Chapter 90: TacticsTL: Lunaris/Baka. Crosslink to Lunaris’ site will be added when post is published there.
Sorry for a very very long delay between posts, a lot of stuff happened behind the scenes, but this translation is definitely not dead. NEVER!!
Without further ado:
With the approach of the calendar of Darkness, the sun was setting earlier, and it would continue doing so until it finally disappeared below the horizon, leaving darkness to engulf the lands of Kaltico throughout the day. The number of evil beasts was continuously increasing, making their subjugation increasingly difficult.
The merchants had become afraid of the attacks resulting in less long distance trading, slowing the circulation of goods within the market.
After being taught a lesson by the annihilation of the special force, the idea of forming a better prepared subjugation force was being spread around the palace through rumours and discussions. The names of the Darkness G.o.d Corps members were the foremost candidates of the subjugation force, and that had split the opinions within the anti-darkness G.o.d faction.
Some of the more cautious members were carefully lobbying against the corps in an attempt to prevent them from getting any more achievements, despite the level of their skills, while the more aggressive ones were calling for another test to see if the magical flutes were really ineffective despite the dangers of such a mission.
The cautions faction’s view was not to further increase the activities of the Darkness G.o.d Corps, but to use traditional methods to push their own members to become heroes, while the radical/impatient faction would rather crush the problem, quickly and efficiently.
After hearing both side’s opinion, Marquis Vordat felt that under the current circ.u.mstances both methods were hardly viable.
Although it was a great time to gain merit due to the grave state of the magical beast issue, the previous failure of the special ops made it difficult to recruit new talent. Previously it was not known that the magical flute wasn’t effective against these anti-divine arts enhanced magical beast.
It was possible that the Darkness G.o.d Corps might be able to do something, but the palace officials felt somewhat embarra.s.sed to ask for them. After finally establishing a new magical beast subjugation force, while distributing the tasks for the mission, the officials were mutually avoiding this topic.
“….it seems that we can’t come to a conclusion. Well, we shall end it here today, the next meeting will be on the 3rd day of the darkness calendar. That is all.”
The first day of the darkness Calendar is the beginning of the freedom festival. After considering the preparations for the festivals that each household needed to hold, Marquis Vordat set the date for the next meeting after the festival.
——
On the 19th day of Fyolnar’s wind month, Yuusuke was on vacation and had brought Sun along to town to buy souvenirs before their trip back to Rufk village. The freedom festival isn’t the typical feast. Not only is it for completing the year end accounts, but it also involved the year end party to enjoy food and drinks. It lasts for 20 days.
The first to the fifth day of the darkness calendar were known as fire days, the 6th to 10th days – as water days, and the rest were all split accordingly. Yuusuke planned to visit Rufk village during the fire days, he planned to stay at his mansion during the water days and on the earth days he would be heading to the palace.
The palace soldiers will end their holiday on the earth days as they will then begin their preparations for a parade for the birth of the next calendar.
“Now, the next thing is.”
“How about looking for clothes for Eru-chan?”
“Oh, that’s right.”
After purchasing items from the street stores at the market, Yuusuke and his group began heading towards the middle cla.s.s district tailor store to find new clothes for Elfiona. While the commoner district became livelier, the middle cla.s.s district stores seemed to have a lingering forlorn atmosphere. Looking closely, there were a lot of closed off stores.
“Are the shop owners taking a rest today?”
“No….most likely, they lack stock to sell.”
Many of the items sold in the middle-cla.s.s district were luxury goods. Sanc Adiet maintained the quality of the goods, thus they did not establish any ma.s.s production industry. It’s clothes and ceramics were previously imported from Trent Rietta or ordered from Nossentes.
With the magical beasts havoc paralyzing trading, the middle cla.s.s district which, unlike the custom made items made for n.o.ble district stores and the free market commoner district stores, relied on imports, saw their stocks plummet.
“In the near future, there will most likely be a magical beast extermination mission.”
“I agree….”
For the time being, they headed towards the open stores to purchase a few children clothes that suited Elfiona. When midday came, and the sun was sinking below the horizon, they began their preparations to head back to Rufk village.
Previously, he was testing his ability movement shift when they headed back for the dance festival, however due to the time constraints, Yuusuke opted to use vehicles this time round.
“I think that should be enough for today.”
“Isn’t this a motorized vehicle?”
At the soldier’s palace entrance stood a customized square vehicle. This prototype carriage could carry an additional pa.s.senger and sported an improved gimmick motor. It was slightly faster than a horse pulled carriage and could almost reach a speed of 30km/h.
