Tsuki – Chapter 359: Towards Independence ②

TLN: Hey guys, apologies for the short chapter!

But don’t worry, I will make sure next release will be a double! Do look forward to that.

Enjoy the chapter~!

Maxon Riny was praising his decision yesterday with all he had. 

His whole platoon is currently running away at full speed.

“Captain! It really is okay to be running away like this I hope!” 

“If you wanna go back, I won’t stop you! At the very least, what he has said until now hasn’t been a lie! It was nice knowing you, Ura!”

“What would it even achieve with just small splinters like us running away?!!” 

“Don’t know! If you wanna ask, try asking the guys at our side that are also running away, Amilla!” 

“If I survive today…” 

“Shut up! Don’t say anymore than that! Rush to the wall in front with your mouth shut! That’s the only thinking you need to do, Dendo!” 

Even when completely armed and running at full speed, they can converse. 

If they had been slacking in their training, it wouldn’t have been possible. 

While thinking ‘are you all combat virgin greenhorns?’, Maxon responded to every comment of his platoon members. 

The ritual spells, that were shot matching the theatrical movements of Rembrandt’s projection, should have disappeared…but they landed instead. 

These people, who had already heard the codes and signals within the speech of Rembrandt, were running at full speed to the location of the wall that they got a grasp on. 

It looked like they were rushing in, but that was the sprint of deserters. 

Maxon, who received a letter from Tsige, was at a loss in the middle of the march and at the ends of it, and even when seeing the wall.

Aion was leading a fearsome amount of soldiers to crush Tsige. 

Putting it bluntly, this scale isn’t one you would dispatch to seize one city. 

It is on the level where you would have to say it is for the decisive battle against demons, in order to finally sound believable.

Even if there’s the chance it is because they are fighting both Tsige and the revolutionary army, the platoon captain Maxon couldn’t understand. 

However…he was okay till the last night before the battle.

The reality of the situation made him resolve himself to desert. 

Being specialized the most in information battles, they would strip the plans of their enemies and conquer them with numbers; that’s the invincible strategy of Aion.

And yet, Maxon had been suggested to desert, and he led his platoon without being blamed or interrogated.

(He really had something set up! If he can shoot ritual magic as he wishes, it won’t even be a fight!!) (Maxon)

Maxon had seen how the cavalry that charged to the giant walls from the forefront had disappeared.

And then, one of his subordinates reported to him screaming that the mages that were readying to reflect the next volley of ritual spells had been slain. 

Even though the mages had begun chanting their arias in order to fulfill their duties, the people that were supposed to be protecting them swung their assassin daggers. 

It is easy to understand what happened.

Maxon also understood by just thinking for a bit. 

If they can’t buy off the mages, they can buy off their guards and have them kill the mages.

It is simple. 

It is a truly simple and good idea. 

(But how are they going to protect themselves against ritual magic if they kill our mages?! Accepting a deal to betray us even though they themselves are going to die…is that even possible?!!) (Maxon)

There’s no strange point about the wall of Tsige aside from its scale. 

It is hard to believe that the cavalry and the foot soldiers managed to slip through it, but at the very least, it looks normal.

There’re pillars that look like towers at a set distance and, between those pillars, there’re walls as if covering those spaces. 

And Rembrandt must have mixed code words within his speech.

(…He must have set up things while we were marching, before we departed, and even in the response at the war council. I could only decipher a part of today’s speech! If I got it wrong, that would be so stupid! 12th wall, blue flag; I already have no choice but to go!) (Maxon)

Trump cards being revealed in the battlefield is something common. 

Aion didn’t let those trump cards be flipped, and that’s how they have made it this far. 

Right now Maxon is running to the Tsige side before their next card is opened. 

Chanting desperately: Hurry hurry hurry!

Before they shoot the next one, before he dies, for the sake of surviving. 

At the very least, their betrayal most likely hasn’t been discovered yet, so there was no need to worry about their back. 

Maxon’s platoon is running away from the battlefield, but in the eyes of their allies, it looks as if they are bravely charging forth. 

