Ch.259Chapter 259. The Second Magician (5)

* * *

After a long meeting, all forces except for the minimum 5,000 troops needed to defend the castle were organized into an interception force.

The supreme commander of the interception force was Ruler Lunarian. According to the plan, she was scheduled to meet the enemy at the vanguard alongside Tifa.

Ginor was included as an advisor to assist her, and most of the other generals capable of wielding a sword, including Metz, joined the interception force.

Francis remained at Castle Tepelo with 5,000 soldiers, setting traps throughout the castle to prepare for any possible surprise attacks.

Though he was making various other preparations as well, the reality was that if the interception force completely collapsed, the castle would inevitably fall—there wasn’t much he could proactively do.

Still, he couldn’t just sit idle.

When his lord, Lady Luna herself, was risking her life to fight back, he had to prepare everything possible—

With this determination, Francis was personally overseeing every detail, inspecting every corner of the castle.

“General, all the traps you ordered have been installed.”

Francis nodded in response to the soldier’s report.

“Good work. What about the archer unit?”

“They’re engaged in their final training, sir.”

“Excellent. Now, install similar traps at the eastern gate as well.”

“The eastern gate too, sir?”

The eastern gate of Castle Tepelo faced the direction of Ohana forces.

When they had belonged to the Karelia army, it was considered a critical gate facing the front lines, but… at this moment, it could be said to be the safest location.

“We never know what strategies the enemy might use to catch us off guard. Even if the possibility is low, shouldn’t we prepare thoroughly for everything we can?”

“But, General…”

“What is it?”

As the soldier hesitated at Francis’s sharp tone, an answer came not from the soldier, but from behind Francis.

“Five thousand troops are woefully insufficient to defend densely on all sides, including the east.”

The voice approaching with footsteps belonged to a woman.

A woman whose voice Francis knew very well.

“…Violet.”

As the soldier saluted Violet immediately upon seeing her, she acknowledged him with a gesture.

“Brother. Right now, we need to maximize efficiency with the resources we have. If we spread our already limited resources trying to prepare for everything, we’ll end up effectively preparing for nothing.”

“…”

After hearing Violet’s words, Francis turned to the soldier.

“Is that what you were going to say?”

“Ah, y-yes… that’s right!”

Hearing the soldier’s confirmation, Francis extended his hand decisively.

“…I understand. Then focus our defenses on the most vulnerable western and northern sides.”

“Yes, sir!”

After the soldier left, Violet let out a small sigh.

“Are you nervous? You were acting uncharacteristically flustered.”

“…I suppose I am. Where’s Charlotte?”

“She’s preparing to march.”

Charlotte von Einhart, the second of the three siblings with imperial blood that Kyle had brought, was assigned to the interception force to assist Tifa.

If only he could go out and fight as well… Though it was called “defending the castle,” he instinctively knew that if the interception force collapsed, they would fall without being able to put up any resistance.

“…Sigh.”

“Brother. I understand how you feel, but honestly… with so few troops left on our side, there’s nothing we can do. You know very well that doing nothing might be better than trying something and making things worse, right?”

“Yes. I know that…”

Thump.

Francis slumped to the floor, sighing repeatedly with self-deprecation before asking Violet a question.

“What do you think?”

“About what?”

“About Lord Ginor’s strategy. Committing most of our forces to the interception team.”

Violet sat down beside Francis.

It was a strange sight to see such noble-looking individuals sitting on the dirt floor, but neither was so delicate as to care about such things.

“I would never do it. No matter what brilliant move they claim to have, I would have chosen not to send out any interception force at all.”

“Then what about the siege weapons?”

“…Since I don’t know what this brilliant move is, I wouldn’t have actually advised that if given the chance.”

“What are you talking about?”

Francis laughed incredulously, but—

Strangely, his mood was more peaceful than when he had been rushing around earlier, trying to prepare something, anything.

“Still… he’s supposed to be smart. He was the Imperial Chancellor, after all. We were too young to remember, and our father was far removed from central politics, so we don’t really know what kind of person he was… but surely the Empire wouldn’t have appointed just anyone to the Chancellor position?”

“…I suppose not?”

“Exactly.”

“I feel pathetic. I want to be of help to our lord somehow… but I don’t even know what picture our lord is trying to paint. I wanted to be her strength somehow.”

After studying her brother’s expression for a moment, Violet spoke in a remarkably matter-of-fact tone.

“As your sister, let me give you some advice: you should give up, brother.”

“…What?”

“There will never be a moment for you to intervene. Staring at a tree you can’t climb only hurts the one doing the staring.”

Before he could ask what she meant by this sudden cryptic statement, Violet stood up, dusted the dirt off her clothes, and said:

“I’m leaving.”

Francis silently watched her back for a long time as she walked away.

* * *

Several more days passed.

Finally, troops carrying the deep green flags of the Karelia army became visible from the walls of Castle Tepelo.

“The enemy has arrived right at our doorstep.”

Tifa whistled briefly as she looked beyond the castle.

“What will you do, Luna?”

“Why ask something so obvious now? Everything has already been decided.”

