323 - Final Chapter: Prologue
――Central, the capital of the Kingdom of Vanseime.
In the audience chamber of the royal palace, Celes sat upon a newly prepared throne, swinging her legs and looking quite pleased. As the high-ranking officials in armor stood in formation, the large doors at the front swung open and a messenger rushed in.
"Messenger! The rebel army has surrounded Central. Their numbers are approximately six hundred thousand!"
Upon hearing this, the members of the Vanseime royal family standing beside Celes began to panic. The others merely listened to the report with expressionless faces.
Celes's lips curled into a smile as she heard the report. Seeing this, her husband, Rufus, looked at her anxiously.
"N-now, Celes. Will it be alright? We've concentrated our forces in Central, but we've been invaded in various other regions, and our numbers are less than two hundred thousand. I-if we were to lose..."
Celes stood up. She turned her face toward Rufus.
"Lose? Me? Impossible. Absolutely impossible. After all, everything has gone exactly according to my calculations. No matter how much the armies of the living act tough, they cannot win against dead soldiers. Besides, our forces aren't just two hundred thousand."
Rufus tilted his head slightly.
"No, Celes... there are two hundred thousand troops in Central..."
Celes spoke to Rufus with a smile.
"Every single one of the over a million citizens is now my soldier. Everyone will fight for me. Because, for them, life and death no longer matter."
While Rufus remained bewildered, Celes giggled. Then, she moved out of the audience chamber. Accompanied by her favorites—Bart, the butler in a tailcoat serving as her guard, and Lumel, whose long black hair trailed across the floor—she headed for the balcony.
What Rufus saw as he followed her was beyond imagination.
The plaza was filled to the brim, undoubtedly with soldiers. However, even for a capital, it wasn't just men. In a capital where it was natural to find men, women, young, and old, only soldiers filled the plaza.
"From the elderly to infants... everyone has offered their lives for me. That is why every citizen of Central has become a soldier."
As Rufus stepped back in shock, he bumped into someone.
"M-Meizel-dono... no, Father-in-law and Mother-in-law as well."
Meizel and Claire had appeared on the balcony, fully armed. Their eyes were hollow, and they didn't even look at Rufus.
"Celes, so this is where you were? A commander-in-chief must maintain a steady presence."
"That's right, Celes. Hurry inside. No matter what happens, the two of us will protect you."
At her parents' words, Celes turned around and gave them a smile. The skirt of her white dress flared, and her blonde hair swayed in the same motion.
"Oka~y. But when a battle reaches this scale, it really does get exciting, doesn't it?"
Looking at the innocently smiling Celes, Meizel smiled as well.
"As expected of a daughter of the Wolt family. The blood of the territorial nobility flows in those veins."
Claire tilted her head slightly, resting a hand on her cheek.
"I wish she would be a bit more ladylike. Well, Celes is still cute, so that's fine."
Surrounded by the two of them, a happy-looking Celes returned to the palace. Watching her back, Rufus thought...
"Ah, how dependable you are, Celes."
With flushed cheeks, he followed after her—.
"Lock the Mobile Fortress in place! Aim the cannons at the city gates! The walls of Central won't crumble that easily. Concentrate your fire on a single point!"
The Mobile Fortress advanced slowly, and when it stopped, it sat down with a heavy thud, driving stakes into the ground.
Under a cloudy sky, the Mobile Fortress stood imposing before the main gate of Central.
Inside the control room of the Mobile Fortress, Vera was issuing instructions one after another.
"Don't let the fires go out just because the power reactor has stopped! Tell the workshop to be ready to respond immediately, as we don't know when we'll move again."
As I watched the scene of Vera issuing orders from her chair, General Broa spoke to me.
"Now then, I shall head to a location where it is easier to command. Lariel-dono, please be sure to let me know when it is time to charge."
I nodded and gave a small raise of my right hand in response, then looked forward.
"Now, let's see how the opponent moves on the first day."
It was a massive battle.
Will they reveal their hand immediately...
Monica, who was nearby, gave me a report.
"I have confirmed figures atop the city walls. However, there is no reaction from the chicken coward's skill. They are already dead."
Flags were raised atop the walls, and the other side was proceeding with their interception preparations. I placed a hand over my mouth at the quiet start.
"...The preparations for the siege engines?"
Monica answered immediately.
