# The Saintess
The Saintess didn't need to use phrases like "This lucky letter started in Kalion—" to efficiently spread spam mail. (That belongs to her finishing move. It means the Saintess is personally casting a curse.)
She whispered in the ears of high-ranking officials with brief, efficient language from among the stars.
"If the Saintess has fallen and the Lord wishes to punish her, why have other priests, even those following the Pope, lost their divine power? Could it be that heaven adopts collective punishment as its basic law?"
"What if the priests who lost their divine power are innocent?"
"Shocking! Kalion and Tilles are appalled and Krasilov trembles at the true face of the Papacy! Was it actually the Pope who had fallen??"
By the time spam folders were filling up with these letters—whether black propaganda or yellow journalism, but definitely not white—
"Priests should be like priests, religion should be like religion, and worldly power belongs to the worldly!"
"Let's go, nobles, fighting!"
"Make the Six Southern Nations great again!"
Though this world doesn't have the phrase "crossing oneself three times," appealing words gain persuasiveness with repetition.
It's common sense that betrayed allies return as the most threatening enemies. From the Pope's perspective, the Saintess is exactly that.
From doctrinal questions requiring councils to address, to outrageous slander, this wide-ranging public opinion battle was proving deadly in a world where the concept of "public opinion battles" was still vague.
What does it matter whether it's yellow or black? As the fallen white Saruman proved, corrupted white isn't particularly popular among humans.
Simply accusing the Pope of corruption wouldn't be very effective. After all, the Pope has divine power.
But in this situation where the Pope is squeezing each country while shouting "never again war," while the Saintess is instead shouting "the church should stay out of worldly affairs"...
The argument that the Pope's divine power is actually questionable sounds quite sweet indeed.
"Belacria crossed the border?!"
"Yes, Your Majesty... 15,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry crossed the border. According to reports, the 2nd Corps' military flag was identified."
"What about the ambassador? How could there be no warning about such a critical matter?!"
"There's been no response from the embassy..."
"Isn't this an invasion?!"
Domenico, King of Albinia, ground his teeth as he struck his throne.
"Summon the ambassador immediately, immediately!! Tell them to retreat, or at least march through uninhabited areas!!"
"Yes, Your Majesty!!"
The king pressed his forehead deeply as he sank into his throne.
"Should I just go with the 'Saintess'...?"
Equitania fighting better than expected.
The Papacy focusing all support on Elsros (or so it seems).
Belacria suddenly backstabbing and pushing their army first.
In this situation, rather than watching his territory get destroyed, should he just... go with the "Saintess"?
# EP26. Holy War.
The commander's flag of the Albinian army deployed at the border had been replaced three times. This happened in just one month. The increasing frequency symbolized the king's growing anxiety.
At this point, Ivan received a bat. After enjoying Ivan's touch for a while, the bat with a string tied to its leg fluttered up and flew away.
"The night raids are over now."
"Finally!!"
Isabelle cheered. Night raids sound nice, but cutting off only supply routes by penetrating deep into enemy territory is closer to art than warfare.
Moreover, due to the operations over the past month, enemy vigilance was unprecedentedly high. Finding sniper points was difficult, and any delay would cause cavalry to scatter like disturbed hornets.
To make matters worse, mages were heavily deployed, perhaps to counter fire attacks. The success rate of raids had been gradually decreasing.
"Now it's time for a pitched battle, right?"
"No."
Ivan looked at Asidis with cold eyes. Why do people of this era love pitched battles so much?
Of course, this is when enemy fatigue has peaked. Moreover, after a month of repeated night raids without a single engagement, the enemy had abandoned expectations of pitched battle and invested all resources in raid response.
At this point, a surprise pitched battle would certainly have good odds. Even if they couldn't win every battle, they could at least stabilize this theater.
But what comes after? Would Albinia collapse on its own after just one victorious battle? No. The greater the damage, the more fiercely Albinia would fight.
No matter how favorable the odds, pitched battles inevitably cause casualties. And compared to the Holy War army of five countries, their human resources are limited. If the war becomes prolonged, Equitania will certainly perish.
