Reader’S Regeneration Life [EN]: Chapter 350

350―――――

Not good.

The strategy meeting continued until almost dinner time.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that it was sluggish, with nothing particularly decisive coming out, but Zion was putting his heart and soul into it because he thought even such meetings were important.

‘People are a species that needs to see some kind of action to feel at ease.’

If he just did things half-heartedly because there was nothing to do and then ended the meeting, he wouldn’t be able to dispel the anxiety.

Showing them that something was being worked on diligently would make them think, ‘Ah, we’re preparing a lot, and even if the enemy is strong, we can relax a bit.’

More than anything, the one showing the most passion in the meeting was none other than himself.

As Zion Claussen, the hero of the kingdom, Zion was sure that the other nobles would be reassured by that.

This conclusion was by no means due to self-love or arrogance.

Some say that showmanship is useless, but in some situations, that showmanship is a more effective method than one might think.

“Everyone has worked hard.

Prepare to depart at dawn tomorrow, and we will march before sunrise, so everyone should go back and get some rest.”

After the meeting, the headquarters staff rose from their seats and headed for what might be their last comfortable sleep.

After that, the only ones left in the conference room were Marquis Volko, Margrave Lichten, Ludwig, and Zion.

“…It seemed like a tremendously great strategy meeting, but in the end, all it came down to was getting to Nudia somehow before Nudia’s defense line collapses.”

“What can we do?

The situation in Nudia is changing so quickly that what we say here is meaningless.”

“I wonder how things are going. I wonder how the light worshippers inside the kingdom will react when they hear the news that even the light descendants, those Celestials, are harming people, let alone the fairies.”

“They’ll like it even more, Marquis Volko. They’ll be happy that the sinners are being punished, saying things like, ‘They deserved to die, they deserved to die.'”

The Celestials were reluctant to come to the forefront in the early stages of the war with Nudia.

They didn’t have many numbers, and there were skilled people among the humans, so they were worried that if a Celestial was defeated and fell, it would raise the morale of the enemies, and more than anything, they were worried that their faith would be shattered.

Moreover, they were the descendants of light, the representatives of God, or whatever.

If rumors spread that those who the humans of the continent associated with light, good, and justice were massacring humans on a large scale, the humans who had been watching them, even the relatively moderate light worshippers, might turn around and become radical anti-Celestialists.

If the war dragged on like that, the demons might do something in the meantime, so the Celestials wanted to destroy all of Hispania in this war, but they didn’t want their strength and the strength of the light worshippers to be depleted too much.

They had to prevent a long war at all costs because they had to create internal divisions, establish the will of light perfectly throughout the continent, and fulfill their belief that everyone should be purified at the same time and go to a new world.

However, Nudia’s defense was better than expected, and the counterattacks that followed from time to time were sharp.

Unable to bear it any longer, they seemed to have judged that they could not secure a clear victory with the army of the Holy Prussen alone, and in the end, they decided that they and the fairies would 본격적으로 [fully] participate in this war.

‘Seeing Nudia’s well-defended defense line collapsing means that those guys have no way out now. They’re going to throw away everything, including good, light, and justice, and just wipe everything out at once, and on top of that, they’re going to clean up all the demons who are struggling.’

The Celestials, to put it bluntly, are versatile all-rounders.

They are good at handling mana, excel at martial arts, are good at handling weapons, can fly, are agile, and even have appearances that stabilize the hearts of those who see them.

Lower Celestials are said to be slightly inferior to human intermediate knights, but they were certainly formidable beings for ordinary soldiers.

Although they lost many middle and upper Celestials in the war with the demons in the past, there were still quite a few left, and the upper Celestials were powerful beings that even high-ranking knights struggled with.

Above all, their top forces, the highest Celestials, whom no human skilled person could dare to face, remained alive.

‘What I can use in the current situation is their arrogance. Even if they send out the upper Celestials, the highest Celestials will not try to move unless the situation is really dire.

Half of them are a kind of insurance against unforeseen circumstances, and more than anything, they hate moving on their own because of their pride or arrogance.’

Of course, they will step in immediately if the situation changes rapidly.

Conversely, if the situation is judged to be favorable to them, it means that they will postpone stepping in.

“Zion Claussen.

Can you really win this war?

According to the news, it’s a wonder that we’re even barely holding on.

The enemy’s strength is completely different from the enemies we’ve faced so far.

We’ve never fought the Celestials even once, and the soldiers seem to have a subtle aversion to fighting the Holy Prussen and the Celestials.”

That’s right, even the soldiers on the front lines are hesitant to fight the Celestials.

They are not sure whether the Celestials are really the enemy, or whether they are the sinners.

