Help Me, Heroine!
"Fire!"
An officer screamed at the top of his lungs, ordering the artillery to fire.
The 155mm howitzer spat out wild flames and a deafening roar, launching a shell into the sky.
A heavy impact followed, and flames erupted.
Yet, the demonic beasts were still crawling everywhere, their numbers seemingly endless.
The breach in the Blood Wall, which had only been crudely reinforced with timber, was far from fully repaired. It was completely useless at keeping the beasts out.
With such an obvious weakness exposed, the demonic beasts naturally swarmed toward it.
"Where are the knights?!"
"Damn it! There are only fifteen who can move right now! The rest are too badly injured!"
"Bring whoever you can! We have to block them! We can't let them break into the city!"
The knights drew their swords and rushed toward the breach.
Their plate armor was dented, battered, and scarred all over, and the blades they held were chipped.
Blue aura blades flared to life, but rather than looking grand and majestic, they seemed desperate and pitiful.
The fifteen knights threw themselves recklessly at the demonic beasts pouring through the breach.
The aura blades easily sliced through the thick hides of the beasts.
True to their reputation as living weapons, the knights fought with terrifying efficiency.
These were monsters who had done nothing but train with the sword since birth, spending their entire lives facing the demonic beasts of the North.
Each of them carved through over ten beasts as if they were slicing radishes, but unfortunately, the enemy's numbers were simply overwhelming.
"There are too many of them!"
"At this rate, we'll—!"
The beasts surrounded the knights.
One of the knights at the front line had his arm bitten.
Dropping his sword, he was instantly isolated. Smelling blood, the beasts roared and closed in on him.
If not for the sudden buzz of a chainsaw splitting the head of the beast biting his arm, they would have succeeded in tearing him apart.
"We'll take it from here. Fall back and rest."
"Secure the rear and stop any beasts trying to slip into the city!"
Bear Beastmen. Wolf Beastmen.
The combatants of the Hellhound Brigade charged forward, wielding chainsaws crudely modified into the shape of swords.
They didn't possess the overwhelming individual might of the knights.
However, the spinning chainsaw blades easily tore through the thick hides of the beasts. Though less powerful than the knights' aura, their sheer numbers allowed them to hold the breach even more stably.
"Bring up the water-cooled machine guns! The machine guns!"
"You ugly bastards, how dare you!"
Machine guns were mounted along the top of the wall.
While the regular Northern army was exhausted, the members of the Hellhound Brigade were fresh, well-rested, and highly trained elites.
As the firepower of nearly five thousand troops joined the fray, the endless horde of beasts throwing themselves at the Blood Wall finally began to take heavy casualties.
"Fire! Fire! Load the next shell!"
The 155mm howitzers fired frantically, and the machine guns unleashed a relentless barrage until the water in their cooling jackets literally boiled.
For thirty grueling minutes, tens of thousands of demonic beasts battered the breach and the Blood Wall, but the brigade held the line.
How was that possible?
"Damn it! There are too many of them!"
"They're breaking through! Over there!"
Just as the line of Wolf and Bear Beastmen, who were fighting desperately with their chainsaws at the front, was about to buckle...
It was because the voice that had always saved them from ten years of hell was echoing in their minds.
"Fuck yeah, Commander! Your timing is always perfect!"
The beastmen's movements shifted instantly.
It wasn't that their physical strength or stamina had suddenly increased.
Rather, their coordination became unbelievably tactical.
Like a single living organism, the frontline squad retreated, while the reserve squad behind them stepped on their shoulders, revved their chainsaws, and leaped forward.
"—Flank! Demonic beasts are approaching the breach from the right!"
"—Let them get tangled up! Pull back slightly!"
"—Machine guns! Focus your fire on the beasts approaching from the right rather than the front! We need to thin their numbers as much as possible!"
Five thousand men moved in perfect unison, like a single organism.
And their coordination began to influence the other Northern soldiers.
"We're receiving the Commander's orders! Concentrate your fire where we shoot!"
"Understood!"
The Northern army's movements changed.
Haphazard firing ceased, replaced by concentrated strikes targeting the densest clusters of beasts.
"My blade is ruined, Commander!"
"Yes, sir!"
