WeTried Translations

Translator: Nemui

Editor: Nemui

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◈ Friedrich's Battlefield

Chapter 129: Those Who Depart

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Volume Five: Dedicated to the True Heroes Who Fell on the Battlefield.

In the autumn of Unified Calendar 1010, the war situation between the Kingdom of Edelstein and the Kingdom of Arelia did not move.

After retaking Arnsberg fortress, the army of the Kingdom of Arelia launched no further offensive, instead devoting itself entirely to turning the fortress into a base for invasion. They hardened its defenses with around three thousand troops, brought in vast amounts of supplies, and established supply bases behind the fortress as well.

It was clearly the prelude to a great offensive by an army in the tens of thousands. However, there was still no sign that the troops themselves were being gathered.

The Kingdom of Arelia, now grown into one of the continent’s foremost great powers, could not possibly have the stamina or strength to launch large-scale military action immediately after conquering one country and seizing Arnsberg fortress. If an army in the tens of thousands was to be moved, several months of preparation would inevitably be required.

It was thought that they would proceed carefully with preparations from autumn into winter, resting the elites withdrawn to the kingdom’s center, moving troops from various regions, calling up mercenaries, and preparing to mobilize conscripts.

Not missing the reprieve granted by Arelia’s circumstances, the Kingdom of Edelstein was moving as well. They temporarily evacuated the kingdom’s people from the area around the fortress, which was no longer safe. They accumulated supplies and prepared to gather troops around the defensive positions that had become the new defensive line. Military and civil officials serving the royal house, as well as the lordly nobles, were all rushing to fulfill their duties.

From a brutal death struggle, they moved toward an even more brutal decisive battle. In that calm before the storm, Edelstein society was heating with a spirit that sought to unite the whole nation and push toward victory.

The coronation on the hill was already being spread as a legendary scene. Those who had witnessed the coronation, filled with dignity and mysticism, returned to their homes and told of that sight, including no small amount of subjective impression.

The queen had been powerful and divine, with a halo shining behind her. A thousand nobles and an army of ten thousand had stood in formation to adorn the coronation. The instant the queen took the crown, the sky turned rainbow-colored. God descended, blessed the queen’s coronation, and promised victory. The rumors raced about, embellished with colorful and enormous additions, and further raised the prestige of the Edelstein royal house and Queen Claudia.

Merchants who traveled from place to place also contributed to raising Claudia’s prestige. Seeing a business opportunity in a place where nearly ten thousand people had gathered, the merchants who had clustered there of their own accord became witnesses to the coronation as well and spoke of what they had seen. Through their fellow merchants who heard the story from them, the rumors spread even farther.

The merchants’ way of speaking was somewhat more rational than that of other commoners, and precisely because of that, their words spread with persuasive force. There was also calculation in it, since the more people entered the war and the larger the war became, the greater the business opportunities would be. But in most cases, the merchants themselves believed what they said as they told others that under that brave queen, this country would surely win the decisive battle.

Alongside this, the Edelstein royal house mobilized bards in its service and spread word of the barbaric behavior of the Kingdom of Arelia. The Arelian practice of forcibly mobilizing the people of Edelstein and making them labor for the fortress assault stirred anger among the kingdom’s people in every region when told with feeling by the bards, and that anger too contributed to raising fighting spirit.

As heat filled the entire kingdom, the royal capital Sankt Waltrude, the heart of the kingdom, was likewise heated.

In the royal capital, livelier than usual, Friedrich had temporarily returned.

He had left command of the frontline, where the war situation was not moving, to Diethelm Brightkreuz, acting commander of the Hildegard Regiment. Away from the bustle filling the city streets of the royal capital, he stood before his family’s grave in one corner of the grounds of the Hosenfeld mansion in the noble district.

It was after the small funeral that interred the ashes of the previous head, the living hero of Edelstein, Matthias Hosenfeld, who had died in battle.

Those who attended were retainers and servants such as Gregor, and their families. In other words, only those connected to the count’s house. His comrades from the other regiments and the nobles deeply connected to him were in the middle of fulfilling their own duties, and Queen Claudia too was rushing about for the decisive battle and was not currently in the royal capital.