The enemies know that, so they deliberately deployed the Celestials as slowly as possible.

So that they can say that they are not your enemies, so that you hesitate and cannot take up arms before you even fight.

“Not good.”

Yes, as he said, nothing was good.

The enemy is strong, and even though they clearly have hostility towards them, the soldiers are unknowingly hesitating because of that light or whatever.

No matter how much Zion shouts, it will not be well received any more.

The only thing left to do is to make the soldiers themselves throw away all the remaining goodwill towards the Holy Prussen and the descendants of light, and curse them and struggle to kill them all just thinking about them.

“The soldiers will soon realize it anyway.

The enemies talk about light, good, and justice, but in the end, they are clearly enemies to us.

So, in order to survive, they will have to fight more fiercely and intensely than before.”

“That’s right, Father.

Already the people of Hispania no longer have much attachment to the doctrine of light, do they?

The soldiers are also skilled veterans, so they will soon read and adapt to the atmosphere of the battlefield.”

“Of course, they have to. If they don’t want to die. Margrave Lichten. Please take good care of Hispania while the 2nd Army is away. Their special forces may move.”

“Don’t worry, just deliver the victory news to Her Majesty the Queen.”

“I have to. I have to.”

Marquis Volko, who sighed, rose from his seat first.

Then Ludwig followed him and greeted Margrave Lichten before leaving the conference room after his father.

“…Marquis Volko, he’s more worried than usual.”

“They say that worries increase with age, and it seems that’s true.”

“I’m not joking. Even such a steadfast man is subtly worried, so it’s not easy. It’s hard enough with the Holy Prussen alone, but with the fairies and Celestials on top of that. Can we really withstand this war with the power of Hispania alone? Wouldn’t it have been better to request support from the beastmen and fairies?”

“Not yet. Not yet.”

When Zion shook his head, Margrave Lichten sighed but nodded.

He seemed to believe that if his son, of all people, was so sure, there must be a good reason.

“By the way, what happened yesterday?”

“Yes? Ah, I had something to discuss urgently with Zhan Temujin. It was about the official compensation issue for the mobilization of the northern warriors this time.”

“Was that so? Hmm, if you were working at that time, I can’t really say anything.”

“…”

It was work.

It’s just that the work was an affair, so it’s a bit like that.

“Well, Aden was very excited yesterday even without you. Lilith, that demon woman, came and had dinner in your place, and she really livened up the atmosphere.”

“Was that so?”

“Yes. Aden even started calling that woman ‘Sister-in-law’ already.”

“Ugh.”

It seems that the habit of watching Zion’s every move since he was very young has been applied to such positive things.

For Lilith, it was a very satisfying dinner because she was perfectly recognized as the main wife by Zion’s younger brother, and she must have been in a good mood and livened up the atmosphere as much as possible.

“Well, thanks to that, your mother and I had a good time. We didn’t even notice you were gone for a while.”

“That’s a relief.”

“It’s not a relief. You should be more worried. Only a very few people in the Claussen know that that woman is a demon. They are all people who will never betray you. But you can’t hide that forever, can you? Aden knows Lilith as just a very beautiful and skilled magician.”

“I can’t hide it forever. In that sense, this war will be an opportunity for me. If light turns out not to be light, then shadows don’t have to be shadows forever, do they?”

“You have to be careful. People’s perceptions, their hearts, don’t change so easily.”

As Margrave Lichten said, people’s perceptions, their hearts, will not change easily.

As you can see right now, the Holy Prussen, the doctrine of light, and the Celestials are openly showing hostility, but they are still showing some hesitation.

But Zion was not too worried about that.

No matter who it is, if they are betrayed by the axe they trusted, and if the person they trusted comes at them with a knife and tries to kill them, they will not believe them until the end.

In the end, what is most important is their own life, their own life.

Any being that threatens that, no matter how precious it was before, is bound to be recognized as an enemy.

“I’m more worried about Father, about this Claussen.”

“What are you talking about?”

“As Nudia is pushed back and the Holy Prussen approaches, there will be more refugees.

If those who were pushed to the west of Nudia judge that it is not safe there, it is obvious where they will flock to.”

“The border can never be opened without Her Majesty the Queen’s order. We will mobilize the Claussen soldiers and the remaining people in the east to prevent holes in the border.”

“The enemies are the kind of people who can use that part as well. They will say that Hispania has abandoned Nudia, that they are not accepting those who fled the war and are just driving them to die there.”

“So you’re saying we should accept the refugees?”

Zion shook his head as if that wasn’t the case either.

No one knows whether there are only refugees in the refugee procession, or whether the enemies are hiding.

