Hachinan tte, Sore wa Nai Deshou - Volume 19, page 1
Illustrations
Chapter 1 – Reconnaissance and Special Food Procurement Mission
A small magic airship left the Baumeister Earldom, heading westwards. This ship had been excavated from an underground ruin under Arnest’s guidance. The royal family had permitted the Baumeister House to run it, resulting in the ship being added to the Baumeister Earldom’s feudal army.
An air fleet considered to belong to the demon country had suddenly appeared at the Terra Harrez Archipelago, an island chain located west off Holmia’s coast, and occupied that area. In response the Margrave Holmia House was now preparing for war.
Currently we were traveling to that margraviate in order to reinforce the margrave and his forces. However, the demons were building a temporary base on one island of the Terra Harrez Archipelago, making it an emergency. Because of that, almost none of the reinforcements brought ground forces with them, I hear.
The higher-ups of the royal army judged that a genuine invasion of the Holmia Margraviate itself was rather unlikely, so neither the Kingdom nor us dispatched any ground forces. Both of us are going to mostly provide magicians and air forces.
Had we dispatched regular military troops, the one receiving the reinforcements would need to make certain preparations, too. The side sending the reinforcements had the duty to cover their soldiers’ expenses, but if many soldiers had to be fed with food in the west, it’d hike up food prices and it’d likely be difficult to secure the necessary amount of provisions.
And even without us sending our ground forces, the western lords are currently under martial law, urged to mobilize their feudal armies. The supply of their troops will take the highest priority.
The Kingdom’s west sported the biggest grain-producing areas within the realm, but given that it was indispensable for the west to export their grain to other areas in the Kingdom on top of filling up their own storages, they didn’t really have that much leeway.
For this reason, it was decided to limit the dispatch of ground forces as much as possible…in what you’d basically call a tacit understanding. Or in other words, they’re telling me to guess as much myself since I’m a noble.
“Hmm, turning a magic airship into a creche is an amazing idea.”
“Well, it’s a stopgap measure since all the mobilized female magicians of the Baumeister Earldom are young mothers.”
The ship had picked up Doushi and Burkhart-san at Breitburg. Both blinked their eyes in surprise when they saw a magic airship having been changed into a child-care station. Taking one’s children along to what might become a battlefield being unprecedented…wasn’t actually true.
Even in the past, some female magicians had taken their children along to their army’s encampments during wartimes.
“It does require diapers and baby goods as supply.”
“We brought enough with us.”
And not only that. We’ve also prepared the goods necessary for the maids under Dominique who were helping out with the baby-care.
“You’re not going to resupply at Holmialand, the central city of Holmia Margravate, then?”
“We won’t get close to that city…”
Minister Edgar had contacted us, informing us that we are to directly head to the western Port City Sirius, the city closest to the archipelago and home of Holmia’s naval forces.
“Well, you see, I’m just worried and concerned that you might earn yourself some criticism if you don’t splurge a bit by buying bigger chunks.”
The majority of nobles was a lot stingier than you’d expect from them, but if they departed to another noble’s territory, they’d generously spend their money. The biggest reason was prestige, but another reason might be found in the attempt to lower the amount of money spent in another noble’s territory as much as possible.
Burkhart-san must be worried about me as I didn’t do any of that.
“He is going to spend money in Sirius anyway. Besides, we are practically at war right now, so all the little society games can wait for later!”
It’s just as Doushi says. Right now, the Kingdom is in a state of 『Quasi-War』. The sole reason why it still had a “quasi” attached to it lay in us not having grasped the demons’ objective so far, and the residents of Holmia Margraviate not having suffered direct damage, despite the demons occupying the archipelago, since the islands were uninhibited, so it wasn’t necessary to urgently counterattack.
However, because the demons could attack at any moment, we had to get ready for interception either way. Depending on the situation, the Kingdom might also order us to recapture the archipelago. In such a case, it’d lead to tremendous expenses as infantrymen would be gathered from all over the Kingdom. Accordingly, the Kingdom only sent a select few such as magic airships and magicians to the Holmia Margravate as reinforcement.
“We will leave the guidance within Sirius to you two, Burkhart-san, Doushi.”
Previously I had heard that both often stayed in the west during their active days as adventurers. Since they should have visited Sirius as well, they’d be naturally suited to serve as our guides.
“You can count on me!”
“I don’t mind, but wouldn’t Erwin be more suited here, seeing how he was born in the west?” Burkhart-san advised.
“Burkhart-san, I never left my family’s territory until I came to Breitburg, so it’ll be impossible for me. I never went to Sirius or Holmialand neither.”
“Really?”
“I can’t use magic, so my means of travel are limited.”
Because Erw also hails from a poor Knight family, I doubt he went on trips in the past. At most, it should have been outings like picnics in the Arnim Knightdom and its circumference.
“Erw, where’s the Arnim Knightdom located anyway?”
