Booooom!
…Ker-smash!!
“…I am terribly sorry that I did not properly thank you for saving my daughter,” he finished.
Even while talking, Sur was able to accurately shoot down the incoming cannonballs. They had heard dark elves were excellent archers, but this was truly impressive.
“No, I was just following Souma’s… the king’s orders…” Halbert said.
“Even if you were, I still am grateful. Though I must admit to a slight irritation at the fact that, smitten with the way you looked rescuing people, my daughter started saying, ‘Someday, I want to join the Forbidden Army, and join in relief operations like that man.’ Ha ha ha.”
Even as he continued talking like an ordinary father, Sur was shooting down incoming cannonballs one after another. Halbert and Kaede were simply dumbfounded.
“Um, why are you here? You’re not in the Forbidden Army, right?” Kaede asked, bewildered.
To this, Sur gave a jovial laugh. “We heard that His Majesty Souma, the savior of our village, was in serious trouble. In order to repay our debt, we warriors of the dark elf village have been sent to his aid. We have always avoided involvement with the outside world as much as possible, but, this time, not a single person voiced their opposition.”
To repay their debt. Here, the simple, steady accomplishments of Souma’s rule were showing their effects.
“I’m very grateful for this, you know,” Kaede said.
“I scratch your back, you scratch mine,” Sur shrugged. “This is something we have learned from you people.”
When she saw Sur’s smile, Kaede felt the tension melt away, if only a little.
We have more reinforcements than I thought, she thought. At this rate, I think we may manage to defend ourselves.
The Forbidden Army had received reinforcements from more than just the dark elf village. There was also Halbert’s father, Glaive Magna, and those who had defected from the Army like him. They were participating in the battle as volunteer soldiers with Glaive leading them. Combined with the reinforcements from the dark elf village, there were around 5,000 of them.
In other words, there were 15,000 defenders in this fortress.
I hear an attacker must have three times as many soldiers as the defender in order to win a siege, Kaede thought. The Army has seen a lot of deserters, Hal’s father foremost among them, but they were able to keep their numbers at 40,000 with the mercenaries the corrupt nobles managed to scrounge up. This would have been hard with only the 10,000 troops who report directly to the king, but if you add in the reinforcements, we’ve just managed to avoid them having triple our numbers. It was a relief to realize that.
Incidentally, years later, Sur’s now-grown daughter would make good on her word. She would join the military and be fortunate enough to be placed under Halbert’s command. Somehow, she would also shrewdly manage to arrange for her marriage to Halbert, creating a situation Kaede would not be able to feel relieved about at all, but that is a story for another day.
For now, the only thing Kaede had to wrack her brain over was finding some way to survive this battle with Halbert.
Then…
“Kaede!”
Hearing someone suddenly call her name, Kaede looked towards the gate to see a group of knights, both them and their horses clad in silver armor. These were the Royal Guard who protected the capital and the royal palace.
Standing at the front of the group, looking most impressive of all, was the Captain of the Royal Guard, who was also the head of Forbidden Army, Ludwin Arcs. He was blonde and handsome, clad in silver armor, and riding atop a white horse. It was a look that seemed “too good to be true,” and Halbert envied him for it.
Someday, I want to be like that… Halbert felt a strong desire to make a name for himself.
Meanwhile, Kaede paid no heed to his dashing figure as she closed in angrily on Ludwin. “What do you think you’re doing?! You’re our commander-in-chief, you know!”
“Sorry, Kaede,” he said. “You take command here for a little while. We’ll go deal with those noisy things.” Ludwin pointed towards the cannons with his lance.
Kaede clutched her head. “We have Hal for petty errands like that, you know!”
“Hey!” Halbert exclaimed.
“Ha ha ha, don’t be like that,” Ludwin said. “Compared to the soldiers who’ve worked so hard building this fortress and defending it, we in the Royal Guard haven’t had a single chance to show off so far. It’ll be bad for our appearance if we don’t fix that.”
“For your appearance… are all men stupid?” Kaede demanded.
“Ha ha ha, you do get it,” Ludwin chuckled. “Well, I’ll leave the rest to you.”
Before Kaede could say another word, Ludwin began barking orders at the Royal Guard.
“Open the gates! The target is dead ahead, the three large cannons! We’ll return when they are destroyed! Ignore the enemy soldiers: don’t pursue them too deeply! Focus solely on destroying the target!”
“““Yes, sir!”””
“If any block your path, run them through with your lance!” Ludwin ordered. “If any try to interfere, see them trampled under your horse’s hooves! We are the lance that defends this country! We bear the dignity of His Majesty! Rush forth, and let nothing hold you back!”
And so, the gates were opened.
“Here we go! We’ll show them the Royal Guard aren’t just here to look pretty!” Ludwin called.
“““Yes, sir!”””
With the intensity of a dam breaking, the Royal Guard surged forth.
The attacking mercenaries panicked in the face of this sudden counterattack, breaking ranks. They could no longer impede the Royal Guard’s charge. Some were impaled on Ludwin and his men’s lances, others were trampled under the hooves of their horses.
Many of them were mercenaries that the corrupt nobles had spent their personal wealth scraping together. The mercenaries were strong individually, but they did not work well in groups. With no unified command structure, they each made decisions on their own.
Because they were only working for the money, they lacked loyalty or patriotism. When their lives were at risk, they were quick to flee. As a result, they were especially ill-suited to face a force like Ludwin’s, which was disciplined and could move with one common will. The mercenaries couldn’t stop the group as individuals, yet they also couldn’t work together with their allies. With the mercenaries being mowed down one after another, they broke and ran.
Then, when Ludwin and his men reached the abandoned cannons, they set them on fire.
His Majesty will probably moan about the budget later… but, there’s little choice, Ludwin thought.
He felt it was a bit of a waste, but they couldn’t just leave them there, and they couldn’t afford the time it would take to drag weapons with such low mobility back. Destroying them was the only option.
As the Royal Guard slowly made their triumphant return, there was a loud roar as the cannons exploded behind them, sending up a great black cloud of smoke.
Jumping straight to the conclusion, the Army returned to Randel at sunset having been unable to accomplish anything this day. If we look only at the results of the battle, it could be called a victory for the defenders.
However, the ones who had originally been the attackers were the Forbidden Army. No matter how many defensive battles they won, they would eventually be worn down.
That much was clear to everyone.
That night, in the meeting room of Georg Carmine’s castle, more than a dozen nobles were pressing Georg for answers.