Dungeon Defense (WN)

Chapter 298: Puppet War (15)

Chapter 298: Puppet War (15)

* * *

Brittany carried out their retreat. They were finally taking action.

Nine days had passed since we finished our encirclement. They should’ve started moving on day two if they were going to retreat. It would’ve been smart to escape before the fear of slaughter enveloped Parisiorum. Queen Henrietta would’ve had an excuse as well.

“I didn’t think that they would do that” and “I never imagined that they would be so cruel”, she could’ve covered it with these sorts of lies.

She would get criticized for being careless, but she wouldn’t have been accused of doing nothing while people were getting slaughtered. It would’ve also lessened any political risks. It would preserve Queen Henrietta de Brittany’s reign…….

But Henrietta ruined it. They did nothing for almost ten days. I could only call them sloppy.

Was it that hard to abandon Parisiorum, the imperial capital? Or did you believe that your supply ships would successfully make it to you……? There was probably a whole assortment of reasons. Regardless, you made a miscalculation either way. Are you aware? Your political life is already over, Henrietta.

“We should quickly create a pursuit team. Let us leave the Batavian soldiers at the capital. That should be enough to keep the masses of the capital under control.”

“But there are still soldiers left defending the city?”

I blinked in surprise at Gamigin’s response.

“What? What are you talking about? Did you not say that the Queen of Brittany escaped?”

“Not all of her men followed. About 25,000 soldiers left the city, but roughly 4,000 remained to protect the city.”

“Are you telling me……they split their army?”

Dear God.

I lowered my head. This was Henrietta’s ploy.

Those 4,000 soldiers were scapegoats. She was trying to declare that she wasn’t abandoning Parisiorum. They probably left behind the useless part of their army. A general with a high standing was probably also left behind to increase their credibility.

She’s going to take out her elite soldiers……and hastily retreat while we’re busy capturing Parisiorum.

If we put aside Parisiorum to chase them, then the troops left behind in Parisiorum will come around to pincer us. It’s good if we don’t chase them, and if we do chase them, then they can lead the fight into a pitched battle where they have an advantage. This was probably her plan.

What.

“What an idiotic ploy……!”

I lowered my head and laughed. I ended up arching forward unconsciously as I bellowed with laughter.

A masterpiece. Aah, this was a masterpiece!

To think that she would try to spare her troops and her dignity. There’s a limit to how foolish you can be. Henrietta learned nothing from my lessons. Was she underestimating me? Was she looking down on me because I lost during the Frankia civil war?

You’ve chosen the worst option, Queen.

“What’s wrong with splitting their army? It isn’t much, but they should be able to defend the capital for at least four days.”

“Gamigin, that is if we carry out a siege. However, why would we go out of our way to capture Parisiorum? There is no need for us to go along with the Queen’s antics.”

Gamigin raised a brow.

“Are you saying we should leave the imperial capital behind and pursue them? Our backs would be wide open.”

“You have misinterpreted my words. Gamigin, I said that there is no reason for ‘us’ to capture Parisiorum.”

I smiled.

“Use your wyverns to immediately scatter some notices. Write this down on the notices: The Queen has abandoned you and ran away. People of Parisiorum, if you do not wish to be slaughtered, then fight back against Brittany’s oppression now. Those who rise up bravely will be granted absolute mercy…….”

I turned to look at Parisiorum in the distance.

“However, if you choose to support Brittany’s slaughter until the very end, then there will be no mercy. This is your final warning. Your final chance at mercy.”

We immediately proceeded with this propaganda maneuver.

We didn’t have enough time to prepare the notices, so we instead took full advantage of our sound amplification spell. We flew around on wyverns outside the city walls and ordered the people to surrender without end.

After almost 10 days of mass executions by fire, the Queen of Brittany, whom they had trusted, had run away. She probably left after scraping up whatever provisions were left in the city. Fear of being slaughtered, betrayal of trust, and now fear of hunger……. The people of Parisiorum didn’t have a choice.

