Free Web NovelChapter 98: Don’t Run From Your Sins!
Natasha Princess was explaining the current situation to the silver-haired long-haired girl who had just been resurrected.
She told her that Rigel was simply too strong — fighting him recklessly would only result in meaningless deaths.
However, no matter how much it came from a princess’s mouth, it was difficult for the girl to calmly accept the explanation while facing a national enemy right in front of her.
The girl immediately pushed back.
"U-Usless deaths...!? You’re saying the sacrifice of 100,000 people was meaningless!? Th-That’s—!"
"Shut up and listen!"
Natasha Princess shouted. "This is an important decision. One mistake and there will be even more victims!!"
At first glance, it looked like a very serious conversation.
A mass murderer who had caused a tremendous number of casualties stood before them. On one side was an elite soldier unable to suppress her hatred, and on the other was the First Princess trying to calm her down.
However, the reality was—
"Hey, can I say something too?"
"Wh-What is it!? I have no intention of listening to anything a national enemy has to say—"
"I did kill some Kingdom soldiers during the war, sure. But aren’t you guys inflating the numbers quite a bit?"
"Wha—!? What are you saying...?"
Upon Rigel’s pointed remark, the long-haired girl was left speechless. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
From her perspective, Rigel was nothing more than a heinous war criminal. For someone like him, it should have been impossible to downplay the number of enemy soldiers he killed — he should have been boasting about it.
"Even back when we were fighting before, I thought something was off. The regular soldiers kept saying things like ’Our 2,000 comrades’ or ’10,000 of our countrymen’... Your friend who attacked us first even said ’20,000 countrymen,’ right? And now you’re saying ’100,000 countrymen.’ No matter how you look at it, that’s way too many."
"Wha—!? Y-You bastard! Don’t run away! Don’t run from your sins!!"
"No no, I’m not running away. This is just plain fact. I definitely killed the guys who got in my way, but 100,000 is impossible."
"..."
The silver-haired girl wanted to argue back, but Rigel’s overwhelmingly confident rebuttal left her unable to say anything.
"If you think about it a little, it should be obvious, right? The force I brought with me was only around 250 people. If we were supposed to kill 100,000, how many would each person have to kill? Go ahead and calculate it."
"Eh? U-Um... uh..."
"Just calculate it already. You won’t be convinced unless you do the math yourself. Hurry up."
"Kh...!"
Rigel urged her on.
The silver-haired girl made a frustrated face but still began calculating as he said.
"... ... ... There! Each person would need to kill 4 enemies!!"
The long-haired girl answered with a confident expression.
However—
"You idiot!! Would 4 people be enough!? That’s completely wrong!! Are you stupid!?"
"Hii—!? Y-Yes... I’m sorry..."
She trembled after incurring Rigel’s anger. She had been prepared to feel pain in battle, but she had not been prepared to be scolded for a math error.
"Haa... Seriously... Listen. If 250 people were going to kill 100,000, each person would need to kill 400. Now that I’ve said that, you get it, right?"
"Eh? Ah... Aah—!? So that’s what you meant!!"
Finally understanding, she let out a loud voice.
And then—
"You scoundrel! Killing 400 people each!? As expected, the Goussel Marquis Army is a group of evil demons—"
"That’s not what I meant, you moron! Idiot! Blockhead!!"
"Y-You don’t have to go that far... Uuu..."
"What kind of education does the Valstein Kingdom have? I’m not asking you to solve complex higher mathematics. This is a much simpler problem. Right, Natasha? You can solve this easily, can’t you?"
Rigel, fed up with the silver-haired girl, turned to Natasha Princess.
"Eh? Y-Yeah... It’s simple. 400 people per person, right? Yep, yep."
She answered as such. As expected of royalty, mental arithmetic seemed to be her specialty.
—Or so it seemed. Her eyes were suspiciously darting around.
"...Well, whatever. So, do you really think our Goussel Marquis Army could each kill 400 people? Even I, the commander, say this, but without my [Boost] reinforcement magic, those guys are just small fry."
"Eh? Eeehh...!?"
The long-haired girl was shocked by Rigel’s explanation. She couldn’t immediately believe that the army which had been advancing so successfully was actually weak.
But when she remembered the strength of the man in front of her, she had no choice but to accept it. In short, it had been a one-man army led by Commander Rigel.
"Listen up. We didn’t kill 100,000 people. 10,000 — no, even 1,000 is suspicious. We did cause a decent number of deaths in the initial plains battle and when we crushed the guys defending the fort... but after that, it was pretty peaceful."
"P-Peaceful!? That can’t be true. In every city protecting our Valstein Kingdom, there are soldiers—"
"Yeah, that’s right. But they became quite obedient in front of my ’persuasion’."
"That’s even more impossible. There’s no way they would listen to an invader’s persuasion..."
The silver-haired long-haired girl continued to argue.
Could Rigel really convince her peacefully?
---
Rigel was trying to persuade the silver-haired long-haired girl.
He told her that the total number of casualties the Valstein Kingdom had suffered was not 100,000, but less than 1,000.
"I’ll say it again — the journey was peaceful. That’s thanks to my persuasive power."
"That’s impossible. The proud soldiers of the Valstein Kingdom would never listen to a national enemy’s persuasion."
"No no, you yourself are listening to what I’m saying right now, aren’t you?"
"...That’s only because you’re too strong..."
"It’s the same for them. I crushed the city walls with earth magic, blew away groups of resistance soldiers with a single strike... Oh, and I also put the ’female slave barrier’ we procured along the way on the front lines. It’s because I showed them overwhelming power that everyone became obedient. The march to Tosch was really comfortable."
"..."
The long-haired girl couldn’t say anything in return.
It was an unbelievable story by her common sense, but if Rigel’s words were true, everything fit together.
"Come on, isn’t that enough? The suspicion that I’m an evil bastard who killed 100,000 people has been cleared. Well, I do think around 1,000 people died, but just think of it as getting bitten by a dog and give it up. This is war, after all."
"...Understood."
Even if it was 1,000, it didn’t change the fact that people she was supposed to protect had died. However, she realized she couldn’t blame him for it.
If she did, he would bare his fangs at the Valstein Kingdom once again. This time, he would surely destroy them without a shred of mercy.
Understanding that, the long-haired girl had no choice but to stay silent.
"And with that, this matter is settled. Just like Natasha and Norn, I’ll make you my pet too."
"Wha—!? P-Pet!? That’s ridiculous!" freёwebnovel.com
The girl couldn’t believe her ears.
