After the Kingdom broke through the Empire's fortress, the most logical next step should have been to press forward without delay and march straight into the Empire's interior.
The problem is… to the west of Kessman City, aside from one large city, three medium-sized cities, and a scattering of small city-states, there are just a huge number of scattered villages and towns. Beyond that is directly the sea, along with a small country located on a peninsula.
But if you continue north, apart from some towns, it won't be long before you run into the fortress city of Fednan, which guards the core transportation hub leading to the north. That's also the second line of defense in the empire's heartland.
As for the east side of Kessman City, it's simply the sealed land of the Golden Land, Macht.
Although the grand barrier of the Golden Land, created jointly by all the first-class mages of the Continental Magic Association, has effectively curbed the spread of goldification, and Solitar has already completed its analysis and can easily break the barrier, whether it's breaking the barrier to go in, or detouring around it, both carry considerable risk.
After all, from his perspective, Macht isn't being imprisoned. He's staying inside of his own will, wanting to return to a peaceful life.
Breaking the barrier is simple enough, but dealing with the strongest of the Seven Sages of Destruction is extremely troublesome, because the magic that turns everything into gold is indestructible and irreversible.
That's right. That gold is an indestructible substance. At least among all the magic he knows, there really isn't anything that can destroy that seemingly golden, yet fundamentally not-gold "nonexistent substance."
Unless Macht's magic is broken, defeating that monster would require even Ash to go all out. And even then, he couldn't say he would definitely win, because their compatibility is terrible.
A lot of his combat strength comes from close combat, but against Macht, getting into close range means being instantly turned to gold. In other words, one careless touch and it's over.
If he tries to bombard Macht from a distance, Macht can simply create gold to block it.
You can compare this to killing magic. Even the earliest version of killing magic could easily pierce through several meters of rock in a single strike, even if that rock had defensive magic layered on it.
That might not sound intuitive enough, but if you imagine the door of a nuclear bunker, killing magic could still punch straight through it.
Because even in the nuclear defense facilities of the United States, like the Cheyenne Mountain nuclear bunker, the tunnel leading outside is equipped with two doors made entirely of reinforced concrete, each two meters thick and weighing 25 tons. Yet to killing magic, with its terrifying penetration power, they would still be pierced in a single strike.
On the other hand, killing magic cannot pierce defensive magic specifically developed to counter it. Nowadays, most defensive magic includes counteracting formulas, which has reduced killing magic to just a standard offensive spell on the human side.
This perfectly highlights the issue of acquired compatibility. Otherwise, in the past, killing magic was still an overwhelmingly powerful penetrating spell.
And even that kind of magic has absolutely no effect against gold that turns everything into gold.
There's no need to analyze anything, no need to modify formulas. Simply placing gold in front is enough to block killing magic completely.
Because that kind of gold itself cannot be destroyed. In terms of defense alone, Macht is practically invincible.
Serie might have countering magic, but he doesn't. In this situation, fighting would be extremely difficult. And sending Serie isn't really an option either.
Fifty years ago, the reason Serie stepped in to deal with Macht was entirely because she judged that if she didn't act, Macht would turn the entire northern plateau into gold.
The entire northern plateau… roughly half of the northern continent. In this world with only one supercontinent, the northern continent is about equal in size to the central and southern continents combined.
That means about a quarter of the world would vanish. If you translate that to Earth, it'd be like losing the second-largest continent, Africa, plus the smallest continent, Oceania. And even if Macht died, the goldification wouldn't reverse.
It was precisely because he was such a monster capable of bringing catastrophic disaster to the world that Serie couldn't help but intervene. After all, what she likes is a world lacking peace, not excessive slaughter, nor the destruction of the world's integrity.
But in the end, she was persuaded by her disciple and didn't continue fighting Macht, instead directly sealing him… and now that has blocked Ash's path of advance.
After all, he couldn't really count on Macht just staying inside or something. Leaving a ticking time bomb behind him wouldn't be wise either.
"First, take everything in the west. The troops behind haven't caught up yet. The northern fortress city, Fednan, can't be touched for now. As for Weise to the east… that'll have to be left aside too…"
Looking at the map spread across the table, Ash mulled it over and over before finally making a decision.
The fortress city Weise, which had already been turned to gold, was originally located in the central-northern region of the kingdom. For now, it would have to be ignored and dealt with later. Everything else would also have to be postponed.
There was no helping it. He could move incredibly fast with his cavalry and magical beasts, but the main army simply hadn't caught up. Infantry couldn't fly over like Linie and Solitar.
With the follow-up forces lagging behind, he could only rest for now and slow down the pace of the counterattack. After all, he hadn't slept for several days.
