Kenja no Mago
Volume 9 - The Astounding Invasion of the Devils
097 – Change of strategy
There has been a change in strategy to capture the demon's territory.
Although there are many monsters in the demon's territory currently, the number of personnel will be reduced since they are planning to narrow the range considerably.
Taking efficiency into consideration, attacking with a large number of people at once would be better but this has placed a heavy mental burden on the army soldiers that were deployed several months ago.
Come to think of it, there hasn't been a rotation of personnel since the resolution has been postponed. In spite of this the people were not aggrieved. Rather, they realized that the operation had advanced so much to its final stages that reducing the personnel was possible.
This has given everyone throughout the Earlshide capital, no, the whole world the feeling that victory was imminent.
Although a celebratory mood was in the air across the royal capital, Aug's expression as he came to school did not reflect it.
"What's the matter, Aug? Why do you look so down?"
"...Did I look like that?"
"Oh, oh, maybe you're worried about the war being extended because you're returning half of the personnel?"
"No…"
Huh? Is this not the cause?
As I looked at Aug's face with that thought in mind, he replied.
"Hey, Shin"
"What?"
"Just the other day, there were many disaster-class monsters all over the place."
"Ah. Speaking of which, I haven't heard of any sightings lately"
"I haven't seen them since we defeated the devils. What are your thoughts about this?"
"What did you say?"
You mean no more disaster classes are showing up even though it was occurring all over the place just the other day, to the point where it became the focus of everyone's training?
"Apparently, it's been that way since the time we killed the devils"
"Really?"
If so…
"It appears that as the number of demons increased, so did the number of monsters and disaster classes. On the other hand, when the number of demons decreased, the number of disaster class monsters also decreased."
"That's what it comes down to." Aug said with a relieved look on his face.
"Really"
"Yes, the subject came up at a meeting the other day, and I made the same proposal you did, Shin."
"Eh"
"Then, in the next meeting it was decided that this observation was correct, therefore the talk about reducing personnel and the resolution of the war was advanced"
"Is that so?"
"Yes. But what concerned me most was the lack of any other input. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything else."
"I can't allow myself to miss anything…"
That makes sense. He was just nervous because his opinion went unchallenged, huh?
To be honest, it's just my guess, so I can't really back it up with anything, but, this seems like the only conclusion that can be drawn from the situation is that the number of demons increased rapidly after Schtrom appeared and so did a large number of monsters.
At the same time, the number of disaster class monsters also went up.
We also observed that the diabolic magical power which was radiating from Schtrom and, to a lesser degree, Kurt and the other demons we subdued seemed to turn the wild animals that were hit by it into demons
When you think about it, one won't be wrong to infer that… oh…
"Speaking of which, what was that?"
"What? Did I overlook something?!"
Aug replied, his brows rising up worriedly.
Shouldn't we be concerned about this change in the demons' modus operandi?
"Look at the wolf demon we encountered, or the deer demon Tony came across, or the rhinoceros demon Big Bro Sieg and the others ran into."
The wolf monster wasn't cunning enough to have reached disaster level.
I've neither heard of a deer monster, even if it was a large one, reaching disaster level nor was there a precedent of rhinos even turning into demonic creatures.
Isn't this situation unnatural? I mean seeing a group of demons that also had never existed before.
Therefore, under the influence of the dense demon's magical power, the wolf demon that appeared in front of us, had rapidly reached disaster grade before it developed its cunning nature. The deer, which became a large monster, reached even disaster level and a rhinoceros that was not supposed to turn into a demon became one.
If you think about it that way, it's not an unreasonable deduction. Despite all this, I can't help but feel like there's a small thorn in the side…
"It's highly bizarre, to see a monster that does not exist in the previous records…"
Well, I'm just curious, that's all.
At any rate, we can't come up with an answer based solely on speculation.
Since it was a joint operation, coordination with other countries must have been completed; and the order to return should have already been conveyed since a public announcement had already been made.
