M-My lord!
Those bastards!
Those poisonous bugs devouring His Imperial Majesty's sacred garden!
Oscar!
Gather all our troops at once,
and march on Findolf!
I-I thought you had entrusted that to Marquis Arclide and Marquis Buchwald?!
Then you can tell those incompetents this:
"If you don't want to be slain along with those pests,
then cross the Ruruck Mountains at once and put them down!"
Th-The governor of the northern lands has ordered all units to assemble at once!
So Gustave is gathering forces over 10,000 strong around himself.
Yes.
Now that the Seven-Light Faith has defeated L'age Soleil,
we have a perfect opportunity to strike.
High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even In Another World!
It Seems Tsukasa Has Seen Through Everything!
Cross the Ruruck Mountains in winter?!
He's sending us off to our deaths!
Why do we have to go through this?
I can't believe he would be this impatient.
M-Marquis Arclide, you mustn't say such things.
Thank you for the admonition, Marquis Buchwald.
But I had hoped we could wait until spring and have a proper battle.
Oslo El Gustave...
He may be an unparalleled warrior, but he's an awful leader.
The Emperor chose the wrong man to grant rank.
Who are these Seven-Light Faith people anyway?
They're certainly a mysterious group.
I just hope our 3,000 troops are enough to handle them.
What?
Let's have our forces rest at the Ruruck Checkpoint for now.
All troops, open fire!
Wh-What?!
Gunshots?
It can't be...
All units retreat!
Retreat?!
The Ruruck Checkpoint's already fallen into enemy hands.
We'll be dead if we don't run.
How many guns do those men have?
Unsurprisingly, Marquis Arclide was quick to act.
All right!
Now, let's begin the pursuit!
We're storming straight into Buchwald!
Lord Arclide!
Our rear guard is being obliterated by the enemy's pursuing forces!
At this rate...
Tell all the units that Arclide died in the enemy attack.
But if we do that, our army will collapse into a rout!
Let them.
That will make those pursuing us feel satisfied.
Right now, they're getting greedy.
They're hoping to reduce our numbers,
even if it means abandoning their advantageous position at the checkpoint.
I see!
We'll fake a rout and lure them into the open fields.
You go on ahead, meet up with the squads in the second wave,
and get them into formation for a charge!
Yes, sir! Leave it to me!
Heavy cavalry!
Cavalry, charge!
Guns won't stop them.
That's heavy cavalry for you!
I'd like to ask you to drive off the punitive force.
If our enemy is smart,
they'll recognize their disadvantage at the checkpoint and in the mountains,
and they'll make a strategic retreat.
In which case,
they'll probably send their precious heavy cavalry in.
The moment their heavy cavalry charge in
and they've grown certain of victory,
make a point and crush them...
using these.
Everything's going as Tsukasa predicted.
What in the world?
Retreat.
Everyone, fall back to Buchwald!
We're setting off to slay those rebels infesting Findolf!
My army will not leave even a single ant in our wake!
We will paint the northern mountains red with the rebels' blood!
The weight of our enemies' corpses is the weight of our loyalty!
We'll burn every last one of these foolish rebels
who dare oppose His Imperial Majesty until none remain!
What do you think you're doing?
Now is the time to rise up!
Azure Brigade!
Strike this traitorous vassal down!
Ringo, Ringo!
It looks like Arclide and Buchwald are holing up in their castle, bear.
Just as Tsukasa predicted.
Bear?
Wh-What?!
What is going on?
This is an announcement for everyone in Buchwald.
As you can see, hiding behind castle walls
is useless against the Seven-Light Faith, bear.
We demand that you lay down your arms in unconditional surrender, bear.
We hope you will make the right decision, bear.
M-Marquis Arclide...
We can't win.
Mission accomplished, bear!
I wonder how Shinobu's doing on her end, bear.
Yeah...
Duke Gustave!
Our Azure Brigade has you surrounded!
The foundation of a nation is its people!
Without the people, there is no nation!
If you have any shred of reason left within you,
then you will surrender with shame for your actions
and correct your ways as a vassal!
Without the people, there is no nation, you say?
Silence yourself, you fool!
A nation and the people
exist only to serve His Imperial Majesty!
The delusions of you lowly cur,
and your hubris...
I shall burn it all to the ground!
Sounds like he has no intention of surrendering.
Then we must do what needs done!
Let's go, Shinobu!
Roger that!
Jeanne!
I'm all right!
Honestly, mages are such trouble.
Jeanne!
Fools!
My eyes!
Traitor Gustave,
your head is mine!
You would call me
a traitor?!
How dare you?!
Seriously?
This ends now.
Why you!
Did we get him?
Ah, don't go saying that.
You bastards!
You worms, defying the Emperor!
You and your insolent tricks!
This is not enough to defeat the great Gustave!
Okay, this looks like seriously bad news.
Jeanne, over here!
