Chapter 130 – Explanations of the strategy.

Side: Yuki

Everyone"s eyes are gathered on me.

(Yuki)「Yosh, I’ll explain my strategy. If you notice anything off, just let me know. 」

After I drew everyone’s attention to the map, I brought my whiteboard to the front and started up the usual monitor.
The conference rooms device appears out of nowhere.
But only we are able to use it. Both physically and visually.

(Yuki)「This is the not just a simple map like on the desk. Using this you can zoom in. 」

To demonstrate my explanation, I zoom in on Weed to the point where the arrangement of houses at the village"s rim are visible.
Liliana is startled, her face is turning pale.1)Face: I love this little bit of info
Simply put, this could be interpreted as an extreme method of monitoring, since it"s able to shed light on the circ.u.mstances of far away places.
Well, in modern-day Earth, the same thing is always done with the satellites. They constantly keeping watch over one another.
Being one-sidedly watched without consent isn’t something funny.

(Yuki)「Then, my strategy is as follows. 」

On the Monitor, with a stick, I point to the now displayed Weed, Roch.e.l.le and the castle of Last where the Demon King resides.
I traced and explained the shortest route.

(Yuki)「This is the army’s marching path, as I said earlier. You all know that when you try to open another route, it’ll just cause problems and make things an organisasional nightmare, right?」

They all nod at my question.

(Yuki)「But for us it’s not a problem. Using the authority of a Dungeon Master and exercising our power, it is possible to make a road in a straight line from Weed. There’s no problem regarding the necessary amount of DP either. 」

Everyone’s eyes are wide open after hearing my not-so-obvious solution. If we can map an area by making it a part of the dungeon, then we can of course change the terrain of it as well, just like any other dungeon.

(Yuki)「But we can’t use this strategy. Although the damage our army would sustain would be minimized, even if we take over the castle, it"d just be too bad for our reputation, not to mention the need to talk our way out of what we did. Hiding it wouldn"t work either, even if we put out a gag order, news would certainly leak, restoring the terrain would be nigh impossible, the enemy would know what we did too. After that"s exposed, maybe only as a rumor, either way, Weed which was able to use such a strategie so easily would become untrustworthy and in an extreme case too-dangerous-to-overlook for our neighbors. 」

(Riel)「Eto, what do you mean?」

Riel"s asking one of her usual questions. She’s scratching her head too.
As always, she is a good child that listens honestly.

(Yuki)「In other words, it’d work until we knock down the Demon King, but the method we used would be whispered to the ears of other countries after that. They would say "Weed has used its absolute power to intervene in another country, they have beaten their enemies without mercy. Tell me how we are supposed to trust their preaching words of peace when they are such merciless people who both possess and utilize such destructive power."」

(Riel)「Why is it a problem of we"re strong?」

(Yuki)「This would lead to problems further down the line. At the moment there is a lot of interests gathering in Weed, so currently this problem wouldn’t concern me. However in the future whether it"s an ordinary person or a veteran soldier, if they"ve been shown the power of the Dungeon, they"d fear it. This kind of fear is very unpredictable, some people would want to knock us down and grab Weed before others do, some would move far away just to be far from us and some would simply be more unwilling to make trading agreements with us. 」

When I said that, everyone remained uniformly silent.

(Seraria)「I see. It is certainly important to show off our strength, but not at the expense of touching the countries around us. That would surely come back to bite us. 」

Seraria easily understood what I had said.
Certainly, cheats like the dungeon are useful.
But it’s only a threat for someone who doesn’t have a cheat too.
Balance is important in everything.

(Tori)「Well, it is impossible to send the army directly to the Demon King’s castle without the power of the Dungeon. 」

Tori speaks, her dog’s ears drooping off to the side.

(Yuki)「Yeah, it’s the same for an underground route. No, I guess an underground route would be even more ridiculous. 」

「Yuki-san, it is as you say. I also partic.i.p.ated in the construction conference of Galtz’s Dungeon Gate. We had a lot of trouble deciding how deep and how st.u.r.dy we should build it. 」

Yes, even the gates we set up slowly and carefully during negotiations are troublesome to get approved and place.
If it is proven that we can make and use them offensively without permission, the countries wouldn’t see them in a positive light, let alone the bringers of trade and peace.
The rulers of the three countries are aware of it, but they take stance with us, asking others to accept our Dungeons. 2)they"re troublesome because you have to get permission to make them and you can"t let them know you can make it without asking for permission since it will cause a rift in trust.

