WeTried Translations

Translator: Nemui

Editor: Nemui

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◈ Friedrich's Battlefield

Chapter 145: Decisive Battle (5)

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On the far left wing of the Edelstein position, the Rigald imperial cavalry unit was deployed atop a hill.

Its commander, Viscount Chester Carlisle, watched the battle as a whole and felt his grip tighten.

The unit had five hundred riders. Every one of them was a heavy knight covered fully in metal armor. A heavy knight force of that scale could pressure the enemy simply by existing. Together with Edelstein's cavalry, their presence on the hill prevented the enemy cavalry and elite rear units from moving around the flank.

For that reason, the imperial cavalry had already fulfilled more than enough of its role just by standing on the hill.

Queen Claudia Edelstein had told him so.

Even so...

The army of Edelstein, their friend nation, was showing a tremendous fight. The queen herself had gone to the front while clashing with the enemy army. The imperial archers who had also joined as reinforcements were desperately supporting them with arcing fire from the rear.

Could Chester and his men really remain on the hill as spectators?

They were imperial army knights bearing the dignity of the imperial house, along with imperial nobles and their retainers who had joined of their own will to embody the Empire's pride.

"Your Excellency."

One of Chester's direct subordinates, an imperial knight, called to him while he was thinking.

"What is it?"

"Several knights, chiefly among the nobles, are asking to join the battle. They strongly request that this unit be allowed to participate."

Hearing that, Chester looked back at the knights behind him.

Imperial soldiers, nobles, and their retainers all wore similar expressions. Please let us fight, their faces seemed to say.

Seeing that, Chester smiled.

The imperial cavalry had been told that remaining on this hill was enough.

At the same time, before the battle began, the queen had given Chester another word. If the decisive battle developed according to Edelstein's plan, then in the final stage, when the kingdom's cavalry charged the enemy formation, Chester was permitted to join that charge at his own discretion. If he wished, he could participate. If he wished to avoid losses, he could remain on the hill until the end.

"Proud knights of the Empire!"

Chester called out to the five hundred riders.

"This is not the Empire's war! Therefore, we are not being forced to take part directly! Our presence on this hill itself greatly restricts the enemy's actions and has achieved tactical effect. For that alone, we may be considered to have fulfilled our duty... however!"

He could feel the knights' fighting spirit rising in the air around him.

"There should be no one here who wishes later generations to say that while the army of a friend nation fought bravely, the knights of the Empire stood cowardly in the rear! There should be no one here who wishes the histories to record that while the soldiers of our friend nation scattered their lives, the knights of the Empire hid behind them, clinging to our own lives!"

Strong answers came back from the knights.

Yes. Exactly.

Chester placed his hand on the sword at his waist, the sword that had accompanied him across many battlefields since the day he became a knight. He had swung it when he fought beside his Edelstein comrades as well.

"In the final stage of this historical great war, when victory and defeat are decided, we will charge for our friend nation! All of you, steel yourselves and prepare for that moment!"

"Yes, sir!"

The voices of five hundred knights echoed over the hill.

......

"Damn them! Why will they not collapse!?"

Childebert glared at the enemy formation and shouted in frustration.

Twenty-six thousand conscripts. Regular soldiers had been placed behind them so they could not run, and cavalry had been placed on the right flank. On top of that, rewards had been offered to raise morale. Gold coins for the head of a knight. Knighthood for the head of a noble. A title and any other reward desired for the head of the queen.

As king, Childebert had always granted the rewards he promised. Not from mercy, but because it encouraged soldiers and drew out the greatest possible results.

He had offered such rewards. Why were they not producing results? He had thrown such numbers at the enemy. Why had the enemy not collapsed? What disgrace for a historic campaign led by the king himself.

Was the enemy's fierce resistance proof of their resolve to defend their country? Was it courage granted by the queen's protection? Did such things mean to obstruct his path of conquest?

Ridiculous.

"Messenger to Lord Montesque! Join the vanguard and break the enemy formation! Send the elites of the royal army forward as well! Queen Claudia is at the very front of the battlefield! If she is slain, our victory is decided! Do not miss this chance!"

At the command of the hegemon king, the Arelian army's rear began to move.

The troops of Marquis Robert Montesque, which had until then held the rear so the conscripts could not flee, began advancing themselves. To their left and right, elite royal army units that had also blocked the conscripts from behind moved forward to take the enemy queen's head. They pushed through the conscripts and headed for the very front where enemies and allies clashed.

From headquarters, Childebert glared at that front line, at the brave queen encouraging her army there.

"Patrick! Move the Armor of the King! I will go forward too!"

"What!? But Your Majesty!"

As captain of the Armor of the King, Count Patrick Villeneuve naturally objected.

"The enemy queen is standing bravely at the very front! I will not allow it to be said that only I remained safely in the rear until the end! The decisive battle to unify the western continent must be handed down to later generations as the legend of the hegemon king! I must show a battle worthy of being handed down! Why else did I lead this campaign in person? This is a royal command!"

"...As you command!"

In the end, Patrick answered the king's order.

"Your Majesty! I will go forward with you!"

The voice that cut in from beside them belonged to Crown Prince Samuel, who had accompanied him to the battlefield.

"I wish to see the battle of my great royal father, who will conquer the Ludna Continent, from the closest place possible, so that I may one day succeed you! Please allow me to go forward with you!"

