Chapter 35: Girl, You Need to Cry Your Heart Out!
Ramses did not march his army as planned after one month.
Firstly, because Moses, whom he considered a friend, disappeared after killing a Hebrew, which caused instability among the Hebrews — the second-largest population group in Ramses City aside from the Egyptians.
Secondly, it seemed that the Hittites were having coordination problems with their allies and had also stopped their advance.
However, this delay allowed Ramses to calmly muster his forces.
The five legions consisted of four made up of Egyptians and one composed entirely of foreigners. This was the limit Egypt could currently sustain, allowing Ramses to gather all his mobile forces northward.
Logistically, Ramses was thinking beyond traditional methods — he deployed his warships to transport the necessary grain and equipment along the coast to the land of Canaan with lower consumption, rather than moving through the Sinai Peninsula as the Hittites expected. From Canaan, Ramses planned to march to the battlefield.
His fleet could also unify Egypt's allies in Canaan and serve as reinforcement.
Although Ramses looked down on these so-called allies.
In the Pharaoh's mind, his five legions were an unprecedentedly powerful force in the human world, strong enough to crush any known opponent.
Nearly 20,000 Egyptian soldiers and several thousand foreign mercenaries from Memphis arrived in Ramses City within a month after the conscription announcement, swelling the new capital's military strength to nearly 30,000.
Ramses reorganized and retrained them, forming 500 squads of 50 men each. Every 100 squads made a legion, named after several gods.
The Pharaoh personally appointed their standard bearers, military deputies, and commanders, with the Amun Legion under his direct command.
By late April the following year, after the rainy season had passed in northern Canaan and other distant vassals, Ramses ordered his legions to assemble at the fortress city of Saru in the Delta for pre-battle gathering.
The soldiers waited quietly for the Pharaoh's arrival.
Upon arrival, Ramses first performed a sacrificial ritual for the gods, then sounded the horn. At that moment, all soldiers bowed to him in unison.
Then the war drums thundered, and Ramses mounted his chariot, protected by the royal guard, leading his legions northward.
They would first travel by Nile River waterway to the coast, then follow the sea route along the Phoenician coast, originally opened and controlled by Set I, to Canaan.
The governance of Ramses City was now in the hands of Nefertari, the queen who shared power over Upper and Lower Egypt with the Pharaoh. She had become the most powerful person in the Egyptian homeland.
The first thing Nefertari did after ruling alone was to designate a special area in the palace as Hikigaya's residence and ordered the servants to unconditionally meet all his needs. Even Ramses' highest-ranking ministers could not enter without the queen's permission to disturb the two.
Perhaps the queen hoped that by giving Hikigaya VIP treatment, he would feel embarrassed and help her husband.
Hikigaya thought the queen was overthinking.
Although Egypt would not win, that destined-to-be-bald guy would be totally fine, and if the queen's breasts were big enough, her husband would later bring back a sister with pure Hittite bloodline.
However, Hikigaya's leisurely days did not last long.
It all started when Nefertari came to visit.
Originally just a polite visit, Hikigaya was surprised to find that the reproductive power he had infused into the queen seemed to have mostly "leaked away" over time.
Damn it! How could the Hand of Osiris fail?
Originally planning just to chill in Ramses City with air conditioning, Hikigaya found this totally unacceptable — it was a denial of his professional integrity, a very serious matter.
So after staying home for half a month, Hikigaya voluntarily left his small world for the first time, sacrificing the noble ideal of "I'm just going to sleep until Ramses loses the battle."
The social hall in Ramses City should have been the most beautiful in Egypt.
Egyptian Pharaohs never denied themselves pleasure except when at war.
When Hikigaya arrived at the hall's entrance, he first saw a long staircase flanked by walls decorated with boastful murals of Pharaoh defeating his enemies thoroughly.
At the top of the stairs, around the main door, the names of successive Pharaohs were painted in blue on a white background and bordered by an elliptical pattern resembling the universe, symbolizing the territory of the living god Pharaoh.
Inside, the floor was paved with glazed ceramic tiles featuring a design of pools and gardens. The walls were painted with birds playing in the marshes in pale green, deep red, light blue, golden yellow, and gray-white pigments.
Frankly, the Egyptian painting style, as seen later in the Pharaoh's tombs, was not very realistic, emphasizing exaggeration — not very detailed but grand and mysterious.
Although Hikigaya had no intention of establishing his own trade… no, social circle in ancient Egypt, from the clothing and attire of the men and women guests, he could tell a lot.
There were ministers and their aides, priests, royal scribes, even sorcerers and divine experts. In addition, he saw officials in charge of daily rituals and noblewomen handling formal ceremonies.
Wow, the ancient Egyptian noble circle was really vast!
From afar, Hikigaya spotted the queen at the center of the hall, gracefully entertaining Ramses' ministers with ancient etiquette.
Of course, no matter how loveless these nobles were at night, no one dared to flirt with the queen.
Everyone knew Ramses was violent; if anyone messed with his woman, he would draw his weapons.
So Hikigaya walked over — he wasn't there for fun, but business.
Don't ask where Haruno was — she was exhausted and needed rest!
"Queen," Hikigaya greeted.
"You've come," Nefertari, who had been chatting cheerfully with a big, fat man, showed a surprised expression when she saw Hikigaya.
That look, like "Your girlfriend hasn't dumped you yet?" was really hurtful, you know?
By the way, why show that look? Doesn't your husband just screw around casually when he's bored?
Hikigaya decided not to bother with the sick person in front of him — after all, he was a compassionate divine doctor. Soon he would move her to tears with his care!
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