Chapter 383
(Kyle Calendar Year 515: Age 22)
Northern Front ⑳ – The New Participants
Translator : PolterGlast
Following a massive, large-scale battle, the entire Northern
Front had fallen into a tense standstill once again. By the exact fraction of a
second Alexis and Glenn each successfully led their Longbow
Cavalry to answer the emergency routes and rush to the rescue of the Empire army and the Second Army, both the Ville Kingdom
army and the Lute Kingdom army had seamlessly withdrawn their forces
before they knew it. Because of that, the Special Fire Corps, which had
divided into two split wings, made a sweeping, large detour around the
battlefield to merge their brawn and regroup, and this time headed to rescue
the Third Division that was being systematically encircled by the Istoria
Orthodox Theocracy army. However, that specialized rescue operation too
ended in a misfire; at the exact timing their banners appeared on the
battlefield, the enemy army also smoothly halted its offensive and withdrew its
forces.
「 Commander-in-Chief, shall our
division maintain its forward momentum to pursue them as is and go on the
aggressive offensive? 」
「 No, let our main forces also pull back to secure our parameters for now. Mars-san's
Third Division is more exhausted than my initial evaluations expected, and the
other remaining armies are probably also stretched to their absolute limits and
fully occupied with sending the wounded to the rear. Besides…… 」
Alexis did not
give a clear, explicit answer mapping out the details of his anxieties for Glenn’s
ears, but deep within his intellect, he felt severe psychological alarm about
the eerie, coordinated movements of the Ville Kingdom army and the Lute
Kingdom army after the previous clash. Up until now, those two sovereign
nations had consistently operated and moved independently as highly fractured
cells, and depending on how they maneuvered on the battlefield, there was a
sufficient tactical possibility of executing localized, individual defeats
against them. But the reality governing the board had violently altered; now,
those two countries had successfully merged and coalesced to become a massive
military force of nearly 20,000, and had begun to show highly synchronized,
coordinated movements as a single integrated army. If they began to dynamically
navigate the board as a single group under the absolute custody of an excellent
enemy commander, Alexis's side would be forced to abandon his localized
frameworks, collect their dispersed defensive armies, and face them in a
singular frontal decisive battle. If they fought in such a formation, the
damage would be catastrophic, and his staff already harbored immense anxiety
about coordinating with an unaccustomed Empire
allied force; furthermore, the volume of damage their own allies had suffered
at this threshold was far too large to casually ignore.
Having returned to the central command and receiving the raw
damage reports, Alexis let out a heavy, large sigh while regretting and
feeling bitter self-reproach that his own strategic troop deployment had been
far too pathetic. As for the Westlights Demon Territory Dukedom Army,
the First Army led by Marquess Gorman, which had fought through the
fiercest battle against the suicidal Cain Kingdom charge, and the late
Commander Gale’s veterans anchoring the Third Division, which had
continued to hold off the enemy's attacks with a small number, had suffered the
absolute brunt of heavy blows. Combined across all active public divisions, a
staggering total of 3,500 brave men were killed or wounded and forced to
immediately withdraw from the active front lines. Of those, 500 were KIA (killed in
action), and the remaining 3,000 casualties
were soldiers who withdrew from the front lines due to bleeding injuries and
were processed for urgent extraction to the rear. The singular underlying
reason the number of killed in action was remarkably small relative to the
unadulterated savagery of the fierce fighting was because, even in the midst of
the chaotic melee, the dedicated Holy Mages braved the danger and pushed
past every instinct of self-preservation to sprint across the active
kill-zones, administering high-tier stabilization magics and saving
catastrophically wounded soldiers each time. Evaluating the raw math, the total
military force capable of participating in the upcoming subsequent battles had
violently plummeted from an initial baseline of 16,600 men down to a
thinned-out pool of 13,100 men. Even adding the 5,000 elite cavalry selection
harvested from the Royal Knights to that, their absolute maximum integrated
military force was rigidly capped at 18,100 men.
