The Ruler Of The Kingdom

View of Sarnare-Rubaras-Harekukku, head of House Rubaras, Count Harekukku

“Count Harekukku! What will you do?! The king—! The king has passed away!”

“Calm yourself, Viscount. It was true that His Majesty has passed away, but it was hardly an insurmountable problem.”

As I watched the agitated Viscount, I spoke as if it were nothing. It was, of course, a grave problem—and more than half of it was bluster—but I could not afford to show weakness here.

And what I needed to prioritize now was keeping everyone who knew of the king’s death pinned to this battlefield and denying them freedom to act.

I had told these men that reinforcements would arrive from Harekukku Territory in three days. However, they would not be joining us directly; they would be entering the fight by striking the enemy’s flank. Even if their numbers were somewhat fewer than what I had conveyed, it would hardly matter.

I had sent a messenger to Eltrise, telling her to leave command of the army to the deputy commander and head for the royal capital with Haria, bringing five hundred troops. If it was Eltrise, then even without a detailed report of the situation and explicit instructions, she would grasp my intent and take the best possible measures.

These people, who knew that he was dead, could become my greatest obstacle at present. Ideally, I wanted to hold them here until Eltrise seized control of the royal castle… but it would be difficult to drag out the battle here.

With my plan, we had already set our formation and declared that our territorial army—the decisive factor—would arrive in three days. Once the reinforcements arrived, there would be no room for restraint; the enemy would likely be annihilated that very day.

Among these men, there had to be those who had already begun moving to seize power… There was no doubt that this incident was my failure—that was an indisputable fact. It was only natural for them to exploit that opening and expand their own influence.

If anything, anyone who did not try to bring me down here would be someone I could not trust on the grounds of incompetence. Those who followed obediently had their uses, but a faction could never be sustained by such people alone. Those who could think and act on their own were not to be let off guard—but they were necessary for the faction.

“I have already taken measures. Our power will not waver… no, we will be able to aim for an even more unshakable foundation.”

My plan to sell titles and squeeze money out of the merchants would be postponed for a while… but those present here were Viscounts and Barons; they had little to gain from that plan to begin with.

“But… will the ducal houses not come for power? If the old-nobility faction seizes control, we—whose titles are lower—will have no way to resist…”

“No problem. If those old nobles were the sort to cling to power, we would never have been able to expand our influence in the first place. Those fossils, no matter how far they went, were only interested in their own lands. They likely never even noticed the rewards that came with holding power.”

“…True. That was so.”

“If the ducal houses try to complain… I am considering placing the royal demesne under the ducal houses’ custody.”

“The royal demesne?”

“To begin with, the royal family receives tribute from us nobles. Even without a royal demesne, there would be no issue. Still, it is a land of proper pedigree—would it not be too heavy a burden for any house beneath ducal rank?”

When I said that, small laughter rose inside the tent. It was unmistakably derisive, laced with mockery—but no one dared mention it, and instead, they all voiced support for my opinion.

But… there were, as expected, a few with suspicious looks. I would have them investigated, and after that…

As I appraised the men inside the tent, I heard someone making a commotion outside.

“…It seems the enemy has moved.”

At my words, the men in the tent seemed to notice the noise outside as well, and tension ran across every face.

“Messenger! The enemy army is on the move! It appears they have formed a broad battle line!”

“Gentlemen, we must first end this battle, or we cannot discuss what comes next. If they changed their formation, they likely intend to rush the river crossing in one push. There has been an unforeseen incident, but the flow of this battle is exactly as we predicted in advance. Block them and whittle them down… that will keep our victory secure. Gentlemen, I expect valor from you.”

The nobles who nodded at my words hurried to rejoin the units they commanded.

For now, I needed to place watchers on the suspicious ones, but from the look of them, none would make a move immediately.

After instructing my personal soldiers who waited in the tent to keep several nobles under surveillance, I stepped outside.

I wanted to think a little longer, but right after the fighting began, even I had to confirm the situation.

If we reduced the enemy numbers too much, we might need to deliberately create a point where we “lost” ground.

Thinking that, I climbed onto the command platform set beside the tent. The officers were already there, checking the enemy formation as they waited for my arrival. I advanced slowly to the back of the platform and observed the enemy army at my leisure.

I could not see all the way to the rear of the enemy camp, but at least within the range visible from here, as the report said, they were some distance from the river while spreading a line that ran roughly along it.

If they had formed a battle line, they likely intended to rush the crossing.

However, with equal troop numbers, even if they charged forward in a straight line, breaking through should be impossible so long as we were also deployed in a line along the riverbank… No, perhaps it was pointless to expect tactics from a rabble of bandits.

Most likely, they had set up such a formation simply to launch a mass charge with a large force.

And the ones charging would be almost entirely commoners cowed into obedience by threats. They would be wiped out before ever reaching the river… but it would be bad if we annihilated them outright.

If the enemy abandoned their reckless charge early, there would be no problem… but wait. Even if they were just a bandit horde, would they really make such a reckless charge while taking arrow and magic fire?

What if these fifteen thousand before us… were all a diversion? Was the true threat still the eastern forest?