"Seventy percent are ready. However, there is a discrepancy in the mobilization of the Coalition. It seems many of the armies are not yet prepared."
It was natural that they had never experienced a battle of this scale, but many of the nations had typically fought wars on a scale of several hundred, or at most, over a thousand. They were likely hesitating.
"Hurry the preparations. At worst, just make sure the fences are built carefully."
I knew the kind of battles Celes preferred from fighting the forces dispatched from Central. Perhaps due to the influence of Septem—Agrissa, she preferred battles that inflicted devastating casualties on both armies.
She fought battles without considering attrition from the start.
"...They'll come out soon."
As the stone-throwing from siege engines and the exchange of magic began, flashy explosions erupted around us. The start was ordinary, but the opponent emitted an eerie atmosphere of being too quiet.
Monica spoke as she watched a magical attack fly toward them, only to be blocked by a barrier and explode before their eyes.
"The front gate is opening."
――Lariel's main army.
Seeing the enemy open the city gates, Broa issued instructions to the surroundings. Around us, knights and mages were extremely busy with the exchange of magic.
"They're charging out without worrying about their own losses. Dead soldiers are quite convenient troops once you remove their emotions. Well, I wouldn't want them as my own subordinates. ...If they just charge straight ahead without thinking, we can deal with them."
As messengers rushed to deliver instructions, Broa watched the enemy charge, ignoring the two armies exchanging magic.
They were letting out war cries, but they looked utterly eerie.
"...An army of the dead. Not funny at all."
Then, the enemy charging toward Lariel's main camp—charged right through the exchange of magic being fired by both friend and foe.
Despite taking casualties from magic fired from the front and rear, they charged without once looking back.
General Broa covered his face with his right hand.
"In terms of breakthrough power, we certainly cannot compete. However, if it's just a blind charge, they are inferior to the charge of a monster army."
Then, Lariel's forces made a move. They split widely to the left and right, drawing the charging enemy deep into their midst.
The siege engines positioned in the rear began throwing barrels filled with gunpowder one after another.
This was one of the strategies Lariel had used when fighting the monster army in the past.
"If they fought like humans, it would have been a much harder struggle."
As General Broa said this, the cavalry approaching before them tripped one after another due to the trap, taking down the allies immediately behind them. Those further back simply stepped over their fallen comrades to advance.
It was exactly like the charge of a monster army.
"The person who thought of this has a nasty personality. Oil on the ground, gunpowder from the air... and on top of that, crossfire."
Lariel was the one who thought of it, but the details had been finalized primarily through Miranda's suggestions.
Where the vanguard collapsed from the charge, attacks from bows and guns were launched one after another from the units split to the left and right.
However, looking at the rear of the charging unit, General Broa wanted to sigh.
"...I'd almost believe it if someone told me they were inexhaustible."
While watching the sight of enemies emerging in succession, the allies continued their strategy of fighting while calmly maintaining distance—.
――Baldoor Landburg was leading a unit equipped with guns, protected by the installed fences.
Ammunition was not an issue. Gun maintenance was not an issue. The number of guns was sufficient.
However.
"Fire! Show no mercy!"
Despite bullets piercing their abdomens along with their armor, the enemy soldiers did not stop their advance.
The way the blood flowed was strange. They didn't look like they were alive at all.
The unit near Baldoor consisted of the elves led by Eva. Carrying bows, they were firing Breast Arrows... exploding arrows into the sky.
The arrows flew in an arc and exploded as they rained down on the enemy unit—then, they ignited the oil, enveloping the enemy in a sea of fire.
Many enemies had arrows piercing them or half their bodies blown away. Yet, their advance did not stop.
He even saw enemy soldiers whose lower bodies had been blown away, attempting to move forward with only their upper bodies through the sea of fire.
The soldiers were shaken.
"What is it? What the hell are those things!"
"...You've got to be kidding me."
"They're jumping into the fire of their own accord."
The enemy soldiers jumping into the sea of fire could no longer be considered sane.
Baldoor raised his voice.
"Do not falter! This is the face of the enemy! That is exactly why we must fight! Do not let the enemy advance any further!"
They weren't just charmed by Celes. No, it was no longer charm; they were being manipulated. Baldoor was terrified of Celes, who manipulated the dead like puppets.
(...If we hadn't fought here, things would have certainly turned out badly.)
Reaffirming Celes's abnormality, Baldoor issued instructions to his subordinates—.
