I See... I Understand Everyth—

Viewpoint of Krielt-Smark, General of the Lufelon Holy Kingdom, Count

As we watched, the Einheria Army’s exercise was about to begin.

There was some distance, but from this position, I could see both the red army’s formation and the blue army’s formation. The blue army was deployed on the left as we faced them, while the red army was on the right, but the distance between the two armies looked quite considerable.

Furthermore, the fact that the two commanders remained here was also questionable… Would they look down on the battlefield from this hill and send messengers?

On the battlefield, even a momentary delay in transmitting information could prove fatal.

That was precisely why a commander needed to place himself on the battlefield, expose himself to danger, grasp the state of the battle, and continue giving orders as close as possible to those fighting.

Just because this was an exercise… no, precisely because it was an exercise, they should place themselves on the battlefield and issue swift, accurate orders.

Feeling a slight sense of disappointment even before the exercise began, I turned my eyes to the formations of both armies facing each other on the land spread out below.

The forces on both sides numbered twelve thousand five hundred each… Certainly, the fact that they could mobilize this many soldiers for a mere exercise suggested that they possessed a certain level of military power.

However, the ones commanding them were two people who looked like civil officials who had likely never stood on a battlefield… and on top of that, they were commanding from a place quite far from the battlefield… There was no way they could give proper orders.

Besides, both of their formations were strange.

For some reason, I could not see any shield soldiers or cavalry… Both troop types were indispensable on the battlefield… Did those commanders not even know such basic principles of war?

Both armies’ formations were simple lines… Surely they would not simply advance and collide head-on… But perhaps there was a possibility that they intended to demonstrate changing formations as part of the exercise.

The land spread out before us was a plain with no particular features… If two line formations collided head-on here… that would be neither an exercise nor anything of the sort. It would be like a brawl with numbers merely gathered together.

As I watched the state of both armies while thinking that, movement occurred on the blue army’s side.

The center of the line began moving toward the enemy formation, and the two wings advanced as though being pulled along with it, forming a shape like a ^.

This was a wedge… no, a crescent formation.

It was an offensive formation that placed a powerful general at the front, raising allied morale through that martial strength while attempting to break through a single point.

It depended on the strength of the general leading the formation and the soldiers securing the surroundings, but it was not a bad formation for punching through a line… Especially since neither army seemed to have shield soldiers, the effect would be tremendous.

I had heard long ago that countries with heroes often favored this formation.

However, since they were not a troop type with charging speed like cavalry, even if they launched a charge from that distance… Wait, what are those soldiers!? Their movement speed is too fast!?

As I was shocked by the blue army’s speed as they advanced at a speed like cavalry at full gallop… no, faster than that, this time there was movement from the red army.

It was difficult to tell from this distance, but the second row of the line was probably readying bows. However, although the blue army’s movement speed was astonishing, it was still far too early to ready bows.

At that rate, if the enemy changed its course, their response would be delayed… They fired!?

Impossible!? No matter how one looked at it, the distance was far too— They reached!?

I had once heard that a country in the south had a longbow unit that could fire arrows with effective force even at distances where ordinary bows would not only fail to inflict fatal wounds, but would have their arrows easily deflected… but I was sure even their range was only about thirty percent greater than ordinary bows.

However, the attack from the bows fired below… seemed to fly while clearly maintaining momentum across a distance that ordinary bows could not even reach… No, judging from the blue army as they continued their advance, should I conclude that the range was merely long, and the arrows had no power?

But… for them to not even raise shields, and to not slow their momentum at all despite being attacked, even from outside the effective range… Even if the arrowheads had been blunted… Was that proper for an exercise?

If this were an ordinary training battle, I thought it would not have been strange for them to be judged dead.

Naturally, the blue army showed no sign of caring about such doubts of mine, and their advance increased in speed even further… At this point, their speed looked like that of horses running with nothing on their backs… but surely that was just my imagination.

