Chapter 118 - 10-6
Early in the morning on the day Princess Lucy, Commander-in-Chief of the Siddim Army, departed, a fog from the Northern Inland Sea enveloped the city. Yugis met with the captain and the shipowner.
"Are we setting sail? It seems there is fog."
Both the captain and the shipowner wore similar expressions. If one had to describe it, they looked sullen.
"There is no need for concern. This fog will clear once the sun rises," the shipowner said.
"By around noon, a good wind will blow," the captain said. "Staff Officer, please leave it to me. I will surely, certainly, and without fail deliver the Commander-in-Chief to her destination."
It seemed their sullen faces were merely an expression of their tension. There was strength in the captain's words.
Yugis stood up and bowed to the two of them.
After seeing them off, Yugis started to call for Dash, but then closed his mouth. He thought he should be the one to personally inform the Commander-in-Chief of the departure.
Preparations should have been finished long ago. Yugis headed alone to the Princess's chambers in the castle keep. When he knocked on the door, the maid Nona showed her face.
"You have come at a perfect time. She will be finished changing soon."
Yugis waited in the hallway for a while.
At this stage, it was not a wise move to have the Commander-in-Chief go to the East. The Western Army consisted of soldiers who had risen in response to Princess Lucy's words. They were people who believed in the Princess. If the Princess left them behind, the morale of the Western Army might plummet.
That was what Yugis thought.
However, the youths of the West were earnest about everything. Yugis realized that the prejudice he held toward the West might be distorting his evaluation of the current situation.
—Even if the Princess were not there.
Would they not still be loyal to Siddim?
If he told the Western Army,
'It is to save the East,'
they would likely tilt their heads in confusion.
But if the goal were set as "to liberate the Royal Capital," that would undoubtedly be loyalty to the Royal Family, and the Western Army would proceed without losing their reason to fight. They should be able to proceed.
"Yugis-sama, please come in."
Called by the other maid, Kiara, Yugis entered the room.
"This is a matter that concerns you two as well," Yugis told the maids.
Yugis had heard that both maids would be accompanying Princess Lucy to the East. He informed them that the ship was departing, and—
—I entrust the Princess to you. It will be an unfamiliar land, but I pray you remain in good health.
...is what Yugis said.
"Yugis-sama, you have a terrible look on your face," Kiara said.
Nona had a look of anxiety rising to the surface of her face. "Yes, I quite thought you were about to scold us."
Being spoken to by the two women in such a manner softened Yugis. It seemed he wasn't the only one who had been nervous.
"Ah, that's better. Your face has relaxed," Kiara said.
A relaxed face during a war was also unsightly. Yugis no longer knew what kind of expression he should wear.
The maids giggled and, like butterflies, drifted out of the room together. Closing the door behind them was a bit unnecessary.
The Princess was standing before the dressing mirror. Yet, she was not looking into the mirror.
"We..."
Princess Lucy spoke as if to herself. Rarely, she seemed to be in a state of being absent-minded.
"Even now, I think about what a terrifying thing we have laid our hands upon."
Yugis did not know what to say.
The "terrifying thing" likely referred to the loss of a vast number of human lives. Or perhaps the fact that they had created parents who lost children throughout the country. It undoubtedly referred to the current situation, where individual wills and emotions were surrendered to Siddim and used to their fullest.
"Princess—"
"Even if we wished to surrender now, Geraha might not accept it. We have come to that point."
"Princess, that is incorrect. It is precisely because we showed our will to fight that surrender becomes an option."
Without realizing it, Yugis approached Princess Lucy. From Yugis's perspective, the Princess looked small and delicate. It felt strange that she could even stand. She looked that thin. Until now, he had never associated the delicate impression of Lucy's body with frailty.
—Has she not been eating?
Yugis touched Princess Lucy's shoulder and, in a motion that seemed predetermined, hugged her. The sleeve of his left arm gently tapped the Princess's cloak. The Princess was within his arms. She let her hands hang down and entrusted her body to Yugis's chest. She was a light body.