It had been decided that once the decisive battle ended in victory, Matthias’s military funeral would be held grandly alongside the state funeral of the late King Sigismund. For now, in order to temporarily place Matthias’s ashes in the grave where his ancestors slept, and so that House Hosenfeld, having lost its head, could make one break and move forward, a funeral had been held with the patriarch invited from the central church.

That funeral had ended, and the patriarch had returned after completing his duty. Friedrich quietly looked at the grave where his late foster father’s ashes had already been placed. Yurika stood close beside him.

“……”

The grave was decorated with flowers. Their tasteful and modest color, however, only made the place feel lonelier now. His father’s body had become ash and entered eternal sleep. His soul had departed to God’s side. He was no longer here. They had been father and son for only two and a half years. Yet the man who had certainly been his father was no longer anywhere in this world.

Funerals exist for the living. Friedrich had once read those words in a book. Indeed, now that the funeral had ended, he felt as though he had overcome something that had to be overcome. That was why he could also accept the loneliness he felt as something necessary for him now. Perhaps he should count himself fortunate to have temporarily stepped away from the busyness of being a soldier and gained time to soak in that loneliness.

“Master.”

At that moment, the one who quietly approached Friedrich as he sank into thought was Doris, the steward who protected the mansion.

She was looking at him with a slightly worried face. Judging from that, it seemed he had forgotten the time and had been silently facing the grave for quite a long while.

Even after these past few days, he was still not used to being called master by her.

“Sorry. I will return to the mansion soon… It is thanks to you arranging so many things that the funeral could end peacefully and I could see my father off calmly. Thank you, truly.”

When Friedrich expressed his gratitude, Doris smiled gently and shook her head.

“I am the one who should thank you… Until you were welcomed into this house as his adopted son, I had worried that the previous master might meet a very lonely end. By being seen off by you, the heir, and by being sent off in this way, I am sure the previous master was greatly saved. He must have departed comfortably, and by now he has surely reunited with Lady Annemarie and Lord Rudolf at God’s side. Thank you, Master.”

While listening to her words, Friedrich turned his gaze once more toward the grave.

The soul rested at God’s side, and in the far future it would return again to the cycle of reincarnation. Now, his father was freed from everything and existed in peace. Friedrich wanted to believe that.

“Please, at least for tonight, rest slowly. I hear you will return to the battlefield tomorrow.”

“…Yes. I will.”

Told that, Friedrich turned his gaze back to Doris.

The war situation was not moving, but even now, one of the commanders could not leave the front for long. He would spend barely three days having returned to the mansion like this. He had come home yesterday, and tomorrow morning he would depart again for the battlefield.

For many years, Doris had protected this mansion, whose master was often absent. She had spent most of her life here and, including the time before she became steward, had seen off the deaths of three heads of the house so far.

For that devotion, the words he should offer were surely not an apology.

“Because you, as steward, protect this mansion, we can fulfill our duties with peace of mind as nobles of the kingdom and as soldiers. I am grateful from the bottom of my heart.”

“My… The previous master once said the same thing to me. Your words and the way you speak are just like your father. You truly are that man’s son.”

Returning a smile to Doris, who seemed overcome with emotion, Friedrich looked one last time toward the grave where Matthias slept, then walked away.

From tomorrow, he would return once more to reality and face the battle. His father would surely watch over him from God’s side.

・・・・・・

“Hmph. Still, to think that I would end up retiring.”

“How many times are you going to complain about the same thing?”

The one who spoke with a snort at the headquarters of the defensive positions that currently served as the frontline base was Marquis Joseph Obsidian, commander of the Hildegard Regiment. To the grumbling of the superior officer who was like a second father to him, Diethelm answered with the most exasperated face imaginable.

Diethelm had already heard complaints like this many times, so many that he was thoroughly sick of them.

Joseph had suffered grave wounds in the earlier battle. Though he had survived, perhaps because of his advanced age his recovery was slow, and in the end, his injured leg had been amputated above the knee. After that, he had been recuperating in a city near the front, and only in the past week had he finally recovered enough to move around properly.

