Chapter 20 : The Road to Loren Castle (4)

Chapter 20: The Road to Loren Castle (4)

"What the! What is that?"

"You bastards. Can’t you shoot straight?"

When one man first burst through the square, they thought it was just the enraged charge of a fool who had lost his patience under fire.

But when that mercenary dashed forward and knocked aside every arrow, they changed their minds.

-Monster.

He carried a shield in one hand and ran while covering himself well, but the way he flicked arrows away with his sword was terrifying.

"W-Wait. Is that bastard the Sword Breaker?"

"What? Who’s that supposed to be?"

"There’s a guy who killed that elven warrior last time!"

A ripple ran through the Imperial troops. It wasn’t only the brutal nickname Sword Breaker. The power they saw right before their eyes was overwhelming.

Because of it, the Imperial archers faltered without meaning to and hesitated in their fire.

And Captain Mordo wasn’t the sort to miss that opening.

"Black Raven Mercenary Corps! Don’t waste the chance Shatien made! Charge!"

Captain Mordo struck the gap with practiced timing and gave the order to charge.

Startled, the Imperial archers tried to target the mercenaries again, but they were already too late.

"Uooooooh!"

With every volley the archers loosed, the distance between them and the mercenaries shrank at a frightening speed.

And that wasn’t all.

Shatien, who had just shown astonishing skill at point-blank range, had already crashed into the archers.

Swaeaaash!

Slice.

Chaaang!

Even with solid shields and armor, ordinary soldiers found Shatien hard to handle.

And these were archers with little more than daggers and shabby gambesons for armor.

There was no way they could stop him.

-Gkhuk!

-Squawk!

As if venting what he had suffered moments earlier, Shatien’s blade howled savagely.

* * *

"Kill them!"

"Press them!"

"The right wing collapsed! They’re running away!"

Shatien’s rampage and the arrival of Captain Mordo’s mercenaries did stabilize part of the battlefield, but it didn’t flip the overall tide.

The fighting still came in scattered bursts, and only a very small portion of the Imperial army had been pushed back by Mordo’s unit.

In fact, looking at the whole field, Count Bellua’s forces might even be considered on the back foot.

After the constant close-quarters engagements, the mercenaries under Captain Mordo were running out of stamina fast, and Shatien wasn’t fighting at his earlier peak either.

They had won small local victories, yet the word defeat crept into everyone’s minds.

And then.

-Bwooooooooooo!

A horn blared.

From far to the rear, a dense column of dust rose.

-Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud.

-Neighhhh.

The impact dwarfed an infantry charge. The earth shook beneath the thunder of a heavy cavalry assault.

"Count Bellua’s heavy cavalry?!"

Seeing it, Shatien’s eyes widened. He finally remembered how Count Bellua had won this battle in the original timeline.

"Split apart!"

"It’s the count’s heavy cavalry!"

The mercenaries panicked and scattered in a hurry.

-Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud.

Two hundred strong, Count Bellua’s heavy cavalry thundered through the gap and shook the ground.

-Gulp.

'Count Bellua! The count is in the lead—.'

Shatien clearly saw the white lion crest rush past him.

The sigil of House Bellua.

And then,

“Graaahhhh!"

With Count Bellua’s furious bellow,

"Chaaaarge!"

a raging tide of steel crashed over the soldiers of the Holy Empire.

-Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!

-Crack!

-Aaaaargh!

-Neighhhh.

The Emperor’s troops, so full of momentum a moment ago, crumpled in an instant.

You couldn’t even call it resistance. The men they struck went down like grains of sand, crushed without mercy.

"Kill them! Kill every last dog of that worthless Emperor!"

In the midst of this hellscape, Count Bellua was a roaring lion.

'Ah… a knight’s lance charge!'

Shatien’s skin prickled.

He watched with his own eyes the sheer force that a heavy cavalry charge could unleash.

"Whoa, damn!"

"What is this?"

The mercenaries under Captain Mordo felt the same.

Mouths hanging open, they stared at the carnage the heavy cavalry carved.

"Khahaha, die, you Emperor’s dogs!"

Like an excited child, Miles cheered for Count Bellua. That was how grand and powerful the heavy cavalry’s majesty was.

"What are you all doing? We charge too!"

Captain Mordo goaded the mercenaries.

"Uoooooh! Yeah, let’s show them too!"

Their morale surging, the Black Raven Mercenary Corps roared and rushed in as one.

The Holy Empire’s night raid ended there.

* * *

'It’s all over…'

Watching the flames die down little by little and the Imperial soldiers strewn everywhere, Shatien thought so.

Inside the count’s camp, no remnants of the Emperor’s men still moved.

They were dead or they had fled.

They hadn’t taken prisoners.

It wasn’t even the sort of situation where they could have. That alone was proof of how fierce the fighting had been.

When the last resisting Imperial soldier in the distance finally fell, Count Bellua raised his sword.

"This is our victory."

-Waaaaaaaaaaa!

A thunderous cheer.

"The Emperor’s brats weren’t much after all!"

"Ptoo. Cowards who only know how to raid at night."

The mercenaries and the count’s soldiers cursed the Imperial army as one.

"Phew…"

A sigh of relief poured out.

Shatien had burned too much power again, so his stamina was drained. He could have collapsed then and there without it being strange.

But instead of crumpling, he planted his longsword in the earth and leaned on the hilt to hold himself up.

The pommel’s chill cooled his brow.

'Unlike before, we wiped them out. And the damage isn’t as big as I feared.'

Supporting his wavering body, Shatien murmured to himself.

Beyond the ebbing darkness, their own camp looked surprisingly intact.

It had only been that the enemy pushed in deep at night because of the gaps between their spread-out units. In truth, the damage to the formations wasn’t severe.

