by Funa
“Wh—?!”
The supply depots were manned not by the transport personnel but by members of the army proper. Now, those battalions most affected were entirely out of provisions—food, drinking water, and everything else. Even the colonel could see that this was a sticky situation.
“Take me there!”
The invading forces were a large-scale regiment, made up of five individual battalions formed of roughly 1,000 men each. The goods that had been brought in with the regiment had been divided up equally between the five battalions with each one maintaining their own individual depot. The fact that they had come under attack without their own forces even noticing meant that the enemy was capable of attacking the imperial forces from any side at any time. And that their attacks might even reach headquarters…
With this in mind, the colonel proceeded to each of the battalion’s depots. What he saw was utterly unthinkable.
“H-how could this…?”
What the colonel had expected to see were ruined supply tents, and the smoldering, burnt-out husks of destroyed goods. However, what he found were clusters of supply tents still standing cleanly in a row, as though nothing had even happened…
However, each of these clusters had been utterly emptied without a single item left inside.
“What is going on here?!” the colonel shouted, laying into the commanders of each battalion as they arrived on the scene. “I would understand if the enemies had infiltrated and set fire to the depots. Well, no—I’d still have a lot of questions about whatever useless security measures allowed that to happen, but at least it would still make sense. How in the hell do you explain this?!”
Indeed, it should have been impossible for someone to simply waltz in and carry off such a large amount of supplies without anyone noticing. It would take innumerable perpetrators just to transport that much without the use of conspicuous supply wagons.
And yet, someone had accomplished this in almost no time at all, without being detected by anyone. Such a thing should not have been possible.
“Don’t tell me that you lot…”
Realizing what the colonel must be thinking, the battalion commanders began to go pale.
“D-don’t be ridiculous! There’s no one who would be stupid enough to take advantage of the situation by siphoning off supplies from the front lines! Anyone who would try something like that wouldn’t even make it home alive to be put before the military tribunal!”
Their death would be all but guaranteed—either by their inability to fight properly due to lack of supplies or the likelihood of their falling victim to their own enraged subordinates.
Even the colonel could not help but accept that logic.
“What in the world happened here?”
***
“We have so many of their supplies!”
Pauline looked very much like the cat who caught the canary.
“Seriously though, just how much can you fit in that storage of yours?” Reina stared in awe.
“Well, it is Mile…” Mavis seemed to have already realized that it was futile to think too hard about it.
Mile, of course, played it off with a laugh.
“This kind of seems like foul play, though…”
Just as Reina suggested, it was a bit underhanded. Mile had simply trekked into the enemy camp under the protection of an invisibility field, a sound barrier, smell barrier, and general detection barrier, scooped up the enemy’s supplies into her inventory and trekked all the way back. It was incredibly easy work.
Transport units almost always had officers or some other kind of guards sticking closely to their wagons and carts, or even riding on them. As a result, sneaking in quietly to requisition an army’s goods, even when they stopped to make camp, was quite impossible. Therefore, Mile had aimed for the middle of the day, when the convoys were on the move, to avoid any large-scale injuries.
By surrounding and entrapping the convoys with fire or earth magic and attacking them from the sides, they were rendered unable to proceed, their handlers forced to disembark the wagons and flee to the sides of the road. Once they had done so, it was safe to attack the vehicles with fire.
Indeed, both the attacks launched upon the imperial supply convoys and the mysterious disappearance of the goods from the depots had all been the work of the Crimson V—er, the Order of the Crimson Blood.
Naturally, the one who had proposed these attacks had been Mile, who knew all about the importance of cutting off enemy supply lines from the books, war films, and foreign dramas she had watched in her previous life, but Pauline had been all for it, too.
***
“What’s the meaning of this?!”
“That’s what I should be asking!”
An emergency strategy meeting had been called at the camp, and the atmosphere was tense, all parties present glaring at one another under the colonel’s watchful eyes.
“Give us back our supplies at once! We might be part of the same army, but once the goods are distributed, if you let the enemy steal yours then that’s your problem! You’ve got no right to come and try and take ours!”
“That’s what I should be saying! The 2nd and 3rd battalions had everything taken from them, but the 1st battalion is unscathed. Seems pretty weird that the 4th and 5th both had half of theirs taken, doesn’t it?! It’s obvious that the enemy thieves got the 2nd through 4th, but then they ran out of time or reached their carrying limits and retreated. Then, as soon as the 4th realized, they rushed over and stole half the goods from us at the 5th and stashed ’em in their own depot!”
“I could say the exact same thing to you!”
“In that case, care to explain why the enemy would’ve skipped over the 4th and come over to the 5th? It seems natural that after the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th comes the 5th—and given that the 1st was untouched, it’s pretty likely they tried to avoid the ones at the tail ends because it’d be too easy to spot them. You had better have a very good explanation!”
