The Regressor Plays the Game Too Well - Chapter 79

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 79
Episode 79
Jin-woo had still expected the atmosphere to shift once he reached the Command Barracks.
He’d thought they would at least be formulating some kind of strategy.
But what was this?
“The disparity in troop strength is this vast, and you speak of tactics? When our numbers are inferior by nearly threefold, what meaning does that hold? This isn’t even a siege!”
“Why not surrender now and secure lenient treatment?”
“Do you truly believe that makes sense!? What do you think will become of Count Decan?”
“That’s precisely why we should surrender preemptively and turn the situation to our advantage!”
“How can surrender possibly turn anything to our advantage? Are you in your right mind?”
“Blast it! This madman! A Knight Commander so consumed by fear—nothing can be accomplished!”
“I’ve heard many confuse bravery with ignorance. You’re a perfect example.”
This was chaos incarnate.
Though such was the nature of war.
Defeat already felt inevitable.
Even Aria, who had entered the barracks, shook her head and sighed.
Even the more reasonable officers couldn’t formulate any viable strategy.
The situation was utterly hopeless.
With leadership in such a state, how could the entire force maintain morale?
Jin-woo nodded slightly as he observed this.
The Guard Captain at least seemed somewhat competent.
But even so, he couldn’t command the entire Command Barracks.
Aria spoke in a quiet voice amid the clamor.
“Jin-woo has arrived.”
“Hmm?”
“Ahem.”
“Cough.”
These men at least had the grace to feel embarrassed, clearing their throats and turning away.
Embarrassment was inevitable.
How could anyone hold their head up after such shame?
But these men proved far more shameless than expected.
Rather than lower their eyes, they glared at him instead.
Thick-faced bastards, the lot of them.
With that thought, Jin-woo bowed slightly in greeting.
Courtesy mattered, after all.
“I am Jin-woo, sent by Baron Philip. As you can see, I am a foreigner, but I pledge to do my utmost to repel the enemy.”
A greeting grounded in fundamentals.
It conveyed resolve and was a respectable introduction.
Yet something about it displeased them.
All the Knight Commanders save the Guard Captain and Aria regarded Jin-woo with undisguised disdain.
Even now, they couldn’t distinguish friend from foe and were picking sides.
No matter how I looked at it, I could see exactly why this faction had lost.
No wonder a Saint had awakened in a place like this.
“Hmm, I’m not sure why they sent just one foreigner when there’s supposedly so much at stake.”
“Well, still, a foreigner who defeated the Demon Sword should be useful enough.”
“True, I trust that Gruen and Wirun’s eyes aren’t completely blind, so I suppose they’ll find some use for him.”
To be so rude right to someone’s face.
Aria was about to say something to them when—
The Guard Captain also started to rise from his seat at the same moment.
But Jin-woo stepped forward instead.
“Ah, of course you’re right. But I’ll still take the vanguard position.”
“Hmm, though I doubt that’ll change anything.”
“Do as you wish.”
“We’re destined to lose anyway, so if you want to throw your life away—”
“Tsk tsk, the foreigner won’t die thanks to the Goddess’s blessing, so he’s just being reckless.”
“True enough.”
I couldn’t imagine a more rotten command structure if I tried.
But regardless, I simply smiled and nodded.
There was no point staying here any longer.
All it would do is stress me out.
With that thought, I bowed slightly to them and opened my mouth.
“Then I’ll return tomorrow.”
“Wait, just a moment. Jin-woo.”
As I said that and turned to leave the barracks, Aria hurried after me.
Seeing her chase after me with an angry expression, I let out a small laugh and spoke.
“It’s fine. I think of this kind of treatment as something that happens sometimes.”
“No, but still—”
“Really, it’s fine. If anything, I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I’ll see you then.”
With me saying that much, Aria could say nothing more and only bit her lip.
There was only one thing she could say now.
“Then, I’m counting on you tomorrow.”
It was a rather pathetic thing for a commander to say.
Seeing her bite her lip as if her pride was wounded, I let out another small laugh.
It wasn’t even her fault, yet she was so frustrated.
I suppose I could understand that.
But I really wasn’t bothered at all.
In fact, I was genuinely pleased.
Why?
[You have cleared the Quest ‘Garn Territory Outpost’.]
[You have obtained the Emergency Chain Quest ‘Garn Territory War’.]
[Rewards will be calculated and distributed based on merit points.]
‘If the command structure is this incompetent, all the merit points will fall into my hands.’
I’m thrilled beyond measure.
The thought of monopolizing every last merit point has even killed my appetite.
* * *
The next day.
It was the Millia Territory that first deployed their forces across the Plains where the territorial war would unfold.
To any observer, their military strength appeared to outnumber their opponents by at least threefold.
Victory already seemed assured.
The atmosphere reflected it.
The Garn Territory’s morale had sunk to its depths, while Millia Territory’s soared to the heavens.
“Kehehehe! Victory shall soon be within my grasp!”
A colossal mass of flesh spoke with unbridled confidence.
Those surrounding the grotesquely obese figure—so corpulent one could scarcely call him human—all smiled and spoke to him.
“Not at all, Viscount Tailun! Victory is already secured in your hands. What more need be said?”
“Hahahaha! Indeed! Millia Territory’s triumph is already a foregone conclusion! Truly, you are humble and cautious.”
“Hahahaha, absolutely right!”
All of them were busy fawning over him.
Viscount Tailun laughed at them with contempt.
Well, they needed to grovel just to be worth anything at all.
Convinced that he stood far above these wretched creatures, Viscount Tailun gazed upon the battlefield.
An endlessly sprawling expanse of Plains.
And beyond it, the Rocky Mountains that characterized the Garn Territory began to come into view.
