Awa Army Confirmed, Bearing 136, Distance 420,000

[Core Room]

"A large force spotted beyond Kōnodai, off in the direction of Sō, near Chiba. Distance 420 km. For a traveler, it's a ten-day journey to reach here."

Mint reported. Gathered in the Core Room were the Master, Marie, Mint, and Rāja.

"They'll likely need fifteen days to reach Tsuji Village. A march of five or six ri a day. They can't manage the eight to ten ri a day of a daimyo procession that lodges at post-stations. Even with a highway, the Roman army made about 25 km a day, so with baggage and the need to bivouac, that's about the size of it."

Rāja estimated the projected day of arrival.

"Beyond the planned site of Nishi Village is outside the dungeon's sphere of influence, after all. We've no choice but to wait."

"Mint-san, can't you scout with a drone?"

"Its cruising range is a little over 100 km, so on a one-way deployment, flying it from the planned site of Nishi Village, I could confirm as far as just past Hiratsuka. But Chiba is too far."

"How great are their numbers?"

"Director-dono, it's far too distant to say anything with a telescope. The fact that they're visible at all suggests there must be several thousand, but…"

The common wisdom holds that with a spyglass a woman must look only at scenery and a man only at women, but since Mint is strictly without sex, either is possible for her. Still, even with the 400 mm-aperture telescope brought over from the cultural center in Tier-Group 455, at a place 400 km off it's simply too far, and with the atmosphere interfering as well, the enemy's numbers can't be made out.

"Taking Awa's population at six hundred thousand, there'd be perhaps ten thousand foot-soldiers and light infantry, but they can't send the whole lot off on campaign. Adding the menials, the servants, and the baggage train, their mobilization capacity is probably around fifteen thousand. Counting Sō, twenty thousand would be a full mobilization; thirty thousand and they're straining considerably. Conversely, ten thousand or fewer and they'd be keeping a fair amount in reserve."

Rāja continued.

"If adventurers and mercenaries join them at Kōnodai or Hiratsuka, the number will swell a little more, but since this dungeon is famous for 'taking no prisoners,' the mercenaries who join are likely to be few."

As Mint says, no prisoners are taken. It's simply that we don't fight the sort of battles where prisoners would be taken.

"If they mean to attack us in earnest, they'll mobilize everything; if it's a mere threat or some faction running wild, the numbers will be small. Fitting, seeing as it's Bōsō."

Marie, too, found it hard to judge.

"And yet the ninja are left to roam free, you know."

So said Mint.

"On the face of it, they're doing nothing, after all. Ninja have no loyalty whatsoever to whoever hires them, so they're unlikely to readily carry out sabotage that would put themselves at a disadvantage. Besides, grasping every last ninja that's infiltrated is impossible."

"So then, the plan to repel them is…"

"Master, dropping them into a pit trap and burning them with books, 'he who burns books will come to burn people too,' is the basic tactic, but the enemy will surely be wary of that, and in this time of food shortage it'd be a waste to burn the enemy's provisions, so we'll consider other methods as well. In any case, let's solicit a great heap of stupid, no-good ideas and think up some clever scheme."

"Temporarily remove the bridge that crosses Minuma, south of Kishi Village, and into the marsh send electric eels… no, there aren't any, so we run 6600V of electricity drawn from the Core."

Mint's proposal.

"Pulverize the soil on both sides of the highway, mix in water to make quicksand, force them to walk only along the highway, and strafe them with machine guns from the flanks. We don't have machine guns, though."

Rāja continued in turn.

"Or, deliberately prepare a place with no cover. That's a fine idea, but the partwork encyclopedias have no firearms in them, you see. Shall we compound some gunpowder, lay out a minefield, and blow them sky-high?"

Mint mulled it over.

"It also depends on how much the enemy knows about dungeons, or about this dungeon in particular. If we could turn their knowledge against them…"