The beastmen's morale soared.
They knew that as long as they followed the voice echoing in their heads, they would survive.
No matter how strong the enemies or how numerous the beasts, they felt no fear.
The Hellhounds held the line with calm, brutal efficiency.
They carved, slashed, and fired relentlessly, over and over again.
"The enemy is retreating!"
"We held them off!"
Realizing the futility of their assault, the remaining beasts began to flee back into the Magic Realm.
Cheers erupted across the wall.
However, Commander Volka's orders were not yet finished.
"No deaths. Do you think we're fucking rookies, sir? We have three wounded in our squad."
"Four in ours."
"We have a few more. Five."
"Yes, sir!"
Rat Beastmen. Rabbit Beastmen. Wolves, bears, and foxes began to move.
The regular Northern soldiers let out long sighs of relief as they watched the beastmen reinforce the breach and organize the guard rotation.
"Thank you. We held them off thanks to you."
"If you're really grateful, build us some nice houses to live in! Haha!"
Beastmen and humans shaking hands could be seen all over the place.
The North.
It was a sight that could only be witnessed here.
"The scale of the invasion was easily in the tens of thousands. When was the last time we faced an incursion of this size?"
In the Chamber of Swords, the weary and haggard Northern nobles answered my question from their seats with grim expressions.
"Before the war with the Principality of Kramkin, it happened maybe once a year."
"And how many times has it happened this year?"
"Five times, Your Grace. A large-scale invasion is occurring roughly once every three months."
The frequency of the invasions had increased drastically.
"The cause?"
"We wish we knew, Your Grace."
"Return and focus on treating the wounded. You have all worked hard. It is thanks to you, my lords, that the North has endured. I have secured supplies and funds from the South, the West, and the East. Use them to eat, drink, and enjoy yourselves. Your only duty right now is to rest."
"But the defense of the North..."
"The Hellhound Brigade is here. And we have the beastmen I gathered from various regions. They will become the new Northern army. Once their basic military training is complete, they will be deployed to defensive duties immediately."
The Northern nobles fell silent, seemingly choked with emotion.
I understood their feelings all too well.
"The immediate crisis has passed, my lords. Go back and rest easy. You have me now."
The nobles rose carefully, bowed politely to me, and departed.
Only one man remained.
Except for Marquis Krat, everyone left the Chamber of Swords.
"You said you secured aid from the West, the East, and the South?"
"Yes."
"What is the scale of the support?"
"Enough to consider the reconstruction of the North."
"Reconstruction, you say, not just maintenance?"
"Yes."
Marquis Krat wore a grave expression.
"They would not have given it up willingly. You must have fought, threatened, or used some form of coercion to obtain it, correct?"
"Yes. I had no choice."
"The West, the East, and the South will not forget this. How long will the aid last?"
"One year."
"And after that... what are we to do? They will become our enemies. They will remember this for generations and attack us. They will do everything in their power to ensure the North never rebuilds. We must establish businesses within a year so the North can sustain itself without their help, but we simply do not have the resources for that."
As Marquis Krat poured out his worries, I walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"You are entirely correct, Krat. But worrying about that is not your job."
"Your Grace..."
"Go back and rest. Act as if nothing is wrong. Spend time with your family using the money and supplies I brought back. You need to rest. The burden you carried is mine to bear now. This is an order. Don't think. Just enjoy yourself. When I give you a new order, you only need to follow it faithfully. Understood?"
Marquis Krat stared at me in silence for a long moment before letting out a soft chuckle.
"You have changed, Lord Volka."
"I have. A single year of war changes a man, and I have endured ten. It is more than enough time to change."
Marquis Krat bowed deeply to me.
"I shall rest as ordered. If you ever require my service, I will move even if it breaks my bones."
"Good. You may leave."
"Your Grace, may I ask just one thing? Since the East, South, and West bear a grudge against us, the North must secure a new source of income to stand on its own. What kind of business do you plan to start? I would like to know at least that much."
I smirked at his question.
"Where is the fun in telling you beforehand? I have already thought of everything. So rest easy, Krat."
Krat looked at me with a complicated expression, but I simply smiled and waved him out.
He disappeared from the room.
The moment he was gone, I collapsed back into my chair.
