WeTried Translations

Translator: Nemui

Editor: Nemui

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◈ Friedrich's Battlefield

Chapter 152: Decisive Battle (12)
The Move for Victory (First)

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In this decisive battle, Hildegard Regiment commander Diethelm Brightkreuz had entrusted the infantry under his command to the vanguard and the archers to the rear. He himself stood on the battlefield as commander of a combined cavalry force formed by adding the cavalry strength of other units to his own.

His position was behind the left wing of the Kingdom of Edelstein's formation. While maintaining a position that checked any enemy flank attack, he continued to wait.

It was an extremely harsh battlefield, where the infantry and archers fought desperately, and even Queen Claudia had gone to the very front of the battlefield knowing the danger. If only he could support them by making use of the destructive force of cavalry, how much easier would the fighting be for their allies? How much would losses decrease? Even while thinking that, he did not move his unit, enduring in order to make the move for victory.

Diethelm himself waited mounted on the slope of a hill, just beside the position where the cavalry unit waited, watching the course of the battle with a spyglass in hand.

At last, the time came.

The Ferdinand Regiment led by Friedrich, hidden in the forest on the north side of the battlefield, executed that plan. To Diethelm, the plan had been an unknown quantity, but fortunately it seemed to have succeeded. The conscripts of the enemy vanguard were wrapped in panic and thrown into great confusion. In the middle of that chaos, the enemy commander in chief, King Childebert Arelia, was trapped.

The infantry of the vanguard led by Claudia did not miss the enemy vanguard's breakdown and began attacking even more boldly. The enemy conscripts, now reduced to a mob, were visibly pushed back, and the regular soldiers mixed into the vanguard also seemed unable to act effectively by unit and could offer no meaningful resistance.

Under the confusion that had begun on the left side of the formation and the fierce attack from the front, some of the enemy conscripts began flowing toward the only open direction, the right. The cavalry unit stationed on the enemy right wing to prevent flight began moving, but perhaps they had not expected chaos of this scale, because the knights in the front of their formation were swallowed by the wave of fleeing conscripts and, conversely, had their movement blocked.

Then there was movement as well among the group of the Armor of the King gathered beneath the Arelian royal flag around Childebert. Seeing the flank attack carried out by the Ferdinand Regiment and the enemy unit that tried to stop it, likely Count Fargiere's unit judging from the raised flag, struggling badly, the Armor of the King weighted its strength toward the left flank.

With that, the best situation among those they had anticipated was assembled.

"Regimental Commander! A signal from Her Majesty!"

The adjutant who had been watching the direction of Queen Claudia shouted with the spyglass still held to his eye.

When Diethelm turned that way as well, one of the direct guard knights surrounding Claudia, a knight holding a messenger flag, was repeating the signal decided in advance.

"Good. We move! All hands, prepare to charge!"

Diethelm immediately gave the order to the cavalry unit at the foot of the hill. In response, roughly seven hundred and fifty riders drew their swords all at once. The neighs of horses being reined in rang out.

As he rode down the hill to the head of the unit, Diethelm looked to his side. Several riders, including the adjutant who had watched the battle with him, accompanied him, and one of them waved a messenger flag to the left, informing the imperial cavalry unit deployed on the hill that they were beginning the charge now.

From that side, a flag was waved in answer. After the motion indicating acknowledgment, the tip of the flag was lowered toward the enemy formation. They too were showing their will to charge together.

At the resolve of the knights of their friend nation, Diethelm smiled, then took his place at the head of the seven hundred and fifty riders he commanded.

"Listen well! The fate of the Kingdom of Edelstein will be decided by our work! Do not waste the fierce struggle of our allies! Our target is the enemy commander in chief, Childebert Arelia! Push forward with all your strength!"

"""Yes, sir!"""

The response came back full of the spirit he expected. Diethelm faced forward, raised his sword straight overhead, then swung it down toward the front.

"Charge!"

Seven hundred and fifty riders set off at once. Their target was the heart of the enemy army, the Arelian royal flag that marked the place where the hegemon king Childebert stood.

At the head of the cavalry unit, which gained destructive force with speed as it galloped, Diethelm watched the enemy cavalry. The enemy cavalry unit still had its movement blocked by their own conscripts fleeing in a crowd.

Stay stopped like that.

The thought lasted only a moment. As expected, the enemy was not so soft. Trampling and scattering the obstructive conscripts loitering at their feet, they forced their way forward to stop the charge.

Because the crowd of conscripts got in the way, they could not charge with their proper momentum, but the enemy cavalry still outnumbered Diethelm's force. If they made contact, his charge would inevitably lose momentum.

The next instant, a voice called from the left flank.

"We will stop them! You keep going!"

When Diethelm turned, the owner of the voice was Viscount Chester Carlisle, commander of the imperial cavalry unit. The five hundred riders he led were galloping so fast they seemed about to overtake Diethelm's unit.

"Forward!"

Shouting once more, Chester shifted his path to the left front and plunged toward the enemy cavalry unit. The Empire's five hundred riders followed.