Having made up his mind, he casually set Linie aside and headed off on his own to the lord's room that had been refurbished to welcome him.
The moment he collapsed onto the brand-new bed, exhaustion seeped through his entire body, and his consciousness sank into darkness in the blink of an eye.
———
When time reached the next day—
By the afternoon, when Ash woke up, the situation in Kessman City had basically stabilized. At least on the surface, the city was steadily restoring order.
Especially with the mages who had ridden in from the rear, they had already raised the ground to form temporary walls and had begun constructing a new defensive barrier.
"Still no sign of them… the empire's main forces are probably already at the second defensive line, right?"
Leaning over the railing of the castle terrace, Ash looked down at the orderly streets below. Though he said that, he didn't really have much hope that the kingdom's infantry would arrive by the next day.
Or rather… he had no expectations at all.
After all, covering that distance on foot, not on horseback, people have their limits.
But that also meant the empire's reinforcements would gather at the fortress city Fednan. There would definitely be a new magic special operations unit, along with the Holy Wand Court and some court mages, all prepared to deal with him.
And he hadn't forgotten Serie's warning either.
"For now, I guess I have to pause."
Though a bit frustrated, there was no point pushing forward alone when the follow-up troops couldn't keep up. He could only temporarily shelve his plan to advance north and instead hold the empire's forces here.
After that, once preparations were complete, he could look for an opportunity, perhaps from the Demon King's castle in the north, or by passing through another country along the kingdom's northeastern border, to launch a surprise attack.
If possible, he wanted to resolve this quickly. After all, getting dragged into a prolonged war would only drain lives and resources.
And if it accidentally turned into a war of attrition, it would go against his original intentions. Even though he personally had all the time in the world to wear down the empire.
Right now, the push for a quick victory was all about minimizing casualties. If he could, he would rather directly kill the emperor, or capture him and take his place.
That had been the original idea when traveling with Frieren and Fern, to take advantage of the lack of vigilance and go meet the emperor, then directly seize the empire's leadership.
For that reason, he had even deliberately exposed the existence of a Great Demon Clan member within the kingdom. That way, even if some in the empire had heard about him, they wouldn't suspect that someone with power beyond a Great Demon was him. They would instead assume the kingdom's trump card was some unknown Great Demon.
———
Looking at the gradually peaceful cityscape below, Ash also began planning for his own future, as well as the kingdom's.
But that planning didn't last long…
"Linie, what exactly are you doing? Don't you love apples the most? Then why are you wasting them like this?"
As he looked down and thought, he had actually been enduring strange noises behind him the whole time. In the end, he couldn't take it anymore and turned around.
If he hadn't looked, he wouldn't have known. But once he did, he saw the pink-haired girl squatting in front of a basket of freshly washed apples, taking quick bites, left bite, right bite.
After taking a bite, she would toss it behind her. For some reason, though, she had picked out three apples with a single bite taken out of each and placed them neatly on the table beside her.
"I bought these with my allowance," Linie looked up and retorted seriously, then tilted her head and added, "Proper money given by you and Lady Aura."
"I know you've got quite a bit saved up, and you don't usually need money, but there's no need to waste it like this, right?"
"Listen, Lord Ash…", Linie said with unusual seriousness, "A few days ago, I forgot about the birthday gift."
"I know… but we were out in the wild at the time, analyzing the national defense barrier. Proper business comes first. You don't need to worry about that."
"I care. So I'm picking a gift."
"Let me guess, it's for me again?"
"Mm. I've basically finished choosing."
As she spoke, Linie took two more bites from apples, nodded slightly, and tossed them behind her again. Then she gathered the three apples on the table and held them out to him.
"Here, Lord Ash. Your birthday present."
"So it's this again this year?"
He looked down at the three apples, picked one up casually, and stared at the oxidized bite mark, his face full of helplessness.
Every year, Linie's gift was basically apples. Though she said they were carefully selected, he couldn't taste much difference. And they were always pre-bitten… but clearly the ones she thought tasted best.
"Apples are really good, so Lord Ash should eat more too."
"I don't have that kind of strange obsession with apples," Faced with her overly serious expression, he could only take a bite, then gently pat her head with a fond smile, "Not bad. Tastes good… thank you, Linie."
"Mm. As long as you like it," Linie's lips curled up slightly. As he sat down on a nearby chair, she immediately climbed onto his lap, happily swinging her long black-stockinged legs. Then, as if remembering something, she grabbed his collar and used the lining to wipe the juice from her lips.
'Alright, so she uses my collar to wipe her mouth when she's unhappy, but now she does it when she's happy too?', Ash didn't even know what to say. He just wrapped an arm around the girl in his arms and casually took bites from his birthday apple.