However, there’s no knowing what will happen once the confusion within the Aion army calms down.

“Captain!!” 

“What, Amilla?!” (Maxon)

“There’s movement in the outer wall! Looks like the defense unit has come out!” 

“Damn it!” (Maxon)

Actually, when Amilla asked the question ‘what would it even achieve with just a small wood chip like us running away’ just a while ago, he noticed one of the reasons. 

Basically, they are not an important component that would affect their plans. They were selected simply because they are part of the battlefield.

If they survive, they are welcomed with open arms; if they die, that’s a shame. That’s all the worth they are being seen with. 

Such an unimportant factor in fact…that they didn’t even contact them at all and stretched the decision till the actual day. 

How Tsige was acting even with the difference in power did make him feel vexed, but it is now that Maxon was biting his lips. 

(‘You guys are a bit diligent and practice hard, so we will at least send a letter to you guys’, is the kind of feeling you had, right?! Aah, damn it damn it damn it! …? Oi oi oi oi oi! Is there no strategist with a heart in Tsige?!) (Maxon)

If he had responded to the letter a bit faster while considering the risk of still having doubts, the treatment they received might have been a bit different. 

While holding this regret in his heart and cursing it, what Maxon saw was…Aion soldiers that have prepared equipment for long range attacks.

They are standing on the outer wall and looking over here.

“?! On occasions like this, what happens to the Blessing?!” 

“…That thing normally doesn’t disappear till the time runs out. In other words…” 

“Fighting between Blessing holders then?!” 

“And our goal is visible now. Looks like the personality of our new home is several times worse than our higher ups!” 

There’s no doubt that the soldiers who can do long range attacks are being ordered to deal damage to the Aion army from there till their Blessing runs out. 

Maxon felt a chill from the very depths of his body. 

Bad personality and underhanded were the words that surfaced, but they were cheap words that were far from describing the true nature of all this. 

It is as if they are saying ‘whether it is things or people, we will use them effectively despite the means’. 

Methods that one can’t feel emotions from, counting the plan of making the guards of the ritual mages turn. 

‘I don’t want to make an enemy out of them’.

The true feelings in Maxon’s heart leaked out.

“If they begin attacking now, it will be a gamble to even try to reach them!” 

“What are you talking about?! It has been like that since the very beginning! We talked about that last night! Even if we get out of this safely, there’s the possibility of us getting assassinated by Aion spies! We were putting our lives on the line the moment we made our decision, so don’t think about gambling or whatever!” 

‘It is okay. If we can get through the first volley, we will make it in time. Just one last push’.

He says this as if trying to encourage himself, and increases his speed.

It is the last push.

““!””

Arrows and spells passed right overhead the many groups that were running parallel to them and the ones coming after.

Relief came over the people that were giving their last push for an instant only.

And then, Maxon and his group resolved themselves and crossed the wall.

They don’t know what lies on the other side of the wall.

But now that they have crossed the walls, it is settled now. They have safely succeeded in deserting.

◇◇◆◆◇◇◆◆◇◇◆◆◇◇◆◆

“Ooh, good work! Sorry for asking you as soon as you got here, but can you let go of your weapons only?” 

“Haaah haaah haah haaah…” 

“Even when having the Blessing, it was still rough to run all the way here, huh. Uhm…Maxon Riny. Platoon Captain. Got it.” 

Without even having the leeway to respond, Maxon lets go of his weapon while wheezing. 

The chief members, seniors, and newly joined soldiers followed the action of their captain and let go of their weapons.

The fact that they don’t tell them to take off their armor must mean that they will be ordered to attack their comrades, is what the people who still had the leeway of thinking understood. 

“To think that…you would know the name…of someone like me… I am surprised.” 

“Of course we would. If you were to enter here without us having previous knowledge, we would have to dispose of you.” 

“…Right.” 

Maxon looks around the place.

There were Tsige soldiers with clearly better equipment than them in battle position.

Even though Maxon had the big advantage of having the Blessing, Maxon had no motivation to do anything…

(Of course you would be killed if you weren’t called.) 

