Episode 171 Krafte War – City of Fire (2)
A church located in the center of Bahua City, which is fully fortified.
I hurried inside and opened my mouth.
“The Krafte army has arrived. Queen Lung-”
But I closed my mouth before I could finish my sentence.
Because Eris was kneeling and praying in front of the statue.
After a short period of time, Eris slowly stood up and looked back at me.
“You’re here.”
“yes. Right now it looks like the hussars are checking the formation, but a battle will break out soon.”
Eris smiled slightly at me and nodded.
“yes. “I will be waiting here as requested by the Marquis.”
“…You seem strangely calm.”
To be honest, I thought Eris would rebel against my instructions and say she would join the soldiers on the front lines.
Eris blinked when she heard what I said and smiled mischievously.
“You thought I was going to ask you to send me to the front lines?”
“…Do you even do mind reading, Your Majesty?”
Because Christine isn’t enough. Am I that easy to understand?
“It’s just because I’ve always been like that.”
Eris answered with a grin, paused for a moment, and then opened her mouth.
“But I’ll tell you in advance.”
“huh?”
And Eris spread her hands – and just like that, light covered the inside of the church.
A light that is so strong that it seems blinding, yet soft and warm.
“….”
As I stood there at a loss for words, Eris withdrew her light and smiled awkwardly.
“After using the crystal, I became much stronger.”
“…It seems like it, but you don’t know the price. However, if you don’t do it recklessly like in the last battle-”
“I wonder if the more you use divine power, the stronger you become. But when I think about it that way, I didn’t really feel that way during my wandering days, so I was very confused.”
After cutting me off, Eris naturally came in front of me, looked up at me, and smiled with her purple eyes shining.
“It seemed like the more I used my divine power when I was close to the Marquis, the more it increased.”
“…come out?”
Eris smiled naturally and nodded.
“What do I have to do with it?”
But what passed through my mind at that moment was Gremory.
-Marquis, didn’t you experience something unnatural through your divine power?
…return.
Even my body becomes stronger as it receives divine power.
“Hmm, I guess the Marquis has something to point out as well?”
I answered awkwardly because it was a bit unfamiliar to see Eris looking at me with a smile in her purple eyes and looking strangely comfortable and relaxed.
“I don’t know exactly, but it seems like I have something to do with divine power.”
“is it so. “I thought so too.”
“…So is there any change of heart?”
Originally, Eris said she didn’t believe in gods or anything like that.
Eris followed my gaze, looked at the new item, and smiled lightly.
“…I tried so hard to deny it, but a miracle unfolded and I was saved and saved. … Still, I think I should at least give thanks if I am called a saint.”
Eris paused a little and added with a bitter smile.
“I have to save many more people from now on, so I’m just selfishly grateful that maybe people will look at me more kindly if I do something like this.”
“Haha…”
That’s very Eris-like.
After a moment of comfortable silence, Eris opened her mouth.
“Marquis, I am ready.”
-I don’t know, so I’ll leave it to the Marquis, whom I trust. If you are the Marquis, you will definitely be able to use my selfishness to save more people.
I told you so.
“I won’t be impatient. “I will wait because I trust you to send me to those who desperately need me where the need is greatest.”
“…You’ve grown. Eris.”
“Ahaha, the Marquis would be the only one who would say that to the Queen.”
Eris covered her mouth with her gloved hand and laughed, so I knelt in front of her and lightly kissed the back of her gloved hand.
“Then, as a subject, I will make sure to repay your Majesty’s trust.”
“I’ll leave it to you, Marquis. “Victory to Francia, to the people of this land.”
I answered while looking into the purple eyes, which were so clear and bright that it was hard to even think that they had lost their light even for a moment.
“I follow Her Majesty the Queen’s orders.”
* * *
The Krafte army, advancing from Alsace, set up camp a short distance from the fortified town of Bahua.
After that, while the hussars were dispatched to observe the enemy’s defensive posture, the Krafte army was on standby, preparing for battle.
And the barracks in the camp.
“Your Majesty.”
Charles II, the Great King of Krafte, was resting in a chair and then opened his eyes.
It took a while for Charles II to understand the situation, so he opened his mouth a beat late.
“Hmm, did Jim fall asleep?”
“That is so, Your Majesty.”
“Have you ever been like this on the battlefield?”
