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idolaChapter 4: The Era of Revolution
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Blood was flying. The sky was turning red. The explosions were deafening. And with every light, people died. His allies died.
Claugh Klom watched it all.
“Ahh, this for real?” Claugh said to himself with a laugh, even though this really wasn’t the time for laughing. See, their noble enemies had paid 2,000 soldiers to come fight their battle, all elites. Claugh’s soldiers were a measly four hundred in comparison. A bunch had already died, though, so he was probably working with closer to three hundred right now, and they sure as hell weren’t all elites. The enemy’s soldiers were way more threatening.
It was unquestionably a hopeless battle, where Claugh could expect his soldiers to be routed. And yet…
“…I’m not gonna run from these guys,” Claugh whispered to himself. He looked around. He was in the middle of the battle.
It was an odd sight. His allies were killed one by one. There were far more enemy soldiers than they could ever hope to fight against. But nobody ran, nobody sold out, and nobody surrendered. They all fought until the moment they were killed. And the moment before they died, they screamed.
“L-lieutenant Colonel Claugh! Please, change Roland!”
The second after the words were out of his mouth, an enemy’s Lightning Flash sent his head flying.
Then another guy started screaming. “Shit, shit, shit, we’re not gonna let you fucking nobles wiiiinn!!”
But he was killed just as easily.
Nobody ran. It was to the point where Claugh wanted to yell about how stupid they all were. “This sure has gotten interesting~!” Claugh said and smiled, even though it really didn’t look like he had the room to stand around and smile.
It was because they couldn’t give up. If he stopped supporting everyone here, everything would be for nothing.
He was the reaper of the battlefield, Claugh Klom. He was Crimson-Fingered Claugh Klom, arms dyed a deep red from his enemy’s blood. As long as he was there, his allies could believe that they’d turn this battle on its head and overcome all their disadvantages.
“…What should I do to keep everyone who believes in me alive? Is there a right answer?” Claugh wondered to himself. He ran through various tactics in his mind.
The enemy was strong. Obviously. These were soldiers who supported the nobles that made up the core of the Roland Empire. Plenty of them were confident enough to approach Claugh, and that didn’t usually happen on the battlefield. And to top it off…
“We’ve killed tons of ‘em, but their ranks aren’t getting any smaller at all,” Claugh said, his exhaustion reaching his voice. He peered far into the battlefield to check their progress.
Shuss had said there were about 2,000 of them, but they just kept killing and killing, and the battlefield was still swarming with their enemies. If anything, it looked like there were more of them now…
“Shit, are we at the point where we gotta retreat to earn a little more time?” Claugh whispered. Then he looked to Shuss, who was on standby beside him. “Hey, Shuss.”
“Yes, sir?”
“We’re gonna need to stand and fight for a while yet, huh?”
“Yes. It’s already been three hours, and we’ve only lost one hundred and twenty men.”
Only one hundred and twenty…
They were trapped in the small area surrounding the military headquarters and didn’t have anywhere to run, plus they were fighting against an opponent more powerful than they were for the past three hours. All things considered, one hundred and twenty men were probably a fairly minor loss.
But that was still one hundred and twenty lives that’d ended here. That meant that their remaining forces were 280. The enemy had over 2,000.
The gap between their armies was growing, and Claugh’s side was getting more tired by the minute, fighting against such overwhelming odds. They wouldn’t be able to put up a fight if they lost another 120 men in the next three hours… and it might end up even worse than that. They might lose everyone in the next three hours.
So what should they do? What was their best move?
He didn’t expect Miller’s help - an army sent by Duke Anolita Abaaz to help them sandwich the enemy in - to come at this point. If Miller had been successful, they would’ve come forever ago…
“…The hell’s that old man doin’…”
Just then, a messenger appeared. “Lieutenant colonel​, over here!”
A knight acting as a messenger handed Claugh a letter from Miller. It was written in code, so it wasn’t easy to read. “Hey, Shuuuss~!” Claugh called, then handed it off to his subordinate.
Claugh then killed seven enemy soldiers who were trying to get a hit in on him, then ordered ten of his men to start casting some large-scale magic. Then he personally stood in front of them as a shield. They wouldn’t be able to protect themselves as they worked on their spell, so he’d do the protecting for them.
Claugh became the center of attention by standing there on the battlefield. After all, his enemies would win if they just killed him, and the battle would be over. So they flocked to him.
