Debuff Master

The coalition of the Proatine Forces and the crusaders continued camping in front of the Capucines Territory. They did not budge an inch and instead spent their time leisurely playing chess, Hardstone, futsal, and mini-sports tournaments.

The atmosphere in the camp was so leisurely that it seemed like they were here on a picnic.

In fact, they even invited the top singers from the Marchioni Empire, such as Twilight, Boboland, and Black Velvet, to perform, which riled up both the soldiers and the crusaders.

Even Gringore made a special appearance and sang a ballad to soothe everyone, but he was met with booing and jeers from the crowd. The majority of the crowd was male, after all. The jeers and booing got so intense that Gringore had to rush down the stage to prevent a riot.

“I didn’t come here to watch a dude sing!”

“Boooo!”

“Get lost!”

“Hey! Get lost before I teach you a lesson!”

This wasn't strange, as there was no way the male soldiers and crusaders would want to listen to Gringore singing when multiple famous girl groups were here to perform.

“We are running low on food rations!”

“Our drinking water supplies are low! We are in much more dire need of water than food!”

“The enemies have blocked off the reservoir! Our wells have dried up!”

“What should we do, my lord?!”

The Capucines Territory running out of food and water was already set in stone. The city's population had exploded by a hundred thousand more than the original population, so their food stocks were dwindling fast.

Most of the people had come to the Capucines Territory without their belongings, so not only was food scarce but daily goods were starting to become scarce, too.

The sudden arrival of so many people meant that there wasn't enough lodging to house them, and the addition of one hundred thousand people was putting a strain on their public facilities, such as the toilets, sewers, etc.

If one person defecated at least once a day, then it meant that the sewers would have to handle a hundred thousand additional users.

Count Arial’s soldiers spent most of their time moving bucketloads of human excrement under the hot sun, which they'd often spill while moving, causing the entire city to reek of feces.

Moreover, the scorching sun made the elderly suffer heat stroke and faint. The able-bodied ones had to care for them while having to endure the stench of feces amidst the scorching breeze.

The Capucines Territory instantly transformed into a living hell.

Siegfried was not someone who would miss such an opportunity. He seized the suffering of the people by openly taunting them even more as if to rub salt on their open wounds.

He had a large blue parasol set up in front of the walls where it was easily visible and he had a tub filled with ice prepared for him. He took his shirt off, showing off his chiseled upper body. He was about to enter the ice-cold tub when he changed his mind and opted to sunbathe on a sunbed with tanning oil on his back while the ice in the tub was melting away.

“How is the breeze, Your Majesty?”

“Please allow me to make it cooler for you, sire! Hahaha!”

Siegfried had two soldiers fan him with large feathered fans.

“Hohoho! Please have a bite of this, Your Majesty!”

“May I apply more oil on your back, my lord?”

He even had beautiful women serve him snacks and drinks while applying oil on his back.

“I’ll leave my back to you, ladies!” Siegfried replied.

“Yes~ Leave it to us, Your Majesty~”

The beautiful women serving him brought ice-cold water and splashed it on Siegfried’s back to cool him down while he sunbathed under the scorching sun. His actions seemed very childish and foolish, but Count Arial’s blood pressure skyrocketed at the sight.

“That bloody bastard dares to…!” Count Arial gnashed his teeth at the blatant provocation that he almost commanded his soldiers to sally out and launch a full-scale attack.

Siegfried’s provocation was extremely effective. As childish as it appeared, such provocations were often used in war to taunt the enemy and make them commit mistakes.

For example, in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang provoked Sima Yi by sending him women’s clothes and a coffin when the latter had set up defensive positions and refused to come out.

Well, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms was just a novel as well, but anyway…

— Hey!

It was then that Siegfried used a magical megaphone and called out.

— Is it hot? Why don’t you ask your god to make it rain?

— Have you guys eaten? I hope you didn’t run out of food! Ah, I guess your god can turn rocks into bread or something, so maybe I’m just worrying too much. Whoa! That’s a very sustainable business if you think about it

— But your wells must’ve dried up by now, though… Is he giving you wine instead? I think he said he could turn sewage into wine or something? Oh well, not my business— Whoa! The water’s too cold! Eh? No, keep going. It’s too refreshing to pass up in this weather. Keke!

— You guys have to try this! Mint Chocolate Ade is the bomb!

It was then.

“I don’t think… I’m envious of that…”

“Bleurgh!”

“I was jealous earlier, but now… I’m not sure what to feel anymore… ”

“I thought royalty only ate the good stuff, but I guess that’s not the case…”

The soldiers manning the walls grimaced in disgust after seeing Siegfried gulp down his Mint Chocolate Ade.

“Huh? Was it something I said?” Siegfried muttered, utterly confused by the sudden strange reactions.

“Kyu!” Hamchi cried out and drop-kicked him.

“Ack!”

“Kyuuu! You stupid owner punk! Nobody will be jealous of that shit you’re drinking!”

“D-Damn you!”

“You’ve already done enough for today. All of your efforts can end up in vain if you keep doing stupid things like that! Let’s just go in and play Hardstone! Kyuuu!”

“A-Alright…”

Siegfried ended his "performance" and went to the tent to play Hardstone with Hamchi and the others.

For some reason, Siegfried’s right wrist was wrapped in bandages.

***

One day, two days passed, and ten days eventually passed since Siegfried’s "performance."

“...We somehow managed for a week,” Count Arial muttered under his breath while gnashing his teeth.

He had just returned from turning rocks into bread to feed his soldiers.

Two weeks had passed since the Capucines Territory had been surrounded by the enemies, but the coalition forces showed no signs of laying siege to the walls.

