Chapter 278 - Chapter Eighteen: Southern Sertoria
To Mortimer, who had placed a thousand soldiers in a makeshift forward camp built near the Sertorian border, a report was brought by a scout directly under him who had been dispatched to Morandine.
It said that near the border of Medioland and Morandine, ten thousand Medioland soldiers were annihilated. Furthermore, it seemed that James, who was leading the army, had died in battle. Additionally, as a post-war measure, seven thousand Morandine soldiers were apparently staying in place.
There was one problem. It was not a report from someone who had seen the actual battle. It was all nothing more than a collection of rumors.
Mortimer doubted those rumors. However, with information from King Seldic, at least the result among the rumors was affirmed. There had apparently been contact from the King of Morandine. Its content was as follows: The Medioland army, in exchange for annihilation, returned ten thousand Revenants to the earth. Furthermore, they took four thousand Morandine soldiers with them, and the King of Morandine was also injured. In addition, in the process of the battle, all the Revenant users sent by the Ruined Town and the Engrio scouts were struck down. Note that James's death in battle is unconfirmed.
Along with that, the instruction to start the war with Sertoria was issued.
"That is how it is. We cannot count on the support of Morandine, whose damage is great. However, even Medioland cannot send reinforcements to Sertoria. That is what was conveyed from His Majesty."
Since there were generals who came from the continent, he replaced the part about Revenants with "special corps" before conveying it to the staff officers.
"Then, our front is currently two thousand people, assuming the Eastern Plains Corps has participated."
"That is so. However, it will be a battle to capture a fort surrounded by a long stone wall. Thinking normally, catapults cannot be used in the forest, so we have no choice but to use brute force."
A breakthrough should be possible. There is a difference in military strength. However, the fewer the losses, the better.
"Your Excellency. How is the hole digging going?"
One of the staff officers raised his hand.
When Mortimer looked back at one of the generals who came from the continent, that man was smirking.
"Your magic soldiers and our army's engineers are jointly digging four tunnels. It's about time they reached right under the wall. We've brought plenty of gunpowder. If it goes well, the outer wall can be blown away all at once."
Mortimer nodded with satisfaction, and the staff officers stirred.
In starting this war, Seldic had requested reinforcements including those with the latest siege tactics and sufficient gunpowder for them to use.
"Are we going to do it soon, Your Excellency?"
"Yes, the instruction to start the war came from His Majesty. It seems His Majesty has also invaded the basin."
The staff officers stirred. It has finally begun.
Unlike last time, they are completely pinning down Medioland.
"As I have been saying for some time, we will not suddenly invade Nakanohara. We will only have a standoff in the forest at the border. However, we must go on the offensive to some extent and make them think we have the intention to invade. We will take the enemy's checkpoint fort. Once His Majesty defeats the Regnentes army and our army's detached unit takes the Primordia Royal Capital, we will invade Nakanohara all at once. Until then, it is a war of attrition."
Then, Mortimer looked at one of the staff officers.
The field hospital director of the Mortimer army is standing.
He jerked his chin, prompting him to speak.
"Ah—then, allow me to explain."
The field hospital director stepped forward.
"Make it brief."
To Mortimer's words, he replied politely, "I understand, Your Excellency."
"The one that gathers the most believers on this island is, as you all know, the Goddess faith. The other day, the Archbishop of the Great Cathedral in the Royal Capital, which can be called the head temple of that doctrine in our country, made a request to the Margrave. I believe it was about a month ago. As for the content of that..."
Contrary to Mortimer's words as he sighed, what the field hospital director wanted to say at great length was that the church priests of both Engrio and Sertoria would recover those injured in battle. However, it would not be done at the field hospital but at another distant location.
"It is appreciated that the church priests will cooperate, but just how will they be transported?"
"It will target the surviving prisoners. Both sides will undertake the treatment of the other country's prisoners."
"Prisoners?"
Normally, prisoners are a later priority. Of course, nobles from whom a high ransom can be obtained are an exception. Those who don't bring money or are rebellious are killed because it's a hassle. If you let your guard down, you'll be the one killed.
Besides, the soldiers are treating each other among the prisoners. Since only high-ranking generals have things like scrolls, they're just doing things like applying cloth.
"If the church priests recover the prisoners, there is a possibility that the prisoners will also stop resisting. They cannot be treated if they resist."
"In exchange, some soldiers might easily surrender, though."
"Since they won't take in soldiers who don't need treatment, they will be returned to you all."
"In that case, we must treat them very carefully indeed."
"I shall convey that to the soldiers, including those words."
At these words, everyone burst out laughing.
Sertoria does not kill prisoners.
