Chapter 665: War and Satisfaction
After the Valeria Empire’s army stormed the border fortress and Lyra publicly executed the supreme commander, a portion of the private troops that had once belonged to Duke Grant chose to lay down their weapons and surrender to the enemy.
They even guided the imperial forces along the way, familiarizing them with the city’s facilities, asking for nothing more than to keep a single life in the end.
Perhaps Grant had already guessed that this private fortress was unlikely to withstand the imperial assault. Not a single piece of his precious wealth had been left behind in the city.
Even the reserve ratios stockpiled earlier, anything that could be taken was taken; everything else was burned to ashes, leaving Amalia’s army not the slightest advantage to seize.
Yet Grant could take the grain and treasure, but he couldn’t take the people or the land.
The makeshift field hospital the Valeria Empire set up was exactly the drill ground where he used to hoard soldiers and train them hard.
The space was broad, and it still lay some distance from the inner city, so it wouldn’t affect ordinary civilian life, perfect for healing the wounded.
After bidding farewell to Duke Charles, Astrid followed the soldiers’ directions all the way to the wounded camp.
As she approached, a gentle, melodious woman’s voice drifted through the camp. Its slow, soothing rhythm seemed almost enchanted, capable of easing every ache. The instant she heard it, a comforting warmth spread through her heart.
Feeling carefully the active particles of the light element in the air, those waves and grains that stir along with the first rise of dawn, she sensed them being drawn by powerful magic into orderly alignment, continuously radiating light and heat.
This scene matched exactly the Arcanist mage-tier light-attribute spell: Aria of the River Bathed in Light.
Unlike most elemental magic, Aria of the River Bathed in Light not only requires a standard incantation, spoken aloud or murmured in the heart, as its prelude. Its subsequent effects also depend on the caster sustaining them through continuous singing.
The specific singing method and corresponding rhythm were all recorded in The Sword of Light. Through her soul-bond with the holy sword, Lyra can master the chant without a teacher.
In the original novel, Lyra had used this magic to heal wounded soldiers as well. But those scenes had been described in text; Even though Astrid had heard her little sister describe it at a bedside, she still had no idea how the chosen heroine actually sounded.
Today was the first time Astrid heard the piece with her own ears. The gentle, soothing tone even made her brisk steps slowly as she approached the tent.
Following where the voice came from, Astrid turned and walked towards Lyra. Her smooth, well-proportioned ink-black legs crossed in alternating strides; slender heels lifted and fell, reflecting red soles on the crusted ice. The exquisitely made hem of her dress swayed with each step, stirring wafts of fragrance.
The tent Lyra occupied had no one else, only her, softly humming. The pink-haired girl, still in heavy armor, had removed the helmet that concealed her face. Flecks of light fell from the orange lamp overhead, illuminating her petite figure and the slender knight’s sword leaning against her silver-white boots.
When she saw Astrid enter, Lyra’s gaze froze for an instant, yet the voice from her lips did not pause, continuing the chant onward.
Astrid wasn’t in a hurry either. She didn’t interrupt Lyra’s magical a cappella, only silent drawing closer. She looked at the small stool improvised from stacked long wooden crates, bent her knees, and braced her hands on the box as she sat down behind Lyra.
Sensing the touch at her back, Lyra, who had been leaning forward with her waist tense, fluttered her lashes. Her back arched slightly, and she leaned into Astrid, the two resting against each other.
The gentle voice flowed quietly around them. Seeing Lyra fully submerged in Aria of the River Bathed in Light, Astrid lightly stirred her mental power, letting the wind carry the knight’s song farther.
Minutes later, the singing stopped. The surrounding light-element particles remain, continuing their healing. Astrid took out some juice and handed it to Lyra.
"You’ve been singing so long. Have a little, moisten your throat."
Looking at the crystal bottle filled with pale purple liquid, Lyra only then noticed that at some point her right hand had overlapped with Astrid’s left, snow-white skin over black silk as deep as the night sky.
"Mm..."
She murmured softly, took the bottle, pulled the wooden stopper, and sipped a little grape juice in small mouthfuls.
Ever since coming down from the battlefield, Lyra had basically not rested. She had to report the situation to her superiors, and she also had to assist the army in searching for suspicious individuals.