Meanwhile, Count Arial was forced to run around performing miracles such as turning rocks into bread, mud into meat, murky water into water, sewage into wine, summoning clouds to cover the scorching sun, making it rain when the air was too dry, and a bunch of other miracles.

He displayed his godly powers to his followers, and their faith in him grew by the day, but…

“Argh…!”

His forehead was throbbing in excruciating pain.

C-Chwak…!

A stream of white mana was flowing out from the third eye on his forehead, and this was the side effect of overusing his abilities. He had exhausted his third eye so much that the soul fragment embedded in his forehead had attempted to take over his body.

“That damned bastard…!” Count Arial growled in anger and gnashed his teeth while thinking of the meddling brat that was getting in his way.

Siegfried was certain the count’s powers were not omnipotent, so he continued to taunt him from afar without engaging in a fight. He knew the city would run low on food and water quite rapidly, so he was certain that they would sally out soon enough.

As despicable as it sounded, Siegfried was stubbornly exploiting the few weaknesses that Count Arial presented, and that despicable decision of his proved to be extremely effective.

The soul fragment in Count Arial was starting to run amok due to exhaustion, and he was having a hard time keeping it under control.

“Just a few days… Let’s just wait a few days more…” Count Arial muttered under his breath with a grimace. He was hoping that Siegfried’s certainty would turn into uncertainty, which would cause him to siege the walls.

***

The battle of wits and pride between Siegfried and Count Arial continued…

‘Do you really think you can stay cooped up in there for long? Why don’t you just crawl out while I’m being nice?’

‘Ha! Don’t make the mistake of thinking that I’ll sally out. Bring it on, you little brat. I’m going to destroy you.’

Neither of them attacked and simply waited to fight in a more advantageous position.

However, time was on Siegfried’s side.

“What Sieghart’s descendant is doing goes against not only the laws of this world but the laws of the universe.”

Siegfried knew through the information that he had obtained from Deus that Count Arial was not omnipotent. Thus, he held the advantage in the form of peace of mind. He was not in a rush at all, and he had also decided to take his sweet time.

Today was no different…

On the twenty-fifth day, Siegfried set up hundreds of barbecue grills in front of the walls and hosted a barbecue party with the soldiers and crusaders.

“Wow! This is really delicious! Look at those juices flowing!”

Of course, he did not forget to instruct the magicians to summon winds that would carry the delicious fragrance of meat being grilled over the city walls.

In the end, Count Arial was forced to gather his commanders and order a full-scale attack.

“Tonight… My soldiers will sally out to destroy my enemies. We cannot waste any more time, as the continent eagerly awaits my miracles. It seems the enemy has no intentions of attacking, so the time has come for us to leave these walls.”

“Oh! Our god has spoken!”

The commanders were in awe and praised Count Arial as if they were a bunch of zealots.

They seemed to not care at all that they were in a disadvantageous position. Their enemies had already set up fortified defensive formations and were basically just waiting for them to attack.

However, none of them were afraid, as they believed that they would emerge victorious as long as their god was on their side.

This proved that blind faith could be scarier than any other thing in this world.

***

Around one hour after Count Arial gave the command to prepare for an all-out attack…

“Your Majesty! We have detected large movements in the enemy camp!”

A herald rushed into the tent and delivered the report while Siegfried and the others were playing Hardstone.

“Finally!” Siegfried exclaimed and shot up from his seat.

Crash!

He ended up "accidentally" flipping the table upon hearing the delightful news.

The gold coins and cards scattered all over the ground as a result.

“Kyaaaaak! What the hell do you think you’re doing, owner punk?! That was definitely on purpose!”

“Your Majesty! You surely can listen to the report without flipping the table, no?!”

“What is the meaning of this?!”

Hamchi, Saintess Jannette, and Cardinal Shrink all protested in anger after Siegfried flipped the table.

Why?

It was all because Siegfried was losing badly, and he was about to lose a lot of money.

“All forces! Prepare for battle! Spread the word throughout camp! Hurry!” Siegfried commanded, ignoring the protests from the trio.

“Kyaaaak! Owner punk, you schemer!”

“Ahem… How could you do this?”

“Don’t you have any shame…?”

The trio criticized Siegfried, but he was far too thick-skinned to get affected by it.

‘Phew! I almost lost big time just now!’

Of course, he let out a sigh of relief and immediately convened an emergency meeting.

“Your Majesty… this plan you have prepared is…” Cardinal Shrink said with a grimace while staring at the map.

The map had a white horse that symbolized the rebels, a red horse that symbolized the coalition of crusaders, and a black horse that symbolized the Proatine Forces.

Nothing was out of the ordinary except for the black horse, which symbolized the Proatine Forces.

The trajectory of the black horse showed that they wouldn't be participating in this battle. In fact, anyone could tell that they were trying to take the backseat and just aid the coalition forces when they had to retreat.

“The way the Proatine Forces are positioned seems to…” Cardinal Shrink said carefully. Then, he looked at Siegfried and continued, “...show that our coalition of crusaders will be losing the battle?”

“Yes, you are correct, Cardinal,” Siegfried replied without a moment of hesitation.

“Pardon me? Are you saying that we will be defeated in this battle?” Cardinal Shrink asked with a grimace.

“Yes, we will lose tonight,” Siegfried replied with a nod.

“Why would Your Majesty say something as ominous as—”

“So what will happen is…” Siegfried proceeded to explain the rest of the plan to them.

***

C-Creaaaak!

On the same evening, the gates of the Capucines Territory opened and soldiers wearing the uniform of the Gray Family rushed out in droves.

“Three! Two! One! Fire!”

“Fire!”

The combined forces of the Proatine Kingdom and the various churches fired at the rebels sallying out from the gates.

The cacophonous cannon fire signaled the start of the Proatine Kingdom's civil war.

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