In the previous war, the reason the conscripts especially collapsed easily was largely because of that. If they were kept alive as prisoners rather than fighting and dying, they would be returned during the winter truce in exchange for the nobles' ransoms.
If they were to be caught and killed, they would exert all their strength.
As a result—if one can call it that—this time the conscripts are not being sent to the front lines but are being made to form transport units.
"In other words, do they intend to make us lose our will to fight and end the war quickly?"
"I don't know about that, but even if they are prisoners, they are wounded soldiers. It is the duty of a hospital to rescue those who are injured in accordance with chivalry."
The field hospital director did not flinch even at the slightly mocking question from one of the staff officers. The field hospital director of the Engrio army is traditionally served by a bishop who has time remaining in his military service. Except during the call-up period, he is a head of some church. One cannot be a bishop in Engrio if they care about heckling or sarcasm.
"Hmph! As if a country made by hunters and farmers could have anything that could be called chivalry."
"Even though they will be returned to each other during the winter truce, we'll have to look after the prisoners' provisions until then, right? Since our side is going to win, no matter how you think about it, isn't it a loss?"
Even though they are holed up in a sturdy stone fort, the military strength on the front line is ten thousand against two thousand. Furthermore, if the stone wall of the fort the opponent relies on is blown away by gunpowder, the opponent will surely suffer a blow close to annihilation compared to a hair's worth of damage to our side. Accordingly, the number of prisoners captured will also increase.
"I have already obtained His Majesty's permission. Besides, whether our side's soldiers easily become prisoners or not depends on your usual behavior toward the lower-class soldiers, does it not? Surely, you haven't been applying the punishment of flogging indiscriminately."
At Mortimer's words, having grown tired of hearing his subordinates' sarcasm, the staff officers fell silent looking embarrassed.
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The Sertorian army was preparing for the northward advance of the Engrio army at a fort that had been made into a stronghold at the checkpoint.
This fort has a main gate set to block the highway connecting the two countries, and has a rectangular shape with extremely long sides, having long stone breastworks continuing to its left and right. In effect, it's like having double breastworks set at a distance. In fact, in Sertoria, it is called a wall rather than a fort.
Normally, about twenty border guard soldiers and the same number of Paratroop Jaegers are on defense duty, but since information came in that Engrio issued a mobilization order in May, a total of a thousand people from the Nakanohara Battalion and the Western Plains Battalion of the Sertorian Kingdom Army's local garrison had advanced.
Currently, six hundred Paratroop Jaegers from Nakanohara and the Eastern Plains have also joined, and along with scouts directly under Adolf, the defense commander of the Nakanohara District, they are gathering information along with preparations for defense against the Engrio army.
Beowulf, who was promoted from the Nakanohara Guard to the Kingdom Army last July, was also stationed there with her colleagues, and at the same time, Bonnie was active as a scout directly under Adolf, using this fort as a base.
Margrave Mortimer, leading the Engrio army, arrived at the forward camp leading nine thousand soldiers.
Since the camp doesn't have the capacity to accommodate ten thousand soldiers, it must be the start of the war.
As expected, at the same time as the declaration of war, a messenger with a recommendation to surrender arrived.
Naturally, they refused.
After that, all they had to do was wait for the invasion.
The distance between them is three hours on foot. In other words, even if they depart after the sun goes down, they will arrive in the middle of the night. There is no time to be careless.
Beowulf, who was on patrol duty based at the turret at the eastern end of the fort, went into the break room to have a drink during her break, and found Bonnie drinking wine alone.
"Hey, Bonnie. Is today's mission over?"
She sat opposite her with a beer.
"Yeah. It just finished, and I just got back."
Paul, who was acting together with her, seems to have gone to report to the fort's defense commander... the commander of the Sertoria garrison of the Kingdom Army, along with the Paratroop Jaegers.
"Did you find anything?"
"Hmm. The enemy was preparing to sortie, I guess. Paul-san said so. The enemy increased their numbers, right? The movement of the soldiers there was somehow frantic."
"I see. When did Paul-san say they would attack?"
"Tonight, maybe."
It will probably be a night raid.
However, to predict an invasion just from the movement of soldiers, he's quite a person.
"Then, I guess we'll be going out tonight."
"It's your Kingdom Army debut battle. It'll be my first actual combat too, so let's both do our best."
She held up her cup and urged for a toast with a way of speaking as if war and catching rats were no different.
She couldn't help but laugh as she clinked glasses and toasted.
It would be the first time for Beowulf to challenge a battle too.
Humans are much weaker compared to monsters. But, can I really kill a human?
She is pretending to be calm, but there's no hiding that her hands are trembling slightly.
Despite that, Bonnie in front of her is asking for a refill of the wine she drank, looking no different than usual.
