Chapter 51: The Devil’s Mind – Lord’s Past (1/3)

“General! Are you serious!?”

“I am. But do you see any flaws in this plan?”

The next day, at the strategy meeting, Daniel presented the plan—
A plan born from the twisted mind of a devil.

“It’s full of flaws! Letting them cross the border… That’s just… That’s just—”

But no one could continue the argument.
Even the brilliant tacticians leading various battalions were too busy trying to poke holes in it.

“There are none. This insane, seemingly flawed idea actually has no clear weaknesses.”

“But allowing them to cross the border is too dangerous! If they get through—”

“We won’t last three more days at this rate. If we just defend, we’ll only die.”

“W-Well, that may be true, but…”

“Then we must act. What’s the point of desperately guarding a dying body? If we’re going to die, let’s die fighting. Or would you rather die with your back to the enemy?”

“…”

The room fell silent as the highest-ranking commander spoke.

“Daniel. Let me ask—who came up with this plan?”

“…My nephew. The creativity of a child is terrifying, isn’t it?”

“What? You’re saying we should entrust the future of the EU to a child’s strategy!?”

“Of course, we must refine it as much as possible. But I see no problem with the foundation of the plan.”

The supreme commander fell into deep thought, remaining silent for a while.
Then, he lifted his head and spoke.

“Understood. Daniel, we’ll proceed with this plan.”

“Huh? The enemy’s border defenses are thin? Or maybe they’ve already run away? Hahaha! Glory to the Asgard Empire!”

The Asgardian Empire’s forces successfully broke through the weakened border defenses.

From a command base a short distance from the border, the garrison commander grinned.

This was his chance to receive a medal from the emperor himself. A straight path to promotion.
Thinking about his bright future, he couldn’t stop drooling—he would buy two, maybe three high-class sex slaves. Yes, that sounded good.

“Colonel Kuzuna! Urgent call from the base!”

“What? Right when I was enjoying myself!”

Kuzuna picked up the receiver. As he listened to the report, his face turned pale.

“Yes, this is Kuzuna. We’ve already crossed the border… What? That’s impossible! The enemy… The enemy—no way!”

He turned to look at the massive mountain range towering beside them.
If the enemy had come over that, their scouts wouldn’t have noticed.

“A-All units, retreat!! Defend the base at all costs!!”

(Shit, shit, shit! If the base falls, I’ll be held responsible… At worst… execution? Beheading!?)

“What are you waiting for?! Everyone! Even those who crossed the border—call them all back!! Forget formations, just get back to the base as fast as possible!!”

Kuzuna’s order was the worst possible one.

As a commander, it was the lowest of the low.
And it was no surprise—he was just a baron.

A noble who had been given command of a battalion purely due to his status.

Of course, he had graduated from military academy with excellent grades.
But he had little battlefield experience and could only follow manuals.

Now, imagining himself being executed, he panicked and shattered his army’s formation to retreat—
A mistake that would only make things worse.

“Daniel! We’ve successfully ambushed the enemy base! We can hold it temporarily!”

“And the forces that crossed the border—they’re scrambling like a bunch of frightened spiders! There’s no order to their retreat!”

From the command center, Daniel received the successful reports over the radio.

“Good! Then, all units—charge! Encircle them and cut them down one by one!”

The EU forces, once defending the border, immediately turned to attack.

The enemy forces, retreating in a stretched-out formation, were overwhelmed one by one.

“Colonel Kuzuna! Our rear units are under attack!”

“I-I don’t care! If we can just get back to the base, we’ll have the superior forces! We can recover!”

Kuzuna pushed forward in desperation.

But the Asgardian base had been left nearly empty—most of their troops had been sent to the front lines.

And since they had been overconfident, they weren’t even in a defensive stance.
Some soldiers were even drinking.

Then, the EU’s KOG unit launched a surprise attack.

The Asgardian forces at the base were annihilated before they could even activate their KOG units.

But Kuzuna still believed that once the frontline troops returned, they would have enough strength to retake the base.

“W-What? This is all that made it back? Why? There were supposed to be at least a hundred of them!”

But the forces that had been attacked from behind had already lost nearly half their numbers before reaching the base.

“Colonel Kuzuna… Look at that…”

Before them stood their captured base.

The EU flag flying high.

The KOG units pointing their weapons at them.

And behind them—
A massive EU army closing in.