Seeing General Gerhard with a look on his face that did not know what to say, Charles II smiled and opened his mouth.
“Jim is old too.”
In the past, it was unthinkable to lose to sleepiness on a battlefield that would have been filled with excitement.
However, moving around the battlefield was very difficult, and his aging body often disappointed expectations.
Charles II glanced at the generals standing in front of him.
The young and ambitious man who had just ascended to the throne of an electorate of the empire followed him and the great generals who defeated the empire on the battlefield and achieved victory.
However, the spirit and firepower in the eyes of those who shared the glory days of Krafte in their youth has faded away, and what fills the void is the wrinkled face of an old man.
“I’m old, I’m old…”
Charles II shook his head and tried to lift his heavy body from the chair with his cane, but then stopped.
Only then did he realize that he was still an old man, and he looked at his staff and smiled.
His father, who tormented him with his vicious nature and taught him militarism when he was young, also grew old and weak as he died.
In the end, I did not want to end up like my father, who left behind a will that did not match the brutality of his life, telling him not to hastily start a war and to maintain peace.
So, I always tried to live confidently, powerfully, and ambitiously.
Even in times of peace, as in wartime, he deliberately avoided flashy clothes and wore only military uniforms, living with the military and waiting for his war.
However, the day always came when he had to use what he was holding in his hand not as a baton on the battlefield but as an old man’s staff.
“Time is truly fleeting.”
Charles II stood up strongly, using his cane.
That alone transformed Charles II, an old and heavy man, into a commander on the battlefield.
“What about the hussars’ report?”
General Gerhardt handed over a map of Bahua City drawn by gathering information from the hussars.
“The enemy has thoroughly fortified Bahua City, Your Majesty. “It appears to be a formation that assumes attacks from all directions.”
Charles II lightly glanced at the map and opened his mouth lightly.
“indeed.”
The Marquis de Lafayette already had experience fighting large-scale defensive battles.
The skirmish with Archduke Leopold and the defense of Dilus on the Iberica Peninsula.
You can immediately tell just by looking at the positions on this map that both of them were not simply blocked with troops, but were meticulously prepared and calculated defensive battles.
“It’s a fortress prepared for attacks from all directions.”
The great king mounted his warhorse and drove the horse up the hill.
The hussars he trained tend to draw up elaborate maps, but when it comes to formations of this size, you have to compare them with your own eyes to be accurate.
General Leberecht, who was also holding a telescope, spoke next to the Great King, who was inspecting the city with a telescope in his hand.
“I see some gaps in the camp that can be attacked, but…”
However, the great king shook his head after hearing his words.
“No, this is a trap. “It’s a loophole that was deliberately exposed to attract our troops.”
He then looked through the telescope a little more, pointed at the map, and said.
“Even if we penetrate through here and dig in, we will be trapped in the second line of defense and if we are not careful, we will be attacked from all sides. “There are many obstacles compared to the number of troops deployed in each direction.”
The great king chuckled.
“It’s really great. “It’s great.”
A fortress prepared for attacks from all directions.
It sounds good, but in reality it is not.
The military must always be operated within the gap between the range that must be maintained and the limits of the force.
Preparing for attacks from all directions means that there will be a shortage of troops to defend each direction.
However, looking at the revolutionary army’s positions, they were not buried in the trap.
Although defense lines were built in all directions, rather than distributing troops throughout the entrance to the city, they destroyed the city and blocked the passageways, limiting the access roads themselves.
And behind the military’s defense line, a defense line using obstacles of enormous size is set up.
Although he could not see very far inside, the king was able to read the intentions of the Marquis de Lafayette just from the outer defense line.
“You have completely abandoned any thought of protecting the city.”
The Great King laughed.
Usually, when defending a city, it is defended at the entrance. Usually, in battles to defend a major base, the focus is on the gunners of that base.
That’s common sense, and when a battle doesn’t go well, you have no choice but to retreat and suffer damage to the city.
However, the Marquis de Lafayette’s formation established a defensive line from the beginning with the purpose of destroying the city, drawing in the enemy, and forcing them to inflict maximum losses.
A defense line like that would only be possible if you were prepared to sacrifice the entire city for a fierce battle with the Krafte army.
“If a battle breaks out, they will gradually retreat inward and engage in combat.”
