Chapter 3: Resolution
We wasted no time putting the plan we’d settled on into action. To start, we sent a message through the quickest means available to Rietz, who’d fought his hardest to hold the enemy back. We informed him that the Shadows’ plan had been a success, and told him our strategy for the battle to come. We also requested that he write us a detailed update on the current state of Seitz’s troops.
Rietz’s reply soon arrived, and he offered no objection to the strategy we’d proposed. I had to presume that he agreed with our assessment of the situation, but I still felt the need to meet him and talk it out in person before we put our plan into action. He also reported that, as expected, our enemies were in a state of turmoil. They’d kept up the attack with unwavering ferocity at first, and Rietz had just barely managed to ward them off, but his soldiers’ stamina had withered and his aqua magia reserves were running dry.
For a moment Rietz had considered falling back, but then, without warning, the enemy’s attacks had ceased. I had a feeling that if I asked, I’d find it was the very same day the Shadows had pulled off their operation. They’d likely judged that carrying on the attack with their supply lines in shambles would be too tall a task, and had brought their offensive to a momentary halt. I had a suspicion that they’d used up the last of their aqua magia in the battle with Rietz’s force, and had been counting on more being delivered when the Shadows’ plan succeeded. If that was true, then this really would be our ultimate chance to go on the offensive.
I also sent a message to the Shadows. There was no real need for them to infiltrate the enemy ranks at the moment, so I instructed them to return to our vicinity for the time being. I was planning on sending them out to slip into the enemy’s ranks shortly before our next battle, where they’d spread misinformation and encourage our foes to withdraw.
“All right─I should be heading out soon, myself,” I said. I’d kept a decent number of troops with me at Fort Coumeire, and I was planning to sortie with almost all of them and join the attack on Seitz’s army. Going into battle carried some risks, of course, but Rietz’s force just wasn’t large enough to guarantee the sort of enemy casualties I was hoping for. Without the troops in Fort Coumeire, he’d have a hard time winning the upcoming battle, and we had to bring an end to this before the enemy could regroup, one way or another.
“Lord Ars…” Licia said wistfully. There was just no way I could bring her along on this mission, so she would have to remain at the fort. I’d wanted to see her before I left for the front, so I’d called her over to a room where we could have some privacy.
“I’ll be leaving Fort Coumeire mostly unguarded,” I said. “Staying here will be far too dangerous. I’d feel much better if you’d travel back to Torbequista, or Castle Canarre. You’ll be safer there.”
“I won’t be safe anywhere if your plan fails. No, I shall stay here and await your return,” Licia replied firmly.
I thought back to our first meeting. When I appraised her and discovered her remarkable Ambition score, I’d thought that she had the potential to be an exceedingly dangerous girl. Since then, though, I’d learned that she was more dependable than anyone, and I’d grown very fond of her─so fond, in fact, that before I even knew what I was doing I’d pulled her toward me and kissed her. I was acting on pure impulse, and as our lips parted, my heart started pounding like a drum for more reasons than one.
“Ah…” Licia gasped, her face beet red.
For a moment I was convinced I’d screwed up big time…but then she leaned in to kiss me in return.
“Lord Ars,” Licia whispered as we parted once more. Our second kiss had lasted longer than the first one. Part of me wanted to stay that way forever, but I suppressed the urge and forced myself to break away from her.
“We’ll continue this after you return safely, and after we’ve had our wedding ceremony,” said Licia, who was still blushing vividly.
I nodded, aware that my face was probably in much the same state as hers. “I’ll be off, then. I swear I’ll come back,” I said.
“I know you will,” said Licia.
With that, I stepped out of the room…and immediately caught sight of a pair of people failing to act nonchalant as they walked down the hallway, away from the door I’d just exited. Even from behind, I could tell at a glance that they were Mireille and Rosell. I had a terrible feeling, and chased after them.
“Hey!” I shouted.
“Y-Yes?” Rosell replied.
“You weren’t watching me, were you?” I asked.
“N-N-N-No way! We most certainly did not see you and Lady Licia kissing! Perish the thought!” Rosell replied, confessing his crime before his interrogation had even begun. That settled it: they’d been snooping.
“Sounds like you’ll finally become a man after the war’s over, eh, kiddo?” said Mireille. “Shame, that. I was hoping to snatch your first time myself.”
“That was never going to happen!” I shouted indignantly.
Will this woman never find herself a filter?
“Well, guess I’ll just have to make do with Rosell’s,” Mireille sighed.
“Wh-What are you saying, Master?!” Rosell shrieked.
And so, amid some turmoil, we departed from Fort Coumeire.
○
We marched out from the fort with a host of roughly eight thousand soldiers following behind us. Our goal was to rendezvous with Rietz’s force and advance upon the Seitzan army as soon as possible, so we set a rapid pace.
I had spent some time agonizing over which of our mages to put in charge of the water magic spell our plan would hinge upon. If we couldn’t flood the river thoroughly enough, we wouldn’t be able to corner the army of Seitz. Our only options, as far as I could tell, were to have Charlotte do it or to have a large number of mages work in unison. If I gave that job to Charlotte, then she wouldn’t be available to decimate the hostile forces after we had them cornered, which would be a major loss for our offensive potential. The firepower she could put out was a vital tool in our arsenal.
That said, losing a whole group of mages would obviously be a problem in its own right, and we only had so much aqua magia we could devote to the task. We’d stolen some from Seitz’s stockpile, but not enough to guarantee success under those circumstances. If Charlotte was casting on her own, she’d only use a single mage’s worth of the stuff, so running out wouldn’t be an issue. Mages with her level of talent could cast spells many times the power of an average mage using the same quantity of aqua magia, and on the flip side, having a group of mages cast enough spells to equal her power output would consume many times the quantity of aqua magia she would. It seemed very likely that we’d run out.
In the end, I decided to entrust the task to Charlotte and one of our force’s other top-ranking mages. Losing her in the main attack would be a blow, but I’d received word that Musia, the fledgeling mage my skill had led me to recruit recently, had gone through something of a magical growth spurt and improved her skills by leaps and bounds. I had no doubts about her talent, and if she’d improved that dramatically of late, I was sure she’d make a massive difference in the battle.
