༺ I Don’t Need a Guillotine for My Revolution ༻
Written by – 카르카손
Translated by – Mara Sov
༺ Revolutionary Period – Schemes of the Masses ༻
On the plain, southeast of Lumiere.
The warm springtime rays of light poured from the sky, illuminating the barley fields; even then, the scene unfolding on the ground was anything but warm.
The revolutionary army managed to hastily conscript 10,000 common men under its national militia, and the forces led by Duke Loranne and the Duke of Orleans numbered 8,000 veteran soldiers that covered the plain as they approached each other.
Cannons from both sides began their incessant song of iron, with cannonballs flying towards the opposing camps.
However, there was a stark contrast between the armies.
“Argh!”
“T-The Cannons!”
The Revolutionary’s shots hit the frontlines with unmatched accuracy, and even a cannon was hit, exploding in a cloud of shrapnel on the surrounding artillerymen.
But the cannonballs fired by the Royal Army either fell too close or too far from their target.
Duke Lorraine gritted his teeth as he watched this unfold.
“Curses! We are using the same cannons, so why are our men so pitifully inept? Must I go there personally and whip them into shape?!”
“I’m sorry, Your Grace. But the soldiers are not used to this type of weapon……”
“Useless fools!”
While Duke Lorenne vented his frustration, Valliant, observing the enemy getting hammered by the continuous artillery fire through his telescope, whistled.
“Phew~. It seems that they brought some cannons after hearing about the Marquis of Lafayette, but do those twats even know anything about ballistics? I trained these fine lads into gunners myself while I moved from city to city.”
“Well, for most nobles, cannons are just siege weapons, so what do they know? They can hit a massive wall just by firing blindly, but they can’t compare to trained artillerymen capable of long-range engagements. If they ever needed the range, they would simply hire a mage with money.”
“Right~? That’s what I’m curious about. This Marquis of Lafayette……I’d like to meet the guy at least once……”
As he lowered his telescope, Valliant added.
“In the first place, the military doctrine of this country has always been ancient because of these damned Knights.
Did you know that there’s a guy in the east who completely humiliated the armies of the Germania Empire with a modern doctrine? That guy even became a ‘Great King’ or something. Yet, instead of learning from the others, those fools persist in their old ways.”
“Please don’t let your personal thoughts leak while in battle, General.”
“Hehehe-. Ah, but that ‘Great King’ is a man worthy of respect. Oh, wait, can you say my rank just one more time?”
The aid showed a rather disgusted face as he heard Valliant mumbles, but soon complied with his superior’s wish.
“Sigh-. General. Please, focus.”
“General~ Ge-ne-ral….ahh that’s so nice. Hehehehe-.”
Valliant licked his lips as he eyed the approaching forces of the King.
“I bet that if I devour those fools I can rise to an even better position.”
As he muttered to himself, Valliant watched the movements of the enemy cavalry and whistled.
“Whew~. Looks like those Knights are running out of patience. And would you look at that, the flags of both Dukes aren’t moving. I guess they don’t want to end up like the Duke Bretagne.”
“Shall I relay the orders to Morelle’s unit, General?”
“Sharp as always! I like that. What’s your name?”
“Berthier. Alexandre Berthier.”
“Fantastic, Berthier. When I rise up in the ranks again, I’ll put a good word for you too!”
“Let’s concentrate on winning this first, General. Then we can talk.”
“Hahahaha-. I just know we are going to become great friends already!”
–
As the soldiers marched on, Duke Orleans swallowed dryly as he watched his Knights head to the left flank.
Due to the King concentrating almost all the available Knights on the Blue Knight, both Knights and heavy cavalry had become a rare and valuable force.
On the other hand, the number of Knights and cavalry heading to the right flank under Duke Lorenne’s command seemed far greater than his forces.
Clicking his tongue, the Duke of Orleans focused on the enemy lines.
Although the enemy had more troops, in terms of quality, his soldiers were vastly superior.
The militias created by the cities to defend against the raids during the Civil War were somewhat organized and relatively armed, but they barely amounted to half of the enemy’s forces.
The rest were merely conscripts, hastily recruited and barely trained, armed with ancient muskets or rusty spears.
That’s what the Duke of Orleans previously thought, and after some deliberation, he gave another order to his forces.
“Tell the Knights and cavalry to stand by, at least for now.”
“Pardon? B-but my lord, wasn’t the strategy to attack both flanks simultaneously?”
“Do you trust Duke Loranne? If we waste our Knights and cavalry here, and that snake harbors some insidious plan, who would protect His Majesty?”
“Ah, I see.”
The fragile bond of Duke Loranne’s forces with King Louis’s army was brittle and would shatter at any time now.
Eventually, as the signal was given, only Duke Lorenne’s cavalry and Knights maneuvered towards the flanks.
As they galloped across the plains, where the snow still persisted, a series of gunshots were heard.
“Argh!”
“It’s an ambush! Protect yourselves!”
Although late, the order was given; this only gave the Knights enough time to protect their fronts with mana.
All around them, various ambush parties hidden among the barley began firing from every direction, as some Knights were gunned down and fell from their mounts.
