Thorough Preparations

View of Regza-Saga, Great General of the Est Kingdom Army, Kingdom of Est

I had left the main camp and come forward to the very edge where we could barely make out the figures of each side’s military envoys.

Though I said I had come forward, my position was only around the third line of the army arranged in the crane-wing formation.

I could confirm that one envoy’s flag from each side had been raised, but naturally, their voices did not carry this far.

If I wished to hear their war of words, I would have had to go as far as the first line.

However, I had not come forward in order to listen to the exchange.

The disgrace of this battle… no, not something so light as disgrace, but in order to gather even a little of it upon myself, it was necessary for me to begin this battle with my own hands.

Having already steeled myself, I raised my sword high from horseback without the slightest hesitation and swung it down toward the enemy ranks.

This was the signal to begin the battle… a preemptive strike against an enemy with whom the verbal exchange had only just begun.

Between our nations there was an agreement… when both armies bore flags signifying envoys of war, any attack whatsoever was forbidden… and this was a preemptive strike that clearly violated that pact.

Because of this, our country would be condemned… but this was no more than one part of our preparations.

I understood that the damage dealt to the other side would not be especially great.

After all, our attack was a stone scattershot fired from three catapults.

Scattering fist-sized stones from that height gave it considerable power, but the area of effect was not all that wide.

Even now, with the enemy army packed closely together, would it not be a good result if we could cut down even two hundred?

Naturally, the purpose of this attack was not to reduce the number of enemy soldiers.

It was to break the treaty, launch a preemptive strike in the middle of the verbal exchange, and drive the enemy into a rage.

Without even confirming the effect of the preemptive strike, I wheeled my horse around and hurried back to the main camp.

If events unfolded as we intended, the enemy army, having had comrades killed by a strike that broke the treaty, would charge in anger.

There were three possible places from which the enemy might attack.

Of those, the most likely was our left wing, next the hill on the right wing side. Last would be a central breakthrough aimed at the main camp.

The possibility that they might ignore the hill and come for the right wing was not zero, but that was even less likely than a central breakthrough.

If they did aim there, all we had to do was use the left wing and the forces on the hill to surround them.

For us, the decisive battle would not be today.

We wished to reduce the enemy’s numbers as much as possible, but even if we succeeded in surrounding them, there was still the possibility they would break through the encirclement.

That was how great we believed the difference in troop quality was between the enemy army and our own.

That was precisely why we were relying on traps and surprise attacks, trying to reduce the enemy’s numbers by even a little.

As I rode my horse and thought about the next development, battle cries rose from the front line.

Without a doubt, the enemy had begun advancing.

As I rode, I looked back and strained my eyes, hoping I might at least confirm the enemy’s direction of advance.

Would it be the right wing, or the hill…? Our next move would change depending on the enemy’s target… where were they coming from?

However, contrary to my expectations, the enemy army came as one mass, aiming for a central breakthrough.

The weakness of the crane-wing formation lay in attacks concentrated on a single point, where, if it failed to hold the enemy, the formation would be torn apart before it could surround them.

However, ordinarily they would have chosen a strategy of breaking through one side before either wing could surround them in full, but… the center… it seemed the enemy was indeed extremely confident in the strength of their own army.

Frankly, I had not thought they would aim for the center on the first day, but… it was not as though we lacked a plan for when they targeted the center.

Even before I returned to the main camp, orders for the next move had already been given.

The flags raised atop the great watchtower signaled the enemy’s central breakthrough, and both wings began moving to protect the main camp and surround the enemy.

At the same moment I sensed that movement, I arrived at the main camp positioned in the rear.

“General!”

“So, they would attempt a central breakthrough. I thought it would be a ploy for the second day or later, but it seems its turn has come sooner.”

As I steadied my ragged breathing, I spoke to those gathered at the main camp.

“I had not wished to burn too many of the enemy on the first day, but…”

“It cannot be helped. There is no meaning in using traps halfway, and pitfall traps can only be used once.”

The trap prepared for when the enemy attempted a central breakthrough was a pitfall.

It had been hard labor using magic, but we had managed to dig a very broad area of holes a little deeper than a man’s height.

The bottoms of those pits had been filled with large quantities of oil, and once the enemy fell in, the plan was to shoot fire arrows into them.

“If only we had had a little more time, we might have dug the holes larger and deeper and disposed of more of the enemy vanguard, but it could not be helped.”

“The rear guards of both wings have already blocked the area in front of the main camp. However, the enemy’s advance is so fast that the encirclement by the wings does not seem likely to make it in time.”

As I climbed the command platform and turned my gaze toward the front, I could indeed see, just as my adjutant had said, the rear guards of both wings blocking the space before us and the enemy army hurtling toward us with tremendous momentum.