A period of marching later, our force met up with Rietz’s and I gathered my usual advisors for an immediate meeting. I wanted to keep our discussion as fast and to the point as possible.
“I’m sure you understand the plan after reading my letter, but just to be safe, I’d like to make sure we’re all on the same page,” I said to Rietz as soon as he arrived.
“The vast majority of the army of Canarre is to march on the army of Seitz and catch them off guard. They will be unable to fight back through magical means, thanks to their deficient supply of aqua magia, and with our foes in that weakened state our odds of victory will improve dramatically. Should the enemy attempt to retreat after the battle is won, we will flood the river behind them, cutting off their path to safety and allowing us to wipe them out to a man,” Rietz recited.
“Perfect,” I said with a nod.
We’d have to clear a number of hurdles to make this plan a success. First was the simple question of whether or not we could defeat the army of Seitz, even in its magic-deprived state. Charlotte would be in charge of flooding the river, so she wouldn’t be able to participate in the battle from its outset. There was also a danger of them retreating too fast, in which case they could potentially cross the river before she was ready to flood it. That would mean that we’d wasted her firepower and lowered our chances of victory for nothing.
Even assuming we did win and pinned our foes in, whether or not we could wipe them out was still in question. The river wouldn’t stay flooded forever, and if the Seitzans could hold out well without magic on their side, there was a chance that some or most of them would still get away.
Those were only a few of the ways I’d thought up in which the plan could go sideways, and since Rosell, Mireille, and Rietz were all sharper than me when it came to tactical scenarios like these, I had a feeling they knew even more ways in which it could end in disaster for us. Nevertheless, we were committed to seeing it through. A small force like ours had no hope of taking down a numerically superior foe without taking some risks in the process.
“Charlotte, you’ll head upstream accompanied by a small division of soldiers,” I continued. “Be extremely careful not to let the enemy see you. We’ll use sound magic to send a signal when we want you to cast your spell and flood the river.”
“Gotcha. And hey, even if they do see us, I can just blow ’em away with my magic, so no need to worry,” said Charlotte, who seemed as casual and carefree as ever, even though she’d been given the most important role in our whole operation.
I wasn’t quite sure whether I should be worried or reassured by her confidence. Not freaking out about the task would hopefully make it easier for her to pull it off, at least.
“I’m more worried about you guys. You sure you’ll be able to win this battle without me?” Charlotte jabbed in a joking tone.
“We’ll manage,” I replied.
“I sure hope so,” said Charlotte. This time, I could feel an element of sincere concern behind her less than serious front. I never would’ve imagined that Charlotte of all people would worry about me, but then again, she was right in the sense that we relied a lot on her firepower. Not having her around was a legitimate cause for concern.
“Are the soldiers ready to march?” I asked.
“They are. We can leave for the front whenever you give the order,” said Rietz.
“Well then, no sense in wasting time. Tell the men to─”
“Hey, wait a sec,” said Mireille, cutting me off. “We should send the Shadows to start spreading their misinformation before we go on the march.”
“Now? Shouldn’t we wait until after we’ve won this battle?” I asked.
“Nah,” said Mireille. “If we do it now, then if everything goes well, their morale will take a hit before the fighting begins. No sense in putting it off.”
“That’s…a good point, actually. What sort of rumors should I tell them to spread?”
“That Couran’s won his war and is heading for Canarre, or something like that? Oh, and we could say that the army of Canarre’s been emboldened by Couran’s victory and is getting ready to crush Seitz in one fell swoop. Since that last part’s true, it’ll make the rest of the rumor seem more believable when the attack happens. They could figure out that Couran winning’s a lie if they took the time to dig in and verify the rumor, of course, but Seitz just doesn’t have that sort of time to spare right now.”
None of us could think of any reason not to accept Mireille’s plan, so I communicated it to the Shadows and ordered them to begin putting it into practice.
“All right! Now we just have to wait to hear back from the Shadows, and then we can set out,” I said. “Oh, Charlotte? You should head upstream and get ready to cast right away.”
“You got it,” Charlotte readily replied, then went along on her way. We didn’t want to draw the enemy’s suspicion with a large group, so I sent her out with just a few mages and a small number of soldiers to serve as their bodyguards.
Now, all that was left was to wait for word from the Shadows.
○
The Shadows’ report arrived the very next day─much faster than I’d expected. It seemed our foes had bought the story we’d fed them. I didn’t know how the Shadows had gone about spreading the rumor, but really, all that mattered was that they’d succeeded.
It seemed that the Seitzan army had gotten word of the fact that me and my troops had sallied forth from Fort Coumeire, and had reasoned that I wouldn’t make a move like that unless I had some cause to believe I would win the ensuing battle. Just when they were at their most cautious, the rumor that Couran had won his battle arrived, and suddenly, everything seemed to fall into place. The wrong place, of course, but there was no way for them to figure that out in time.
The Shadows also gave me a report on the current state of the enemy army. Apparently, opinions on what their next move should be were thoroughly split. Some of them believed they should march straight to Fort Coumeire and claim it before Couran could arrive, some believed they should retreat at once, and others believed they didn’t have a full picture yet and advocated for gathering more information before making any drastic moves.
The commanding officer present on the front lines was apparently not heavy-handed with his authority, and took his subordinates’ advice into serious consideration, which in this case had left him in a state of indecision. His soldiers, meanwhile, picked up on his bafflement and had grown restless in turn. Per the Shadows’ analysis, now was our perfect chance─the chance to strike at the army of Seitz, and deal a decisive blow.
“All right, let’s move! This time, I’ll be heading into battle with you!” I declared at the head of my army. I wouldn’t be fighting on the front lines, but I’d decided to at least set foot on the battlefield alongside my troops. I knew very well how much of a morale boost having their main general present could give my forces.
“Are you certain about this, Lord Ars…?” Rietz asked apprehensively.
“I’ll be fine,” I said. “I’ve been through my fair share of battles, and I’m not the child I used to be. I won’t be reduced to a quivering mess by the sight of a criminal’s execution anymore.”
