Unlike many so-called civilized people's misconceptions, the people of Droan believe that human life is so valuable that it cannot be exchanged for anything else.
They act according to principles of bioethics, environmental protection, and the economic law of equivalent exchange. In their culture, these grand principles often manifest as:
"Put everything you own right here if you don't want to die!!"
A Droan warrior was screaming as he set fire to a wooden building.
It was such a rational action that Ingvar's eyes curved warmly as he watched, like a father proudly observing his own son. That's exactly how my warrior should behave.
Fundamentally, life holds value higher than anything else. This proposition is true.
Therefore, as payment for saving a life, even all assets owned by the person—excluding their life itself—would not be enough compensation. After all, as long as you're alive, you can earn again. This proposition is also true.
As just compensation for saving lives, Droan warriors have the right to sweep away all liquid assets of the victims. If the victim refuses? Well, that victim can return to the embrace of their ancestors, so it's fine.
Throughout history, all types of environmental destruction have been caused by humans, so reducing the human population is equivalent to protecting the environment. In other words, whether you "hand over" your property while alive or "leave behind" your property in death, it's a business with no losses.
In that case, the Droan warrior who did his best to rescue the victim gains the highest inheritance rights, which take precedence even over biological children. The biological children don't have axes, after all. (Such dangerous equipment was already collected during the rescue process.)
Of course, the "harm" originated from that warrior's axe. But the Droan warriors' brains were already so full of economic theories they needed to consider that such trivial details didn't matter.
"This is trade. This is economics."
Ingvar nodded gently as he looked around the city filled with screams. A city-scale "redistribution of wealth" was taking place. From the perspective of stimulating the domestic economy, it was an impeccably splendid sight.
Despite lacking modern economic views, these people had instinctively grasped that savings lead to economic stagnation, while active consumption leads to macroeconomic prosperity. After all, someone who survives with nothing but their bare body after everything has turned to ashes obviously cannot save money.
"There was no Jarl."
"Ah, I see."
Though it wasn't particularly important, Ingvar nodded absently as he turned to look at Ivan, who had returned from searching the city.
"It seems this was the target after all."
"This city is close to the north."
Ivan continued, mapping the entire Droan region in his mind.
"It can't be coincidence that this situation occurred as soon as we chose the route leading to the north."
"Of course not."
Ingvar shook his head.
In Droan, there are a total of 11 cities governed by "Jarls"—the old "clan territories." That's how many former monarchs, now feudalistically called counts, there are.
With Einar now at the eastern edge, the fact that the northern lord has left his post suggests only one thing.
As expected, there are lords who have betrayed, and one more thing.
"They have a 'head.'"
An intelligence capable of formulating grand strategy and commanding legions is moving the demon forces. Just like during the Great War.
This is the strongest evidence that one of the Seven Dragon Generals is here in this theater. An ordinary commander could never handle a campaign of this national scale. The demons under their command would hardly obey docilely.
Demon forces are more difficult to control than Droan men. Telling them "carry out this operation in this region" is mostly meaningless.
Unless you suppress them with the overwhelming charisma of a Dragon General, those creatures would never listen.
"Considering the turmoil in the Southern Six Nations making the south unstable, and the thoroughness of not even attempting to persuade the western border adjacent to Krasilov."
During the Pritzenkaya raid, Olega's minions entered through carriages bearing the 1st Legion's seal. Also, considering that they came through the northern front, it's highly likely that the 1st Legion is currently non-functional.
Knowing this, one could easily deduce that whether the Pritzenkaya raid succeeded or failed, Krasilov would lose the momentum to dispatch military expeditions to other countries. The internal situation would be too urgent.
In that case, there's neither need nor time to persuade the Jarls stationed at the western border. The possibility of them joining forces with Krasilov's military is significantly low.
Rather than wasting time on that, it's better to recruit the northern Jarls. Unlike the southern Jarls who border the Southern Six Nations, the northern Jarls are relatively hostile to Einar.
Going further north from the north leads only to the sea. Crossing that sea only leads to demon territory with no particular civilized society.
In other words, the northern lords cannot attempt overseas raids. Meanwhile, with Einar prohibiting raids on his own citizens, the northern lords' dissatisfaction would have been accumulating for years.
What they desire most isn't something like Einar's death. They simply want "chaos." With Droan's fundamentally barren resources, it's difficult to appease hot-blooded warriors through self-sufficiency alone.
For such people, merely hinting at a raid on Einar and persuading them to at least "observe" or "block information" would have been sufficient.
On the other hand, most southern lords are satisfied. They can extort "tariffs" on all trade routes coming up from the Southern Six Nations, and if that's not enough, they can directly march into the Southern Six Nations' territory to extract "active tariffs."
Moreover, the Southern Six Nations cannot broadly antagonize Droan right now. They're too mired in chaos to deal with Droan's raiders.
To penetrate all these international circumstances, select which lords to recruit and which to ignore, and formulate grand strategy across the long zones of northern Droan, southern Droan, northern Krasilov, and the eastern front of Droan...
'Unless a Dragon General has appeared directly, this would be impossible.'
It's like seeing the strategic foundation from the Great War era—deploying legions under a single unified will. Ivan frowned at the tangy smell of iron and acrid gunpowder that reached his nostrils. The smell of war.
"Isn't that what makes it more frightening?"
