To Save My Favourite Character, I Decided To Destroy the Game’s Plot

A huge army of up to 1,000 people gathered on the plain.

When I was still a junior high school student in Japan, I once stood on a stage in the school gym for a club activity award ceremony.

At that time, I was nervous standing in front of several hundred people, but now, the scene was even more spectacular.

　This scale would be equivalent to a regiment in the modern army.

　The fact that even this is only a part of the whole, with the main chain of command and its direct reports gathered together, shows the intensity of this war.

The joint training session for the war against the Kingdom of Meltor is about to begin.

We lined up in front of O'Brien and waited for his words without a single word of private conversation.

"The training to be conducted this time is for coordination in the case that the enemy pushes into the vicinity of the fortress. In a real battle, this will be the final line of defense. If this point is breached, we will be forced to fight a long and difficult siege."

　His voice is calm, cold, and one-sided.

It is not loud and intimidating, but it carries a weight that seems to control everyone who hears it.

I have seen my fair share of battles over the past two years, and I have experienced this kind of sensation on several occasions.

　A sensation that inspires allies with a feverish excitement.

　A feeling that gently envelops feelings of anxiety and fear.

　The influence on subordinates varies greatly depending on the qualities of those who stand above them.

　In Schneizel's case, his overwhelming charisma raises the voltage of his allies beyond the limit, while he gives a sense of despair to his opponents.

　This is probably the result of his big-brotherly nature and his strongest-class abilities. As a motivator, his influence is top of the line.

　---I see.

If we can infer a person's character from his mood, this sense of cold domination is the essence of O'Brien as a person.

"That's the whole story. If there are any questions, I'll answer them now, but... there don't seem to be any. We will now begin the training. Move to your positions".

　The moment O'Brien gave the order, a moderate tension ran through the entire group.

　The body, driven by a sense of control, draws out the maximum performance that each individual is capable of.

　The result was--...

"That guy's amazing!"

　Doyle muttered to himself. That's no wonder. A huge crowd of what seemed like a thousand people immediately deployed and took up a defensive formation.

　The formation chosen was probably similar to the Japanese "Tsurutsu-no-Yabu no Zumi" (crane-wing formation).

　The formation, so named because it resembled a crane spreading its wings when viewed from above, was deployed widely to the left and right to intercept the enemy forces that were charging toward them.

　It takes a certain amount of time for 1,000 densely packed people to deploy widely. If they do not synchronize with their surroundings, they could collide, or worse, dozens of them could collapse on top of each other as in a pile-up.

O'Brien's army was able to deploy in less than a minute.

O'Brien looked over the completed formation from all sides, and once it was judged that there were no problems, they spread out again to form the next formation.

　During the spread, Doyle opened his mouth again.

"Captain, look at that."

　Doyle pointed with his chin at an old man who appeared to be the commander of a nearby unit. The soldier was coordinating with the troops at a distance with a gesture of his arm and moving his men quickly with skillful maneuvering.

If one looks, it seems that not only the person in question but all of O'Brien's direct subordinates are doing the same.

Perhaps a specific arm gesture is used as a code, and the unit commander next to him receives the code and passes it on to the next unit leader, enabling instantaneous information transmission.

　I had no idea that they were communicating information and changing formation at the same time.

　It is a little different from reading two books, but in terms of multitasking, it must also be an incredibly burdensome task.

　At a glance, there are dozens of people who can do it with ease. The excellent men and women who lubricate the army are able to get information out to the entire group within five seconds of O'Brien's instructions.

'It's like a living organism," O'Brien remarked. It's amazing, it flows so beautifully."

　Kaine, too, rolled his eyes in amazement, and then began to carefully observe the movements of O'Brien and the unit commanders.

Kaine, who had been the leader of a unit that conducted security operations in the underworld, found some of this useful.

"Captain, you'd better take a good look at them,. If he's that short and skinny, the old man was able to compete with General Galdias in his prime in terms of his command skills alone. You have a lot to learn from him."

"Yes, he does. I'm a little surprised that it's better than I thought it would be."

No, this is really amazing.

　O'Brien, then unit commander, then general soldier.

　If any part of this flow were not excellent, it would not be possible to change the formation so perfectly.

Not only O'Brien, who gives orders, and the unit commander, who communicates those orders to the entire unit, but also the general soldiers who receive the information at the end of the process are extremely skilled.

　I have never seen a unit that can move like this.

　Well, the most impressive one is the unit commander.

　They are able to convert the codes shared among unit commanders into information that even ordinary soldiers can understand, and after passing it on, they are able to move their units in an appropriate manner.

I wouldn't be able to do that either if I were told to do that right away.

Another new order comes from O'Brien.

The troop leader who was closest to me immediately spread the information---then just a few dozen seconds later, the order was spread throughout the entire unit.

The commander of the unit to which we belonged gives us an order while keeping in step with the surroundings.

, "The infantry will fall back, and the heavy infantry will take their place in the front line. We will fall back quickly."

「「「「「 Ha! 」」」」」

, "This is just a training exercise, but in a real battle, there would be a strong wind and bows would be flying! Don't be stupid enough to die from friendly arrows!"

「「「「「 Ha! 」」」」」

The troops including us ten of us fall back, and the heavily armed infantry move forward to replace them.

　Just after we finished switching ranks, Kaine tilted his head curiously.

"Why take such a risk?"

　Doyle responded.

"This kind of offensive and defensive replacement is a good way to create a gap," Doyle said. "Unless you have some kind of check on the enemy, they will use magic or bows to destroy the board."

"I see."

The war in this world is complicated because of the magic involved.

　The main advantages of activating the wind attribute magic in this situation are twofold.

　One is to check the enemy. The meaning is as Doyle explained.

The other, which is limited to highly skilled troops, is a check that also serves as an attack by means of a combined technique with the bow.

　The other is a check that also serves as a combined attack with the bow, which is limited to highly skilled troops.

　This will extend the range of arrows to our side only, allowing us to switch ranks while attacking unilaterally.

Well, because of the danger of misfiring, this is an option that only a skilled unit can take, but I'm sure O'Brien would do it.

　Yeah, I'm sure O'Brien would do it.

The substitution is perfect, and it's a really obnoxious, lean command capability.

　With this, he has both Schneizel and Almire as trump cards, and he won't lose unless there's too much at stake, but...

　But there's that much more to it.

Well, let's see what will happen.

️

　Then, after an hour or so of training and a short break, we were given a longer lunch break.

　Having been on the move all morning, we sat down on the plains and went into full rest mode.

　I breathed a sigh of relief as I looked around.

　Merchants who travel to war-torn regions must be extremely business-minded. They were showing their resilience without regret here as well, and it seemed that they had found a commercial opportunity even in this joint training exercise, and there were several food stalls lined up on the plain.

They must have been looking for a perfect time to have lunch.

　In fact, their desperation and greed for money is amazing because the meejis sold like hotcakes.

　------Well, it was a good thing I asked Misha to make lunch for me.

I had already had lunch prepared, so I decided to take it easy and have a leisurely lunch....

"Boy."

"Ah, Master Schneizel!"

　Schneizel stopped me.

　What's going on? Was it to confirm the afternoon training?

　I stopped reaching out to grab a loaf of bread and waited for him to continue.

'We're going to the bakery."

"What? No, I've already got some."

"No, you don't. The owner of the stall over there is a guy who quit the military about six months ago, and he used to be a top official in O'Brien's administration".

"Oh, ------, huh? Is this for Real?"

"Oh, yeah. I finally tracked him down, and since he was so close, I thought I'd ask him a few questions."

"I see---I understand. I'll go then."