The Girl Who Hacked The Magic System

"Aurea, can you summarize the situation for everyone so we're all on the same page?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. As a result of our harassment campaign against the provision routes of the Blessed army, they decided to scatter through the province and procure the provisions themselves."

Yaci was the one to ask the question that was in everyone's minds.

"I thought that they would come straight to the capital as soon as their armies were assembled, to force a direct confrontation. Why did they choose to do that?"

"They took a bit too long to restructure the command after their leaders died, and there has been some internal strife and resentment, so they haven't been able to formulate a unified response. At least, that's my hypothesis, drawn from what info we could gather."

After the assassination in the office room, they changed the place where their meetings are held. Because of that, we can't have visual information on their meetings anymore.

"The problem is that the villages don't exactly have a lot of spare food, after years under heavy taxes, plus the uprising of a year ago."

"So the soldiers are taking what they can by force."

"Exactly, Kwarah. And setting the rest ablaze while they're on it. Entire villages have been wiped out for refusing to give them food."

They are using scorched earth tactics... but against themselves.

I look at the king, who nods and speaks.

"And, as you can imagine, the farmers aren't taking that lightly, so they've taken up arms and sent an envoy to us, who arrived at the palace early this morning."

Okay, this last piece of news was actually news for me.

"They are asking for protection of the Saint and the King's army."

I look at him, a bit puzzled.

"Wasn't that already what we were going to do from the start?"

"Yes, Aurea. But that's not how things usually go in these kinds of wars. Normally the punishment to the lords is also meted out on the people for supporting their lord. So they are making this move to make it clear that they are on our side and not on their local lord's side."

"I see. And they are already in dire straits with the armies wandering around."

Those Blessed are really stupid. They aren't shooting their own foot. They are drenching their feet in gasoline and lighting a fire.

I ponder some moments before speaking.

"From a military perspective, what the Blessed army is doing plays in our favor, as they will soon run out of places to get provisions from and then find themselves in a scorched earth situation. But if we leave them at that, the people will suffer too much."

"I agree, my daughter. Is there something your army can do with the portals?"

"There is. Grandfather, can we be entirely positive that the Pontifex and the bishops have fled the country?"

"Yes. There's little doubt about that. Why?"

"Then we could coordinate with the main army for better usage of the portal network to launch bigger assaults on the scattered armies."

We had to tune down our harassment campaign because of the alertness level of the armies. But after some time without attacks, and having the loot to plunder, they have probably lowered their guard and become disorganized.

:::

"H-huh?"

"Your Highness, there's an urgent message."

"Right. I'm going."

I jump on my feet, suddenly awakened, and rush to the main hall of the office.

I've been sleeping in my uniform exactly for this very reason.

When Lovelace is around, she handles matters so I can have proper sleep. And when she's not, there are the other commanders who take turns so there is always one of us at the helm of the action.

So, to call me in the middle of the night, it means that there's an emergency in which I can't waste any extra second getting myself dressed.

"Hello, everyone. Yawarete, what's the situation?"

"There's an army of slavers who seem to be transporting a huge number of slaves from Altenfeld to Otbert. The majority of the slaves seem to be beastkin."

"I see... they are probably trying to cut the losses before we free the slaves."

"Yes, they are on this road, going straight to Beaudorf. I think that they're planning to remain there for some time before going to Essendia."

Yawarete points to a road on the map that is over the central table, on which there are several markings of our checkpoints.

"I see. They probably managed to congregate the slaves in one place by using secondary roads, but now they are going straight to the city that we've been surveilling the most. That's why we managed to catch them now."

"Yes, Your Highness."

I can sense in her some anxiety and unspoken fears. And I can understand what's going on, as well as the reason for her to call me.

"We'll rescue them, of course. There's no need to worry, I wouldn't leave slavers going around freely."

"Thank you, Your Highness."

"Yawarete... did you forget that I also have some scores to settle with that ilk? I'm going personally, and I want a beastkin detachment alongside to humiliate them better. Go wake Yaci and Kwarah. Tonight we hunt."

I can see the fire in her eyes as she hears those words.

"Yes, Your Highness!"

:::

"There are around a thousand slavers and at least two thousand slaves."

I'm kinda envious of Yaci's eyes right now. I would have never been able to discern that without the help of the system.

"They are all well-trained warriors. And a lot of them are actually adventurers who joined the slavers, with lots of experience in surviving the Barrens. Don't let your guard down."

"Yes, Aurea."

We are at the top of a hill, where we can see the slavers' army in the distance.

I turn to face our troops. We've never assembled this many for one mission before, as every division has joined, both beastkin and humans. Three thousand men and women, eager for battle.

Creating portals big enough for the troops to pass was a bit hard and made quite a dent in my mana pool, but it's for a good reason.

"The goal here is to save the slaves, period. Everything else is secondary. But, if you want to unleash hell on the slavers, you're free to do it, as long as you don't hurt any of the people we're here to save."

"Yes, Your Highness!"

The beastkin don't have the system, but all the humans here still have it. Ugh, I really need to go back to my little paladin to learn more about how the excommunication works.

Yaci raises a hand and then speaks as I nod.

"What should we do if the slavers decide to kill them all?"

"We'll focus our starting attack on creating a space between them and the slavers and occupying that space. That way we'll be able to fire spells at will against them, and they would need to go through us to get to the slaves. Also..."

I turn to Ingela, who has trained a team hyper-specialized in spatial shields.

"Ingela, make sure the shielders create a protective barrier around them as soon as possible."

"Yes, Your Highness!"

The horizon is starting to clear in the east, so I have a last thought.

"They will probably pass the point below this hill the moment the sun rises. So, if we attack before that, we'll have the sun blinding us. So we wait here until they pass, so the sun is on our back. So, everyone, get cover so you don't get seen."