That night, a fire surged up from the inside of the city.

The sounds of metal colliding and shouting could be heard from a distance.

Parisiorum’s population of 80,000 had started an uprising. They far surpassed what an army of 4,000 flimsy soldiers could handle.

Our army formed a long line at the south gate and waited patiently. Brother Beleth must’ve felt impatient while watching the chaos before him as he tapped my shoulder.

“Hey, Brother. Wouldn’t we be able to capture the city immediately if we barge through the gates right now? How about asking Miss Deputy……No, Her Excellency the Deputy Commander?”

“How about asking her yourself, Brother?”

Brother Beleth shook his hands frantically. It seems the memory of being scolded by Laura had scarred him. I chuckled lightly.

“This could be a trap. They could be pretending as if a commotion had occurred in the city in order to lure us into an ambush……. It is unlikely, but you cannot ignore this possibility. That was the Deputy Commander’s decision.”

“Mm.”

Brother Beleth appeared to have understood as he nodded. In truth, this was my decision and not Laura’s.

Laura suggested that we should attack as soon as we saw that chaos had erupted in the city, but I disagreed. This was because something like this happens in <Dungeon Attack>.

There’s a scenario where the Habsburg Empire invades Frankia after Elizabeth becomes the empress. The Frankia-Brittany alliance endures well due to having Laura de Farnese as their key general. However, they end up getting pushed all the way back to Parisiorum because of the hero.

A revolt occurs inside Parisiorum at this point. The hero marches into the city giddily, but it turns out to be a trick. The hero ends up fleeing after getting hit by a huge ambush. At this point, the heroine route you went down depended on whether you escaped through the north gate or the east gate, but……mm. In any case, this situation was suspicious.

In the end, I was right. The fire that started in the middle of the night really was created by the Brittan soldiers.

The problem was the fact that this made the civilians think an uprising had actually started.

The fear and anxiety that had built up all this time burst out as soon as the flames appeared, making the people of Parisiorum pour out onto the streets in the middle of the night.

The mob of tens of thousands of citizens was immense. The weapon armories were emptied in an instant. The watchtowers and strongholds being guarded by the Brittan soldiers were all captured. People were slaughtered regardless of whether they surrendered or resisted.

If we had entered the capital without any caution from the very beginning, then we would’ve been ambushed by the enemy soldiers hiding between the buildings. But we hadn’t moved.

The Brittan soldiers were split up and placed here and there waiting in ambush. However, this actually had the effect of making them easy prey to the citizens. The Brittan soldiers weren’t able to group up and were horribly slaughtered.

Six in the morning.

The city gates opened on their own.

The civilian militia came out while dragging Brittan prisoners. There were about two hundred prisoners. In other words, excluding these two hundred prisoners, the remaining 4,000 in the city were all killed.

“…….”

Surprisingly, there was a face I recognized among the prisoners.

A pure white priest outfit. Orange, curly hair. It was the Saintess of Athena Temple, Jacqueline Longwy. She was glaring at us with venomous eyes. I didn’t think that the Queen would leave the saintess behind as a scapegoat…….

The representatives of the civilian militia all kneeled at the same time.

“Your Excellencies. The supreme rulers and occupants of Habsburg.”

There were normal civilians on top of the ramparts. At a glance, there were probably more than ten thousand of them up there. They were watching us with bated breaths.

“Your Excellency promised us mercy, so we, the people of Parisiorum, have subjugated your enemy and have brought them to you here. We beg that you grace us with the benevolence that you had promised.”

“You all committed a sin in the past.”

Rudolf spoke. Referentially, we’re a human army in name, so Emperor Rudolf von Habsburg came out to meet the surrender envoys. The Demon Lords were standing behind him.

“However, the Gods allow us to repent for our crimes, so the same applies to you as well.”

A monotone voice seeped out from Rudolf’s mouth.