“Grrnh…”
The fact that the 5th battalion commander’s words were growing steadily more polite was an indication of the fact that his anger was growing. Meanwhile, as for the commanders of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd battalions…
“Just what is the meaning of this? How is it that we of the 2nd battalion, and the 3rd as well, now have utterly empty stores while the 1st is untouched—and in fact, has at least 30 percent more than we did to start?”
The 2nd and 3rd battalion commanders’ faces were twitching, the veins bulging in their foreheads.
“How should I know?! I have no idea how this happened, I swear it!”
The commander of the 1st battalion would normally be enraged at such baseless accusations, but on this occasion, he appeared more mildly uneasy than anything else. The physical evidence of the imbalance aside, he had swiftly realized that to lob any strong words at the 2nd and 3rd, who had lost everything up to and including their food while they themselves had escaped injury, would be inexcusable.
Of course, the only thing that this restraint accomplished was to confirm the 2nd and 3rd battalion commanders’ doubts about his behaviors.
Even if they were divided into battalions, such divisions were only temporary. They were still comrades, soldiers of the same regiment, in the same invading force. If anyone had lost their goods, the others should have been happy to redistribute their own.
However, to see those same comrades thieving from them and then pretending ignorance, and then trying to accuse them of stealing? Such things could be neither abided nor forgiven. They could give these so-called allies no quarter until they confessed to their crimes and returned the stolen goods at once.
Greatly vexed by this feud between his subordinate officers, the colonel gave up his investigation on the spot. He could already tell that, no matter what his findings were, restoring trust and morale among his men was already well nigh impossible.
“As things stand, the possibility of the Ascham troops infiltrating us and me
ddling with our supplies continues to grow, a fact that is made all the more dangerous by our current shortages. The next time that a convoy is scheduled to arrive, we will send a guard to meet it. Once we have received those goods and redistributed them, the invasion shall proceed. Do you understand me?!”
Thus was the colonel’s decree. Whether or not the men were happy about it, no one could overrule him. The five commanders replied as one, “Yes, sir!”
“Very good. Now, when is the next convoy set to arrive?”
“Well, the next one is scheduled to have more guards, and it will be carrying a great deal more than usual to account for the previous two that were lost, so accounting for a slight delay, it should be arriving in four days.”
“Very well. Five days from now, bright and early, our invasion begins. Spending all these days waiting on the damn surprise attack units was nothing more than a waste of our time…”
Later that evening, an officer appeared at the colonel’s tent, looking queasy.
“S-sir! A-all the goods in our d-depot have—”
“What’s this?! Speak clearly, man!”
“All of our supplies have vanished!”
“How the hell?!”
The colonel rushed to the depot in a panic, only to find it exactly as he had left it that afternoon. All of the barrels and crates that had contained food and other supplies were just as they had been. Seeing the confusion on his face, the officer explained.
“They’re only the containers. Empty crates and empty barrels. When we checked them all this afternoon, the contents were still intact—there’s no mistaking it!”
“………”
It was inexplicable, but it was just as the man said.
“We no longer have the leisure of awaiting the convoy. To wait for four days without any food would be far too dangerous. If this is all the enemy’s doing, then there’s a chance that they’ll launch an attack on us at our weakest moment, and judging by how things have gone so far, it is possible that our next convoy, no matter how well guarded, will suffer an attack as well. I’m certain the enemy will come at us with their full force. If that should happen…”
The officer gulped.
“Our invasion begins tomorrow morning. First, we will head to the river to replenish our water, and then we set course for the capital. Spread the word!”
The officer rushed out.
Unfortunately for the soldiers, there was something they would not learn until they had already refilled their barrels at the river and were half a day away:
All of the metal bindings on those barrels had been ever so subtly loosened, and the wooden panels that formed them all cracked, just so. No matter what they did, they could not stop the barrels from leaking…
***
“What was that?”
“Well, sir, our barrels have been leaking, little by little. Currently, they are all nearly empty.”
Hearing this latest report, the colonel was enraged.
“What is the meaning of this?!”
“The cask bindings have gone loose and the wooden panels are cracked, ever so slightly… It’s not enough to be obvious when you first put the water in. They were leaking so slowly that we didn’t notice it back at the river.”
“And you’re telling me that you just now noticed this, after we’ve already marched for half a day?!”
The colonel could scream all he wanted, but it wouldn’t change the facts.
“Repair the barrels at once, and go get us some more water!” the colonel ordered.
However, his dithering subordinate replied, “B-but sir, we haven’t the smiths to re-forge the bindings, and the other sections are all cracked, or have notches in them. These parts aren’t something that just any layman can repair…”
“Well then, what do you propose we do?”
The subordinate, unable to respond, fell silent.
Even if they were to gather up all of the other vessels that they had on hand—in other words, their few buckets and wooden bowls and such—this would still achieve nothing. Even using all such items to draw water, the yield would be very small, and to carry them for half a day would only see their contents spilled. In any event, they had very few such containers to begin with. Naturally, even the colonel was aware that such an ordeal was not worth undertaking.