Those mountains, rumored to contain immense mineral deposits.
But that wasn’t what truly mattered.
‘Kehehehe! I didn’t come here just to claim those magnificent mines!’
Of course, he would have liked to take Amellia as his concubine.
But the difference in their stations forced him to abandon that notion for now.
Had it not been for that one obstacle, he could have put her to excellent use as a plaything.
What a shame.
But even without that, it mattered little.
For what lay dormant in those mines was considerable.
‘They say something from legend sleeps there? Kehehehe.’
Having obtained that information through sheer chance, Viscount Tailun had made tireless efforts to provoke a territorial war with Garn.
Naturally, the difference in their stations demanded caution.
Approaching with utmost care, he had discovered that while the territories differed in size, Garn’s military strength fell short of his own.
Through careful pressure, he had managed to provoke this territorial war.
With such a disparity in forces, victory was now inevitable.
Viscount Tailun concluded that none possessed wisdom greater than his own.
Viscount Tailun judged that there was no one wiser than himself.
However.
“Viscount Tailun, it seems the Garn Territory recently hired a mercenary.”
“A mercenary? Ah, that foreigner acknowledged by Wirun and Gruen?”
“Yes, precisely. That foreigner is said to be far stronger than expected.”
“Kuhehehel! But he’s still just a foreigner! I hear he defeated a Demon Sword, but it was probably just scraps of one. A single foreigner won’t decide the outcome of this war!”
“Ah, absolutely! You’re right!”
“Viscount Tailun speaks the truth!”
“No matter how formidable a mercenary may be, the power he can wield in a sacred territorial war is inherently limited.”
All of his subordinates rallied to support Viscount Tailun.
It was the truth, after all.
Warfare was a domain where a single individual could scarcely accomplish anything decisive.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
This foreigner Jin-woo was strong?
They could concede that much.
Wirun and Gruen were called the kingdom’s two greatest powers, weren’t they?
They wouldn’t have acknowledged him without reason.
But even so, there were undeniable limits to what anyone could achieve.
The foreigner had been on this continent for barely a month.
How much strength could he have possibly cultivated in that time?
And in a territorial war, even that power would be constrained.
The addition of a single mercenary would hardly alter the course of victory or defeat.
This was Viscount Tailun’s conviction.
Then.
“My lord, it is time.”
“Hmm? They still don’t appear fully prepared. Is it already time?”
Viscount Tailun spoke as though concerned, yet none of those present failed to detect the mockery beneath his words.
They were all too busy sneering at the situation in the Garn Territory.
Viscount Tailun smiled thinly at the commander who had come to report, and spoke.
“Then let us begin.”
“Yes! I shall have the war horn sounded.”
At the commander’s words, Viscount Tailun nodded and observed the situation as though watching a spectacle unfold.
How would they respond, he wondered.
He waited with eager anticipation.
From somewhere across the battlefield, a long horn blast pierced the air.
Buuuuuu―――!
The war horn announcing the beginning of the territorial war.
The time had come, and there was nothing to prevent it.
“Kuhehehel! Now it begins!”
The sound announcing the start of war was hardly impressive.
But it was a territorial war, nonetheless.
Even combined, the two forces barely exceeded ten thousand—a small war, really.
I thought it was manageable.
Modest though it was, I would seize certain victory.
Believing this, Viscount Tailun watched his own forces advance.
“Like an angry wave!”
Viscount Tailun cried out in satisfaction, then turned his gaze to the opposing side.
But something was wrong.
“Why aren’t they moving?”
Viscount Tailun’s observation was correct.
The horn had clearly been sounded.
The war horn’s call echoed across the Plains, announcing the battle’s beginning—yet they didn’t move at all?
Well, not entirely. Not everyone remained still.
One of Viscount Tailun’s retainers nearby noticed it and pointed.
Was something happening?
“Only one person is moving, my lord!”
“What? Just one?”
“Ah! It appears to be that foreigner, my lord!”
“Hahahaha! Unable to tell heaven from earth, moving alone like that! Does he think himself some sort of hero?”
While his retainers all laughed in mockery.
Viscount Tailun was about to join in with a hearty laugh.
But then.
From the solitary figure who had walked out from Garn Territory, something was unleashed.
Without warning, without any magical circle—something suddenly shot forth.
A blue lightning-like current surged upward into the sky.
Before anyone could even react to the ominous sensation.
The bright, clear sky began to darken with ominous clouds.
A deep rumble echoed.
A thunderous roar shook the heavens.
The atmosphere trembled violently, shaking the world itself.
Even the sky seemed to quake—the dark clouds themselves trembled.
Something so immense that even those colossal clouds shook.
Everyone held their breath.
Even the advancing soldiers of Millia Territory stopped in their tracks.
What in the world was happening?
As all stood frozen in fear at this incomprehensible phenomenon.
The atmosphere trembled once more.
A deafening roar split the air.
Thunder crashed.
As if a colossal lightning bolt were about to strike down.
A sickly blue electric light pierced through the clouds, bathing the surroundings in its glow.
And visible between them, an enormous silhouette.
It bore the form of a colossal bird—the kind that existed only in mythology.
Before anyone could even process what they were seeing.
A deafening roar erupted across the heavens.
A world-shaking cry of terrible magnitude.
KIEEEEEEE―――――!
And in the next instant.
A massive bolt of lightning descended from the sky.
―――――――――――――!
Where the lightning had struck in the wake of that terrible roar, one-fifth of the forces that had filled the Plains mere moments before simply ceased to exist.
“…W-what is this.”
Only then could Viscount Tailun truly comprehend it.
That something had gone catastrophically, irreversibly wrong.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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