Prologue: The Second Legion Was Alone
The Central Front in the Kingdom of Fernest
Two small nations lay in the center of the continent of Duvedirica—the Kingdom of Swaran, and the Principality of Stonia. The central front ran along their border with the Asvelt Empire, and right now it was there that the fiercest fighting raged. There, the impenetrable Kier Fortress had fallen. There, those who remained after the annihilation of the Fifth Legion fought on against all odds.
“There’s been an urgent message from the capital.”
A man looking through a spyglass lowered it with a sigh. He knew from the speaker’s clipped tone that this wasn’t news he’d welcome. News from the capital only ever meant trouble, as far as he was concerned. “I suppose you have to tell me?” he asked reluctantly.
“O-Of course I do, ser!” came the enraged reply. “How can you even—?!”
“Yes, I know. You don’t have to yell...” He returned the spyglass to the holster at his hip, and turned to face Colonel Lise Prussie, whose eyebrows were furrowed in a sharp vee When he nodded for her to speak, however, her expression became sorrowful.
“The Third and Fourth Legions were destroyed in battle on the northern front. Lieutenant Generals Latz Smythe and Lindt Barthes were both killed in the fighting.”
“There’s no chance the report is mistaken?” The question was a last, vain attempt at hope, but Lise shook her head listlessly. Memories welled up within him of his youth and the time the three of them had spent together at the military academy, all the antics they’d gotten up to... The good old days.
“Very well,” he said. “Latz and Lindt are dead...” He observed the shocked faces of his officers as he pulled out a bent cigarette and lit it. He wasn’t usually a religious man, but now he offered up a silent prayer for the souls of his fallen friends.
The man’s name was Blood Enfield. He commanded the Second Legion—the Royal Army’s last hope for defending the central front.
“I’m afraid that’s not all, ser,” said Lise. Whatever it was, she seemed reluctant to broach the subject. Blood ran his fingers through his messy hair, gesturing for her to continue. Knowing bad news was coming without knowing what it contained was its own kind of torment.
“Lieutenant General, your orders are to keep the northern imperial army at bay while holding the line of battle,” said Lise. Blood stared at her, wondering if after long years of military service his hearing had started to go.
“I’m sorry, Colonel. Could you repeat that for me?”
“‘Lieutenant General, your orders are to keep the Northern Division of the Imperial Army at bay while holding the line of battle,’” Lise said, repeating the statement to the letter with her usual precision. His ears were working properly, then. Blood slowly looked up towards the expanse of empty blue sky above them. A number of gray birds soared gracefully through the air, as though mocking the humans and their wars below. Were this not a battleground, Blood thought, it would have been a perfect spot to lie down and doze in the grass.
“I see,” he said at last. “What a pain in the ass... What do you say we just run away instead?”
“My lord!” exclaimed Lise with such ferocity that Blood shrank back from her, but he wasn’t finished.
“No, listen here. This doesn’t make any sense. We’ve got our hands full just holding the battle line, but now the orders from on high say we have to repel attacks from the north on top of that? Come on, Colonel, surely you must see how ludicrous this is!”
“I... I don’t...” Lise started, then faltered and looked down. She didn’t have a counterargument, then. If the imperial army did advance south towards the central front after their victory against Latz and Lindt, they would surround the Second Legion, and not long after that, Blood would almost certainly find himself following his old friends to the afterlife. He pictured the two of them coming to meet him, scratching their heads apologetically. The whole thing was absurd. He had no intention of sitting back and waiting for an imperial blade to cut him down, and he balked at leading the Second Legion into certain death. When he suggested running away, he was more than halfway serious—orders from higher up be damned.
Now, what’s the best escape route... he mused, drawing a rough map in his mind. As he did so, his eyes met Lise’s. There was a pause as she stared at him like she was waiting for him to say something.
“Colonel, if you’ve got something to say, spit it out! Chop, chop!”
“I wish you wouldn’t let your ill temper show so plainly, ser. I forgot to mention one thing. The Seventh Legion defeated an imperial army of fifty thousand soldiers at the Plains of Ilys and went on to successfully recapture Fort Caspar.”
“What?! You’re certain of that?” demanded Blood. For the first time in a long while, Lise smiled.
“I am, ser. By all accounts, it was an overwhelming victory.”
“A victory...” It had been so long since he’d heard it, Blood had almost forgotten the word. And an overwhelming victory at that. Their first since the fall of Kier Fortress. Lise went on to report that less than ten of their soldiers had been lost in the battle at Fort Caspar.
“Hah! Good old Paul!” cried Blood, clapping a fist in his opposite hand. “Pulling off a miracle like that... It’s not for nothing they call him the God of the Battlefield, eh?” He paused as something occurred to him. “Hold on, that means...” He trailed off, rubbing his chin, then ordered Lise to hurry and get out a map of southern Fernest. He snatched it from her hands and spread it out on the table as soon as she brought it.