(Yuki)「There is another reason. It is necessary for the allied forces to struggle a bit when we fight, as a means to a.s.sure that the Demons mix with other races and to make them accept their defeat when it comes. We’re also the only ones who can easily and quickly set up the next Demon King after joining hands. Additionally if the joint armies aren’t needed, dissatisfaction would appear among those who have invested in the war to gain honor and such. And finally, there wouldn’t be another opportunity such as this to get to know the other races during war time. The road to peace bears many hardships and knowing why wars happen, but more importantly how to stop them before they happen, will be helpful. 」

(Riel)「Oh right, I got it. If you fight, you can get along with each other. Even if your on bad terms for now, at the end of the battle, we will be able to drink and share stories. 」

Riel is close enough I guess.
If you do struggle in battle, it would be hard not to recognize the opposition and thus create the groundwork required for a relationship to form. But that can only be the result of making a life and death fight at the frontlines, or after being a commanding officer. However there will inevitably also be grunts on the frontlines who will lose too much in battle and will end up resenting the enemy for it. Realistically though, those sentiments can hardly be worse than their opinion of the Demons now.
If the elites of each country were to recognize the Demons as a people, then the impact would be immense.

(Lulu)「Oh I understand now, is this why you’ve put in so much effort to engage the elites?」3)Chill: ref. speech

Lulu guessed what my intentions might be and is eagerly awaiting confirmation.

(Yuki)「It is as you said Lulu. If the elites recognize the demons and declare only their King as unskilful; then persuading the citizens would proceed much more safely and naturally. 」

I said that and looked at Liliana.

(Liliana)「If I may interject, I could act as a spy and open a Gate inside the Demon King’s castle, allowing the allied forces to rush inside. 」

(Yuki)「If they’re unleashed inside the city in that manner, there would be far too many problems. Not to mention, that would be no simple feat, even if you contact a former subordinate. There"s simply no way you can guarantee that you wouldn"t be betrayed on your way to your most trusted subordinates. Moreover losing you is simply not an option, given how you need to lead after the current Demon King’s removal and all. 」

Yes, this is the problem. There’s no way for Liliana to know what her former subordinates would do.
Even if she manages to reach Last secretly, she would still have to negotiate with the other two members of the big four, who are no doubt under strict surveillance.
In other words, Liliana has already preached her desire for peace and in the eyes of the other demons it didn"t work and now the trust the other demons placed in her has already disappeared.
Simply put, it would be the same as asking for another loan of money to restart a business again because you failed to start the business once.
It would be seen as a shameless act.

(Liliana)「……. So be it. Then, what is your strategy?　We have only discussed problems until now.」

(Yuki)「Yes, that"s true. Then, while clearing the problems mentioned we must capture the Demon King’s castle. 」

(Lutz)「Fumufumu, back to the story from a while ago…… 」

Lutz walks to the white board and writes everything down.

・Limiting damage to the allied forces as much as possible whilst marching to the Demon King’s castle.
・Allied forces may encounter obstacles such as Demons and wild monsters on the roads.
・How do we plan to fight against the Demons whilst encouraging recognition?
・How do we capture the Demon King’s castle?
・With time restrictions, as we must settle things before Rumel arrives and destroys the Demons.

(Millie)「Lutz wrote this, but….. 」

(Ellis)「It looks like an unreasonably difficult math problem, right? 」

Ellis and Millie are amazed at the problems written on the whiteboard.

(Yuki)「Let’s discuss my solutions one by one. 」

After I said that, everyone’s gaze converged on me.

(Yuki)「First of all, since we own the land, we can gather information about the opposition easily. After grasping the situation, we should be able to know exactly what and how many Demons and Monsters are out there. 」

Information is power.
As for the matter of Rumel, now is not yet the time so I’ll ignore that issue for now.
When the information quant.i.ty increases unnecessarily it would only be confusing.
Also, Weed hasn’t completely settled yet, so in a sense, not having to deal with an extra country is excellent.
If it really is Tanaka holding Rumels reins from behind the scene, he won’t give a d.a.m.n about merits for fighting at Rumel’s front, since he already controls the back. However if he is stuck there, he may very well do something irresponsible.
I will pretend that I don’t know him until things settle down over there.
Since we don’t understand each others circ.u.mstances, I can’t show my face yet.

(Yuki)「Next, about the wild monsters that are on the way. We will utilize the information on their whereabouts to use a Search and Destroy strategy. We will use two platoons of Goblins and Slimes to reduce their numbers. However if those platoons get annihilated, there is a possibility that a trap or a fluke we don’t understand will pull through, since we lost our forward vanguard. I will leave Surakichi-san in command of those units, so that they won"t be killed by monsters. 」

(Delille)「Excellent. This one hath never been able to match Surakichi-san ever since joining this Dungeon.. 」

What, you still haven’t managed to beat the slime?