Eating apples for breakfast first thing in the morning felt a bit strange… but if they were imported apples, then somehow… that made it even stranger?
But taken to the extreme, maybe it didn't feel that strange anymore.
At that moment, Linie, who was usually quiet, suddenly pointed downward at a man and woman embracing and kissing, then said thoughtfully, "Lord Ash, things others can do… I can do them now too, right?"
"As long as you don't do anything reckless, go ahead," Still gazing into the distance, thinking about how he might have completely forgotten his promise with Fern, Ash answered without even looking, "Actually, the fact that you're asking me is kind of surprising."
"Is that so? Then…", Linie nodded to herself, then tilted her head back and placed both hands on his face.
Before Ash could even voice his confusion, Linie pressed her soft lips against his, completely copying what she saw below, kissing him just like that couple.
In that instant, time seemed to stretch. The soft touch blocked his words.
The girl kissed him with a slightly biting, almost greedy intensity. It lasted about a minute… maybe even longer.
Ash couldn't accurately tell how much time had passed. When Linie finally pulled away, her cheeks were faintly flushed. She licked her lips and smiled happily.
"Lord Ash's taste… is apple-flavored too. I like it."
"That's because I just ate an apple."
"Hey, Lord Ash, I feel pretty good about it. What about you?"
"It's… not bad, but my feelings are a bit complicated right now," There was no way he disliked it, but… somewhat startled, he covered his mouth and looked troubled, "You're still need to grow, and I actually thought it felt pretty nice…"
"Need to grow?", Linie tilted her head in confusion, "Did you forget, Lord Ash? I'm almost a hundred years old."
"Uh, right… I guess that's true?"
"My, you two are having fun. Mind if I join?", Before he could even finish talking to Linie, Solitar appeared on the terrace with a sweet, teasing smile.
What she said almost knocked Ash over.
"Is this something you can join in on?"
"What's the problem? Is it because I'm too big?"
"Ah! Yeah… that's it," He froze for a moment, then nodded reflexively. Solitar immediately put on a mock troubled expression, gently touching her cheek.
"That's a bit troublesome. Compared to Linie… I'm actually closer to a maiden's physique. It's not something I can control, you know."
"No… is there any chance I meant your age?"
"How could that be? What difference is there between a thousand years and a hundred to us?"
"Alright, I take it back. What I meant is that you're just weird."
Faced with Solitar's usual oddness, Ash couldn't help but cover his face and shake his head, even saying exactly what he thought.
At least for now, he had no intention of doing anything too strange.
Though he did like Linie, and he did like beautiful girls, that didn't mean he had any plans to go that far right now, probably not.
After all, Linie had been brought back by Aura, making her, in a way, Aura's adopted daughter. And since he had a "stake" in raising her too, their relationship was... a little bit strange.
As for Solitar, compared to Linie, her personality was just too awful. She was nothing like the kind of beautiful girl he imagined. If anything, she was a bit scary, that calm kind of madness.
Though, to be fair, Linie's personality wasn't exactly great either… which left him sinking into thought.
At that moment, Solitar seemed to think of something amusing. She leaned close and whispered into his ear with a smile, "Come to think of it… you wouldn't want Aura to find out what happened between you and Linie, would you?"
"I don't think she'd care. And, where did you even learn such terrible lines?"
His capable subordinate suddenly saying something like that nearly made Ash fall off the terrace. He just stared at Solitar blankly, unable to recover for quite a while.
Of course, even though she was a capable subordinate, as for how reliable she actually was… he couldn't say at all.
At the very least, a truly loyal and reliable subordinate probably wouldn't say things like that to him.
———
Even though Linie had kissed him, Ash tried his best not to dwell on it. After all, he needed to sort out their relationship properly.
It took quite a while, but he finally managed to convince Linie and Solitar to stay behind and guard the city for now.
After that, all he needed to do was apply pressure to the medium and large cities in the west. They would likely submit on their own.
Then, once the situation stabilized a bit the next day, after making arrangements and meeting with the surrendered magic special operations unit, he quietly left the city and flew back to the magic capital.
By that evening, flying at supersonic speed, he arrived at the familiar city. And the moment he entered, he noticed… the atmosphere was no longer as relaxed and carefree as when he had left.
But that couldn't be helped. The conflict between the empire and the kingdom hadn't been formally declared as war, but in reality, it was already no different from being at war.
The empire's offensive had been repelled. The kingdom had driven a nail deep into the empire's territory and would soon begin to slowly devour the southwest.
And once war begins, it doesn't stop easily. The process is full of uncertainty.
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