In a World of Reversed Chastity, I Strive to Become an Honorable Male Knight, but Lustful Women Keep Targeting My Body - 339

Chapter 339: The Kukkoro Male Knight’s Speech

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We descended toward the dead center of the battlefield. All around us, the food bombardment continued unabated. According to the plan, the bombing was to continue until we had dropped thirty percent of the rations brought by the main body of the Liseben Army. Considering the military’s food reserves, it was quite a lavish display, but this was not a board where I could afford to be stingy.

“Alright, we’re diving in!”

After saying that in a casual voice, Nael moved her massive, translucent wings with a powerful hum. At the tremendous G-force of the acceleration, Lady Dalaiya let out a scream and clung to me.

Heh, quite a lucky perk… Not that I had the luxury of basking in it. I was busy enough just trying to hang onto Nael. After all, Nael had no saddle, let alone a lifeline. If my hands or feet slipped even an inch, I was finished. Even for someone like me who was used to airplanes, this was genuinely terrifying.

“Gwah! That praying mantis is back again!”

“Did it catch the scent of food?! Of all the times, damn it!”

The Elf and Ant soldiers on the ground, who had apparently spotted us, began to shout up a storm. Quite a few of them started running away while clutching the food sacks they had scavenged under their arms. 

This might be the first time I’ve seen Elf soldiers this shaken. Just how much are these Mantis insectfolk feared?

“Monster! Take this!”

Naturally, there were Elf soldiers who loosed arrows at us, but our companion was a natural-born killing machine. With a single swing of her scythe, she batted the arrows away. 

Man, she really is reassuring… I’ll have to make sure I never turn her into an enemy.

“Alrighty, laaanding!”

Ignoring the soldiers who were fleeing like baby spiders scattering in every direction, Nael touched down in a gap within the crowd. As a smoke-like cloud of dust swirled around us, I stepped onto the ground while still carrying Lady Dalaiya on my back.

“Good work!”

After patting Nael’s leg, I looked around the battlefield. Upon closer inspection, the remains of the fallen and the heavily wounded moaning in pain were scattered everywhere. It was a scene straight out of an actual hell.

“Hey, isn’t that the Young Master?!”

“It’s true! Why’s the Young Master with the likes of a mantis… Don’t tell me he was kidnapped?!”

There was a group of Elves raising their voices as they looked our way. They appeared to be Elf soldiers from the allied side. I smiled at them and gave a light wave. If they misunderstood and thought I was a captive of Nael, things would get a bit troublesome. I made an effort to maintain as calm a demeanor as possible.

“Lady Dalaiya, are you ready?”

“Y-yes. Leave it to me?”

When I asked the question to Lady Dalaiya behind me, she gave a small nod and began muttering some sort of incantation. After waiting a few seconds, I drew my pistol and aimed it at the sky. Then, I cocked the hammer and pulled the trigger. A sharp gunshot echoed through the surroundings. Even for me, being accustomed to the sound of gunfire, it was at a volume that made me want to scream, “Too loud!”

This was due to the magic Lady Dalaiya was using. It was an application of wind magic to amplify sound. It served as a substitute for a megaphone, so to speak. This operation couldn’t even begin without this magic. After all, I intended to settle this battle with eloquence rather than military force.

To put it simply, I had come to persuade them, saying, “Let’s stop this fighting!” Since I was a man who had earned his living in the military in both my previous life and this one, I understood exactly how difficult an act that was. If battles could be settled through discussion, the profession of “soldier” would have vanished from the earth long ago. 

…However, speaking of this specific occasion, I had a decent chance of success.

“Listen, all you warriors! I am the Castellan of Liseben, Albert Blondin!”

I shouted with a voice that seemed to come from the pit of my stomach. That voice resonated through the surroundings at an unnaturally high volume. The atmosphere was perhaps close to an outdoor concert. The suddenness of it all caused the surrounding soldiers to stop dead in their tracks. Well, between the incomprehensible artillery fire, the food drops, and now a speech—faced with such a succession of baffling events, it was only natural to be confused.

“I wish to ask you all! Do you not value your own lives?!”

“Who the hell are you?! Bursting out and saying nonsense… Are you making fun of us?!”

