WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Abood

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◈ Friedrich's Battlefield

Chapter 116: The Great Gamble

From the north, an Arelia Kingdom host advanced into the Beiral Plain. Their total number was roughly two thousand.

The force had already reached a point less than half a day’s march from Fort Arnsberg, and was expected to arrive before nightfall.

This report was delivered by a patrol knight in early August.

From the moment the news was received until the enemy’s arrival, too little time remained. The Hildegard Regiment of the Kingdom of Edelstein, charged with defending Fort Arnsberg, could make only the barest of preparations.

They hastily gathered about two hundred conscripts, adult men seized from nearby villages, and together with the regiment’s own troops, were forced to hold the fortress with a total of twelve hundred men.

Before long, just as reported, the enemy host arrived. With nothing more than minimal readiness, Fort Arnsberg now faced an unforeseen siege.

Judging from the banners flying over the enemy camp, the force was commanded by Countess Cecilia Fargiere and Count Patrick Villeneuve.

"Tch. The 'Armor of the King,' and the rest are those same elites that should have been at King Arelia's side. Those hounds of the conqueror were supposed to have gone back with their master to Saint Victoire, so what are they doing here? What is going on?"

From atop the fortress wall, taking his measure of the units by their banners and their well-kept gear, Cavalry Battalion Commander Diethelm Brightkreuz spoke with disgust.

“…I heard they had a dedicated supply corps. That was why they could force-march from Saint-Victoire to the Novakia border. Most likely, relying again on that supply train, they crossed the Myurei and Loire regions to get here.”

Standing beside Diethelm Brightkreuz, Regimental Commander Marquis Joseph Obsidian gave his assessment upon recognizing that the enemy included the elite known as the Armor of the King.

“Even so, to move such numbers without being detected cannot have been easy. An army of that size would be too conspicuous to use the main roads, and that would have made resupply difficult as well. To have reached this far is remarkable… though for us, who must now face them, it is nothing but a nuisance.”

He ended with a sigh, a grimace twisting his face.

“They ought to be guarding the royal capital and the royal domain of Arelia. Instead they marched as far as Novakia, and now they detour into the Beiral Plain. Carefree, aren’t they. They should have gone straight back to their nest.”

Joseph shared Diethelm’s sentiment.

These troops were supposed to be the kingdom’s treasured force, kept at the center as the last reserve. To commit them to the frontier was already a daring move by the Kingdom of Arelia.

The longer such elites were deployed, the more unstable the defense and order of the central lands would become, and the more of that precious strength would be wasted.

Thus, when word came that King Childebert had begun his return journey with his elites, Joseph and the others had felt no doubt. They believed the bold maneuver had ended, and that the most vital troops were finally being returned to the capital.

That they should instead be hurled into yet another battlefield, this was beyond bold. The strategy of the King of Arelia, reckless to the point of folly, left them not merely shocked but dumbfounded.

“What is done is done. First, we will send word to the rear by hawk. If we do, the Ferdinand Regiment should soon arrive as reinforcements, and with a little more time, greater support will come as well. Until then, no matter what, we must hold this fortress, Cavalry Battalion Commander.”

“Understood. If need be, I will strike straight into the enemy’s camp itself, whatever it takes, Regimental Commander.”

Without the slightest sign of fear before the grim situation, Diethelm Brightkreuz spoke with ferocity.

・・・・・・

“We have made it this far without hindrance. As expected of the elites the royal house of Arelia takes pride in. Truly splendid.”

“What is splendid about it? After driving us into such recklessness.”

Having reached the front of Arnsberg fortress, two thousand soldiers began preparing for battle with scarcely a pause for rest. At their headquarters, Cecilia Fargiere spoke, and Count Patrick Villeneuve answered with a wry, bitter smile.

Even for the finest elites of the Arelia Kingdom’s army, this surprise maneuver had been a difficult feat. It had been nothing but a struggle against time and exhaustion.

Reaching this point was itself the fruit of a single plan. From the sudden strike into Novakia’s border, to the present encirclement of Arnsberg fortress, Cecilia had conceived it all from the beginning as one continuous stratagem.

First, the conquest of the Kingdom of Novakia was completed. Once that was settled, King Childebert of Arelia declared his return to the capital Saint-Victoire.

With him, he took the Armor of the King and the elites drawn from the kingdom’s center for the campaign, numbering 2,200 after accounting for the dead and the grievously wounded, setting out westward through the Novakia region.

On the way, the force split in two. One detachment was the Armor of the King under Childebert himself, a total of two hundred, who truly accompanied their liege back to the capital as his escort.

The other was two thousand strong, led by Cecilia and Patrick. This force turned south, aiming for Arnsberg fortress on the Beiral Plain along Edelstein’s border. The supply corps, replenished with provisions from Novakia, followed with them.

The key to the plan was for this force of two thousand to advance south without being detected by the enemy.

First, Childebert and his escort functioned as a decoy to conceal the southern advance.

When the king declared his return to the capital and set out westward with the Armor of the King, it was inevitable that his progress would be witnessed by the people along the way.

Those living on the frontier had no knowledge of how large a host the king had departed with when he left Novakia. Even if the force accompanying him numbered only two hundred, no one would question it.

