13 (37)

Louis turned around. Before long, he opened the information window. Louis’s army was beginning to cross the river. The dots were surging forward to cross the river. Now it was the trigger. To reduce the army’s losses, the cavalry’s strike was important. Louis put his tongue to the raindrops and tasted them.

Before the fishy taste could fade, he set his foot in the stirrup and mounted his horse. The first to report was Anok. Then Kaiser. Louis looked behind him. Nearly two thousand cavalry were lined up. Their armor was light armor, having discarded heavy equipment in order to cross the river. Louis soon realized that the number of cavalry he knew was short.

“Some are missing.”

“Ah…. The current was strong, so one boat lost strength and broke away.”

Louis soon figured out who the missing people were. Since the drifting boat was heading toward the enemy main camp, it would be isolated and crushed in an instant. He had to increase the speed of the attack.

“The boat lost balance!!!”

“Fuck!! Grab the horses!”

Mihoff decided to calmly look over the situation. As soon as she got up, she walked toward the bow. The boat was swaying as if it had drunk alcohol, yet she walked like a cat. Near the entrance, one man had flipped over and fainted. Inside, there was chaos as they tried to calm the horses. When she almost reached the door, she had an ominous feeling.

From then on, the boat spun round and round in a way that could not even be compared to before. The man who had fainted in front flew toward Mihoff because the boat tilted. Even from a position where she should have lost her balance, she astonishingly lowered her stance tightly. The man who should normally have collided with her flew backward and made a loud crashing sound. Since a person had collided with another person and there was a crack of bone, it did not seem like an ordinary collision.

However, she paid it no mind and walked forward again. The handle that should have been there was nowhere to be seen, perhaps because it had been swallowed when the man crashed into the place where the door handle should have been. She had somehow not wanted to board the boat…. She let out a short sigh and kicked the door panel away.

With a short crack, what struck her was the rain. In the rainwater that was not just cool but almost thrilling, she felt as though she could breathe again and stretched out her hand. When she groped to the left, she caught something, and it was rough. She gripped it tightly and took two or three more steps. Her field of vision opened wide. She immediately turned her head toward the place they should originally have reached. It had already been a long time since no other boats could be seen, as they had drifted away from the route. She was being swept away by the current. The strange thing was that they were still moving forward.

‘I’ll have to tear off the sail.’

Was there no one around to help? After looking around, she soon gave up. The soldier who had been on the deck had already been swept away somewhere long ago. With astonishing balance, she ran across the staggering boat. Amid the pounding rain that made everything slippery, the boat spun round and round once more. She jumped forward.

She roughly drove the dagger drawn from her waist into the mast. The boat spun two more times, and she was hanging from the mast. When the boat barely calmed down, she began climbing the mast. She was in the middle of driving the dagger into the sail spread out shamelessly and tearing it straight down. In front of her eyes, arrows drew black lines.

Mana close to instinct overflowed and flowed out from her body. Two shots fell toward her, and she turned her head to avoid them. Ahead was a nauseatingly grand sight packed full of archers. They had collided with the main force far too early. In that situation, she raised the corners of her mouth.

While she jumped down, the boat writhed once again. Inevitably, she landed while sliding farther than the spot she had originally aimed for. Even after that, she slid for quite a while longer. Arrows mixed with rainwater began pouring down in earnest onto the transport ship. The sound of them embedding was enough to make one’s spine chill. She frantically ran inside.

When she went back through the door, questions poured at her one after another. Mihoff did not particularly answer. Even so, when the soldiers saw the rain of arrows beginning to stab in sharper than the rainwater, they had expressions as if they had swallowed bugs. Going pale was only natural. Before the atmosphere of death settled thickly, Mihoff thought she needed to sort things out a little.

“Below?”

“Th-that is.”

