WeTried Translations

Translator: Nemui

Editor: Nemui

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◈ Friedrich's Battlefield

Chapter 143: Decisive Battle (3)

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Claudia watched it all from headquarters.

"...As expected, it will not be easy. The Arelian king's merciless tactics are truly frightening."

He did not hesitate over the losses of his own conscripts. If anything, he used them as expendable force to exhaust Edelstein's infantry. Claudia felt disgust and, in a sense, admiration for the bloodless way the hegemon king fought.

At this rate, the infantry would not hold until Edelstein's next objective could be achieved.

Having judged that, Claudia put on the helmet she had been holding. It was unnecessary when commanding from the rear, where it would only narrow her vision.

"Lord Eichberger. We go."

"...As you command."

The voice of Viscount Gustav Eichberger, commander of the queen's guards, was somewhat reluctant. For a man who always maintained an expressionless and emotionless manner, it was an unusual display of unwillingness.

The royal guards directly protecting headquarters began readying their equipment all at once. Even though the infantry was being pressed and the fighting was still far ahead, they moved as if they were about to enter battle immediately.

"Your Majesty?" asked Marquis Christopher Langford, confused. Though he was a noncombatant imperial noble, he had chosen to stand at headquarters and witness the decisive battle. He had accepted the risk of death to stand in the same place as the queen of a friend nation, but he had not been told the details of the plan. "What exactly are you going to do?"

"I will go forward. To the very front where the fighting is taking place. I will encourage the soldiers there."

Christopher's eyes widened.

"What!? That is far too dangerous..."

"I appreciate your concern, but that discussion has already ended among my direct retainers. I chose to go after hearing them. I cannot take you with me, of course. Watch from here. Watch my resolve."

Leaving those words behind without waiting for Christopher's reply, Claudia urged her horse forward. Royal Guard knights surrounded her, and infantry of the Royal Guard surrounded them in turn, as they advanced toward the noise of the front.

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

Overwhelmed by the resolve radiating from Claudia's back, Christopher murmured in a daze, almost entranced.

Claudia did not hear him. She advanced on the white horse raised especially for her, wearing armor made for her alone, moving forward beneath the royal banner.

Only the rearmost ranks of the vanguard infantry remained calm. Before she had even gone halfway toward the front, the clamor of the battlefield reached her.

Even soldiers who had not yet directly faced the enemy were already losing heart. Wounded men were constantly coming back from the front. They could still walk on their own, but their state was horrific. Some bled heavily. Some had flesh cut open and bone exposed. Some had an eye hanging out. Some had lost an arm. The conscripts, who had originally been ordinary commoners, trembled at the sight.

On top of that, enemy arrows fell from the sky, though not as densely as at the very front. A comrade who had been standing beside them moments before would be struck by an arrow, fall, and writhe in pain, or already be dead. Faced with the reality of the battlefield, the amateur soldiers no longer possessed the high morale they had held before the battle.

The entire formation had begun to retreat as pressure pushed back from the front. If this continued, that retreat would become a rout before much time passed.

Claudia would not allow it.

"Advance!"

She raised her voice. Amid ranks of infantry where men overwhelmingly outnumbered women, the queen's voice carried clearly through the noise.

Many soldiers noticed for the first time that the queen had come forward. They turned back all at once, faces full of shock.

"If we fall back, this kingdom is defeated! Our homeland, our houses, even our families will be trampled! We chose to fight precisely so that we would never allow that! Think of your homes! Think of your houses! Think of the ones you love! And advance with me!"

Clad in the shine of armor and white horse, carrying the dignity of the Royal Guard, accompanied proudly by the royal banner, Claudia pushed on through the battlefield where arrows fell. To the faltering conscripts, her figure recalled the legendary coronation.

Those who reacted most strongly were the ones who had actually witnessed that coronation.

Many of the men gathered that day as representatives of towns and villages had gone on to answer the call for conscription. They formed the core that had maintained the conscripts' high morale. Those men recovered their spirit first.

That excitement spread to the men around them. Those who knew the emotion of the coronation only by rumor saw the queen's brave figure with their own eyes, heard her powerful words, and watched their comrades recover their morale. They regained high spirits once more.

Advance.

Shouting the word, the conscripts in the rear of the infantry force stopped their fearful backward movement and began moving forward.

Bathed in their voices, Claudia advanced farther.

The very front of the battlefield drew near, and the number of falling arrows increased sharply. The impacts of swords and spears rang out. Murderous shouts echoed. Even the enemy became visible.

