Defense Operation (Day 2, Late Morning)

[Core Room]

"The enemy will arrive tomorrow evening. If we simply hole up in the dungeon, the fields we worked so hard for will be trampled. So, much as it goes against my wishes, we'll build a rampart and protect the fields as well."

"Marie-san, just the part of the hill where planting is finished, or the area around the hill that's still being leveled too?"

"If we make a rampart of the hill's foot, it doubles as a retaining wall, so it won't go to waste in the future either. We'll do just the hill itself."

Marie roughly traces a circle onto the hill's foot on the map.

"Six kilometers or so in total length?"

"Six kilometers, 238 meters, 18 centimeters, 5 millimeters… but the hill's diameter isn't exactly two kilometers, and it isn't a perfect circle either, so… no, here let's make the rampart a precise circle, like old Baghdad. To enclose the hill it'll be a bit larger than two kilometers across, so the total length is about seven kilometers."

"A rampart that long would need a great many guards. Can you summon them?"

"No. Because the librarian was replaced by the original monster 'Shiso,' the guards, who would likewise have been Ox-Head and Horse-Head, can't be summoned either. We need a method that doesn't require manpower. Better still, we could make it so high that not even a siege tower can reach the top."

Of course, the librarian, the guards, and the clerical staff were none of them supposed to be Ox-Head and Horse-Head, but that had already been forgotten.

[Higashimachi] The dungeon's east side, at the foot of the hill

"Even having decided to build a rampart, if we just line up wooden bookshelves turned backwards, it still looks like wood, so it looks breakable. With so few defenders, we can't afford to let them get close to the wall. A stone retaining wall that looks unclimbable would be best, but I wonder if I can even summon stone. A cinder-block wall might look the part. Or I could just go with a kenchi-ishi retaining wall, even if it's pricey."

Marie agonizes. Kenchi-ishi are the squared, or diamond-shaped, stone facings you often see along the side of a road.

"Marie, you don't actually have to build a stone wall. If you just level the steep slope at the foot of the hill and turn it into dungeon structure, the enemy won't be able to climb it. In fact, with a stone wall a ninja could climb by jamming a kunai into the gaps between the stones, but a slope that's become dungeon structure can't be broken, so there's no foothold to make. Even a ninja couldn't climb it."

"You mean, build an earthen embankment."

"In reality, in the Kantō, castles are normally earthworks. Hauling stone from afar is hard, never mind summoning it. An earthwork is usually forty-five degrees, but since it's dungeon structure there's no fear of it crumbling, so an even steeper angle should be possible."

"A steeper angle… we might as well make it vertical, like a Chinese rammed-earth or brick rampart."

Marie tries building, on a trial basis, a rampart with bookshelves lined up like a wooden fence atop a vertical earthen wall of dungeon structure. At the foot she sets a dry moat.

"This one looks to be about thirty meters. Knowing it won't break to an earthquake or a cannon, we're really doing whatever we please, aren't we."

"If a dragon came attacking it'd be another matter, but without a dungeon's unique laws, far from flying it would be crushed under its own weight. After that, we just keep extending the rampart around the hill by tomorrow evening. If we'd summoned stone for this, the dungeon energy wouldn't have been enough."

As Marie says, a dragon's flying and breathing fire are functions of a dungeon's unique laws; even a Named monster, once out of the dungeon, cannot defy the laws of physics.

"But if we don't strike back at all, they'll be able to get over the wall with so much as a ladder, never mind makeshift siege towers. The knight order is only twenty strong, we can't summon guards, and we'll have to recruit a defense force from the settlers."

"Rāja, setting aside the matchlock guns that don't exist, can the settlers use bows and arrows and the like?"

"Waving banners and standards to make it look as if there's a large defending force, and throwing stones when scouts come, should be enough. And we could adjust the aim of the rockets under Mint's direction."

"Rockets have low accuracy too. How to use them, when to use them, that's the crux. If we had tens of thousands we could fire them all at once like Stalin's Organ, but with our current numbers it'd come out like the American national anthem, 'the foe's host still stands.'"

[The Fields Before the Dungeon]

"And so, Secretary-General-sama wishes to ask for my cooperation?"

Marie requests the cooperation of Okada Tarōzaemon, the settlers' representative.

"Yes."

"But I am no warrior, so I cannot do a spearman's work."

"True, the separation of soldier and farmer may be the way of the world, but since the enemy has requisitioned a baggage train and even scraped together adventurers, we've no choice but to ask for corvée labor. War cannot be waged by warriors alone. There are many things I'd ask of all of you as well."

For reference: in this world, those who are not warriors consist of "peasants" living in villages and "townsfolk" living in cities, but the distinction is not as strict as China's urban and rural household registers. A merchant who lives in a village is a "peasant"; live in a town, and he becomes a "townsman."

"I have no objection myself, and with their own fields finally within reach, few are likely to refuse. Only, if there is such a one, I would ask that you permit him to depart quietly."

"If they won't fight, they're welcome to simply stay inside the dungeon. They can join the victory celebration, they just won't receive a reward… And if even so they choose to flee, we can't provide an escort as far as Iruma, but if that's acceptable to them, so be it. Also, fleeing to the east is forbidden."