The ones who lost their composure the most in this situation were the Western Conscripts.
What about the Western Elite Soldiers who were being directly pounded by the battleships?
They had already been crushed under naval gunfire. The dead tell no tales.
The conscripts knew very well how strong those so-called 'Elite Soldiers' were.
After all, more than half of the Elite Soldiers who fought natives, monsters of the Arbel Mountains, and rebel armies every day on the Western Front were Aura Users.
Even if they were not knight-class, the Western Elite Soldiers had at least learned the basic Aura Breathing Technique.
Yet those very soldiers were being wiped out without any resistance.
It was only natural that the conscripts trembled with fear every time they saw explosions erupting inside the Canyon.
Because if those explosions turned toward them, their number of 30,000 would mean nothing.
Moreover, that was not all.
"Enemy forces!"
On the opposite side of the Arbel Plains, the Southern Army began to appear.
At the forefront were the cannons that had ground up the Wyvern Knights at Sarsen Harbor and during the night of Albion.
They had already heard rumors about how powerful those weapons were.
The story of how 5,000 infantry who had attacked Sarsen Harbor were swept away by just 300 infantry was already circulating quietly.
In such a situation, there was no way they would feel like fighting.
"Let's surrender."
Naturally, those words began to emerge.
The thought that they might surrender and then die if the Southern Army lost never even crossed their minds.
Moreover, all the conscripts understood their own situation well.
They were a 30,000-strong Shield meant to help the Elite Soldiers break through.
There was no way they could feel patriotism toward a motherland that had used them as Shields.
"Western Conscripts, listen! His Grace, Duke Kyle, knows that you did not come here of your own will!"
"Our army has come here to liberate our families, friends, and compatriots from the corrupt Western nobles! Those who do not wish to fight, throw down your weapons and surrender!"
Thus, all the Western soldiers surrendered before the Southern Army's 1st Order.
***
The place where the battleship's merciless bombardment had passed was utterly devastated.
The Arcal Plain and the Canyon running through it had once formed the largest road on the western coast, but now not a trace of it remained.
The mountain, shattered by 305mm shells, had collapsed over the Canyon and swallowed everything beneath it.
However, even amid such a horrific scene, a few people had survived.
Knights. Mages. And soldiers who had learned the Aura Breathing Technique.
There was only one fate awaiting them.
"Kill them all."
To achieve Industrialization, it was important to destroy the Landowning Class that held vast tracts of land.
And the power of the Landowning Class came from land and people.
The people mentioned here were the private soldiers that these families had built up over hundreds of years.
Since the Elite Soldiers were also troops conscripted from such nobles' private soldiers, they were targets that had to be eliminated without exception from my standpoint, given my need to industrialize the West.
"Today, no enemy will leave this valley alive."
Following my words, the Imperial Guard stepped forward.
The Imperial Guard, disciplined through several battles and intense training, entered the collapsed valley in perfect order, advancing row by row.
At the very front stood machine gunners wearing heavy armor made of thick steel alloy.
They were the Shield of the unit, advancing while firing their Machine Guns at everything in sight.
Behind them followed riflemen in ash-gray coats.
Bullets imbued with Mana and Aura annihilated the enemies who had survived the machine gun barrage.
For a while, gunshots and screams echoed through the valley.
It took less than two hours for the West's 10,000 elite troops to be literally annihilated.
Watching the scene, I gave an order to the operations officer.
"Tell the 1st Order and the support unit to station themselves at the Arcal Plain, manage the Western Conscripts, and use the conscripts to incite the residents while carrying out Civil Operations."
"Yes, sir!"
"And the 2nd Order will advance to the port city of Aquitaine together with the fleet."
That was why, even though a one-sided massacre was possible, I had deliberately brought two Orders, along with 5,000 support and supply troops.
This was not a battle that would end simply by capturing the capital quickly and receiving a surrender.
Our ultimate goal was the merger of the West and the South. For a complete merger, justification and public sentiment were essential.
The corrupt Western nobles who had used their own people as Shields.
And the Southern Army, which treated those same people warmly even after they surrendered.
The purpose of the 1st Order and the support unit was to make this contrast clear.
Therefore, the support unit also included quite a few civilian experts responsible for medical care, education, and construction.
It was a 21st Century-style Civil Operations.
"Tell the 2nd Order Main Force following behind to advance straight ahead. I will follow soon."
