III
The troops of the First Allied Legion fanned out before Kier Fortress. Three towering walls encircled the fortress, walls from which many banners bearing the empire’s crossed swords flew. Paul, who had come back when they negotiated a hostage exchange, found that he felt rather nostalgic looking upon it now, rather than being infuriated. He allowed himself a wry smile.
I suppose I had too much fun traveling with Lieutenant General Olivia back then, he thought, picturing her beaming at everyone with that carefree smile of hers. Beside him, Otto finished giving instructions to a subordinate before turning to Paul with suspicion in his eyes.
“Don’t mind me.” Paul went on quickly. “How’s the front line looking?”
“They are using the catapults to carry out a long-range assault, as planned. The imperial army has responded with their own catapults and heavy crossbows. They have not made any unusual moves.”
Predicting a siege from the start, the First Allied Legion had come prepared with a large arsenal of siege weaponry, catapults chief among them. The catapults currently in action were the result of the Royal Army’s engineers analyzing and improving upon the cutting-edge models the Independent Cavalry Regiment had seized from the Crimson Knights. Otto had told Paul that while they had not, in the end, been able to improve the weapons’ firepower, by making them still more compact, ease of operation had increased dramatically.
“Then tell the soldiers on the front line they need not hold back. They are to reduce the walls of Kier Fortress to rubble, you hear?”
“Are you sure, my lord?”
“The lord marshal approves.”
Reassurance could at times lead people into indolence. The Royal Army had grown complacent behind the walls of the “impenetrable fortress.” Paul could not deny that. He therefore saw this as a golden opportunity to tear the place down to its foundations, thereby shattering the illusion and opening the eyes of his soldiers.
Otto immediately expressed his understanding, then sent off the runners.
“There could be nothing better for us than for them to stay holed up in there.”
“From what I have heard, Major General Neinhardt has a number of plans for that.”
“Major General Neinhardt, eh?” Paul said thoughtfully. “I don’t know him well, seeing as this will be my first time fighting alongside him, but if you ask Lambert, he’s quite the maverick.”
“I doubt he would have risen to become chief of staff for the First Legion under the Invincible General were he not.”
“You’re not wrong there. Though so far as I’m concerned, our chief-of-staff here in the Seventh Legion is no slouch either.” He glanced sidelong at Otto, who gave a slight shrug.
“Please, my lord. I have nothing that can compare to Major General Neinhardt’s sharp wits and foresight.”
“Modesty, eh?”
“I speak nothing but the truth,” Otto said blandly.
Paul was no stranger to the futility of flattering the man. Still, with his ability to coolly appraise a battle while on the battlefield, undeterred by emotion, Paul saw Otto as one of a kind and entirely irreplaceable.
“All right, I’ll give you this one,” Paul said. “Now, about the right flank...”
Paul turned his spyglass onto the right flank, which was under Osmund’s command. The man wouldn’t be glory-mad any longer, but he was a touch too far ahead.
“Fear not, my lord. I have already sent runners to instruct him to fall back.”
“Of course you have,” Paul said, nodding with satisfaction at Otto’s quick-witted leadership.
The battle proceeded just as the First Allied Legion wanted it to, looking more and more like it would turn into a long siege.
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