――In the royal palace, Celes sat upon the throne receiving reports.
"Celes-sama, the fifty thousand soldiers who charged were all repelled. They have been completely annihilated."
The high-ranking officials standing in a row with expressionless faces had simply remained standing in the same posture from morning until night. They truly were like puppets.
"Is that so? That's a shame, losing fifty thousand on the first day. But... even so, our numerical superiority remains unshaken."
To Celes, the lives of soldiers were less than trash. They were simply superior to other trash in proportion to how much they revered her.
Then, Meizel spoke up to Celes.
"Celes, it seems that person has prepared specifically to fight you. We could continue throwing soldiers at him to wear him down, but we shouldn't play into his hands."
Claire continued Meizel's explanation.
"That's right. Even if the main force is ready, I wonder about the others? Even if they exceed six hundred thousand, I wonder how many of them truly intend to fight us..."
Celes listened to their opinions and smiled.
"You're right! Then, tomorrow, let's ignore that piece of trash and challenge the others. Still, the surrounding lords are quite pathetic. Since we're the ones fighting, they should just attack from behind. Could it be... betrayal?"
Even feeling betrayed, Celes remained smiling. And then.
"I wonder if they don't care what happens to the hostages we hold? Shall we do various things to them as an example and display them on the city walls?"
The one who spoke to the smiling Celes was Bart. Expressionlessly.
"That would be impossible."
"...Huh?"
Celes glared at Bart for interrupting her good mood. However, Bart continued.
"There are no hostages left alive. They were all killed to become materials for soldiers, or—"
Bart's gaze turned toward the monsters waiting behind the high-ranking officials lined up in the audience chamber. There were some monsters that had failed, but all of them were eerie.
Celes clapped her hands.
"Ah, that's right... I used them for experiments. Haa, it would be a pain to prepare corpses and do various things now. Well, once I've dealt with that piece of trash, maybe I'll go kill them to pass the time."
The smiling Celes decided to leave the lords alone and concentrate only on the battle before her. Lariel's actions—thinking about the possibility of his rear being attacked and steadily suppressing and liberating people from Celes's charm—had meaning.
To Celes, it was dissatisfying that there was nothing to threaten Lariel's rear. But it was only a dissatisfaction.
After all.
"Hey, there were a lot of mercenary groups that came to our side, right?"
Bart bowed elegantly.
"Yes. It seems they weren't hired by the Coalition army, so they flowed toward us."
Celes's mouth twisted into a smirk, and Claire, standing beside her, cautioned her. Celes cutely stuck out her tongue and said sorry, and Claire sighed and permitted Celes's behavior.
"...I got scolded. But we have materials, right? Let's kill them and make them into new soldier materials. How many of them are there?"
Bart attempted to tell Celes the exact number.
"The number of those capable of fighting who gathered is—"
"Wrong. I asked how many gathered in total. Women and children don't matter. I'll give them all the equal honor of becoming my soldiers."
Bart said, "My apologies," and continued.
"Because all of Vanseime—no, the entire continent is watching this battle, over fifty thousand have gathered. I haven't confirmed the number of support staff—the behind-the-scenes people supporting the mercenary groups—but there should be that many."
Celes stood up with her staff.
"That's perfect. It's more than enough to replace the soldiers lost today. The more we fight, the more soldier materials we obtain, so that piece of trash can just despair."
No matter how many useless charges she repelled, for Celes, it was nothing more than a victory where she could recover as much as she wanted.
"Now, shall we enjoy this battle? I want to see that man's face twist with despair as soon as possible."
As Celes's laughter echoed in the audience chamber, the high-ranking officials who had not moved until then began to praise her. It was as if they were repeating actions that had been decided from the start—.
――Agrissa watched the laughing Celes from within a yellow orb.
Sitting on a throne with her legs crossed, she looked at Celes's figure with amusement.
"Cute Celes, go ahead and kill each other with my beloved Lariel. I shall cherish whoever survives. Though, if I had to choose, I prefer Lariel."
Smiling seductively, Agrissa enjoyed watching the off-guard Celes.
And she found the Lariel challenging Celes to be precious.
"Lariel, it will be a sight to see if you can defeat Celes. However, even with Novem backing you... Celes will not be easily defeated. Though, when you overcome that, you will become worthy of being the existence I love. I look forward to it."
Saying so, the smiling Agrissa laughed along with Celes's laughter—.