【Westlights Demon Territory Dukedom
Army: Latest Active Personnel Numbers】
◇ First Army (Marquess Gorman)
/ Total: 5,000 men
·
[Active]: 3,500 men
·
[KIA]: 200 men
·
[Wounded]: 1,300 men
◇ Second Army (Marquess Solis)
/ Total: 5,000 men
·
[Active]: 4,200 men
·
[KIA]: 100 men
·
[Wounded]: 700 men
◇ Third Army (Acting Commander Mars)
/ Total: 4,500 men
·
[Active]: 3,100 men (including 900
warriors safely returned from Kusanagi defense)
·
[KIA]: 200 men
·
[Wounded]: 1,000 men
·
[In Transit]: 100 men
◇ Special
Fire Corps (Vice-Captain Glenn) /
Total: 2,100 men
·
[Active]: 2,100 men (fully
operational, zero casualties sustained)
◇ Royal Knights Vanguard Dispatched
Unit (Grand Commander Schulz) /
Total: 5,000 riders
·
[Active]: 5,000 riders (fully
operational, zero casualties sustained)
Furthermore, the Empire allied
forces had suffered structural damage vastly exceeding that of the Westlights
Demon Territory Dukedom Army. In particular, the unified units steered by Viscount Kamin had transformed into
absolute prey for General Golpa's artillery, primarily centering around
the noble barons who had stood out while explicitly violating the Viscount's
instructions to execute an uncoordinated advance, resulting in practically half
of their integrated personnel being systematically deleted and forced to
withdraw from the front lines. As a direct consequence of that localized
disaster, the overall operational density and fighting strength of the Empire's
forces was greatly reduced, and their
currently active, battle-capable military force had plummeted from the initial
pool of 13,000 men down to a fragile line of barely 8,000 men.
【Empire Allied
Forces: Latest Active Personnel Numbers】
◇ Viscount Durul’s Legion / Total: 8,000 men
·
[Active]: 5,500 men
·
[KIA]: 700 men (including fatal
losses sustained across northern Lorelei
skirmishes)
·
[Wounded]: 1,800 men (including
losses sustained across northern Lorelei
skirmishes)
◇ Viscount Kamin’s Unified Unit / Total: 5,000 men
·
[Active]: 2,500 men
·
[KIA]: 1,000 men (fatal attrition
due to command violation)
·
[Wounded]: 1,500 men
Conversely, shifting the lens across the absolute parameters
of the invading coalition, excluding the Cain Kingdom army which was
practically annihilated as a functional entity, there were no major conspicuous
structural changes across their primary columns. It could be said that the
contribution of General Golpa's peerless operational command and
protective mastery was extremely large in this reality. And one more secondary
variable. Thanks to the terrifying, uncompromising hard fighting of the Third
Division led by Mars, despite having enveloped them with more than a
twofold numerical superiority, only the independent Lugner Division received an exceptionally bitter, mathematically disproportionate
level of damage that did not pay off.
【Invading Coalition / Istoria
Orthodox Theocracy Army: Active Personnel Numbers】
◇ Ville
Kingdom Army / Total: 15,000 men
·
[Active]: 12,000 men
·
[Casualties (Past)]: 2,000 men (from
northern Lorelei clash; including
1,000 captured as public 'prisoners')
·
[KIA (Latest)]: 500 men
·
[Wounded (Latest)]: 500 men
◇ Lute
Kingdom Army (First Prince) / Total: 10,000
men
·
[Active]: 9,000 men
·
[KIA]: 300 men
·
[Wounded]: 700 men
◇ Cain
Kingdom Army (Second Prince) / Total:
10,000 men
·
[Unknown]:
1,000 men
·
[Casualties (Past)]: 7,000 men (from
opening vanguard skirmishes; including 2,500 captured prisoners, 2,000 MIA)
·
[KIA (Latest)]: 1,000 men
·
[Wounded (Latest)]: 1,000 men
(completely rounded up and captured as 'prisoners' following the collapse)
◇ Istoria
Orthodox Theocracy Army (Cardinal
Azel / Lugner) / Total: 20,000
men
·
[Active]: 18,000 men
·
[KIA]: 800 men (Lugner army)
·
[Wounded]: 1,200 men (Lugner
army)
From Alexis's perspective, although his scouts hadn't
grasped the formal, exact numbers, it seemed a massive pool of the invading
army remained in good health, still boasting an active force of approximately
40,000 combatants that easily maintained a near-twofold numerical advantage
over his own thinned-out formations.
