Thirty thousand vs five thousand. That’s six times the difference.
“……. How long will they hold out?”
“It’s a fortress town sitting on plain ground, not suitable for defense. Added with the difference in manpower, they probably won’t stand two days of continuous siege”
“They will fall in one day at worst, huh?”
Which means if you consider information delays, it won’t be strange for them to have fallen already. However, this is only counting from when open hostilities began. I said to Hakuya with a smile.
“We anticipated this and sent ‘that person’ in, didn’t we?”
“It is as you say. It’s only a matter of whether they can hold out”
“Then we won’t change our strategy. We won’t ‘send reinforcements’ to Altomura”
“It’s a daring move, I think”
Hakuya bowed to Soma’s decision.
◇ ◇ ◇
~ At the same time – Altomura Environs ~
At the time the decision was made by Soma and Hakuya, one man was grovelling in the headquarters of the Amidonian Army encircling Altomura. The name of this thin and obviously timid man was Wyst Garrotte, the Lord governing this area. As a resident of Altomura, he should be the man leading the defense of Altomura, but because of the circumstances, he was now kowtowing in front of Gaius VIII who was leading the Amidonian Army. Standing next to Gaius VIII who was sitting on a stool, was the Crown Prince Julius. Gaius, glaring at Wyst, said.
“Hoo … you mean Altomura will capitulate without resisting?”
“H, hyesh! We do not intend to oppose the Amidonian Army!”
Wyst replied with a slight stutter. Gaius narrowed his eyes.
“……. Let’s hear your reason”
“Nothing else but because it’s impossible for us to defend against you! Altomura is a town built on a grain producing plains region which is not an easy terrain to defend. We also only have the walls for defense, and only several thousand guards, too. Under attack by these tens of thousands of troops, it will only be a matter of time until we fell!”
Gaius looked toward Julius, to which Julius silently nodded, signalling that there wasn’t anything strange with what he was saying. Gaius nodded, “humm”.
“Then will you fall under us?”
“Yes. Without a way to defend ourselves we can only beg for Your Princely Highness’s pity”
Hearing Wyst, Gaius grinned.
“Very well. Now open the gates”
“I, I would ask you to wait a little for that”
Gaius’ eyebrows twitched in displeasure.
“Why?”
“R, right now opinion is divided between the anti-war faction and the resistance faction. There are some from the resistance faction who claims that they will [kill all Amidonians even if we capitulated], and even some from the anti-war faction are suspected of it as well”
“Hoo … Would that be you?”
“T, that’s unthinkable! I’m begging for my life here. Please don’t be suspicious of me”
“…….”
“But it is a fact that there are people with that opinion. Which is why I went into this camp first to listen to what your Princely Highness has to say”