The Main Family Is About to Die Out, so I, from a Branch Family, Am a Seed Provider (WN): Chapter 43

 

Episode 43: That's Why I Wanted to Execute Him so Badly

"First, there are two routes from here in Kraha City to the next planned retreat, Brumud Castle."

 The location hasn't changed, and the four of us surrounded the map spread out on the table, explaining to the master, who sat staring at the map, why we had to get Lady Ritia out of here right away.

"One is a relatively well-developed road. The other is a road that leads through the mountains."

"Umu."

"The road to the castle is farther and takes longer, but with our current scale of operations, I think this route is the easiest to take."

 The head of the family nodded, as though he had the same thought.

"On the contrary, the route through the mountains have a short distance to the castle, but with our current situation, it will not be easy to move, and our escape will probably be completed about the same time as on the road."

"So whichever we choose, it's going to spend more time?"

 I quietly shake my head from side to side at the question.

 In this escape, time and the size of the army are just extras. The only real question is whether or not we will be able to successfully defeat the enemy's pursuit.

"No matter which path we choose, we are sure to be pursued by the enemy sooner or later. However, it is urgent to establish a rear unit, which will serve as a group to intercept the enemy's pursuit, but probably no one will be willing to be assigned to the rear unit. "

"......"

 Remaining silent, the master closed his eyes quietly. Well, from his position near the top of the chain of command, it would be impossible for him to imagine soldiers who would be willing, and it would be hypothetically impossible.

 But it is not the prince or the master who would actually fight, but just nameless soldiers and the person who would directly command them.

 However, the soldiers here today are the remnants of the defeated soldiers who have escaped with their lives, and their morale is low. Even if I told them to "Do your best to stop the enemy until the big guys get to the castle safely", they would not risk their lives to fight, nor would they feel any obligation to fight. Of course, I feel the same way. If I were ordered to do so, I would just let it go and run away.

"If that happens, all that awaits us is annihilation."

"......Then we can't use the city. We can't fight properly on wide roads...... You were planning to go through the mountains from the beginning, right?"

"Yeah, well."

 The master is right, the reason I originally bought a day's worth of time in Gruve City was to prepare for our safe passage through these mountainous terrains.

"The road through the mountains is so narrow that a large army would be useless. This was a problem that would arise regardless of ally or enemy, but there's a way to take advantage of it. We will build a number of fences along the mountain path, preventing the horses from passing through the mountain. By doing so, we could earn another day."

 We will build fences to block the narrow road, and fight with small troops using it as a shield, and if it was breached, they would fall back and be replaced by the troops that were on standby in the next place.

 If this is repeated, even this army, with its low morale, would have enough time to retreat.

"......Well thought out. But with this, won't Ritia-tan be able to retreat safely without having to depart early?"

"It's impossible."

 As I say that clearly, the master looked at me with his eyebrows meeting at the center. His face looked somewhat puzzled. I guess he was wondering why.

"As you can see, we don't have any more time to build the fences."

 So I simply tell the master about the problem.

"Time to build?"

"Cut the tree, transport it to the site, build it, and install it. We can't do this in a day."

"Such a thing, if we all do it from now on..."

"That's why……!!"

 The master's tone turns a little irritated. But I threw aside our mutual positions and all that and shouted in a hoarse voice.

"There is no way we can do that with only 10,000 soldiers!"

"ーー!?"

 I slam my fist down on the map and continue to talk to the master, whose eyes widen in surprise.

"We don't have enough people to begin with! Even if we've divided the process into three parts, simplified it as much as possible but we just can't make it in time!"

"Then, the citizens here will......... I see."

 The master finally realized, and for a moment stared at the door through which the prince had left, but he realized that it was already too late.

"Who would help an army that brought harm to them? Besides, this is an enemy territory to begin with."

 Why did I try to kill that man when it wasn't really my role to do so, without even checking whether he did it or did not?

 That's because otherwise, the 36,000 citizens of the city of Kraha will not be able to help.

