Oukoku e Tsuzuku Michi

Expedition Army – Headquarters.

I slip in the water with a groan and check if blood is leaking from my stomach.

「The wound seems to have closed. I thought it would take longer, but I guess the resident wasn't lying about the medical efficacy.」

「I was preparing myself when I heard you got hurt.」

Nonna lightly kisses the scar

She ran all the way to the frontlines after hearing I was injured.

It was a surprisingly minor wound so she didn't say it out loud, but she might have been thinking of ending everything in the worst case.

「Thanks for doing this for me too, Catherine.」

「Nmoh......」

Catherine grins with her mouth full.

「You are also one of his wives so I don't mind the fellatio......but how about thinking twice before doing it in front of your own children?」

「He was really hard, I couldn't help it.」

That is all Catherine says as she resumes her noisy oral service.

Rose is right next to us, watching close enough for her nose to almost touch, however Antonio with lifeless eyes pulls her away just as she was about to do something with her tongue.

「Sorry. Fighting, getting hurt, exerting energy, and being poisoned resulted in my boner.」

「So you're saying any kind of stimulation gets you turned on.」

Nonna tries to cover Anastasia's eyes with her hands, though ultimately gives up when she realizes the unnecessarily loud slurping sounds echoing throughout the room.

「Uurk......so embarrassing.」

Anastasia actually doesn't seem phased, it's Bartolome who blushes.

「You're not used to it by now? The same blood is in you too, Barto, so I wonder if you'll start indulging in sexual activities soon. I think I heard some weird noises during your study time with Sulama.」

「Uwaaah! Mother is here!」

I'm glad they're getting along.

「......anyways, my injury is fine. Shouldn't it be okay to lower you?」

「No. I'm not qualified to bathe with Aegir-sama.」

My attention is directed at Celia.

She has a rope around her waist that is attached to a cart eerily similar to one used for executions and is being dangled in the air.

Hanging from her neck is a nameplate with the words "I am the cute Celia" written on it.

Originally, she had written "I am an incompetent and useless penis sucker", but I thought it was too much and changed it.

It has been two weeks since Celia was in this state.

She asked to be displayed in public outside the headquarters, but since I couldn't bear to have something so horrible done to her especially in the cold, she was dragged around with the mobile execution platform instead.

「Well, it's over with. It couldn't be helped, being up against a new weapon.」

「Urg......」

The reason Celia's acting like this is simply because we lost.

It wasn't an average defeat, it was a complete and decisive thrashing.

「My incompetency makes me want to die. Someone spin me.」

I watch as Anastasia fulfills the request, while my mind thinks back to the report.

「Everyone, charge! Trample them in one go!!」

Goldonia's proud cavalry charges at the Federation's row of infantry.

Snow accumulated on the ground prevents the horses from achieving maximum speed, but even without it, the cavalry should be able to overrun infantry lacking long spears.

「Front row, crouch――aim!」

「Middle row――aim!」

「No matter what you do with short spears――!!」

There is a cracking sound and countless sharp objects whizzing through the air.

The cavalry in the front half are annihilated in an instant, and the remaining cavalry in the midguard fall over too.

「Eh?」

Celia and Myla are stunned, their arms still raised with sword in hand.

They don't know what just happened.

The shock naturally brings the cavalry to a halt.

Myla was the first to regain her senses.

「――retreat!」

They were instructed not to advance too deep if something unexpected occurs.

That order brought Celia back to her senses.

「We can't! If we run here, it'll be a one-sided defeat!」

Celia was next to Leopolt and I when we were talking about needing consecutive victories.

And so, Celia jumps out to the frontlines brandishing her sword.

The enemy soldiers appear to reload something in their short spears after launching the mysterious attack.

「The enemy is before our eyes! As long as we close the distance, a mere 2000 infantry are nothing!!」

Cavalry follow after Celia as she rushes to the vanguard.

The soldiers are trained to act according to orders no matter how chaotic the battle becomes and show their skill here.

「Withdraw. Front row to the back, back row move up.」

「Aim――fire!!」

Myla gathers the remnants of the routed troops, retrieves Celia who now has a bump on her head, and retreats.

「Who would have thought that when 6000 cavalry attacked 2000 infantry, 4000 cavalry would be taken out? Moreover, the enemy suffered zero casualties.」

Leopolt had to stay up all night for two days reconsidering the configuration of the troops.

「The initial attack was unavoidable. However, the charge afterward was bad.」

「I wasted the soldiers Aegir-sama entrusted to me......someone......someone punish me! Ah! Cold! Ah, that's hot! Fungyaa!!」

Anastasia splashes Celia with cold water first.

Next, Bartolome pours warm water on her, but it was taken from the water source and was too hot.

To ensure she doesn't get burned, I grab some snow from outside the window and push it against Celia's back.

「What if you actually hurt her......?」

Nonna pours water of suitable temperature over Celia, ending things without incident.

「Sniff, I'm useless. I'm unfit as a retainer and an adjutant. I will live as Aegir-sama's penis sucker from now on.」

「Don't beat yourself up so much. Rather, I find that you're using more indecent language lately. You've been reading dirty books or watching raunchy plays, huh?」

Celia was done in by the enemy's new weapon.

