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Vol 01 Chapter 32: The First Battle IV

 

「Now, onto a serious matter. How many magicians do you have? Ah, I mean those who can possess animals.」

「We have three. By the way, according to Tetra, King Ferme has nine magicians capable of doing the same. Out of those, we’ve taken down three in a surprise attack.」

When I answered, Bartolo nodded in satisfaction.

「I see. We’ve brought five with us. And we’ve taken out two more of King Ferme’s magicians. So, that leaves four…」

Bartolo stroked his chin.

「Alright, let’s do this. I’ll send three of our magicians to the rebel forces. The remaining two and your three will focus on breaking the enemy’s barrier.」

「Ok, that works for me.」

There are two types of barriers. A magical barrier that prevents curses and a physical barrier that reinforces materials. In this case, we’re dealing with a physical barrier.

Materials reinforced by magic gain a considerable degree of durability, posing a challenge when destroying defensive structures. But in the end, the reinforcement it’s only to a certain extent.

If it were a stone wall, it would be nearly impregnable, but the walls are made of normal wood.

We have already experimented, and proven that even barriers can be destroyed with enough black powder. After all, the barrier only provides a reinforcement of the basic durability of the defense structure.

◇

When the council ended, we started marching together.

After a while, a hawk returned. It landed on the shoulder of a magician sitting in the carriage.

The magician opened her eyes.

「I’ve delivered the message.」

「Is that so? Has the battle started yet?」

The magician nodded deeply in response to Bartolo’s question.

「Yes, the rebel forces have already captured the capital and are holed up in the palace. King Ferme is attempting to take it back with an assault. The rebels were putting up a good fight. And on my return, I engaged and defeated an enemy magician.」

King Ferme is attacking his own capital… the roles have reverted.

「This is an opportunity. If we launch a surprise attack now, we can catch them in a pincer movement.」

「Right. But we ended up not using the magicians we saved for breaking the barrier…」

After that, we increased our marching speed.

「By the way, your soldiers seem tireless. What kind of training do you do?」

「We haven’t done anything special. Maybe it’s because they’ve been hunting every day?」

「Is that so? Alright, I’ll incorporate hunting into the training for the Royal Guard. By the way, can you hunt in the Romalia Forest?」

「Yes. In fact, the territory of Gryphon-sama is deep within that forest. As long as you don’t hunt deep inside, you won’t anger Gryphon-sama, and even if you venture deep, you’ll be warned before being killed right away. Gryphon-sama is pretty magnanimous.」

「Really! Now that you mention it, King Ferme also dared to march through the Romalia Forest, and he wasn’t attacked… It seems we’ve been under a big misunderstanding…」

Bartolo dropped his shoulders.

It’s only natural since they had been overlooking a large amount of timber and game until now.

But don’t get too carried away, okay? Gryphon-sama is also short-tempered.

◇

Atop a small hill. The sounds of battle could be heard just below. Looking down, You could see King Ferme’s capital.

Two different flags were waving prominently.

「Yes! They’re in the middle of battle, just as the scouts reported. The enemy likely doesn’t have any magicians left for lookout duty. This is great, the surprise attack will definitely succeed.」

「Hey! Be careful.」

I pressed down on Bartolo’s head as I noticed a lookout soldier was about to turn our way. The soldier quickly averted his gaze.

「Hey, that hurts. You smashed my chin into the ground.」

「Don’t worry about it, let’s hurry and charge.」

Bartolo and I descended the hill.

Then we gave the order to the soldiers we had hidden.

「Alright, form up.」

At Bartolo’s command, the soldiers began to form ranks.

We also followed Bartolo’s lead and formed our ranks.

「Hey, why are you guys better at this than we are!」

「We’re all like a family here. Our unity is different.」

Forming ranks is easy. The difficult part is moving while maintaining those ranks without disorder.

Soldiers conscripted from farmers lack unity, so it must be instilled through training. But we already had that unity from the beginning.

「…If we clash with you guys, we might lose…」

Bartolo murmured while looking at us.

You have three hundred, and we have fifty. Any way you slice it, I’d think you would win…

「We’ll charge first.」

「Damn… I don’t want to let you hog all the glory… but you guys are definitely faster…」

Bartolo glared at me, clearly frustrated.

You’ve already earned plenty of accolades. I don’t think there’s a need to achieve more, but well.

Just to clarify, us taking the lead isn’t because we want the glory. Life is more important. But having Bartolo and his men in front would just get in the way.

In various ways.

We advanced without breaking our formation. We were close enough to be visible by now, they probably had already noticed us.

We increased our marching speed even more.

「Let’s go!! All troops, charge!!」

We started running all at once. There was no stopping now, even if we wanted to, as stopping would mean death, crushed by those behind us.

King Ferme’s army finally noticed us and their ranks began to waver. The rear ranks pointed their spears towards us.

Are they planning to intercept us?

Is this the prowess of King Ferme? Their ability to form ranks quickly is impressive.

But…

「Alright, prepare the blast spears!」

I raised the blast spear I was holding. One by one, my comrades running in the front with me readied their spears.