Back then, I’d given my father no choice but to go out into battle, and the strain had reduced his remaining lifespan. No matter how much manpower I brought over to my side with my Appraisal skill, none of it would mean a thing if I couldn’t show that I had a lord’s bravery and keep all my followers dedicated to my cause. Defeat would mean death, yes, but that didn’t change the fact that sallying forth onto the battlefield was a necessity for me.
All that said, it wasn’t like I was planning on hurling myself into the enemy lines with a sword. That was exactly what my father used to do, supposedly, and he was known to fight like a man possessed─especially in pivotal battles like today’s. I was by no means a swordsman, though, so feats like the ones he achieved were beyond me.
“So, uhh…where should I be standing?” Rosell asked with an anxious air.
I was planning on commanding from a little ways behind the front lines, and ideally, I was hoping he would be nearby enough to give me advice on what orders to give.
“I want you to stay close to me and give me any advice you think is necessary,” I said.
“R-Right! Got it,” said Rosell with a nervous nod.
Mireille and Rietz would be out on the field as well, leading our troops on the absolute front line. My position in the central force behind them would allow me to have a grasp of the whole battlefield and give orders to my allies. I was prepared to order the central force to move up and meet the enemy head-on if necessary, of course. Rosell’s instructions would be vital for that sort of judgment call, and he was clearly feeling a great deal of pressure, but I knew he’d come through for me.
Finally, Clamant would be leading the Maitraw Company as something of a mobile strike force.
“I’ll follow your orders for the most part, but you should know in advance that I may take it upon myself to act on my own initiative,” he told me. “If that happens, know that I am not double-crossing you or acting on impulse. Whatever I decide to do, I do for the sake of winning this battle, and nothing else.
I could feel the weight of his ample experience on the battlefield backing up his words. I wasn’t exactly excited about having someone inform me he wouldn’t necessarily follow my orders, but he didn’t leave me any room to argue with him, and I knew very well how difficult winning this battle would be without him.
“I want you protecting Lord Ars in this battle, Braham,” said Rietz.
“Huh? But I wanna fight on the front line!” Braham whined.
“Don’t underestimate the importance of this task, Braham,” Rietz cautioned. “If Lord Ars is struck down, our army will crumble. This is a duty I could only entrust to a warrior as strong and capable as you.”
“As strong as me, eh…? W-Well then, guess I’m the only choice you’ve got! Gra ha ha!” Braham bellowed.
Rietz, clearly, had gotten very good at convincing his troublesome pupil to do as he was told. He went on to assign Zaht and the rest of the elite squad that Braham led to my unit. Having them around would dramatically reduce the odds of my untimely demise.
“And us? What should we be doing?” asked Pham.
The Shadows had already contributed more than enough to this battle, and part of me wanted to tell them to just take it easy, but they were also capable enough that I knew they could still do plenty to turn the tide in our favor.
“How ’bout we stir up a fuss around the enemy commander and take him out in the confusion? I can’t guarantee we’ll pull it off, but it could be worth a shot,” Pham suggested.
“Hmm… That’s not a bad idea, but do you think you could join our mages for this battle instead? You have a knack for magic, so I bet you know some attack spells that would come in handy,” I replied.
Pham grimaced.
“I mean, I can use attack magic, sure, but I’ve never had to use it to blast away on an open battlefield before.”
“We’re running a magical firepower deficit with Charlotte out of the picture, so every little bit matters. Would you be willing to at least give it a try?”
“Hey, if those are our orders, we’ll do it. Just don’t get your hopes up,” said Pham. He still sounded reluctant, but at least he wasn’t arguing with my decision.
On the subject of mages, Musia would be fighting on the front lines. Our mages were going to stand at the head of our formation and hit the enemy army with everything they had, and I could hardly make an exception just for her. A line of soldiers would be there to defend them, but that didn’t change the fact that it would be a dangerous role─and yet Musia didn’t seem to be any more or less scared than the rest of the mage division. It seemed the battles she’d fought in so far had helped her grow as a soldier, in a mental sense.
According to Mireille, the first strike would set the tone for the rest of the battle in a magic-heavy engagement. Landing that first magical barrage would shred your foes’ morale, and unless they pulled themselves back together quickly, they’d be forced into a withdrawal. Magic really did hold that much sway over the battlefield even at the best of times, and with Seitz at a lack of aqua magia, it was all the more true today.
We didn’t have the time to iron out any intricate details for our battle plan, so we’d have to just play it by ear after the battle began. I had Rietz and Mireille to direct my troops on the front line, and both of them were skilled enough to do the job well, but I knew that didn’t mean I could slack off. Commanding the central unit was also important, and a weighty responsibility, even if I knew I could count on Rosell to steer me in the right direction.
It wasn’t long before our soldiers were ready to sortie.
“All right─all units, march!” I shouted from the front of our ranks with as much gravitas as I could muster.
We set off toward the enemy encampment with my whole army in tow. The army of Canarre plus Couran’s reinforcements numbered over ten thousand men, so catching our foes unawares was out of the question. That was why we sent scouts ahead to keep watch over their force and inform us how they were moving once they’d learned of our offensive.
When word from our scouts arrived, I was unsurprised to learn that they’d chosen to meet our attack head-on. Even if they were low on aqua magia, they still had enough of a numerical advantage to make retreat the less likely option. The area we’d be fighting in was largely devoid of hills, and the army of Seitz had set up their formation in a wide open plain. Making their stand on elevated ground would have given them an advantage, so I was grateful for the region’s flat plains. Of course, defending against an all-out magical barrage would’ve been difficult whether they had the higher ground or not.
Broadly speaking, our plan was to avoid engaging the soldiers in melee combat as much as possible, and instead whittle away at them from a distance using magic. They would try to close the gap, of course, so we’d keep blasting at them as we gradually retreated. From an outside perspective it would look like they were attacking us, even though the reverse would be true.
The one thing we had to be vigilant about avoiding above all else was getting surrounded. Even if they only managed to partially encircle us, being attacked from multiple flanks at once would put us in a nasty predicament. They had far more men at their disposal than we did, so they could split their force and come at us from several directions. If our foes attempted to use that sort of tactic, it would be the Maitraw Company’s job to intercept the flanking force. They were exceptional warriors to a man, and had the capability to go into a lopsided battle and tip the scales in their favor.
