WeTried Translations

Translator: Nemui

Editor: Nemui

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◈ Friedrich's Battlefield

Chapter 142: Decisive Battle (2)

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"Aaaagh!"

"It hurts! It hurts..."

"W-we're done. Run!"

"Where to? There is nowhere to run!"

"Forward! Do not stop! Move forward, quickly!"

The Arelian vanguard, exposed to the rain of arrows, was swallowed by the smell of blood and the roar of panic.

Most of them were conscripts who normally had nothing to do with battle. Men struck by arrows screamed in pain. Men who saw it happen nearby shook with terror. Yet even if they wanted to flee, they were surrounded on all sides by allied soldiers. The unit leaders placed every few dozen men were volunteers with military experience. They were confused by the fact that enemy arrows had reached them far earlier than expected, but they could not allow their units to collapse so soon, and they shouted orders with all their strength.

Thanks to the desperate calls of those volunteers, the huge infantry force of twenty-six thousand resumed its advance even as its numbers decreased.

They left the dead and wounded where they fell.

Far behind the front of that formation, in the headquarters placed at the center of the rear, Cecilia thought.

That range. It could only be the Black Bow.

Had the Empire committed itself that deeply to Edelstein, enough to send precious latest weapons with its reinforcements? She had heard that Queen Claudia was engaged to an imperial prince of Rigald, but did becoming kin make them so generous? Or had they judged the neighboring battlefield a perfect large-scale test site for their newest weapon?

The moment the rain of arrows struck, the vanguard's advance visibly slowed. It was natural for amateur conscripts to flinch, but even the officers assigned to them, volunteers with military experience, seemed shaken by arrows coming from an unexpected distance.

"Charge!"

Childebert's angry shout cut through Cecilia's thoughts.

"If they close the distance and press the enemy, our losses will be reduced! The vanguard will charge at once! The remaining units will continue advancing behind them!"

"The vanguard will charge! Relay the order!"

When Cecilia passed on the king's command, the signal knight waved flags toward the front. Fortunately, the general placed at the head of the infantry vanguard had not yet fallen to arrows. He gave the same order to the unit leaders at the front, and more than twenty thousand infantry began their charge.

It was truly a human wave.

The soldiers at the very front began running first, and the men behind followed. Each man ran desperately to escape the rain of arrows as quickly as possible. As a whole, the mass moved down the hill like one enormous living creature, writhing as it advanced.

Behind them, regular soldiers drove them forward. At the front of the rear formation stood the elite troops of Marquis Robert Montesque. They held their weapons and kept close order like an overseer unit. With such elites directly behind them, the conscripts terrified of enemy arrows could not easily attempt to flee.

Once Childebert confirmed that the charge was underway, he turned to Cecilia.

"Lord Fargiere. Go to your own unit... I leave the left to you."

"...Yes, Your Majesty. May fortune be with you."

Cecilia saluted the king and left the headquarters.

On a battlefield where armies of tens of thousands collided from the front, the formations of both sides would not change drastically. Now that the tactics and formation had already been decided, there was little more Cecilia could do by remaining in headquarters.

So she moved away, heading to the left side of the rear.

Of the eight thousand soldiers in the rear, roughly one thousand near the left edge belonged directly to Cecilia. They were elites gathered from the former Loire royal army. She had temporarily entrusted them to her adjutant, Knight Celestan, and now she rejoined them as their commander.

In this decisive battle, the place where the unexpected was most likely to occur was the left side facing the forest. Because she believed that, Cecilia had placed her own unit on the rear left, ready to respond if anything happened.

While she moved, the vanguard finally collided with the enemy army.

......

Whether it was a decision by Supreme Commander Childebert or advice from Countess Fargiere and the other staff officers, the enemy's immediate all-out charge reduced the damage Edelstein had expected to inflict with its first long-range attack. At most, two or three thousand enemy conscripts had been put out of action.

The remaining twenty-odd thousand were still charging.

The huge human wave, driven by the momentum of the downslope, rushed toward Edelstein's vanguard. At the very front, ready to receive them, stood regular soldiers of the royal army and noble domain troops.

And at the center of that front line stood the infantry battalion of the Albrecht Regiment, directly commanded by Marquis Rebecca Eisenhut, commander of the infantry force.

"There is no battlefield more fitting for us to show our pride. Receive the enemy even at the cost of your lives."

"Yes, ma'am!"

The soldiers of the Albrecht Regiment had long stood behind the border region as the last shield protecting the royal territory. They were renowned for the hardness of their battle line. The central front, which they guarded, was the most important point in the infantry formation. If it was pierced, the Edelstein army would allow the enemy to enter its center. The army would be eaten apart from within, and defeat would be certain.