「 Even after that level of grueling
combat, the enemy army still has about 40,000 able-bodied troops, against our
26,000; there is no doubt that an exceptionally
severe, brutal struggle will continue for quite a while. 」
Compiling the delivered reports and carefully
cross-referencing the latest ratio of fighting strength on his ledger, Glenn
too couldn't prevent a sharp, frustrated sigh from escaping his lips. Of
course, his veteran intellect did not classify this numerical deficit as a
completely hopeless, insurmountable wall, operating strictly on the baseline
premise that it was within a mathematical range they could manage through
superior tactical execution. It meant they would still struggle considerably in
terms of raw military strength…… Though his blunt words carried such realistic
evaluations, on the other hand, looking parallel to him, Alexis's facial
expression had darkened into absolute ash.
「This too is entirely my
responsibility. I marched into this battlefield
thinking I had successfully seen through the enemy's schemes, but I completely misread it,
and fatally erred in the deployment of our assets. 」
Alexis turned
his neck back to Glenn with a heavy, pained expression, and answering
like that with a hollow solemnity took all he had.
「 Commander-in-Chief, as an officer
who has been in a position to steer and lead common soldiers through the mud
for a slightly longer time, allow me to crave your indulgence
to dare speak with absolute candor here, 」 Glenn stated, his tone shifting into an unyielding, ironclad
register. 「
Sacrifices are an immutable, inevitable part of war. For those who lead the soldiers, there are thresholds where one is compelled to
unavoidably choose the path to definitive victory while being prepared to
accept the bleeding sacrifice and deletion of his own allies as a necessary
cost. So, please stop making
that pathetic, spineless expression. 」
At the blunt force of those words, Alexis violently
gasped and his eyes widened. Glenn locked his gaze straight into such an
Alexis and continued driving his words forward without a single
drop of hesitation.
「 The enemy did not cross our
sovereign borders and come all this way just for the purpose of becoming
effortless prey for our bows. Those bastards are desperate and fighting with
the unhinged desperation of cornered wolves as well, and contrary to our initial
expectations, the cold mathematics indicate there was an exceptionally
brilliant, capable commander operating across the enemy's side to counter your
moves. That is simply all the reality is. Confronted by that hidden variable,
the Commander-in-Chief executed absolute best-tier generalship, successfully
deleting and destroying one of the major enemy armies from the board, and
surgically saving our allied units from the jaws of a fatal predicament. 」
The parameters Glenn articulated were an undeniable baseline
truth. Had their legions been facing an ordinary, orthodox old-world opponent,
exactly as their masterclass blueprint initially planned, their long-range
strikes would have completely neutralized and dismantled the catapult units
pushed to the front, and likely inflicted catastrophic, campaign-ending damage
straight into the advancing columns of the three coalition nations as well.
「…… Indeed.
That enemy commander did not merely demonstrate an exceptional, dynamic mastery
regarding the tactical operation of the ballistae; at the exact split-second
the momentum broke, he effortlessly instructed the ballista units to execute a
controlled withdrawal, and furthermore, when retreating, he systematically took
measures to sever the bowstrings of every abandoned platform so that our
engineers couldn't repurpose their scrap against his lines. Steering an army
with that caliber of rapid foresight and command is not something that can be
achieved so easily. 」
「 Precisely, Sir.
The highly unnatural, sudden disengagement executed by the enemy's right wing
and left wing armies prior to our division launching a secondary
macro-offensive should also be definitive proof that the individual who
engineered that script and instructed that is actively manipulating the strings
from the shadows of the rear lines. And also…… 」
Having said that much, Glenn took a deliberate step
to close the distance in front of Alexis, bowed his head deeply, and
slowly dropped his knees.