"I will give up on Geraha. I will give up on this war. We can consider surrender—if that is what you wish."
Yugis had let the words slip.
—What am I saying?
What on earth am I saying?
Did I not say we would win? Did I not swear it to myself and declare it publicly to others? Was he to betray that? The Princess did not want to hear such words. She surely wanted him to say, "We will certainly win, so please be at ease."
Furthermore, as a subject, it should be unacceptable to act in a way that forces a decision upon royalty. The subject decides, and the subject takes responsibility. To keep the members of the Royal Family as far from responsibility as possible. Was that not the loyalty of Siddim?
The Princess looked up at Yugis from within his arms. The twin eyes that once reminded Yugis of a light-blue sky now had dilated pupils, appearing dark and bluish, gazing at Yugis with an almost eerie depth. It was a sky, but this was a night sky. A beautiful void.
"If that is what you wish, I—"
Princess Lucy let a shadow run across her beauty—one that didn't quite become a smile, nor quite become a dimple.
"No matter how far it may be, Yugis."
The Princess raised her hand and touched Yugis's chest.
Yugis spoke as he pulled his body away. "I shall come with you."
"Yes, certainly. I will be waiting in the East."
Lucy's hand remained pressed against Yugis's chest. His heartbeat quickened. Yugis thought about hugging the Princess once more. He also thought that she should not be allowed to go anywhere.
The Princess silently shook her head. It was a small, quick motion.
"In the East,"
the Princess said. Yugis would later agonize over the Princess's demeanor at that moment.
Yugis's personal emotions remained immature and hesitant. However, his posture toward facing the enemy army was a different matter. Against the Western Army at Aver, the enemy—the Malfa City Siege Army—was proceeding with the fortification of their positions. They were in the mood to make their protective fences and trenches double or triple.
When it came to this, the things that could be done were limited. For that reason, Yugis had no hesitation.
A charge.
It would be a melee battle of light infantry.
Although reclamation had progressed on the south side of Malfa City, the way forward was forest. The south side was a death trap for both the enemy and their own side. Malfa City was a city with its main entrance on the north side. The enemy had also placed their troops primarily on the north side.
Looking north of Malfa City, the land undulated gently. The enemy had established their camp on the highlands and extended fences and trenches toward the lowlands leading to the river. They were utilizing the gentle slopes of the land. It was a masterful setup suited to the terrain. This was a phenomenon that occurred because the Kosa Army was excellent.
The enemy had become accustomed to the terrain of Siddim.
They had stayed in Siddim for too long.
For the people of Siddim, a war of attacking this kind of fortification was intuitively understood. There was an understanding that "war" meant this sort of thing. It was far easier to understand than a field battle against cavalry. You charge in and occupy the enemy's position. It hardly required further explanation.
They had the advantage in numbers. It is said that a great army has no need for complex strategy. Yugis was planning based on that advantage. Of course, he could not be careless. The Kosa cavalry were the type to win even with few troops. The enemy infantry were also strong. They were composed primarily of Southerners and were all seasoned veterans.
If they clashed head-on, they would be defeated.
That was why it was a night attack.
"We need to sever the enemy positions from the mobile Kosa cavalry,"
Yugis said. His counterpart was Godly Curier, who had returned from Midheim, a knight of Dint who sported an elegant mustache.
"Will the Royal Capital Defense Force be used for that?" Curier shook his head. "I cannot think of that as the job of the castle guards."
Opening the gates of the Royal Capital was originally intended to probe for changes in Geraha's strategy. However, that was no longer necessary. Geraha had been sighted in Brazm, and the enemy army's change in policy had become clear.
Still, the proposal to open the gates survived.
General Codin Dorsey of the Royal Capital Defense Force was keen on this operation.
"I want the Royal Capital Defense Force to first lure the cavalry toward Aver City."
"I don't quite understand. Are we not surrounding the enemy camp?"
"We will surround them. Troops to surround the enemy camp, troops to lure the enemy, and troops to protect Aver City. We will disperse. We will disperse the troops and deploy them widely."
