by Ryota Hori
“Draw your bows! Don’t falter, no matter what!”
Under Lione’s angry shouting, the knights drew the strings of the bows and arrows they’d been given with all their might.
“Don’t think too hard about aiming, just keep shooting. The enemy’s five times our number. Pretty sure you’ll hit something even if ya shoot with yer eyes closed!”
An avalanche of enemies rushed toward the southern gate, which Lione had been in charge of guarding, the ground rumbling from their steps. The animalistic battle cries erupting from their lungs hit Lione’s body like a shockwave.
I can’t get enough of this thrill... I might be gettin’ wet out here.
Lione licked her own dry lips as she drew her own bow. Before long, the first line of enemies started pouring into the dry moat.
Guess they’re saving the professionals for later... Just like the boy said.
There were no lines or formations; they were simply charging forward blindly. Lione’s lips curled into a mocking smile.
Most of the enemy soldiers were commoners conscripted from Duke Gelhart and the other nobles’ territories. Needless to say, they weren’t trained, and their gear amounted to spears and leather armor given to them by Duke Gelhart.
Conscription in this world was quite the grueling matter. A single order from their governor could send them into danger, and despite that, they weren’t paid for their service at all. That was because conscription was seen as a form of tax. In that regard, it was similar to the conscription system that had long been abolished in modern-day Japan.
Of course, conscripts who had gained merits and achievements did get rewarded, but very few people turned out to be blessed with such fortune on the battlefield. Most were simply desperate to stay alive.
But that wasn’t to say even those people were without any kind of relief. The rules were that they got to keep anything they pillaged from the enemy. Any foe they killed netted them their swords, spears and armor, as well as any money they may have carried on their person.
In case of an invasion to another country, there were even greater spoils to receive. There were women to rape, and houses to burn down and plunder for their goods. Men would become labor slaves, while women would become sex slaves.
With their own lives as bargaining chips, they could make great profit. This was why commoners in this world went to war, despite loathing the nobles and fearing conflict. All to stomp on those weaker than them and alleviate the hardships of their lives even a little...
“Remember, everything you take from the enemy is yours! I guarantee it on Duke Gelhart’s name! Come on, keep going!”
The words of the noble in charge of the southern gate’s breakthrough elicited war cries from the soldiers around him.
A knight’s gear was expensive. Their armor and swords were custom made, and their war horses were specifically broken in and worth a good amount. It was perhaps obvious that knights who thrived on the battlefield placed all their pride on their gear. And so, in the eyes of these soldiers, knights were like walking lumps of money.
Of course, it was exceedingly hard for mere commoners to kill knights that had gained thaumaturgy. There were some individual differences in how much they’d acquired and their skill at the craft, but overall, knights wielding thaumaturgy were easily twice as strong as a normal human. They were effectively savage beasts in human form.
However, even if beating them one on one was impossible, all one had to do was overwhelm them with superior numbers. Like a flock of ants biting an elephant to death, they could be surrounded and killed.
“““Oooooh!””” Riled up by the battle cries from the rear, the frontlines strode forward.
Ryoma’s side looked like a mountain of treasure to them, and they were confident they had the might of great numbers on their side. And so, they stepped into the empty moat without a hint of hesitation, their confidence that they would overwhelm the enemy no matter what dulling their sense of fear.
Three... two... one... Now!
Gauging the distance between them with her eyes, Lione clearly saw the enemy soldiers and their modest gear.
“First row, fireeeeeeee!”
At Lione’s shout, the knights fired the arrows they had placed on their bows. The sound of the air being cut was audible as the arrows rained down on the enemy’s leading party.
““Gah!””
“Shit, arrows!”
The sound of soldiers cursing as they were wounded by arrows shook the air, and the following moment, the sound of those screams reminded the soldiers of the terror of the battlefield.
“What are you doing?! Keep going!” the enemy commander called out from the rear. “The enemies are few in number. Don’t you want their valuables?! Go on, charge!”
He’d likely noticed their charging speed had slowed, and so he tried to rouse them using the whip called greed.
“Second row! Fireeee!”
And with perfect timing, a second barrage of arrows rained down on them. The attack that came down on them as soon as they tried to regroup drove the soldiers’ hearts to further confusion.
“Kuh, why are you flinching?! We outnumber them, and they can’t have an endless supply of arrows! They can’t stand up to our numbers. Go on, attack! I’ll see to it that whoever reaches the fence first gets a special reward! Now fear not and keep going!”
The noble’s intention was clear—he wanted to take advantage of their greater numbers by making the battle a melee fight. Even if it cost the lives of four commoners, killing a single knight would still put the balance in his favor.
Ryoma’s forces, on the other hand, intended to whittle down the enemy by keeping their distance. Having gained an advantageous position, there was no meaning in going into melee combat and losing troops needlessly.
The nobles’ side wished to turn it into a melee battle, while Ryoma’s side wished to maintain a safe distance.
But no matter how advantageous of a position they may have had, blocking the violence of superior numbers was difficult. The nobles’ soldiers cut through the shower of arrows unflinchingly, stepping over the corpses of their comrades, at times even using them as shields from the falling projectiles.