「 Since this is a good opportunity, I choose to dare say this
directly to the Commander-in-Chief. The absolute fact that your self, our late
beloved Excellency Gale, and everyone of the Duchy have consistently
gone out of your way to show exceptional, protective consideration toward my
direct persons and the displaced citizens of our fallen ancestral homeland, the
Imperial Kingdom—is a beautiful grace for which I express my deep gratitude
once again. 」
Glenn, who had
bowed his head so profoundly low it practically rubbed against the earth while
stating his thanks, slowly raised his face here and locked his eyes straight
onto the general's face.
「 However, let it be explicitly known
across high command: we are now, from the absolute center of our souls, proud
citizens of the Westlights Demon Territory Dukedom Army. To every man
anchoring our ranks, the absolute definition of our compatriots are strictly
those who stand shoulder-to-shoulder and seek to protect the sovereignty of the
Duchy together with us, and our blades hold absolutely no reservations or
misplaced sympathy toward the enemy army whatsoever. Even if they share our
ancient ancestry or are from our former homeland, right now they are nothing
more than lawless invaders, and my longbowmen shall mercilessly release our
lethal arrows straight into their faces. 」
「 ………… 」
Although his tongue hadn't explicitly voiced it, it meant there was a suffocating, hidden reservation quietly
harbored somewhere in his heart…… As if his own heart had been flawlessly
pierced and seen through, Alexis simply remained entirely frozen and
silent.
「 For our subsequent engagement, I
humbly petition high command to grant my Special Fire Corps the supreme
honor of anchoring the absolute vanguard position to strike down the heretics (Istoria
Orthodox Theocracy)! 」
「 Glenn-san…… you have my deepest gratitude. Though Takuhir-sama chose to entrust a monumental, completely unsuited level of
authority onto my vessel, the reality is that I am still an inexperienced,
greenhorn youngster; I command you to please not hesitate to aggressively voice
any critical nuances or tactical defects you notice from now on as well. 」
Reaching down to grasp his lieutenant's gauntlet, Alexis
too stated his profound thanks to Glenn and offered a deep bow of mutual
respect. By the fraction of a second his features aligned once more, his
casual, unbothered expression had already returned to his usual one.
「 Forgive my sudden intrusion! An
emergency messenger dispatched directly from
the desk of the Minister of Internal Affairs, Raymond-sama of Kusanagi,
has arrived! 」
「 An emergency express messenger from
Kusanagi?! Did something happen across the rearguard?! I don't mind the
protocols, so let the messenger straight into the central command this exact
instant! Our offices will hear the intelligence there as well. 」
Saying so, Alexis directed his steps alongside Glenn
to move and enter the main command tent of the headquarters, and called out
crisply to the messenger who was waiting kneeling.
「 Apologies to keep you waiting.
Speak freely—is the information you carry a matter that is fine to
be articulated and heard before the open ears of this tent? 」
「 Yes! I have not received any
specific strict non-disclosure instructions to convey it privately. The primary
intelligence point of the report has officially transitioned into an already
resolved matter, but highly malicious, lawless ruffians and subversives had
successfully slipped in and nested themselves among the citizens fleeing and
heading toward Kusanagi. 」
「 Wh—What did you just say?! And what
is the current status of Kusanagi! 」
Glenn, who was
beside him, violently changed his facial expression with pure rage and aggressively pressed closer toward the messenger;
yet, Alexis simply closed his eyelids in silent composure and received
the report. Tracing the calm, professional cadence of the messenger's tone of
speaking, his sharp intellect accurately figured the crisis was already brought
under control.
