The Human Saint is Bored, so I was Summoned to Another World

All About Logistics and Mercenaries (Part 2)

With the sudden turn of events, Lily was forced to hold an emergency meeting.

"Your Highness, I believe that the more we wait, the more the Imperials gain their strength and prepare for an invasion of north Chersean kingdoms." the Count of Brooke raised the point, "I, therefore, propose that we begin our raids now, while we wait for the rest of the army to assemble."

"That would be impossible, Brooke!" the Prince of Stadtsberg told him, "With our few numbers, it'll be hard to keep the pressure on the Imperials. The most that we could do would only amount to irritating those guys and possibly provoke them into taking the offensive to us."

"Grr...this system of checkpoints and patrols is really annoying!" the Count of Tillie exclaimed, "Who even invented such a thing?"

"And that Calabrian King too! If I only could strangle him for colluding with the Imperials..." the Earl of Yaris couldn't suppress his anger.

"It's the way of war, wee lads!" the Prince answered, "Of course, unlike in training, your enemy wouldn't sit still waiting for you to strike him! He'll do something so that he outwits you, especially that damned Emperor! He's a sly fox, and wouldn't mind bowing before others if he could reach his goal through that.

"Well, we know the emperor is like that. We have to solve our problems with the missing men." Lily steered the talk back on its course, "What do you suggest we do for this issue?"

"Your Highness Princess Lilyhaven..." it was the Count of Brooke, "What do you say about we ask for a bit more reinforcement from your kingdom? Aren't you a friend of Nerfes' current king?"

"As much as I'd like to do that, Your Excellency, the king of Nerfes cannot send more soldiers than he already did. My family is blocking the move in the council, not unless we are sure of victory in this endeavor."

"Damn it..."

As they were deliberating their options, my mind was racing to find the solutions. I agree with the Count of Brooke's conclusion that we need to go on the offensive as soon as possible, but with us still building our numerical strength, I doubt if we could really put our plans into effect.

Think Kuro, think...

If we're having problems with the numbers of men, then...we can hire them, right?

"Your Excellency!" I called the Duke of Greene's attention.

"Sir Kuro?"

"How much gold do we still have?"

"For now, we still have around...26,000 gold left in our purse." the Duke of Greene explained, "But I doubt it would last for long since the upkeep of our men is taking the lion's share of our budget."

"What do you say if we hire men instead?"

"You mean, mercenaries?"

"Sir Kuro..." it was Lily, "I think we shouldn't waste our limited resources on doubtful soldiers."

"Well, it's not like they'll really fight for us." I proposed, "What I mean for them is to be our 'force-multipliers'."

"..."

Everyone gathered around me to hear my explanations about the word I used. Lily had this 'Here he goes again...' expression on her face.

I enjoy seeing her like that...

Anyway, I continued to elaborate, "Here's what I mean; the mercenaries will not actually do the real fighting for us. They are like 'reserves' in case the conflict turns in for the worse, but in the best case, they'll just stay so that the Imperials would think we got the numbers to fight them toe-to-toe."