(Song of the day: 99 Luftballons by Nena.)
/\\//\\//\
Well, sucks to be the Free Guild now, but that's not my problem. Let them scramble around like headless chickens, trying to put themselves back together. What's her name? Kagali? Kazalim? That other demon lord that's still alive that Leon thought he killed. Honestly, they're not a problem anymore. With Yuuki dead, all their plans and whatever deals they had are broken. Too bad, sucks to be them.
In other words, I put our military on Round House, or our third level of readiness. Some of our patrols have detected higher levels of activity from the Eastern Empire. It seems news of Yuuki's death is making them act with more haste. Makes sense. He had connections with them.
I also had to have some talks with a whole bunch of people from other countries. Luckily, it was mostly representatives. Most of it was from the Western Council, and a few from our already allies. Since they were already there to see the outcome of the trial, they might as well have started to talk to me. I was tempted to just throw them all to Rimuru and let him deal with it, but it turns out, they don't really care. Whether it's because I was the one who executed Yuuki, I wasn't sure, but I was stuck with it.
Anyway, the good news is that Rimuru stayed true to making Ultima the chief prosecutor. Kind of overkill for a trial like this, since it was probably the easiest trial for a prosecutor in history, whether in this world or on Earth. I kind of feel bad for Yuuki's lawyer, but they gave an honest effort, more than anyone would in such a case.
As for Testarossa, Rimuru made her the Minister of Foreign Affairs, so she's out having some in the Western Council for a bit. And she also helped me out a bit when dealing with all the representatives from many nations. She's good. I mean, putting a demon in that kind of environment that fits all the fear, stereotypes, and cliches about demons, she should be good.
Then there's Carrera, I haven't done anything with her. She's just roaming around doing whatever it is she does. She has spent most of her time at the shooting range, though. It seems the Golden Gun might happen then. Not sure. Well, if I encounter Kondou, I'll just have Rimurur store his soul to give to Carrera, and also to transform the stupid Nombu pistol into something way cooler. She did bring those two other demons, Esprit and Agera. I wonder if Hakurou would recognize his old master. Probably.
Also, in other news, the kids are here to stay. I'm talking about Kenya, Alice, Gale, Ryota, and definitely not the time traveler, Chloe. It's still kind of funny to see how she looks at me. I'm clearly not supposed to be someone from any of the timelines she's seen, but whatever. So, they're staying here to finish their studies and grow up to be good, young adults in the future.
Adalmann has done a good job in spreading my faith, but I make sure to keep him in check. Look, I don't care how he preaches or does his sermons, just as long as there's no brainwashing or fearmongering to make them part of the religion. Like I've told him, he should let the religion speak for itself and not the other way around. But you see, it gets to a point where it becomes some kind of theatre show, but the people eat it up, so what can I say?
In other news, our tourism is exploding. Because of the many people who flooded into Tempest to witness Yuuki's trial—kind of morbid in a way—our tourism skyrocketed. Many people visited the cathedral, the coliseum, to see some events, our museum, and other things. It's kind of funny because the "official" museum barely has any mentions of me. All that is reserved for my own museum in the cathedral. That's where the stuff about me is. History, art, and all that stuff. I can't imagine the things they'll make in the future when Shuna and I start to… continue the lineage. When that day comes, it's going to be absolutely crazy with celebrations all over the empire.
Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, the Eastern Empire. So, I've kept it a secret so far. My idea is that if a majority of the world sees this as a sudden invasion, they won't react as hard once we start to counterattack them and start invading them and taking over their land. I've decided that I'll partition their territory to add to ours, and then support the revolution that will happen internally, so they can be the new government. After that, I'll place Benimaru as military governor to help them in their new government, and eventually make them strong allies to us.
I say "secret", but some people do know. I'm just going to assume Carrion knows, because of what Suphia might have told him about the little mission she volunteered for. Gazel as well, since his intelligence agents are good, same with Blummond. They know the Eastern Empire will most likely invade, but no intelligence of our plan for what to do with them after the war.
