Raiding cities, burning homes, and committing massacres.
That was one of the Aikamad Tribe's specialties.
Their method of war was to instill overwhelming terror, making plunder easier.
Innocent lives simply didn't factor into their calculations. Murder was nothing more than a means to achieve the goal of "creating fear," leaving no room for sentiment.
That was why they were accustomed to burning cities.
...What no one had anticipated was that it would be their own settlement.
With a sharp, piercing whistle, a tent exploded. It was a tent where signs of life had been visible just moments before.
The people chose not to think about what fate had befallen those inside.
They were too busy trying to save themselves.
"Fight back! Standing still is what gets you kill— aaagh!"
Boom—!
Someone who had been standing in place shouting something was blown apart on the spot. In a place where shells were falling every few seconds, staying still meant death.
"The warriors went out to fight. If anyone can—"
Some still clung to hollow hope.
But that hope vanished almost immediately.
The moment the warriors bravely charged out beyond the settlement's perimeter, terrifying thunder was followed by a chorus of screams.
The tribespeople chose not to imagine what fate had befallen warriors who'd gone out without the shamans' aid.
They simply ran.
"Abandon the settlement and flee! Surviving right now is what matters!"
The history of the steppe had always been a cycle of taking and being taken. There were no eternal conquerors, and land lost once could always be reclaimed given enough time.
That was how the Aikamad Tribe had survived the Empire's steppe conquest wars.
As long as you survive, there is hope.
Their strength can't be infinite. Someday, when their main force withdraws, we can simply take back what was ours.
The priority was to alert the other tribes and have them prepare.
With that thought in mind, a large contingent of cavalry rode out through the rear gate.
Their misfortune was that dozens of military trucks, heavy infantry, and Imperial Guard soldiers were already positioned at that rear gate.
The men who had mounted machine guns atop the trucks switched on their headlights the moment they spotted the fleeing enemy.
"Enemy confirmed. Engaging."
And on the open steppe, there was nothing to impede the movement of trucks.
As the headlights blazed to life and the night turned bright, the machine guns opened fire in unison.
From the perspective of the Aikamad tribespeople, it was sheer madness.
"Aaaargh!"
Eyes adapted to the pitch-black night were suddenly flooded with blinding white headlight beams. The moment the riders flinched and shielded their eyes, the bullets came pouring in.
Cavalry was helpless before 7.62mm rounds.
It didn't matter how desperately they wheeled their horses around, trying to break out of range.
"Twenty enemy cavalry attempting to flank. Pursuing."
The engines of military trucks powered by Magitech Engineering could put out an overwhelming force of anywhere from twenty to fifty horsepower at minimum.
A mere horse had no chance of outrunning that.
The truck's gunner pulled the trigger, and with a sound like a shrieking chainsaw, a streak of crimson light split the darkness.
— Hiiieee!
Horses that had never encountered firearms in their lives lost all composure. They ignored their riders and bolted in every direction, only to be swallowed up by the curtain of fire in moments.
"Flanking enemy. Suppression complete."
Thud.
A heavy infantry soldier leapt from the truck and landed in the middle of a field of corpses, raising the machine gun in his right hand.
"Commencing confirmation kills."
He pulled the trigger, and the pile of bodies jerked and shuddered under the rounds. Among them were enemies who had been hiding beneath the dead.
"Aaaargh!"
They lunged at the heavy infantry with daggers and short spears, but it amounted to nothing.
Bladed weapons didn't work against a walking human tank.
"Confirmation kills complete."
The same scene repeated itself everywhere.
Every time the tribespeople fled in all directions, the machine-gun-mounted trucks herded them into a single kill zone and cut them down.
It was a method the Aikamad Tribe knew quite well.
This was the same technique the Aikamad had used when attacking the West. A driven hunt.
"Are we really wiping them out entirely?"
"His Grace said there's no other way. Those savages are beyond any hope of reform."
If the Aikamad Tribe had shown even a shred of restraint.
If they had accepted surrenders and not carried out massacres across countless Western territories, none of this would have happened.
But the Aikamad had refused the Empire's mercy time and again, crossing too many lines over too many years.
If they had been enemies capable of being forgiven and genuinely repenting even now, they would have already taken one of the many hands the Empire had extended.
"If we hesitate here, the ones suffering this fate next time will be our own families back in the Empire."
The Aikamad Tribe was crushed under the weight of its own sins, destroyed by the very methods it had wielded. By the Imperial Army.