「 Leveraging a temporary opportunity aiming for the sacred life of the Queen-sama, who happened to personally leave the city walls to show
appreciation and bestow comfort upon the citizens, the subversives initiated a
violent commotion. However, our internal security cadres successfully executed
a full-scale tactical suppression, and starting with the Queen-sama, everyone is entirely safe and
unharmed. 」
Hearing that verification, Glenn let out a massive,
trembling sigh of intense relief, and Alexis slowly opened his eyelids
and spoke to the messenger.
「 I see…… I shall formally send a diplomatic herald of apology to Yuka-sama anew
myself. Then, the lawless rabble who committed the atrocities and instigated
the riot across Kusanagi have been completely swept away from the
territory? 」
「 Yes! Thanks to the timely,
high-velocity power and intervention of the Frontier Duke Hastburg who
personally rushed to the scene, the suppression of the subversives is
flawlessly complete. The secondary intelligence item on my ledger pertains to
that arrival. The Frontier Duke has
personally marched from the Royal Capital leading an elite ten-thousand-strong
cavalry legion of the Knights Order, and their advanced columns have officially
finalized their deployment and already arrived in Kusanagi. 」
「 My elder brother (the Frontier Duke) himself has personally taken the field……? Truly, that is
something to be grateful for. With a reinforcement of that magnitude, finally……
our lines can oppose those bastards on equal numerical parameters. 」
「 Yes! Therefore, precisely because
of that deployment, the Frontier Duke delivered
an explicit verbal request for your ears, Sir Alexis: please maintain an ironclad defensive grid and endure just
a little longer until the arrival of the reinforcements. And for the tertiary
item, I have been entrusted with an urgent, highly critical tactical letter
from the Frontier Duke explicitly instructed for Alexis-sama's
palms. 」
Saying so, the messenger reached deep within the protected
folds of his leather breast pocket, carefully extracted a sealed letter, and
handed it directly to the young general. Alexis snapped the
wax, his eyes rapidly scanning the elegant, razor-sharp script of the
letter:
『 It appears the hidden remnants of
the ancient Clan of Darkness have successfully slipped into and
integrated themselves within the primary cohorts of the Istoria Orthodox
Theocracy Army this time. At the active front lines as well, please
maintain an absolute, hyper-vigilance regarding their specialized agents. The subversives
who targeted the Queen's life were also, without exception, entirely Denizens of Darkness. 』
「 Outrageousーー!!! 」
Out of a wave of sheer, intense shock that walloped his
register, Alexis involuntarily stood up vigorously from his seat.
Reaching this point, he was finally convinced, and the entire sequence of
bizarre, highly unnatural variables he had consistently felt and been baffled
by in their actions seamlessly snapped into a flawless matrix of
cause-and-effect.
·
The unnatural, explosive rapid rise
of the Istoria Orthodox Theocracy.
·
The unnatural
troop mobilization and sudden deployment executed by the Ville Kingdom, Lute
Kingdom, and Cain Kingdom.
·
The seemingly fanatical,
near-suicidal marching cadence of those calling themselves the Vanguard of God.
The answer to all of those variables seemed to lie
explicitly written in these words. The hidden entity involved in all of it,
orchestrating every drop of this chaos and maneuvering secretly from the
deepest shadows of the continent, was the ancient Clan of Darkness;
those called the Denizens of Darkness
who had thus far historically maneuvered secretly, designating Takuhir
as their absolute prime existential enemy. His intellect traced their
historical footprints; they had woven an endless sequence of deceptive schemes
in multiple layers thus far, plunging Takuhir and his circle into
suffocating predicaments. And he understood that even now, their shadow was
actively writhing deep within the flames of this very war.