“A-Ah… Ahhh…”

A man who could only follow a manual was left incapable of thinking.

He could not come up with a strategy to turn the situation around.

“Your Majesty… I have failed you.”

And thus, his bright future was cut short.

Along with his very life.

“A perfect victory!! Well done, Road!!”

That night—
Daniel, upon hearing of the mission’s success, opened a bottle of wine and embraced Lord and Scarlett in celebration.

“We won! Uncle!”

“Oh, we won alright! I’ve never seen a victory like this! I love you!!”

“Uncle, your beard hurts! You smell like alcohol!!”

“Come here! Let me give you a kiss!! Hahaha!”

“Geez, you drank too much… But I’m really glad…”

“Yeah, me too. Lord, I’ll be counting on you again!”

“Yeah!”

Overjoyed, Daniel ruffled Lord’s hair and kissed his forehead.

He drank down the wine Scarlett had made, reveling in the moment.

This was the greatest victory they had ever achieved.

The border, once on the verge of falling, had been pushed back, and the enemy had suffered a devastating blow.

From that day on, Daniel started including Road in strategy meetings.

The Supreme Commander, who was grasping at straws, agreed to have the boy who had proposed that strategy sit in on the meetings.

However, everyone assumed that the plan had merely been a lucky coincidence, born from a child’s innocent imagination.

But that perception quickly changed.

Because every demonic idea that Lord proposed was astonishingly brilliant.

Daniel and the others formulated their strategies based on these ideas.

At first, the plans were still rough, but with the careful refinement of veteran soldiers, they were honed into flawless strategies.

Victory after victory. In this northern region of the EU, they not only held the line but even pushed forward, refusing to yield a single step.

Through these continuous battles, Lord’s talents as a commander and strategist blossomed.

…

“Why is that area suffering so many defeats!?”

The 99th Emperor of the Asgard Empire, Orgol Asgard, was growing increasingly frustrated.

He was already over sixty, the supreme ruler of Asgard.

A man who hated nothing more than things not going his way—perhaps the most selfish person in the world.

“W-We don’t know, but the reports indicate that our forces have been overwhelmed by a series of unconventional strategies…”

The bureaucrat delivering the report was drenched in sweat.

He knew all too well that the slightest misstep in his words could cost him his head.

Everywhere else, the empire was enjoying total victory—except for this one region, where losses kept piling up.

That was enough to incur the emperor’s wrath.

(Are they led by some extraordinary commander…? But could mere strategy alone cause this…? Just what kind of genius is behind this…?)

“Excuse me, I have a report… Ah, I apologize. I will return later.”

A soldier entered the room.

It was Sieg in his late twenties, still in the prime of his youth.

Noticing that another officer was in the middle of delivering a report, he turned to leave.

“Oh! Sieg! You’ve returned. No need for that—come here! I hear you’ve captured yet another base. Another medal for your collection!”

“It was only possible with the efforts of my comrades, Your Majesty. I alone could not have done it…”

Sieg was a rising star, the strongest of the young generation.

The emperor, who adored the powerful, favored him greatly and held him in high regard.

“Yes, yes. You should be more arrogant! That’s your only flaw—no, perhaps that humility is the source of your strength. Now then, Sieg, I have a task for your Holy Knight unit.”

“What is it?”

“I want you to reorganize the Holy Knight unit and lead them to a specific location. Yes, gather at least a hundred of them.”

“Are you planning to invade a country? That would require nearly every Holy Knight currently deployed across the battlefields…”

“No matter. There’s a region that’s proving unusually troublesome. Here, on this map.”

The emperor pointed at a location on the map, and Sieg frowned.

For a force composed of a hundred Holy Knights—some of the empire’s mightiest warriors—the target was far too small.

“It seems excessive… But if it is Your Majesty’s command, I will comply.”

“We must display our strength. We cannot afford to be underestimated. So I’m counting on you, Sieg.”

“Understood.”

Thus, the empire’s most powerful unit was assembled.

With Sieg as its ace, alongside warriors of equal strength, they formed a force of pure, concentrated power.

The strongest warriors from the world’s strongest nation—their invincible army—set out.

“The target is the EU’s northern border defenses! All forces, advance!”

A place that had been defended by a single boy—
A place he had fought so desperately to protect—

“Annihilate them!”

They marched to seize it.

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