Now that he looked properly, he could see the corpses of Aion soldiers. 

That must be how they are being disposed of. 

Maxon felt a chill, reminded that these bunch are thoroughly unpredictable. 

And then, he caught the mountain-like amount of food at the corner of his vision.

“? Why is there food at a place like this?” 

“It is the share of you people. We are comrades from today on, right? We also have good quality tents for you guys -though you will have to set it up yourselves.” 

“…Aren’t we going to be made to attack the Aion army from on top of the walls?” 

“Hoh, you have a somewhat decent head there. But your turn is still a few ways ahead. Once your turn comes, we will call you, so go ahead and finish setting up your sleeping quarters before that. You can get food if you go over there and tell them your numbers. Can you prepare the water yourselves? If you can’t manage to obtain enough for a platoon, we can provide some assistance…” 

He was decently frank, and also business-like. 

The man told them the methods of contact.

“You…seem to be pretty strong. Are you an adventurer of Tsige?” 

‘Don’t think of adventurers that challenge the wasteland as people. They are already half demonic beasts at that point’, this is what the people of Aion whisper about them.

The person standing in front of him with a wooden binder in hand wasn’t giving out such a lukewarm feeling like that. 

He felt like, even if his whole platoon were to surround him, they wouldn’t be able to win at all. That’s the kind of bottomless power he was feeling from him.

It couldn’t be helped that he would end up thinking about the adventurers who challenge the wasteland and are crazy in the head.

“No, I am a hired one -a mercenary from a minor rural place.” 

“…I see.” 

‘What a load of bull’, is what Maxon thought but didn’t pursue the topic. 

Not telling him now means that he has no intention to.

“Oh, the uninvited pattern, huh. I shouldn’t be getting happy, but it makes me feel relieved that the plan of that man has slipped a bit. Well then, see ya, Maxon. Take a nice rest and prepare for battle.” 

The sounds of battle began to resound slightly further away.

The man gave the binder to the woman by his side and ran to the place where the sounds came from.

Comparing the sprint of Maxon and his group to the speed of his run would be insulting. 

“For now, we managed to stay alive. But I don’t know if I should say that we are safe now. What do you think?” 

“Who knows. Battles are at times tipped by luck. We are currently on the advantage, but we don’t know about what it will be like later. I think you should cooperate with all your abilities in order to actually think you are now safe.” 

“Clashing people who have Blessings, huh. Counting the hit with the ritual magic as well…today’s battle is definitely your win.” 

There’s no way a war of this scale will be wrapped up in one day. 

It is true that there’s no knowing what will happen in the future, but it is clear that the winner of the first strike was Tsige. 

Maxon thought that the winner of the first day was already clear.

“…Just that…” 

“?” 

“You people are without doubt lucky that you safely managed to get here in this phase.” 

“What do you mean by that?” 

“My superior said that ‘tipped by luck’ means that you must deal with the irregular factors of the battlefield.” 

The woman that had been given the binder was in truly lightweight equipment. 

She doesn’t look like an adventurer or a soldier.

The judgment of Maxon told him that she is a merchant that has been hired for the battlefield.

“Irregulars, huh. Well, it is true that that’s one thing.” 

“Yes. All other factors can be controlled to a certain extent and be predicted, so the only thing that’s scary in the battlefield are the irregular factors, is what he said.” 

“…”

“In this time’s war, our superior proclaimed: ‘The biggest irregular factor of this war has already been held back. As for the other slight swings…we can manage with preparation’.” 

The woman speaks indifferent as she glances at the direction that has now gone silent. 

Even if there’s no knowing if it was a platoon or a squad, they still managed to suppress them way too fast. 

Maxon and his group could only show wry smiles as if they didn’t understand what was going on anymore. 

“…”

“It is far above my capabilities, but it seems like our top has already seen the conclusion of this battle. I may be speaking out of line here, but he almost never misses in his predictions, so I am sure there will be a good future for you guys as well. Depending on the work you do, that is.” 

