Rebirth in a Ruined Nation! The Life of a New Strategist Starting From Now - Chapter 5

A Reason that Only I know

“Stop looking around like that.”

I was on my own to Eren Village while being protected by Frein’s unit.

“I cannot help it, sir. The sight of this many soldiers is really amazing.”

“Aren’t you the one that said to mobilize as many members of the 10th Division as possible?”

True, but I never expected it to be this many.

“How many soldiers are there in your unit?”

“Mine has 500 soldiers. Since we are on the topic, I’ll tell you about the rest. A unit led by a captain like me usually has about 300-500 soldiers and in a big battle usually there will be about 1000 people, while a battalion led by battalion commander usually has 300 soldiers, well the number depends on the commander’s ability to lead troops though,” explain Frein-sama with a proud expression.

“Wow, as expected of the 10th Division,” I replied and Frein-sama looked happy.

“Including the main unit led by Rays-sama there are in total 6500 people that participated in this expedition.” 

“6500 people…” 

That was an incredible number. No wonder the veteran commanders were complaining. I mean, I could understand if they thought that sending this many people over a bandit subjugation in a normal village was overkill. By the way, even this amount of people were still not the entire 10th Division.

The Rudek Kingdom’s Knight Order has 10 divisions, but that was only possible because the Rudek Kingdom was wealthy. Other countries of the same size as us didn’t have this many Knight Divisions.

There were 2 reasons the Rudek Kingdom was wealthy. The mines and port.

The Rudek Kingdom has always been rich in mineral vein. The abandoned mine in the Eren Village was one good example.It was also easy for the kingdom to export the ores from mine to other countries because of the existence of Gedland Port.

The sea around the Gedland Port was calm, with great weather all year round. These geographical features of the port coupled with the Rudek’s speciality products, the ores, made Gedland Port became one of the most prosperous ports in the entire continent.

The reason there were many people with foreign blood in the Rudek Kingdom despite the fact the kingdom was located in the relatively isolated northern continent was the existence of this port.

The mines and the port were the reason behind Rudek Kingdom’s wealth but at the same time they both also became the reason other countries would target the Rudek Kingdom.

Because of their location and the ocean current around their sea, neither the Gorber Kingdom nor the Empire have ports as large as the Gedland Port.

The empire also had several big ports of their own, but none of them were as big as the Gedland Port. As a result, merchants from the southern continent prefer to dock their ships in Gedland where the risk of their ship to be damaged by the sea was low, and it was relatively closer from their home country compared to other ports.

From Gedland, the merchants would then go to other countries to trade, then return to Gedland before finally returning to their home countries.

Naturally, Gedland became a lively place where goods, people, and information gathered.

Because of the existence of Gedland Port, Rudek Kingdom became a country that could stand shoulder to shoulder with both the Empire and Gorber Kingdom.

Of course a head on battle with the Empire, one of the continent’s powerhouse would be difficult. However, the border between the Rudek Kingdom and the Empire in the east were steep mountains making it difficult for the Empire to launch an invasion to our kingdom. In addition, the Empire was busy fighting against another country recently.

It was hard for the Empire to invade us due to terrain, while we have an alliance with the Lifrea Holy Kingdom that border us directly to the north, so for now, Rudek Kingdom was able to focus on Gorber Kingdom.

Yes, the Rudek Kingdom only had to focus on fighting the Gorber Kingdom so it did have some military personnel to spare but actually not to the point the kingdom could easily spare 6500 men to fight only bandits. The kingdom’s estimation of the number of bandits was only about 100 men.

As such, it was natural for the veteran commanders to complain.

“You look so confident back then but…is this really fine?” (Frein)

Frein-sama was worried about the expense.

I mean mobilizing a large number of people also meant the kingdom needs to prepare tons of food. Was preparing food for 6500 people against a 100 or so opponents worth it? That was also a question that the veteran commanders were worried about earlier.

To which I reply, “If there is really a new mineral vein, then the expenses could easily be covered.”

Of course some countered me by saying, “What if we found nothing?”

Then I answered again with “Then, are we going to let Gorber dig our mine as they please?”

No one objected to me again after I said that.

After all, our kingdom has been in conflict with the Gorber Kingdom for a long time. Among the older commanders, the desire of preventing Gorber Kingdom from acquiring benefit even if we have to suffer some losses has been carved deeply.

Other than that, I knew for sure that the new mineral vein would be found, thus I was really confident when I try to convince the commanders.

Using the commander’s deep animosity toward Gorber Kingdom and my confidence I was able to convince both the captains and the commanders.

“But why am I the one that has to protect you?” (Frein)

This was probably his 5th time complaining about the exact same thing. The reason it was Frein-sama that became my protector even though he disagreed with my participation in the expedition, was probably because we were close in age.

I heard Frein-sama was a year younger than me. To become one of the 10th Division captains at that age was really impressive.

Well, it was natural for a promising young man like him to be unhappy with being given a job to protect an official who came out of nowhere like me.

I feel bad actually, but since you were entrusted to protect me, I would have you protecting me properly. I couldn’t die in this kind of place.

My battle plan was accepted. What was left now was only for the 10th Division to carry that plan. If the 10th Division won using my plan, that would become proof that I could change the history.

“Frein-sama, Rays-sama entrusted you to this job because he trusted you, so you ought to do your best.”

The person that said that to Frein-sama was a man named Vickhirt-san, one of the older commanders. I heard he was Frein-sama’s mentor.

“I know even without you saying that, Vickhirt. I swore by Delta name, I will do my job perfectly.”

Delta House…I heard about them before. One of the commanding officers that participated in one of Radek Kingdom’s small skirmishes with the Empire was named Hollard Delta.

I wonder if he was related to Hollard Delta. Maybe Hollard Delta was his father or something?

“Hey, stop being absent minded. We’re here.”

Frein-sama pointed at the road that was split in two.

It was as if the two roads would led us to a different destiny