Anyway, it was time to give Soeui and Gabiru a little break from their patrolling. Just them, though, not their teams. We're in the middle of our readiness scale.
I had ordered Soeui, Gabiru, and their teams as part of the patrol. It was a patrol, and like before, I gave them the orders of "protecting our border from potential agression". Make of that what they will, but as long as they carry it out without hesitation. But it's clear that the Eastern Empire is scouting the environment for their invasion. Most likely some final plans. Which means it's time to start implementing some small "surprises" for them.
"Lady Pendragon, I've finished what you've asked me to make. They're ready for you to test."
"Good job, Vesta."
I was in a training field with Gabiru, Soeui, and Benimaru. Just them. Gabiru and his lizardman will be important in this, Soeui and his squad are needed to sneakily and rapidly set booby traps in the midst of battle, like rigging bodies and fake supplies to explode, and Benimaru can teach the rest of the army what these things are and how to use them.
In front of me, Vesta brought a few crates of the things I wanted. These are the finished products. I opened it and I nodded at what I saw. This was good.
"Alright. Vesta, you may stay if you want. As for you three, pay attention to how you use these things." I picked up a landmine, an anti-personnel landmine. "Ok, I'm going to make this quick and simple. This pin right here is what arms them. 'A' is for armed, and 'S' is for safety. Just move that when you want to arm them."
I put the landmine back down and dug a very shallow hole, only a few inches or centimeters. I armed the landmine, put it in the hole, and covered it up a little bit.
"Alright, that's how it should look. The top part should stick out a little bit, but that doesn't matter; they won't notice it through the foliage of the forest. Now, I'm going to demonstrate how it's going to work. Back away a little bit."
They all backed away. Once they were a sufficient distance away, I stepped on the land mine and it exploded, just like that. If you think landmines explode only when the pressure is taken off them, you've watched too many movies. I felt a force go through my legs, before I felt dirt rain down on me. Shuna's going to be upset that my hair is getting dirty after she spent time fixing it up and styling it. There was a hole in the ground from the explosion, but I was fine.
"And there you have it. You can also rig corpses with them. Just attach a string or wire that arms them when the corpse is moved. Now, let's go on the anti-tank mines. These are just like the other ones, but more pressure is needed to activate them."
I picked up an anti-tank mine and armed it. I didn't dig a hole, since it wasn't necessary. I placed it on the ground and stepped on it. Nothing happened.
"As you can see, you need a lot of weight or pressure to activate these. You can move them around with your foot, and they won't explode even when armed. These are meant for vehicles. You can imagine what these could do to a person. Good luck finding an identifiable body part if this explodes near a person. Now, remember that and teach your units. You're going to set multiple of these landmines on our border with the Eastern Empire. And don't worry about the enemy having resistances or magic barriers, these can go through that. And I'm only talking about the average soldier. Obviously, the stronger ones won't be as affected, but the majority of the army is 'average' soldiers."
"Lady Pendragon, just a quick question. Should we mark where we place them?"
"Yes, mark where you place them, but only on a map. Don't place any physical signs at the sites. We don't want them to know where the threat is. Also, when placing them, I encourage perfidy. Try to hide them as well as you can."
"I see."
"Good question, Benimaru. Now, onto the next ones. We have napalm and white phosphorus." I looked in the crate, and there were many variations. Napalm and white phosphorus can be delivered in many ways. I saw some grenades and then bigger bombs, ones that were impractical to carry with you at all times. This is where Gabiru and his lizardmen come in; they'll be the ones to carry the bigger bombs.
I picked up the grenades. "Alright, this is simple. The one with 'N' is napalm, and the one with 'W.P.' is white phosphorus. I'll demonstrate how to use them and what they do." I pulled the pin on the napalm one, held it for a few seconds, and then threw it. It's a good thing there are no trees in this field. It exploded, and it spewed out fire in all directions, indiscriminately. The fire stuck like jelly to whatever surface it landed on and burned it. It had a "mystical" orange outlined glow to it. That's the magic part.