When Mihoff went down, eight soldiers who had been looking at each other’s faces began following her. She soon discovered the group of soldiers she controlled. There were ones bleeding heavily, perhaps because their eyeballs had burst, ones struggling desperately to set broken arms, and ones with broken legs. Still, quite a few normal people remained. Ignoring the gazes gathering on her, Mihoff opened another door just like that.

“Hmm….”

Inside was a mess. Most of the horses were dead or dying. They were tangled together with several soldiers, like a swamp. Well, even if there were a few horses, escaping would be difficult. When she closed the door and came outside, the soldiers rushed to ask what they should do.

She looked at the soldiers. Before she could say anything, the boat rang loudly with a boom. Mihoff felt mana and knew that this was a mage’s attack. Because the boat surged greatly several more times, those inside were shaken here and there. Now it was over.

The boat no longer moved, as if it had been fixed somewhere. Mihoff realized that the boat had reached the opposite side. From outside, along with shouts, came the sound of humans rushing in. When everyone turned pale, Mihoff shouted.

“Build formation around me!”

Mihoff’s voice as she drew her sword became thinner than usual, unlike normal, but no soldier noticed. In that situation, ten infantrymen appeared. They were so frozen stiff that they looked as if they had put their heads into a lion’s mouth. It was understandable. Mihoff was emitting such terrifying killing intent that it made the skin prickle.

In the brief moment, she charged forward. When her sword drew a diagonal line, the soldier at the front was cut down with a sound of “Huh?” Before blood could pour over her, she reflexively deflected an attacking sword and struck up under a jaw with the dagger she had somehow drawn. Her skill was actually better than Louis’s.

That was because she was the one who had taught Louis dagger techniques. Only then did the smell of blood surge. Before it could even spread, five men rolled across the floor at a level close to slaughter, and the morale of all the dying soldiers rose faintly. On the other hand, the five enemies froze cold. They were unable to even think of moving, like mice before a snake.

“Help Lady Mihoff!!!”

“Charge!!!”

“….Damn it. Even if it’s an order….”

Kius Borenus looked at the sky that had begun pouring down madly. So many raindrops were falling that it was difficult even to open his eyes. Even if he was a commoner and did not know tactics, he had ten mouths’ worth of things to say about how foolish it was to carry out a river-crossing operation in this situation.

But the problem was that the one who had proposed this operation was none other than Pontina Louis, whom Borenus respected beyond measure. Just where in the world was there a commander who would think of crossing a river on a day of torrential rain and launch an all-out attack by the entire army at that timing?

Yet laughably, that commander had already crossed to the other side of the river. According to the operation, the assault had already begun. Boom! The sky finally screamed again. In a situation where the current was so fast that they might be sucked downriver along the Rhine River, his mission was to build a temporary bridge.

“If they tell me to do it, I have to do it……….”

“The signal came! Lift!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“Damn it all!!!”

Borenus let out a shout that was practically a monstrous scream. The infantrymen clustered tightly together to lift the huge wooden bridge shouted their chant. Perhaps because it was an extreme situation, it was strange that the bridge was lifted more accurately than during practice. Amid that, Borenus felt pain as if his forearms would burst and looked to his left and right.

Transport ships made by precisely joining thick wooden planks were already moving to the front line, packed full of soldiers, and infantry units with missions similar to his own were advancing from three places at once to lay bridges. The bridge began moving forward. They were to push it straight ahead like this.

When it became submerged in water, they inserted another one again, and during that process, mages positioned here and there were casting holding magic repeatedly. Borenus was now soaked in water up to his chin. He desperately wanted to smack the head of the mage standing on the log. If the magic was insufficient and it sank, he planned to grab the mage bastard’s leg and pull it down. Yet strangely, despite the tremendous current, the log that had not even touched the ground stopped with a creaking sound.

“Is it done?”

“It’s done. Fuck. This is my first time doing it too!”

“Do you want to die?”

“Who lays a bridge in a situation like this!!!!!!”

Looking at the mage with whom he had already become close enough through heavy drinking to speak roughly, Borenus barely held back the curses that came out. When they were drinking, that guy had wagged his tongue saying it would absolutely work….

