I spent the night at a barracks building near the field hospital in case I was needed for an emergency. Thankfully, nothing serious happened that evening. Apparently, the hospital staff found that they could inject my potions directly into the soldiers' veins via the vampires: the vampires just had to fill half their mouths with potion liquids, bite the soldiers, and administer it through the bite.

I wanted to comment on the sanitation issues that method came with, but nobody developed infections, and even more lives were saved, so I just gave up on that thought.

"Good morning."

The next day, I was woken up early in the morning by an officer who said there was an urgent summons for me from the commander's office. Sitting in front of me was a young devil with lustrous black hair and horns, wearing navy blue light armor. He really looked like a younger version of commander Mavuto.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Denato, highest ranking out of the eight generals in the army of Badoth, whose power is second only to commander Mavuto. The commander is out on the battlefield today, so I am in charge of the command office."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, general Denato."

I had a feeling his introduction was a little too long. It was as if he really wanted to emphasize the fact he was the top ranking general. That did give me one lingering thought, though.

"Just curious, but the generals are ranked by strength, right?"

"Correct."

"How exactly is that determined? You all can't really fight to the death, can you?"

"That… is actually a good question. I have no idea. We just… know who's stronger than whom."

Looks like my question will just remain unanswered. Deep down, I had a slight glimmer of hope that the generals would fight it out to figure out who should be ranked highest, though.

"So if you rank each other by strength, then miss Batinu is automatically ranked the lowest, correct?"

"Yes."

Although, I'd be shocked if that child-like fairy turned out to be an excellent fighter. I know that was impossible, though, given how she worked as a medic instead of a soldier.

"How did she even get the job, then? Wouldn't strong individuals normally be voted for?"

"The commander is already helping out in her province, so they needed someone capable of governing rather than someone capable of fighting."

The Badoth territory was divided into the central region containing the capitol and its immediate surrounding land that was governed by Demon King Badoth himself, and eight surrounding provinces conveniently named after compass directions that were each each managed by a general. Because this territory was located at the topmost part of a rhombus-shaped continent, the non-southern provinces were all relatively small in size. Consequently, managing the land was quite easy since there wasn't much to look after, so the generals there didn't need to have political experience.

Regarding the three southern provinces, the southeastern province spanned less than one hundred kilometers on each side, while the south and southwestern provinces each took up half of a 1200 by 200 kilometer strip of land, so only these two provinces needed actual politicians to assist with governance. I was going to comment on how amazing it was that general Denato was capable in both politics and warfare, but it turns out there was a military junta governing his province and receiving orders from the king every week or two.

In any case, each province had to send reinforcements to the border on rotation. Two provinces were on rotation at any given time, starting from the north and going counterclockwise. A new province would switch in every two days to allow the troops from whichever of the two provinces that came first to pull back and recover.

This meant that I came here with the south province's army to replace the west province's troops yesterday. Likewise, general Denato and his troops came from the southwest province three days before, and would switch with the troops from the southeast province, led by third ranked general Sabat, after they arrive at the end of tomorrow. Two days after that, I would be able return with the south province troops when the east province troops, led by sixth ranked general Tumido, come in.

It was unlikely that I would meet any general from the other provinces, so I didn't ask about their names. I also ran out of topics to inquire about.

"Sorry for asking so many questions."

I know I could have received all this information from Amber, but I couldn't find her anywhere. After walking into commander Mavuto's office yesterday, Amber just strangely vanished.

"No worries. Now, let's talk about why I called you here."

"Is this about what I did yesterday?"

"Yes."

"I'm really sorry for not asking for permission first!"

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

I thought that I was in trouble, but it didn't seem like it.

"I thought this summons was for punishing me."

"Why would I punish you?"

"Am I not in trouble for sneaking into the barracks to sleep last night?"

"What? No, that's negligible."

"It is?"

"We have enough empty beds there, and it's impossible to mistake you for a soldier, so nobody cares that you walked in."

"Oh."

Come to think of it, I was rather surprised I hadn't been cut down already. The troops here were fighting against a human army, after all.

"The reason you were called here today is in regards to the field hospital."

"I didn't accidentally cause any harm, did I?"

With the vampires spitting potions into open wounds, I'm really concerned infections might have occurred already.

"No. In fact, the mortality rate has decreased, so troop morale has increased now that they know their risk of dying is much lower."

"So I'm not being punished in any way at all today?"

"Not at all. I just wanted to call you over here to thank you on behalf of the army."

"I feel flattered… Well, I think I'm going to head over to the hospital now."

If I stayed any longer, I feel like the general might overly praise me.

"About that, feel free to take the day off."

"Huh?"

"The situation in the hospital has become less chaotic now, so extra help won't be necessary. A lot of medics already took a long deserved break already."

