Castall Kingdom - western region. Glogow. Invasion Forces Encampment.

"His Majesty has come back!"

"He’s the immortal brave King!"

"He’s a god of battle with 700 kills!"

"He’s an indomitable woman admirer!"

Amber, Sekrit and I are at the outskirts of the town that has being subjugated, and we are welcomed back by the Red army and townspeople with cheers. Before I know it, the rumours about me have started to spread. Damn that Riheet and Brian Haddock! They must be the ones telling those things to people.

"You did well to come back, Your Majesty." Noir Virginia bows at me.

Noir Virginia, Albert Hyuutia and Leonhardt Strauch are standing before the people.

Where are those two guys?

"Hiro. Look at your left."

Sekrit pulls my sleeve and points to our left.

Two men are sitting on something like boxes. Various parts of their bodies are covered by bandages. 

The old guy, Brian Haddock waves at me twice while evilly grinning.

Meanwhile, The dark elf guy sitting further is just glancing at us while two standing dark elf men in front of him, the thin swordsman, Azal and the big guy, Zucca grin at us with their hands showing thumbs up signs.

"You did well coming back, your majesty." 

Albert Hyuutia bows to greet me. Meanwhile, Leonhardt Strauch turns to Amber Drake.

"Lady Amber, you also did well nursing the King."

"No, it was something natural."

"…somehow the atmosphere around you has changed."

"It’s nothing at all! Everything is as usual!"

I look beyond the three commanders, thousands of poorly equipped locals are mixed with the much less numerous Red Army.

"What happened to the volunteer soldiers?"

"Up until we came here, including the enemy soldiers that have fled, their numbers have inflated. We will treat them as one army and have a representative to handle it. The village girl, Nojico." Albert Hyuutia explains.

Leonhardt Strauch continues,

"The volunteer soldiers' number is already approaching 20,000. It is one half of the citizens of western Castall. With this, Castall should not be able to take back this region. Not with eastern Castall and Torun are completely under our control."

Noir Virginia adds,

"We have sent a reconnaissance team to the central region. Margrave Sigismund Jagiellon has only about 2,000 soldiers with him now."

"They have barricaded themselves in that number in four small fortresses in that region."

"We shall discuss our next steps later. Please rest, majesty."

***

Mayor's room in the town hall.

There are seven persons sitting here - Sekrit, Noir Virginia, Albert Hyuutia, Brian Haddock, Riheet Tirvac, Leonhardt Strauch,  and me. 

"Number wise, we should be able to beat the central nobles. We are over 20,000 men in strength." Noir Virginia states a fact.

Everyone seems relaxed but raises their eyebrows upon hearing that.

Brian Haddock argues, "Lord Virginia. Over 20,000 of them are villagers who just hold weapons. They are obviously worse than conscripted soldiers."

Albert Hyuutia adds, "Yes. We still outnumber the enemies no matter how many they kill us but.... we are going to lose a great number of precious manpower for farming."

Noir immediately nods, conceding his misreading of the situation,

"Forgive me. I overlooked that fact. Indeed, despite their strength around 2,000 men, they are well trained. We cannot rely on Lady Lyla and your majesty for quite some time after all."

My sight turns to Leonhardt Strauch,  arguably the smartest one among us. But he simply shakes his head.

"I am sorry. It's beyond me and any of us. We may be experienced in hands on combat but none of us excel in tactics."

Riheet who looks a bit agitated speaks up,

"Let us the dark elves gather here. Give us some volunteer soldiers. We have been holding on to our fury for many years."

"No. I won't allow even a single dark elf to die. You bunch are even a lot lesser in number than dalish." I reject that suicide idea.

Riheet seems dissatisfied but he cannot oppose me.

Leonhardt Strauch adds, "Not only are they skilled, small defensive bases are everywhere in the central region. You will fight like trapped mice."

"Ceh." Riheet gives up reluctantly.

"I have decided that we would halt our advance for now.  Information gathering and strengthening our newly gained positions."

My decision puts an end to our conquest for now.