Enveloped in a sense of superiority, I spread my arms in the air while overlooking the soldiers below.
From the inside out.
Drawing tendrils of blood from the tips of my ten fingers as if they were exits.
As I slowly began to lose momentum and fall, the ten strands of crimson threads danced wildly in the wind.
The moment my feet touched the ground again, I wrapped my hands around the erratically fluttering threads of blood and pulled them tightly while crossing my arms.
“Uwaaaaargh!!!”
“Enemies… save us!!”
The tangled trajectories of threads, with the might of covering the sky, were all pulled in one direction, slicing through everything in their path.
Blood sprayed out like fog from all directions, mingling with the sound of screams.
A delicious scent rushed into my nostrils.
I desperately clenched my teeth, holding my breath, trying to control the pulled threads so that they wouldn’t slice through structures like the castle wall.
In the end, I would say it was only half successful.
Unlike last time when I completely destroyed the castle wall, it was tougher than expected to simply cut off just the soldiers, leaving marks akin to whip lashes throughout the inside of the castle wall.
Well, nothing to be done about that. Let’s consider it necessary expenses.
“What are you staring at? Get in here already.”
There’s a saying that if you create a spectacle without leaving any witnesses, it’s merely assassination.
However, since I couldn’t even count how many humans were present and I hadn’t planned on a complete slaughter, I provoked the soldiers using a tone usually reserved for formal occasions.
As I spoke, the sweet scent I had barely endured rushed back into my nose.
Before the drool pooling in my mouth could spill out, I quickly sealed my lips.
Gulp, the reins of my body were still under the control of reason and not instinct, but that grip was taut enough to snap at any second.
‘Is it time to compromise?’
Like before, now that I bore the role of the queen of the Scarlet Alliance Kingdom, I had to be wary of unexpected accidents.
Instead of testing the limits of my reason, I grabbed nearby soldiers within reach and sank my teeth into their necks.
“Uheh.”
A fulfillment that couldn’t be compared to anything else flooded over me from my brain and escaped through my mouth.
I had made emergency measures.
I straightened myself, thinking of those waiting outside as ordered.
As I lightly waved my finger, blood seeped from the corpses of the soldiers who fell at my first strike, gathering above my head.
In an instant, it swelled into a large spherical mass of red.
Raising my right hand above my head, I gave a light flick to the bottom of the sphere.
With a splash, the concave bloody mass erupted, flooding in all directions.
The wave of blood devoured all the lives present except for right below me, expanding its size.
“……Not bad.”
Although my legs felt slightly weak from the drastic loss of strength, the result was clear.
Confirming that I had completely subdued the nearby troops, including those on the castle wall, I aimed at the flag fluttering from the highest point of the fortress and shot a few drops of blood to serve as a signal flare.
Crack, the flagpole hit dead center and fell outside the castle wall.
A moment later, I confirmed that the signal had been well communicated to my faction through the gentle rumbling approaching from the distance.
*
The conquest of the fortress progressed smoothly.
It was only natural, considering I had neatly wiped out the frontline enemies with blood magic before any meaningful resistance could occur, then filled the void with my troops.
At least for now, the fact that our fighting force was a mere three hundred did not hinder us.
The remaining human troops were surprisingly numerous, but they already lacked the will to fight.
Perhaps my flashy push had been worth it since the humans didn’t consider defending the walls and chose to retreat without a second thought.
Naturally, I couldn’t just watch the fleeing soldiers.
Riding the momentum, I quickly entered the city to take control of it, only to encounter a situation I had never anticipated.
“I surrender! Please show mercy!”
Nobles, presumed to be of high status, kneeled and lay prostrate at my feet.
One thing I believe about repentance and forgiveness is that those who start begging for mercy only after the fire falls on their feet are generally the foolish ones in the long term.
People can’t be changed.
Regardless of the issue of absolute good and evil, innate tendencies are not easily altered.
If someone is capable of changing their thoughts while in a favorable position, fine. But someone who loses everything, becomes the victim, and then begs for forgiveness is nothing more than an opportunist.
