第９２５堀：戦った理由 (Part2)
Thanks to that, the remnants of the Zuraburu Empire’s forces seem to have scattered and fled in every direction.
"Hmm. I understand the situation. Yuki, I don’t think Seraria’s judgment was wrong."
"Agreed. Or rather, as long as Yuki and everyone else are safe, that’s all that matters to me."
"Milly, you’re being a bit too blunt. Well, I’m of the same opinion, though. So, the main topic was how to handle the Gusdo Kingdom from here on out, and how to deal with the Zuraburu Empire, which we’ve identified as terrorists. How do you intend to handle those two points? Honestly, with Weed’s current national power, we’re at our limit just holding the Aurelia Port area. Are you planning to increase the number of monsters?"
Exactly. That is the problem.
While it is the consensus of everyone here that as long as Yuki and his companions are safe, it’s fine, ensuring that safety requires us to do something about the Gusdo Kingdom and the Zuraburu Empire.
However, we are completely lacking in manpower.
Weed’s population has increased significantly, but it’s barely reaching 150,000 at most.
The enemy force this time was 80,000. And according to reports, that was just a detachment, not even their main force.
Yet, that number of 80,000 is more than half of Weed’s total population.
In other words, the Zuraburu Empire possesses the national power—the people—to support such a massive army.
There is no way we can make an enemy of such a great nation, fight across various fronts, and reclaim Gusdo.
As Deryu said, with Weed’s current personnel, we’ll be at our limit just defending this Aurelia Port.
Of course, we would never lose, though.
As for Yuki, who received this question...
"Increasing our forces by summoning monsters is out of the question. Well, I suppose it could be used partially depending on the situation, but the newly summoned monsters would lack the necessary proficiency. We would just be forced to summon powerful monsters and rely on their raw power and numbers for a charge. If we did that..."
"It would be the birth of a Demon Lord in the New Continent, just like me and Liliana."
So, it would mean the birth of a Great Demon Lord Yuki, who uses monsters to rule this continent.
I feel like that wouldn’t be the worst thing, though.
"There’s also the issue of how to handle the governance afterward. If the goal was simply to defeat the enemy, I could just have Steve and the others assassinate the entire leadership of the Zuraburu Empire. But if we did that, all that would remain is a country with a collapsed governing structure, falling into a state of civil war..."
Yuki says such terrifying things so casually, but he’s not the type to let ordinary people suffer, so that’s absolutely impossible.
"With so many things we don’t know, it’s pointless to talk about it based on mere imagination right now. First, we need to hear from the princess of the Gusdo Kingdom."
As Seraria said, at this stage, we can only think of possibilities, and it’s a fact that we can’t do anything without concrete information.
Wait, having reached that point, I realized something.
"Ah, is that what it was? This preemptive night attack was also meant to set the stage for negotiations with the Gusdo Kingdom."
"Pretty much. I did meet with them earlier, but with the Zuraburu Empire’s army as an immediate threat, we couldn’t have a proper conversation. That’s why I wiped out the enemy forces—to let the Gusdo side feel at ease for the talks."
I see, I see. He showed them the power of Weed in a way that was easy for the Gusdo Kingdom to understand.
"In the earlier meeting, General Lake just kept telling me to take the princess and flee to Sea-Cypho, saying that if we couldn’t take her, they would fight to the death. He wouldn’t listen to a word about me or Weed. So, this was to get them to a place where we can talk calmly for once."
"That’s also one of the reasons we didn’t use the dungeon’s power. We showed our strength in a way that was easy to grasp. Thanks to that, they will officially sit at the negotiating table tomorrow. We’ll decide our future policy at the meeting starting tomorrow. Everyone, stand by just in case. As you can tell from the reports so far, this Zuraburu Empire is an incredible nation. After all, they possess aerial combat capabilities. We never know when an enemy air raid might happen. Don’t let your guard down."
"Yes!"
With that, the emergency meeting ended. I climbed up to the bridge while touring the aircraft carrier and looked out over Aurelia Port...
"It looks peaceful from up here, though."
"That’s true. It looks peaceful. By the way, Eris has been asleep the whole time, hasn't she?"
"Ah."
Come to think of it, I had completely forgotten about Eris.
Is she still in the meeting room?
With no time, no prepared army to oppose them, and no way to openly confront them with dungeon abilities, this was the only way to crush them in a clear-cut manner.
By the way, Eris’s stomach ache is not going away.
After all, we used modern weaponry like it was water—well, not quite that much, but we certainly used plenty.
...I wonder what’s going to happen with the resupply.