Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari

Chapter 324: The King of Wisdom

Naofumi: “Are the preparations in order?”

Trash: “Yes, Iwatani-dono.”

The wave is coming… and at the same time, Faubley will attack. I’m speaking to Trash in the castle.

Naofumi: “You sure are good at thinking up plans.”

From the day after the meeting, we’ve been meeting with Trash, and preparing for his operations.

Of course, we also train ourselves when we’re free.

Even if Heroes have no level limit, it’s impossible for us to overtake the level 350 Tact in the time we have.

But we have our own trump card.

Using the knowledge I gained, Trash, and Fohl’s Seven Star weapon, we’ve put our final plan together.

The country’s Dragon Hourglass is almost empty.

If you look over the walls of Melromark’s castle town, you can see Faubley’s army encroaching from the distance.

Yesterday, one of Melromark’s forts fell into their hands.

It’s likely that they’re using it as their base of operations right now.

But that was within Trash’s predictions.

Me, Ren, Motoyasu and Itsuki memorized the plan, and practiced to adapt it depending on the situation.

By the way, the ones who will be confronting Tact’s army are me and Ren. The other two will deal with the wave.

Trash is responsible for giving orders for the battles on both fronts.

Ah, Fohl’s with my team.

Rishia is going off with Itsuki.

The Heroes have divided in half to combat two forces.

Raphtalia and Firo, Raph-chan, Gaelion, and Sadina are going to go with my team.

Kiel and the other villagers are participating too. Those who can’t bring themselves to combat human being are going to the wave.

The Filo Rials have been distributed as needed.

The Raph Squad will be moving as a detached corp.

The rest is up to you, Trash.

I can only pray that the measures in the sky will go well

Trash: “Iwatani-dono, at most, this will…”

Naofumi: “I know.”

I had made light of Trash, but with this much, I can go into battle with some confidence.

At the very least, the success rate is a bit higher than my estimate.

It’s best to leave this planning to those specialized in it.

As long as everyone does their part, I can at least say the result won’t be a bad one.

No, I won’t let us reach a bad ending.

Trash: “It’s almost time.”

Naofumi: “Yeah…”

With the meeting over, I lightly swing the cane in my hand. And I proceeded forward.

–

A few hours later.

Tact looked down on Melromark from a terrace on the fort he had captured.

A black smoke was rising above the castle town.

Soldier: “Status Update!”

He was surrounded by women, as he looked upon the battlefield.

His expression completely portrayed his forseen victory.

He knew that the status report would be in his favor. And in reality, it was.

Soldier: “Through the application of Tact-sama’s new weapon, and plan, Melromark’s capital has successfully been occupied by our soldiers. Their command structure is in chaos. It appears that all of their heroes were transported away to fight a wave. A few of them abandoned the wave, and desperately rushed back, and they are engaging with your forces, but they are severely outnumbered. It’s only a matter of time before this war draws to its conclusion.”

Tact: “Fufufu, as I thought. This formation has yet to see failure. They’re no exception: this is their limit.”

“As expected of Tact-sama!”

Bitch: “Amazing!”

“There’s no army in this world that can withstand that fusillade!”

“They cannot raise a hand to the aerial bombardment and troop deployment that Tact-sama proposed.”

Tact: “Don’t praise me so much. This is also for the world; for the people. Let’s end this war swiftly, and bring an end to that country governed by nothing but Trash.”

A slight smile surfaces on Tact’s face as he declares this.

Bitch: “Yes, I want to see those Heroes’ executions already.”

Tact: “I understand, Malty. There’s no way I’d let the people who put you through such horrors live in this world.”

Bitch: “Ah, Tact-sama.”

Tact: “But it’s not interesting if everything goes this smoothly. I guess there’s fun to be found in a certain victory too. Especially if it was based on my plan.”

“Yes.”

Bitch: “Exactly.”

Tact: “Hahahaha!”

His loud laugh echoed through the empty halls.

Soldier: “… Oh, right. That was a lie.”

Tact: “What?”