“Send for more barrels at once. I’m sure they can be requisitioned from the lands we’re already occupying. While we’re at it, gather up as much food as you can. I don’t care if it’s rice seed or seed potatoes—confiscate it all. It’s the natural duty of the peasants to offer up anything that their leaders require. Now! Go!”
While they were at this, the colonel reasoned, they may as well stockpile as many barrels as possible. Some of their supplies had been stolen in their barrels, so their supply of containers was already insufficient. If they were empty, then a good number could easily be transported at a swift pace.
Yet, just as the colonel issued this order, one of the rations officers came flying into the command quarters.
“Damn it! If it isn’t one thing, it’s another!”
The officers in the vicinity looked quite uneasy. Without anyone noticing, the bindings of the barrels had been warped and the wood broken. All while their supplies had been under very careful watch…
Normally, they wouldn’t go to the trouble of diligently attending to a lot of empty barrels and crates from which all the goods had already been stolen. However, as there was still a good chance that the enemy was slipping freely in and out of their temporary camp, the men had been instructed to keep a close watch on things. In spite of this, the barrels had been compromised.
If the enemies could just sneak in whenever they liked, then did that not also mean that they could slip in and slit their throats as they slept, without anyone noticing? It seemed only logical.
No matter how skilled and disciplined the soldiers in their employ, if all of the command staff were assassinated in the middle of the night… The colonel preferred not to imagine that scenario, instead preferring the theory that there might be traitors in their own midst who were colluding with the enemy. It was about a million times more appealing to imagine this work had been their doing.
However, the problems did not stop there.
Relations between the battalions were growing dangerously strained. Perhaps the worst they could possibly be.
What drove a soldier to brave inhospitable conditions and risk his life on the battlefield, surpassing his own limits to bring about victory, was the desire to protect his family and his motherland. More than that, his greatest strength came from the will to protect his comrades—the refusal to let a single one die.
Now, stricken with hunger and thirst, the commander’s troops were calling the men of the other battalions thieves, traitors, and cowards. There would be no raising morale in circumstances like these.
To them, the others were not comrades, but enemies who had stolen their food, refused to share their own, and shirked their duties to their allies with the excuse that they, too, had been stolen from. No person who would steal another’s life-sustaining food and water could ever be called anything but an enemy.
Worse still, among those who believed the other battalions to be their enemies, that line of thinking was sure to soon grow more entrenched. Next, they would grow distrustful of the other companies, then the other platoons, then the other squads. And then, each and every other man who would take from them the food and water that should have been theirs.
These men could agree to fight to the death for the sake of their homeland, alongside allies who they could trust. However, why would they ever agree to suffer and die for the sake of a bunch of thieving scumbags? It was a pointless death. A dog’s death.
And once they were dead, those allies who lived on—who had stolen all their food and water—would go back home to take all the credit for their victory!
It was unfathomable. Who would die for something like that? No, they were g
oing to make it back home alive…
Soldiers who thought like this could never give their all in a fight. They would prioritize their own safety over working together to defeat the enemy. And this was the true definition of cowardice…
***
“Looks like they’re on the move,” said Reina.
“Just as we predicted,” Pauline agreed.
Just then, Mile interjected, “Guys, come on! Right there, you’re supposed to sneer, like this, and say, ‘All according to plan…’ or, ‘Just as the patterns divined…’ or, like, ‘Soldiers are nothing but trash!’”
The other three looked back at her in silence as Mile glared at them.
I guess she’s trying to put on a good face for us? thought Mavis. Apparently, there was still much that she did not understand about the mysterious creature known as Mile.
“Let’s get going!”
“Yeah!!!”
***
After having vanquished the imperial ambushers’ units, the 300 Ascham troops broke up into 10 platoons of 30 men apiece and traveled around to the different hamlets of the fief, all while the imperial forces were still frittering around wasting time.
There was no way that an army of their numbers could ever hope for a straightforward victory against an army with scores more men. Therefore, they had no choice but to gather up all the civilians in their lands to fortify the capital’s defenses, at least until reinforcements from the Crown, or other lords, could arrive.
The odds that those reinforcements would appear anytime soon were slim. However, even if the people were to abandon their lands and flee from Ascham, they would have no means by which to live, and the Ascham soldiers had not the slightest shred of intention of abandoning their homes in the first place. For them, there was no other viable option.
There were many villagers who refused to leave behind their homes and their farms and the lands where their ancestors were buried, so the soldiers had to convince those folks, as well as help move the sick who were too weak to move on their own, transporting the minimal amount of baggage possible. Bogged down by these details, the enactment of the evacuation plan did not go off quite as intended. But there was no meaning in a land without its denizens. To boast of Ascham was to boast of its people. Plus, there was the promise that Juno had made to Mabel.