WeTried Translations

Translator: Nemui

Editor: Nemui

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◈ Friedrich's Battlefield

Chapter 120: The Siege of Arnsberg Fortress (4)

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“…No!”

Friedrich’s scream, almost a shriek, was swallowed by the din of the battlefield.

Matthias staggered back several steps and nearly toppled over backward. Friedrich hurriedly pushed himself up and ran to him.

When he caught Matthias and supported his back, Matthias turned toward Friedrich. His eyes were open, and he was breathing. At the very least, he had not died instantly.

“Gregor! Count Hosenfeld has been hit!”

Friedrich could not support Matthias and withdraw on his own. At the very moment he called out, Yurika, having realized what had happened, moved in to aid Gregor. With an assault sharper than usual, fierce enough to seem almost desperate, she forced the commander of the jaeger unit back for a time. In that opening, Gregor came over and helped Friedrich support Matthias.

“My lord!”

“I am fine. Do not let the formation break.”

To his adjutant’s call, Matthias answered so. His expression was calm and his voice steady, but the color was draining from his face before their eyes. The blood that left his cheeks seemed to pour straight from the wound.

“After linking up with the archer unit, strengthen the formation and secure the rear. If you cannot drive back the enemy jaegers, the entire force is to fall back for a time and…”

His voice faded away in the middle of issuing orders, and his eyes closed as well. Friedrich held a hand near his mouth and found that he was still breathing, but it seemed Matthias had lost consciousness.

“We are late, but we have joined the... Lord Regimental Commander!”

Just then, the archer unit that had turned back entered the fight, and Battalion Commander Romilda arrived.

When she saw that Matthias, the man to whom she ought to have reported their arrival, had taken an arrow and fallen unconscious, her face changed color.

“Hold back the enemy assault! We must avoid retreating any farther!”

“Understood! Each platoon, form line and loose a volley… Damn it!”

Romilda answered Gregor and tried to issue orders to her subordinates, but things would not go so smoothly.

Their formation had recovered once when the archer unit came to their aid, but it did not last long. That was how fierce the enemy jaegers’ assault was.

With their numbers increased, they had escaped the danger of being half-encircled, but before the archer unit that had joined them could form ranks and harden the defense, the enemy dragged them into a melee.

Once it came to that, the archer unit, whose purpose was ranged attack, was weak. Their only weapons for close combat were spare daggers. They could not exploit the enemy’s disadvantage of light equipment, nor could they make full use of their numerical advantage, and they were forced onto the back foot.

Even after the enemy commander temporarily withdrew, Yurika continued fighting at the very front, while Gregor returned to the line as a precious close-combat asset. Friedrich, together with Romilda, supported Matthias’s body as they fell back. Their allies as a whole were being driven in, so they had no choice but to retreat.

If they continued falling back like this, what waited behind them was the backs of the cavalry and infantry units. Those men had already charged into the enemy lines, and they were in no state to immediately turn around and fight.

“This is bad! At this rate, we will be caught in a pincer! We need a temporary retreat!”

“…There is no helping it. I will send word to Lord Stamitz!”

Remembering the orders Matthias had left behind, Friedrich spoke, and Romilda nodded as well, sending off a messenger.

When a regimental commander became unable to command on the battlefield, command authority was, in principle, inherited by the cavalry battalion commander. Therefore, according to military regulations, they had to seek Baron Eugen Stamitz’s judgment as much as possible. Even without that, they could not simply retreat on their own from the rear while leaving the cavalry and infantry units at the front behind.

Before long, the messenger returned and reported that Eugen had approved the temporary retreat. With that, Friedrich and the others began disengaging from the battlefield, but by this point the losses among the headquarters reserve and the archer unit had grown considerable.

At the same time, the infantry and cavalry units also moved into retreat. The units facing forward and the units facing rearward each protected the other’s back as they gradually shifted east.

・・・・・・

“…Every plan is falling into place. It is almost as if God truly has taken our side.”

