novelraw Chapter 171: Krafte War - City of Gunfire (2)
Chapter 171: Krafte War - City of Gunfire (2)
A church stood in the center of the completely fortified city of Barua.
I rushed inside and began to speak.
"The Krafte Army has arrived, Your Majesty the Que-"
But I stopped myself before finishing the sentence.
Eris was on her knees before the holy image, praying.
After a short while, Eris slowly rose and turned toward me.
“You’re here.”
“Yes. They seem to be scouting our formation with their Hussars for now, but the battle will soon begin.”
Eris responded with a slight smile and a nod.
“Yes. As you requested, Marquis, I will be waiting here.”“…You seem strangely calm.”
To be honest, I had expected Eris to protest my orders and insist on joining the soldiers at the front.
Hearing my words, Eris blinked before smiling mischievously.
“You thought I would pester you to send me to the front, didn’t you?”
“…Does Your Majesty also read minds now?”
As if Christine wasn't enough. Am I that easy to read?
“It's just, that’s what I usually do.”
Eris replied with a faint smile, then after a slight pause, she spoke again.
“Still, I will tell you in advance.”
“Hmm?”
Then Eris spread her hands, and in that instant, a light filled the entire church.
A light so intense it seemed blinding, yet soft and warm.
“…”
As I stood there at a loss for words, Eris withdrew the light and gave an awkward smile.
“Since I used the crystals, I've become much stronger.”
“…So it seems, but we don't know the exact price, do we? We can't use it indiscriminately like in the last battle—”
“I’m also wondering if I get stronger the more I use divine power. But when I think about it, I didn't feel that way much during my wandering days, so I was unsure.”
Eris, who had cut me off, naturally approached me, looked up, and smiled with her violet eyes shining.
“When I'm close to you, Marquis, I feel like I get stronger the more I use divine power.”
“…With me?”
Eris smiled naturally and nodded.
“What do I have to do with it?”
But at that moment, Gremory's words flashed through my mind.
-Marquis, haven't you experienced something unnatural through divine power?
…Regression.
Even my own body, which gets stronger the more it receives divine power.
“Hmm—it seems you have a hunch about something, Marquis.”
Seeing Eris looking at me with a playful glint in her violet eyes, a strangely comfortable and relaxed expression that felt somewhat unfamiliar, I answered awkwardly.
“I don't know the specifics either, but it seems I do have a connection to divine power.”
“Yes. I thought so, too.”
“…So, is there any change of heart?”
Originally, Eris had said she didn’t believe in things like God.
Eris followed my gaze to the holy image and gave a light smile.
“…I tried to deny it, but after performing so many miracles, being saved, and saving others. …Still, I thought I should at least offer thanks, as I bear the name of a Saintess.”
Eris paused for a moment, then added with a bitter smile.
“I have to save many more people from now on, so perhaps if I do this, I'll be looked upon a little more favorably. Though it's a selfish kind of gratitude.”
“Haha…”
That’s so Eris.
After a comfortable silence had passed, Eris spoke.
“Marquis, I am ready.”
-I don't know, so I will leave it to the Marquis whom I trust. I’m sure you, Marquis, will be able to efficiently utilize the selfishness I would have displayed anyway to save even more people.
That’s what she had said.
“I won’t be impatient. I will wait, believing that you will send me to the place where help is most desperately needed, to the people who desperately need me.”
“…You’ve grown, Eris.”
“Ahaha, you must be the only person who would say that to a queen, Marquis.”
As Eris covered her mouth with her gloved hand and laughed, I knelt before her and lightly kissed the back of her gloved hand.
“Then, as a subject, I will be sure to repay Your Majesty's trust.”
“I leave it to you, Marquis. To the people of this land, to Francia, bring victory.”
Looking into her violet eyes, which were so clear and bright it was hard to believe she had lost her sight even for a moment, I replied.
“I receive Your Majesty the Queen’s command.”
*
The Krafte Army, having advanced from Alsace, set up camp a short distance from the fortified city of Barua.
Afterward, while dispatching Hussars to scout the enemy's defensive posture, the Krafte Army remained on standby, preparing for battle.
And in the command tent of that camp.
“Your Majesty the Great King.”
The Great King of Krafte, Karl II, who had been resting in his chair, opened his eyes.
It took a moment to grasp the situation, and Karl II spoke a beat later.
“Hmm, did I doze off?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Hoho, hohoho, have I ever done such a thing on the battlefield?”