After finishing those tasks, she rushed to the wounded camp at once, releasing healing magic for the injured soldiers.
Aria of the River Bathed in Light did not directly mend the flesh, but it helped speed recovery, purge toxins, ease fatigue, and eliminate any possible negative effects.
Most importantly, unlike other magic, it did not consume a person’s life essence as the price for rapid repair.
Turning her head, Astrid watched Lyra sip from the bottle in small gulps, waiting quietly. Only after Lyra had drunk nearly half and put it down for a moment did she speak.
"It sounds really nice~ Lyra."
Astrid wasn’t injured, so she wasn’t overly affected by the spell. Setting aside the "my wife is beautiful because she’s mine" filter, her evaluation was fairly objective.
Lyra’s singing couldn’t be called technically impressive, but with a gentle, lilting voice and abundant emotion, it was more than enough to move people.
Hearing Astrid praised her so straightforwardly, Lyra’s face reddened. She spoke in a small, soft voice.
"R-really...?"
"I was actually... singing for the first time..."
At the beginning, Lyra had worried that this kind of chanting magic would lose effectiveness if she sang poorly.
But once she truly opened her mouth, that worry lessened a lot. Whether it sounded good or not, a song still had to be added to the end.
"Darling... Why would I lie to you?" Astrid blinked as she spoke, crimson pupils reflecting points of light off the armor’s surface.
"My knight isn’t just strong, she’s talented at singing, too."
Although she couldn’t compare to the songstresses in noble estates hired to sing professionally, her voice was pleasant, her pitch was accurate, and already quite good.
At that, Lyra’s lips lifted slightly. Her other hand, the one not holding the crystal bottle, slid back along the wooden crate until it found Astrid’s hand resting on the box, and she gently laced their fingers.
"Then... that’s good... if it was ugly..."
"...it would be so embarrassing."
Singing to herself was one thing, but performing in front of other people was entirely different. It had taken all of Lyra’s courage to sing before such a large crowd. If she ended up sounding off-key or completely tone-deaf, the thought alone was enough to make her want to disappear from embarrassment.
Astrid’s words just now were like feeding her a calming pill.
Hearing Lyra say this, the silver-haired beauty leaned against her and smiled, her tone soft.
"Be more confident, Lyra."
"Even someone who didn’t know her, listening with an impartial ear, would come away thinking that our Holy Knight possesses both unwavering strength and quiet compassion."
Outstanding looks, a resilient personality, absurdly good in a fight and able to sing to rally morale, Lyra was practically a perfect medieval national idol in the making.
Thinking about it, why had Monica decided Astrid was the so-called incarnation of the Lord? Wasn’t one exact reason that even Lyra, the holy light knight bearing a sacred relic of light, had fallen for her?
Perhaps with a similar kind of domestic "packaging," Lyra could leap into prominence as a new candidate for Pope of Light, helping them later straighten out the Church of Light and reshape faith itself.
Hit hard by Astrid’s series of straight-line compliments, Lyra’s smile grew more obvious. The fingers holding the crystal bottle tapped the glass in a steady rhythm, like a little girl rewarded with candy.
"Then... does Astrid like it..."
You already said it sounded good. You should like it, right?
Astrid didn’t deny it. Following Lyra’s meaning, she hummed an affirmative, and stroked the pink-haired pup’s "fur" for a while longer.
"So there’s no need to worry. You sang very nicely."
"As for embarrassing sounds, save those for private."
"???"
What kind of weird statement was that?
Her cheeks felt even hotter. Lyra didn’t take that bait, only gave Astrid a light pinch before taking a few more sips of grape juice to cool down.
After several mouthfuls, their topic shifted from private matters to public ones. From Astrid, Lyra learned of Grant’s escape, and also understood his series of actions in burning the provisions.
"In that case, our rations still have to rely on transport from the rear..."
Although Lyra had rarely encountered shortages, she still understood perfectly the importance of battlefield logistics.
Back at the time of the Liya Tower Fortress, if the Kingdom of Velys had successfully captured the other two secondary forts and then blockaded the entire city, cutting off their supply lines, the Church’s knightly order would only need to wait until the defenders ran out of food. In just a few days, the soldiers will mutiny and surrender.