「Throw!!」

The spears drew parabolas in the air, landing amidst King Ferme’s army. The ground shook violently.

The enemy soldiers who had been waiting with their spears prepared were engulfed in white smoke.

They must be in total chaos. Well, the ones who aren’t already dead, at least.

「Cut through them!!」

I kicked the horse’s sides. Thanks to the training to get used to the sound of explosions, the horse performed as usual.

Beside me, Ron, Roswald, and Gram lined up.

「Let’s take down King Ferme’s head!!」

I entered the midst of the white smoke.

◇

As expected, the enemy was in complete chaos. I didn’t even need to swing my spear. Unable to maintain formation, King Ferme’s soldiers were simply running away in panic.

But searching for King Ferme in this mess will be difficult…

Suddenly, a figure in lavish clothing caught my eye. Not King Ferme, but undoubtedly someone important.

「You there! You’re a commander, aren’t you? I’ll be taking your head!」

I struck down with my spear towards the lavishly dressed man.

「Hmph, is that all?!」

He shouted as he attempted to block my spear with his sword…

「Argghh!!」

…and was cut down, his bronze sword shattered in two, pieces flying through the air.

Sorry about that. It’s the difference in weapons, and also, the difference in blessings. If you’re going to blame someone, blame the gods?

「Got you!」

I felt a fierce killing intent from behind.

I turned around to see a soldier raising his sword. This is bad!!

「Die!」

The soldier fell to the ground, an arrow lodged in his forehead.

「Are you okay, Almus-san?」

Gram approached with his bow drawn, followed by Ron and Roswald.

「Going solo is dangerous, you know?」

「Ah, sorry. Thanks for the help. By the way…」

I stared at the longbow Gram was holding.

「You’re quite skilled at shooting with a longbow in the midst of this chaos. And while riding a horse, no less.」

「Hm? Is that strange?」

「No, not really.」

As I backed off, an enemy soldier swung his sword at Gram.

「Die!!」

「You’re the one who’s going to die.」

Gram calmly grabbed an arrow with his hand and inserted it into the enemy soldier’s eye.

That must hurt. 

But seriously, that is not the way to use an arrow. If you’re going to use it like that, it’s better to use a spear.

「Gram being weird is nothing new. Now, let’s go find King Ferme. I’ll lead the way.」

Saying that, Ron kicked his horse and disappeared into the enemy ranks. We followed after him.

◇

A little while earlier.

「Damn it!! Why has it fallen already!?」

Ferme glared at the flag bearing the Aris family crest. The defense facilities bore signs of burning. He had left a hundred soldiers, and the city had both ditches and fences prepared. The barriers were layered to increase their strength.

「I’m sorry. Suddenly, flames appeared…」

「Excuses don’t matter! We must retake it quickly. We’re being sandwiched!!」

Ferme issued an attack order to all his soldiers. As he conscripted more troops along the way here, their number had increased to six hundred.

However, this caused their morale to be low.

「We’re hardly making progress.」

「Why are those from the Aris faction so spirited?」

「How should I know? I’d like to ask that myself.」

Suddenly, the image of a certain girl came to Ferme’s mind. A girl he had once let escape.

Could it possibly be… No way.

Ferme shook off the unpleasant thought that had crossed his mind.

That’s when it happened. The soldiers at the rear began to stir. At the same time, a rumbling noise reached Ferme’s ears.

「What’s happening!」

「It’s serious! The Rosais army is coming from behind!!」

「What!!」

Ferme panicked for a moment but quickly calmed himself down.

「Order the troops at the rear to intercept!」

Ferme commanded the commander.

He also spoke to his adjutant and the nearby guards.

「We must give up on this country. We will seek asylum with King Domorgal. We will make our comeback there!」

Ferme mounted his horse, ready to flee the battlefield with his guards. But as they began to run, a roaring sound occurred.

They were thrown into chaos in an instant.

「Damn it, so this is the flame and smoke they were talking about… such a troublesome thing!!」

Ferme and his men desperately ran. The battle line had already collapsed. There was no chance to buy time.

「Hurry!! Until the horses collapse, gah!!」

The adjutant screamed and fell from his horse.

As Ferme looked back, he saw four cavalrymen, among them, was the young man who had called himself Almus.

One by one, the soldiers around Ferme were shot down. Ferme stopped in his tracks.

「You… you’ve really interfered with my dream. You’re all coming down with me!!」

Ferme brandished his spear and charged at Almus and his men.

Almus countered with his Damascus steel sword. The spear and sword crossed paths.

「Damn…」

Ferme groaned and glared at Almus as he fell. Almus’s sword was deeply embedded in his belly.

「Your mistake was letting Tetra live. Well, thanks to that, I got to meet her, so I’m grateful, you know?」

「Ha ha, is that so… Was it a mistake, after all…」

Ferme laughed with a mix of frustration and amusement.

「Make sure you make her happy. It would be meaningless otherwise… for me to have let her go…」

With those words, Ferme breathed his last.