Three meters, two meters, one meter... They advanced on and on, withstanding the barrages of arrows. And finally, the death march ended.
“I made it! I’m the first to get to the fence!”
One peasant soldier reached the fence. The noble, who was usually unbearably cheap, offered a surprising prize for that. A monetary reward that would undoubtedly ease their lives ravaged by high taxes.
No, perhaps his bravery in battle would be honored and he would be made an official. Becoming a knight may have been out of reach, but being appointed an attendant to one was a great step up in life for a commoner.
And that was why he had to make a show of himself here, showing that he was the first to make it.
But it would cost him the ultimate price. The price of his own life...
“Third row, forward!” At Lione’s instruction, the archers withdrew, and heavily armored knights with long spears in hand stepped forward in their place.
“Thrust forward!”
At Lione’s order, they thrust their spears forward through the gaps in the fence, aiming at the commoner soldiers’ faces, earning the man who had shouted, “I’m the first to get to the fence!” a spear’s point to his left eye.
“Gyaaaaah?!” An animalistic screech escaped his throat.
“Pull back!”
The thrust spears retreated back into the fence...
“Thrust forward!”
...Only for them to be thrust back through the gaps, claiming the lives of the foolish commoners.
“Damn it all! My brother, Loiyd! How dare you kill my brother?! I’ll kill you all!”
“My eye! My eyeee!”
“Yiiii! I can’t take no more of this...! I’ve had enough. I’m not dying like this!”
Screams and wail
s filled the battlefield. Some rushed forward, while others tried to flee from the spears. The two groups, which didn’t have anything as sophisticated a formation to begin with, bumped into and tripped over each other.
And Lione wasn’t kind enough to not take advantage of this chaos.
There it is. The moment we take the initiative by the damn horns!
She sniffed it out with a sense of smell particular to those who had run through countless battlefields.
“First row, second row, at the ready! Fireeee!”
Lione had the spearmen draw back for the moment, sending the archers forward again for another volley.
“Ya’ll hear me?! Shoot and shoot, and keep shootin’ like there’s no tomorrow! No need to be stingy, either! We’ve got more arrows than we know what to do with!”
With Lione’s encouragement pushing them forward, the knights continued ruthlessly raining down arrows on the commoners.
“Kuh! This is going nowhere...” The noble spat bitterly. “I suppose we have no other option.”
“Runner! Inform Sir Kael that the resistance on the southern side is fierce and we require reinforcements!”
The noble tried and failed to burst through the southern gate in one go, so he appealed to Kael for an order to draw back and regroup.
Even he, lacking as he was in experience on the field, could see that trying to brute force his way in would be pointless. His body shivered with anger and dissatisfaction.
“You good-for-nothing fools! We’re four times their number! Why are you having so much trouble?!”
At that moment, the commander’s baton gripped in his hands snapped in two with a high-pitched shriek.
“Reinforcements? What are you saying?!” Kael turned red, shouting at the kneeling runner’s words. “We have all the advantages here! Why would you need reinforcements?!”
“B-But... Resistance at the southern gate is intense, and at this rate, we won’t be able to break through...” No matter how much he was shouted at, the runner didn’t back down.
Regardless of whether it was out of self-preservation or true loyalty, he remained faithful to his duty. But this was precisely why his words only angered Kael more.
“Do you take me for a fool?!” Kael swung a fist at the runner’s face out of anger, shouting at his lowered head. “You must be, you bastard! I have a duty to Duke Gelhart to abide by!”
Kael would never act this way normally. His distinctive characteristic was making calm calls of judgment, and having watched the tyranny of nobles and superior officers from the sidelines, Kael always loathed it. But with his back against the wall, Kael lacked the presence of mind to reflect on his actions.
Ignoring the looks of censure and confusion fixed on him from the surrounding soldiers, Kael retreated to plan his next step.
He’d received a messenger not just from the south, but also from the unit attacking the north, requesting permission to retreat and receive reinforcements. But Kael, who was in charge of attacking the center, wasn’t capable of breaking through Ryoma’s defenses either. He was in no position to send reinforcements. If anything, he’d have preferred to call the other forces back to reinforce his position.
“I have no reinforcements to send your way! Break through with the forces you’ve been given...! To begin with, how is a force four times their size struggling to break through their lines? Use up all the commoners for all I care. Break through their lines and rush into their position!”
In truth, Kael’s words were nothing more than him venting his anger, but the runner nodded, knowing that needlessly arguing back would reward him with nothing but a slashing to death. The palpable madness Kael gave off was simply that intense.
The runner dashed off on his horse as Kael pelted him with vilifications in his heart.
Good for nothings! You’re trying to drag me down, the lot of you!
The moat and fence he thought was only there for show proved to be more stalwart defenses than he anticipated. Despite his defeat of Mikhail’s five hundred knights, the enemy’s morale remained unreasonably high, which was yet another thing he hadn’t expected.
Why?! How can they hold on to their defense so stubbornly...?! Why won’t they crumble already?!
