Chapter 312 New Hierarchy -12
Chapter 312 New Hierarchy -12
Startled, Leticia jerked her elbow back and retreated in a flurry.
Jiha paid her no mind as she fled toward the corner, simply seating himself in a chair.
"......."
As Jiha drank his water in calm silence, Leticia hesitated awkwardly before offering a greeting.
"O-oh, hello."
"......."
Jiha set the cup down and looked at her.
The strained smile on Leticia's face slowly faded, and her head dropped low.
She knew full well she had blundered—failing to stop the elves' return march was a grave offense.
"......I messed up."
"This could be your last chance to speak."
Leticia trembled at Jiha's reply.
If he were angry, she could at least beg for forgiveness, but he stated it so dispassionately.
Warming his bed did not grant her any exception when she botched a task. Personal feelings came second.
It felt like facing an impenetrable wall. Her mouth refused to open.
Wasn't she a Unique? By now, challenging Jiha through sheer strength was beyond even her wildest dreams—and more than that, she no longer wished to.
The option of turning her back on Jiha simply did not exist for Leticia.
Hadn't she cast her lot with him knowing full well it meant expulsion from elf society?
"Ah, that...."
Leticia tried to speak, but her eyes welled with tears, and she clamped a hand over her mouth.
For all her prickly, sharp-tongued exterior, her nature was delicate, and when Jiha turned cold, she found him nearly impossible to face.
"......."
Jiha offered nothing to the woman struggling desperately to collect her emotions.
It was not his role as Chief, and there was no guarantee he would be here for her the next time.
Leticia had to resolve this herself.
"I have matters tomorrow, so I can't spare much time."
"......Okay."
Leticia, too, must have slipped away from her own camp in secret. Calculating the time she needed to return, she couldn't linger long.
Wiping her tears with the back of her hand, Leticia finally managed to speak.
"I'm sorry I ruined everything.... I'll accept whatever punishment."
"That's for me to decide. If you came to explain yourself, then explain."
Whether to reward or punish was the leader's judgment to make.
Leticia carefully steadied her voice and began her account.
"The occupation of Ringard went relatively smoothly, because... the mayor there was an elf. Guason and the rest of the Council of Six had apparently been in secret contact with him. The arrangement was that when I arrived with the elves, they would open the gates and cooperate."
"They used their heads, then."
"Yes, I thought it was a good plan too.... There was some trouble with the dwarves mounting a counterattack, but we still succeeded in occupying the city. The problem was... the mayor we'd been colluding with incited the elves who'd followed me."
"......."
So he'd stolen Leticia's leadership?
Leticia did her best to set aside personal feelings as she spoke. She knew what Jiha needed was information.
"He told the soldiers that the dark elves were rushing back to curry favor with you, that they were maneuvering to seize the place at your side, so the elves couldn't afford to fall behind. At first, I was so dumbfounded I just sneered. I mean, we'd just occupied Ringard—does it make any sense to abandon it and drag the whole army back? It's sheer insanity."
"And then?"
"I dismissed it as drunken rambling. But... the elves started agreeing with him, one by one. The mayor was a skilled orator, and he managed to persuade every single elf beneath me who had any real voice."
"......."
"Eventually, it even became an official request to me. At first, everyone acted like the others must have been day-drinking."
It must have been absolutely infuriating for Leticia.
They'd captured a major city of Purple, and now they wanted to throw it away and march home without even consulting headquarters?
It was a capital offense that would warrant executing the entire lot of them and then some.
"I absolutely refused, but they all kept asking why elves couldn't do it if the dark elves were doing it too. Honestly... I've never gotten along with those black-skinned bastards, but this time I truly wanted to kill them."
"......."
Leticia gnashed her teeth, a fresh wave of fury rising at the thought of Enril.
Jiha spoke evenly.
"Enril reported the situation and came back with my permission."
"......Even so!"
Leticia's eyes flew open with raw emotion. If Enril were standing before her right now, she looked ready to grab her by the collar.
