Ch.176176. Invasion: Preparations (1)

The beginning of the Great Orc Invasion was, as always, nothing more than sporadic raids on the border margraviates and duchies in the eastern Holy Empire.

Typically, the Holy Empire is strongly associated with the image of being composed of elector principalities and free cities that hold voting rights in imperial elections, but the reality is somewhat different.

One of the components of the Holy Empire are precisely these eastern border margraviates and duchies. They are entities that have gained extensive autonomy or independence in exchange for defending unstable border regions.

Those with only autonomy are considered border margraviates, while those that have completely separated and established their own sovereign state are treated as duchies.

Of course, while they may be called autonomous or independent, they are undeniably still part of the Holy Empire. Nevertheless, their autonomy and qualifications as independent states are respected rather strictly.

The Empire also provides full support to these regions, well aware of their importance as shields against the dangerous forces of the eastern Western Continent.

In any case, the most notable characteristic of these border margraviates and duchies is undoubtedly their formidable military power.

Children in these regions begin basic military training at the age of five, and regardless of gender, they receive training combined with general education for about 10 years, followed by an additional 5 years of mandatory military service.

Implementing a 100% conscription system that no one on Earth has ever achieved, these duchies and border margraviates are essentially garrison states where the nation itself is virtually indistinguishable from the military, all to maintain this massive army.

Every industry and production system operates solely to maintain and feed the military.

Farms produce food for military supply, bakeries that double as mills continuously bake hardtack and other preserved foods.

Ranches slaughter livestock to produce large quantities of salted meat and leather for uniforms, while blacksmiths operate not under guild and apprenticeship systems but through division of labor.

While this abnormal industrial structure systematically functions solely to counter invasions from eastern non-human races, the military power cultivated by these small eastern states for their survival far exceeds their actual capacity.

Armored cavalry riding tamed magical beasts common in the east instead of horses, dragoons capable of sniping from military-grade rifles while mounted on horses trained not to fear the sound of gunpowder explosions.

Riflemen armed with military-grade rifles and early-model grenades with the mindset of “even if I die, I’ll kill that bastard first.”

Halberd infantry capable of defeating ordinary cavalry in direct combat (a necessity for survival).

It would be no exaggeration to say that each border margraviate and duchy possessed armies whose fighting power was at the level of elite corps.

Of course, even with all this, survival remains difficult in the harsh ecosystem of the eastern Western Continent.

While the impact of the Great Orc Invasion is so powerful that it’s easy to overlook, the great plains and surrounding areas are complete conflict zones not dominated by any particular faction even in normal times.

In fact, there are several races even more dangerous than unorganized orcs.

Centaurs, an entire race of natural-born potential cavalry; various beastfolk tribes armed with senses and physical abilities far superior to humans.

Werewolves who operate both individually and in groups, infiltrating human society to commit atrocities; vampire clans whose actual stronghold is the eastern Western Continent.

And packs of magical beasts, represented by wyverns, that roam in groups and ruthlessly hunt any living creatures they spot.

The duchies of the eastern Western Continent have cultivated their armies to somehow stand against these barbaric races, and this strategy has been effective enough to allow them to survive thus far.

However, the problem is that at this point of the Great Invasion, such strategies are no longer very applicable.

The tactics, strategies, and troop training of the small eastern Western Continent states were mostly specialized in repelling invasions by “highly mobile small elite groups.”

Since most enemies appearing in the east were actually of this type, these methods had worked extremely well until now. However, the reality was that these rules didn’t apply very well against the Great Orc Invasion.

The massive orc army consisting of hundreds of thousands of warg cavalry, along with slave soldiers they had randomly captured from all directions.

In a situation where a fundamentally different weight class was needed to physically confront them, most cases ended with a handful of elite soldiers being overwhelmed and annihilated by orc troops.

Nevertheless, the small eastern states were able to tenaciously hold out, centered around their fortified cities in preparation for the invasion….

“Hahaha!! We have arrived!”