'The reinforcements must have arrived to support them before the damage piled up.'

Given a little more time, their forces might have self-destructed in confusion and scattered like before, but this time was clearly different.

Thanks to that, their side seemed to have taken almost no losses, while the enemy had lost most of the men committed to the raid.

It was a stark change from the old outcome. Because of that, Shatien found it hard to predict what would happen next.

'We fought long and hard, so thinking about everyone’s stamina, we’ll probably rest before moving…'

That was how it should go, by common sense.

And that was how it went in the future he remembered. Back then, the damage from the raid had been so great they had to retreat and spend days recovering.

And as a result…

'The Imperial army entrenched on Hill of Bar ended up with an incredibly solid defensive line. We took massive losses trying to assault that position.'

Would it happen that way again?

Or would it change?

Shatien soon got his answer.

"Have all troops stand by. We’ll eat on the Hill of Bar, inside the Holy Empire’s fieldworks."

An order for immediate counterattack.

Count Bellua chose to break common sense.

* * *

'Did the raid work?'

Count Heinrich gazed at Count Bellua’s camp burning in the distance. Even though the flames were steadily dying down, he could not read the result of the battle.

'We won. No, we have to have won. We can’t lose after all this.'

In the back of his mind, a faint shame stirred.

For a lesser house like Heinrich’s to rise to a count’s rank had taken no end of twists.

So much scorn.

Through those years of endurance, the things nobles cherished like life, honor and fame and chivalry, were cast aside.

'Those only get in the way.'

The House of Heinrich had been desperate.

If a demon had appeared, they would have sold their souls to rise.

His father had sent him to Kotllang for that same desperation.

In the end, his father was right, and Heinrich had climbed to the rank of count.

It was the reward for fighting by any means necessary.

-Grit.

Heinrich clenched his molars. He did that when he grew impatient.

'Victory justifies everything.'

With this victory, Heinrich planned to reclaim Baron Buinyu’s lands.

The image shimmered before him of Buinyu’s keep with Imperial flags planted upon it, the many Imperial soldiers and nobles who would praise him.

He waited in mounting agitation when, below the distant hill, a grand curtain of torchlight spread.

"Yes! I… I won."

He hadn’t expected so many to return alive. It was a smashing success beyond expectations.

"Haha… all of you, do you see?"

Heinrich looked to his household knights. His throat trembled as emotion welled.

"Haha. Congratulations, my lord."

"We knew it would go like this."

Basking in their flattery, Count Heinrich gave a strange little smile. If not for appearances, he would have shouted for joy.

'But… isn’t that too many?'

He had sent two thousand.

By a rough count, it already looked like the number had been far exceeded. A chill of unease slid down his back.

And sure enough.

"My lord!"

Imperial soldiers were running up from below with arrows stuck in their backs.

The elation in his eyes went dead flat.

'Perhaps…'

"The raid failed and Count Bellua is advancing this way!"

-Ding ding ding ding ding!

All at once, loud bells rang across the camp. The whole situation felt like a nightmare to Heinrich.

'……'

He wiped the sweat off his brow. Reality punched through his grand delusions.

And in the dark below the hill, steadily growing brighter,

-March, march, march, march.

measured footfalls beat in his ears.

An enormous host of enemies was coming up toward them.

"Y-Your lordship! What do we do?"

"Should we form up now?"

"Please give the order."

In an instant the command tent became pandemonium. Nobles and aides shouted like they were screaming.

'Damn it all!'

Darkness closed over Heinrich’s vision.

What am I supposed to do?

Do we fight here?

The troops left in camp were far too few, and if he lost what remained now, there would be no Imperial force left to hold this region down.

Win and he only breaks even.

Lose and they are ruined.

Retreating to Loren Castle was impossible because the enemy was too close. They would reach the gate before he could get inside.

No, there was actually another reason.

'Those disloyal bastards of the Council!'

The free cities of the Holy Empire did owe allegiance to the Holy Emperor, but that loyalty was not always constant.

The Free City of Loren, within the Empire’s reach, had long suffered under the Holy Emperor’s harsh taxes, and resentments tied to that had only grown.

If he showed them a retreating route, they would switch sides in a heartbeat. That was the survival trick of quick-witted city folk.

It was truly a dilemma on all sides.

An ordinary noble would cry honor and try to make a great last stand in a fight like this, but…

"Pass the order to the whole army!"

Count Heinrich was not that man.

"Fall back in good order!"

When the field turned against him, he was a man who knew to acknowledge it and withdraw.

But that did not mean Count Heinrich would go quietly.

"Burn everything that remains. Barracks, tents, the granaries! Burn them all. Throw corpses down the wells and seal them!"

If you couldn’t hold it, you couldn’t hand it over either. What the enemy would get was a ruined camp.

And he intended to leave a sharp dagger as a parting gift.

"Summon the knights. And all their squires. Even if we go, we will pay our respects generously."

Who could say?

Maybe it would bleed those treacherous rebels.

As the flames swept the camp, Count Heinrich’s eyes flickered like the fire.

* * *

-Fwoooosh!

It burned.

The main camp where the Holy Empire’s army had been until just before now went up in roaring flames.

The instant Count Bellua began to advance, Count Heinrich made his decision with speed.

Not to stand and fight, but to retreat.

And to leave behind destruction that yielded nothing.

"I-It’s empty."

"There’s nothing."

"Damn it! The little they had left, they set it all on fire and ran."

Crossing the Hill of Bar in triumph, Count Bellua’s army found only a blazing, empty Imperial camp, and sank into deflated silence.

They had won, but gained nothing. It was a battle that paid in blood for nothing.

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