Needless to say, we would have to keep constant lines of communication running throughout the engagement. As soon as I received an update on the state of the battle, Rosell and I would decide what move we should make next, then send out our orders to our forces. Of course, I was anticipating that Rosell would end up doing most of the actual planning.
As we marched onward, a scout arrived with bad news.
“Part of the enemy army is on the move!” he cried. “It’s only a small contingent of a few hundred men, but they’re heading toward Charlotte’s division! They mean to wipe them out!”
“What?!” I shouted. This was an emergency, and since Rietz and Mireille were off in the vanguard, I couldn’t ask them for advice. Rosell was the only one close enough to consult. “Does this mean they’ve figured out our plan?” I asked him.
“Not necessarily,” answered Rosell. “They didn’t send very many men, relatively speaking. Considering how big their army is, they would’ve dispatched a much larger force if they knew what she was there for. A force of a few hundred means that they know she’s there, but haven’t figured out why yet. I doubt this is anything more than a precautionary measure on their part.”
“That makes sense… But still, a few hundred men? She’s in serious danger!”
“She is, yes. Considering how powerful her magic is Charlotte could probably send a force of that size running for the hills, but there’s always a chance they get the better of her. I think we should send backup.”
“Backup…? Who could we send right away, though? I suppose there’s Braham,” I muttered, but frankly, I didn’t have much faith in the man. I knew he’d grown slightly smarter thanks to Rietz’s guidance, but could I trust him with such an important task?
Then again, nobody else sprung to mind as being capable enough to manage it, so Braham was my only option. I tried appraising him, just for reference, and found that his previously embarrassingly low Intelligence score had gone up somewhat, at least. In the end, I decided that trusting in him and giving him the order to back Charlotte up would be my best bet.
“Braham,” I said. “I need you to go to Charlotte’s current position and reinforce her squad.”
“Huh?” Braham grunted. “Wait, but I thought my role was to fight by your side?”
“Your role’s changed. Charlotte has enemies bearing down on her, and is in a pretty nasty situation. Take a hundred men and make sure she survives.”
“Isn’t Charlotte the lady who does all that crazy magic? Won’t she be fine on her own?”
“She might be able to drive them away, yes, but she also might not, and that’s not a risk we can take. For the sake of us winning this war, and for the sake of Canarre’s future in general, we can’t let her die no matter what happens.”
I was invested in Charlotte’s safety on a personal level as well, needless to say, but I knew that as the count it was important for me to view these things in a pragmatic manner and tried to frame my decision in terms of our future prospects. Sending away Braham and his men would be a painful loss, but I was sure we’d be able to work things out without him.
“All right, then. I’ll get it done,” said Braham. I told him what route Charlotte had taken, and ordered him to get there as quickly as possible. Then, he gathered up his hundred horsemen and rode off to reinforce Charlotte’s squad.
“Well, that’s one problem solved…probably,” I said.
“B-Braham’s a lot less wild than he was at first! I’m p-pretty sure it’ll be fine,” said Rosell, exhibiting a rare moment of optimism that the unease in his expression immediately offset. I couldn’t let myself worry about my choice to send Braham, though. I had to believe it would work out, and press on.
We marched onward, and eventually drew close enough to the army of Seitz to see it with the naked eye. Once we sighted them and confirmed that we were close enough to put their camp within our mages’ effective range, I ordered my whole army to a stop.
My division, the army’s main force, was positioned in the central rear of our formation. To either side of the main division were troops in charge of protecting us. They were few in number, but the soldiers in each of them were quite capable. Rietz and Mireille’s divisions made up our formation’s front line, and Clamant and his mercenaries were right behind them.
Our plan was to fight a reactive battle, taking stock of the enemy’s movements and responding accordingly, and that necessitated my unit being in a position where I could give orders to the whole rest of the army efficiently. The two divisions in the front of our formation consisted of soldiers with shields in the front, and rows of mages behind them. We’d brought twelve large catalyzers into battle, and the mages who weren’t placed on one of them were carrying small or mid-sized models.
There was almost no chance that the enemy hadn’t seen us, at this range, and as expected, they were in a state of high alert. They did not, however, go on the attack. I imagined that if they’d had a sufficient stock of aqua magia, our inferior numbers would have led them to sally forth and drive us back immediately. Lacking those resources, though, they adopted a more passive approach. I had to wonder if their commander had yet to decide what his best move would be.
Regardless, if the enemy had no interest in moving toward us, that just meant we had free rein to use them as target practice. I had given Mireille and Rietz permission to act with a degree of autonomy when they saw fit, and they weren’t the sort of people who’d let a chance like this pass by. They ordered their mages to attack, and a volley of fire-aspected spells rained down upon the enemy encampment.
Our foes weren’t all out of aqua magia, and at first, they managed to raise their barriers and repel our spells. Gradually, though, their defenses began to weaken. It was becoming increasingly clear that going on the attack was their only choice, and before long they came charging at us in a mad dash, throwing caution to the wind.
I hadn’t witnessed it in person before this moment, but I’d been told that throwing hordes of soldiers at their enemy without sparing a care for the casualties they suffered had been the army of Seitz’s standard practice in this war. It looked like a mindless suicide rush to me, but considering their sheer numbers, it had the potential to be an effective method. More than just the potential, even─they’d managed to successfully break through our line once already, after all.
In this battle, however, we had mobilized almost every soldier that the army of Canarre had to offer. Furthermore, we were effectively the only side able to make use of aqua magia. Charlotte’s absence was a cause for some concern, but I believed that we’d be able to stymie their brute force tactics even without her magic, and it soon became clear that I had been right.
Enemy soldiers fell one after another to our mages’ relentless storm of spells. Musia’s magic in particular proved even more powerful than I’d expected. She was no Charlotte, of course, but her spells were still potent. I knew that one’s Valor score impacted their ability to do magic, but it seemed that their Aptitude as a mage played an even greater factor.
Rietz and Mireille’s clear and precise orders helped tremendously as well. They kept us at a constant distance from the enemy, ordering our troops to fall back and advance as needed and ensuring the vanguard could keep up its attack without risking an enemy breakthrough. If our foe’s situation became too grim they would have no choice to retreat, and forcing them to do so was our primary goal in this engagement, but they proved remarkably resistant to that decision. Coming this far had cost them dearly, so perhaps that was no surprise. They’d faced down Charlotte’s magic on multiple occasions, and I could understand the stubborn desire to get something to show for it.