"That's napalm. Now for the white phosphorus." I pulled the pin, held it for a few seconds, and then threw it. It exploded, and dense, white smoke appeared. Luckily, we were far enough from the explosion, and there was very little wind.
"Now, if you can use wind magic or anything else to create a breeze. You can direct this smoke to where you want it to go, to inflict more damage. This will burn as long as there is oxygen or fuel present. Even if it stops, it can be reignited. Now, Gabiru."
"Yes, Lady Pendragon!"
"You see those bigger bombs?"
"Yes."
"You and your lizardmen are going to carry those and drop them on top of the enemy from the air. And that also goes for those other bombs you see. Those are cluster munitions. They're bombs that release smaller bombs to cover a bigger area. Just arm them, and then drop them on top of the enemy. Simple as that. Do you understand?"
"Yes, I do!"
"Good. Now, onto the chemical weapons. This is the same, Gabiru. These shells, or containers, contain gas. On impact, they'll open up and release the gas. This gas, in particular, is called chlorine gas. It's green-yellow in color and is dense, so it'll linger on the ground. Now, this is important: if you can use some type of wind magic, use it, so that the gas doesn't blow back on you in case of unfavorable winds. You got that?"
They all nodded, taking my words seriously. Good. I have no doubt they can resist something like this, but unfortunately, not all of our soldiers can resist this. They should prioritize the lives of their soldiers first, before using these weapons.
"Good. Now, Benimaru, we're going to take advantage of the dense forest. This is primarily for the Green Numbers. They'll blend in easily with the trees. It's simple, they'll set up posts in the trees and pick off whatever enemy they see. They'll literally won't know what hit them. Oh, and make sure they use poison arrows. They'll be our second line of defense after the Eastern Empire's army goes through the hellscape of our initial and man-less defense. At that point, they'll be terrified, paranoid, and questioning every decision they make, even down to where they place their foot."
"I see. I know what to do, Lady Pendragon, leave it to me.," Benimaru said. He's the best. He catches on quickly and knows what to do. You gotta love decentralized command.
"Anyway, that will be all. I'm going to order the mass production of these weapons, so expect a large amount to come your way. I want y'all to start placing these weapons as well as making booby traps along the indicated parts I showed y'all on the map. Make sure military personnel are the only ones allowed and not civilians. Alright, dismissed."
All of them immediately went to start organizing their units to do what I ordered. Vesta went back to his lab in the cave to carry out whatever other experiments. As for me? I'm going home. I don't want to spend another second in more meetings with dignitaries and whatnot; I've already had enough of that during these past weeks.
/\\//\\//\
As I was walking back home, I noticed a lot of children from many races. It was nice to see. It made me think about Shuna. We've already had the conversation, and she's not against it. Magic is a wonderful thing. It's also nice to know that people are willing to raise children in the empire, but it also means their parents would lose some strength.
I did think about that part, but the new skill I got—Hero Creation—solves that problem. The skill does exactly what you'd expect, especially when knowing it comes from that damn wizard. To put it simply, I can have as many children with Shuna as I want without having to worry about either of us losing power or anything like that. Whenever that thought enters my mind, my dragon side starts to act up, and my spirit side has to calm me down.
And also, since it's called "Hero Creation", I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll be seeing some…familiar faces. Literally. What are they called? Saber-faces? Yeah that. Heroic Spirits, and whatnot.
If my knighting ceremony can give people skills from Heroic Spirits, then I don't see it as unreasonable that when we have children, there'll be familiar faces. Well, I don't think it's bad. I should give Mordred some siblings. How many? I'll leave that up to fate and chance. (A/N: AKA a random number between 2 and 10)
But right now, I've got a war to win first.