“By the way, who is your superior?” 

“The representative of the Rembrandt Company, Patrick Rembrandt.” 

“…Aah, I see.” 

“Also, Aniki-sama seems to have forgotten to say this, so I have one thing to add.” 

“Yes?” 

“A second betrayal won’t be forgiven. If you are going to betray Tsige, prepare for the consequences.” 

“Understood.” 

A person who has betrayed will betray again.

There’s that notion, but it seems like Tsige is tolerant of the first one.

Even if it was just lip service, it is true that their hearts after betraying the Aion army got slightly lighter from those words.

“Now then, the first thing we will have you do is take a good rest.” 

The cool woman and the Tsige soldiers that were semi-encircling them disperse. 

Maxon was surprised without end at the unbelievable treatment they are being given in the good meaning of the word.

“You heard them. We are gonna eat and rest first!” 

The words of the captain resonated in all the survivors of the platoon, and cheers were raised. 

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93 thoughts on “Tsuki – Chapter 359: Towards Independence ②”

  1. That’s how I played one of the Total War games. I think it was Shogun 2. I’d just build improvements and bribe enemy soldiers instead of creating units.

  2. Alright who is taking, It’s hard to understand. I don’t care if he is random characters, give them a name, atleast give them a number.

  4. goddamn rembrandt is a fucking genius! He let his enemies armies get all the high spec stuffs and buffs and then stole them and have them fight with their buffed stats! Seriously who the hell give this guy the impetus to have such tactic be borned in his head…oh yeah it’s all our mc’s fault oh well

  6. I’m still waiting for the dragon knights to show up. lol Especially to see the faces of aion, that lorel union decided to side with tsige. XD

  7. I am still worried about Charmed people though.They really need some kind of detector, like towers or something to sense poor charmed idiots

    1. You do realize that it’s easy to find them out if you are searching for charm magic right? And they are oozing with that.
      Also Tomoki won’t send people charmed to Tsige because that is Makoto territory.

      1. Tomoki probably being warned by lily to not use his charm direct or indirectly into Makoto domain which is Tsige and Rosgard

  9. I honestly don’t understand why there are deserters. This is a 200k vs 20k with a wall. Yes they have a wall but you are 200k strong.
    Unless of course the letters were given only to those that would definitely be chosen to be the forerunners at the start of the war. And the letters said something like since you guys are the forerunners and will definitely die in the first clash, why not desert and get a chance to live. Something like that?

    2. Ok, it is a 200k vs 20k, but the Aion side has no strategy at all, and the deserters knows that. Also they know that Tsige isn’t showing everything they got and had prepare some good strategy. It’s a gamble in the end, of course, but it makes sense, the odds are in favor of the desertion

    3. They relly too much from Goddess blessing, and when the Main Weapon that is Mages’ attack rendered useless, small platoon would have no choice but to fight head on in front of a giant wall without a single gate.

      Now, imagine their survival rate as a small platoon in that scenario until the wall get broken.
      They aren’t thinking about their win rate, they only think their own survival.

  13. Bribe everything.
    I didn’t get how they passed the walls though? The whole chapter and even before this didn’t mention any gates opening, or i could have missed it, but it’s not. They literally said they passed the walls? Might need a revision in those. This is confusing.

    Also the last chapter. It is very hard to trace who’s talking to who.

    1. It might be a hidden military pass of some sort.

      IMO it’s something typical for pseudo-medieval settings especially in isekai.

      If there aren’t any then authors just make it possible to scale the walls and go over them XD

    2. I think it is a section of the wall without the jewel that makes the wall resistant and then they will repair it with magic, it can also be a passage because it says something like that the wall opened

    3. I mean they used illusions to project a giant version of Rembrandt, so why couldn’t they simply break apart some of the wall and cover it up with illusions? That would explain how the soldiers passed through the ‘wall’

  14. So they aren’t playing shogi boxing, they are playing literal shogi while the opponent is playing chess. Brilliant.

      1. Then most distinctive feature of shogi is the ability to take control of your opponent’s pieces and place them as your own.