That said, they weren’t just being stubborn. There was a strategy informing their tactics as well, which became clear when they sent a massive cavalry division galloping toward our ranks. Mages ruled the battlefield, but horsemen came in second thanks to their incredible mobility, especially given that riding fast enough made it very hard for mages to land their spells. The cavalry weren’t aiming for Rietz, Mireille, and their mages, however. They were heading for me and our main division.
The enemy cavalry split into two groups, riding at us from both sides to catch us in a pincer attack. Aiming for the enemy commander was the oldest trick in the book, so we’d laid plans to combat it, so Rietz and Mireille didn’t let the enemy’s charge throw them out of sorts and kept their soldiers in line. My troops and I didn’t panic, either, and Rosell seemed to have read our enemy like a book, predicting both that they would send out their cavalry and when they would do so. The instant they made their move, he was ready to shout out orders to counteract it.
“Maitraw Company! Fall back to reinforce the main unit’s guard!” Rosell shouted.
The Maitraw Company moved to obey his command at once, proving that they could take orders when the situation called for it. I’d had a preconception that mercenaries ran wild over the battlefield however they saw fit, but it seemed I was mistaken on that front. That, or I was correct and the Maitraw Company was unusually professional and willing to work within the chain of command.
Clamant had an exceptional way of leading his men, and he and his mercenaries fell back to smoothly reinforce our guard against the cavalry charge before I knew it. They placed spearmen in their front ranks to prevent the enemy from charging straight into them, and Rosell followed suit, ordering our soldiers into an anti-cavalry formation in a sequence of movements smooth enough to rival the Maitraws.
The enemy cavalry bore down upon us. I couldn’t tell if their horsemen were skilled or if their horses were the remarkable ones, but one way or another, they were incredibly fast. The horses looked a little larger than the ones I was used to, too, and I could imagine how forceful their charge would be. Still, though, I held fast and kept command over my troops.
“Get ready, mages!” I shouted. We hadn’t put all of our mages into the front divisions with Rietz and Mireille. We knew the enemy might attempt a cavalry charge like this, and had kept some stationed within my unit and with the Maitraw Company. We each only had twenty or so mages to work with, but that was plenty for their magic to make a real difference.
On Rosell’s order, the mages unleashed fire magic upon the charging cavalry. Some of their horses faltered in the face of the inferno, and their charge grew disordered. An effective cavalry charge required you to either ensure your horses were protected from your enemy’s spells, or otherwise to ride horses that had been trained to not panic in the face of magic. Some of the enemy’s horses cleared that bar and didn’t falter, but others failed, and their erratic movements became an obstacle to the more well-trained steeds. Just a few flinching horses was all it took to slow down an entire formation.
A full-speed cavalry charge was a terrifying thing indeed, but once their pace was slowed, they were nothing to fear. The enemy cavalry arrived at my unit at a reduced pace, and my men intercepted them with long spears, aiming for the riders rather than their mounts. One by one, the horsemen fell. The moment their formation had fallen to pieces, we had already won.
The enemy cavalry soon fell into a retreat. The Maitraw Company had proven just as successful at repelling them as my men had. In the end, anticipating our enemy’s maneuver had allowed us to thwart their attack with ease.
After their cavalry charge failed, the enemy army attempted to use all sorts of tactics and came at us using all sorts of formations, but under Rietz and Mireille’s command, our front line divisions drove each and every one of them away. Our foes were in a uniquely vulnerable state thanks to their lack of magical defenses, but those two and their incredible leadership abilities deserved plenty of credit as well. Their orders were so clear and concise that their soldiers could move to carry them out the instant they were issued.
As things stood, our army had suffered few losses, while our foes had died in droves. I couldn’t see any option for them other than to retreat, but they’d proved stubborn in the past, and I wasn’t convinced they would go for it. As I pondered their options, though, a report came in from the front.
“The army of Seitz has begun to fall back!”
We’d done it. Everything on our end had gone as planned, and now all we had to do was act in coordination with Charlotte and drive our foes to the river. She’d already reported via sound magic to tell us she was in position. Casting sound magic over that sort of distance would be difficult for an ordinary mage, but for someone with her skills, it was as easy as could be. Me and my men would be on the move while we herded our enemies, of course, but I didn’t imagine we’d leave her sound magic range. The one problem left, then, was that of the soldiers that had been sent toward her position.
Well, I sent Braham to deal with them, so he’ll work it out…I hope.
I was a little concerned, but decided to have faith and focus on driving our enemy into position.
○
A few hours before the army of Seitz began their retreat, Charlotte was standing by near the river, waiting for Ars to send her the signal to cast her spell. She’d sent her own magical sign shortly beforehand, and had received a reply telling her to wait for further notice. Until she received her order to start casting, waiting was all she had on her plate.
“I’m sooo booored,” Charlotte droned. Her catalyzer was already full of water-aspected aqua magia, so there weren’t even any preparations remaining for her to get done. “Hey, I’m bored as hell over here! Got any good ways to kill time?” she asked, turning to one of the soldiers who had accompanied her.
“Really, Charlotte…? This is a battlefield, not a picnic,” the soldier sighed with exasperation.
“Why not try fishing if you’re that bored? That’s what I do whenever I get a moment to myself,” suggested another, significantly less serious-minded soldier.
“Fishing? How’s that work?” asked Charlotte.
“All you need’s a fishing rod and a body of water, really. I’ve got the rod, and hey, there’s a river right there!” said the second soldier as he produced his fishing kit.
“Wh-Why in the hell did you bring a fishing rod onto a battlefield?!” barked the first soldier. “I was wondering what that pole you were carrying was!”
“Oh, lighten up. I can fight just fine, even with my rod handy.”
“That is not the issue, and if you ever bring that thing into battle again, I’m reporting you to Rietz!”
“Oh, you wouldn’t! Come on, cut me some slack! I’ll buy you a round next time we’re at the pub, okay?”
Meanwhile, Charlotte had claimed the second soldier’s fishing rod and wandered over to the river. She baited the hook, cast her line into the river, and waited for all of several minutes.