Not a single tribesperson who fled through the rear gate made it out alive.
The Imperial Guard soldiers looked at one another, then turned their gaze toward the settlement's rear gate.
"We'll move in once the shelling stops."
Their task complete, they stood in place and waited.
***
"Cease fire."
Nearly thirty minutes had passed since the indiscriminate bombardment began.
The number of shells fired per gun alone was approaching a hundred rounds.
The 76mm guns were somewhat lacking in firepower, so they had deliberately fired more to compensate—and the effect was unmistakable.
There were no structures left standing inside the settlement.
The large stone buildings had been priority targets for concentrated artillery fire, and the stables and armories had already been reduced to rubble by the shelling.
The nomadic tents unique to a wandering people?
Those had been blown away by the blast pressure and consumed by spreading flames, gone without a trace.
There was no longer any sign of a single structure inside the settlement.
What remained of the ruins?
"The flares are dying out. Shall we fire more?"
"Why bother?"
They served only as fuel for the roaring flames, illuminating the dark night sky.
It had taken less than thirty minutes to annihilate the Aikamad Tribe, which had once driven the West into terror.
And now it was time to finish the job.
"Our army's objective is the swift conclusion of the war."
On the steppe, what mattered wasn't winning the battle—it was rapidly dismantling the hostile tribe and occupying their ground.
That was why it was necessary to ensure no one knew what had happened here.
This wasn't an age of telephones, and the savages possessed none of the Empire's magical instruments like Crystal Orbs.
"Therefore, leave no survivors."
The 1st and 2nd Divisions advanced toward the settlement, which had already been reduced to rubble.
Soldiers who had fought directly under my command on many occasions simply carried out their assigned roles in silence.
The infantry divisions entered the settlement.
To finish off any enemies the shelling had failed to kill.
Simultaneously, the Imperial Guard began moving in from the opposite side.
"Give them back exactly what they did to the people of the West."
With those orders, the infantry divisions moved in—and even after all fighting had ended, gunshots continued to ring out.
And so, at half past five in the morning, as the thick curtain of night drawn over the steppe began to lift—
After the last shot was fired, the dawn sky began to brighten.
"No more life signs detected."
"And the mages' detection spells?"
"Nothing."
"Good. Then we withdraw."
Far in the distance, the sky began to turn blue.
Where the smoke was clearing, there was scorched earth.
An ashen settlement stripped of all color. A plain soaked in blood. And the steppe still burning, where water-wielding mages were working to put out the flames.
The scene of a place where a barrage and battle had raged was nothing short of devastating.
"Quite the sight to behold for those Westerners who revere the steppe like a mother."
Honestly, I'd hesitated for a moment.
Nomads regard the steppe as their mother. There was no way public sentiment would hold steady after seeing it burned and ravaged like this.
Would it be a problem if they pushed back?
'No—if anything, I'd welcome it.'
They see a scene this horrific with their own eyes and still dare to think about resistance?
Any enemy like that could never be integrated into the West, so eliminating them outright was the only answer.
In that sense, this might actually serve as a useful warning.
"Leave the scene as it is. No cleanup."
"Sir? But... that will provoke a strong backlash from the steppe tribes."
"Backlash? Let them try."
Until now, the Empire had lacked the power to dominate the steppe.
More precisely, it had never possessed the strength, the forces, or the technology to overwhelm the steppe's enemies.
That was why the Empire had been forced to appease the steppe tribes.
But we were different.
Our army had the capability to sweep the steppe clean.
"If there's anyone out there who can still think about resistance after seeing a scene like this."
I turned my gaze westward as I said it.
The two remaining tribes—Borkan and Serelkis.
Toward the location of the two great tribes still hostile to the Empire.
"Let the 1st and 2nd Divisions rest, and move up the allied forces that have been resting in the rear."
We'd shown them our strength once. Now it was time to let the Western Army fight directly.
For them to fully feel the power of the technology they now possessed, the first step was to let them wield it on the battlefield themselves.
Having witnessed the firepower of machine guns, the Western Army would never dare entertain thoughts of betrayal.
They would come to understand that the moment they became our enemy, their position would become identical to that of the savages they had just killed with their own hands.
"This time, we give the Western Army the chance to fight directly."
"Yes, Your Excellency."
"Teach them that enemies who defy the Empire burn. Nothing more."
Whether that lesson was for the savages or for the Westerners.