Watching from afar as the Ferdinand Regiment of the Kingdom of Edelstein began its retreat, Cecilia murmured with a faint, wry smile.

The southern side of Arnsberg fortress had steep slopes and was ill-suited to large-scale movement. Therefore, she had expected that the Ferdinand Regiment, rushing to the battlefield, would circle around the fortress by the northern route where they could move quickly and then attack her forces in order to support the western defenders now in danger.

To prevent the Ferdinand Regiment from having time to slowly scout the area around them before taking formation, Cecilia had begun the offensive against the fortress to coincide with their arrival. She had made the situation look as though the fortress would be in peril unless they moved to support it at once. Just as she had intended, the Ferdinand Regiment had hastily taken formation north of the fortress and come to strike the flank of her forces attacking the western side.

And here, once again, Cecilia’s plan had succeeded.

Baron Ivar Velec and his men, whom she had hidden deep in the forest spreading north of the hill, had succeeded in striking the Ferdinand Regiment from behind. She could not see what had become of Count Matthias Hosenfeld, but the Ferdinand Regiment, with its vital headquarters attacked, appeared to have decided on a temporary retreat. All of its units had begun to fall back.

This too was according to plan. Because the Ferdinand Regiment’s flank attack had been cut short early, the troops attacking the western side of the fortress had held out.

And now, part of the force that had received the enemy’s charge, the troops led by Marquis Robert Montesque, had already begun pursuing the retreating enemy.

In terms of coordination and the speed of formation movement, Robert’s troops were superior even to the Armor of the King, which had only recently finished reorganizing. That was precisely why Cecilia had placed them to the north after they joined from the eastern side of the fortress. Now they were displaying their training to the fullest, rapidly wheeling a battalion-sized force from east to north and giving chase to the Ferdinand Regiment.

This offensive was one Cecilia had undertaken after risking her life, staking both her pride and the honor of her house, agonizing over her plan, and preparing it with great care.

Even so, when things went this well, it became frightening instead.

She hoped this was not the peak of her ability as a commander, after which she would only decline. Thinking such thoughts, Cecilia watched the course of the battle.

・・・・・・

The Ferdinand Regiment’s retreat proved extremely difficult.

The headquarters and archer unit had been ambushed from behind. The cavalry and infantry units had broken off their charge to fall back. The battle had taken an unexpected turn, and neither side of their force could be said to be moving swiftly. They had somehow managed to link up, but without any time to restore their posture, their retreat, conducted with their ranks in disorder, made almost no progress.

Into that, the army of the Kingdom of Arelia pressed its pursuit without mercy.

The jaeger unit and the detachment separated from the troops attacking the fortress together numbered roughly five hundred. Even so, the Ferdinand Regiment had already suffered no small amount of damage, and because they were fighting a withdrawal, they could not fight with their full strength. It was enough to slow them down.

Behind that pursuing force, several hundred more enemy soldiers were separating from the army attacking the fortress, forming ranks, and preparing to join the pursuit.

This was already a chaotic fighting retreat. If, on top of that, they received an orderly attack from a cohesive enemy force, they might collapse completely. Friedrich thought so with a stiff expression, yet he had no means to drive off the enemy pursuit and break the present situation open. In a battlefield like this, there was no room to devise and execute a plan.

In the midst of his allies’ confused ranks, on a battlefield filled with the shouts of Gregor and the battalion commanders, Friedrich turned his gaze toward the unconscious Matthias.

His foster father lay on a makeshift stretcher fashioned from the banner of House Hosenfeld, carried by soldiers, and Friedrich could not rely on him now. He did not even know whether Matthias would survive, or whether he would open his eyes again.

“This is bad. At this rate…”

They would be worn down, unable to withstand the enemy pursuit once it was joined by reinforcements, and then routed.

If that happened, the Ferdinand Regiment would lose its strength, many of its men would be lost, and they would likely be unable to bring Matthias home.

What was the best move available in this moment?

“…Send a messenger to Lord Stamitz!”

After a few moments, Friedrich hardened his resolve and spoke to a nearby soldier.

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