Chapter 1278 |
“You… had a nightmare?”
Siegfried was dumbfounded when Hansen visited him just because he had a nightmare.
Never in his life had he imagined a grown man would come to him for something like this.
“Why are you suddenly talking about a nightmare?”
“At first, I thought it was just a nightmare, but its contents were quite concerning.”
“Oh? What was it?”
“I saw countless spiders swarm our camp.”
“Do you think it’s a bad omen?”
“I'm not sure, but a strange sense of unease keeps bothering me.”
“And this is not the first time I've had this kind of dream. So I wonder if perhaps—”
“Foresight?”
“I am not sure. But it feels like that. The situation is good enough for us to be optimistic, yet I feel unsettled after having this dream. A part of me thinks I am just being overly sensitive, but it keeps weighing on my mind when I try to ignore it.”
“What exactly do you feel? Do you feel like something bad is going to happen?” Siegfried asked.
“Well… It is just a dream, so basing things on it might be a bit…”
“It’s fine. Just tell me how you feel.”
“But sire…”
“It doesn’t matter if you think you’re being delusional or what. Just say it.”
“T-Then… I have a feeling that if we advance further… we will be wiped out.”
“Wiped out?”
“It feels like we are walking into a trap.”
“Really?”
“Yes, sire," replied Hansen, and his pupils trembled as if he were having a panic attack. It seemed that the anxiety brought on by the nightmare had reached its peak.
“Okay. But for now, you need to get some rest,” Siegfried said.
Then, he summoned Gringore. Gringore had enlisted in the Proatine Imperial Army and joined the war. He had achieved great merits using his abilities as the Phantom Singer, and he even went so far as to form a unit called the Proatine Military Band.
The Proatine Military Band was both a military band as well as an assault team specializing in sonic attacks.
As such, Gringore was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general, earning him three stars.
While it seemed unconventional for the leader of a military band to be awarded such a high rank, Gringore's achievements were so great that no one was against his promotion.
“Lieutenant General Gringore.”
“Yes, Your Imperial Majesty?”
“Sir Hansen is feeling uneasy. Please help calm him down.”
“As you command, sire.”
Following Siegfried’s order, Gringore sang a song to soothe Hansen’s nerves. As the Phantom Singer, his songs could heal allies, too. After about five minutes, Hansen had finally calmed down.
“You’re saying that you have a bad feeling about things, right?” Siegfried asked.
“Yes, Your Imperial Majesty.”
“What do you think we should do?”
“My instincts are telling me to withdraw the troops to a more defensible location and send out scouts to our surroundings.”
“Then go ahead and do that.”
“...!”
“You’re the strategist of our imperial army. If your intuition feels that something’s off, then we should trust it.”
“B-But, Your Imperial Majesty—!”
Hansen was greatly shocked that Siegfried would agree to slow down the tempo of the war just because he, a mere subordinate, had a nightmare.
“I-It might be just a dream! To halt our advance now is—”
“No,” Siegfried said, shaking his head. Then, he firmly said, “Sometimes, you have to trust your intuition even though there isn't any evidence or reason to do so.”
“Y-Your Imperial Majesty…”
“A person’s intuition can be frightening in its own way. It’s not something that can be explained logically, but that doesn’t mean it should be dismissed. They say you have to check a bridge before crossing it, so let’s do exactly that and proceed with caution this time.”
The reason he came to that conclusion was that he put Hansen’s abilities in high regard. Hansen was not an ordinary NPC. He was a Hero Unit capable of using foresight, the ability to see the future.
Ignoring an ominous nightmare from someone was definitely not a wise decision.
Besides, they were in no rush to engage the enemy right away, so reorganizing the army, replenishing supplies, and scouting the area was not a bad idea either.
***
The Proatine Imperial Army and the allied forces halted their advance toward the Marchioni Empire’s imperial capital after Siegfried had decided to believe Hansen’s ominous premonition.
They pulled back slightly and established a new encampment in a location that was no different from a natural fortress.
There, they constructed defensive ramparts, resupplied, and sent out scouts to scout the area.
Just as Siegfried had said, it was best to test the bridge before crossing, so they wanted to be prepared for any unforeseen threats lurking around them.
And the results were shocking…
“A large enemy force is advancing southward from the north!”
“Our scouts have confirmed a massive army marching toward us from the south!”
“We are in danger! The Marchioni Imperial Army suddenly appeared and is closing in on us!”
The scouts reported that a massive enemy force had been spotted, an army that had never existed until now.
To make matters worse, their numbers exceeded one million. It was impossible to give an exact headcount, as there were far too many of them, but the reports estimated the combined total to easily exceed one million.
The Proatine Imperial Army and the allied forces were thrown into chaos by the reports.
Their reaction was only natural, as the troops stationed in the Marchioni Empire’s imperial capital were said to be around one million men strong.
Despite losing half their troops during the retreat, the Marchioni Empire still had that many troops left.
Of course, those numbers were filled by conscripted young men and reservists, but that did not make it any less daunting. In addition, another million had appeared as reinforcements.
It was truly absurd. In the history of the continent, no nation had ever fielded an army two million strong.
“This makes absolutely no sense…” Siegfried muttered under his breath, unable to wrap his head around the situation.
Where could such a massive army have come from? He tried racking his brains, but he couldn’t come up with a plausible explanation.
Just then, a bizarre report came in.
“What the hell…?” Siegfried grimaced at the strange report. “Why do they all… look the same?”
According to the scouts, the soldiers emerging from every direction looked exactly the same as each other. One million people looking alike was a mathematical improbability.
“Are they wearing masks or something?”
With that thought, Siegfried examined the pictures at the end of the report.
“Huh…?”
The faces in the pictures were disturbingly familiar.
In fact, they looked so familiar that Siegfried immediately recognized who it was.