「 If that is the case…… we too must
fundamentally rethink and re-engineer various things from the ground up. 」
「 Yeah……if the primary opponent is Darkness,
the existence of a Light Mage transforms
into a qualitative strength and our highest leverage point, but the enemy
commands a massive forces numbering 20,000 men, and on top of being dispersed in two separate strategic
locations, in our current army…… 」
Alexis tightly
clamped his eyelids shut and thought, rapidly sorting through the grim calculations. To begin with, under traditional baseline parameters, Light Mages are
extremely few in number even within the Kyle
Kingdom. Even in the ancient Ducal
houses inheriting the bloodlines of the 12 Clans, Light Magic as a hereditary bloodline magic has completely died out and
degraded into cinders, and though a microscopic handful of collateral cadet
branch houses slightly inherited the genetic traits, most of those bloodlines
have already officially passed out of the mortal realm. That there were only a
meager handful of rare Light
Mages born among the common folk within
the country serving as Royal Command
Mages was a fact that Alexis, who was historically a former Royal Command Mage himself, also
implicitly knew. However, driven by the farsighted administrative dictates,
they were all meticulously sheltered under the instructions of Archduke Klein, and their physical vessels were placed under absolute
protective custody deep within secret enclaves inside the Royal Capital,
unknown to others. Currently, the absolute number of active Light Mages Takuhir
possesses and rests within his immediate administrative network is rigidly
locked at a mere two individuals. Excluding the exceptionally classified, highest
priority secret existence,
Gravity
Mage, this is the absolute lowest, most
frighteningly thinned-out operational asset pool across their entire military
structure. One of them, Leia, is currently deployed and following her
sovereign master far away deep within the uncharted wilderness of enemy
territory, and the second individual just
underwent the awakening ritual this year, and has only just begun training to go out
onto the battlefield and training to exercise Light Magic as a tactic. His
intellect calculated it would be too harsh to deliberately siphon a fragile
asset of that caliber and make her fight back and forth on the dangerous front
lines.
「 We possess a secondary Light Mage within
our enclaves, but…… in terms of both absolute numerical density and raw combat
proficiency, putting her into actual frontline combat is still far too harsh…… 」
「 True. The young lady stands as the
absolute youngest prodigy nested among the Emissary-samas, and I heard that her
brief intervention at that prior campaign was thrown in strictly as a highly
restricted exception…… 」
The specific individual Glenn affectionately
designated as the ‘young lady’ was none other than Leia's significantly
younger sister. Coming from the exact same orphanage, Lalah had barely reached
15 years of age. And the ‘exception’ referred to when Aura explicitly
commanded and strongly told her to remain anchored 'in the absolute safe rear'
prior to addressing the citizens, with Alexis meticulously deploying a
specialized security detail and sending her out just in case simply to
guarantee zero variables could threaten her.
「 Furthermore, evaluating her current
horseback riding ability, keeping up with the high-speed movements of the
cavalry divisions is still highly doubtful…… and yet, there aren't any other
alternative Light Mages…… This is an exceptionally agonizing, difficult crossroad,
is it not? 」
It was when that quiet murmur cleared Alexis's lips.
Stationed near the entrance of the command pavilion, one of the soldiers packed
into the headquarters to serve as a baseline communication orderly dispatched
from the various noble household divisions, tentatively started to hoist his
palm and raise his hand, his features warped with an intense desire as if
wanting to aggressively inject a certain piece of information into the council.
「 Report, Sir!
Forgive the disrespect of my sudden intrusion while you are speaking! Just now,
the Lord of Hastburg, the Frontier Duke himself, has arrived accompanied exclusively by his elite
personal attendants! And one more secondary, monumental intelligence item
regarding his composition…… 」
Slamming straight through the boundaries of the tent,
overlapping with this booming report, a
low-ranking orderly stopped his movements and rigidly froze his arm there. It
cannot be denied that the sweeping wave of pure shock beholding the sudden
arrival of the Frontier Duke himself
completely walloped the registers of Alexis and the others, and their
capacity to notice the minor gestures and attention toward the orderly became
half-hearted. Surprised by the explicit details defining the contents of yet
another monumental report before their lungs could process the reality, with
their eyes wide with astonishment, Alexis and Glenn violently
drove their boots forward and hurriedly flew straight out into the open air of
the encampment.
They sprinted through the dust to personally welcome the
indomitable Frontier Duke of Hastburg—and to gaze upon the faces of
the jaw-dropping, impossible people the legendary Duke had personally escorted
and brought along straight into the fires of their warzone.
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