The 40,000-strong army that had been defending the capital had vanished.
There was nothing left in the West that could stand in our army's way.
The Wyvern Knight Order would be completely swept away by the Anti-Air gun unit, and the fortress would be destroyed by the overwhelming power of the battleships.
It was only natural.
After all, the West had nothing other than the Wyvern Knight Order.
The West was a land completely cut off from the Imperial Center.
By land, it was blocked by the massive Arbel Mountains, while by sea, one had to pass through Southern land to reach the Imperial Center.
As a result, its development had naturally lagged behind that of the Center.
The reason the West had been incorporated into the Empire despite being so isolated was simple.
It was a region that was difficult to invade, yet too troublesome to leave alone.
A land blocked by the Arbel Mountains and the sea, a location that could become a threat if left alone, and the Wyvern Knight Order serving as aerial cavalry.
The Empire's founder had incorporated the West into the Empire for these reasons.
For the past thousand years, things might have remained peaceful that way...
"It is not anymore."
There was no land as suitable as the West.
The mountains were an excellent natural barrier that even a 21st Century army could not easily cross.
Moreover, the cultural and ethnic differences between the West and the Imperial Center were considerable. The people of the West were closer to the South than to the Center, making them people we could trust to some extent.
In short, the West would become the South's rearmost base.
A safe rearmost base where we could build munitions factories that could not be built on the mainland, increase production through advanced agricultural technology, and conscript the population.
Of course, there were paths crossing the Arbel Mountains.
But that did not matter.
After all, there was no better place for firearms, including guns and cannons, to prove their effectiveness than the narrow passages between the mountains.
"So we quickly capture Aquiten and go to Forbin."
Our priority was speed.
After all, the Imperial Center was well aware of how important the West was.
They would certainly attempt to intervene, and before that happened, we had to cut off the routes crossing the Arbel Mountains.
"Is the situation cleanup finished?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Then let us depart. Time is life."
As I said this and turned around, a machine gunner wearing heavy armor approached, carrying a person dressed in fine clothes over his shoulder.
"Sir. We found someone who looks somewhat high-ranking. The principle is to kill them, but we could not tell whether it was someone we could handle on our own..."
The man dumped onto the ground was in a miserable state.
His face was pale, and he was vomiting blood. Since there were no visible external wounds, he appeared to have suffered internal injuries.
I raised my Magic to examine his insides and saw that his Aura Core was broken.
"He resisted, so I broke his Aura Core. He will never be able to use Aura again."
"Hmm..."
He could use Aura, and he wore ornate armor unlike that of ordinary knights. He was clearly someone who knew something.
When I grabbed the collar of the man lying face down on the ground, he reacted.
"Ugh... Spare, spare me..."
For someone of high rank, it was a truly servile sight.
Well, from my standpoint, it was much easier when they showed such a servile attitude.
The more servile they were, the more effective threats to their lives became.
"Imperial Guard. Aim a Machine Gun at his head."
"Eek...!"
Click.
As the heavy lump of metal touched his forehead, the man's body trembled.
I questioned him in an oppressive tone.
"State your affiliation, rank, and name."
"I-I am Eric... Eric Smith, Supreme Commander of the Western Army!"
"Eric Smith?"
It was a name I had heard a few times through the intelligence agency. I knew he was one of the Western officers.
But wasn't he the one fighting the Western natives?
Why was he here?
When I asked him, the answers came pouring out.
He told me about the chaos among the Western upper echelons, the Western Grand Duke holed up in his room, and even how they had gathered conscripts and brought them here.
"Ha, you treat the lives of 30,000 commoners lightly, yet your own life is precious?"
Faced with such astonishing hypocrisy, I could not help letting out a hollow laugh.
Nevertheless, there was a simple reason I did not kill him.
"Consider yourself fortunate. You still have use."
If he was the Supreme Commander of the Western Army, he would have plenty of information to extract and many ways to put him to use.
"The rest of you, clean up the battlefield and return. We depart for Aquiten."
***
The Southern Army's advance was faster than the rumors suggested.
Rumors ultimately spread from person to person, and the 40,000 Western Army troops who should have spread them had been annihilated without exception.
So, by the time news of the Southern Army's rapid advance toward Aquiten leaked into the city, the fleet, including Dreadnought, had already approached the port.
Beneath the setting sun, on the deep red sea, Dreadnought's giant naval guns were aimed at Aquiten Fortress.