Luna closed her eyes and quietly drew her sword from its scabbard.

“Please open the western gate.”

“Open the western gate!”

With the commander’s resounding shout, the western gate opened.

The interception force, led by Luna as supreme commander, moved out of the castle in perfect formation.

Their number exceeded 80,000!

Deploying such a large force outside the castle took considerable time. If the enemy had been a small, mobile unit rather than an army approaching 200,000, they would have arrived near the castle and positioned their siege weapons before everyone could exit.

Of course, despite the impressive number of soldiers that had emerged—the situation still overwhelmingly favored the Lunarian army.

More than double the troops. If they had simply fortified the castle, they might have had a chance, but now they were committed to interception.

What they had to believe in now was… the valor of each commander, and the “decisive moment” Ginor had mentioned.

It’s alright.

If there’s no way for our army to avoid this battle—we absolutely will not lose.

Luna clenched her fist against her chest, closed her eyes, and recalled that man’s voice.

“My lord! Stay well! And when the opportunity comes, don’t miss it! I will definitely return to your side!”

“…I won’t let go of this hard-won opportunity. Until the day you return, I will definitely…!!”

When she finally opened her eyes, a red glow flashed in them.

That aura that had momentarily overwhelmed even Irene herself began to envelop her once again.

The warmth in her clenched fist was the warmth left by her advisor, Lord Swen.

Desperately holding onto what little warmth remained, Luna shouted in a loud voice:

“…The Lunarian interception force will now advance!”

WAAAAAAHHH-!

* * *

The battle began.

The first priority of the interception force was, naturally, the siege weapons.

Normally, the enemy would have maneuvered their troops to protect the siege weapons without much difficulty, but…

“Damn it, why are there so many of them?!”

As Saad complained while slashing through Lunarian soldiers’ necks, the number of intercepting troops was unexpectedly large.

They had missed the timing to properly defend each siege weapon.

Of course. The Karelia army had expected at most 20,000-30,000 troops to emerge, which is why they had positioned their siege weapons at the front and advanced slowly. Now they found themselves in an impossible situation.

At this point, it seemed like every single defender had been sent out from the castle.

Though they watched helplessly as their carefully transported siege weapons were destroyed, the Karelia army couldn’t exactly consider this a tactical error.

Their forces numbered 200,000.

Even if not a single ant had been left in the castle and everyone had been sent out, Lunarian forces would max out at around 90,000. Wouldn’t it be suicidal to commit that many troops against them without some kind of plan?

“Well, even if they have something up their sleeve, it won’t work against me!”

Slash!

Although Saad returned to battle without much thought, he wasn’t the only one puzzled by the situation.

Vanessa, who was overseeing the battle from the rear, was equally surprised by the unexpectedly large number of intercepting troops.

‘…Why?’

It seemed like a self-defeating move no matter how she looked at it.

True, our forces were initially thrown into confusion. The carefully maintained balance was disrupted. As a result, the siege weapons were quickly destroyed.

But unless this was a battle where “the side that destroys all siege weapons wins,” this decision was difficult to understand.

Though it would take time to recover from the confusion—ultimately, we were bound to win this battle. It wasn’t a question of strategic superiority—

How could 80,000 defeat 200,000?

It was a simple matter of arithmetic. With such a disparity in forces, strategy hardly mattered.

‘If they acted this way, there must be a reason. Lunarian Ineanne is definitely not a foolish woman. I should prepare for unexpected developments.’

The most obvious possibility was enemy reinforcements, but the only nation that could provide reinforcements, Ohana, had declared they would not intervene.

There had been no signs of diplomatic activity in recent intelligence.

So… what could it be?

Or was this meant to make us think “they must have something planned if they’re acting like this”?

‘…No.’

Even so.

Vanessa remained vigilant.

‘For now, since we don’t know what might happen, it would be best to avoid recklessly charging in.’

Just as she reached this conclusion and was about to relay her thoughts to Cecile in the rear—

“Advisor! Advisor!”

“What is it?”

“Enemy reinforcements… reinforcements that appear to have been lying in ambush have appeared! They’ve emerged on both our left and right flanks and are attempting a surprise attack!”

“…Enemy reinforcements?”

What?

Reinforcements have appeared?

Vanessa’s pupils contracted sharply at this completely unexpected news.

“Reinforcements… from Ohana?”

“No, that’s… they don’t belong to any nation…!”

“…What?”

Though the soldier’s words were jumbled in his panic, they weren’t wrong.

The soldiers appearing on both sides to aid the Lunarian army—

The leader commanding the large archer unit that appeared on the left was—Gustav.

A man known to the world as the leader of the Raven Mercenary Group.

The leader commanding the medium infantry unit that appeared on the right, rapidly crushing enemy forces, was—Aron.

A man known to many as the valiant leader of the Chilean Mercenary Group.

“When Lady Lunarian reappears on the stage of history someday, we will surely come to her aid.”

“Please stay well until that moment.”

Long ago.

Those who had gone into seclusion after receiving Lunarian’s forces on Swen’s word had now reappeared on the stage of history.