The Executed Sage Reincarnates as a Lich and Begins a War of Aggression

“What do you mean? Elaborate.”

“Ye, yes! Actually…”

Grom began to explain while looking terrified.

According to him, the neighboring kingdoms of the Holy Scepter Kingdom and the Magic Kingdom were engaging in battle along their borders.

The scale was still small, and was closer to that of a skirmish at this time.

The Magic Kingdom was located southeast of the Demon Lord's territory.

Therefore, their territory wouldn't be damaged.

The conflict seemingly originated from the multiple demands of the Holy Scepter Kingdom.

They kept demanding provisions, technology, and weaponry, all of which weren't granted to them by the Magic Kingdom. As such, they dispatched an army incognito to the border as retribution. 

As part of their cover, they had apparently claimed to be a bandit group.

Their method is too tyrannical. Did they get impatient after losing their Saint?

As I heard about the actions of the Holy Scepter Army, I couldn’t help but be a little surprised.

I could see that they wanted to appear strong because they wanted to keep their reputation, but there should have been a limit on how far they could go.

To be honest, it was hard to believe they would go this far.

It could be said that the Magic Kingdom’s refusal was only natural in this case.

I remembered them as being more of a decent nation back when I was human.

Perhaps their Nation’s executives had changed during the last decade and this influenced their present actions.

I didn't expect them to become so selfish.

As I grasped the situation, I stood up and commanded the two executives. 

“Grom shall go with me for reconnaissance. Luciana will be on standby. Please put together any new information regarding the two nations as soon as you receive it.”

“I understand!”

“Okay, okay. Be careful out there.”

As Luciana waved her hands to see us off, Grom and I moved by transfer.

The destination was a forest. Upon arriving, we immediately hid.

There a stone fort towering in front of me.

According to my perception magic, there was a large number of soldiers scrambling around inside of it.

They seemed to be the soldiers of the Magic Kingdom.

There were also groups of people who were launching an attack on the fort; humans who wore dingy cloaks and hid their faces with cloth.

There were about 150 people, and they were probably the ones affiliated with the Holy Scepter Kingdom.

Apparently, they had disguised themselves as bandits.

It was their way of ensuring plausible deniability for their nation's actions.

It was too absurd to believe.

It was an argument that almost nobody would be deceived by, but the Holy Scepter Kingdom would probably insist on it regardless.

The soldiers of the Magic Kingdom were fighting from within the fort.

They all wore full-body armor and attacked with crossbows while using the battlements as cover.

Was the huge bow installed at the fort supposed to be a ballista?

It was able to turn in all directions and was firing at the bandits it faced, or rather, towards the Holy Scepter Army.

On the other hand, the Holy Scepter Kindom's army used bows and magic, while deploying protection magic to suppress the incoming attacks.

However, the rain of bolts forced them to hide behind trees and they were unable to advance.

We observed the situation from a distance.

We weren’t noticed since we had deployed concealment magic.

As it was, I could freely observe the situation as a third party.

It's ballista, huh. That’s quite rare.

The ballista used by the Magic Kingdom was a type of magic weapon that could shoot a variety of bolts.

While it was inferior in terms of portability and ease of use when compared to a crossbow, in terms of sheer power, it was greatly superior.

Both of them were original inventions of the Magic Kingdom and were rarely seen outside of that nation.

Looking back at past battles, it seemed that this trend hasn’t changed much since the last decade.

The crossbow itself wasn’t widespread in other nations.

It was more powerful than a bow, but its complicated structure made it prone to malfunctions.

Its range was also more limited.

The limited distribution might have also been caused by the large number of poor quality imitations that had been sold on the market in the past.

Those crossbows were poorly made and often malfunctioned during battle, which then lowered their value and impression to the public.

It also wasn’t a cheap thing to construct, so most nations still relied on bows and magic for long range attacks.

In particular, ballistas had also been affected by this trend, and because of that, the use of it didn’t become widespread either.

