Anime Episode 10

"No Place of Joy Hath a Soldier" is the 10th episode of the "Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki" Anime adaptation.

''Gaius leads an invasion force from Amidonia into the kingdom and lays siege to the city of Altomura. Meanwhile, in Randel, the Forbidden Army constructs a fort from which they engage Georg's forces, while Red Dragon City receives its own surprise attack.''

Summary
Hakuya informs Souma that thirty thousand troops from Amidonia are invading through the Ursula Mountain pass and are likely to occupy the city of Altomura. Reaching Altomura, Gaius Amidonia likes the soil and how much the land can provide. Weist Garreau, the Lord of Altomura, tells him that Altomura won't be fighting back in hopes for mercy, but wish to wait a bit before they open their gates as it's currently divided into two factions: those that want to fight back and those that don't want to. While they don't stand a chance against Amidonia, there are some fools who can't realize it and they need more time to convince them, and it's not worth losing soldiers. Julius Amidonia tells Gaius that statistically it takes five times as many soldiers to take a fortress, and it's better to not waste soldiers. Gaius promises that they will spare them if they surrender, but as Weist leaves, he states that he will behead him once they take over the fortress. With Forbidden Army being ten thousand and Georg Carmine forty thousand, Gaius is sure that Souma won't be able to send help.

Meanwhile, as the negotiations between Souma and Georg failed, Souma immediately mobilized the Forbidden Army and the next day they were able to build a fortress near the Randel Castle, where Halbert Magna and Kaede Foxia are currently fighting the enemy. With Kaede's magic and materials prepared earlier, they were able to build the fortress quickly and protect it from magic and fire attacks, however, the enemy brings out cannons, who start to damage the fortress. Sur, a dark elf, then appears and shoots at the cannons before they hit the walls. He explains that Halbert helped him save his daughter during the landslide, and as she wanted to become part of the Forbidden Army when she grows up, Sur felt annoyed. Ludwin then leads a cavalry outside the fortress, focusing only on destroying the cannons.

The corrupt aristocrats complain to Georg that his army is weak. He assures them that they are 4 to 1 in size and they won't lose. The aristocrats wonder if they shouldn't wipe them in one attack, but he comments the aristocrats foolishly did that and lost the cannons. Georg is sure that Souma isn't in the fortress as they have been only defending, but if Souma was there, they would have tried some sort of an attack. However as he doesn't know where he is, he needs to lure him.

Gaius loses his patience and decides to attack Altomura, however in that moment, he hears men yelling from the fortress. A soldier informs him that Weist wishes an urgent audience with him. Weist comes and apologizes, stating it takes time to persuade the men. Angry, Gaius wishes to take his head as an example, but Weist informs him that the voices he heard are the war cries of the men who are ready to fight to the death. Julius confirms that if they fight, they will lose men. Weist offers gold dust as apology and asks him to not attack until noon the next day, to give him time to convince the men. With Julius' approval, Gaius agrees.

Inside Altomura's fortress, Weist wonders if this was the correct choice, because with that amount of gold, they could have hired mercenaries from Zem. Excel Walter states that the mercenaries are driven by money and can change sides. As she is fighting three enemies right now, time is their ally, and she doesn't mind spending gold for that. Weist guesses that neither Georg or Castor knew that Excel was in Altomura during the conferences with the king. Weist wonders if time until noon is enough. Excel states it should be, but if Souma can't come until then, they will die as heroes inside the fortress.

The next day, Kaede notices that Georg's army is smaller and guesses they are expecting the battle to continue for longer, but that will also make defending the fortress easier. Halbert is informed of approaching wyverns from Castor's air force army.

The previous night in Red Dragon City, Tolman informs Castor Vargas that the citizens have been evacuated, and here are only the air force personnel and Vargas household. Castor had started to change his opinion about the king and tells Tolman to turn down all air force units' requests wishing to join him. Castor doesn't mind fighting alongside Georg, but not with the corrupt aristocrats. However, it's too late for him to change anything. Tolman informs him that the Forbidden Army had marched towards Georg, making it possible that Souma is ignoring him as he only has 100 wyvern knights. However, Castor doesn't believe it as it would be smart to first defeat him and then take the air force to attack Georg. Carla Vargas informs Castor that a single ship led by Souma is spotted, the Battleship Albert, who now has wheels and is pulled on land by beasts. As the ships attack the castle, Souma contacts Castor, offering him to change his mind. However, even though Castor had already started to change his opinion, he doesn't wish to change his word.

Carla leads the wyvern knights, preparing to bomb the ship cannons, but Souma uses bolt-throwers, surprising them as usually bolt-throwers are fixed-base defensive weapon used for defending bases. One of the soldiers suggests they attack the wheels, since they are improvised and must be weak. Carla doesn't wish to attack the bridge as Liscia could be there and killing Souma could also upset her. She starts to believe she should have changed her father's mind and join Souma, but as it's too late now, she orders the knights to go lower and attack the wheels. They succeed and also managed to destroy the cannons, but realize there are no soldiers on the ship and an armor with a puppet arm was using the cannons. Carla then orders the knights to return to the castle as quickly as possible, realizing that Souma lured them away from it, as his objective is Castor.

Characters in Order of Appearance
Characters in italics debuted here.


 * Kazuya Souma
 * Hakuya Kwonmin
 * Halbert Magna
 * Kaede Foxia
 * Sur
 * Ludwin Arcs
 * Weist Garreau
 * Excel Walter
 * Gaius Amidonia
 * Julius Amidonia
 * Georg Carmine
 * Beowulf Gardner
 * Castor Vargas
 * Carla Vargas
 * Tolman

Trivia

 * This episode adapts Light Novel Volume 02 Chapters 4-5, & 6 (Part 1)
 * The title is adapted from Chinese military texts Sun Bin's Art of War