Just as the distance between the blue army and the red army had narrowed to where it would soon be within bow range for an ordinary army, I suddenly heard a sound as though the ground itself were rumbling. Then the ground of the training field, which had been flat, suddenly began rising in places.

“Ritual magic!?”

I shouted without thinking, but judging from the reactions around me, I did not seem to be the only one surprised.

In various places where the ground had been flat just moments ago, rocks had risen up, and the larger ones seemed to be five or six times the height of a person.

Ritual magic that altered the terrain over such a wide area… I had heard rumors that the Great Magical Nation was researching such magic, but… was this the result of that research?

Terrain alteration… It was the sort of magic that would make many tacticians clutch their heads, and at the same time, drool. Just how freely could that thing manipulate terrain…? I myself wanted very much to know.

At the very least, it seemed capable of stopping the blue army’s charge and dividing the army… Or rather, were the soldiers caught up in that terrain manipulation all right?

I did not think they would deliberately kill allied soldiers in a training battle, but… even if accidents resulting in a few casualties might occur… that attack was surely outside the acceptable range.

How would the blue army, whose advance had been blocked by great terrain-manipulation magic, move…? Unlike the battlefield that had offered a clear view until just now, I could not see all of it from this hill. How would the field commanders on the front lines move…? How would I respond…? I tried to think about it, but the blue army’s response was extremely fast.

Judging from their movements, it seemed they had divided the army into several parts and were attempting to withdraw outside the area where the terrain had been manipulated.

How should I put it… their response was too fast.

Even if terrain manipulation was a known phenomenon as part of their army’s information, for soldiers numbering ten thousand to move on to their next action without the slightest hesitation… felt less like elite troops and more like something abnormal.

But it was still too early for me to be surprised… The next moment after the blue army took action to escape from the maze of rocks… a sudden great blaze engulfed the entire area where the terrain change had occurred.

“Hah!?”

What was that absurdly enormous fire!?

Was this also ritual magic!?

No, ritual magic, as its name suggested, was not something that could be activated so easily… Wait, none of that mattered!

Was this not a massacre!?

This was an exercise, was it not!? Why were they slaughtering their own country’s soldiers!?

I rose from my chair to head toward them for rescue… and the next moment, the pillar of fire was blown apart and vanished, leaving me standing there in a daze.

No, if the fire had merely disappeared, I would have thought they had simply stopped the spell and not been surprised… But after the flames disappeared, the blue army continued moving as though nothing had happened at all. Faced with that abnormal situation, my thoughts froze.

Could it be… that fire had been some kind of illusion…?

The next moment after I thought that, a slightly strong wind flowed toward us from the battlefield… but despite lasting only an instant, the wind was so hot that I felt as though the surrounding temperature had risen slightly.

…If that was the wind produced when those flames were blown away… No, I should stop thinking about difficult things.

For now, the blue army’s soldiers were safe… That alone was enough.

I shifted my feelings and slowly sat back down in my chair while turning my eyes toward the battlefield.

There, the blue army, having split its forces in two to detour around the area where the terrain had changed, was about to assault the red army’s formation.

However, the red army was not entirely passive either. They seemed to have begun moving toward their left wing… Perhaps they intended to crush one of the divided armies in one stroke with double the force.

I thought it was a skillful use of the changed terrain… but if they could not defeat one half of the blue army all at once, would they not be struck in the rear by the force that had split off to go around?

Or rather… the red army too turned its force and charged far too quickly… How in the world had they managed such a perfectly synchronized change of direction…? No, more fundamentally, who exactly was giving those orders?

The people who said they would command had not taken a single step from the tent on this hill, and there was no sign of messenger soldiers running… Was it a lie that they were commanding? No, even against a vassal state, they would not tell such a meaningless lie, and certainly not in front of their own king.

In other words, they were using some method to issue orders to the battlefield from here…?

Come to think of it, I was sure I had heard from the regent… that the teleportation device could send only voices over long distances… Were they using that to give orders to their units?