What should I call it, a small cannon that can be held in the hands of infantry?

The weapon that decimated our cavalry also made their way to the frontlines after that.

It has several times the range of crossbows, enough power to penetrate armor, and the fact that each infantry can carry one has rendered our cavalry useless, causing us to have to uproot our tactics from the very foundation――well, we don't have to do something so drastic.

「Their power is certainly threatening, but the reload time is long and the accuracy and range is inferior to trained archers. The only reason for the heavy losses was that the cavalry launched a frontal attack on an enemy waiting in double ranks. Moreover, the footing was poor, creating a situation where the cavalry could not move as fast.」

Leopolt glances at Celia.

She can only groan in frustration as she kicks the frame of the platform to spin herself again.

「We won when we faced them.」

Plenty of squads appeared on the battlefield equipped with the new weapon―apparently called muskets―but when they clashed with our main force, they got destroyed.

Even with advance knowledge from Celia's crying report, I was confused when seeing them in person.

「That's because they were shooting down heavy cavalry left and right from a hundred meters out.」

I was leading them at the time and also got shot five times in the chest and stomach.

The wound which finally healed was from then.

「At the same time though, the bow cavalry maintained dominance from beginning to end.」

Despite how flashy the muskets were, their range was nothing special.

When fighting our bow cavalry a hundred meters apart, their precision is visibly lower and their shooting speed is totally outclassed.

「It took them thirty seconds per shot. The bow cavalry can shoot ten times faster.」

They have low accuracy, slow reload time, but high power......if they can set up formation and fire altogether they are incredibly strong, but if they are attacked from the side or ambushed before they can set up or attacked in waves, they can't do a thing.

「Also, water seems to be their weakness.」

When snow started to fall during the battle, the enemy suddenly panicked and when we charged at them, they even abandoned the new weapons and ran.

I picked up the muskets and tested them, but due to the moisture, out of the ten I tried, not a single one of them worked.

On another note, I don't know if they're just unlucky or if I'm really lucky, but it snowed in all the following battles.

That might be why my impressions of the musket were so bad.

「I won't deny they are powerful weapons. But currently there are too many limitations to their usage.」

Additionally, according to the prisoners, the cost of each musket is twenty times higher than a regular crossbow.

In the first place, it's not realistic to give gunpowder to each infantry and expect them to be careful enough to keep it from getting wet.

I think it's safe to say they can't be used in an open field battle.

「Yes, the muskets aren't threats in a field battle. It is a different story in a siege. Also......」

「You mean......if they make improvements.」

Muskets didn't exist when I fought against the Empire with the Federation.

In other words, these are new weapons fresh from the production factory and the Federation are still exploring how to properly use them.

Their weakness to rain, their poor accuracy, the long reload time – I'm sure these identified defects will eventually be fixed.

「Let's hurry up a little. After the cold season passes, we won't wait until spring before attacking Elektra.」

I hug Nonna as nervousness washes over her and causes her to stiffen.

「If you are fine with that, I will hasten the preparations.」

Leopolt stands up abruptly from the bath and leaves.

Nonna quickly covers Anastasia's eyes.

「It's fine, mother. I'm used to seeing father's abnormal log-sized thing so seeing his doesn't bother me.」

「......it may be hasty to say this, but when you get married, you should exaggerate being shy. Don't ever make the mistake of saying "are you even hard?" or "you're not even half the size of father". Your husband will not be able to get it erect after that」

A man will feel happy when his dick is praised, even if it is by his own daughter.

「By the way.」

Leopolt stops in his tracks and turns around.

「Will you be using 'that'?」

「......」

When I showed the dwarves the muskets we stole, they commented things like "how interesting", "the structure has much to be desired", "we can make something better" in excitement, and stayed up through the night building improvised products.

「It's resistant to water, it automatically loads, it fires once every three seconds, it can hit a target accurately from 300 meters away, and if it hits it can pierce through armor with no trouble.」

It truly is the strongest musket.

In the event such a weapon is mass-produced, my army will rule the entire continent――there's no way it'll happen.

「The thing is too big and heavy. On top of it being larger than a cannon, it weighs 300 kg. They basically rejected the concept of the musket!」

「The 105 mm 50 caliber automatic musket, was it? Did you test it?」

「I tried it yesterday. It was fun, blowing up and tearing the enemy to shreds. It cracked my shoulder bone though. I won't use it anymore.」

Only a monster can shoot that thing.

「Aside from the ridiculous weapon, is progress being made on the other thing? We'll need it soon if we want to attack Elektra earlier.」

「They will be done on time. That is my job after all――I'll show you something greater than the Federation's musket.」

I'm fortunate to have a reliable, although sometimes gloomy, subordinate.

The conquering of Elektra is likely to come down to an arms race.

「I guess I'll move too.」

Catherine, who had been continuing her sucking, lays down.

I don't mean that. Sorry for not reciprocating, but please wait a bit longer.

I embrace Nonna, push aside her weak resistance, and connect with her.

「I will fulfill my promise to you soon.」

「Yes......but please stay safe.」

I simply smile back at Nonna and let my love flow inside her.