by Hyougetsu
“You truly are a humble man.”
Not really.
“Is there some secret to how you became so skilled in warfare?”
“Not really?”
I quickly changed the topic.
“By the way, when I was investigating Sveniki Castle I realized there was an unnaturally large stockpile of food in its larder. Did you read the report I sent you?”
“Yes. I believe you said there was more food than the 2,000 troops stationed there could finish in an entire winter.”
Ryaag was clearly expecting a larger army to be stationed in his castle. Naturally, Prince Ashley’s army had no plans for using Sveniki Castle as a forward base. Meaning there was only one reason for Ryaag to have stockpiled all that food.
“It looks like he’d been making preparations to aid Prince Woroy’s army for a long time now.”
“Indeed. He had likely made a deal with Prince Woroy before the war began. Judging by how prepared he was, he’d been on the Doneiks’ side for at least a year before this.”
The only way Ryaag would have been able to gather this much food without attracting attention was by storing small amounts over a long period of time. Prince Ashley sighed.
“Earl Ryaag served my father well for decades. I doubt he would have had a reason to betray him during that time, so my guess is that he’d actually been a Doneiks spy from the very start.”
I felt like Prince Ashley was overthinking things, but considering how crafty Lord Doneiks had been, I could actually see that being the case.
“I no longer know which of my allies to trust. I can’t afford to put others in charge of my troops.”
It seemed Prince Ashley was doubting everyone now. Not that I blamed him. After all, even I wasn’t really his ally. I looked into Prince Ashley’s eyes and said gently, “Don’t worry, Your Highness. Princess Eleora will soon be here with her reinforcements of 15,000 troops. If we combine that with your remaining forces, you’ll have close to forty thousand troops. That’s enough to rival the Doneiks family’s army.”
I pointed to a spot on the map and started explaining the situation to Ashley, who knew little of warfare.
“Right now, Prince Woroy and his men have barricaded themselves in Creech Castle, which is the southernmost castle in North Rolmund.”
The castle sat on a manmade island at the center of Creech Lake, so it was nigh impregnable. And because it was on a lake, defenders would always have enough water and they’d be able to fish for food. They really had it easy. But of course, this was Rolmund, the northernmost empire on the continent. That meant where there was water, there was an exploitable weakness.
“Right now, Creech Lake is frozen enough that soldiers can walk on it. Furthermore, there are no other large castles near the front lines. If we can capture Creech Castle now, we can deal a huge blow to North Rolmund.”
Castles large enough to house tens of thousands of troops weren’t too common. It was obvious the Doneiks family had poured a huge amount of resources into building Creech Castle up, probably because of its ideal location. On the other hand, the surrounding castles were all pathetic. At best they could hold 2-3,000 men each, not enough to withstand a large-scale siege. The outcome of this war depended entirely on whether or not we’d be able to take down Creech Castle. After listening to my explanation Prince Ashley asked, “Do you think you can conquer it?”
To be honest, I wasn’t sure. The castle housed a garrison of 30,000. I wasn’t too skilled at leading massive armies, and as far as I could tell, the castle was impregnable. But it was a bad habit of mine to try and live up to people’s expectations.
“Of course. Just leave it to me. I have a plan.”
While I wasn’t confident in my victory, I did at least have a plan. It was a pretty boring plan, though. I was just going to make use of my werewolves’ special abilities. If that didn’t work, I’d draw the war into a battle of attrition and wear down both sides. Since I’d already succeeded once, I was hoping Prince Ashley would forgive a single failure.
* * * *
—Veight’s Letter to Airia: 6—
Dear Airia,
Thank you for your previous letter. I’ve been on the move recently, so I apologize for taking so long to pen a reply. I would have liked to send something sooner, but all of Rolmund is embroiled in a war now. Winters in Rolmund are pleasant enough if you can afford to spend them indoors, but once you have to camp outside, you realize just how harsh they are.
Anything that gets wet freezes instantly, so if you soak your clothes or a rope in water, you can just put them outside for a few seconds and suddenly you have a stick. Your breath freezes the moment it leaves your mouth, too. It turns into tiny ice crystals and falls to the ground. Honestly, despite the cold, it’s quite entertaining. Oh, but food with high water content tends to freeze, so if you’re camping outside, the only rations you can eat are dried and salted things. I’m getting pretty sick of the taste of salt now. Also, even though there’s snow everywhere, sources of unfrozen water are really precious.
Some time before your last letter arrived, one of Prince Ashley’s nobles defected to the Doneiks side and I had to reconquer his castle. I snuck in through the window the same way I had when I came to your manor, but I wasn’t able to settle things as peacefully with him, sadly. While we may be at war, it feels quite bad to have to kill someone I don’t hate. Of course, I know it’s a soldier’s job to get used to killing, but I don’t really feel like a soldier. If anything, I’m more of a mage and a scholar, so it’s hard to come to terms with killing people.
Things have been pretty rough for Kite and Lacy as well for the same reason. They’re both exhausted. In retrospect, I shouldn’t have taken them with me to a battlefield. I know it’s weird for a general of the demon army to say this, but I’d really like it if this war would just end already. I want to go home to Meraldia and see your smile again.