“Nothing’s biting, and I’m bored again,” said Charlotte.
“Umm, Charlotte?” said the second soldier. “It’s only been a few minutes, you know? It takes a little longer than that to catch a fish, most of the time.”
“And what, you’re supposed to just sit around until then? How’s that any different from doing nothing at all?”
“Well, I mean…that’s sort of what fishing’s all about, in a sense… It’s all about the anticipation of it, I guess? Sitting there, knowing a fish could bite at any moment!”
“Well, that’s boring and I’m done with it,” Charlotte grumbled as she tossed the fishing pole away and started looking for some other way to kill time.
“Hey, uh…shouldn’t you people be taking all of this a little more seriously? You know we’re in real danger right now, don’t you?” said a third soldier, who was trembling and looked just about ready to pass out.
“What danger?” asked Charlotte.
“I mean the enemy soldiers that are headed our way! We got a report about them, remember?”
“Oh, right. But they said they were sending us reinforcements too, so it’ll be fine.”
“Will it, though? Really?”
“Eh. It’ll work out, one way or another,” Charlotte said with an unconcerned air. She had never been one to let other people’s worries get to her.
“Um, Charlotte?” said the third soldier. “You never seem to worry about anything, do you? Aren’t you scared of dying?”
“Nah, not really,” Charlotte replied offhand.
The soldiers were baffled. They were all courageous men in their own rights, but every one of them feared death. The idea of not being scared to die was hard to fathom.
“And, I mean, think about all the soldiers I’ve killed in battle so far,” Charlotte continued. “I lost track of how many people I’ve killed ages ago. It’d be pretty pathetic for someone with a kill count like mine to be afraid of dying, wouldn’t it?”
“I d-don’t think that whether or not it’s pathetic is the question at hand,” said the third soldier.
“Oh? Well, I’ve always been a weirdo, so maybe it’s just different for me,” Charlotte said, then went back to looking for entertainment.
Just then, a shout rang out.
“Emergency! Enemy soldiers sighted!” yelled the party’s scout, who’d gone out to do some reconnaissance.
“So they’re here, eh? What about those reinforcements?” asked one of the soldiers.
“No sign of them so far,” said the scout.
“Does that mean they’re not going to make it in time?”
“It might!”
A pall came over the soldiers’ faces. The situation had gone from bad to worse.
“Well, not like running away’s an option. We’ll just have to hold here and fight to the last,” said Charlotte, as unconcerned as ever. Seeing her, the highest-ranking member of their party, act so calmly helped soothe the soldiers’ nerves. “It’ll be all right. We just have to wipe them out like we always do,” she continued, trying to reassure them.
The enemy soldiers drew closer to Charlotte’s party’s position. They hadn’t sent an especially large unit of troops, but Charlotte’s group was small enough that there were still several enemy soldiers for every one of theirs. In a straight-up fight it wouldn’t even be a contest.
Charlotte began preparing the small catalyzer she was carrying on her person. Her group had brought a large catalyzer with them as well, but it had already been filled with water-aspected aqua magia, and they couldn’t afford to waste it in the oncoming skirmish.
The enemy soldiers arrived on the other side of the river, and Charlotte immediately cast a Fire Bullet spell, sending it flying toward them. The ball of flame met its mark, and burst within their ranks. It couldn’t compare to the spells that she cast with a large catalyzer, but it was still an impressive explosion, and sent several dozen Seitzan soldiers flying.
Despite the carnage they’d just witnessed, the enemy soldiers’ advance didn’t falter. They waded into the river, one by one, which slowed them down and made them easy targets. Their numbers gradually thinned, but defeating all of them before they forded the river proved too much to ask, and a few managed to make it to the other side.
The soldiers that had been chosen to accompany Charlotte were capable warriors, and they managed to hold the enemy forces off at first, but as more and more of them made it to their side of the river, Charlotte’s men were overwhelmed. Charlotte, meanwhile, couldn’t use her magic as effectively after the melee broke out for fear of catching her allies in the blast. She was capable of limiting the power of her spells, but if her control slipped she could easily hurt her allies, and she had to cast with the utmost caution.
“O-Okay, this might be pretty bad,” Charlotte muttered. Not even she could deny the gravity of the situation.
Charlotte knew that at that particular moment, whether she lived or died wasn’t just her problem. If she were to perish, then so would the army of Canarre’s hopes of prevailing in the war. She didn’t fear her own death, but she did fear the possibility that her death could put her lord and her friends in danger.
I have to do something, but how? I can’t use my magic like this, Charlotte thought. Unfortunately, thinking had never been her strong suit and a way to break out of her predicament eluded her. She was starting to panic, and in her distraction, an enemy soldier drew close to her.
“Charlotte, look out!” cried one of Charlotte’s men.
Charlotte chanted a spell at a breakneck pace and blew away the enemy who’d gotten close to her. It had all happened in the blink of an eye, and in her haste, Charlotte failed to dial back her spell’s power as much as she should have and was caught in the blast. The force of the spell sent her flying, and while she was lucky enough to escape grave injury, her leg scraped across the ground when she landed and she found herself unable to stand. Meanwhile, her enemies drew closer and closer still. This, Charlotte realized, could be the end…or so she thought.
“Graaaaaah! Pick up the paaace!”
A bellowing voice rang out across the battlefield─Braham’s. He had finally arrived with his reinforcements. Braham steered his horse into the crowd of enemy soldiers and swung his polearm with all his might, cutting down his foes. Braham’s usual weapon of choice was the sort of spear one would thrust with rather than swing, but when on horseback, he switched to a type of spear with a longer blade that was more suited to slashing attacks.
Many of the soldiers that had accompanied Braham were among the most skilled in the army of Canarre, and they quickly overwhelmed the Seitzan force. They were still technically outnumbered, but the gap in skill proved to be the more consequential difference. Charlotte’s magic made an impact as well, and numerous enemy soldiers died wreathed in flames thanks to her spells. In the end, the attackers chose to turn tail and flee before they were wiped out. Charlotte had escaped mortal peril by a hair’s breadth.
“Gra ha ha ha ha! We’ve won a great victory, all thanks to me!” Braham declared with an elated cackle.