You can freely abandon the first line of defense. Even after that, there are many obstacles to establishing the second and third defense lines, and a large city that has introduced its entire population provides a huge maze as a battlefield to make this possible.
“The more they attack, the more exhausted our troops will be, and their defensive line will become narrower and tighter. Looking at the structure, no matter which direction an attack comes from, the center will be able to deploy reserves in a timely manner.”
They have more troops and face the enemy in a pre-established defense line.
Although they were already in a sufficiently advantageous position, they did not let their guard down and were waiting, meticulously preparing positions that could force losses in the most efficient manner.
After observing the enemy lines through a telescope for a while, the Great King came to a clear conclusion.
“There are no gaps.”
Who could believe that the author is not yet 30 years old?
Even a veteran who has been on the battlefield for a dozen years would normally find it difficult to prepare so thoroughly.
“Your Majesty.”
“Why but General Gerhardt?”
The general, who had served the king for a long time, hesitated for a moment, but soon seemed to have made up his mind and cautiously opened his mouth.
“How about you step down for now, Your Majesty?”
The Maharaja smiled.
“Go away. Where?”
In fact, it was an offensive that was pushed forward to the point of giving up on additional supply in the home country. There is no one here who does not know that.
“Evacuating the population of a large city of this size and damaging the city area would have placed a significant political burden on the Marquis de Lafayette. They may have pressed it right now in the name of preparing for our offensive, but if we withdraw from here…”
“Hahahahaha….”
General Gerhardt’s words were cut off by the sound of the Great King’s laughter.
The great king looked at the other generals and could see from their eyes and faces that their opinions were not much different from Gerhard’s.
“Do you think that the person who fortified the entire city, confident that we won’t be able to bypass their bahua, is so nervous that we have retreated that he will come out and fight us?”
“That is…”
The generals could not refute.
All of those present here are just generals who don’t know that this is an expectation born out of a feeling of grasping at the very last straw of hope.
After a brief pause, the Great King opened his mouth.
“It reminds me of the old days.”
“yes?”
“I heard this during the war with the Empire. It’s going to be a difficult battle. “You, who were younger and more energetic than you are now, were stopped by veteran generals who are now dead.”
The great king asked amid silence.
“Did we ever think that the day would come when Krafte’s army would again fear defeat on the battlefield?”
No one could answer the king’s questions.
They thought that Krafte’s army was invincible and invincible.
I thought it was a war that I would definitely win, and I went forward because I believed it would be a war in pursuit of glory.
Even Charles II the Great himself, the person who started the war.
Although he said he was looking forward to it, he expected how far they would resist and did not think they would actually threaten him.
But that’s why.
“Aren’t we truly lucky?”
“Your Majesty the Great?”
After all, isn’t the great king crazy? The concerned look in his eyes made the King even more amused.
“I feel younger.”
Franzia’s enemies far exceeded his expectations.
It brought back the passion, joy, and sense of crisis I felt when I was young and challenging the empire that seemed like a huge wall.
How long have we been waiting for this battlefield?
He did not come this far to give up because he thought it would be difficult to face the final hardship of a lifetime.
-Your Majesty’s subjects are caught up in the war decided by His Majesty. If so, you will also have a responsibility to protect them. The victory of His Majesty’s war does not compensate for all that has been lost to his subjects.
The person who will take over has already been decided.
If that’s the case, he’s just crashing into everything on his final stage, which God allows.
The Great King struck the ground with his staff and opened his mouth.
“An army without development is a dead army. “A man without challenges is a dead man.”
Because it is a crisis, it is worth overcoming.
It’s worth the challenge because it’s out of reach.
“If you retreated because there was a powerful enemy in front of you, then neither the Kingdom of Krafte nor your Great King would be here.”
If he can be defeated once again, it will be his great victory –
even if it means colliding and breaking.
-If Jim is defeated, he and his army will enjoy the honor of having fought against the greatest force of this era!
Those weren’t empty words.
“Have you been fighting as a toothless old hound, immersed in old glory, just waiting for the day to die?”
If the enemy who gives him another chance to challenge him wins, it must not be half-hearted.
It is only when he gives everything he has that it can be called a true war.
“No, Your Majesty!”
Only then did the generals finally become one in response –
“Rejoice, gentlemen! The true enemy we have been waiting for is before us!”
The unstoppable challenger commanded.
“I command your great king to join us in this great challenge once again!”
“For your majesty!”