Sincerely, Veight.
* * * *
While Prince Ashley was reorganizing his forces, Eleora arrived in the capital with her troops. Her 15,000 strong army consisted of soldiers from her own Originia family’s lands, as well as her uncle Lord Kastoniev’s lands.
“I would thank you for watching over my manor while I was gone Lord Veight, but...” Eleora sighed. “I heard you went out to recapture a castle already. Do try to leave some of the glory for my men as well.”
“Don’t worry, the real battle is yet to come. Our goal is to capture Creech Castle and crush the Doneiks family. We’ll definitely need East Rolmund’s help for that.”
Eleora smiled gently at me.
“Sorry for the wait. But my uncle and I have successfully rallied all of our nobles. They definitely won’t betray us.”
A note of confidence entered Eleora’s smile. Alright, let’s see what the future empress is capable of. As soon as Eleora arrived, the joint Ashley-Eleora army advanced on Creech Castle. I’d been expecting the first truly big castle I saw in this world to be like the fantasy castles I read about in fairy tales, but in truth, Creech Castle looked pretty much like Osaka Castle. Except it was sitting on a lake as big as Lake Biwa. It was honestly still pretty impressive.
The castle even had its own navy to protect itself from naval assaults. Fortunately, the lake was frozen over enough that infantry could walk on it. The castle’s warships couldn’t move either, so they were being used as glorified watchtowers.
However, if the Doneiks army managed to break the ice somehow, all the soldiers standing on the surface of the lake would sink under the weight of their armor so we had to be careful with our positioning. Furthermore, we wouldn’t be able to build any fortifications on the ice. So instead I had the army set up around the lakeshore. The lake itself was so large that we were only able to surround half of it before we ran out of soldiers. I’d wanted to cut off all potential supply routes to the castle, but the lake was so big that my encirclement ended up full of holes.
Prince Ashley had around 20,000
troops while Eleora had 15,000. Parker glanced curiously around the lake as he watched the soldiers line up and asked, “Hey Veight, is it just me or is Ashley’s army even smaller than before?”
“He lost a lot of troops at the battle at Nodgrad, and then he lost some more when Ryaag betrayed him.”
All the troops that had belonged to Ryaag were court-martialed for betraying Prince Ashley. Rolmundians showed no mercy to traitors. Originally, they’d all been slated for execution, but Prince Ashley had looked like he didn’t want to kill them, so I asked for clemency on his behalf. In the end, Prince Ashley’s generals had given the prisoners to me to do with as I saw fit. However, they were stripped of their rank and booted out of Prince Ashley’s army, which was still pretty cruel. So I’d given the 2,000-odd men to Eleora, and she’d incorporated them into her army. Afterwards, Prince Ashley thanked me for sparing their lives.
Due to their earlier defeat and the subsequent betrayal by Ryaag, Prince Ashley’s army’s morale was low. Furthermore, his army wasn’t as big as it could be because his allies were reluctant to send over their troops. Eleora’s army, on the other hand, was in high spirits. They were more than ready to earn honor and glory for themselves. Looking back, I saw Ser Lekomya and a few other nobles poring over a map nearby. They were all bedecked in shiny new armor.
“It’s finally time.”
“This battle will decide whether we stay landless forever, or win our own territory.”
I’d lent most of the young nobles a few squads to command. Though they only had a few dozen troops under them, they were at least proper officers now. I walked over to them and gave them both some encouragement and a warning.
“Gentlemen, Princess Eleora has granted you command because she believes in your leadership abilities. Be sure to lead your soldiers well and avoid wasting their lives.”
Because commanders were rewarded for their individual accomplishments, allied nobles often competed with each other to rack up the most merit. As a result, their troops often suffered larger casualties than would otherwise be necessary. I’d taken measures to make sure our allies didn’t squabble among each other, so I hoped no one did anything reckless.
I watched as our two armies finished taking up positions in the formation I’d devised. As they finished setting up, I noticed a commotion on the far side of the lake.
“What’s going on?” Eleora asked, squinting. I took out my telescope and peered through it. A large sleigh packed full of crates was sliding across the frozen lake. It was being led by a squad of 20 or so humans.
“It looks like one of the enemy’s supply sleighs slipped past our encirclement and is running for the castle.”
Eleora scrunched up her face.
“I know our encirclement is full of holes, but I find it difficult to believe a supply sleigh could break through so easily. Are you sure it’s one of their supply teams?”
“Yeah, that struck me as strange too... On top of that, the sleigh’s moving too fast. Those crates are probably empty. I bet it’s a trap to lure our men in.”
I quickly sent off a messenger to tell all of Eleora’s troops in the vicinity not to give chase. The lake provided both food and water to the castle anyway, so from the very start, I hadn’t planned on employing starvation tactics. It was more important to be wary of traps than to deny the enemy supplies. However, I had no control over Prince Ashley’s army, and it seemed some of his generals weren’t as perceptive. Borsche took out his own telescope and said, “I see the order of Saint Ethelina’s knights giving chase. They’ve sent sixty or so infantry after the sleigh.”