Under Jiha's gaze, Leticia's voice lost its edge as she poured out her grievance.
"......Even so, she shouldn't have done that. Until I heard from you, I was fully prepared to hold the city. Cutting in line like that is just wrong."
"......."
No matter how rationally she tried to judge it, emotionally, she was beside herself with hatred for Enril.
Their relationship had never been good, but right now she was so furious she could have drawn a blade on the spot.
Beyond their racial antagonism, as a woman, she was shuddering with rage that Enril had resorted to such underhanded tricks on the man she loved.
Jealousy.
"Do you really hate Enril that much?"
"......At this point, I never want to see her face again. If I do, we'll fight."
Though they both served under Jiha, her tone made it clear she'd rather avoid even laying eyes on her from now on.
At Leticia's candid admission, Jiha closed his eyes.
'They've been played....'
Leticia hurriedly shook her head.
"Ah, but that's... that's not why I came back. Setting my feelings aside, I knew it was a mad idea and tried everything to stop it, but I couldn't override the consensus that we couldn't just let the dark elves take the upper hand. I even offered to hold the city by myself—told them to just go on their own—but... because I'm a Unique, they wouldn't allow that. They said without me, the dark elves would use Enril to look down on them even more."
"......."
Jiha opened his eyes.
Leticia spoke in a lamenting tone.
"......I knew this was entirely the wrong course of action. But emotionally, every word they said rang true. Honestly, I agreed with their feelings. The elves being shaken by news that Enril was marching back in triumph with her dark elves, the talk of needing to arrive before them—any elf would reach that conclusion naturally."
"......."
"And they'd already all been swayed by the mayor's words.... Even so, those insisting we hold our position were a tiny minority, myself included. Everyone nodded along when he said that at this rate, the dark elves would cement their place in the Red Union and use it to persecute and slander the elves."
"Do you think I'd allow that?"
Jiha was planning to lightly discipline the dark elves and keep them under his thumb going forward.
Leticia shook her head.
"I know you'd never let that happen. ......But the others don't know you."
"True."
This double trolling would never have happened in the first place if they had known Jiha.
When Leticia finished her story, Jiha zeroed in on the key point.
"It's too fast."
"Huh?"
The trolling between dark elves and elves itself wasn't incomprehensible, considering their ancient grudges.
But the exchange of information had been far too rapid.
Warsland was not Earth. There were no phones, let alone the internet. The fastest method of communication was a messenger dove, and even that was written in cipher.
"We never sent you any news from Waris about the dark elves."
"......I don't think we did. No, we didn't."
All information in the Red Union flowed to Waris—to Jiha.
Unless Jiha informed them, the elves should have had no way of knowing about the dark elves' return march.
A hand normally has no idea how the legs are moving. Only the head knows everything.
'Yet this time, they knew. That explains the speed of their response.'
Jiha asked one final confirming question.
"The one who brought that information was the mayor?"
"Yes, he said he'd planted informants here and there. That's why he knew so quickly this time...."
"A convenient excuse."
A trick designed to create suspicion without proof.
At Jiha's silent inquiry about the mayor, Leticia explained everything she knew.
"The mayor's name is Godaf Briden. He's the third son of the Briden Family, and he's incredibly capable. Ringard's mayorship had been held by dwarves for generations, but Godaf became the first elf mayor. That alone completely changed my impression of him. The Council even officially praised him. The Briden Family itself can attend the Council, but being a third son makes respect hard to come by... it's an exceptional case."
"A capable operator, then."
Snatching a seat long held by dwarves, and gnawing away at Leticia's Command Authority until the army turned back—that was the work of a schemer.
"Can he fight?"
"I'm not sure. He's a politician."
"And right now, he's in your camp."
"Yes, he came along saying he wanted to meet you in person and offer a gift...."
Jiha smiled.
A cunning little strategist.
"What kind of gift?"