Ingvar looked at Ivan with sharp eyes. His gaze was deeply tinged with wariness.
"Krasilov's War Ministry... now called the 'military,' right? Yes, the war-making capability of you westerners."
Ingvar is a veteran warrior. Most of his life has been marked by struggle, and he's a general who has survived until now because he won all those struggles.
Being such a person, he could instinctively realize that Krasilov's war-waging capability was abnormal.
It happened as soon as they received intelligence that demon forces had broken through on the western front and Einar had gone personally to stop them. Even in a situation where their own citizens weren't aware, only Krasilov had formulated a war plan.
It's not just the intelligence capability that's frightening. The boldness to grasp the situation of each country and immediately take action, the prediction of the policy that lords of other countries would choose, and the decisiveness to preemptively dispatch agents to prove those predictions.
It's evident that they've maintained almost all of the military traditions from the Great War era. Nearly every country in the world implemented disarmament with the end of the war, but only Krasilov did not reduce its military despite going through a civil war.
The man standing before Ingvar's eyes right now is the pride of that country's military tradition. A man who can move on a single clue and set fire to an entire country, no, perhaps the entire world without hesitation.
Ingvar stared at Ivan for a long time, then smiled, showing his molars.
"Einar caught himself a good son-in-law. Heh, it's my victory for being the first to join hands."
If someone is trying to set fire to a house, there are two positions to choose from.
Either get trapped in the fire and burn to death, or stand with the arsonist and set the fire.
Ingvar chose where to stand. If you're on the side setting the fire, you can charge "rescue fees" just for saving those who are burning to death.
Buying low and selling high is the basics of economics, after all. Joining hands with this fellow was a brilliant investment. This old economic-warrior grinned, patted Ivan on the back, and shouted:
"If we've stripped them clean, let's go, you bastards!!"
"Tax collection—!!"
"Waaaaaah—!!!"
The train will depart soon. Heading deep into the far north again.
If you were to name what Droan people like most, two things could be mentioned. One is taxes, and the other is war. At this moment, when they can do both simultaneously, the tax collectors on the train had become the happiest Droan people in the world.
Ivan gazed at the prairie beyond the flowing train window, lost in thought.
The situation is unfolding as expected.
The division of Droan, the betrayal of the Jarls, and the fact that most of those traitors would be northern lords. The fact that a Dragon General-level threat must appear to threaten Einar's life.
But for him, this situation was, let's say, Plan B. The original expectation wasn't like this.
'Maximillian.'
Considering what Olega's minion said, it's clear that Maximillian is deeply involved in the current situation.
But if he were to appear directly, there would be no need to conduct such a large-scale operation and play this war "game." Couldn't he just appear alone, assassinate Einar, and disappear?
If he really wanted to kill Einar, he would have surely done so. Yet the distant east remains quiet.
If Einar had died, the northern lords wouldn't stay still. They would be running wild everywhere, declaring themselves king and waging war, but despite leaving their territories to march out, the north is quiet in this situation.
This means Einar is still alive.
The longer Einar stays alive, the greater the probability that their plans will go awry. As soon as Krasilov's northern front stabilizes, they can begin military aid to Droan.
The southern Jarls who don't oppose Einar will gladly support the war against the northern lords. As long as Einar doesn't die, certainly.
So, in their grand strategy, Einar is an obstacle that needs to be dealt with as quickly as possible. But why?
'What do you want?'
Without being able to predict the motive, there's no way to formulate a strategy. Acting as if they want to destroy humanity, yet consistently revealing weaknesses and presenting solutions.
In the Southern Six Nations, despite using such a bold measure as a holy war, they isolated the Dragon General in Ovidis, making it easier to be subjugated.
Occupying the empty Pritzenkaya, yet wasting time and allowing themselves to be suppressed.
Breaking through the eastern front with demon forces and even recruiting northern lords, yet keeping Einar alive and dragging out time.
It's almost as if...
'Within the demon army, they're formulating grand plans that can be packaged as "intelligent war plans," yet consistently exposing weaknesses to us to induce action...'
The plan to recruit the Papal States and incite the Southern Six Nations to divide the southern United Kingdom.
The plan to occupy Pritzenkaya and deal with Enrique to restore the vampire intelligence capability.
The plan to persuade half of Droan and lure and eliminate Einar to secure a path for the demon army's advance.
All these plans appear flawless and deadly on the surface. To the extent that they couldn't be countered without some unusual variable. The only variables that can respond to this are Ivan and the Hero Party.
However, unlike others, Maximillian knows of Ivan's existence. He knows the Hero Party's activities. Since last year's Tilles civil war, the Hero Party has a record of excellently preventing Tilles' division and downfall.
Such a person wouldn't have formulated a plan excluding Ivan and the Hero Party. Just as Ivan wouldn't formulate an operation excluding Maximillian as a variable.
But the current situation is almost as if...
'It's as if he's giving trials and hoping for them to be resolved.'
Ivan turned his gaze from the window and scanned the empty seats. He thought as he looked at the places where Isabelle, Asidis, Yu-jin, and Yu-ri had been.
'For what purpose?'
Right now, they were heading in the exact opposite direction from Ivan. They had left to recruit the southern lords.
To set fire evenly across all of Droan. To set a counter-fire against the already burning flames of war.