“As long as there are pitfall traps, the enemy cannot raise their marching speed without caution. In that opening, we should be able to complete the encirclement.”

“…Indeed.”

Their advance speed exceeded our expectations, but at that pace they should soon reach the prepared area.

“We will not make the preparations for the fire arrows in time. The enemy army will already have reached the pitfalls, but our encirclement is not keeping up because of their speed beyond expectation.”

A pitfall trap, once the lead troops fell in, required quite a long time before those behind them could come to a stop.

Even if those following knew there was a pitfall ahead, they would still be shoved in by the soldiers running behind them and fall.

Therefore, if only we had dug the holes deeper, we could have killed a considerable number of troops by that alone, but… no, there was no point in saying that now.

Still, this advance speed was truly astonishing. The encirclement by both wings was not keeping up at all.

At this rate, we might be able to do no more than incapacitate the first few men at the front… those who fell first would likely be crushed by those falling in after them, but because the holes were not very deep, those who fell later would probably be able to climb out at once by using those who fell earlier as footholds.

The fire had been meant to prevent that, but no, as my adjutant said, it would be better to regard the pitfalls as merely a means of slowing the enemy’s marching speed.

As I watched the approaching enemy army with that in mind, just when they were about to enter the pitfall zone, the enemy suddenly stopped moving.

“What…!?”

Had they discovered it!?

At the enemy army’s sudden halt, not only I but everyone atop the command platform was thrown into confusion.

“They realized it before falling into the pits!?”

“Impossible! One person perhaps, but an army moving at that speed could never notice pitfall traps and stop in time!”

“Could news of the plan have leaked!?”

Certainly, if our strategy had been exposed, it was possible for them to stop before the pitfalls… no, that made no sense.

“Calm yourselves. If it had been exposed beforehand that there were pitfalls there, they normally would have marched around that area. The pits are basically set up directly before the main camp. Their movement just now looked as if they noticed only at the last moment.”

“That is true… but General, that movement…”

“I know what you wish to say. Such a sudden stop, as though they had decided in advance to stop at that spot. An army should not be able to move like that… there must be some sort of mechanism…”

By the time I had said that much, the enemy army had resumed its march, but… they were clearly advancing while avoiding the area with the traps, and yet the way they avoided it was so minimal that there was almost no wasted movement.

“They know the exact location of the traps! There really must be a traitor among us!”

“Do not say such foolish things! We have all resolved to fight for the kingdom even if we are condemned as villains! There cannot possibly be a traitor among us!”

Some were bewildered, some enraged, some intently watching the enemy’s movements… those observing the enemy were one thing, but it was extremely bad for the officers on the command platform to panic.

“I said calm yourselves! One of our stratagems has merely been broken through. It is no great matter. More importantly, our confusion is what matters, does it not? Now then, the battlefield has advanced to the next stage. Forget the fire arrows! Have them switch to poison arrows! At that marching speed, the wings will not encircle them in time! We will receive them with the front ranks. Make certain there is no friendly fire!”

When my adjutant relayed my orders to the great watchtower, the flags raised upon it were changed.

“There is no traitor in our camp! Know that our confusion itself is what would lead directly to the kingdom’s ruin!”

“Yes, sir!!”

At my shout, my adjutants at least regained their composure on the surface.

As my adjutants feared, the enemy’s movements were inexplicable, and it was only natural to suspect an information leak… but there were no markers or anything of that sort in the area where the traps had been laid. Even if information had leaked, they should not have been able to advance while avoiding the traps with such precision.

It was more correct to think they had some method of discerning the positions of the traps.

We had also set various devices on the left wing side… perhaps they had detected those and thus aimed for a central breakthrough…

While analyzing what had happened before my eyes, I cast aside what was already past and turned my thoughts to the next matter.

The poison arrows I had just ordered were not the mild poison we had tried to mix into food.

It was the sort of substance used when hunting large monsters, so potent that even a mere graze would kill a person.

There was not much of the poison, and it was difficult to handle, so it had only been distributed to a select few highly skilled in archery, but even the arrows of the others had been smeared with livestock dung and the like, which, while lacking the immediate lethality of the true poison, would gradually wear down the enemy army through pestilence and infection.

If the enemy army truly had not assembled a proper baggage train, the resulting damage was bound to be considerable.

As I stared at the enemy army rapidly drawing near, the forces arrayed before the main camp planted large shields into the ground and took their stance.

Those great shields had lower ends shaped so they could be driven into the earth like stakes to withstand a cavalry charge, and their upper portions could be supported with spears like braces.