A sofa was used in place of the seats to help cope with a sore b.u.t.t during the long rides. Two rin lamps were placed at the front of the vehicle to light the way and one more was installed inside the vehicle, a compartment for goods was also added in the rear, and was easily reachable by simply pulling the sofa seat down. The vehicle also had seatbelts
“Shall we head out?”
“Yes”
Under the dark of the midday “Moving out~,” Yuusuke cried out wearilly, not unlike his usual energetic self when testing the other prototypes. Previously when he was also testing out his movement shift ability, he could only talk to Sun when taking a break. This time however, the trip was much more comfortable and safer, thus he was able to enjoy chatting with her.
*GOROGORO the rumbling sound of the wheels rotating. Yuusuke and Sun were having an enjoyable ride it would take approximately 4 hours before they reach Rufk village.
They had a small rest time during the middle of the trip, but what happened there was a secret between them.
——
During the nights of the darkness calendar, everyone in the towns and villages were singing and enjoying themselves at the freedom festival. On one of the nights, the anti-darkness faction gathered in one of the rooms within the palace, a restless atmosphere surrounded the seats as they took their places.
To them, the end of the year festival was a special festival ever since they were children. They couldn’t help but to feel the exhilaration of the upcoming year.
However, like cold water being poured on their heads, bad news began to arrive one by one, and finally, a little bit late, Marquis Vordat had entered the room. With new information about the Darkness G.o.d Corps, they had put a ridiculous plan into action.
“Is that….true…?”
“No doubt, it’s exactly like the information.”
“However, the king would never…..”
“I myself couldn’t believe that King Esvobus would do such an unimaginable thing.”
The information was about the Evil G.o.d which was sent from Gazzetta.
Gazzetta is ruled by one of the old tribes, the “White tribe”, who worships the Evil G.o.d as their savior.
It seems that the King of Gazzetta had been trying to invite the Darkness G.o.d Captain Yuusuke, who is known as the Evil G.o.d, to defect to Gazzetta..
Thus, Gazzetta does not directly stand off against the Darkness G.o.d Corps.
“In the beginning I was skeptical about the Evil G.o.d, but with Nossentes treating it as top secret, the chance of the Darkness G.o.d Captain being the Evil G.o.d is very high.”
“What about the King?”
“King Es...o...b..s seems to have known this since the beginning.”
“Omg.”
After knowing that such an outrageous plan was put into action, King Es...o...b..s created policies opposing the Four Great G.o.ds faith and strived to create social equality within the society.
Due to the frivolous mood of the freedom festival, someone had leaked the details of the meeting that was held with the Queen Rishause in the Deernook fortress. The 5 race union ideal and plan was known from the Queen’s environment.
“However, is there any evidence that our King is involved in this plan?”
“Unfortunately, there is. Not only is there evidence that King Esvobus is fully aware of the situation, but the Queen’s plan is also known amongst the King’s entourage.”
Only a very small group of people in the palace surrounding the king had known about it.
“Hmph, but isn’t the Evil G.o.d of disaster just a legend….”
“Where is the Darkness G.o.d Captain currently at?”
“I heard he went back to that Artless village.”
“By any chance, is Zeshald-dono involved?”
They exchanged glances with each other and realized why Marquis Vordat had not rashly made a decision. In any way, in order to strongly condemn the Darkness G.o.d the details had to be worked out very cautiously. One wrong move meant them accidentally denouncing the King.
“We don’t need to overthink this, the details that were made known today must not reach other people. King Esvobus is a cunning person.”
The various rumors and confidential information about the Evil G.o.d were contradicting each other. Due to the lack of information, targeting the 5 race union was dangerous. They knew that the information that they currently have would see their religion overturned sooner or later.
Hearing about this, the partic.i.p.ants of the meeting turned blue. Imagining the normally gentle King Esvobus, who would have a hard time making a decision, making a great purge of their ideals with the demise of Nossentes.
“From now on, our aim is to condemn the Darkness G.o.d Corps captain in the name of eliminating the Evil G.o.d, aiming to crush the 5 race union behind the scenes.”
Using their usual strategy of circulating negative rumors as a method of defaming the Darkness G.o.d Corps Captain, they decided on solving the problem by creating more sophisticated rumours and to have more people spread them around.
In addition, to denounce the Darkness G.o.d Captain as a p.a.w.n of Gazzetta and the harbinger of disaster. In order to prevent the threat from the Evil G.o.d, King Es...o...b..s had to curry favor with Gazzetta. The Darkness G.o.d Corp’s achievements are built up on the disasters brought out by the Evil G.o.d.
“The main objective is to create distrust between the two countries by pointing out the connection between Blue Garden’s Queen and Gazzetta’s King.”