"Young master, your hand..."

 At the sound of Elfie's voice, I glanced at the map...... and turned my gaze to my fist, which had struck the table rather than the map, and saw that it was bleeding. It was quite a lot of blood, and apparently, the skin had been ripped open by the hard blow.

 The map was gradually stained with blood, and the drawn escape route to Brumud Castle turned red and the line faded away.

"Forcing them to do it, or forcing them to mobilize, might be one way. But if you force people to work in such a way that they don't want to, they may not be able to make it in time, even though we have the numbers to do so, let alone the quality."

 So I had to execute them quickly, present them to the city and bow down to the citizens.

"...What to do."

 Such were the words that poured out of the mouth of the master when he grasped the situation.

"What should we do? Let Ojousama leave for the castle right now, and we will follow her later."

"Wait, you don't mean......"

 I guess he finally grasped the whole point of what I was saying. The master's eyes widen in astonishment at this point.

"We are going to abandon all the soldiers, knights, and nobles here except us and flee."

"That will not do!"

 With that said, the master rose to his feet with a clatter, as if kicking the chair he was sitting on.

"I have to ask you, why?"

"Why? Do you understand? What are you trying to do now......"

"I know. Dozens of nobles, 105 knights, 9,000 soldiers...... I don't know what will happen to the citizens here, but if we sacrifice them, we will be able to get away, safe and sound."

"Don't be silly. Such a thing would be ungrateful to His Majesty. First of all, if we lose a dozen or so nobles alone, the kingdom will be......"

 Indeed, the nobility is a necessary tool for ruling the land in place of royalty and bringing its tax revenues to the country.

 If a dozen or so of them disappear at once, what awaits them will be chaos of all sizes.

 But that doesn't mean I don't know what will happen in the future. I don't care if I am called heartless or a coward. All I care about is saving myself and the girls around me. I don't care if the prince dies or the nobles die.

 Besides, the prince said so. "Let there be no question about it."

 To put it all behind us does not mean that it will all be forgotten.

 The citizens who have been looted had a life. It would spread throughout the city through the citizens who saw it, and they would become hostile to the Kingdom Army.

 Not all of that will reset and things will not go back to the way they were.

 The foolish choice of pretending it never happened will come back to haunt us.

 It was that prince, of all people, who made such a choice.

 If he is the commander of an army, he should be willing to die on the path he has chosen, without escaping from his responsibility. Otherwise, those below him will not follow.

“…………”

 The master remained silent for a while. When he finally opened his eyes, the only sound in the room was the meaningless ticking of the clock.

"We still can't do it. We can't use that strategy."

 The conclusion was a rejection of my opinion that everything should be abandoned.

"...I know that you are upset on what happened. I'm going to take a break. In the meantime, cool your head."

 When I directed a silent protest at him, he simply silenced me and got up on the spot and walked out of the room.

 The tension that had been building up in the room is suddenly broken, and with that, the meeting between the four of us came to an end.

"Um, Nii-san..."

"Sorry Armes. Prepare Ojousama's escape now. We'll be leaving in a few hours......"

"I-I understand. I'll make arrangements right away." 

 Armes nodded and said so and walked out of the room, leaving me and Elfie alone in the room.

"Let's take care of your wound first."

 In the midst of all that, Elfie took my hand and began to talk about how we should retreat while checking my injuries.

"Now that we no longer have the advantage of using the path through the mountains, we must head straight for Brumud Castle."

 While ordering a soldier passing by to bring a first aid kit to treat me, Elfie gently grabs my right hand and begins to wipe the blood with a clean cloth she is carrying.

"However, along the way, the enemy will almost certainly catch up with us. We will therefore have no choice but to fight, which I suspect will take place a short distance from here, around the foot of the Gelhorn Mountains."

"......That narrow road."

 We passed through it on our way here with the supply unit, and Elfie was right, it was indeed narrow.

