Chapter 385
(Kyle Calendar Year 515: Age 22)
Northern Front ㉒ – The Dawn of Collapse
Translator : PolterGlast
Around the time
when the sun broke the horizon and the morning light began to dye the earth red, a sprawling column of people and
horses—including heavy logistics wagons laden with severely mangled, bandaged
combatants—officially initiated a macro-extraction from the coordinate that had
been designated as the central command node until a little while ago, driving a
direct route straight toward Kusanagi. Prior to that movement, deep
within the pitch-black of the pre-dawn darkness, a specialized detachment of
cavalry quietly departed and cleared the perimeter along the highway with an
identical squadron of horsemen who had exited Kusanagi under a local guide
late at night. By the fraction of a second the sky initiated its pale bleed and
began to lighten, that unified force violently altered its trajectory straight
toward the south, seamlessly vanishing into the unmapped folds of the
geography. Within the former main encampment, only Alexis alongside troops of the primary command and communication staff remained
stationary; the absolute totality of the active tactical divisions had
completed their strategic relocations entirely during the dark hours of the prior
night.
A brief interval after the sun fully cleared the horizon,
the operational triggers governing this day's engagement were officially
pressed, and the first strike was aggressively delivered by the defensive
forces. The exact fraction of a second the signaling Z Flag violently
unfurled across the high air, the first to move and push his boots forward was
Commander Schulz, deploying
the 5,000 riders anchoring the Royal Knights' Third Division who had
pre-configured their formations
a little south from where the main headquarters was.
「 Listen up! To march onto a battlefield
of this magnitude only to register our steel as a useless, non-functional waste
is a disgrace our pride cannot humanly endure! Our missions aren't just a mere reconnaissance to test the waters; ; if
there's an opening, our lances shall ruthlessly puncture straight through their
vanguard's teeth! 」
Under Schulz's absolute command, the massive cavalry unit initiated a thunderous forward gallop, fluidly dividing
their mass into highly synchronized, independent cohorts of 500 riders each.
They executed a sweeping lateral pass directly across the front of the enemy
encampments, locking the distance separating the two forces at a rigid margin
of approximately 600 meters.
「 All riders, load your crossbows
with full steel bolts! Initiate preparations for a fast
charge, and do not dare neglect your primary safety mechanisms! 」
Answering Schulz's sharp directive, every single
knight across the line rhythmically cranked their heavy bowstrings back until
the metal seared into the catch, seated the specialized piercing bolts onto the
guidance tracks, and clicked the locking tabs home to guarantee zero accidental
misfires or loose bolts could slip from the channels amidst the vibration of the
march. Within the framework of the Royal Knights, the Royal Knights' Third
Division stood as a highly specialized anomaly: a cavalry unit that
effectively utilized crossbows to flawlessly implement high-speed
volleys while navigating a battlefield at a full gallop. They had absorbed
years of brutal, non-stop rigorous physical training to perfect this exact,
multi-layered tactical doctrine. And now, the results of that grueling labor
had finally cleared the threshold to be tested upon the world.
「 Maintain a hyper-vigilant watch
against the enemy's first ballista volley! If we execute the exact split-second
to clear their initial trajectory, the advantage lies entirely with the
absolute velocity of our chargers granting our forces
a crushing advantage! Entire army, execute the charge upon the unyielding pride
of the Royal Knights! 」
The precise instant Schulz's signal blade sliced the
air, the ten individual cavalry groups
simultaneously kicked the earth and erupted into a full, thundering sprint. They were fundamentally not just executing a reckless, suicidal
charge into a fortified position. One of their primary objective was to forcefully trigger and map out the exact placement
of General Golpa's hidden artillery batteries; but even in the
worst-case scenario where the old veteran
had pre-positioned his war-engines across the northern quadrant where they
charged, identical to the prior day's script, Schulz possessed a high
statistical probability of securing a victory. Ballistas
possess no capacity to implement rapid, continuous sequence-firing. This
was a well-known fact even to them who operated crossbows with the same
mechanism. Once fired, the reload and recranking interval required leaves a
massive opening where it is possible for a fast
warhorse to dash through 500 meters or more of open ground while the next round
is being loaded. And one more thing. Although they were divided into 10 units
of 500 cavalry each, they further divided into small groups of 50 cavalry each as
they charged. Therefore, the enemy's ballistae were forced to manually aim at
highly fragmented, erratic sprinting cavalry, and furthermore, because the
groups were small, the total number of
personnel caught up in a single explosive volley was drastically limited.
「 Here they comeーー!! 」
Balancing his weight flawlessly on
the sprinting horseback, Schulz felt as if his ears caught what sounded
like a frantic shout echoing from the lieutenant running parallel to his flank.
In reality, the deafening roar of ten thousand iron horse hooves pulverizing
the earth completely drowned out the human voice…… Along with that shout,
slamming out from the fortified trenches of the enemy ridge, a coordinated
salvo of massive ballista bolts violently ripped through the air simultaneously.