They were generally more heavily equipped than Diethelm's cavalry unit, and despite that, they were moving fast enough to overtake them. It was an all-out charge with no intention from the start of galloping over a long distance. Had they intended from the beginning to pin down the enemy cavalry unit and open Diethelm's path?

The enemy cavalry unit had no momentum in its advance because the conscripts obstructed it, and it could not coordinate properly as a unit. Even so, it was more than twice the size of the imperial cavalry. Watching them bravely cut in regardless, Diethelm raised his sword with respect and gratitude.

Then he looked straight ahead.

Only a few enemy arrows rained down. Perhaps that was thanks to the imperial archer unit in their rear, which had been using the long range of the Black Bow to concentrate attacks on the enemy archers ever since the two armies clashed. In addition, the crowds of enemy conscripts trying to flee in confusion seemed to be spilling toward the enemy archer unit as well, leaving the enemy archers even less able to display their proper strength.

Thanks to that, Diethelm and his men could focus more fully on the charge.

The enemy formation was right before them.

No one would strike from the side.

The sharp destructive blow with Diethelm as its point thrust diagonally into the Kingdom of Arelia's army from its flank.

......

The Armor of the King led by Childebert had been swallowed by the confusion among the conscripts along with the other elite units that had advanced into the vanguard.

A report on the cause of the confusion had arrived from Count Fargiere's unit on the left flank. It said that the Ferdinand Regiment had emerged from the forest on the north side of the battlefield and apparently frightened the conscripts with a trick using the legend of the "Yudit devil" passed down in this area and rumors about the current Count Friedrich, causing the confusion.

He understood the cause. But Childebert could not understand why the conscripts would be thrown into such confusion so easily in the first place.

"That thing is nothing but a bluff! Why do you not understand that, you foolish rabble!"

If the conscripts had not shown such disgrace, and if they had not obstructed the advance of the elites who were Childebert's trump card, he would have finally broken the enemy battle line that was nearing its limit and slain Queen Claudia, who had recklessly come to the very front.

Even if he shouted without hiding his irritation, the situation did not change.

The conscripts still numbered close to twenty thousand, and their confusion only grew worse. In the early part of the battle, his decision to make the vanguard charge earlier than planned to reduce losses from enemy long-range attacks was now working against him. Because so many conscripts remained alive and had all fallen into panic, the confusion in his formation had deepened further, and the human wave obstructing the advance of the elites had grown larger. It was an extremely ironic situation in which preserving fighting strength had led to still worse difficulty.

Though they were only a mob that did nothing but hesitate and fear, once that mob numbered close to twenty thousand and moved around without order, it possessed terrifying destructive force by itself. The conscripts were ruled by fear and did not even know which direction they were facing as they tried to flee the battlefield. They ran in all directions, collided, shoved each other, and many were crushed to death by the pressure around them or fell and were trampled to death where they lay.

Someone carelessly lowered a weapon, someone wounded by its blade in surprise swung his own weapon, and at last allies even began killing one another.

The elite regular soldiers who had advanced to the vanguard were forced to become parties to the confusion as well. Groups that remained together with a certain number of men were still better off, but among those separated from their units alone or in small numbers, some were swallowed by the confusion and died as they were. Some, because of their proper equipment, were mistaken by nearby conscripts for soldiers of the Kingdom of Edelstein attacking from the flank and beaten to death.

The Armor of the King surrounding Childebert, and Marquis Robert Montesque's unit ahead of them, still maintained a certain order, but even that was not easy. The crowds of conscripts, writhing without obeying orders, were a dangerous threat by themselves. To preserve order at the army's core, the elites somehow maintained their ranks even while cutting down the conscripts pushing toward them.

After seeing Count Fargiere's unit collapse, part of the Armor of the King moved to a position protecting Childebert's left flank. But that too was an action carried out by considerable force. To shift their formation, they scattered, shoved aside, and cut down dozens and hundreds of obstructive conscripts. On top of that, because the Ferdinand Regiment abandoned any further charge, the formation shift ended up being wasted effort.

It was a muddy battle with not a shred of brilliance left.

Even so, Childebert tried to cling to the possibility of victory.

"Advance! Advance! Why will you not advance!? Queen Claudia is right before us!"

Eyes bloodshot, Childebert shouted. His roar echoed widely across the vanguard of the Kingdom of Arelia's army, but there were no longer any conscripts who would listen. The elite units, loyally trying to obey the king's command, still tried to advance, but in the middle of the confusion, their progress was terribly slow.

In Childebert's line of sight were the royal banner of Edelstein and Queen Claudia standing beneath it. Since the Arelian vanguard had begun completely collapsing, Claudia and the others advanced farther, and as a result, the distance between both sides grew even shorter.

If they advanced a little more. If he endured a little longer.

Then his hand would reach Claudia's neck. His hand would reach the unification of the western continent.

"Anyone will do, kill that queen! Bring me the queen's head! I will give whatever reward is desired to the one who brings her head! Someone, hurry and bring me her..."

"Your Majesty!"

The one who cut off Childebert's scream was Count Patrick Villeneuve, captain of the Armor of the King. When Childebert looked in the direction he indicated, a cavalry unit from the Kingdom of Edelstein had crashed into the right flank of their vanguard and was advancing as if to cut diagonally through it.

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