If they did that in broad daylight, they would likely be obstructed by cavalry before they could disperse. But what if it were night? If they stealthily moved troops near the enemy camp little by little in advance and had them act as guides, would it not work?
Yugis waited for Curier's rebuttal.
If they deployed widely, their own thickness would be reduced accordingly. It would mean stretching a thick force thin, reducing both defensive and offensive power. It would kill the strength of a great army.
"I think it is a good plan."
Surprisingly, Godly Curier expressed his approval.
"At first glance, it seems dangerous, but it is better if it is that precarious. With the brute force of a great army, we might lose if we are clumsy. Even if we won, there would likely be great losses, and we would be unable to take the next action. I was thinking the same thing. However..."
—I am anxious about the Kosa cavalry.
He had heard the Royal Capital Defense Force was full of strong men, but severing the enemy cavalry from their positions would likely be impossible.
If their side deployed widely, the enemy cavalry would simply move widely as well.
It was even possible they would be defeated one by one from the edges.
"I will attach heavily equipped infantry to each unit to provide defense," Yugis said. "Furthermore, if we deploy widely, I believe the enemy cavalry will be unable to judge where to aim. In other words, I think the enemy will also be dispersed in accordance with our dispersion."
"I understand that. However. Just the sensation that the enemy cavalry has circled behind them will make our soldiers unable to look forward. They will look only behind them and be unable to move a single step. Some units will likely flee."
"That is why, the cavalry of the Royal Capital Defense Force—"
The renowned knight who once served Midheim in central Siddim raised his palm to silence Yugis.
"Clashing our cavalry against the enemy cavalry will not succeed. If we divide our units into small groups, our combat power will naturally drop. If the Kosa cavalry charge into that, we will have no choice but to flee helplessly. Increasing combat power is an urgent necessity."
Yugis listened to Curier's words in silence.
"Yugis, do you remember what the Commander-in-Chief said before?"
"What was it?"
"The crossbows."
Yugis remembered. He had spoken to the Princess about how training archers took time.
—Why not use crossbows?
Princess Lucy had said so.
"At that time, you ordered me to collect as many crossbows as possible. You have likely forgotten."
To be honest, he had forgotten.
Yugis had never used a crossbow. In the armory of Naimeny Castle in Carossa, there were probably about two hundred crossbows. As a child, he had thought about trying to fire one. However, not a single one was usable. They had all rusted away.
—Useless weapons.
That was Yugis's evaluation of crossbows. They were too heavy for a child to hold and broke easily. Despite the effort required for maintenance, the range of the arrows was apparently not great. They could not fire rapidly. The childhood impression that they had no good points was strongly stuck in his head.
"I asked for the cooperation of the Mcgillis family of Midheim and collected crossbows," Curier said. "I pleaded not only with the lords of the center but also those of the West, and secured twenty thousand units. Every house had them hidden away. They had them, but they didn't know how to use them. That makes twenty thousand. Of course, half have not yet arrived, and many that have arrived require repair or maintenance. I gathered the usable ones and provided crossbow training to four thousand of the soldiers recruited in the center."
Yugis swallowed. "Four thousand?"
"Though I call it training, as Princess Lucy aptly said, it is a weapon that even a woman can handle. We taught them how to use it, and after a few days of practice, they looked the part. Crossbows have many flaws, but they are very easy to handle. The range is only eighty or seventy percent of a longbow. In terms of effective range, it might be about half of a longbow. They cannot fire rapidly. In the time an archer fires three arrows, they might fire one. However, Yugis. They hit."
"The accuracy is incomparable to a longbow."
"To what extent?"
"Three out of ten."
"No way."
If that were true, it would be equivalent to three to six times the accuracy of the Western Army's archers.
"No, I believe nearly fifty percent hit as long as the range is correct. Compared to a longbow, it seems a crossbow is much easier to aim."
"Wait, hold on a moment."