Despite such a situation though, it was thanks to the Magic Kingdom’s technological prowess that they were able to make use of such weapons.

While this nation didn't produce powerful casters or warriors, it focused instead on consistently raising their overall fighting capabilities.

A typical example of this could be seen in the foldable crossbow and element enhancements attached to the ballista. 

Rather than training a person individually, they focused on improving the weapon they used instead.

It could be said that this nation managed to find another way of using magic.

The battle between the two armies opposing armies was quite close.

The Holy Scepter Army had a hard time attacking in the face of the raining bolts produced by the crossbow and the ballista.

They might get shot down quickly if they carelessly revealed themselves.

The corpses all over the ground were proof of this.

Meanwhile, the Magic Kingdom's army merely continued to shoot their weapon, without trying to advance.

They didn’t go out of the fortress and made use of the fortress’s defensive capability to fight.

They prioritized minimizing the damage to their army.

They would just wait until the Holy Scepter Army gave up and withdrew.

“Does the Demon Lord-sama have no intention of interfering with this battle?”

“No, I’ll merely observe.”

I wanted to check the movement of the Magic Kingdom while I was here.

Perhaps they have prepared some kind of new weapon.

Regardless of which side came out as victorious, it wouldn’t affect us.

“Grom, tell me if you find anything curious.” 

“Hah! Certainly!”

As we continued to watch the battle, there was some movement going on inside the fortress.

The gate opened with a heavy clang.

I could sense a high-power magical reaction from that diretion.

It had a concentration and amount that was inconceivable for a human magician.

What emerged from the gate were dozens of small metal humanoids.

They were magical dolls with an attribute that granted their materials false life — golems.

By making use of magical power in place of a neural system, they were capable of producing life-like movements.

It had probably been created by someone inside the fort.

It might need some amount of specialized knowledge, but it was a highly convenient magic that could possibly be utilized using various materials.

However, the golems that emerged from the fortress were different from the golems I had known.

You could tell they were elaborately made just from their appearance.

All of their parts seemed to have been made from scratch before being assembled together.

A normal golem would be much more crude and haphazard.

Meanwhile, the golems of the Magic Kingdom had been fine-tuned as weapons.

“Hohou, those are wonderful golems.”

“Indeed.”

The golems marched forward as we talked.

Beyond them was the Holy Scepter Army.

It looked like the Magic Kingdom intended to leave close combat to unmanned weapons.

It was the logical strategy that minimized the damage to their soldiers.

However, could golems alone deal with that army?

I wondered about the Magic Kingdom's current tactic as I watched the battle.

It was common knowledge that the movements of golems were awkward and simple.

They were generally used as meat shields to defend the people behind them who were the actual attackers.

Just sending out golems wouldn’t be seen as a major threat.

One only needed to be careful of their powerful, continuous attacks.

On top of that, the golems that emerged from the fortress didn’t seem to have any weapons on them.

Without it, all they could do was punch and kick.

The Holy Scepter Army could easily and one-sidedly destroy such an enemy.

Sure enough, the Holy Scepter Army began to chant from the cover of the trees.

Apparently, they intended to destroy all the golems before they could close the distance between them.

Soon, the chants were completed.

They came out from behind the trees and shot their magic attacks at the same time.

However, the magic was dispersed before it could reach the golems.

There was a translucent barrier between them that blocked the attack.

After witnessing this, Grom's jaw dropped, and he had to use his palm to push it up.

“Tha, that was…”

“That was protection magic.”

It wasn’t that there was somebody who had cast it in secret.

It was something the golems deployed by themselves. 

Looking at the movement of magic power, it seemed this magic had been built inside of them.

This isn't any kind of technology that I’ve ever heard of. Did the Magic Kingdom develop it themselves?

The golems that had deployed magic all raised their arms at the same time.

They were aiming towards the location of the Holy Scepter Army.

The next moment, bullets started firing from their fingertips in a cacophony of bursts.