“These filthy rats!”
An enraged Knight drew his mana-enhanced sword and charged into the barley field, where a soldier turned around and fled.
“I’ll kill you-!”
The Knight increased his momentum, but he soon fell as a powerful impact broke his neck.
“Don’t give chase! They’ve set traps in the barley field!”
Stakes were driven into the ground beneath the barley as well tightly strung ropes waiting to trip their horses were set in the field.
When the Knights became disorganized by the various traps and sporadic gunfire, the enemy cavalry began their charge.
“Don’t run into the barley field! Confront the enemy’s charge!”
However, as the Royal Army charged toward the enemy cavalry, they simply turned away and fled, taking potshots at them with their short-barreled muskets.
“T-Those honorless bastards-ugh!”
As the Knights and cavalry attempted to pursue the enemy, more ambushers leaped out from the barley fields and opened fire at their backs, further intensifying the chaos.
“What in the world is the Duke of Orleans doing!”
“S-Sir we are surrounded by enemies! W-What should we do?!”
“Curses! Chase them, chas-Argh!”
The commander of the army stomped his feet in frustration, ordering the mages alongside their archers to provide support, but against such a scattered force in the barley fields, this proved to be ineffective.
As the Duke of Orleans saw the massacre occurring, he chose not to send his Knights and cavalry, preserving his troops.
“Hah, hahahaha! It’s too easy to fool those brutes who only know how to charge forward! Look, I’m almost taking a nap here!”
Jerome Morelle, the one leading the Revolutionary army cavalry, laughed at the Kingdom’s forces being completely fooled and defeated by a form of combat they had never seen before, as they died without a chance to exert their formidable strength.
“Attack! Attack!!”
The Royal Army’s last hope was its central infantry.
“Aim, Set, and – Fire!”
However, when the revolutionaries’ infantry armed with their muskets fired in unison, the chainmail of the charging heavy infantry was pitifully pierced.
If the mages had been deployed to the center, aiding the infantry, then they would’ve been able to hold off the revolutionaries for a long while, but the nobles of Francia who valued the gallant Knights more than the infantry wasted their mages elsewhere, as the powerful barrage of musket fire devastated the Royal Army.
As hundreds of soldiers fell to the gunfire, the soldiers from the Royal Army, already exhausted by the long series of conflicts caused by the Civil War began to falter.
“Charge! These are nothing but a commoner’s militia!”
“Do not retreat! Those who dare to run will be felled by my sword!”
As the commanders and Knights of the Royal Army tried to regain control of their troops by threatening them, a shout erupted from the revolutionary army.
“Soldiers! To crush our enemy we must first be brave! And secondly, we must be even more brave!”
When some young officer quoted the words spoken by President Levier and raised his sword, the entire revolutionary army responded in kind.
“We must embrace our bravery! If we retreat here, they will enslave us and our families again! We fight for freedom!”
“For Freedom—!!!”
“All hands draw swords! Now is the time to attack! Vive la révolution!”
“Vive la révolution! Chargeeee!”
Even though most of the army were just recently conscripted, they had tasted the sweet nectar of freedom after an eternity of oppression, so with bravery in their hearts and the song of freedom in their mouths they charged at full speed.
The great Knights crumbled without achieving anything, and the Royal Army was overshadowed by a barrage of gunfire.
Those who were once considered less than human beings by the nobles, a mere rabble, charged with astonishing zeal, as the Royal Army began to retreat without even putting up a proper fight.
“What’s that guy’s name?”
Watching the scene through his telescope, Valliant asked Berthier, as his aid flicked through the tactical deployment documents before replying.
“His name is Nicolas Nera”
Nodding his head and engraving such a name in his memory, Valliant turned his gaze towards his friend Jerome commanding the cavalry as they chased the retreating soldiers before saying.
“Ah Ah, how boring. It’s over already. Isn’t there a more exciting opponent out there?”
–
In the darkest hour at Aquitaine County.
Sierres, a man who was known to be Bishop Rechelieu’s right hand, extended his hand towards the window of his inn.
Then, a black pigeon with red eyes flew towards his arm-
And merged with him.
Having recovered his familiar, Sie-no, Halphas chewed on his nail, while lost in thought.
For a member of Abyss Corporation, the ‘Pride Corps’, his luck has been rather……Lacking.
He heard that the CEO of ‘Sloth’ opposed the plan to push the King for more loans with the condition of getting rid of Lafayette.
In the board meeting of Abyss Corporation, the seven CEOs decide their next moves, and it’s not rare for a minority to disagree with some decisions.
What is rare, however, is for this minority to be right.
Once a policy is decided, the seven CEOs will work in cooperation to secure the best outcome, as per their guidelines.
Interference or overreach in each company’s area is forbidden, and in this case, the ‘Pride Corps’ was charged with handling the external affairs and internal order.
In this setting, a policy backed by the large majority of companies failing is unprecedented.
Contrary to all logic, King Louis suffered a devastating loss against Lafayette.
What’s even worse is that when they pressured the King to recuperate some of their assets, the revolution sparked far sooner than expected.
