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Volume 1 Chapter 4 Part 8

「I got it! 」

 

Aishela smiled and nodded, turning her naginata over her head once before holding it by her side.

 

「Irvin? 」

 

Siluca summoned the Chamberlain, who was still invisible to the naked eye.

 

「What is it that you require of me, my lady? 」

 

As expected, Irvin appeared among the soldiers.

 

「I will leave the judgment of what to do to you. Please do your best for Lord Theo’s sake. 」

 

「As you wish, Lady Siluca. 」

 

Irvin bowed gracefully.

 

「What are we going to do about King Selvis’ main army? 」

 

Theo asked. King Selvis’ army had already begun to move. About 100 people gathered together and formed a dense formation. There are dozens of such smaller groups of soldiers clumped together. As they proceeded to move along the grassland, they certainly did look like a giant that slowly advanced forward.

「If we choose to fight the heavy infantry while they are clustered together is such close formations, it will only increase the amount of casualties on our side. I have already instructed the independent Lords who decided to side with us to scatter over the entire battlefield in an attempt to separate the enemy and make them run wild. We are going to defeat the armies of the three Barons first, and after that, we are going to flank the rest of the enemy’s forces and then move on to full-scale attacks on the independent Lords of the enemy.

 

「I see. 」

 

Theo nodded and turned to face the charging enemy. Just by looking at the momentum he was going, he could see that the morale of the enemy was exceedingly high.

 

「You seem to be envisioning the end of this battle in your mind already? 」

 

Siluca  nodded vigorously.

 

「I believe that things will work out that way in the end, yes. 」

 

「Then let is make it happen, shall we? 」

 

Theo drew his sword. The enemy was already close at hand.

 

*          *          *

 

Theo’s men managed to hold back a large enemy force from advancing too much, and although they were pushed back, they soon retreated according to Siluca’s plan.

Since they were still hell bent on claiming Theo’s Crest for themselves, the three Barons of King Selvis went after him in hot pursuit. Using the perfect opportunity that has presented itself to them, Lassic and Neman took their forces and attacked them from both sides.

 

If the enemy had fought together as one, it would not have been difficult for them to prevent their flanks from being attacked. All they needed to do was to split themselves into three smaller groups and that would have thrown a wrench into Theo’s side’s plans.

 

But if the third Baron were to stay behind, that would mean that he would be willingly missing on a great chance at a personal achievement, so he also continued to pursue Theo.

 

Theo simply continued the strategy of briefly engaging the enemy and then retreating. And then, when they finally sensed that it was their turn, the master of the blacksmith workshop and his group of village youths stood up from the tall grass in which they were hiding and raised their voices all at once. Their numbers were not all that big, but they were definitely enough to stop the enemies in their tracks when they managed to surprise them like that.

 

And now that the started making a commotion, it was time for Theo to begin his counterattack like he was supposed to do.

 

Siluca also cast electric shock magic several times at the enemy, but her purpose for doing so was not to kill or defeat them. Rather than that, her intention was to frighten by throwing around flashy-looking spells, and she managed to achieve that effect splendidly, because mere moment after she started throwing her spells around, the enemy soldiers finally started to freeze in their places instead of advancing, until they eventually began to retreat.

 

However, they did not manage to go very far, because Lassic’s and Neman’s forces were already waiting for them, cutting off their escape route before they could get a chance to flee anywhere.

 

Lassic and Neman’s forces are encircling the retreat.

 

At this point, if only they were fighting together in a coordinated manner, they could have tried to form a circle in order to defend themselves, or make a column and tried to break through a single point in Lassic’s and Neman’s forces in order to carve out a path for themselves, but even in such dire circumstances when those two things were their only options of getting out of their predicament, the three Barons and their men still could not bring themselves to work together.

 

In the midst of the chaos that has erupted in the enemy ranks, Aishela descended from the sky with her silver armor glittering and drew her weapon, swinging it around at incredible speed. With each of her swings, the enemy soldiers and Artists were losing their heads and limbs, which were flying into the air left and right.

 

The Crests of the deceased Lords were released from their bodies just like the Arts of the defeated Artists, and they became the Chaos Cores which were then swiftly retrieved by Theo and Siluca. This was one of the most important tasks for any Lord, after all.

 

As a result of that latest skirmish, all of the three Barons who served under the King of Selvis have been killed. All three of them bore the signs of being assassinated with a dagger, so it was evidently clear who was the one who was the one who killed them.

 

Many of the monarchs subordinate to the Barons were also killed in action, and most of the rest who did not get themselves killed surrendered. Only a few Lords fighting for the King of Selvis actually managed to escape.

 

「Impossible! 」

 

Hearing the news, King of Selvis’ complexion turned deathly pale in an instant.

 

The heavy infantry that he was leading were the force that was unilaterally driving the forces of his independent Lords forward.

 

He was hoping that the heavy infantry alone is going to be enough to run the opposing forces down and kill them all, but the biggest problem here was that throughout most of the time, the enemy soldiers were simply running around without even trying to fight.

 

The army of the wandering Lord who defeated the combined forces of the three Barons then began their charge towards the King of Selvis’ position, so he ordered several members of the heavy infantry troops to intercept Theo.

 

That was his initial plan, but as it soon turned out, even the heavy infantry was an easy prey for magic attacks. An explosion occurred right in the center of the group that was meant to fight Theo, and then a series of electric shocks ran to the sides of it. When Theo’s army charged at the point where the formation collapsed, the members of the heavy infantry, who were good at fighting in groups, were defeated one after another in close quarters combat.

 

At the same time, the armies of independent Lords also launched their own counterattacks that followed the same patter as Theo’s actions: they were running away from the front of the enemy formation where it was the most dangerous to be and they were relentlessly trying to get either to their sides or behind them.

 

Still, King Selvis’s army remained strong and repelled the attacks of the independent Lords many times. But that was until they encountered Theo’s army. The battlefield was a  wide, open area, and thanks to that they were able to isolate each unit of the army from the rest, thus preventing them from getting any sort of reinforcements, which made it all the easier to defeat them individually. And so, the subordinate Lords of King Selvis, who still personally commanded the biggest group of soldiers in his army died in battle one by one.

 

The unit was commanded by King Sevis’ contracted magicians, but when they encountered Theo’s army, they quickly surrendered after being hit with just one  blow of Siluca’s magic. Siluca herself was of the opinion that instead of killing them, they are going to be of much better use to them if they take them captive, which was perfectly reasonable, sine on the front lines of any battlefield, there are times when the enemy soldiers who surrendered could be claimed as prisoners of war. If the contracted Mages of King Selvis will become Theo’s prisoners, he will not be able to make a contract with any new Mages, and without his contracted Mages, King Selvis will not be able to rule over his territory as effectively as he was doing that before.

 

The tide of battle has shifted entirely in Theo’s favor, and soon the heavy infantry of King Selvis was routed across the battlefield, until King Selvis’s main force was caught up in the fighting as well.