And at the same time, to emphasize the existence of the Evil G.o.d in all those events which will cause the suspicion to fall on the Darkness G.o.d Captain.
In short, it’s a conspiracy between Blue Garden’s Queen and the Gazzeta’s King. The fact that they had released Gazzetta’s army during the battle of Paula is without a doubt a scheme of the Evil G.o.d to rack up achievements. This was the rumour that they had decided to spread in taverns.
For some reason or another, the mighty country of Nossentes which had a history of successful defending against Gazzetta’s invasion had fallen overnight during the Darkness G.o.d Captain’s visit.
The early stage of Trent Rietta’s upheaval was caused by the head of the instigating organisation and the Darkness G.o.d Corps. While the Rinval liberation group had many casualties, the Darkness G.o.d’s group had hardly any injuries which seems too unnatural. These facts were very convenient to feed the conspiracy theories. .
“Everything since the incident in Deernook fortress was a conspiracy by the Evil G.o.d!”
The ones who benefited the most from the series events were the Evil G.o.d and Gazzetta. During the magical beast facility incident, Gazzetta had sent a group of artless warriors as backup. This info was brought by the mercenaries.
At this rate, Fonclanc will become the next Nossentes, as currently Princess Violet is being deceived.
In the beginning, these rumours would be spread during small talk in taverns, then to distributing fliers by some shady individuals until they would finally reach the walls of the palace. These rumors will then slowly spread amongst the common soldiers and servants before dying down after some light warnings.
“Our anti-Darkness G.o.d Crops and anti-Evil G.o.d faction will comprise halfway with King Esovobus’ initiative for Queen’s Risha Idea of a 5 race union.”
As long as King Esvobus is on the throne, we can use the faith of the Four G.o.ds and the Five Nation Union to crush him. As Princess Violet will not do anything about this, the King would have to be placed into a situation where he would be forced to dispose off the Darkness G.o.d Captain.
If by any chance the King would attempt to deny the Four Great G.o.ds faith, the people that have gathered here for today’s meeting would be prepared to confront him.
——
As darkness veiled the land of Kaltico. The bonfire and moonlight were the only sources of light during these days of the freedom festival, those that lived in the dark had an easier time moving around. The Evil G.o.d’s descent, this sensation allowed the ease of spreading the story of the destruction of the world.
“Isotta, how’s that area?”
“Even the artless street area is hearing about it, the number of people picking this up is many…”
“Somehow it is also being spread in the middle cla.s.s district, it seems that it has been spreading widely.”
“The captain is still currently at Rufk village.”
Instead of contacting him immediately, Shaheed proposed to gather more intel before the captain returns tomorrow. Vermeer agreed and judged that it would be better if they have details to provide to their captain. For now their focus became the gathering of intel.
“Princess Violet seems to be tied down with official business currently.”
“If possible we should try our best to help the captain with this.”
“I will get the cleaners to try and gather those fliers.”
“Alright go ahead with it, I will try to get Hivodir-dono to help.”
As the rumors of the Darkness G.o.d Captain Yuusuke began to spread rapidly, the Darkness G.o.d Corps members begin to establish the frontline defense. Among the common soldiers, there were those who had previously been around the Darkness G.o.d Captain, and knew that something felt wrong, and thus they had their suspicions about the current rumors.
However, unlike the previous one that had faults in it, this mysterious article seemed to be very persuasive, with the currently on-going festival the rate which it was spreading was quick, thus it became something that everyone knew even though few thought it to be credible.
The fliers contents were signed by an unknown author who had chosen the written word to warn the ma.s.ses about the Evil G.o.d instead of public appeal because of the fear for his life.
[The contents…]
The captain of the Darkness G.o.d Corps is actually the G.o.d of Calamity!
Gazzetta believes that the Evil G.o.d is actually a savior of the Artless!
The Evil G.o.d is actually a p.a.w.n of Gazzetta. That is the reason he’s giving preferential treatment to the Artless.
Blue Garden’s Queen and the Gazzetta’s king are actually related. This was why Blue Garden had abolished the caste system!
The Evil G.o.d is aiming to destroy the divine arts users society. This coincides with Gazzetta’s plot. Someone from the very core of Fonclanc is actually using his country’s resources to help the other countries!
First he has destroyed Nossentes, a country that stood at the center of the Four Great G.o.ds faith. Then he caused a revolt in Trent Rietta.
Now he has spread a plague of modified evil beasts, which is the bane of all divine arts users.
People how much more proof do you need to open your eyes!
[…were as such.]
“Oh boy, were we lucky to only face outside adversaries until now.”
Vermeer sighed painfully, reading the flier on one of the streets of the n.o.bles’ district.