“Though I don’t plan on dying!” Claugh said. He grabbed a man who was trying to knife him by the arm and twisted. At the same time, he punched him in the face with his other hand, then let go to allow him to sail through the air and onto the ground. Then he stomped on his stomach.
Claugh turned his attention to a new enemy - a man on his left who was in the middle of casting Abstract Phosphorescence. Claugh grabbed him by the neck and moved him so that his now-complete spell became friendly fire.
That was all it took to kill eight men.
“M-monster!” Someone screamed at Claugh.
“How the hell’s he fighting like this!?”
“R-run! He’s gonna kill us all!”
And so everyone started yelling and screaming. Incidentally, the last guy was on Claugh’s side. But it had the intended effect. The enemy army, thinking that one of their own had suggested it, wore pale and fearful faces as they considered it. It was clear that they’d suffer greatly if they didn’t regain control of the situation now.
Someone who looked like an enemy chief began to yell something, but one of Claugh’s allies killed him before he could get it out.
“Ah, good one! Listen, you’re getting promoted if you survive this battle, so do your best to make it out of here ali—”
Claugh’s words were cut off by the sight of an enemy shooting a whole in his brave soldier’s chest with Abstract Phosphorescence.
Claugh clicked his tongue. “Tch. Dumbass. You were supposed to go all out so that you’d definitely live through this,” Claugh whispered, then made his way over to the enemy soldier who murdered that man to avenge him. Wherever Claugh went, the enemy broke formation as a swath of them fell all at once.
But that alone wouldn’t change the course of this battle. The fear of Claugh’s existence only reached the enemies in his immediate area. It didn’t spread across the whole army. There were too many of them for that.
“Shit. We won’t be able to take this forever,” Claugh muttered to himself.
Then he felt a presence from behind. “Sir Claugh!”
“Aah?” Claugh turned around while twisting an enemy soldier’s neck.
It was Shuss, who wore a troubled look on his face. “I’ve decoded the letter.”
“And?”
Shuss took another step forward and spoke quietly, so that only Claugh would hear. “Sir Miller failed his mission.”
“Aaaah?”
“Reinforcements won’t be coming.”
“Whaaaat!?”
“But since the revolution has already begun, we’re moving to Plan B. He ordered us to break through this using our own strength.”
Claugh’s scowl deepened more with every word he heard. “What the heeellll,” he said, losing a bit of his cool. Then he looked back up towards the sea of enemies. His objective up until now was to hold his ground against Duke Tenglon’s army and Prince Kestalus’ supporters until reinforcements arrived.
Miller was supposed to be gathering up an army from other nobles who would fight Tenglon. That was supposed to give relief to their tired soldiers as well as avert the people’s eyes from the fact that it was a revolution by giving it a noble-on-noble conflict finish. But it sounded like the nobles Miller had planned on convincing wouldn’t work with them.
To top it all off, Claugh didn’t even have what the other side wanted from him. Miller had Duke Tenglon captive, and Sion already killed Prince Kestalus, so Claugh couldn’t get out of this by handing them over.
The enemy could ask them to surrender and hand over Tenglon and Kestalus all they wanted, but Claugh was unable to meet their conditions, so he couldn’t surrender, either.
“So what’s the old man want me to do?” Claugh wondered. “Is he telling me to run away, or expecting me to rout our enemies who outnumber us ten times over? Ugh, what a joke…”
Another soldier threw himself at Claugh, so he grabbed him by the neck, broke it, then threw him down to the ground.
“Ugh, god!” Claugh yelled.
For every soldier he killed, another seemed to be added to their enemy’s ranks. Meanwhile, Claugh’s soldiers were starting to decrease dramatically.
“Sir Claugh!” Shuss said. “Shall we withdraw?”
That was impossible. If they tried to run, the enemy would give chase and rout them. No, actually… they were already surrounded, so they couldn’t even begin to run.
If it were just Claugh… no, Claugh surrounded by a shield made up of his soldiers… then yeah, he might be able to escape. But if the soldiers who had come here believing in him saw him throw their lives away like that…
“…That would be pretty boring,” Claugh mumbled. “And I’m not someone who could do that, anyway. So what should I do?”
Claugh looked up. Magic flashed and exploded before his eyes. One of his subordinates was torn in half, and his blood rained down across the battlefield as only half of his body flew away.