There, royal soldiers, noble domain soldiers, mercenaries, and conscripts were all mixed together so completely that unit boundaries had blurred, struggling against the enemy infantry vanguard. The enemy's number was fearsome. With neither retreat nor relief, Arelian conscripts came on as if grinding away their lives, and Edelstein's line was visibly being forced back.

"Advance!"

Claudia roared. Her voice spread across the battlefield.

"This is the battlefield that will decide the kingdom's fate! Advance! Advance! Advance!"

In such noise, a proper speech was impossible. She could only raise her voice and repeat the same command.

The queen's voice slipped between roars and screams, reaching widely across the chaotic front.

......

On the right side of the front, in the area guarded by the Hildegard Regiment infantry, a knight commanding one company looked around from horseback at soldiers who had begun losing nerve despite his encouragement. His face twisted in frustration.

Have we fought as far as we can? Is all that remains to be pushed back and defeated?

Just as he thought that, a voice reached his ears. He had heard it several times at important moments as a soldier, most recently at the coronation.

Advance.

Impossible, he thought. He turned toward the voice and opened his eyes in shock.

Queen Claudia was there.

Here, at the very front of the battlefield, where arrows rained down and furious shouts flew.

Was this also some kind of plan? What sort of plan?

As a mere officer who had not been told the whole operation, he could not understand the strange situation. But because it existed before his eyes, he had no choice but to accept it.

"Advance!"

Perhaps because he was listening for it now, the queen's voice came more clearly. He heard her command while raising the royal sword, proof of sovereignty, from the back of her shining white horse.

Their queen, surrounded by the Royal Guard, was still trying to move forward.

Even though there was nothing ahead but the enemy.

Even though only an endless enemy army waited there.

"A-advance! You stand before Her Majesty!"

Flustered, the knight shouted to his subordinates. The queen's voice seemed to have reached them as well, and they too wore stunned expressions.

"Damn it, advance! I said advance! Advance!"

Shouting, the knight advanced himself.

He was a kingdom soldier. A knight of the kingdom. He had been knighted by the royal house and had sworn to protect the country.

He could not remain behind his sovereign on the battlefield. A kingdom soldier had to stand before his sovereign, protect his sovereign, and fight while protecting the country.

"Advance! Company, all of you, advance! For Her Majesty! For the kingdom!"

With a desperate voice and expression, the knight forced his way forward. He trampled and scattered enemy conscripts blocking his path with his horse, pressing on without regard for enemy attacks against the horse's legs.

His men followed.

Advance. Advance. Advance.

They repeated the word as they tried to move forward, and naturally their formation hardened again. They regained their footing. If they stood side by side, the only enemies they had to fight were the ones before them. Though the Hildegard Regiment had many replacements, its melee troops had long defended the border with honor. They would not collapse easily against conscripts.

The same scene unfolded all across the front. Officers ordered their men to advance and led from the front themselves, as if showing the pride of kingdom knights. The soldiers became stubborn and followed.

......

It was not only the royal army that advanced with the queen.

"What? Her Majesty!?"

A noble who had sent the knights of his domain force to the cavalry under his heir, while he himself led domain infantry at the front, showed the greatest possible shock when Queen Claudia appeared in the most dangerous place on the battlefield.

The queen raised her sword and called to those around her.

He heard the word advance.

Had she come forward to encourage the infantry, raise morale, and maintain the formation? Even so, what recklessness.

"Advance!"

The queen did not stop. At this rate, their retreating forces would be overtaken by the Royal Guard led by the queen.

The instant that thought struck him, the noble's face changed color and he raised his sword.

"Advance! Advance in the name of our pride! Move forward!"

The young queen was advancing more bravely than anyone, showing a resolve so reckless it was almost madness. If he retreated now, it would be shame. A shame great enough to stain the family name inherited from his ancestors.

If he fled here, even if the kingdom won the war, what face could he show afterward? If people pointed and laughed, saying the head of that noble house abandoned the queen and fled the battlefield, how could he keep his house alive?

He had to advance.

For the pride of a kingdom noble.

"Advance! Kill anyone who blocks your way! Advance!"

Like that noble, who drove off enemies while leading his men, the commanders of other domain infantry units also fought desperately. Sons and relatives of noble houses, or even the heads of those houses themselves, had their pride stirred by the queen's resolve. Driven by impatience and exhilaration, all of them continued fighting as they pressed forward.

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