It's April, and in the southern part of the Adelian peninsula, the plants and trees are beginning to bud.
　A season that can be as hot as summer in some days.
　At the same time as the creatures emerge from their burrows and begin their activities...

　Muzio Sulpicius Equus began to move.

　'His Majesty Almus has given me five hundred men. I am Rosward Calpurnius. It is my pleasure to meet you.

　Rosward thanked Muzio lightly.
　Muzio walked up to Rosward.

　''Best regards. I look forward to seeing you in action.'

　The two men shook hands with each other.
　Then Rosward took his seat.

　The people present were the chief vassals of the Equus tribe, the sorcerers, and the general sent by Rosward and Gehenna, the plenipotentiary of the Alyce tribe.

　''Now, let's begin our military discussion right away. Our strategic goal is the destruction of the Lupus tribe. We have one month to get this done.

　The longer the war goes on, the more deaths on both sides.　
　We want to avoid that as much as possible.

　The reason for this is the strength of the neighboring country the country of King Rosais.
　It's not that Muzio is not interested in fighting King Rosais' country, nor is he dissatisfied with its current semi-gentry position.

　The less populous Alvans would never be able to compete with the more populous Adelnians.

　Rather, they are happy that they were able to ride the winning horse early on.

　However, it is a bit of a problem if the national power gap is too wide.
　There are personal friendships between myself and Almus. At least, it will be safe while both of us are alive.

　But after the death of one of them, things are in jeopardy.
　After my death, will the Sulpicius Equus family maintain their position as a vassal state, or will they relinquish control of the country and become a nobleman.......

　Either way, the cards are many and the stronger the better.

　Taking in the Lupus and Ariace tribes as intact as possible and forming the unity of the Alva people.
　That was Muzio's goal.

　The first step is to have Gehenna attack the Lupus tribe. I'm not going to be able to get the best out of it. I'm going to have the Alyce tribe revolt against me. Then I'll take advantage of the confusion to attack them and cut off the heads of the Lupus Chief and his heir!

　The Alva region is small.
　And the Alva people are mounted nomads and their means of transportation is horses.

　Unless there is a stalemate, the war will end so quickly that it won't take the blink of an eye.

　'Then I wish you all the best, gentlemen!





　April 5

　Gehenna's army advanced to a fort built between the Lupus controlled territory and Gehenna.
　They stockpiled their troops and prepared to advance north.

　April 7

　The Lupus cavalry attack the fort with electrifying force.
　The battle begins.

　About 4,000 out of 10,000 marginal mobilization of the Lupus tribe surround the fort.
　Meanwhile, Gehenna's army is holed up in a fort of 2,000.

　The Lupus tribe's army is cavalry.
　They are useless in siege battles.

　On the other hand, Gehenna's army doesn't want to fight from the beginning, and they are holed up in the fort, consuming all the food they collected in the fort.

　The battle is brought to a standstill.

　April 14th

　Seven thousand Equus cavalry, led by Muzio, began to advance north.
　At the same time, the Arias, who had been oppressed by the Lupus tribe, revolted.






　''Begin throwing!

　Five hundred cavalrymen, led by Rosward, throw small ceramic jars filled with black powder, using pitchforks.
　Over five hundred bombs rain down on the Lupus tribe.

　In an instant, the smoke and sound of gunpowder dominates the battlefield.
　The sudden sound of the explosions startles the Lupus horses and they go wild.

　Some are shaken off their horses, others are kicked to death, and some are even crushed.

　The Equus and Alyce horsemen, who had taken up positions at a distance from the chaos of the Lupus tribe, charged at them.

　''Release arrows!

　He fires arrows at the confused Lupus tribe, and after closing the distance, he changes his weapon to a sword and tears its head off.
　The grassland turns red with the fresh blood of the Lupus tribe.

　''Retreat!　Retreat!

　A man of the Lupus chieftaincy muscle the man who was entrusted with the control of the Ariace tribe raised his voice and began to manage to retreat.
　But.........

　I don't think so.

　Muzio draws the arrow and lets the wind clothe the arrow.
　The wind-blown arrow spins around and pierces the man's temple.

　'The enemy general has been struck down by me, Muzio Sulpicius Equus!

　Muzio raised his voice, and the Equus and Alycees cheered.
　The Lupus tribe was demoralized and surrendered.

　Two thousand Lupus soldiers died in this battle, and a thousand who surrendered.
　The Lupus tribe had lost ten percent of its thirty thousand population.

　''Well, well, well!　You've been drinking!　Mr. Roseward!

　A drunken Muzio tangles with Rosward.
　Then he pours the drink into Rosward's empty cup.

　'Come, drink. For this victory is due to the fire elixir of the horsemen of your King Rosais' kingdom.

　'Hahaha........'

　Rosward laughs vaguely.
　He's used to dealing with drunks in Bartolo, so Muzio does the same.

　Rosward drinks the milky horse wine, frowning inwardly.
　Rosward's tongue and nose screamed as he became the wine of King Rosais' country.