    1. This happened all the times on the battlefields of medieval and renaissance Europe. Especially at the height of the mercenary armies. You could offer higher pay to enemy mercs or mercs would side with the other guy if you failed to pay them.

    1. Whip and sugar method…sounds good.

      With this, their chances of betraying Tsige are practically nil, seeing as their wills have been broken and were treated very well despite their actions.

  21. Thanks for the chapter!

    It was weird chapter. Also, I have no idea who were the guy that received them or the girl that spoke later.

  25. Para que recuerden que hay en total 2 apostoles de la diosa, la que esta con Aión y la otra? Sospecho que sera la nueva integrante del grupo de hibiki.

    1. I need to ask since I always see Spanish comments around. If you read a novel in English, why comment in Spanish?

  29. For me, knowledge is power.
    For the betrayal of Maxon, for them to be treated good in the midst of war, whatever information on them was perfectly helpful in the battle, even though Rembrandt already some predictions on the war.

    The good thing is, they will know some of the internals of Aion side from maxon. By treating them good, they will loose their mouth to openly speak of those crucial attributes and properties of how Aion manages their war against tsige…

  39. The foods they are seeing, isnt that the karaage of mio lol,

    Wonder if demons will use this opportunity. Though they know that tsige is makoto’s territory.

    I would like to see a three prong war and also, can makoto handle the apostle to make it a normal war, if that apostle’s enter the war, it will be like the stella fort war that the devil decimated.
    An imbalance war, i hope it will be a strategy vs strategy not a kaiju battle

  43. This Maxon guy is quite genre-savvy. Stopping his subordinates before they can finish saying the whole, “If I survive this then I’ll do X.” right before dying.

    OK so now I get what happened. Tsige sent offers to many groups that they thought would be likely to betray which seems like there were actually a lot given how Aion runs things left many people dissatisfied enough to accept the offer of betrayal and they were secretly told about where to go with code words in Rembrandt’s speech. Meanwhile the ritual magic users didn’t seem like they’d betray so Tsige instead went after the people guarding them and getting them to turn and kill the mages they were supposed to be guarding which made it so that those guys wouldn’t be able to chant the counter-ritual spells to stop Tsige’s own ritual magic.

    I’m still not sure how these guys crossed the wall though. I was under the impression it was a solid wall.

    Well anyways now the guys who’ve betrayed will be used to help fight Aion while they still have the Blessing active and powering them up. Imagine if they use ritual magic in that state? Ritual magic is already very powerful by itself but now Aion’s side has lost their squads that are meant to counter ritual magic and Tsige’s side have people with Blessing active on them that can power up the ritual magic that Aion is now defenseless against.

    So are that one mercenary and lady that Maxon talked to supposed to be anybody we know?

    1. Sounds like Maxon said there were gaps between the wall and the watchtower, that could only be seen from up close, and the wall is massive, so finding them while running for your life, is only down to luck or receiving directions.

  44. In a previous chapter I did not explain my point about why the children of the orphanage and in general the world of the bitch goddess are disgusting

    90% of this story, we see it from Makoto’s point of view. And the author always reminds us of one thing

    contradiction

    Makoto has been praised by the gods themselves for being able to analyze his surroundings very well and have a good head.

    but the makoto from the beginning and the makoto from now are very different

    Before Makoto evaluated everything: with Japanese morals and teachings but now he tries not to think about it anymore and only a false morality acts automatically

    Those children gave Makoto the worst first impression, the boys attacking him with force and even using blunt objects under the excuse of playing and the girls offering themselves as lovers, to a makoto who suffered a great disappointment after seeing how on one night Iroha (who was a reflection of his old self) changed and lost her innocence and let her mother die, worse still iroha and izumo finished with Haruka.

    In all that world the only childs that he barely recognized as Japanese childs were Iroha and Rinon but now only Rinon.

