WeTried Translations
Translator: Nemui
Editor: Nemui
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Friedrich's Battlefield
Chapter 153: Decisive Battle (13)
The Move for Victory (Middle)
──────
"Damn them! What is our cavalry unit doing!?"
Revealing his anger, Childebert turned toward the right wing of his own formation. There, the Kingdom of Arelia's cavalry unit had its movement obstructed by their own conscripts, and its advance was further blocked by the imperial cavalry unit that had come as enemy reinforcements.
"At this rate, the enemy will reach us! Please withdraw to the rear!"
Childebert understood in his head that Patrick's advice was reasonable.
The cavalry unit on the enemy formation's left wing numbered a little under eight hundred. The conscripts who made up most of his own vanguard were now nothing but a mob, with no ability to stop a large-scale mounted charge. Judging from the enemy's momentum, they would undoubtedly reach this place.
The only proper fighting strength around him was roughly one thousand men of the Armor of the King, along with the unit of Marquis Robert Montesque ahead of him. Robert's unit was continuing to advance as a single body in order to crush the strong enemy unit at the central front, while the Armor of the King had weighted its forces to the left, leaving the defense on the right thin.
In this battlefield overflowing with a mob, rapid formation shifts would be difficult for either unit. The enemy cavalry approaching from the right front would break through as if shaving away the right wing of Robert's unit, bite through the thin right side of the Armor of the King's formation, and slay Childebert, the commander in chief.
His head understood that there was a high chance of that happening.
But.
"You tell me to fall back after coming this far!? Do not be absurd! In a great battle of this scale, I, the king of Arelia, can never be allowed to flee back to the rear!"
The vanguard had completely lost order. The elites who had advanced from the rear could not move. What remained in the rear were only second-line units of the royal army and noble forces inferior in reliability. The archer unit was inferior in numbers and equipment.
If the commander in chief, Childebert himself, retreated in this situation, the entire army would lose heart and defeat would be certain. If they lost this decisive battle, where the Kingdom of Arelia had committed its current full strength, he had no idea how long it would take to restart the invasion. Before that, his own authority as hegemon king might tilt.
"I beg you! For the future of the royal house, and for the lives of Your Majesty and His Highness the crown prince!"
At the mention of the crown prince's life, Childebert looked to his side. Crown Prince Samuel, who had bravely accompanied him to the vanguard by his own will, now sat on horseback with an anxious expression before the crisis.
After gazing at his heir's face and thinking for several moments, Childebert turned toward Patrick. His face was twisted more harshly than ever.
"We fall back to the rear! Have each unit that advanced to the vanguard retreat as much as possible!"
"...As you command!"
Patrick immediately answered Childebert's decision and gave instructions to his subordinates. Some soldiers ran as messengers through the confusion in order to safely retreat at least the regular army units that had advanced to the vanguard. Then several dozen riders from the Armor of the King, who had remained in the center of the formation as direct guards, began withdrawing to the rear while surrounding Childebert and Samuel.
......
"Do not stop! The hegemon king's head is right there! Keep riding!"
Pushing through the middle of the enemy vanguard, Diethelm roared.
The enemy conscripts who had formed the vanguard could no longer even be called soldiers. They were only a mob, and before a mounted charge, they were nothing more than fragile obstacles. The regular soldiers scattered among them also had no way to offer proper resistance. With the destructive force born from great mass and high speed, the cavalry unit of the Kingdom of Edelstein crushed enemy soldiers in their way and pushed forward toward the hegemon king Childebert while suffering only slight losses.
Perhaps judging the force of their approach to be a threat, the Arelian royal flag was retreating. In other words, Childebert and the Armor of the King beneath it were falling back.
"Do not let him escape! We will bring down the hegemon king and end Arelia's invasion!"
At last, a proper wall stood before Diethelm and his men as they continued galloping. The raised flag bore the design of a wolf. He understood it was the unit of Marquis Robert Montesque, known as a famous general of the Kingdom of Arelia.
In the middle of the confused vanguard, they must not have been able to move all their troops into position to block the mounted charge in such a short time. Several hundred infantry stood loosely before him, and at their center, a cavalry unit of roughly one hundred led by Marquis Montesque himself readied their swords.
"They are few! Break through!"
As he spoke, Diethelm readied his sword and aimed at the center of the enemy line, Marquis Montesque. The marquis seemed to be aiming for the commander as well, advancing straight toward Diethelm. Behind him, one hundred riders followed with perfectly synchronized movement. As expected of the subordinates of a famous general, the knights too were elites.
In the blink of an eye, both units closed in, and at their heads, the commanders entered single combat.
The match was decided in an instant.
Skill, conviction, or perhaps luck. No one knew what decided the outcome, but the one who won was Diethelm. Feeling the clear response of cutting open Marquis Montesque's flank, he passed by him.
The following riders collided one after another, and the Kingdom of Edelstein side soon gained the advantage. In terms of training, Marquis Montesque's subordinates were surely extremely skilled, but they could not stop the cavalry unit of the Kingdom of Edelstein, which surpassed them in both numbers and momentum.
After breaking through the marquis's cavalry unit, Diethelm and his men scattered the infantry units clinging to them from both flanks and advanced still farther. They had suffered losses that could no longer be called slight in the series of battles, but they still maintained more than enough fighting strength. Their charge did not stop.
......
"..."
As he passed the commander of the enemy cavalry unit, Robert had his flank deeply cut open by a sword. He fell from his horse and struck the ground, feeling the heat of blood and entrails spilling from the wound.
In the view he saw while lying on his back, the sky spread clear and unconcerned with the conflicts of the human world. Even that sky reflected in his one eye gradually blurred, and the clamor of enemies and allies killing one another grew distant.
It seemed this would be the place where he died, after racing across so many battlefields.
It had begun in the era of the current king Childebert's father, the previous Arelian king, Gilbert. It was a time when Arelia was weak, and it was only natural that its territory and property would be stolen and the lives of its people taken.
To avoid being taken from, they had no choice but to become strong. In order to embody the conviction of the man who had been his lord and his friend, Robert trained the army as a young general, marched against neighboring countries, and conquered them.
The path of hegemony that his friend had begun was inherited by Childebert, his successor. As a retainer of the late king, Robert followed Childebert's path of hegemony as well. With each country they conquered, the Kingdom of Arelia, though unstable, certainly grew stronger. His late friend's wish became reality.
Robert fought through increasingly fierce battles all the same, and served Childebert even as he became more extreme. He devoted himself to the Kingdom of Arelia's victory, and gave even this one eye. There was no other path he could choose now, and he had no intention of choosing one.
He had lived a life of killing. He had killed countless enemy officers and soldiers who were trying to protect their homelands. There had been times when he ordered his subordinates to massacre innocent people. He knew that those were inhuman acts and sins of his own that could never be wiped away. He did not expect at this late stage to reach God's side.
Even so.
He wanted to believe that his battles, devoted to the path of hegemony of two Arelian kings, had led to peace for even one more Arelian, for even one more day.
"...O one and only absolute God. Forgive our sins. We are weak ones, people with no way to live except to fight, no way to protect except to kill."
The prayer he had recited without fail since the day he entered the first battle to invade another country became Robert's final words.
It was a prayer for Robert himself, with no one there to hear it.
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