"Bonnie, you're quite calm. Aren't you scared?"
"Because, I got three medals. I'm wearing field clothes with Lindwurm feathers sewn on, and I got a good bow and arrows from Eleanor-sama. My master is here too, so I'll be fine if I'm with him."
It seems the Kingdom Army commander and the Paratroop Jaeger commander also place weight on Paul's words. He must have been quite active in the previous war.
Beowulf asked about Bonnie's placement. This was because the scouts on the front line also served as archers.
Bonnie's parents fought the Engrio army in the border forest as scout-archers in the previous war and both died in battle. It is, so to speak, a battle for revenge. That is the same for Beowulf, whose father belonged to the Kingdom Army.
"It's this turret. Even though I'm a scout, I'm a newcomer, so I'll probably be with Beowulf. So, if the enemy comes, please cast magic on me."
By magic, she must mean support magic; Beowulf learned it during the training for the Demon Lord subjugation.
Like a heavy infantryman, she can use [Defend], [Shield], and [Resist]. On top of that, since she is a medal holder who participated in the Demon Lord subjugation, she is specially permitted to use the armor and helmet of Eleanor, the Lindwurm shield, and the silver sword she equipped at that time. Many newcomers with less than a year of service in both the Kingdom Army and the scouts are assigned to the two turrets at the northwest ends. Since the enemy targets the south gate blocking the highway, the elite units are also positioned there.
Indeed, even though the defense is this solid, if she were cowering at the edge, her seniors would likely take away all her equipment.
Beowulf took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She clenched both fists under the table once, then slowly relaxed them.
"Alright. Then, let's do our best together tonight."
"Yeah."
Bonnie smiled happily.
That night. Bonnie, who had support magic cast on her, was clad in the Black-Purple of the Class of 175 and was lurking in the turret with a hunter scout.
One level below, Beowulf and the other heavy infantry were on standby.
The enemy's departure has already been reported. All that's left is how they will attack.
Just then, two roars echoed through the air.
The stone wall was blown away, and earth and sand flew up.
Large lumps of stone came flying everywhere.
Dust swirled in clouds, and neither the campfires nor the moonlight could be seen anymore.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
When the shouts of the alert soldiers echoed, the soldiers who had been hiding behind the breastworks stood up, tilted barrels, and scattered oil all at once into the gutters protruding forward. At the same time, fire arrows were released toward the ground.
In the darkness, Engrio soldiers rolling around as human torches emerged.
The Engrio tunnel soldiers fell into a trap.
They had dug a hole with magic outside the breastworks near the main gate and buried a decoy stone wall deep underground, but they had mistaken it for the real thing and blown it up. Because the amount of gunpowder used was large, some damage also occurred to the real breastworks, but not enough to make them collapse.
While the soldiers who had attacked from the tunnel were daunted by the breastworks standing in front of them, boiling oil had rained down on them.
When the attackers saw that they had failed to blow up the breastworks, they switched to a storming attack.
To support their allies, the Engrio archers released a large number of fire arrows.
The fire arrows flew over the breastworks and stuck into the wooden structures inside the fort. Naturally, they remained lit.
On the defense side, since they knew the attack was coming, they had cleared away flammable cloth, fodder, and straw, but the arrows that stuck and remained burning still called forth fear.
Some mages turned to extinguishing the fire by releasing [Water], and those who could use wind magic deployed a wind barrier with arrow-warding magic inside the breastworks.
Barrels launched by catapults were stopped one after another by the [Wind Barrier] deployed by the Paratroop Jaegers. Those barrels were packed with gunpowder and had lit fuses. They were designed to explode a short time after impact.
Some just exploded, but one destroyed part of the outer wall and created a crack.
The siege side dug a hole with magic where the crack occurred and deployed a [Wind Barrier] as if making a roof. Since the defenders' magic defense is deployed in front of the breastworks, the area under the wall cannot be protected. It is, so to speak, a blind spot.
Two people together carried a barrel packed with gunpowder there. Someone hit by a flanking arrow fell, and a fire arrow hit the barrel that rolled on the ground.
It exploded, and along with a spray of blood, two humans were scattered as pieces of meat.
Those who were on standby clicked their tongues and carried the second barrel.
An arrow hit his arm, but he managed to carry the barrel to the wall without dropping it.
When he lit the fuse, he ran away as if rolling and jumped into a hole dug with magic in the middle of the escape route.
The gunpowder exploded, and the wall collapsed.
A hole large enough for a person to enter opened up.
The heavy infantry of the siege side rushed in and broke into the wall. In front of them was a water moat, and beyond the moat was an earthen mound. From there, arrows flew all at once, shooting dead several of the invading soldiers.