Even if it didn’t reach the point of total depletion, gradually cutting down three meals a day would not only lower the soldiers’ combat power, it would also severely damage morale.
The war was fought on logistics.
"Mm. For now, it seems that’s the only way."
Astrid nodded, affirming Lyra’s view.
"But these prisoners become a problem."
"They ate Duke Grant’s rations and took the pay he issued. Now their top superior burned the food and ran. That means they can only consume our reserves."
This battle alone was managed. But if there were more enemy prisoners later, taking them all in would bloat the army and make it hard to move.
"Could we consider buying food from the residents?" Lyra asked.
The Kingdom of Velys’s currency didn’t circulate with the Valeria Empire’s. With the war completely halting trade between the two countries, buying would mean bartering goods for goods.
"The idea is beautiful, but Lyra, there’s a very harsh reality."
"The Kingdom of Velys invaded the Empire for what? Our land, our grain, and our population."
Astrid crossed her legs, her gaze fell on the snowflakes drifting down outside the tent.
"These bottom-tier residents born in bitter cold lands, after paying the agricultural tax, how much surplus grain do you think they have?"
Think about it: why couldn’t the Kingdom of Velys suppress its internal conflicts? Wasn’t it because the royal family and nobles squeezed layer upon layer until the people at the bottom could barely live?
And unlike the Valeria Empire, where magical knowledge was monopolized by the nobility, the kingdom’s loose political structure gave the lower classes more chances to access magic, meaning they had the capital to "rise up."
The kingdom’s current chaos was precisely because those nobles couldn’t control the people below, so they pointed out the contradictions at the king instead, questioning his rule, trying to seize a bigger cake so that more crumbs would fall through.
"If this continues, our logistics pressure will only increase."
In the feudal histories of Astrid’s previous life, many warlords chose to kill prisoners for exactly this reason.
"Then, Astrid, are you planning to incorporate them?"
"It’s quite difficult. Strictly speaking, we belong to two different countries, and the families of these soldiers may not even be here. As a result, their actual combat effectiveness is highly uncertain."
"..."
"Then what do we do...?"
They couldn’t just execute prisoners on the spot. Leaving aside that Lyra trusted Astrid’s character, unless absolutely necessary, she would never do something like that, just considering their stated goal: they had said they would only punish the ringleaders.
If surrendering soldiers were killed ignorantly, it would suddenly provoke fierce resistance from both the nobles and the bottom-tier soldiers.
"My current idea is to have these people build infrastructure along the Empire–Kingdom border," Astrid said softly.
"Something like work-for-relief."
They wouldn’t take part in the war directly; instead, they’d be absorbed by supplementing logistics resources.
"Farming?"
"Mm. It’s slow to show results, but it’s better than feeding them for nothing, or releasing them as potential manpower for the enemy."
"But Astrid, this place is freezing. Can we really grow crops here?"
"Just because it didn’t work before doesn’t mean it won’t work now."
Hearing Astrid say, Lyra fluttered her lashes, her blue eyes puzzled.
"...I don’t understand."
"Did you forget what I’ve been saying all along?"
Astrid curved her lips, her sharp heels tapping lightly against the ground.
"When magical devices develop to the end, it will inevitably sink into the foundations and change the way people produce, bringing a qualitative leap in productivity."
"Right now, there are heavy forces obstructing reform inside the Valeria Empire, and we can’t cure it at the root in a short time. But the Kingdom of Velys happens to be in chaos, everything waiting to be rebuilt, a piece of uncarved jade."
"We might as well use it as a test field, and see how magitech can assist agricultural production."
"The most direct example is the proposal I mentioned to you before: using fire-element crystals to provide heat, and earth-element crystals to turn over frozen soil, making outdoor normal-temperature cultivation feasible."
Once successful, the vast buffer zone along the border between the two countries can be put to use.
"Of course, before crystal stones become cheap, this method can only be tested on a small scale. It can’t be widely promoted, the costs won’t justify it."
"As for the rest of the prisoners, I’ll have them play the role they should."
Building roads and bridges, watering and planting, laying signal-transmission pipes, there was no shortage of work for this labor force.
No, strictly speaking, it couldn’t even be called cheap.
Compared to barely having food in the kingdom, repairing roads for the empire at least meant they could get a full stomach.