Enemy soldiers smiled as that blood covered them. “What’s this, Crimson-Fingered Claugh Klom? Weren’t you supposed to be covered in your enemies’ blood? It looks like it’s all from your allies.”
Claugh’s allies were dying. Everywhere he looked, they were dying. But he couldn’t think of a way to save them. He stood still, deep in thought, even ignoring the enemies who tried to hurt him. Shuss took care of them for him.
“Sir Claugh!” Shuss yelled.
But Claugh ignored him for a moment longer to finish his thoughts off. “Round everyone up and get them inside of headquarters!” Claugh ordered.
“Inside? But if we’re all inside, they could wipe us all out with a single large-scale spell—”
“Shut it! We’re all gonna die if we stand around here anyway, so let’s do this instead!”
Shuss looked at him, a spark of happiness lighting his expression. “You have a plan? In this situation? Then I’ll believe in you. I’m happy to be fighting with you here, knowing that you’re strong enough to plan even when it looks like the end is before us.”
“You makin’ fun of me?”
“No. I really do respect you from the bottom of my heart,” Shuss said with a smile. Then he ran to give Claugh’s orders to their soldiers.
Claugh watched Shuss off, then turned his attention to the enemy soldiers. They were becoming more confident and stronger as a result. Their formation included an elite vanguard, so Claugh’s side could suffer extensive casualties as it moved into headquarters. They needed to be able to hold out for as long as possible.
“We’ll use headquarters as a fort and let it take the attacks for us for as long as it’ll last…”
“Die!” A man who looked like another enemy chief jumped at him. Claugh hadn’t noticed him until he yelled. He held a sword up to take Claugh’s neck. He felt it touch his skin. Claugh pressed his fingers into his flesh to dig the skin it’d touched out to remove it to prevent any poison it might’ve been coated with from entering his system. Then he kicked up and crushed the man’s neck with it.
Once the man was dead, Claugh threw his poison sword aside. “Ughhhh, god! You guys are too fucking weak! You could end this if you killed me, but how many people have died instead of me!? And how long has it been!?” Hours!! He yelled.
The enemies all looked at him. Claugh stared back as they all began to draw magic circles in simulation. Good. Now they’d all be focusing on taking Claugh down, so his allies could get inside of headquarters. He’d buy them some time…
At least, that’s what was supposed to happen…
“Aww, shit. They noticed me a little too much.”
He was surrounded by a blinding amount of magic circles.
“I might really die,” Claugh said and grimaced.
Then someone jumped through the crowd at him. Claugh didn’t know what noble’s personal army he was from, but his uniform was blue. And he had white hair. And eyes that’d nearly squinted shut from his smile.
“Wait, Luke?”
Luke raised a knife up and thrust it at Claugh. He was fast.
But not as fast as Claugh, who managed to dodge. “What’s up with that outfit?”
“Oh, this?” Luke asked as he lunged with his knife over and over again. “I was hiding with the enemies until you got in a real pinch…”
“Haah? So you’ve been here. You should’ve come out sooner,” Claugh said.
“Aww… But I only got here four or five minutes ago… And my help alone can’t very well change the course of the fight, right?”
“Yeah, you’re pretty weak, after all.”
“Then please let the weak me die here. If you don’t, you won’t be able to get out of all this magic,” Luke said.
Claugh looked past Luke to the magic circles surrounding them. It looked like they were complete now. They weren’t firing because Claugh was fighting Luke, who looked like a noble’s soldier. They were waiting for Claugh to kill Luke to shoot. Then Claugh would be turned into a pile of meat by their magic, because no matter how strong he might be, nobody could withstand that much magic. “So you’re saying that you came to save me?” Claugh asked.
“Truthfully, I wanted to wait for a better time to come out. But it looked like my too-assertive friend might die, so…”
“Whoa, did you just call me your friend?” Claugh asked. “Even though I don’t think of you like that at all.”
“Ahaha. Maybe I should give up on saving you after all,” Luke laughed. “Anyway, that’s enough… Pretend to be killed, okay? They’ll stop their magic to check.”
Luke shoved his knife at Claugh again. And Claugh dodged again.
“Hey, why’d you dodge!”