If there were four thousand crossbowmen, they could be assigned to forty units if divided by a hundred each. If a hundred people fired crossbows and thirty percent hit, it meant they could shoot down thirty enemy cavalry. Assuming the enemy cavalry charged in a column, those would be the thirty leading the charge. The following soldiers would be thrown into disorder. They might be knocked over and tumble.
It could be called a tremendous amount of offensive power.
His lips trembled, and Yugis was unable to speak for a while. "We must reorganize the formation immediately."
"Will you deploy them?"
"I will. I have no choice. Indeed, it seems there will be no further increase in combat power. No, wait. If that's the case—"
Suddenly, Yugis saw the path to victory. It seemed he needed to change the operation.
Proceeding with preparations in great haste, the Western Army began the night attack.
The night of the attack ended simply.
The dawn light piercing sharply into the ground revealed the enemy's strange deployment. Reports arrived one after another to Mozu Wolf.
Summing them up, it seemed the enemy was approaching with small units deployed widely.
From all directions of the north side they were guarding. They were spread out unnaturally. Because they were so wide, the gaps between units were cavernous, and it was doubtful if they were communicating with each other.
Soon, their own cavalry conducting reconnaissance in the vanguard engaged the enemy. The reconnaissance was a small unit, but the enemy had divided their troops into scales that could engage even then.
Mozu grabbed breakfast with his hands, shoved it into his mouth, and mounted his horse while moving his jaw. He was going to see the front line.
There was moisture in the wind, and the color of the thinly clouded sky was beginning to darken. For now, he did not want it to rain.
Having come near the front line, a report of a reconnaissance-in-force reached Mozu.
The enemy approached their camp in groups of approximately two or three units. The distance between these two or three units was also awkwardly wide. If the Kosa cavalry maneuvered, they could easily get behind them. However, if they attacked one unit, the other unit would move to support. This was difficult to deal with. If they dawdled, the following units would approach, and they would fall into a situation where they were outnumbered and overwhelmed.
"Though, if we get close, the enemy flees easily,"
the young reconnaissance soldier said.
Apparently, they scattered like spiderlings and hid in the grasslands. It wasn't impossible to chase the fleeing soldiers and tear them to pieces, but there was a limit. It took time and effort, and besides, even if they were defeated, they were just small fry. It didn't result in much of a military achievement.
There were signs that the escaped enemy soldiers gathered again and joined other units.
Their equipment consisted of spears and shields.
"The longbows reach far, but their power is negligible. The arrows fired when they get closer are more accurate."
—Are they not crossbows?
The reporter said. They seemed to be equipped with crossbows, and while the numbers were not many, they certainly inflicted damage.
"Even if we scatter them, they gather quickly and advance toward us. Is that it?"
The young reconnaissance soldier nodded vigorously. "Overall, they are moving south. The soldiers fleeing north are few and not on a scale to cause a rout."
Since each unit was separated, they could not share fear as a great army, and a rout caused by collective psychology would not occur. And the enemy—
—They likely believe they are in the process of assembling.
That was probably their consciousness. Their goal was the encirclement of their camp. The place where they would gather was naturally decided. The enemy soldiers were likely anxious now that they were dispersed. That was precisely why they moved forward. To gather with their allies as quickly as possible.
In other words, the enemy would eventually gather.
If the enemy soldiers were divided, should they crush them one by one? He did think that.
However, he quickly realized that this was likely the enemy's intention. To make their front line expand in accordance with the enemy's dispersion, and then finish them off with crossbows.
An interesting operation, Mozu thought. The enemy's situation was transparent. It was just as his intuition had told him when he first witnessed the Western Army. The enemy soldiers were not very trained, nor were they well-led. That was why they could not organize a great army. They operated in dispersion and left judgments to the field.
The Western Army was not, perhaps, a dreamlike group bewitched by the charm of some princess. Still, Mozu thought they were a group maintained only by high morale. However, he would not make light of them.
The enemy general was relying on the superiority of their numbers.
Their side had prepared three times the number of troops as the Royal Capital Defense Force. The Mukuri soldiers had gone to the East, and many of the cavalry had been taken by the Great King, so the numbers had decreased significantly, but it was still a great army. The enemy had, in their own way, gathered even more soldiers than that. This was something to be sufficiently feared.