That said, losing one arm would have been one thing, but with one leg gone, he could no longer ride properly. His strength, once lost, never returned, and Joseph, now an old man appropriate to his age, would find it extremely difficult to endure harsh military duty. As a result, he was leaving the kingdom’s army, though to him personally, that was bitterly unwilling.

Every time Diethelm went to visit him during his recovery, he had mostly served as an audience for complaints. Joseph lamented his inability to hold Arnsberg fortress. He lamented spending the important period after the defeat bedridden and having to leave command to his subordinates. He lamented being unable to attend Queen Claudia’s coronation. And he lamented being forced to leave the army.

Diethelm understood the feelings of his superior officer, who had suffered regret upon regret, but that did not mean he could bear hearing nothing but complaints. He had already listened to more than enough, and yet even on the way as Joseph returned once to the front to hand over his duties as regimental commander, the old man still grumbled. During the handover work itself, Joseph had focused on the job, as expected, but once that settled down, the complaints began again.

Diethelm knew it was because there was no one else at the front for Joseph to grumble to, but even so, he wanted to say that he had not joined the army to be a conversation partner for an old man.

“You lost a leg. It cannot be helped. You are lucky just to be alive.”

“What good is it for an old man like me to survive? It would have been many times more useful to the army and the kingdom if even one young knight had lived in my place. At the very least, God should have taken me instead of Lord Hosenfeld… Besides, after living as a soldier for more than forty years, how am I supposed to live in retirement now?”

“The life of a retired noble is obvious. You spend all day reading, walking in the garden of your mansion, drinking tea, and napping.”

“What a magnificently boring life that sounds like.”

Hearing Diethelm’s words, Joseph wore a deeply disgusted expression.

“Honestly… I do not mean to rejoice in war, but when a great war with a neighboring country finally breaks out in the twilight of my life as a soldier, I end up unable to die on the battlefield at this late stage.”

With a heavy sigh, Joseph stood using two canes for support.

Now that the handover was complete, once he left this headquarters and boarded the carriage bound from the front to the royal capital, he would never return to the battlefield. The days when he led armies and swung a sword would all become past glory, and the future would hold only an inconvenient old age lived with one leg. With the sigh, he felt as though he had breathed out his soul as well.

“Lord Regimental Commander.”

Called by Diethelm in a voice sincere in a way completely unlike before, Joseph turned around. Seeing Diethelm’s expression, which was just as sincere as his voice, Joseph looked caught off guard.

“It is my pride to have received your instruction as a soldier and to have fought under your command. It has truly been my honor to serve you.”

At those words and that expression, Joseph answered with a gentle smile, thinking that it was not like him. The sight of the former Diethelm, once a hopeless problem child overflowing with nothing but hot blood, overlapped with the figure of the man now standing as one of the kingdom’s foremost knights.

“…You are the most excellent knight I have ever raised, and the most promising commander. You will be able to lead the Hildegard Regiment better than I did. I expect great things of you.”

He had not died on the battlefield, and he would be leaving the army before the decisive battle. But at least he had left something behind. On the battlefield ahead, where Joseph would not be, this Diethelm and the soldiers Joseph had guided and led until now would stand and fight to protect the country.

Thinking that, it was not so bad. At the very least, it was not a departure to be ashamed of.

To Diethelm’s salute, full of respect, Joseph gave the most proper return salute he could manage, then finally left the headquarters tent.

Waiting there was the carriage that would send Joseph to the royal capital. And lines of several hundred soldiers. Not only subordinates he knew from the Hildegard Regiment, but men from the Ferdinand Regiment and even some of the Royal Guard were there. It was a sight as though nearly every regular soldier with free hands had gathered.

“…Was this your doing?”

When he looked back and asked, Diethelm laughed. It was the same way he had laughed when he was still that old problem child.

“Hmph. Unnecessary nonsense.”

Smiling faintly himself, Joseph began walking toward the carriage. Amid the salutes of the lined soldiers, he proceeded to the end on his own feet.

On this day, seen off by many soldiers of the kingdom, the old general left the battlefield.

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