“I’m buying time,” Claugh said. “I need to give everyone time to get inside headquarters—”
“—And from there, they’ll take the bodies of their fallen enemies and change into their clothes, correct?” Luke asked as if he had predicted the way Claugh was going to end his sentence. “Then, little by little, they’ll be able to join the enemy army. I like it. You don’t have any other options in this situation. You may not have realized it yet, but your subordinate… Sir Shuss, I think it was? He should be about done guiding them in. So it’s okay to ‘die’ now.”
Luke raised his knife again. Claugh dodged again.
“I just said—!”
“Yeah, but what happens after that? Even if I do that, what happens when they come to check and see if I’m really dead?”
“I wonder.”
“What should I do then?” Claugh asked.
Luke tried to stab him again and again as he spoke. “Make a mad dash for it, I suppose?”
“Dash? Really?” Claugh asked. He glanced up at the enemy soldiers, who were gradually drawing closer to them. And they were surrounded, without an ally in sight. It’d be tough, that was for sure. They probably wouldn’t make it, which meant they’d die and everything would be over.
Claugh hadn’t told Shuss the details about their plan yet. He didn’t know that they were supposed to change into the enemy’s clothes and join their ranks, then cause chaos when the time came… if the time ever did come.
“…Hey, Luke.”
“Yes?”
“Let’s pool our info. First of all, old man Miller’s failed his part,” Claugh said.
“I see.”
“We’re supposed to move onto Plan B. Do you know what that’s supposed to be?”
“…If the plan to convince Duke Abaaz fails, we had talked about perhaps using Duke Staelied, who is similarly powerful… That would mean that Miller is alive, right? Amazing. He’s really doing his best out there.”
“But no one’s gonna come save us out here, huh…”
“That’s not true,” Luke said. “Reinforcements are coming. I set a trap so Duke Wahti would send an army.”
“When will they be here?” Claugh asked.
“In about two hours.”
“We’re not gonna make it two hours though, are we,” Claugh mumbled.
Luke shot him an exasperated look. “Ahh, I understand what you’re trying to say, but…”
“Hey! I’m not so simple-minded that you of all people can read my mind, you know,” Claugh said, even though he knew that Luke probably really did understand exactly what he was thinking. There weren’t that many options for them to choose between in a situation as overwhelmingly bad as this, so it wasn’t exactly hard to guess.
First, Claugh had to tell Shuss what their plan was. Their commander had to return to the headquarters unharmed to keep their morale from tanking. But it was probably impossible for Claugh to get back unharmed as things were now. Even if he got out of this mess, everyone knew that the battle was over if they killed him, so they might have large-scale magic elsewhere waiting for him to show.
If Claugh couldn’t avoid it, then…
“…Luke, you should—”
“Take lead of the troops and lead them to safety, correct?”
Claugh nodded. “You use your head, so you can definitely find a way to sneak out of there. That stuff’s your specialty, right?”
Luke smiled. “I won’t deny it.”
“Then I’m counting on you.”
“But what will you do?” Luke asked.
Claugh smiled. “You already know the answer to that, don’t know?” He slammed his fist into Luke’s chest far faster than he’d be able to dodge.
Luke watched Claugh swing, dull expression on his face. “This is… goodbye then, isn’t it, Claugh?”
“I won’t die.”
“Haha. Then I’ll pray that we’ll meet agai…”
Claugh’s fist made contact. Luke’s body flew back, far out towards headquarters. But Claugh didn’t watch him go. Instead, he looked at the enemies surrounding himself. Dozens of stupid soldiers who had called off their spells at some point surrounded him. “I’ll make you guys regret making an enemy out of Claugh Klom! Those of you who wanna die, step on up!!” Claugh yelled.
Then Claugh sprinted forward, into the heart of enemy territory.
“And just so you know,” Claugh continued, “the revolution’s not over even if I die! It’s just getting started! This country will change! This shitty, rotten country will change! So if any of you are unhappy with the way things are now—”
Claugh struck the soldiers in front of him, killing them one after another.
“—If you don’t like the way things are, then join us! Stand up against the rot! The age of the crazed nobility is coming to an end! From now on, a commoner king, Sion Astal, will take the throne—”
A successful attack stopped him in his tracks. Someone had managed to hit him in the head with Lightning Flash. The force of it knocked him down, but Claugh soon stood back up. But that was the last stand he could make. Knives and swords pierced him. They pierced through his back, his chest, his stomach. None were fatal wounds. But they were making him lose a lot of blood, and energy drained from his body along with it.