—I shall not be careless.
"We will proceed as originally planned."
Mozu Wolf declared on the spot.
The enemy likely knew of Great King Geraha's way of war. The Great King's war was something that could only be described as a sovereign's tactic, deploying cavalry into a decisive battle. It was not something Mozu could imitate.
However, Mozu was well aware that cavalry had roles other than the decisive battle.
The soldiers of the Western Army advanced south through the grasslands and fields, pushing aside plants that had begun to turn yellow. They did not fear the enemy as much as Yugis and Curier had worried. Their will to fight covered their fear, and they had a feeling that they were riding a wave of momentum. To begin with, many soldiers had not even seen the enemy yet.
The enemy came on horseback. When they saw enemy silhouettes in the distance, the youths of the Western Army hid in grass, hollows, or behind rocks. The enemy cavalry sometimes just went somewhere else, and sometimes they noticed and approached.
In the latter case, it was combat. They fired longbows, and after drawing the enemy in sufficiently, they fired crossbows. These hit with surprising frequency. The enemy's horse archery was sharp, like that of masters. Although their side suffered casualties, it felt as if there were more fallen enemies than fallen allies.
Support units advancing with them would sometimes rush in and continue the combat. If the enemy cavalry charged, they would scatter and flee. Each would find a hiding place and wait for the enemy to withdraw. Afterward, they would send the wounded to the rear and reorganize the unit.
As they marched, the number of encounters with the enemy increased.
At the same time, perhaps because the power of the crossbows had become known, the enemy stopped approaching recklessly. The short bows of the enemy cavalry had a longer range than the crossbows. They would fire as much as they could from afar, and when their side raised shields and approached, the opponents would flee.
Because of this, the Western Army began to devise tricks, such as stealthily placing crossbowmen in spots where the Kosa cavalry were likely to flee.
There were enemy mounted warriors who were dealt fatal wounds and fell from their horses. The Kosa people did not try to flee while leaving such dead behind. Some returned despite the danger, only to be defeated by the attacks of the light infantry.
—Attack, attack.
—Advance, advance.
The Western Army grew increasingly emboldened.
It was nothing more than that; they were being gathered into one place by invisible threads pulled by Mozu Wolf. The great role of cavalry as Mozu conceived it was this kind of deception and enemy induction. The Kosa people chased the enemy like they chased sheep. It was a specialty of theirs.
For example, when looking from Aver toward Malfa, there were fields spreading to the right. There were units of the Western Army advancing, hidden among the wheat.
They advanced while making the ears of wheat tremble. Then, in front of them, something unfamiliar popped up. The necks of horses. Not one or two, but countless necks popped up. The enemy had dismounted and were lying in wait with their horses sitting sideways.
The enemy soldiers mounted nimbly and fired short bows while trampling the youths of the Western Army with horse hooves. The Kosa cavalry in the wheat field were merciless. They thoroughly fired arrows into the Western Army crawling through the wheat.
The Western Army also pulled the triggers of their proud crossbows and fought back, but if those arrows missed, that was the end. Even if they hit, they were killed before they could nock the next arrow.
—The wheat field side is dangerous.
The soldiers of the Western Army shared information little by little and were pushed toward the banks of the Shaal River, where resistance was low. The Kosa cavalry in that direction fled easily. The riverbank was lowland. There were wetlands where reeds grew, making it difficult for enemy horses to enter.
Numerous units began to move south along the river. They could advance steadily toward the enemy camp. Soon, the protective fences set up by the enemy came into view. By the time the lead units arrived there, the riverbank was heavily congested. The sheep that were supposed to be dispersed had been gathered.
The youths of the Western Army, now a great army, began their charge after suppression by longbows. They climbed over, crossed, or destroyed the protective fences and broke through the first line defended by the Southern infantry. The mass of soldiers moving in the opposite direction of the river's flow poured into Mozu's trap. Rather than a military action, it resembled the movement of a crowd.