"Do I really deserve a break, though? I've only been here for a day…"

"The commander also sent 10000 doviti for your work yesterday. Also, make sure you take this badge with you in case you get misidentified as an enemy."

The general took out a badge and some money, and placed that on his desk.

"Are you sure you want me to take a day off? I feel like there should be a lot of work here I can do…"

"That's an order."

I'm not in the military, but an order's an order, I guess. Especially when it's coming from a scary guy who can cut me to pieces relatively quickly.

* * * * *

There were no entertainment facilities available since this was a military station, so I decided to climb up the observation tower.

"…I really… need to… exercise… some more…"

I couldn't quite tell if the design was intentional or not, but I had to go all the way down to the fortress basement, then climb up a spiraling staircase to get to the top of the observation tower. It was altogether a 60 meter climb, but due to my pitiful strength, it took me almost fifteen minutes and two short breaks to ascend.

The design of the observation deck was very simple. There was a desk in the middle of the round floor, with several spyglasses placed on top. Two chairs that were probably used for the sentries on duty were placed next to the desk, but there was only one gargoyle present. Probably out of boredom, the gargoyle was reading a book.

He looked up for a brief moment when I came to the deck, but then continued reading his book after catching a glimpse of the badge general Denato gave me. I wonder if he even minds sitting under the sun all day long like this. The observation deck had no ceiling or windows, so there was no protection against the weather, other than two layers of doors at the stairs to prevent rain water from flooding in.

After picking up a spyglass to take a look at the supposed border, I learned that the battlefield was far more expansive than I expected. What was only a thin line on the map was more so a vast zone that spanned far beyond the 9 kilometers I could observe through the spyglass. Where the border began was simply a rally point for the troops that were to march far away to fight.

As a result of prolonged conflict, the observable fields were completely barren. All pathways were ravaged, the ground was stained dark, and all buildings and fortifications that were once in the battlefield were now in ruins. Even to those that did not take part in the fight, just looking at the state of the 9 kilometer strip of land was enough to make one recognize the destruction and chaos of warfare. How could the kings of both lands allow a war like this to continue even after seventy years? How could one let the maddening destruction persist like so?

"Do you believe in any gods, kid?"

The gargoyle suddenly broke the silence by asking me a rather strange question.

"If there were any, I'm sure they wouldn't have allowed a war like this to continue for so long."

He lightly chuckled at my response.

"Who's to say the gods were peaceful?"

"Well, I don't believe in any to begin with. Why do you ask?"

"Nobody knows why this war started in the first place, but most people say it's due to religious reasons."

"Is that so…"

I didn't really feel like telling the gargoyle that this couldn't have been the case, since it would most likely end up with me standing under the bright hot sun for a long time and sweating buckets.

Kitrod had one official state religion, worshiping the god of fortune, which everyone was encouraged to follow. There existed numerous other religions, but since they were not sanctioned by the state, they lacked funding and therefore had relatively low follower counts since it was difficult to spread. Nonetheless, the fact that a state religion did not necessarily mean that religious institutions had any power in society. Clergymen had no political power whatsoever, but were given a lot of guidance by the state, resulting in their teachings being skewed in such a way that devout followers were essentially brainwashed.

While the church could not decide on anything of the national level on its own, it would often be mentioned when wars occurred. For a kingdom as large as that of Kitrod, historical wars of expansion and rebellion were inevitable. Finding a valid casus belli was either difficult or time consuming, so the most convenient justification was simply because it was the "word of god." Wars in the history of Kitrod almost always had an excuse similar to "spreading the word of god to barbarians" or "ousting heretics in this land" to mask the true intentions behind them.

Nonetheless, from the interactions I've had since coming to Badoth, it was unanimously stated that the Kitrod side started the war seventy years ago. There were only two cases under which a war would ever occur: either a land was rebelling and the war was for quashing such rebellion, or a land had a great trove of treasures and the war was to expand into such lands to claim those desirable goods.

From what I recall, historical records from before Badoth was founded didn't seem to exist for some strange reason. Was the war with Badoth therefore considered a war of expansion for Kitrod, or was Badoth at one point allied with Kitrod state and now rebelling?

If it was a war of expansion, then there wouldn't be any reason to let it continue for so long, since the prospect of having this very strong state rebel in the future was very undesirable. If it was instead a rebellion, then I would have at least found some mention about the crimes of Kitrod in Badoth's records, or basic information about the geography and population of Badoth in Kitrod's records, yet neither of these existed.

The fact that devils and the undead existed and walked freely here, and that Badoth was officially a non-religious state, was most likely used as an excuse for Kitrod to wage a "crusade against heretics" in Badoth, but what was the true motive behind the war? What was there to gain?