    In the extras, Makoto talks about his refusal to visit hyumans villages because he does not want to feel the looks of disappointment thrown by the children and the elderly when seeing that the great master of the Kuzunoha company who saved the villages or towns is a being

    Besides, it is not to their liking, hearing as daughters of the village chiefs that they are still childs they wish to marry their kuzunoha employees.

    Makoto will not hit or attack those children but not expressing any desire to visit the orphanage or any specific child that called his attention as was iroha. That shows that for Makoto they are only hyumans of the heap without salvation.

    Only help out of moral obligation nothing more

    Finally, this applies to his best students: leaving aside the rembrant, only jin x his connection with Sophia and izumo are the ones who have shown some interest the most

    mizura x his religious family and daena x being a father of a family already married.
    Makoto feels rejection of both of them for going against Japanese morality and not to mention Amelia, who is the worst in his eyes, so he leaves her at the hands of Shiki. She was the one who had the most negative opinion towards makoto in the first class and her last name hopelace makes him rejection even more unconscious.

    Although the god-level bad luck that makoto possesses is harsh, it will always act against her, surrounding the protagonist with garbage and disgusting hyumans from children, youth, adults and even the elderly.

    1. this one i agree more with but there are still parts disagreeable.
      those kinds of people exist in modern society more than you know.terms like gold digger,burriko,green tea b*tch wouldn’t exist otherwise.
      The mc at early stage only met those who were particularly honest/straight forward like mio,tomoe who wouldn’t twist things.shiki too was evil but did exactly what he said.The issue he faced was when he met two faced insidious ppl who do things underhandedly/indirectly,like Zara or tomoki.Recall how they investigated Rembrandt and realized he was a bad person but kept silent about it as mc was naive and trusted him and that he was useful to mc.That time’s mc had only one choice,to directly rush up to his enemy and crush them with pure brute force.
      Later on mc met even more problematic ppl like hibiki who was a perfect frenemy,mio helped him realize this again cuz he was naive then,the demon king’s daughter who was sent as a spy and to possible get him to align with the demons after maturing a bit it was tamaki who always seemed to be scheming something without ever revealing her true self.
      Now the more mature mc can understand the subtle undertones of their intentions and even accept that such ppl are common and to deal with them perfectly.Yea his noble side became more of a false morale obligation,him even becoming cruel(he loathed the tree punishment but now allowed it.) but this time isn’t based on some laws made by someone from another world but his own basic understanding of what is morale and not and what he wants to do or not.(How he decided the most effective punishment to pedo elf)
      And that is how kings are normally.right or wrong is decided by them and regardless of reality the entire thing depends on whether the king is pleased with it or not.This way he is more of a king now than before.

      and regarding iroha ,no arguments there except that while he did stop seeing her as one of his own ppl, he didn’t stop seeing her as a person who has good acquaintance with him

  46. when the apostle joins,
    aion will see another lake born.

    thank you for the chapters~
    stay safe and healthy everyone!

  48. Oooooh so thats what happened w the infantry passing the wall! Now i get it.

    Thanks for the ch!

    I’ll b ready to prepare popcorn for the next double release!

  52. It’s November 21! You know what happens!
    PADORU-PADORU-PADORU-PADORU
    .　∩　.∩　Thanks Nepu!
    　.い_cノ　／￣＞Ｏ Merry
    .c/･ ･っ　(ニニﾆ)△△　 Christmas
    .（”●” )　.(･ω･ )[∥]　　And A
    Ｏ┳Ｏﾉ)=[￣てﾉ￣￣]　　Happy
    ◎┻し◎　◎――◎=3　　 Nepu Year!
    PADORU-PADORU-PADORU-PADORU

    1. === And then, he caught the mountain-like amount of food at the corner of his vision.
      Ah, I know that things, it’s something brownish, that’s look like a chopped chicken, supplied by certain company, and HELLA DELICIOUS, right?
      @.@…

      2. i see… so now its the suspicious guy in the mask’s turn to brainwash them with food huh?
        wait, i do know that makoto doesnt wear his mask anymore in the academy, but how about when he’s in Tsige?
        i dont know, i might forgot several things because its been a long time since i read the academy town part…

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