"I wasn't told. ...Somehow, it feels like I'm the only one who doesn't know."
Leticia's voice had deflated entirely.
Though she was a Unique, she was blaming herself for failing to control the elves under her command and letting this disaster happen.
"Alright. Go back."
"Um...."
"I'll hand down the judgment tomorrow."
Leticia bit her lip hard and nodded.
As she bowed her head and turned to leave, Jiha spoke evenly.
"Be ready to accept it tomorrow."
"Hmm?"
"No matter who's watching, no matter what they say, you only need to bow your head to me."
Leticia's expression was complicated for a moment; then she slowly nodded.
As the sound of her departing footsteps grew noticeably lighter, Jiha organized his thoughts.
'This was drawn up by design.'
At a glance, it looked like a coincidental accident, but it reeked of artifice.
Someone had fanned the long-smoldering animosity between elves and dark elves and created this double trolling.
A bucket of ice water thrown just as the fledgling Three Forces were about to catch fire.
'A trolling that even accounted for Leticia's lack of leadership....'
At least Enril had left sufficient troops at the stronghold and contacted Jiha beforehand so he could send Asira as a replacement.
That process had been handled flawlessly, precisely because Enril commanded enough authority among the dark elves.
Leticia, on the other hand, was routinely disregarded and could not maintain control.
"Good. In that case...."
Time to tear the artist's canvas to shreds.
The next day.
The Waris soldiers following Jiha and the dark elf army confronted the elven army.
A meeting on the plains: two thousand against two thousand.
Distance: one kilometer.
"Shall we halt?"
Daham approached as the dark elves' representative and asked.
Conventional wisdom dictated that when two armies met, both would stop and organize their formations. The elven army, too, was already halting to set up their ranks.
"Advance."
"Pardon?"
Instead of repeating himself, Jiha gave his horse a light kick to the flank. The animal stirred and stepped forward.
'Horseback riding is quite the hassle....'
It had its practical uses, but he also had to ride for the sake of authority.
Thanks to practicing beforehand, he could manage without much difficulty.
"A-advance!!"
As Jiha moved out, the frontline commanders shouted in unison, leading the soldiers forward.
The soldiers gripped their weapons, some with puzzled looks, others with their fighting spirits ignited.
"He's not actually thinking of starting a battle, is he?"
"Weren't the elves supposed to be on our side?"
"I'm not sure, but it's a good opportunity either way."
Murmurs rippled through the soldiers, both human and dark elf.
The elves, who had just been forming up and preparing to pitch camp, froze when they saw Jiha's army approaching.
They were supposed to be allies, but this approach ignored all common sense.
The flustered elves could be seen scrambling to find their commander, then their superior, in a bustle of panic.
At the center was Leticia's figure, and beside her stood a young male elf dressed in flamboyant clothes—that was certainly the mayor, Godaf.
"Daham!"
At Jiha's call, Daham swiftly approached and bowed his head.
"The army will not engage in combat. No one draws a weapon. But if I tell you to kill, you will kill."
"Yes, sir!"
Military orders allowed no second word. Daham emptied his mind and answered instantly.
As Jiha advanced at the head of the two-thousand-strong army, one of the panicking elf soldiers—one who appeared to hold some rank—stepped forward bravely.
"Halt!! I don't know who you are, but you cannot proceed any further—"
"Kill him."
The moment the words left Jiha's mouth, Daham dashed forward without a thought and swung his sword.
Slick!!
The speaking elf's head went flying, tumbling across the ground.
The pale body staggered, spraying blood, then crumpled into the dirt.
Standing before them was an elf with black skin. The moment the elven soldiers recognized him as a dark elf, their eyes bulged wide.
"A dark elf!!"
"The dark elf killed the squad leader!!"
The frontline soldiers' eyes rolled back, and they seized their weapons.
As Daham looked back, Jiha gave his command.
"Whoever blocks my path—no matter who it is—kill them."
He would teach them in blood what happens when you defy military law.