In this situation, the reason why the light worshippers are scary is that they hide the appearance of fanatics inside, even though they look perfectly ordinary on the outside.

If they mix into the refugee procession and cross the border into Hispania, it is obvious what they will do afterwards, a very obvious future.

‘It’s not just fanatics who are hiding, but there may be unimaginable guys mixed in there.’

That’s why he deliberately left Lucia, Lia, and Trisha in the royal castle.

If those guys really mix into the refugee procession, and if there are bigger threats than fanatics mixed in there, the place they will head to is very likely to be the royal castle.

“The situation will change from time to time. Until a separate order comes down from the palace, we will block the refugees, and when the order comes down, we will accept them. Anyway, what will happen will happen. The choice is not ours, but the enemies’.”

“…Yes. Unfortunately, we don’t have many paths to choose from. If we hadn’t chosen this war right away, we would have been branded as sinners.”

With those words, Margrave Lichten rose from his seat.

It was already a long meeting, and he hoped that such a thing would not happen, but if this was the last time between father and son, it was right to have brighter stories.

“You’ll be coming to dinner today, right?”

“Of course.”

“Yes. Bring Lilith and your escort knight with you.”

“Would that be okay?”

“Aden is already treating her like a sister-in-law. If you leave that woman behind in that situation, he will probably think it’s strange. He’s a quick-witted guy. And I want to thank the escort knight in person, so don’t feel burdened and tell him to come.”

At Margrave Lichten’s words, Zion nodded as if he understood.

Anyway, Zhan said that he would be with the warriors today, the day before heading to the battlefield, so he could bring Lilith and Rishikida without worry.

Later, at the dinner prepared, Margrave Lichten left a rather meaningful remark to Rishikida, saying that he had suffered a lot and that he would continue to take good care of Zion in the future.

He seemed to know roughly that there was a strange current flowing between his son and his escort knight, so he said that, and Rishikida’s face turned red and she just nodded, while Lilith just made a small exclamation, “Oho.”

Aden still didn’t seem to know well about the relationship between Rishikida and Zion, and just blinked his eyes.

After finishing the meal, Zion listened to Ekaterina’s long lecture on rest and leisure, and it was late in the evening when he entered the room, and he realized that someone had followed him into the room, and he opened his mouth without even turning around.

“I was just thinking that you couldn’t not come.”

“What. You knew and pretended not to know?”

“Originally, Lilith-nim [Lilith-sama, a respectful title] is the type who gets more excited when you pretend to know.”

“Hmph. You really ran wild yesterday, didn’t you? Do you know that my lower body was very wet thanks to the hot sensation I felt from how fiercely you ran wild?”

“…Ahem.”

“I almost peed in front of your brother?”

Jealousy, grumbling, and now the words that it was unconditionally her turn.

Zion, who accurately grasped what Lilith wanted to say, covered her mouth with his hand as if to tell her to stop, and pushed the woman against the wall.

It was a ridiculous nonsense that a human who couldn’t even handle mana was pushing a high-ranking demon against the wall, but in the current situation, mana and high-ranking demons were all useless words.

There was only a man who wanted to eat as much as the woman who just wanted to do it quickly.

“News came. Everyone quietly slipped out and is waiting near northern Nudia. Fortunately, thanks to the pigeons, the surveillance on the Nudia side has been loosened, so there were no major difficulties.”

“Tell them to wait. If we make contact with the Nudia army and enter into battle with the Holy Prussen side, they should move secretly to harass the enemy’s rear.”

“You’re telling them to fight the pigeons?”

“Doing that would cause too much damage. Just harass the crazy humans who shout the doctrine of light and have some fun, and when the pigeons come, tell them to pretend to escape to the land of mortals [the human world]. Then return to northern Nudia secretly.”

As Zion said, taking off Lilith’s top, the woman nodded as if she understood.

From Zion’s point of view, the most annoying enemies were not the Holy Prussen or the fairies, but the Celestial pigeons.

To prevent them from moving recklessly, he had to actively use the beings they were most wary of to warn them that they could target their backs and empty houses at any time.

‘At the same time, the demons must remain demons, and they must not give the impression that they have allied with humans.’

He had no intention of giving the justification that they were acting with the demons.

The demons should only remain as a race that targets the Celestials’ weaknesses.

“Enough with the work talk.”

Lilith, who had also taken off Zion’s top, brought her index finger to the man’s lips.

“From now on, focus on me.”

―――――――Afterword―――――――

I already had a scene with Zhan, so I was wondering if I should just skip the next scene and push the story…

Should I not forget the morality of the Jianghu [code of chivalry]?

Or just skip it…?