Long preparation, short engagement, and decisive victory. This war is neither a prolonged holy war, nor a total war exhausting national resources, nor an annihilation campaign to penetrate enemy depths and assassinate their commander. When survival is at stake, one must always be conservative. Gambling is not a virtue of a general.
"Let's go back," Ivan said briefly before turning around.
"Why! What is it?! Am I the only one who doesn't know? Why is everyone nodding?"
"Asidis, shh. Your stupidity is showing. There's an opinion that stupidity is a zoonotic disease that can even infect elves."
Asidis followed the group with a huff.
"We've received intelligence that Belacria has begun marching."
"Finally!"
The commanders in the military camp cheered at Ivan's words. Except for the confused Asidis, everyone in the camp burst into laughter with delighted faces.
"You've all worked very hard. I sincerely thank you for following my inadequate leadership."
"It's nothing. Don't be so formal. It was a good experience for the troops as well. We've never implemented such operations before."
Ivan bowed his head slightly in return and continued.
"I hope that when the Albinian army begins to withdraw within two weeks, you will also begin your march."
"You'll be deployed to the most dangerous area, wouldn't you take at least minimal forces for communication?"
"Just as you trusted me, I also trust in your competence."
It was quite a heartwarming scene for the Equitanians whose territory was currently being taken over by another country in real-time. Especially considering this was the frontline command post.
Moreover, since most of the conversation continued without context or subjects, Asidis's confusion grew increasingly massive.
The scene unfolding was too complex for an art student to understand.
Asidis nodded solemnly and decided to act like an art student encountering an assignment from another department. Open the wiki, copy everything, and believe it's your own opinion.
She looked through the politics-diplomacy-war section of Wikipedia with a serious expression. Fortunately, Elfihera, belonging to "a race of entirely political beings," immediately saw through Asidis's mind and sighed.
"Belacria invaded Albinia."
"...Hmm."
"No, sigh. So, Belacria deployed troops to Albinia. What do you think this means?"
"Holy... War army?"
Though she carefully wrote down the answer, art students are weak at subjective questions. Elfihera immediately crossed out her answer sheet.
"If they were simply sending a Holy War army, they would have started with material support first. They sent troops right away, and almost all of Albinia's forces are tied up here. They don't have forces to send toward Belacria."
"Same... side...?"
"We agreed not to call a relationship that changes depending on how Belacria views Albinia as being on the 'same side.'"
Belacria began sending troops, "nominally" to support the Holy War army.
The distance from Belacria to Equitania is so far that one must traverse the entire territory of Albinia.
Therefore, supply lines inevitably become ridiculously long.
In this situation, Albinia must expend enough logistics to feed the Belacrian army that arrived without warning.
If they fail to do this, the Belacrian army will grow hungry.
Hungry armies typically plunder even their own country's territory.
The King of Albinia will be very angry.
Most of the forces in this area will be converted to "escort" the Belacrian army—in other words, to monitor them. This means most enemy forces will withdraw. They won't even think we would launch an offensive.
"Externally, we're being pushed back to the capital by Elsros. This means that even if we have room to maneuver in this area, we don't have the capacity to march. Rather than that, it would make more sense to retreat and support the forces facing Elsros."
Asidis nodded blankly at Elfihera's words.
"So all along, uh, um, hmm, uh..."
Seeing Asidis's expression, Elfihera finished her explanation with vocabulary friendly enough for elves under 5 years old to understand. (Since statistics show that adult humans have similar intellectual levels to elves under 5, it was quite a reasonable approach.)
"We've been sowing discord among the bad guys to make them fight each other. All along. The fruits of that are finally showing. The forces facing Elsros were sacrificed for this, so now that the operation has succeeded, their sacrifice wasn't in vain—that's why everyone is happy. Do you understand a little better now?"
"But Elfi, the enemy of my enemy isn't necessarily my ally."
This was the hardest part to understand. Given the cause of fighting heretics, why would the enemy side with us even if they're divided? The moment they join hands, they become Holy War Army×2.
At her words, Elfihera answered with a warm smile.
"That's why we're about to start the next operation that will seal that part."
"What... is it?"