Because of this, Halphas, who planned his return by using the port of Bretagne, was taken aback to find the territory overturned by the revolutionaries.
More so, the people of Francia, enraged by King Louis’s dealings with Abyss Corporation, razed all the corporation assets in Bretagne and even plundered their trading ships.
To the Abyss Corporation, this was an uncommon and costly blunder.
For Halphas, the one charged with overseeing the operations in Francia, this failure sent shivers down his spine.
“I will never understand these primitive humans and their illogical thought process……”
Burning down an uncivilized nation was an easy choice.
However, after the fall of Pandemonium, the great demon kingdom of the Central Continent, known as the ‘Great Scourge,’ it took Abyss Corporation hundreds of years to mellow out their inborn hostility with a new motto of coexistence with the lesser beings.
With this new approach, Abyss Corporation was able to accumulate immense wealth through their monopoly of trade connecting the Central Continent, the newly discovered continent, and the Old Continent. So they had no reason to ruin their lucrative business just for a show of unnecessary force.
Although they do issue threats of war quite frequently to keep some debtors on their toes, such threats will never come to fruition and will be unanimously rejected by the board of directors.
With no choice left, Halphas came to Aquitaine County, a merchant territory to secure some deals for the Abyss Corporation, but unlike Bretagne where the Abyss Corporation had an established base of operations, here in Aquitaine he would commence from zero and had to deal with the strict surveillance of the Aquitaine trading guild.
Smuggling was an option, but things could get hairy if he was caught, and above all, his pride as a demon wouldn’t allow him to suffer such shame and be confined to those miserably cramped human ships.
And of course, returning empty-handed to the CEO of ‘Pride’ would be completely absurd.
While the guidelines of Abyss Corporation forbid hostile actions against its members, he would surely be punished as someone charged with external affairs and who had tarnished the face of ‘Pride Corps’.
“Hmph-. I’ll just have to start over once more. It wouldn’t be difficult at all, since those lowly humans are nothing more than pawns in our game.”
In the end, sowing the seeds of discord in Francia was his specialty, so Halphas decided to make up for his losses.
The very next day, Halphas visited the Countess’s manor.
Instead of smuggling something on an Aquitaine’s trading ship, it would be far simpler to become a legitimate member of the Aquitaine trading guild.
Especially since the Aquitaine has come clean regarding their alliance towards Lafayette, so he would be able to lay the groundwork for future plans.
After a short wait, he was able to meet with the young Countess of Aquitaine.
“I’m honored to meet you, My Lady the Countess. I’m the magician, Emanuel Sierras.”
Christine supported her chin on her hand as she examined his B-rank certificate with a verification tool and said.
“Your documents are genuine. Now, if I understand this correctly, you wish to work as a mage for the Aquitaine family?”
“That is correct, My Lady.”
Her disturbing deep black eyes watched him, but Halphas felt no fear, after all, she was just a young human girl.
So Halphas waited patiently for her next words.
“Where did you work before coming here?”
“I was in Lumiere, My Lady. But as you know given the current situation, I’ve taken refuge in the south…..”
“I see, it must have been a trying time. But why Aquitaine? We’re not a military power, and as a B-class magician, you would be treated well anywhere you went, isn’t that so?”
Halphas laughed at her question.
“Given the current situation of Francia, I would rather not join battles anytime soon……”
“Ah. So you’ve come here because of the safe environment and because there will be no worry about your payment?”
“Yes, My Lady.”
Christine watched him for a moment before nodding.
“Very well. The compensation you ask for isn’t cheap, but it’s not excessive either. I see no reason to refuse.
Welcome to Aquitaine, Magician Sierres. If you speak with the butler, he’ll arrange accommodation for you. This couldn’t have come at a better time, as I need an escort for tomorrow.”
“An escort, My Lady?”
“Yes, I’m planning on leading the trade caravan towards Lafayette. There shouldn’t be any danger, but you will have to earn your pay, won’t you?”
“I have no problems with this arrangement, My Lady.”
While Halphas rejoiced for such a good opportunity thrown in his lap, he bowed to Christine. Though he would have to revise his plan again, an opportunity was an opportunity. And Halphas was nothing but adaptative.
Sowing the right seeds in Lafayette could give him something to say in his reports.
Left alone in her office, Christine narrowed her eyes and stared at the door.
A magician’s ID is a certain and convenient form of identification issued by the Kingdom, and although not the highest rank, a B-Class magician would be well respected anywhere he went.
So while this ID couldn’t be easily forged, and unlike an A-Class magician who would be under severe vigilance because of his status, a B-class was the perfect spot to allow someone to operate comfortably.
Christine slowly opened a drawer and the book inside.
The Theory of Social Hierarchy.
Normally, the nobles would abhor such a book, but Christine’s fingers easily flipped through the book, and then she wrote a letter, tied to the leg of a messenger bird, and sent it flying.
TL Note: Aint like the troup of lazy geniuses old?
Like shikamaru, that JP anime about the red haired dude or something that’s a genius in war, and his love interest that is a beast with a sword…
I watched that shit on high school.
wtf is the name of that anime.