I can't believe he'd blow up the tower with himself inside.
What a man...
In that old man's eyes, everyone's lives, including his own,
existed solely to be offered up to the empire.
So, how's the city doing?
Right, well, there's not much chaos.
Looks like your immediate and thorough relief efforts were effective.
Good to hear.
What happened with Gustave?
Thing is, we never found a body.
What do you think?
Hmm, it's hard to believe that old man would kill himself.
Though the members of the Azure Brigade are trying to pronounce him dead.
They're going around boasting that the Azure Brigade has slain the traitorous Gustave.
Well, I'm sure they do.
I think that does it for my report.
Well, I'll be heading off now.
Yeah, go have some fun.
Oh, right, right.
How are the lords on your end doing?
No problems there.
He's doing good work for us.
A-Are you really pledging allegiance to them, Marquis Arclide?
There's no other option.
These guns are equipped with rifling
that even the Imperial Workshop has failed to implement.
Then there's also this magical Haber-Bosch Process, used to produce
an infinite amount of gunpowder from the air.
This goes way beyond a mere difference in technological level.
Not only that,
but all of the strategies and decisions I made in Ruruck are written in here.
These are documents penned by Tsukasa, an angel of the Seven-Light Faith.
So he had seen through all of my thoughts before the battle had even begun.
No way! Only a god could possibly...
Yes.
And no human can best a god.
I, Arclide, will humbly join the banner of the Seven-Light Faith.
This feels so good.
It's like we're lying in a field of flowers.
Incredible.
Lyrule's totally into it, too.
I heard these were super luxurious aroma oils used by the Empress.
I-I shouldn't be using something so special!
It's fine, it's fine.
Everything is a learning experience, Lyrule.
You've been studying magic lately with old man Gale, right?
Y-Yes.
Apparently, these oils are created by imperial mages
using the power of spirits to extract their active ingredient.
Mages made these?
That's right.
There's great magic like this out there!
And you've had a rough few days, Ringo.
You should take this chance to relax...
What's up, Ringo?
I'm, um...
not as pretty as all of you are,
and I don't have...
a great figure, either...
What are you saying?
You're a top contender in the cuteness category with these smooth cheeks!
That's right.
There are many men who would love to protect a lady as cute as you, Ringo-san.
My body's so ripped with muscles
that it makes me jealous of how soft you are sometimes.
I think you're lovely and cute too, Ringo.
Very!
As for your figure, that just depends on your efforts.
Would you like to try out the big breast massages passed down my family?
Oh, you have a technique for that?
It's effective on men, after all.
It was necessary for kunoichi.
I don't want to lose!
Please do it!
Nin, nin!
It might tickle at first, though.
You start here and do this...
and then you do this here.
No!
You're so cute, Ringo-chan.
Then you do this
and this...
Why do I have to endure this?
Oh, my!
You're so sensitive, Akatsuki.
Your skin's so pale, it's almost transparent,
and so juicy that my fingers sink right in...
Many men would greatly enjoy such wonderful skin.
Stop it!
Wow, these are good leaves.
Yeah. I hear they're expensive tea leaves meant for the imperial family.
The women are enjoying their aroma massage, too.
They're giving us every luxury afforded by this world's standards.
Micchan, Makkun, sorry for the wait!
Oh, the goddesses have appeared!
Wha?!
Hey, hey, who's that blonde, short-haired beauty with you?
I'll punch you!
You're looking pretty cute, man.
This is your fault!
You're one thing, Masato,
but how could you be so cruel as to abandon me like that, Tsukasa?!
Sorry.
But I had no other choice but to allow it in order to secure your safety.
Meaning?
I mean it's safest for you to be by Aoi-kun's side anytime, anywhere.
I figured you'd say that.
They may be welcoming us in, but this was enemy territory just a few days ago.
You never know who might be lurking about, right?
I understand that, but...
By the way, where did Lyrule go?
She said she was going to help wash the bandages and the sheets.
I see.
She's doing it as part of her training to control the spirits, then.
What do you mean?
Apparently, one of the basic magic training drills
involves removing impurities using the power of spirits.
Oh, so that's the kind of magic that was used to make the aroma oils used in our massages.
According to Gale,
Lyrule's able to handle the spirits on par with the emperor's elite mages.
She only awakened to her magic a month ago, right?
That girl's a real enigma herself.
Yeah. But one thing is for sure.
She's been on our side ever since we first came to this world.
That's true.
The Azure Brigade folk are the ones we can't be sure of yet.
Even when they're being so welcoming?
They're just hoping to appease us.
They probably don't want to get into conflict with the Seven-Light Faith
while they're exhausted from their battle against Gustave.
If a battle breaks out, people will get hurt and die.
If we can settle things diplomatically, that would be for the best.
Tsukasa-san.
Do you think we'll be able to get along with the Azure Brigade?
I'll cut right to the chase.
It's impossible.