Kael was resolved to win this battle at all costs. It was only because Duke Gelhart acknowledged his skill as a commander that he accepted his defection from the princess’s faction, and so defeat was simply not an option.
No, not just that. He could not even make it seem this was in any way a struggle for him. If he was to have a hard time beating them under such an overwhelming advantage, everyone in the nobles’ faction would doubt his capabilities. And if he were branded as useless even once, there would be no getting rid of that label. Even Duke Gelhart, who acknowledged his skills, would turn his back on him.
And that would be a death sentence for Kael, who had turned his back on Princess Lupis. Kael couldn’t acknowledge he was struggling at the moment.
Shit! Shit! Everyone, absolutely everyone, is looking down on me!
He wanted to believe everyone was slacking off in order to drag him through the mud.
“I’m taking to the front! We’re heading for the central gate!”
As Kael declared so, having steeled his resolve, his aide turned pale. If Kael, the supreme commander, was taking to the front, it meant all the knights they had kept in the rear were to march to the frontlines as well. This time, Kael’s forces were divided between two thousand knights and six thousand commoner conscripts they had gathered from the surrounding villages.
However, those knights weren’t a force that could be frivolously wasted. They were a trump card Duke Gelhart had gathered in secret over many years to oppose the knights’ faction. The duke may have hated General Albrecht, but that wasn’t to say he didn’t value the knights’ abilities.
A knight order consisting entirely of people capable of thaumaturgy was a force to be reckoned with in this world. Duke Gelhart knew this well enough, since he himself was capable of thaumaturgy. And this was why he secretly formed his own knight order, a privilege usually reserved only for the king.
It was made up of experienced mercenaries and exiled knights. In exchange for large sums of money in recompense, those sorts of people were willing to join his order.
Their numbers were nearly six thousand; a number far too excessive if one were to claim they were only hired for self-defense. Kael had been given two thousand of them and understood the meaning of that all too well.
“Wait, milord! Isn’t it too soon?”
Kael turned to face his pale lieutenant. Their initial plan was to have the commoners break through the gates, and then send the knights in to finish the enemy in one fell swoop.
“Shut up! I was a fool for thinking the commoners could break through the blockade. But the enemy is exhausted from holding them in check. If we attack now, they wouldn’t be able to push back my knights! Or do you have a better plan?”
But Kael brushed away his aide’s counsel, claiming now was their chance.
The aide fell silent at those words. He, too, knew the position he was in well enough. The same held true for his associates, who were looking over how things unfolded from around them.
Their job was to assist Kael, and so any failure he made was likewise their failure. And Duke Gelhart wasn’t kind enough to leave useless men around. They’d be lucky if their punishment would only be demotion. Depending on how badly they lost, they may even be sentenced to death.
“Understood,” the aide said, at the end of his many conflicting emotions. “By your will, milord... But in that case, shouldn’t we order the units to the south and north to advance as well? If we pressure them in three spots, a moat and fence of that size shouldn’t be a problem.”
The aide’s words were met with murmurs of agreement from his associates.
“Hmph, very well. Give the order at once.”
Only an hour remained until sunset. Since they weren’t prepare
d for night combat, once the sun set, the area would be enveloped in complete darkness. But if they were to break through and rush the enemy position, the fire they would set to them would give them all the light they’d need.
“We’ll finish this before the sun sets! Crush them in one go!”
With that calculation in mind, Kael ordered his entire army to attack. The first day of battle between the nobles’ faction and princess’s faction was turning into an all-out war from which neither side could afford to back down.
Which would win? It was obvious to all that whichever side took this battle would have the situation swing greatly in their favor.
“Sir Mikoshiba, there is movement from the enemy lines!” A knight rushed over to Ryoma’s side, who was commanding the rear forces.
“Hmm...? I doubt they’re pulling their forces back... The enemy commander’s planning to push their way in and take us out, right?”
Ryoma’s eyes swiftly saw through the enemy’s movements. In this regard, a battle was no different than a scuffle. Victory lay in whether one could adapt themselves to how the enemy chose to act.
“The enemy looks like they’re really bustling around their main force... They must be aiming to break through the central gate.”
“Yeah, they must want to finish the fight today. I’m not sure why they’re in such a hurry...”
Ryoma didn’t know Kael personally, and of course didn’t know Duke Gelhart dispatched him personally to attack them. But he could somehow discern the panic in his tactics.
It might be easier than trying to cross the moat on all three gates, but an army wouldn’t be able to get across without any preparations. Is he stupid enough to not realize that?
Ryoma shook off those thoughts. He couldn’t be like Meltina and Mikhail.
No, wait. He’s probably underestimating our defenses, thinking our resolve might break if he overwhelms us with numbers. That’s why he’s being so forceful... But why not retreat his forces? What he should be doing is going back to square one for a fresh start.
At the very least, if Ryoma were the enemy commander, he’d retreat to make preparations before challenging the enemy again. As short as people’s lives may have been in this world, not having enough farmers would harm tax collection. As thick as the walls of social standing may be, no one would waste the lives of their men so recklessly. There had to have been a reason.