“Reinforcements, reinforcements have come!!”

[[[[WAAAAAAAAHHH─!!!]]]]

While the small eastern states were buying time by grinding away their precious manpower, thanks to the northern armies that had rushed from the far north upon hearing news of the war, the battle situation improved to a somewhat manageable level of disadvantage.

Northerners. These humans who live in the frigid lands spanning the Western Continent and the western part of the Eastern Continent are, in fact, more like a subspecies of humanity closely related to humans if one looks deeper.

Affected by the aggressive magical power and mysterious influences emanating from the northern frigid zones, they are inherently more belligerent than humans (though not as much as orcs), and with bloodlines mixed with various beastfolk and northern human races, their physical abilities and build are larger than those of humans.

Because of this, they lived by utilizing these innate tendencies and physiques for raiding and mercenary work, becoming known as “Vikings” in the language of southerners….

But this is merely a story of the past.

Having coexisted with the international society of the southern Western Continent for at least hundreds of years, the now “civilized” northerners were gradually suppressing their former belligerence by embracing the Pantheon faith.

Of course, even with this slight reduction in belligerence, northerners are still northerners.

While the general society where the Pantheon faith has spread might be different, most northern warriors are still warriors armed with martial spirit and the “Valhalla faith.”

Additionally, as the faith of Chronima, the “Blood-Soaked God” of war, spread among them, matching the northerners’ tastes, they transformed into madmen who regarded war as a religious practice.

The result of strictly following the law of survival of the fittest. The northern armies, combining the strict discipline of southerners with their inherent belligerence, were strong enough to temporarily hold back the savage orcs’ offensive….

And while the northerners were buying this precious time, armies from across the Western Continent began to gather one after another.

※ ※ ※

While the northern reinforcements gave the eastern states some breathing room, the nations of the Western Continent began to join one by one.

It started with the current Emperor’s Half-Hippogriff Cavalry and Hippogriff Knights joining as reinforcements, followed by the Holy Empire’s elector principalities, each dispatching armies averaging between 5,000 to 10,000 troops.

In particular, the Holy Empire’s army brought large-scale artillery and gunners, providing the long-range firepower that the northern armies lacked and the numbers that the small eastern states were missing, making them the ideal army.

With the addition of the Holy Empire’s military mages and military priests, these reinforcements raised the battle situation from merely disadvantageous to nearly equal….

At this point, troops that had departed from all over the Western Continent began to gather one by one.

It began with the Frankish Kingdom’s territories sending hundreds of knights and thousands of cavalry, reinforcing the lacking cavalry forces.

Due to the characteristics of the Frankish Kingdom, with its vast plains and numerous small competing territories, heavy cavalry is particularly efficient. As a result, they scraped together about 2,000 heavy cavalry from various territories, and including light cavalry, the number might exceed 5,000.

Additionally, the Frankish Kingdom’s infantry—the Men-at-Arms—despite being tarnished with the reputation of being mere quantity due to their image being mixed with conscripted serfs, are actually elite volunteers who have survived against heavy cavalry.

Strictly speaking, apart from being issued equipment, they are merely conscripts, but in terms of pure individual combat power, they are even stronger than the Empire’s army.

In any case, more reinforcements continued to arrive.

It began with hundreds of mages and direct troops sent from the Magic Tower Headquarters, and the Pantheon also set an example by dispatching hundreds of priests and one order of holy knights.

Judging by the strategic value that magic users can create on the battlefield, their significance lay in broadening the range of tactical options.

The Adventurers’ Guild also provided solid reinforcements, judging this to be a “threat to humanity,” while the small southern states of the Western Continent also dispatched minimal forces by sending mercenary bands.

Even the notoriously isolationist Dwarven Kingdoms declared their participation in this war, sending 500 elite dwarf warriors and three artillery companies.

And….

“Finally arrived, I suppose….”

“My body feels stiff, ugh….”

It was around this time that the behemoth, a gigantic magical beast carrying the forces of the Druid Conclave, joined the allied forces.