“You’re, uhh…Braham, right?” said Charlotte.
“That’s right! Braham, the man who just saved your life!” Braham said, then let out a pathetic, squealing grunt as Charlotte kicked him, hard, directly in the groin. The blow caught him by surprise, and he crouched down in a pigeon-toed ball of suffering.
“That’s for being so late. What the hell took you so long?” said Charlotte. She wasn’t the sort of person who got angry often, but clearly, this was one of the rare exceptions to that rule.
“U-Uhh… I, umm…might’ve taken my time getting here, just a little… I mean, I thought ‘eh, it’s Charlotte, she’ll be fine,’ that’s all,” Braham wheezed. He was usually a man with a wealth of confidence and an attitude to match, but now he withered in the face of Charlotte’s fury.
Charlotte sighed.
“Well, whatever. You saved us in the end, and you put up a good fight, so I’ll let it slide.”
“Th-Thank you very much,” Braham replied reflexively.
“All right! We’re out of the woods now, so this seems like a perfect time to take a rest,” said Charlotte as she began to sit down and recover from what had turned into a mentally taxing battle. Just then, however, one of the other soldiers in her squad began to shout.
“Charlotte! We have a signal from the main army! They’re saying you should cast your spell now!”
○
Vasa Lupericol, one of the army of Seitz’s commanding officers, blazed with fury as he coordinated his force’s retreat. His direct superior, Boroths, hadn’t deigned to set foot on the battlefield himself, and had appointed Vasa to lead the army in his stead.
None of this would have happened if it weren’t for the damned fools in charge of our supplies! Vasa thought indignantly, and rightfully so. If it hadn’t been for the blunder in the supply chain, and if their force had received the aqua magia they needed, the battle would have played out in an entirely different manner.
That was not, however, to say that Vasa was without fault. He had known that he didn’t have the resources he needed, and if he’d ordered a retreat the moment he became aware of the aqua magia situation, he could have saved the lives of countless soldiers. A truly skilled leader would have chosen to fall back the instant that fact became clear.
We’ll withdraw for now, regroup, and invade once more. I’m sure we’ll bring Canarre to heel when we do…but will I be the one leading the army when that time comes? Have I wasted my one big chance to move up in the ranks?! Vasa fretted. He had left a contingent of soldiers to serve as a rearguard, engaging the enemy to buy time while the rest of the army fled. He’d left a slightly larger number of troops to handle the task than he felt he needed to, too, so it seemed very unlikely that the enemy army would break through his back lines and reach his own contingent. Even considering their foes’ one-sided access to magic, Vasa believed that his retreat would succeed.
He was terribly, terribly wrong.
“What the blazes is that sound?” Vasa muttered as he neared the river. A strange noise in the background had given him pause, but he didn’t have the time to worry about anything other than fleeing, and pressed onward.
It was only when the river came into view that the truth came to light, and Vasa’s jaw dropped. The river was inundated. Its waters surged and roiled, and its current was strong enough that even at a glance, it was obviously uncrossable.
“I-Impossible. How could this be…? It hasn’t even rained,” said Vasa in dumbfounded shock. He even glanced up at the sky in his confusion, though of course it was still as bright and clear as ever.
It wasn’t long before Vasa realized what had happened. His foes had sent a mysterious squad of troops upriver some time beforehand. Vasa had sent a small division of Seitzan troops to eliminate them, just for the sake of caution, but it seemed he hadn’t been cautious enough.
That squad must have included a powerful mage, he thought. I’d bet this is the work of that woman─the monster who bathed the battlefield in flames, over and over. Did she kill all the men I sent to stop her?
No spell’s effects could last forever. The river would return to its normal state eventually, and if Seitz’s rearguard could just hold out until then, Vasa knew there was still a chance he could escape. Once again, though, his hopes were betrayed.
“Canarre’s army broke through our back line! They’re coming!”
○
Shortly after I sent the order for Charlotte to cast her water spell, Mireille, Rietz, and their soldiers in the vanguard broke through the enemy lines. Our foes had put up a harder fight than I’d expected and it had taken a fair chunk of time, but not long enough to put our plan at any risk of failure.
I gave the order for our whole force to corner the enemy soldiers. Charlotte’s spell had gone off without a hitch, and the river was raging at a tremendous speed. Anyone brave enough to try jumping in would be swept away to their doom. I was reminded all over again of just how terribly powerful Charlotte’s magic was.
The army of Seitz had clearly not foreseen any of this. They must have been in a state of total chaos, and wound up stopping dead in their tracks by the riverside. Their commander, it seemed, was not good at adapting to unexpected circumstances. Their troops weren’t poorly trained by any means, according to Rietz and the others, and they were very good at raising and maintaining their soldiers’ morale, so I had to assume that training and morale-boosting were their strengths, while adaptability was their one big weakness. I wouldn’t necessarily say it disqualified them from being a capable leader, but unless they had a talented second-in-command or tactician to advise them, I couldn’t see a person like that doing a great job in the long term.
We spread our army out, pinning in the panicking remnants of the army of Seitz, then battered them with magic. They had nowhere left to run, and no choice but to take the spells we slung head on. I saw countless soldiers fall to our mages’ blasts, and we still had plenty of aqua magia left to keep up the assault for as long as it took. The fact that Charlotte wasn’t around still had me concerned, but even without her firepower on our side, the fact that the Seitzans were unable to magically defend themselves made our tactic astonishingly effective.
A few enemy soldiers threw caution to the wind and plunged into the river, only to be swept away. I couldn’t see them making it out of that current alive. Others, meanwhile, made an attempt to mount a counterattack, but that was something we’d planned around.
This was the battle’s most critical moment. Our enemy was more ready than ever to fight to the death, and nothing was more dangerous than a warrior who knew that they had to kill or be killed. Normally, our magic would intimidate our foes, but if those enemies knew that choosing to flee would mean death, then that wouldn’t be in play.
A mage’s one greatest weakness was that they couldn’t allow their enemies to get close to them. That was why we stationed a line of soldiers in front of our mages─to keep the enemy away. Yet our foes fought with the crazed strength of dead men walking, and the men we’d sent forward to stand guard soon found themselves hard pressed to hold the line. They probably wouldn’t have managed it, if it weren’t for the individual efforts of some of my most trusted retainers.