"Join our side if you don't want to die."
Ivan's plan—the grand strategy devised by the Saintess, King Vittorio of Equitania, and Ivan—was closer to the realm of political struggle than warfare.
Indeed, the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my ally. In fact, more often than not, that's not the case.
But politics is always about reducing options. The essence of politics is forcing "inevitable choices" on political opponents.
Therefore, Elfihera, coming from "the most political species," was extremely satisfied when she first heard of this operation. Even the point about not engaging in pitched battle was to her taste.
That dawn, Ivan and his party crossed the border through the "safe infiltration routes" they had secured during the past month's "raid operations."
The ability to preemptively cut off enemy supply networks meant they had completely mapped enemy camp locations and guard patrol routes.
As a result of a month's repeated training, the Hero Party's infiltration could avoid detection from any route.
"Doesn't this mean we're no longer a Hero Party...?"
"What are you talking about? Hero Parties have always fought like this."
Ivan scolded Isabelle who was quietly grumbling. After all, would a "Dark Lord Assassination Squad" like the Hero Party attack by breaking down enemy gates head-on?
Even Frodo, the "Middle-earth Hero," brought down Mordor through a backdoor, and Hogwarts' hero defeated the "serial terrorist of the combined elementary-middle-high educational facility" through assassination. So it's common sense that heroes don't fight Dark Lords fairly.
From the moment multiple people band together against one opponent, mentioning fairness becomes meaningless. There's a reason why heroes are collectively called a "Hero Party."
After crossing the border, the Hero Party immediately raced through Albinia. Since this was a repetition of what they had been doing since the train raid until arriving in Equitania, apart from being deadly tired, it wasn't a particularly special situation.
Even before the Albinian army withdrew, that is, before the pre-announced two weeks had passed.
"Wow, this is a real mess."
Isabelle laughed in disbelief at the black smoke rising from various parts of the plains.
The Belacrian corps, which had already crossed the border and advanced deep before the Albinian army could retreat, was conducting "voluntary requisition" in Albinia's breadbasket region.
"So these guys are supposed to be part of the same Holy War army?"
"Not anymore."
Ivan adjusted his helmet and took out a rolled-up military flag from the bag tied to his horse's back.
When he tied it to a pole and raised it, the emblem of an eagle holding a sword unfurled in the breeze. It was the military flag of Equitania.
"Now, let's go rescue the suffering people."
"This is what a Hero Party is all about!"
Finally encountering an easy-to-understand part, Asidis smiled brightly.
The Belacrian army, conducting "self-sufficient food supply" in Albinian territory, was thrown into confusion upon seeing cavalry approaching with Equitania's military flag.
"They've joined hands with Equitania in this situation? Are they serious?"
The Albinian court was also thrown into confusion by news that mysterious forces rescuing their citizens on their own territory were carrying Equitania's military flag.
"How did those bastards cross the border? Does it make any sense that armed forces are roaming near the capital without being detected at the border or anywhere else until now?!"
The Saintess, who had dispatched envoys in advance from the moment Ivan crossed the border, smiled slightly upon hearing that her envoy had reached the Albinian capital.
She never thought it would fail in the first place. While other operations might be different, in the realm of infiltration and rear disruption, no one in the current era, or even among the Hero Party of that time, had ever been better than Ivan.
Because she trusted Ivan just as she had trusted Maximillian, Einar, Beolgrin, and Gil Ber.
"Order the advance, Your Majesty."
The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily an ally.
But you can force your enemy's enemy to make a choice.
Will you become an ally? Or will you be isolated and handle a two-front war?
Which option they'll choose is obvious. By now, Albinia would already be known within the Holy War army as "having circumstances suggesting cooperation with Equitania."
Reflecting once more, diplomacy is traditionally based on circumstantial evidence, not material evidence.
"Do so."
Vittorio also smiled as he stamped the royal seal on the order. The letter sealed with red wax immediately reached the border.
The 2nd Corps began their advance the moment the order arrived. In the name of the "Albinian Relief Force."
When Equitania suddenly advanced its corps claiming to rescue their country, the Albinian court fell into a state of psychological brain death.