We had to start a new business. That was true.
The East, West, and South bore a grudge against the North. That was also true.
We could squeeze resources out of them for a year, but after that, those bastards would do everything in their power to interfere with the North's reconstruction at every turn.
An unstable future.
A ruined Northern infrastructure and environment.
The number of beastmen we had to feed had grown, and for their sake—as well as for the reconstruction and independence of the North—we had to start a business. But there was no way I had any ideas for that.
Fuck, I've done nothing but fight a war since I got here! How the hell am I supposed to start a business?!
If I had at least majored in business administration in my past life, it might be different, but I was a physical education major.
I'd rather they just tell me to fight!
Territory management was a genre that had never existed in my life!
The future looked pitch black.
How long could I keep acting tough in front of the nobles?
Could I feed my beastmen subordinates properly?
Should I have been more political when squeezing money out of the East, South, and West?
Did I make them too angry by bringing the army, guns, blackmail, and digging up their secrets?
Marquis Krat was right. Those bastards would hold a grudge for generations and remember this.
No. No matter how much I thought about it, if it hadn't been for my methods, those bastards would never have provided the resources and money to rebuild the North.
Please. Someone. Help me.
As I sat in the Chamber of Swords, agonizing over these thoughts for a long time, a sudden realization flashed through my mind.
The original heroine!
The Korean diary and letters she had left behind.
I quickly got up and headed to the bedroom of the former Duke and Duchess.
There, I pulled out the Korean diary she had left and began flipping through the pages.
The beginning of the diary was literally a romance fantasy novel.
Dresses. Parties. High society, cosmetics, and accessories.
It was filled with nothing but details of her conversations with Theodore, the original male lead and my current older brother.
But starting from the wedding, the contents of the diary changed drastically.
It was as if the heroine of a romance fantasy had suddenly been thrown into a harsh, cold reality.
The romantic atmosphere vanished, replaced by realistic, cold worries about the struggle for survival.
She had the exact same worries as me.
The military city of Pandril was fundamentally structured so that it could not function without imperial support.
Perhaps it was fine when the imperial family was strong, but the original heroine had used her sharp intuition to realize that the imperial power was waning.
So, from then on, she began to ponder ways for the North to become self-sufficient.
She sold her jewelry and expensive dresses to raise funds, hiring mages and summoning dwarven artisans.
She discussed ways to rebuild the North with the male lead.
And most of those attempts had failed.
Barren land. A city structure and constitution built solely for war. And a freezing climate year-round that made farming nearly impossible. It was the worst.
But not everything was a failure.
Gradually, in the diary and letters written in Korean...
The information I wanted began to appear.
And among them, the passage that caught my eye the most was this:
—There is only one thing the North has in greater abundance than any other region: the carcasses of demonic beasts.
—The carcasses are contaminated with dark mana.
—But dark mana is still mana. What if we could extract Elixir from it?
—I've done it. I found a way to extract Elixir from the carcasses of demonic beasts. I will store this method in the secret passage leading to the basement of my husband's study.
—There is a traitor selling out the North. This technology is still incomplete. It must be hidden until it is perfected. In case I forget, I should write down the method to enter the secret passage Theodore showed me. It's far too complicated.
I stopped reading right there, put the diary down, and sprinted toward the Duke's study.
"Your Grace! What is the meaning of this in the middle of the night...?"
"Butler! Adjutant! This is an order! Seal off the study and let no one in! Absolutely no one, until I come out!"
"Yes? Ah, understood!"
After posting the two of them as guards in front of the study, I locked the door tightly and opened the secret passage exactly as described in the diary.
With a heavy click, the floor next to the desk slid open, revealing a small ladder.
I climbed down the ladder, and it didn't take long before I discovered a massive basement space.
And there, I saw them.
[Introduction to Neutralizing Dark Mana in Demonic Beast Carcasses and High-Purity Elixir Extraction]
[Comprehensive Report on Northern Resource Status]
[Verification Report on Large-Scale Crude Oil Deposits]
[Supplementary Design Plan for Large-Scale Magic Greenhouse Cultivation Facilities]
"Hahaha! Long live the original heroine, fuck yes!"
I had hit the ultimate jackpot.