Rietz was the first to jump into the fray, hurling himself into the enemy’s ranks and making short work of them with his masterful swordsmanship. As he cut his foes down, he let out a spirited battle cry, rousing the rest of my men to turn the tide. I felt uneasy watching him fight on the front lines like that, to be honest, and I wanted to order him to fall back to the safety of the rearguard immediately, but I couldn’t deny that having him out there to support and encourage the vanguard was making a massive difference. I decided to believe in Rietz and his exemplary Valor, and watch on without interfering.
Rietz hadn’t set out for the front lines alone. Zaht, who hadn’t accompanied Braham on his mission, was out there as well, fighting by Rietz’s side. His Valor was remarkably high as well, and he was doing an incredible job of supporting Rietz in battle. His fighting style wasn’t flashy, but it was more than effective enough to make up for it.
Mireille, on the other hand, hadn’t rushed out to the front lines. She was certainly strong, and she was an incredibly capable warrior for a woman, but she couldn’t keep up with men like Rietz and wasn’t capable of running wild in the thick of battle like he did. Instead, she stayed back and shouted, “I hope you miserable louts know what’ll happen to you if you turn tail and run!” at our men.
I had no idea what she meant by that, but apparently our soldiers did, and they fought noticeably harder from that point onward. The boost of motivation put them on just about even footing with our foes, though I couldn’t help but notice that our men looked downright terrified as they fought.
What on earth has Mireille been doing to those poor men during their training sessions…? I wondered. In any case, thanks to my retainers’ efforts, our forces managed to overcome our enemy’s last-ditch attempt to fight their way out of the trap they were caught in. My belief that having the right people on your side made all the difference was reaffirmed once more. Since our foes were effectively surrounded, the troops at the center of their formation were left with no one to fight and nowhere to go, turned into living targets for our mages. The longer we kept this up, the more their numbers would dwindle.
As our soldiers held their ferocious attack back, Musia unleashed one of her spells. I’d heard that she would cast a spell that rivaled Charlotte’s magic every once in a while, but I hadn’t fully understood how destructive that meant she could be. The spell she’d cast landed squarely in the center of the enemy formation, where I’d expect their main force to be found, and for a moment I thought she might have taken out their commander in a single blow. As time went by and their formation didn’t collapse I concluded that he must have been elsewhere after all, but her spell had still thinned their ranks by a fair margin.
Moments later, the effects of Charlotte’s spell faded and the river began to return to its normal flow. The Seitzan forces hurried to ford the river and beat a retreat, once again leaving a contingent of soldiers behind to delay our pursuit. It seemed they intended to ensure that their commander and his division escaped, and they were even willing to sacrifice the rest of the army to make sure that happened. We tried to pursue after wiping out their rearguard, but unfortunately, their withdrawal was a success. We couldn’t catch up in the end, but considering how many enemy soldiers we’d slain, we’d still accomplished our objective with flying colors.
○
After the fighting was over, I went to inspect the site of the battle up close. The corpses of innumerable enemy soldiers littered the ground in a scene that might as well have been drawn from the depths of hell itself. I could barely stand to look at it.
Hellish as the aftermath was, however, our military victory was overwhelming. After confirming the number of enemy soldiers who’d died and sending out scouts to see how many had escaped, we learned that we’d killed somewhere in the vicinity of forty thousand men over the course of the battle, leaving roughly thirty thousand remaining in their army. They’d lost about ten thousand in all our previous battles combined, but today four times that number had died, for a total of fifty thousand casualties over the course of their campaign.
Canarre, on the other hand, had gotten off somewhat lightly. We’d lost some men, yes, but our casualties amounted to only five thousand in total, leaving us with twenty-three thousand soldiers remaining.
“In other words, they still have a leg up in terms of numbers,” I muttered. I’d thought that we’d claimed the advantage in this latest battle, but that judgment had been premature.
Is it too early to assume we’ve won this war…?
“They still have more men, yeah, but I doubt Seitz is going to attack us again,” said Rosell. “The defending side of a battle holds an advantage, generally speaking, so defeating us with only seven thousand extra troops is tough. And that’s not even starting on the fact that they lost fifty thousand of their men, and only killed five thousand of ours in the process! If they can swallow that truth, then there’s no way they won’t conclude that seizing Canarre will be impossible.”
“That’s exactly right,” said Mireille. “And honestly, even if they did try to take another swing at us, we’d just have to treat ’em to another slaughter for their trouble. They don’t have the numbers to overwhelm us anymore, so driving them off will be a cinch.”
“Is there any chance of them replenishing their forces and attacking again?” I asked.
“We’ve got a decent enough picture of the state of Seitz’s internal affairs, and they don’t have the men to spare,” said Mireille. “Even if they do manage to gather enough reinforcements somehow, I figure it’ll take them a long time to pull it off. Couran’ll have taken Vasmarque down by then for sure.”
Judging by Rosell and Mireille’s read on the situation, we were more or less out of the woods. Eighty thousand men wasn’t really all that impressive of an army, when measured in terms of a duchy’s standing force. As a matter of fact, Couran could mobilize a larger army himself, and he wasn’t even in control of Arcantez, the capital of Missian and its largest source of troops. Seitz’s duke had just taken his throne and the upheaval in his duchy had yet to fully die down, so it was no wonder he didn’t have the sort of manpower his neighbors did. The invasion of Canarre had been a wild throw of the dice to begin with, and it was hard to imagine he’d be willing or able to spare any more resources on it.
We soon made our way back to Fort Coumeire. I was fairly convinced that the enemy wouldn’t be taking another shot at us, but I wasn’t ready to let my guard down quite yet, and intended to keep the border well protected. I was also planning on continuing to dig up as much information on the enemy as possible, and proceed with all due caution.
A number of months came and went without any sign of movement from the army of Seitz. Then, on the twentieth day of the fourth month, year 212 of the Imperial Era, as fall set in, the news we’d been waiting for arrived.
“Lord Couran is victorious! Vasmarque’s army has been repelled!”
And so, at long last, the forces of Canarre regained our peace of mind.
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