“If we pull our defenses back to here...” Lise watched in silence as Blood’s eyes darted to and fro across the map. She knew not to interrupt him when he got like this. He’d had an idea—good or bad, she couldn’t yet tell—and was thinking hard.
“Yes, that should work.” Blood looked up from the map at last, his eyes bright as he took a drag on his cigarette.
“You have an idea, my lord? Would you by any chance care to share it with me?” Lise asked, her gaze fixed on him.
“Yes, please tell us, ser!” chorused the other officers in the room. They were watching him too, eyes full of expectation.
“Eh? Right, yes. Well, the thrust of it is that we get the Seventh Legion to deal with the empire’s northern forces. If we want to get out of this alive, it’s that or run,” said Blood. His tone left no room for argument, but most of the officers began to look uneasy, like they wanted to interject. Lise also appeared unconvinced.
“You want to call the Seventh Legion, ser? Not the Sixth?” she asked, frowning.
“The Sixth Legion? That won’t work.” Blood explained how the Sixth Legion, after regrouping following their defeat at the hands of the Steel Chargers, were now defending Fort Peshitta. Lise turned red with embarrassment.
“You’re right, ser. I totally forgot.”
“Even if they could mobilize, I don’t want to rely on Lieutenant General Sara if I can help it. I can’t stand that birdbrained princess.” Sara’s vacuous smile appeared in his mind’s eye.
“Er, yes. We all have people we don’t get along with, I’m sure,” said Lise, brushing this aside. “Anyway, you’re right, my lord, we can’t call on the Sixth Legion. But surely this is asking too much of the Seventh Legion, as well.” The other officers all nodded in agreement with her.
“You think so?” said Blood, confused at her certainty. He genuinely couldn’t fathom her reasoning and had asked the question in earnest, but Lise looked exasperated.
“Well, ser,” she began, as though explaining something extremely obvious. “While the Seventh Legion may have taken back Fort Caspar, they still have Kier Fortress to worry about in the north.”
“What does that matter?”
“It matters because it means the Seventh Legion has to be very careful about leaving Fort Caspar,” said Lise, pointing with a slender finger to where Kier Fortress and Fort Caspar were marked on the map as she spoke. Her explanation went on, breaking down in fine detail all the reasons that the Seventh Legion could not, under any circumstances, leave Fort Caspar. When she’d finished, however, Blood only let out a defiant laugh.
“You’re wrong. It’s quite the opposite, in fact. The Seventh Legion has set itself free,” he said.
“I’m afraid I don’t understand, ser,” said Lise, confusion clouding her azure eyes.
“What’s the greatest advantage they get from holding Fort Caspar? It allows them to build a strong defensive line against Kier Fortress.”
“A defensive line?”
“That’s right. The terrain in that region is complex—by making effective use of that, even a small force can hold off a much greater army. Provided they have a competent commander, of course,” he added. War was cruel, and just having the advantage of terrain wasn’t enough to guarantee you could hold off a large army. One needed a commander who knew how to coordinate their troops to best utilize that terrain to their advantage. That was what they needed here. Lise took all this in, then looked back down at the map.
“I see,” she said under her breath. “They can use the rivers to the east and west like moats, and those sheer cliffs to the south already give them natural defenses. The road is narrow too—not good for moving a large army. It is a highly defensible location, no doubt about that. Though as you say, my lord, only if they have a competent commander.”
Her glasses threatened to slip down several times as she spoke; she pushed them back up her nose. Finally, she looked up, satisfied.
That was quick, thought Blood as he watched Lise run her fingers through her hair like she was trying to shake dirt out of it. She clearly earned her spot at the top in her class at the Royal Military Academy. Now if only she could be a bit more flexible...
“I’m pretty sure that old bastard Hermann is in the Seventh Legion. Give him ten thousand soldiers and the south will be safe.”
“I agree, ser. Major General Hermann is a brilliant defensive commander. He could certainly hold off a great army.”
“Right? And that means there’s no need for the Seventh Legion to stay holed up in Galia Fortress, which means—”
“Which means the Seventh Legion can move freely,” Lise finished his sentence for him. Blood nodded with a wry smile.
“That about sums it up.”
“Understood, ser. In that case, we’d better send a rider to the capital at once,” said Lise, rising quickly before striding from the room. Blood watched her go, putting another cigarette in his mouth. Truthfully, he wanted to reach out to the First Legion, who could move at any time. The only reason he hadn’t suggested it was because he couldn’t see King Alfonse permitting it. With the Third and Fourth Legions now following the Fifth in defeat, the empire would almost certainly be planning a strike against Fernest’s heart—on the royal capital of Fis. Sending the First Legion out to reinforce the others was a bold move, and Blood didn’t rate Alfonse as the sort of man who could make it.
That being said, I’m not keen on racking up debts to the Seventh Legion. Old Paul scares the hell out of me. Blood sighed, and blew out a mouthful of smoke. It drifted skywards along with the dust.
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