Chapter 165 - 165 Gunpowder Explodes, Faith Rises
While taking Vera's attacks, preparations for the city gate explosion continued. The method to detonate it was extremely simple. The General would teleport carrying explosives and a torch, ignite the explosives with the torch's flame at the destination, and cause an explosion.
"Well then, preparations are complete. Please, Mage-san."
"I understand."
The mage nodded with a solemn expression and teleported to the city gate.
Immediately after teleporting, only the mage teleported again and returned to the original location. Then, they waited for the explosion of fire.
However, no matter how long they waited, the explosion of fire did not rise, and the sound of the explosion never reached their ears.
The mage and the Deputy Commander exchanged glances.
"Could it be a dud?"
The Deputy Commander squinted and gazed toward the city gate. However, with the naked eye, details were naturally impossible to see.
The mage asked the Deputy Commander.
"Shall I go check?"
"No. If an explosion occurs immediately after teleporting, the teleporting mage would be lost as well. After retreating, what happens cannot be known. It could lead to punishment not just for the commander, but even for soldiers of quite low rank."
"That is certainly true."
The mage nodded to the Deputy Commander's words.
Nils had already been sent back to the home country, so that was fine, but Gaster and the unused explosives were lost. And with the General also lost, if the teleporting mage were lost as well, the damage would be immeasurable. It would not end with simply cutting off the Deputy Commander's head.
While the two were having such a conversation, the General in question was caught by Steve.
Bound by chains made of earth magic, unable to move, with the bombs and torches stolen via Storage Magic.
Steve spoke to such a General with a smile.
"Your spirit of not using subordinates as disposable items is admirable."
"Does that mean our conversation was completely overheard?"
The General looked at Steve with a stern face. From the words "not using subordinates as disposable items," it was clear that the General himself had executed this operation personally.
Even seeing such a stern face, Steve's smile did not crumble.
"Yes. I know everything, from the reckless orders coming from the home country to the preparation of the teleporting mage and the bombs. That is precisely why I wish to highly evaluate the spirit of a commander like you."
"It is bad to be praised even in this state. Though I do not know who you are."
"Steve Tis Archibalt. I have come to assist by royal decree from the Kingdom of Cascade."
"You are that famous Dragon Head Medal holder? Well, I had a feeling, but since all our plans were thwarted, I have no choice but to believe it."
Upon learning the opponent was indeed the Dragon Head Medal holder, the General resigned himself to the situation, thinking it was unavoidable.
All information was completely leaked, and furthermore, they possessed the ability to handle it. Conversely, even if they knew the Dragon Head Medal holder was an enemy, they realized they could not handle it.
"Well then, could you please surrender?"
"Could you at least let my subordinates retreat?"
In response to Steve's offer of surrender, the General requested only his own detention.
However, Steve did not agree to that.
"We cannot rule out the possibility that defeated soldiers might commit banditry in the Kingdom of Meizack. It is difficult for me to decide alone."
There was a high possibility that soldiers of the Kingdom of Saturate might attack villages and towns on their way back to their country.
Therefore, Steve could not grant permission lightly.
"Could you please disarm?"
"In this state, I cannot even command my soldiers."
Since the General could not move, he indicated the chains created by Steve with his eyes.
"Also,"
The General continued.
"I am the only one restrained, and the other soldiers do not recognize that they have lost. While we have lost many bombs as siege weapons, the infantry soldiers who use bombs in battle against enemy troops are intact. It is not a situation where everyone will obediently listen."
"That is true. Then shall we restrain everyone and make them realize defeat?"
The General could not believe Steve's words. He had not thought that one human could restrain an army of approximately twenty thousand. Certainly, reports of Steve's exploits in the Kingdom of Cascade's war mentioned him repelling large numbers alone, but it was limited to about a thousand people, and he suspected the rest had surrendered after witnessing that.
Before that gaze full of doubt, Steve's figure suddenly vanished.
He had teleported into the midst of the Kingdom of Saturate's army.
Knowing the opponents held bombs, Steve bound them with magical chains and immediately repeated teleportation. Soldiers not directly in front of the enemy could not fight Steve who had suddenly appeared and were restrained without being able to do anything.
Even a large group of twenty thousand was powerless before Steve.
Thus, Steve returned before the General.
"As expected, with this number of people, mana consumption is severe."
By continuously using teleportation magic and earth magic, even Steve's remaining mana was scant.
"Normally, when mana runs out, restraining this number of people is impossible. You are truly out of specifications as the rumors say."
"Given my profession, I am not happy to be out of specifications."
The General could not understand Steve's retort and decided to accept that he simply disliked being called "out of specifications."
And with the entire army rendered combat ineffective, surrender was declared. Dressel confirmed this, and the soldiers of the Kingdom of Meizack conveyed the General's acceptance of surrender to the soldiers of the Kingdom of Saturate far away.
Unable to move, they could not counterattack, and upon receiving that news, they quietly submitted. Thus, the invasion of the Kingdom of Meizack by the Kingdom of Saturate ended.
When Steve was with Dressel, Vera came over.
"Is it over?"
"Yeah."