Seeing General Gerhardt's face, who seemed at a loss for how to answer, Karl II smirked and spoke.
“I, too, have grown old.”
In the past, it was unimaginable to succumb to sleep on a battlefield that should have been filled with excitement.
But roaming the battlefield was an extremely arduous task, and his aged body often disappointed him.
Karl II glanced at the generals standing before him.
They were the fine generals who had defeated the Empire on the battlefield, following him when he was young and ambitious, having just ascended to the throne of a mere electorate of the Empire.
But the vigor and brilliance that had once shone in the eyes of those who shared the glorious days of Krafte in their youth had faded, replaced by the wrinkled faces of old men.
“Old, we're all old…”
Karl II shook his head, then leaned on his cane and tried to lift his heavy body from the chair, but he paused.
Only then did he become acutely aware that he himself was an old man who could die any day now. Karl II looked at his cane and smirked.
His father, who had tormented him with his fierce nature in youth and taught him militarism, had also grown old and weak before dying.
He did not want to be like his father, who died leaving a will that did not suit his ferocious nature, telling him not to start a war rashly and to keep the peace.
So he had always tried to live proudly, powerfully, and with spirit.
Even in times of peace, as in times of war, he deliberately shunned splendid clothes and lived with his army, wearing only a military uniform while waiting for his war.
But even for him, the day had inevitably come when he had to use what was in his hand not as a baton on the battlefield, but as an old man’s cane.
“How fleeting time is.”
Karl II leaned on his cane and stood up with force.
And with that alone, the old man Karl II, with his aged and heavy body, transformed into the battlefield commander, the Great King.
“What of the Hussars’ report?”
General Gerhardt handed him the map of Barua, drawn from the information gathered by the Hussars.
“The enemy has thoroughly fortified the city of Barua, Your Majesty the Great King. It seems to be a formation that has assumed an attack from all directions.”
Karl II lightly glanced at the map and opened his mouth.
“I see.”
Marquis Lafayette already had experience with large-scale defensive battles.
The skirmish with Grand Duke Leopold and the defensive battle of Dilrus on the Iberian Peninsula were examples of this.
He could tell just by looking at the formation on this map that neither battle had been defended simply with numbers, but had been meticulously prepared and calculated.
“A formation prepared for an attack from all directions.”
The Great King mounted his horse and rode to a nearby hill.
The Hussars he had trained were skilled at drawing precise maps, but with a formation of this scale, he needed to see it with his own eyes to be certain.
General Leberecht, also holding a telescope, spoke from beside the Great King as he scouted the city.
“There seem to be some openings in the formation to attack…”
But the Great King shook his head at his words.
“No, this is a trap. An opening deliberately exposed to draw our army in.”
He then looked a little longer through the telescope before pointing to the map with his hand and saying.
“Even if we penetrate through here and break in, we will be bogged down at the second defense line, and if we're not careful, we could be attacked from multiple sides. There are too many obstacles installed relative to the number of troops deployed in each direction.”
The Great King smirked.
“Indeed, splendid. Very splendid.”
A formation prepared for an attack from all directions.
It sounds good in theory, but in reality it is not.
An army must always be operated within the gap between the area it must protect and the limits of its forces.
To prepare for an attack from all directions means the army defending each direction will be that much more insufficient.
However, looking at the Revolutionary Army's formation, they had not fallen into that trap.
Although they had built a defense line in all directions, they had not spread their forces throughout the city's entrance. Instead, they limited the entry routes by destroying parts of the city and blocking passages.
And behind the soldiers’ defense line, another defense line using obstacles of a tremendous scale had been installed.
He could not see all the way to the very inside, but just from the outer defense line, the Great King could read Marquis Lafayette’s intention.
“He has completely abandoned the thought of preserving the city.”
The Great King let out a dry laugh.
Usually, when defending a city, one defends at the entrance. In most cases, battles to protect a key point are centered on defending that specific location.
This is common sense, and one only accepts damage to the city when the battle goes poorly and retreat becomes necessary.
However, Marquis Lafayette's formation established a defense line designed to inflict maximum losses by luring the enemy in while sacrificing the city from the outset.
Such a defense line would only be possible if one was prepared to sacrifice the entire city as tribute in a fierce battle with the Krafte Army.
“If a battle breaks out, they will gradually retreat inwards and engage in combat.”
The first defense line can be abandoned at any time. Behind it, numerous obstacles allow for second and third defense lines. The large city, with its residents completely evacuated, creates a vast labyrinth for battle.