They would never permit that.

Their pride would not allow it.

The enemy infantry vanguard, relying on numbers as it advanced, slammed into Edelstein's front line. Arelian conscripts in poor equipment struck by brute force against the Edelstein ranks holding their weapons ready.

The charge combined fear of the arrow rain, desperation from being driven from behind, and the speed of running downhill.

Yet it stopped there.

The Edelstein infantry received the charge without being smashed apart.

At the heart of the battlefield, where blades met blades, roars, screams, blood, and entrails scattered together.

Rebecca personally cut down the enemy general who appeared to be commanding the Arelian infantry and had bravely stood at the center of the leading edge. She then killed the weak conscripts coming behind him with ease while encouraging her subordinates and keeping the line intact. Her men answered her expectations. Not a single enemy passed through.

Outside the center held by the Albrecht Regiment's infantry battalion, each unit fought fiercely, and the line was generally maintained. Some enemy units, carried by momentum, broke through several ranks, but a small advance like that quickly exhausted and isolated them. They were then annihilated by the dozens of Edelstein infantry ranks waiting behind.

Not only the regular soldiers, but even the conscripts who were amateurs in battle fought well.

They were going to crush the invading army and protect their homes, their land, and their families. With that resolve in their hearts, and with the fighting spirit that the royal house had spent so much effort stirring in them, they swung their weapons bravely. Fortunately, the enemies before them were also amateur conscripts, and in each local point of the wide battlefield, Edelstein still kept superior numbers. The slight training they had received from volunteer platoon leaders before the battle also helped, and they functioned well enough to make up for the shortage of regular soldiers.

Because most of the men fought bravely, the mercenaries hired with money also performed their roles seriously. If the army ever routed, mercenaries would flee faster than conscripts. But while victory still seemed possible, they were far more reliable than conscripts.

Edelstein's aim was to collide with the enemy head-on while maintaining formation.

In the opening stage of melee, that goal was mostly achieved.

But it could not last forever.

The units behind Arelia's vanguard infantry finally caught up and completed their advance. Then the five thousand archers of the Arelian royal army, noble troops, and mercenaries began launching arcing fire against Edelstein's vanguard.

The number of arrows falling was small compared with the size of the enemy archer force. That was because the imperial archers on Edelstein's side were using the Black Bow's long range to harass the enemy archers from beyond the two vanguards.

Even so, an attack from an enemy archer force originally numbering five thousand was fierce. The relentless rain of arrows took soldiers' lives one after another, reduced fighting strength, and gradually made it harder to maintain the line.

While enduring that rain, Edelstein's vanguard kept fighting desperately.

Now that the enemy had come closer, Edelstein's non-imperial archers also began intense arcing fire to support the friendly vanguard. The thousand archers made up of imperial noble forces, the mercenaries, and of course the mixed archer units of the Edelstein royal army and noble troops all attacked in rapid succession, trying to make the battle easier for the infantry facing the enemy.

They killed enemy conscripts.

Killed them, killed them, and kept killing them.

Yet the enemy's momentum did not fade. As soon as one man was killed, the next stepped forward.

It was hard to believe they were merely conscripted militia. Their relentless advance and attack had a cause farther back than the rear of the vanguard infantry.

The Arelian regular soldiers in the rear continued driving the vanguard conscripts forward. They shouted, shoved, kicked, and even swung swords and spears. They killed conscripts who tried to flee as a warning to others, threatening them and urging them to move toward the enemy and kill.

When the conscripts at the rear were forced forward in that way, the pressure traveled all the way to the front. No one could resist a human wave of more than twenty thousand. The conscripts at the very front had no choice but to advance toward Edelstein's line.

At that point, training no longer mattered.

The Arelian conscripts had become a long, thick wall of flesh. A wall that moved on its own, pressing forward to crush and swallow them. Edelstein's regular soldiers, superior in martial skill, were forced to spend their strength and were gradually cornered.

No matter how many enemies they cut down, more appeared before them. Fatigue accumulated. From the sky, enemy arrows fell without regard for hitting the Arelian infantry facing Edelstein at the front. Comrades who reached their limits, comrades unlucky enough to take arrows, fell one after another. The numbers were still small, but they were certainly dying.

At the central front, the Albrecht Regiment's infantry battalion still kept its solid formation under Rebecca's command. Protected by that center, the royal infantry lined up on either side also fought desperately to preserve their ranks. Even so, they could not hold their ground forever. They were slowly forced back.

The closer one looked to the ends of the formation, the worse the situation became. Lines disordered. Men standing farther back found themselves clashing with the enemy front. In some places, conscripts were forced to take the very front.

The infantry of the Kingdom of Edelstein began to collapse, pressed inward from both wings.

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