The Winless General, shall Lose Again

Intro to The Story

Humans wage war upon each other. To expand own territories, to gain more gold, to obtain slave labor…for many reasons. In this warring period, a freelance warrior who are willing to take part on the war as long as they get paid for the compensation, A.K.A a mercenary has high demand in either warring sides.

Thirty years after the fall of the great empire, a young girl named Tina Vassarmunto got the word of the “mercenary recruitment” and came to Heiminal Kingdom which is currently under attack by Zalts Bolg Kingdom. She was born from the Vassarmunto family which is famous as the leader of a Vassarmunto Knights, a country of mercenaries. The Vassarmunto clan was once formed a big mercenary brigade but later they become bigger as they showed they’re power to the world, thus they established a country of mercenary. The Vassarmunto Knights is well-known for their high rates but VERY SATISFYING PERFORMANCE. They gain high credibility due to their professionalism in this line of job. Example: in a war between A and B, both sides can recruit Vassarmunto merc and the recruited ones will not waver to kill each other in the battlefield. Sick professionalism.

Back to Tina, so Tina is a royalty, she’s a princess from that great mercenary country. And according to the tradition of Vassarmunto Royalties, when you turned fifteen, you have to go on a journey to learn the world and earn experience as a mercenary ALONE (no caretaker, no maid, no escort, no guide, nothing). Their strict way of education is similar to that of a Lion where they push their cubs off the cliff (though I heard that the thing about the Lion is hoax). And that Tina met Du Darkas, a middle-aged man with many scars all of his body, the infamous mercenary due to he always bring defeat to any side he sided with but she heard also another thing about him from his father and brother, therefore she is interested in what kind of a mercenary he is.

D : Vassarmunto, huh?… Don’t miss that name. A business rival and it’s a bitter experience facing them in war. And top of that, your father nearly killed me twice”

T : But, you’re still alive. You’ve fought my father, Lordias twice and my eldest brother, Shark once. And you lost to them in either wars.

D : Yes.

T : … But, you’re still alive. Let me accompany you as your aide.

– “The Winless General, shall lose again” vol 01-

And that is how, the mercenary-trainee Tina Vassarmunto met the Winless General, Du Darkas. Tina shall learn many things about Darkas way of war. That war is not to be evaluated from winning and losing, but what you earn and what you lose.

What is the charm point of this series?

A. It’s like Facing a Big Puzzle in each War

As far as I read on the two volumes of the Light Novel, one book wraps the story of one war. In two books, I was like facing a big puzzle. As you have been foretold from the title and character introduction, despite whatever the MC’s feat and action, HE WILL LOSE THE WAR. It’s just going to happen. (So what the hell am I reading this for, RO?) So, you can learn the most interesting point of this series is that how well Darkas came up with a strategy and tactics against the enemy in order to lose in a very minimum yet realistic loss and casualties, and make the enemy to win in the most pathetic fashion. (RO, I lost you there) Okay, let me give you a comparison.

Have you ever played a strategy game where one of the mission have multiple objectives. If you can clear one of them, then it’s normal accomplishment. But if you can clear both of them, you will earn bonus due to great accomplishment.

Now from the enemy point of view, facing Darkas is like facing a very MISCHIEVOUS opponent. You will surely win against him, but despite of the advantages of unit number or equipment or skill or terrains or money, you CAN NOT CLEAR IN A PERFECT GAME nor you will EARN ANY BONUS at all. That is what is like to face Du Darkas in a war.

Despite you have numbers 10 times of his sides, or great equipment your side has, you just CANNOT OVERKILL this guy’s army. You will be directed to win in a measly condition LMAO and Darkas will still manage to stay alive to embark to the next war.

B. The Weird Composition of Party

At the beginning of the story, Darkas was alone but we can see that his feat as a mercenary is mainly involving three people. The mercenary girl in training, Tina Vassarmunto. The young mercenary who lead a merc band of 50 people, Aizash Domro. And, the princess of Heiminal Kingdom, Shalna Balforn. Tina and Aizash is positioned as “co-worker” of Darkas and Shalna is their “Client”.

Aizash and Tina started as “work partner” for Darkas but later they gradually learned how Darkas came up with plan and his reasoning to execute things in either strategical or tactical matters. Moreover, they are attracted to his charisma and nature as a leader. Tina has more potential and skill as a warrior rather than a leader, but thanks to Darkas advice, she eventually overcomes her weakness and managed to open another potential within her. Meanwhile, Aizash due to his experience before as a chief of a band, he gained more knowledge and opportunity to polish his leadership skill to manage larger army by learning from Darkas. But the one who change the most is Shalna. I won’t spoil what become of her but she will join Darkas journey after the battle at her kingdom.

I can somehow predict what will Tina and Aizash will become of but I cannot guess how will Shalna grow in this journey along with Darkas. In book volume two, I can only see she has reached her turning point in life but I don’t think Darkas will leave her to end like this. Personally, it would be cool if she can develop in some sort of ways useful to battle.

C. Du Darkas’ Mystery

As far as I read two volumes of Light novel, Darkas is a mercenary with many mistery.

1. His Age. The rumor said that he had been a mercenary for about twenty years. But there was also a story told in book one that he became a teacher for a certain kingdom’s royalty for some years. It is not clear but after all his feat, he should be at least in his forties or fifties. But he looks like he is still in his thirties. My hunch tells me this guy is might be immortal… Or maybe, he’s like Kenshin of Rurouni Kenshin whose appearance is in his twenties but actually, he’s already near forties.
2. Battle skill, Yes, you don’t misheard me. I’ve pointed out above as if he’s all brain but not at all. Darkas has a great swordmanship. At the least for two books, I cannot yet measure how strong he is because he hasn’t yet be legitimately lost in a duel. Most of his fights are indeed ended up in losing BUT it was a part of the plan such as: a diversion or feint or distraction. So he didn’t fight seriously most of the time and ended up running away in the middle of the battle. Most of warrior will feel shame or disgrace for fleeing from battle but to Darkas, he just doesn’t care about that for his defeat is for the greater cause. As a parameter, In book volume one, Tina and Aizash got overwhelmed by the swordmanship of the enemy general, but Darkas fought him without tense. He did ended the battle by fleeing but later on we will learn that for Darkas, killing the general is not a sweat but he will choose the timing as to when to kill him in order to end the war in a minimum loss.
3. Private Mission. Darkas mentioned for a couple of times that he is currently looking for something . I hope this series can reveal what is it. Is it a thing? or a person? One P**ce? or something else.

Conclusion

• If you’re a fan of Strategy Warfare, I recommend you.
• If you’re a fan of MC full of mystery, immeasurable power and wisdom, I recommend you.
• If you’re a fan of Loli-Badass couple, I recommend you. (Btw My favorite is Accelerator-Last Order (To Aru series), Seshoumaru-Rin (Inuyasha))

Other Media

This series also released a manga adaptation which is published by Hobby Japan under the label of HJ Comics (HJコミックス). The author is Watanabe Tsuyoshi (渡辺つよし). Currently they only released volume 01 yet (per this posting date). But they also released a web comic version which is updated periodically at Comic Fire (Try it. It’s FREE!)

Links

Light Novel is currently released vol 01 – 02 by Hobby Japan under the label of HJ Bunko (HJ文庫)。You can buy them officially through booklive.com by clicking the link here.

Light Novel vol 03 is released. (Update September 6th, 2019)