“Do you really think a brave Elf fears death?! Don’t push your luck!”

Abuse was hurled back from Elf soldiers who appeared to be on the enemy side. It was exactly the reaction I expected. I smirked.

“Is that so! But I value them! I value them greatly! For warriors such as yourselves to lose your lives in a place like this…! It is an unforgivable tale!”

I put on a display of lamentation with exaggerated gestures. 

I’m used to speeches meant to raise the morale of my allies, but this type of speech is a first for me. 

Anxiety about whether I could pull it off started to bubble up in my heart, but I couldn’t let it show, no matter what.

“I know just how courageous and proud the warriors of the Elves and the Ant-folk are! To protect your comrades and your families, you step into the jaws of death with a smile! Or, even as your companions fall one after another, you still maintain an orderly march! Such feats are beyond the reach of ordinary warriors! Do you not agree?!”

“…”

The Elf and Ant soldiers, suddenly praised, fell completely silent. No more heckling came my way. 

Good, good. I’ve seized the initiative.

“Warriors who do not fear death! All of you are truly magnificent! However, precisely because such a thing is precious, the death of a hero must be something of value!”

I shouted in a tone that sounded as if I were enraged. 

I had learned in university that the basic rule of agitation is to first incite the audience’s anger. After all, anger is the easiest of all human emotions to stir. To whip the audience into a frenzy with rage and rob them of their cool judgment… It’s a tactic often used by dictators.

“Even if you die in battle here, there is no one to mourn you! There are no songs to praise your courage and honor! On the contrary, there may even be those who despise you, calling you ‘wretched barbarians who perished fighting over a few scraps of food’! Can you all allow such a thing?!”

In fact, people who would say such things would certainly appear. …Mainly the commoners of Liseben and the like.

“Unforgivable!”

“If anyone says that, I’ll kill ’em! Those outsiders who’ve never known hunger… Looking down on us!”

The Elf and Ant soldiers shouted one after another while brandishing their weapons. 

Man, short-tempered people are easy to rile up…

“I feel the same! The death of a hero must be honorable! However…”

I fell silent and looked around at the audience. They were waiting with bated breath for my next words. …So far, the situation was moving exactly as planned. I couldn’t afford to fail here. The pressure was so great that my stomach began to signal its protest with a sharp, stinging pain.

“There is no honor to be found anywhere on this battlefield! In the middle of a remote forest that no one knows, rare heroes who could be the pride of all four corners of the continent are becoming corpses rotting in the grass… How infuriating it is!”

I spat those words out while stomping my feet in frustration.

“That is why, everyone…”

Changing my tone entirely, I spoke in a gentle voice and raised my right hand. At that, Uru flew down from above and landed beside me. She handed me a long pole she had been carrying on her back. Once I took it, Uru flew away without a word. As I unfurled the white sheet wrapped around the pole, the familiar Bit-and-Cross was emblazoned upon it. It was a makeshift flag of the Liseben Army. I held it high while addressing the soldiers.

“Will you not fight alongside me?”

The important thing is the pace… 

I told myself that while making an effort to speak in a calm voice. Man, it was a good thing Lady Dalaiya could use amplification magic. There had to be over two thousand soldiers on this battlefield, including friend and foe. With just my natural voice, there was no way I could have reached everyone.

“I am a Lord. I have the duty to protect the safety and property of my people! However, there are many who eye the farms and trade routes of my territory…”

Like you barbarians, for starters. 

…Well, putting that aside, it wasn’t just internal threats like the Elves that needed caution. After all, Liseben had valuable strategic resources like mithril and oil buried in it. There were likely many external powers wishing to make them their own. Thinking back to the era of colonialism in my previous life, invaders often used the tactic of first inciting internal conflict among the locals. Then, as the various factions fought and exhausted themselves, the invaders would step in and take the best parts for themselves.

The longer the internal conflict on the Liseben Peninsula dragged on, the higher the possibility of becoming a victim of such methods. Even if we had to endure some losses, we had to extinguish the sparks now.

“My Liseben Army needs the strength of true heroes like yourselves! Come with me! If you are with me, I can provide a battlefield worthy of you all!”