"...Very well! Follow me, my son!"

Answering Samuel's desire to be a crown prince worthy of the hegemon king's heir, Childebert began advancing himself. He literally wore the Armor of the King around him as he headed for the enemy formation, toward Queen Claudia at its front.

They had come this far.

Only one more step, and the unification of the western continent would be achieved.

If he lost here, every battle until now would become meaningless. The history of conquest continuing since his father's reign would become meaningless. Such a thing could not be allowed.

"Advance! For our great victory! Advance!"

Mixed units of royal troops and noble domain troops gathered from each region remained in the rear as the last reserves, while Childebert advanced with his elites.

With those elites pushing forward, the conscripts of the vanguard whose momentum had weakened began advancing again. Regular soldiers and conscripts mingled across the battlefield, pushing forward to rout the enemy.

"Advance! For my path of conquest! To carve a great step toward continental unification! Advance!"

The muddy roar of the hegemon king echoed over the vast battlefield.

The elites had been kept in the rear as decisive strength to reduce losses as much as possible. But at this stage, he could not afford to hold anything back. If he could not win here, nothing mattered. A little more loss meant nothing.

The conscripts had been gathered on an unprecedented scale. But in the end, they were mostly people of the Loire region, far from the center. No matter how many losses they suffered, even if they were annihilated, he did not care. They were only a tiny part of more than three million subjects of the kingdom.

Everything was for the great work. For the necessary great work, so the Kingdom of Arelia would never again be oppressed for its weakness.

If they became strong, they would not be oppressed. That was why he would build a strong nation. A superpower ruling the entire continent, greater than the unified state that had once existed in the west. A hegemony without equal in history.

If the whole continent became the Kingdom of Arelia, no one on the continent would ever take anything from the Arelian people again.

That was the war his father had begun and he had inherited. For that, he had shed much blood, tolerated every dirty method, and acted with cruelty. What did it matter if the sacrifices increased now? If it protected the millions and tens of millions of Arelian people who would be born in the future, what did it matter if a mere few thousand or tens of thousands more were sacrificed?

"Advance!"

Childebert raised his sword, eyes bloodshot, and roared.

......

"Good grief. An arrow just grazed Queen Edelstein's helmet... I thought she had died. Terrible for the heart. I can hardly watch."

On a hill standing higher than the surrounding terrain, far from the battlefield, Edwin Rigald lowered his spyglass and muttered with open exasperation.

"However, Queen Edelstein's brave advance and encouragement appear to have revived Edelstein's morale. They have begun pushing the line back."

Beside Edwin, Ulysses answered while keeping his own spyglass to one eye.

Edwin raised his spyglass again. It was terrible for the heart, but he had come all the way to the border region of a neighboring country to witness this with his own eyes. He could not very well refuse to look.

"Even if they push the line back a little, victory is still far away... Ah, is Lady Claudia still advancing? Wait, even the Arelian king is advancing. Ah, ah... what kind of battle is this?"

As Edwin could only lament, Ulysses chuckled while still looking through his spyglass.

This was not the form of great war Edwin knew. In the warfare he understood, the supreme commander of a great army was supposed to sit heavily in the far rear.

But look at this.

His friend, Queen Claudia Edelstein, had gone all the way to the very front where enemy arrows fell, using nothing but charisma and resolve as weapons to overturn numerical inferiority. Opposing her, King Childebert Arelia had also advanced with his elites in a movement that could not be dismissed as mere reckless bravery, beginning a chaotic fight that disregarded disorder in the ranks and losses among the troops.

The supreme commanders of both armies, who should have been watching the battlefield from above, had come so close that it seemed they might soon meet in the middle of the fighting.

"...Is that what you call the guts of a sovereign? When the time comes, will I have to do something just as absurd?"

"Perhaps so," Ulysses said with a soft laugh. "Let us hope such a crisis never comes, Your Highness."

Edwin answered with a sigh.

......

"Advance!"

Claudia's encouragement still rang across the very front. As if possessed by the spirit she wore, the knights and soldiers of Edelstein showed a fierce struggle that was almost terrifying.

Even so, the enemy did not collapse easily. Rather, the elite units waiting in the rear had come forward, and the enemy conscripts recovered momentum as if pulled along by them. The enemy also had a desperate presence. This was not an easy battle that could be won by unified enthusiasm alone.

"Your Majesty!"

Gustav called to her. Claudia turned to him, then followed the direction of his pointing hand.

There she saw the banner of the Arelian royal house.

In other words, beneath it was King Childebert Arelia. Around the banner, she could see the Armor of the King, the Arelian royal guard.

Perhaps out of the hegemon king's pride, or stubbornness, Childebert himself had apparently come forward.

The banner, accompanied by the Armor of the King, was gradually approaching.

Before long, through a gap between the knights of the Armor of the King, Claudia could see Childebert clad in especially splendid armor. Because he was mounted, he stood higher than the infantry. Because Claudia was also mounted, her gaze was high enough to see him clearly.

If she could see him, then he could see her as well.

For the supreme commanders of two armies numbering tens of thousands to approach close enough to see each other on the battlefield, what a way to fight, she thought.

Enemy commander. Hegemon king. Invader. The head that had to be taken.

Looking in that direction, Claudia smiled fearlessly.

"Do it, new hero."

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