　'By the way, is it time for peace?　You've already lost 10% of the population, haven't you?　The Lupus.
　Hmm?　What are you talking about? You're only down ten percent.

　Rosward couldn't believe his ears.
　Muzio drinks horse milk wine.

　'Lupus will try to make up for the loss, man. Once again, there's a big battle to be fought.'

　Unlike agricultural people, nomads are less likely to be hurt by a loss of population.
　If the labor force of an agricultural tribe is reduced, their food production capacity will decrease at once, but the food situation of nomadic horse nomads will improve if the population is reduced.

　
　This was because even if the Equus or Lupus clan was called the Equus or Lupus clan, not all of the Equus or Lupus clans were the Equus or Lupus clan.

　The reason is that the Equus nation is made up of a bunch of grape like clans with the most powerful Equus clan at the center.
　In fact, of the Equus, only about 10,000 belong to the Equus clan.
　The remaining 20,000 are minority clans.

　And this was the same for the Lupus.

　Therefore, if the ruled clan turned on the ruling clan and joined another clan, it would be an everyday occurrence that the population would decrease at once.

　This is the end of it all. Tomorrow, it will all be over.

　Muzio laughed inappropriately.


　April 15

　The clans subjugated to the Lupus tribe surrendered to the Equus clan one after another and swore vassalage.
　Out of about 30,000, 20,000 minority clans swore allegiance to the Equus clan.

　Only 3,000 of the 10,000 Rupus clans remained.

　''I will ask you first. Are you willing to surrender?　Chief of the Lupus tribe. If you surrender to me, I will not treat you badly. I swear to God.
　You don't think I'm going to believe that kind of sweet talk!

　The chief of the Lupus clan shouts out.
　The other men of the Lupus Clan concur.

　........However, Muzio did not miss the fact that half of those men were losing their energy.

　''Then we'll do this. Chief of the Lupus Clan. Would you like to fight me in a duel?　If I win, you all do as I say. If you beat me, I will retire quietly.

　Are you serious?

　I'm serious.

　From the look on Muzio's face, the clan chief realized that Muzio was serious.
　The two sides vowed to fight fair and square against the God of Battle and began to duel with both armies looking on.

　'I'll tell you at the outset. I will not use my blessings.
　You're gonna regret it.

　The two sides stared at each other, about thirty meters apart.
　They began to move, both at the same time.

　They kicked the horse in the stomach and closed the distance.

　''Die!
　'Hah!!!!'

　The swords of both sides crossed.
　The swords danced high in the sky and fresh blood stained the ground.


　''I've won!

　Muzio declared in high spirits.
　Thus, the War of Alvah's Unity ended in ten days.







　'How about it!　Isn't it great?

　When I asked for Muzio after the war ended, Muzio said with a smug look on his face as soon as I met him.
　There were three women on either side of Muzio.

　I recognize one of them. That's his wife, Raquela.
　Who are the other two?

　Ha, you've got to know what I mean!

　Muzio puts his hands around the hips of his two supposed new wives.
　Mr. Lakela is staring at him....


　Maybe one of them is a daughter of the Ariace clan.
　I had heard that she was going to sleep with the Lupus heiress.

　But the other one?
　Maybe she's a Lupus girl, but...
　Could it be the ex-wife of a Lupus clan chief?
　...it's possible.

　The Alvah's marriage customs seem to be very dark.

　Let's talk about the future.

　Muzio urged them to enter the little yurt (tent).


　'So, we have succeeded in uniting the Alvans. From now on, we won't have any more worries in our rear, and we can lend our troops actively.
　Thank God for that.

　But ... isn't the hard part not to unify it, but to maintain it?
　Especially the cavalry nomadic Alvans.

　'Well, about that I think there are two reasons why the Alvahs have been unable to unify, and when they do, they quickly revert back to the days of warfare.

　Muzio thrust his V in front of me.

　'One, the activity must be family or clan-based. Two, the ruling clan has tyrannical control.

　So you think you're going to rule differently?

　Yeah. I will rule the country by a thousand houses.

　Muzio began to talk about his plan.
　First, he would divide the men who belonged to the clans that now existed into as many as possible, as close to a hundred as possible.

　The resulting hundred houses would be assembled into ten units to form a thousand.
　This 1,000 house is the political and military unit.

　A leader will be chosen from among the 1,000 households every five years or so.
　This person will be the political and military leader of the 1,000 households and will have the right to attend tribal meetings.

　The clan system would not be dismantled immediately, as it was only a military and political unit, but the significance of the clan would change significantly.

　The king is elected by the Sulpicius Equus family from generation to generation.
　The king was elected by the tribal council.

　The king's term of office is for life.

　Isn't that going to be pretty repulsive?
　'It's better than what you're promoting. The first thousand houses will be made by clan. Even though it's called a thousand houses, there will be a lot of two thousand or five hundred people in each house. That's how we'll deceive you in the beginning.

　Well......
　Well, it's good, right?

　Let me know if there's anything I can do to help.
　'So how about you teach me about farming?　We're trying to grow the population.
　You could have given me a horse.