“The more we attack, the more our army will tire, and their defense line will become narrower and denser as we go further in. From the structure, it seems they will be able to deploy reserves from the center in time, no matter which direction the attack comes from.”
They have more troops and face the enemy from pre-built defensive positions.
They already hold a sufficiently advantageous position, yet show no complacency. They have meticulously prepared and await with a formation designed to inflict maximum losses.
After scouting the enemy lines a bit longer with his telescope, the Great King reached a clear conclusion.
“There are no openings.”
Who could believe that man was not even 30 years old?
Even a veteran with a dozen years of battlefield experience would typically struggle to prepare so thoroughly.
“Your Majesty the Great King.”
“What is it, General Gerhardt?”
The general who had long served the Great King hesitated momentarily, then spoke carefully as if having made up his mind.
“How about retreating for now, Your Majesty.”
The Great King smiled.
“Retreat? To where?”
This offensive had been launched while essentially abandoning hope for additional supplies from the homeland. Everyone present knew this.
“Evacuating the population of such a large city and damaging the city must have placed a considerable political burden on Marquis Lafayette. For now, he may have suppressed it with the excuse of preparing for our offensive, but if we retreat here…”
“Haha, hahaha…”
General Gerhardt's words were cut off by the Great King’s laughter.
The Great King looked at the other generals and could see from their eyes and faces that they, too, held opinions not much different from Gerhardt's.
“Do you think the man who has fortified the entire city, convinced that we cannot bypass their Barua, will be so anxious as to come out and start a fight if we retreat?”
“That is…”
The generals could not retort.
They were all renowned generals, so they knew that was a very hopeful expectation born from a feeling of grasping at straws.
After a short pause, the Great King opened his mouth.
“It reminds me of the old days.”
“Pardon?”
“I heard the same thing in the war with the Empire. That it would be a difficult battle. You, who were more vigorous and younger than you are now, and the seasoned generals who are now dead, tried to dissuade me.”
Amid the silence, the Great King asked.
“Have we, the army of Krafte, ever thought that the day would come again when we would have to worry about defeat on the battlefield?”
No one could answer the Great King’s question.
They had thought the Krafte Army was undefeated and invincible.
They had thought it was a war they would naturally win, and had set out believing it would be a war of glory.
Even Karl II, the one who had started the war—the Great King himself.
Even as he said he was looking forward to it, he had been looking forward to how far they would resist, not that they would actually threaten him.
But, that is precisely why.
“Are we not truly fortunate?”
“G-Great King?”
The gazes of concern, as if the Great King had finally gone mad, only pleased him more.
“I feel young again.”
Francia, his enemies, had far surpassed his expectations.
They had given him back the passion, the elation, and the sense of crisis he had felt in his younger days when he challenged the Empire, which had seemed like a giant wall.
How long had he waited for such a battlefield?
He had not come this far to give up in the face of the greatest ordeal of his life simply because it seemed difficult.
-Your Majesty’s subjects are caught up in the war that Your Majesty the Great King has decided. If so, then there will also be a responsibility to protect them. Your Majesty, the victory of the war will not compensate for all that the subjects have lost.
The one to whom the future should be entrusted has already been decided.
Then all he has to do is throw everything he has onto the final stage God has permitted him.
The Great King forcefully struck the ground with his cane and spoke.
“Gentlemen, an army without development is a dead army. A human without challenges is a dead human.”
Because it is a crisis, it is worth overcoming.
Because it is unreachable, it is worth challenging.
“If we had retreated just because a mighty enemy was before us, there would be neither the Kingdom of Krafte nor your Great King in this place.”
If he breaks them again, it will be a great victory—
And even if he were to crash against them and break,
-If I were to be defeated, my army and I would have the glory of having fought against the strongest of this era!
That could not have been an empty saying.
“Have I struggled my whole life just to wait for the day of my death as a toothless old hound, wallowing in past glory with an old, worn-out body?”
If the enemy who had given him another chance to challenge them were to achieve victory over him, it should by no means be a hollow one.
Only when he, when they, have poured everything into it can it be called a true war.
“No, Your Majesty the Great King!”
At the finally united response of the generals—
“Rejoice, gentlemen! The true adversary we have been waiting for is before our eyes!”
The unrelenting challenger declared.
“Your Great King commands you to join in a great challenge once again!”
“For His Majesty the Great King!”