Ch.37Chapter 37. Battle in the North (1)

I departed from Kelstein Castle and rode north on horseback.

The distance to the fortress wasn’t very far.

It seemed to have just been completed, and while the fortress itself looked quite sturdy, I couldn’t help but face a fundamental question.

‘Why on earth would they build a fortress in a place like this?’

No matter how I thought about it, it didn’t seem to have much strategic value.

The surrounding area was just an empty field.

Of course, it could serve as a forward base. After all, there was quite a distance between Kelstein Castle and Cherry Castle, located at the southernmost point of Serpina’s army.

If that was the case, I thought it would be better to build a simpler camp or watchtower rather than investing so much time and resources into a fortress.

A fortress, once captured, would immediately become the enemy’s asset.

Thinking about the possibility of it being captured made this even more concerning.

Not from Brans’ army’s perspective, but from Serpina’s army’s perspective—if they were to acquire this fortress, they could use it very effectively.

Considering the significant amount of gold, labor, and time consumed in building a fortress, Brans’ army might end up cooking porridge only to feed it to a dog.

‘Well, I suppose they have their reasons.’

Come to think of it, when I played this game, the CPUs would just build fortresses and watchtowers in any available empty space without much strategic consideration.

There was no need to think too deeply about it.

After entering the fortress, we easily met Kalintz Brans, the general in charge of this fortress and the younger brother of Lynn Brans, the ruler.

A blue-haired, refreshing-looking handsome man.

Next to him stood a middle-aged man with brown hair, a face I didn’t recognize.

“I am Irene, and I have just arrived with 10,000 soldiers under the lord’s orders.”

As Irene bowed her head lightly in greeting, Kalintz welcomed her warmly and said:

“Oh, General Irene. You’ve arrived. You came faster than I expected. And also…”

Kalintz examined those of us standing behind Irene.

“Jack of the Brans army.”

“Sillin of the Brans army.”

“Swen of the Brans army.”

After receiving greetings from Jack, Sillin, and me, Kalintz stared at my face for a long time.

“Hmm… Haven’t we met somewhere before?”

We have.

Kalintz was the first enemy general I encountered after crossing into this world.

If the mercenary group hadn’t helped, I would have already lost Zeilant Castle to this man.

But.

“I have such an ordinary face that you must be mistaking me for someone else, General.”

“Is that so? Hmm… I can’t agree with the ‘ordinary’ part, but I’m not entirely certain either.”

I managed to get past that well.

There was no need to loudly tell this man, “I was part of the Lunarian army.”

Lynn might hear about it later, but there was absolutely no need to bring it up now.

“Well then. 10,000, you say… What about the castle’s garrison?”

“Without any garrison, I was only able to bring the additional soldiers dispatched by our lord.”

“Is that so? That Rashion… What is he hesitating for? Who knows when such an opportunity will come again!”

Kalintz angrily struck the desk lightly with his fist.

The sound of the impact gradually filled the space.

“By the way… 10,000, you say? Did Lynn—I mean, our lord—dispatch 10,000 soldiers to Kelstein Castle?”

“Yes.”

“The timing is good, but I wish she had sent more. We could have secured a definite advantage.”

Kalintz Brans had been spending his time building this fortress instead of attending the regular meetings.

What gets conveyed from regular meetings is not the process of the meeting, but only the decisions made.

So—unlike Rashion, who directly saw me talking with Farfalle in the one-on-one debate, Kalintz didn’t know about that situation.

That’s why he could only think of it as “good timing.”

At that moment, Irene cautiously asked Kalintz:

“Lord Kalintz. When you say we could have secured an advantage…?”

“Ah. We are about to gather these troops and immediately attack Cherry Castle, which Ian’s army has just seized.”

“…!”

What did he say?

The current fortress troops numbered 28,000, and with the 10,000 we brought, that made 38,000.

The enemy forces, according to recent information, were 40,000, with the possibility of having increased.

Even if we took all our forces, it would be difficult to win, and we would need to leave at least 3,000 men at the fortress for contingencies.

Even though the game that formed the basis of this world wasn’t very realistic in terms of strategy/tactics, and S-class commanders could cut down multiple soldiers, to conduct a siege, we would need about 70,000 men to see a chance of victory…

‘Ah.’

At that moment.

For some reason, I seemed to understand Kalintz’s strategy.

Is he targeting ‘the chaotic state right after the rebels have just risen up’?

“Excuse me, Lord Kalintz. The lord’s approval…?”

To the question from the middle-aged man standing beside him, Kalintz replied as if such a question was unnecessary:

“Along with my brother, I am one of the few in the Brans army who has been granted the authority to proceed with tactical actions without consulting our lord.”

“But when deploying such large-scale forces—”

“Besides, now is the time for a surprise attack. If we report everything and wait for a response, we’ll miss the opportunity. Would you be able to take responsibility then?”

Cutting off the man’s words, Kalintz received no reply as the man made an apologetic expression and said:

“…No. I apologize for my rudeness.”

Kalintz patted the man’s shoulder and said:

“I appreciate your concern. But trust me. I have a plan.”