The speed of information transmission on the battlefield would give them an overwhelming advantage… I see. Was that why they had deliberately said they would command from near us, in order to display that fact!?

The moment I realized that, I felt a coldness as though an icy blade had been thrust into my spine.

…What a terrifying country.

It was not only the way they fought on the battlefield before my eyes. Every casual action contained several meanings. By making us realize that fact, were they trying to make us feel as though we were being entangled in a spider’s web, and then crush our will to resist?

Technology, military power, strategy… In every respect, I was made to understand in this short time since the exercise began that there was no way to stand against them.

This was Einheria… I understood what the regent had meant when he said that submission was for the future of the Lufelon Holy Kingdom… no, I had been forced to understand.

On the battlefield, both armies were still clashing violently.

Apparently, by dividing its army in two, the blue army had lost its breakthrough power and been swallowed up by the red army’s counterattack.

In particular, the terrain-manipulation ritual magic activated once again by the red army had likely been effective.

From our perspective, the blue army that had been trying to circle around from the far side of the manipulated terrain was unable to strike the red army’s rear because a newly appearing rocky hill blocked them, forcing them to take an even wider detour.

During that time, the red army launched a fierce attack on the half of the blue army that had detoured around the near side of the rocky hill created by the first terrain manipulation, routing them.

The red army pursued the fleeing half of the blue army… It was strange that the exercise still did not end even after this situation developed, but the outcome had surely been decided.

Just as I thought that and let my guard down, the front of the red army that had been chasing after the blue army suddenly fell into a gigantic pitfall that appeared beneath them.

…Huh?

No, wait, why was there such a gigantic pitfall there? Just a little while ago, the blue army had been running over that very spot while fleeing, had it not? …No, I see! The blue army had also prepared terrain-manipulation ritual magic, had they?

To think they could create a pitfall at such speed, as though the ground had vanished… At this point, anything went… No, wait!? If they fell into such a gigantic hole while wearing armor, this time they really would not survive!?

This time, rescue was definitely—!

Just as I thought that and tried to stand up, light sliced through the space before my eyes.

The sudden light dazzled me for an instant, but I immediately opened my eyes and lost my words at the scene unfolding below.

Unbelievably, countless bolts of lightning were raining down from the sky toward the blue army. The sky was clear as far as the eye could see.

I had once seen the moment lightning struck a spear during an exercise in rainy weather.

The soldier at that time had barely survived, but the lightning now raining down before my eyes was not on that level.

It gouged the ground, and the soldiers were blown away… Was this also ritual magic…?

Eventually, with a roaring thunderclap, the rain of lightning that had seemed as though it would continue forever came to an end. However, the form of the soldiers lying everywhere like heaps of corpses showed that the scene from moments ago had been real.

The red army soldiers, having confirmed the blue army’s annihilation, raised the weapons in their hands to the heavens… No, this was not the time to raise a victory cry, was it!?

It was a catastrophe!?

Huh? What had we come to watch today? Was it not an exercise… but an all-out war between countries that had hated each other for many years?

I tried to stand up, only to realize that there was no strength in my lower body… It seemed my legs had given out.

When I looked around, not only those who had come from the Lufelon Holy Kingdom, but even those who had come from Einheria were staring blankly toward the battlefield.

At any rate, surely this exercise… no, this war was over now.

The very next moment after I thought that, a blue army that had suddenly appeared behind the red army launched a surprise attack and swallowed up the red army’s rear guard.

Then, in the next instant, a sound like a whistle rang out from the battlefield, and finally, with a pop, a blue light flashed in the sky.

Was this… the light they had explained at the start, the one that signaled victory and defeat…?

Apparently, this exercise had ended with the blue army’s victory.

…

…

No, wait, wait, wait! Where in the world did the blue army that launched the final surprise attack come from!?

They were quite far from the point where the terrain had been manipulated, and the area was a plain… There was nowhere to hide an army!

What was this!?

From beginning to end, everything was full of things I could not understand!