「 Hmph! Clearly
too few! It is exactly as we
calculated! 」
As Schulz roared with savage triumph, he hoisted his
gauntlet straight up toward the sky. Concurrently, his sub-officers
aggressively struck their signal bells, unleashing a sharp, metallic rhythm
across the wind. The exact second their hooves crossed the 100-meter threshold,
a deafening, mechanical roar erupted as they fired their crossbows
simultaneously, before the entire forces executed
a seamless, high-speed lateral pivot and withdrew to disengage from the
kill-zone.
「 The location of the enemy's ballistae has been revealed!
Avoid their line of fire and charge again!
」
Schulz smoothly
reorganized his charging columns just beyond the maximum range of the enemy's artillery,
avoiding the line of fire revealed just now, and relentlessly iterating his
masterclass hit-and-run tactics
exactly as before. With each subsequent pass, his archers systematically
isolated the guessed locations where the ballistae were set up, pouring a
devastating stream of precision suppression fire straight into their nests to keep them
completely paralyzed.
「 As expected of the most elite unit across the country,
the Royal Knights' Third Division navigates the field with the peerless,
fluid movement of elite bow cavalry. And yet…… the enemy's defensive response returned fire with barely 100 active
platforms; so, they did
indeed migrate the absolute core of their artillery
deployment entirely during the night as well. However, it's also a fact that
ballistae is fundamentally
not a highly convenient weapon one can effortlessly re-align across a shifting
field on a whim, 」
Alexis murmured.
Perched atop an elevated
ridge located a safe distance toward the north, the young commander-in-chief
kept his binoculars locked onto the high-speed rotation of the Royal
Knights' Third Division's hit-and-run tactics. Satisfied, he smoothly moved
on to executing his primary new strategic plan.
「 Send
the second phase signal to the balloon for Lord Darek this exact
instant! Broadcast it and hoist the Yellow Flag parallel to the main
banner! 」
That order was carried out immediately, and a massive
signaling balloon soared rapidly into the open sky, unfurling the Z Flag
and a triangular Yellow Flag urging absolute caution against ballistae,
directly below the Royal Knights' grand banner
that bore the design of a roaring firebird.
Around the time the first Z Flag was raised, Darek, who had secretly slipped through the main highways and made a large detour to advance his army, successfully emerged at a location positioned even further northwest of the King of Ville's
isolated direct army, which was standing by in the rear at a safe distance
behind the active battlefields where the armies of the two nations were
encamped.
「 Hmph. The absolute level of
arrogant complacency rotting those bastards' brains is truly quite a sight to
behold. Invading deep into the heart of enemy
territory, and yet completely neglect to deploy even a decent reconnaissance or
patrol network? 」
「 Well…… the expert local guides Alexis-dono
meticulously attached to us probably performed their duties flawlessly good, my
Lord, 」
Erol responded. 「 Furthermore, to begin with, the battlefield operate heavily in our favor: we haven't existed on the
battlefield until now; to their command staff, our entire legion is a
completely unknown, invisible variable. 」
The words exchanged
between Darek and Erol were
simultaneously correct and incorrect. General Golpa's troops had
deliberately lured the enemy forces to the southern side, and in order to make
them think a surprise attack would succeed, they had dared to purposefully pull
back their patrol lines close to the immediate perimeter of their own fortified
camp. However, shifting the lens to the isolated royal army in
the rear led by the King of Ville, the arrogant king
truly believed in their overwhelming numerical advantage from the start, and
their vigilance toward their own rear was entirely half-hearted and bare.
「 Then, wielding our prior concerns
and noting that the Z Flag has officially been raised in the sky. I am
thinking we should execute a parallel
pursuit to systematically compress those 2,000 men standing by in the
rear, while concurrently driving our absolute top speed to press closely upon
the throat of the enemy's central headquarters. What say you, Erol? 」
「 As Darek-sama commands.
Let our divisions initiate a rapid sweep running our cavalry toward the
southeast once, and after that execute a quick
left wheel to chase them locking our units into an ironclad Oblique Order
formation. By utilizing this, we should systematically herd their entire mass
to flee straight into the forces deployed to the north. 」
「 Magnificent. Indeed, systematically
shave down their numbers while relentlessly chasing them, ensuring our vanguard
restrains its steel holding back just enough so as not to prematurely
annihilate the enemy! 」
With Darek's instructions,
the elite units selected from the First and Second Armies of the Royal Knights
simultaneously moved their reins, hastening their mounts to move in accordance with his instructions.