The guy wasn’t conscious. He was simply saying whatever Barbatos made him say. Adding to this, I was the one who wrote down the lines for Barbatos to use. Rudolf was quite literally a puppet.

“If someone gives you mercy, then it was not from me. It is the mercy of the Gods. People of Parisiorum, stand up.”

Rudolf personally placed his hand on the shoulder of one of the representatives and pulled them up.

“From this day forth, the Frankia that is being controlled by Brittany and the Parisiorum that is suffering under Brittany’s rule are no more. I vow as an eternal ally and friend of Frankia and Parisiorum: my army shall never occupy Parisiorum!”

“Ooh, O venerable Emperor…….”

The representatives looked at Rudolf with awestruck eyes.

Rudolf kindly patted the representative’s shoulder—Jesus, I guarantee that Barbatos is the greatest puppeteer in the world!—and turned his head.

“Great citizens of Parisiorum! I am not an invader and I am not your ruler. You do not have to give me the keys to your gates.”

The puppet emperor shouted toward the ramparts. Of course, his voice was being amplified by magic.

“You will not find my army going through your comfortable homes. Soldiers will not march triumphantly through the streets you are proud of. Your women, children, and elderly will not have to live in fear. I vow to the Gods! Parisiorum will have complete autonomy!”

At that moment, the people on the ramparts let out a cheer.

They most likely thought that we were going to occupy the city. However, we had vowed that we wouldn’t reside within the city for even a moment. This was a magnanimity that even the people themselves never could’ve expected.

“Cheers to His Excellency the Emperor!”

“Glory to the Frankia Empire! Glory to the Habsburg Empire!”

“Glory to the Batavia Republic!”

The humans came together and cheered in unison. They probably believed that the fires of war were finally over now.

The city of Parisiorum, which had been under the control of Brittany for the past four years, was finally free. Of course, they became ‘too’ free, but……I was probably the only person at this moment who knew this.

“…….”

The two hundred prisoners had their heads down while everyone was cheering around them.

We left the fate of the prisoners to the civilian militia as well.

“The people of Parisiorum were the ones who were harmed by Brittany. Therefore, only you have the right to get revenge.”

Rudolf concluded. The citizens cheered once more due to this statement filled with deep consideration. Hundreds of the prisoners were immediately executed on the spot by the people. The civilian militia was so grateful to the Emperor’s magnanimous suggestion that they let us decide the fates of the highest-ranking officials. The Saintess was included in that.

Did you think that the capital would endure for at least four days, Henrietta?

Sorry. Parisiorum fell in only one day. Due to an internal struggle, at that…….

I definitely said you should pick one or the other. And yet, you tried to preserve both your army and dignity. That was your mistake.

You’re one step behind Elizabeth in this regard. When Elizabeth was in the face of annihilation, she threw away Vindobona, the imperial capital, without any hesitation. Thanks to this, the Crescent Alliance became divided.

Offer your flesh in order to take the enemy’s bones. Whether you have the talent to be a ruler is decided by this. Elizabeth accomplished this, so Habsburg was able to revive. On the other hand, Henrietta couldn’t abandon anything…….

It wasn’t a coincidence that Elizabeth became the ultimate ruler in <Dungeon Attack>. It was inevitable. Blame your own naivety, Henrietta.

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. I’m back from my reserve military training. I’m actually dead. Out of all days, there just had to be a really bad rainstorm during the training. My umbrella also happened to be incredibly shitty so water constantly leaked through the top and drenched my head. I thought my hair was drenched because of sweat at first, but it was literally the rain. It rained so hard that I had a severe headache by the time I got home and woke up the next day with a slight fever. I still feel a bit shitty.

Bleh, I might try to get some proper rest so this doesn’t turn into a full-blown fever, but my mornings have been painful because of the LOUD construction. Life is great.

I’ll see you guys in the next chapter and if I’m still alive ?