Though I was dressing it up in various ways, in short, I was demanding their submission. The reason I phrased it like a recruitment drive was merely to save face for the other side. However, maintaining these appearances was extremely important. If I simply barked “Obey me!” from the start, neither the Elves nor the Ants would have accepted it. Especially the stubborn Elves. They would surely resist to the death, saying, “I’d rather die than obey the likes of you!” I obviously wanted to avoid that kind of situation. It couldn’t be helped that I had to make a few concessions.

“W-what’s with that man… suddenly trying to recruit us?”

“But it might not be a bad deal… it seems this Liseben place has food to spare.”

An Ant soldier was having such a conversation while munching on a biscuit taken from a food sack. The food sacks they held had the Bit-and-Cross mark prominently drawn on them. This was also part of the appeasement operation.

“In Liseben, there are many people who must be protected. When you overcome the invaders and return in triumph to our city, they will welcome you with thunderous applause! Furthermore—”

Though if you lose, they’ll throw stones at you. 

I spat that out in my mind. Contrary to my passionate tone, my heart was cold. It was because I was conscious of the fact that I was pulling a dirty trick. However, if continuing this meaningless war meant many more deaths, it was far better for me to bear the reproach of being a fraud.

“When you fall to an enemy’s blade, the common folk will weep for your deaths and offer silent prayers! And the songs praising your courage and valiant struggle will be passed down to future generations!”

As if the masses are such convenient beings! Those people are incredibly shrewd. 

I spat that out in my mind as I recalled the treatment my senior soldiers received after the Vietnam War.

“…I will ask once more. Is this a battlefield worth betting your lives on? Do you not regret throwing your lives away in vain in a place like this?!”

“I… I regret it! I… I don’t want to die in a place like this!”

One of the Elf soldiers shouted in a voice thick with emotion. As if that voice were a trigger, the surrounding soldiers began to raise their voices one after another.

“I didn’t live for hundreds of years just to die a dog’s death in a place like this!”

“I joined the fight thinking it was better than starving to death, but this is too much, just too much…!”

The Elf soldiers were shedding tears. …Even they were not creatures that lived solely on combat instincts. Faced with an inescapable reality, they had suffered and struggled. Lady Vanka was a prime example of that…

Now, I understood perfectly why the allied Elf soldiers had charged forward to shield the young Liseben soldiers. In the midst of a life that was nothing but pain, a situation had arrived where they could die in battle while protecting an ally… There was no way they wouldn’t leap at that. I wonder if that was a type of suicide. 

…It really makes me sick.

“Come with me, everyone! Let us walk together upon the path paved with victory and glory!!”

As I reached out my hand while shouting that, the Elf soldiers who were nearby knelt. They were the ones wearing the ponchos with the Bit-and-Cross drawn on them.

“We shall follow you even unto hell, Young Master!”

As if led by that, the surrounding Elf soldiers knelt one after another. Among them, many wore plain ponchos. Meanwhile, the Ant-humans seemed slightly stunned, but from among them, a tall woman stepped forward.

“The Queen Mother of the Kingdom of Adan, Zera Growa Adan, pledges her allegiance to Lord Albert Blondin. This is a gift from my first meeting with you, so please accept it.”

Saying that, she placed the severed head of a middle-aged woman at her feet. Then she threw herself onto the ground and bowed deeply. 

Is that… the head of the Ant army’s previous Queen Mother?

“Queen Mother?! It’s the Queen Mother! Big sister Zera, what have you done…”

“But, it’s the Queen Mother’s fault we ended up sticking our noses into the Elves’ internal feud in the first place. Big sister’s judgment is sound…”

“It seems that mantis is following this Albert fellow. I hate it, I don’t want to fight something like that… If they’re really going to feed us properly, wouldn’t it be smarter to switch to that side?”

The Ant soldiers buzzed with talk for a while, but eventually, following Zera’s lead, they knelt. Before I knew it, the battlefield was filled with nothing but people prostrating themselves on the ground. There was no longer a single person continuing the fight. I let out a sigh of relief.

“I pay my respects to your judgment. Welcome to the Liseben Army.”

Thus, the long civil war of Liseben came to an end.

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