At that moment.

Irene cautiously raised her hand and said:

“General Kalintz. I believe marching out would be too risky.”

“Hmm? Why?”

Irene began to explain to Kalintz with the utmost respect:

“Before a siege, the attacking force should generally outnumber the defending force. It is extremely difficult to capture a castle with fewer troops than the defenders.”

Kalintz nodded at Irene’s words, but then made an expression as if she didn’t understand and said:

“Under normal circumstances, Irene, I would agree with everything you said. Attacking a castle with a smaller force against a larger garrison is nearly impossible. However, the current situation is not normal.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Ian’s army has just rebelled, so the order within the castle must be in chaos. The soldiers stationed in the castle who were serving Serpina went to sleep and woke up to find their lord had changed. In such a situation, morale can only drop. No matter how many troops they have, if the soldiers have lost the will to fight, there’s no need to fear even if they outnumber us two or three times. If we can quickly eliminate the low-morale interception teams that come out to handle siege weapons in this chaotic situation, I believe we have a good chance of winning.”

‘As expected.’

In this game, when a rebellion occurs and a castle is seized, the soldiers’ morale drops dramatically.

Logically thinking, it would be strange if there wasn’t confusion when the lord they serve suddenly changes.

And in this game, the ‘morale’ stat had a significant impact on combat.

A scene where 10,000 high-morale soldiers led by an SS-class general defeat 30,000 very low-morale soldiers—I had seen this quite often during my 10,000 hours of playing this game.

But.

‘Unfortunately, that’s not the case this time.’

First, the judgment that Ian’s army’s morale at Cherry Castle would have dropped.

There were two points suggesting otherwise.

First, from a worldbuilding perspective.

Ian Lishfalt, who had rebelled, was originally one of the rulers with an independent force called the “Ian Army” in the north in the in-game scenario.

From what I remembered of his background setting, he was a fanatical follower of his older brother Algot von Einhart, who was killed by Serpina von Einhart.

Since this was a game with variables each time, I couldn’t know why he was under Serpina’s army in this world line—

But it meant that unlike random nobodies, he had a proper foundation.

The soldiers who had been serving with him might not have experienced such a drop in morale.

And second, simply thinking about it from a system perspective.

In the game that formed the basis of this world, there was only one case where morale didn’t drop despite a rebellion.

That was when characters designated as rulers rebelled.

That’s all there was to it, but seeing how my predictions with an intelligence of 100 always seemed to come true, I couldn’t ignore the possibility that the ‘system’ might apply here as well.

And Kalintz couldn’t know that Ian was originally a ruler.

He was just a person living in this world line.

Of course, regardless of what I thought—

Kalintz was excitedly explaining his prediction as if it were a certainty.

“With that in mind, a difference of about 5,000 troops can be overcome. I wouldn’t have pushed if I only had about 28,000 troops, but with 38,000, it’s worth a try. After leaving a minimum of 3,000 men behind, I’ll lead a large force of 35,000 to attack immediately. We’ll strike quickly before Serpina’s army can even assess the situation.”

‘So that’s how it is.’

If Lynn hadn’t sent any troops at all, Kalintz would have known it was a fight he was bound to lose and wouldn’t have engaged.

But because Lynn sent an ambiguous number of troops, it seemed to have given him the idea that it was worth trying.

Of course, in the game this world was based on, it wasn’t entirely impossible for 35,000 soldiers to capture a castle with 40,000 defenders.

If you recruited the siege-specialized mercenary group “Jerome Mercenaries,” somehow gathered at least three of the few siege-specialized generals on the continent, and filled the ranks with high-leadership SS-class generals and siege weapons, you could capture it as easily as eating cake.

But that wasn’t the current situation.

“And fortunately, you, who are known as a specialist in siege warfare, have come here.”

Kalintz praised Irene.

While it was true that she had a siege specialty, one person alone couldn’t turn the tide of battle.

“But…”

“Don’t argue. I have no intention of changing my mind. This is an opportunity! An opportunity to achieve merit by invading Cherry Castle!”

I sighed as I watched Kalintz passionately making his case.

‘He seems obsessed with achieving merit.’

Thinking about it, I could also guess why he built a fortress in such a place.

Literally, did he want to show that he was doing something?

Kalintz Brans. The second of the three Brans siblings, between Lynn Brans, who became the heir to the Brans family, and Chel Brans, known as the First Sword of Brans.

He was an S-class general with a calm personality, which was an advantage compared to his impulsive older brother—

But looking at it coldly, he was inferior to his brother as a general and inferior to his sister, the ruler, in leadership.

He was certainly outstanding, but relatively the most ordinary general among the three siblings.

He was a reliable character for players in the game because he was quite strong and didn’t easily fall for schemes, but seeing him so desperate now made me realize once again that the in-game descriptions could never fully explain a character as a complete human being in this world.

Even a ‘calm’ person might end up like that when cornered.

Moreover, he had failed to capture Zeilant Castle with 8,000 men against only about 3,000 defenders.

