"You forgot? ......if you forgot! Cut the chant off! And start from the very beginning!"
Although Drei was slender just as most mages were, she did have strong arm strength due to the modifications performed on her. If she did not go easy on the other party, she could easily inflict a whole lot of pain to the head.
"Arghhhh! It's going to crack! It's cracking! My brain's going to crack! My brain is splitting in half! Ah, was that how I was before...... Ahh, it hurts, it hurts, please forgive me!"
"I don't see any remorse, hah!?"
"Please forgive me~!"
About four or five minutes had passed. The roof of the church they were using as a foothold began to collapse due to the fire, so they moved to the air but the beratement continued.
"Damn, I don't know if you're useful or not. Both Opus 04 and you."
Drei released Seis as if getting tired of it. On the other hand, the manmade elf girl who was able to finally escape her punishment opened her mouth with tears trickling from her eyes while rubbing her aching head.
"Sniff…sniff... I think Charl is a useful person."
"Anyway, be careful with magic next time. It doesn't matter how powerful it is, a mage who can self-destruct randomly is definitely not useful."
"Okay......, but you'll admit my magic was at least powerful, right? Right?"
"Hmph. That's just it. However, if I don't see much improvement in control, I'll have to suggest to master to have you be a suiciding bomb on enemies."
"Ehhhh~! I'll do my best! I'll do my best so father won't abandon me!"
"Do that from the start, you idiot."
In the meantime, the huge fire on the ground was being extinguished. This was because the extremely high temperature of the powerful flame magic had quickly burned up the combustible materials on the ground. Where there used to be an idyllic rural village, only a blackened and charred land remained.
Seis muttered, looking at the devastation emotionlessly.
"......Still, I wonder what father told you. Why did he tell you to let the humans of the village escape before creating fire?"
"Of course, to make full use of those hairless monkeys."
"Hm? Use them? Oh, could it be that they were captured alive and used for some kind of experiment—"
"Then we wouldn't have to do something so elaborate. Why don't you use your head a little more, you stupid girl?"
In fact, Drei's manoeuvrings in the village were a bit more elaborate.
She went through the trouble of mixing poison into the well, having random villagers drink it, and then having the randomly brainwashed villagers tell everyone that this was St. Gallen's doing. It was too roundabout for Drei's taste. If she were to come up with a plan of her own, she would either brainwash the St. Gallen army directly and have them fight each other, or use magic directly to mow them down.
However, from master’s standpoint, he could not choose such measures. He was being suspected of hiding powerful mages or having a method of brainwashing. If the boss of the hairless monkey were to discover the existence of them, they would be in a pickle.
Her great master that she served was hindered by these petty rules made by the lowly apes. Drei could not help but feel annoyed. But she was her master’s tool, and loyalty to her master was of priority. If her master had a plan, she would do her best to follow it to the letter.
"Well, I guess we can't waste time here forever. We're heading for our next assignment. Don't be an idiot, move faster."
"Yes, yes! I'll do it right this time without failing!"
The dark elf took off ahead of her, and the other elf followed behind. The two long-lived species dashed through the sky with the power of magic and left the devastation behind them. They were not even aware of the existence of the poor villagers who had lost their lives in the flames while running away from the well. No, even if they were aware of it, they would not have thought anything of it. They had already accomplished their goal of letting a certain number of villagers escape after informing them of the murderous acts of the St. Gallen army, as ordered by their master. They had no intention of devoting their attention to trivial matters.
※ ※ ※
Black smoke filled the air, casting a haze over what should have been a clear sky. The cinders that remained buried in the fire were still crackling. There was no harvest to be found on the scorched fields, only desolation.
A small number of horsemen were wandering, clacking their horses' hooves in vain since everything had to turn to soot in these burnt fields. They were followed by foot soldiers. They were keeping a certain distance from the cavalry, inspecting the remains of the fields.
"That's the sixth one, huh?"
The man on the horse, General Jurgen Bauer, commander of the Army of St. Gallen's invasion of Volden, muttered with a stern expression. This was the sixth time his army had come across the remains of a burned-out field like this. They had aimed to replenish their food stores that were lost in a fire a few days ago, but the rural villages they visited were all razed to the ground, as if their movements were anticipated. The lack of food, which had always been the weak point of the St. Gallen army, was now being exploited to an extreme.
One of the cavalrymen asked a question while steadying his horse.
"So the General is saying that this is an intentional act by Arquell?"
"Indeed."
Bauer answered immediately.
"It's what we call a scorched earth strategy. It's a technique used to control abnormal monster outbreaks in remote rural areas. I did not think it could be used in wars between humans, though."
There were omnivorous monsters, eating the same food as humans, such as highly reproductive goblins. They would multiply in the hundreds and thousands and attack rural areas. What would happen then? Even the children of the monsters, who would normally be weeded out due to lack of food, could gain a stable supply of food. This would free the monsters from starvation, allowing their numbers to increase more than ever. In order to prevent this from happening, humans would burn down the fields and food stores with their own hands rather than let the monsters steal them. This way, the enemy would no longer be able to fill their bellies, and the abnormally multiplying monsters would die from famine and cannibalism.
Of course, this was a last-ditch effort. It was a double-edged sword and the last resort. If the fields, the source of income, were destroyed, the farming village would die. It was only natural that the tax base of the nobles and the food supply of the people would both be wiped out. If they wanted to revitalise the lands, it would take at least ten or twenty years to do so.
"They aren’t used in human wars, right?"
"Of course not. Do you think the aristocrats who live off the land will burn it just because they want to win? Do you think the peasants who live on the land would approve of that?"
"Yes. It was a stupid question."
The subordinate was satisfied with Bauer's answer and withdrew.
Yes, a scorched earth strategy would never be used in an ordinary war. For countries in Ithuselah, where feudal aristocrats were in power, it was never used. For the nobles, it would be foolish to taint their own lands, and for the king who stood above the nobles, giving such an order would cause him to lose the support of all the local nobles. Furthermore, if the people below him were to have their fields burned due to war, they would boldly raise their flags of revolution. Even if they were to win the war, the rest of the country would rot and self-destruct in rebellion or revolution.
The reason why it was only used against monsters was because it was a competition for survival between species without mutual understanding. If humans were on the brink of being destroyed, then there would be no time to explore every single option. If they could stop the monsters by burning the village, then that was the best strategy.
On the other hand, this was not the case when it came to humans. War is just a means of diplomacy. The goal is to get the other side to accept your demands through violence. Destruction and killing was just part of the process. It was nonsense to wage war to the point of self destruction. The power of humanity as a whole would be diminished, and only monsters have to gain from it.
From that point of view, the invasion by the St. Gallen army might have been over the top. However, even though they were looting, they were only taking a year's worth of reserves. Compared to a scorched-earth strategy that would damage harvests for years to come, or even decades, it was much more moderate. To put it bluntly, it was the difference between barely committing a foul and committing the foul. It isn’t like 50 paces laughing at 100 paces (TL: proverb from Mencius describing the lack of difference). There was a big difference between stepping on the edge of the ring of political drama, such as the peace conference and postwar diplomacy, and not stepping on the edge at all.