As for Childebert’s route through the northern frontiers of the Arelia Kingdom, the eyes of Edelstein’s spies scarcely reached so far. Unless something befell the king during his journey, the only news carried from the northern borderlands would be that the king was returning home.

The enemy agents in the Loire region or within the royal heartlands would naturally assume that the king who had left Novakia was traveling straight back to the capital. None would imagine that along the way his force had split, and that the bulk of his soldiers had turned south.

In this way, using the monarch himself as a decoy in a daring ruse, the main force of two thousand advanced south into the Loire region.

Here, too, Cecilia applied another stratagem. To keep the army itself hidden, the force of two thousand avoided all major highways, moving only along the rural tracks used by local villagers.

Normally, such a march would be impossible, for there were no towns or villages along the route to serve as supply bases.

But here the presence of the supply corps proved decisive. Only because they had their own dedicated supply train could such a difficult march be carried out.

As a soldier born in the Loire region and well versed in its geography, Cecilia had charted the approximate route in advance.

She then dispatched her adjutant Celestan, who was likewise familiar with the terrain, to select the finer details of the path. By the previous autumn they had mapped out a route barely passable by wagons.

The two thousand soldiers and the supply corps followed this course, moving as much as possible out of sight.

Even so, it was impossible for the army to pass entirely unseen. To prevent any witnesses from spreading rumors, Cecilia ordered that any civilians who crossed paths with the host be seized without question and held until the surprise attack was complete.

The unfortunate villagers taken in this way were only released once the plan could no longer be compromised. At that point, they were sent home, transported back in several wagons.

Those who resisted arrest or attempted escape were silenced, killed to keep their mouths shut. Among the dead, judging by their belongings, some appeared to have been enemy spies disguised as traveling merchants.

Encountering spies on a rural path and eliminating them had been misfortune, and yet also a stroke of luck.

Thus, even while maintaining secrecy, Cecilia drove the royal soldiers to march as quickly as possible. She forced them along rough rural roads at nearly the pace of the main highways, and as a result, a few stragglers fell behind.

The wagons of the supply corps and the horses pulling them also broke down one after another along the way, but their loads were transferred onto intact wagons or into the empty space left by consumed supplies, and the march pressed on.

By yesterday, when the supply corps could no longer keep pace, they were left behind. With only preserved rations and emergency water carried along, the two thousand combat troops advanced alone.

Fodder for the cavalry’s horses was strapped to the horses themselves, and even Cecilia and Patrick burdened their own mounts with fodder and continued on foot.

Through such hardship the surprise attack was carried out, and at last they reached Arnsberg fortress.

A messenger had already been dispatched to Marquis Robert Montesquieu, whose forces garrisoned the Loire region, and reinforcements and supplies were expected to arrive from the west within two days.

Until then, however, they would have to maintain the encirclement with their two thousand men, lacking even tents for a field camp.

That they could hold their order and keep their morale in such conditions was proof enough: they were truly the finest elite of the Arelia Kingdom. Cecilia knew that no other force could have achieved such a surprise attack.

“It was worth the hardship. With this, we have won our second gamble. Now we can proceed with the capture of Arnsberg fortress exactly as planned.”

Cecilia spoke with her usual gentle smile, though within she felt a joy so great she could have leapt for delight.

Of course, a plan so bold could never be guaranteed absolute success. Cecilia had done everything in her power to raise the chances as high as possible, yet there had still been elements left to fortune.

It had been an even greater gamble than sending twenty-five hundred men from the capital to the Novakia frontier.

There might have been someone in the north who knew precisely that the king’s escort numbered only two hundred, and if that rumor had spread south faster than expected, it could have reached the ears of Edelstein’s spies.

They might have failed to seize a witness, letting someone slip away and reveal the march of the two thousand into the Loire region.

Had one of the enemy’s spies disguised as a traveling merchant escaped, the surprise attack would have failed then and there. There were many such uncertainties, and more than a few moments which, when recalled, still made cold sweat rise.

Even so, fortune had stood with Cecilia and her companions to the very end.

Right after the conquest of Novakia, achieved even at the cost of weakening the capital’s defenses, no one on the enemy’s side could possibly imagine that Arelia would launch yet another offensive.

None would believe they had the leeway to do so. It was the perfect, never-to-be-repeated moment for a surprise attack, and Cecilia had staked everything on it as a strategist. And in this great gamble, she had prevailed.

“It had better be worth it. You have dragged the elites who should have been returned to the capital at once, and we of the Armor of the King, who ought to remain at His Majesty’s side, into this place. If we cannot present a great victory to the king for this, then you and I both will go down in the history of the kingdom as its greatest fools.”

“There is no need to worry. The plan has succeeded so smoothly that surely it must be the will of God that we win… “

“Now then, I ask that the Armor of the King maintain the eastern encirclement. Until the reinforcements led by Lord Montesquieu and the detachment under Lord Velec arrive, we must keep this fortress surrounded at all costs. I leave it to you.”

“You need not say it. To block the gates of a fortress for a few days, such a duty is nothing beyond the Armor of the King.”

With that, Patrick turned on his heel and gave his orders to the Armor of the King, who had already completed their preparations to move.

Footnotes:

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