(Yuki)「As for Liliansan, she will make way for a rebellion to happen. We will send the moderate Demons a message, explaining the Allied forces goal. 『Please do not send reinforcements, please stay your blades. Otherwise we will retaliate with a gate. I’m asking you, as a fellow Demon. 』What do you think?」 4)this one I believe the message here about saving power is don’t exhaust yourself and if you do we will do something about it arbitrarily

(Lutz)「That’s dirty. Preaching peace and offering aid and at the same time threatening them with a Gate, it may backfire on us. I can"t see any way of making a Gate work without future problems. 」 5)whoever is speaking has noticed that them using the gate would cause distrust about their goal A.K.A. peace with the demons, since they could go and visit there with an army easily

There’s that too.
The speech doesn’t have to be like that, we should focus on content that inspires the Demons.

(Liliana)「Please wait a minute. I will make arrangements in Last. Though there certainly will be people who would want to cooperate with me, I do not think I would be able to win, or if I would be of any help or….. 」

Liliansan seems mortified saying that she has so little value on her own and how she regrets it.
Well, it is actually not a mistake to try to know your own hand.

(Yuki)「Ah, It’ll be fine. Liliansan, we will bring the neck of the current Demon King with us, that way they’ll absolutely listen. 」

(Liliana)「Eh?」

(Yuki)「In other words, the Gate is our backup strategy. The main one is our army. 」

(Liliana「What do you mean?」

Okay, she still doesn"t understand huh?

(Yuki)「Imagine this, we are struggling too much against the Demons. Well without a Gate capturing the Demon King’s castle would be harder right?」

Everyone nodded.

(Yuki)「That’s, why the front buys time for us, while we take an underhanded route using the gate, capture the Demon King’s castle first and take the head of the Demon King. We then give it to Liliansan, who can in turn show off and ask the Demons to stand down. 」6)they"re going to go behind into the demon king"s castle and kill him/her while the army is trying to invade and then have liliana(former demon lord/king) show the head off to get the demons to listen to her

When I said that, everyone had rounded eyes.

(Ellis)「I s-see. Yuki-san is talking about the Gate strategy, the capture of the Demon King’s castle is but an act. 」

Ellis finally aware of my strategy pulled her mouth.

(Yuki)「Well, we just have to be diligent with our acting, people from both sides will still die though albeit less than otherwise. 」

(Herge)「Must it be done?」

Herge who was silent until now opens her mouth.
This way is better that her previous way of denying anything violent or bad without a second thought.

Before I could muster my answer, Liliansan went forward and explained to Herge.

(Liliana)「If we take the neck of the Demon King we can force a bloodless surrender. But you know, we are talking about the guy who betrayed me, the guy who took me for a fool all this time and wants nothing but to kill everything that stands in the Demon’s way. Does that act of betrayal clarify the why to kill to you?」

(Herge)「So it’s like that. 」

(Liliana)「With that, there’s a chance for Demons and People to coexist. If I have to kill a traitor for the sake of this opportunity, then I will do so without hesitation. 」7)Face: no shouldn"t you kill a traitor either way? this time it just has a benefit too. im not brutal.

This is how Liliansan tried to convince Herge, she doesn’t seem to be convinced yet, but she withdraws.

(Lutz)「The next problem we have to talk about is how we will honor the allied forces afterwards. If we follow that strategy and actually take the castle before they can do much. 」

Lutz brought the remaining problem to the table.
This, however, is the easy part.

(Yuki)「First we go to the Demon King’s castle and take it over with the Dungeon. Then summon monsters and let them run wild. If it all goes smoothly, the Demon King himself will be eliminated by the monsters. 」

(Lutz)「Ugee, onii-san really has his way of doing things….. 」

(Yuki)「The forces cooperating with Liliansan will already be in the Dungeon. The servile ones will escape and the only thing we will need to do is to defeat the resistance thoroughly. It’s not necessary for us to meet danger directly, but we will make a move if we have to. 」

「Seems about right. 」

With my explanation everyone understands and nod.
Demon King-san, I’m sorry, but I’m not willing to make a spectacular fight like heroes from fairy tales.

Kuhkuhku…..

Are?
I’m feeling like the bad guy again?8)Face: No I"m pretty sure you are the bad guy, you"re the whole reason this mess is happening by blaming Liliana for killing Herge…
==========
Afterword of the author
Now now, here is the start of the strategy.
And what will avail of the Demon King’s fate!!

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