Therefore, I had no thought of sparing the humans who had attacked the Sahelrn Duchy under the banner of the alliance now that their own backyard was destroyed and a blade was at their neck.
At least not up to this moment.
“Here, I present the head of the lord who defied the king’s order. Please forgive my rage.”
“Hah.”
A sigh of incredulity and admiration escaped me without wanting it to.
How could I have anticipated that the lord’s retainers would come to me carrying the lord’s head?
Of course, the actual fighting had long since concluded, so all that remained was to walk into the lord’s mansion, but I had considered the possibility that the lord might have escaped; I never imagined they would bring just the head.
‘Be that as it may.’
Well, it’s quite an unexpected conclusion, but the death of the lord itself didn’t bother me much.
Even if he hadn’t been beheaded by his retainers, he would have met his end at my hands, and I had no reason to show mercy since I had already claimed a life that was practically mine.
“The king has ordered full surrender, yet this traitor unilaterally defied the royal order and led the soldiers to their deaths.”
No reason to show mercy.
Yeah, if it weren’t for this statement, I would have dealt with the Armes Kingdom in the same way I did with the Bertica Kingdom.
However.
“Did you say it was a royal order?”
“Y-yes. A royal decree was issued recently to all the nobles of the Armes Kingdom that the royal family will fully surrender to the Scarlet Alliance Kingdom.”
And it didn’t take long for it to be revealed that this testimony wasn’t a lie.
After roughly locking up the guys who brought the lord’s head, a mere half-day later, Eleonora, who had gone with the beastmen to take control of the castle gate inward, returned with a letter.
“Master, a messenger has arrived from the capital.”
“The symbol of the Armes royal family… the messenger is?”
“For now, I’ve had them wait in another location. Shall I bring them?”
“No, let me check this first.”
The contents of the letter were concise.
First, the Armes Kingdom wishes to fully surrender to the Scarlet Alliance Kingdom.
Second, their participation as part of the alliance was due to the pressure from the three kingdoms. It’s something they didn’t want; hence, they hoped for leniency.
“Is this all?”
“Yes, as you can see.”
In essence, they were saying they would surrender quietly, hoping to spare the royalty.
Since their joining the alliance was something they didn’t intend, they were asking for understanding.
Curious about what trick they might pull, I was instead bewildered because it was all so transparent.
“Jeil, what do you think?”
“I suspect the city itself is a lost cause.”
“Just as I thought?”
“There’s no way a messenger would arrive this quickly under normal circumstances.”
I recalled the various signs of reconstruction I had seen near the castle wall.
In other words, it was like this.
As the neighboring Bertica Kingdom crumbled and the Scarlet Alliance Kingdom was founded, the Armes Kingdom prepared two options: to resist or surrender.
Strengthening their border defenses to prepare for any potential vampire invasions, while also sending decrees to a select few nobles, leaving evidence of the royal family’s intention to surrender and preemptively placing a messenger in the north.
If the vampires invaded when sufficient preparations were in place and they felt they could fight, they would choose to resist.
However, if they believed they had no chance of winning, they would lay the blame solely on the lord and convey the letter as if they had intended to surrender from the start.
“Surprising, isn’t it? I thought the royalty would fight until the last moment, right up until the royal capital fell.”
The Bertica Kingdom had done that, as Lavina tapped on the table.
Perhaps being a lesser nation made their pride less significant. Knowing they couldn’t win, they chose to surrender and at least save face.
Pondering that, Plona chimed in.
“Maybe they reached a decision after seeing how the Bertica Duchy was treated.”
“……That’s a definite possibility.”
Selina, the surviving royal, had become a grand duke under my command, and most of the human nobles who pledged loyalty to me, while not as powerful as before, managed to retain some of their privileges.
Through the precedent of the Bertica Duchy, they likely confirmed that I treated humans better than expected; they might think as long as they didn’t die, it’d be fine, just like Glom and Dweik.
“While it’s transparent, they’re certainly clever.”
At least on the surface, the reasons they presented weren’t bad.
Anyone could see that they were weighing their options and preparing their insurance, trying to decide where to side based on circumstances.
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