But they couldn’t shut him up. He continued to scream what he needed to say. “We can change this country, you guys! If you move now! If you start working for it now, it’ll change!! What don’t you understand!?”
The sword in his back pulled out. Another sword stabbed through his stomach. He knew that he’d taken too many attacks to vital organs.
Claugh couldn’t move. He fell to the ground on his knees. “Ah, shit…”
An unfamiliar man stood in front of him. “Hm. So this is Claugh Klom, the rumored monster of the battlefield. Just how many lives has this man taken? Still, in the end, he will die for opposing the nobility… A fool’s fate is a pitiful one, isn’t it.”
Claugh looked up… and laughed. “Ha. You’re the pitiful one. You’re just a lapdog for the nobility.”
“True, I am nothing but a dog to the nobility. But that means that even a dog is fit to kill you.”
“You can’t stop this even if you kill me,” Claugh said. “This country will change.”
“Nonsense.”
“It’s not. It’s already begun. This country will…”
A knife made its way inside of Claugh’s flesh. He immediately understood that it was poisoned. He could feel the sharp and uncomfortable feeling of poison getting picked up in his veins and beginning to circulate.
He felt his consciousness fade. So this was the end. Claugh Klom’s story ended here, collapsed on the ground, surrounded by enemies.
He heard his enemy’s victory shout as he faded.
“I killed Claugh Klom! With this, our victory is sealed! Round up the remnants and…”
Claugh didn’t hear the rest. His consciousness had faded entirely.
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He could hear victory cheers from outside. They rose up after Luke had finished explaining the first part of his plan and transitioned to deciding their next move, so their forces were carrying out the first stage, running around and changing clothes with corpses. About thirty percent of their men had already changed clothes and joined the enemy. Would the remaining sixty percent be successful if they attempted to escape…?
“…Sir Claugh…”
Claugh’s right hand man - Shuss, was it? - whispered from beside Luke.
Luke looked at him, but remained silent. He didn’t know what had happened to Claugh. A normal human could never live though what he was doing.
He’d heard Claugh screaming earlier. That idiot screamed stupidly loud about his childish dreams so everyone would hear. He was so loud that everyone inside of headquarters heard him. There were even those who shed tears. That was how strongly Claugh’s subordinates idolized him. Claugh had an amazing power to cause others to follow him, so Luke wouldn’t be surprised if he’d even managed to strike a chord in the hearts of some of their enemies, too.
Luke gazed out a window, towards where Claugh ought to be.
“…He must have died,” Luke whispered. “You managed to survive those experiments many years ago, so… I thought you might make a miracle happen and live through this, too. But I suppose it was impossible.”
He stared at the mass of enemies swarming one spot. Claugh ought to be there, but Luke couldn’t see him. Of course not… but he kept staring regardless.
“Thanks to your flashy fight there, retreat won’t be an option for us. We can’t just run after that. We have to keep moving forward…”
Luke’s eyes suddenly widened. Because something strange began to unfold outside.
The opposing army’s forces began to attack each other. He didn’t know why, but the soldiers who had been attacking Claugh until just a bit ago were now turning on each other, drawing magic meant to kill.
“What could be happening out there?” Luke asked Shuss. “Could those be our soldiers who changed clothes?”
Shuss shook his head, but kept his eyes on the battlefield, a mysterious look on his face. “It’s because of what Claugh said…”
So he had managed to reach their hearts.
Of course there was always a possibility that something like this would happen. Claugh didn’t need to tell them that their country was a terrible place. Resentment over the way things were had already settled inside of everyone. But that dissatisfaction had never mounted in a rebellion until now.
The revolution wasn’t strange. The fact that it had taken so long for one to take hold was. Perhaps their country was cursed and that was why no one had ever managed to change it. But now…
“…Maybe something huge has finally slid into place?” Luke whispered. In any case, it looked like the fires of the revolution they worked so hard to light wouldn’t die here. “Move forward, huh? Alright. I will. Claugh worked so hard, after all. I’ll stay with him a little longer.”
Luke put his hand on the windowsill.
This battlefield was a horrible place. It was impossible to tell who was an enemy and who was an ally. But that was obvious. They were all wearing the same uniform now.
There was no way to escape the chaos in this time where Lear was still at Duke Wahti’s making preparations for reinforcements and Sion was trying to find something that would allow him to stand as a king.
“Now it’s my turn to take charge of the situation here,” Luke said and leapt from the window.
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