The order can't be cancelled over something so vague and inconclusive because doing so will further increase anxiety and suspicion in the populace.
In other words, there's no going back.
"Well, we don't even know if that's a problem, and I think it's safe to proceed"
"I see... Well I guess so."
"If nothing goes wrong, we can contain Schtrom and his men in the old imperial capital and set up a surveillance network. Wouldn't it be better to put all of our efforts into making sure that we don't make a mistake?"
"Yeah, we should focus all our energy on what's in front of us instead of worrying about the unanswerable"
Although Aug still looks worried, he also understands the importance of this operation, so he seems to have decided to devote himself to it.
The idea behind this operation to capture the demon's territory is to contain Schtrom in the former imperial capital, since he has no intention of invading the surrounding nations; and then set up a joint surveillance network to monitor him in case there are any strange movements.
If any of what the demons we defeated said are believable, Schtrom has achieved his goal and is now a shell, which means that as long as we don't provoke Schtrom, there should be no more threats. And in the off-chance that something does happen, the surveillance network will alert us in ample time.
Some say that the demons should be annihilated, but we can't afford to put our people in danger any longer. I just hope that this operation will come to an end without any problems.
However… according to the demons, there are some that remained around Schtrom. I hope they don't do anything strange…
As Aug and I were earnestly talking in the classroom of the academy, everyone's interest was piqued.
"His Highness and Shin, as always, have a lot of complex conversations, huh?"
"Yeah. I can't keep up"
"Isn't, 'We will defeat them as they come out of the woodwork!' enough?"
"I, on my part will simply brute force it with my magic powers"
"…Cutie Red and Cutie Blue, we need to think about it a tad more."
"Don't call me that name!"
Thanks to Alice and Lynn, the heavy atmosphere from before was transformed and the classroom was filled with laughter.
We all wished that the moments of laughter with our friends would last forever; that we wouldn't have to go back into battle anymore.
That was the common belief we shared at the time. Perhaps that wish would be realized should the operation to capture the demon territory go smoothly.
First of all, each country is to send half of their personnel home and have their reserve forces to replace the remaining personnel after which the rest of the operation will be carried out in three shifts
Although the number of personnel has decreased, the siege net has already been narrowed considerably so that even a minimal number of personnel should still able to subdue demons.
The operation to attack the demon territory was progressing smoothly.
As the demon riot situation was coming to an end, Earlshide's Academy of Magic Science made an announcement.
Until now, magic stones often were discovered accidentally during mining, but it was officially announced that many magic stones could be excavated near volcanos or prominent fault lines.
It was a hypothesis based on past mining results that was later verified in the investigation done by Earlshide's Magic Division. Although, the detailed conditions for refining the magic stones was not made public.
Thanks to this, the Wolford Chamber of Commerce was extremely busy every day due to a lot of expectant people flocking to the shop in search of products made using magic stones. This assumption was based on the fact that it was the owner of the store who discovered the conditions for mining the magic stones.
The truth of the matter is that commercialization of these types of products wasn't going to be immediate.
For the time being, it would only be possible to retrofit the products previously sold like the refrigerator with magical stones so that it can automatically refine ice without pouring magic power into it?
Once the magic stones are in circulation, the inventions of the magic tool craftsmen will increase. Then, humanity will continue to develop more and more.
The same expectation spread among the general population as well. Since this information was not kept secret from the public, the Earlshide kingdom's reputation grew even more making its presence in the current World Union rise considerably in prominence.
However, it seems that quite a bit was held back to prevent sparking a new round of conflict among Els, Ys and the others countries which would feel threatened because of Earlshide's increasing power.
As the amount of magic stones excavated smoothly increased, expectations of a bright future also rose in the eyes of the populace; with the end of the demon uproar remaining as the sole point of anxiety.
By the time we moved up to the second year, we were one step closer to building a surveillance network, and a step closer to giving humanity peace of mind.
But we were fundamentally mistaken. I had forgotten about Schtrom.
I had forgotten what he had once done in the royal capital.