So the Medieval Age Has a Split Inheritance System…
Translator: Tsukii
Editor: PalenMisha
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 75 – Incompetent
By the time the enemy attack completely stopped, our side didn’t continue to attack. At most, we were just shooting explosive shells from cannons while other soldiers were concentrating on defense. This bombardment alone had caused quite a bit of damage to the enemy army, and since we didn’t want to cause any more damage, it couldn’t be helped.
I already knew that the enemy army was short on supplies. After all, I was behind enemy lines earlier, marched together with them, and was also in charge of managing their supplies, so I completely understood the enemy’s food supply situation. And since almost all of the provisions were burned during the escape, the amount of food they could eat after a few days passed would be extremely small.
The number of enemy cavalry had already decreased. It was easy to guess the reason why. On the battlefield, the enemy army had already eaten the emergency food that should be eaten last, so they were in a considerable state of starvation. On our side, on the other hand, since the transport soldiers were managing the provisions properly, soldiers could eat normally every meal. Our supply routes weren’t cut off and our provisions weren’t burned after all.
Above all, even in the unlikely case the supply route was cut off, the army wouldn’t fall into a state of starvation easily since we carried enough supplies to last us a month. The enemy army was also aiming for this supply, but we responded to that with a salvo of guns. Because the enemy suffered great casualties on the first day, they committed such a desperate suicide attack.
At the same time, more and more dukes and counts chose to surrender. Those who surrendered at this point were those who valued their lives, so most of them accepted conversions, and the enemy army gradually collapsed.
Eventually, when the total number of enemy forces fell below 50,000, King Masia, the supreme commander of the enemy forces, surrendered. It would be nice if they completely surrendered since the total number of their army exceeded ours, but I couldn’t help but find it suspicious, so I ordered soldiers to shoot King Masia until he was dead. There was no reason not to kill a competent person on the enemy side since they chose to surrender. It was a war of annihilation for the survival of respective religions after all.
If I did this, it was possible that the remaining soldiers would become dead soldiers who fought to death and refused to surrender, but the moment King Masia, who ruled his nation through fear just like me, died, the soldiers that accompanied him showed fear at the possibility they might be killed as well as a somewhat relieved feeling. Just how much had they feared him? Well, I was also the same, though.
With the entire army of the Masia Kingdom taken prisoner, the number of soldiers on our side surpassed theirs, and finally the pope, who could no longer resist, asked to spare his life in exchange for complete surrender. I had King Masia killed since it was more beneficial that way, but the pope seemed to be incompetent to the point that killing him would be a loss, so I could accept his request and spare his life.
There was no guarantee his successor would be as incompetent as he was, so it would be a great help for me to send this pope back to the papal territory and cause strife in the territory that way. The fact that he asked to spare his life despite all the humiliation that came with it showed he was a fairly self-serving person, and the precious incompetent personnel of the enemy nation have to be treated with respect.
Well, in exchange for sparing his life, I requested justification to claim Estoani Kingdom. To be blunt, now it already came to this, I no longer need any justification for war, but I still requested that to show the pope’s incompetence and unreliability to the region where Knut religion was rooted. It was a request that wouldn’t be fulfilled under normal circumstances, but it was in the middle of a war and the other party was unusually incompetent, so I think it would be fulfilled.
Needless to say, the King of Estoani Kingdom, who had also joined the coalition army, had an expression that said “Eh, you won’t sell us for your own safety, right?” but in the end, the pope of Knut religion handed over the justification of the Estoani Kingdom to me free of charge. I was amazed that Estoani Kingdom’s army didn’t go on a rampage the moment the pope personally announced that.
After that, I negotiated with the kings of each nation and took 1,000 people of each nation as slaves. There were Estoani Kingdom, Masia Kingdom, and Lenart Empire, so the total was 3,000 people. I would request the same from Carling Kingdom later, but I think they would reject that, so I would use that as a reason to invade.
I wouldn’t use those slaves as part of the army, but I was planning on starting a transportation business using these guys, so people with physical strength would come in handy. Finally, let’s prepare a good carriage for the pope and wish him a safe journey to the papal territory.
…I had no idea whether the pope’s successor would be incompetent, but since it would be someone that the pope liked, I think they would be incompetent as well. I guess I would have the spies to investigate that. They were people who failed to find out about the wyvern riders, the trump card of the Masia Kingdom army, but if I specify what information to secure, they would bring back information with a fair degree of accuracy, and considering it was the region where that incompetent pope lead, the information security should be full of loopholes.
After successfully repelling the pope’s army, the army of Deal Kingdom, whose morale was greatly boosted, began marching to conquer the Carling Duchy of Carling Kingdom and the Estoani Duchy of Estoani Kingdom. The first division went to the Carling Duchy, while the second division went to the Estoani Duchy.
If both of these duchies fell, it would make 9 duchies under the control of Deal Kingdom. The territory would be expanded enough to be able to call itself an empire. Since the population of a single duchy was roughly 2 million people, it meant I would be a king of 18 million people.
If I could conquer the whole continent, it would reach 100 million people. With that much population and national power, the technology would progress rapidly and in this world, there was magic technology, something that didn’t exist in my previous life. If I use this, I should be able to expand domestic infrastructure and create a brutal weapon of destruction… I doubted I would have a decent death, but I wanted to develop this world as much as possible.
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