“Duke Randoll…?”
The face in the picture looked exactly like Duke Randoll—one of the Five Star Heavens of the continent and the beloved knight of the emperor.
But it did not stop there…
The report stated that every Marchioni troop had not only Duke Randoll’s face but his exact physique as well. One scout who had observed them up close even swore that their voices and gestures were identical, even down to the smallest detail.
“What in the world is going on…?” Siegfried muttered under his breath.
He read and reread the report, but he still had a difficult time understanding it.
“Hold on… Could it be…?” Oscar said, “It seems that the Marchioni Empire has succeeded in producing artificial humans, sire.”
“A-Artificial humans?!”
“Other than that, there is no other way to explain the current situation.
“That still seems a bit… far-fetched.”
“Your Imperial Majesty once shared the Emerald Tablet with the Marchioni Empire, did you not?”
“Well, yeah, I did.”
“The Emerald Tablet contains knowledge capable of resurrecting the dead.”
Oscar had a point.
The Immortal Alchemist, Acheron, once used advanced alchemic knowledge to bring Weapon Master Shakiro back to life.
To be precise, an artificial human being identical to Shakiro.
“It’s possible…”
“With their level of technology and the Emerald Tablet’s knowledge, it might be possible for them to mass-produce artificial humans,” Oscar said. Then, she added, "Ah, not to mention, they have a huge supply of Omnistones, too. I wouldn’t be surprised if they used them to create those artificial human beings.”
The Omnistones had the mysterious trait of transforming into any substance, which technically meant that they could potentially be used for human transmutation, too.
Just as Oscar said, the Marchioni Empire had mined tons and tons of Omnistones from the Coral Planet.
“Oh my god…”
“This may very well be the true strength of the Marchioni Empire.”
Siegfried found Oscar’s deduction to be disturbingly convincing.
No wonder things had felt too easy until now. There was no way the world’s greatest superpower could collapse without a fight. It had seemed suspicious then, and now, his worst fears were coming to life.
‘Don’t tell me… are all of them Masters?’
Siegfried couldn’t bring himself to say his thoughts aloud.
‘Nah, that’s not possible. I mean, if they can not only clone his body but also his combat power, then isn’t that just broken?’
If one million troops all possessed the combat power of a Master, then winning this war would be impossible.
‘No, that can’t be. They can’t have replicated that as well.’
Siegfried forced himself to stay optimistic, but for some reason, it proved to be harder than usual.
***
Hansen’s nightmare, or rather, his prophetic dream, ended up coming true, and the Proatine Imperial Army, along with the allied forces, was forced to retreat. They were in danger of getting encircled by a staggering two and a half million enemy troops.
Their retreat was far from a tactical retreat. It was a hasty retreat—a run for their lives.
If Hansen did not dream of that vision, if Siegfried had dismissed it as nonsense instead of treating it with caution, then the Proatine Imperial Army and the allied forces would have marched straight to the gates of the Marchioni Empire’s imperial capital.
There, they would be encircled and wiped out, leaving not a single man alive.
The whole thing turned out to be one big trap. The Marchioni Empire had been feigning weakness all along to lure the Proatine Imperial Army deeper into their territory.
‘This is bad…’ Siegfried clenched his fists as he oversaw the retreat.
The thought of two and a half million enemy troops forming an encirclement was enough to choke the breath out of him.
But that was not the only bad news.
“Your Imperial Majesty! Our scouts report that the enemy troops are marching at a bizarre pace! In particular, the units made up of Duke Randoll’s clones are covering more than one hundred fifty kilometers in a single day!” Hansen reported.
“What?!” Siegfried gasped, nearly collapsing from shock.
Their marching speed was simply inconceivable.
It had to be known that the distance between Seoul and Busan was roughly five hundred kilometers. In other words, the enemy troops were marching so fast that they could march from Seoul to Busan in only three days.
‘Don’t tell me… Did they really manage to replicate Duke Randoll’s abilities, too? More than a million soldiers with the strength of a Master?’
The only plausible explanation for how they could cover such a distance was if they truly possessed Duke Randoll’s abilities.
‘No, that’s impossible.’
Siegfried tried to shake the thought away, but denying reality was no different than deceiving himself. He would only know for certain after facing them in battle, but the clones clearly possessed combat strength on par with, or even beyond, most high-ranking knights.
“Your Imperial Majesty… I am afraid that retreating any further is no longer an option,” Hansen said solemnly.
“Ah…”
“The enemy is outpacing us. And within twenty-four hours, our forces will be fully encircled.”
“Then… there’s no way out?”
“Rather than making a poor attempt at escaping, it would be wiser to establish a defensive line here. This terrain is advantageous for the defender.”
Hansen made the right decision. The Proatine Imperial Army and the allied forces were currently in rugged mountainous terrain. This meant that even if they ended up getting surrounded, they could fend off the enemy for a time.
However, once they left this area, they would find themselves on vast open plains that stretched as far as the eye could see. Out there, the two and a half million strong Marchioni Imperial Army would encircle them in no time and wipe them out.
In short, the only option left for the Proatine Empire and its allied forces was to fortify their position and hope they would win—no, survive.
Tokki's Thoughts
Tokki’s Thoughts:
I accidentally translated Duke Randoll to Duke Randolph for a second while translating this chapter. Obviously, I noticed it and fixed it right away.
But then a thought hit me…
What if the Marchioni Empire cloned Duke Randoll, except the conversation went like this…
Emperor Stuttgart: Go and make 2.5 million clones of Randoll.
Science guy 1: As you command, Your Imperial Majesty!
Science guy 2: Who are we cloning?
Science guy 1: Randolph. We are cloning the bard singing in the tavern, Randolph.
And that’s how the Marchioni Empire ended up with 2.5 million bards 😀