“Towards the western edge of the margraviate. It’s surrounded by mountains and extremely rural,” Erw explained in response to Ina’s question.
According to him, the Arnim Knightdom was a typical hinterland territory, but since you could reach a somewhat bigger town if you followed a mountain road for around a day, it was still better off than the Baumeister Knightdom.
“Erw, are we going to run into your father and brothers are Sirius?”
“Who knows? I think they’ve been mobilized as a vassal of Margrave Holmia’s vassal, but I don’t know where they’ve been stationed.”
Because we were at a critical juncture where the demons could attack the western territories, Erw’s family should have dispatched its soldiers, too. It was unthinkable that Margrave Holmia wouldn’t order them to send their troops.
However, it’s also possible that adding such small, untrained forces into the defense forces might become a drawback instead. The unskilled and untrained feudal armies would get in the way of the trained elites.
I don’t know anything about the skill level of Margrave Holmia’s forces, but no matter what you say, they were still the army under one of the three margrave houses. It’d be ludicrous to think that they were less skilled than the feudal troops of the Arnim Knightdom.
“If you add clumsy, untrained folks and cause chaos within the ranks, it’ll lead to the collapse of the whole army. Aren’t they simply guarding some place?” Erw asked.
I had witnessed many such cases during the Empire’s civil war. An army isn’t just about the numbers.
For that reason, such troops are often deployed as guards of supply or transport units. And even if they considered whining about such deployment, they’d need to face a margrave. As it’d be impossible for any lower noble to speak up here, they’ll very likely do as ordered, even if reluctantly.
“Life sure is tough.”
“A place like ours is still better off than your old home, Wend. If we take the family affluence into account, my family’s equal to Ina and Luise’s, I’d say.”
Poor knights were often inferior to the chief retainers of high-ranking nobles when it came to economic power. Officially, master-servant-relationships don’t exist among nobles, but in reality, it was impossible for Erw’s father to defy Margrave Holmia.
“For a tiny noble that might actually be welcome.”
“Maybe, but won’t they itch to make an appearance at the front line, since they’re nobles, even if insignificant ones?”
In case of a war, such nobles always want to get in the front line to wield their sword. This stemmed from all the stories and historical records of cool nobles who made names for themselves through their heroic achievements on the battlefields, but if a family head did something like that and died during the campaign, sorting out the succession would take time. Moreover, the economical output of the territory also drops with each lost soldier as most of them are normal inhabitants of the fief.
In reality, they might wish to be deployed in the rear, if possible.
“Anyway, I don’t want us to meet my old man or my brothers. They’d only cause trouble to Wend.”
For a long time now, some people have been believing that they’d be able to score important posts at the Earl Baumeister House through Erw’s connections. From Erw’s point of view, he must be worried that they might say something unnecessary if we run into them here.
“It looks like we have arrived.”
The big port city Sirius sprawled beyond the airship. The city itself looked as peaceful as ever, but a fleet consisting of the Royal Navy and Holmia’s navy was imposingly docked at the port, making the prepara
“The navy, huh…?”
Yep, because of the existence of magic airships, maritime transport isn’t overly developed in this world. The main cause is to be found in the usefulness of airships simply being too predominant, but because of many dangerous ocean currents and topographical issues, it isn’t easy to build new ports, and the existence of sea serpents also plays a role in this.
As a result of that, most of the maritime ships had developed in the direction of downsizing, arriving at the current state of the navy.
Bigger ships would be okay with traveling the oceans since they were difficult to attack for serpents, but they came with troubles in regards to fitting port facilities. Regardless of fishing ships or marine transport, it’d be an eternal conflict between inconvenience and deficits. And, although such big ships would be a valid means to travel between continents, they would mostly serve as deadwood since the existence of continents other than Lingaia wasn’t proven as of yet.
Medium-sized ships would get attacked by serpents out on the ocean, and they lost out to small ships in utility near the coast. They could carry more freight than small ships, but they were outdone by airships, which could take the shortest route in the sky on top of that.
If you excluded fishing, ships could mostly cover the parts which were left unattended by airships, I suppose.
Many of the landed nobility with ports possessed their own navy to crack down on smuggling and piracy. …But, since the ships and scale of the organization necessary for that kind of policing work were small, their combat abilities were limited to handling common pirates, smugglers, and other sea criminals.
I had heard that Holmia’s navy was leading in the Kingdom, but the sizes of their boats and the number of ships was shabby at best. The Royal Army wasn’t much better in comparison with Holmia’s navy as they only deployed their navy in territories under the Kingdom’s direct control. With the air force being prioritized, the navy was doomed to a life in the shadows within the army.
“In the first place, the navy is probably useless anyway since the opponent seems to use an air fleet.”
Given that the navy ships weren’t equipped with convenient weaponry like cannons, they had no means to deal with airborne enemies. On the other hand, they’d be under constant threat of sinking after suffering an air raid.