Tact halts his laughter, and turns to the soldiers that came to report… no, he turns to us.

His security… was a joke.

To be more specific, we had already registered this building as a destination for our portal.

We easily infiltrated, and got all the way here by simply pretending to be scouts.

We got a few sets of Faubley Scout uniforms from our connections to the Dark Guild.

Faubley’s a country with a bit of history, so goods like that circulate easily.

Naofumi: “Are you an idiot? Do you think messengers come in groups like this?”

Tact is taken aback as we remove the illusion surrounding us.

Firo, Gaelion and Sadina are already in their battle forms.

Raph-chan… is as he is.

He managed to hide us with magic easily.

He’s riding hidden on Raphtalia’s back.

With Raphtalia and Raph-chan working together, they were able to cast illusion magic strong enough to even mask scent.

Illusions aren’t just something of the eyes.

And it seems that Tact’s sharp nosed Harem Members didn’t even sense us.

Naofumi: “You seem to be laughing quite happily. I’m sorry, but that smoke you see over there is the result of your plane being turned into a ball of fire.”

Tact: “That can’t be! What about Lurina!?”

Right, by Trash’s idea, Tact’s deployed airplanes should have been shot down.

I mean, I’m just saying what Trash told me to say here. I had no time to check Melromark.

Anyways, the report turned from fortune to disaster.

No… it’s our fortune.

Right now, the planes should be colliding with the large collection of Graweick ore Trash set above Melromark’s airspace.

(Note: See Chapter 292)

An early airplane’s demerit is that it can’t make sudden turns.

So with those in place, the bombarding became impossible.

Rocks that fly in this world aren’t exactly rare, so they were probably trained to avoid them. But that’s where the Raphs came in.

Their ability to conceal things is unusually high.

Using something like Choral Magic, they amplified their abilities, and made it so that nothing could be seen in Melromark’s skies.

Luckily, today’s weather is nice.

At a glance, it looks like the perfect day for a flight.

If only there weren’t any giant invisible rocks floating everywhere.

Of course, there’s plans for if that’s not enough to stop them.

If they still try dropping soldiers from the ore, we have all of Melromark’s mages ready with wind and Gravity magic.

Because Parachutes are as the look.

If the unfolded part gets damaged beyond use, you fall, and die.

They probably do implement a form of wind magic to slow their descent, but the gravity magic increases their terminal velocity beyond a controllable point.

What’s more, our side is still bombarding them with magic and arrows, so even if they do survive, they won’t get off unharmed.

The factor we were worried about, the flying Demi-Humans… and Tact’s Gryphon. They’re all here.

Which means that there are few troublesome opponents on Trash’s side.

The easy victories we let him face on Melromark territory made him negligent.

For once, the wind is blowing in our favor.

Tact: “H-how!?”

Naofumi: “I have no intentions of explaining my plan to you. If I had to say, then it’s because you forgot about our renowned King of Wisdom.”

Tact: “Damn!”

Tact’s followers take out guns, and prepare themselves.

Naofumi: “According to that king, your plan was the lowest of the low. Your decisions were also the worst.”

Apparently, this right here was the most foolish thought on Tact’s part.

The idea that we would never make it this far… he said.

The most dangerous possibility I saw was Tact himself standing at the vanguard of his forcesbut Trash said it would also be poorly planned out.

Well, our plan was to use the Heroes to round up all their dangerous ones at once, so it’s not anything amazing.

And before the battle started, Trash said as such:

Trash: 『He’s chosen the most foolish choice of the ones I surmised… It’s as if he’s just asking you to take his important pieces. Is he trying to lure us in? No, perhaps he’s just perhaps he’s underestimating us… okay, if it turns out to be a trap, then pretend to be caught, and observe his attitude. If it’s not, then it’ll end with this move.』

Or something like that, but I wonder if that move will show its effects soon.

But that’s fine.

I just have to do what I’ve been assigned to do.

I’ll entrust the rest of the battlefield to Trash.

Since we’ve come this far, then at the very least, we won’t go down without a fight.