One of the Sonnenlicht knight orders, huh? The knight orders were strong and convenient to have around, but they answered to the pope, not Prince Ashley, so he couldn’t give them orders. They were probably only thinking about killing the enemies that appeared in front of them, cutting off Prince Woroy’s supplies, and earning as much merit as possible. We watched on as the enemy’s sleigh managed to lure the knights all the way to the center of the lake.
“Ah...I see what they’re doing.”
A second after I said that, the ice near the knights cracked and broke. Some of them were too close to the hole and they sank into the water. The tiny hole caused a chain reaction along the surface of the lake and even more chunks of ice cracked and broke. Before long, most of the 60 knights fell in. Lacy turned to me and shouted, “O-Oh no! We have to go save them!”
But I shook my head.
“It’s too late.”
The knights were all wearing armor, and the water was close to freezing. They’d lose consciousness not long after falling in. Even if I sent my fastest werewolves, they wouldn’t make it in time. The moment most of the knights fell, the soldiers transporting the sleigh turned around and started firing crossbows into the remaining knights. The soldiers all had impeccable aim, and all of the knights were mowed down. Saint Ethelina’s knights were no more. The soldiers they’d been chasing hadn’t been transport guards. They’d been special forces trained specifically for missions like this. Eleora turned to me and muttered, “That’s a basic tactic for fighting on frozen lakes. They probably weakened the ice in that area beforehand. There are plenty of ways to do that.”
As soon as the crossbowmen finished their assault, they retreated back to the safety of Creech Castle. Eleora sighed as she watched them go.
“The Doneiks probably put more than a few ambush units like that near the lakeshore. They’ll definitely use tactics like this again.”
Indeed, the Doneiks army pulled the same trick the next day, and even the day after. Even though they knew it was a trap, there was always one or two units who felt like they could catch the enemy. Naturally, every unit who tried got annihilated. After a few days, people finally got the hint and stopped chasing transports. But once they did, actual transports laden with goods started sneaking their way to Creech Castle. Realizing they’d been had, members of Prince Ashley’s army started giving chase again, only to start falling for traps again.
Prince Ashley’s army lost a few hundred people without ever once engaging in a proper battle. Meanwhile, Eleora didn’t lose a single man. In fact, she managed to capture a few of the actual transport teams. It helped that werewolves are extremely sensitive to the smell of food, so they were able to let her know which sleighs to target. Still, it seemed like this battle was going to be a long one.
* * * *
—Airia’s Reply: 4—
Dear Veight,
I see Rolmund’s civil war has begun in earnest now. Knowing you, you’ve surely thrown yourself into the center of everything. The other councilors have expressed their regret at being unable to do anything to help you directly. None of us want you to bear the full burden of this job, but unfortunately we cannot leave our posts. All of us are worried about Lacy and Kite as well. I pray both of them are still safe and sound.
The council discussed sending you reinforcements, but because Meraldia’s soldiers aren’t equipped for combat in snow, and because of how far Rolmund is, we decided it would be a bad idea. I’m terribly sorry for being unable to assist you. If it seems as though your forces are facing a hopeless battle and our cause is lost, please abandon your mission and return home. Even if you can’t save anyone else, please make sure you survive. The council and the demon army dearly need you. We cannot afford to lose you. To me at least, your life has more value than all of Rolmund.
Of course, I would love nothing more than to see everyone return home safe and sound, though. So if the war effort turns south, please retreat before any of you are put in danger. The Meraldian Commonwealth is not so weak that it will crumble in the face of a single war.
Incidentally, you mentioned in your previous letter that you were getting tired of salty preserved foods, so I’ve sent some Meraldian fruit for you together with this letter. Please share it with everyone. You mentioned you were enjoying the cold climate of Rolmund, but despite how casual your letter was, I’m certain you’re working y
ourself much harder than you should. I imagine you’re keeping your letters lighthearted to avoid worrying me, and I respect that. But still, please allow me to pray for your safety. I hope that the snowy winter road you walk is free of hardships.
* * * *
“I guess Airia’s getting pretty worried about me...”
I sighed and cast my gaze southward. I picked up one of the raisins she’d sent with her letter and plopped it into my mouth. It was sweet, and tart, and reminded me of home. Thanks, Airia. She was probably wringing her hands with worry right now, wondering how my battle was going. There was no internet or telephones in this world, so it was hard to exchange information over long distances. It was obvious just from how shaky the letters were that Airia was worried, but was trying not to show it. Sorry. I promise I won’t charge in alone anymore. I hope.
Our siege of Creech Castle was still ongoing. I was on my way to a war council with Eleora and her generals. The moment I walked into the command tent, I noticed how gloomy the atmosphere was. We’d wanted to assault Creech Castle, but the lake was too frozen to attack via boat. On the other hand, we couldn’t advance with too large an army or Prince Woroy’s men would shatter the ice around us again. We couldn’t bring catapults or other siege engines onto the ice either.
“We lack any good offensive options, but we won’t be able to starve them out with a siege like this either.”
I nodded in agreement with Eleora.
“Yeah. Normally when an army holes up in their castle, it’s because they’re expecting reinforcements to relieve them. If we take too long, Prince Ivan’ll come at us with a separate army.”