"Yes. There is a mountain range on the left and a wide river on the right. The width of the road is extremely narrow, and even if we were to deploy the entire width of the road, the maximum number of troops we could deploy on the road would be a few thousand each."

 Elfie said as she tends to my wounded hand.

"The way to fight is to divide the army into two, one to be deployed in the mountain range and the other to cover the road. Then we can prolong the battle until night, and when the battle is over, we will retreat at once to Brumud Castle."

"That's a normal strategy."

"It's not a battle to win, it's a battle to reduce our loses, right? Then, rather than trying to be cunning, it would be better to take advantage of the terrain and try to buy time once more between us and the empire, which would work out better in the end."

 But Elfie added.

"Only the young lady of the main family will be allowed to flee to the fortress beyond, not to the castle."

"You mean there's a possibility of fighting at Brumud Castle?"

"Yes. Therefore, in order to ensure the young lady's safety, I ask that she head not for the castle but for the fortress beyond it."

 And if you cross the two rivers beyond the fort shown on the map, you are already in kingdom territory. Considering the enemy's plans, they would not be able to pursue us once we reached there. Even if they did, my parents' house is close by, and if push came to shove, we could engage them in a decisive battle there. My father and the neighbor nobles would probably come to support me......

"But I'm surprised."

"What is?"

 To my muttering, Elfie replied with a tilt of her head.

"No, You're thinking about Ojousama."

 Elfie is basically a knight who puts me and my father first and does not give much thought to others.

 However, the fact that she even suggested the possibility of fighting at Brumud Castle shows that she wants to buy a little more time for the young lady's sake.

 As I looked at Elfie, who was so different from usual, she broke her expressionless face and said the reason.

"Because I am following Young Master's wishes, who thinks of the young lady of the main family first."

"My wishes?"

 Elfie nodded to answer my question and then spoke up.

"Isn't the reason you yelled at the head of the main family earlier was for the sake of the main family's daughter, right?"

"……Eh?"

"Abandon the nobles, knights, and even soldiers here and flee. It is certainly a reasonable approach, and to the casual observer, the young master may appear to be a ruthless and selfish person who only wants what is best for himself......"

 However, Elfie kept going where I don't want to touch.

"If you really want to survive on your own, you don't have to come here from Gruve City. It would be a rather poor idea."

"......"

"But you still stopped by here. I thought it meant that the main family's daughter was more important to you than anything else, so I suggested that, but was there a problem?"

 Elfie said that with a smile on her face with such a strong sense of pride, finishes treating me, and stepped back to distance herself from me.

 I have nothing to say in return when she told me that she made the suggestion not for the young lady's sake, but according to my wishes.

"No. Go with it."

"Then, I will do so."

 Returning to her usual dignified expression, Elfie nonchalantly presents the problems with the chosen escape route, and the two of us work together to crush them.

 The more we do it, the more I feel like I'm being confronted with how close this escape is to total destruction.

 Priority will be given to the relatively high-ranking nobles, such as the prince and the head of the Fregrance family, from the transfer of the young lady, and building them up so that they can escape safely.

 ......Or do we have to think about the other nobles, except for the young lady? Is this really my job?

"The key will be if we can get over the two rivers before we reach the kingdom."

"Yes. The closer we are to the enemy here, the more damage we will suffer, or worse, be wiped out."

"We don't have time to build a bridge. Is there another battle near the fort?"

"If that happens, we will surely lose, and we will begrudgingly lay our necks before the enemy without a single victory."

"If so, we would have to bypass the river and cross the canyon instead...... it's over the mountains after all."

"That's the best we can do right now, young master."

"Alright, alright."

 In this way, I contemplate how Elfie, my family's proud old knight, and I can reach the other side. Well, we've come up with a general plan, and I'm sure the master will nod his head in agreement.

 And then, in the afternoon of the same day.

 After receiving the master's decision and getting the prince's permission once again, the escape method that Elfie and I had devised was adopted, and we, the Kingdom Army, started moving from Kraha City toward Brumud Castle.