"There are still bullets left."
"You don't have to use them all forcibly."
To Vera, who said it wouldn't end until all bullets were fired, Steve smiled bitterly and ordered the end. Dressel had initially wondered if the war would have ended quickly if Steve had simply restrained the enemy with magic from the start, so he asked about that.
"If Your Excellency had restrained the enemy with magic from the start, would not the war have ended immediately?"
"That might be. But I thought that would be insufficient to eliminate the threat of the bombs held by the Kingdom of Saturate. If only I were the threat, they would try to invade again by sealing my movements. I wanted to show that even without me, they possess weapons superior to bombs."
"Then, would it not have been more effective to target the soldiers?"
"That would have been more effective. Well, I could not make that decision myself. The result was twenty thousand prisoners. If we do not end the war negotiations soon, the Kingdom of Meizack's granaries will run empty."
"Indeed."
Dressel could not understand the reason why Steve disliked killing enemy soldiers. The performance of weapons ultimately boiled down to how many enemy soldiers could be killed. However, Steve did not do that, instead demonstrating power through precision shooting. If the targets had not been bombs, there would have been no soldiers dying from being caught in explosions. Since Vera began sniping with a blindfold made of cloth, there have been no casualties among enemy soldiers.
From the perspective of Dressel, a pure-blooded soldier, the basic thought was to defeat the enemy when possible, so he felt a great sense of incongruity regarding Vera not doing so.
That was not Vera's will, but Steve's will, and in a battlefield exchanging lives, he thought it was too lenient a thought.
However, he also thought it was something only possible because of the overwhelming difference in military strength. The fact that he had killed as many enemies as possible up until now meant that if he kept them alive, he might be killed next time. Even if there were a million chances for revenge, if Steve could win in all of them, there was no need to kill the opponent.
Understanding that, he was dumbfounded at how anyone, especially Crown Prince Karl at the time, could have tried to do anything about such a monster's sister.
And Dressel worried about how to report this reality-defying result so that those who would believe it was true. Fortunately, since this was a battle right before the Royal Capital, there were many witnesses, so it might work out somehow. But if this had been a battle near the border, those who did not see the battlefield, including the King, would never have believed that two people had neutralized and captured twenty thousand enemy soldiers.
Thinking that, he shook his head, thinking, "No, no, they would believe it if it is the younger brother of that Queen Sherry."
Just recently, the soldiers of the royal palace had been defeated helplessly by a single young and slender woman.
Dressel sighed, looking westward, thinking it was a relief that the Kingdom of Cascade and the Kingdom of Merda were not aggressive. In the direction of that gaze were the Kingdom of Merda and the Kingdom of Cascade.
Thus, the war concluded and moved to negotiations. In the Kingdom of Saturate, where Nils was still alive, there were voices calling for continuing the war, but because twenty thousand prisoners had been taken, if more military strength were directed toward the Kingdom of Meizack, defense in other regions would be neglected, so those voices were suppressed.
In the end, the Kingdom of Saturate settled by paying compensation and ransom for the prisoners. The Kingdom of Meizack had wanted to win territorial concessions from the opponent, but since the Kingdom of Cascade would not act as a backing, and considering the possibility that the Kingdom of Saturate might try to regain territory later and attack again, they ended the war with moderate conditions.
Part of that compensation became a thank-you gift to the Kingdom of Cascade.
As for the Kingdom of Cascade, originally there was a sense of guilt that their own researchers had been kidnapped and weapons developed in the Kingdom of Saturate, so they did not express any opinion on the amount.
Moreover, that thank-you gift was paid in full to Steve. Therefore, the Kingdom of Cascade had no profit from this war.
Furthermore, each country confirmed the appearance of guns in addition to gunpowder and decided to conduct research on them. However, Steve did not lend the actual items anywhere.
Not even to the Kingdom of Cascade.
How he achieved this was by having the Fries Holy Church declare that guns were sacred treasures. Then, Steve donated the sacred treasure guns to the church, making them invisible to anyone outside the church personnel.
However, the donated guns were replicas, and the firing mechanism was not included, so even if stolen, there would be no problem.
There was no one who forcedly demanded to see them against the authority of the church, which was higher than kings or emperors. There were attempts to pay enormous viewing fees to see the replicas, though.
And Steve also agreed that even just looking at the exterior would reveal nothing.
So, the fact that the Fries Holy Church gained temporary income is merely a side note.
By receiving certification as a sacred treasure, Steve incurred a great debt to the church, or rather, to the Saintess Julia.
As a result, he was forced to accept the condition of taking Julia and Camilla as wives. He wanted to prevent the spread of guns even to that extent.
Regarding this, both Christina and Nancy understood Steve's thoughts and did not oppose. Furthermore, having witnessed the power of the guns themselves, they knew that if these spread into the world, it would be a terrifying thing.
Even if it only served to delay the spread for a little while, they had a desire to delay it if their own children were to be endangered.
The war initiated by the Kingdom of Saturate ended with the Fries Holy Church winning alone, as they realized.
Later historians would describe this event as "Gunpowder Explodes, Faith Rises."
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