Deep within the luxurious confines of his rearguard
encampment, the King of Ville was completely bewildered upon receiving
the sudden notice that battles
had officially started across his front lines. His
personal encampment was anchored several kilometers behind the active trenches,
and he had absolutely no way of knowing the true progression and outcome of the
battle situation. This was because General Golpa deliberately dared not
waste a single horseman sending out messengers to report the routine battle
situation every single time. However... a
messenger who was not supposed to come arrived abruptly. Bearing a message
the King of Ville hadn't even expected……
『 Our
vanguard will earnestly move toward the rear while dealing a sequence of
devastating, crushing blows against the enemy army; therefore, Your Majesty is hereby commanded to instantaneously make
preparations to execute a swift retreat.
』
Processing the spoken message stated by the messenger, the King
of Ville’s face violently flushed with pure rage as he flew into an
unbridled fury, shouting at the absolute top of his lungs.
「 Retreating while dealing a heavy
blow?! What on earth is that senile old bastard (Golpa) thinking! The
agreement among the nations was to explicitly go on the offensive and advance.
To dare go back on his previous statement before the roots of his tongue have
even dried from what he said yesterday
morning! 」
Completely blind and unable to understand Golpa's
true intent, after ruthlessly taking his fury out on the trembling messenger
who conveyed those words, the King of Ville not only sought to ascertain
the true intent of the retreat but immediately dispatched an interrogating
messenger bearing a Decree of Demotion and Arrest to strip the old veteran
of his rank.
Immediately after that…… one of his closest noble aides violently
tumbled into the camp curtain in a state of absolute panic.
「 E-Enemy! Enemy forces have
appeared! 」
「 Wh-What did your worthless tongue
just blurt out…… Cease this flustered sniveling! On which front lines did you
say they appeared?! 」
Although a sudden jolt of alarm punctured his chest for a
moment, the King of Ville replied as if to desperately keep up his
supreme royal dignity. The King himself had taken the precaution to send out
scouts spanning the northeast to the northwest just in case—the exact direction
of the active front lines from his perspective—and was wary of enemy attacks,
but there had been absolutely no reports whatsoever from there until now.
「 To our direct rear! Here is already the absolute tip of the front line as well!
Please give us the order to intercept quickly! 」
「 W-Whaaaaaaaatーー?!! 」
At the absolute horror of the messenger's words, the King
of Ville hurriedly rushed out past the heavy drapes of the camp curtain
himself and looked out toward the rear. His eyes were instantly consumed by an
absolute nightmare: seeing a massive enemy force suddenly slamming out from the
southwest, deploying their cavalry to the southeast exactly as if spreading a
pair of titanic wings, and closing the distance with his own encampment while
forming a flawlessly large Oblique Order formation.
「 R-R-Retreat! Initiate a full-scale
breakthrough through the enemy and execute a controlled retreat to a safe rear
while prioritizing the protection of my Royal Person and the carriage! 」
The King of Ville hastily shrieked the orders at the top of his lungs, but driven by pure, suffocating
astonishment and terror, his orders were highly fractured, incomplete, and
lacked structural thoroughness. The unyielding reality surrounding his soldiers
was an iron wall of 10,000 cavalry, a fivefold numerical superiority over their
own thinned-out forces. Even if they somehow managed to puncture and break
through the sweeping enemy formation that had laid a wide siege, attempting a
frantic foot-retreat while pursued by a numerically superior elite cavalry
legion meant the absolute annihilation of the infantry. Nested within the 2,000
personnel attending the royal compound, a staggering 1,500 of them consisted of
that exact infantry. The precise fraction of a second they faced the sheer mass
of the cavalry descending before their eyes, their basic survival instincts
violently overrode their fealty, and many of them started stampeding and
running toward the heavily fortified encampment of their own allied countryman
forces toward the north, which their minds classified as the only "safe
rear."
「 Wh-Where do you think your pathetic
feet are carrying you, you wretched cowards! The enemy's encirclement net is
visibly thin, it can be easily broken through with a synchronized push! I am explicitly commanding you to protect my sacred
person and break through the enemy ranks! Those who dare execute a desertion
and flee before the face of the enemy shall be executed for High Treason this
exact instant! 」
Ironically, these furious words of the King became the absolute final blow. Because the individual who was
attempting to commit "desertion under fire" by abandoning the core of
the allied forces fighting on the front lines just to save his own skin was
none other than the King himself…… Answering the utter hypocrisy of those
words, a massive wave of disgust rippled through the ranks, and even more
people turned on their heels to desert the royal carriage, fleeing and
scattering straight toward the "safe rear" where the allied forces
were encamped.
「 Unforgivable! Unforgivable! You
shameless, treacherous cowards who do not follow my orders, I will condemn and
execute you all in absolute disgrace the exact split-second we return to the
country, alongside that insubordinate old bastard Golpa who dares slight
me! 」
With eyes burning full of pure rage, the King of Ville hurled his venomous glares at them, desperately initiating a frantic charge to break through the sweeping encirclement laid out by Darek in order to evade the immediate crisis. Yet, evaluating the absolute manpower remaining parallel to his royal carriage…… the total volume of soldiers who followed him was already a pathetic, thinned-out pool of less than 500 men at this definitive point.
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