They would lose all mobility, but their defensive strength was such that no infantry charge could ever break them.

The fundamental tactic was to stop the enemy’s charge with these shields, whittle them down with magic and arrows, then surround and annihilate them… but this time, we were not considering magic attacks or annihilation after encirclement.

They might find it suspicious if we made no magical attacks at all, but the mages were the core of this strategy, so their positions could not be changed.

Only a very small number of mages were currently participating in the battle, and they had been made to focus solely on defensive magic. All the others were preparing the ritual magic to be activated tonight even farther behind the main camp… if we could protect them and survive today… and tomorrow night, then our victory would be certain.

The magic they were preparing… was something called ritual magic.

Ordinarily, unless one was an inhuman being called a hero, the magic that a single mage could wield, though quick to cast, could hardly pose much threat to an enemy army.

Only when mages formed units and concentrated their firepower simultaneously did they become a true threat.

Unlike such ordinary magic, ritual magic referred to magic that a large number of mages prepared over time before casting, and its power could rival natural disasters.

Of course, there were many types of ritual magic, so not all of them possessed such monstrous power… its might varied greatly depending on the number of people performing the ritual, the time invested, and the many catalysts used… but among ritual magics, there were several deemed forbidden.

Our Est Kingdom was not a country renowned for magical research.

Therefore, among the ritual magics we were capable of using, this was about the only one that could defeat the enemy army.

That ritual magic was called “Large-Scale Necromancy.”

A forbidden ritual that desecrated the dead and trampled upon their dignity.

It was a magic that controlled and enslaved, through ritual, the bodies of the fallen on the battlefield regardless of friend or foe.

The revived dead accepted only simple commands, but even if their heads were crushed or their limbs severed, they would continue to move in obedience for as long as their bodies could still function.

We would revive only the bodies of those who fell on the battlefield today and set them upon the enemy army.

A night raid by the dead… no matter how elite the troops, they still had to rest at night, and their visibility would naturally be poor.

That was why night raids were so effective, but the attackers would be an undead army… and among them would be those who had once been their very comrades.

There was no need to think deeply to understand why this magic was forbidden.

When it was decided that we would use it, naturally there was not a single person who did not oppose it… but I suppressed them and persuaded them that I alone would bear the sin of desecrating the dead, so I begged them only not to interfere.

The fact that we had used forbidden magic would soon spread to other nations… and when that happened, the Est Kingdom would not escape with mere condemnation.

The mages who had performed the ritual, I who had ordered it… and His Majesty.

At the very least, execution would be unavoidable… all I could do was reduce, as much as possible, the number of those implicated with me, and bear that infamy alone.

I felt sorry for the mages, but they had accepted that they would share the disgrace with me.

However, as for His Majesty, arrangements had already been made so that he would be judged only for the crime of failing to control a fool like me.

It would mean betraying His Majesty, who had said he would bear the sin together with me, but on this point alone, I could never yield.

Even if I became a villain whose name would be reviled in history, I would protect the Est Kingdom.

That was the last thing I could do as a general… no, as one of the people living in the Est Kingdom.

“The enemy vanguard should soon collide with us. Once the enemy’s advance is stopped by the great shields, give the signal for the surprise attack! Aim for the enemy’s main camp and throw them into confusion!”

If possible, I would like to strike down the main camp itself, but in that case the enemy would probably retreat. If we could cut down most of them before they withdrew in the midst of that confusion, there would be no problem, but… that would be difficult.

Fundamentally, the method we had chosen this time was to catch them in stratagems, buy time, and reduce their numbers, so if the surprise attack destroyed their main camp and let them retreat before we had thinned the strength of their main force, it would defeat the whole purpose.

Therefore, the surprise attack unit had been ordered chiefly to throw the main camp into confusion.

“Yes, sir!”

At my words, my adjutant watched the enemy’s movements and measured the timing for sending the order to the great watchtower.

“…Do they intend to charge straight into those shields? They do not seem even to be using magic to keep us in check…”

Having already drawn the enemy in more than enough, our army had begun its attack with poison arrows.

However, the enemy army paid no heed to the rain of poison arrows pouring down upon them and continued running toward our forces at the same speed.

“It is astonishing enough that they can cross such a distance without slowing, but for them not to flinch at poison arrows at all… it makes one understand how our nation has been driven back this far.”

“…But their advance ends here. No matter how elite they are, once they stand before those great shields, their movement will stop. An army attempting a breakthrough at one point becomes fragile once its feet are halted.”

“…Indeed.”

For an instant, something unpleasant passed through my mind… but before I had time to ask myself what it was, the enemy army charged into our ironclad formation… and men were sent flying through the air.