The siege soldiers swarmed the breastworks.
When they set up siege ladders, they tried to climb up. From the breastworks, arrows were released and stones were dropped to obstruct them. A full-scale siege of the fort began.
A long water moat lay in the middle of the fort. Normally, several bridges were built, including the one for the highway in front, but they were removed at the same time as the enemy attack.
The mission of Beowulf's squad, along with several other squads tasked with the same mission, was to deal with those who broke through the southern breastworks. Soldiers wearing chain mail cannot cross the water moat. they go around both ends of the moat. They were to stop them and have the archers releasing arrows from the earthen mound across the moat shoot the enemies dead. Since those rushing in would be heavy infantry, it would be a melee.
As for the passage along the moat, in order to prevent the invading enemies from going to the right, stone walls were built in places from the main gate to the east side. In contrast, there was nothing on the west side. The Engrio soldiers headed toward the west side and tried to bypass it.
Beowulf, a heavy infantryman, received word that enemy soldiers had invaded the fort and began to act along with her colleagues in the squad she belonged to. Blessed with a good physique and equipment, she was expected even among the newcomers. Along with her colleagues in the five-person squad, she ran inside the southern breastworks to prevent the enemies at a standstill in front of the water moat from bypassing it.
Already, her allies were lining up shields by the wall and fighting the enemy. Both friend and foe lined up shields and pushed against each other while thrusting swords and spears through gaps to stab the enemy to death. Where someone was stabbed to death, the person waiting behind immediately took their place. Strong people were chosen for those positioned by the moat on the defense side, but the siege side had no time to make such a selection. They just entered wherever there was space. Furthermore, since they held shields in their left hands, the soldiers who turned to the left to go west after invading became defenseless against the arrows flying from the earthen mound.
The aim hit home, and the siege side fell one after another.
Among them, there is a large man swinging a battle-axe with both hands, heedless of the flying arrows, and slaughtering his allies. Even if they caught it with a shield, they knelt under that pressure, and if they caught it with a sword, they were overpowered by force and had their heads split open.
"Retreat! Leave it to us!"
When Beowulf's squad reached the rear of their allies, the squad leader shouted.
The members of Beowulf's squad have her support magic. Two of the five are newcomers, but they should be able to do it.
The veteran squad leader served at the edge of the moat, and leaving one person, Beowulf in the center put her left foot forward and held her shield with half her body. It was a blue-green shield made of Lindwurm scales, with high magic defense and strength against strikes exceeding that of a steel shield. It was light and easy to handle, but because it lacked weight, it was slightly disadvantageous for a charge, but in exchange, it showed its power in a melee.
"Hoho. You've got a shield that looks like it costs quite a bit. Do you intend to stop my blow with that? I won't care if it gets covered in scratches."
The big guy brandished his battle-axe and struck at Beowulf.
Beowulf, while in the position of raising her left hand and catching it with the shield, put strength into her left foot and jumped back the moment the opponent swung down the battle-axe. Without a moment's delay, she braced herself with her right foot and jumped forward, while at the same time thrusting out her shield.
The moment the battle-axe, which had been swung down to strike and stop the movement along with the shield, cut through the air, the man who had the shield thrust at him had his battle-axe suppressed from above and could not counterattack. He kicked up the shield with his right foot, stopped Beowulf's movement, and launched a body slam.
He thrust her away with both hands holding the handle of the battle-axe.
Beowulf is also a charge personnel. She won't be knocked back. Putting her left foot forward and utilizing the lightness of the shield to swing it up, she struck the opponent's face with the knack of an elbow strike.
The shield held by the heavy infantryman rose to the height of the face. The opponent who was struck was momentarily bewildered. As if taking advantage of that momentary opening, while turning her waist, she thrust out the sword in her right hand that she had been holding close, and pierced the opponent's left shoulder twice. Unable to bear it, he threw away his battle-axe and rolled, and she followed up on him, weighing down on him and striking him with the hilt of her sword.
When the man was knocked unconscious, he was surrounded by allies.
The man with the battle-axe had rolled toward the Sertorian soldiers, who were the enemy, rather than toward his own allies.
The allies who defeated the big guy rode the momentum, and conversely, the enemy side lost their momentum. With that momentum, the allies began to drive the enemy back.
"Beowulf. You did well. As expected of someone with three medals for the Demon Lord subjugation. I'm sure you'll get another medal for this."
While quickly restraining the man, the squad leader called out to her.
Other colleagues carried him away along with the battle-axe they picked up.
I couldn't kill him... If the opponent had been an orc, I should have gouged his flank instead of piercing his shoulder...
For Beowulf, who was staring at her own trembling hands, it became a bitter distinguished service.