Shield Pres-chan or Gymnastics Girl there alone.

Even Shimazaki-san’s group, who probably want to remain by his side the most, aren’t saying anything. The tamed group absolutely can’t be taken off the main force. Especially if Kakizaki and Oda-kun’s groups aren’t coming. That’s why they are enduring it without saying a word.

「If Oda-kun and Kakizaki-kun’s parties aren’t coming we can’t afford to remove anyone from the formation, consider 20 people to be the bare minimum.」

Haruka-kun’s explanation is too cryptic for understanding. I’m pretty sure that’s the way he speaks when he is trying to hide something. He must be up to something dangerous, but if so, Angelica-san and Slime-san definitely wouldn’t leave his side, is this actually going to be okay?

「Ehm, can we join the group too? We’d like to be helpful at least while we are together.」

「「「Really? Totally yes, and big welcome~!」」」

「The princess legion has formed!」

There is only one princess, so it’s not even a group. Well, if we call Meriel-sama we’d have two? Maybe we should try asking her? It’s dubious if that would count as a group, but at least that would be enough for plural form.

「Let’s have legion practice? Together with the princess!」

For group combat practice we had the princess give us a lecture on army combat, while for the party action we ended up with a study meeting where the princess was the one learning.

It was very educational for me as a commander. While she wasn’t bringing up any complicated military maneuvers or orders, her instructions were very precise. Her formations and plans were simple, but effective, with situation assessment being largely overshadowed by risk detection, and the amazing judgment that wouldn’t let an opportunity slip. Truly a general.

「Everyone is so strong! Even your individual strength is overwhelming, but fighting as a group your war potential is greater by orders of magnitude! You can fight even 10,000 army with just 30 people!」

In turn, she bombarded me with questions on tactics and cooperation, ways to combine skills, offensive and defensive sequences. She even took notes like a diligent student.

In the end, the princess legion worked quite well, with cooperation and formations functioning as intended. Even though she is a princess she has a frontline job, capable of filling roles of tank or melee attacker, she is tough and hard hitting. That’s the symbol of the royal army. Princess Diorer.

The strength of the one who continuously fought for the sake of the Kingdom, the strength that protected its people. So this time, we are going to protect the princess.