Dream Life Vol II Chapter 77.2: “Old General”

During the first class, I made a little creative decision.

　I divided the class into four squads, with each squad consisting of ten members based on their attributes and level and combined two of them into a single platoon. Incidentally, the first platoon of each platoon was an attack unit consisting mainly of fire, light, and wind, while the second platoon was a support unit consisting of water, wood, earth, and other attributes.

　The first squad of each platoon was to participate in the attack, while the second squad was to provide support in the rear.

　Apparently, this did not sit well with the “Old General”.

“Who told you that you could change the formation at will? Everyone must line up in a single file!” (Metcalf)

　When I said, “There are people who are not good at attack magic. That would spread them too thinly,” he waved his staff around and said, “Can’t you hear what I’m saying?!”

　When I asked him why, he replied, “I have won this way! Don’t get cocky, chick!”

　The Old General told me to line them up in a row, but not according to the chain of command, not even according to their attributes, but in order of rank, and that the company commander alone would see to everything.

　I thought that if he had the same authority as a knight, there should definitely be a chain of command, so I asked him about it.

　I was astonished to find out the truth.

　The magician unit does not have a fixed number of members, but always operates as a single unit with all members dispatched. In other words, whether five or a hundred people are dispatched, the magician unit is one unit, and it is never divided into an appropriate number of people.

　I was so dismayed by this that I asked him why, and he replied, “Court magicians are given the same command authority as knights. There is no need to divide the troops.”

(No, that’s not right. …Well, it’s just a game for now, and this is no problem. But it’s unfortunate for the soldiers who will be fighting under commanders advised by these people. …But it seems wrong for me to say anything about it since I have no desire to be involved in the military, except for the village patrol. …Well, I’ll at least think about military theory when I have time…) (Zack)

　With that in mind, I started thinking about how I could skip his class.

　And I quickly came up with a way to do it.

　I knew someone just like this old general.

　He was the chairman of a business partner’s company that I had met in a previous life.

　He was a man who, through his own talent, had transformed a small-town factory into a corporation with about 200 employees. However, in his later years, he was always interfering with the policies of his son, who was to succeed him, and was causing chaos in the company’s management.

　The chairman, who was once a brilliant engineer and manager, clung to his own experience of success and rejected all new concepts that he did not understand. He would try to proceed with things based on the old logic of his own success. He was such a person.

　At the time, I was not even in sales, I was just in charge of designing the renewal of facilities, and I thought the chairman of the company was a person worthy of respect as an engineer. However, during our meetings, the chairman would always show up in the conference room and make a few orders. They were all off the mark. I was embarrassed when he denied me the 3D CAD images, I had shown him in my presentation.

　As for me, I had to listen to the chairman, who is the chief executive officer of the customer’s place. When I pretended to listen to him seriously and tactfully, he took a strange liking to me and began to call me in frequently.

　I had other work to do as well, and it was very annoying, but the president of the company asked me to “please keep my father company,” and with a sigh in my heart, I went along with the old man’s stories. It was then that I acquired the skill of accompanying the old man’s long stories.

　While pretending to listen to the story, occasionally hit in the back. Since I had heard the story many times, I casually added comments such as “This is what the chairman thinks,” as if he understood.

　This worked surprisingly well.

　The president of the company and others were grateful to me for the progress I had made, and the sales staff of my company were pleased to hear that they had received more orders. The only disadvantage was that my overtime hours increased.

　I tried to use this skill on the old general.

　During the classroom sessions, I would pretend to take serious notes while I studied other magic and tactics, occasionally interrupting him with a question he wanted me to ask. Then, with a knowing look on my face, I would summarize the discussion by saying, “I guess this is what you mean, sir.”

　It’s a simple thing, and that alone puts the Old General in a good mood, and he praises me, saying, “As expected of Mr. Ruspede’s beloved disciple.”

　I repeated this several times, and after about 20 days, I cut out this while submitting a report.

“I and Miss Jakes have put together a summary of the teacher’s thoughts.” (Zack)

　The old general looked at the report and nodded with a satisfied expression on his face, saying, “As expected of Mr. Lockhart and Miss Jakes.” I’ll get to the point right there.

“We are going to study on our own to better understand what our teacher has taught us. I would like you to focus on teaching the rest of us so that we can all honorably participate in battles. Thank you for your lessons.” (Zack)

　When I tried to persuade the Old General acting as if I was thinking of my classmates, he nodded with narrowed eyes.

“Hmm. You’re thinking of your friends… That’s fine. Right now, you guys won’t be able to get the same benefit as them. So, I will allow you to study on your own until they catch up with you.” (Metcalf)

　I struck a gut-punch in my heart, but I also felt a little guilty about my classmates.

(I know the rest of you don’t care, but I feel bad that you’re being forced to take a useless class…) (Zack)

　Furthermore, I was worried that I would end up like the Old General.

(…I’m almost sixty too, considering how old I am from my previous life. I don’t think I’m going to stick to my opinions at the moment, but I wonder what the future holds. …I wonder if a young body can also keep the spirit young. …I feel that way when I look at the elves, but I’m not so sure…) (Zack)

　Incidentally, the report I submitted was a poor one, just adding similar cases I researched in the library to the Old General’s old tales.

　Since it was so poorly written, I decided to seriously study the tactics a magician could take.

　The theme of the research is a study on the effective use of magic in group battles.

　The reason why I chose this theme came from one thing that was useful in the Old General’s lecture: the inefficiency of current magicians’ tactics. It turned out that the current tactics of magicians are inefficient.

　The offensive magic of high-ranking magicians is a more powerful long-range weapons than arrows, and the only equivalent long-range weapons is a siege weapon such as a ballista. Although siege weapons have the advantage that anyone can use them, but they lack mobility and can only be used for sieges.

　This is where the value of magical attacks comes in, but unless you are a high-ranking magician in the class of Professor Ruspede, the power of a single magician is not very useful in a battle involving hundreds of people.

　I think of magic as “firepower”.

　Concentrating firepower is the basis of tactics. If so, I thought that if magic were also concentrated, it would be possible to obtain an attack power comparable to that of a single high-ranking magician.

　After thinking that far, I began to realize that it was no use discussing only the tactics of magicians.

(Even if I think about the tactics of the magician unit, it doesn’t make much sense if the operation as a whole is the same as in the old days. I’m a little curious, and I’m thinking seriously about it…) (Zack)

　And I started thinking about tactical theory.

　But I have neither the battlefield experience nor the knowledge to make a prerequisite. First, I decided to gather military information from this world and verify it.

A/N: The story has changed a lot since the last chapter. Please wait a little longer for the sake story (laughs).

I feel the main character is a bit black-hearted, but that’s how working people are, right?

The response to the previous story was so great, I can’t keep up with the feedback.

Please wait a little longer for those who gave me feedback.

T/N: Anyone reading the manga Last Karte? I love reading about all the cute fluffs. If you want a feel-good sometimes bittersweet story about animals, you have to read it.