The World Is Mine For The Taking

"Right about now, the Minister of Military is already preparing the soldiers for the upcoming war, while I’ll be focusing on training the Magic Knights on the side, especially the newer recruits," Lilia said. "The rookies still aren’t ready for a real battlefield yet, but I think it would do them some good if they gained at least a little firsthand experience before facing something much worse. Veronica, Shredica, and Angelica will also be handling some of the responsibilities around the Kingdom, while the veteran Magic Knights will take charge of training the heroes."

The heroes, huh?

Just hearing them brought up made me stop and think for a moment before saying anything else.

Since they were officially part of the Kingdom now, I supposed it only made sense that we’d make use of them whenever the need arose.

Even so, I couldn’t help feeling a little conflicted about sending them into an actual war this early.

If we were talking about people who were genuinely inexperienced, then they were probably the biggest examples of that. They had been dragged into this world completely against their will without any warning whatsoever. At the very least, the rookie Magic Knights had already spent time training at the academy before earning their positions, so they weren’t walking into battle without knowing the basics.

"Are you worried about them?" Veronica suddenly asked while looking at me. "About the heroes, I mean?"

"Worried, huh?" I repeated as I looked back at her. "I wouldn’t really say that I am."

"Really?" she asked with a faint smile. "From where I’m standing, you look a little worried."

Well...

That probably wasn’t the worst guess she could’ve made, if I was being honest with myself.

Even though I didn’t really care about most of them anymore, a few lingering attachments still refused to disappear completely.

Sakai was one of them, of course. She was a friend when in my previous life.

Hasegawa-sensei was another person I still couldn’t completely ignore. Although, she was a bit of a mess sometimes as a teacher, she was still a good person.

As for Kaori...

Things with her were... complicated enough that I couldn’t really explain them with a single answer.

Still, if Sakai and Hasegawa-sensei weren’t involved, I honestly doubted I’d spare the heroes much thought anymore.

"The biggest problem is that they aren’t ready for a real war yet," I said. "They’ve never experienced a battlefield where death was literally only a few steps away from them. Sure, they’ve gone through traumatic experiences before, and I won’t deny that those events changed them, but that’s completely different from standing in the middle of a battlefield where people are trying to kill you every single second. I’ll admit they’re valuable assets because they absolutely are, but at the end of the day they’re still just kids who were suddenly thrown into another world. Right now, I honestly don’t think sending them out there would make enough of a difference to justify risking their lives."

Lilia quietly looked at me for several moments before giving a small nod in response.

"Well, if that’s how you see it, then we won’t be sending them into battle," she replied.

Her answer was surprisingly accommodating, which honestly caught me a little off guard.

If anything, I had expected her to argue that they were valuable resources and that leaving them behind would simply be a waste.

Thinking about it objectively, I would’ve understood that line of reasoning without much difficulty.

This was war, after all.

During times like these, people naturally tried to make use of anything and anyone that could improve their chances of winning.

"In any case," Lilia continued, "we’ll continue preparing the army while we still have the time."

"I’ll be preparing my own forces as well," I replied without much hesitation.

Lilia blinked once before looking at me with obvious surprise written all over her face.

"You have your own army?" she asked with genuine curiosity.

"The Rabbitmen are incredibly useful when it comes to assassination," I explained. "They’re also naturally suited for infiltration missions and gathering valuable information without drawing much attention. The Shadows and I are planning to train them ourselves so they can become even more effective. The Lamias are already excellent in direct combat, and I think we can also make good use of the Centaurs once everything is ready."

Lilia continued staring at me for another moment before raising an eyebrow.

"Exactly how many connections do you have to gather armies like that?" she asked, sounding genuinely impressed.

"Well..." I said while scratching the back of my head with an awkward grin. "I’m pretty flexible when it comes to who I’m willing to fuck, so..."

"So you basically fucked anything that moved?" she asked while giving me a look that was filled with obvious disgust.

That expression only stayed on her face for a brief moment before she suddenly smiled, almost as if she’d already figured out that it wasn’t really a matter of whether I’d done something like that, but simply a matter of how long it would take before she eventually found out.

"I suppose that’s actually a surprisingly effective way of building connections," she said with a quiet chuckle.

Honestly, that wasn’t even an unfair assumption for her to make.

Sex really could become a form of communication depending on who you were dealing with, strange as that sounded.

"If that’s the case," Lilia continued, "then asking for their assistance might actually be worthwhile. The Centaurs are especially valuable during wartime. Since they’re perfectly capable of carrying riders into battle without slowing down, pairing experienced soldiers with them could make for an extremely effective cavalry force. I think that would give us another useful advantage on the battlefield, wouldn’t you agree?"

Honestly, I couldn’t really argue with that logic because it made perfect sense from a military standpoint. Looking at it that way, it honestly sounds like a strategy we shouldn’t overlook.