Chapter 93 – Declaration Of War

“Ah, that was fun!” I said as I stretched a bit, not long after strangling Yuu and Maria to death.

“… If that’s what you think.” Eren answered in a bad mood.

“What’s wrong?” I asked him.

“What do you- Whoa!?” He suddenly shouted midway through his response.

I wonder what could have caused it? “Ah…” I did tie the princess behind me with threads, and I didn’t pay proper attention to her during the battle, that’s troublesome.

“Is the princess… dead?” Eren asked.

The princess made a small groan in response, but said nothing more. That at least lets us know that she is alive, which is good enough. Her head was hanging to the side, so she probably fainted. I suppose it can’t be helped after being moved around like she was during this last fight though.

“Well, seems like it was a total victory then.” Eren said after sighing in relief when hearing the princess’ reply.

And yes, I won! I’m happy! I’m happy that I was able to have a happy fight and a happy victory! “I have to thank them later for this.”

“… Thank?” Eren seemed confused, but I ignored him.

Instead, let’s go clean up the garbage now, the fun is over already after all, “Eren, let’s escape.”

“Will you really do it…?” He asked.

“But of course?” I replied.

“… I see.” He seemed dejected for some reason, but that’s irrelevant. I carried him and the princess out of the mansion through a broken wall and then threw an oversized firework high up in the air.

“It’s the signal!” The NPCs started reacting.

“Retreat!” Another shouted.

“Withdraw! Hurry!” They surely ran away quickly.

While the NPCs did their part, I started throwing explosives with paralyzing poison from above to stop the players from escaping, since they didn’t drink the antidote in advance. I also used some threads to stop a few individuals that seemed to be resisting the poison.

“… Are you really doing it?” Eren asked me as things go closer to completion.

“You should give up on it already.” I told him. Soon after, the troops finished evacuating and then pulled the threads that linked to the explosives within the basement, exploding the whole mansion and all the players within it.

“Farewell, my beloved bed.” He said.

“Do you like sleeping that much?” I asked him.

“… By the grace of the gods.” He seemed to be broken again, so I just watched the scene while ignoring him.

“The pla… The Migrants are being blown away!” I shouted!

“To think you’d really blow up the lord’s mansion…” Eren complained as the players were being caught by the explosion. I couldn’t hear them, but something made me feel like I was on the receiving end of a lot of curses.

“It was the only way to kill such a large number of people in a short amount of time though?” I replied to Eren.

“… I’d rather surrender in this kind of situation.” He said.

“But that’s not interesting.” I told him.

“I wonder if my subordinates remembered to take my headache medicine before evacuating…” Medicine again? It really isn’t a good idea to take this much in a short period of time…

“You’re kinda dumb, aren’t you?” I asked him.

“… You could at least ask me if I had a headache.” He replied with a sigh.

“I guess I was a bit rude, my bad.” I still think he isn’t very smart though, “Anyways, is everything ready?”

“… I’ll send an envoy to the Empire, though it should take a week for them to go there and come back.” He answered.

A whole week… I can listen to Yuu and Maria’s requests in this meantime, but still… “What I should do while waiting?” there should be plenty of idle time until things start moving.

“We’ll have to rebuild the mansion, so I’d appreciate if you didn’t do anything flashy.” He told me honestly.

“Alright, you were plenty useful already after all.” I replied.

I guess I can just make a few more preparations for the start of the war… I’m looking to it, I’m going to showcase a whole new way of warring after all.

<Your Level has increased>

<Your Karma has dropped significantly>

<The level of existing skills has increased>

<The level of your servants has risen>

While listening to the system notifications, I moved somewhere else.

******

(Emperor’s PoV)

“Read it aloud.” I told the person who claimed to be a messenger of the first princess of the Kingdom of Hermagne. He was clearly nervous, but started reading it anyways.

“The Bourfoin Empire has unfairly discriminated against and persecuted the people of the Kingdom of Hermagne. This inexcusable behavior can no longer be overlooked. In the name of the First Princess, Ferra von Hermagne, for the sake of the safety and well-being of our people, the Kingdom of Hermagne is declaring war on the Bourfoin Empire.” The messenger read it all in one breath, and the audience chamber went quiet. Everyone silently waited for my decision, though there was only one thing to be done…

“… Bathe the messenger’s head in salt and send it back.” I commanded.

“As you will.” One of my men said, and then the guards approached the messenger who was crying for mercy, but was ignored.

After that, I announced to my generals that they should mobilize themselves to go to war. The extremists were eager for it, but I did not wish for another war to occur. Right now what we needed was to stabilize our territory, not to expand it… And to think we were finally making progress on that end… I sighed to myself once I was alone while worrying over that.

I thought I’d have a few more years of peace before I could no longer hold back the men who desired war, but I never expected the declaration to come from the other side… And from the first princess nonetheless.

First, Alexei, who was one of the most prominent warriors of the Kingdom, and who was also one of the most vocal people against a war against us died, then a declaration of war came not long after… Just what is going on in that place? Is this just internal strife? Could there be a coup going on? We really needed to have kept a stronger chain of spies there…

As I sighed, I accepted the fact we were now going to enter an unstable period again.