As soon as he confirmed it was fixed, Borenus gave the order to retreat and quickly swam backward to get out. Sure enough, the current was so strong that his muscles ached.

“Hey, what’s with that bastard?”

“Ah…. That idiot.”

One soldier, while swimming, was swept away by the current and disappeared. It happened so quickly that there was no saving him or anything. No, there was no time to save him either. They were already fighting at the front! As soon as Borenus pulled out, another centurion waiting behind shouted the chant and began carrying the connected wooden bridge.

Borenus withdrew to the rear and now had to arm himself. Once each centuria connected the bridges in order, they had to cross the bridge and engage in melee combat. He entered the barracks. First, he put on the neatly hanging sword and shield, and the helmet that was like his lifeline. After striking the shield a few times, he hung it on his back and was about to fasten the sword to his waist, but then went before a tomboy who looked like some bandit and saluted.

“Why?”

“The infantryman who was swept away was Ainnus.”

“I know. I saw the desperate look in his eyes as he drifted away like livestock at the end. That’s why I told him to do push-ups properly. Huh? I knew it from the time he was slacking off.”

“What do we do with the position?”

“Move each number up by one.”

“Th-then…. who goes?”

The centurion looked back and said.

“Who wants to.”

No one opened their mouth. It was because it was a somewhat dangerous position. He pointed to one person.

“You go into that position.”

“My wrist hurts a bit….”

“Kaljet.”

“Yes!”

“So it’s a dangerous position, is that it?”

“No.”

“You, want to switch positions with me? How about it? Exciting, right?”

“No.”

“If you don’t want to die, you’ll have to pray not for your wrist, but for His Grace’s attack to be effective. To begin with, if His Grace’s cavalry attack is not effective, we become meat feed on that bridge. Understood?”

“Yes!!”

“What did I say?”

“You said we will win.”

“Good. That’s exactly it.”

Borenus finished fastening his sword. The centurion turned back and looked coldly at the hundred or so armed men. It seemed he thought there would surely be some among them whom he would no longer see.

Gregory, who had thought tonight would be comfortable at last, could not help getting angry at the servant who woke him. Since even waking at dawn these days made him grind his teeth, there was a slightly exaggerated emotion mixed in. But when he actually woke up, the servant’s face was as pale as that of a man about to die.

“D-Duke Louis….”

“Speak properly!”

“Duke Louis is attacking.”

“What…? You mean the lion has begun crossing the river?”

“Yes. But….”

Cutting off the servant’s words, Gregory shouted for his armor and sword. Two other servants who had already been waiting while holding them scurried over and began dressing Gregory. As Gregory adjusted his sword and muttered, “Foolish, starting a river crossing in torrential rain. I will bury them all beneath the river,” the servant spoke in a trembling voice.

“How are the preparations going!”

“No, more importantly…. An enormous number of cavalry has struck the right.”

Gregory’s eyes widened madly. When he asked back, “What???” the servant repeated the same words again. Gregory felt as if his jaw had dropped.

“You mean they crossed the river???”

“They crossed. In addition, Duke Louis’s entire army has begun crossing from the front.”

“Good heavens. Prepare my horse!!!”

As he went out as far as the barracks, Gregory had an enormous number of thoughts. A cavalry surprise attack. If that was the case, he had to move troops to the right. When the entire army crossed from the front, he had to stop them with all the archers, but with this, the story became completely different. That was because Gregory had not thought even the slightest that cavalry could cross over.

He had instructed the archers and mages to concentrate their attacks on the transport ships carrying cavalry, but he had done nothing at all to form infantry squares in preparation for cavalry. And that had been the correct judgment. If he clumsily formed squares, the formation of the archers who had to stop the crossing and the infantry who had to hold the blocking line would instead weaken. That was because stopping the crossing with full force was the shortcut that guaranteed a certain victory.