They’ve been informed about the magic cannon developed in the Mizuho Dukedom, but it’d be impossible to suddenly mass produce and distribute something like that. Also, it was unthinkable that Duke Mizuho would offer his technology to the Kingdom. Even the Empire only recently entered the testing phase with prototypes, I hear.
“I guess we’ll first head over to greet Duke Holmia…”
As soon as we landed our airship at the designated docking place, we went over to the temporary headquarters while leaving our babies, the maids, and the guards behind.
◆◇◆
“You’re Earl Baumeister-dono? Thank you for your support.”
Margrave Holmia was 38 years old. He inherited title and land after his father died of illness a few years back…Elise had briefed me.
He seemed to be average when it came to his abilities as lord, and just like he wasn’t a particularly wise ruler, he wasn’t a fool either.
“Things have become quite dire, haven’t they?”
“And here not much time has passed since the end of the Empire’s civil war… But…”
Going by the latest news, the mysterious ─ or rather it’s pretty much set to be demons ─ fleet has been carefreely continuing the establishment of a base on the Terra Harrez Archipelago without showing any hints of moving from there.
“That’s the result of your navy’s reconnaissance, right?”
“Well, the reconnaissance itself is limited to small boats, though. As the other side didn’t do anything to hinder us from scouting for some reason, it wasn’t all that difficult to obtain that information either, but…even so, they feel somehow eerie.”
“We can’t see the objective of the other side, that’s why.”
“Because of that, we’re troubled right now, but the only work we currently have to do is to remain on standby while staying vigilant. This keeps me fairly busy, however…”
The army of the Margrave Holmia House, the armies of other local nobles, and the royal army is successively assembling in the area. And since they use up big amounts of goods even without doing anything, Margrave Holmia has to administer all of it.
The costs are covered by the Kingdom and nobles who sent reinforcements, but their troops still need to procure on site what they don’t have on hand. Guaranteeing a smooth transport of materials is the margrave’s most important task.
“Some of my retainers are insisting on attacking with the whole army to recover the archipelago…I feel so drained even though nothing has even happened yet…”
“I see…”
“Even if we manage to recover the archipelago successfully, it only consists of empty, uninhabited islands. With our opponents being demons, the casualties will likely be high, so if you consider the price to be paid, I cannot put such a loss-heavy order into practice as long as the Kingdom’s government doesn’t make the call.”
“Having said that, it’ll also be a problem to leave things as they are, eh?”
Allowing for his own territory to be stolen would damage his honor as a noble.
It’s pretty obvious that Margrave Holmia wanted the demons to withdraw. As margrave, he was very unwilling to admit his true thoughts that there would be almost nothing to gain from carrying out a recovery operation, but even the Kingdom’s government wasn’t as foolish as to blame him for this. After all, they’d be hard pressed, if Margrave Holmia told them to recover the archipelago with the Royal Army since he’d yield the territorial rights to the Kingdom.
“It means we have no choice but to watch the situation for now, but even that action alone lets the expenses skyrocket. Why did things develop like this…?”
All I could do was to conversationally agree with Margrave Holmia’s bickering.
◆◇◆
Given that I had fulfilled my duty of showing up and greeting, I left the headquarters and went back to our ship. My babies were over there, and the ship’s interior possessed all facilities and equipment necessary for living.
I think it’ll be plenty for us to wait here, even while not staying at an inn or something like that.
“It’s essentially the troop headquarters of the Baumeister army, isn’t it?”
“Leaving aside the quality, our numbers are too lacking to call it an army, though.”
It was a campaign with our only combat forces being magicians who were my wives at the same time. So far as it went, we had some soldiers with us, but they ultimately came along as guards. Burkhart-san and Doushi were present too, but they were treated as reinforcements of Margrave Breithilde and the royal family respectively.
“Is there anything for us to do?”
“Hmm, no, I don’t really think so. We won’t have anything to do as long as nothing happens,” Luise answered Ina.
It’d be bad for us to push ourselves and steal the work of the normal soldiers. I mean, I’m not all that eager for us to be ordered to spearhead an attack on the archipelago as a result of us drawing attention to ourselves by working too hard.
I’m simply hoping that the Kingdom’s government chooses the solution with the least casualties.
“How about we go shopping then?”
“Oh, nice idea, Katharina. Let’s go all together, okay?”
Leaving the baby-care to Dominique and the other maids, we headed to Sirius. Currently the city was practically in a state of war, but it wasn’t as though they were fighting in the streets. Given that many soldiers from the outside were around, the city seemed to prosper thanks to all the business they brought about.
There would be no end if they were to transport the necessary goods each and every time, and if they did, it’d also require bringing a supply unit along. As such, it was easier to simply bring money and buy what was necessary in Sirius. Because of the current state of the city, the prices were somewhat high, but it was still cheaper than having supply units transport the goods.
But, I guess you can’t expect anything less of the city’s merchants who are good at calculations.