Perhaps I had made him anxious.

But well, that’s something he should overcome on his own.

In this situation, it wasn’t good to oppose him by saying, “It’s dangerous, we shouldn’t march out.”

If I unnecessarily earned his enmity, my life could be in danger in unexpected ways.

Unless someone trusted me unconditionally like Luna, the safest path was to avoid expressing opinions as much as possible.

“We need to move before Serpina’s army does. Such an opportunity won’t come again. I’ll give you 10,000 soldiers, so prepare to march quickly. I’ll follow soon.”

From Kalintz’s attitude, it seemed he was planning to put her at the vanguard.

Even if I were to concede a hundred times that losing soldiers wasn’t my concern, I couldn’t bear to see Irene being placed at the vanguard of a battle that was almost certainly doomed to fail.

She would end up taking all the blame.

It was time for me to step in.

“Excuse me, General Kalintz.”

“What is it?”

“If it’s alright, I’d like to offer a brief opinion.”

“Go ahead.”

“I believe sending General Irene with troops to march out now is not the right choice.”

Kalintz, hearing my words, raised his eyebrows and asked.

There was a strange edge to his words.

“Oh? What was your name again?”

“It’s Swen.”

“Right. Swen. Are you saying that my plan, Kalintz Brans’s plan to attack Cherry Castle, is not the right choice?”

In normal circumstances, I might have wondered why he was getting so worked up, but at this moment, I was incredibly grateful.

‘Is attacking Cherry Castle not the right choice?’

[Yes, it is.]

I couldn’t say ‘That’s right,’ so here I put on an extremely apologetic expression.

“Not at all. It’s just that, given how difficult this battle will be, I think it would be more efficient for General Kalintz, who has been fighting in the north and is familiar with the northern situation, to lead the vanguard rather than General Irene, who has stayed in the rear for a long time and lacks experience.”

“Hmm… Is that so?”

“Yes. Since I also serve the Brans army, I’ve been continuously hearing about your achievements in the north. If you want to achieve merit, I think now is a good opportunity.”

Kalintz seemed quite pleased with my words, as he completely withdrew his previous sharp attitude and said:

“Then, since this is an important battle, I will lead the vanguard.”

It worked as expected.

His younger sister, Lynn Brans, certainly had talent but was somewhat arrogant and indecisive. She also harbored a very deep-seated inferiority complex.

His older brother, Chel Brans, was an extremely capable general, but due to his arrogant personality, he sometimes acted impulsively and ruined things.

The common trait between the two—arrogance.

It wasn’t difficult to guess that someone sharing the same blood, no matter how calm, would be somewhat arrogant.

Handling such people was very easy.

You just had to flatter them a little.

Moreover, he was currently in an anxious state. With his own pride, he probably wanted to quickly show that he wasn’t inferior to his brother and sister.

“You, Swen, was it? Would you like to achieve merit with me?”

“No. As you can see, I have a weak constitution… I don’t think I would be of much help in battle.”

“I see.”

Kalintz didn’t ask me anything more and turned his head.

“Then I’ll prepare to march immediately. In the meantime, I’ll leave this fortress to Park.”

“Understood!”

The brown-haired man finally spoke up.

So he was a general named Park.

Even hearing the name, I didn’t know much about him. He didn’t seem to be an important figure.

“Those of you who came with Irene should guard the fortress. And Irene, I’m sorry, but I’d like you to take charge of the rear this time. Please assist General Miguel who will march with us.”

“Yes, sir!”

It seems he wasn’t going to take me, Sillin, and Jack along.

After Kalintz left the fortress, I whispered in Irene’s ear as she was preparing to follow him:

“Lady Irene. Please somehow position at least 5,000 troops in the rear to secure a retreat path. If possible, it would be good to position even more.”

“Swen…”

Hearing my words, Irene looked around for a moment and then cautiously asked me:

“Do you… think we cannot win?”

“Yes.”

In fact, I could be certain, not just think it. I had made predictions.

Irene also seemed to be thinking skeptically like me, as she nodded slowly without asking for reasons.

“Then, about standing at the vanguard—”

She was about to ask me something that seemed to have struck her, but—

She slowly closed and opened her eyes, then responded to my words.

“…Understood. I’ll try to persuade General Miguel to consider it. If I speak directly to General Kalintz, he won’t listen.”

“I appreciate it. And one more thing, an even more important request than what I mentioned earlier.”

I spoke in the most serious tone I could muster.

“No matter what happens, please make sure to return alive, Lady Irene.”

“…!”

Whether the Brans army suffered consecutive defeats or other generals died, that was a burden for Lynn to bear, not me.

What I wanted to protect in this country was not the unattainable dream of Ruler Lynn Brans—

But Irene’s will, who stood firm despite everything that defined her denying her.

Hearing my words, Irene remained frozen for a moment without saying anything—

Then, she slowly nodded.

“I promise.”

“I’ll trust you, Lady Irene.”

At my words, she said nothing and turned to walk away.

Though she said nothing—I could clearly see it.

Faint but unmistakable, she was smiling.