“What is the status of the report from the scouts sent into the forest?”

“We received word that they have found no traces suggesting an enemy force is hiding there.”

“When was the last report?”

“Just before the war council began.”

The reason the enemy gave us time… was it because they were moving an ambush force toward our position?

“Send additional scouts to the forest and the western side immediately. There is a possibility the enemy is plotting some trickery.”

“Understood!”

At my order, soldiers immediately climbed down from the platform to carry the message.

We needed to prolong the battle, but I wanted to avoid taking damage ourselves. No—since the king had died in battle, perhaps it would be better if we took some losses… Depending on the scale of the ambush, would it be better not to respond and let some of our men die?

As I considered that, a battle cry rose from the front line.

It seemed the enemy had begun to move.

A huge volley of arrows was loosed from our side and poured down on the enemy army.

The river was not very wide, so the enemy was being struck by a storm of arrows before reaching it… yet it seemed they continued advancing without flinching.

Even the commoners appeared to have been given shields or some similar equipment.

But if they advanced a little more, the next thing would be a rain of magic. Untrained commoners, unused to war, might panic and scatter from that alone.

If we saw such a disgraceful retreat, it would not be strange for us to send out troops in pursuit… Was that their aim?

“How many enemies are attacking right now?”

“About five thousand.”

So a third of their total force… Would they advance a second wave the moment we sent out a pursuit force, and then reap our troops instead?

Well, that plan would unfortunately fail. We had aimed for a war of attrition from the start. Even if they showed us an opening, we would not cross the river to pursue.

In a normal army, there might be those who rushed forward in eagerness for merit, but we did not believe we could gain merit from this sort of battle. Rather, this battle was like a brief rest… There was meaning in participating, but beyond that, this battlefield held no value. Everyone should understand that forcing the issue brought no benefit.

…No, there might be some hot-blooded fool who believed he could earn glory and charged forward… If so, I would be grateful if such a fool became an example.

There would be few lessons more obvious than that as the fate of one who disobeyed my orders.

As I watched the enemy being battered by arrow rain, I noticed something strange.

“…Are the enemy falling? For a while now, their marching speed has looked completely unchanged.”

“…From here, we cannot see each individual clearly, but… it is true that their marching speed does not seem to have slowed. They do not appear to be raising shields, either…”

For an instant, I felt something like an unknown, unsettling dread—but I shook off that sensation within my chest.

The enemy formation should be nothing more than threatened commoners. Could such people keep marching forward calmly, stepping over corpses even as allies fell to arrows?

No—right now, I needed to attach a reason to what I was seeing and display composure… Without showing even a trace of confusion, I spoke my prediction aloud.

“It seems they have some countermeasures against arrows. Perhaps they have a skilled mage.”

“They block arrows with magic?”

At my words, an officer asked, tilting his head.

“I have heard there is a defensive method that uses wind magic to kill an arrow’s momentum. I wondered how effective it could be… but surely the enemy is putting it into practice.”

“But… to cast magic in a way that protects that many allies, it would mean they have a considerable number of mages…”

Another sign that the enemy might not be a mere bandit horde… Their envoy, too… It was likely safer to assume some noble stood behind them.

“I do not know how many mages they have… but if there truly existed magic that could block arrows completely, every nation would be making use of it. I have never heard such a thing—meaning that magic must have some flaw. Perhaps its effect cannot last long, or the mages’ fatigue is severe.”

“I see…”

“They likely intend to march at this slow speed until they reach a distance where the infantry can rush in. If they are using a treasured defensive spell for that purpose, it explains what we are seeing. They must be short on cavalry and archers because they conscripted commoners, so they resorted to such a plan.”

“Indeed—if the infantry ran from that distance, their movements would dull from fatigue by the time they reached the river. So it is magic to conserve stamina.”

“I do not know whether that defensive spell can block our offensive magic… but if it can, it may become troublesome. Send word to the front line not to ease up on the attacks.”

“Understood!”

The story about magic that blocks arrows was not a lie… However, I had heard its users existed in an eastern magical superpower. In that country, it would be plausible… but there should be no mage among the enemy who could compare to those people.

If, hypothetically, such a monster existed in the enemy army… this battle might be harsher than I originally anticipated.

…It was not absolutely impossible, but if that country’s magic corps numbered five hundred—no, even one hundred—among the enemy, it would not be merely a “hard fight.”

No, impossible. There was no way those magic-crazed people would suddenly appear so far from their homeland. Yes—of course. Calm down… If troops from that magic-crazed nation were in the enemy army… magic should have been raining down from far beyond our bow range.

So it could not be… It seemed the enemy’s eerie advance had provoked a strange fantasy. It would not do for me, the commander-in-chief, to be like this. It was fine… I was Sarnare=Rubaras=Harekukku—head of House Rubaras, and the ruler of the Lumoria Kingdom.

I bore the responsibility of making the Lumoria Kingdom stronger and greater. I could not let my heart waver over a battle this small.

With calm efficiency—like signing documents—I would end this battle without the slightest strain.

With my mind settled, I looked down upon our army—and the enemy army advancing toward us.

Now… it was almost time for them to enter the range of magic.